This guide is intended to provide a comprehensive description of theencounter with Ultraxion in Dragon Soul. It is targeted to anyonewho desires to understand the fight mechanics.

This guide applies to patch 4.3 of World of Warcraft.

Ultraxion is the 5th boss of the Dragon Soul raid. The mechanics of theencounter are simple, but the fight is extremely punishing and it will requirespecial attention from all of your raid members.

It is the gear check of this tier, requiring both high amounts of DPS andhigh amounts of healing. While the fight is very straightforward, we believethat it is very refreshing in that it allows players to aim at maximisingtheir output rather than having to deal with various complex mechanics.

1. General Information↑top

2. Loot↑top

3. Overview of the Fight↑top

       The encounter against Ultraxion is a single phase encounter, the difficultyof which increases over time. The fight has both a hard and a soft enragetimer, ensuring that close to or at the 6 minute mark, your raid willunavoidably wipe.

The encounter does not present any complicated mechanics, although it doescontain two very punishing abilities, which must be dealt with perfectly eachtime. Additionally, the fight requires a tank switch as well as a strong amountof AoE healing. For the whole duration of the fight, the boss and the raid willremain stationary.

The five Aspects (Alexstrasza, Ysera, Kalecgos, Nozdormu and Thrall) offervarious buffs to your raid, during the encounter. These buffs do nottrivialise the fight, but rather make it possible to complete.

The encounter is triggered by talking to Thrall.

4. Preliminary Mentions: Twilight Realm and Heroic Will↑top

The encounter takes place in two realms: the Twilight Realm and the Normal Realm.Both of these realms are just regular realms. They do not give particularbuffs/debuffs or anything of that sort. For the vast majority of the encounter,the raid will be within the Twilight Realm. Raid members will only need to enterthe Normal Realm when they have to avoid specific abilities that Ultraxionuses. This occurs several times during the fight.

Twilight Realm	Normal Realm

The only way to exit the Twilight Realm is by using the Heroic Willability. This is an encounter specific ability, that appears on your screenin the form of a special action bar that looks like this:

Heroic Will has a 5 second cooldown and has no resource cost. It is off theGlobal Cooldown and it can be used even while you are casting or channelinganother spell. Using Heroic Willhas no beneficial effects. It merely removes you from the Twilight Realm for5 seconds (as we said, this is useful for avoiding certain mechanics). Duringthose 5 seconds, you are unable to perform any action whatsoever (deal damage,heal or even move).

This ability can be keybound from the Key Bindings Menu (it is calledExtraActionButton1 and it is located in the Action Bar Functions section). Thebutton may may not display properly (or at all) if you are using any actionbar add-ons, although this does not affect the aforementioned key-binding'sefficiency. Alternatively, you can use the following macro:

• /click ExtraActionButton1

Clicking this macro (which, of course, can be keybound), has the sameeffect as clicking the Heroic Will button.

5. Ultraxion's Abilities↑top

Ultraxion has the following abilities:

•               Hour of Twilight deals 300,000 unresistable Shadow damage to everyplayer in the Twilight Realm. Ultraxion casts this ability every 45 seconds.There is an emote warning players about it in advance and giving them enoughtime to react. Players will need to use Heroic Will to exit the TwilightRealm just as this ability is about to be cast. Right after Ultraxion has castthis ability, players in the Normal Realm are automatically brought back tothe Twilight Realm. In 10-man difficulty, at least1 player must remain within the Twilight Realm and take damage from thisability, otherwise the raid will instantly wipe. In 25-man, 3 players must dothe same.
   
• Fading Light is a debuff that Ultraxion places on the current tank andone random DPS player in 10-man difficulty and 3 random DPS players in 25-mandifficulty (in LFR difficulty, it only affects the current tank), that lasts between 5 and 10 seconds (the exact duration is randomly chosen each time) andinstantly causes their death when it expires, if they are stillin the Twilight Realm. If the players are in the Normal Realm when the debuffexpires (thanks to Heroic Will), they will be returned to the TwilightRealm, their threat will be reset and they will be unable to generate anythreat for 10 seconds. Ultraxion begins casting this ability after the firstHour of Twilight, and he will always cast Fading Light twice in the 45 secondinterval between two Hour of Twilight casts.
• Unstable Monstrosity causes Ultraxion to deal a high amount of Shadowdamage (300,000 in 10-man difficulty, 700,000 in 25-man difficulty and 525,000in LFR), split between all players within 30 yards who are in the TwilightRealm. He initially casts this ability every 6 seconds, but every minute thatelapses in the encounter reduces the interval between casts by 1 second. Thus,before the fight is over, Ultraxion will be casting Unstable Monstrosity everysecond, constituting a soft enrage mechanics.
• Twilight Eruption is Ultraxion's hard enrage. After 6 minutes,he will explode, killing not only himself in the process, but also wipingthe raid.
• Twilight Burst causes Ultraxion to deal a huge amount ofShadow damage each second to every player in the raid (56,000 in LFR difficulty and 75,000 in 10 and 25-man difficulty) if there is no player within his meleerange. Additionally, he will increase the amount of magic damage takenby all players by 50% (stacking) with each tick, quickly causing a wipe.

6. Buffs Provided by The Aspects↑top

The five aspects provide various buffs to your raid. Thrall buffs yourtanks, Alexstrasza, Ysera and Kalecgos buff your healers and Nozdormu buffsyour entire raid. These buffs are given to your raid at different times duringthe fight, and we will present them in the order in which they appear.

6.1. Thrall's Buff

At the start of the fight, Thrall will permanently buff all tanks with Last Defender of Azeroth. This reduces the cooldown of all their defensivecooldowns by 50% and increases their duration by 100%.

6.2. Alexstrasza, Ysera and Kalecgos' Buffs

The healing buffs (technically speaking, they are debuffs)are given to the raid with the following timings:

• Gift of Life (red) is provided by Alexstrasza, about 1 and a halfminutes into the encounter. It increases all healing done by 100%.
• Essence of Dreams (green) is provided by Ysera, about 2 and a halfminutes into the encounter. It causes each heal cast by the player to alsoheal the entire raid for the same amount (the healing done to the raid issplit evenly among all raid members).
• Source of Magic (blue) is provided by Kalecgos, about 3 and a halfminutes into the encounter. It reduces mana cost of all spells by 75% andincreases spell haste by 100%.

When an aspect provides the raid with one of these buffs, correspondingcrystals (1 in 10-man difficulty and 2 in 25-man and LFR difficulties) arecreated on the platform at fixed locations. Healers, and only healers, havethe ability to right-click a crystal and gain the corresponding buff.

Gift of Life (red)	Essence of Dreams (green)	Source of Magic (blue)

Each healer can only gain a single one of these buffs. Each buff lastsuntil the end of the encounter. If the healer dies, the buff is lost and itcannot be regained (if the healer is resurrected in combat, the buff will notpersist). In either difficulty setting, all healers shouldbe benefitting from one buff by the end of the encounter.

6.3. Nozdormu's Buff

5 minutes into the fight, Nozdormu buffs your raid with Timeloop.This buff prevents players from dying, once. The first killing blowthat they receive will instead heal them to 100% of their health and removethe Timeloop buff.

7. Strategy↑top

The strategy for the Ultraxtion encounter is very simple, and can besummarised thus:

• Stack up and heal through the constant raid damage.
• Ensure that players affected by Fading Light use Heroic Will atthe right time.
• Ensure that everyone (except for the designated soakers) uses Heroic Will when Hour of Twilight is being cast.
• Designate players (1 in 10-man and 3 in 25-man) to survive each Hour of Twilight within the Twilight Realm (a topped off tank who is usingsurvival cooldowns or Guardian Spirit, Shadow Priests, etc.).
• Ensure that your healers are maximising the buffs granted by the dragonAspects.

The next sections provide more details about all of the points above.

7.1. Positioning

       Ultraxion is stationary for the entire duration of the encounter and cannot beattacked from behind. To compensate for this, he cannot parry attacks.At least oneplayer must always be in melee range of Ultraxion, otherwise he will unleash ahighly damaging, raid-wide AoE attack that will most likely wipe you.

As shown on the screenshot on the left, your raid should stack close to the base of the stairs andnot next to the boss. This will not trigger Twilight Burst asUltraxion has a massive hitbox. Such a position will ensure that the healersspend as little time as possible getting to the crystals for receiving theirbuff. Stacking makes AoE healing most efficient and no one in the raid (exceptthe healers once per fight) should ever have to move.

7.2. Dealing with Hour of Twilight

Hour of Twilight is the most important ability of the encounter. Ithappens roughly every 45 seconds and has the potential of instantly killingyour raid members each time. There are two components of this ability that yourraid needs to take into account:

• Having everyone exit the Twilight Realm before the ability is cast;
• Having the required number of players remain in the Twilight Realm.

7.2.1. Exiting the Twilight Realm

Hour of Twilight is a 5 second cast, and Heroic Will has a 5second duration. Therefore, as long as players use Heroic Will after the castfor Hour of Twilight has started, they should have no problem avoiding it.

In addition to watching Ultraxion's cast bar, there is also a very clearlyvisible emote in the center of the screen. Additionally, boss mods will warnplayers further.

 

7.2.2. Soaking Hour of Twilight

At least 1 player in 10-man difficulty and 3 players in 25-man difficultymust be inside the Twilight Realm when Hour of Twilight is cast, or elsethe aspects are killed and your raid instantly wipes. In LFR difficulty,this requirement does not exist and everyone can (and should) leave theTwilight Realm.

Players who remain in the Twilight Realm for Hour of Twilight will have tosurvive the 300,000 non-resistable Shadow damage that the ability deals. Thiswill require a bit of planning.

In 10-man raids, it will generally be most efficient if one of thetanks handles this ability. They will need to be topped off in preparation for it and should use one or more defensive cooldowns to survive the damage.

In 25-man raids, 3 players will have to soak Hour of Twilight eachtime. Below, for completion's sake, we will list every ability that can helpa player survive Hour of Twilight:

• Tanks using defensive cooldowns:
  • Death Knights using a combination of Vampiric Blood, Anti-Magic Shell, Icebound Fortitude and Bone Shield;
  • Druids using a combination of Survival Instincts, Barkskin and Frenzied Regeneration;
  • Paladins using Ardent Defender, Guardian of Ancient Kings or Divine Protection (possibly with Glyph of Divine Protection);
  • Warriors using Shield Wall or Last Stand.
• Plate DPS players who have Pain Suppression cast on them;
• Non-tank Death Knights using Anti-Magic Shell and Icebound Fortitude (or Anti-Magic Zone for Unholy), Druids using Survival Instincts and Barkskin, Paladins using Divine Protection (possibly with Glyph of Divine Protection) or Divine Shield, and Warriors using Shield Wall. Note that in the case of Death Knights, the absorption froma Power Word: Shield is recommended for survival;
• Shadow Priests using Dispersion;
• Mages using Ice Block and Fire Mages, thanks to Cauterize;
• Hunters using Deterrence;
• Rogues using Feint and Cloak of Shadows;
• Holy Priests using Guardian Spirit on any player.

7.3. Dealing with Fading Light

Fading Light is a debuff that Ultraxion places on the current tank anda number of random DPS players (1 in 10-man and 3 in 25-man difficulty). In LFRdifficulty, only the current tank is affected.

Ultraxion always casts Fading Light twice in the interval between twosuccessive Hour of Twilight casts. He does not cast Fading Light at all until afterthe first Hour of Twilight has been cast.

The debuff has a random duration, between 5 and 10 seconds. At the end ofthis time, the affected player will either be instantly killed (if they arestill in the Twilight Realm) or they will be brought back in the TwilightRealm (if they are in the Normal Realm).

Naturally, no one should ever die to this ability. Players should always beaware of their debuffs, and when they are affected by Fading Light, they willneed to use Heroic Will when there are less than 5 seconds remaining onthe debuff.

7.3.1. Tank Swap

The second component of the ability is that, for 10 seconds after thedebuff expires, the player will not generate any threat. This is importantfor the tank, who gets targeted by the ability each time. It means that theother tank will have to taunt and tank Ultraxion for the 10 secondduration.

The best time to taunt is as soon as the debuff is applied to the currenttank. The alternative (taunting after the current tank has used Heroic Will) presents too high a risk that a DPS player will be meleed todeath.

Fading Light is cast twice, shortly before each Hour of Twilight castexcept the first one.

7.4. How to Assign the Healing Buffs

You should be using 3 healers for this encounter in 10-man and 6 healers in25-man and LFR. This means that all of your healers should be covered by one ofthe buffs available. Healing in the encounter is increasingly difficult, andquite brutal at the very end, so making use of these buffs is not optional.

We will give you various tips for distributing these buffs, but keep in mindthat their usefulness will vary a lot depending on your healers' playstyles.

7.4.1. Red Buff

Gift of Life provides a 100% increase to all the healing done bythe affected player(s). While this buff is excellent for any healer, we feelthat it should be taken by the following healing classes, in order:

• Restoration Druids;
• Discipline Priests;
• Restoration Shamans;
• Holy Priests.

It is worth noting that, while Discipline Priests' Power Word: Shielddoes not benefit at all from the red buff, they can achieve good resultsby spamming Prayer of Healing on the raid, since any overhealing causedby this spell applies Divine Aegis shields.

7.4.2. Green Buff

Essence of Dreams provides valuable AoE healing, which will proveextremely useful, especially as the encounter progresses. Note that this buffapplies to most types of heals, including HoTs (such as Renew) andAoE heals (such as Healing Rain). Therefore, this buff should be takenby the healers who heal for the highest amount (due to gear or ability), whohave not taken the red buff and who do not plan to take the blue buff.

Note that, since this buff is arguably weaker than the other two buffs, itis viable to have healers who benefit greatly from the blue buff (such asHoly Paladins) taking this buff and then replacing it with the blue bufflater on.

7.4.3. Blue Buff

Source of Magic provides increased casting haste and reduced mana cost,making it desirable to all healers. However, this buff is best taken byHoly Paladins, who can practically spam Holy Radiance until the end ofthe fight, generating a huge amount of AoE healing.

8. Tips↑top

8.1. Using Heroic Will at the Right Time

Heroic Will should always be used as late as possible. This enablesplayers to remain as little as possible in the Normal Realm, where they cannotdo anything.

The idea is thatimmediately after Ultraxion casts Hour of Twilight and Fading Light,players in the Normal Realm are automatically brought back to the TwilightRealm, without having to wait for the 5-second duration of Heroic Will tofinish. Therefore, the later a player uses Heroic Will, the less timethey will spend in the Normal Realm.

8.2. When to Use Heroism/Bloodlust/Time Warp

It is important to keep in mind that players who are in a different realmthan the person who is casting Heroism/ Bloodlust/ Time Warp donot benefit from it and do not get the Exhaustion/Sated debuff. This opens theway for maximising your usage of heroism by doing the following:

1. Use it at the start of the fight (this is most beneficial in terms ofDPS for reasons that we state below).
2. Have all of your healers use their Heroic Will just beforeHeroism/Bloodlust/Time Warp is cast.
3. Cast Heroism/Bloodlust/Time Warp again towards the end of the fight, tohelp the healers cover the increased raid damage.

In order to ensure that the tank is able to survive Ultraxion for the 5seconds that the healers will spend outside of the Twilight Realm, you canchoose to leave a healer inside the Twilight Realm to heal the tank.

You should designate a healer who will take the blue buff for this task,as Heroism/Bloodlust/Time Warp would not benefit them at the end of the fight(the haste from the blue buff will have capped them already).

Using Heroism/Bloodlust/Time Warp at the start of the encounter has twobenefits:

• It ensures that all of your raid will be alive to benefit from it;
• It allows you to take a DPS player instead of a healer, as the fight willnot last long enough for the damage to reach unbearable levels (right beforethe hard enrage timer is reached).

8.3. Discipline Priest Atonement Healing

A useful way for 10-man raids to maximise raid DPS, in case one of the3 healers is a Discipline Priest with an Atonement healing talent build, is tohave the priest take the Blue Buff (according to our tips above, this shouldbe the case anyway).

As the Blue Buff is available only 3 minutes and 30 seconds into the fight,and until that time the healing requirement is quite lax, the priest shouldspend all of their time DPSing the boss with Smite and Holy Fire.This results in a decent contribution to the raid DPS, making the soft enrageof the fight somewhat easier to deal with, while still ensuring that there arethree healers at the very end of the encounter, the most stressful time.

8.4. Last Defender of Azeroth Trick

It is worth noting that, when Thrall casts Last Defender of Azerothon the tanks, the cooldowns of their defensive abilities are instantlyreset. This means that tanks can use their cooldowns right at the start of theencounter and then have them available again shortly after.

9. Learning the Fight↑top

The encounter against Ultraxion is not difficult to understand, nor is itcomplex in its execution. It is, however, very punishing if executedimproperly.

The three most important things to keep in mind are:

• Make sure that the three healing buffs are properly and clearly assigned toyour healers and that they understand how to make use of them.
• Make sure that every single person in the raid has the ability to use their Heroic Will (through the macro listed above, if their action bar add-onis preventing them otherwise).
• Make proper assignments for soaking Hour of Twilight (not necessary in LFR difficulty).

Once you have covered these three aspects, it is a simple question ofpracticing the encounter and overcoming the DPS and healing challenge.

10. Heroic Mode↑top

The Heroic mode of Ultraxion is not very different from the normal mode, thebiggest difference being the much higher DPS requirement. Additionally, thefollowing things change:

• Fading Light now affects, in addition to the tank, 2 players in10-man difficulty (up from 1) and 6 in 25-man difficulty (up from 3).
• For 5 seconds after the Fading Light debuff wears off, the player takes100% increased physical damage (instead of generating no threatduring this time).
• Hour of Twilight must damage at least 2 players in 10-man difficulty(up from 1) and 5 in 25-man difficulty (up from 2) in order for the aspects tosurvive.
• Being in the Twilight Realm when Hour of Twilight occurs applies Looming Darkness, a 2-minute debuff that causes the player to instantly dieif they takes any damage from another Hour of Twilight.

Additionally, Ultraxion's health pool is much higher, and the damage fromhis melee attacks as well as from Unstable Monstrosity is greatlyincreased as well.

10.1. Strategy

The strategy for this heroic mode is similar to its normal mode counterpart.The only differences are that you will have to set upa rotation of players to survive Hour of Twilight and that you will probablyhave to use fewer healers in order to beat the enrage timer.

10.1.1. Soaking Hour of Twilight

As stated above, each time a player is hit by Hour of Twilight, theyare debuffed with Looming Darkness, meaning that they cannot soak anotherHour of Twilight for 2 minutes. This forces the raid to establish a rotationbetween 3 groups of players who will take turns soaking Hour of Twilight:

• in 10-man difficulty, 3 groups of 2 players are required, which meansa total of 6 players who can survive Hour of Twilight;
• in 25-man difficulty, 3 groups of 5 players are required, which meansa total of  15 players who can survive Hour of Twilight;

From a player's perspective, surviving Hour of Twilight is exactly the sameas it is in Normal Mode.

It is important to keep in mind that Hour of Twilight will kill players ifthey have the Looming Darkness debuff, even if they use a complete damageimmunity to try to survive it (such as using Ice Block or Divine Shield while under the effects of Looming Darkness).

10.1.2. Maximising DPS and Beating the Enrage

The most difficult aspect of this heroic mode is beating the enrage timer.With a bit of preparation, soaking Hour of Twilight and handling the othermechanics of the encounter will not be problematic. Most of your raid's wipeswill, undoubtedly, come from insufficient DPS (and will most likely happen atagonizingly low percentages).

For this reason, you will want to bring the bare minimum amount of healers(2 in 10-man and 5 in 25-man), and have these healers contribute as much aspossible to the raid DPS, at the start of the fight. Discipline Priests areespecially useful here, as they can bring a solid amount of damage.

Other than this, your raid will simply have to utilise every possibleadvantage available to them, and may need to farm the previous bossesrepeatedly to acquire enough gear.

11. Achievement: Minutes to Midnight↑top

The Minutes to Midnight achievement is part of the Glory of the Dragon Soul Raider achievement. It is not a complicatedachievement at all, requiring only that no raid member takes damage from Hour of Twilight more than once over the course of the fight.

The implication is that you cannot have the same players soaking Hourof Twilight each time, as you normally can. As Hour of Twilight is cast every45 seconds, and the fight has a 6 minute enrage timer, it means that you willhave to survive 7 casts. In 10-man difficulty, this means that 7 differentplayers will have to survive Hour of Twilight, while in 25-man difficulty,21 players must do the same.

Simply utilise the abilities that we have listed above in the guide.Additionally, you can have some players take damage from Hour of Twilight,die, and be resurrected afterwards (this should only ever be neededin 25-man difficulty).

12. Concluding Remarks↑top

The gear check that Ultraxion represents will be a challenge to many guilds,especially towards the end of the fight when it gets very strenuous for thehealers.

We believe that, from time to time, having a fight like this is a good thing asit forces players to play their character to their fullest.