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Comment by Bricktor

Archmage Xylem has 116m health and 3 phases, and changes phase after a set timer. He can be interrupted, stunned, knocked away and gripped.

The four ley beams on the center on the room will hurt you for about 400k and push you away.

Frost Phase

He spams frost bolts that hit for about 300k, then every few seconds he blinks away, stuns you for 2 seconds and puts an AoE around you that hits for 480k per tick and lots of (killable) Icicle Spears. If you touch any of these spears you ~~die~~ take 2.8m damage. You have to kill the spears to safely get out of the AoE.

-Demon Hunters can double jump and fel rush out of the AoE.

-Abilities that trigger upon a EXP yielding kill such as Bear Tartare, Dark Succor and Victory Rush will be activated when you kill one of the icicles.

Tips for Frost Death Knights:
-If you use Anti-Magic Shell just before he's about to stun you, you won't be stunned at all.
-Try to align Remorseless Winter so that it ends just when the spears spawn, clearing them.
-Once out of the AoE, it is possible to cleave any remaining spears, to proc Dark Succor.

Mirror Images

Multiple mirror images of Archmage Xylem will spawn around the room, each inside a circle, and the floor will be covered in purple stuff. The images cast an ability that hurt you if you're inside the bubble and knock you out of it. You have to kill the images before they complete their cast (you can interrupt them) and stand inside the bubble as they're safe spots from the purple AoE and they heal you. The phase ends when you get to the Archmage (he's the dot on your map).

-The mirror images will also trigger the previously mentioned abilities.

Tips for Frost Death Knights
-You can maximize the heals you get from the bubbles by using Howling Blast and Frost Strike on images from afar.

Shadow Phase

Once you reach the Archmage, this phase will begin. He'll spam Arcane Barrage which hits very hard and has a long cast time, but can be interrupted. After two or three casts he'll cast shadow balls, which are projectiles that you have to dodge. Then, he'll use Arcane Barrage again 2 or 3 more times and then start drawing power from the focusing iris. Interrupting Draw Power is very important, so use defensives for the second row of Arcane Barrages, if possible. After successfully interrupting him, he'll once again cast Shadow Balls. He will cast Mirror Images again after this phase is over, then return to Shadow Phase once again, then switch to Frost Phase, and the cycle starts anew.

Once Xylem gets to 10%, stage two will begin. There will be a short RP, getting you out of combat and thus letting you change talents, food buffs or gear, if needed. After the RP is over the Corrupting Shadow will spawn. It has 92m health and it can, too, be interrupted, gripped, knocked away and stunned. You want to take it to the very edge of the platform and kite it around the edge, since it will cast an AoE that grows in size the longer the fight goes on. About every 40 seconds or so, it will channel Seed of Darkness on you. You want to run away as far as you can since when the channel's over three adds on top of you will spawn. These will try to get to the boss, and if they do, they'll heal it. The boss will remain immobile while there are any adds up. The adds can be stunned and gripped too.

I strongly recommend using Bear Tartare for the first stage, then switching food buffs during the RP intermission. You should also save your second pot and drums for the second stage.

Good luck!(##RESPBREAK##)16##DELIM##Serrinn##DELIM##

Comment by geerght

If you are a Demon Hunter you can double jump and fell rush over the top of the Ice and continue dps

Comment by regma

So trying to do this as Arms and here's what I have so far.

Xylem will attack with frostbolt about 3 times and then blink away. What I did just before he did was use my Ravager on myself, do that way it'll start weakening the falling ice. You can also use Whirlwind.

You can also use Victory Rush on them as well. Healing you for the time. Watch out however as he might blink on the other side of the Iris. As mention by others, passing the beams (Ley Line Energy) will hit you hard. (Nearly over 400k)

Comment by flatluigi

This quest starts the scenario that leads to obtaining the challenge appearance for your artifact. Currently, these scenarios are incredibly difficult to the point where it might genuinely be impossible to complete unless you're better geared -- and by 'better geared,' I mean 910-920+ ilvl. Don't expect to make any headway until Tomb releases, is what I'm saying.

It would've been very nice to have the above communicated in-game before you were one-shot and came here to figure out what happened, but oh well.

Comment by juan899

Phase 2 for Xylem is that he splits up into a ton of adds that casts a pushback spell on a set rotation,

they have 1mil hp each and you have to kill them to get a bubble that will disappear after a short period.

you have to time your movement to each copy of himself between his casts so you dont get pushed out and die from the aoe

there's a constant 2mil ticking aoe so you have to get the bubbles that the adds spawn when they die.

Comment by Garroda

Here's what I have as a Subtlety Rogue so far. Note that I am doing this without any legendaries equipped:

For the first set, just use Cloak of Shadows to get out of the icicles. Even if you survive and carve a way through the ice, you can't Shadowstep to Xylem without touching the lasers and will need to Cloak anyway.

For the second set, pool Energy, 5 combo points, and have a charge of Shadow Dance ready, then be ready to carve a path through the icicles with Shuriken Storm to build combo points and Eviscerate to kill the icicles. You don't need to kill all of them, just enough so you can escape the AoE ticking damage. Once you get out, Shadowstep to Xylem.

You will be pretty damaged from the ticking damage, so use this time to heal with Crimson Vial and Soothing Darkness to heal, while interrupting Frostbolt and stunning him as much as you can to heal yourself up.

That's all I've got so far. Going for more attempts later.

Comment by 1680937

Phase 1 as a Demon Hunter:

Interrupt / CC Xylem as much as possible to avoid Frostbolt damage.

Double jump over the ice shard prison. Fel Rush around the ley beams. Max range interrupt the Frostbolt. Close distance, DPS. Rinse, repeat until Phase 2.

Phase 2.

~~Kill nearest clone immediately. Stand in bubble until the clones finish casting their spell. Fel Rush / Felblade to next nearest clone. Kill it before it casts. Rinse, repeat until you get to Xylem.~~

As others have said, you can see a shimmer effect where Xylem is sitting and casting. Use gap closers such as Fel Rush to get to him as quickly as possible.

He'll continue casting spells such as Frostbolt/Arcane Barrage. Dodge the shadow orbs and continue damaging him. Interrupt Absorb Power. Rinse, repeat until he starts casting the ice shard prison spell again.

That is where I am at so far. Will give more details as I progress.

Comment by redfinale

Not that many play the spec, but for survival hunters, i highly suggest the butchery talent; it will help a lot on the ice shard. pop exhilaration butchery, pop exhilaration again if it's back up (which after two butcheries for me it was), butchery a third time for good measure and that should wipe the ice out and give you another reset on exhilaration.

For the arcane phase, harpoon resets are your friend. harpoon to one copy and kill it, chill in the bubble til the cast goes off and repeat. that is as far as I've gotten so far.

Comment by Shiao

Attempting this as an 893 Havoc DH. It is quite challenging, but with every attempt I learn a little bit more and get a little bit further. Your first attempt at the challenge is free, but every attempt after that costs 100 nethershards. Unless you are decked out in titanforged mythic NH gear, don't expect to walk in and kill this guy in just a couple of attempts.

I will say, if you have the legendary chest Achor, the Eternal Hunger, surviving is much easier thanks to that extra 50% leech. I would also recommend taking the Demonic Appetite, Soul Rending, Fel Erruption and Demonic talents. The more time you can spend in Meta form, and the more often you can stun/interrupt Archmage Xylem, the better.

The first phase of this encounter is a frost phase. Four stationary beams will shoot out from the center of the room, touching these beams will deal moderate amounts of damage to you. He will cast Frostbolt at you a few times before he stuns you and blinks away. When that happens, he will cast Comet Storm ontop of you (large ticks of frost damage) and surround you by a lot of attackable Razor Ice. You need to get out of Comet Storm quickly, but if you walk through the Razor Ice you will take massive amounts of damage. As a Demon Hunter, you can actually double jump and glide/fel rush out rather easily, practically negating that part of the phase. He is interruptable, silenceable, stunnable, and you can also use Imprison on him; while it only lasts for 10 seconds, it functions as a makeshift interrupt or as a 10 second rest period if you need to wait on some cooldowns. While he is interrupted, he doesn't seem to do anything other than stand there.

Once you have him down to about 70% health or so, he transitions into an arcane phase. He summons around 25-30 mirror images of himself around the room and begins a 40 second cast called Arcane Annihilation, which does 6 million damage when it goes off. Each one of these mirror images has about 1 million health and constantly casts an aoe ability. When you kill an image, a bubble spawns that either absorbs damage or at least reduces it, and seems to provide at least some form of healing from what I can tell. But these bubbles rapidly shrink in size over the course of about 5 seconds before they disappear. The goal here is to kill an image, utilize the bubble to avoid damage while you kill another, and repeat. Upon several more attempts, I've realized that he is not one of the images that you can target. Instead, he turns semi-invisible somewhere in the room. If you keep your eyes open when he transitions you can see a brief shimmer wherever he teleports to. I wasn't able to survive long enough to reach him, so I'm not sure what comes next yet.

That's all I've got so far. If I make it further I will update the post with more information.

Comment by murray94

Arms Warrior - Sick(Proudmoore)
- Phase 1: Simple enough, do ST save burst for ice shards, you can leap over the iris without any penalty and interrupt/use victory rush as needed from the icicles.
- Phase 2: Make sure you save a leap or know exactly where he teleports to as walking over him transitions him into phase 3. Either leap as close to him and charge the nearest add, I RECOMMEND saving a leap for this particular part, especially once you get into phase 3.
- Phase 3: He casts 4 abilities : Frostbolt/Arcane Barrage(same thing), Shadow orbs(Dodge These while dpsing him), Absorb Power(Interrupt ASAP otherwise he gets a stacking 5% damage buff) and once you get him to about 30-40% he starts doing the icicle prison, might be after the second phase 2 transition not too sure but be wary of it, and while in this phase it seems after he teleports about three times he goes back to phase 2 so make sure to keep a leap to get to him ASAP, rinse and repeat until 10% when he transitions to phase 4.
-Phase 4: Throws tome on ground, out comes the Shadow Aberration which pulses aoe on the ground that you have to kite or you take very sizable damage ~ 1/3 of hp. He also does a cast which applies a debuff after which 3 mobs with about 5.1mil hp spawn and they have to be killed before they reach the Shadow otherwise he gets full healed, the Shadow itself has around 90 mil HP. Make sure to NOT interrupt his cast and run away so you have as much time to dps them as possible.

Edit: Completed it after sacrificing my child to RNGesus, triple leap shoulders be praised.

Talents
15 - (for Void adds in last phase, make sure you have Warbreaker/BC for these)
30 - Double Time (obvious mobility, stuns seem meh)
45 - Avatar
60 - Second Wind (needed IMO)
75 - Focused Rage
90 -
100 - Anger Management

Legendaries

I Recommend Timeless Stratagem if you have it as it makes the transition phases very simple, if not try to save leap for the transitions.
Second recommendation would be either the CS legs Weight of the Earth or the Trinket Kil'jaeden's Burning Wish for extra AOE damage on either icicles or void adds at the end.

P.S you can also change gear around in a small window before the Void Aberration is engaged.(##RESPBREAK##)16##DELIM##Serrinn##DELIM##

Comment by Lardeaux

So im a 893 survival hunter and this is what i have:

1st phase dps him down until the blizzard and deadly ice comes up and my preferred choice to clear the ice that will one shot you is butchery, a massive aoe, and after you clear them your exhilaration will be back up to use.

2nd phase either use the method of killing the clones and sitting in bubble or aspect of the turtle to get to where he was right before he disappeared, xylem is casting a wipe spell that if you dont get to him fast enough will one shot you. so this is one a timer,

3rd phase he summons shadow bolts that go across the screen horizontally and you have to dodge these, then he will draw power and you have to interrupt him or he will get a stack that increases his damage by 10%

this is as far as I have gotten

Comment by 1619723

Survival Hunters!

Take Butchery, Crows, and Disengage talents and put your pet in tank spec.

P1. Make your pet take agro right away and dps like normal and keep your pet healed! When he jumps you need to do this to get out of the ice!

-Butchery x2, Exhilaration, Butchery, Disengage, Exhilaration.-
You can also turtle and disengage out but only if he's about to go to P2 because you need to kill the ice to reset Exhilaration!

P2. Kill one asap! Then follow these steps!

-Stand in bubble, Crows and a clone and wait for it to be <50% and the cast just finished.
-Harpoon and Flanking Strike the clone to kill it.
-Repeat.

This is as far as I've gotton because after about 15sec I die to Arcane Annihilation and idk why or how. The bubble doesn't save you either, maybe you need to turtle this?

Comment by Badseedz

This is what I've got - Survival hunter. He's got about 150M for me, you only need to get him to 15M for the next half of the battle.

Phase 1 - Ice shard, just let your pet tank, run butchery and aoe these down. Careful not to move before you kill them all.

Phase 2 - He disappears a bunch of visions of him appear, super simple phase. Just send your pet on the bubble you want to move to next, make sure to harpoon to them before they die and before they get their knockback cast off. Once you've gone to the other side of the room you'll see him sparkle. Just flare him out.

From here he rotates between shards and arcane again. He will do heavy damage to your pet, so exhil like crazy. He will also power up every once n awhile, kick it. If kick isn't up trap him. Rinse and repeat until 15M.

He will then become friendly and the demon will come out of him, you have to kill the demon that was possessing him. Its pretty easy, he will put down darkness under him, so keep the boss moving around the outside. He will then channel a spell on to you and put up a debuff on you. In 8 seconds 3 demon spawns will come out of you, if these reach the boss they heal him basically back to full. So use cheetah and run away before they go off, kill the adds and thats the fight. The adds have about 5.8M health each - you can survive about 2 add phases until the entire room is covered in darkness and you die. It's a pretty serious race. Best I've done is sub 10M

You can trap one of the adds he spawns, but only do it out of desperation lol

Comment by lolkbai

As a Havoc Demon Hunter.

There are two main parts to this. First you fight Archmage Xylem down to 10% health, followed by Corrupting Shadow. There is a short amount of time during the transition that you will be out of combat. I used this time to switch my talents and and gear.

I used Achor, the Eternal Hunger and Anger of the Half-Giants for my legendaries. If I had Prydaz, Xavaric's Magnum Opus I would have used that in place of the ring.
My spec was: 3323223.

Start of the fight:

4 Stationary beams that deal moderate damage. Run around or jump/Fel Rush over them
He chain casts frost bolts that deal a decent amount of damage, you'll want to stun/interrupt these as much as possible. I also suggest pulling him as close as possible to the center after interrupting.
He will stun you and blink away, then surround you with a ring of ice (that can be killed or double jumped over) and casts ice comets on top of you. You need to get away from this asap.
Cycle repeats until 70% health

Phase 2:
He teleports away and splits into many copies of himself. You will take a large amount of damage and need to reach him quickly.
The copies will cast an aoe, killing the copies will cause a bubble to appear over them that rapidly shrinks. Standing in the bubble will heal you a large amount.
I've had the most luck immediately running to the opposite side of the room, he is invisible but you will see a sparkling area that shows his location. Just run to it and he will appear.
After you attack him the copies disappear and he starts casting arcane barrage, similar to the frost bolts from start, they have a slightly longer cast time and do more damage.
He will cast shadow orbs at you during this stage of the fight. They will all come from the same direction and you just need to avoid these.
He will also start channeling "Draw Power" from the center that gives him a permanent damage boost. Stop this ASAP! I recommend always having an interrupt/stun ready for it.
He will continue cycling through all of his abilities.

Corrupting Shadow phase:

At 10% health remaining the fight stops and you'll get a bit of dialogue before the next boss spawns. You exit combat for 5-10 seconds, and during this time I used Tome of the Tranquil Mind to switch to high damage talents as well as swapped my Achor, the Eternal Hunger for Mo'arg Bionic Stabilizers.
My talents were: 2233111.

Once the boss spawns you'll want to bring him to the edge of the platform. (There is an invisible wall and you cannot fall off.)
He drops black zones on the ground that that grow, slowly filling up the platform. The pool does a relatively high amount of damage and you need to kite him around the edge of the room, so you are not standing in the bad.
He will stop moving and begin to channel a spell onto you, and once it completes it will summon 3 adds. It is vital that you do not attempt to interrupt this cast. The channeling spell cannot be stopped, and if you attempt to interrupt/stun him during it he will no longer stay stationary and will start moving towards you again.
The goal is to move to the other side of the platform as far away from him as possible, because they adds will spawn on top of where you are standing.
There are 3 adds that spawn, each with just under 6 million health. They will start moving towards the boss and if they are allowed to reach him the will heal him for a large amount.
Save a cooldown/Chaos Nova for these adds. Master of the Glaive was also crucial for me here.

Other than that the second portion of this challenge is a straight up DPS race. Letting even one add get close enough to heal him is an almost guaranteed fail. I popped my cooldowns after the adds spawned to take care of them quickly and used whatever remained of their timer on the boss.

Good luck everyone!
-Distort(##RESPBREAK##)16##DELIM##Serrinn##DELIM##

Comment by IchiroMatsumoto

Quick Havoc DH tips!

•Demonic Appetite, Demon Reborn and Demonic are needed. They will keep you alive as long as you learn how to use them against him (It took me a few tries to learn how to keep myself alive because of the incredible amount of damage).

•Stack fury and save Eye Beam for when he surrounds you with Icicle Spears so you get enough heals to get out with Double Jump/Fel Rush. Felblade and Blur are also a good option after getting out of the spears, as you can reach him faster if you have no Fel Rush charges left.

•Interrupt whenever you can (Fel Eruption can help with that), and also use Imprison to gain yourself a bit of time if, e.g., Consume Magic is on cooldown.

On Phase 2, if you managed to find the real him fast (he is almost invisible and has some glitters around him) and if he is within your Metamorphosis range you can cast it and stun him, ending phase 2 for the moment. Is a bit risky, but worked for me.

•Try to avoid the spell Prismatic Shock the clones cast, as it knockbacks. Wait for the clon to cast it before rushing to him or interrupt it. Felblade can help you reach the clones faster, but be sure to kill them even faster as Darkness' damage is huge.

On Phase 3, be sure to interrupt Arcane Barrage and Draw Power. You must dodge his shadow balls or you will die.

I can't pass longer than phase 3 so I can't give that much info x)

•Don't be too hard on yourself, it can take many tries to beat him. The key here is to understand the mechanics and have a lot of patience!

Comment by hawkswin2008

So....a lot of tips for everyone except Frost DK. Help....

Comment by 1552225

As a SV hunter, considering how &*!@ty and disappointing the weapon skin is, I will definitely not go through all this painful endeavor...

Comment by Deathuntold

DH 876 ilvl (low, I know)

So far, there are several things that are crucial to this fight for DH - Demonic Appetite, Demon Rebord, and Demonic. This guy deals crazy amounts of damage so these will allow you to stay alive for longer.

Phase 1 - Utilize double jump and fel rush to get up and over the spikes, once that is dealt with, use Chaos Nova, Fel Eruption, Consume Magic, and Imprison to interrupt his Frost Bolts. I recommend after jumping over the spikes, on the walk back use Fel Eruption, Consume Magic, or Imprison to stop him from casting while you are trying to reach him. Consume Magic is especially useful because it does not stun, only silence - which makes him walk towards you. Upon arrival, if low on health, use Eye Beam to transform you into demon form for 8 sec - during which, don't use any of the silences because Leech will outheal and damage he gives you. The same goes for Metamorphisis if you need to proc it during this stage - just focus on DPS, don't worry about silences. Alternatively, for more health, you can kill the ice spikes you are spawned into and they will drop you health globes to heal you.

Phase 2 - As mentioned in previous comments, you can (instead of killing the clones) fel rush/felblade/vengeful retreat towards him (he appears as a shimmering cone quite large in a random spot in the room") and, with luck, you will be able to hit him which will end the phase. Blur is very useful here due to the movement speed increase it provides.

Phase 3 - Pretty basic, just dodge his shadow orbs (they one-shot me at 2800k hp) and make sure you interrupt his Draw Power ability because it gives him a 5% stacking damage increase. Also casts Arcane Barrage, which is a slow cast so it gives you a good amount of time to interrupt, but deals large damage if you fail to do so.

I've died probably 14 times now, and am just getting proficient and getting through the first phase and getting some progress in the second. The key is to have patience and not get too mad, this is an extremely hard encounter and will take some time to just learn the fight alone, let alone beat him. I will post more tips as I progress further, good luck to all :)

Comment by Happii

905 DH, WAIT TO TRY. I came across so many bugs while fighting this (Went for survival over dps). Interrupted but still taking dmg, random walls id hit wile fel rushing, mechanics of some moves staying long after they are done. (Almost had a kill but 1 fel rush took me across the entire platform....). Right now its throwing your character against the wall until something sticks or waiting for a hotfix.

Comment by MarcusSaast

As Sub Rogue (If you have legendary pants)

When icicle spears spawn use Feint every 5 seconds and wait for the pillars to go down.

For the first and third set, one use Cloak of Shadows and Sprint to get to his image as soon as possible.
For the second and forth set, use Shadowstep to get as close as possible to his image and kill adds to get the rest of the way.

Maintain your Feint buff and only use your interrupt when he starts to cast focusing iris.

(You can switch to DPS legendaries before this phase starts)
The first 3 phases are not a DPS check and you have an unlimited amount of time to get him to 10%. You want to have all your cool downs up for this phase as it will need to be killed in about 1 1/2 minutes before the whole floor is covered.

At the start of the phase you wanna bring him to the edge just to maximize the amount of time you will have for the last phase. He will summon two sets of three adds which have 5M health each. (Currently i do not know how to deal with this adds and will update if i figure out how to do it) They will get summoned after he starts his channeled cast which can be interrupted. (Need to test whether interrupting or not will change the fight in any way)

I have successfully completed the first stage multiple times and I am only struggling on the last stage and figuring out how to deal with the adds in the most efficient way possible. Any tips would be appreciated.

You do not want to interupt the cast, when it goes off you want to run to the oposite side of the room to provide the most ammount of time to kill the adds before they reach the boss.

Comment by allancy

Boy was this an experience; got this done on my Havoc DH (907) after 50 odd pulls using the build Blind Fury, Demonic Appetite, Chaos Cleave, Soul Rending, Momentum, Unleashed Power, Demonic and running Anger of the Half-Giants and Achor, the Eternal Hunger.

First big tip I have for this is a comment another user made: In the first stage you need to think of every cd you have as being either a healing cd or a survival one, EVERY one, i'll explain how I was using each as I walk through the encounter. Second big tip that I haven't seen many people mention, Imprison does work on Xylem and it is a godsend. I use it when he teleports to the other side of the area, when I'm low on health, when I'm waiting for stun or eyebeam to come back up, or just to get my bearings; this ability should be as much a part of your rotation in this stage, as interrupts.

So I'm going to give some tips for each phase (I'm also going to assume you know generally how the abilities work.)

Stage 1: Frost:
So a couple key points to make for this and every frostbolt stage you encounter: make sure when you interrupt you move him as close to the center as you can, this is going to make your life a whole lot easier by shortening the distance you have to travel when he surrounds you in ice and teleports (sometimes if you get him close enough you can Imprison him before having to leave the ice wall.) Doing this is also going to help when he does his mirror image phase, as you'll be within range to reach him in 2 Fel Rush. Other thing I found to be very helpful; if you find yourself about to be surrounded in the ice and you have Fury of the Illidari available you can use it along with a Blade Dance and kill most of the ice. This'll spawn a ton of souls that you can pick up half of and reach Xylem and stun and go into Eye Beam Metamorphosis, but the souls will also stay up long enough that when you get surrounded by ice again you can Fel Rush over to the area and pick up the second half of the souls.

Stage 1: Arcane:
I found this phase to be a lot more manageable to stay alive in, his arcane barrage hits harder but has a longer cast time and just isn't as bad as constant frostbolt spams. You really won't be able to move him to the center like with frost but I did find that between arcane barrage's he has a second window where you can move him back a little bit, so I often did that to make the teleport transitions smoother. There is a delay when he is about to teleport to the other side of the room and sometimes I was able to get a stun or Imprison off on him and it made it so when he appeared on the other side he was still locked up and it gave me more then enough time to reach him. The only other tip I have here is don't use your interrupt on anything except for the draw power, I screwed myself more then once trying to stun and having him be immune because of dr.

Stage 1: Shadow:
Not much to say here, just keep strafing to dodge the orbs and use this opportunity to get your health up through chaos cleave souls or blur if you have the legendary.

Stage 1: Mirror image:
This is easily the worst part of the fight for me, when the boss transitions from frost to arcane its not that bad because you should have him close to the center anyways so you'll be in range to just dash to the spot, but with the arcane phase its a lot harder to get him to the center so more often then not you'll have to traverse the entire room. I saved my meta for the first arcane to frost transition. On the second arcane to frost transition (which was always the last for me, I always got 4 at ~75%, ~55-60%, ~40%, ~20-25%) I would Fel Rush to get to the hemisphere that he is on and kill an image, regain health, use throw glaive or eyebeam or something to kill the next one to get in range to use retreat to reach the boss. I made sure I saved blur for this one in particular because it really was awful for me. When you do kill an image you get healed and are safe for at least a couple seconds so keep an eye on what you have coming off cd and just get to the boss alive (and get ready to stun because you'll probably be almost dead)

Stage 1:
Couple final things for this stage. Even though I ran momentum I never used Fel Rush or retreat for anything other then movement, while I'm sure you can weave them in they are just too damn vital to completing this stage so I opted not to. I also generally left blur available if I had an emergency moment where it was either die or use it. In my early attempts this was more often but as I got more comfortable with this stage it became very rare to use it like that. Also just understand that the dps in this phase is fairly irrelevant, keeping yourself alive is the primary goal and that should be your main focus; don't take risks if you don't need to, don't use cds outside of survivability, just take it slow, set a pace, and grind it out. Also I never used a second pot outside of the initial prepot which I'll explain below

Stage 2: Boss #2 electric boogaloo:
Man do I have some choice words for whoever thought that adding a 96m boss right after a 144m boss was a reasonable idea. So after you push Xylem to 10% you get a brief respite where I would go and collect any remaining souls laying around. I've seen some videos where players would use this time out of combat to switch gear and talents to something more single target and bursty, I opted to stay with the high survivability build and I'll flat out admit that this was a close kill, within 2 seconds of a wipe because of room and adds. So when the boss spawns there's a little rp that takes a few seconds and this is where I popped my 2nd prepot but I didn't use any cds outside of the normal eyebeam meta. The boss will frequently drop growing puddles, if you stand in them they will destroy your health and slow you down so don't stand in him. I brought the boss the the edge of the room and slowly kited him around the edge. DON'T stun this boss or interrupt him at all, I flat out removed interrupt from my action bars during the break, you'll wipe if you do. Every, rough guess 45s, he'll channel an ability and put a debuff on you that'll summon three adds when it expires. These adds will try to go to the boss and if they reach him they do a burst of damage and heal him significantly. So the goal here is to run to the furthest point you can to drop these adds and kill them before they reach the boss (who'll still be channeling.) First set of adds I used meta and fury to kill, second was drum lust and fury, third was second pot and fury. Every add I also used stun as soon as they came out as well as eye beam. You'll start to run out of room really quickly and by the 4th set of adds I had meta back up and opted to kill the boss. I don't believe the build I used is an optimal one and obviously it was such a close kill, but at my item level it did work, but if you are having issues in this phase it may be worth your time to search for the players that were talent swapping and see what they were doing.

That's more or less all the advice I have for this. This encounter sucked. There's no nicer way to put it. The damage and self healing output required to do this was insane (my numbers show 780k dps and 160k hps) and was damn frustrating the whole way through. If you want to try this then all I can say is be prepared to slog through it and good luck.(##RESPBREAK##)16##DELIM##Serrinn##DELIM##

Comment by EvielthinStealth

So, here is how I've done it as a Sub rogue.

Talents: Soothing Darkness, Sting Like a Bee (any of these work, I just feel it is nice to have increased stun damage)
Xylem:
Legendaries equipped: Prydaz, Xavaric's Magnum Opus, Will of Valeera

Ice Phase:
He casts frostbolt, which does meh damage, nothing to worrie about too much.
He will port away 3 or 4 times, use feint to heal and use shuriken storm and shadow blade to regain shadow dance charges.
If you are maxed on charges, you can use feint and eviscerate to carve a path and go to him.
If you reach him, interrupt 1 cast. Once he is casting again, full kidney shot. Keep this up until he eventually transitions into his void-esk phase.

Void Phase:
There are a bunch of small clones, killing one gives a small shield around the corpse that heals you AND recovers cds. There is an astrally sparkle around an invisible one, going to this one makes the phase end. Ideally you want to get there ASAP. Not being in this bubble for more than 2 or 3 seconds will kill you unless you cloak it.

Here is what I did. Kill one add, any add. Look around for where the real him is. You have about 40 seconds to get there. walking person to person is not an option. If he is very close you can shadow step to an add, nearly oneshot him (goremaw's bite hits hard, a full eviscerate does too.) If he isn't very close, cloak and sprint to him.

Arcane/shadow Phase:
He casts 2 arcane blasts, do NOT interrupt there. He will then channel the well, interrupt this ASAP. If he channels for over a second he gets a damage buff per second he channels, so that is a no no. He summons shadow balls that will spawn, them move forward, dodge these. After you interrupt the channeled cast, he will cast an arcane blast, then port to the other side. If you time it right, shadowstrike will port you with him, which is nice. He repeats his spells again, so remember to save interrupt for the channel.

After this phase, he will either go void again, or frost. Hopefully you get frost. Once in frost he will still summon the shadow balls to dodge from time to time. If you are staying in the aoe and healing it, be careful, they knock back and you have little room to dodge. Repeat the strat above for frost.

IF he goes arcane first, cloak may not be on CD. That is okay though, as the bubbles the adds spawn reduce cds faster, so kill a few and hide in the bubble, and once cloak is back, sprint into a vanish with cloak and end the phase.

Additional notes: Stuns are nice, they prevent mostly everything he does except port away in the arcane phase.Each phase is easy and is NOT a dps race. As you egt him to 10% health, save cds, as he will transition soon.

P3: Final stage.

I will go on record saying I have not killed this, but in theory I know an easy way to do it (I lack the legendaries :/ )

Legendaries: The Dreadlord's Deceit and Mantle of the Master Assassin (I have no shoulders, sad life).

He will spawn an aoe under him soon, so what you want to do is kite him to an edge. All he really does is melee you and drop the aoe. If you get him to the side fast enough, you will have more room. He also casts a spell that after the cast spawns 3 adds. these adds will run to him and heal him 20% of his health per add. This is the issue. Sub lacks aoe slows and aoe burst. I tried Kiljadeen's burning wish but it is only up every OTHER add phase. The boss has too much health to burn also. What you want to do is not interrupt the spell (it will go off anyway even if you cloak/kick it, which is dumb). Sprint away, far far away, to give the adds a farther distance to travel. While the adds run to him, he casts a spell where he calls the adds in. Interrupting/stunning/blinding does not matter, if they reach him, he heals.

Reason why I think those legendaries will work:
1) cloak gives an aoe nuke every minute
2) He casts this every minute or so, so spring AND cloak are always up at full power, or very very close
3) I believe this may be enough aoe burst + the crit window to nuke the adds

After he does all of this, he repeats to auto attacking and dropping the growing aoe on his feet. Keep going until either there is no room left, or he dies.(##RESPBREAK##)2##DELIM##perculia##DELIM##

Comment by Aamelie

Some tips, as havoc, or in general.
HAVOC, you will have to take Demonic Appetite to heal yourself. interrupt as much as you can, note that Imprison can be used as an interrupt as well.
talents I took are: Blind Fury, Demonic Appetite, First Blood, Soul rendering, Fel Eruption, Unleashed power, Demonic
P1, when you are in the middle of the ice shards, use eye beam and turn yourself into demon form in order to have massive leech first. Use Fury of the Illidari you can quickly kill all shards. Yes I know you can double jump then fel rush out but kill all shards will get you a pool of ten thousand souls which can heal you to full health couple times and refresh your eye beam cd instantly. I usually kill all shards when I have Fury's cd, if not, just double jump and fel rush out.
P2, kill the closet one as soon as you can, then stay in the bubble. if you are in the bubble, you generate health, but the bubble will slowly disappear. While you are in the bubble, take a quick look find the shimmering corner. You can simply Meta + fel rush over, as long as you reach the shimmering place, Xylem will appear and this phase will be over. If you do not have Meta, you will have to go through bubbles one by one. Usually just pick one and wait till then casted the spell and throw glaive at the meantime, then fel rush over and kill it. Or if you have stun or interrupt, rush over kill it in 3 seconds, longer than that you will probably die.
P3, dodge balls, they pretty much 1 shot you.
At 10% he realize he's a good guys, his shadow demon came out and want to kill you both, he wants you to protect him while he channel back the energy....
That void lord thing has a ton of health, and spread black things on the floor. You will have to kill him before he covers the entire platform. When he casts a channeling spell you will need to run away as far as you can. It will summon three little voidlings on you, kill them before they runback to boss or boss will generate health.

Comment by Silverado

Yea this is pretty overtuned and/or you have to change talents and legendaries around. Z_Z

Comment by danaith123

Okay theres enough DH tips. Can some Frost DKs give any feedback. Personally im 895 and can barely get out of the first set of razor ice and grip him back to me. By the time the second set of razor ice comes im all but dead! We dont get the ability to leap, double jump, charge or any of those tools to get out quickly and back to him.

Comment by brassnutts

u cannot fel rush out of ice cicles u have to either dbl jump completely over
them or kill them

Comment by Magus2002

Frost DK tips: yeah, no. F*** this. :/
start the fight, interrupt frostbolt, get oneshotted by an unavoidable 3mill ability. ridiciolus

Comment by naturesbull

Here's a video of me taking this down as a Survival Hunter. If anybody has any questions feel free to ask. I'll try to answer them whenever I can.

Comment by tyrou

Frost DK, ran this 4 times already can't get past 89% like am i mission something or is this literally a huge screw you to all DKs rn 884 ilvl and can't do crap with mitigation or anything even when i use my Death strike procs to try and heal he just kills me on the second storm

Comment by Whisla

So as a Demon hunter I can give a few tips. It is to be noted that it is currently bugged for DHs but,

During frost phase dont jump over the walls. Eye beam and blade dance should clear over half of them. Upon doing this the souls that drop will not only heal you as you move to the boss but also refresh the CD on both eye beam and Chaos nova.

The second and probably hardest yet biggest tip I can give, is duing the phase where he splits and the ground basically killsin you in two seconds, do not try to rush through it. Kill one look at the next and throw glaive then fel rush in. When i started doing this and went from point to point It made the phase so much more manageable.

Next as a small tip im sure most will find out on there own rather quickly, save 1 of your inturrupts or stun for his power up channel. Sorry i dont remember the name but if you ONLY use that 1 interrupt on it your life will be much easier.

Comment by pkiller162

Sub rogues: You can BLIND the P3 boss before he casts the add spawn. this gives you an extra minute for cooldowns. When he comes out, he will auto casts the ad spawn thing, but you should already be across the room :)

Comment by Downhitted

The Empowered Portal Stone is basically a 'free' ticket to this challenge. If you fail you can still enter the challenge later on but at the cost of 100 Nethershard.

Comment by TemporalAnomaly

904 Survival Hunter Shenpie on Stormrage. ~33 tries.
Some tips for Survival hunters.

Prepare some shards, food, flasks, Potion of prolonged power, tome of the tranquil mind, and runes

Talent choices to begin:
3, 1, 2, 1, 3, 1, 2
If you are not comfortable with Way of the Mok'Nathal, Throwing axes is a good choice.

Pet: One that knows Heroism/Bloodlust, and change it to tank spec
Recommended legendaries: Call of the Wild, Kil'jaeden's Burning Wish, Sephuz's Secret, Prydaz, Xavaric's Magnum Opus, Butcher's Bone Apron.
What I used were Call of the Wild and Sephuz's Secret.

Before the fight, Prepot, drop Caltrops and Explosive Trap. Make sure your pet’s taunt is on.

Phase One (ICE):
You can interrupt frost bolt if you like, to trigger Sephuz’s Secret.
Make sure your dots are on him whenever possible, this fight is about staying alive and taking him down slowly (For now)
When he teleports away, you NEED to STAND STILL, use butchery and exhilaration to stay alive. Once you have a path cleared, disengage out. Do not try to harpoon through the middle though. There is a bug (at least I think it is), where you still take damage outside of the frost ring.
Rinse and repeat.

Interphase:

He will teleport away and become invisible and you will see a lot of adds. You need to burn the first add in front of you and stay inside the bubble as it heals you. At the same time, you need to send your pet to the next closest target, then harpoon over right after the add finishes a cast, kill it ASAP otherwise you will die. YOUR GOAL IN THIS PHASE IS TO GET CLOSE ENOUGH TO THE SHINING CIRCLE TO FLARE HIM OUT.

Phase Two (Arcane): Two things worth noting:
You need to save your interrupt for Drain Power.
You need to dodge the shadow orbs.
He will repeat the above until you get him down to 10%
After reaching 10%, you will have a moment to breathe. As soon as you leave combat, I suggest you change your talent to Serpent Sting as you will need it in Phase Three.

Phase Three (DEMON): TURN OFF YOUR PET’S TAUNT, DO NOT STAND IN BLACK PUDDLES.

Hold off on your Heroism/Bloodlust until you kill first set of adds.
**RUN AS FAR AWAY FROM HIM AS YOU CAN when he channels on you, DO NOT INTERRUPT HIM.**
Drop Caltrops immediately after the adds spawn. Burn them down.
After that, he will stop his channeling and come over, damage him near the black puddles. Rinse and repeat then you’re done!
(##RESPBREAK##)2##DELIM##perculia##DELIM##

Comment by Seglarnsbror

Frost DK (Pckz/Draenor-EU)

This is obviously not a thing you should try if you're undergeared, but this is how i did.
It will probably take a few tries to get used to but if you execute things properly you will probably manage.

Talents: 3-1-2-3-2-3-2

Phase 1 Frost: All you really should do at the start is using obliterate and deathstrike, interrupt when possible (use rime proccs aswell if you're high health aso).
When he's about to teleport away try to save a rime procc to use on the icicles, usually some of them will get relatively low, finish one off and get your dark succor passive (Death strike procc), move on to the next icicle and get another one.
Use this to your advantage and heal to full if possible.
When you're at full hp, grip Xylem in and repeat.

Phase 2 Arcane: The first time you get into the arcane phase with all the clones you want to use your Sindragosa's fury on the clones on a path to Xylem (you can see him on the minimap and he's sparkling) finish them off with howling blasts and frost strikes.
The second time you want to have your antimagic shell and wraith walk, when you manually have to kill the clones rush up to the first one try to only use obliterates and hope for a rime procc, walk into the bubble and howling blast the next one until you're close to full runic power, use frosts strikes from max range, walk back into the previous bubble, repeat until you don't have any rp left, then interrupt the next cast he does, obliterate it down.
Now you should be relatively close to Xylem and able to AMS+wraithwalk up to him.

Phase 3 Frost/Arcane: This is pretty much like phase one again aside from that he casts shadow orbs and can cast a channeled spell that permanently buffs him (Absorb power), Dodge shadow orbs (here's where you can catch up in health/runic power) and save your interrupts for his Absorb Power (interrupt it immidiately!)

Phase 4 Shadow: Try to use as few deathstrikes as possible here, pull the boss to the edge of the area and start "backpaddling" to avoid stepping into his darkness.
Use all your cooldowns except for sindragosa's fury at the start and nuke him as hard as you can.
When the boss starts casting, wraithwalk as far away from the boss as you can and use your sindragosa's fury at the adds when they spawn, kill them off and run back to the boss and keep backpaddling with him.
The next set of adds that spawns you want to have your Pillar of Frost and your Remorseless winter to stun the adds. Repeat for the last adds if you get any.

Cheerio!(##RESPBREAK##)16##DELIM##Serrinn##DELIM##

Comment by alcaras

Got it after ~55 attempts (909.5 ilvl Havoc DH w/ prydaz+achor). Really fun encounter.

3323123 for p1; 2223311 for p2

for p1:
try to drag him to the middle of the circle as much as possible
meta for the first mirror image
this will let you double fel rush in the mirror image phase
(if you can't quite double meta, the bubbles will heal you once you kill the mob that's standing there)
eye beam will not kill the mob before you die -- ideally you want chaos cleave + blade dance + demon's bite
i didn't want to deal with rng so I just ran away during the shadow phase
imprison is your friend as an extra interrupt
make sure you have a way to interrupt draw power --
the rhythm is arcane blast / draw power; 2x arcane blast / draw power

for p2:
meta + fury of the illidari the first add
lust (drums!) + fury of the illidari the second add
third pot (since you'll have used 2 on p1) + fury of the illidar on the third add

nemesis + chaos blades on the big shadow each time

Comment by xRegalx

Ok I just got done beating this on my DK and I'll try to give some tips and hope it can help others.

1. I wouldn't recommend trying this if you're under 900ilvl, I was 902 for P1 and 905 for the final phase

2. Legendaries I used were Prydaz and CCC for P1 and Bracers + SoN for the final phase (you have a short window to swich gear before you can attack)

3. Talents I used were basic BoS build, but with tier5 talent Volatile Shielding to help break out of blocks (I also found Winter is Coming to be more useful than Blinding sleet for this)

4. Bear Tartare food buff can help a lot here, you get movement speed when you break an iceblock which as DKs you know we lack.

Phase 1 Strat

I pre potted and blew my CDs on him from the start, letting Winter is Coming stun him, then interrupted the next frost bolt cast, was usually able to get him down to at least 85%. After his iceblocks go up I would use AMS and keep BoS going to break through, (if you are able to time RMW frozen soul trait to hit the blocks it helps a ton). He will be within gripping range so pull him back to you, and don't worry about using FS, nearly 90% of my RP went into DS to stay alive. Make sure your back is clear and when you interrupt one of his Frost bolts back step and pull him away from the beams some, so just in case you have to run forward out of iceblocks you will have room to get out of the AoE he does and grip him again, this is really important. I also recommend trying to keep him close to iceblocks that are still alive so you cleave them for extra free DS healing procs.

When the 2nd set of iceblocks come out RNG was on my side he would be within range for me to clear blocks + hit him with Sindy fury, this also stuns him do to legendary legs and gives you time to rush up to him (if you ate bear tartare) if not grip him repeat as before, using RP for DS, pooling if you need to.

He will then do a 3rd set of iceblocks which this one can be a pain to get out of, I would just use IBF and pray for good dps procs, using DS while breaking out to heal myself up when needed, then again gripping him, and doing as normal.

Save your interrupt at this point after a few casts he will port away and mirror phase will begin, best thing you can do is find his locale quickly (swirly sparkles) and rush him THROUGH the beams with WW and AMS on (if you used AMS on first set of blocks it will be up again) you will immune the beam and you just have to be on him to knock him out of the mirror phase, and arcane phase will begin.

In Arcane phase he will cast Arcane blast which will hit a ton harder than Frost bolt, but DO NOT interrupt it, you need to save it for Draw power, at the start of the phase he will cast Arcane Blast then he will cast Shadow orbs, which come at you randomly from one way, you can weave around them while dpsing / healing with DS, getting hit by one of these can almost kill you so be careful. He will then cast a 2nd Arcane Blast, and be ready after this cast, he will then cast Draw power, this needs to be interrupted the sec he casts it, if he gets 1 stack of the buff it can easily kill you. After the interrupt dps/heal as normal and he will port away and start casting, you will need to chase him down and grip when close enough DONT use WW yet.

Around this time there's a bit of RNG, he's done the rotation differently for me on other times, might be linked to health % not sure, but he will then start casting arcane blast and be ready for another draw power interrupt, its not as the same as before though, he may cast Shadow orbs again, or do Draw power, just be ready for whatever may happen. After the 2nd Draw Power interrupt (he only ever did draw power twice for me) He will then do mirror phase again, if your AMS is not up, kill the closest spawn add ASAP and wait in the shell it leaves till its off CD, killing more if you need to, once its ready WW + AMS rush him again.

Once you get to this locale he will go back to using Frost bolts / iceblocks but also weaving in Shadow orbs from time to time, the hardest part here, is when he does iceblocks on you he will port WAY further away, not as easy to grip... there will however be no more Draw power or mirror phases so WW, and interrupt as you see fit. When he did iceblock I popped Sindy's fury to clear it and rushed him with Bear tartare, still dumping RP into DS as much as possible, after this point you will basically have to get him down to 10% before you run out of CDs to get through the iceblocks, I had 1 more Iceblock cast on me which I used IBF to get through and heal back up, and AMS to help stay alive further.

If you are able to get him to 10% congrats 95% of the fight is done and incomes the easier part (imo)

You will have a short window while he does talking scene to use a rune, eat (switched to dps food) ,and swich out legendaries (used bracers + SoN)

Final Phase strat

If you have bad RNG like I did you may not be close to where the void boss spawns and if not its fine, I got half way to him and stopped to eat.
You want to grip him to the side as close as you can, and start dpsing him down while kitting backwards slowly, there will be an ever growing pool of death that will be his enrage timer, do NOT touch this by any means.. I saved dps CDs for the time being, but feel free at this point to only DS as you see fit, he doesn't hit nearly as hard as Xylem so I was able to FS more freely. After a little while he will begin to cast a channel on you, do NOT interrupt this.. you will need to run away from him a good distance and let it tick off, it will spawn 3 void adds at your locale, if they reach him, he heals, I used RMW + Pillar for this to stun and burn them, (first set of adds are easy) then gripped boss closer and began killing again, after a few once more he will do it again, channeling his spell on you, as before, you run away, but this time you have to be ready to go all out, a 3rd set of adds is pretty much a wipe, use everything you have on this set, pot, drums, BoS, if you use Sindy's fury make sure you can hit the boss + adds with it, and just start burning boss at this point till dead.

I only had a little room left to move when he died. Hope this is of some help to my fellow DKs, sorry for the long post, GL!

Comment by Infranimae

Okay, did this with 905 frost dk and 894 frost toon. Lets walk throught it.

First, items you want/minor things you certainly want:

1. Prydaz/Sephuz. I never thought I will say that but those two are best suited for the encounter. IF you have both - consider yourself somewhat lucky.
2. If you don't have Sephuz - go and get yourself Bear Tartare . The speed boost is insanely helpful. Otherwise, equip Hunger of the Pack .
3. For first phase definetly drink stamina flask. You will face hard enough time without it.
4. Talents - Winter is Coming and White Walker are a must. Everything else is optional, really.

Now, for the fight.

Phase one.

Frost.
Just nuke the living ^&*! out of Xylem, pop Remorseless winter and PoF at the beginning, kick first frost bolt and do as much damage as you can while he is stunned. Sindragosa's Fury out of first ring. Nothing to this phase, really. Just remember - you can and must grip him to you, not run around the edges (although if you are superunlucky you can run to him - thank you tartar <3 )
Important tips
Try to save Rime procs for each ring of icicles. They tend to happen after 3-4 frostbolt.
Kil-Jaeden's burning wish is decent here - use it to clear icicles. Trinket + unrimed HB or few ticks of RW will destroy all of them.
DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES POP YOUR AMS OR WWalk
After initial burst forget your Frost strike and use Death strike all the way. You need to stay alive, dead DKs do not get appearances.

Arcane.
Immidiately run to nearest mirror image. Kill it, you have a 1-2 second breather now. Find a dot on map or shiny etherial Xylem. Pop your AMS and WWalk and go straight to him, ignorin the damaging beams. Thanks to the buff and AMS it wont hurt you too much.

Shadow?...
Well, actually easiest part. Never waste your Mind Freeze on anything other than draning spell. Just kick Xylem's butt with obliterates and Death strikes.
NEVER EVER WASTE AMS AND WWalk. He will enter arcane phase at least once more (most likely 2 times) and if you wont have them up you are most likely dead. (Thank you blizzard for making DKs such a mobile class.)

Phase 2.
First, at pre-phase you can and should switch to DPS legendaries (I didn't bother), drink Strength flask and eat your crit/haste/stat food.
As Void thingie pops out BL yourself up, Remorseless/PoF, use trinkets/Breath and kill it with Ice (hehe). Note that you can stun and FAR MORE IMPORTANTLY grip the thing. This will come in later. DO NOT USE Sindragosa Fury here.
After some face-smashing Void thingie will start channeling. As everyone pointed out - do not interrupt, WWalk as far as you can instead. 3 adds will spring from you and start moving towards the boss. Use Sindragosa's Fury here and finish off the surviving ones. After that run to the boss and grip him so you can resume the face-melting process.
YOU WILL NEED THE REMORSELESS WINER+PILLAR OF FROST FOR THE SECOND SET OF ADDS. Remeber this or the boss will get healed/you will waste too much time.
Rinse and repeat.

Final thoughts
Well thats all really. Quite simple "challege" that just throws !@#$ton of damage your way and gives somewhat tight DPS check. mr. Ebonlocke was far better designed.

Comment by Cisare

As a Havoc DH night elf, i used shadowmeld right when Xylem summons the Corrupting Shadows. Then i was able to change talents from the Demonic build to Felblade, Demons blade, Bloodlet, Master of the Glaive and Chaos blade for more single target dps.

Comment by Shadodea

This is a response to how Seglarnsbror did it, so read his comment first xd (Frost DK)
I did it somewhat different, so I'll also give my 5 cents.

I used another set of talents, rather than what Seglarnsbror used, I used 3-1-3-3-1-1-3
I used Prydaz, Xavaric's Magnum Opus and Kil'jaeden's Burning Wish as my legendaries with 4 set and 908 item level.

Phase 1 Frost: You can try to time Remorseless Winter, so that it exploded on the ice, albeit this takes a few tries to get the timings right, other than that save rime procs and frostscythe procs (not necessarily necessary). And as written above, you should use death strike to heal you up. You'll get a lot of Dark Succor procs from the ice you kill, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem. I had PoS up for the first ices, 2nd one I popped AMS and killed them off with procs and 3rd I used Kil'jaeden's Burning Wish to "almost" instantly killing them all.

Phase 2 Arcane: I personally saved my Sindragosa's Fury for a later point. What I did instead was to kill the mirror closest to me and meanwhile figure out a route to the flickering light that you need to get to. You only have a certain amount of time to get there, so you need to be on your toes. I used Glacial Advance when I was standing in a bubble and about to go the next one. Doing it this way you can have some lucky crits and get the image down very quick. Just keep that up and use wraith walk when you close to Xylem. ( I saved AMS)

I don't have anything to add for the Frost/Arcane phase. Just make sure to dodge the balls, they won't necessarily oneshot, albeit it's very depending on your HP and from there, just rinse and repeat till he goes to 10%

Phase 4 Shadow: I used my 2nd pot and heroism here. You won't take a lot of damage in this phase unless you stand directly in his darkness, so as mentioned above, you won't really need to use death strike. For the first set of adds I used Kil'jaeden's Burning Wish together with remorseless winter (no PoS). For the second adds I used PoS together with remorseless winter killing them rather quickly and for the last set of adds I had remorseless winter to slow and used Sindragosa's Fury to quickly get back on boss. I managed to kill the boss with just about 1/6 part of the room left.

Most of all have fun and good luck.(##RESPBREAK##)2##DELIM##perculia##DELIM##

Comment by AndreRT

I managed to complete this challenge as a Subtlety Rogue (906ilvl, 41 traits, The Dreadlord's Deceit and Cinidaria, the Symbiote legendaries) today around 2:00 a.m

This is what I did:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FROST PHASE
Keep the boss on one of those arcane barrier things that push you
Frostbolts: Interrupt whenever you can at 90%-ish of his cast. Kidney shot whenever you think he is about to cast his icicles to delay him (this requires experience fighting the boss) and pre-Feint right when Kidney shot is about to fade (to reduce blizzard's damage)
Icicles: If you have the lego Back (increased shuriken storm dmg), you can just Shadow dance > Shuriken Storm. If you do not, you have to shadow dance > Shuriken Storm > evisceratex2 to work your way through it. If by any chance the boss blinks close enough, you can just shadow strike/shadowstep to him

ARCANE PHASE
Arcane Barrage: Basically an "improved" Frostbolt, do the same. Feel free to Kick him
Shadow Barrage: Focus on dodging, if you are proficient you can DPS the boss through it, pre-Feint if you think you are going to get hit
Draw Power: Kick at 95% of his channeling, DPS him through all the cast. If your kick is on cooldown, you can stun him, if stuns are on DR, you can blind him. There is no reason you would die from this mech

SHADOW PHASE
You can Sprint + Cloak of shadows through it. If on cooldown, you will have to manage to Shadowstrike and shadowstep your way through it, make sure you heal right before you phase him
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FINAL PHASE
This is the tricky one, this phase requires a fair amount of AoE DPS (which subtlety lacks) + a good amount of single target DPS. You will sometimes find yourself lacking time because your DPS is not enough. Never kick the boss. I will separate this as "boss phases" and "ads phases"

ADS PHASE (this will just repeat): Kidney shot 1 ad, cheap shot the other 2 ads, put Nightblade (use TANGLED SHADOW talent) on every ad, DPS them simultaneously, try not to overkill, dump eviscerate on the highest health ad. Spam cheap shot or even use blind if necessary

FIRST BOSS PHASE
Move him to the very edge of the platform, pop drums DPS him hard, move him slowly or else the platform will be covered with darkness. Save some combo points for ads, when he begins to cast pop Sprint and move to the other end of the platform

----ADS PHASE----

SECOND BOSS PHASE
Move him to the very edge, DPS him, move him slowly. Save some combo points for ads, when he begins to cast pop Sprint and move to the other end of the platform

----ADS PHASE----

THIRD BOSS PHASE
Move him to the very edge, DPS him, move him slowly. Save some combo points for ads, when he begins to cast, this time wait about 3 seconds before popping Sprint and move to the other end of the platform

----ADS PHASE----

FOURTH BOSS PHASE
You will have almost no space to move, when the floor is entirely covered by darkness pop Cloak of shadows, when he enrages pop Evasion. Pray for some crits > Profit

I wish you luck :)
Screenshot http://imgur.com/a/OjuU0
Video of myself failing on early attempts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWD8PwJIqmk(##RESPBREAK##)2##DELIM##perculia##DELIM##

Comment by 1706453

Been trying this as a 909 equipped Arms with legendary bracers. Getting to the last phase is no problem for me, but it is impossible
because the creeping shadows don't show for me... Projected textures are on and particle effects are at max. Anyone with the same problem (and maybe a fix) ?

Comment by Bigyiatch

DemonHunter - 905
Legendaries: Anger of the Half-Giants + Kil'jaeden's Burning Wish
Trinket: Entwined Elemental Foci
Traits: 41
Sets: 4set NH - 2set Mastery
I didn't switch those things before 2nd boss !
____________________
Just for those DemonHunters who are afraid of not being able to do it without Legendary Neck / Chest or other ones, it's doable without those.

How I played the boss:
1st boss - 3/3/2/3/2/2/3

Frost: That's the most difficult phase in my opinion. You have to manage it to keep Meta as long up as possible and therefore collect EVERY soul fragment. Furthermore you have to interrupt every cast possible, but don't interrupt any cast while your Meta is up. You will take a lot of damage from each cast but you will be at 100% life after a sec again. The difficult part in this phase is also to escape the frost ring. While you are there the boss will still cast, so if you are not fast enough you will die. Therefore make sure to tank the boss while in frost - and arcane if possible - in the center. You can easily survive 3 frost spells in a row. I know most of this has already been mentioned.

Arcane: In that phase you don't have to either stay as long as possible in Meta or interrupt as many casts as possible to survive, because they don't hit as hard as frost ones. That doesn't mean you can just ignore it ! The only thing you really have to pay attention to is when he is spawns away and you have to run into him to re-spawn him. It's more easier if you manage it to keep him in the center. You will have to pay attention to where he teleports, because you don't have that much time before he just one shots you with his ability during that phase. Important here is to save every 1 shot ability you got to kill the adds fast enough. Therefore you should at least save fel eruption , your Kil'jaiden's to make it easier. You can use your artifact skill as well but I'd only use it during the first 2 seconds after the phase starts, because in those 2 seconds you can run anywhere without taking damage.

2nd boss - 2/2/2/3/3/1/1

That boss was for me the most difficult, not because of his abilities, but because of his soft enrage. I first tried to avoid the 3rd add wave, because the room was already too full of his *!@#, but that didn't work with my gear. If you can mange it to get Meta 2 times in that phase - Legendary shoulders + Elisan trinket f.e. - you shouldn't face any problems. But if you can't it will be quite difficult. Use everything at the start of the encounter including drums, you should be able to melt him down to like 65% - 70% before 1st add wave. By the time he casts on you, you should run right to the other side of the room. Each add got 5M life, so you want to save any AoE abilities for them. That means you will not be able to use any of them on the boss. You should use every slow / stun you got, because they are really fast. If chaos blades gets ready again DON'T use it right away. 15s later adds will spawn and your nemesis will be kinda wasted. Wait for 3rd wave to spawn, kill them and then use your CDs again. By that time there will be barely space left - in case you kited him properly until that point -. Just to point that out, you have to be careful how you kite him. It's better to keep him as long in his own *!@# as possible. When you notice that you are getting hit by that move out, but you can just keep an eye on the ground and you will know when to move yourself and the boss out.
_______________

Like I said, I know that all of this has been mentioned already but that should help those DemonHunters without those utility legendaries. Since I noticed that every DH experience here is based on at least 1 utility legendary I wanted to share my experience without those legendaries. I hope that this might be helpful for those DemonHunters. :)(##RESPBREAK##)2##DELIM##perculia##DELIM##

Comment by Allistan

I just beat this on my Frost DK at AL 40 and 906 equipped ilvl for both sets used. I used a 3/1/2/3/2/3/2 build (I used Permafrost over Volatile Shielding because I was only using AMS during Arcane Phase, when the boss wasn't active). For my survival set I used in phase 1, I was using Prydaz, Xavaric's Magnum Opus and Acherus Drapes, with a Flask of the Countless Armies and Bear Tartare food buff (I needed the speed boost because I simply couldn't get in range fast enough during hybrid phase otherwise). I was using an 895 Crit Chains of the Valorous from M Odyn and a 905 Chaos Talisman (read: no Fang of Tichondrius)

PHASE 1: XYLEM (In order)

Ice Phase
-Opened with a regular BoS build opener (pre-pot, the whole 9 yards), except I only used 1 Rime proc, and saved the rest for ice shards. For first set, this plus breath was enough to clear them quickly. For second set of shards, I had saved another Rime proc, and timed my Remorseless Winter so that it would expire just after the shards spawned for the explosion. For 3rd set, I just used Sindragosa's Fury, as it was the set giving me the most trouble as I progressed.
-Do not run into the Ice Shards, or you will die from Razor Ice
-Feel free to interrupt boss at will during this phase
-Death Grip Xylem to you as soon as you can get in range, as running to him is sketchy (even w/ speed buff)
-In general, I did my best to refrain from using Frost Strike at all, instead opting for Death Strike as much as possible. With that, make sure you make the most of Dark Succor procs off the Ice Shards (yes, they will proc it)
-Do everything in your power to avoid having to blow Wraith Walk/IBF/AMS in this first phase. Everything after will be much more difficult if you do.

Arcane Phase (Transition)
-Find where Xylem went ASAP (you can look for sparkly thing, and he is marked on your minimap). Once you find him, kill the add nearest to you in his direction. Note that the bubbles the Mirror Images drop in this phase will heal you to full, but don't linger because (a) they despawn and (b) the boss is channeling a cast that WILL kill you if you stay in this phase for too long.
-Once you're close enough, pop AMS and WW to the sparkle. As soon as you're in range, the boss will reactivate and the next phase begins. This is substantially easier with the cloak, but you can still do this without it (you just have to do more bubble hopping)

Shadow Phase
-SAVE YOUR INTERRUPT FOR DRAW POWER! If you fail to do this, the boss gains a stacking damage buff that will likely ruin you later.
*HOWEVER: if you do accidentally use Mind Freeze on something other than Draw Power, you can either use Death Grip (though this should be your last resort) or the Blood Elf racial (Blinding Sheet and the Winter is Coming stun also work, if you're able to line them up)*
-The boss will channel a shadow barrage, which you can discern by the number of shadow orbs flying in the direction the boss is facing. Just align yourself accordingly, and dodge these. These did not one shot me on the tries I did get hit, but they hurt enough that it made recovery a major hindrance that I never came back from
-The boss will keep hitting you with Arcane Blast (or something like that, I don't remember for sure), but just ignore it, as you can't afford to lose the interrupt.
-After Draw Power the boss will blink away. Just run his way (don't use WW), and be ready to grip him back in. Note that he will run towards you for a second after every cast, so you may actually be able to get him back to you without gripping.

Arcane Phase Again-See Above

Hybrid Frost/Shadow Phase
-The boss did not Draw Power here, so you can interrupt at will again
-Here the boss will be doing the Ice Shards AND Shadow Barrage, so prepare yourself for these abilities. Of the two, this is much closer to what you saw in the initial Frost Phase.

Arcane Phase, Round 3 - Still Unchanged

Shadow Phase
-Back to holding your interrupts for Draw Power
-Otherwise identical to first Shadow Phase
-Boss will phase at 10%, but save your DPS CDs if at all possible *If you have not phased boss by end of this phase, you will go to another Arcane Phase, followed by what I assumed was a Frost Phase. I got this on my kill attempt, but it only took 1 hit after I reactivated boss, so I didn't see what abilities he was using*

General tips
-Do your very best to save defensive CDs. WW and AMS are huge for making the Arcane Phase more manageable. I used IBF in the middle of the first Shadow phase for the massive buff to Death Strike healing. If you have to use them to survive then do it, but keep in mind there is another phase after this. While there is substantially less damage taken if you do it properly, you may still need IBF for some healing
-On Arcane Phase- I saw videos of players who were popping WW+AMS and gliding straight to the boss. This wasn't working for me at all, as I kept getting sucked into the ley lines or being knocked back and bounced around by the adds. I ended up just hopping bubbles until I had a mostly straight shot at the boss, and then I popped WW+AMS

PHASE 2 - VOIDLORD
YOU WILL LEAVE COMBAT BRIEFLY DURING THIS PHASE, SO USE IT TO YOUR ADVANTAGE. Personally, I used this time to swap to my DPS set (swap Prydaz and Drapes for Toravon's Whiteout Bindings and Koltira's Newfound Will), and replaced Bear Tartare with Azshari Salad. I meant to also pop an Augment Rune during this phase, but I was so caught in the moment I forgot.

The boss will drop combat, and then this Voidlord thing will spawn.
-This new boss drops a shadow puddle underneath that will slowly fill the room. This phase boils down to whether you're able to kill him before the room fills. I recommend simply backpedaling against the edge of the room as needed, moving as slow as possible without standing in ooze.
-This boss only does 1 cast-DO NOT INTERRUPT IT! This cast will spawn adds that heal the boss if they reach. If you interrupt, they will spawn right on top of you, and thus the boss.
-I recommend saving all DPS cooldowns for the first set of adds. When he starts the cast, use WW to get as far away as possible. As soon as the 1st set spawned, I used drums and my 2nd prolonged power, then popped PoF + BoS, then 5 secs in popped HRW (I was using RW on CD at this point, I don't remember if it was up or not)
-In between sets of adds, run back to edge of puddle and Death Grip boss to you. DPS your heart out.
-For 2nd set of adds, I used Sindragosa's Fury and then DPS'd down as fast as I could
-For 3rd set (if you get it), PoF and BoS should be up, so use those or burn the boss if he's low enough. Either way, still move as far away as you safely can.

FINAL REMARKS
-This is brutally tough, so don't feel bad if it takes you a while.
-If you can survive to see the Voidlord guy, you have a very good chance at getting this. In my 30 or so attempts, the only attempt I saw the Voidlord was my kill. This phase is substantially easier than the others.

Hopefully this can help some of you, as I know the many guides I saw didn't quite do it for me. If you have questions hit me up.(##RESPBREAK##)2##DELIM##perculia##DELIM##

Comment by apocalipss

its only me? or are you sometimes getting hitted by comet storm even if you are away from circle and slowed in the mirror phase?

Comment by rogerk0

I cleared it yesterday on my demon hunter at 898 ilevel and 40 points into my weapon. The legendaries I used were Cascading Eyes and Sephuz. My talent build was 332333 (though I recommend bringing a book to change talents and switch to Master of the Glaive for stage 2.) And bring some drums, pseudo-lust helps a lot at the end. It took me 36 attempts, 35 on Monday and then my first attempt on Tuesday was my clear, but here is what I did.

Stage 1: Frost

I started with my back against the iris and facing towards Xylem. The moment the lasers shot out from the Iris, I pre-potted and started the encounter by casting Nemesis while interrupting him at the same time. This brought him towards me and I dropped Fury down followed by an Eye Beam using the fury gained from the interrupt. As soon as Demonic Meta wears away after 8 seconds, he does his stun and calls down his icicles. Track him quickly and use Meta to leap over to him and stun him. Dps him while he is stunned but then back away to get closer towards the icicles. As soon as he starts casting, interrupt him and force him to come to you. Then move around him so you are facing the icicles and Eye Beam him along with the icicles, resetting cooldown on Eye Beam while also spawning a lot of soul fragments. 30 seconds into your meta, he will stun again and teleport once more. If he teleports across the iris, just double jump over and felrush over the iris to reach him quickly, interrupt him and drag him back towards the iris to get closer to the icicles. Then you can eye beam again and get another free reset with extra damage. Do this once more for the 3rd stun and he will enter Mirror Images phase after a few casts of frost bolt.

Stage 1: Mirror Images

If you managed to stick close to the iris after that last teleport, there should be a mirror image that spawns practically on top of you. Kill it quickly and locate Xylem. From this point on you, you have only the time of 4 fel rushes before he completes his cast. Locate him quickly and figure out a path that lets you jump between four images to get close to him. Usually entails jumping up and fel rushing over a laser to get to a mirror image. Rely on Blade Dance for the quick kill off the mirror image and not on Chaos Strike as it is the most reliable way to get the kill quickly and get a bubble for safety.. If after 4 fel rushes you are still a mirror image away from him, use vault to backflip to him and start the next phase.

Stage 1: Arcane

Start arcane phase with nemesis+fury of the illidari+eye beam for quick healing back up after Mirror Images phase. Don't use your interrupt on his arcane blast ever, just use arcane torrent, chaos nova, or Imprison and rely on your meta self healing. After around 2 casts of arcane blast, he will start channeling the shadow orbs spell. Make sure to notice where he is facing as they come from behind him and dodge the orbs appropriately. After the orbs, he will do one more arcane blast and then teleport away. If you use imprison at this point, he will teleport away while imprisoned and give you some free time to reach him. But if you don't I recommend you reach him quickly and imprison him as soon as you can to give your cooldowns a few seconds to recover. Now he will do another possibly 2 arcane blasts and then start his channel on the Iris itself. Make sure the moment you see him turn away from you and look at the iris, prepare to use your interrupt as you have less than a second to do so or he will get a 5% damage buff. He will teleport a maximum of 3 times during this phase and use that channel on the iris twice before going into Mirror images again.

Stage 1: Mirror Images Redux

At this point, you should have Meta back up and ready to be cast. Find Xylem again, and if he is nearby, just reach him with a fel rush or two. (I got lucky on this phase and he decided to just be right behind me and I vaulted to skip to the next phase.) If he is still far away, just use Meta to jump to him and skip this phase entirely. You want to use Meta on this phase or right after the phase to have the cooldown back up for Stage 2.

Stage 1: Frost is back

The main two differences between this frost phase and the first one is that he teleports to the outer edge of the platform each time, increasing the distance between you and him compared to last time. He will also use his shadow orb channel during this frost phase which you should avoid appropriately and use this time to dps him and let your cooldowns recover. But the idea is still the same from the first frost phase. Interrupt his frost bolt and drag him towards the Iris. Once he stuns and teleports away, follow after him with double jump and fel rushes and interrupt him again, bringing him closer to the icicles to Eye beam them down along with him. Perform this 2 more times and he goes into his (should be) final mirror images.

Stage 1: House of Mirror Images the 3rd.

First thing first, don't panic. You have already made it through two of these, just do it again. That's the only tidbit here really.

Stage 1: Last Arcane Blast Phase

Once you reach this point, he should be at ~20% and you only need to go through a bit more. Follow the same rules as the first arcane phase and bring him down to his knees like the great demon hunter that you are. It should only take around two teleports to bring him down to ~10% and you get a breather.

Stage 2: Are we going to do this to Jaina too?

After Xylem comes to his senses and throws his gloves on the floor, he will start to channel on the Iris again to bring it back to normal. You will get around 10-15 seconds of out of combat to eat up for some health, use a tome to switch to Master of the Glaive and get ready to pre-pot. The Shadow Lord guy will appear out of Xylem and angrily rant due to his failure. He will have some short dialogue but the moment it ends, you should pre-port as the encounter starts right after his last few lines. Drag the Shadow Lord towards the edge of the arena and hit drums along with nemesis+fury of the illidari+eye beam and begin to burn a hole through it while kiting him around the room and avoid standing in the slowing black pools he drops under him. After Demonic Meta wears away, use regular Meta but use it away from him as you do not want to stun the Shadow Lord in the black stuff and continue to back away.

When he starts to channel Seeds of Darkness, run away from him without using any of your abilities and put at least half the room between him and you. When the 3 5 mil HP adds spawn, use Chaos Nova on them then Eye Beam them while they are stunned. Burn through them as much as you can during the stun and then use your glaive throw to start slowing them down while they move towards the boss. (If you did not switch talents like me, use vengeful retreat to get that slow in, though it's way riskier if you can't kill the adds quick enough.) Make sure to pick up any soul fragments, and if the adds make it to the black stuff, as long as you are in meta, you are safe to dps them and fel rush out of there when they are dead.

Continue the process of kiting the boss and killing the 3 adds that spawn for a total of 2 more times. After the 3rd set of adds, you will only have a pizza slice of the room left for safety and you must do everything you can to burn down the boss. At this point, Meta should be back up and you can use you

Comment by TraX

I just completed the scenario on my demon hunter, so i will provide some tips for you guys.

As a havoc demon hunter Xylem has 153M HP (he actually has more, but transition will begin at 10%), while the shadow that spawns afterwards has 91M. You will need around 650k dps to kill the shadow before the entire area is full of stuff on the ground, but you can pretty much take as long was you want on Xylem. As so many others have mentioned, it is important to stun and interrupt as much as possible, while always keeping an interrupt ready in case he attempts to cast the draw power.

Currently there also seems to be a bug with Xylem's Ice Comets, where they keep dealing damage to you even after you leave the frozen area. This can only be stopped by either interrupting or stunning Xylem. I would also recommend trying to use Eye Beam and get your demon form going, so you can heal on the icicles.

Contrary to what it seems like everybody else has been doing, i did not go for Demonic Appetite, because i am too used to playing with Demon Blades, and my DPS simply wasn't good enough with Demon's Bite. Instead i went for the 2223223 build for Xylem, where i also used Prydaz, Xavaric's Magnum Opus and Raddon's Cascading Eyes. For the Corrupting Shadows phase i switched to the 2233313 build and Delusions of Grandeur and Kil'jaeden's Burning Wish

It is important to remember to use every consumable and cooldown you have, or you will not make it past the soft enrage timer for the Shadow (remember to bring drums too). I did this around ~905 ilvl, and i only just managed to beat the timer.

Good luck!

Comment by Thejoker013

I need some help I have abandon the quest closing the eye and am trying to pick up the quest again I can't find it even I went back to the tower in azshara or dalran or braking islend can you give me. Any help with that thanks in advance

Comment by Negishi

Howdy fellow warriors,
As I was kinda disappointed by written info i could find on this challenge as an arms warrior, here's my tips on how the encounter.

Arms Warrior - Negishi (Dalaran-EU)

The encounter is tough and punishing, but warriors are overall well suited for it, with good mobility and self heal, and more than decent burst. However, you'll need a few tries just to get familiar with the mechanics. I recommend ilevel north of 895, and grabbing the Executioner's Precision golden trait will greatly help. At the very least, Soul of the Slaughter is a must for sustained survivability.

The fight is split in two phases; You face Archmage Xylem in phase 1, and once he reaches 10% HP, he will spawn Corrupting Shadows, which will be your opponent in phase 2, until its death... Or yours. The encounter taks place in a circular room, with energy beams forming a cross in the center, nearly cutting the room in 4 sections. Running into those beams will cause a hefty amount of damage.

Phase 1:
The first phase is cut in two phases, separated by a transition phase. They'll cycle 'till the boss reaches 10% HP.

Frost phase:
The fight starts with the frost phase. Xylem will spam you with Frostbolt, which can, and should be, interrupted. Approximately 20 seconds into the fight, he will stun you in a Comet Storm, surrounded by razor ice. Contact with the icicles will OS you, but you can kill them to get out of the AOE. He will repeat this 3 times, before casting Arcane Barrage, wich initiates the transition phase.

Transition phase:
Xylem will split up into mirror images all around the room. The room is covered in a shadow AOE, which deals heavy damage. The mirror images cast a knockback spell, and can be killed, spawning a shrinking shield wich will heal you for a large amount. Additionally, Xylem will begin casting Arcane Annihilation, which can be interrupted by running into him.

Arcane phase
In this phase, the boss alternates between 3 abilities: Arcane Barrage, which deals moderate damage, Shadow Barrage, a channeled ability that will spawn and heave shadow spheres at you, which need to be dodged, and Draw Power, that must be immediately interrupted, otherwise Xylem will stack Draw Power, and nuke the living hell out of you. The moment Xylem starts casting Frostbolt means he will go back to the transition phase.

Phases will keep on alternating, the only difference being that he will also use Shadow Barrage in the other frost phases.

Phase 2:
The corrupting shadows fight is rather straightforward; The boss will gradually lay growing shadow AOE on the floor, and every minute, will cast Seed of Darkness on you. At the end of the debuff, 3 adds will spawn, and head towards the boss; They will heal it consequently if they reach it, and should be disposed of swiftly.

General tips:
The intermission between the two boss fights can, and should, be used to swap gear and talents.
- P1 : You should aim for survivability and mobility, to keep high boss uptime and self heal.
Recommended talent build: http://www.wowhead.com/talent-calc/warrior/arms/c8hz
- P2 : You should aim for maximum burst and cleave to deal with the adds.
Recommended talent build: http://www.wowhead.com/talent-calc/warrior/arms/c3hz

Consumables such as drums, flasks, potions, runes, and food are STRONGLY advised.

A word on legiondaries:
- Archavon's Heavy Hand : not much to say, it IS our BiS ^^
- Ayala's Stone Heart : great overall legendary, syncs very well with our P2 talents.
- Weight of the Earth : good for the P2 adds, not extremely useful in P1.
- Naj'entus's Vertebrae : good option for P1 to deal with the icicles.
- Kil'jaeden's Burning Wish : great for dealing with the icicles in P1 and bursting the P2 adds.
- Mannoroth's Bloodletting Manacles : best survivability option for P1, allows for small self heal by spamming focused rage when away from the boss.
- Timeless Stratagem : incredibly strong for P1, can completely cheese the P1 icicles.
- Sephuz's Secret : given the number of interruptable spells in P1, can be very useful, though not the top choice.
- Prydaz, Xavaric's Magnum Opus : great survivability option, though not as strong as Mannoroth's Bloodletting Manacles in my opinion.

I cleared the fight with Mannoroth's Bloodletting Manacles / Ayala's Stone Heart in P1, and Ayala's Stone Heart / Kil'jaeden's Burning Wish in P2.
I strongly recommend Timeless Stratagem if you have them, as the first phase becomes nearly trivial.
Trinkets such as Draught of Souls and Convergence of Fates are, obviously, a great help and should be equipped.

Phase by phase tip:
Here's a "walkthrough", those are actual tips to deal with mechanics in practice.

Phase 1:
This phase is mostly about staying alive, as it has no actual enrage, but some very damaging abilities. Generaly speaking, always take opportunity of the moment you interrupt Xylem's spells to move him closer to the center of the room.

Frost phase:
The icicles can be completely dodged by jumping, then heroic leap to Xylem's position. This is the best way to deal with the mechanic, as you take minimal damage from the AOE.
- If you have Timeless Stratagem, you can heroic leap out of EVERY icicles.
- If not, the CD of heroic leap isnt short enough for you to use it on every icicle phase; you'll be able to use it on the first and third icicle phase, and you'll need to nuke the second pack of icicles.
You can dash through the energy beams, though you will take damage. It greatly increases boss uptime, and i recommend you do that.

Transition phase:
After the third icicle phase for frost phase, or the second Draw Power in arcane phase, turn your camera towards the center of the room so you can spot where xylem will port. Dash on a mirror image in his general direction, enjoy the shield, and heroic leap on his face.

Arcane phase:
Keep your interrupt for Draw Power, and use it ASAP. He will stack quickly otherwise. The shadow orbs from Shadow Barrage will travel in the direction Xylem is facing, so face him to be in the optimal position to dodge the orbs. DON'T. GET. HIT.

Phase 2:
Move the boss to the edge of the room, and slowly move around the room to maximize space usage. You can easily tell if you have a toe in the AOE, as you take hefty damage. You have space to deal with 3 add spawns, meaning you need to shave off 25% of its HP per add spawn. Run as far as possible when you have the debuff, or heroic leap away. You WILL need offensive CDs such as battle cry, warbreaker, or Kil'jaeden's Burning Wish to deal with the adds, and if one gets through, you're in for a really tough fight.

All in all, don't give up, It's MEANT to be a challenge. It took me around 50 tries, so you may need to drop by the sentinax here and there ;)

Comment by dahati

If you wipe on the second boss, do you have to do Xylem all over again?

Comment by JTHM773

After 100+ attempts I finally managed to pull this off as a 903 Frost DK.

Here's my 2 cents...

- I went with the Breath of Sindragosa build. Used Freezing Fog for lvl 57 talent, Winter is Coming for lvl 60, and Volatile Shielding for lvl 75 (Although I used White Walker on a few dozen pulls as well, both worked pretty well)

-Was rocking the Legendary Belt, and the Seal of Necrofantasia.

-Used a strength flask, Potion of Prolonged Power (pre-potted for Xylem, and the Void Lord, plus a third time after the 2nd pre-pot), Bear Tartar food (The speed boost is a life saver), Health Potions, and some Fishbrul Special for the void lord.

- I didnt use drums / hero. Why? I dont know, never bothered to buy a set of drums. (shrug)

-I suggest getting the add on "DBM Proving Grounds" it helped out a lot.

-I didnt stray too far from the guides / videos that others have posted.

- During the transition phases, if I had more than 50% hp I just popped AMS, WW and rushed towards the Archmage. (If I was below 50% I nuked an add, healed up and then rushed) I noticed that you can kind of use the iris beams to your advantage when wraith walking, if you run in the same direction that they're shooting out of, they give you a little boost.

- Arcane phases were rough for me. That arcane barrage hits like a truck, had to pop Icebound Fortitude and spam Death Strike to get back up to full. Saved my health potion for this phase too. During the Shadow Orb Barrage I did some fancy footwork and used it as a slight "catch up" to get some health back. (Although I have died a few times from an Orb)

- For the void lord phase, I managed to have both charges of Hungering Rune Weapon up at the start. (Although they didnt help out all too much around 50% when I hit a horrible dry spell)

- Save Breath of Sindragosa AND Remorseless Winter for the 1st set of adds. Use Sindragosa's Fury and RW on the 2nd set. I managed to get a 3rd set of adds, where I used RW, Chains of Ice after RW ended, and a clutch Death Grip (Pretty sure one of the adds actually got to the void lord and healed him)

At the very end of the fight, I had maybe 10 yards of space left? It was extremely close. On Xylem I was doing 900k - 1M dps. But by the end of the void lord phase I plummeted down to 620k or so.

When the void lord had 20% hp remaining, the adrenaline kicked in. After the fight was over I screamed at the top of my lungs. My hands were shaking, my whole body was trembling, and my heart was pounding. By far the most challenging thing I have ever experienced in WoW.

I actually managed to break a couple keys on my laptop's keyboard while doing this challenge. Had to plug in another keyboard to finish the job lol.

...Suffer Well

Comment by Elandura

"Eat magic, imposter!" Can't get this out of my head. Anyone else ?

Comment by gilike05

Can anyone tell me how this works? After you complete the quest, you get the item that unlocks the artifact appearance or the quest unlocks it right away?
If its an item, can some1 link at least one of them?

Comment by Nattevis

this fight becomes 200% harder without either prydaz or blur chest

Comment by Juhis123

Just did this as ilvl 901 arms warrior with the legendary colossus smash pants and the heroic leap shoulders after like 100 tries

Comment by Ceffoo

Hey all, 895 Survival Hunter here with The Shadow Hunter's Voodoo Mask and Sephuz's Secret. I got some tips that might be helpful to other Survival Hunters out there. This might help other classes too but I will be very specific on spell uses and how an SV can interact with the fight's mechanics.
My talents are: 3 1 2 1 2 1 2.

General tips:
- No need to use a rune (or a prepot) in the 'Archmage' phase as dodging/doing mechanics is more important than dps-ing. Feel free to use it in the 'Void Lord' phase since the more dps the better.
- Bring a lust pet or drums, every bit counts against the Void Lord (and ofc the basic flask and food which Im assuming you're already using).
- To be honest, I don't remember using my Aspect of the Turtle in the whole entire fight as it is always either an enemy 1 or 2 shot spell ability or simply just working my way around the fight mechanics.

First phase:
- Use your Mend Pet but you don't have to worry about your pet dying here since he will use his frozen spell almost every 10 seconds and then you can use your combo Butchery -> Butchery -> Exhilaration -> Butchery -> Disengage -> Exhilaration (or save it, your call). This will give you almost full health and then attack Xylem again. You'll probably have to do this 2-3 times depending on your damage.
WARNING!
** If not careful, you might use too much focus resource on Xylem and when you get frozen you will be focus starved and be stucked there waiting. Careful on the flanking strike and raptor strike spams!
** Watch out for the remaining ice after the combo (if there are any), if you happen to disengage into one of them then it's game over (at least it was for me).

Second phase:
- This is the arcane phase and Xylem summons illusions while hiding in glitter. Deceivingly simple (especially in videos) but there are alot of ways to die as an SV.
- So the basic strategy is to kill the illusions before they finish casting their spell. Then quickly look out for another illusion that just started casting the spell then use Harpoon onto him. Repeat the steps above until you are in range to flare Xylem who is in glitter form.
WARNING!
- If you miss your Flare then it's game over. Make it count.
- The 'Leyline Mana Cross' (as I call it), actually damages you abit so stay away from illusions who are very close to it or you'll have to deal both the Darkness and Leyline damage. Always play safe, don't risk it.
- If you like using your to kill illusions you might experience some inconvenience along the way. If you Harpoon onto the illusion but your pet gets slowed by the Leyline Cross or just decides to go slow (it happens especially if Dash is on CD) then quickly use Raptor Strike or Mongoose Bite. In my experience, I didn't really have the time to correct my mistake as I need 2 GCDs of those 2 spells to down an illusion. A solution to this is to send the pet first to the illusion then use your Harpoon plus .

Third phase:
- The arcane barrage plus 'others' phase as I call it.
- When Arcane Barrage is channeled, go in front of Xylem so you can see it coming from afar. Don't focus on the rotation too much, focus on dodging the arcane balls instead.
- Xylem will also try to Drain power so save your interrupt for this. Don't even think of using your Ice Trap as it will take time to activate and Xylem will get 1-2 stacks.
- My pet sometimes dies in this phase but it was fine for me as I just use my Ice Trap then resurrect my pet. Don't panic if your pet dies.
WARNING!
** What I like to do when my pet is low health is to trap Xylem to give my pet some breathing time to heal but Xylem almost always uses Drain power right after he gets out for the trap so watch out for that and ready to hit that interrupt.
** Sometimes Xylem will go channel Arcane Barrage right after you get out of the frozen spell and it is quite tempting to use Harpoon on him from afar. Again, don't risk it and get hit by those arcane for a reward damage of one Raptor Strike.

ABOVE PHASES WILL REPEAT IN RANDOM ORDER UNTIL XYLEM IS 10%

After Xylem is 10%, he will do another RP and you'll fight with a demon lord. Rune up, pre-pot, and get ready to use that drums or your pet's lust ability.

The Void Lord:
- Turn off your pet's taunt so the Void Lord has to come near you and you don't have to step on the purple ground.
- Like others said, Void Lord will cast a channel ability and you'll have to run away from his as far away as possible and kill the 3 adds. Prepare for slow then proceed on killing it. Use Fury of the Eagle if you have to!
- The fight simply repeats with the boss trying to kill you by itself again while you damage him and stay away from purple stuff.
Warning!
- Killing the adds is very important so don't hesitate on using offensive cooldowns on them.
- When adds are about to spawn, try to micro your pet so that it's close to you so you can use . Many times I forgot to turn off taunt and my pet just 1v1 the Void Lord while I am struggling to kill the adds without my hard-hitter .

Thank you for reading, and that's alI have. Good luck Survival Hunters! Make Huln Highmountain proud!

Comment by siubosn

is this a solo only quest?

Comment by shadowsong770

Alidorin-Cenarion circle

Just beat this on my arms warrior and found a few tips to make it easier.
YOU CAN CHANGE TALENTS BETWEEN PHASES

Phase 1 is all about mobility and survival. If you have timeless stratagem and mannoroths bloodletting manacles, use them.
If you jump THEN heroic leap you can completely clear the ice crystals. Make sure you have at least 1 heroic leap going into the shadow phase so you can jump right onto him.

MAKE SURE TO SAVE INTERRUPT FOR ABOSB POWER! Nothing else needs to be interrupted. Fighting him is actually pretty easy once you get the hang of it. Jump out of ice, smack him, dodge shadow balls, interrupt absorb power, jump on sparkles.

The last phase with the void monster is where i see a lot of people have trouble.
You can change talents and gear between phases.
Take sweeping strikes and shockwave. If you have convergence of fates it helps a lot. With if you can always get 1 battlecry on the boss between adds and still have it for adds. Aoe trinkets such as windscar whetstone and terrorbound nexus help a lot. Stagger aoe and burst abilities, so you always have something up for adds.

Kepe the boss along the very edge and stay out of the purple crap. Give your self as much room as possible.
Do not interrupt the avoid monster. Just run as far away as you can so as much clear room between you (where the adds drop) and the boss.
I saved drums for the lase phase since it is a dps check.

Comment by kagemori

this quest is optional right? You don't have to complete this quest to progress through the storyline do you?
I ask this because my ilvl is currently just over 870 and I'm not the type of player that enjoys grinding dungeons and raids for gear. I have neither the patience nor the want to do it as that's not why I play the game, I play the game to enjoy the story being told and only do the dungeons and raids when I have to.

So if this quest can be skipped that'd be great.

Comment by Zennen313

Hello guys!

I completed the Havoc challenge earlier this morning after blood and sweat for many hours. After turning it in and recuperating for a few hours I figured I'd give me 2 cents.

For the first stage I just went normal demonic: 2, 2, 1, 3, 2, 2, 3 like most others. I had Raddon's Cascading Eyes and Prydaz, Xavaric's Magnum Opus. Did nothing different here to anyone else. It's just a learning fight where it gets easier the more you do it.

For the second stage however, I went with 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 1, 2. Pretty much the standard raiding build, but with Desperate Instincts and Fel Barrage. I also used Prydaz, Xavaric's Magnum Opus and Anger of the Half-Giants. I opened with pre-pot, meta, nemesis and drums on boss.

At first I tried going the bloodlet spec that most people say you should, but I wasn't able to kill the adds fast enough. This might be because of low item level and/or the fact that I don't have Mo'arg Bionic Stabilizers. I also tried demonic, but then I didn't have enough dps for the boss. However, with this spec I managed to get the adds down very easily and had just enough dps on the boss before Meta ran out during soft enrage.

To conclude:

Race: Night Elf
Class: Havoc Demon Hunter
Item Level: 897
Build: 1st stage Demonic / 2nd stage Raiding Fel Barrage
Legendaries: 1st stage Raddon's Cascading Eyes and Prydaz, Xavaric's Magnum Opus + 2nd stage Prydaz, Xavaric's Magnum Opus and Anger of the Half-Giants
My key: Convergence of Fates <---- This let me get in a second metamorphosis with nemesis to finish off the boss before dying to soft enrage.

Hope this might help someone else with sub-optimal item level and legendaries to complete this challenge! =)

Thanks!
Zennen

Comment by Graktak

Just to chime in with a few more tips for Havoc DHs!

Did it at 905 ilvl, 45 traits, Sephuz's Secret and Prydaz, Xavaric's Magnum Opus.

I used a different build in Phase 1 and another in Phase 2 - you leave combat for a few precious moments and are free to drink and respec:

Phase 1:
Blind Fury - Full Fury bar after Eye Beam makes the most of the 30% leech in Meta without Soul Rending
Demonic Appetite - Being able to spawn fragments provide some sustained healing
Chaos Cleave - 10% more Chaos Strike. Pressing anything else is a lost chance at a fragment
Netherwalk - Taking this buys you more time to reach him during Arcane Annihilation. It also helps remove some of the RNG aspects of this challenge.
Fel Eruption - Valuable interrupt and if used in Meta its a nice heal
Unleashed Power - Helps to always have Chaos Nova available/usable when Razor Ice is up
Demonic - Turns Eye Beam into a nice healing cooldown.

Phase 2:
Felblade - Need to save Eye Beam for the adds.
Demon Blades - I don't especially like it but its best for this...
Bloodlet - Good to keep up on the boss and necessary for the adds
Soul Rending - This might buy you some more time once the platform is covered in crap.
Nemesis - Best because Fel Eruption isn't enough damage and Momentum might land you in crap.
Master of the Glaive - More glaives, more Bloodlet, more snares
Chaos Blades - Stack with Nemesis and pray for crits

In Phase 1 the git cycles between Frost and Arcane modes.

In the Frost mode he will drop Razor Ice on you: for this you want to Chaos Nova as soon as you can and then double jump over the ice. To do that: jump -> double jump -> Glide -> Fel Rush. You don't have to press W - if you do press it make sure it is after the Glide or you might move into the ice and die.

To survive the Frostbolt spam rotate interrupt abilities (Fel Eruption, Imprison, Consume Magic) and Eye Beam to heal yourself back up.

In the Arcane mode he will use Arcane Annihilation which teleports him to a distant edge of the room - you have about 5 seconds to reach him or you will die. Try to position yourself as close to the centre as possible while still being on the boss and keep as many charges of Fel Rush as possible. If you aren't going to reach him in time (after 2xFel Rush) then pop Netherwalk. It is important to note that you can still be snared in Netherwalk however, you can still use Vengeful Retreat. Breathe, spin that camera, and leap that last little bit to Xylem.

To survive the Arcane Barrage spam just do what you did to survive the Frostbolt spam. He always teleports when you use Eye Beam...

Once Phase 1 ends there is a short break in combat which allows you to respec, resets your potion, and lets you eat. Change talents!

In Phase 2 you want to begin at the edge of the room behind Xylem - then blow all your cooldowns (except Fury of the Illidari), drums, potions once the boss reaches you. Drag him slowly around the edge of the room and avoid stepping in the crap he drops unless you have meta and a lot of fury to burn. When he casts Seed of Darkness you can afford to stay on him for a few precious seconds, then get as far away as you can with Fel Rush and Vengeful Retreat. Snare, stun, beam, blend the adds into soul fragments and get back to the boss.

Repeat until you run out of platform. On most of my attempts I ran out of platform around 4m exactly and died just before Meta came back... so if you have the shoulders or CoF enjoy!

Good luck guys!

Comment by drunkenhugo

I released my kill video as a frost dk with 884 ilvl.

You can check it out by using the following link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcHE36sXus4

My tips for the fight:
If you stand next to the Focusing Iris in the first frost phase, you can grip the boss immediately after he teleports.
Make good use of the extra range on frost strike between images.
Dark succor heals you up full in image phase, so use it when you get to an image before finishing it off (playing safe).
In arcane phase spend runic power on Death Strike only.
Always save 1 interrupt for Draw Power in arcane phases.
AMS makes you immune to the void ground in the last phase, so you get extra 5 seconds to finish off the add waves.

Comment by craptola

Ugh, this quest would be cool if it didn't charge nethershards. Why would you put cool challenging solo content in your game and then discourage people from doing it?

Comment by KiraAyria

So as a Demon Hunter, my personal suggestion to this encounter is pretty straight forward. I was 901, minimal selection of legendaries and non-Accordance of the legionfall unlocked. First phase I made use of Bear Tartare, Flask of the Seventh Demon, and health pots. Talents were Felblade Demon Blades First Blood Soul Rending Fel Eruption Unleashed Power and Demonic. Personally I found this part the easiest by far.

For Frost Phase:
- Use Eyebeam on cooldown, use your interrupt to drag the boss close to the middle.
- When the boss stuns you and summons ice around you, don't panic. Use Chaos Nova to spawn soul fragments. Absorbing these will guaranteed reset your Eyebeam as well as your Chaos Nova. Maintaining Meta form as much as possible is the goal here. This is even easier maintained using the Raddon's Cascading Eyes Legendary on the Icicles.
- As a Demon Hunter you can jump over the Icicles without having to kill them and glide. Or fel rush.

After a set time in the Frost Phase, he will teleport himself to the opposite side, make sure you can make it, or kill one of the images to spawn an area that will shrink, being inside here you can avoid the damage for a moment and regen health. This is where you can abuse your eyebeam and throw glaive. I also found that Fel Eruption was incredibly helpful here. You can oneshot one of the images if you absolutely need to for heals.
You have to get to where the boss is, which is indicated by swirling sparkles in his locat1on. I saved Metamorphosis for the following Phase.

Arcane Phase:

-He will start by casting Arcane Barrage, and after a couple of these he will channel Shadow Barrage which will summon orbs that will all fly in one direction. These will not kill you, but will come close if you get hit by them. Avoid these.
-He will cast draw power. Interrupt this at all cost. The second time the boss blinks to the other side (not in mirror images) I use Metamorphosis. This will give you some nice damage and regen. Arcane Barrage hits VERY hard, so use cooldowns as needed in this phase. Imprison is your best friend on this phase to spare your interrupt for Draw Power.

He will then use Mirror Images intermittently between each phase.

Once boss has been taken down to 10% he will phase. I took this time to change talents to Felblade, Demon Blades, Bloodlet, Soul Rending, Nemesis, Master of the Glave, Chaos Blades. I also switched my legendaries to Cinidaria and Mo'arg's Bionic Stabilizers.

DO not interrupt or stun the boss at any point during this last part.
Kite the boss slowly around the outer edge, save your cooldowns for now.
Once the boss puts a debuff on you and starts channeling you need to run as far as possible, saving your Fury of the Illidari. Once they spawn the first time you can kill them using Fury and Chaos Blades/Nemesis. Use your Throw Glaive to slow them and this should give you plenty of time to kill them. Second set use Fury and Potion of Old War. Last set, you can use drums and Fury to kill them. Once they're dead you should have Chaos Blades, Nemesis, and Metamorphosis left to kill the boss before the floor gets filled with the stuff on the floor.

GOOD LUCK!~

Comment by hannibalektr

at my death after one of my attempts I got teleported to Xlyem's Tower in bitter reach near orgrimmar. Very odd.

Comment by WebGremlin

I thought I'd throw in my few cents on this challenge. I just completed it as a Survival hunter.

910 item level, 926 artifact, Roots of Shaladrassil and Sephuz's Secret as legendaries. The legs give amazing healing, and with all the interrupts in this fight, it's Sephuz's heaven.

Talents: Throwing Axes, Murder of Crows, Disengage, Caltrops, Ranger's Net, Butchery, Spitting Cobra.

Consumed an Agility flask, Augment rune, and haste food.

I had two pets ready, one in Tenacity, and one in Ferocity. I started with the Tenacity one, and switched to the Ferocity during the role play leading to phase two.

Extra resources:
-Deadly Boss Mods Challenges:
I turned off all warning, except for Arcane Phase, Draw Power, and Arcane Annihilation. The rest was pretty obvious and I didn't need a warning for that.

-WeakAuras:
This one

-KUI Nameplates

-Macros:
#showtooltip
/petattack
/cast Hatchet Toss
#showtooltip
/petattack
/cast Mongoose Bite

So maybe a bit obvious, but I put my traps down before the fight started to trigger Wayfaring. Popped my cooldowns and tried to have 4 set bonus from T19 (20% extra dmg after 6 Mongoose Fury stacks) up before the Razor Shards spawned. If I did, just two Butcheries was enough to kill all shards leaving me with 60% or more hp. Disengaged out immediately and followed it by a Mend Pet. Then I thew my traps and axes at him while I was running around the lazers to reach the boss again. I tried not to harpoon through that.

DBM and WeakAuras would give a warning a couple of seconds before the Arcane Phase started. That gave me time to run closer to the middle of the room so I didn't have to cross so much of a distance as soon as the intermediate phase started. Simultaneously, there'll be a slight shimmer as to where he will teleport to, giving you an idea as to where to run to. I turned on the vanilla combat text, so I even saw some damage numbers from a DoT for a second or so after he teleported, confirming his position.

I killed the add closest to me for the protective bubble, then I took my time as I selected another add that I wanted to harpoon to. I waited until my target almost finished their cast, using my Throwing Axes macro meanwhile. The damage from the axes combined with my pet already attacking it, made sure that when I'd harpoon right as he finished his cast, I could finish him off with a single blow. Don't harpoon through the center though - it will kill you.

KUI Nameplates made it a bit more obvious which one of all the adds is the actual boss, as the colour of the nameplates changes based on HP. All the adds will be at 100% hp, while the boss itself won't be. I threw a flare on it as soon as I presumed it would reach the boss, to end the phase asap.

After that, it was pretty much rinse and repeat. I'd save my interrupt for Draw Power and pooled my cooldowns when the boss was around 25% ish hp, as to make sure everything was available for the next phase.

When the next phase started, I dismissed my tank pet and summoned my dps pet (making sure taunt was off). Threw down some traps as soon as the second boss spawns, to trigger Wayfaring.

At the first Seed of Corruption, I'd disengage and use Aspect of the Cheetah. The first time the boss does this you'll have the most room to run around so it's the best time to use it. I'd make sure my pet stopped attacking the boss and ran with me. That way I wouldn't end up in a position where I couldn't use Flanking Strike on the adds as my pet was still on the boss. The WeakAura notified me when the adds would spawn, and I'd make sure I had Caltrops and Explosive Trap ready before then. I stood just at the outer edge of Caltrops, making sure the adds would have to run through the entire circle (thus being slowed as long as possible). After spamming Butchery, I used my Ranger's Net on the one closest to the boss while I'd Mongoose the others (the macro made sure my pet was on the same target as me). I'd try to have the 4 set bonus proc again before using my next charges of Butchery. I was able to put down a second Caltrops before they reached the black stuff, giving me some more time. If one did manage to enter the black stuff, I'd use my net again, my throwing axes macro, and pray that my pet would get it in time.

Continuing that ritual, I staggered my cooldowns (potion, drums, Aspect of the Eagle) on each Seed of Corruption, to make sure none of the adds reached the boss.

That's what did it for me. I hope this can help someone else too!

Comment by JMW1313

Completed today as an 896 Survival hunter.
Talents: 3 1 2 1 2 1 2
Legendaries: Call of the Wild, Roots of Shaladrassil
Call of the Wild seemed very strong (perhaps due to Convergence of Fates), Roots of Shaladrassil not so much.
I had the Tier 19 two-piece bonus for more Hunting Companion procs on .

Artifact Weapon had 43 traits purchased (up to Echoes of Ohn'ara plus one more point in Hellcarver to make Razor Ice easier).

I used a Nether Ray for Netherwinds in phase 2. Tenacity spec.

Essentially, nothing new compared to the other SV hunter strategies. Butchery the Razor Ice, stay in your bubble and send your pet out to attack a new mirror image in the arcane phase and Harpoon to it when it's at about 50% and/or finishing a cast, then or Mongoose Bite to finish it. I also threw under the next target; completely unnecessary.

The one difference I noticed is that I found it much easier to keep the same talent setup for both phases. Killing the Darkness Within was much easier with and Butchery than with and Serpent Sting. Press Netherwinds after the first set of adds so that your SV buffs like Mok'Nathal Tactics can be rolling.

I ended up very nearly out of space just before the boss was about to spawn a fourth set of adds.

Good luck!

Comment by aoeu

So.. .this is now the new "gold" and "time" sink .. thank you Blizzard! Also, his voice was annoying enough to hear the 1st couple of attempts.. makes you really determined to keep trying to kill him.

Comment by dasbaum

first attempt is free, subsequent cost 100 Nethershard

DON'T queue while in Group, you will lose your attempt/shards and won't be transfered to the scenario, since it can only be accessed solo. If you queue grouped you will get an error message and the transfer will be aborted.

Comment by PatienceQT

Completed: 909 Sublety Rogue.

Legendaries used: Mantle of the Master Assassin, and Insignia of Ravenholdt.

Tips:

Frost Phase:
- Kick as many frostbolts as you can to mitigate damage and stay at a higher HP.
- Save Marked for Death for the icicles he summons around you to kill them instantly and keep resetting it. Alternatively, save 1 Shadow Dance and Shadowstrike your way out.
- BE PATIENT, from experience, when you are trapped inside the icicles you feel pressured to leave immediately, make sure your path is clear for you to run or you will be 1 shot by them.
- Feel free to save your cloak for the comet storm when you're trapped inside.

Arcane Phase:
- Save Marked for Death for Mirror Image Phase. It will keep resetting as you are killing the images. Alternatively if you have Cloak + Sprint saved up, feel free to run toward his location.
- Plan movement and timing accordingly during Mirror Image phase. Remember, Marked for Death + Shadowstep are your best friends to get to image to image.
- Save kick for when he casts "Draw Power"
- In my experience he does relatively low damage during Arcane Phase, as long as you dodge Shadow Barrage!

2nd Phase:
- Keep him kited around the edges and kite slowly so that the Corrupting Pool spreads slower.
- Save sprint for Seed of Darkness and run as far as you can from him to maximize time to kill the 3 adds that spawn after the debuff.
- Save some CD'S for the 3 adds (Shadow Dance, Marked for Death etc.), if you have the Tangled Shadow talent, your Nightblade will slow them significantly.
- Save evasion for when he is at 10%, he will go berserk and deal massive amount of damage!

General Tips:
- Do not get discouraged after many attempts, just get comfortable with the fight, and learn all the mechanics. At first the fight will be very confusing, but after each attempt you will gain more experience with
it and get used to certain patterns.
- I do recommend being 900+ Item Level just because it will be much easier and you will do much more damage, quickly moving out of phases.
- Defensive Legendaries would help, but are not required (Prydaz, Valeera).

Talents that I highly recommend:
Soothing Darkness, Tangled Shadow, Marked for Death,

Hope this helps anyone at all, feel free to ask any questions.
Good Luck!

Comment by Olorin75

I killed him today as a 902ilvl havoc demon hunter. I'm sharing my setup and some tips for less pain:

I used agi flask, rune, 375crit food. I prepotted with stats pot.

I used Raddon's Cascading Eyes which meant I could use Eye beam every time I got ice spikes, and Prydaz, Xavaric's Magnum Opus for survivability.

I had 4set of T19. The trinkets I used were Entwined Elemental Foci and .

The specc I used was:
Blind Fury - guarantees that the cd on eye beam will be reset immediately after using it on the spikes, also makes sure you are on full health and fury after using it.
Demonic Appetite - you need the healing from the extra souls, and you need Demon's Bite for certain on demand fury generation.
First Blood First blood - extra dps needed on the adds in last fight.
Soul Rending - sometimes you need to get topped up really quickly in the last few seconds of meta.
- higher sustained dps during your nuke of the last boss.
Master of the Glaive - very useful on the adds in last fight.
Demonic - needed for the heals during meta, and for extra dps of the adds in last fight.

For the Xylem fight I had only 534k dps (it's almost not at all a dps race) and 323k hps. For the Corrupting Shadows fight I had 759k dps (this IS a dps race) and 69k hps.

The kill requires:

- determination, patience and stubborness. I killed him on my 71st try. You need to learn every little detail of all parts of the fight, and know them in your sleep.

- luck. The fight is total around 10 minutes, except the pause between bosses, and during those 10 minutes any number of unforeseen things happened to me, which would ofc mean instant death, glitches, lag spikes, bad rng etc. You need a bit of luck to not get a single one of these.

- careful planning of your cooldowns, especially in the last fight, and using almost every ability known to your class.

Some tips for the fight:

1. Frost. Don't move alot while dpsing him, just small moves to pick up the souls when needed, otherwise you risk getting spikes during moving which means you are dead. I used meta at start, then eye beam on every spikes except when meta was up, then I just double jump and charged out. Use stun, interrupt and imprison on his casts when you don't have meta. Interrupt him right after spikes, to move him closer to the middle. Always makes sure you have 40+ fury. Use Demon's bite if you are under 50 fury. The reason for this is that it is easy to panic when you get spikes and nothing happens when you press eye beam button like a maniac. After the 3rd spike, place yourself so that he is between yourself and the center. That way you have full view of the opposite side of the platform, where he is about to teleport to when he starts the mirror phase. Also make sure you are high on fury after the 3rd spikes, since you will need this for the mirror phase.

2. Mirrors. As soon as he teleports you can usually see where he teleports to, and then fast as lightning you can double charge towards him and then immediately Vengeful retreat to him. You actually have several seconds after his teleport before the aoe starts ticking, so you can take your time to make sure the vengeful retreat is done towards his exact locat1on. If you miss him with 8+ yards you are most likely dead. If it seems too far to get to him this way, then at least you can always do 1-2 charges to a mirror and then go from there. Keep an eye on your fury bar, if low then start with a Demon's bite on next mirror, and be prepared to interrupt it if needed.

3. Arcane. Interrupt, stun, imprison him when you dont have meta. Just be sure to have one of them up when he is about to cast the Draw power spell. The buff that he gets is what makes this fight almost not a dps race. If you are very fast, not using any ability right before he casts it so you don't have a gcd, or if you have interrupt up, then you can prevent him from getting any stack of the buff at all. But usually I ended up him getting 1 stack now and then, which means that the longer the fight gets, the more stacks he will get, which eventually will make the Arcane Barrages kill you. After the first Draw power spell, he will very soon use another. Other than that, just use eye beam when low on health.

4. Second frost phase. This is the hardest phase imo, since he will teleport far and the frostbolts hurt quite alot. Try to have eye beam ready for the spikes, eventhough this is not always possible due to being on too low health too early so having had to use it already. After the first eye beam, I popped meta, and after that eye beam again when low on health. If you survive this phase, then you have a good chance of getting to the 2nd boss.

5. Corrupting Shadows. When Xylem reaches 10% combat will end and a transmission phase begins. He will teleport from his present location and then another boss will spawn right behind him. Move asap to the edge right behind Xylem when he does this teleport. You will want the boss to move out to the edge asap when the fight starts. Then I dpsed the boss casually using no cooldowns at all, down to about 85% before he started the channeling spell. When dpsing this boss, move VERY slowly around the outer edge, even stand still until you notice taking damage from the aoe, then move a bit and so on. When he starts channeling on you, double charge and vengeful retreat far away from him, but not on the exact oppsite, since you don't want the adds that spawn to go through the exact center of the platform. This is what I did right after the adds spawned, and it was easy to kill them: stun, fury, eye beam, glaive, blade dance (death sweep), chaos strike until dead and glaive again which was needed a few times. Charge back towards boss so it doesn't move too much. After this first set of adds I popped all cds: drums, potion of the old war, nemesis, meta and then just nuked him like there was no tomorrow. I had a few more set of adds (don't remember if it was 2 or 3 sets in total), but as he got below 20% I popped eye beam on him and nuked him down. I killed him with quite some margin actually, could have nuked 10 more million hp probably.

Hope this helps someone! It feels great to have finally done it! It was by far the most difficult encounter in the entire game for me, and I have played since vanilla ;) Please point out any faults or incomprehensibles in my text.

Comment by Black2u

Oh screw these boss fights for single players. They are ridiculously hard, harder than the heroic raid encounters my tank has tanked.. jesus christ. I mean, I like new appearances for my weps and such, but these fights just aren't worth it. I will wait till they nerf these encounters. My tank is a DK at 905 ilvl right now and I can't down anyone of these encounters no matter how many times I try, nor what types of techniques I use. What the hell was blizz thinking?

Comment by MalAshur

Just got this done...as a clicker the adds in the final phase are exceptionally difficult to apply slows to before they get to the shadow poop on the floor. (My ugly secret is out if any of my guildies see this.)

I ended up using KJBW to get some instant damage on one set of adds and finished him a little before the 3rd set spawned. KJBW also used in first phase on icicles. Used Valeera's to ensure survival but in retrospect probably didn't need them as I hardly used them. Don't have Dreadlords' Deceit or this would have been much easier.

Comment by Knotraptor

Anybody else getting this glitch, when he does the Comet Storm and you are surrounded by Razor Ice I know if you touch it you die. One shot type of thing, but I have been dying the moment it is cast. I watched a few videos and noticed that when it is cast your character gets knocked down. Yet when I watch I don't get knocked down, I just died. Took a few more deaths to realize that the Razor Ice isn't spawning around me, it is spawning on me. Anybody else getting this? Sent a ticket into Blizzard wondering if people here have had this happen, I know in Stonecore the dragon fight the stones all fall in the center of the dragon and not spread around.

Comment by dcawdell

If all you get from this is weapon appearance, I already transmog my glaive to Stellaris 1H axe anyway. One more distraction to ignore.

Comment by Hyberstrike

Saw no one commenting on this, so i'm just gonna put it in here: As a rouge you can use Death from Above before any of his teleports and "skip" that mechanic.

I successfully "skipped" his frost mechanic every time he did it, skipped his mirror images 2-3 times.Cause of that i could save Shadow Dance for his third phase and that helped me a lot.

Comment by flawlezzcho

Yo guys..

what are the prerequisites for the quest? The Mage tower is up, but the questgiver is not giving the quest.

Comment by setari

Are we missing anything if we're not able to do this quest? It'd be so easy being a tank but as Havoc and not having the gear for it it's impossible at 883.

Comment by Marticel

Hello fellow Survival Hunters,

I used the guide from TemporalAnamoly to get to understand the phases a bit, I also made several tries to see the phases for myself.
My hunter is ilvl 946 and I do about a sustained DPS of 1.02 mill. Use TemporalAnamoly's guide if you are around his ilvl there (+/- 900), this is for those who have at least 930+ and do really good DPS. Because, believe it or not, when you are higher in ilvl and gear the DPS actually works in your favour (counts for all DPS challenges actually), when you are lower in ilvl and gear you should be more focussed on surviving.

So this is for the Survival Hunters who haven't done the challenge yet but are really high in ilvl and gear. Maybe lower ilvl Survival Hunters find this useful too.

You don't need a tanking pet (your pet can easily stay in ferocity spec, no need for tenacity spec), you don't need a pet with BL or some sort if you have Drums of the Mountain (but if you have a pet with BL use that one instead since that buff is better than drums, but it's up to you), just keep your eye on your pet's health and use Mend Pet accordingly. Use Flask of the Seventh Demon, Defiled Augment Rune (or Lightforged Augment Rune if you have that one and food (I didn't had any food left the last tries I did the challenge, but choose the food you need depending on your stats --> Haste > Crit = vers > Mast). I used Potion of Prolonged Power as well.

I used the talents:
- Way of the Mok'Nathal (Throw Axe is a good alternative if you don't like to use WotM)
- (use it on cd)
- Disengage (I didn't use it actually but it could be useful)
- (dots and slow, especially for last phase and adds, but use it as offensive on cd anyway when you can)
- row of level 75 --> depends on preferences
- Serpent Sting (I know several other people say Butchery until last phase and then swap to Serpent Sting, if you want to be lazy then just stay with Serpent Sting since you do high DPS anyway)
- (especially handy in last phase with adds)

I used the legendaries Prydaz, Xavaric's Magnum Opus and Call of the Wild, Prydaz saves you a bit on surviving and CotW is just your DPS boost and BiS legendary. If you truly feel amazing and think that you don't need Prydaz, then I recommend to use Butcher's Bone Apron (great burst for the adds and even the icicles). Or if you feel you need more surviving, use Roots of Shaladrassil together with Prydaz (although I don't think this combo is really needed). You can even use Sephuz's Secret if you have a preference for this one.

Phase 1

You start out with his long RP. Here you make sure your pet has taunt enabled.
Before he ends his RP, you throw Explosive Trap and on his feet, put Mend Pet on your pet and as soon as his casting ends you prepot.

Burst him down as far as you can, use your CDs (do not use drums/BL here, you need to save that for the last phase).
In this phase you will get struck 3 times in icicles.
The first and third icicle you use Fury of the Eagle, you don't need more that this.
For the second icicle I used Carve about max 3 times, since you have Serpent Sting this helps a great deal.
After every time you get out of the icicle, you use Exhilaration and Mend Pet. When you are close enough to Xylem you use Harpoon and keep DPS'ing him as far as possible.
(Because of my gear and DPS, I got him to 40% before he went into the next phase).

Phase 2

Here is where Xylem will spawn many adds that cast an aoe spell, here you can do 2 things depending on how certain you are with yourself or on how high your DPS is. You can see on your minimap where Xylem is, this makes it a lot easier. I only had this phase once so I used the second option.
1st: taking the normal way; send your pet to attack an add, then Harpoon to it and kill it. Stay in the bubble until healed up. Repeat this with several other adds until you are close enough to use Flare on him.
2nd: Use Aspect of the Turtle and then Aspect of the Cheetah and run to him so you can use Flare on him.

Phase 3

This phase is fairly straightforward, you just need to dodge the balls. You don't have to interrupt the Arcane Barrage since your pet is still tanking him, just keep using Mend Pet on your pet. But you do need to keep your Muzzle CD for when Xylem starts casting Drain Power, this needs to be interrupted at all times. You normally shouldn't be really long in this phase, he will actually jump once away from you to the other side of the room. You can use your Aspect of the Cheetah with this if you haven't chosen option 2 in Phase 2 or otherwise just Harpoon to him when you get close. You can take some damage when being high in ilvl anyway. By this time you should be having Xylem to 10%.

At 10% he will become yellow, walks to his spot, does some RP, throws a book on the floor and a Demon comes out of this. Here you actually can prepot again since you get out of combat. Also make sure taunt from your pet is disabled, very important!

Phase 4

When you can attack the Demon, you should have used prepot and as soon as you start attacking you use drums/BL and all your DPS cds. You will burst him for like half his life down already before he begins casting on you. When he casts on you, try to get as far as possible from him, 3 adds will spawn. As soon as they spawn you put down , use Fury of the Eagle and after that channel keep using Carve, Lacerate and since your pet will come to attack the adds anyway. Make sure you don't stand in the black stuff on the floor, this actually can kill you and the demon has a big hitbox anyway so you don't have to stand so close to him at all. If you do this correct, then you will have max 2 times adds to kill. You need to kill the adds since they will heal him when they get to him. Use your pot again after you killed the first adds.

When you have killed the demon, Xylem will make a portal for you.
Congratz on your win!

Comment by Kuskah

Currently trying to beat it on my Frost Death Knight, here are a couple pointers:

Before the fight:

Use consumables! They can mean a difference between having and not having to do that one annoying part you suck at one more time.

Quick list:
- Flask of the Countless Armies, lasts 60 minutes and through death, hopefully you'll only need a pair or so.
- Nightborne Delicacy Platter, need to eat on every reset, a stack of 20 (or several stacks) may come in handy. Unless you wipe too fast, a stack of 20 will last you the 60 minutes from Flask of the Countless Armies
- Drums of Fury on pull

Important talents:
56: Runic Attenuation you want to save RP for healing, so auto-attacks it is
57: Freezing Fog DPS Boost
58: Icecap Pillar of Frost CD, synergy with 60
60: Winter is Coming semi-random interrupt and stun, damage doesn't remove it, unlike Blinding Sleet.
75: Volatile Shielding for that extra safety in Arcane Phase
90: Frostscythe for Frost Phase trap
100: Obliteration DPS Boost, Breath of Sindragosa can be tapping your RP when you suddenly need to heal. If you're good, take Breath

Now, for the encounter itself.

Frost phase:

When the monologue finishes, you pop all your cooldowns, including Drums of Fury and try to do as much damage as possible. Make sure you are popping Pillar and Remorseless Winter for Winter is Coming stun, then use one Mind Freeze to interrupt a Frostbolt.

After around 3-4 Frostbolts, or if you take him down low enough, he teleports away and traps you. TOUCHING THE ICE INSTA-KILLS YOU. Use Frostscythe, if you have Killing Machine it should shatter it in one hit, if not keep using it, or Remorseless Winter or Obliterate+Deathstrike.

When you're outside of the AoE, Grip him towards you. Don't let him stay away too long or else by the time you get to him your HP will be low and he'll trap you after like one Frostbolt. If your HP is above 40%, you should be able to cross one of the beams to close the distance for Grip. DON'T USE Wraith Walk HERE!

The Frostbolt->Trap cycle should repeat about 2-4 times, depending on your DPS.

Arcane phase:

At around 70% he will summon a ton of illusions and hide. If you're low on runes or RP, pop Empower Rune Weapon instantly and try to take down one of the illusions as fast as you can. If you enter this stage under 60% of your HP and no heavy hitting attacks, you die. After you manage to kill the clone, you can take a short breather in the bubble that forms. You have about 5 seconds here. During that time, you have to locate the main dude. A yellow dot on the map should point you to the direction. He is semi-transparent and has a lot of shimmering around him. Once you locate him, your aim is to pop Anti-Magic Shell, start running in a straight line towards him and right before the purple beam (which should be a couple steps only), pop Wraith Walk. MAKE SURE THAT BEFORE YOU DO THIS SEQUENCE, THE CLONES HAVE FINISHED CASTING. THEY DO A KNOCKBACK ABILITY THAT BOUNCES YOU AROUND, IF YOU GET CAUGHT UP IN IT, YOU'RE DEAD.

In the shimmering form, you can't attack him. All you need to do is step on him to make the phase end.

Shadow Orb phase:

This can be an easy phase or it can screw you over. He casts three spells. Arcane Barrage you just soak. Shadow Barrage or what it's called can not be interrupted. This spell summons multiple shadow orbs moving in a straight line. You need to avoid those. Touching one takes like 90% of your health so unless you're full, you'll die. It's not too difficult but also very unforgiving. Finally, he does a channeled Drain Power spell, this is the one you want to Mind Freeze.

In this phase, he also teleports across the room and fires Arcane Barrage at you. He can do this at really inconvenient times when it comes to your HP so try to reach him ASAP. After one Barrage he runs towards you a little and then fires off another. The second one (ideally the first one) should be interrupted by your Grip.

The phases above repeat until you get him to 10%.

Final Phase:

Before the phase begins, you can eat, possibly change talents or gear. After a few seconds, a Voidlord (or sth) appears and corrupts the ground under him, which can kill you fairly quickly if you stand on it. Your goal is to DPS him down but don't pop EVERYTHING. Also, the Void-Lord doesn't become instantly targetable, so don't pop your cooldowns too soon. Definitely save Sindragosa's Fury for a later bit. Your tactic at this point is to slowly backtrack and DPS. Try to be moving on the outer rim of the platform due to the ground corruption spread When he starts channeling a beam at you, pop Wraith Walk and get as far as you can. Three void-walkers pop up where you are standing and start moving towards the boss. DPS them down before they reach him, feel free to use Sindragosa's Fury. When the void-walkers touch him, they heal him.

That's all he does, so just repeat the necessary step until you kill the Voidlord.

Comment by AlicePrime

Did this three times. First success was Arms warrior at 930, and believe me, at 940 it is SO much easier that, in fact, I didn't even fail Phase 2 then (as Havoc DH and Frost DK). The most important points here are:

1. The thing that is most likely to kill you horribly is the Intermission. One mistake and you are dead. Arms Warrior can bypass most of the path to Xylem by using Leap (it helps to have the talent, or, even better, Timeless Strategem pauldrons that allow storing 3 charges). Don't waste Leaps on anything else in Phase 1.

For Frost, you will depend on randomness. Your best hope is Anti-Magic + Wraith Walk, but there is always a chance that this will not be enough. You just have to pray to Random, get as close to center as possible when the phase approaches (crossing the stream deals WAY less damage than standing in darkness) and hope you can reliably kill your first illusion.

Havoc can sometimes just cover the distance in 2 Fel Rushes, but not always: be prepared to jump and stop to kill a nearby illusion by any means necessary. It is very likely that you will need Eye Beam to heal afterwards.

At 930, you will encounter the Intermission 3 times or so per attempt, at 940 - 2 times. Just repeat until you are lucky 2-3 times in a row.

This is also the primary reason why you need as many defensive legendaries on you as possible in this phase. Prydaz works wonders. Don't forget to swap them during the non-combat transition.

2. Razor Ice can be cheated by Demon Hunters by double-jumping after Chaos Nova. This is NOT done to negate the danger (try single jump with Chaos Nova and you die outright... takes some practice), but to get a ton of soul shards. These will heal you to full, give you full Fury, and recharge Eye Beam.

For Arms, it may be tempting to jump out of the Razor Ice and then over streams... DON'T. You need your Leap for Intermission. Charge through streams works well, and to break the Ice, you just need a few Whirlwinds (maybe also a Warbreaker).

Frost, in this scenario, has an immense use for a normally useless talent: Frost Scythe. One, maybe two swipes, and you are free. You can then simply Death Grip Xylem: hey, if the mountain does not come to you, drag it! A very good legendary for this is Soul of the Deathlord, which allows taking both Frost Scythe and Gathering Storm.

3. If you've made it through these two dangers, congratulations. It's all down to your DPS now. It will not be hard to kill the boss before time is up: in 940, I managed to beat him before he cast his spell the third time. Don't forget to use potion and Drums when he becomes attackable, get him to the edge, and you are fine. Arms has the last laugh here because at low life they gain Execute, which can kill the boss very, very quickly.

The BAD part is dealing with adds. You must be able to kill them before they get to the boss, and the 3rd cast will make you do it on a VERY limited space.

Frost DK will make good use of Hungering Weapon (if taken), Frost Scythe and Remorseless Winter here. An add which gets through can be Death Gripped, or you can even activate AMS and run after him.

Havoc is trickier. You will need to activate, one by one: Chaos Nova, Eye Beam, Fury of the Illidari, and then two Glaive Throws (with Bloodlet and Master of the Glaive, of course). This will leave the adds no chances before they move 10 yards from their spawning point. Don't worry that this will leave you with less damage on boss: if they get through, you already lost.

Arms can be insanely hard here if you didn't take Sweeping Strikes. This is the only way you can effectively damage all 3 adds at once. If you just try to Whirlwind, they will not die quickly enough; however, Shockwave + Mortal Strike (hits all 3) + Whirls/Mortals until one is at low life + Execute (hits all 3) will kill them. For Sweeping Strike to work, you MUST be facing all three of them.

Hope it helps.

Comment by LadyLarren

Not sure if it is for all versions but for the DH version I noticed that when he teleported away for the arcane/mirror image phase he almost always teleported to behind me, once I realized that I made it through arcane a lot easier.

Comment by LuchadorRex

Completed on my DH and my Rogue.

On my rogue, I was having a lot of trouble with the adds in the last phase. But then realized I probably needed a plan.

So I did the following every time the three adds came out:

Add #1: MFD > Nightblade (5 pt NB)
Add #2: Goremaw's Bite > Nightblade (2-3 pt NB)
Add #3: Dance > Cheap Shot > Nightblade
Then I Shuriken Stormed and killed the adds, i used Evicscerate when needed etc.

Trust in your Nightblade. Took me a few tries to realize that it will finish them off if they get away a bit.

I found having that plan helped me kill the adds. I tried about 100 times. I did this the last 5 and it worked. Go figure.

Anyway hope this helps...now to get this done on my Hunter, DK and maybe Fire mage? haha.

ps...Thanks to all the great comments and those people whose comments were linked in the guides. Without all the great comments by all of you, I wouldn't have been able to complete this on my toons. /salute Lok'tar!

Comment by AlicePrime

Survival:

Proved to lose difficulty very rapidly at 940+, so one-shot... well... one-strike ensued. Got some notes on how to deal with nasty bits:

1. Unlike other melee classes, you can't really heal here, so your primary goal will be to not run out of health. How to do this:
- If you have Roots of Shaladrassil (healing pants), perfect. This alone will give an edge in phase 1.
- Prydaz, if obtained, will be useful too, in phase 1.
- Constantly maintain Mend Pet in phase 1.
- During Razor Ice, when you kill the ice, each will count as an enemy, so you will instantly recharge the Exhilaration and gain Survival HoT, but sadly, only one.
- In phase 2, your only source of healing will be the adds, but fortunately, if you are careful, you won't take damage anyway.

2. First of all, bring two pets:
- Ferocity Nether Ray or Mana Ray for Heroism in phase 2
- Tenacity Turtle for tanking in phase 1
Both will tank and deal damage, but specifically for their respective phases, you will need to shift focus.

The turtle serves to minimize the damage you take. It will, without problems, accept all of Xylem's Frostbolts, so you only take what you cannot dodge.

The ferocity pet (any will do, but Heroism is Heroism) will tank as well, saving you from all melee attacks, and will provide a very decent damage in phase 2. However, it has one drawback: it will always keep the boss on itself. As such, to lure the boss out of his shadows, you will need to specifically command your pet to FOLLOW you. Not to MOVE to your location, but to keep as close to you as possible.

3. Talents are pretty much your preference (Disengage, Caltrops and Snake Hunter are very good, but not necessary), choose what you are most comfortable with, but Butchery is mandatory. It is the only way to momentarily break out of Razor Ice, and to deal instant high damage to all of the adds in phase 2. Needless to say, you save all 3 charges for these occasions.

4. During the intermissions, which are normally the most dangerous phase for any class, Hunters feel almost hilariously relaxed. There are two ways to deal with it; you will use the first on the first intermission, second on the second one, and in 940+, if you are any good, you won't see the third.
- Aspect of Turtle + Disengage or Aspect of the Cheetah. After that, run closer to the Xylem's position and Flare him. Flare, once it hits, will instantly end the phase.
- When Turtle is out, use Disengage (standing back to the direction you wish to jump to, so you are carried closer; do not worry if you cross the streams), Harpoon to the add between Xylem and you (the farther the better), kill it (a single Butchery should suffice, maybe two) and then use Flare.
It helps to run to the center when the intermission is about to begin (5 seconds).

5. During phase 2, your biggest danger is not killing the adds. Dealing with them is easy:
- Drop Caltrops and Explosive Trap
- Unleash 3 Butchery charges
- Alternate Flanking Strike and Mongoose Bite on each add one by one
- Send your pet and Cobra after any that make it through

The biggest danger is the shadows under the boss. You have no way to heal back from them if you stand in, so you need to constantly step back (the pet will follow you and drag the boss with it). Spam Flanking Strike to ensure the boss is both damaged and distracted from you.

6. Interestingly, Fury of the Eagle works better as a single-target attack here, so use it on boss after 3+ Bites. As an add killer, it loses to pretty much anything else.

7. Unlike other classes, you CAN skip interrupting Draw Power to DPS calmly, because the damage will go into the pet, not you, anyway. However, regardless of that, if you get hit by Shadow Barrage, you will either die or your life will instantly become harder, so for that one, either be careful or even step back.

8. Everything else is pretty standard. Once you learn to deal with adds, you may use Heroism / potion / Aspect when the Corrupting Shadows becomes attackable, instead of when he spawns adds. That way, you can be sure you won't see the third set of adds at all.

No more surprises here. Also, people who played in Vanilla will likely recognize their new spear as a loose remake of Lok'delar, Stave of the Ancient Keepers, the original WoW Hunter challenge weapon, and a perfect match for the MM challenge bow.

Comment by AlicePrime

Sublety: The Black Swan

This was my last DPS challenge, and it quickly became personal to finish it, even though I didn't like the appearance and didn't play as Sublety before. In 940, it took me more attempts than all other Xylem challenges combined. I advise you to go and level up your gear to at least this much, as well as get as much target practice with Sublety as you can. This challenge imposes the toughest DPS check in all 36 trials upon you, and that's not an exaggeration.

1. Healing through the challenge will not be a problem. Crimson Vial + Soothing Shadows talent will keep you alive and well. Do not be afraid to use Shadow Dance to heal up at any point in phase 1.

To get faster from Razor Ice to Xylem, I'd advise Bear Tartare instead of buff food. It will also come in handy in phase 2.

In phase 2, until the very end, you won't be taking any real damage (just remember to step back), and your Crimson Vial should keep you topped off. Do not waste Shadow Dance on it there!

2. Interrupt Xylem by cooldown. To keep yourself healthy, you need those interrupts. Don't save it for Draw Power: you can always just Kidney Shot in case of emergency.

3. Surviving the intermissions, while not as relaxed as with Survival or Arms, will still be easy and nice. You will see three of those; if you got the fourth, you do not have enough DPS to beat this.

Before the intermission begins, stop damaging Xylem and run to the center, as close as possible to the Iris. DBM will tell you that in advance, specifically so you could do it.
- First intermission: use Cloak of Shadows, then Sprint, and run to Xylem's position. That's it.
- Second: from the Iris, Shadowstep to the add as close to Xylem as possible, over the beam. Kill it (a few hits will suffice) and Shadowstep again, to the add right next to (if not on top of) Xylem. Move a little if needed.
- Third: CoS and Sprint will be recharged. Use them again.

Do not blow these abilities on anything else in phase 1!

4. The hardest part of the whole fight is the adds in phase 2. This is an insane DPS burst check, made so hard by the fact that you don't have any AoE crowd control. I've seen people defeat it with 3 combinations of talents, one of which worked for me. It really depends on how good are you with micromanagement.

Since your crowd control is single-target only, and you need to DPS 3 adds before they reach the edge of shadows (if they do, 90% it's a wipe because you can't follow them except for under the Cloak), you need to use the following skills:
- Cheap Shot (4 seconds stun)
- Shadowstrike (2 seconds stun with Strike from the Shadows talent)
- Kidney Shot (combo point-based stun; generally NOT recommended since you need combos for damage)
- Nightblade (50% slow for 8 seconds, refreshed on any attack, 70% with Tangled Shadows talent)
- Blind (paralysis, removed on damage, only one use per fight)
And that's all we've got. An Engineer may also bring their Frag Belt (3 seconds incapacitate), which helps a lot, but not everyone has it.

Talent combinations you can use:
- Tangled Shadow + Enveloping Shadows. If you can reliably apply Nightblade to all 3 adds, you can chain 3 Shadow Dances to finish them by spamming Shadowstrike / Eviscerate. Remember that Shuriken Storm generates an extra combo point for every target hit (basically gives you full combo after each cast on top of adds). This talent layout is classic, but it requires very good multitasking skill, as you will need to move and switch between 3 targets every couple of seconds at most.
- Dark Shadow + Tangled Shadow. The combination that ultimately allowed me to beat it. Chain 2 Shadow Dances and spam Cheap Shot to get Nightblades, then finish them off with Shadowstrikes. This is done to Nightblade only two adds, then stun the third. This layout is best for overgeared players who rely on raw damage with good legendaries, but are not that good with multi-CC.
- Dark Shadow + Strike from the Shadows. An "all or nothing" gambit for those who are extremely poor at multi-CC, but confident in damage and having many good trinkets/legendaries.

You can also make this way easier with items. In fact, if you don't have at least one legendary or trinket that augments your burst damage, you will likely not do it unless you execute Tangled+Enveloping sequence flawlessly. 3 times. In a row.
- Mantle of Master Assassin. Turns Vanish into a potent burst cooldown that basically gives 6 seconds of 100% critical strike.
- Dreadlord's Deceit. Accumulated charges will make Shuriken Storm a good start here.
- Soul of the Shadowblade. Always helps, but worse than the previous two.
- Kil'jaeden's Burning Wish. 25% of their life in instant damage. Not bad, eh?
- Golganneth's Vitality. A fantastic burst that, if procs, will make this MUCH easier.
- Gorschalach's Legacy. If it procs during adds (it should), it will cut their life in half.
- Umbral Moonglaives. If you can calculate the spot for detonation and stun them, works just as good as Kil'jaeden, but notoriously difficult to use right.

I had Mantle/Dreadlord on me, so I abused Shuriken and Vanish/Shadowmeld.

All damage cooldowns (read: anything except basic abilities) should be saved for adds. Sprint (to get away from boss as far as possible), Symbols, Marked for Death, 2-3 charges of Shadow Dance and Goremaw will recharge for each pack. Depending on items, you might want to use the following priority for cooldowns:
- Adds 1: Drums, potion, Vanish.
- Adds 2: Shadow Blades.
- Adds 3: Vanish.

The exact sequence to perform on each pack really depends on you and your items/talents. No way to do it other than figure out by yourself. Be sure to use MfD on all 3 adds (it resets when one dies), keep Shadow Dance up and spam its abilities.

5. Thought that killing adds was the end of our problems? The boss does not think so. Since you are forced to save all damage cooldowns for adds, and only use the basic rotation on the boss (read: Nightblade, Backstab, Eviscerate, and that's it), even in 940 you will most certainly hit his enrage. Once it happens (after 3rd pack), use all remaining cooldowns, use Evasion (to live longer) and go wild with damage on the boss. Compared to adds, it will be MUCH easier to kill him now (if you've made it this far, it will be hard to die here), but you need to burst him down before he casts his 4th pack of adds.

If you see the 4th pack of adds... well... Let's just say I was happy to finally kill him when about 3 seconds remained until that pack would appear.

What can I say... If you do it, you can really boast that you've mastered this spec.

Comment by PointGod20

Finally got the Sub Rogue Skin. Since I am a clicker, I had major trouble downing the adds in time. So I made some macros that will help the process. Rogue is 940ish, used Lego cloak and pants in phase 1. And cloak and shoulders is phase 2

Frost Phase
Press once and it should eliminate the razor ice.
#showtooltip Shadow Dance
/cast Shadow Dance
/cast Shuriken Storm

Mirror Images
1st Mirror - press once and run to Xylem. Easy!
#showtooltip
/cast Cloak of Shadows
/cast Sprint

2nd Mirror - choose a mirror clone. Press macro button 3 times. The icon will change with each subsequent press as it moves along the code. Repeat until you get to Xylem. You should only need to use this macro twice.
#showtooltip
/castsequence reset=target Shadowstep,Marked for Death, Eviscerate

3rd Mirror - use Sprint macro again as Sprint will be off cooldown.

Adds Phase - rename the macro as you see fit, but I suggest using a number at the start (to visually indicate how many times you need to press it)

1st add - press macro button 4 times. The icon will change with each subsequent press as it moves along the code. It will place a 8 second slow and a DoT.
/castsequence reset=target Symbols of Death, Shadow Dance, Shuriken Storm, Nightblade

2nd add - choose the next add. Press macro button 2 times. The icon will change with each subsequent press as it moves along the code. It will place a 8 second slow and a DoT.
/castsequence reset=target Marked for Death, Nightblade

3rd add - last add will be further along, so macro will use shadowstep. Press macro button 4 times. The icon will change with each subsequent press as it moves along the code. It will place a 8 second slow and a DoT.

/castsequence reset=target Shadowstep, Shuriken Storm, Shuriken Storm, Nightblade

Now each add will have a slow and DoT on them. Dps them down using Backstab and Eviscerate. Then turn your attention onto boss again. It is important not use the cooldowns in the above add macros, whilst you are dpsing the boss since you need to save them for the add. So you will have a very simple rotation of Backstab, Eviscerate, and Nightblade on the boss.

Repeat these adds macro 1 or 2 more times depending on your dps. And burn down the boss. Good luck.

Comment by Gershuun

Im a lvl 923 sub rogue alt.

What worked for me after like 20 attempts was to change from the recommended talents to Dark Shadow and Master of Shadows. Also changing legendaries away from Prydaz and Valeera pants to Cindaria Symbiote belt and Insignia of Ravenholdt Ring.

The very last phase with the adds, bring the boss to an edge quickly.

When he casts the seeds on you, sprint max range and wait there.

Pop Shadow Dance and Shiruken Storm and all the adds will be at like 60% health, then just get a few Nightblades up and Shadow Dance again. I think the ring was big here because the first add had around 60% health, the other two had around 25% health when I started on them. Save all your Shadow Dances for those 3 adds.

After doing the add set two times he enraged around 7% hp, I popped Evasion and just barely killed him.

Comment by Evilangelina

I got this baby last night on TWO toons, my warrior and my hunter. Before hand I mustve done each toon atleast 20 times before i got the hang of arcane phase. Both were 935 and had artifact maxed. This does help make the challenge easier because before it I only was able to get to the void boss on both of them once before dying to one of my own mistakes, after maxing it, i reached void phase every time, but would screw up my rotation on the adds and die. I followed one of the above comments and took expert traps and Mokthenal to help with adds. Keep pet with you during arcane phase and you can harpoon/flanking strike every add and one shot them. Void was easier once you remember to make your pet follow you when you get seeds, use cheetah, when they spawn drop caltrops and tar just ahead of them, exp trap, then butchery x3 and flanking the last one. Legendaries that i had one my hunter were prydaz (great for phase 1) and sephuz. During transition phase used the same ones, so NO you dont need CotW, but it prolly would have been easier. For my warrior, phase 1 i used prydaz and kj trinket, then in phase 2 i switched to Eye of the storm and prydaz. Remwmber to switch talents into shockwave and sweeping, and 1,1 in the last two talents. Adds spawn, use shockwave-> warbreaker-> avatar->battle cry->bladestorm execute the last ones up. I got to the last 10% and didnt have much room left so i just went balls to the wall on him, prydaz kept me alive when i spammed everything i had left.
If I can do it, u can too. Good luck!

Comment by MasachzCz

This quest is No Longer Available since 8.0.1

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Closing the Eye

Speak with War Councilor Victoria to be teleported to Archmage Xylem's location and defeat him.

	Archmage Xylem slain (1)

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	Empowered Portal Stone (1)

Description

We have received reports from the apprentices at Xylem's Tower that they've been able to use the remant of Xylem's portal to pinpoint his location. We have orders from the Council of Six to open a portal directly to him, though whatever magic he's channeling on the other end is powerful enough to allow us to only keep it open for a brief window. The apprentice, Joanna asked I give you this message before you proceed. Speak to me when you're ready.

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See if you've already completed this by typing:

/run print(C_QuestLog.IsQuestFlaggedCompleted(44925))

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Closing the Eye

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