
Opening the Dark Portal, Healer Guide
Updated 11 months, 2 weeks ago for patch 2.5.2 by Preston. View the change log.
This page covers healer-focused strategies for the Opening the Dark Portal dungeon in The Burning Crusade. While it's tailored for healers, other roles may also find the information useful. If you have any suggestions or feedback, you can leave a comment below or tweet @PrestonDvorak.
This guide has been updated and maintained based on my own experiences as well as Dungeon Journal and combat log information. I'll continue to update it as-needed.
The overall goal of this dungeon is to prevent the enemies and bosses from destroying Medivh's shield. Medivh is located near the back of the dungeon by the Dark Portal. All enemies and bosses will attempt to attack him until damaged by a player.
Bosses
Below are guides for the bosses in Opening the Dark Portal, including their abilities, healer notes, and addon settings.
Chrono Lord Deja
Deja is summoned as part of Wave 6.
- The tank will be dealing with the knock back from
Arcane Blast.
- Dispel
Time Lapse (magic) to remove the reduced attack speed and movement speed effect.
- Deals moderate damage to all players with
Arcane Discharge.
- Pulls all players into melee range with
Attraction.
Healing Notes
- Healing should remain low throughout the encounter, with the main damage coming from
Arcane Discharge.
Debuffs to Track
- Major:
Time Lapse (dispel, magic)
Addons
Temporus
Temporus is summoned as part of Wave 12.
- The tank will be dealing with
Mortal Wound, reducing healing received.
- Stay at least 15-yards away to avoid
Wing Buffet.
- Purge
Hasten to remove the increased attack speed and movement speed effect.
- Reflects spells while
Spell Reflection is active.
Healing Notes
- Be prepared for the extra healing required on the tank if there's no purge for
Hasten.
Debuffs to Track
- Major:
Mortal Wound
- Buffs to Purge:
Hasten
Addons
Aeonus
Aeonus is summoned as part of Wave 18.
- The tank will be taking extra damage from
Thrash.
- Don't stand in front to avoid
Sand Breath and
Cleave.
- Stuns all players with
Time Stop.
- Soothe
Frenzy to remove the increased attack speed effect.
Healing Notes
- Keep the tank near full health to ensure they survive during
Time Stop.
Debuffs to Track
- Enrages to Soothe:
Frenzy
Addons
Trash Mobs
Below are notes for the trash mobs in Opening the Dark Portal. Opening the Dark Portal is a wide open dungeon, however, you're kept in a smaller area due to all trash mobs and bosses coming from random portals near the Dark Portal itself. Due to this setup, any of the trash mobs noted below can come from any portal.
- The following enemies are scattered around the dungeon and don't come from the portals.
- Blackfang Tarantula
- Dispel
Ebon Poison (poison) to remove the reduced healing received effect.
- Dispel
- Sable Jaguar
- Are initially invisible due to
Sneak.
- Are initially invisible due to
- Blackfang Tarantula
- One of the following enemies emerges as the mini-boss of each portal that opens (if it's not a boss portal). Defeating them closes the associated portal.
- Rift Lord
- The tank will be dealing with several abilities.
Mortal Strike, reducing healing received.
Sunder Armor, reducing armor.
- The stun effect from
Knockdown.
- Stay at least 25-yards away to avoid
Thunderclap.
- The tank will be dealing with several abilities.
- Rift Keeper
- Stay at least 10-yards away to avoid
Blast Wave.
- Interrupt
Pyroblast to prevent the moderate damage and light damage dealt over time.
- Interrupt
Shadow Bolt Volley to prevent the moderate damage dealt to all players.
- Interrupt or dispel
Polymorph (magic) to remove the incapacitating effect.
- Interrupt or dispel
Fear (magic) to remove the fear effect.
- Dispel
Curse of Vulnerability (curse) to remove the increased magic damage take effect.
- Soothe
Enrage to remove the increased attack speed and physical damage dealt effect.
- Stay at least 10-yards away to avoid
- Rift Lord
- The following enemies will periodically spawn from any active portal, and are generally weaker.
- Infinite Assassin
- The tank will be dealing with the stun from
Kidney Shot, possibly leading to a temporary threat drop.
- The tank may take extra damage if attacked from behind from
Backstab.
- Dispel
Deadly Poison (poison) to prevent the light damage over time.
- The tank will be dealing with the stun from
- Infinite Whelp
- Spawn in sets of three.
- Infinite Chronomancer
- Stay at least 10-yards away to avoid
Arcane Explosion.
- Interrupt
Arcane Bolt to prevent the light damage dealt.
- Stay at least 10-yards away to avoid
- Infinite Executioner
- Infinite Vanquisher
- Interrupt
Shadow Bolt to prevent the light damage dealt.
- Interrupt
Scorch to prevent the light damage dealt.
- Dispel
Corruption (magic) to prevent the light damage over time.
- Deals light damage to random players with
Fire Blast.
- Interrupt
- Infinite Assassin
Trash Debuffs to Track
- Major:
- Magic Dispel:
Polymorph (dispel, magic),
Fear (dispel, magic)
- Curse Dispel:
Curse of Vulnerability (dispel, curse).
- Poison Dispel:
Ebon Poison (dispel, poison)
- Damaging:
Mortal Strike,
Sunder Armor
- Incapacitating:
Knockdown
- Magic Dispel:
- Minor:
- Magic Dispel:
Corruption (dispel, magic)
- Poison Dispel:
Deadly Poison (dispel, poison)
- Damaging:
Pyroblast
- Magic Dispel:
- Enrages to Soothe:
Enrage
- Buffs to Purge: None
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