Star Augur Etraeus 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. Mythic Notes
  • 6. Bloodlust/Heroism/Time Warp
  • 7. Changelog
• +Abilities
  • 1. Outline
  • 2. Phase One
  • 3. Phase Two
  • 4. Phase Three
  • 5. Phase Four
• ×Normal/Heroic Strategy/Tactics
  • 1. Positioning
    • 1.1. Phase One: The Dome of Observation
    • 1.2. Phase Two: Absolute Zero
    • 1.3. Phase Three: A Shattered World
    • 1.4. Phase Four: Inevitable Fate
• +Mythic Strategy
  • 1. Mythic Mode Abilities
    • 1.1. All Phases: Grand Conjunction
    • 1.2. Phase Two: Absolute Zero
    • 1.3. Phase Three: A Shattered World
    • 1.4. Phase Four: Inevitable Fate
  • 2. Strategy
    • 2.1. Phase One: The Dome of Observation
    • 2.2. Phase Two: Absolute Zero
    • 2.3. Stage Three: A Shattered World
    • 2.4. Stage Four: Inevitable Fate
  • 3. Changelog

General Information

On this page, you will find a working strategy to defeat Star Augur Etraeus in The Nighthold 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 Star Augur Etraeus guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.

This phase is extremely short and features only 2 mechanics. The raid can choose to stack for the extra healing during Coronal Ejection or position early for the next phase. Your first (and likely only) Coronal Ejection will occur about 15 seconds into the encounter. This is the only raid damage during the phase and lasts 8 seconds. Healers should have no trouble keeping these players alive, and externals and personal cooldowns are unnecessary.

Etraeus will continually blast the main tank with his Starburst. No taunt swaps are necessary here, though it is recommended whichever tank is sturdier should take the boss during this phase.

At 90% health, Star Augur Etraeus enters Absolute Zero.

The ranged and healers should be spread out across half the room; space for Shatter is necessary, but be careful not to outrange your healers. Try to keep the area behind the boss clear, as the melee and tanks will need this space to deal with the Absolute Zero debuff.

Anyone affected by Icy Ejection should ensure they are at least 8 yards away from other players before planting their feet and awaiting the Shatter. The ranged and healers should avoid crowding the melee groups so that the melee only have to step out a few yards for their debuffs, rather than running all the way out to ranged.

The melee and main tank should form an equilateral triangle; two groups of melee DPS on either side behind the boss. No one, including the current off tank, should be within a 6-yard radius of the main tank, due to the splash damage of Etraeus' Iceburst casts. When Etraeus applies Gravitational Pull to the tank, the tanks should perform a taunt swap.

The tank with Gravitational Pull should stand behind the 2 melee stacks, ensuring they are not within a 5-yard radius of any other players.

1. Once Comet Impact occurs, the Gravitational Pull debuff will be reapplied to the tank, along with the Absolute Zero debuff.
2. The tank must quickly dip into one of the melee stacks, which will clear the Absolute Zero debuff.
3. The tank should then step out of the melee group and await the next Comet Impact.
4. The tank needs to clear this Absolute Zero in the other melee stack, or he will freeze the previous group due to their Chilled debuff.
5. The tank should continue to alternate between the melee stacks in this fashion until Gravitational Pull no longer occurs (after 3 cycles).

When Etraeus begins his cast of Frigid Nova, the raid should collapse onto the melee stacks to avoid taking fatal damage.

At 60% health, Star Augur Etraeus enters A Shattered World.

The melee no longer have to be in separate stacks once you enter this phase. Etraeus will begin stacking Felburst on his current target. Assuming no other abilities are taking place, the tanks should perform a taunt swap every 4 stacks or so.

Gravitational Pull still occurs in this phase. This now triggers a Fel Impact, which is applied to the current tank. The Fel Impact should be used to clear the patches of Felflame dropped by the rest of the raid. It is particularly important to keep the area around the melee clear, as their space is restricted.

The boss will now cast Fel Ejection, which begins occasionally, but will increase in frequency and number of applications the longer the phase lasts. Players with Fel Ejection should try and ensure that the puddles of Felflame they drop cover as small an area as possible. The puddles can overlap with each other, but they will also deal multiple instances of damage, meaning this can be dangerous without personal cooldowns or immunities. A good way to handle Felflame is to take micro steps in a square pattern, which allows all 4 patches of Felflame to be easily cleared by a Fel Impact.

When the boss casts Fel Nova, all players should get to the edge of the room the avoid taking fatal damage.

Towards the end of this phase, space in the room will begin to become very restricted. The raid must take special care not to use their real estate poorly, or the raid may become overwhelmed by the pools of Felflame.

At 30% health, Star Augur Etraeus enters Inevitable Fate. All existing patches of Felflame are instantly cleared.

This phase acts as a "race to the finish". Etraeus will begin to stack Voidburst on the main tank, which will begin to proliferate through the raid as the phase progresses. Eventually the entire raid will be afflicted with the debuff and the stacks will continually increase over time; at a certain point, healers will no longer be able to keep up with the damage intake. It is imperative, therefore, that the raid enters this phase with all DPS alive and cooldowns available. When no other mechanics prevent taunt swaps (e.g. Gravitational Pull), the tanks should trade aggro at around 5-7 stacks of Voidburst. If you trade stacks at low numbers of Voidburst, the debuff will propagate faster, however, at higher numbers of stacks the damage might be dangerous to non-tanks.

Void Ejection will cause Voidlings to be regularly spawned throughout the phase. These adds are trivial and do not require any special focus; instead, cleave them down with incidental damage. They have an aggro table and can be picked up by the tanks, and their melee swings apply stacks of Voidburst.

When Gravitational Pull is applied to the tank, a taunt swap should be performed. The tank with the debuff should get to the edge of the room with the Void Impact to spawn the Thing That Should Not Be, otherwise it will shield itself and the boss with Void Shift.

The Thing That Should Not Be is the highest priority in this phase. The group should use Bloodlust on the first add to eliminate it as quickly as possible, then switch back to the boss. The entire raid must turn their back to the add during Witness the Void casts, or be feared for 8 seconds.

When Void Nova is cast, Etraeus will deal weak raid wide Shadow damage and apply a stack of Voidburst to all players.

Ideally, you will only have to kill 2 or 3 of the Thing That Should Not Be adds. If the boss is at around 5% health or less and a fresh Thing That Should Not Be is spawned, the raid should ignore it and instead finish the boss.