Raid Strategy

Tips for Healing Heroic Dimensius in Manaforge Omega

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Dimensius is the final encounter of Manaforge Omega and easily the most mechanically intense fight of the tier so far. From multidimensional knockbacks to skyriding soak mechanics, this fight will demand a blend of high throughput, smart positioning, and clutch movement reads. As a Holy Priest, your abilities will shine here, especially with well-timed usage of your cooldowns and game awareness.

Let’s walk through what to expect and how to best prepare from a healing perspective.

Pre-fight Setup

Before you even start, make sure your raid is divided into two equal groups on both the left and right sides.

Phase 1: Critical Mass

The fight begins when everyone takes the portal using the extra action button. Our group typically hits the button at the 1-second mark on the pull timer. Once inside, each side needs to burn down the Living Mass. Ideally, a ranged player or healer should pick up the Excess Mass when it drops. Avoid having a melee do it, since they’ll lose uptime and might be needed to pull people down during Gravity later.

The two Excess Mass players will come together and combine their debuff to drop a large puddle that helps keep the raid rooted, preventing them from getting inhaled by Dimensius.

Dimensius - Big Suck.gif

After that, the raid splits up again. Watch for the tank smash, which knocks everyone back. Position yourself to the sides and outside the blue circular smash zone. Avoid standing behind the boss, or you’ll likely get launched off the platform. Let the knockback carry you sideways to help place your puddle at the edge as this pool remains for the rest of the phase.

We Dragon Priests have it pretty easy!

After the puddles, each side gets a group soak mechanic. You don’t have to be in it as a healer, but jumping in helps smooth things out. I like using Divine Hymn on the first set and Apotheosis on the next to stabilize the group. Once the new Living Mass is killed, ranged DPS must stand underneath the Reverse Gravity players to pull them down from the air.

When Dimensius hits 0% HP, it’s time for liftoff.

Intermission 1: Event Horizon

This first intermission sends you flying through space. I recommend using Squeakers, the Trickster or Red Flying Cloud mounts for visibility.

You’ll fly through rings and dodge obstacles like meteors and black holes. Skilled players can aim for the mini spheres in the sky, which deal around 6% damage to the large Voidwalker add when you land. Three of them spawn per ride and only one person can grab each.

Every ring you pass through refreshes your debuff timer to 9 seconds. Make sure you’re always within reach of the next one.

Phase 2A: The Dark Heart

After landing, group up in the front-left quadrant of the platform (triangle marker) on the map below. This phase is all about triage healing, light movement, and add control.

Key enemies:

  • Artoshion is the named mob here. This phase ends upon his death.
  • Voidwardens form a wall that cut off access to the rest of the platform.
  • Nullbinder‘s will have a cast ability called Nullbinding. On heroic, they deal 3.7 million damage plus a 1.2 million damage Shadow damage every 2 seconds, and it reduces movement speed. It’s a stacking effect.

Your first goal is to punch a hole through the Voidwarden wall, starting with the one closest to the middle. This gives your team travel access to the opposite side of the platform.

The raid needs to focus on punching a hole through the Void Wardens. Target the one closest to the middle that allows you to travel to the far side of the platform.

Watch Dimensius’ fist to predict meteor throws. If he pulls it back, that side is not safe. Move to the other edge accordingly to avoid the incoming pushback.

Once the meteor resolves, run up to Dimensius and get ready for a massive pushback. Use Wind Rush Totem, Stampeding Roar, or a Warlock Gateway to resist. If your group lacks movement options, you may need to break another hole through the Voidwarden wall to buy space.

The cycle continues until Artoshion dies. If he lives too long, Voidwardens regenerate and your DPS needs to refocus.

Once Arthosion is slain, it’s time to mount up and fly to the next platform!

Healing tip: AoE healing is steady, not bursty. I use Divine Hymn right before the pushback to top everyone off. Commit one of your 2-minute cooldowns here so it’s ready again for the final phase.

Get ready to mount again, because you have another set of rings to weave through.

Intermission 2: Event Horizon Bugaloo

Same concept, just without the massive meteor wall from before. Fly through rings, collect spheres, dodge hazards. You know the drill.

Phase 2B: Pargoth Platform

Pargoth is another named Voidwalker. Melee players need to watch out for his AoE ground slam, which has a wide blue circle indicator.

This phase mirrors Phase 2A:

  • Burn a hole through the Voidwarden wall.
  • Keep Nullbinders stunned or silenced. Never ever let a cast go off.
  • Be prepared to kill two sets of Voidwardens.
  • Don’t get baited by low Pargoth HP. Focus on the wall first to ensure safe positioning.

Once Pargoth falls, you’re in the home stretch.

Phase 3: Singularity

Upon landing on the last platform, pop Heroism/Bloodlust immediately. Healers can help DPS here, as there’s a brief downtime before Dimensius fully activates.

Keep the raid stacked and dodge the initial falling rocks. These will start moving around the platform and deal rot damage over time.

Healing tip: With all the movement required, Divine Hymn might be hard to use effectively. Rely on Oracle buffs and instant-cast tools to keep up.

The Rings: You’ll see a series of rings pulsing out. When the first one activates, stand close to it to apply the debuff. You have a 3-second buffer to pick up the next one. Don’t overlap or it’ll be lethal.

I recommend standing beside the first, then visually tracking the second as it charges up so you’re ready to move into it. Repeat for the third.

Devour: Dimensius casts Devour, and you’ll need to hide under a rotating rock. Pop a defensive like Fade and stay near the front of its rotation to maximize casts. Heal lower HP players first. Once Devour ends, that rock becomes a Black Hole, killing anyone it touches.

Keep using your Holy Words on cooldown. There’s lots of ticking damage here.

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The raid should move left while tanks rotate right. Don’t stack on the tank. Cosmic Collapse will knock back anyone inside their blue circle (more on this next). This is followed by a pull-in. Make sure you have a clear line of sight to the tank, free of rocks and hazards.

You’ll want to meet up with the tank on the opposite side but do not stack with them just yet. The tank will have a giant blue circle around them, and this is the Cosmic Collapse ability. Anyone in that could get knocked backwards (and off the platform). On heroic, this is followed by a pull-in mechanic. Make sure you position yourself in such a way that you have a clear path to the tank and that Dimensius or any of the rocks (or Black Holes) aren’t in the way. You can fight and resist it slightly.

This pattern repeats:

  • Move with the tank rotation.
  • Handle another set of Rings.
  • Rotate again after Supernova.
  • Continue until Dimensius is down.

As the fight progresses, the platform will shrink. Space becomes limited. Save a Battle Res for a tank. Healing isn’t too intense here, so if a healer dies early, you can delay the rez or use it on a DPS instead.

Wrap-Up

Heroic Dimensius is chaotic, but conquerable. It’s a fitting end to the expansion. Once you bring him down, sit back and enjoy the final cinematic. You’ve earned it.

Manaforge Omega Raid Preview: First Look at the First 7 Bosses (PTR Testing)

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Spoilers ahead on the new raid.

Patch 11.2 is almost here, and I got a chance to jump into the Manaforge raid on Normal difficulty during PTR testing this weekend with my new guild, Death Testers. We previewed 7 of the 8 bosses (Dimensius was not available for testing), and I’ve compiled my thoughts, early impressions, and videos for each. Use this as a scouting report as you prepare your raid team or just want a peek at what’s ahead.

1. Plexus Sentinel

Thoughts & Impressions:

  • Introductory level boss. We start off in a confined room without a lot of space to work with, and the raid will need to progress from chamber to chamber.
  • There are circles (with red player arrows above) that need to be taken to the outside. These drop a puddle that seemingly eventually despawns. I expect these to stay longer or even permanently in harder difficulties. Important: Don’t drop them by the entry wall.
  • Big group soak mechanic: Eradicating Salvo, we just grouped under the boss for it.
  • About 60 seconds in, Protocol: Purge starts with a knockback. Dodge giant bubbles and rotating lines before reaching a slowly moving wall that you’ll need to use your Reshii Wraps through using the Extra Action Button (seems to be an 8-yard blink, 8s cooldown).
  • Phase ends after blowing up the shield, then rinse and repeat.

2. Loom’ithar

Thoughts & Impressions:

  • Big fuzzy spider vibes.
  • Kill an add to break through a shrinking wall early in the fight. Place a marker or designate a spider right away.
  • Lots of dodging with circles and movement-heavy mechanics.
  • Frontal cone needs to be soaked, and you may need to split players into two groups.
  • At 30%, Loom’ithar becomes mobile. Movement and positioning become critical from here on based on how much of the room has been covered.

3. Soulbinder Naazindhri

Thoughts & Impressions:

  • Adds are locked in prisons, and you’ll need to aim beams to break them out. If the prisoners are not broken out in time, then the ads will eventually break out on their own. Encounter seems to be about ad management and deciding which ones to break out to defeat over the course of the fight.
  • Edge-of-platform fight: easy to get knocked off. No guard rails
  • Remember Kyveza lines? They’re back, but these orbs move slower.
  • You cannot use the prisons as cover, so plan knockbacks accordingly.

4. Forgeweaver Araz

Thoughts & Impressions:

  • More adds! You’ll be splitting your raid for soak mechanics that spawn enemies.
  • Collector Pylons emit orbs, and dodging becomes important here.
  • Random players spawn adds that should be spawned under the boss to cleave.
  • At 50%, we switch to a new phase focused on the pylons, before reverting again.
  • At 25%, a giant black hole pulls the raid while damage ramps up heavily. Use a Warlock gate near the back of the room to help stabilize movement or as an emergency to port back to the front and buy time.

5. The Soul Hunters (Optional Boss)

Thoughts & Impressions:

  • Fight against 3 Demon Hunters (cool design twist!)
  • You can skip this one, oddly enough.
  • DPS them evenly, or you’ll fall behind.
  • Each has its own toolkit and expect lots of individual responsibility.
  • Magic debuffs remove puddles, and dispelling the debuff jumps the effect to a nearby player. The afflicted player just needs to walk into a puddle to remove it.

6. Fractillus

Thoughts & Impressions:

  • Tetris-meets-WoW. Favorite fight of the test.
  • Arena is split into six zones. Players spawn walls by running to their zone.
  • Shortly after, another group breaks those walls by standing in front of them. We gave tanks their own zone.
  • The challenge is managing space. Poor wall coordination means it’s game over.
  • Fast, punchy encounter with lots of movement and communication required.

7. Nexus-King Salhadaar

Thoughts & Impressions:

  • Multi-phase fight, includes mounted phase with a dragon.
  • Reminiscent of Sarkareth—players start with debuffs and must cleanse them through mechanics.
  • Wraps are critical for jumping to side platforms to kill adds, then porting back.
  • Once the mount gets low, Salhadaar sacrifices it and gains HP back based on the mount’s remaining health.
  • Final phase: Meteor mechanics pull the raid toward them (again, Kyveza-style). You’ll need equal positioning to survive.

All in all, this looks like a fun raid to close out The War Within. Did end up playing Shadow and changed up specs a few times (you’ll notice I completely forgot about Void Form somewhere and I had to scramble to find it in my spellbook to rebind it — oops!)

Is it worth practicing Mythic tactics on Heroic?

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This comes up every so often when we’re working on a Heroic boss for the first time, especially early on during a raid season. Some smartass in raid makes the suggestion that we should plan and implement Mythic mechanics for abilities that may not exist on Heroic because it’ll help prepare us for it later on when we get there.

Is it actually worth it?

From an efficiency standpoint, the answer is mostly no. As a team, our goal in Heroic is to progress quickly, secure the gear, and then move on to Mythic at a fast pace. While practicing Mythic mechanics during Heroic encounters might seem like a good way to prepare, the reality is that Heroic often doesn’t provide the right conditions (or challenge) to make that stuff meaningful in any way.

The Disconnect Between Heroic and Mythic

Heroic encounters are designed to be more forgiving. It’s true that there are some movement patterns or group assignments that can carry over to Mythic. Unfortunately, many key differences make Heroic an unreliable training ground:

  • Missing Mechanics: Some Mythic-only mechanics fundamentally change how a fight plays out. Practicing without them can create bad habits or a false sense of security. Rik Reverb is a great example of this with the Sound Cannon.
  • Lower Damage and Healing Requirements: Heroic fights often don’t demand the same level of execution. Players might handle mechanics sloppily in Heroic and assume they’ll be fine on Mythic, only to struggle when the margin for error disappears.
  • Different Raid Comp Needs: Mythic encounters frequently require different raid compositions or specific utility that isn’t necessary in Heroic, making the experience less applicable.

When Does It Make Sense to Practice Mythic Tactics on Heroic?

That’s not to say Heroic has no value in preparing for Mythic. There are some cases where it can be helpful:

  • Refining Group Assignments: If Mythic requires specific positioning or assigned roles (such as soakers or debuff management), setting up those habits in Heroic can make the transition smoother.
  • Movement Practice: While some Mythic mechanics don’t exist in Heroic, movement-heavy fights can still be useful for practicing dodging patterns or positioning awareness.
  • Building Team Coordination: Heroic can be a low-pressure environment to practice communication and callouts before stepping into Mythic intensity.

The Risk of Overthinking It

Forcing Mythic strategies into Heroic can sometimes cause more harm than good. It can lead to unnecessary confusion, overcomplicating fights that should be quick clears. Worse, it might make players underestimate Mythic mechanics, assuming they’ve “seen it before” when in reality, they haven’t experienced them at full intensity.

Heroic is a stepping stone, but it isn’t a perfect simulation of Mythic. The best approach is to use it wisely. Practice what makes sense, but don’t waste time trying to force every Mythic detail into a Heroic fight. Efficiency matters, and the best preparation for Mythic is getting there as quickly as possible with a strong, well-geared team ready to take on the real challenge.

Thok: Turning Panic into Reflex

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We killed Thok.

Damn, that was a rough encounter. I had a feeling this week was going to be a good week. We set a guild record for day 1 kills by clearing from Immerseus to (and including) Malkorok on day 1. Fast forward to day 2, and Spoils ended up being Spoils that took a little longer than I expected due to some confusion on cooldown usage. In the end, we managed to get it down just after the first hour of the night.

And now, the Thok Block.

We haven’t squared off against an actual progression encounter with an appropriate group composition in months. In fact, our last progression kill on Spoils was mid-February! The past three months was spent recruiting, re-gearing, and re-training players. Even then, we had a few players from Open Raid in the group who had came in for us on Tuesday to help us out last night. This was arguably one of the strongest rosters we fielded in a long time. I’ll admit, it did pain me that I was unable to get everyone from the guild to participate on the attempts and the kill. It sucks when you have to rely on people outside in order to get the job done but for composition reasons, it had to happen. We ended up having to field 7 healers on this one (4 Priests, 1 Resto Druid, 2 Resto Shaman).

Something my raid likes to do when it gets to a completely new boss is panic. This is doubly true when you’re staring down a really large dinosaur. As the leader, my job is to try to settle them down and remind them to get back to their routes. Stop overthinking things. Simply react. In this case, I recognized that the troublesome part was the kite path. We’ve reviewed it several times during learning attempts. Despite that, my players were still losing their cool. Sometimes the dinosaur went the wrong way. Sometimes they’d panic and run one direction before doing a 180 and dashing down in the other. Deep down inside, I was freaking out too.

The best way to battle nervousness is simply more training and discipline.

We kept telling our players two things:

  1. Visualize your route.
  2. Think of your escape plan in case a rabid dinosaur or yeti comes charging down the middle.

No one wants to be the guy that completely derails a solid attempt. I wanted to turn kiting into a reflex. I wanted to “program” their reactions. For example, if Thok targets me second, I would run to the rear corner where the fire guy is. If Thok targets me fourth, I take the portal all the way down the hallway. I had to keep drilling it in attempt after attempt until it was firmly locked in their minds.

The actual cooldown planning stages took much longer. But we were spoiled due to the number of Priests and other available cooldowns. We were able to stretch the stacks to 24 before transitioning out to the kite phases. Our raid leader called the individual stack numbers, the rest of the team hit their cooldowns which corresponded to their assigned stack number. I need to look into an addon for this instead of a spreadsheet.

Our first attempt we took him above 50%. Second, below 50%. Third, below 20%. Fourth was at 4%. Last one resulted in the kill.

Siegecrafter Blackfuse is next. Anyone have any pointers? The hunters appear to be reluctant to do the whole disengage on to platforms thing.

We’re looking for healers to help us finish out Siege and going into Warlords of Draenor. Check us out!

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[VIDEO] Immerseus on Flex Mode

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I took the liberty of running the Flex Mode version of Immerseus over the weekend. Did manage to kill it within a few attempts. Our gear was scaled to 506 item level. Our group consisted of 10 players so we didn’t get a chance to check out the dynamic scaling in action. Players that are deep in the normal mode of Throne of Thunder shouldn’t have much difficulty with this boss. Check out the video and make note of the healing tips.

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