User:Serillian/Zereveus the Mutant

Zereveus the Mutant is the fifth boss encounter in the Depths of Nightmare. He is a fallen Twilight Dragon resurrected by N'Zoth to serve as a nightmarish barrier to all enemies. The fight against him consists of attacking separate limbs in an attempt to detach them and break the boss apart literally. He can be seen like a secondary Kologarn concept-wise. Entering the combat area causes him to rise out of the seemingly bottomless chasm, breaking the bridge above him in the process and thus preventing further access into the depths. He must be defeated before gaining access to the rest of the Depths.

Background
During the siege of the twilight citadel, Zereveus was defeated defending it and then later on slain by the mortal heroes of the world. Following the demise of Deathwing, the old god N'Zoth began selecting potential individuals to serve him. Under his command, Prophet Sin'gurath had Zereveus brought to the Depths to have him revived and empowered via dark energy. With his resurrection and augmentation of immense power, Zereveus blocks intruders any further access into the nightmare depths. He personally looks forward to revenge and intends on acquiring it anyway possible.

Abilities
Zereveus has an enrage timer of 8 minutes on all difficulties. Both of his arms and body can be attacked separately but the body takes half of any damage done to the arms. When the body is attacked, the arms take half of any damage suffered by the body. Eventually the head becomes attackable which causes the body and arms to suffer half of the damage it takes.

Zereveus' Arms
Zereveus the Mutant will perform melee attacks as long as his arms are attached. When an arm is destroyed, Zereveus suffers damage equal to 50% of the destroyed arm's total health, unless it is impaled.
 * 40,000,000 (10-man Normal)
 * 55,000,000 (10-man Heroic)
 * 60,000,000 (25-man Raid Finder)
 * 120,000,000 (25-man Normal)
 * 165,000,000 (25-man Heroic)





Zereveus' Head
Every 90 seconds, Zereveus begins to attack the raid with an arsenal of breath attacks. During these attacks, his head is lowered enough to be attacked by players. Dealing enough damage to his head causes him to reel in pain and bang his head against the cavern walls. This causes large spikes to fall on the players. Zereveus' Head and Body share health but damaging one halves the damage taken by the other. He alternates between 1 out of 3 breath attacks.





Cavern Spikes
When Zereveus has taken enough damage to his head, he will reel back in pain and slam his head against the cavern walls. This causes many spikes to fall on players' location.


 * 788,000 (10-man)
 * 2,364,000 (25-man)
 * 788,000 (10-man)
 * 2,364,000 (25-man)



Armless
If any of Zereveus' arms are broken off, the severed limbs will gush out black blood, hinting at N'Zoth's corruption. He can no longer use Wave of Darkness or Dark Orb. Additionally, Zereveus can no longer perform melee attacks if both arms are detached.







Strategy
Start off stacked up close to the boss and begin dps on his body. His first attack Wave of Darkness can easily be healed through. When Dark Orbs go out (20 seconds after each Wave), the target players must run out of the raid and away from the boss to give the orbs enough time to decrease in damage before it catches to a player exploding on them for 90k minimum damage. Running out when targeted is imperative as to prevent the raid taking the massive damage that will be done to them when the orb hits its target before it lowers its damage (the damage will usually one shot if the orb hits a few seconds after being summoned) and to allow damage to continue on the boss.

90 seconds into the fight, Zereveus will eventually lower his head and his 1 out of three powerful breath attacks that will be used back-to-back if enough damage isn't done to his head. Defensive cooldowns should be on all of them especially for Shadow Breath since it progressively reduces healing over time while it deals damage. Dps should immediately attack the head the moment it becomes available to get Zereveus to stop his attack fast. Once damaged enough, the head will dramatically swing about crashing against the cavern walls. This causes a ton of spikes to fall on the location of players and will likely kill someone if they stand still.

However, if one stands near the boss' arm/claw, the spike will fall on that instead of stunning the player. When this happens, the arm is impaled and takes double damage from players. It will also bleed for nearly a third of its health over 30 seconds. Use this time to blow cooldowns and burn the arm down to kill it. When destroyed, the arm detaches from the boss and damages him for 100% of the detached arm's max health. Doing this again to his other arm will stop the boss from meleeing and using Wave of Darkness and Dark Orbs. This begins another "phase" where he can no longer attack using his claws but will bleed out via Blood Spray, putting a permanent dot on the raid that deals about 45.5k damage every sec. per arm (up to 91k damage per sec.)

The raid will want to stack up in front of the boss again since he will start using an attack called Shadow Shockwave which will split massive damage between players that are stacked up 6 yards apart. Anyone outside of that radius will take the full damage and end up dead. Zereveus will also use Twilight Breath this phase in place of Wave, Dark Orbs and his other breath attacks. This damage can be healed through but over the course of this phase, Shadow Shockwave will be used more often to the point where both will be used behind one another. Combined with the Blood Spray dot, the longer this phase lasts, the tougher it will be to heal through the increase in damage (each Twilight Breath causes players to take 25% more Shadow damage). Fortunately, the boss should be low enough after both arms are destroyed where he can be killed about 1-2 minutes into this phase. Long cooldowns should be saved for this part of the fight where it'll be needed most to kill the boss with few deaths if possible.

Heroic Changes

 * Attacking the body no longer damages the head (vice versa). Same applies for the arms and body.
 * Players hit by Dark Orbs will be knocked away and snared instead of knocked down.
 * Corrupting Breath reduces the max health on all players by 30% for its duration, effectively increasing healer pressure.
 * Void Breath increases Shadow damage taken by players by 50% for its duration.
 * When Deep Spikes hit the ground, a Spike Elemental will form per spike and attack players.
 * Impaled arms suffer 15% of their maximum health as damage over 30 seconds, down from 30%.
 * Players take 1% increased Shadow damage from all sources each time Blood Spray deals periodic damage.
 * Shadow Shockwave will knock all players away, out of melee range. This causes Zereveus to cast Void Volley as a "tactical" backup attack.

Quotes

 * Intro
 * emote
 * A massive behemoth, part twilight dragon part abomination, rises before the players. The only access that leads further into the Depths is shattered following this creature's arrival. Zereveus the Mutant stares at the players.
 * yell
 * yell


 * Aggro
 * yell


 * Dark Orbs
 * yell


 * Breath Attack
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell


 * Damaged Head
 * emote


 * Spike Impalement
 * yell
 * emote


 * Armless
 * yell
 * yell


 * Player Killed
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell
 * emote


 * Berserk
 * yell


 * Death
 * yell

Achievements

 * Depths of Nightmare - Defeat the bosses in the Depths of Nightmare.
 * Heroic: Zereveus the Mutant - Defeat Zereveus the Mutant in the Depths of Nightmare on Heroic difficulty.
 * Bowling Master - Defeat Zereveus the Mutant in the Depths of Nightmare on Normal or Heroic difficulty after allowing his Dark Orbs to hit all raid members three times.