Taerar Guide: Strategy, Abilities, Loot

As with previous phases of SoD, all bosses will drop both new and improved loot for players to collect. The list below shows the new and original loot for a side-by-side comparison.

Classic	SoD
Unnatural Leather Spaulders	Unnatural Leather Spaulders
Boots of Fright	Boots of Fright
Mendicant's Slippers	Mendicant's Slippers
Mindtear Band	Mindtear Band
Nightmare Blade	Nightmare Blade

• You will need at least 3 tanks so that all Shades of Taerar can be controlled and tanked separately whenever the boss loses 25% of his health.
• Be prepared with Fear Ward, Tremor Totem and Berserker Rage for his Bellowing Roar area of effect Fear.
• As usual with Dragon bosses, turn them away from the raid such that your raid group is standing to the side of the boss, as they will do a very dangerous breath attack from the front and also have a tail sweep attack from their backs.
• Their breath attack, Noxious Breath inflicts a damage over time effect, increases the cooldown on your abilities by 10 seconds and stacks up to 6 times. This all but requires a tank swap, as even one application of the breath will cause you to fall very behind on threat generation.

• Make sure to avoid the green clouds that roam the encounter area, as they will sleep you for 5 seconds, possibly causing deaths in the process.
• Set up Fear Ward and Tremor Totem in advance of his Bellowing Roar area of effect Fear.

• Make sure to avoid the green clouds that roam the encounter area, as they will sleep you for 5 seconds, possibly causing deaths in the process.
• Focus down the Shades of Taerar one by one in order to quickly reduce the threat they pose to the raid group.

• Bellowing Roar is Taerar's area of effect Fear ability. This can be dangerous, especially if it lands on a tank, causing the breath and tail attacks to hit the raid. Make sure to be ready with Fear preventing abilities such as Fear Ward, Tremor Totem and Berserker Rage.
• Summon Shade of Taerar is cast whenever Taerar loses 25% health and causes the boss to become inactive and untargetable while three Shades of himself spawn. Tanks must pick these Shades quickly and move / turn them away from each other, as all of them do breath attacks which could be dangerous if allowed to hit multiple players at once.
• Mark of Nature is cast on any player who dies during the fight, lasts for 15 minutes and causes them to fall asleep for the duration of the debuff if they re-engage Taerar, thus preventing players from re-joining the fight if they die at any point.
• Noxious Breath is a breath attack in front of the boss and forces a tank swap by reducing the threat output of the affected tank significantly.

Taerar is one of the harder Dragons of Nightmare fights because of the coordination and multiple tanks required to handle the Shades mechanic.

To compensate for this added difficulty, you will not have to worry about him self-healing like Lethon or from random deaths causing the encounter area to become a minefield like Emeriss.

Start the fight by pulling the boss to the bottom of the ramp and have your main tank turn him sideways, such that the raid group can stack up on his side.

Whenever the boss approaches 75%, 50% and 25% health, have your group stop DPS until the Shade tanks are free from the Noxious Breath debuff. This will allow them to be able to generate good threat on the Shades themselves. If the DPS stop fails, have your group's DPS focus the Shades tanked by tanks not affected by the breath debuff first, to ensure threat is maintained. Rinse and repeat until he is dead, and good luck with the loot!

You can see an example kill here, by Baron / Cstrike Gaming.

Item	Slot
Acid Inscribed Greaves	Boots
Ancient Corroded Leggings	Legs
Unnatural Leather Spaulders	Shoulders
Boots of Fright	Boots
Gloves of Delusional Power	Gloves
Staff of Rampant Growth	Two-Hand
Trace Stone	Off-Hand
Mindtear Band	Ring
Dragonbone Wristguards	Wrist
Dragonspur Wraps	Wrist
Mendicant's Slippers	Boots
Hammer of Bestial Fury	Main-Hand
Nightmare Blade	One-Hand
Green Dragonskin Cloak	Back