Argus, the Unraveling – The end of all existence
As straightforward and relatively easy as the previous fights were, the encounter against Argus is complex and elaborate. Where especially in Aggramar the variety was lacking, this encounter brings phases that feel unique and even involves death itself as a resource.
Setup: The boss will be tanked either in the middle or slightly closer to the edge of the platform. If you bring a lot of damage, it is more convenient to tank in the middle; if somewhat less, it is safer at the edge. The raid and the inactive tank gather behind the boss while the active tank stands alone in front of him.
Phase 1: Storm and Sky
- Death Fog: Some of Argus’ abilities summon Death Fog, which appears as a deep black area on the ground. The fog deals high, ticking damage and must be avoided.
- Sickle Slash: Deals high physical damage to players in a semicircle in front of Argus, leaving a debuff that increases damage from Sickle Slash by 75% (150% heroic) for 15 seconds.
- Only the active tank should receive this debuff. The off-tank and the rest of the raid must always stand behind Argus. When there are 3 stacks of Sickle Slash, the tanks switch.
- Death Cone: When Argus reaches 100% energy, he casts Death Cone on a random non-tank player, leaving Death Fog behind. Since the group collects at exactly one point behind him, the cone’s position is fixed, and the group can then move sideways together in one direction.
- The new gathering point should be as close as possible to the edge of the created fog, to lay the next cone largely in the previous one. This provides a bit more than half of the room. If you need a bit more time, you should tank Argus further towards the edge and move slightly with each cast.
- Soul Plague Ball: Applies a damage-over-time effect to random targets, which leaves Death Fog upon expiration. Affected players should drop the fog puddles in a line behind the group and close to the edge of the cone fog. They require special attention from the healers as the DoT ticks heavily.
- Tormented Wrath: Periodically, Argus slams the ground and causes moderate damage to all targets. The damage is unavoidable and must be healed by the healers.
Golganneth’s Aid: Sky and Sea
In the first phase, the Titan Golganneth occasionally applies the Gift of the Sky and the Gift of the Sea to players. These are buffs that expire after 5 seconds and leave a sphere at the current position.
- Gift of the Sky: Leaves a sphere that grants Strength of the Sky upon contact. The buff lasts for one minute and increases mastery and critical strike rating by 2000. Stackable.
- Gift of the Sea: Leaves a sphere that grants Strength of the Sea upon contact. The buff lasts for one minute and increases haste and versatility by 2000. Stackable.
Only one buff can be active at a time. For example, if a player touches the Gift of the Sea while having Strength of the Sky, they lose all stacks of their current buff and gain a stack of the other. The spheres appear quite frequently, so 6-7 stacks should be achievable.
To grant all players access to the buffs, the gifts are best placed directly behind the boss and slightly offset. This way, each class can choose and stack the appropriate buff.
Phase 2: The Redeemed Protector
At 70% health, the second phase of the fight begins. At the beginning of the phase, Argus does not cast any abilities. He is merely tanked further, with one tank in front of him and the rest of the group behind him. At this time, he must be positioned in the center of the room.
Meanwhile, the outer two-thirds are engulfed by a storm. This deals high damage to all players who touch it and removes the Death Fog.
Once the storm ends, Argus returns to his normal attack rotation and begins with a Sickle Slash, which means that no one except the tank should stand in front of him. In addition to Soul Slash, Argus gains new abilities.
Since no Death Fog is created anymore, the boss should be pulled to the edge of the platform. The raid gathers behind him, as close as possible, since the distance to the edges will be needed later.
- Blade of Annihilation: Scythes appear in the combat area that remain in place for a while and then strike forward in one direction. The strike is announced by a line on the ground and provides enough time to evade. Players hit are knocked back and afflicted with a damage-over-time spell.
- The longer the phase lasts, the more scythes appear simultaneously.
- Unstable Soul: Three players are afflicted with debuffs, two with Soul Explosion, one with Soul Bomb.
- Soul Explosion: For 15 seconds, the target suffers regular damage. After the time expires, the explosion detonates and deals shadow damage to all targets, diminishing with distance from the target.
- Targets of Soul Explosion should move about 40 meters away from the group, one directly away from the group and one at a 90° angle in between. This minimizes the distance to all targets and minimizes the damage.
- Soul Bomb: For 15 seconds, the target suffers regular damage. This bomb also detonates after that time, but is deadly for the target due to the immense damage. The player with the Soul Bomb waits on the opposite side of the players with the explosions for the detonation.
- Since the bomb’s damage also decreases with distance, this should be at least 40 meters. If the target dies at the bomb, it is not too bad. However, it can be prevented by Aggramar’s Blessing.
- Soul Explosion: For 15 seconds, the target suffers regular damage. After the time expires, the explosion detonates and deals shadow damage to all targets, diminishing with distance from the target.
- Avatar of Aggramar: One tank receives the buff Avatar of Aggramar, which increases their health by 100% and their movement speed by 40%. Additionally, it applies Aggramar’s Blessing to all targets, redirecting any damage taken to the Avatar.
- The Avatar should move with the target of the Soul Bomb to absorb the damage of the detonation with a defensive cooldown.
Phase 3: The Master of Arcane
Once Argus’s health drops to 40%, the third phase begins. In this, the Titan Aman’thul tears apart his body, and instead you fight against the stars into which he shatters. These appear as astral bodies at the edge of the platform and continuously cast spells.
Here, the raid gathers best in the middle, loosely spread out, with melee fighters on the outer edges at each Add.
- Cosmic Beam: A beam is fired in the direction of a player, dealing damage to all affected players. The animation is visible. Affected players should position themselves so that they do not hit each other and then stand still. This will make evading easier for other players.
- Star Barrage: Deals arcane damage to a random player. This spell can be interrupted but should be let through! This is important to allow for an interruption for the following spell and is especially essential in heroic mode.
- Impending Inevitability (only heroic): If a spell is interrupted, an Add cannot be interrupted again for 20 seconds. For this reason, Star Barrages should be healed through and not kicked!
- Cosmic Signal: After 4 seconds, unleashes a strike on the position of a player, dealing damage to all players and leaving a damage-over-time effect. This spell must be interrupted, as the effect is stackable!
- To ensure this, it is advisable to assign at least one interrupter to each Add that interrupts every signal and only every signal.
The Stellar Arsenal:
At certain intervals, two random units receive one of two weapons. One unit receives the Sword of the Cosmos, while the other receives the Blades of the Eternal.
As soon as a unit wields a weapon, they immediately begin attacking. Extreme caution is needed for melee fighters, as threat is built up even before receiving the weapons! Tanks need to react extremely quickly and taunt their targets.
- Norgannon’s Aid: Norgannon assists the group by revealing the weaknesses of the units. Each constellation unit then receives 200% more damage from a specific damage type (Fire, Frost, Shadow, Nature, Holy, Arcane, and Physical).
- The distribution of debuffs is always the same. Thus, the Add at the respective position always has the same weakness:
Phase 4: The Gift of Life, the Forge of Loss
After all constellation units are defeated, Argus harvests the souls of all players and initiates the next phase. He binds them in the center and kills them directly. This removes the effects of runes and food but also the cooldown on potions. Therefore, two potions should ideally be used before this phase.
The Spirit World
The phase begins in the spirit world. After a short interlude, players can release their spirits and travel to Eonar’s Gift, a tree of life, to be resurrected there. Players who previously died from effects can also return here.
As the group runs as spirits over the platform, they encounter starving souls wandering around. These explode upon contact, push back, and slow movement speed by 40% for 8 seconds (50% heroic).
The Gift of the Life Binder can be used for resurrection as often as desired. However, it consumes some of its energy. Once the energy is completely depleted, it becomes the Withered Gift of the Life Binder.
This can still be used to resurrect players. However, it steadily loses health due to a damage-over-time effect that stacks with each resurrection. Healers can try to keep the tree alive, but eventually the stacks will inevitably become too strong.
With this in mind, the fight should not be approached lightly. Resurrections are limited, and at certain points in the fight, they will be needed for important things where players are meant to die intentionally.
The fight against Argus
The actual fight against Argus continues as soon as the players are resurrected. This should happen quickly, as Argus acts during their death to end all existence. If the spell is completed, all creation, including the raid, will be wiped out.
- Spark of Wrath: Sparks fall on the platform, announced by bright blue whirlwinds. If a player stands in a whirlwind upon impact, they take high shadow damage and are afflicted with a damage-over-time spell lasting 20 seconds, which is stackable and ticks very hard.
- Since the sparks announce themselves before landing, movement is crucial here. The platform is indeed filled with whirlwinds, but with a vigilant eye, dodging should not be a problem.
- Tormented Wrath: As in the first phase, Argus occasionally slams his fist on the ground, dealing damage to the group.
- Unstable Soul: The same ability that appeared in the second phase also applies here. Argus uses it whenever he reaches 50% energy. Targets of the Soul Bomb must endure their effect alone from a distance and will die as the Avatar is no longer available.
- Immunities work and prevent death. Otherwise, it calls the spirit world.
- Sickle Slash: The same ability as in phase 1.
- Death Scythe (heroic): The attack has the same effect as the Sickle Slash from the first phase. However, the effect increases to 200% increased damage and is permanent! Only one tank should absorb as many hits as possible before dying and entering the spirit world.
Reorigination Modules – the aid of a Titan
Occasionally, black-blue spheres appear in the combat area. These Reorigination Modules are initially a threat, but they ultimately help you win the fight.
- Reorigination Modules: Throughout the fight, black-blue spheres appear at the edges, casting Initialization Sequences. The sequences drain health for 20 seconds until the spheres die, creating an ever-expanding area.
- The area detonates, dealing moderate damage to all players, and potentially lethal damage to all players within the circles. To prevent this, the spheres must be dealt damage as quickly as possible.
- Upon death, Reorigination Modules leave titan power particles in the spirit world.
- Khaz’goroth’s Assistance: In addition to Eonar, Khaz’goroth also helps the group by forging them after his likeness. The effect Titanforged increases damage, healing, and movement speed. It becomes stronger the longer he can channel the spell.
- Khaz’goroth begins to cast Titanforging as soon as he has received 20 power particles. The particles can be collected by players in the spirit world after being left there by the modules.
The best players to handle this task are those who ended up in the spirit world due to Soul Bomb or Death Scythe, as they will come there anyway. Whenever a player dies accidentally, they can also utilize this time to collect particles.
The Titanforging helps the group defeat Argus before they are overwhelmed by dwindling mana, the loss of Eonar’s Gift, and constant damage.
The fight against Argus is very extensive but is also probably the last boss fight in WoW: Legion. Give him a worthy ending!
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