WoW Cataclysm Classic: Bastion of Twilight Guide
Bastion of Twilight is the first raid in Cataclysm Classic and should be a good starting point for players looking to increase their ilvl. In this guide, we will discuss each boss encounter, their mechanics, and what you and your raid team should do for these mechanics.
Overall, there are 4 boss encounters for Bastion of Twilight, with one secret boss that only appears on Heroic difficulty.
Table of Contents
Halfus Wyrmbreaker strategy
In this encounter, Halfus Wyrmbreaker will have additional dragon adds that are tethered to him. Each dragon provides a specific buff to the boss that could make this encounter significantly harder. For this, two tanks are recommended, one to tank Halfus and the other to tank the dragon adds. Here is the list of buffs each dragon provides:
- Slate Dragon: Halfus’ attacks reduce the healing effectiveness of the target by 8% per hit.
- Storm Rider: Halfus occasionally unleashes a storm that deals heavy damage and knocks back to the entire raid.
- Nether Scion: Halfus gains 100% attack speed while tethered to the Nether Scion.
- Time Warden: The Proto-Behemoth can cast Fireball Barrage.
- Orphaned Emerald Whelps: The Proto-Behemoth can cast Scorching Breath.
Players in the raid must free the drakes before dealing DPS to the boss, as freeing one not only removes its buff from the boss but also makes Halfus take 100% increased damage. Your team must prioritize each dragon in this order for DPS: Storm Rider > Nether Scion > Slate Dragon > Time Warden > Orphaned Emerald Whelps.
At half health, Halfus will start dealing ground stomps that deal raid-wide damage and stun the whole team for 2 seconds. Healers should spread out their healing while the rest of the team quickly deal DPS. The team must defeat him within 6 minutes, or else he will enrage and wipe the entire raid.
Theralion and Valiona guide
Both bosses share a single health pool. Each dragon will alternate positions with one staying on the ground and the other hovering in mid-air. For the tanks, the bosses will place a debuff stack of Twilight Shift on the main tank, with 5 stacks sending the main tank to the Twilight Realm. This also affects anyone standing within 8 yards of the debuffed player. When this occurs, the off-tank must draw aggro.
Players inside the Twilight Realm must escape by entering one of the portals around the arena while also dodging light projectiles that explode on contact.
Valiona will always be the first boss in the encounter, so here are a few mechanics to watch out for while she is on the ground:
- Blackout: Places an AoE blast on a random player. The team must stack on the affected player to split damage.
- Devouring Flames: The dragon blasts a cone of flame at a random player. The targeted player and the team can avoid the attack by standing clear of the cone.
- Twilight Blast: Theralion will rain down fire while in mid-air, which deals AoE damage to a random player. The whole team must spread out evenly to avoid getting caught in the targeted player’s blast radius.
- Dazzling Destruction: Theralion will place AoE swirls on the ground, which explodes after a short time. Simply avoid standing in the marked zones.
After Dazzling Destruction is cast thrice, Valiona will switch places with Theralion. Now, the team must be aware of these new sets of mechanics.
Engulfing Damage: Theralion will mark a player with Engulfing Magic. For every point of damage done by the marked player, an equal amount will be dealt to any player nearby. The team and targeted player must split up to avoid spreading the damage to others.
- Fabulous FIre: Theralion leaves lingering AoE flames that deal continuous damage. Avoid standing in the fire.
- Twilight Meteorite: Valiona launches a meteorite at a random player. Like Blackout, the team must stack on the targeted player to split the damage.
- Deep Breath: Valiona does a strafing run and deals damage in a line. Players must watch in which direction Valiona is coming from to avoid the strafing run.
Since both dragons share a health bar, the team can stack DoTs on both to deal extra damage. This encounter must be cleared in 10 minutes before enrage occurs.
Ascendant Council guide
This encounter pits players against the four members of the Ascendant Council: Feludius (Ice), Ignacious (Fire), Arion (Wind), and Terrastra (Earth). All four bosses will eventually combine to form the Elementium Monstrosity. There are three phases in total, with Feludius and Ignacious for Phase 1, Arion and Terrastra for Phase 2, and the Elementium Monstrosity for Phase 3.
In Phase 1, stack Feludius and Ignacious together so that both can be defeated at the same time. Each boss has their own mechanics, so keep an eye out for these:
- Water Bomb: Feludius throws water projectiles at the arena. Anyone caught by this attack gets the Waterlogged debuff, which reduces movement speed. This can be removed by running into fire. If the target takes Frost damage while this debuff is active, they will be frozen and take heavy damage.
- Glaciate: Feludius will explode in a burst of ice, dealing damage around him. The damage decreases with distance, so be sure to stay as far away as possible from him during this attack.
- Flame Torrent: Ignacious spews a cone of flame in front of him.
- Inferno Rush: Ignacoius will leap toward any ranged player, then return to the main tank. He will leave behind a trail of fire, which should be avoided unless a player is Waterlogged.
- Aegis of Flame: Ignacious brings up a shield that deals raid-wide damage that ramps up in damage. Players must destroy this shield immediately to avoid taking heavy damage.
- Frost Imbued/Flame Imbued: Two random players will be inflicted with either debuffs, which makes them tick damage that ramps up. Players near the affected player will receive a buff that lets them deal increased damage against a boss of the opposite element (i.e., Frost Imbued against Ignacoius, Flame Imbued against Feludius).
Once either boss reaches 25% health, they will switch with Arion and Terrastra. Again, one boss has a mechanic that helps players avoid the other.
- Disperse/Lightning Blast: Arion will teleport to the arena’s edge and then cast a bolt of lightning at the tank. This spell must be interrupted to prevent the tank from taking heavy damage.
- Lightning Rod: Arion will mark three players and then cast lightning rod , dealing more damage with each player hit. The marked players must spread out to break the chain.
- Swirling Winds: Arion unleashes whirlwinds around the arena. Players hit by a whirlwind are granted the Swirling Winds buff, which allows them to avoid the Quake mechanic by Terrastra.
- Quake: Terrastra will deal massive raid-wide damage to all players. To avoid this mechanic, players must be hit by the Swirling Winds to survive.
- Gravity Well: Much like Swirling Winds, Terrastra will place vortexes on the arena that pull nearby players in. Going into the vortex will grant the Grounded debuff, which prevents taking damage from the Thundershock mechanic by Arion.
- Thundershock: Arion will deal massive raid-wide damage to all players. This can be avoided by going into a gravity well and receiving the Grounded buff.
- Eruption: Rocky spikes will erupt around Terrastra, dealing heavy damage while knocking anyone caught in the AoE into the air.
- Harden Skin: Terrastra will bring up a shield that lets him deal 100% more damage. The cast can be interrupted. Alternatively, the shield can be broken by heavy DPS.
Once more, getting any boss down to 25% health will trigger the final phase. All four council members will combine and become the Elementium Monstrosity. This boss’ health is that of the total remaining health of all 4 bosses and , which is why getting all four bosses down to 25% health is ideal for shortening this phase.
- Electric Instability: The Monstrosity zaps nearby players with electrical bolts that chain to other players. Each cast increases the number of players affected. Healers must use their best healing spells to keep everyone alive during this mechanic.
- Gravity Crush: The Elementium Monstrosity traps a random player and suspends them in the air lifting them off the ground and deals heavy damage over time for 6 seconds. After 6 seconds, the targeted player is set free.
- Lava Seed: The Elementium Monstrosity scatters flaming projectiles at the arena. These projectiles then explode after a short delay, dealing heavy fire damage. Find a safe spot to avoid getting caught in the blast zone.
- Cryogenic Aura: The Monstrosity reduces all damage taken by 25% and places frozen pools beneath it. These frozen pools deal damage and expand while they remain in contact with the Monstrosity. Tanks must pull the boss around the edges of the arena, while ranged players stay in the middle to avoid damage.
Cho’gall guide
Cho’gall is the final boss for the raid and certainly a challenging one. His main mechanic is that all his moves will inflict Corruption, which ticks up to 100 stacks. This boss fight has two phases.
Reaching 25 stacks will cause you to take more damage from Cho’Gall. 50 stacks will cause you to spew poison in a frontal cone, which also corrupts other players. 75 stacks spawn a Malformation on your back that casts Shadow Bolt on other players, and 100 stacks will turn you into a Faceless One that cannot receive healing but deals 100% more damage.
For Phase 1, Cho’gall will use the following mechanics:
- Flame’s Orders: Cho’gall commands fire to help him
- Flaming Destruction: Cho’gall’s melee attacks deal extra fire damage and spawn patches of fire around the arena. Tanks should prepare to pop their cooldowns when this attack occurs.
- Shadow’s Orders: Cho’gall commands the darkness to help him
- Empowered Shadows: Cho’gall will send pulses of darkness, dealing raid-wide damage. Healers must pop their healing cooldowns to keep the team alive.
- Conversion: Cho’gall selects three random players, and mind controls them, forcing the players to worship them. Each mind-controlled player buffs Cho’gall’s damage by 5%. Players must use an interrupt skill on the targeted players to break them free.
- Fury of Cho’gall: Cho’gall smites the main tank with a debuff that causes them to take more damage per stack. The main tank must swap aggro with the off-tank to spread the stacks evenly.
In this phase, Cho’gall will summon a Corrupted Adherent minion that will spread the Corruption debuff with its attacks. The off-tank must draw aggro while all ranged players prioritize killing the Corrupted Adherent immediately. When the minion dies, it will leave behind a pool of liquid Corruption, so off-tanks must draw them to the arena’s edge. This pool spawns slime adds that will inflict small stacks of Corruption on contact, so the off-tank and any players available must kill them to prevent the spread of debuffs.
Upon reaching 25% health, Cho’gall will enter Phase 2 of the fight. This phase is a DPS check, as he will start pulsing with corrupted energy, dealing raid-wide damage for the rest of this phase. Tentacle adds will also spawn in the arena and target healers with a beam that reduces their healing output and deals damage. Players can interrupt these adds to keep their supports safe.
Sinestra guide (Heroic only)
Sinestra is the actual final boss for Bastion of Twilight and can only be found in Heroic mode. She has three phases in total for her fight.
For Phase 1, Sinestra will deal 40% less damage and only has 60% of her health.
- Wrack: Sinestra inflicts a random player with the Wrack debuff, which deals damage over time that ramps up the longer it stays. Whenever a player dispels Wrack, it will bounce to 2 players nearby. When it bounces, Wrack retains its remaining duration but its damage will reset to the weakest value. The original player must keep the debuff for as long as they can before coordinating with their team with the dispel so that Wrack runs its full duration before it can kill anyone.
- Flame Breath: Sinestra deals raid-wide damage to everyone. Healers do not need to pop cooldowns for this unless Fire Breath’s damage becomes too strong.
- Twilight Slicer: Sinestra summons two orbs that will target two players. Both spheres are linked by a chain of energy, which deals heavy damage when it comes into contact with a player. Each sphere also pulses dark energy, dealing damage every 0.5 seconds. Targeted players must kite these orbs away while staying close to avoid hitting the rest of the team.
- Twilight Blast: Sinestra will blast random players, instantly killing them. This mechanic will only occur if there are no players engaging Sinestra in melee range.
- Twilight Whelps: Sinestra occasionally summons five Twilight Whelp adds to attack the raid team. When a whelp dies, it leaves a pool of essence that expands. Any whelp that dies in an essence pool will be revived. The off-tank should kite them away to the arena’s edges while killing them one at a time so that the whelps do not resurrect.
Upon reaching 35%, SInestra will start off Phase 2 with a literal bang. She will start Twilight Extinction, a raid-wide explosion that can instantly kill. Everyone must run into the orange shield made by the NPC Calen. After that, Sinestra will have a couple of new mechanics to focus on. First, she will have a mana barrier that must be destroyed, or it will continue to replenish her health.
For the tanks, they must continue kiting the whelps to the back edges of the arena, the same as in Phase 1.
For the melee DPS players, they should prioritize their focus on the Twilight Spitecaller and Twilight Drake that spawn in the arena. For the Twilight Spitecaller, do not stun or CC this add, as it will retaliate with a knockback whenever any CC is applied on it. As for the Twilight Drake, do not let it reach any essence pools since it buffs the Drake’s damage and health by 10%.
For the ranged players, they have three targets to focus their fire on: Sinestra’s shield and the two eggs right beside her. While both eggs are untargetable, the team must focus on Sinestra’s shield. Once Sinestra’s mana is depleted, she will start draining one of the eggs, which drops its shield. The team must use their best DPS against the unshielded egg.
For healers, your goal is to keep Calen healed up, as he will be locked in a magical duel with Sinestra. While this duel is ongoing, his health will constantly drain. If Calen dies, the whole raid will be wiped out.
Once both eggs are destroyed, Phase 3 will begin, and Sinestra will now deal full damage. This phase works exactly like the first, but with mechanics like Twilight Whelps, Twilight Slicer, and Wrack dealing more damage than before. In this phase, the team is granted the Essence of the Red buff, which grants 5% more mana and 100% more haste. This phase is essentially a DPS check.
