This page covers a DPS-focused strategy for Star Augur Etraeus in The Nighthold. While it's tailored for DPS, other roles may also find the information useful. If you have any suggestions or feedback, you can leave a comment below or tweet @VirendraDG.

This guide has been updated and maintained based on my own experiences with the fight as well as Dungeon Journal information. I'll continue to update it as-needed.

General Mechanics and Abilities

Normal and Heroic

Stage One: The Dome of Observation

• Stage One lasts until 90% and has only one mechanic for DPS to worry about.
• Coronal Ejection simply targets a player and deals a high amount of damage and applies a DOT. This is unavoidable and only needs to be healed up.

Stage Two: Absolute Zero

• Etraeus starts using Iceburst on the tanks which deals a high amount of splash damage. Stay more than 6 yards away from the tanks at all times.
• Tanks affected by Gravitational Pull will be hit by Comet Impact and deal high splash damage to players within 5 yards.
• Comet Impact will apply Absolute Zero to the tank which will need to be removed by other raid members. Three other raid members need to move to the tank to remove the debuff. Those players then gain Chilled, and cannot remove the debuff again for 12 seconds.
• If a player with Chilled stands next to a tank with Absolute Zero again, they will be Frozen Solid for 10 seconds.
• For Gravitational Pull, we grouped up in predetermined places and had the tanks rotate around to us.
• Icy Ejection behaves like Coronal Ejection from Stage One only now it will shatter and deal damage to anyone within 8 yards after 10 seconds. The afflicted player also gradually loses movement speed over the 10 seconds. Anyone hit with this debuff needs to move out of the group immediately.
• On Heroic only, Frigid Nova deals massive raid-wide damage, but the damage is mitigated by standing with up to four other players.

Stage Three: A Shattered World

• Stage Three begins at 60%.
• Fel Ejection will target several players and launch projectiles at them. Pools of Felflame form at the impact location. Players targeted by Fel Ejection need to run to a designated spot in the room to drop their Felflame pools.
• Tanks will be able to clear the pools of Felflame with Fel Impact, so it's important to keep the fire as close together as possible.
• On Heroic only, Fel Nova will deal deadly amounts of raid-wide damage. Damage is reduced the further away from Etraeus the player is, so run to the walls as soon as he begins to cast.

Stage Four: Inevitable Fate

• Stage Four begins at 30%.
• Voidburst is a stacking DoT that will jump to two other players each time it expires, so it will quickly spread throughout the entire raid. Damage starts out manageable but will build up over time.
• Void Impact will target tanks but deal splash damage to anyone within 5 yards. Void Impact also summons a Thing That Should Not Be.
• Thing That Should Not Be needs to be away from Etraeus before DPS'ing due to Void Shift.
• The add casts an uninterruptible spell called Witness the Void that deals raid-wide damage and fear anyone looking at the creature for 8 seconds.
• Prioritize killing Thing That Should Not Be and DO NOT look at it while it casts Witness the Void.
• Void Ejection deals a high amount of damage to several players with an additional 8 second DOT. At the end of the DOT, several Voidling spawn.
• Kill the Voidlings. Their ability Bursting Void adds another stack of the Voidburst debuff to anyone hit by their melee attacks.
• On Heroic only, Void Nova deals a small amount of damage raid-wide but adds a stack of Voidburst.

 DPS Strategy

• The majority of this fight is spent stacked near Etraeus, but not on top of the tanks due to the various splash damage on them.
• Move out of group when affected by Icy Ejection immediately. The movement speed decrease will make it difficult to get enough distance if you wait too long.
• Don't soak an Absolute Zero if you're chilled.
• In Stage Three, stack your Felflame patches in the same general area for easy clean up.
• Run to the walls when Etraeus casts Fel Nova.
• Stage Four is a race against Voidburst damage. This is a good time to use strong DPS cooldowns like Heroism/Time Warp/Bloodlust.
• Prioritize Thing That Should Not Be and look away when it casts Witness the Void.
• Kill Voidling when they spawn.
• Use Bloodlust/Heroism/Time Warp when the first Thing That Should Not Be spawns.

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