Abyssal Commander Sivara Strategy Guide in The Eternal Palace Raid

The fight against Abyssal Commander Sivara is a single-phase encounter (with no adds whatsoever), during which proper raid movement and proper positioning is crucial. The boss does not need to be actively faced away from the group (she does not cleave or use a breath attack), but generally melee players will want to be behind the boss to ensure their hits land.

Immediately below, we go over Chimeric Marks and Unstable Mixture, the two most important abilities of the fight, and their interaction. Then, we go on to tackle positioning constraints and finer strategy details. Finally, we give summaries of what tanks, healers, and DPS need to do.

At the beginning of the fight, Chimeric Marks debuffs players in the entire raid with either a Frost debuff ( Frost Mark — deals damage every second and reduces movement speed) or a Poison debuff ( Toxic Brand — deals damage every second and reduce healing received). Both debuffs stack when hit by various abilities during the fight. Throughout the fight, Frost void zones and Poison void zones will also appear (as a result of players dropping them after having been targeted by abilities). Coming in contact with a player with the other debuff or walking in a void zone of the other school triggers Unstable Mixture, dealing raid-wide damage. To avoid this, you need to physically split the encounter area in two: a Frost area for players with Frost Mark and a Poison area for players with Toxic Brand. The two tanks always get a different debuff.

The fight is complicated further by the fact that the boss changes the debuff of part of the raid several times throughout the fight ( Inversion — cast approximately every 70 seconds), which means that there will be Frost-debuffed players in the Poison area and Poison-debuffed players in the Frost area. These players will need to make their way to the proper area without triggering Unstable Mixture.

Finally, several abilities require movement, so players must always be careful and avoid triggering Unstable Mixture. Because the Frost and Poison debuffs are stacked by several abilities (causing the debuffs to deal increasing damage) throughout the fight and because the only way to reset these stacks is by triggering Unstable Mixture, a few Unstable Mixtures will inevitably go off, but this should always be done in concert with the healers.

The boss sometimes casts Crushing Reverberation on the active tank. Some raid members of their Chimeric Mark group should help soak this by being within 5 yards. Depending on the difficulty and the actual tuning, the number of required soakers will depend. Melee can help soak, if needed, by simply moving next to the tank when Crushing Reverberation is about to be cast, and then moving back behind the boss.

Crushing Reverberation also sends out a shockwave that knocks all players back. This can send careless players into void zones, which needs to be avoided.

Non-tank players are regularly debuffed by Overflow, which causes them to drop Frost or Poison void zones (the school of their debuff) on the floor after 6 seconds. These players must move away from other players, and drop the resulting void zone in a safe area, preferably off to the side of the room (see maps above).

On LFR and Normal difficulty (and possibly even on Heroic), it should not be necessary for any players to help soak the explosion from Overflow; if, however, you do choose to do so for safety, players soaking Overflow should have the same debuff as the targeted player.

The other source of void zones is Frostvenom Tipped, which is an ability that only targets tanks (see below).

A crucial part of the fight is minimizing the number of Unstable Mixtures that go off. Ideally, you should have none at all, but this is not realistic as players will most likely have to trigger some, because it is the only way to clear their stacks of Chimeric Marks when they get too high. This is perfectly acceptable — just make sure that you do not overlap too many Unstable Mixture explosions, as the cumulative damage could result in deaths.

To avoid any accidental Unstable Mixtures, be careful of the following situations.

• Make sure that players who soak Overflow (if your raid chooses to do this) have the same Chimeric Mark as the original target of Overflow.
• Make sure to never come into contact with Frost or Poison void zones, especially when you have the opposing Chimeric Mark. Note the Crushing Reverberation knock-back.
• Before Inversion is cast, players must be spread out 4 yards apart, to ensure that no two players of opposing Chimeric Marks touch. Furthermore, after Inversion, players must leave enough space in the room for everyone whose debuff has changed to make their way to the correct group.

Players sometimes are targeted by Frostshock Bolts, which fires a Frost or Poison bolt at them and freezes them. Make sure that a player of the corresponding Chimeric Mark debuff intercepts the bolt. Furthermore, freezed players need to be freed by players with the same Chimeric Mark debuff.

In LFR and Normal difficulty, it is probably easier for the raid to have the targeted player hit by the bolt and handle the resulting Unstable Mixture, rather than have it intercepted by a player from the other debuff group.

To intercept a bolt, have the targeted player move towards the other group. This will make it easier for a melee player from the other group to move towards the arrow that indicates the direction of the bolt and intercept it. After this, make sure a player with the same debuff unpin the targeted players. If the targeted player has the Frost debuff, they need to move towards the Poison group so that a member of that group intercept the bolt. After that, another player with the Frost debuff must unpin them.

When the boss casts Overwhelming Barrage (approximately every 40 seconds, when her Energy bar reaches 100%), one half of the boss will fire Frost projectiles and the other half will fire Poison projectiles. As you can see in the images above, there is a short casting animation around the boss, before projectiles appear and start firing. In our PTR experience, the Frost projectiles are always fired towards the Frost void zones and the Poison projectiles are always fired towards the Poison void zones. Note that projectiles are not all fired at the same time, making it possible to avoid them.

In case some players are going to get hit with the wrong school of projectile (for example by a Frost projectile when they have the Poison debuff), they need to move to the right side of the boss. Getting hit by a projectile of the wrong school causes an Unstable Mixture, while getting hit by a projectile of the right school increases your stacks of the debuff by 1.

Players should avoid letting their Chimeric Marks debuff stack too high, which is mostly done by not staying in void zones after dropping them, not walking in void zones dropped by others, and avoiding the projectiles of Overwhelming Barrage.

However, it is quite likely that, throughout the fight, players will need to reset their stacks by triggering an Unstable Mixture. As long as this is communicated ahead of time to the healers (or at least timed in such a way as not to cause them too many problems), it is perfectly acceptable to do this. The best way is for the player who wishes to reset their debuffs to simply step into a void zone of the opposite type.

Dealing with Inversion is an important part of the fight. When this ability is about to be cast, all raid members should spread out more than 4 yards apart. Then, once the new distribution of Chimeric Marks is set, the players whose debuffs have changed will have to make their way to the correct half of the raid.

In practice, all the players whose debuffs change are rooted for 4 seconds with Inversion Sickness once the new debuffs have gone out; think of this as a sort of grace period during which all the members who are not rooted can move around freely, forming clear free paths for the newly debuffed players to move through once their 4-second roots run out. Once these roots run out, the players should carefully move to their new groups.

We recommend using Heroism/ Bloodlust/ Time Warp on the pull, for the highest benefit in terms of DPS gain. There is no other stage of the fight where this ability is better used.

Tanks have two things to worry about during this fight: Crushing Reverberation (which we already mentioned above and Frostvenom Tipped.

Frostvenom Tipped stacks a debuff on the active tank. We advise taunt-switching whenever stacks get too high (we advise switching around 5 stacks). After the switch, the debuff, which has a 10-second duration will expire, causing them to drop a void zone at their location (Frost void zone if they have Frost Mark, Poison void zone if they have Toxic Brand). So, tanks should, once they are no longer tanking the boss, move to a safe location, at the edge of the room, in order to drop their void zone.

Heroic difficulty has 2 notable changes.

Inversion now also switches the type of all existing void zones. This means that Frost void zones become Frost and vice versa. As a result, players who had their Chimeric Marks debuff changed by Inversion do not need to move (unlike in LFR and Normal difficulties), because they already have the right debuff. It means that it is the players who did not have their debuff changed by Inversion who need to move to the other side.

Starting with Heroic difficulty, players are given an energy bar, the color of which correspond to their Chimeric Marks debuff.

• Frost-debuffed players need to regularly move to prevent their bar from filling up. If it does, they are frozen for 8 seconds by Frozen Blood.
• Poison-debuffed players, need to avoid moving to prevent their Poison bar from filling up, they are disoriented for 8 seconds by Venomous Blood.

Finally, it is possible that the tuning of the damage from Overflow and Crushing Reverberation will influence the number of players needed to soak these abilities. Similarly, the raid might no longer get away with letting players get hit by Frostshock Bolts. In this case, have targeted players move towards the middle of the room and have a player from the other group intercept the bolt.

• Tank the boss in the middle of the room and stay on the side of the room assigned to your Chimeric Marks debuff (beware of Inversion changing the void zones in Heroic and Mythic difficulties).
• Do not walk in void zones or come in contact with a player who has the other Chimeric Marks debuff.
• Watch out for Crushing Reverberation and ask for players to help you soak it if necessary (especially in Heroic and Mythic difficulties).
• Let the other tank taunt-switch the boss from you whenever your stacks of Rimefrost or Septic Taint (from Frostvenom Tipped) get too high. Then move away from the raid and drop your void zone with the other void zones of your debuff.
• Avoid the projectiles from Overwhelming Barrage if you can.

• Always stay on the side of the room assigned to your Chimeric Marks debuff: Frost area if you have Frost Mark or Poison area if you have Toxic Brand (beware of Inversion changing the void zones in Heroic and Mythic difficulties).
• Make sure the knockback from Crushing Reverberation does not send you in a void zone. Help the tank soak the initial damage if they ask.
• Do not walk in void zones or come in contact with a player who has the other Chimeric Marks debuff.
• Drop your void zones (from Overflow) at the back of your area. In Mythic difficulty (and possibly Heroic as well), ask for people to help you soak the damage from the explosion.
• Ignore Frostshock Bolts and let it pin you in LFR and Normal difficulties. In Heroic and Mythic difficulties, move towards the other group so that one of their player can intercept the bolt.
• Unpin players of your group pinned by Frostshock Bolts.
• Avoid the projectiles from Overwhelming Barrage if you can.
• Speak with your healers before reseting your Chimeric Marks debuff (walking in a void zone from the other area is the simplest way).

Below, you will find a recap of all the ways you can increase the stacks of your Chimeric Marks debuff:

• walking in a void zone of the same school (Frost void zone if you have Frost Mark, for example);
• getting hit by a projectile from Overwhelming Barrage of the same school (Frost projectile if you have Frost Mark, for example);
• intercepting a bolt from Frostshock Bolts;
• when the boss casts Chimeric Marks in Mythic difficulty.

Note that your stacks are maintained when Inversion changes your debuff.

Unstable Mixture is triggered when:

• two players with different debuffs come into contact with one another;
• walking in a void zone of the opposite school (Frost void zone if you have Toxic Brand, for example);
• a player is targeted by Frostshock Bolts and no one intercepts the bolt;
• a player is hit by a projectile from Overwhelming Barrage of the opposite school; (Frost projectile if you have Toxic Brand, for example).

Note that Unstable Mixture deals Nature damage, but this does not trigger further Unstable Mixtures. At the beginning of the fight, there is a grace period of a few seconds during which Unstable Mixture cannot trigger, which gives the raid enough time to get into position. Players who trigger an Unstable Mixture have their debuff stack reset.

Mythic difficulty adds one change over Heroic difficulty. Sivara now casts Chimeric Marks every 20 to 25 seconds, causing stacks of the debuffs to increase.

Aside from this, the boss has more health and deals more damage than in Heroic mode.

The result of the Chimeric Marks change is that everyone in the raid will eventually have to trigger Unstable Mixture. We recommend that players clear their Chimeric Mark debuffs ( Frost Mark / Toxic Brand at 5-6 stacks.

Players will intentionally trigger Unstable Mixtures to clear Chimeric Marks stacks, and they should do so in a staggered way, in order to prevent combined damage bursts from causing deaths. Exactly how you choose to stagger the Unstable Mixtures will depend on your raid, but as long as you have players trigger Unstable Mixture to clear around 5-6 stacks of their debuff, you should be fine.

It is important to avoid Unstable Mixtures lining up with either Crushing Reverberation or Overwhelming Barrage, since the combined damage may be too dangerous.

One final note is regarding Overflow: live server tuning allows many classes and specs to solo the damage from this explosion without the need for any additional soakers. Any class with immunities, and even strong personal cooldowns, should be able to handle this explosion on their own. Players who cannot handle the explosion on their own should have an external cooldown used on them (such as Life Cocoon, or even a Void Stone effect).

If worse comes to worst, you can have a few raid members of the same Chimeric Mark help soak the explosion, but this should only rarely be needed.

Item>	Type	Slot
Royal Scaleguard's Battleaxe	Axe	One Hand
Shiver Venom Crossbow	Crossbow
Sivara's Slitherblade	Dagger
Claw of the Myrmidon	Fist Weapon	One Hand
Tidebinder's Driftglobe	Frill	Off Hand
Scepter of the Azsh'ari	Mace	One Hand
Shiver Venom Lance	Polearm
Siren Mystic's Vestments	Cloth Armor	Chest
Seawrath Legwraps	Cloth Armor	Legs
Helm of the Inexorable Tide	Leather Armor	Head
Tideblood Bracers	Leather Armor	Wrists
Abyssal Commander's Mantle	Mail Armor	Shoulders
Wavespine Clutch	Mail Armor	Waist
Naga Centaur's Shellplate	Plate Armor	Chest
Palace Sentinel Vambraces	Plate Armor	Wrists
Gauntlets of Overflowing Chill	Plate Armor	Hands
Sabatons of the Stalwart	Plate Armor	Feet
Shiver Venom Relic	Accessory	Trinket

For more information, please refer to our Eternal Palace Loot and Essence guide.