Murder Row Dungeon Guide: Bosses, Route and Mythic+ Tips

Overview

• Murder Row is a four boss Midnight dungeon set in the fel smuggling operation under Silvermoon City's Murder Row, run by Zaen Bladesorrow and Lithiel Cinderfury. It is in the Season 2 Mythic+ pool. Many trash casts need interrupts, so plan a kick order before you pull.
• Tanks: face Nibbles and Xathuux away from the group, and kite Xathuux slowly along the walls during his rage.
• Healers: the big moments are Kystia's Destabilized window, Zaen's Killing Spree and Xathuux's Demonic Rage. Each one wants a cooldown.
• DPS: swap fast. The Mirror Images, the thrown axe on Xathuux and the imps on Lithiel all need handling before they snowball.

Trash and route

The opening section asks you to find and interact with four Snitches to open the way forward. Along the way you can pick up Faceted Crystalline Fel and trade it at the vendors near the start for a single-use extra action button item that buffs you or your group. Each item can only be bought by one player, and Method notes they do not expire, so you can hold them for a harder pull or boss.

After Kystia there is a bar event: put on a disguise, clock in with Selenar Sunshy, and each player gets a random job: server, entertainer, cleaner or bouncer. Interrupt or crowd control any Influential Reviewer that starts channeling Scathing Review on a player. Earning a five star review grants the group Five Star Review, 10% more damage and healing for 5 minutes (raised from 4 minutes in the August 18 hotfixes), so keep moving and use it on the next pulls.

Packs to respect:

• Bribed Captain is a priority kill. It buffs nearby enemies with Deep Corruption, cannot be crowd controlled, and pressures the tank with stacking Shield Bash and a cleaving Glaive Toss.
• Shivan Punisher gets much more dangerous at half health, pulsing heavy group damage, and has a whirlwind to step away from.
• Corrupted Warlock cannot be crowd controlled and applies Curse of Doom, which summons a Doomguard if the target dies to it. Dispel it or stack to share the damage. The August 18 hotfixes removed the Warlock and two Wrathguard Flayers pack before Xathuux, and the enemy forces requirement dropped to 655.
• Felmaster Lucsei stacks a Blade Dance damage over time on the group (it now has a 2 second cast) and aims an Eye Beam frontal.
• Defiled Golem channels a big group hit and fires lines toward players that leave pools.
• Seductive Sayaad must be interrupted or crowd controlled during its seduction channel.
• Wrathguard Flayer enrages, so interrupt or soothe it, and clean up the bleed from its Flay.

Kystia Manaheart

Abilities

• Illicit Infusion: Kystia keeps her mana wyrm Nibbles hostile while Nibbles is above 20% health.
• Felshield: Kystia takes 80% reduced damage behind this barrier.
• Fel Spray: Nibbles' frontal breath, which Method describes as rotating.
• Corroding Spittle: a stacking damage over time Nibbles puts on players. Dispel it quickly.
• Mirror Images: Kystia summons copies of herself that each cast Felstorm. Method counts five images and says interrupts or stuns destroy them.
• Fel Nova: Kystia teleports to a random player and blasts the area around them, so whoever she lands on should run out.
• Chaos Barrage: a heavy blast on the tank that jumps to nearby players.
• Light Infusion: once Nibbles drops to 20%, she returns to her light form and turns on Kystia.
• Destabilized: the light infusion stuns Kystia for 15 seconds, doubles the damage she takes and weakens her Felshield, but she pulses heavy damage on the whole group.

Tank

Hold Nibbles with her breath pointed away from the group so the others have a clear side of the room. Icy Veins recommends keeping Kystia and Nibbles stacked so the group can cleave both. Chaos Barrage starts on you and then jumps, so expect it to hurt more while Mirror Images are out.

Healer

Dispel Corroding Spittle quickly. The heaviest damage of the fight comes when Kystia is Destabilized, so save a healing cooldown for it rather than spending it on the opening.

DPS

Focus Nibbles, not Kystia. Kystia takes heavily reduced damage until the wyrm is brought to 20%, so pushing Nibbles down is what moves the fight forward. When Mirror Images appear, use interrupts and stuns on them. When Destabilized starts, that is your burst window.

Mythic+ notes

Pair your offensive cooldowns with Destabilized. It lasts 15 seconds and Kystia takes double damage during it, so a well timed burst saves a lot of time.

Zaen Bladesorrow

Abilities

• Murder in a Row: at 100 energy Zaen takes aim and shoots every player in his line of sight, adding a bleed. Hide behind cover.
• Same-Day Delivery: workers above throw Forbidden Freight at players, damaging and knocking them away on impact. The crates that land are your cover for Murder in a Row.
• Fel-Infused Freight: volatile barrels that damage the whole group every few seconds while they remain, and the damage stacks when several are out.
• Fire Bomb: a bomb on a player that explodes after 6 seconds and destroys any freight in the blast. Use it to clear volatile barrels, and keep it away from the cover you still need.
• Freight Explosion: freight hit by a Fire Bomb or by Murder in a Row explodes 5 seconds later, damaging and knocking back players nearby.
• Killing Spree: a short channel of group damage.
• Envenom and Heartstop Poison: a heavy tank hit that leaves a poison reducing maximum health by 25%.

Tank

Use a defensive on Envenom. If your group has a poison dispel, ask for it on Heartstop Poison.

Healer

Killing Spree is the fight's damage check, and it is worse while fel infused freight is still in the room. Plan a cooldown for it, and be ready to top people after Murder in a Row if anyone was late to cover.

DPS

Get rid of the volatile barrels quickly so Fel-Infused Freight stops stacking. Both Method and Icy Veins say to do it with Fire Bomb: if you are the bomb target, carry it to a volatile barrel. Watch Zaen's energy and move to cover early. Method recommends each player find their own crate rather than crowding behind one. Anyone left in the open when the shot fires risks lethal damage and a bleed. Once the shot hits your crate, step away before it explodes.

Mythic+ notes

On higher keys, plan who hides behind which crate before the first Murder in a Row. Scrambling for cover is where most of the avoidable damage on this boss comes from.

Xathuux the Annihilator

Abilities

• Legion Strike: a frontal tank hit that cuts healing received by 80% for 8 seconds.
• Demonic Rage: when his rage fills he hits the whole group, gains attack speed, takes 30% more damage and gains Burning Steps for 15 seconds, leaving long lasting fel pools wherever he walks.
• Axe Toss: throws his axe at a random player's location, interrupting players near the impact. Until the axe is destroyed, Fel Lightning hits the whole group and stacks. A September 1 hotfix fixed Axe Toss sometimes dealing less damage than intended.
• Infernal Crush: spread loosely so the impacts do not overlap.

Tank

Tank him near the edge of the arena facing outward so Legion Strike never clips the group. During Demonic Rage, kite him slowly along the walls and try to use less than half the room each time. Burning Steps pools last a long time, and a careless kite leaves no floor for the next rage.

Healer

Legion Strike makes the tank much harder to heal for 8 seconds, so keep them topped before it lands. Method warns that Infernal Crush overlaps with the Demonic Rage hit, and Icy Veins puts a major healing cooldown before Infernal Crush.

DPS

If the axe is thrown at you, move next to the boss so it lands in cleave range, then everyone swaps to it. Fel Lightning keeps stacking on the group until it breaks. Spread loosely for Infernal Crush. Save offensive cooldowns for Demonic Rage, since he takes 30% more damage during it.

Mythic+ notes

Room management carries the fight. If the tank plans the kite path from the first rage, the late fight stays playable even on long kills.

Lithiel Cinderfury

Abilities

• Fingers of Gul'dan: damages players and spawns Wild Imps at the impact sites. The imps cast Felfire Burst. Since the August 25 hotfixes it hits 4 targets (was 5), prefers non-tanks, and summons 4 Wild Imps (was 3).
• Demonic Gateway: Lithiel creates a gateway between two points. Players who use it avoid the initial hit and fire vulnerability of Malefic Wave.
• Malefic Wave: a slowly expanding wave of fel fire. Anyone it hits takes a damage over time and 100% more fire damage for a minute. Demons it passes gain Malefic Empowerment, doubling their haste.
• Chaos Bolt: a heavy hit on a random player if it is not interrupted.
• Summon Vilefiend: a Furious Vilefiend that hits hard.
• Summon Infernal: a slow add that fixates and, per Method, cannot be killed.
• Searing Fel Flame: ongoing fel damage to the group through the fight.

Tank

Pick up the Vilefiend as it arrives. Never let the Infernal hit you, since Icy Veins warns that on higher keys it will likely kill you. Move the boss well away from it, and keep it from sitting between or on top of the gateways.

Healer

Searing Fel Flame keeps the group under steady pressure. Anyone who misses the gateway and gets hit by Malefic Wave carries a heavy damage over time effect, so watch for those players right after each wave.

DPS

Run a strict Chaos Bolt interrupt rotation. For Fingers of Gul'dan, Method suggests spreading while overlapping the circles, then cleaving the imps and using spare interrupts or crowd control on their casts. When Lithiel opens her gateway, wait for Malefic Wave to finish casting, then take the gateway once the far end is on the safe side. Any demon left alive when the wave rolls over it becomes empowered, which is how this fight spirals.

Mythic+ notes

Treat imp control as more important than boss damage, especially now that each cast spawns more imps. A group that kills every set before the wave has a calm fight; a group that leaves several alive has an empowered add pile and a struggling healer.

Loot highlights

• Nibbles' Training Rod and Sinseared Repeater: a staff and a gun from Kystia.
• Bladesorrow: a dagger from Zaen.
• Xathuux's Cleave: a two-handed axe from Xathuux.
• Manaheart's Binding Flame, Freightrunner's Flask and Resonant Bellowstone: trinkets from Kystia (agility and strength), Zaen (agility and intellect) and Xathuux (agility and strength).
• Unstable Felheart Crystal: an intellect trinket from Lithiel.
• Pendant of Malefic Fury and Signet of Snarling Servitude: a neck from Lithiel and a ring from Xathuux.
• Speakeasy Shroud: a cloak from Zaen.
• Pattern: Row Walker's Insurance, Formula: Smuggler's Enchanted Edge, Plans: Murder Row Fishhook and Plans: Murder Row Fleet Feet: profession recipes tied to the dungeon.

Common mistakes

• Damaging Kystia instead of breaking Nibbles free.
• Burning all cooldowns early on Kystia and having nothing for Destabilized.
• Arriving late to cover for Murder in a Row, or crowding behind one crate.
• Ignoring the thrown axe on Xathuux while Fel Lightning stacks on everyone.
• Kiting Xathuux across the middle and running out of clean floor.
• Leaving Wild Imps alive for Malefic Wave on Lithiel.

Mechanics checked against: method.gg, icy-veins.com, warcraft.wiki.gg, warcraft.wiki.gg, warcraft.wiki.gg, warcraft.wiki.gg, warcraft.wiki.gg, worldofwarcraft.blizzard.com, icy-veins.com. Ability names and spell IDs come from TheWoWDB's own client datamine.