Artificer Xy'Mox Strategy Guide for Castle Nathria

Throughout the fight:

• Always place one portal in the middle of the room and one near a wall ( Dimensional Tear).
• The tanks need to quickly run their debuff away from the raid before it explodes ( Glyph of Destruction).
• Everyone should dodge the beams on the ground, as well as the traps on Heroic.

Phase One ( Crystal of Phantasms):

• Fixated players need to use the portals to avoid the spirits long enough for them to despawn.

Phase Two ( Root of Extinction):

• Assigned players need to move the seeds away from one side of the room using the portals.

Phase Three ( Edge of Annihilation):

• Use movement abilities and the portals to stay out of the weapon explosion in the middle of the room.

The Artificer Xy'Mox encounter is a three phase fight that requires you to use its portal mechanic to counter the special ability of each phase. You can use Bloodlust/ Heroism on pull, or you can save it for a phase that you find more challenging.

The Portals:

• Two random players are occasionally marked with a debuff and get a bright yellow circle around them ( Dimensional Tear). After a few seconds, each player will drop a portal on the ground at their feet. When any player walks into one of these portals, they will be instantly transported to the other portal, and after a couple seconds, they will be able to use the portal again. These portals despawn when a new pair of debuffs is coming out, so you will have to replace them several times throughout the fight. There is a lot of room for creativity with the placement of these portals to deal with the phase-specific mechanics, but we recommend the simplest option, because you do not actually gain much from being fancy with them.
• Every single time new portal debuffs go out, have one person place one directly in the center of the room, and the other person place one far away near a wall. This placement is great because it works for every phase-specific mechanic, so you do not have to change the placement for every single phase and risk someone going to the wrong spot.

Dimensional Tear

Phase One ( Crystal of Phantasms):

• Several un-targetable spirits occasionally spawn and fixate random players. If they reach their target, that player will be mind-controlled and will need to be broken out by other players damaging them. These spirits despawn after 12 seconds, but they move super fast, so the only way to avoid them until they despawn is by using the portals. Each fixated player will need to step into a portal as their spirit is getting close to them, wait a few seconds for the spirit to get close again, and then step back into the portal they just came out of. If the portals are far enough away, the spirits will despawn on their way back to the original portal. Just be ready to use movement abilities or step back into the portal if more time is needed.
• Keep the boss toward the middle of the room in this phase, to make placing the portals easier.
• At 70% health remaining, the spirits stop spawning and Phase 2 will start.

Phase Two ( Root of Extinction):

• Several blue seeds will occasionally spawn around the room. They all explode at once after 20 seconds, doing lethal damage to anyone in 50 yards, but you can move the seeds to avoid the explosions. There are 4 seeds on Normal difficulty and 8 seeds on Heroic, and they always spawn in the same places. We suggest assigning players to handle moving the seeds that are on the opposite side of the room from your portals. Each person will need to pick up a seed, run into the portal in the middle of the room, drop the seed, and take the portal back to the middle of the room. This should leave a safe zone away from the explosions where everyone can run to.
• Keep the boss toward the middle of the room in this phase as well, to make placing the portals and moving out of the seed explosions easier.
• At 40% health remaining, the seeds stop spawning and Phase 3 will start.

Phase Three ( Edge of Annihilation):

• A giant weapon occasionally spawns in the middle of the room. The weapon will strongly pull everyone toward it for a few seconds and then explode for a ridiculous amount of damage to anyone within its circle. The pull is super strong, so you will need to use the portals and whatever movement abilities you have to get away. For example, you can run against the pull for a few seconds, and then let yourself get pulled into the portal that is in the middle of the room just before the explosion, which will then transport you to safety.
• Keep the boss toward your portal near the wall in this phase, because that is where you should be during the weapon's pull anyway.

General Mechanics:

• Xy'Mox occasionally casts a very short debuff on the current tank ( Glyph of Destruction). This tank will have 4 seconds to get as far away from the raid as possible before the debuff explodes on the raid, which does less damage to players that are further away. The tanks can use the portals to get away quickly, as long as no one else is using them at that time. Otherwise, the tanks will just have to use movement abilities to get away fast enough. The explosion does a ton of damage to the tank and applies a long debuff that makes them more vulnerable to the next explosion ( Arcane Vulnerability), so the tanks will need to taunt swap immediately after every cast to alternate who gets the debuff and to keep the boss from moving.
• There are also some randomly aimed white beams on the ground that everyone needs to dodge ( Rift Blast), as well as some frequent raid-wide damage that is unavoidable ( Hyperlight Spark).
• On Heroic, there are traps that occasionally spawn under random players' feet ( Stasis Trap). If anyone steps into a trap, they will be stunned and will need to be broken out by other players damaging them. You can just avoid the traps, of course, but we recommend assigning players with immunities to run through and clear them out every once in a while. Otherwise, they can start to fill up the room and cause problems with moving around. Alternatively, you could have players step into the traps at safe times and quickly break them out.

We have encounter journal pages for each of the four difficulties, which you can access by clicking the links below.

For each class, we provide advice on how to tackle the Artificer Xy'Mox encounter, complete with actual tips, but also recommendations for talents and Legendary Powers.