Nefarian's End
 |
This article or section is a strategy stub. You can help expand it by editing it.
|
- For character biography, see Nefarian. For strategy on the Blackwing Lair encounter, see Nefarian (tactics).
 Nefarian
|
|||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
|||||||||
| Race | Black wyrm (Dragonkin) | ||||||||
| Level | ?? Boss | ||||||||
| Health |
|
||||||||
| Location | Blackwing Descent | ||||||||
| Status | Killable | ||||||||
Nefarian is the last boss of Blackwing Descent, a raid shipped with World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. He can be found in the Vault of the Shadowflame, where he resurrects his sister Onyxia, who makes up the first phase of the fight. Throughout the fight, Nefarian has several other undead adds as well.
Contents |
Background
Dungeon Journal
Deathwing's son, Nefarian, gained infamy for his horrifying efforts to create chromatic dragons from the essences of Azeroth's various dragonflights. After his death in Blackwing Lair, he was reanimated and charged by Deathwing to continue his insidious endeavors.
Abilities
Electrocute 
— Throughout the battle, Nefarian electrocutes the entire raid every time he loses 10% of his health. Electrocute generates a massive crackles of lightning that inflicts 72765 to 74235 (Heroic Mode: 128700 to 131300) Nature damage on all players.
- Nefarian Enrages after 10 minutes and 30 seconds from the beginning of the Fight
Berserk — Increases the caster's attack and Movement speed by 150% and all damage it deals by 500%.
Encounter
Phase One: Rise Sister!
.jpg)
Children of Deathwing 
— Nefarian and Onyxia attack 100% faster when they are within 50 yards of each other.
Onyxia - 5,582,000 million (10-man) / 24,000,000 (25 man) / 34,700,000 million (25 man heroic) HP
Electric Discharge — When the lightning orbs on Onyxia's sides are glowing inflicts 19500 to 20500 Nature damage per second to enemies on Onyxia's sides. Damage increased by Onyxia's lightning charge level. Can be avoided by line of sight behind the pillars in the room.
Shadowflame Breath — Inflicts 35,000 Shadowflame damage to enemies in a cone in front of the caster every 0.5 seconds for 1.5 seconds. Also resurrects Animated Bone Warriors in the area of effect.
Tail Lash — A sweeping tail strike hits all enemies behind the caster, inflicting 15750 to 20250 damage and stunning them for 2 sec.- Electrical Overload
— Inflicts 855000 to 1045000 Nature damage to all enemies. Cast when Onyxia's lightning charge level reaches full and wipes the raid.
Nefarian
Hail of Bones — Nefarian will cast this six times in phase one before landing, each time spawning an Animated Bone Warrior and doing 23987 to 26512 Shadow damage to nearby enemies.- Shadowflame Breath — Inflicts 54,000 Shadowflame damage to enemies in a cone in front of the caster every 0.5 seconds for 1.5 seconds. Also resurrects Animated Bone Warriors in the area of effect.
- Tail Lash — A sweeping tail strike hits all enemies behind the caster, inflicting 15750 to 20250 damage and stunning them for 2 sec.
- Dominion
— Dominate the minds of 2/5 nearby humanoids, seizing control of their bodies for 20 sec. Immune to stuns and roots. Dominated players will walk towards Dominion portals which will spawn in the north, south, west and east parts of the room. Dominated players will die instantly when they touch the portals.
Siphon Power — Dominated players absorb a little of the immense power Nefarian is using to control them to gain the Stolen Power effect.
- Stolen Power — Dominated players strike back against Nefarian with vengeance and anger, increasing their damage and healing by 3% for 15 sec. This effect stacks.
Free Your Mind — Focus your will to attempt to break Nefarian's dominion over your actions.
- Have an energy bar that slowly depletes over time. It will be reset to full if they are touched by Shadowflame effects. While they have far too much HP and are too numerous to be killed, they will 'lie down' and despawn if they run out of energy. Their damage increases steadily while melee-ing, so they should be kited. They can be crowd controlled, excluding fear effects and
[Polymorph]. 
Animate Bones — Shadowflame energy animates these bones, taking 2 energy per second.
Empowering Strikes — The Animated Bone Warriors grow more powerful over time, increasing damage dealt by 200% and their movement speed by 1%. This effect stacks.
Phase Two: Curse You, Mortals!
Lava
Magma — Swimming in Magma deals 5,000 fire damage per second. Increases damage taken from Magma by 2000. Stacks.
Nefarian
Shadowflame Barrage — Spammed on the raid the whole of phase 2. Inflicts 22500 to 27500 Shadowflame damage to an enemy.- Shadow of Cowardice — Inflicts 30000 Shadowflame damage to an enemy and increases Shadow damage taken by 100%. Appears to only be used when trying to exploit the encounter.
Explosive Cinders — While flying, Nefarian occasionally targets random players with Explosive Cinders, coating them in explosive residue that inflicts 2000 Fire damage every 2 seconds.
The residue detonates after 8 sec., inflicting 42750 Fire damage to players within 10 yards.
- 1,627,290 (10-man Normal)
- 2,789,640 (10-man Heroic)
- 5,501,790 (25-man Normal)
- 9,763,740 (25-man Heroic)
- Will stand in place and constantly try to cast Blast Nova, which can be interrupted. Does not melee.
Blast Nova — Deals 30050 to 40950 Fire damage to all enemies every 2 seconds for 30 seconds. Interruptable.
Phase Three: You Simply Will Not Die!
Nefarian
- Shadowflame Breath — Nefarian's dragon breath inflicts 35000 (Heroic Mode: 54000) Shadowflame damage to players within a 60 degree cone, and fully recharges the energy of any Animated Bone Warriors in the breath's area.
- Tail Lash — Nefarian sweeps his tail at any enemies in a 60 degree cone facing behind him, inflicting 21875 to 28125 (Heroic Mode: 61250 to 78750) Physical damage and stunning them for 2 sec.
- Shadowblaze Spark — Nefarian creates a shadowy blaze at a nearby location that spreads quickly, inflicting 35000 (Heroic Mode: 50000) Shadowflame damage to all enemies within 4 yards and reanimating any Animated Bone Warriors.
Animated Bone Warrior
- Same as Phase One.
Strategy
Phase One
The encounter begins with an introductory event in which Nefarian (as Lord Victor Nefarius) resurrects Onyxia. He then turns into his dragon form and flies into the air, landing 30 seconds into the fight. Before Nefarian lands he will spawn 6/12 (10/25-man) Animated Bone Warriors which can be either kited, CC'd or tanked until they run out of energy and die on their own in this phase. Onyxia and Nefarian should be tanked on opposite sides of the room to remove their 100% haste buff Children of Deathwing. Onyxia should be damaged down to low health but not killed. This will give you some time to burn Nefarian's health down before the last phase. Onyxia will eventually hit full energy and instantly kill the raid, and every 10% of Nefarian's health adds 25% to her energy charge. You will generally have time to burn Nefarian down to sub-80% before killing Onyxia and ending the phase. Do not let either Dragon breathe on the Animated Bone Warriors as this will break CC, snares and roots and reset their energy to full.
Phase Two
The arena will fill with lava and three Chromatic Prototypes will spawn on each raised pillar of the room. They do not melee. They cast Blast Nova which must be interrupted.
Assign players to each of the three platforms for phase two. Each platform needs one reliable interrupt for 10-man and two reliable interrupts for 25-man (you will need interrupt rotations on 25). A ranged interrupter is helpful in the beginning of the phase on each platform while everyone is jumping up. You should try to damage Nefarian below 70% in this phase, survival cooldowns should be used to mitigate the electrocute at 70%. The phase will end after the Chromatic Prototypes die or after three minutes.
Phase Three
The lava will subside and Nefarian will land, stay spread out until Nefarian has stopped casting Shadowflame Barrage.
Phase Three is like phase one except Nefarian will now cast Shadowblaze Spark, it will always be targetted on the location of the Animated Bone Warriors. It will break CC, snares and roots on the Animated Bone Warriors and reset their energy to full just as the dragons' breath does.
Since Shadowblaze Spark is always targeted on the Bone Warriors, CC and roots are ineffective. You should have a tank kite the Bone Warriors away from Nefarian and continually move to avoid the Animated Bone Warriors ever regaining energy. They will die after 50 seconds and reset their empowering strikes stacks, this will allow the Bone Warrior tank to survive. Both tanks will need to use a survival cooldown to survive Electrocute every 10% of Nefarian's health.
The longer Nefarian takes to die the faster he will cast Shadowblaze Spark, until it is impossible to avoid and the raid dies.
Alternate Strategy
An alternate strategy for high DPS, low HPS composition groups, is to push through phase 1 and phase 2 very quickly (essentially nef is full health), then burn in phase 3.
In Phase 1, tank should continue as normal rotating the boss when needed. DPS should kite the bone warriors on top of the onyxia tank. This phase should last no longer than 2 minutes. As soon as onyxia is dead the bone warriors will all drop in a neat pile.
On Phase 2, blow a heroism/bloodlust/time warp and down these 3 casters asap. This phase also should last no longer than 2 minutes.
On Phase 3, it is business as usual. The add tank will stand next to the nice pile of bonewarriors and pick them up to kite ahead of the Nef tank. The Nef tank will slowly circle around in the same direction and the dps follows suit perpendicular to Nef.
Advantages - Less AOE healing in phase 1 and phase 2, reduced RNG factor.
Disadvantages - Phase 3 could take longer than usual causing a wipe as the spark mechanic will out run your add tank.
Quotes
- Intro
- Ha ha ha ha ha! The heroes have made it to the glorious finale! I take it you are in good spirits? Prepared for the final battle? Then gaze now upon my ultimate creation! RISE, SISTER!
- Behold, the Broodmother... Onyxia... REBORN. Perhaps my finest work.
- My dearest sibling... do you hunger? THEN FEAST UPON OUR ENEMIES!
- Phase 1
- See how the shadowflame animates their bones! They fight at my command!
- Phase 2
- Curse you, mortals! Such a callous disregard for one's possessions must be met with extreme force!
- Phase 3
- I have tried to be an accommodating host, but you simply will not die! Time to throw all pretense aside and just... KILL YOU ALL!
- Shadowblaze Spark
- Flesh turns to ash!
- Dominion
- Mortal minds... So easily manipulated.
- Explosive Cinders
- I hope you can swim... in molten lava!
- Killing a player
- HAH!
- It has been a pleasure!
- You really have to want it!
- Berserk
- I thank you for coming, but you really all must die now!
- Death
- Defeat has never tasted so bitter...
Loot
Related achievements
Blackwing Descent (achievement) / Blackwing Descent Guild Run- Heroic: Nefarian / Heroic: Nefarian Guild Run
- Keeping it in the Family
- Realm First! Nefarian
Videos
10-man Heroic
10-man Normal
- Vagrant Corps - 1080p
- Vagrant Corps, "Keeping it in the Family" achievement - 1080p
- Vexryn's Guide to Nefarian, Blackdawn, Tank PoV
- TGN
- Cause and Effect, on screen guide, voice chat, low in game sound
- A New Hope
25-man Normal
25-man Heroic
Trivia
- Nefarian was the last boss of the entry tier of Cataclysm to be killed on normal mode, in part due to a respawn bug.
- The world first kill on 10-man achived on 13 December 2010 byExorsus of Свежеватель Душ (Soulflayer) Europe, almost a week after the expansion's release.
- World first heroic kill on 25-man achieved 9.1.2011 by DREAM Paragon of Lightining's Blade Europe.
Patch changes
Patch 4.2.0 (2011-06-28):
- Health and melee damage has been reduced by 20%.
- Animated Bone Warriors take 33 seconds to fall over, down from 50. In addition, fewer Animated Bone Warriors spawn.
- Blast Nova cast time has been increased.
- Chromatic Prototype health has been reduced by 20%.
- Electrocute damage has been reduced by 30%.
- Magma Stacking debuff effect has been reduced by 75%.
- Nefarian's Shadowblaze cast frequency cannot increase beyond 1 once every 15 seconds.
- Onyxia health and melee damage has been reduced by 20%.
- Shadowflame Barrage damage has been reduced by 20%.
- Tail Lash damage has been reduced by 50%.
- Hotfix (2011-04-29): "Nefarian will no longer stutter step toward his main target."
- Patch 4.1.0 (2011-04-26):
- The damage of Shadowflame Barrage has been reduced by 15% (10-player normal and Heroic difficulty only).
- The damage of Tail Lash has been reduced by 20% (10-player normal and Heroic difficulty only).
- Hotfix (2011-03-16): "Players will move at the same speed, even when setting their normal speed to "walk" using the keybind, when Nefarian casts Dominion."
- Hotfix (2011-01-18): "
[Rip] and 
[Bane of Doom] damage is no longer affected by the damage increase of Stolen Power when engaging Nefarian." - Hotfix (2011-01-05): "
[Anti-Magic Shell] no longer stops Onyxia or Nefarian's Shadowflame Breath from being cast." - Patch 4.0.3a (2010-11-23): Added.
References
External links
25man.com Nefarian Tactics & Strategy Guide
Icy Veins Comprehensive Nefarian guide (includes tank, healer, and DPS perspectives, and Heroic mode)
