Hello guys. It’s Librarian Husky here today, going to World of Warcraft here. And this is a guide to the boss fights in the Theatre of Pain dungeon in Shadowlands.
Entrance and Necrolord Bonus
This one’s a five-boss instance with the entrance found here in Maldraxxus. Necrolord players get a bonus in the Theater of Pain- they can click unique banners to get the Necrolord’s Chosen buff, giving them and nearby allies versa and movement speed for five minutes. In the beta, there were three available banners in the dungeon.
Affront of Challengers
Our first fight is the Affront of Challengers, a council fight. We got three bosses, you fight them all at once, and you’re free to focus them down one at a time. There are no shared health or kill-them-together mechanics here, and the kill order may depend on your group comp.
Each boss has an extra mechanic they use when they reach 40% health, so maybe don’t do that to all three at once. Dessie is our tank buster and will use Mortal Strikes and Slams on her target. At 40% health, she’ll enrage, giving her an absorb shield, slowing her down, and fixating players randomly.
Papa Plague
Run away, finish her off, and if you have a druid, they should be able to Soothe off the enrage. Papa Plague casts Plague Bolt, just flat damage to random targets. Kick that if you have kicks to spare. He’ll drop pools under players, so move away from swirls and watch where you drop them.
- At 40% health, he’ll use Genetic Alteration, which puts a disease on everyone. While diseased, you drop pools every 8 seconds. Use any disease cures your group has; otherwise, just put your pools out of the way.
- Satchel also has a random target bolt. Again kick if you can. Searing Death is a pulsing AOE that’ll go onto a random target- they need to get a little space and wait it out.
Satchel
Satchel will also buff the other bosses with Spectral Transference, making his damage heal them. It’s tough to miss because the world’s most enormous beam connects them while it’s up. Any offensive Magic can take that buff off, and if you somehow don’t have any offensive dispels, you should probably kill Satchel first.
At 40% health, he’ll use One With Death to get a 30% absorb shield and become immune to interrupts for 30 seconds.
On Mythic, one more challenger will pop in around the edges. You don’t need to kill her.
Just survive her while dealing with the rest of the fight. Xira the Underhanded will ambush players randomly with Opportunity strikes, stunning them for ten seconds and channeling damage. Stop the channel with a stun of your own or potentially another full CC to make her retreat. On beta, just a knockback did not work, so you probably need a total loss of control CC.
Gorechop
Next up is Gorechop, and this boss is straight to the point. Hateful Strike is our standard issue tank slap. For Tenderizing Smash, he will grip you in, and you have to run back out. Meat Hooks will swing through the room- you need to find the gaps and dodge the hooks to avoid getting bled.
The hooks will bring in Oozing Leftover ads, who lose 5% of their health per second. Those will jump onto players with an AOE thrash and then drop pools when they die. Stay spread while the ads are up, and try not to cover the whole floor with their death pools. You need space to dodge hooks.
Xav the Unfallen
Xav the Unfallen is next. He’ll aim a Brutal Combo at his tank, which does increasing melee damage over its duration. Maybe mitigate just the end of it. Oppressive Banners will spawn and slow you down; kill those. For Might of Maldraxxus, he’ll use three different abilities in a random combo. There’s an AOE interrupt stomp with a knockback, a frontal cleave, and a line attack. They’re huge but very telegraphed, so pay attention and move. Blood and Glory is the famed duel mechanic, and it’s great. Two DPS will be spirited away to duel in Glorious Combat.
- Both will take stacking increased damage to ensure it’s over quickly.
- The winner gets a damage buff, the loser gets a damage debuff, and if nobody wins within 45 seconds, both players get a debuff, so leave your friendship at the door.
- Serious groups prioritize people for the buff, whereas in fun groups, you can argue about it and settle the matter in the blood.
Kul’Tharok
Next up is Kul’tharok. He’ll stay parked in the middle, but the tanks must be in melee to avoid getting Spectral Reached. Little puddles of Grasping Hands will spawn in the room. Keep out of those. He’ll put Phantasmal Parasite on a few players, a magic debuff that pulses AOE. Spread out a little and wait for your lovely and talented healer to dispel you. Draw Soul will stun two players for a few seconds and then spawn a running soul with their models.
Once you can move, you need to catch your soul to get it back. You get a nice damage buff when you get it. You get mind-controlled if you don’t, and you cannot attack or cast until you get it back, so you’ve got nothing better to do than chase the thing. There’s no need to click it; just running into it will do.
Mordretha
And our last boss is Mordretha, the Endless Empress. She’ll use Reaping Scythe, which sounds like a cleave, but it just hits the tank. Grasping Rifts will spawn and drag players toward them. Fight the pull. Dark Devastation is a giant rotating death beam that you avoid.
- I tried it, and it’s terrible for your skin. Manifest Death does dot damage to everyone, and a 6-yard AOE around them when it falls off, so it loose spread. Each one spawns an ad that needs to be kicked and killed when it drops.
- At 50% health, Mordretha will use Echoes of Carnage. That does some initial damage, starts a DoT on everyone that lasts forever and begins the Ghostly Combatants.
You’ll see them in two forms. Just stay clear of them. They’ll run through the arena when they spawn on the edges; you want to dodge that. And that’s the Theater of Pain! Thank you for reading this guide. My name is Librarian Husky – I am your faithful companion in the World of Warcraft. Please check our World Of Warcraft Guides main mage for more valuable articles.