Malygos (tactics)

Malygos is the boss of the Eye of Eternity, the Onyxia-style raid instance in the Nexus. When players fight him, they will be assisted by Alexstrasza. With the assistance of the red dragonflight, players will be able to slay the Spell-Weaver, making him the first of the Dragon Aspects confirmed to die.

For raid statistics info, go to Guild progression (WotLK).

Phase 1
Malygos does a frontal physical attack and a frontal cleave. His attack speed is slow, but it does a lot of damage. Unlike other dragon bosses, he does not have a tail swipe.


 * Arcane Breath: Deals 18850 to 21150 normal, 28275 to 31725 heroic, Arcane damage in a 40-yard cone in front of Malygos. It leaves a debuff which, after 5 seconds, causes the person to explode and deal 9425 to 10575 normal, 18850 to 21150 heroic, Arcane damage to nearby friends.


 * Arcane Storm: Fires arcane missiles into the air, which strike a random number of targets for 9425 to 10575 Arcane damage. Malygos will turn to the primary target of this ability when he uses it.


 * Vortex: Malygos takes off from the ground and spins up a whirling vortex of Arcane energy, tossing the raid around and dealing 2000 Arcane damage every second for 10 seconds. When Vortex ends, everyone will be dropped around the center of the platform and take up to 10% of their maximum health in falling damage.


 * Power Sparks: At regular intervals throughout the encounter, a portal will appear in the empty space away from the platform, between two of the pillars, and spawn a Power Spark. This Power Spark will slowly move towards Malygos and give him a temporary buff upon reaching him which increases all damage done by 50%, unless killed first.  When players kill a Power Spark, it will leave a temporary patch of electricity on the ground which will buff players, increasing damage dealt by 50%.  This buff will stack.  During Vortex, Power Sparks stop moving; however, once you begin to fall from Vortex, they start moving again.  Power Sparks can be Death Gripped, snared, rooted, stunned, incapacitated, and so on.


 * Enrage: Malygos has a 10-minute enrage timer, at which point his damage is increased by 1000%. This timer carries over across all phases, therefore the entire encounter must be completed within 10 minutes.

Phase 2
Malygos will take to the sky and stops using all of his previous abilities at 50% health. Any Power Sparks that reach him after phase 2 begins will have no effect.


 * Arcane Storm: Fires arcane missiles into the air, which strike a random number of targets for 9425 to 10575 Arcane damage.


 * Deep Breath: Deals 5000 Arcane damage per second to the whole raid for 5 seconds. Cast at regular intervals.  A warning, 'Malygos takes a deep breath,' is given before Malygos uses this.  This ability does not effect anyone flying on a disc.


 * Power Overload: Purple anti-magic zones will periodically appear on the platform, reducing all magic damage taken while standing inside by 50%. These zones will shrink as they absorb more and more damage, forcing you to move to a newer one.  They will knock back players nearby when they spawn.

Nexus Lord
Nexus Lords will spawn at the beginning of phase 2. They stand upon floating discs and descend to the ground. They must be tanked normally and will drop their discs on the ground when they die, allowing melee classes to fly up and engage the Scions of Eternity.


 * Arcane Shock: Deals 9425 to 10575 normal, 14138 to 15862 heroic, Arcane damage.


 * Haste: Increases movement, casting, and attack speed by 100% for 15 seconds. Can be dispelled.

Scion of Eternity
Scions of Eternity will spawn at the beginning of phase 2. They fly upon floating discs, which puts them out of the melee range of anyone on the platform. They have no aggro table and will periodically cast Arcane Barrage on random targets. When one dies, it will drop its disc to the ground, allowing melee classes to fly up and engage them.


 * Arcane Barrage: Deals 14138 to 15862 normal, 16965 to 19035 heroic, Arcane damage to a random target.

Phase 3
Malygos will shatter the platform when all of the Scions of Eternity and Nexus Lords are dead, beginning phase 3. The raid will drop onto red dragons, which will be used to kill Malygos. Malygos stops using all previous abilities in this phase.


 * Arcane Pulse: Deals 28275 to 31725 Arcane damage to anyone within 30 yards of Malygos.


 * Static Field: Creates a blue, electric-looking orb on a random target. This orb deals 9425 to 10575 Arcane damage per second to anyone within 30 yards of it.


 * Surge of Power: Malygos will target a random person and give them a warning that Malygos is focusing on them. Malygos will then shoot a beam at his target, dealing 12000 Arcane damage every half second for 3 seconds, as well as 5000 Arcane damage per second to anyone near the primary target for 5 seconds.

Soloing Strategy
At level 90, Malygos can be soloed in both versions of the instance.

Phases one and two require no special tactics. Dropping a power spark and standing in it can speed phase one, and ranged dps can take advantage of Malygos' lengthy speech to deal extra damage before phase 2.

In phase 3, build stacks of the DoT (button 2) and HoT (button 3) by refreshing them before they fade while avoiding Static Field. It may be necessary to slow down to build energy before growing the DoT stack (button 2)

In a nutshell:
 * At the start of phase three, press 33333
 * Thereafter, repeat the following:
 * 11111 (gain combo points)
 * 2 (grow the DoT stack)
 * 3 (refresh the HoT before it fades)
 * Meanwhile, stay out of Static Field

Variations include smaller numbers of combo points, to as few as two (ie, 11, 2, 3 repeat).

Phase One
During Phase One, Malygos is tanked in the center of the room by one tank. Everyone else is beside or behind Malygos to avoid his cleave and cone attacks.

Power Sparks: designate a stack location for ranged DPS, and have a Death Knight pull the sparks to that spot. Once pulled, root them to keep them in place while you kill them.

A Death Grip macro to quickly target and grip Power Sparks: /cleartarget /clearfocus /tar Power Spark /stopmacro [target=target,noexists] /focus /cast [target=focus] Death Grip
 * 1) showtooltip

During Vortex, if Malygos has the buff from a Power Spark reaching him, it will be removed. Rogues may Shadowstep and Killing Spree out of the Vortex and continue DPS; Mages can Iceblock out of it as well. Lots of casters will most likely have under 20,000 health, so healers will want to use any instant casts they can on anyone under 20,000. Without a Paladin, only instant spells may be cast, though Hunters can cast Steady Shot but they will suffer from pushback. Paladins can use Concentration Aura together with Aura Mastery to allow casters in range of the aura to continue normal casting while in the air. This makes the first (and maybe third) Vortex extremely easy. Tell the raid to use healthstones and/or potions in Vortex two and you are set. When Vortex ends and you fall, Hunters can avoid fall damage by Disengaging from Malygos, Mages and Priests can Slow Fall and Levitate, and Warlocks can Demonic Portal if they placed one near the Vortex prior to getting sucked up.

Note: Once Malygos reaches 50%, he will slowly take off, however he remains targetable throughout, so burn him as best you can while he is taking off, and continue to hit him with instants once he's in the air.

Phase Two
Phase Two begins at 50%.

Malygos himself is not targetable during this phase. It will end when the adds he spawns are all killed.

During this phase Malygos drops pink anti-magic zones onto the ground. The raid MUST stand inside of these; they reduce magical damage taken by 50%. They shrink over time, so it's important that your raid moves to each new one he drops.

During this phase there are two types of NPCs riding around on disks in the room: Nexus Lords and Scions of Eternity. The Lords will move down onto the group, and need to be tanked; they will one-shot a non-tank. The Scions will cast Arcane Blast on random targets (on disks or not), which is mitigated by the anti-magic zones.

As the NPCs die, they drop disks which players can mount. Melee should take disks to DPS Scions. While mounted on a disk, players do not take damage from Malygos.

HEROIC TARGET PRIORITY: In 25-man, tanks and melee who are not yet on a disk should focus fire the Lords, while ranged focus fire the Scions from the beginning of Phase Two. (Of course, melee who get a disk transition to Scions.) This method consistently ends phase two 30–45 seconds faster than starting the phase with all DPS on the Lords.

After all of the NPCs riding on the disks die, players on disks need to dismount as Phase 3 is about to begin.

Note: After all the Scions are dead, you will get a short burn period on Malygos before he breaks the floor. Use any DPS increase cooldowns that are available at this time, as you will not be able to use them once you mount your dragon. If executed well you can take an extra 5%-10% off his HP before you enter phase 3.

Phase Three
Malygos destroys the floor of the room, and the raid falls onto dragon mounts. Malygos will move into center of (destroyed) platform and then he does not chase dragons, he just turns to his current target.

The dragons use combo points and energy similar to a rogue. The combo points are used for special finishing moves. Many unit frame addons do not show these combo points, however simple counting in your head can suffice as the abilities are quite basic.

During this phase Malygos has 3 main abilities.
 * Arcane Pulse - A very dangerous AoE that will quickly kill anyone within 30 yards of the center of his hitbox. Due to the large size of the dragons and the 3-dimensional aspect of the encounter, this may be smaller than you think.
 * Static Field - A randomly targeted AoE ability. He casts it in the area of a random drake, and it spans 30 yards in all directions.  It does moderate damage over time, and will take a drake from 100% to dead in around 10 seconds if you do not move out of it.  Move out of the fire.
 * Surge of Power - 3 random(?) drakes are targeted. The players who control these drakes will have a large boss emote appear on their screen.  Malygos begins casting a 3-second cast.  Once this cast is complete, he deals a large amount of damage every 0.5 seconds for 5 seconds.  This will just about kill anyone who does not successfully use the Flame Shield ability for at least part of those 5 seconds.  (Note: the 10-man version of this ability is far less potent.)

The dragons have 6 abilities:


 * Spell Fire Flare.png Flame Spike:
 * Damaging fire attack causing 943-1057 fire damage and awarding 1 combo point at the cost of 10 energy.


 * Spell Fire Burnout.png Engulf in Flames:
 * Finishing move which launches a blast of flame igniting target for 1500 fire damage every 3 seconds. The effect can stack and will last longer per combo point up to 22 seconds.  Costs 50 energy.


 * Spell Nature Regeneration 02.png Revivify:
 * A HoT that lasts for 10 seconds healing 500 per second and awarding 1 combo point at the cost of 10 energy. This can stack up to 5 times.  Each drake has its own stack, so if two drakes are stacking this ability on a single drake, that drake will have two separate stacks.


 * Spell Nature AbolishMagic.png Life Burst:
 * Huge AoE healing finishing move which increases the casters healing done by 50% and lasts longer per combo point. Max combo points award a 15k heal to all friendly targets within 60 yards over 25 seconds.  Costs 50 energy. You must be targeting someone and have combo points on them to use this ability!


 * Spell Fire SealOfFire.png Flame Shield:
 * Finishing move to protect your drake. Shield surrounds you reducing all damage taken by 80% and lasting up to 6 seconds for max combo points.  Costs 25 energy with a 30-second cooldown. You must be targeting someone and have combo points on them to use this ability!


 * Spell Fire PlayingWithFire.png Blazing Speed:
 * Increases your drake's flight speed by 500% for 8 seconds. Costs 0 energy with a 30-second cooldown.

A common misconception is that there are offensive and defensive combo points, and that each of the finishers requires a different type. This is not true. The combo points are linked to your current target when you use an ability that generates points. For example, if you target Malygos and shoot 5 Flame Spikes, you will have 5 combo points on Malygos. This means you can use your Flame Shield ability while you have him targeted. If you change target to yourself, you will have no combo points on yourself and the shield will not fire. Similarly, if you target yourself (or another drake) and cast the heal on it, you can then Flame Shield so long as you have that target targeted.
 * However, if you have Malygos targeted and cast the heal, and you have "Auto Self Cast" enabled in your interface (most do by default), your heal (and your combo points) will go onto your own drake because Malygos is an invalid healing target.
 * This will cause you to be unable to use Engulf, Life Burst, or Flame Shield, unless you are also casting Flame Spike. If you are Auto Self Casting Revivify on yourself, the game will determine that your target (either Malygos, or nothing) has zero combo points. Therefore, you won't be able to cast a Finishing Move.
 * Healers can simply target Malygos and stack Flame Spike, target a random drake and stack Revivify, or possibly use F1 and stack Revivify; then use Life Burst at five stacks or Flame Shield in an emergency.

Confusing? Go do the "Aces High" daily quest in Coldarra. It's the same drake you control in Malygos. It's designed as a practice tool specifically for the fight. Even the enemy drakes in that quest have an ability that is similar to Malygos' Surge of Power ability.

A basic strategy that has worked to kill Malygos on live realms goes as follows:

- All drakes group up on one spot, roughly level with Malygos. Must be at least 30 yards away from him, and close enough to use Flame Spike.

- 3 drakes should be designated healers. '''They cast 5 HoTs on themselves and then cast Life Burst. (Note: This only works if you have yourself targeted. Some UIs may not easily allow this; in this situation, either click a random drake and use 3,3,3,3,3, 4, or target Malygos and use 1,1,1,1,1, 4.)''' This heals all drakes within 60 yards for roughly 25% of their HP. If a particular drake gets low on HP (they were slow to move from Static Field, or failed at Flame Shield usage) you can cast the 5 HoTs on them instead, then Life Burst with that drake targeted. Remember: The HoT stacks are not your combo points. You may have 5 HoTs still on yourself, but you just used a Life Burst, so you need to cast another 5 HoTs to get 5 combo points again. You can cast a 5-combo-point Life Burst roughly every 7–8 seconds. With 3 healers, this means every drake gets healed for ~25% of their HP every 3 or so seconds. (Only 2 healers are needed in the 10-man version, possibly only 1.)

- The other drakes must build their Engulf Flame stack. Cast Flame Spikes for combo points, then Engulf Flame to add another charge to your stack. It can grow indefinitely, and this is the only way Malygos will die within the enrage timer.

- When Static Field is cast on the pack of drakes, everyone needs to strafe to one side until you are out of the field. You will slowly rotate around Malygos with this method. Do not move more than you need to, as you may rotate all the way around to a previous Static Field if you are too fast.

''USEFUL TIP: Assign one of the raid members to lead the whole raid through phase three. Once everyone lands on their drakes, everyone should type /follow NAME where NAME is the name of chosen player. Everyone will follow that player automatically and can focus on healing or burning Malygos without other concerns like range for healers or avoiding Static Field.''

- Any drake can be the target for Surge of Power. When you get a boss emote, use the 3-second Malygos cast-time to ensure you have enough combo points/energy, and then cast Flame Shield once it begins channeling.

Due to the above method of Shielding, DPS drakes should ensure they are using 5-combo-point Engulf Flames on the target. This means their Engulf stack will stay up for a long time, so they can use any current combo points they have to Shield themselves instantly when targeted, then quickly refresh their Engulf before it times off.

All drakes should also pretend that the bottom limit for their energy is 25. If you have self control and never go below 25 energy, you will always have enough energy to cast a Flame Shield on yourself. It will also help DPS drakes refresh their Engulf Flames stack should they need to use Flame Shield at an unfortunate time in their DPS cycle.

Another VERY effective drake DPS strategy for advanced players is using Engulf Flames at 3 combo points, making your debuff stack up even faster, however this is more energy consuming and requires a lot more energy management. The trick is to do 3 Flame Spikes, cast Engulf Flames, and wait until your revivify is at 1 second before renewing your revivify stack, then pump out your 3 combos and another Engulf Flames. When Malygos uses his Arcane Surge on you, you will most likely be waiting to restack your revivify. Stack it twice on yourself, and use your shield once he casts it. This will save you some combo points, and try shooting 2-combo-point Engulf Flames as fast as possible after, then go back to waiting revivify to hit 1 second.

The reason you need to wait so much is so you don't stay low energy and have enough energy to use your shield fast enough. The main trick is to not panic while doing it. You can take your time since revivify lasts 10 seconds, so basically you have 10 seconds to cast your 3 spikes and your engulf and revivify. This rotation racks up severe damage, a lot more than 5-combos Engulf Flames can, since the number of combo points only affect its duration. With this strategy, I have seen players reach 900k damage and up to 24 stacks, which is nearly 1/3 of Malygos's HP in phase 3, which means 3-4 players DPSing would be enough to bring him down if they do it correctly, so try practicing this while doing the daily "Aces High!".

First Time Maly Kill - Tips. The tactics above assume that your raid has good coordination and all of them play correctly. However, as any raid leader knows you have to come up with a technique of coping with the members of your group who slack.

For our first Maly kill we used a different tactic in phase 3. The 1-1-2 works fine if you have around 2-3 mins left when phase 3 starts, but on your first kill you are likely to have closer to 1-1.30 mins left. If you have all 10 people left alive, quickly designate 2 healers. Their job is simply - 1-1-1-1-1 AoE heal! The 8 DPS should follow the tactic 1-2-1-2-1-2, etc. Since combo points only determine how long the DoT is there for, the 1-2-1-2 method allows you to stack your DoT a lot faster. This means Malygos is likely to be taking double damage in half the time. The only downside being, if you get surged, you may have to take a tick or 2 before you have the energy to pop your shield.

The main thing to remember is - even if the enrage triggers, it ain't over yet! Malygos has no real AoE pwnage in phase 3, and so must kill each drake individually. The remaining drakes have around 2–3 seconds to spam 1 and get their final DoT off. By this time there should be around 8 DoTS on Malygos, all with around 10 stacks and hitting Malygos hard - this DoT keeps ticking even when he enrages, as long as their is a drake left alive.

On our first kill, we had 400k left to do when he enraged and the DoTS did that while we fled, hopelessly being picked off one by one.

ALL raid leaders should note that if your group CAN reach phase 3, they are geared for this raid, and it's simply a matter of refining the technique.

Special Concerns
There are a number of tricks and bugs associated with this fight that can cause aggravation if not addressed:


 * Healers must be targeting a drake if using a Revivify (3)/Life Burst (4) rotation, or Malygos only if using a Flame Spike (1)/Life Burst (4) rotation; otherwise, they will not have a target with active combo points when they attempt to use Life Burst or Flame Shield. This isn't something you want to find out in the middle of combat. Healers should never switch targets without emptying combo points first, as they won't be carried over.


 * Shields on Phase 2 do *not* stop damage...they merely reduce damage by 50%. This is especially important for healers during a Breath - heals need to be prepped and ready to go off immediately, as the Breath hits quite hard.


 * The Shield Debuff does not always register immediately upon entering the bubble. To reduce chance of server/client lag in registering the debuff, it is advisable not to jump into the bubbles, lest the server not register you with the debuff at an inopportune time.


 * Confirmed bug - Transition from phase 2 to 3, all players must at some point clear and reaquire their target if targeting Malygos as they land on the dragons (especially DPS, as healers tend not to be targeting Malygos during the transition). Combo points do not properly stack if Malygos is not reaquired as a target, and will result in your Flame Shield not going off, despite sufficient combo points (this occurs because the dragon is technically a separate entity, and the fact that you never set *its* target to Malygos seems to cause this error).


 * Bug in 3.0.8 - It appears that pets (Hunter/warlock/etc..) will not be affected by the Arcane Breath ability, but will gain the debuff which causes them to explode after 5 seconds. Until this is resolved, pets probably should be kept in their stables for this encounter.  Comment: pets normally would try to attack from behind, so it is highly unlikely that they would get the debuff unless the tank is moving all the time.


 * If you died during the fight, do not release until Alexstrasza finishes summoning the loot. If you do, you will not be allowed to loot.

The End
Then you just burn him until the end of the fight, where Alexstrasza enters and finishes the battle. The loot for the fight comes from Alexstrasza's Gift, the fight rewards two badges.

The exit portal respawns, and you can fly over to it. The floor of the instance does not respawn.

Related achievements

 * The Spellweaver's Downfall (10 player)
 * The Spellweaver's Downfall (25 player)
 * A Poke in the Eye (10 player)
 * A Poke in the Eye (25 player)
 * Denyin' the Scion (10 player)
 * Denyin' the Scion (25 player)
 * You Don't Have an Eternity (10 player)
 * You Don't Have an Eternity (25 player)
 * You Don't Have an Eternity - Guild Edition

Quotes

 * Intro
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell


 * Aggro
 * yell


 * Buffed by a spark
 * yell


 * Magic Blast
 * yell


 * Killing a player
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell


 * End Phase 1
 * yell


 * Breath Attack
 * yell


 * Killing a player
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell


 * End Phase 2
 * yell


 * Intro Phase 3
 * yell


 * Surge of Power
 * yell


 * Killing a player
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell


 * Death
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell


 * Unused quotes
 * Alexstrasza the Life-Binder: Champions! Malygos is tapping into the arcane energies he has harvested from Azeroth's Lay-Lines. Alone you would surely be over whelmed. My children blessed with my power shall aid you in your fight!
 * Alexstrasza the Life-Binder: Champions! My children blessed with my power shall aid you in your fight!
 * Malygos: Few have experienced the pain I will now inflict upon you!
 * Malygos: I will teach you IGNORANT children just how little you know of magic...
 * Malygos: SUBMIT!
 * Malygos: Still standing? Not for long...
 * Malygos: Your cause is lost!
 * Malygos: Your fragile mind will be shattered!