Xavius Guide for The Emerald Nightmare

Table of Contents

• ×Introduction
  • 1. Contents
  • 2. Lore
  • 3. Outline
  • 4. TL;DR
    • 4.1. Tanks
    • 4.2. Healers
    • 4.3. DPS
    • 4.4. Everyone
  • 5. Changelog
• +Abilities
  • 1. Overview
  • 2. Corruption
    • 2.1. Corruption Thresholds
      • 2.1.1. 33 Corruption: Dread Abomination
      • 2.1.2. 66 Corruption: Unfathomable Reality
      • 2.1.3. 100 Corruption: Descent into Madness
    • 2.2. The Dream and Resetting Corruption
  • 3. Phase One
    • 3.1. Darkening Soul
    • 3.2. Nightmare Blades
    • 3.3. Manifest Corruption
    • 3.4. Lurking Eruption
  • 4. Phase Two
    • 4.1. Blackening Soul
    • 4.2. Corruption Meteor
    • 4.3. Bonds of Terror
    • 4.4. Nightmare Infusion
    • 4.5. Call of Nightmares
  • 5. Phase Three
  • 6. Changelog
• +Normal/Heroic Strategy/Tactics
  • 1. Overview
  • 2. Managing Corruption
  • 3. Positioning
  • 4. Tanks
  • 5. Healers
  • 6. DPS
  • 7. Everyone
  • 8. Phase Three Burn
  • 9. Changelog
• +Mythic Strategy
  • 1. Mythic Mode Abilities
  • 2. Strategy
  • 3. Changelog
• +Loot
  • 1. Illusion
  • 2. Relics
  • 3. Amulets, Rings, and Trinkets
  • 4. Armor

General Information

Welcome to our World of Warcraft encounter guide for Xavius in The Emerald Nightmare. We will teach you everything you need to know to defeat the boss in every difficulty.

On this particular page, we will give you a short overview of the fight as well as a list of things to watch out for (include LFR tips when applicable).

The other pages of our Xavius 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.

To make it easy to navigate the guide, we have split it into 4 pages:

• Abilities: read about the encounter abilities;
• Normal/Heroic Strategy/Tactics: find out how to defeat the encounter in Normal and Heroic modes;
• Mythic Strategy: learn how to handle the new mechanics and increased difficulty of Mythic mode;
• Loot: shiny loot, neatly organized.

Xavius is the seventh boss in the Emerald Nightmare Raid Instance.

Once a powerful mage, and a councilor to Queen Azshara, Xavius forged a pact with Sargeras to enable the Legion's first invasion of Azeroth. Cursed and tormented in the wake of that defeat, Xavius plots vengeance against the world from within the Rift of Aln. Those who venture into the Nightmare will face the full extent of his power, and his true form — a grotesque and distended monstrosity.

The fight against Xavius has three similar Phases, during which you need to kill adds and perform a number of usual tasks, all the while keeping your Corruption level low. Corruption is given to players by certain mechanics and needs to be managed carefully as a full Corruption bar means mind-control from the boss and death at the hands of fellow raid members.

Here is a preview of the fight from the Legion Alpha/Beta.

• Alternate being debuffed with Darkening Soul (Phase One) and Blackening Soul (Phase Two and Three). Swap at 3 stacks and move out of the raid to get dispelled.
• Try and make it so that the tank in the dream picks up the Corruption Horror. Move it away from the raid, making it face away from the raid.
• Nightmare Infusion should be handled by the tank in the dream.

• Healers in the dream, preferably, need to dispel Darkening Soul (Phase One) and Blackening Soul (Phase Two / Phase Three) at 3 or more stacks.
• Beware of failed Corruption Meteors, Dark Ruination, and Nightmare Blades.

• DPS down Corruption Horrors (Phase One) and Inconceivable Horrors (Phase Two) as fast as possible.
• DPS in the dream (preferably) need to intercept Lurking Terrors (Phase One) and soak Tainted Discharge pools of corruption (Phase Two).

• Spread out 6 yards in Phase One for Lurking Eruption.
• Make sure that Nightmare Blades (Phase One and Three) is dropped in a safe location, typically in a line separating the melee and the ranged players.
• Move in to soak Corruption Meteor, unless your Corruption is much higher than the rest of the raid.
• When targeted by Bonds of Terror (Phase Two / Heroic mode), simply move close to the other targeted player.
• Avoid being hit by Corruption: Crushing Shadows when you are over 33 Corruption and Corruption: Unfathomable Reality when you are over 66.
• Do not ever get to 100 Corruption.

• 05 Dec. 2016 (mythic page): Added Mythic strategy.
• 22 Sep. 2016 (strategy page): Added a few mentions, following pottm's review.
• 22 Sep. 2016 (abilities page): Added a few mentions, following pottm's review.
• 20 Sep. 2016 (this page): Guide added.