The Nexus

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Overview

In the frigid hollow of Coldarra, you’ll find the haven of Malygos and his minions: The Nexus, which encompasses three separate instances. The first is simply called The Nexus (or Ice Caverns) and is designed for a 5-man group of players level 71-73.

Here you must face 4 bosses: Grand Magus Telestra, Anomalus, Ormorok the Tree Shaper, and Keristrasza. A competent group can expect to complete this dungeon in 60-90 minutes.

 

 

To reach Coldarra, you can get a ride from Surristrasz, a dragon at Amber Ledge in Borean Tundra. He will fly you to Transitus Shield.

Gear and consumables

 

 

 

Like most Wrath of the Lich King dungeons, the Heroic version of this instance is tuned for players who are using high quality level 80 gear, as well as the best flasks and food buffs available. Getting the best possible gear for your character will make this fight a whole lot easier.

In WotLK, professions can be used to craft high quality epic gear. Most raid bosses also drop an epic bind-on-equip item. These items are the easiest way to get your character geared up fast, but they’re expensive to craft or buy on the AH. The easiest way to get your hands on them is to use a guide like WoW Gold Secrets, which has tips for making several thousand gold per day. This is a great way to save time and clear instances faster.

Click here to try out WoW Gold Secrets.

 

Map

A = Entrance

1 = Anomalus

2 = Ormorok the Tree-Shaper

3 = Grand Magus Telestra

4 = Keristrasza

5 = Commander Stoutbeard/Commander Kolrug (*Heroic)

6 = Berinand’s Research

(Instance map from Atlas map addon. )

 

Quests

Postponing the Inevitable – Archmage Berninand at Transitus Shield gives you an Interdimensional Refabricator to use near the rift in The Nexus to stall the interdimensional rift.

Quickening – Archmage Berinand at Transitus Shield asks you to collect 5 Arcane Splinters from the Crystalline Protectors in The Singing Grove inside The Nexus.

Prisoner of War – Raelorasz at Transitus Shield asks you to go into The Nexus to release Keristrasza from her icy imprisonment.

Have They No Shame – Librarian Serrah at Amber Ledge would like you to retrieve Berinand’s Research, a book in Hall of Stasis within The Nexus.

 

In order to get the quests from Archmage Berinand, you must first complete:

Reading the Meters – Archmage Berinand at Transitus Shield has placed his instruments in different locations around Coldarra, disguised as Malygos’ scrying orbs, and he would like you to get a reading from each.

 

Northern Coldarra Reading is around 31.7, 20.5

Western Coldarra Reading is around 22.3, 24.2 .

Southern Coldarra Reading is around 28.8, 34.9 .

Nexus Geological Reading is around 28.3, 28.5 .

Secrets of the Ancients – Archmage Berinand at Transitus Shield asks you to collect 3 Glacial Splinters and 3 Magic-bound Splinters from the ancients who traverse Coldarra.

In order to get the quest from Raelorasz, you must complete the chain of quests which begins with Basic Training.

 

Dungeon Layout

The Nexus is an open plan dungeon; you can reach and defeat the bosses in any order, but Keristrasza is intended to be last.

When you enter the instance, you can proceed down the short corridor into the Axis of Alignment. You will see the red dragon, Keristrasza frozen in ice straight ahead.

To the right, you will see a red corridor. This will lead you into The Singing Grove and Ormorokk the Tree Shaper.

To the left, you will see a blue corridor. This leads to the Hall of Stasis and then The Librarium, where you’ll find Grand Magus Telestra.

Keristrasza will not aggro, running straight through her room will take you to The Rift and Anomalus.

Although you can defeat the bosses in any order, it’s best to proceed left to Telestra, then Anomalus, then Ormokk, and finally come full circle to Keristrasza.

 

Axis of Alignment

In the first section of this instance, the diamond surrounding Keristrasza’s room, you’ll face azure dragonkin.

 

  • Azure Magus – 76,880 HP. Deals about 1300 regular melee damage per hit. Some are mobile and patrol the Axis of Alignment. They cannot be polymorphed, but may be susceptible to a hunter’s Freezing Trap.
    Frostbolt     — 1900 to 2100 damage. Reduces movement speed for 5 seconds.
    Arcane Shock –650 to 850 damage.
    Arcane Shock (DoT) — 185 to 195 damage.

 

Hall of Stasis

In this room, you will find mobs frozen in stasis. You should expect to take 3 at once, although sometimes you may pull only one. They can be crowd-controlled. It’s a good idea to slay the Horde Cleric first.

 

  • Horde Ranger – 37,164 HP. Normal melee damage 600 to 900.
    Shoot — 450 to 900 damage.
    Rapid Shot – 230 to 330 damage per hit for 8 seconds while Ranger channels.
    Incendiary Shot — 240 damage per tick.
  • Horde Commander – 74, 328 HP. Normal melee damage 1350 to 2400.
    Whirlwind — 3800 to 7500 damage to 4 tragets within 8 yards.
    Charge –2500 to 2724 damage to a target within 25 yards, stuns for 1 second.
  • Horde Cleric – 37,164 HP. Normal melee damage 700 to 2100.
    Shadow Word : Death — 900 damage
    Flash Heal – heals self or friendly target for 4500 HP.
  • Horde Berserker – 37,164 HP. Normal melee damage 850 to 1000.
    War Stomp — 350 to 420 damage to 5 enemies within 8 yards, stunning them for 2 seconds.

 

On heroic, there is an additional boss in Hall of Stasis. For alliance, his name is Commander Kolrug. For horde, his name is Commander Stoutbeard. Both seem to have 337K HP and use the same abilities. Normal melee damage 4,000-5,600.

 

  • Frightening Shout — 6 sec fear, affects all nearby enemies
  • Whirlwind — deals about 13,000 damage on plate-wearers and 21,000 on cloth
  • Charge — charges an enemy dealing 10,000 – 13,500 damage
Strategy

 

It’s a good idea to pull him to the corridor you entered Hall of Stasis through, so his fear won’t cause you to aggro nearby mobs.

 

He will come with 2 casters that heal him and one another. You should crowd control and kill them before you focus on the boss. It’s a little like the first boss in Hellfire Citadel: Ramparts, in that respect.

 

His charge is not random. He will charge at the nearest player outside his melee range. You can either try to position a mail- or plate-wearer outside of his aggro range, but nearer to him than your healer and cloth-wearers, or your healer can just try to keep everyone topped off.

 

The most important thing is that you stay out of his whirlwind, it can easily one-shot cloth-wearers and any melee DPS who aren’t at full health.

 

Loot

 

The Librarium

Here you will find groups of usually 3 or 4 enemy mobs, they can be crowd-controlled. Groups may be a combination of the following.

  • Mage Slayer – 37,164 HP. Normal melee damage 1000 to 2400.
  • Mage Hunter Ascendant – 37,164 HP. Normal Melee damage 1400 to 2300. Patrols through The Librarium accompanied by 2 Mage Slayer dogs.
    Rain of Fire — 2700 damage over 8 seconds while channeled.
    Cone of Cold — 1500 to 1600 damage to enemies in front of the Mage Hunter Ascendant.
    Frostbolt — 1000 to 1500 damage to a single target, also slows movement speed by 40%.
    Arcane Explosion — 1450 to 2800 damage to all targets within 10 yards.
    Arcane Trap — places a trap on the ground, dealing 2000 to 2600 damage to all nearby enemies.
    Fireball – 1500 to 2000 damage to a single target, adds a DoT that lasts 8 seconds.
    Polymorph — transforms target into an animal, cannot move or attack for up to 8 seconds. This effect can be dispelled.
    Silence — a target cannot cast spells for 3 seconds.
  • Steward – 37,164 HP. Normal melee damage 1000 to 2000.
    Spellbreaker — deals 1500 to 1650 damage to a target, and silence for 3 seconds.
  • Mage Hunter Initiate – 37,164 HP. Normal melee damage 1000 to 2100.
    Magic Burn – deals 800 to 1000 damage to a single target, then about 300 every 3 seconds for 20 seconds.
    Renew — heals self or friendly target for 648 HP per second for 15 seconds.

When you reach the room of Grand Magus Telestra, you will see a group of 4 enemy mobs, as shown below. They must be pulled out of the room, do not allow your tank to charge into the room or you will be fighting this group and the boss as well. Again, they can be crowd-controlled.

 

 

Grand Magus Telestra

She is a high elf, presumably a Kirin Tor mage who joined Malygos hoping to keep her magic power. Telestra has 3 phases.

 

Phase One

“You know what they say about curiosity.”

  • Firebomb — 2000 to 2500 damage to her target and nearby party members
  • Ice Nova – 2500 damage to enemies within 60 yards, 3 sec stun
  • Gravity Well — 75 damage-per-second for 6 seconds, pulls enemies within 60 yards to her location

 

Phase Two

“There’s plenty of me to go around.”

“I’ll give you more than you can handle.”

Telestra will disappear when she reaches 50% Health and 3 clones will appear. Each clone will practice a different school of magic, these clones are susceptible to crowd control.

Arcane

  • Time Stop — 2 second stun
  • Polymorph — Turns a party member into a critter. This effect can be dispelled.

Frost

  • Blizzard — 750 to 1000 damage per tick. You should be able to avoid this effect by moving (like in Shade of Aran fight in Karazhan).
  • Ice Barb — 400 to 500 damage to a single target.

Fire

  • Scorch – 1250 to 1800 damage to a single target.
  • Fire Blast — 2100 to 2650 damage to a single target.

 

If there is no class in your party which can dispel magic, the Arcane clone should be killed first. Otherwise, killing the Frost clone first will reduce AoE damage.

 

Phase Three

“Now to finish the job!”

Telestra reappears after her clones have been defeated. She is still at 50% Health.

  • Freeze — Immobilizes your party when her health reaches 25%
  • Fireball Volley – AoE with 30 yard range, she casts this directly after Freeze.

 

Normal Mode Loot

Insulating Bindings

Wand of Shimmering Scales

Belt of Draconic Runes

 

In addition to slightly increased damage, Telestra’s trio of clones spawns twice on heroic. Once at 50% health and again at 10-15%. Other than that, the encounter is about the same as in normal mode. Heal as usual and CC the clones if necessary.

Loot

 

 

The Rift

You’ll need to clear your way through this room to reach Anomalus, while Crazed Mana Worms and Azure Skyrazors battle in the air above.

 

  • Crazed Mana Surge – 37,164 HP. Normal melee damage 900 to 1300.
    Arcane Nova — about 1000 damage to enemies within 10 yards. This also heals nearby arcane creatures for 5% of their total health.
    Mana Burn — can burn about 1000 mana, inflicting about 500 damage.
  • Crazed Mana Wraith – 5574 HP. Normal melee damage 300 to 450.
    Arcane Missiles — 220 to 450 damage per hit.
  • Azure Enforcer – 37,164 HP. Normal melee damage 1700 to 2200.
    Cleave — about 2500 damage to 2 nearby enemies.
    Mortal Strike — about 1500 damage, reduces healing received for 3 seconds.
  • Azure Scale-binder – 37,164 HP. Normal melee damage 1300 to 1600.
    Arcane Blast — 1000 to 1200 damage.
    Heal – cast on self or friendly target, heals for 10,000 HP.
  • Chaotic Rift – 16,724 HP.
    Chaotic Energy Burst — 250 to 400 damage to a target, jumps to 2 additional nearby enemies dealing 50% of the original damage.
    Charged Chaotic Energy Burst – 350 to 600 damage to a target, jumps to 2 additional nearby enemies dealing 50% of the original damage. 

    When you clear the way to Anomalus on heroic mode, you can usually take out nearby rifts without taking any damage or pulling aggro of the mobs around it.

 

Anomalus

This arcane voidwrath is a single-phase boss that does little himself, but uses his ability to manipulate space, opening Chaotic Rifts. You will find him near the center of The Rift.

 

“Chaos beckons.”

  • Spark – A single-target bolt of arcane energy, does 2000 to 2400 damage.

 

At 75-50-25% (3 times), Anomalous will do the following:

 

“Reality… unwoven.”

  • Create Rift – Opens a Chaotic Rift nearby.

 

“Indestructible.”

  • Rift Shield – Channels energy to nearby Chaotic Rifts. He is immune to attacks while channeling.
  • Charge Rifts – Channels energy into Chaotic Rifts, causing them to create more Chaotic Wraiths.

 

Chaotic Rifts cast the following:

  • Chaotic Energy Burst – Arcane spell damage. Inflicts 400 damage to target and then jumps to other nearby members of your party 2 times. This damage is reduced by 50% each time it jumps.
  • Charged Chaotic Energy Burst — Same as above, but up to 600 damage to target.
  • Summon Crazed Mana Wraith — A wraith appears and begins casting Arcane Missiles.

 

Chaotic Rifts and Crazed Mana Wraiths must be destroyed quickly, or they will increase in number and overcome your party. Crazed Mana Wraiths can be feared.

 

Normal Mode Loot

Gauntlets of Serpent Scales

Cleated Ice Boots

Tome of the Lore Keepers

 

In the Heroic version of this encounter, the basic strategy is the same as normal mode. Switch all DPS from the boss to his rifts each time he creates them, he’s invulnerable at this point anyway, so attacking him is futile.

Anomalus has 430K HP and deals almost twice the damage as normal.

Loot

 

 

The Singing Grove

This is an area full of small pools of crystalline water and trees, which leads to Ormorok the Tree Shaper.

Throughout this part of the instance you will see Crystalline Frayers as well as seed pods. Pods open up and become Frayers, which have only 3,500 HP and can easily be destroyed with AoE. Once defeated, a Frayer will again become a seed pod to open again.

It’s important to travel to Ormorok as quickly as possible, since these Frayers will continue to spawn and become troublesome for your party. Spawning ends after Ormorok is defeated.

 

 

In addition to the Frayers constantly nipping at the heels of your party, you will face:

  • Crystalline Protectors – 74,328 HP. Normal melee damage 1700 to 2300.
    Shard Spray — deals 1300 to 1900 damage to any enemies in front of the caster.
    Thunderclap — deals about 1000 damage to nearby enemies, also slows movement speed.
    Crystal Chains — Immobilizes the target for 10 seconds, deals about 1000 damage.
  • Crystalline Tender – 37,164 HP. Can heal.
  • Crystalline Keeper – 37,164 HP. Normal melee damage 900 to 1200.
    Crystal Strike — Inflicts arcane damage equal to melee damage.
    Crystal Bark — 160 damage.

 

Ormorok the Tree Shaper

In the very rear of The Singing Grove, after defeating all of the guards he has created, you will find Ormorok. He is an elemental and your battle with him is single-phase and largely “tank-and-spank”.

There are no adds, but he does have a few notable tricks up his sleeve.

“Nooo!”

  • Spell Reflection — The ability to reflect 4 spells throughout the fight.
  • Trample — While dealing normal damage to your tank, he will inflict about 2,500 damage to any party members near the tank.

“Bleed!”

  • Crystal Spikes — Periodically, he will call spikes up from the ground around your party. These spikes can erupt, inflicting about 3,000 to each member of your group and knocking each into the air, taking more damage upon falling. You can avoid this damage by moving away from visible spikes, but you only have about 2 seconds to do so.

“Back!”

  • Frenzy – With 25% Health remaining, Ormorok will enrage and his damage will double. This is the time to pop your cooldowns and burn him.

 

Normal Mode Loot

Drakonid Arm Blade

Greaves of the Blue Flight

Chiseled Stalagmite Pauldrons

 

There is little difference in strategy for normal and heroic mode. Ormorok has about 430K HP and deals 7,000-10,000 melee damage. His trample can do up to 4,000 damage. Ormorok’s spikes do significantly more damage as well if you get caught in them.

There are adds in this encounter on heroic. Little plants, called Crystalline Tanglers, will spawn. These little buggers only deal 500-1,000 damage, but they can also root you to the ground. You can kill them quickly.

Most of all, you need to avoid the spikes. You have a few seconds to move away from them after they appear.

Loot

 

Keristrasza

You can now travel back through The Singing Grove toward the Axis of Alignment and the entrance of the dungeon, to release Keristrasza. She was imprisoned long ago by Malygos, who hoped to make her his new consort to replace Saragosa.

By killing her you will preserve her freedom from an eternity of service to Malygos.

 

 

To release her, you must click the four orbs in her room. The group should stand on one side of Keristrasza, as standing behind or in front of her can be lethal.

Everyone in the group must move almost constantly to avoid taking damage from Intense Cold and to keep it from stacking. This can be done simply by jumping.

Her normal melee damage is about 2000 to 4000.

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“Preserve? Why? There’s no truth in it. No no no… only in the taking! I see that now!”

  • Tail Sweep — Causes up to 1,000 damage as well as a knockback, if you are behind her.
  • Crystal Chains — Immobilizes a party member for 10 seconds and inflicts frost damage.
  • Crystalfire Breath — Inflicts frost damage in front of her, with additional damage over time, while slowing movement speed.
  • Intense Cold — Will inflict 100 frost damage per second for each stack, also reduces casting and attack speed by 10%. Stacks up to 9 times. Movement removes this debuff.

“Finish it! Finish it! Kill me, or I swear by the dragonqueen you’ll never see daylight again!”

  • Enrage — After 2 minutes, she will enrage and her damage will increase.

 

Normal Mode Loot

Band of Glittering Permafrost

Attuned Crystalline Boots

Glacier Sharpened Vileblade

 

In heroic mode, this boss has about 512K HP and deals 6,000-16,000 melee damage.
Crystalfire Breath can do about 3,500-4,500, so it’s important that your DPS and healer stand to her side. If your tank can back her up to a wall, the fight may go more smoothly.

Loot

 

Keristrasza is the final boss of the instance, so when you defeat her, you have cleared the Nexus!

 

 

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