Dragons of Nightmare Abilities

Table of Contents

• +Introduction
  • 1. Contents
  • 2. Lore
  • 3. Outline
  • 4. TLDR
    • 4.1. Tanks
    • 4.2. Healers
    • 4.3. DPS
    • 4.4. Everyone
    • 4.5. Mythic-only: Lumbering Mindgorger
  • 5. Changelog
• ×Abilities
  • 1. Overview
  • 2. Shared Abilities
  • 3. Ysondre
  • 4. Taerar
    • 4.1. Heroic Mode: Bellowing Roar
  • 5. Lethon
    • 5.1. Heroic Mode: Shadow Burst
  • 6. Emeriss
    • 6.1. Heroic Mode: Corruption of the Dream
  • 7. Energy Bars
  • 8. Changelog
• +Normal/Heroic Strategy/Tactics
  • 1. Overview
  • 2. Splitting the Raid
  • 3. Tanking Concerns
    • 3.1. Healing Concerns
  • 4. DPS Concerns
  • 5. Concerns for Everyone
  • 6. When to Use Cooldowns
  • 7. Changelog
• +Mythic Strategy
  • 1. Mythic Changes
    • 1.1. Lumbering Mindgorger
  • 2. Mythic Strategy
  • 3. Changelog
• +Loot
  • 1. Relics
  • 2. Rings and Trinkets
  • 3. Armor

General Information

On this page, we list all the abilities from the Dragons of Nightmare encounter in The Emerald Nightmare. The idea is to give you a solid understanding of the encounter before you read the strategy.

If you are already familiar with the encounter, then you can skip to the strategy and tactics page or access any other page of the guide by using the table of contents on the right.

About our Reviewer

This guide has been reviewed and approved by Pottm from Serenity.

The fight involves 4 dragons: Ysondre, Emeriss, Lethon, and Taerar, which share health. Only 3 dragons are active every week: Ysondre plus 2 other dragons, chosen randomly.

You only get to fight 2 dragons at a time, the other one being in the air. In Normal mode, the dragon in the air does nothing, while in Heroic mode, it casts an ability at the raid.

The dragons you fight depend on how much health they have:

• from 100% to 70% health: Ysondre and Dragon A;
• from 70% to 40% health: Ysondre and Dragon B;
• from 40% to 0% health: Ysondre and Dragon A.

Now that the layout of the encounter has been discussed, we can look at the abilities, starting with those that are shared, before going through those unique to each dragon.

The dragons all share a breath attack called Corrupted Breath as well as a Mark of the Nightmare mechanics that requires tanking the two active dragons very far apart (the room is very very large) and having the tanks exchange dragon every now and then.

Corrupted Breath is cast approximately every 30 seconds by the active dragons. It deals a high amount of Physical damage in a 45-yard line in front of the boss.

The Mark mechanics is a bit more complex to explain, but very simple in its implication. Players cannot remain within 45 yards of a Dragon for more than 100 seconds or they get stunned for 30 seconds. This is solved by splitting the raid in two groups and have each group focus on their own dragon for about 80 seconds before exchanging dragon. The room is large enough to tank to dragons very very far apart.

More specifically, each dragon has a mark that they apply to every 10 seconds to all players within 45 yards. The mark stacks and deals a very small amount of Shadow damage every second. If a player reaches 10 stacks, then get instantly stunned for 30 seconds by Slumbering Nightmare. For completeness' sake, here are the marks for each dragon:

• Mark of Ysondre;
• Mark of Taerar;
• Mark of Emeriss;
• Mark of Lethon.

Ysondre uses two abilities: Nightmare Blast and Call Defiled Spirit.

• Nightmare Blast is casts 40 seconds into the fight and then 60 seconds after that. It targets the location of a random raid member close to Ysondre with a ball of nightmare essence. When the ball hits the location, it deals moderate Shadow damage to players standing in the marked area, creates a Nightmare Bloom, and spawns a Dread Horror.
  • The Nightmare Bloom stays on the ground for 1 minute. Every 3 seconds, it deals low Shadow damage to all player standing on it. If no one is standing on it, then it spawns a Dread Horror instead of dealing damage.
  • Dread Horrors are very low health mobs with a melee attack and no ability. In Heroic mode, players within 5 yards of a Dread Horror deal 50% less damage.
• Call Defiled Spirit is cast every 30 seconds. It summons two void zones, with a non-attackable druid spirit standing in the middle. There is no indication regarding where the ability is cast. Players standing in the void zones are instantly stunned for 6 seconds by Defiled Vines, which can and should be dispelled. After 5 seconds the void zone detonates, dealing a high amount of Shadow damage to players in it.

Taerar uses 2 abilities: Shades of Taerar and Seeping Fog.

• Shades of Taerar summons 2 copies of Taerar with much lower health and damage. They have a single ability, a lesser version of Corrupted Breath. They do not apply Mark of Taerar.
• Every 15 seconds, Taerar spawns 2 void zones at the location of random raid members. The void zone itself is inoffensive but after 2 seconds, it becomes a cloud of Seeping Fog that moves very slowly around the room and disappears after 1 minute. Everyone hit by the cloud is put to sleep for 6 seconds, taking low Nature damage every second. This effect can be dispelled.

In Heroic mode, when Taerar is in the air, he casts an ability called Bellowing Roar every 40 seconds, fearing all raid members for 3 seconds.

Lethon uses 2 abilities: Siphon Spirit and Gloom.

• Siphon Spirit is cast approximately every 45 seconds and summons a number of Spirits at the location of Ysondre's group. These Spirits do nothing but move slowly towards Lethon. Every Spirit that reaches Lethon heals both him and Ysondre for a lot of health (since they share health, it basically heals them for double the amount).
• Gloom is cast every 3 seconds. It targets a random raid member near Lethon, creating a large purple ground effect (10-yard radius) to indicate where a small ball of nightmare will hit 4 seconds later, dealing mild Shadow damage to every raid member still in the effect.

In Heroic mode, when Lethon is in the air, he casts an ability called Shadow Burst every 15 seconds. It targets 2 random raid members and after 6 seconds causes the 3 players closest to the targeted raid member to take low Shadow damage every 3 seconds for 21 seconds and to have their movement speed reduced by 10% during that time. This effect stacks and can be dispelled.

Emeriss uses 2 abilities: Volatile Infection and Essence of Corruption.

• Essence of Corruption is used every 30 seconds and summons 2 Essences of Corruption, which keep trying to cast Corruption. The cast of Corruption can be interrupted and the adds can be stunned.
• Volatile Infection is cast every 45 seconds and debuff 1 or 2 random raid members near Emeriss to deal low Nature damage every 3 seconds for 90 seconds to themselves and raid members within 10 yards.

In Heroic mode, when Emeriss is in the air, she corrupts the room with Corruption of the Dream. This causes all adds spawned by the bosses or their abilities to leave behind a corrupted mushroom when they die. The mushroom grows over the course of a few seconds and then explodes, dealing high Nature damage to nearby players.

Each dragon has an energy bar that fills up over time and serves to indicate when they are going to cast their main ability:

• Ysondre: Call Defiled Spirit (every 30 seconds);
• Taerar: Shades of Taerar (every 45 seconds);
• Lethon: Siphon Spirit (every 45 seconds);
• Emeriss: Volatile Infection (every 45 seconds).

This is really not important at all, but we felt compelled to mention it for completeness' sake.

• 24 Sep. 2016: Cleared up overview of the fight regarding how dragons activate.
• 18 Sep. 2016: Added more details following pottm's review.