Nythendra Strategy/Tactics for Normal/Heroic

Table of Contents

• +Introduction
  • 1. Contents
  • 2. Lore
  • 3. Outline
  • 4. TLDR
    • 4.1. Tanks
    • 4.2. Healers
    • 4.3. DPS
    • 4.4. Everyone
  • 5. Changelog
• +Abilities
  • 1. Phase One: The Plagued Dreamer
    • 1.1. Infested Ground
    • 1.2. Raid Abilities
    • 1.3. Tank Abilities
    • 1.4. Infested
  • 2. Stage Two: Heart of the Swarm
  • 3. Enrage Timer
  • 4. Changelog
• ×Normal/Heroic Strategy/Tactics
  • 1. Overview
  • 2. Phase One
    • 2.1. Positioning
    • 2.2. Strategy
    • 2.3. Tanking
    • 2.4. Healing
    • 2.5. On The Importance of Properly Dropping Infested Ground Void Zones
  • 3. Phase Two
    • 3.1. Positioning
    • 3.2. Strategy
    • 3.3. Healing
  • 4. Bloodlust/Heroism
  • 5. Changelog
• +Mythic Strategy
  • 1. Mythic Changes
    • 1.1. Phase One: The Plagued Dreamer
    • 1.2. Phase Two: Heart of the Swarm
  • 2. Mythic Strategy
  • 3. Changelog
• +Loot
  • 1. Relics
  • 2. Rings and Trinkets
  • 3. Armor

General Information

On this page, you will find a working strategy to defeat Nythendra in The Emerald Nightmare for both Normal and Heroic modes, which usually only differ by the tuning of the boss.

Here, we assume that you have read our descriptions of the abilities for this encounter.

The other pages of our Nythendra guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.

About our Reviewer

This guide has been reviewed and approved by Pottm from Serenity.

Nythendra is a simple and straightfoward alternating two phase fight, with very few abilities to worry about. It is much like other first boss' in previous raid tiers, a short and sweet coordination check.

The positioning for Nythendra is quite simple: tank Nythendra in the center of the encounter room. This allows the raid to have more than ample space to spread out around either side of Nythendra for Rot, and Infested Ground. Additionally, on Heroic difficulty and higher, Nythendra will apply Infested to any player that takes Plague damage during the fight, (which is every ability except for the boss' melee attacks.) So, as is the case during any raid encounter, do your best to not get hit by avoidable damage! Stay spread out 8 or more yards during Phase One.

Throughout the fight with Nythendra random raid members will be targeted by the boss as spawn locations for Infested Ground; these players will need to quickly move out of the green puddle that forms beneath them as to not take unnecessary raid damage.

Nythendra will occasionally cast Rot on random members of the raid; this ability does AoE Plague damage and serves as a deterrent to stacking tightly on top of the boss. It is important to remain 8 yards apart, so that only the player targeted by Rot take damage from this ability. As we explain in more details in our Infested Ground section, targeted players have 9 seconds to move out of the raid and drop their pool of Infested Ground. During that time, Rot ticks damage every 3 seconds, so it is important to maintain an 8-yard distance even while moving away from the raid.

As Phase One progresses, you will slowly have to rotate the boss around to maintain the proper amount of safe space for the raid to stand. These small rotations take place after a large buildup of Infested Ground and after a tank swap is forced by the application of Volatile Rot. These movements are small in nature, and are just to ensure that your raid has ample space to spread out for Rot and Infested Ground. Moving to an area free of puddles of Infested Ground will also cut down on the potential for raid-wiping damage in Phase Two.

While moving to avoid Infested Ground, your raid will also have to be aware of Nythendra's Infested Breath this is a cone ability that will be cast at a random member of the raid. This ability appears to be cast after being in Phase One for about 45 seconds.

When tanks are afflicted by Volatile Rot in Phase One, they need to run to the opposite side of the room, as far from the raid as possible to reduce incoming damage and to drop the subsequent Infested Ground poison zones away from raid members.

Throughout Phase One, the raid will be taking constant damage from Rot, and on Heroic difficulty this is compounded by Infested. This damage will wear down your raid and eat through your Mana in such a way that the more heavy hitting abilities ( Volatile Rot, in particular) can easily kill raid members. Therefore, it is your responsibility as a healer to keep damaged and/or debuffed players topped up so that Volatile Rot, which happens 3 times per Phase One, will not kill any raid members.

Keep in mind that RoT seems to be cast at more and more raid members as the fight progresses, making damage ramp up even more.

Properly dropping Infested Ground void zones, be it from Rot or Volatile Rot is hugely important. Typically, you do not want these void zones to be dropped randomly at the back of the room. You want dropped towards the edge of the room, as close to each other as possible and in a sort of line from the edge of the room to the boss. When a line is full, make a new one next to it. The goal is to keep 1/4 of the room free of poison zones. This way, when Nythendra enters Phase Two and starts sucking them in, there will be a whole safe area for the raid to stand.

Once Nythendra transitions into Phase Two, the raid should spread out. Ideally, you will have managed to leave one quarter of the room free of Infested Ground poison zones and this is where the raid should stand. This way players will not have to move to avoid the poison zones when they get sucked in by Nythendra.

Note that if your raid do not manage to keep a quarter of the room free of Infested Ground, then each raid member simply needs to do their best to find a safe spot, where very few poison zones will pass when Nythendra sucks them in.

In any case, it is important to be spread out 8 yards to make it easier for the raid to dodge Burst of Corruption.

Even though there are very few mechanics in Phase Two, your raid will still need to be mindful of Burst of Corruption and remain 8 yards away from fellow raid members. Being spread out like this will greatly reduce the raid's damage taken during Phase Two.

The insects spawned in Phase Two are non targetable mobs and seem to have no rhyme or reason. They will cast Burst of Corruption three times before they are rendered inert. These can be at any location in the boss' room.

Note that taking damage from Burst of Corruption, or the puddles of Infested Ground that are being sucked inward by the boss, will apply Infested to members of your raid.

It is perfectly safe to stand on insects that are not bursting. Raid members who stand on them simply need to remember to move away if the insect they are standing on is starting to burst.

During Phase Two, the potential for incoming raid damage is a lot higher. This of course is based on the raids ability to dodge the pools of Infested Ground being sucked into Nythendra, and Burst of Corruption that explodes from swollen insects. Healing cooldowns should be saved for this, seeing as damage in this phase has the potential to get out of hand quite quickly.

We recommend post-potting and popping Bloodlust/ Heroism on the pull to shorten the fight or during a late Phase One, to help with healing, as damage can ramp up quite significantly due to Rot being applied to more and more players.

• 04 Oct. 2016: Added a tip about standing on non-bursting insects during Phase Two.
• 23 Sep. 2016: Removed mention about the last beta test behaviour for Rot (it does indeed instantly deal damage now) and slightly updated strategy in that regard.
• 15 Sep. 2016: Added more details following pottm's review.

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