The Restless Cabal Strategy Guide in Crucible of Storms Raid

The fight against the Restless Cabal features "phases" that are based on which relic is currently active and which boss is holding which relic. The raid will have to plan on the order that they wish to take the relics in, as otherwise a bad combination could lead to a quick wipe.

• Move the boss to proper relic of power.
• Taunt swap for Shear Mind at 4 stacks.
• Prepare large defensive cooldowns for Void Stone.
• One ranged DPS will need to maintain threat on Zaxasj due to Aphotic Blast.

• Top the raid off before Void Stone is used.
• Use big AoE healing cooldowns for Tempest Caller.
• Prepare to top the raid off when allowing Witness the End casts to complete.
• Dispel Promises of Power when necessary, but attempt to leave it on the player as long as safely possible.

• Gain the Promises of Power debuff when able to safely do so.
• When Void Stone is used, focus damage on the boss that used the stone in order to break the Umbral Shell.
• When Trident of Deep Ocean is used, focus damage on enemies within the shell to destroy the bubble and avoid Abyssal Collapse.
• Use personal cooldowns to prevent reaching 25% health during Tempest Caller.
• Quickly damage Visage from Beyond to 1 health to prevent Terrifying Echo and avoid increased healing from Coalesce Void.
• One ranged DPS will need to maintain threat on Zaxasj due to Aphotic Blast.

• Run away from the raid with Crushing Doubt.
• Stay away from the player that has aggro on Zaxasj.
• Soak Void Crash after it lands and reduces in size twice.
• Interrupt all but one Witness the End cast to separate the explosions.
• Avoid Cerebral Assault.

• Make sure each boss only uses each relic once to prevent Power Overwhelming. The boss will select the relic closest to them.

We recommend using Bloodlust/ Heroism during one of the relics if the raid is struggling to get past one in particular. If you do not have a specifically troubling relic we recommend using Bloodlust/Heroism either on the pull or on the second Tempest Caller relic.

There are 3 relics of power located in the fighting area. Normally, these do not do anything, but whenever one of the two bosses (who do not share health) reaches 75%, 50%, and 25% health, they will "use" the relic that is closest to them at that time.

When used, each relic has a certain effect that affects the raid for a time.

Relics are not consumed when a boss uses them, but if a boss uses the same relic more than once during the fight, they gain a 300% damage increased through Power Overwhelming, which is essentially cause for a wipe.

The three relics available in the fight are as follows:

• Void Stone
• Trident of Deep Ocean
• Tempest Caller

As soon as a relic is activated, the boss will gain a 10% increase to their damage done.

Upon use of the relic, the boss will gain two effects, Embrace of the Void and Umbral Shell. The first effect, Embrace of the Void, will reduce all healing by 100%, but can be removed by breaking Umbral Shell, which is an absorb that is placed on the boss.

The trident grants both bosses a shield through the buff Custody of the Deep, which redirects 75% of the damage dealt to them to a bubble. If not enough damage is dealt to break the bubble, then it will cause Abyssal Collapse, which deals Frost damage to the raid based on the amount of shield remaining.

Tempest Caller is the most deadly of the three relics, mostly due to Annihilate, which causes Storm of Annihilation to instantly kill any target struck while below 25% health.

The Storm will deal damage every second for 15 seconds, while also causing players to deal 50% less damage for 3 seconds.

Upon reaching 1 health, the bosses will attempt to heal back up to 20% of their maximum health. In order to prevent this, both bosses must be brought to 1 health at the same time to defeat them.

If you step off the central platform, you will take Shadow damage and have your healing and damage done reduced by 99%, for 30 seconds.

This boss does not melee, and instead uses Aphotic Blast (explained below) as his primary attack.

Aphotic Blast launches a bolt at a player, dealing Shadow damage in a 5-yard radius and causing those hit to generate 150% more threat for 30 seconds. As the distance between the boss and the target increases, the damage decreases.

Once Aphotic Blast expires, the target will be turned into an Agent of Demise, causing them to be hostile to all allies and reducing the amount of healing they receive by 50%.

Cerebral Assault is an ability Zaxasj uses to deal Shadow damage in a frontal cone, causing any player hit to be hostile to allies for 6 seconds.

A player becomes a Dark Herald, causing them to cast Promises of Power on players in a 5-yard radius, every 5 seconds for 10 seconds.

Promises of Power is a stacking buff that increases damage dealt by the affected target by 10% for each stack, but decreases their maximum health by 10% for each stack. If Promises is dispelled, the dispeller will receive Shadow damage upon removing the debuff.

When a Relic of Power is activated by Zaxasj, he will create a Visage from Beyond, which lasts for 3 minutes. The Visage is unkillable and will always regenerate its health upon reaching 1 health, but it must be "killed" (brought to 1 health) in order to prevent Terrifying Echo from being cast. This spell, when completed, will cause all players to take Shadow damage and be feared for 6 seconds.

The Visage will heal over time with Coalesce Void. This heals for 1% of their maximum health each 2 seconds, with the healing getting stronger over time, as they survive for longer.

Fa'thuul will deal a large amount of Physical damage to the current target and put a debuff on them, reducing their stats by 10% for each stack, for 20 seconds.

This ability will launch a ball at a location that deals Shadow damage in a 10-yard radius. If nobody is hit by Void Crash, it will launch again to a new location and have its size and damage dealt reduced. The reduction can only happen for 2 additional bounces, at which point it must be soaked.

This will place a DoT on a target, dealing Shadow damage every 2 seconds for 12 seconds. The damage will continue to increase after each tick, as well as reducing the target's movement speed by 50%.

Once Crushing Doubt expires, it will trigger Mental Anguish.

Mental Anguish causes the target of Crushing Doubt to explode for a large amount of Shadow damage, once the DoT expires. The damage dealt to all players is reduced, depending on the distance between the target and the other players.

When a Relic of Power is activated by Fa'thuul, he will summon multiple adds. They will cast Witness the End, which destroys themselves, causing a large amount of Shadow damage to all players. When hit by this, players will also take 100% more damage from Witness the End for 12 seconds.

The primary mechanic of the fight is managing the relics. The way we recommend handling each relic is listed below:

• Tempest Caller: Use personal defensive cooldowns as well as raid-wide healing cooldowns. Additionally, the player with Dark Herald should move away from the group, as Promises of Power will likely cause players to die.
• Void Stone: Prepare single target damage cooldowns as well as defensive cooldowns for tanks, as tanks will have trouble surviving the time without healing.
• Trident of Deep Ocean: Simply do as much damage to enemies within the bubble as possible.

If one boss activates a relic more than once in the same encounter they will gain Power Overwhelming, which will very likely cause a wipe. The recommended order to activate relics is not set in stone and can be adjusted to the individual raids needs or timings. However, this is the order we currently recommend.

1. Boss #1: Tempest Caller.
2. Boss #2: Void Stone.
3. Boss #1: Trident of Deep Ocean.
4. Boss #2: Tempest Caller.
5. Boss #1: Void Stone.
6. Boss #2: Trident of Deep Ocean.

We recommend starting with a Tempest Caller, as it is very likely the raid will have every defensive cooldown available for this. We then want to delay the next Tempest Caller until healers have their 3-minute cooldowns available, as this will be very hard to survive otherwise. Tempest Caller also acts as time for DPS cooldowns to recharge for Void Stone and Trident of Deep Ocean, as those will require high DPS to overcome.

If you are finding that your healers do not have cooldowns for the second Tempest Caller, we recommend pushing Boss #1 to Void Stone before doing Boss #2 Tempest Caller. Alternatively, if you are confident in the DPS you could simply do Boss #2 Trident of Deep Ocean as the fourth relic and do Tempest Caller as the sixth.

The boss you attack first does not actually matter, as they need to die within 12 seconds of each other or they will heal due to Pact of the Restless. However, Fa'thuul may be easier to attack at the start of the fight to allow the designated ranged DPS to establish threat on Zaxasj.

In addition to the mechanics each relic causes, each boss will cause their own special mechanic upon activating a relic. Fa'thuul spawns three adds that will cast Witness the End. Simply interrupt all but one of them for each set of casts to separate the detonations.

Zaxasj spawns one Visage from Beyond that will cast Terrifying Echo. In order to prevent Terrifying Echo you must damage this add to 1 health within 15 seconds.

There are a few caveats about these additional mechanics. During Fa'thuul's Tempest Caller you may want to interrupt all three of the adds to avoid overwhelming the healer. You will likely want to designate a few capable DPS with cooldowns to prioritize the Visage from Beyond during Zaxasj's Void Stone, which will allow the rest of the DPS to quickly remove the healing reduction.

Firstly, Aphotic Blast should be used to allow a ranged DPS player to tank Zaxasj. Since this is the boss' primary attack, the designated DPS player should just make sure that they get attacked by the boss first. After that, the increased threat generation from Aphotic Blast should make it easy for them to maintain threat. We recommend Balance Druids for this task, as they have access to many damage reductions as well as a taunt with Guardian Affinity. Aphotic Blast only has a 30 yard range, so the ranged DPS with threat will be able to move Zaxasj while still being in range to deal damage (moving the boss will be needed for relic positioning).

Dark Herald is a very high risk and high reward mechanic of the fight, allowing players to receive Promises of Power by standing within 5 yards of the player with Dark Herald. Promises of Power will continue to stack even if the player leaves the 5 yard radius. Promises of Power will be very dangerous to have during any relics that were activated by Fa'thuul, as Witness the End will likely kill the player. Additionally, Void Stone can be very risky and Tempest Caller will lead to a very quick death. If used correctly, Promises of Power can be incredibly rewarding. We recommend designating a specific number of DPS to receive the buff at a time to allow healers to coordinate dispels. Healers will likely need to dispel before Crushing Doubt detonates, and players with Promises of Power will need to be extra careful with Cerebral Assault as it will kill the player.

The primary healing concerns will be topping the raid before Void Stones and keeping the raid above 25% health during Tempest Caller. Additionally, there will be some minor bursts of damage from Witness the End. Outside of these moments, healers will be managing dispels on players with Promises of Power, and ensuring the ranged DPS that is tanking Zaxasj is kept alive.

Tanks will be taking turns tanking Fa'Thuul, tanks should never attempt to tank Zaxasj. We recommend taunt swapping Fa'thuul at 4 stacks of Shear Mind. Additionally, tanks will need to be sure to have defensive cooldowns prepared for Void Stones, as they will still be taking damage but will be unable to be healed. Tanks will also be responsible for moving Fa'thuul to the respective relics to avoid Power Overwhelming (and to generally follow the raid's strategy).

We recommend using Bloodlust/ Heroism/ Time Warp during one of the relics, if the raid is struggling to get past one in particular. If you do not have a specifically troubling relic, we recommend using Bloodlust/Heroism/Time Warp either on the pull or on the second Tempest Caller relic. We do not recommend using it on the first Tempest Caller or between the first and second Tempest Caller, as this would likely not allow healers to recharge their cooldowns.