Sisters of the Moon 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
  • 5. Positioning
  • 6. Bloodlust/Heroism/Time Warp
  • 7. Changelog
• +Abilities
  • 1. Overview
  • 2. All Phases
    • 2.1. Font of Elune
      • 2.1.1. Lunar Suffusion
      • 2.1.2. Umbra Suffusion
      • 2.1.3. Astral Purge
  • 3. Phase One: The Huntress
    • 3.1. Huntress Kasparian
      • 3.1.1. Twilight Glaive
      • 3.1.2. Moon Glaive
    • 3.2. Captain Yathae Moonstrike
      • 3.2.1. Incorporeal Shot
      • 3.2.2. Twilight Volley
      • 3.2.3. Shadow Shot
    • 3.3. Priestess Lunaspyre
      • 3.3.1. Embrace of the Eclipse
      • 3.3.2. Moon Burn
      • 3.3.3. Lunar Strike
  • 4. Phase Two: Bow of the Night
    • 4.1. Captain Yathae Moonstrike
      • 4.1.1. Call Moontalon
      • 4.1.2. Rapid Shot
      • 4.1.3. Twilight Volley
    • 4.2. Huntress Kasparian
      • 4.2.1. Glaive Storm
      • 4.2.2. Twilight Glaive
      • 4.2.3. Spectral Glaive
    • 4.3. Priestess Lunaspyre
      • 4.3.1. Embrace of the Eclipse
      • 4.3.2. Moon Burn
      • 4.3.3. Lunar Strike
  • 5. Phase Three: Wrath of Elune
    • 5.1. Priestess Lunaspyre
      • 5.1.1. Lunar Beacon
      • 5.1.2. Lunar Fire
      • 5.1.3. Moon Burn
    • 5.2. Huntress Kasparian
      • 5.2.1. Glaive Storm
      • 5.2.2. Twilight Glaive
      • 5.2.3. Spectral Glaive
    • 5.3. Captain Yathae Moonstrike
      • 5.3.1. Incorporeal Shot
      • 5.3.2. Twilight Volley
      • 5.3.3. Shadow Shot
  • 6. Changelog
• ×Normal/Heroic Strategy/Tactics
  • 1. Overview
  • 2. Positioning
    • 2.1. All Phases
    • 2.2. Phase One
    • 2.3. Phase Two
    • 2.4. Phase Three
  • 3. Tank Concerns
  • 4. Healing Concerns
  • 5. Bloodlust/Heroism/Time Warp
• +Mythic Strategy
  • 1. Mythic Mode Abilities
  • 2. Strategy
  • 3. Changelog

General Information

On this page, you will find a working strategy to defeat Sisters of the Moon in Tomb of Sargeras 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 Sisters of the Moon guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.

Strong spatial awareness is necessary to prevail against the Sisters of the Moon, as they have a deep ability pool that interacts with the Font of Elune in a variety of ways. Many of the mechanics overlap through several of the phases, but the presence of new unique abilities may affect the way the raid adapts to them. Though a complex multi-phase encounter, the Sisters of the Moon is not an overly lengthy encounter, requiring strong focus for only a moderate period of time.

The Sisters of the Moon share a health pool.

The raid should maintain a "loose" spread throughout the room to minimize movement from the avoidable mechanics while still being able to quickly collapse for mechanics requiring a damage split. This positioning is flexible but should be maintained throughout all phases.

Throughout the entire encounter, all players should be conscious of their Lunar Suffusion and/or Umbra Suffusion stacks, as letting them stack too high will result in unnecessary additional damage and potential fatalities. Conversely, clearing too often will cause the group to take too much consistent damage from Astral Purge, so a happy medium must be achieved for maximum efficiency. The damage taken from Astral Purge when clearing will also scale off your current stacks, incentivizing you to avoid reaching very high stacks. Generally speaking, a good time to clear your stacks via Astral Purge is around 7-10 stacks on Heroic difficulty. Clearing more often is fine if your class is less affected by movement or the movement of the Font of Elune presents a good opportunity.

Huntress Kasparian will engage the raid at the beginning of the fight, while Captain Yathae Moonstrike and Priestess Lunaspyre will remain ethereal. Despite their spectral forms, they are able to move about the room freely, and will do so periodically. While this has no significant impact on their mechanics, it will force the raid to form adaptive raid positioning on the fly in order to survive.

The tanks should keep Huntress Kasparian near the edges of the font, as it will give the ranged camp more space to maneuver around the targeted abilities of the sisters. The tanks should stack on top of each other in order to ensure they split the damage of Moon Glaive. The glaive will also bounce to a third nearby target, which the group can engineer to be a target with strong and reliable cooldowns. A great candidate are Rogues using Feint and Elusiveness. After Moon Glaive is cast, the current tank should immediately clear their Discorporate debuff by triggering an Astral Purge. If the tank is very low on health and has very high suffusion stacks, it may be wise to wait a few seconds for surgical healing to avoid being killed.

All raid members should be very aware of Twilight Glaive when it is cast, as it can easily kill, especially if you are currently affected by Umbra Suffusion. The return path is especially dangerous, as the boss being moved can affect the path of the glaive and cause unexpected damage or fatalities.

Incorporeal Shot will occur infrequently, but usually not more than a couple times a phase. If the targeted player has an immunity, such as Cloak of Shadows or Ice Block, they should move to the edge of the room and activate it right before the shot fires. If the targeted player does not have an immunity, the affected player should stay stationary within the line (meaning they should only move vertically along the path of the shot, if necessary). As many raid members as possible should group along the line, splitting the damage evenly. Raid cooldowns may be necessary depending on the timing of Incorporeal Shot. Generally speaking, damage reduction cooldowns (or hybrid cooldowns )are a better choice here, such as Aura Mastery.

Twilight Volley should be avoided and Huntress Kasparian should be repositioned if there is a volley separating the melee and ranged groups, as this will make it more difficult to correctly spread and stack for the other mechanics.

Anyone affected by Moon Burn should immediately clear their stacks by triggering an Astral Purge, as the damage is reasonably high and persists for a long duration. The raid will constantly be taking passive damage from Lunar Strike and Shadow Shot, though this cannot be averted. It is noteworthy, however, as it should affect every individual's decision making with regards to their current suffusion stack and the potential combination of other abilities delivering mortal damage.

When Embrace of the Eclipse is cast, the entire raid should use available damage cooldowns to immediately focus Huntress Kasparian. It is essential that the DPS save cooldowns for this shield, as failure to break the shield in time can easily result in a raid wipe. By the same token, healers should have throughput cooldowns, such as Tranquility or Healing Tide Totem, available to break the healing absorb. Barring any overlap with avoidable mechanics (for example, Twilight Glaive), the raid should group up to improve raid healing. This ability is the most direct threat to your group's success, and should be handled with care.

Phase Two commences once the sisters have reached 70% health. Huntress Kasparian will fade into her ethereal form, while Captain Yathae Moonstrike will become corporeal and engage the raid. Be aware of your push timing, as abilities that begin in Phase One will carry over to Phase Two until their conclusion. The most dangerous example of this is Incorporeal Shot; if the charge up begins, it will complete regardless of the phase transition.

Captain Moonstrike will cast Call Moontalon a few seconds into the phase. The raid can choose to immediately focus Moontalon or continue damage on Captain Moonstrike. Regardless of your group's decision, once Moontalon begins casting Deathly Screech the entire raid should immediately finish Moontalon before the damage ramps up to lethal levels.

Glaive Storm and Twilight Glaive should be avoided at all costs, as they can easily result in fatalities within the group. Continue to deal with Moon Burn in the same fashion as Phase One. The recipient of Rapid Shot should pop a defensive cooldown, while the healers should ensure they receive surgical healing.

Embrace of the Eclipse will also occur in this phase, and should be dealt with in the same vein as the previous phase.

Phase Three commences once the sisters have reached 40% health. Captain Yathae Moonstrike will fade into the ethereal, while the final challenger, Priestess Lunaspyre, will emerge into her corporeal form.

The tanks will now have to deal with Lunar Fire, a stacking debuff that will force a taunt swap every 5+ stacks. It deals Arcane damage, meaning that staying on Umbra Suffusion is preferable if you are the current tank. Moon Burn will also continue for the rest of the raid, and should be cleared via Astral Purge as usual.

Lunar Beacon is a new ability unique to this phase. Affected targets should switch to Umbra Suffusion and use personal cooldowns if necessary. The healers should also be wary and provide surgical healing as necessary. Ideally, the affected player should move to the edges of the room as the debuff expires to ensure that Lunar Barrage does not damage or silence any nearby group members.

Captain Yathae Moonstrike will perform the same abilities as in the first phase; Incorporeal Shot, Twilight Volley, and Shadow Shot. Huntress Kasparian, on the other hand, will perform her abilities from the second phase; Glaive Storm, Twilight Glaive, and Spectral Glaive. There is no change to how these abilities are executed functionally, however, players should be intelligent with their positioning and aware of their current debuffs. For example, it would be unwise for a player affected by Lunar Beacon to assist with the soaking of Incorporeal Shot, as they could die from the combination of damage or cause Lunar Barrage to hit the raid.

During this phase, the constant raid damage will be the highest, as the tanks will be contending with a ticking debuff while the raid will be hit with several of the sisters' unavoidable abilities ( Moon Burn, Spectral Glaive, and Shadow Shot). The combination of Glaive Storm, Twilight Glaive, and Incorporeal Shot can also be problematic and might require quick raid movement and raid cooldowns from the healers.

There are not many tank mechanics in the fight, however, the positioning of the sisters is important to the raid's success. Ideally, the active sister should always be kept near the edges of the room, giving the group maximum space to maneuver in the main space of the room. During the first phase, the tanks should ensure they are topped off before every Moon Glaive and have active mitigation ready. The same is true during Phase Three when Lunar Fire is being applied.

Moontalon should be held by the tank who is not tanking Captain Yathae Moonstrike.

The main responsibility of the fight is placed on the shoulders of the healers. The raid and tank damage is very high throughout the fight, and mindful attention to more focused damage is key. In addition to the sisters' mechanics, a large portion of the group's damage will stem from Astral Purge as the group will be clearing often. Special concerns encompass:

• Incorporeal Shot will deal heavy raid damage if it is not immuned by the targeted player. Damage reduction cooldowns are preferable, as throughput cooldowns are better saved for Embrace of the Eclipse.
• Embrace of the Eclipse will envelop the entire raid in an absorb that will explode after 12 seconds if it is not removed by healing. Throughput cooldowns are best served for this purpose, such as Tranquility or Healing Tide Totem.
• The targets of Spectral Glaive, Shadow Shot, and Lunar Strike may require spot healing.
• Recipients of focused abilities, such as Rapid Shot and Moon Burn, will require focused healing and potential external cooldowns.
• When Moontalon begins casting Deathly Screech you should be ready with raid cooldowns if the damage begins stacking too high.
• There is a significant amount of avoidable damage in the fight, and chances are your group will not avoid all of it. Be ready with quick fingers to save any careless raid members.

Bloodlust usage for this encounter is extremely flexible, and can be adjusted to suit the raid's needs. One possible usage is to deal with the first Embrace of the Eclipse, as it will occur about a minute into the fight and your group will not have damage cooldowns available from the opener. Another possible use is to quickly dispatch Moontalon from the fight. Finally, it can be used as the final phase commences. Traditionally this is the most difficult phase and also the longest, making this the recommended default for groups starting this encounter for the first time.