Sylvanas Windrunner — Sanctum of Domination. Strategy Guide.

It’s been quite some time since the release of patch 9.1 of World of Warcraft: Shadowlands and the opening of the Sanctum of Domination raid. And many players have already made it to the final boss of the update — Sylvanas Windrunner.

This battle, like any other with the final villain, is quite long and voluminous in terms of abilities. A total of three phases on three completely different locations await us in the battle, either you may seek for Mythic Sylvanas Boost to save your time.

First phase

The brave heroes of Azeroth make their way through the hordes of monsters of the Sanctum of Domination and finally get to Sylvanas. She is located on a circular platform, where players will have to fight with her in the first phase.

First, let’s deal with the tanks. Throughout the phase, Sylvanas continually casts Withering Fire. After accumulating three charges, she discharges them into the active tank, after which the second must quickly overpower the boss. And so on in a circle. Also periodically Sylvanas marks the shield-bearer with a Wailing Arrow, the tank must run as far away from the raid as possible.

The rest of the characters will be pestered by Sylvanas with various damage and AOEs: just dodge the Desecrating Shot and heal after the Shadow Dagger. However, normal healing won’t be quite enough, because the Barbed Arrow stacks infinite damage on players, which can only be removed by the Domination Chains ability — this is the key mechanic of the phase.

Using this skill, the Queen unleashes a few big AOEs, with arrows inserted into the floor in the area. From these, chains have been released that grab and draw the closest players to them. And it is these things that remove the Barbed Arrow debuff. The raid must always be positioned so that the players affected by the debuff are in the arrow zone.

To get rid of the arrow itself after the dispel, it must simply be destroyed. It is also important to remember that in heroic mode arrows within a radius of four meters kill, so it is contraindicated to get up close.

As soon as Sylvanas gains one hundred percent energy, she teleports to a random player and uses the Veil of Darkness ability. Just run away at a breakneck pace – as far away as possible. If you don’t make it in time, you’ll get a debuff, which will disappear only after absorbing a bunch of healing, and in the process, it will also spread to the neighboring players. In general, it’s better not to let this happen.

Intermission

Once Sylvanas’ health is down to 80%, there is an intermission phase. Banshee gains invulnerability and scatters a platform of Domination Arrows, which is enough to remove the debuffs for the entire raid. While the raid frantically smashes the arrows, Sylvanas herself flies around the location and throws all sorts of nasty exploding crap on the floor.

Once all the arrows are destroyed, the Queen lands and lets out a Banshee Wail. Players need to spread out so that there is a distance of five meters between them. Otherwise, they take additional damage and die.

Second Phase

Sylvanas begins to flee through the chains and the raid chases her. In this phase, players will mostly encounter the Mawforged Souljudge, Mawforged Summoner, and Mawforged Goliath.

The boss in this phase has two forms. In the passive, the Banshee flies close to the raid and interferes in every way possible to move through narrow corridors with the Haunting Wave. These are small moving obstacles that can push you down – just dodge and move forward. Just like in the first phase, an AoE Veil of Darkness appears on the platforms — avoid it.

During the active phase, Sylvanas lands and immediately casts Raze — you must promptly knock down the cast, otherwise, everyone will die. After that, the tank needs to take the boss, and the raid runs away from the already familiar Veil of Darkness. As soon as the boss has 77% of health left, she’ll let out a Banshee Wail, like on the “Intermission”, and fly away.

However, the main threat in this phase is minions, especially the Mawforged Souljudge. The Mob uses the Crushing Dread skill until his death; it casts an AOE debuff on players, which stacks damage, and when it dissipates it rolls over to a neighbor. Healers only need to monitor and dispel those who have the most debuffs. Tanks, on the other hand, need to constantly swap between the Mawforged Goliath. The other minions don’t pose much of a threat and we won’t take them apart.

The entire second phase is a combination of combat with the Adds and Sylvanas herself, which will also get in the way when fighting her minions. The third phase comes as soon as the raid gets to the Oribos.

Phase Three

Combat in the final phase takes place on four different platforms, between which players can move freely. The basic combat abilities remain from the first phase but are slightly enhanced.

The tank’s Wailing Arrow is now thrown at any player who must run out with it to the adjacent platforms and explode there. The Banshee Wail is used regularly – heroes must constantly spread out on a small platform. And the Veil of Darkness is thrown directly at the character. And avoiding the debuff is not possible. The duty of healers — very quickly dispel the debuff, so it does not disperse on the raid, which is also trying to avoid hitting the AOE.

However, the key mechanic in phase three is Banshee’s Bane. The ability is a puddle that appears in different ways: just spammed to a random point on the map, put a curse on a random player, or thrown at a tank after Bane Arrows. If the hero stands in this puddle, it will absorb him, but then the same debuff will be active on the character again, and the puddle will reappear when it dissipates.

The point of combat in the third phase is to dispel the curse in such a way as to stack all the puddles on the same platform until Sylvanas breaks it. How does this work? Every minute Sylvanas uses the Raze, completely breaking the platform she’s standing on. You need to spill the puddles so that the maximum amount of them is left on the broken part. 

I hope I was able to help you in mastering Sylvanas Windrunner. Good luck and have nice loot!