Enhancement Shaman DPS Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible Raid Guide — Dragonflight 10.2.7
On this page, you will find tips, tricks, and strategies tailored to your Enhancement Shaman for each boss of the following raid: Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible. All our content is updated for World of Warcraft — Dragonflight 10.2.7.
Introduction
Below, you can find class and spec-specific advice for every fight in Aberrus. If you are looking for a general overview of the Raid that is not spec-specific, check out our dedicated Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible guides.
On this page, you will find Enhancement Shaman specific information to deal with each boss in the Aberrus raid. These are not complete encounter guides but specific tips for doing the bosses as an Enhancement Shaman.
This page assumes that you already understand most of the mechanics of each encounter. These can be found on the full raid guide, so what is contained here are details specifically tailored toward Enhancement Shaman and how you can deal with each fight as best as possible.
All recommendations are progression-based tips and will not necessarily be the best for an overall DPS ranking.
Boss Talents Cheat Sheet
Due to Enhancement having some different builds depending on encounter types in Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible, I have compiled a small cheat sheet for each different encounter type. Each individual boss will link the recommended build alongside it in its respective section, and any significant deviations on the spec tree will also be noted.
The general recommendation for all bosses currently is an Elementalist build due to its flexibility across different encounter types, though in the pre-patch Storm is much more competitive.
Aberrus Enhancement Shaman Cheat Sheet
Elementalist Single Target Build
Due to Season 4 using the Amirdrassil set bonus, we still stay firmly locked into Elementalist on all encounters due to the flexibility and damage profile it comes with. This is largely due to the fact that we have to make no compromises on the thing we are best at - boss damage - while still providing meaningful burst cleave. Our main role in the majority of compositions is to do as much boss damage as possible, and leverage our free cleave tools whenever we can without sacrificing that. As such, many encounters with adds still have us primarily focused on killing the boss and leaving them to the rest of the more efficient AoE specs in the raid.
Suggested Encounters:- Kazzara
- Amalgamation Chamber
- Forgotten Experiments*
- Rashok
- Zskarn*
- Magmorax
- Echo of Neltharion*
- Sarkareth*
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Be sure to make use of the 'Copy Export String' button to import the build directly into your game!
Elementalist Cleave/AoE Build
Much like in the previous season, Season 4 still uses a build that brings
most of its cleave tools for free in single target builds. Any talents we
can pick up for more tends to cost us a lot of boss damage without much
worthwhile payoff. Pair this with many of the adds being low-priority fodder
enemies, it means we tend to stick to what we are good at. On a handful of
bosses however, it is useful to make a single swap, dropping out
Swirling Maelstrom in favor of
Crash Lightning as it covers
the resource loss while bringing extra AoE damage. It can also go further
and take
Crashing Storms if necessary, which will be noted in the
individual boss sections.
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Be sure to make use of the 'Copy Export String' button to import the build directly into your game!
Enhancement Shaman Tips for Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible
Below we have a series of boxes that can be used to jump to detailed tips for Enhancement on each Aberrus encounter, alongside a recommended build. Note that these tips are mostly specific to Enhancement, and do not cover basic aspects of the encounter if they are not important to us.
Aberrus Enhancement Tips
Kazzara the Hellforged
Kazzara is an entirely single-target encounter without any burn windows. Due to the Season 4 bonus, Elementalist is recommended both due to the damage potential and the additional ranged tools it has when forced out by certain mechanics.
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Tips
- Have
Astral Shift available for
Hellsteel Carnage as it is the highest damage moment of the encounter.
- Save
Spirit Walk and preferably go into
Ghost Wolf if you need to kite a
Rays of Anguish beam into
Dread Rift.
Gust of Wind is an alternative option to counter the knockback from
Wings of Extinction, but is much less versatile.
Wind Rush Totem is best used to help less mobile members of the raid kite
Rays of Anguish if they need to travel far.
- In Mythic, if you need to kite the
Rays of Anguish far out to avoid crossing leftover pools, try to make use of ranged tools to stay active without needing to stick to melee range.
For more information, please refer to our Kazzara guide.
The Amalgamation Chamber
While The Amalgamation Chamber spends half of the fight with two bosses active, they are separated by such a large distance that there is not much room to cleave. With some creativity, Elementalist can take advantage of it but regardless, it is always recommended here with a single-target loadout.
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Tips
- On the pull, try to use
Primordial Wave on the side you are not assigned to go to. If you can get the follow-up
Lightning Bolt off quick enough, you can get a double hit before they are completely separated. This is not realistic to do throughout the fight due to the required split range.
- Use
Astral Shift on either
Fiery Meteor soaks if on the Fire side, or
Coalescing Void if on the Shadow. During Phase 2, use it on
Gloom Conflagration.
- Try to maintain
Earth Shield whenever possible (although it is expensive on GCDs) to counteract the ticking damage.
Ancestral Guidance should be used after the
Fiery Meteor soaks in Phase 1. For Phase 2, use it toward the end of the fight when the raid has higher stacks of
Shadowflame Contamination gets high.
- Aim to have
Earth Elemental overlap the last minute of Phase 2 for the additional Health, when the raid is in the most danger.
For more information, please refer to our Amalgamation Chamber guide.
The Forgotten Experiments
While in most situations, there is only one boss active on Normal and Heroic, as soon as Thadrion enters the arena, Erratic Remnant adds will spawn for the remainder of the encounter. This locks in Elementalist builds that can capitalize on the funnel, with slight variants depending on the difficulty.
Suggested Talent Builds:- Normal/Heroic
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- Mythic
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Tips
- Depending on which Experiment is active, there are some extra details for
managing different effects:
- With Neldris active, use
Astral Shift when
Bellowing Roar is cast, or run out of melee with
Spirit Walk. If you take
Rending Charge hits (especially multiple), use
Earth Elemental.
- With Thadrion active, Erratic Remnants will spawn throughout
when players are dispelled. Ideally, your group will dispel these in groups, so
aim to spread
Flame Shock and follow up with
Primordial Wave empowered
Lightning Bolts to trigger
Splintered Elements for additional funnel.
- With Rionthus active, save
Spirit Walk and
Wind Rush Totem to deal with the
Deep Breath to move quickly to the safe zones in the room.
- With Neldris active, use
- If you have to hold high stacks of
Unstable Essence Ause
Astral Shift, as the dispel timing is important to maintain so they can be AoEd down efficiently.
- In Mythic, when the
Temporal Anomaly are active in the final phase, be very careful bouncing them without defensive tools - it is very easy to accidentally take multiple hits and stack it up quickly. Also, be careful of the direction you send it, especially when avoiding
Deep Breath.
For more information, please refer to our Forgotten Experiments guide.
Assault of the Zaqali
Depending on both your raids needs and your current build, you will have different jobs and specialties on this encounter. Regardless of which you pick though, it will be a variant of Elementalist as it can flexibly switch between damage profiles depending on which part of the fight you are in.
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Tips
- You can two different focuses here depending on your talent picks and what
your raid needs you to do:
- You can opt into both
Crash Lightning and
Crashing Storms to purely focus on the AoE aspect of the encounter, dealing with the trickle of adds while funneling into the Magma Mystic and the boss when active on your platform.
- You can sacrifice AoE talents entirely and focus purely on burning the
boss and any Mystics that appear, instead using
Primordial Wave and
Splintered Elements funnel to transition quickly.
- You can opt into both
Astral Shift is mostly whenever you feel in danger in Phase 1, but in Phase 2, save it for your assigned
Catastrophic Slam soak.
- Similarly, save
Spirit Walk to get there in good time to avoid a raid wipe.
Wind Rush Totem can be dropped into the melee to help them get out, and then use
Totemic Projection to speed them up on the way out.
- Make sure to
Wind Shear the Magma Mystic's cast after you break the shield. Otherwise, spend your
Wind Shear aggressively on
Lava Bolt casts.
For more information, please refer to our Assault of the Zaqali guide.
Rashok the Elder
Rashok is an entirely single-target encounter without any burn windows, so single-target Elementalist is recommended both due to the performance and the extra redundancy tools it has for situations that force you out of melee range.
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Tips
- Have
Astral Shift ready for the
Charged Smash soaks. This is especially important on Mythic to reduce the effect of the follow up
Overcharged ticking damage.
- Save
Spirit Walk in case you are targeted by
Searing Slam or, failing that, shift to
Ghost Wolf so you can make it to the edge safely.
- Use
Wind Rush Totem during the
Elder's Conduit intermission to help the raid dodge
Shadowflame Fissures.
- Make use of
Ancestral Guidance during the intermission, as this is the time the healers will be under the most pressure.
Earth Elemental is best used in the intermission in most difficulties. In Mythic however, it should be used in the final minute of the encounter when the raid is running low on resources and
Overcharged cannot be cleared.
- Maintaining
Earth Shield is costly as this is a DPS burn fight, but there is a huge amount of constant raid damage so any time you feel unstable refresh this. The same goes for points where you drop low and can use
Maelstrom Weapon to heal.
For more information, please refer to our Rashok the Elder guide.
The Vigilant Steward Zskarn
While Zskarn is a mostly single-target encounter first, there are waves of
adds that need to be dealt with. Due to this, Elementalist works perfectly
but does not need to swap into AoE talents, rather relying on Primordial Wave
and
Hailstorm to do the work.
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Tips
Gust of Wind is a consideration for the
Blast Wave knockbacks, but
Spirit Walk is the more flexible choice.
- You should aim to have
Primordial Wave ready for each of the
Animate Golems casts (you should be able to use it twice before the first wave spawns). Because they can spawn far apart, manually apply one
Flame Shock and cast Primordial Wave on the other. If any move through the boss use
Lava Lash to spread, getting as much value as possible.
- Interrupt any stray golems
Activate Dragonfire Trap with
Wind Shear.
- Place
Wind Rush Totem in the direction the raid is moving when the
Tactical Destruction pillars are activated.
- Save
Astral Shift for the
Unstable Embers debuff. Make use of
Ancestral Guidance whenever the raid is unstable following a
Blast Wave cast.
- On Mythic difficulty, use
Astral Shift while you have
Unstable Embers active on you and are forced too far away from the raid. If you think you may trigger
Elimination Protocol make sure to use something to possibly survive.
- On Mythic difficulty, use
For more information, please refer to our Zskarn guide.
Magmorax
Magmorax is an entirely single-target encounter without any burn windows, so a standard single-target Elementalist build works here with a small alteration for movement options. This is due not only to the base performance value but the extra tools it has for dealing with being forced out of range.
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Tips
- Save
Gust of Wind for
Overpowering Stomp so you can safely stay on the platform and not lose uptime.
- Use
Astral Shift whenever you are targeted by
Molten Spittle. This is also a time when you may need to watch yourself and heal with
Maelstrom Weapon if you are low when it is about to expire.
- On Mythic this is instead saved for any time you are the target of
Explosive Magma, as the group soak does huge damage.
- On Mythic this is instead saved for any time you are the target of
- Maintaining
Earth Shield here is costly on GCDs but high value due to the constant ticking damage in the raid.
Earth Elemental should be used in the final minute of the encounter when the raid is covered in
Searing Heat and raids are under the most pressure.
Ancestral Guidance is best to help the raid recover from the
Igniting Roar casts.
For more information, please refer to our Magmorax guide.
Echo of Neltharion
While the most important part of this encounter is boss damage, there are some
extremely high-importance adds that spawn that need to be burned down quickly. They
also allow for funnel and cleave effects to be activated, so the flexibility of
Elementalist makes it recommended here. Due to no longer having the Season
2 set bonus, it is generally preferred to just play single-target and rely on
Primordial Wave for AoE.
- Single Target
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- Cleave
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Tips
- There are a number of specific things to consider when optimizing DPS here:
- Make sure in Phase 2 to maintain
Flame Shock on the boss and Voice From Beyond adds whenever possible. You can also apply
Flame Shock to allies for funnel, but DO NOT trigger the
Lightning Bolt casts until their mind control is broken.
- Try to have
Primordial Wave ready for these add burns both for the burst damage and to get multiple
Splintered Elements activations.
- Can spread
Flame Shock to the max of 6 Twisted Aberration spawns for extremely high boss funnel in Phase 3. Use
Primordial Wave with these spawns as well, holding
Lava Lash if needed to spread quickly.
Crash Lightning is an option for additional generation in Phase 2 and 3, but the sporadic uptime on adds makes it hard to make full use of.
- Make sure in Phase 2 to maintain
- In previous seasons careful planning of
Primordial Wave was required, but with the Season 4 set, you should be able to cover every major add spawn with rotational gameplay as none are less than 20 seconds apart.
- Plan out your cooldowns so you can overlap
Earth Elemental with higher stacks of
Umbral Annihilation in Phase 2, and aim to use
Astral Shift for the final pulse before the transition, which is the most deadly.
- In Phase 3, try to overlap
Astral Shift uses with the
Ebon Destruction casts, as when you are soaking
Sundered Reality pools you will take constant, high, ticking damage.
- In Mythic difficulty, make sure to have it ready for the third
Umbral Annihilation at roughly 4m20s, as this is the most lethal part of the second phase.
- In Mythic difficulty, make sure to have it ready for the third
- If you are struggling with the knockbacks, you can consider
Gust of Wind to avoid getting knocked through the walls and triggering
Shatter but you are often GCD locked as this is happening and cannot react in time.
Spirit Walk is generally preferred for the majority of the fight, especially Phase 3 to reach
Sundered Reality pools.
- Mind Control Tech: in Mythic it is possible to abuse the
Corruption mind control effect for additional damage on the Voice From Beyond adds. To do this, spread
Flame Shock to allies but do not consume
Primordial Wave. When the mind control ends, cast
Lightning Bolt onto the add, and it will generate all excess echoed bolts and send them to the add.
For more information, please refer to our Neltharion guide.
Scalecommander Sarkareth
While the majority of this encounter is spent focused on boss damage, an important aspect of the fight is dealing with the waves of Null Glimmer which Elementalist is suited well for. Thanks to the addition of the Season 4 set and the lack of the previous Season 2 bonus, we can cover most of the things we did previously without needing to spec into specific AoE talents so a pure single-target loadout is recommended.
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Tips
Phase 1:
- Use
Astral Shift aggressively when clearing your Oppressing Howl effect in the
Searing Breath cast.
- Both
Astral Shift and
Earth Elemental should be used as the phase ends (roughly 1:40 into the fight) during the
Glittering Surge cast.
Ancestral Guidance is also worth using here as well.
- Drop
Wind Rush Totem during the intermission when the group reaches 9 stacks of
Oblivion to speed them up when going downstairs.
Phase 2:
- Each Null Glimmer wave spawns after
Abyssal Breath, which is roughly 40 seconds apart. You should aim to have
Sundering ready for every one of these, alongside
Primordial Wave to burst them down quickly.
- While
Gust of Wind can be taken to counteract the
Infinite Duress knockback,
Spirit Walk is much more flexible. Just position correctly to not get knocked off.
Capacitor Totem,
Thundershock and
Wind Shear can be used to control the Null Glimmers when they attempt to cast.
Thunderstorm can also be taken to knock them into the
Desolate Blossom.
Primordial Wave should be available for every wave of Null Glimmer spawns, and it is worth holding to make sure you cover this. We are excellent at dealing with this add wave so make the most out of the set. These are triggered at roughly 2m15s, 3m and 3m35s at which point the phase ends.
Phase 3:
- Be very wary of the frontal from the boss during this phase as it is extremely dangerous.
- Save
Spirit Walk for
Cosmic Ascension if you are having issues getting out. Similarly, use
Wind Rush Totem here to help the group.
- Null Glimmer spawns are more spread out here, with the first
two coming a minute apart and then another 1m40s until the third. Plan
your
Primordial Wave casts around these to make sure it is ready.
For more information, please refer to our Scalecommander Sarkareth guide.
Changelog
- 07 May 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.7.
- 22 Apr. 2024: Updated for Season 4.
- 04 Sep. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7, cleanup to intro section but content is the same.
- 10 Jul. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.5 and cleaned up some boss and talent sections.
- 25 May 2023: Added Sarkareth tips.
- 09 May 2023: Updated with tips and builds for all bosses except Sarkareth.
- 29 Apr. 2023: Page added ready for tips to follow after Season 2 launch.
More Shaman Guides
Guides from Other Classes
This guide has been written by Wordup, a frequent theorycrafter involved in a number of class communities. He is also an experienced player who has been in the world top 100 since the days of Sunwell, currently raiding in Echoes. You can also follow him on Twitter.
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