Blackwater Behemoth Strategy Guide in The Eternal Palace Raid

The encounter against the Blackwater Behemoth is comprised of three different parts, which we will refer to as "phases", although they are not different phases in the strict sense of the word, since there is no difference in mechanics at all throughout the entire fight. In fact, the fight that takes place in front of 3 different caves (hence the 3 phases), during which you will only fight the boss (two types of adds do exist in the fight, but they are mostly non-threatening).

We start out by giving you an overview of the fight, before going through more specific, but important points. We finish with a detailed presentation of the abilities.

The fight revolves around its unique underwater mechanics, and relies on good positioning and movement in order to achieve success.

In order to execute the fight correctly, your raid members will have to understand a few important guidelines.

• Players will have to avoid being in open water (more on that below) at all times, but especially when affected by Bioluminescence.
• You will have to kill one Shimmerskin Pufferfish at the start of each phase, to create a Bioluminescent Cloud, and then kill the second Shimmerskin Pufferfish once players' Bioluminescence debuffs from the first cloud are running out.
• Players will have to be careful in making sure they receive the Bioluminescence debuff from the clouds, as otherwise they cannot receive healing.
• During transition phases, players must get to the new fighting area as quickly as possible, ensuring that they do not touch any Darkwater Jellyfish on the way.

On Heroic and Mythic difficulties, there is added complexity in making sure that players' Bioluminescence (from the Bioluminescent Clouds) debuffs do not persist in the transitions (so, the timing of going into the clouds to receive the debuffs must be precise), as this would lead to Gaze from Below and consequently, deaths.

In the sections that follow, we will look at the various parts of the fight.

Throughout the fight, all raid members will need to "manage" the Darkest Depths debuff, which prevents any healing on them. In reality, this is quite simple.

1. The raid will have to kill one of the two Shimmerskin Pufferfish present at the start of each phase, which will create a Bioluminescent Cloud lasting 20 seconds.
2. All raid members should move through the cloud to receive the Bioluminescence debuff, which negates the effects of Darkest Depths for 45 seconds.
   • Because stacking is discouraged due to Bioelectric Feelers, players should avoid all rushing into the cloud at the same time, and should instead stagger their movement somewhat.
3. Once players' 45-second debuffs from the first cloud begin to expire, the second Shimmerskin Pufferfish should be killed, creating a new cloud.
4. Players should repeat step 2 and re-gain their Bioluminescence debuffs.
5. When their second 45-second debuffs expire, the boss will be transitioning to the next fighting area, at which point players will need to swim through open water to the next platform.
   • It is crucial that players no longer have the Bioluminescence debuff when they begin moving over open water (though on LFR and Normal mode this is not really a concern as the Slipstreams players use to move through the water will automatically remove the debuff).
6. The raid will then repeat these steps during the second phase of the fight, and one last time in the third and final phase.

Pictured below is a Bioluminescent Cloud.

Tanks do not need to worry about any of this, as the boss will always debuff the active tank with Radiant Biomass for 15 seconds, allowing them to receive healing.

If the Blackwater Behemoth is not killed before the second Bioluminescence debuff runs out on the third platform, you need to finish the encounter without being able to heal.

There are two transition phases in this fight, the first happening 90 seconds after the start of the fight and the second one happening 90 seconds after that.

During the transition phases, players will need to use the Slipstreams present at the back of the fighting area to increase their swim speed and move to the next fighting area, in order to interrupt the boss's Cavitation cast. You can see what the Slipstream effect looks like below (milky effect at the edge of the platorms).

As stated above, it is important that players avoid heading out into the open water if they still have the Bioluminescence debuff (except for LFR and Normal modes, where the Slipstreams will automatically remove it).

Moreover, players will need to avoid coming into contact with the Darkwater Jellyfish present along the way, as these deal damage and apply Bioluminescence.

Once all players have reached the new fighting area, the boss's Cavitation cast should be interrupted. It is not necessary that all players be in position, though, so the cast should be interrupted before it starts dealing damage to the raid, in any case.

The Shimmerskin Pufferfish present in each fighting area do not need to be tanked, so tanks only need to worry about the Blackwater Behemoth.

A simple tank switch roughly every 15 seconds, to reset the boss's Feeding Frenzy stacks, is all that tanks need to worry about.

Another important part of the fight is avoiding the open water, because this can get you killed if you have the Bioluminescence debuff. This is not at all complicated, and it just means that outside of the transition phases, you should never be over open water and instead just stand over the ground.

The boss's Shock Pulse will push all players back whenever it is cast, so if players are too far away from the boss to begin with and/or if they fail to run against the effect, they may end up over open water. That said, the 5-second grace period before Gaze from Below kills you should provide enough time to get back into position.

During transition phases, Gaze from Below should not cause any issues, provided that everyone waits for their Bioluminescence debuffs to expire before venturing out over open water.

To avoid unnecessary damage from Bioelectric Feelers, all raid members should be at least 5 yards apart from one another throughout the fight (except during transition phases, when this ability is not used).

One useful note is that since the fight takes place underwater, you can make use of the vertical space as well in order to spread out — indeed, given the rather limited amount of space in the second and third phases of the fight, you will most likely be forced to make use of vertical space there to spread out properly.

The only other ability in the fight is Toxic Spine, which simply deals some unavoidable damage to certain raid members. This must be healed through, and its only purpose, other than adding a bit of difficulty, seems to be ensuring that everyone must properly counteract the Darkest Depths debuff.

We recommend using Heroism/ Bloodlust/ Time Warp at the start of the fight. This is when you can get the most DPS out of it (since all cooldowns and potions will be active). The first part of the fight is also probably the easiest in terms of movement and positioning, since the first fighting area is a single solid area, allowing players to more easily avoid the open water.

Since the transitions are time-based, by doing as much damage to the boss during the first part of the fight, you will reduce the amount of time you spend in the final fighting area.

• Perform a tank switch roughly every 15 seconds to reset the boss's Feeding Frenzy buff.
• Make sure to always be in melee range of the boss, as it is stationary and could otherwise hit other players.

• Avoid being in open water if affected by Bioluminescence.
• Kill the Shimmerskin Pufferfish, one at a time, 45 seconds apart, to create a Bioluminescent Cloud and then run through it to pick up the Bioluminescence debuff that allows you to be healed.
• During transition phases, get to the new fighting area without touching any Darkwater Jellyfish on the way. Use the Slipstream to increase your swim speed.
• Always be more than 5 yards away from other raid members (except during transition phases) to avoid taking damage from Bioelectric Feelers.

As mentioned above, this fight is realistically single-phase (the abilities of the boss do not change), but since there are two effective transition phases and the location where the fight changes after each one, it is as though it as three phases.

Before we look at the abilities of the boss, we will first look at the fight area and a few of the peculiarities it has.

The entire encounter takes place underwater. To mitigate the normal problems that occur when underwater (limited amount of "breath" before you start taking damage, and reduced movement speed), all players can receive a permanent buff at the start of the fight. In order to receive this buff, players must click to interact with an Oxygen-Rich Membrane (of which several are present where the fight starts), gaining immunity to going out of breath and 100% increased movement speed under water.

Being underwater brings with it a few other considerations. By default, all players are always debuffed by Darkest Depths, which reduces all healing taken by 100%. Obviously, this would make the fight impossible, but there are two ways of countering it and temporarily removing the debuff.

• The active tank will always have the Radiant Biomass debuff applied to them, which deals Nature damage over time but which also removes the application of Darkest Depths, allowing them to receive healing.
• Other raid members can remove their Darkest Depths debuff by stepping into a Bioluminescent Cloud and receiving the 45-second Bioluminescence debuff (which has no negative effects, and just counters Darkest Depths).
  • A Bioluminescent Cloud spawns when a Shimmerskin Pufferfish is killed (2 are present in each phase, see the sub-section below), and lasts for 20 seconds.

The final "underwater" element of the fight is that each of the 3 areas where the fight takes place are surrounded by open water. Essentially, this is denoted by areas where there is no ground/rock beneath the players, and instead simply dark water. It is worth noting here that there are some differences between the 3 fighting areas, in the sense that the first area is mostly a solid mass of ground and the open water is found at the back, whereas the whereas the other two areas are more fragmented, with the solid ground being found in the form a few platforms, surrounded by open water.

When players are above open water while affected by Bioluminescence, they will receive a 5-second debuff ( Gaze from Below), which will cause them to instantly die when it expires. This debuff is removed if the players move back from the open water (by being above the ground again), or if the Bioluminescence debuff expires before the end of the Gaze from Below debuff.

After 90 seconds, the boss will quickly move very far away from the raid, onto a different platform, and begin casting Cavitation. This ability has a 30-second cast time and, once complete, the boss will channel it, dealing extremely high raid-wide damage every 2 seconds.

The objective of the raid will be to move to the new platform (across open water) and reach the boss in time to interrupt this cast before it kills raid members.

To aid players in getting to the new platforms, several Slipstreams form at the back of the current platform. Moving into one of these water currents buffs the player's swim speed by 150%, and also pushes them forward forcefully.

Moreover, on LFR and Normal difficulties, moving into a Slipstream also removes Bioluminescence from players, essentially ensuring that they are in no danger from Gaze from Below while traversing the open water. On Heroic and Mythic difficulties, however, Bioluminescence is not removed and instead players will have to time the acquisition of the Bioluminescence debuff in such a way that they do not have it when it is time to move to the new platform.

In the open water between platforms, there are a multitude of Darkwater Jellyfish adds. These adds do nothing (they do not need to be tanked or attacked), but coming into contact with them applies the Glowing Stinger 8-second Nature damage DoT. Moreover, in Heroic and Mythic difficulties, this causes the affected players to also receive Bioluminescence (putting them in danger from Gaze from Below).

Aside from everything we described so far, the boss itself has a number of abilities you must handle.

When the boss attacks the same target, it stacks Feeding Frenzy on itself, increasing its attack speed by 8% for each consecutive attack. As soon as the boss attacks a different target, the buff is reset.

Moreover, we remind you that the boss's current target is affected by Radiant Biomass — dealing damage over time but permitting healing by disabling Darkest Depths.

It is also worth mentioning that the boss is stationary, and that there must always be a target (a tank) in its melee range. If the tank is not in melee range of the boss, it will attack another player who is (likely killing them), and if no one is in melee range of the boss, it will deal high raid-wide damage.

Toxic Spine is a simple ability that places a 12-second Nature damage DoT to a number of raid members (about 30% of the raid), regularly throughout the fight.

Shock Pulse is an ability that the boss casts regularly throughout the fight. For about 5 seconds, the boss pushes all raid members away from it (running towards the boss counters this effect somewhat), and at the end of the 5 seconds, it deals raid-wide Nature damage, with the damage being lower the farther away players are from the boss.

Throughout the fight (except during transition phases, when Cavitation is being cast), the boss will constantly (about every 4 seconds) check if there are any players within 5 yards of each other. Any time players are found to be within 5 yards, they receive a moderate amount of Nature damage from Bioelectric Feelers. Note that this effect does not chain, so even if someone has multiple players within 5 yards of them, they will only take one instance of damage.

As stated earlier, there are two changes to abilities between LFR/Normal and Heroic. The first is that on Heroic mode, the Slipstreams no longer remove the Bioluminescence buffs, and the second difference is that the Darkwater Jellyfish present during the transition phases also apply Bioluminescence if you come in contact with them.

The only addition to Mythic mode is an ability called Piercing Barb. The boss uses this to sometimes target a random raid member and then, a short time later, send out a beam towards that player. The beam will deal lethal damage to the player, but this damage is split between all players who are in the beam's path.

Aside from this, the boss and the adds have increased health and deal increased damage, compared to Heroic mode.

The Mythic strategy for the fight remains the same as the Heroic mode one, with the addition of having each Piercing Barb cast properly soaked. Essentially, the player targeted by Piercing Barb should use the amount of time they have between being marked by the boss and the beam being cast to position themselves in such a way that the beam hits as many raid members as possible. Other raid members should adjust their positioning as well, if needed, to move into the beam.

Players who have immunities (such as Ice Block or Divine Shield) could soak the Piercing Barb on their own if targeted by it, to further reduce raid damage.

All players must make sure not stay more than 5 yards apart to avoid triggering Bioelectric Feelers.

Item>	Type	Slot
Diver's Folly	Axe	One Hand
Fang of the Behemoth	Dagger
Fathom-Feeder's Mantle	Cloth Armor	Shoulders
Eelskin Flippers	Cloth Armor	Feet
Blackwater Shimmerscale Vest	Leather Armor	Chest
Anglerfish Feelers	Leather Armor	Hands
Ship Swallower's Belt	Leather Armor	Waist
Hood of Lightless Depths	Mail Armor	Head
Pelagos Predator's Legguards	Mail Armor	Legs
Slipstreamer's Saltwalkers	Mail Armor	Feet
Trench Tyrant's Shoulderplates	Plate Armor	Shoulders
Undercove Crushers	Plate Armor	Hands
Fleetwrecker's Greaves	Plate Armor	Legs
Leviathan's Lure	Accessory	Trinket
Luminous Jellyweed	Accessory	Trinket
Mindlost Bloodfrenzy	Pet

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