Ultraxion



Ultraxion is the fifth boss to appear in the Dragon Soul raid. He is so monstrous that he cannot land atop Wyrmrest Temple, so players must stand on the ledge and battle him as he flies next to the temple. The damage in the fight is reminiscent of Patchwerk in Naxxramas with just ridiculous amounts of damage; a gear check boss. However, while Patchwerk was a simple tank and spank, Ultraxion has mechanics which can tax the coordination abilities of the raid.

World first heroic kill on 25-man achieved 7.12.2011 by Exodus - US-Ysondre.

Adventure Guide
''More an abomination of dark energy than a dragon, Ultraxion has spent his short life absorbing the essence of captured nether dragons. Ultraxion is the only twilight dragon Deathwing has praised, and his arrogance is overshadowed only by the crackling energies surging through his twisted form. Loyal to his master, Ultraxion swears to bring about the fall of Wyrmrest Temple.''

Abilities
After 6 minutes have passed, Ultraxion will cast Twilight Eruption, a 5 second cast that will instantly wipe the raid.


 * Alexstrasza
 * Ysera
 * Kalecgos
 * Nozdormu
 * Thrall
 * Alexstrasza
 * Ysera
 * Kalecgos
 * Nozdormu
 * Thrall
 * Alexstrasza
 * Ysera
 * Kalecgos
 * Nozdormu
 * Thrall
 * Nozdormu
 * Thrall
 * Thrall
 * Thrall

Strategy
Ultraxion is a DPS and healing race, requiring the group to handle a tank-swapping mechanic while doing high DPS to the boss and surviving constant AoE damage and the Hour of Twilight effect.

The fight takes place in the Twilight Realm, and players must be in the realm to do damage to Ultraxion. The Heroic Will ability, which appears on a big purple button in the center of the screen, allows players to escape the realm for several seconds. Using this ability properly is the key to surviving the fight.

All players need to be aware of the Hour of Twilight cast, which comes about once a minute (45 seconds on normal). One person (or three in 25-man) must remain in the twilight realm or the raid will instantly wipe; the other players must use their Heroic Will button to escape the twilight realm and avoid the damage.

Tanks
Tanks must use damage reduction cooldowns to survive the Hour of Twilight - note the Last Defender of Azeroth buff which doubles the power and halves the cooldowns of these abilities. Tanks must also manage the Fading Light debuff. The current tank will receive the Fading Light debuff at some point; when he is about to die, the offtank must taunt Ultraxion and the current tank must use Heroic Will to survive Fading Light. After the Heroic Will ends, that tank will generate no threat for 5 seconds; he must then watch the offtank until the next Fading Light, and taunt to pick Ultraxion back up.

DPS
DPS must watch for the Hour of Twilight effect, and be ready to use Heroic Will to survive it. DPS players can maximize their damage by saving the Heroic Will for the end of the Hour of Twilight cast bar. DPS should stack near the front of Ultraxion for AoE heals. If DPS receives the Fading Light debuff, they must use Heroic Will when they have just a few seconds left before the Fading Light effect triggers.

Healers
Healers need to heal the AoE damage from Unstable Monstrosity, which is split among the entire raid. The cast rate for this AoE gets faster every minute the fight goes on, starting at once per six seconds and peaking at one tick per second for the last minute before the enrage at six minutes. Throughout the fight, Alexstrasza, Ysera, and Kalecgos will provide assistance in the form of buffs for the healers,  Each of these buffs can only be given to one healer at a time, so decide wisely who should get them. Normally the red buff is best used on Holy Priests (Renew, Prayer of Healing, HW:Sanc) and Druids (Wild Growth, Rejuv, Lifebloom), the green buff for Holy Paladins (Divine Light) and Shamans (Greater Healing Wave), and the blue buff for Shamans (Chain Heal spam), Disc Priests (Prayer of Healing spam) and Paladins (Holy Radiance spam), though depending on the healers different combinations might work just as well.

Fading Light details
Periodically throughout the fight Ultraxion will cast Fading Light on the tank and one (for 10-man, three for 25-man) other player(s). Each affected player will get a debuff with a timer between 5 and 9 seconds. If the player is still in the twilight realm when the buff expires they die. To avoid this use Heroic Will to exit the twilight realm when the buff has around 3 seconds remaining. Since Heroic Will only lasts 5 seconds if you use it too early you will return to the twilight realm in time to be killed by Fading Light. If you do not use it at all you will be killed by Fading Light.

If you have lag you are somewhat doomed.

Heroic Mode and surviving Hour of Twilight
For difficulty levels other than LFR, a certain number of players must remain in the twilight realm during Hour of Twilight (and be exposed to massive damage) to avoid a wipe.

In 10-man normal the default tactic is to have the tanks take turns because Last Defender of Azeroth guarantees that every properly-specced tank has an appropriate 90-second survival cooldown. Optimizations are possible (such as a DK with Anti-Magic Shell eating all of the Hour of Twilight).

For 25-man or heroic this means that some non-tank players who can survive a 300,000 point hit must remain in the twilight realm and absorb the Hour of Twilight.

The major complicating factor in heroic mode is the Looming Darkness. A player who suffers Hour of Twilight during a heroic encounter is afflicted by Looming Darkness which lasts for 2 minutes. If a player with Looming Darkness suffers another Hour of Twilight they are instantly killed. This means that players in heroic mode can not absorb an Hour of Twilight more than once every 3 casts or they will die (which is still preferrable to wiping).

Building a successful cooldown rotation (and actually executing it) can be quite confusing if you don't have enough Anti-Magic Shell. Consult the following chart to help you choose a rotation:

Non-Tank Abilities
The following abilities can be used by non-tanks to survive Hour of Twilight casts.

Keep in mind that especially in 25m raids, external single-target and raid cooldowns can also be used to keep players alive, especially non-tanks that are required to soak. Effective single-target cooldowns are Pain Suppression, Guardian Spirit, and Hand of Sacrifice, while raid cooldowns that can allow players to survive include the T13 4-piece tank bonuses (Vampiric Brood and Shield Fortress), Divine Guardian, Rallying Cry, Anti-Magic Zone, and Power Word: Barrier. Depending on your raid composition, multiple cooldowns may need to be stacked to ensure every player's survival.

DPS death knights with Anti-Magic Shell and Icebound Fortitude, balance/restoration druids with Barkskin, holy/ret paladins with Glyph of Divine Protection, enhancement shamans with Shamanistic Rage, and destruction warlocks with Glyph of Soul Link and Nether Protection are not necessarily able to eat an Hour of Twilight without assistance, but have excellent mitigation abilities and hence are excellent candidates for staying out with help from the above cooldowns.

The Heroic Will effect can be bound to the "Extra Action" keybinding. If you use an addon that changes your interface, this may prevent trouble with the button. An alternative to permanently assigning a key binding is to create a macro of

and load it onto your action bars for the fight.

Solo Strategy
Soloing Ultraxion is a challenging DPS race because you must kill Ultraxion before the first Hour of Twilight. Use all your DPS cooldowns immediately and kill the boss as quickly as possible.

To solo Ultraxion 25H at level 100, an item level of 650 or higher is recommended.

Related Achievements

 * Fall of Deathwing
 * Dragon Soul Guild Run
 * Heroic: Ultraxion
 * Minutes to Midnight

Quotes

 * Intro
 * say
 * yell
 * yell


 * Aggro
 * yell


 * Last Defender of Azeroth
 * yell


 * Hour of Twilight
 * yell


 * More Unstable
 * yell


 * Gift of Life
 * yell


 * Essence of Dreams
 * yell


 * Source of Magic
 * yell


 * Timeloop
 * yell


 * Killing a player
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell


 * Casting Twilight Eruption
 * yell


 * Aspects Killed
 * say
 * say


 * Death
 * yell


 * Outro
 * say
 * say


 * Unused quote
 * Lord Deathwing... Your gift... it is too much! I am...

Speculation
It is possible Ultraxion was originally meant to be Chromatus, possibly because animating a chimaera-like being turned out too hard for the developers. Chromatus just disappeared from the story, and Ultraxion drops a chromatic drake mount. It could also explain why the Twilight's Hammer was present in the Eye of Eternity, as Chromatus was originally imprisoned in an Arcane Prison, technology of the Blue dragonflight.