Primordius

Primordius is the eighth boss encounter in the Throne of Thunder. The fight is a relatively simple DPS race compared to the rest of the fights in the Throne of Thunder.

Adventure Guide
''Deep within the bowels of Lei Shen's island citadel, mogu flesh-shapers formed the saurok out of a magical substance of unknown origin. When the citadel was abandoned, some experiments languished in the dark pools for far too long...''

Encounter Design
''The fact that the mogu created the saurok (among other creatures native to Pandaria) is something that may not have been obvious to players who were exploring the continent and learning about its inhabitants. This encounter provided us with a chance to "show, not tell" this piece of Pandaria's history. The actual mechanics of the fight evolved from discussion and brainstorming around the themes of evolution and mutation; a few of us had also recently watched the movie Prometheus, and the vaults of black goo in that movie helped inspire the overall vibe of Primordius’ lair.''

Spells and abilities

 * Mutation: Ventral Sacs - Sacs located around Primordius's frill will periodically erupt, inflicting 20,000 Nature damage to all players every 1 sec.
 * Mutation: Gas Bladder - A volatile mutation that allows Primordius to spray Caustic Gas, inflicting 4,050,000 Nature damage split evenly between all players within a 18-yard cone.
 * Mutation: Acidic Spines - Primordius fires Acidic Spines every 5 sec, inflicting 150,000 Nature damage to all players within 5 yards of the targets.
 * Mutation: Pathogen Glands - Allows Primordius to spray a Volatile Pathogen at a player, inflicting 60,000 Nature damage to an enemy player every 1 sec and summoning a Living Fluid.
 * Mutation: Metabolic Boost - A hyperactive metabolism allows Primordius to use abilities more often and increases attack speed by 50%.
 * Mutation: Erupting Pustules - Pustules erupt every 5 sec, showering the area with corrosive blood that inflicts 300,000 Nature damage within 3 yards of the impact.
 * Living Fluid - Living fluid seeps from the pools surrounding Primordius's lair and slowly make their way to Primordius.
 * Helpful Mutation: Thick Bones - The player's bones become thick and powerful, increasing all stats by 10%. This effect can stack up to 10 times.
 * Harmful Mutation: Fragile Bones - The player's bones become thin and brittle, reducing all stats by 10%. This effect can stack up to 10 times.
 * Helpful Mutation: Clear Mind - The player's mind becomes clear and focused, increasing Mastery by 10%. This effect can stack up to 10 times.
 * Harmful Mutation: Clouded Mind - The player's mind becomes clouded and unfocused, reducing Mastery by 10%. This effect can stack up to 10 times.
 * Helpful Mutation: Improved Synapses - The player's neural synapses fire more quickly, increasing Haste by 10%. This effect can stack up to 10 times.
 * Harmful Mutation: Dulled Synapses - The player's neural synapses fire more slowly, reducing Haste by 10%. This effect can stack up to 10 times.
 * Helpful Mutation: Keen Eyesight - The player's eyesight becomes exceptionally keen, increasing Critical Strike chance by 10%. This effect can stack up to 10 times.
 * Harmful Mutation: Impaired Eyesight - The player's eyesight becomes exceptionally poor, reducing Critical Strike chance by 10%. This effect can stack up to 10 times.
 * Helpful Mutation: Thick Bones - The player's bones become thick and powerful, increasing all stats by 10%. This effect can stack up to 10 times.
 * Harmful Mutation: Fragile Bones - The player's bones become thin and brittle, reducing all stats by 10%. This effect can stack up to 10 times.
 * Helpful Mutation: Clear Mind - The player's mind becomes clear and focused, increasing Mastery by 10%. This effect can stack up to 10 times.
 * Harmful Mutation: Clouded Mind - The player's mind becomes clouded and unfocused, reducing Mastery by 10%. This effect can stack up to 10 times.
 * Helpful Mutation: Improved Synapses - The player's neural synapses fire more quickly, increasing Haste by 10%. This effect can stack up to 10 times.
 * Harmful Mutation: Dulled Synapses - The player's neural synapses fire more slowly, reducing Haste by 10%. This effect can stack up to 10 times.
 * Helpful Mutation: Keen Eyesight - The player's eyesight becomes exceptionally keen, increasing Critical Strike chance by 10%. This effect can stack up to 10 times.
 * Harmful Mutation: Impaired Eyesight - The player's eyesight becomes exceptionally poor, reducing Critical Strike chance by 10%. This effect can stack up to 10 times.

Strategy
Primordius is a single-phase encounter that requires 2 tanks with mechanics that randomly begin and end due to Primordius evolving different abilities. Tanks should kite Primordius around the arena, being careful to keep him faced away from the raid due to his powerful Primordial Strike cone attack. Kiting him prevents the slow moving Volatile Pools (purple) from reaching him. If they do, the pools heal Primordius for 10% of his max HP. Tanks should alternate to keep stacks of Malformed Blood from getting too high.

The fight has a hard enrage timer of eight minutes. The key to beating the enrage timer is the DPS managing the Living Fluid buffs and debuffs. Primordius is shielded by Mutated Abomination which reduces all damage by 35% for the duration of the fight, meaning members must be fully evolved to deal full damage. During the battle, Living Fluids will spawn from the pools at the edges of the arena and attempt to move a walk-speed towards Primordius. They cannot be slowed or stunned. When killed, they will drop one of two colored fluids: small and red, or large and purple. The red pools will provide whoever steps in them with a beneficial mutation, while the purple pools will damage players and give a detrimental mutation. Once the players receive 5 beneficial mutations, they will receive Fully Evolved, turning into a saurok and dealing full damage to Primordius. However, DPS must be mindful that once fully evolved, any mutagenic pools they step in will give them a detrimental mutation, so avoid them and attack Primordius. Once most of the DPS are Fully Evolved, cooldowns like Bloodlust should be used. Dispelling players is not advisable since it removes both positive AND negative mutations. Overall, DPS should go through 3 cycles of Fully Mutated to kill the boss and beat the enrage.

Related Achievements

 * Halls of Flesh-Shaping
 * Heroic: Primordius
 * Genetically Unmodified Organism
 * Throne of Thunder Guild Run

Quotes

 * Intro
 * say
 * say
 * say
 * say


 * Aggro
 * yell


 * Evolution
 * yell
 * yell


 * Killing a player
 * yell


 * Death
 * yell

25-man Normal

 * (1080p) - Mage, Boss voice, Vent

Trivia

 * Ventral Sacs, Pathogen Glands, and Metabolic Boost are all Zerg upgrades in StarCraft 2.
 * Primordius is voiced by Grant George.
 * Veskan the Fallen uses the same model as him.