Argus the Unmaker Strategy/Tactics for Normal/Heroic

Table of Contents

• +Introduction
  • 1. Contents
  • 2. Lore
  • 3. Outline
  • 4. TL;DR
    • 4.1. Tanks
    • 4.2. Healers
    • 4.3. DPS
    • 4.4. Everyone
    • 4.5. Positioning
  • 5. Bloodlust/Heroism/Time Warp
  • 6. Changelog
• +Abilities
  • 1. Overview
  • 2. Titanic Essence
  • 3. Phase One: Storm and Sky
    • 3.1. Cone of Death and Death Fog
    • 3.2. Soulblight Orb
    • 3.3. Tortured Rage
    • 3.4. Sweeping Scythe
    • 3.5. Golganneth's Aid
      • 3.5.1. Gift of the Sky and Strength of the Sky
      • 3.5.2. Gift of the Sea and Strength of the Sea
  • 4. Phase Two: The Protector Redeemed
    • 4.1. Volatile Soul
      • 4.1.1. Soulbomb and Soulbomb Detonation
      • 4.1.2. Soulburst and Soulburst Detonation
    • 4.2. Edge of Obliteration
    • 4.3. Sweeping Scythe
    • 4.4. Aggramar's Aid and Aggramar's Boon
  • 5. Phase Three: The Arcane Masters
    • 5.1. The Constellar Designates
      • 5.1.1. Cosmic Ray
      • 5.1.2. Cosmic Beacon and Cosmic Smash
      • 5.1.3. Impending Inevitability
      • 5.1.4. Starblast
    • 5.2. The Stellar Armory
      • 5.2.1. Sword of the Cosmos
      • 5.2.2. Blades of the Eternal
    • 5.3. Norgannon's Aid
  • 6. Phase Four: The Gift of Life, The Forge of Loss
    • 6.1. End of All Things
    • 6.2. Ember of Rage
    • 6.3. Tortured Rage
    • 6.4. Volatile Soul
    • 6.5. Deadly Scythe
    • 6.6. Reorigination Modules
    • 6.7. Eonar's Aid
    • 6.8. Khaz'Goroth's Aid
    • 6.9. Spirit World
      • 6.9.1. Hungering Souls
      • 6.9.2. Motes of Titanic Power
• ×Normal/Heroic Strategy/Tactics
  • 1. Positioning and Strategy
    • 1.1. Phase One
    • 1.2. Phase Two
    • 1.3. Phase Three
    • 1.4. Phase Four
  • 2. Tank Concerns
  • 3. Bloodlust/Heroism/Time Warp

General Information

On this page, you will find a working strategy to defeat Argus the Unmaker in Antorus, the Burning Throne for both Normal and Heroic modes, which usually only differ by the tuning of the boss.

Here, we assume that you have read our descriptions of the abilities for this encounter.

The other pages of our Argus the Unmaker guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.

Argus the Unmaker should be kept in the center of the Pantheon, where he spawns. There is no need to move him to the edge of the room, as all Death Fog will be cleared upon entry to Phase Two. The Ranged DPS and Healers should stack together approximately 10 yards behind the Melee DPS.

Tanks should perform a taunt swap at 3 stacks of Sweeping Scythe. The inactive tank should always be behind the boss with the Melee DPS stack due to the cone cleave of Sweeping Scythe. Soulblight should be taken behind the raid and dropped off.

With each Cone of Death, the raid should quickly sidestep and continue to DPS as normal. Death Fog ticks extremely fast and hard and any players who fail to dodge the Cone of Death will likely need to use personals or a Healthstone to survive. Cone of Death targets a random player, therefore, the group must move as a unit after the cast begins. Moving too early could cause the Cone of Death to be targeted where the group is moving instead, which will likely result in a wipe.

Soulblight should be taken behind the raid before it expires to ensure there is no Death Fog in the stacks. If Argus is approaching 100 Titanic Essence, Cone of Death is imminent. Players afflicted with Soulblight need to be extra vigilant at this time, as it is harder to dodge the Cone of Death when you are further from the boss, due to the expanding nature of a cone.

Two players will periodically be blessed by Golganneth to carry the buff orbs. Your group can choose how to deal with these buffs, but a good strategy is to take the Gift of the Sky to the melee stack and the Gift of the Sea to ranged. You can only have one of these two buffs at a time, so take care not to walk into the wrong orb, or drop it in the wrong place. The buffs stack infinitely, so try not to let your stacks drop or your group risks losing a lot of free stats and damage.

Golganneth will cast Golganneth's Wrath as Phase Two commences. Anyone outside the center circle in the arena will likely be killed after the storm fully forms. After the storm subsides, Argus should be moved near the back of the room where the throne is. The Ranged DPS and Healers should mirror this movement, staying 10-15 yards from the boss but maintaining a loose stack. All Edge of Obliteration casts should be avoided by the raid.

One of the Tanks will be occasionally buffed with Avatar of Aggramar. Each time Soulbomb is cast, the Avatar Tank should go to the entrance area of the room, followed by the player afflicted by Soulbomb. As long as the Avatar and the Soulbomb are close together, all damage from Soulbomb that the afflicted player would have taken is instead redirected to the tank due to Aggramar's Boon. The raid still takes damage, however, which is why it is important to be near the entrance, far away from Argus and the rest of the group.

Soulbursts will be applied at 50 Titanic Essence, and together with Soulbomb at 100 Titanic Essence. The afflicted players should simply get at least 20 yards (further is better) from the group and each other before their debuffs expire.

Phase Three is very straightforward compared with the other phases. A number of Constellar Designates will spawn in a circle around the center of the room. The tanks need to periodically pick up the Constellars that are equipped by the Sword of the Cosmos and the Blades of the Eternal. These should be kept somewhat away from their peers due to the Cosmic Power that the Sword of the Cosmos wielder can apply.

The rest of the Constellars simply need to be cleaved down as fast as possible. The Discs of Norgannon will apply a debuff to each Constellar, making them especially vulnerable (200% bonus damage taken) to a specific school of damage. Players should keep an eye out for the Constellar that matches their main damage type and focus on exploiting the bonus damage.

Cosmic Beacon should be interrupted when possible, however, if it goes off then the follow up Cosmic Smash should be avoided at all costs. Players should also keep a wary eye for Cosmic Ray, which targets random players and pierces through everyone in a line. Cosmic Ray deals very high damage and is the only real mechanic that is likely to cause fatalities in this phase if not avoided.

This section is based entirely off speculation formed from datamined interactions, abilities, and NPCs, as well as information found in the official dungeon journal. The Fourth Phase was not seen on PTR and therefore remains an educated mystery. This section will be continually updated as the available information becomes more concrete.

Argus the Unmaker should be returned to the positioning in Phase Two. End of All Things should be interrupted every time it is cast. Tanks should trade back and forth with every stack of Deadly Scythe after the first few are applied, as it lasts forever in this phase.

Any time a Reorigination Module spawns it should be killed immediately to keep the radius of Reorigination Pulse as small as possible. Anyone caught within the radius of the Pulse when it triggers will be instantly killed.

Ember of Rages will fall from the sky periodically, and must be avoided. Soulbomb and Soulburst are applied as in Phase Two, however, the target of Soulbomb will certainly die in this phase. Players who are killed in this phase can release spirit if there is a Gift of the Lifebinder active. They must navigate the Spirit World and reach the Gift while collecting Motes of Titanic Power and avoiding Hungering Souls. If they successfully reach the Gift, they will be returned to life. Tanks can also intentionally die to clear their stacks of Deadly Scythe when it reaches very high stacks.

Inevitably, your Gift of the Lifebinder will become a Withered Gift of the Lifebinder, which must be healed. Each time a player resurrects using the Withered Gift, a new stack of Withering Roots will be applied. Withering Roots persists until the Withered Gift dies or the fight ends.

Collecting the Motes of Titanic Power in the Spirit World is very important, as it enables Khaz'Goroth to activate his powerful Titanforging ability to buff the raid. Players in the Spirit World should prioritize Mote collection over resurrecting as fast as possible, unless they are a Tank or Healer.

Tanks have a lot of responsibility on this fight. Sweeping Scythe hits very hard on Heroic+, and active mitigation is advised for all applications. Personal and/or external cooldowns are recommended at higher stacks.

The Avatar of Aggramar always has to be in position to absorb each Soulbomb Detonation in Phase Two. A Demonic Gateway from Argus to the entrance area is helpful to facilitate instant travel and reduce downtime on the boss. Cooldowns will be absolutely necessary to survive the redirected damage on Heroic+. The tank who is not the Avatar may also require cooldowns if the timing forces them to take high stacks of Sweeping Scythe.

The Constellars are not particularly threatening but positioning is important. Keeping the Sword of the Cosmos wielder away from the other Constellars makes the phase much easier overall.

In the final phase, it is the Tanks' prerogative to decide when the damage from Deadly Scythe is no longer safely tankable and organize a reset by intentionally killing themselves, then resurrecting through the Gift of the Lifebinder. The other tank must be aware of their own stacks and be able to survive until the other tank is able to revive.

For first kills, especially if you are progressing on the content, we recommend you use Bloodlust/ Heroism/ Time Warp on the opener, and again when it comes off of cooldown in the final phase.

If you have strong enough damage to only get a single cast of Bloodlust/Heroism, it is instead advised you use it in the final phase, when as many players are alive as possible and the raid is Titanforged.