7.4 NiM Styrak Guide
Nightmare/Master Mode Styrak is very similar to the Hard Mode version of the fight we several new additions to mechanics that add a layer of complexity to the encounter.
The same series of mobs impede your initial progress to Styrak. We dispatch the groups in sets of two waves a time, but like hard mode, engage them in an order you feel comfortable with. The baddie in the center of each mob is a healer that can be interrupted. They will also stop moving forward as soon as they are attacked. So bait them all the way to you before engaging them with ranged damage.
Once all of the mobs are dealt with the Dragon jumps down and enters the fight.
Recommended Raid Composition
2 Tanks - Any Combination
4 DPS - Any
2 Heal - Any 2 different classes
Required - Any 4 of the above should be consular/inquisitor classes for knock backs.
There are several "adds" to deal with as you fight the Kell dragon. The fight makes it easy on you (sarcasm) as they are all labeled dread master Styrak. Each aberration of him that comes in will do one of 3 different things. You can mostly guess which aberration it is based off of timing or animation.
Knockback add - This will be the first add your group encounters. This spawn will appear shortly before the first set of spines and leap into the group knocking back any players that are moving.
General Strategy - Have your healers move away from the group several seconds before spines start to bait this add away from the group.
Charge Add - This add will appear near(ish) the dragon and begin channeling a beam of power into the Kell dragon. The dragon will begin to gain stacks. This add needs to die quickly. 5-6 stacks of the purple buff it is applying is a great goal. After this add dies, the Purple buff on the dragon will expire. When it expires a pulse of purple energy will emit from the dragon causing raid wide damage. The higher the stacks the harder this pulse hits.
Choke Add - These pull and hold the Kell Dragons current target (typically the tank). These adds generally appear along the "inside" parimeter of the room. If the add is far away, we typically have ranged dps worry about them. If they are close to the boss, melee can help focus them down. These adds do not hurt the tank and only need to die before that tank is needed to shield the group for spines.
The Pull
As soon as the final baddie goes down from the initial mob(s) the Kell dragon jumps down, right about where the last mob was standing. Tank 1 (Blue) takes the boss first. I preset myself up at range to engage the boss with my ranged threat building attacks and taunt from range to build maximum threat. I highly recommend a triple taunt sequence for this one as you will not be dpsing the boss for the first 3-4 GCDs as it walks over to you. After a few GCDs the boss will "Spit" on you. I side step over moving toward the entrance along the lake to my back.
Ranged dps and your co-tank should be moving in right behind the boss as it comes to you. Your co-tank should be in front of the rest of the raid in preparation of the first "spines".
Healer(s) should be staying in line, but well behind the group waiting for the first knockback add to appear.
Shortly after the first spit, the boss will kick Tank 1. Tank 2 does NOT taunt here. (This is NOT the Tank swap for this fight.
Fighting the Dragon
Tank 1 is knocked back and the boss begins its spines channel. This is a long channel and the same as hard mode with a twist. The spines debuff is now extremely leathal and needs strong heals and use of defensives to survive. The co-tank needs to stay in front of the group and close to the boss to intercept this hit for the group. The melee DPS should be able to continue to dps the boss during this, so the co-tank needs to be close enough that they can get in. The co-tank MUST run a strong long duration defensive to survive this channel. (Shadow = Deflection, Guardian = Saber ward, Vanguard = Reactive shield or Battle Focus)
The main tank needs to rush back in and get behind their cotank to get shielded as well and allow their spine debuff to expire. I recommend gap closing back to the dragon and running straight through and behind your co-tank. The healer(s) can stack back into the group after they have successfully baited the knock back add.
Only the two tanks should be getting spines during this phase. Vanguards and Sentinels can use spines to increase their damage and may get it on purple to increase their dps (thought that needs tempered against the healers capacity to keep up with it). If you get this debuff on you and you are not a tank, you need to hit everything you can to keep from dying. If a large percentage of the group gets spines (the knock back add knocked everyone from out from behind the tank), it is likely a wipe, but can be recovered with excellent healing and mitigation from dps.
Tenths of a second before spines finishes channeling, Tank 1 run back out of the group and sets back up in their position they occupied before being kicked. Timing here is tight for the spines debuff. The goal is to detack from the group and put spit on your prior position without picking the spines debuff back up.
If you are too fast to destack, you will get spines but put spit "where it goes" and not on the DPS.
If you are too slow to destack you will not get spines, but you will put spit right in the middle of the group causing some nasty damage to your teammates and requiring quick reactions by them to get out of it.
It is obviously better to destack too fast vs too slow. As you prog this fight, work to find that perfect balance of I got out, I didn't get spines back on me, and spit when where I wanted it to. It is quick. You must be quicker.
Nearly right after spit, a charge add spawns. It can be helpful for the tank to move the boss closer to the charge add to help dps DoT cleave/spread to maximize on boss DPS. Burst classes should always 100% swap to these adds when they come in. Again as above, keep watch on the Dragons stacks of the purple buff. If it exceeds 6-7, use an AoE defensive to mitigate the pulse wave from the Dragon when this expires.
One more Vomit pool drops, then it is nearing tank swap time.
You should be keeping the vomit pools relatively close to the lake, as I have illistrated. There are a number of little skeleton remains around the inner parimeter of the room. Always keep vomit pools outside of an imaginary line connecting them. Tank's when "choked" will go to a spot close to these skeletons. Putting spit on the skeletons is a pretty sure fire way to have a tank choked in spit. It can still happen. The tank should ask for a pull if/when this happens. As this is possible, I recommend always having at least 1 sage in the group for a pull. (or Vanguard tank with friendly pull)
This is the tank swap, the Cotank now taunts and takes the boss as the Main tank gets choked.
Continue to tank the boss and fall back as vomit pools come out. Timers from The Old Republic Battle Parser are great here. I strongly recommend not back peddling (s keying) out of the vomit pools. I always strafe out of them, then move back as an example. Rememeber to not place spit (vomit pools) on the skeletons as you round the corner leaving the edge of the lake. About the time you are hitting this area (4-5 total spit pools) the next kick comes and it is now the main tanks turn to shield the group. Multiple spawns typically come for this one. The knock back add will be after the healers, the charge add will have spawned and your cotank will be working on getting behind the shielding tank. Remember to watch where spit is placed. It is easy to get baited into standing in a vomit pool at this junction. Remind your DPS to take down the charge add first! Same exit strategy as above, the co-tank needs to exit the stack before the vomit pool hits the group.
The pattern essentially repeat from here until your team takes it down. We kill him typically around the area I have terminated the arrow in, faster if we stack spits better, but we typically get a bit lazy. The timers in the old republic battle parser are amazing for this fight, but be warned, the Kell Dragon has a habit of going out of order or just outright skipping mechanics. We suspect this may be due to higher or lower DPS. For example, we have had spines start before a kick, then he kicks when the spines end, or skips kick all-together. These non-linear pull sequences make it challenging, so it is important to know it can and does happen and be prepared to change up your strategy to match what the boss is actually doing.
Lightning streaks from the ceiling with a spicy voice line from Styrak as the Dragon dies. This lightning damage hurts, the entire raid (except for the tank getting Styrak needs to stack up for healing and use an AoE defensive ability to mitigate this damage.
The Main tank, or tank taking Styrak first should move toward the throne side standing near where they initially started with the Kell Dragon. They will automatically target Styrak as they take damage from him. Make sure you have him as your active target and spam the taunt button to capture his threat as comes in. You want to be trying to hit it before he spawns. If you are a tenth of a second slow here, the first Thundering Blast can hit the group and easily global a DPS or healer.
The Styrak Phase - This broke the beast, now it will Break you
Stand clear of the death zone. Tank 1 (Blue) will be taunting here and cleaving everything in front of the boss when he enters the arena. Stay bunched up (for heals) in the green zone. Pop AoE DR to mitigate the lightning storm damage (Keep in mind, your best AoE DR on most DwT classes is your AoE Taunt (threat drop). Be sure to spec into this. It is too useful not to for operations.
Once the first thundering blast fires, the boss will close on Tank 1. The rest of the group should follow suit and stack behind the boss, helping the healers triage/recover. Styrak will fire a second Thundering blast at Tank 1. They will need a second cool down to mitigate this as well, or be focused by the healers.
Force lightning is channeled against all players next. Players will take light damage during the channel. Players need to spread out as the channel finishes.
All players will gain the overcharged debuff after the lightning field channel finishes. This debuff expires quickly. When this debuff concludes the player burst with damage that will deal moderate damage to them as well as any players within melee range. Stacking with other players amplifies this damage and will quickly lead to player deaths. (Think lightning field from Dread Guards in TfB).
After the explosions from the overcharged buff go off, Styrak will channel nightmare manifestation and banish a player to the "nightmare". Same as the other modes, kill your companion. Be sure to call out that you are in the nightmare if you are assigned to knocks/early interrupts.
The player entering the nightmare will leave a purple damage circle behind. This circle sticks around for 2 chain manifestation, it cannot be dropped in the "red zone". NO ONE can stand in the red zone (the area the big styrak spawns in). This will lead to a wipe. Force pull is channeled immediately after nightmare, prompting a tank swap.
Styrak will immediately thundering blast the off tank after force pull.
After Styrak fires Thundering blast at the off tank, they should start moving Styrak into the "red zone". All players should follow and move into the center of the room where the big styrak ghost will spawn for chain.
Styrak then channels chained manifestation.
Summary of Styrak - 1 ability channel order.
Chained Manifestation - Now You'll See True Power!
Four players are assigned to "knocks". These should be sages or shadows. Other classes can knock, such as the commando or sniper, but their knock backs do not work as well as the sage/shadow's force push. If your group composition cannot contain 4 consular classes, good luck. Commando and sniper and other class's knock backs should be saved for emergency knocks, should things fall off the rails. If you are using a sage healer in this count, I highly recommend they have 110% accuracy so that their knock back does not miss.
2 teams of players will be assigned to use their knock backs to push away the closing chain manifestations. 1 player in each group will be assigned to "throne" or "entrance". Typically referred to as "throne 1, throne 2, entrance 1, entrance 2". This means which direction you are knocking toward (i.e. toward the throne) and in what order (i.e. first or second to go).
All players stack under the very large ghost of Styrak that pops up near the center of the room.
4 Manifestations spawn around the corners of the battlefield and start their approach inward, just like in story and hard mode. In NiM mode, they move much faster and will need to be knocked back to provide enough time to DPS down the big ghost in the center. Styrak's big ghost will be channeling suffering. This reduces players' accuracy and will lead to knock backs and damage missing. This needs to be interrupted immediately. Once interrupted he will rechannel it, as such an interrupt order needs to be set, or call-outs made so that everyone does not burn their interrupt. The fight at this point has very low damage going out. Healers need to DPS to make the check.
The four chain manifestations close into knock range. As one of the players assigned to knock back's I always do a little warm up before I knock. I move forward and back a few times to line myself up for the incoming knock. If you have been dpsing the big ghost, your character's model can contort a bit and off center your knock, making you only hit one manifestation when they close in.
Not interrupting the "suffering" channel can also cause your knock to miss. If you are consistently missing one ghost, troubleshoot both your positioning and the interrupt happening. Watch your debuff bar. Suffering looks like the debuff from having had force empowerment used.
Knocks are called, move forward slightly and fire your knock at your assigned direction/two manifestations. Suffering will be rechanneling needing another player to interrupt it. When executed correctly, both of your manifestations will be forced backwards and rooted in place for several seconds (if using sage/shadow knock). After several seconds they will begin their march forward and will require a second knock back. The next two players in sequence perform the second knocks, pushing back and rooting the manifestations a second time. As they begin marching forward again, the main big ghost should be going down. Remember to keep an interrupt order on suffering. We use a "next" system, whoever can get the next one calls it. After that interrupt happens, another player calls next and so forth.
Situation - A knock missed - It is not a wipe if your team reacts quickly. Manifestations can be stunned with hard stunning abilities (stuns that do not break on damage). Quick reacting players can move in and stun these adds to help provide enough time to dps the big ghost, or for them to line back up for second knocks. If the miss happed on second knocks, I recommend using an emergency push back to move it away to keep dps uptime. Remember to keep interrupting "suffering" when things do not go as planned it is easy to forget it.
Other modifying factors:
Sonic Rebounders can be used to deal more damage to the Big Ghost. As players stack in, use Sonic Rebounders and wait a moment before interrupting the first channel of suffering. As players lose their buff (dealing damage), interrupt suffering and proceed as normal.
Situation - A player first in your knock back order is trapped in the first nightmare manifestation. The first chain manifestation is the tightest of the checks on Styrak as the nightmare comes out closer to the start of chain manifestation, meaning that there is a high chance that one of your DPS will be unavailable to help push this phase. If that trapped player is also first in your knock back order, swap the order and have your second knocks go first and vice versa.
We save all raid buffs, offensive cool downs, adrenals ect and use them right here at the first chain manifestation.
Afterwards, I recommend using all OCDs on the actual Styrak burn to push him as fast as possible. Your goal should be to enter final phase in 9 chain manifestations. A tenth is not unusual for average DPS. Having more than 10 will likely be an enraged burn phase.
This is an extremely long fight (16-18 minutes). Messing up knocks at the 10 yard line really sucks.
Lightning Manifestations - Mere Smoke, Now Taste Fire
If DPS was on par, as the Big Ghost disappears and chain manifestation ends, the boss will reappear for 2-3 seconds. This is enough time for DPS to reapply 1-2 DoTs before he vanishes again. I believe that these DoTs will continue to tick on him after he has vanished. If you have a heavier hitting ability that does not require a long channel, you can use it here.
After that short parlay with Styrak, and one of his wonderful one liners, lightning manifestations spawn. In Nightmare mode they can spawn anywere. Same requirment as hard mode. A player must get to and remain in base contact with the manifestation. I recommend guiding your DPS to focus on a quadrant of the field. If they do not have a manifestation spawn in their quadrant, flex into another. DPS should try to all be on 1 manifestation, but ALL players should move as fast as possible to them to ensure that someone is in melee range to prevent a wipe. I recommend having healers stay in the center as the DPS/tanks start to spread out, as lightning manifestations can spawn in the center. Be sure to keep an eye on the dragon's corpse, as manifestations like to spawn and hide in there. If you only count 3, this is likely where the 4th is hiding. Be quick.
When successful, the players "in melee" range will be tethered to their manifestation. If you are not tethered, you are free to flex to another ghost as needed. (As in 2 dps end up on the same one, the dps that isn't tied to the manifestation can go help a healer or tank that may be trying to solo a manifestation down). The tank picking Styrak back up needs to be free to do so, so pay extra attention to them and make sure they are freed up ASAP.
As the chain manifestations go down (and will be earlier if you are slow, the main guy comes back when he comes back. Ready or not!). As the tank I pull Styrak toward the center so that when he comes back I can easily face him back out and away from the group. He will fire thundering blast very shortly after he returns. Be ready to mitigate this with a defensive ability. You have little use for your defensives outside of taking this one hit, so always make sure you have something up for it. ALL players should close in on Styrak and resume DPS. Healers can off DPS quite a bit here. Healers need to be sure to move in and get out of the "red zone" which they were likely standing in for lightning manifestation. Healers can get nightmare, they are the most likely players to mess up and put a purple circle in the "red zone".
Yes, I made a specail diagram for getting the frick out of the red zone! Seriously, do not wipe your group in chain #9 because a purple circle is right on top the big ghost.
A few GCDs after Thundering blast Styrak will do either Force pull or nightmare. In most instances I saw Force pull first, then nightmare. Whichever one happens first, the other will fire off right after. I will diagram out based on force pull going first, if it is second, there is little change to the tanking plan.
Remember that whichever player entering the nightmare will drop a purple circle at their feet upon being taken into it.
This will mean that Tank 2 will need to quickly relocate Styrak so that Melee DPS are not stuck in the purple circle left behind. Time is short as lightning field is coming. You have maybe 2-3" to move him to a good spot before he will stop moving and channel lightning. Lightning is a longer channel, so if he's stuck in a purple circle while he is doing it, it can be a massive DPS loss. Tank 2 needs to know exactly where they will be taking him when tank 1 gets force pulled and head there immediately. I have my off-tank stand out and taunt from range to pull him over.
If you have a Vanguard/PT, use rebounders for lightning field. The extra damage against styrak can mean the difference between getting only 9 chains, to having to do a 10th chain.
Players should spread back out as lightning field is nearing the end of its channel (melee should keep dpsing right up until the end if possible). Get some distance from other players before the overloaded debuff expires (you explode with damage). Use a Defensive ability to help mitigate it. Players have little use for Defensive abilities outside of the high tick of damage here, so having something available should not be an issue. Healers should be pouring in as much off dps as they can.
A Thundering Blast is channeled at tank 2 next. After this Thundering Blast, Tank 2 should take Styrak back into the Red zone to make taunting/DPSing Styrak for those 2-3" after the next chain easier.
From here we reset back to chain manifestation and start the whole cycle over from the top. repeat this 8 more times and you have it! The only part that really changes is the purple circles on the ground and how Tank 1 and Tank 2 will need to position themselves and the boss to avoid them.
Summary of the Styrak damage phase, keeping in mind that sometimes force pull and nightmare flip flop.
Brothers and Sisters, Grant Me Power!
When you get to burn phase, DPS the Dragon back down first. Tanks should swap as their stack debuff drops off (usually around 4-5 stacks). Keep taunt swapping back and forth using Defensive abilities as needed. As the Dragon is getting ready to die, tanks need to freeze in place. Styrak will punish any movement by throwing his active target across the map. If tanks do not move he will toss them straight up keeping his movement around the battlefield to zero.
Burn is more heal intense, but not as demanding as phase one, imo. Burn is typically an easy clear so long as everyone targets the Dragon first and Tanks do not mess up by moving.
Changes to this fight's strategy for 16 mode
Comp changes: I recommend only running 3 healers for this fight (2 outstanding healers I feel could do it as well). Pushing DPS along here makes 16 Syrak much easier.
Phase 1 is a complete breeze. The Dog will likely be dead soon after the 2nd tank swap (near the entrance), verses the 3rd. If you find your group going much past the entrance with the pattern above, DPS may be an issue and chains are going to be a concern.
Transition from phase 1 to phase 2. The whole team needs to stack up and use AoE DR, sniper shield helpful here. Start Styrak a bit closer to the team and be ready for the first force lightning. Rebounders here for protection (players will still need to spread out!!!) REMEMBER not to be in MID (purple circle prog sucks!)
Chain phases your group will now need 3 teams assigned to knocks, and I recommend assigning 1-2 players to back ups incase of deaths.
Clearly communicate your assignments for knock order and back ups. Keep DPS only on team one. Flex a back up in for team 1 if one of them is selected for the first (and only the first) nightmare.
"Ghost Phase" is where the chaos starts. Below is what I drew up and assigned to my team to coordinate their efforts. (m = middle)
So for me, I was 2/3, this meant that I was on patrol between zones 2 and 3.
If your players know how to do knocks and if they can stay coordinated for ghost, the rest stays very familiar.
