Welcome to our guide to Algeth'ar Academy, here you will find all the information you need about the trash and bosses in this dungeon to help you in your mythic+ journey.
Starting Buffs
There are 5 buffs you can get in the starting area:
- Versatility (Red)
- Critical Strike (Black)
- Mastery (Blue)
- Haste (Bronze)
- Increased Healing Taken (Green)
The Mastery buff is the best option here for healing if you don't have much or are still relatively early on in the gearing process. Critical Strike and Haste are both viable options if you feel you have enough Mastery.
Overgrown Ancient Trash
The most common pull here is to pull everything in this area with bloodlust which includes 3 Vile Lashers, 3 Aggravated Skitterflys and plenty of small mobs. You can be very liberal with cooldowns here as the upcoming boss does very little damage to the group outside of a couple of abilities.
Vile Lasher
[Vile Bite] puts a bleed dot on the tank, this stacks up overtime and becomes very deadly if left unchecked. Once one of the lashers dies this becomes manageable for the tank on their own as it will never get higher than 2 stacks but during the initial stages of the pull be sure to use Cauterizing Flame on your tank whenever they hit 4-5 stacks or if you feel they are in danger of dying.
Advanced Tip: Store a Cauterizing Flame targeted on the tank inside Stasis and you can dispel two iterations of the bleed debuff, especially useful if your tank doesn't have a way of dealing with it themselves.
[Seed Detonation] is a dodge swirly, nothing much to mention here other than don't stand in it.
Aggravated Skitterfly
These mobs gain a stacking [Agitation] buff, you can remove one stack of this buff with Oppressing Roar when talented into Overawe, the longer the pull goes on the more dangerous these mobs become.
Do your best to play this fight in melee, [Darting Sting] targets a random player so the closer to melee you are the more efficiently these mobs can be cleaved down.
Overgrown Ancient
[Germinate]
The boss creates swirlies underneath the players feet that spawn Hungry Lashers, move as a collective to keep the spawns as close together as possible. The most common way of handling this mechanic is to stack on the tank and move left as a group in a half circle.
The first [Germinate] set of the fight these lashers remain dormant, on the second set the boss casts [Burst Forth] afterwards which causes the lashers to become active.
[Branch Out]
The boss spawns an Ancient Branch and puts a bleed debuff on the party. You can dispel one instance of this with Cauterizing Flame which should be used either on yourself or the group member you feel is most at risk of dying.
Once the Ancient Branch dies it creates an [Abundance] Circle, everyone should stand in it to remove the debuff.
[Burst Forth]
At 100 energy the boss casts [Burst Forth] to activate any dormant Hungry Lashers. This cast does party-wide AoE damage which can be reduced with Zephyr.
Active Hungry Lashers put stacks of [Lasher Toxin] on players which can be removed with [Expunge]. Good practise here is to dispel the tank on cooldown.
[Barkbreaker]
Standard tank buster, use Time Dilation to help your tank out, try not to overlap with the tanks big defensives.
Crawth Trash
Guardian Sentry
[Storm Slash]
Tank buster, use Time Dilation as needed to help and dont overlap with the tanks big defensives.
[Deadly Winds]
Targets a random player and spawns a tornado, avoid.
[Expel Intruders]
Big circle AoE that knocks back and does a large amount of damage, run out or use the pillars on the side to Line of Sight the cast.
Territorial Eagle
[Peck] applies a stacking bleed debuff to the tank, this mob can be CC'd to stop the cast (Tail Swipe, Wing Buffet) or you can use Cauterizing Flame to remove it.
Alpha Eagle
[Gust]
Frontal aimed at a random player, avoid.
[Raging Screech]
Party-wide AoE that also enrages all nearby birds. Zephyr can be used to lessen the damage and Oppressing Roar can be used to remove one stack of the enrage when talented into Overawe.
This cast is most dangerous on the 3rd set of adds before the boss when there are two Alpha Eagles as they will cast [Raging Screech] back to back.
Crawth
This fight is split into 3 phases and gets progressively harder as the fight goes on.
At 75% and 45% the boss will spawn orbs around the arena that need to be thrown into the Fire or the Air goal in order to stop the [Ruinous Winds] cast, after which there will be a permanent effect on the arena for the rest of the fight.
[Savage Peck]
Tank buster that applies a bleed, alternate Cauterizing Flame with your tanks defensives, using Time Dilation to mitigate the hit if needs be.
Advanced Tip: you can put Cauterizing Flame inside Stasis on this fight to clear the first 3 applications of the bleed.
[Overpowering Gust]
Frontal aimed at a random player, avoid.
[Deafening Screech]
This is a party-wide AoE that also interrupts casts and does splash damage. Loose spread and be sure to not be mid-cast when it goes off or you will be silenced for 6 seconds. Zephyr can and should be used to lessen the damage from this AoE.
[Ruinous Winds]
This cast denotes a phase change, orbs must be thrown into the Fire or the Air goal to stop it. If the cast completes the party receives continuous pulsing AoE damage and knockbacks and is likely a wipe.
[Goal of the Rushing Winds]
Our recommendation for the first set of orbs to stop the [Ruinous Winds] cast. This triggers [Gale Force] spawning patrolling tornadoes around the platform and winds that push you back.
This also creates 1 mote for each player in the group that provides a one time, 20 second haste buff.
[Goal of the Searing Blaze]
Our recommendation for the second set of orbs to stop the [Ruinous Winds] cast. This triggers [Firestorm] which is a 12 second damage amp on Crawth immediately, followed by pulsing damage and swirlies that need avoiding.
Zephyr can be used to lessen the damage from [Blistering Fire] (the rot damage created by [Firestorm]), Try and use Zephyr when this overlaps with [Deafening Screech].
Vexamus Trash
Corrupted Manafiend
[Surge]
Targets a random player, on higher keys this is a one-shot so be sure to use CC to stop the cast if it looks like its about to finish.
[Mana Void]
Targets a random player with a dot that does a small AoE on expiration. Zephyr can be used to lessen the expiration damage but not the dot.
Spellbound Battleaxe
Tank targeted mobs, nothing much to say here other than keep an eye on your tank and cast Time Dilation if needed.
Arcane Ravager
[Vicious Ambush]
Targets the furthest away player and leaps to them dealing damage, use Time Dilation or Zephyr to help the targeted player if they dont have any defensives.
After the leap [Riftbreath] will be aimed at the tank, avoid.
Arcane Forager
[Vicious Lunge]
Targets a random player and leaps to them, stay in melee so these can be cleaved down efficiently.
Unruly Textbook
[Monotonous Lecture]
Long cast on a player and once completed does a long channel that sleeps the targeted player. This can be dispelled with a magic dispel (Cauterizing Flame) to remove the CC. These can also be CC'd to stop the cast and if you're feeling adventurous you can CC the channel instead of the cast to put the cast on cooldown for a longer period of time, the affected player would be briefly interrupted though.
Vexamus
[Arcane Orbs]
5 sets of orbs spawn around the edge of the arena, once soaked they apply the [Oversurge] debuff making the next one you soak within 18 seconds deal 200% increased damage.
Try and take these orbs early making it easier to deal with subsequent orb sets.
[Mana Bombs]
Targets 3 random players with a DoT that, upon expiration, deals heavy damage and leaves temporary area denial.
Move to the edge of the arena to place your area denial and be prepared with defensives and healing to help out your team.
[Arcane Fissure]
At 100 energy the boss casts a party-wide AoE that deals damage and knocks back followed by 3 circles that spawn under your feet in succession.
This always overlaps with the expiration of [Mana Bombs] on the even numbered sets, Zephyr is very good to use here as it mitigates the [Mana Bombs] expiration and the [Arcane Fissure] damage.
[Arcane Expulsion]
Tank targeted frontal, be prepared to cast Time Dilation.
Echo of Doragosa Trash
Algeth'ar Echoknight
[Arcane Smash]
Party-wide AoE that deals significant damage. Line of Sight or use Zephyr to mitigate this cast where possible.
[Astral Whirlwind]
Spawns a non-targetable mob that does a moving AoE, avoid.
Spectral Invoker
[Mystic Brand]
Debuffs a random player increasing arcane damage taken, priority interrupt or CC.
[Arcane Bolt]
Bolt targeting a random player.
Echo of Doragosa
[Unleash Energy]
This is cast on pull dealing party-wide AoE damage and spawning 2 [Arcane Rift]. Zephyr can be used to mitigate this if the party is low on pull.
[Arcane Rift]
2 of these are spawned on fight start and then subsequent Rifts are spawned whenever any player reaches 3 stacks of [Overwhelming Power]. Each rift periodically shoots out 4 orbs of [Uncontrolled Energy], which can be seen by lines pointing out from the rifts.
[Overwhelming Power]
Getting hit by any ability grants a stack of [Overwhelming Power], leaving a DoT on the players and granting a 5% stacking haste buff. At 3 stacks the debuff disappears leaving an [Arcane Rift]. Be mindful of your stacks and place the rift in a sensible location.
[Energy Bomb]
Targets a random player with a small AoE circle dealing damage upon expiration or dispelling. Loose spread to avoid cleaving teammates.
Zephyr can be used to mitigate the expiration damage.
[Arcane Missiles]
Targets a random player dealing damage and giving them a stack of [Power Overwhelming]. Be mindful of your stacks when targeted by this ability, making sure you don't place an [Arcane Rift] in a bad location.
[Arcane Missiles] and [Energy Bomb] will often overlap, be careful not to dispel a player too close to the bolt cast as this could one shot them or create a rift in a bad location.
[Power Vacuum]
Pulls all players towards the boss before doing a large circle AoE. Be mindful of [Arcane Rift] locations so you don't get pulled through one and be ready to run out. Time Spiral is good here to provide your teammates with an extra use of their movement abilities (or an extra use of Hover for yourself if you don't have one).
[Astral Blast]
Tank buster, Time Dilation is good here to help your tank out, don't overlap with big tank defensives.