World of Warcraft: Dragonflight Aberrus guide - How to easily defeat Echo of Neltharion

World of Warcraft: Dragonflight’s Echo of Neltharion is the penultimate boss of Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible. In this battle, players will have to fight what is essentially a clone of the Earth Warden himself, Neltharion. In the Warcraft lore, he would ultimately go mad and turn into Deathwing, and be battled as the final Cataclysm boss battle. That means this fight will likely be complicated and difficult, but it’s worth completing.

Players have a chance to unlock their Tier Shoulderplates, and 2-handed sword users have a shot at the Ashkandur, Fall of the Brotherhood weapon, among other treats. It’s worth mentioning that phase 3 of this fight may change, as there was only a very brief testing of this during the PTR.

World of Warcraft: Dragonflight players don’t need to worry - we’ll cover important strategies, positioning, and abilities of Echo of Neltharion below.

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How to defeat Echo of Neltharion in World of Warcraft: Dragonflight

Echo of Neltharion is the boss before Sarkareth, so you can imagine this battle is going to be complicated. This World of Warcraft: Dragonflight raid encounter has three phases, with an intermission before phase 2.

The general strategy is going to be dealing with the walls of earth that Echo of Neltharion creates. Players will need to break holes in them, and make sure the Volcanic Heart ability goes through it. However, these wall patterns can vary, so we’re using the patterns described by one of the top guilds in World of Warcraft: Dragonflight, Method.

Important abilities

• Twisted Earth: Each phase begins with this, and each wall pattern will be unique to that phase. They can’t be damaged or jumped over. Only boss abilities can harm them. They repair throughout a phase as well. Walls also interfere with the line of sight, so make sure your healers can see other players.
• Rushing Darkness: Used in all phases of the fight. Targets players and knocks them away. They temporarily destroy that section if they hit a wall. Shattered Walls send Shattered Rocks flying, which needs to be avoided.

Method.GG's recommended positioning for Echo of Neltharion in World of Warcraft: Dragonflight (Image via Method)

Since each phase has specific abilities, the “Important abilities” are shorter for Echo of Neltharion in World of Warcraft: Dragonflight. Phase 1 will begin with the tank holding the boss in the center, in a cross shape.

You’ll want to use Rushing Darkness to blow down at least one wall that Echo of Neltharion creates for this World of Warcraft: Dragonflight raid boss. Whoever has Volcanic Heart needs to head to that spot, and keep away from other players. Tanks need to use Calamitous Strike to an adjacent wall as well.

Phase 1 of Echo of Neltharion also has Echoing Fissure, which deals damage around himself, and to all other players as well. It will then echo at each previous location it was cast as well, also causing Collapsed Earth and spreading Seeping Lava.

This will continue to loop until the boss hits 70%, and this World of Warcraft: Dragonflight fight will enter a brief intermission. Players will have a variety of swirling damage pools to avoid since they deal heavy damage and stun them.

Phase 2 of Echo of Neltharion changes things significantly for this World of Warcraft: Dragonflight fight (Image via Method)

You’ll want to reposition the boss similar to the above image, and once you see Surrender to Corruption cast, Phase 2 is about to begin for this boss fight. After the ticking damage and final burst, the new walls will come up shortly after that for the Echo of Neltharion fight.

A few players in this World of Warcraft: Dragonflight fight will then be targeted with Corruption a few seconds before it happens. Move away from the rest of the group to avoid cleave damage and more dots. Healers will want to drop some HoTs on them to prepare for incoming damage.

You’ll also have to contend with Voice from Beyond, which spawns three adds. In Normal difficulty, all they do is channel the boss, and when he gets to 35% hp, they’ll shield him. You’ll need them all to be dead so Phase 3 can start.

Tanks will have to contend with a unique Tank Buster move in this World of Warcraft: Dragonflight battle. Sunder Shadow rips out a player’s soul and lets them to walk through the created walls.

Then, after a delay, Echo of Neltharion will knock their body to the soul, and destroy whatever wall they want through. Ideally, you want to aim at a cross section between two walls. It’s also useful to help your raid get to the next Voice from Beyond and kill it. Remember to taunt swamp after each time Sunder Shadow is cast.

Another facet of Phase 2 is Umbral Annihliation. It’s essentially a Soft Enrage, because it increases its damage by 100% each time its cast. You will want to get this boss DPSed down as fast as possible, so Phase 3 can begin and Umbral Annihilation doesn’t one-shot your World of Warcraft: Dragonflight raiding party.

Unfortunately, it’s not really known what Phase 3’s wall pattern will 100% be right now. When this it begins, you'll want to Bloodlust etc. early on. It's a dangerous phase, and you want to get to the end quickly.

You’ll want to move Echo of Neltharion to the edge of the room, so there are fewer walls to destroy when he casts Sunder Reality.

It will cause Neltharion to rip Twisted Earth into portals. Each will constantly spawn adds - Twisted Abberations. Standing on a portal reduces players damage done by 99%, but also reduces the damage taken from Ebon Destruction by 99%.

Multiple teammates can stand on the same portal, and when the spell is being cast, make sure to stand on one to not die. At this point, just rinse and repeat until Echo of Neltharion has been defeated.

When it comes to the Heroic difficulty of Echo of Neltharion in World of Warcraft: Dragonflight, there are only a few changes. Voice from Beyond’s adds will also be Hidden in Void.

They will have a shield that can only be damaged by players that have Corruption, so you need to break the shield down as fast as possible. In addition, Twisted Abberations will build stacks of Unstable Mutation, which increases their damage dealt by 21% every two seconds.

Upon defeating Echo of Neltharion, players will be ready to pick up some loot, and then encounter the final boss of Aberrus, Sarkareth.