Cho'gall Raid Guide - Cataclysm Classic

Author: Passion
Date: June 10, 2024
Updated: June 12, 2024
Expansion: Cataclysm

The Bastion of Twilight Guide

The Bastion of Twilight Loot

The leader of the Twilight Hammer clan, taking it down the road that has narrowed their focus onto the return of the Old Gods, at the cost of Cho’gall’s mind and body.

Do your best to avoid any avoidable damage, minimizing corruption
Focus on DPSing down all adds that spawn
Dispel Corruption: Accelerated whenever it pops up
If you have Corruption: Sickness, turn away from the raid when you need to hurl

Focus on DPSing Blood of the Old God when possible
Be at least a little spread while Corrupting Adherents are spawned

Focus on cleave DPS when adds are on top of Cho’gall

Pay attention to any player at high corruption, as they will be unhealable once they hit 100

Tank swap during Fury of Cho’gall
Bring Corrupting Adherents on top of Cho’gall
- Pull them towards the edge of the room when they are low health

Abilities

Corruption

During this fight, players will have a new bar in their UI, indicating Corrupted Blood. Each time you take damage to an avoidable ability or spell, you will gain additional corruption. The higher your corruption, the more damage you take from Corruption of the Old God.

At 25% corruption, you will be debuffed with Corruption: Accelerated. This can debuff will constantly increase your corruption, but can be dispelled.

At 50% corruption you will become violently ill. This causes you to vomit in a 5 yard long, 20 degree cone every 15 seconds, dealing significant Shadow damage to all allies and increasing their corruption. If you do get this far, make sure to turn away from your allies whenever you need to vomit.

At 75% corruption you will sprout a tentacle that casts Shadow Bolt at random allies within 40 yards, dealing significant Shadow damage on hit.

At 100% corruption you will become a faceless horror. In this state, you deal 100% more damage and all of your spells are instant casts, but you cannot be healed. This means that you will inevitably die, but you will go down swinging.

Phase 1

Cho’gall will mind control a handful of players, causing them to channel Twisted Devotion into Cho’gall. This provides the boss with a stacking buff, increasing his damage for one minute.

Mind controlled players will need to have their cast stopped ASAP, by any means necessary. The easiest way to handle this is to stack in Phase 1 and use an AoE ability like Arcane Torrent or Shockwave to break all mind controls at once.

Every 45 seconds, Cho’gall will hit his current target (the tank) with Fury of Cho’gall, dealing heavy Physical and Shadow damage, as well as increasing their Physical and Shadow damage taken by 20% for 1 minute. This will necessitate a tank swap, typically after one stack, but some groups may be able to handle more.

Cho’gall will summon a Fire Elemental, only to absorb it into his hammer seconds later. Absorbing the elemental will grant Cho’gall Flaming Destruction, giving his melee attacks significant Fire damage each swing, as well as splash damage that leaves a burning puddle in its wake.

The more health the Fire Elemental has when it is absorbed, the more stacks of Flaming Destruction Cho’gall will get. The goal here is to get it as low as possible before it is absorbed.

Cho’gall will summon a Shadow Elemental, only to absorb it into his hammer seconds later. Absorbing the elemental will grant Cho’gall Empowered Shadows, giving his melee attacks significant Shadow damage each swing, as well as dealing pulsing Shadow damage to all nearby players every 3 seconds.

The more health the Shadow Elemental has when it is absorbed, the more stacks of Empowered Shadows Cho’gall will get. The goal here is to get it as low as possible before it is absorbed.

After 90 seconds, Cho’gall will summon a Corrupting Adherent, alternating between spawning in the North and South sides of the room. The off-tank will want to immediately grab this mob and pull it into range for melee cleave. The Adherent will cast Depravity, dealing significant Shadow damage to all nearby players. This can and should be interrupted.

Every 10 seconds, the Corrupting Adherent will fire a Shadow Missile at the feet of a random player, dealing AoE Shadow damage. This is marked on the ground with a shadowy circle, and should always be avoided.

On death, the Corrupting Adherent will leave Spilled Blood of the Old God, dealing damage and corruption to any players standing in it. Once it reaches low health, bring it out of the raid, making sure it dies in an out of the way spot.

40 seconds after each Corrupting Adherent is summoned, Cho’gall will cast Fester Blood. This boils the blood of all living Corrupting Adherents, causing them to spray their blood on all players every 2 seconds. This makes it vital to kill Corrupting Adherents within 40 seconds.

Cho’gall will also summon Bloods of the Old God from all Spilled Blood of the Old God. These will fixate on a random player and move toward them. If they reach their target, they will add a lot of corruption. Ranged players should focus on slowing and DPSing down these bloods.

Phase 2 – 25% Health

During Phase 2 the room will be filled with tendrils, dealing constant Shadow damage to all players and increasing their corruption. This is a soft enrage, effectively putting a timer on the raid that will eventually kill the raid if they can’t kill Cho’gall first.

Cho’gall will summon Darkened Creations around himself. These tentacles will channel Debilitating Beam on a random player, dealing Shadow damage every second and reducing their damage and healing done. This can and should be interrupted, and the Darkened Creations should be AoE’d down ASAP to avoid being overwhelmed.

Raid Composition & Preparation

Most of the fight is rather lenient on healing, and Phase 2 is made easier with more DPS. Because of this you shouldn’t need to bring extra healers, instead sticking with around 5.

There are no preferred DPS classes or specializations for this fight.

You will need 2 tanks, one for Cho’gall and one for the adds, swapping during Fury of Cho’gall.

Strategy

Phase 1

For most of this fight players can choose to either stack or spread. Conversion is significantly easier to deal with if the raid is stacked, but the Corrupting Crash from Corrupted Adherents will be harder to deal with while stacked. You could also switch between stacking and spreading depending on if there is an add alive or not.

Whenever a tank is debuffed with Fury of Cho’gall, they will want to tank swap. Well geared tanks may be able to handle two stacks, but it is rarely worth the risk. When Conversion is cast, the targets need to have their casting stopped. This can be done with stuns, fears, interrupts, silences, etc. It is vital that all players are interrupted immediately, and having the raid stacked in one place makes this a lot easier.

Periodically Cho’gall will summon either a Flame Elemental or Shadow Elemental. These will need to be DPSed down as fast as possible to mitigate the damage buff they give to Cho’gall. You will only have around 10 seconds to deal damage to them, so make it count!

Corrupting Adherents will also spawn periodically and should be grabbed by the currently inactive tank and dragged onto the boss to allow them to be cleaved down. At around 20% health, they should be taken back out of the raid to make sure they die away from the raid. Between spawns of Corrupting Adherents, Cho’gall will spawn Blood of the Old God. These will fixate on a player and try to rush them down. Ranged DPS will want to focus on DPSing these, and slowing them however possible.

Phase 2

Phase 2 will begin at 25% health, and the fight becomes a race. Cho’gall will spawn Darkened Creations around himself that will need to be killed ASAP, and should be interrupted if they begin casting Debilitating Beam. The actual fight does not change much here, but players are on a timer before they will become too corrupt and inevitably die.

About the Author

Passion

I love MMOs of all shades, especially the nitty gritty numbers parts of them. You might recognize me from the Shadow Priest discord, otherwise I play a little bit of everything, especially games with support roles available.