Il'gynoth 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
  • 5. Changelog
• ×Abilities
  • 1. Generalities
  • 2. Phase One: Outside
    • 2.1. Eye of Il'gynoth
    • 2.2. Nightmare Ichors
    • 2.3. Forces of Corruption
      • 2.3.1. Dominator Tentacles
      • 2.3.2. Deathglare Tentacles
      • 2.3.3. Corruptor Tentacles
      • 2.3.4. Nightmare Horror
  • 3. Phase Two
    • 3.1. Tentacles Left Outside
  • 4. Changelog
• +Normal/Heroic Strategy/Tactics
  • 1. Overview
  • 2. Phase One
    • 2.1. Tanks
    • 2.2. Healers
    • 2.3. DPS
    • 2.4. Everyone
  • 3. When to Use Bloodlust/Heroism/Time Warp
  • 4. Changelog
• +Mythic Strategy
  • 1. Mythic Changes
    • 1.1. Phase One
    • 1.2. Phase Two
  • 2. Strategy
    • 2.1. Phase One
    • 2.2. Phase Two
  • 3. Changelog
• +Loot
  • 1. Relics
  • 2. Rings and Trinkets
  • 3. Armor

General Information

On this page, we list all the abilities from the Il'gynoth 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.

For the encounter against Il'gynoth in Ny'alotha, please refer to our dedicated guide:

The encounter alternates an outside phase (Phase One) with an inside phase (Phase Two). During the outside phase, you have to kill a specific number of a specific add in a specific location to gain access to the inside phase for a limited period of time, during which you can damage Il'gynoth. You are given 2 Phase Two to kill Il'gynoth, after which he will wipe the raid with Final Torpor.

During Phase One, you will face:

• a number of adds, collectively referred to as the Forces of Corruption
  • Dominator Tentacles;
  • Deathglare Tentacles;
  • Nightmare Horror;
  • Corruptor Tentacles;
• Nightmare Ichors;
• and the Eye of Il'gynoth.

The Eye of Il'gynoth needs to be brought down to 0 health in order for the raid to gain access to Phase Two where Il'gynoth can actually be damaged. The Eye of Il'gynoth can only be damaged, 5% at a time, by killing Nightmare Ichors close to it (you need to kill 20 in total). Nightmare Ichors spawn when Forces of Corruption adds are killed (the number of spawned Nightmare Ichors depending on the add killed).

Depending on your raid's DPS and the difficulty, Phase One can take between 3 and 5 minutes.

The Eye of Il'gynoth is immobile and does nothing, besides casting Nightmare Gaze at a random raid member every 2 to 3 seconds, dealing moderate Shadow damage.

It is protected by Stuff of Nightmares, which reduces damage taken by 99%; the only exception being the Nightmare Explosion triggered by the death of a nearby Nightmare Ichor.

Nightmare Ichors are blood blobs that appear when Forces of Corruption adds are killed. Spawn rates are as follows:

• Dominator Tentacles spawn 2 Nightmare Ichors;
• Deathglare Tentacles spawn 2 Nightmare Ichors;
• Corruptor Tentacles spawn 1 Nightmare Ichor;
• Nightmare Horrors spawn 4 Nightmare Ichors.

Nightmare Ichors fixate on a random raid member and apply a stacking DoT on them called Touch of Corruption. It deals increasing Shadow damage every 2 seconds. This can be dispelled.

When they die, they cause a Nightmare Explosion, dealing damage to nearby players and removing 5% health from the Eye of Il'gynoth, if it is nearby.

In both Normal and Heroic modes, the Forces of Corruption follow the same spawn pattern, which dictates the flow of Phase One.

1. You start the fight with 2 Dominator Tentacles, one on each side of the Eye of Il'gynoth.
2. 20 seconds into the fight, a Deathglare Tentacle spawns next to one of the Dominator Tentacles.
3. 70 seconds into the fight, a Nightmare Horror spawns.
4. 90 seconds into the fight, 2 Deathglare Tentacle and 2 Corruptor Tentacles spawn in random places next to the Eye of Il'gynoth.
5. 180 seconds into the fight, 4 Corruptor Tentacles or 2 Corruptor Tentacles and 1 Deathglare Tentacle spawn in random places next to the Eye of Il'gynoth.

If you add up the number of Nightmare Ichors spawned by all these adds, you get exactly 20. Past the 3-minute mark, random tentacles will spawn every minute.

Despite the spawn pattern being seemingly complex, what this roughly means is that you will handle the adds one group at a time, except for those that spawn at the 70-second mark, because the Nightmare Horror will still be alive at this point. There will be some overlap at times, when the Nightmare Ichors from previous tentacles are still alive when new ones spawn.

Now that spawn patterns have been explained, let us look at the abilities of each of these adds,.

Dominator Tentacles are only present at the beginning of Phase One. They each need to be picked up by a tank. In terms of abilities, they alternate between casting Nightmarish Fury and Ground Slam at their tank.

• Nightmarish Fury deals high Physical damage to the tank ever 0.8 seconds for 6 seconds. In Heroic+ mode, every time a Dominator Tentacle attacks a player with Nightmarish Fury, its Physical damage (so from both its abilities) is permanently increased by 5%.
• Ground Slam targets a random raid member and after 2 seconds slams the ground in their direction, inflicting moderate Physical damage to all players in a line in this direction and knocking them back.

If there are no players in melee range, a Dominator Tentacle repeatedly casts Rupturing Roar, dealing raid-wide damage.

Deathglare Tentacles have a single ability: Mind Flay. This spell applies an 8-second DoT that deals low Shadow damage every 2 seconds to a random raid member. It has a 2.5-second cast and can be interrupted.

While these adds do not need to be tanked, they appear to melee attack random raid members in their melee range.

Corruptor Tentacles have low health, compared to other adds in the fight, and have a single ability: Spew Corruption. It causes nearby players to take moderate Shadow damage and then leave a pool of Nightmare Corruption at their location every 2 seconds for 8 seconds.

The Nightmare Horror is a large add with a lot of health that you will spend most of Phase One killing, while dealing with any tentacles that spawn at the same time. It needs to be tanked and has 2 abilities: Eye of Fate and Seeping Corruption.

• Eye of Fate is cast every 10 seconds and deals high Shadow damage in front of the Nightmare Horror, debuffing the tank and players hit to take 20% increased damage from Eye of Fate for 29 seconds. This effect stacks and requires a tank swap.
• Seeping Corruption causes the Nightmare Horror to drop a Nightmare Corruption void zone at its location every few seconds.

Once the Eye of Il'gynoth is brought to 0 health, it disappears, revealing the room behind it where Il'gynoth resides, and Phase Two starts.

Immediately, Il'gynoth starts casting Dark Reconstitution. This is a 50-second cast at the end of which Il'gynoth kills everyone still present in his room. This means that you have 50 seconds to kill Il'gynoth, otherwise you will have to go through Phase One again before being able to finish off Il'gynoth.

In addition to Dark Reconstitution, Il'gynoth casts Cursed Blood every 15 seconds. This targets a number of raid members (between 2 and 6, depending on raid size). For 8 seconds, they take low Shadow damage every 2 seconds. When the effect ends, they detonate, dealing high Shadow damage to all players within 11 yards.

Finally, if you have extra Nightmare Ichors spawn in Phase One, any remaining ones will keep following their targets, once the Eye is dead. If these players all enter the chamber in rapid succession, the Nightmare Ichors will explode and deal very high damage to all raid members.

Tentacles left alive at the end of Phase One will continue to cast their abilities. Most notably, Dominator Tentacles will spam Rupturing Roar if there is no player in melee range.

If Il'gynoth is not killed, Phase One restarts exactly as it was before. Tentacles that were not killed from the previous Phase One will still be there and need to be taken care of.

• 18 Sep. 2016: Added more details following pottm's review.

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