The Primal Council Raid Guide in Vault of the Incarnates

Last updated on Mar 18, 2023 at 22:57 by Panthea 1 comment
The Primal Council are the first boss in the left wing of the instance which can be found after defeating Eranog in the Vault of the Incarnates raid in Dragonflight. On this page you will find a both a short and a full written guide for this encounter, with video clips to show the important mechanics.
1.

TankNotes

I also have my own website dedicated to both tanks and raid leaders where I share my insight on the bosses with strategy and preparation advice which I will update after my guild has completed progress. If you are interested in this or want to discuss it on Discord, the links to them are below:

2.

Strategy Guide: Quick TLDR Guide

2.1.

Key Mechanics that impact the whole raid

  • The bosses do not share health.
  • Dodge the Earthen Pillar Icon Earthen Pillar spawns.
  • Spread out with Conductive Mark Icon Conductive Mark. These will spread to other players in the circle. You can either wait out the debuff's duration or run into an Earthen Pillar Icon Earthen Pillar to remove it earlier.
  • Soak Meteor Axes Icon Meteor Axes as a group. There will always be two axes, and one should go to melee and one to ranged.
  • During Primal Blizzard Icon Primal Blizzard, do not let your stacks go to 10, or else you will be frozen. You can clear your stacks by running into the Scorched Ground Icon Scorched Ground pools left behind from Meteor Axes Icon Meteor Axes.
  • When any boss is defeated, they will channel damage onto the raid until they are all defeated.
2.2.

Key Mechanics that impact melee

  • Avoid taking damage by Slashing Blaze Icon Slashing Blaze. This will always be cast from Embar Firepath to the tank.
  • Avoid staying in melee with Conductive Mark Icon Conductive Mark. Run to a pillar to remove it.
  • Tanks: Ensure Slashing Blaze Icon Slashing Blaze is pointed away from other players.
  • Tanks: Swap tanking duties on Opalfang and Embar Firepath after each cast of Crush Icon Crush.
2.3.

Key Mechanics that impact ranged

  • Interrupt casts from Kadros Icewrath and Dathea Stormlash when they are far away from the other bosses to group them for more damage!
  • Earthen Pillar Icon Earthen Pillar spawns at ranged player locations, be close together to ensure they can be broken by Meteor Axes Icon Meteor Axes.
  • Make sure your Meteor Axes Icon Meteor Axes destroys some, if not all, of the Earthen Pillar Icon Earthen Pillar's.
  • Avoid staying in the ranged clump with Conductive Mark Icon Conductive Mark. Run to a pillar to remove it.
3.

Strategy Guide: Full Guide

3.1.

What does each boss do?

Each boss does not have many mechanics, but they interact with each other.

3.1.1.

Embar Firepath

  • Slashing Blaze Icon Slashing Blaze is Embar's 100 Energy Ability. This will be cast on the tank and deals damage to every player in a cone in front of her. The tank should point this away from other players.
  • Meteor Axes Icon Meteor Axes picks two players in the raid and throws axes at them. The damage from the Axe is lethal but can be split with other players to allow them to survive.
Meteor Axes Icon Meteor Axes mechanic example video
  • After the Axe hits the player, a pool of Scorched Ground Icon Scorched Ground will spawn and remain there for 2.2 minutes.
  • Burning Convocation Icon Burning Convocation is cast once Embar has been defeated. This will deal an increasing amount of fire damage to the raid until all other bosses are defeated.
3.1.2.

Opalfang

  • Crush Icon Crush is the tank swap of the fight. This will be cast on the active tank and increase their Physical damage taken by 100% for 45 seconds.
  • Earthen Pillar Icon Earthen Pillar is the notable mechanic from Opalfang. This will spawn pillars on ranged players (or outside of melee range) at their locations.
Earthen Pillar Icon Earthen Pillar mechanic example video
  • Quaking Convocation Icon Quaking Convocation is cast once Opalfang has been defeated. This will deal an increasing amount of nature damage to the raid until all other bosses are defeated.
3.1.3.

Dathea Stormlash

  • Lightning Bolt Icon Lightning Bolt is an interruptable cast that deals nature damage to a random player.
  • Chain Lightning Icon Chain Lightning cannot be interrupted and will deal damage to a random player and jump to nearby players to them. If you can move from other players, you should do so, but this should not be a priority as the cast is fairly quick.
  • Conductive Mark Icon Conductive Mark is the notable mechanic from Dathea. This will apply a debuff to a majority of the raid, which will spread to any player within 5 yards (this is indicated in the game with a ring around the player). Each tick will increase your Nature damage taken. The debuff lasts for 10 seconds.
Conductive Mark Icon Conductive Mark mechanic example video
  • Storming Convocation Icon Storming Convocation is cast once Dathea has been defeated. This will deal an increasing amount of nature damage to the raid until all other bosses are defeated.
3.1.4.

Kadros Icewrath

  • Frost Spike Icon Frost Spike is an interruptable cast that deals frost damage to a random player.
  • Primal Blizzard Icon Primal Blizzard is Kadros' 100 Energy Ability. This will apply a stacking debuff to all players in the raid, which increases your frost damage taken and reduces your fire damage taken by 10% per stack. Upon reaching 10 stacks you will become Frozen and turn into an ice block which will need to be destroyed by other players in the raid.
Primal Blizzard Icon Primal Blizzard mechanic example video
  • Glacial Convocation Icon Glacial Convocation is cast once Kadros has been defeated. This will deal an increasing amount of frost damage to the raid until all other bosses are defeated.
3.2.

Ability Interactions explained

  • Conductive Mark Icon Conductive Mark can be removed at any time by running into an Earthen Pillar Icon Earthen Pillar.
  • Meteor Axes Icon Meteor Axes destroy Earthen Pillar Icon Earthen Pillar. This is helpful for both space management and to reduce the raid damage taken on Heroic/Mythic.
  • Primal Blizzard Icon Primal Blizzard reduces your Fire damage taken, so if you clear your debuff after 5 stacks, you will have a Fire damage reduction going into the phase which can help to mitigate damage from a set of Meteor Axes Icon Meteor Axes.
3.3.

Strategy

Your goal for this encounter is to defeat all four bosses at a similar time to each other, not to be killed by their Convocation abilities. The strategy outlined below is a set of rules rather than a strict flow of how the encounter will play as mechanical overlaps happen throughout the fight.

  • Use Bloodlust Icon Bloodlust / Heroism Icon Heroism on the pull, as this would be the most efficient time to use it.
  • Interupt Dathea and Kadros to get them grouped up with the other bosses.
  • The ranged players should be grouped to bait Earthen Pillar Icon Earthen Pillar's on them.
  • When Conductive Mark Icon Conductive Mark happens, players with the marks should move away from others not to create any unnecessary confusion. Those players should then opt to run into Earthen Pillar Icon Earthen Pillar's to remove the mark and then move back to their respective camps (melee on boss, ranged with the rest of the ranged).
  • When Meteor Axes Icon Meteor Axes happens, the players should first stay in their respective camps. One should move to the other if two are in the same camp. Whoever moves first keeps going.
  • The ranged camp should ideally move towards the largest set of Earthen Pillar Icon Earthen Pillar's to destroy them.
  • After Meteor Axes Icon Meteor Axes, the tanks will need to move the boss. Ranged DPS need to interrupt Dathea and Kadros to make them follow.
  • Additoinally, the ranged camp will need to move as there will be Scorched Ground Icon Scorched Ground under their previous position.
  • When Primal Blizzard Icon Primal Blizzard happens, players need to run into the Scorched Ground Icon Scorched Ground to remove their debuffs. It is important to note that Primal Blizzard Icon Primal Blizzard does 14 ticks of damage in total, this means that you need to run into Scorched Ground Icon Scorched Ground when you have 5 or more stacks (but before 10!).
  • During the second Primal Blizzard Icon Primal Blizzard, Conductive Mark Icon Conductive Mark's will happen at the same time. Throw a lot of personal cooldowns into this to survive!

HeroicHeroic changes:

  • Earthen Pillar Icon Earthen Pillar's now deal pulsing damage to the raid with Quaking Pulse Icon Quaking Pulse. This should not alter your strategy to what has been written above. Still, it does mean that destroying the pillars with Meteor Axes Icon Meteor Axes is very important, as if you have too many pillars active, you will wipe.
  • Meteor Axes Icon Meteor Axes now leave a debuff on players, increasing your damage by 300% for 15 seconds from the axes themselves. This is notable because the axes are thrown as two separate casts, so stacking both of them together will kill everybody inside.
  • Conductive Mark Icon Conductive Mark duration is doubled to 20 seconds. This means that you will find it more important to remove these early with Earthen Pillar Icon Earthen Pillar's.

MythicMythic changes:

  • Conductive Mark Icon Conductive Mark's are now permanent and can only be removed by running into an Earthen Pillar Icon Earthen Pillar.
  • Clearing your Primal Blizzard Icon Primal Blizzard stacks with Scorched Ground Icon Scorched Ground will consume some of the fire puddles. This means that if you clear multiple times in one intermission there will be player(s) who get Frozen.
  • Your fight strategy will remain unchanged; it just needs to be executed much more effectively.
3.4.

Mythic Strategy:

The fight plays very similarly to heroic, with the critical change is that the Conductive Mark Icon Conductive Mark is now a permanent debuff, and you need to use a Earthen Pillar Icon Earthen Pillar to remove it. Additionally, when players remove stacks of Primal Blizzard Icon Primal Blizzard, the Scorched Ground Icon Scorched Ground pools will reduce in size, making the encounter area less cluttered.

The key strategic point are as follows:

  • On the pull, bring all bosses to the middle of the room and split the ranged DPS and healers into two groups of at least 4 players and assign them to move clockwise or anti-clockwise around the room.
  • When the first pillars spawn, the ranged groups will move in their respective directions and Meteor Axes Icon Meteor Axes will be placed on those two groups of players.
  • When Meteor Axes Icon Meteor Axes come out, your goal is to destroy as many pillars as possible while keeping at least 1 pillar in the middle of the room for melee.
  • When Conductive Mark Icon Conductive Mark is cast on the raid, they will remove their debuffs on the nearest Earthen Pillar Icon Earthen Pillar.
  • When Primal Blizzard Icon Primal Blizzard is cast, they will clear their stacks on the nearest Scorched Ground Icon Scorched Ground pool.
4.

Changelog

  • 18 Mar. 2022: Added Mythic Strategy section.
  • 12 Dec. 2022: Fixed hyperlinks, added tags, added video clip descriptions.
  • 11 Dec. 2022: Guide added.
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