Ascendant Council Encounter Guide: Strategy, Abilities, Loot
The Ascendant Council is a dynamic battle that requires players to contend with a diverse array of elemental forces. Throughout the fight, players face off against four distinct elemental beings representing different elements of Water, Fire, Air, and Earth.
Role-Specific Tips for Ascendant Council
DPS Tips
- There are multiple abilities that need to be interrupted on this encounter, be sure to interrupt every time you are assigned to do so.
- DPS the bosses down evenly, you want both targets to be as close to 25% health as possible before phases one and two end.
- This fight involves a high amount of movement, be aware of your surroundings at all times.
Healer Tips
- There are tons of AoE spells on this fight that players will likely accidentally get hit by from time to time. Do your best to keep the raid topped up to prevent random deaths.
- Do not dispel Heart of Ice or Burning Blood before the target has spread the buff to nearby players.
- Healing players targeted with Gravity Well is your main priority in phase three as they will take a massive amount of damage in a short time.
Tank Tips
- If you are tanking Feludius be ready to run as far away as you can when he uses Glaciate.
- Try to use a personal defensive buff whenever Ignacious uses Flame Torrent if you are tanking him.
- You must be quick to drag Elementium Monstrosity out of the patches of ice to give your raid as much time as possible in phase three.
Ascendant Council Abilities
Strategy for Ascendant Council
This is a three phase fight where you will face Feludius and Ignacious in phase one, Arion and Terrastra in phase two, and then finally they will combine into the Elementium Monstrosity for phase three. On heroic difficulty the two council members that are not currently during phases one and two will assist their fellow Councilors by attacking the raid with certain spells. This fight largely revolves around elemental based attacks, most of which require you to counter them with the opposite element, for example a Fire debuff will be canceled by taking damage from a Frost spell.
In phase one you will face off against Feludius and Ignacious, Fire and Water based bosses. Tank Feludius away from the raid while melee DPS will stack up behind Ignacious. Ranged and healers can stack together and will focus on damaging Feludius.
Feludius will frequently cast Hydro Lance, which must be interrupted or it will kill a random player. He will throw Water Bombs throughout the room, dealing damage to all players in the area and slowing their movement speed with Waterlogged. He will periodically use Glaciate, dealing massive damage to all enemies, dealing higher damage the closer you are to him; anyone near Feludius must run away from him during this, including the tank. Anyone with the Waterlogged debuff will become Frozen when hit with Glaciate, killing them; to remove your Waterlogged debuff you must touch the fire on the ground from Ignacious, more on that later. Lastly, Feludius will debuff a random player with Heart of Ice, dealing Frost damage over time but buffing all nearby players with Frost Imbued. Frost Imbued causes you to deal extra damage to Ignacious, so anyone with the Heart of Ice debuff should run into the melee group to spread Frost Imbued to everyone before dispelling the Heart of Ice debuff.
Ignacious will frequently Inferno Rush to a ranged player, knocking back everyone nearby and then charging back to his last target. This will leave a trail of fire along the patch, dealing damage to anyone in the area and removing the Waterlogged debuff if you touch the fire patches. Ignacious will occasionally use Flame Torrent, dealing very high Fire damage to all enemies in front of him, so be sure to keep him faced away from the raid. He will also periodically shield himself with Aegis of Flame, absorbing damage and preventing spell cast interruption as long as the shield holds; He will then begin to channel Rising Flames, dealing damage to all players every two seconds, increasing the damage dealt every two seconds. When the Aegis of Flame goes up, all DPS must attack Ignacious to break the shield so the Rising Flames can be interrupted. Ignacious will debuff a random player with Burning Blood, similar to Heart of Ice from Feludius. The player with Burning Blood will need to run to the ranged group and spread Flame Imbued to all players before dispelling the Burning Blood debuff; players with Flame Imbued will deal additional damage to Feludius.
On heroic difficulty you will need to deal with Static Overload and Gravity Core. Players with the Static Overload debuff will need to run away from others, while the raid will need to move away from anyone with the Gravity Core debuff to avoid the Gravity Core slowing aura. After these debuffs wear off stack back up.
Phase two starts when either Ignacious or Feludius reaches 25% health. Do your best to damage them down evenly as you want them both to be as close to 25% health as possible to make the last phase as easy as possible. In this phase you will face both Arion and Terrastra, Lightning and Wind based bosses. You can stack both bosses together, but the raid will need to spread out evenly around the room.
Arion will frequently Disperse away from the tank to a random spot in the room and cast Lightning Blast on the tank. This must be interrupted or the tank will likely die, so be sure your ranged DPS are ready with available interrupts. He will also marks three random players with Lightning Rod, casting Chain Lightning on them shortly after. The players targeted with Lightning Rod must quickly move away 15 yards away from anyone else or the Chain Lightning will bounce, quickly killing anyone hit. Arion will frequently spawn cyclones with Call Winds, knocking up players who touch them and buffing them with Swirling Winds; this is needed to survive Terrastras Quake, more on that later. Lastly, Arion will sometimes cast Thundershock, dealing very high Nature damage to all players; the damage of Thundershock is reduced on players with the Grounded debuff from Terrastras Gravity Well.
Terrastra frequently uses Eruption, spawning spikes to emerge from the ground around himself, dealing high Physical damage and knocking up anyone hit. Melee should focus on attacking Terrastra and simply move away from the boss for a second whenever he uses Eruption while ranged DPS deal with Arion. Terrastra will cast Harden Skin, which should be interrupted; if you miss the interrupt you will need to damage through the shield to break it. He will periodically use Gravity Well, spawning an orb in a random area that pulls nearby enemies towards the center. Touching the orb gives you the Grounded buff, which is needed to survive Arions Thundershock spell. Lastly, Terrastra will use Quake, dealing lethal Physical damage to anyone in the raid who doesn't have the Swirling Winds buff from running into the Call Winds cyclone.
This phase is mostly about managing your buffs, frequently requiring your entire raid to get Grounded from the Gravity Well to survive the Thundershock, and getting Swirling Winds from the Call Winds cyclone to avoid dying to the Quake. It's worth noting that you can not have both Grounded and Swirling Winds buffs at the same time, getting one buff while you have the other will remove it. This means you need to constantly be aware of which ability, Quake or Thundershock, is coming up and get the appropriate buff to survive it.
On heroic difficulty you will need to deal with Flame Strike and Frozen Orb. Flame Strike will target a random player and deal lethal Fire damage to anyone in the area after a few seconds; simply move away from this location and avoid the patches of fire left on the ground afterwards. The Frozen Orb will target a random player and chase them down; if it reaches that player it will explode, immediately wiping the raid. The player being chased by the Frozen Orb must kite it around the room until there is a patch of fire on the ground from Flame Strike, then you must guide the Frozen Orb into the patches of fire to cause it to pop harmlessly.
Phase three starts when either Arion or Terrastra reaches 25% health. Do your best to damage them down evenly as you want them both to be as close to 25% health as possible to make this last phase as easy as possible. In this phase all four bosses will combine into the Elementium Monstrosity, with health equal to however much health all four bosses had. This phase is a DPS race as Electric Instability will quickly ramp up in damage the longer this phase lasts. Have the ranged split into multiple groups to reduce the damage taken by Electric Instability chaining. The tank will need to drag the boss around the outskirts of the room as it will frequently spawn a pool of ice beneath itself, dealing Frost damage to all enemies in the area and reducing its damage taken. These ice patches do not go away and will rapidly expand while the Elementium Monstrosity is standing in them, giving you another DPS race mechanic in this phase.
Players will need to be on the lookout for Lava Seeds as they will explode for very high Fire damage to all nearby enemies; quickly move away from these when they drop near you. Lastly Gravity Crush will target three players and lift them into the raid, crushing them for 9% of their max health every half second for 6.5 seconds total. Healers must be quick on their feet to top these targeted players up as this will deal 117% of their total life, and they will take some minor fall damage after the effect ends. The fight is a pure DPS race at this point as the raid will take more and more damage the longer this phase continues, as well as more and more of the area being covered in patches of ice.
Ascendant Council Loot
Below you will find all of the loot available for this boss encounter. Use the different buttons to view the different loot between both Normal and Heroic difficulties.
Normal Difficulty Loot
Item | Type/Slot |
---|---|
Treads of Liquid Ice | Cloth Feet |
Hydrolance Gloves | Leather Hands |
Dispersing Belt | Leather Waist |
Arion's Crown | Mail Head |
Feludius' Mantle | Mail Shoulder |
Glaciated Helm | Plate Head |
Gravitational Pull | Plate Hands |
Terrastra's Legguards | Plate Legs |
Glittering Epidermis | Back |
Crushing Weight | Trinket |
Heart of Ignacious | Trinket |
Scepter of Ice | Off-Hand |
Below you will find all of the loot available for this boss encounter. Use the different buttons to view the different loot between both Normal and Heroic difficulties.
Heroic Difficulty Loot
Item | Type/Slot |
---|---|
Treads of Liquid Ice | Cloth Feet |
Hydrolance Gloves | Leather Hands |
Dispersing Belt | Leather Waist |
Arion's Crown | Mail Head |
Feludius' Mantle | Mail Shoulder |
Glaciated Helm | Plate Head |
Gravitational Pull | Plate Hands |
Terrastra's Legguards | Plate Legs |
Glittering Epidermis | Back |
Crushing Weight | Trinket |
Heart of Ignacious | Trinket |
Scepter of Ice | Off-Hand |
Ascendant Council Achievements
Achievement | Description |
---|---|
Elementary | Defeat the Elementium Monstrosity in the Bastion of Twilight while only allowing it to create a single Liquid Ice patch. |
Heroic: Ascendant Council | Defeat the Ascendant Council in the Bastion of Twilight on Heroic Difficulty. |
Further Reading
Ascendant Council is just one of the five encounters present in the The Bastion of Twilight raid of Cataclysm. If you would like to learn more about the others, please see our other pages for the raid below.
Changelog
- 30 Jul. 2024: Page reviewed for phase two.
- 30 May 2024: Added page.
This guide has been written by Abide, TBC veteran for nearly a decade. Abide is a Warrior tank and multi-class expert currently playing on Faerlina as Horde. You can find him in the the Icy Veins Discord. You can also see him live on Twitch.
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