Hey, it's Zax and Jimfro from Ready
Check Pull! We got to test the last boss
of the first raid in Shadowlands, so
we're here to break it down for you real
quick.
The full guide will be out later on, but
for now here's a little preview.
We finally made it to Sire Denathrius!
Let's jump right in.
At the start of the fight, everybody gets
five stacks of a permanent debuff, and
the goal of phase one is for everyone to
remove at least three of the stacks by
the end of the phase when the boss gets
to 70% health.
You remove the stacks by getting
hit by the boss's frontal cast.
Each frontal removes a stack from
everyone it hits, and it also spawns an
add nearby for every stack it removes.
These adds channel damage onto the raid,
which can get out of control if you have
too many up at once.
The boss has another ability that does
damage to the raid based on how many
players have the same number of stacks.
So you'll most likely end up splitting
your raid in half and alternating which
half gets hit by the frontal, so that at
least half of the raid has a different
number of stacks when this ability is
cast.
Also after each frontal, two images of
the boss will spawn and mark two random
players,
charging to them after a few seconds.
These charges need to be soaked by the
rest of the raid to reduce the damage on
the marked players.
The soakers just have to stay out of the
circle of each marked player and avoid
soaking both charges at the same time.
This always happens right after a bunch
of adds spawn, so it can get a little hard
to see what's going on.
And the last thing for this phase: you
have a strict time limit on how long you
have to get rid of your stacks.
This is because the sword in the middle
of the room will occasionally cast this
big cone that covers a third of the room
in red stuff that makes players
unhealable.
So ideally, you'll get the boss to 70%
after everyone has removed three stacks,
but before the third cone happens that
leaves you with
nowhere to go. At 70%, the
boss starts a little intermission, where
he teleports to the middle of the room
and knocks everyone to the edge of the
room. Everyone has to run
towards the boss and make it inside the
circle around him to survive the
transition to phase two.
The hard part is that you're silenced
after you get knocked back, and you're
slowed by 20% for each stack
of the debuff you still have.
If you managed to remove three stacks,
you'll make it to the boss
just in time, but otherwise you'll be too
slow and be killed on the way to phase
two.
Some classes can probably cheese this so
we'll keep an eye out on that for the
full guide.
In phase two, you fight Denathrius and his
floating sword, while dealing with the
occasional waves of adds.
The goal of the phase is to get Denathrius
to 40% health with no adds alive,
so that you can start phase 3 safely.
It's also worth noting that any damage
to the sword is copied onto Denathrius,
so it's definitely worth putting damage
into.
The adds spawn in waves of four, and two
of them are always on separate platforms.
So ranged DPS will have to focus those
ones down. All they do is channel a DoT
onto the raid, so nothing crazy.
You just don't want them up when you go
into phase three. The boss's frontal turns
into a pretty basic taunt-swap mechanic
for the tanks, but you can also aim it at
the adds to make them take extra damage.
The boss also gains an ability that
pulls everyone to him, and then explodes
for falloff damage after a few seconds.
You can just run away from the explosion,
but if you want to get fancy,
you can run through a nearby mirror that
will instantly teleport you to the
opposite side of the room.
Then you just take the mirror again to
get back. Easy. The sword casts abilities
now too.
One of them being a basic taunt-swap
debuff on the tank. But it'll also mark
random players and then charge to each
of them, hitting anyone along the way.
Not a huge deal, you just have to move to
a good spot while everyone else stays
out of the way.
And the final thing in this phase is
probably the coolest looking mechanic
I've ever seen in this game.
These giant red swords spawn all over
the place and then start slicing through
the platform.
Yeah, it's absolutely insane! But it's
actually pretty easy to dodge.
Phase three. Now at 40%,
Denathrius disables the mirrors and blocks
off the edges of the platform.
He wields the sword himself and no more
adds spawn, so it's back to just him.
And you have to kill him real quick,
because he'll occasionally cast
the same third-of-the-room cone as in
phase one, eventually leaving you with
nowhere to go.
He still does the pull everyone to him
and then explode thing, and the big swords
still occasionally slice through the
room,
and there's also still a taunt swap for
the tanks. But now he has two
new mechanics. One of them does a ton of
damage to the tank and knocks everyone
away from him.
And the other one is a circle debuff on
a random player that spawns an orb after
a couple seconds.
The orb will explode on the entire raid
for a ton of damage after a few seconds,
but the explosion can be reduced by
players soaking the orbs in that time.
This last phase shouldn't actually be
that difficult to handle with the right
strategy, but it's definitely going to be
a tough DPS check.
I f'n love this fight! From phase one
all the way to the boss dying. I think
this fight is gonna go down as one of
the best
fights in the last few expansions. I
honestly can't wait to fight him.
Yeah this boss is nuts. And I like that
you're fighting Denathrius himself the
whole way through.
There's no adds-only phase or anything.
And as far as the mechanics go, it's
actually giving me
Blackhand and Argus vibes, which were two
amazing final bosses.
Not to mention, there's even a bit of a
secret phase for mythic at the end.
You apparently have to go through a
warped mirror at some point and there's
no telling what's going to be on the
other side.
I cannot wait to see that! Thank you so
much for checking out this guide preview
of Sire Denathrus! We honestly can't thank
our patreons and subscribers enough.
You literally are the reason why we can
make these guides. We also have some
pretty big plans, and hopefully a few
surprises, for the full boss guides
coming out soon.
Links to our discord and everything else
in the description.
Love you all, peace!
