*This guide's reprinting is authorized by riftstrats.com

Inwar Darktide is a multi-phased encounter that can last up to 20 minutes for the entire fight.

Basic Information

• Original difficulty level: 8, current difficulty level: 9
• Health: 5.3m
• Hard enrage timer: Unknown

Ideal Raid Composition

• 2 tanks
• 4 healers (2 single target healers, 2 AoE healers)
• 2 support (1 bard, 1 archon)
• 12 DPS (6 melee, 6 ranged)

Strategy

Start by splitting your raid into 2 groups of 10 people each. On each side you need: 1 tank, 1 single target healer, 1 AoE healer, an archon or bard, and 6 DPS. Your left side group will be physical damage and melee based, and your right side will be magical damage and range based. You also need 1 AoE dispeller on each side.

Organize your raid frame by putting the left/melee group in groups 1 and 2, and the right/ranged group in groups 3 and 4. All warrior DPS should be in the left group, and all mages should be in the right group. Use your clerics and rogues to help balance the rest off by having them adjust their specs as needed.

At the start of the pull you have two mobs: Aqualix and Denizar. You want to pull the right mob (Aqualix) to the left, and the left mob (Denizar) to the right... meaning that you pull them to the opposite side of where they spawn. Pull them all the way down the ramps, and have the raid be mindful of their cleave attacks when positioning them.

The rest of this guide will be split into two parts, so that you may focus primarily on the side you will be located on.

Ranged Group

Denizar takes reduced physical damage, but it is still fine to have a rogue or two on him. About 15 seconds after the pull (and then every minute or so) he will cast Freezing Wave. This has a 4 second cast bar and gives a red bubble as a visible warning; anyone remaining in the bubble when the cast finishes will be frozen (stunned) and take a considerable amount of damage. Anyone meleeing the boss should be prepared to move out, including the tank.

Denizar will also apply a stacking debuff to the tank called Rip Tide that increases damage taken. This debuff can drop off if you're lucky with dodges/parries, but if it reaches 3 or higher the tank will be taking some serious damage. Have backup heals and defensive cooldowns ready, and consider kiting the boss after a red bubble to prevent the stacks from refreshing.

Denizar must be killed within a few seconds of Aqualix (the matching mob on the opposite side). If not, he will gain Aqualix's ability that forces everyone into melee range, while still casting his own anti-melee spell. Simply call out in voice chat when Denizar is at 10%, and stop DPS as needed to coordinate the kills.

Once Denizar dies, the raid has 20 seconds to get into their new position (see video from 2:05 - 2:30). After the 20 seconds are up, there will be numerous blue circles that spawn on the ground. Anyone standing in a blue circle will be killed and/or knocked back (potentially off the ledge, becoming unrezzable). These circles are not random, and always spawn in predictable locations. Once you are in a safe spot (as shown in the video), start studying the placement of the circles on the ground to know which locations are safe.

3 Fetid Slime adds will spawn that have 172k HP each. As this add loses health, it will spawn 4 smaller Slimes, with these only having 101 HP each. Whenever a Slime (big or small) reaches 10% HP, it will begin casting Bile Wave. This is a 3 second cast that will damage and knockback anyone in its radius if the Slime is not killed before it goes off.

For the first 2 big adds, use single-target damage only to kill them. Once they are dead, AoE down the 4 smaller adds together. When the 3rd big add dies the next phase will begin, so single-target the 3rd big add down to 50% HP and then single-target the smaller adds one at a time. Then proceed to take the big add down to 25% and do the same thing again. You want to only have 1 small add up as you enter the next phase.

As you are killing the third big add you should have your entire group move directly on top of the Tide Warden. Once the Tide Warden is active, anyone who is not in melee range of it risks having a red circle spawned directly on top of them (usually killing them). You do not need to coordinate killing the final Fetid Slime with the left side, but the two Tide Wardens do have to be killed together (but it is usually the left side that will be ahead on DPS here).

The Tide Warden has 864k HP and is fairly easy to deal with. It will channel an 8 second cast called Dead Water that does damage to 5 random players, which also applies a debuff that should be AoE dispelled to ease healing.

The only challenging part about the Tide Warden, is that after every cast there is a chance it will cast a very fast (1 second) spell called Warden's Gaze. If this is not interrupted, it will stun and deal damage to 8 random players for 6 seconds. If your healer/dispeller gets stunned, people will probably die. The best way to deal with this is to assign two players to alternate interrupts after every Dead Water finishes casting. As soon as the Dead Water cast bar fully finishes they just preemptively interrupt: if a Gaze follows they'll get it, and if not their cooldown will be back up 16 seconds later.

As mentioned before, the two Tide Wardens do need to die together. So call out when each side reaches 10%, and slow/stop DPS as needed. One very important thing to be doing as the Tide Wardens near death is to study the area around you to determine where the safe spots are going to be located (between blue circles).

You have 10 seconds to safely move around after the blue circles disappear. Do not try to rush into "your" spot in one go; simply make note of a nearby safe spot, run to it, and then wait for the circles to appear and disappear again. The next phase is not a race in any way.

Once the Tide Warden is down, Undertow will spawn 10 seconds later. Undertow has 1.4m HP and is, again, very easy to deal with. Undertow spawns near where the Tide Warden was; your tank will need to pick him up there and drag him (safely) to the giant sea shell pictured above. This will be the kiting location, and no one else should be near it.

Undertow has two very simple mechanics to deal with. Flash Freeze: cast on a random raid member, will deal approximately 120% of their maximum health over 3 seconds, and will kill anyone nearby (in that player's bubble) at the end of the 3 seconds. As long as the player receives some sort of AoE healing they will survive it fine (a chloro, for example, could just nuke the boss with LGV up and heal it without worry). Your entire group should be spread out for this, even if that means some people are unable to hit Undertow (again, no rush). And he uses Surge: Undertow becomes snared and must be kited, will potentially one-shot the tank if not. Just kite him in a circle around the sea shell as shown. Try to reserve the central spot for your healer, so that he may reach all of the Flash Freeze targets.

The melee group will probably finish their side first, and it's not important that Undertow dies at a certain coordinated time. What's important is making sure you have all 10 alive and prepared for the next phase, or at least people dead only in locations where they may be battle rezzed (if they got knocked off by a circle they'll become useless).

Melee Group

About 15 seconds after the pull (and then every minute or so) Aqualix will cast Rolling Thunder. This will damage anyone standing too far away from him, so simply have the entire group in melee range (while avoiding cleave).

Aqualix must be killed within a few seconds of Denizar (the matching mob on the opposite side). If not, he will gain Denizar's ability that forces everyone out of melee range, while still casting his own anti-range spell. Simply call out in voice chat when Aqualix is at 10%, and stop DPS as needed to coordinate the kills.

Once Aqualix dies, there will be numerous blue circles that begin to spawn on the ground. Anyone standing in a blue circle will be killed and/or knocked back (potentially off the ledge, becoming unrezzable). These circles are not random, and always spawn in predictable locations. Start by hugging the left wall, and only move forward once you are comfortable in knowing which locations are safe. (You have 10 seconds to move in between the circles spawning.)

3 Scuttle Claw Wrangler (crocodile) adds will spawn that have 172k HP each. These crocodile adds are accompanied by several Scuttle Claw adds (51k HP each), which have a nasty charge spell that has the potential to kill players when pulled. The best way to deal with this is to use pets to pull, while keeping the rest of the raid at a safe distance, and the tank in front.

As you are killing the final add you should have your entire group move directly on top of the Tide Warden. Once the Tide Warden is active, anyone who is not in melee range of it risks having a red circle spawned directly on top of them (usually killing them). You do not need to coordinate killing the final crocodile with the left side, but the two Tide Wardens do have to be killed together. Usually your group will be faster on killing the Tide Warden, so do be prepared to stop or slow down.

The Tide Warden has 864k HP and is fairly easy to deal with. It will channel an 8 second cast called Dead Water that does damage to 5 random players, which also applies a debuff that should be AoE dispelled to ease healing.

The only challenging part about the Tide Warden, is that after every cast there is a chance it will cast a very fast (1 second) spell called Warden's Gaze. If this is not interrupted, it will stun and deal damage to 8 random players for 6 seconds. If your healer/dispeller gets stunned, people will probably die. The best way to deal with this is to assign two players to alternate interrupts after every Dead Water finishes casting. As soon as the Dead Water cast bar fully finishes they just preemptively interrupt: if a Gaze follows they'll get it, and if not their cooldown will be back up 16 seconds later.

As mentioned before, the two Tide Wardens do need to die together. So call out when each side reaches 10%, and slow/stop DPS as needed. One very important thing to be doing as the Tide Wardens near death is to study the area around you to determine where the safe spots are going to be located (between blue circles).

After the Tide Warden dies, you have approximately 10 seconds before Rot Jaw spawns. Rot Jaw should be tanked where the Tide Warden was, with the raid behind him (towards the back wall) and the healers at max range. Every so often Rot Jaw will cast Bilge Slime. This spell does a fairly large amount of AoE damage around him; melee DPS can stand in and continue to DPS some, but need to pay attention to their health and back off as needed. Be sure to never back up into any blue circles. Rot Jaw will also summon Mana Pincher adds. These should be killed as quickly as possible and not be allowed to reach any of the healers (since they will completely drain their mana).

The melee group will probably finish their side first, and it's not important that Rot Jaw dies at a certain coordinated time. Once Rot Jaw is dead, slowly and carefully make your way to Darktide's platform (while paying close attention to the blue circle locations, and only moving where you know is safe). Do not attempt to help the ranged side until Undertow is dead, or you risk getting players killed from one of his AoE spells. As soon as Undertow dies, jump down and join the ranged group and prepare yourself for Darktide.

Both Groups

As soon as both Rot Jaw and Undertow die, Darktide will become active and aggro a nearby player. Have a tank ready to pick him up and drag him down the ramp, to the positioning seen below. Also be mindful of his cleave when moving him down.

One player should be kept at the top of the ramp to absorb the red circles that will be spawning, since they pick the furthest target (within range). These red circles will create a thunderstorm effect at their location, and do a heavy amount of damage to anyone left standing in it (even after the actual circle disappears). If a circle ever spawns on the main raid, be sure to move out of it, and stay out of it.

Every 60 seconds, Inwar will cast Dark Tide. This spell does damage to your entire raid, and applies a stacking debuff that increases the damage of future Dark Tides. This is the rage mechanic of Dark Tide, and will require a decent amount of DPS and AoE healing. Water resist can help mitigate the damage some, and since it's a 60 second cooldown your healers should try to save any available cooldowns for it. It will become unhealable around 5 stacks, unless you have multiple people in your raid using Heroic Healing Philters.

Starting at 70%, Inwar will begin casting Surge. This works just like it did on Undertow, meaning the boss needs to be kited around until his buff wears off. Melee should back off completely during this phase as well. Be careful of his cleave when repositioning him.

Starting at 45%, Inwar will begin casting Storm Lash. This spell will grip anyone not in melee range and lift them into the air, but it can also be LoS'd. As long as you have a player absorbing the red circles, there's no huge danger in being lifted up like this, as you can still cast during it.

And finally, at 40%, he will begin summoning Mana Ravager adds. These have 76k HP each and must be focused down by all DPS as quickly as possible because they will begin to heal Inwar if they stay up too long. Also, if they hit a healer (very likely to happen), they will drain them of all their mana. Have some mana potions or backup tank healers ready for this.

Ideally you should swap tanks on Inwar at around 3 stacks of Dark Tide, and whichever tank is not currently tanking should be waiting for the Mana Ravagers.

Video

(Looks best viewed in full screen at 1080p)

*This guide was brought to you by Veev of Voodoo.

*This guide's reprinting is authorized by riftstrats.com