Imperator Averzian Raid Guide (The Voidspire)

Overview

• Averzian claims squares on a three by three board. If he ever owns three squares in a line, the raid wipes, so the whole fight is about deciding which squares he gets.
• Everyone: soak Umbral Collapse on top of the Abyssal Voidshaper your raid leader calls. That is how you deny a square.
• Tanks: drag the boss to the called square, keep him off his own claimed squares, and swap on Blackening Wounds.
• DPS: kill intermission adds in priority order and interrupt Pitch Bulwark. Healers: spread cooldowns across the add waves, which get heavier every intermission.

Imperator Averzian is the first boss of The Voidspire, the Midnight Season 1 raid. With Season 2 live he is old content, but he still opens every Voidspire run for Raid Finder players, alt gearing and achievement hunters, and he sits in the first Raid Finder wing, Weapons of the Void.

Imperator Averzian

Abilities

• Shadow's Advance: Averzian summons three Abyssal Voidshapers onto board squares. They are immune to damage and each one is casting to claim its square for him.
• Umbral Collapse: a group soak. Stack the raid in it, and land it on a Voidshaper: the impact kills the add, which saves that square.
• Imperator's Glory: Averzian takes reduced damage while he stands in a square he has claimed.
• Blackening Wounds: a stacking tank debuff. Tanks swap at around 8 stacks, and when the intermission troops arrive they run at the tank carrying the most stacks.
• Oblivion's Wrath: void lances shoot out from the boss in a semicircle. Step out of their paths.
• Void Fall: leaves pools on the ground during intermissions. Move out of them.
• Shadow Phalanx: a column of untargetable troops marches across the room. Find the gap and step through it.
• Pitch Bulwark: a large absorb shield the armored adds put on their allies. Interrupt it.
• Voidmaws: the small intermission adds. On Heroic and Mythic, a Voidmaw that drops to 35% health walks slowly toward the nearest claimed square and heals back to full if it gets there.

Phases

Board phase. Each wave, three Voidshapers spawn. Two Umbral Collapse soaks come back to back, so you can deny two of the three squares. The last Voidshaper opens a portal, that square becomes Averzian's, and the intermission starts. Your raid leader picks which squares to save so the boss can never line up three. Starting in the middle and clearing the center Voidshaper whenever it appears is a common and reliable approach.

Intermission. Adds pour out of the portals and run at the tank with the most Blackening Wounds stacks. Each new intermission also triggers mechanics from every portal the boss already owns, so later intermissions get busier. After intermissions 2, 4 and 6 a Shadow Phalanx wall crosses the room.

Tank

• Swap at around 8 stacks of Blackening Wounds, and swap at the start of each intermission so the fresh tank collects the adds.
• You decide where the raid stands during the board phase. Move the boss onto the square the raid leader wants cleared so the soak and the boss damage happen in the same place.
• Never park Averzian in a claimed square, or he gains Imperator's Glory. On Heroic, every intermission add must be tanked at least 10 yards away from the boss.
• Keep Voidmaws away from claimed squares so their heal walk takes as long as possible.

Healer

• Umbral Collapse damage depends on how many people soak it. If players are late to the soak, expect a spike.
• Intermissions are the heavy windows. Plan raid cooldowns for them, since each one also triggers mechanics from every portal the boss already owns.
• On Mythic you are part of the board mechanic: you dispel Void Marked players on top of the called Voidshaper (see below).

DPS

• Intermission kill order: the Voidbound Annihilator and Shadowguard Stalwart first, with interrupts on Pitch Bulwark, then cleave the small Voidmaws.
• On Heroic and Mythic, finish Voidmaws quickly once they fall under 35% health, before they reach a claimed square and heal.
• Dodge the Oblivion's Wrath lances and the Void Fall pools while cleaving.

Difficulty notes

• Normal: the board plus intermission adds, Void Fall pools, the lances and the Phalanx walls.
• Heroic: adds must be tanked at least 10 yards from the boss, and Voidmaws run to claimed squares at 35% health to heal.
• Mythic: every Voidshaper is wrapped in a two-stack Cosmic Shell that blocks damage and Umbral Collapse. Six players get Void Marked (per Icy Veins); each dispel on top of a Voidshaper strips one stack, so two dispels break one shell. Stack the raid on the first target and dispel there, then send the remaining marked players to the second. A new add, the Abyssal Malus, casts Black Miasma, which cuts the haste of several players by 70% for 15 seconds if it is not interrupted. In the intermission, the Voidshaper you fight casts Gathering Darkness at 100 energy and turns into an Endwalker, and Method notes its energy fills faster on Mythic, so every DPS hard swaps to it. Oblivion's Wrath lances also fly back to the boss after going out, so watch the return path.
• Late in the fight, portals only spawn on squares that would let the boss complete a line, which lets the raid leader pre-call positions.

Loot highlights

Items from Averzian's loot table in our journal data (item level 197 versions shown on the item pages):

• Light Company Guidon: Agility or Strength trinket with an on-use effect named Charge!
• Sunstrike Rifle: Agility gun with Haste and Mastery.
• Bulwark of Noble Resolve: a shield with Versatility and Critical Strike.
• Weight of Command: Intellect one-hand weapon with Critical Strike and Versatility.
• Imperator's Banner: cloak with Agility, Strength or Intellect, so any spec can wear it.
• Armor pieces such as Devouring Night's Visage (head) and Light-Judged Spaulders (shoulders).

Common mistakes

• Saving the wrong squares. Plan two waves ahead and avoid leaving an open line through the center or a diagonal.
• Splitting the Umbral Collapse soak. It must land on the Voidshaper and needs enough bodies to keep the damage low.
• Tanking the boss on his own territory and wondering why the damage is low.
• Forgetting to swap at the start of an intermission, which sends every add to the tank who already carries the most Blackening Wounds stacks.
• Letting Pitch Bulwark finish and fighting through stacked absorb shields.
• On Mythic, dispelling Void Marked anywhere other than on top of the called Voidshaper, which wastes the shell break.

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