Scalecommander Sarkareth Raid Guide (Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible)

Overview

• Sarkareth is the final boss of Aberrus, a three stage fight. Stage One is about removing a debuff before a raid-wide burst, Stage Two adds a second realm and boss images, Stage Three is a positioning fight around asteroids.
• What kills raids: anyone still carrying Oppressing Howl when Glittering Surge goes out, players outside an Astral Formation's shelter during Scouring Eternity, and Void Bombs that explode in the normal realm.
• Tanks swap on every Burning Claws. Healers prepare for Echoing Howl bursts. DPS prioritize and interrupt the Null Glimmer images.

Scalecommander Sarkareth

Abilities

• Oppressing Howl: pushes everyone back and marks them. The mark is removed by being hit by Searing Breath or Mass Disintegrate, and every removal triggers Echoing Howl raid damage.
• Glittering Surge: an arcane pulse on the whole raid. Anyone still marked by the Howl is Dazzled, a stun with heavy damage that usually kills.
• Searing Breath: a three-part frontal cone that burns and leaves Seared on marked players.
• Mass Disintegrate: an image of the boss fires lines at marked players, damaging everyone along the line and applying Disintegrated to Howl carriers.
• Scorching Bomb: bombs on nearby players that burn their surroundings, then go off as Scorching Detonation and leave Burning Ground.
• Burning Claws: a tank bleed. When it expires, Blazing Blast deals raid damage based on how much fire damage the tank took from it.
• Drifting Embers: falling motes that knock back anyone near the impact (Heroic and up).
• Oblivion: stacks from most void abilities in later stages. At ten stacks you are sent into the Emptiness Between Stars, where your damage is almost nothing and you must recover your mind fragments before the timer ends or you die.
• Astral Flare: orbs inside the Emptiness that grant stacking haste and movement speed.
• Dimensional Puncture and Destabilize: entering the Emptiness tears a hole and pulses stacking damage on the raid, so trips there have a cost.
• Void Bomb: a bomb that can be picked up. It only detonates safely if the carrier is inside the Emptiness when it goes off.
• Abyssal Breath: the boss flies to a player in a damaging line, leaving void residue and spawning his images.
• Ebon Might: every spell the boss casts empowers the images with more damage and speed, and at 10 stacks on Normal (5 on Heroic and up) they can no longer be crowd controlled or interrupted.
• Astral Formation: asteroids that crash into the floor in Stage Three. They are the only cover from Scouring Eternity, a supernova that hits and knocks back everyone not behind one.

Phases

Stage One. Everyone starts with Oppressing Howl. Assign a large group to the first Searing Breath with a healing cooldown, a smaller group to the second and the rest to the third; anyone hit by a Mass Disintegrate line no longer needs a breath. Aim Disintegrate lines away from the raid and move away from Scorching Bombs. The stage ends at the second Glittering Surge or when the boss reaches 60%.

Stage Two. It opens by sending the whole raid into the Emptiness Between Stars. Collect Astral Flares for the buff, then step into the three soak pools to return before the debuff expires, and interrupt the boss quickly once everyone is back. From then on, dodge Abyssal Breath, kill and interrupt the Null Glimmer images, and move away from the Desolate Blossom pools he grows. A player who picks up a Void Bomb steps into a Desolate Blossom to reach the Emptiness, waits there until the bomb goes off, and grabs Astral Flares while inside. The stage ends shortly after the third set of Desolate Blossoms or when the boss reaches 40%.

Stage Three. Use Bloodlust after the first Cosmic Ascension. Run out of the 30 yard Cosmic Ascension impact together to a pre-assigned spot so the Astral Formations land where you want them, hide in the safe lines they create when Scouring Eternity goes off, share Embrace of Nothingness damage as a group (the black hole also eats nearby formations) and keep interrupting the images. Void Bomb carriers now use Motes of Oblivion, which grant 5 Oblivion stacks each, to reach the Emptiness.

Tank

• Swap after every Burning Claws; never take a second stack. Use defensives during the bleed to shrink the Blazing Blast that follows.
• In Stage Two, move away from the raid as the Void Claws debuff is about to expire. In Stage Three, keep Void Slash pointed only at yourself, then stand in Motes of Oblivion to wait out the debuff inside the Emptiness so its blast does not land on the raid.

Healer

• Expect Echoing Howl bursts each time a group clears its Howl, and pair cooldowns with the breath assignments.
• Scorching Detonation hits the whole raid each time a bomb expires, and a Void Bomb that goes off in the normal realm causes Void Surge raid damage. In Stage Two and Three, Destabilize adds stacking raid damage every time someone enters the Emptiness.

DPS

• Null Glimmer images can restore their health with Rescind, so focus them down fast and interrupt Blasting Scream. On Heroic and up, a Desolate Blossom strips Rescind from them.
• Astral Flare haste is worth collecting during forced trips into the Emptiness.

Difficulty notes

• Heroic adds Drifting Embers and Infinite Duress. The Duress target moves to the edge of the room; when it is dispelled, the target is knocked up and everyone near them is knocked away, which Stage Three uses to push the raid to safety after Cosmic Ascension.
• Mythic gives each player two applications of Oppressing Howl (a breath and a Disintegrate line each clear one), Dazzled lasts longer, and Oblivion lasts 20 minutes instead of 25 seconds, so stacks carry through the fight.
• Solo today: no cited source covers soloing this boss at current level. As the encounter is written, clear Oppressing Howl with a breath or a Disintegrate line before Glittering Surge, and when you are sent into the Emptiness Between Stars, reach the soak pools before the debuff ends; the ability text says anyone still lost there when it runs out dies.

Loot highlights

Items from this encounter's loot table in our journal data:

• Voice of the Silent Star: a cloak with Agility, Strength and Intellect, usable by any spec.
• Erethos, the Empty Promise and Fang of the Sundered Flame: an Intellect staff and an Agility one-hand dagger.
• Beacon to the Beyond: a Mastery trinket with an on-use damage effect.
• Highland Drake: Embodiment of the Hellforged: a drake customization, with a separate Mythic version.
• Sarkareth's Abyssal Embrace, Scalecommander's Ebon Schynbalds and Coattails of the Rightful Heir: a plate chest, mail legs and cloth legs.

Common mistakes

• Treating breath assignments loosely and leaving someone with Oppressing Howl at the second Glittering Surge.
• Pointing Mass Disintegrate through the raid.
• Leaving the Emptiness without enough Astral Flares, or too late to make the soak pools.
• Letting a Void Bomb detonate in the normal realm.
• Standing in the open instead of behind an Astral Formation when Scouring Eternity finishes.

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