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Comment by Aspros1st

Missed the opportunity to name this achievement "Let Her Solo Me"

Comment by Blingclintonttv

Completed today on a 674 Prot Warrior without the artifact cloak. All 4 Nexus Daggers can be reflected, 2 casts did 1 BILLION damage to her. Got the achievement, mount skin, and I'm glad to see it's not bugged like the Underpin was. To repeat this process just stand in the middle of her hitbox with spell reflect up.

Edit: Fixed as of 8/6/25

Comment by Sinzhu

A very tough fight, as you'd expect from a "tier 12" delve boss, and arguably the hardest one yet. While it will get easier over time as players get more geared, you likely shouldn't expect to survive it as anything but a tank if only at the 680-690 item level range (I personally did it as a 686 Brewmaster). Even then, every single ability will instantly slay you if not handled correctly.

Compared to the ? version of this encounter, everything is sped up immensely and/or enhanced with additional flourishes to each mechanic. Ky'veza otherwise follows a repeating cycle of abilities:

Nexus Daggers - This ability will be cast 7 times in quick succession on this difficulty; I recommend you have plenty of passive movement speed, as it is easy to box yourself in depending on where these are thrown from.
Nether Rift - Both you and Brann will be debuffed, along with a designated spot in the room being marked. You must create a triangle from where these debuffs time out to avoid being pulled into a rift afterward (Brann will immediately jump to an appropriate spot). In addition, on this difficulty three sections of the room will trigger an Eclipse as the rift debuffs time out; you must get into position quickly. Those with enough movement speed can survive poor rift drops, but it will not be easy.
Dark Massacre - On this difficulty, you have much less time to react to these clones, and 6 of them will be summoned in succession. Only two of them will be glowing red at a time (the one actively charging you, and the one that will charge next); use this information to help direct your character appropriately to face each one as it charges. As pointed out by others, if you are having a hard time seeing these red outlines, try disabling anti aliasing and setting your outline mode to a higher setting. I also recommend moving your character while turning to face them, otherwise the server may not update your position properly.

Beyond this, the outer edges of the arena are covered in darkness from The Shadows, and will quickly deplete your health if you don't stay within the light.

After two sequences of the abilities above (and a third use of Nexus Daggers), Ky'veza will Invoke the Shadows before moving to Enter the Shadows. At this time, you must watch the "real" Ky'veza (shown as the one giving dialogue) as she and her clones dash between the points of the floor near the center of the room. Once they have finished, you have a few seconds to click on the real one to stop the cast of Return to the Shadows. You only get one guess. I recommend hiding your UI during the dashing (alt-z by default) and using a top-down view from the center of the room.

By this point you have seen the entire fight, though Ky'veza will gain a stack of Death Cloak after each Enter the Shadows. So long as you can survive the increasing damage (especially from facing each Dark Massacre), you will eventually win by continuing to handle each ability cycle correctly.

Where one of your main sources of frustration will lie is in Brann, as per usual....He will still be debuffed to create a Nether Rift, even if unconscious before the cast begins. When this happens, you will often end up with two rifts very close to each other that are very difficult to survive the pull from. Not to mention that the glowing red pillar of light around him when he is unconscious will make it all the harder to see your next Dark Massacre clone to face. Even outside of Brann-related nonsense, there can be rare moments where the visual trail of a dashing clone during Enter the Shadows does not line up with its position, causing you to lose sight of the real Ky'veza if you aren't careful enough. Still, if you can stay persistent, this achievement and its mount transformation can be yours! And, if nothing else, you will get Let Her Solo Me along the way.

Comment by visconwow

Not too bad once u get the mechanics down, it's just rinse repeat for 8 mins or so and 1 mistake will kill you, took mby 25 attempts as prot war 687 ilvl without abusing spell reflect bug - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRWBplNUKMI
Bran was dps lvl 67 with rank 1 nether overlay matrix curio and rank 1 battered aegis curio
Didn't bother changing to single target talents

Comment by Xastral

As a DPS, I am the evidence that it is possible. It's challenging, and you probably need to be hybrid, but I succeeded as a WW monk with Dps 687Ilvl. Day 2 on the live server (Xastral-zul'jin)

So many hater to downvote

Comment by Unknowiii

Just like the Mythic fight in Nexus Palace ...... DISABLE ANTI ALIASING OR YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO SEE THE RED OUTLINE OF THE GHOSTS THAT ARE CHARGING AT YOU.

I am baffled it's been a year and Blizzard still haven't fixed it ....

Comment by sanzil

Completed as a Assassination rogue, just press Feint with the Elusiveness talent on the Dark Massacre and Nether Rift, and try to reapply dots before she casts Enter the Shadows as it seems that they still do dmg while she's shuffling around. I would also recommend using the Cauterizing Bolts on your Durable Information Securing Containerfor extra healing. 685 ilvl with basic single target raid build. Good luck.

Comment by FMBangered

Did as prot warrior with no spell reflect.

Only part of this fight that is concerning is facing the clones its the only thing I ever died to. You must be facing them pixel perfect or you will die. I would recommend rekeybinding strafe, wiped 20 times with strafe keybound and 1 shot it after I changed it

Comment by Gaddrael

Got it done on a 686 Blood DK. It's 100% mechanic fight, if you mess up once you're insta dead even through purgatory the moves do like 200mil dmg. Idk if you can do it on a non tank class yet though because every time she does the legion barrel mini game move she gets 5% stack damage. Fight took just under 10mins to complete and its full attention start to finish.

Comment by visconwow

Well I wanted to see how low gear you could feasibly do this as a tank, Equipped one of my warriors with a load of random warbound gear from my bank and hey ho 625 was doable. I think maybe lower like 600 (without cheesing taking off low stat budget gear) might be doable as blood dk but boss will probs reach like 15 stacks of her damage buff.
Bran was DPS - level 67 with hatterang.
Tried with bran as healer too but really the healing isnt needed and u cant outheal 1 shots

Ilvl 625 prot war (no tier, no delve belt, no spell reflect cheese) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGlSP7YJhGw

Comment by JusticePorn

To see the red outline on the clones from Dark Massacre's ability, you need to disable Anti-Aliasing and set Outline Mode to High.

Comment by Callmetog

Big change of pace from the previous 2 "Let Me Solo X" fights, this fight is almost purely visual attentiveness and movement skill. If you have slow reaction time, you will likely just have to hope for nerfs because this fight is all about reacting quickly and accurately. Try and pre-move nexus daggers mechanic every time because already being on the way to dodging it creates more time to anticipate the 2nd, 3rd and so on. It took me about 30 attempts, more than the underpin but still less than the 100+ it took me to do Zekvir ? on day 1.

Comment by soxxy5

You gotta use Noggenfogger elixir and get small ez to dodge lines

Comment by wiqq

If you have problems to see the red outlines Turn ANTI ALIASING OFF made it 10 times easier for me pretty mad that i found out after like 1 hour of trying .

Comment by Inttallity

God i hope they address the angle within "while facing" counts cause at the moment i keep having random deaths while looking at the clones at maybe 3 degrees off.

Comment by Zerothian

Done as 681 MM Hunter. Others have mentioned the cauterizing bolts on delve belt and that definitely helps a ton, one of the defensive belt options are, if not mandatory, pretty close to it with this gear on MM. The energy shield one is also a good option. The only way you can really survive as MM with this level of gear is to have one, and MAKE SURE you are delaying the last brann healing potion pickup as late as you can if the next mechanic is the void rifts. The pots heal you AND apply a 10 second(?) long HoT, if you delay picking up the last one you can make sure you carry 3 stacks into the void rift mechanic since it refreshes the duration.
If you don't have 2-3 stacks of that HoT ticking you will die unless you get a lucky belt proc or you commit a defensive (Exhilaration/Survival of the Fittest/Health Pot/Turtle). That order for defensive priority is generally sound as well since Exhil comes back fairly often, turtle should be an absolute last resort because if you get an unlucky timing on brann potions later in the fight, you basically die even with one other defensive.

Make sure you are always tapping Forward or Backward movement when you face the Massacre clones, just holding right click can sometimes fail to actually fully turn your character's facing in line with your camera unless you tap forward/back to lock in the angle. I used these talents which is (as of writing) pretty much just the Dark Ranger Single Target but with Focused Aim swapped to Improved Streamline for a bit more freedom of movement during Trueshot which helps a lot if you send it during the nexus daggers/blade lines mechanic.

Comment by Pandazer

Done with a Prot Paladin 673 Ilvl bran lv 27 Lv 1 Upgrade very long fight but the damage are really sustainable as tank, take around 15 mins to do it.

You can already unlock the mount apparence but will be avaible on 13/08/25 when the season 3 of dwelves starts.

Comment by TheBigDeeb

Dear Blizzard,
Please fix your ******* Bran. Don’t let him jump on his mount while fighting.

https://youtu.be/-fWC1w3urTg?si=QDaOdKXLb2Nw_LPX&t=130

Dear Players,
You may need to visit an eye doctor after completing this challenge.

Comment by goldstar54

Done with 686 Havoc DH after 9 minutes and 34 seconds. My advice is to save your defensives for later on in the fight. Healer Brann + potions he drops + blade dance defensive + leech was enough to sustain for ~half the fight. After that I rotated blur, darkness, netherwalk, and i-frames from Meta. Hunt and eye beam right before blades is an illegal move, don't even think about trying it.

Comment by Mauser13

Did it as a 681 Blood DK with brann as dps, fight lasted around 10 minutes. I highly advice for people to get the Mute Repetitive Brann Revived addon, to disable chat bubbles and maybe even play without sound all together. With the minigame mechanic it will be a bit harder at the start to see which one you need to pay attention to without the chat bubble but you can also see visually cause the spot will be empty right at the beginning.

Comment by spellghetti

Completed 8/10/25 as a 687 frostfire frost mage. Total kill time was almost ~11 minutes. The main challenge of the fight is managing defensive cooldowns and ensuring you have major defensives up for every Nether Rift.

For any mages who are attempting, I tried my best to keep cooldowns rolling on the following loop with Brann on a healer setup. Probably more optimal ways to do this than what I did but worked eventually.

Rift #1: no defensives
Rift #2: Alter Time + Ice Barrier
Rift #3 Onward (rough rotation)

Ice Cold
Alter Time + Ice Barrier (backup Mass Barrier)
Cold Snap > Ice Cold
Mirror Image + Greater Invisibility (backup Alter Time)

Be sure to Shifting Power as much as you can - a good window is entering Invoke the Shadows. You might get screwed sometimes on having defensives up, at which point you just hope Brann timing on potions will save your face.

Build I used: https://www.wowhead.com/talent-calc/mage/frost/frostfire/DAPFQoVUQZQEQiRBVQBRNVVUVVYQZFUUQQAEFVVUBB
Brann Spec: Heals
Curios: Hatarang (Level 1), Battered Aegis (Level 1)
DISC Belt Mod: Critical Chain

Good luck, was super hard but very satisfying!

Comment by Hanyah

Completed as 687 MM hunter, took 8m34s to complete, probably 250 attempts.
I was running Energy Shield on the D.I.S.C. belt, running 2 mins cds build, the secret is to be moving while looking at the Dark Massacre clones, preferably along their line to make sure your character angle is properly registered by the server.
At the time it feels like RNG at times because Brann's potion throw timing and position can be really inconsistent, try to hold your defensives as much as possible for the later parts, and don't be scared to lose a bit of damage and turtle some of the unavoidable AOE damage from the pull in if your defensives are not ready.
It's by far one of my favorite challenge in the game, might be above mage tower for me (only played the re-release)

Comment by Unknowiii

Frost Mage 684 Solo, 9 minutes 11 seconds kill. https://youtu.be/kNb3fGj8yzg

Comment by Dysgenia

Just made it with 684 frost mage. Took around 10 mins and spent almost 8-9 hours. Key to the victory is to master the boss abilities and align the defensives for after the rift phase when you stay in the mid for couple of seconds, other than that you wont need any def cd as all other abilities one shot you and you don't take any dmg from her autos. I suggest my fellow players to wait till you have +690 ilv so the fight will take shorter and you will face less boss abilities. Cheers!

Comment by Vexice

Completed as Affliction Lock on week 1, 687 ilvl. I attempted as both destro and demo (? difficulty done as demo) but there is too much forced movement to effectively complete this in those two specs. Extremely difficult encounter no matter your class or spec so kudos to anyone that can complete this before inevitable nerfs.

Comment by abz0lute

Some tips I learned killing her after many, many failed attempts as a 685 Ret Paladin during week 1:

Preparation: Use Gleeful Glamour Gnome (you can buy on AH), unless of course you’re actually a gnome, for easier dagger phase movement. At this ilvl use every consumable you can (this list is for my class, check best for your own first): beledar's bounty (preferable hearty feast), alchemic chaos, tempered potion, Brann campfire buff, algari mana oil and even thunderous drums if you’re not a lust class

Settings: Make sure your base GFX settings are the same you use for mythic raiding, AA off, outline & particle density max with only essential spells so visibility isn’t a mini-boss

WA’s: There’s currently 2 that are very helpful on Wago, one that auto-hides your UI during the shuffle phase and another that has simple timers (search ky’veza on Wago, you’ll find them)

Curios: At this stage most agree that Battered Aegis is undisputed for utility and I agree. However combat is a different story for DPS like myself. Instead of Hatarang try Ethereal Energy Converter and here's why: almost all of your unavoidable damage will come during nether rifts. Ethereal Energy Converter acts as a mini-tank and on a fight this long you'll have 4-6 procs that will take all the damage off of you. It's a godsend when she's not slapping you for even 5 seconds during this phase.

Pro strats:

Assuming you’re using healer Brann—stay in the middle after shuffle intermission so healing pots drop there (IMPORTANT: DO NOT PICK THEM UP). Once you drop your nether rift your #1 priority is to run to them to get the HoTs going. Sometimes you’ll miss them or get bad placements so you’ll need a defensive and/or pot to live.

The daggers is one of the more difficult mechanics because it’s mostly RNG, however one part that isn’t is the first wave of blades. They will ALWAYS come in a frontal cone directly in front of Ky’veza. Use this to your advantage by sidestepping the first wave. Personally I would make a u-turn around her and towards the edge, use any movement ability here. Staying in the middle means almost certain death.

During clones & daggers don't worry about DPS unless you're fully confident doing your rotation without so much as a glance at your spell bar, that single glance is all it takes to die.

Bonus pro-tip: Use one of the defensive delve belt options (I used cauterizing bolts), it’s basically required at this ilvl

PS: don’t forget to breath, if you find yourself clenching your buttcheeks the whole time you gotta relax and be prepared to stay locked in for 10+ minutes. Some of my wipes were due to my hand starting to shake with andrenaline when I had her down to low HP, that’s when you’re dead.

PPS: Why spend so much time on this now when we can wait a month or two for gear and/or nerfs? If you're like myself and do a lot of M+ having the 'Contract Killer' title (S2 it was 'the Real Deal') means you know what you're doing, it demands some amount of respect at this point in the season. In high keys you'll get some perks like priority for PI from the priest in your group and you're innocent until proven guilty when you make a mistake instead of the other way around.

Comment by tutuu44567

Killed her as a 686 Ret Paladin. Week 1
150 attempts.
1 broken monitor.
12 min fight.
Call to ambulance.

Comment by Zee37x

A couple tricks that helped me with her. Looking at the clones for Dark Massacre and straffing while using the Right Mouse Click held down to keep camera focused on the clone allowed me to avoid them 100% of the time.

For Return to the Shadows it took me a few tries to realize you have to be within click range of the correct one. There is no targetting and cc. It's an interact click, so clicking with mouse or a keybound interact button is what is needed.

Comment by Alexandrix

Finally! Killed her today after many tries (300+ may be). I want to share my experience with you:

First of all hide nameplates / enemy names under options... You need to see where her clones will beam and where the daggers are flying through. For me it was easier without nameplates...
She starts with Nexus Daggers. Make sure the first daggers go frontal. Move immediately behind her in order to avoid first daggers. Avoid next daggers while standing in a free zone. Move always away from the "center" of the daggers (where the dagger lines join. At the joint point there is less space for you, so move away from there). Basically the spawn position of the next daggers will tell you where you need to move away. Important again: skip first daggers by moving behind ky'veza (for that you must always be in the "red" circle and very close to her. Otherwise you will not have time to move behind her and daggers instantly kill you! So position for the first daggers within the red circle)
Her clones (Dark Massacre) are easy to play if you always watch where the first 3 clones appear. 4th, 5th and 6th are spawning while you avoid the first 3. You really need to face directly to the "active" clone. Otherwise you will be killed instantly. I used to move a bit backwards to position and rotate my char exact aligned with the red line coming out of the active clone. After the 6th clone the Nexus Daggers will start almost immediately! Position yourself in red zone of boss to avoid first daggers...
For the shuffle part (Invoke the Shadows) it was easy for me to count all 12 shuffles and to keep my eye following till end of the movement of the clone. Before the shuffle starts only 1 position is not taken by a clone (it will be taken as the last one). This position is the correct one you have to follow with your eyes 12 times. After the last shuffle you will have exact 8 sec times to deal damage to ky'veza. So safe your damage CDs for this phase. After 8 seconds she starts again with the daggers. Position yourself earlier as mentioned above to avoid first daggers by moving behind her. I made a time bar with weak aura for this to count from 8sec down and to give a sound signal. I have used her yelling to trigger the timer.
The rift phase (Nether Rift) is pretty simple. just position yourself in a way that you stay in the free zone and that you together with brann build a triangle. after putting the rift at the ground position yourself in the middle of the 3 rifts (if perfect aligned you will not be dragged anymore). Now you have time to deal damage to ky'veza. This is your second main damage window. Be careful sometimes brann bugs here hard when he starts flying and dies in the rift. In this case position your rift far away and charge/jump etc to ky'veza if you are dragged near to rift...

Hope this helps you... Cheers and good luck.

Comment by Pandaman90

I absolutely hate this fight. I crushed the last two, but this one is just bs.
I am a 700ilvl BDK, and I dont know how many times I shouted "I WAS LOOKING AT IT!" at my monitor.
Sometimes the daggers just double up and screw me over and I dont have the movement to get out.
Sometimes I watch her do her barrel dance like a hawk, just to click on the one I am 1000% sure is her, for it to just not be her.

EDIT: I just got it this afternoon. Idk what super sayan blood was suddenly pumping through my veins, but I locked in. I felt like a CSI episode thinking "ENHANCE" whenever she went into the barrel dance.
I had to mess with my graphics settings a bit, because I had no idea it showed you which assassin would dash at you next. Turning down spell effects, turning off AA, messing with the contrast a bit.
Other than that, its like its just sheer willpower.

Comment by georgercop

Defeated as a 691ilvl blood DK with a lvl 86 DPS Brann, using Hatarang and Battered Aegis curios.

No tips I can give that haven't been mentioned in other comments, but this fight is all about the philosophy "You can't do damage if you're dead". Tight movements, becoming familiar with the encounter and a little bit of luck are needed to get you through. It's pretty unforgiving if you slip up.

From my experience though, I can only imagine the difficulties some classes must have with this. Death's Advance was an absolute life saver in this fight. Had it on a few occasions where Brann has died in the most inconvenient location and spawned two portals on top of each other, and having the option to drop the portal wherever I liked and just ignoring the mechanic entirely saved my kill run at least twice.

Biggest problem for me was the daggers - other mechanics I was able to do ok, but if you get unlucky and are boxed in by two or three dagger cones in the same area, you either have to get very lucky or very good at micromovements to survive them.

Comment by Eiberon

There is a lot of written about how to defeat her at ? difficulty. I just want to add some tips and thoughts:

1) You absolutely can do this. When I tried it first 10-20 times I thought this boss its not for me and I cannot do it. All mechanics seemed too clunky, too unfair, too fast - I hated it tbh. But with every try I understood that you can reliably do all of her mechanics.
2) Blades mechanic was the hardest for me and the most crucial thing is to dodge the first wave of knives: just move left or right from her, not backwards. Other waves are not so dangerous, just keep moving left or right.
3) Mechanics with shadows I always started to move backwards - its easier to turn 10-30 degrees and not 180.
4) Dps does not matter. Though you might need to rotate defense cooldowns in rift phase.

Comment by laclo2

For anyone having issues following the mechanics in general, I would advise trying single button rotation for your class. In general from trying different classes with it, I felt that fury warrior was the easiest to use it with due to the good amount of haste and non channeling abilities. I would also make sure to stack haste gear as that will mostly circumvent the slowness of the single button rotation.

Comment by SaiyanGodXAno

what a !@#$ing garbo *!@#$% fight blizz are able to do this type of stupid bull$%^& fight but not fixing some old but that are here since the start of TWW (sall indy company btw)

Comment by Dudaridze

I sincerely hope that she will be nerfed. Against the background of previous bosses of Delves - here gear does not simplify the game. One mistake is death, not punishment, death. All previous bosses forgave 1-2 mistakes with growth of gear. This boss is just not pleasant. 10 minutes with maximum concentration is simply not fair.

Comment by lillies0705

Okay, decided to write my own mini guide. Won't tell you about the mechanics and how you are supposed to deal with them on paper. There is plenty of info out there and you will understand it your self after a couple of tries anyways. The thing with this fight is that sometimes a very small adjustments will make things immensely easier to execute.
So, preparation:

Turn Antialiasing off. Makes outlines on clones (Dark Massacre) way easier to see.
Put Brann on healing role. Tank and DPS Brann will troll you on Nether Rifts. You can survive it, but why bother? Healing Brann also (almost) trivializes HP management.
Download any WA that tracks Brann healing pots. It allows you to safely save them for Nether Rifts.
Download any WA that helps with aim on clones (Dark Massacre). A simple vertical line through the middle of your screen goes a long way.
IMPORTANT: concentrate on doing the mechanics first and only do your rotation if you have spare attention. Unless you are a giga god-gamer trying to do both equally at the same time will impede your ability to learn the fight, thus making you die over and over with no real progress. On the other hand, concentrating on mechanics will make you learn them over the course of a dozen pulls and you will suddenly find yourself with plenty of time to press your DPS buttons.
Another important note is mindset. Don't belittle yourself for mistakes. This fight is simply too fast to be done consciously. You have to train yourself to do it. Think of it as if you learning to juggle or ride a unicycle. You don't expect to do it in an hour and you know you will drop the balls over and over. Same here.

Now for the fight itself:

It starts with Nexus Daggers. Very first ones are a bit different because you won't be in melee with the boss. Just don't run in and stay where you have plenty of space to dodge. On subsequent ones you will have a bit of lull before they hit. Don't get complacent and keep in mind that dodges are coming. The best thing to do is start strafing a circle around her a second before the cast goes off. This allows you to reliably run out of the first set which gives you all the space in the world to dodge next ones. Hitboxes on them are very thin so don't panic, even very narrow spaces can be safe.
Next is Nether Rifts. After daggers are finished run to the center of the room to better position yourself for incoming dropoff. In general try to stand in the center too. It will make Brann healing pots drop there ready for you to use. Do the dropoff, run back to the center. Commit your defensive here. As a retribution paladin I alternated between Divine Protection and Shield of Vengeance. Run over spare healing pots lying around.
Clones (Dark Massacre) next. Remember, success depends on where your character is facing, not your camera. That is not the same thing. So, no strafing. Turning camera in place also has some delay in animation. Best thing is to just move backwards which syncs camera and character facing. This also allows you to better position you character: things are way easier when all the clones are in front of you and the worst position is between them. (Even 170 degree angle is way way better than 180.) For clone tracking: concentrate on first three. Once those are done the rest will come easily to you.
You will have a bit of a breather now. Don't relax too much, you will have to repeat 1, 2, 3 one more time.
After two sets of abilities dance will come. Position on the edge of hexagon the clones are forming and face your camera straight down. Look at the right clone. Don't focus too much and don't try to predict it's movement, react to it by moving your eyes to the new position. Believe in yourself and always commit to your tracking. Second guessing guarantees fail.
Rinse, repeat.

Comment by Torvik

Got the kill today as a prot warri 691 ilvl. Finally. Took me a while. I think most of the comments cover all of the strategies and UI tips.

One thing I did not read or see anywhere else is that as a warrior I used to Heroic Leap away from the daggers. which I was dying to at some point exclusively. That made me survice that mechanic.

So before she would cast the daggers I would face her to a wall and move closer to the wall myself. Next I used to heroic leap right after she made her first dagger cast as far away as I could. With this method most of the time I had a lot of room to manover away from the daggers.

Don't give up guys. I even had a 0.5% try before my kill where I died to the stupid DM mechanic bc I got nervous.

Comment by addictedtopixels

I completed it with a 713 ilvl ret paladin.

It's still very difficult.

Comment by mrgummage

Killed at 712 as Retribution, the fight is just one long sensory overload that you have to lock in for. If you die it's all on you, there's no "bull^&*! RNG" like for Underpin this time.

Here's my example Retribution Paladin talents:

CYEAm+0bA85vR0Yy+QcPHjtRvCAAAYAAyssNzstsNzYjZ2Y2AAAAAAwoJjZwMzyMY2GGz2M2GzYMYYZhtBAAQmZabWmtZAAbADwywMMMA

These sacrifice all none-essential skills like Rebuke for more mobility and sustained, passive DPS. This fight does not require min/max DPS, it requires steady outgoing damage while focusing on mechanics.

There is no hard DPS check like the shield/heal combos on Zek'vir and Underpin, there is only a soft enrage which you're very unlikely to hit before messing up a dodge anyway.

I also recommend taking two passive trinkets over an active one, even if it's lower theoretical damage, one less button to reach for or CD to track is one less thing to distract your brain from looking at lines.

Comment by malrats

This is a hellish nightmare for someone who genuinely needs accessibility options.

Comment by Kronatan

did this as frost mage with Glacial Spike build. The only big problem here is dark massacre ofc. And I tried 2 different ways here
1) just stay and w8 red line and after that turn to proper direction
2) try to memorize all 6 copies and turn in proper order

I cant say 1st way is bad. I even did 2-3 clear transition this way. Ppl with sharp eyes and good reaction can do it definitely. But I had many fails when pointer appeared exactly at opposite side of me and after that - opposite again. Cant turn around within 1 second this way 2 times w/o fail. So after many tries I decided to stop this painful process.

2nd way dont rly need mega pro reaction from you. Just position camera properly and when dark massacre starts - stop dps or anything. Open eyes and memorize first 3 copies. After that just turn to last appeared copy 3 more times. If you can dps during this process - good for you. Frost mage can't do anything real during massacre cos no time to cast. And lances w/o procs r useless. So just concentrate on copies. It's much more important

p.s. can't recommend glacial spike as best choice for this event but for me it was fine. Overall it did 17% total damage (better only lances with 21%). Tryed fire spec also but didnt find any real dps changes. Almost same. So finished event as frost

6:51 final timer with 2.51kk dps

Comment by GregoryRanOff

I completed this as a 706 item level beast mastery hunter on August 26, 2025. This challenge took me a few hours, so be prepared. This is by far my favorite challenge that Blizzard has implemented. As many have stated, fix the settings for dark massacre. I had to use a tank pet while I constantly focused on using mend pet, misdirection (for pet damage reduction), and utilizing Brann's healing potions to keep my pet alive. Llamalord-Bleeding Hollow, is my character name if any hunters need further advice. Below is a macro I used that helped me use mend pet and misdirection at the same time when cooldowns were up:

/cast Misdirection
#showtooltip
/use Revive Pet; Call Pet 1; Mend Pet

Comment by Setuaro

I'm honestly not sure how to beat her second difficulty as an Evoker. It's currently my only class with worthwhile gear at 687 and going as pres to heal Brann doesn't do much, he takes way too much damage (He is lvl 37)
Putting him as healer and staggering the pots is not feasible as it is still too much damage to try and survive in any scenario.

Comment by Caylindra

Completed the challenge as a Feral-Druid with Bran in Healing Spec (Battered Aegis, and Hat).

Fight lasted ~5:20 min with iLvl 711, so about 3,05 mil DPS on average. As described by others, this fight is mostly a movement and mechanics encounter, still DPS/iLvl will help to reduce encounter time.

To help others, I recommend:

- Disable Anti-Aliasing and make sure you see the Outlines of the Dark Massacre Clones.
- You want to reduce any visual distraction, so turn down graphics, disable Combat/Healing Text Numbers, reduce nameplate visuals etc.
- I highly recommend a Weak Aura to disable your UI during all three mechanics (I used: https://wago.io/TpCX0IuAv). This will highly improve what you see, but helped me esp. in Dagger Phases.
- I used "Everlasting Noggenfogger Elixir" to reduce my character model cheap and easy. You can also use the Gleeful Gnome. A large character model is a huge disadvantage in Dagger Phases.
- Fully buff your character, with Oil, Food, Brann Food, Flask, Potion etc.

For the fight itself
- Dagger Phases can be very lackluster; I did not figure out a pattern or logic of the spawn points. What helped most was micro/stutter steps when spawn points were close. Still, sometimes it does not seem possible to mitigate overlapping Dagger spawns which still seems for me an unfair mechanic sometimes. Large character models do not help. Don't let yourself down if spawn points are overlapping and try again *shrug*
- Dark Massacre: Face the red-outlined clone as straight as you can; to achieve this turn your camera with right-mouse click and instantly move back; this will position your character correctly in an instant. You can see the next clone (red outlined) already before the active one charges. Try to anticipate how you will move. Do not prioritize DPS here or use Single Button as a filler between movements if you feel more comfortable.
- For Invoke the Shadow (Shell Game) I positioned close to the clone that has the dialogue bubble. This is the real clone that you need to lookout for.
- Nether Rift Spawns: Make sure to use Def Cooldowns and Brann Potions to heal yourself; for me this part was the most easy one.

Comment by Ashiraya

Beat it today after taking a month off to get some better gear from delves/vault first and farm up Brann's XP. Preservation Evoker, ilvl 708. 107 wipes. Tank Brann, level 100 with Mana-Tinted Glasses and Battered Aegis.

I can definitely tell why everyone told me I was "doing it wrong" by going healer for this fight - this fight very much feels made for DPS players with healer Brann, with more and more jank revealing itself the further you go from that. That said, unlike DPS Brann's rift shenanigans, tank Brann's jank won't typically kill you. Very rarely he will interrupt Invoke the Shadows with his lasso, which causes very strange things to happen with the fight, but it didn't end up happening in my successful attempt.

At ilvl 708, I was able to make the fight last less than ten minutes even with playing it safe with the clones (running at/away from each one as it activates, as that seems to be the most consistent way to get the game to acknowledge your facing). I just piled on Echo and Reversion on Brann during those periods to keep his damage buff rolling without needing to care about facings.

The Prevoker Chronowarden 4set makes tank Brann viable in this fight and, in my opinion, much preferable to DPS Brann. Being able to hit both Brann and the boss with Chrono Flames makes your burst periods actually matter since Brann's shotgun will be buffed up too. A better player than me could keep higher uptime on Brann's goggles buff (it seemed the best curio to me, alongside the mandatory aegis curio of course) as more damage dealt and taken by Brann both indirectly contribute to damage dealt via his damage pulses.

Overall there is basically zero threat from unavoidable damage in this fight unless you go as DPS - all the danger lies in the avoidable mechanics.

Quite likely the hardest fight I've ever done. There absolutely is some RNG too, but not so much that I'd outright call it an RNG fight.

Comment by ivnaugusto

I dont know if any protection paladin already made a guide of this, but here's mine.

First of all, turn off anti-aliasing, but at this point everyone trying to kill her must know it. I also turned on the "Low Latency Mode" coz I suffer with a 0.5 second-ish delay.

I made it as a 712 Lightsmith Protection Paladin, 710 Ara-Kara Sacbrood and 707 Tome of Light's Devotion as my trinkets. I used Flask of Alchemical Chaos as flask and Hearty Beledar's Bounty as food, beside Thunderous Drums and Tempered Potion. I personally don't like Tome of Light's Devotion for this fight, but I don't have another good trinket to replace it.

Here is my talents, basically it is the most usual lightsmith m+ build with just a few modifications, as follows:
CIEAm+0bA85vR0Yy+QcPHjtRvuZMYWGLzMjZmZZbmZGzsNmxAAAMAAAAAAA0WmZWMMzwYG2aDAGDMAAbDAAwMTLzysNzMzy2SLzMWYwAwgZ2wA

Paladin Tree
Rebuke replaced for Divine Spurs
Punishment replaced for Unbound Freedom
Sacrifice of the Just replaced for Lead the Charge
Righteous Protection replaced for Obduracy

Hero Tree
Divine Guidance replaced for Blessed Assurance

Protection Tree
Barricade of Faith replaced for Inspiring Vanguard
Blessing of Spellwarding replaced for Sanctuary
Soaring Shield replaced for Seal of Reprisal
Strength in Adversity replaced for Focused Enmity
Gift of the Golden Val'kyr replaced for Ferren Marcus's Fervor
Final Stand replaced for Ferren Marcus's Fervor

Brann is at level 100, set as dps (because he alone done ~35% of her life as damage), he was equipped with Hatarang and Battered Aegis both 4/4.

I started most of tries with Holy Bulwark (so I had Sacred Weapon up to Avenging Wrath coz of Blessing of the Forge), pre potting Tempered Potion, followed by Thunderous Drums, Avenging Wrath, Hammer of Wrath and Divine Shield, so I can enjoy all 40s lust window focused on boss (but most of tries, instead of bubble here, I used Blessing of Freedom and avoided being hit).

So, for Nexus Daggers I used Blessing of Freedom right after the start of the fight and everytime after the Invoke the Shadows 2-3 seconds before she starts casting Nexus Daggers. And for the other 2 casts of each phase, I used 1 charge of Divine Steed also 2-3 seconds before she starts casting Nexus Daggers.

For Nether Rift, most of time movement speed buff from Blessing of Freedom was still active and helped to drop the pool in the right place, and when it starts to pull, since she casts it twice before the intermission, I used defensive in that order, Eye of Tyr for the 1st cast, and Holy Bulwark for the 2nd cast, each defensive right after dropping the pool. (despite of poor Brann positioning, and when that happened I had to use 1 charge of Divine Steed to avoid being pulled to a rift, making a mess for the next Nexus Daggers cast). I also had to use Lay on Hands or Word of Glory because she hits very hard at this part of the fight.

For Dark Massacre, most of time I just face direct to it, with anti-aliasing off and low-latency mode on, it was very easy, but a few times I did rotate defensives as Ardent Defender and Divine Shield. Note that Guardian of Ancient Kings and Blessing of Spellwarding most of time didn't work for me, at least here.

Finally, for Invoke the Shadows, if you're standing close to the center of the arena, you can easily see a blank spot in the formation while the shadows are being summoned, she'll always be in that blank spot, knowing that, you just need to follow her until the cast ends.

Rinse and repeat. Use Thunderous Drums and Tempered Potion whenever it is available, but the best time to use it is right after the end of each intermission when Avenging Wrath and Sacred Weapon should both be available again.

It took me 480 tries! But, in my defense, I just knew the "anti-alias/low-latency mode" cheat when I was around 300 tries, before that I kept dying on Dark Massacre coz I just can't memorize the order and the spot they appeared.

I didn't use any movement speed pot or enchantment, and I also tried it as Templar and/or with Brann setted as healer, but the damage output was too low to worth the time, however, Templar rotation is a lot easier. Oh, and I didn't try the one-button thing, since there's a huge dps loss, even compared to those tries when even doing the "multi button" rotation I stopped doing damage while running from Nexus Daggers or while facing Dark Massacre.

At last, when I kill it, I forgot to use lust and pot, and she got 5 stacks of Death Cloak.

I also used this weakaura:
• Text reminders: https://wago.io/La2CUdtVB/2
• Tracker (total number of tries, best and last try, time of last try) and Dark Massacre Line Helper: https://wago.io/otYmnjxnr/1
• Bars: https://wago.io/4ymUOeSYq/1 (In order to make it work, follow these steps: Trigger > uncheck "source npc id"; Load > uncheck "player location id", also uncheck all the "delay" options).

Comment by Beace

In my opinion, this is the hardest solo challenge Blizzard has made so far. Yeah the previous ? challenges were a bit rough, original mage tower had some hard fights (specially the healer ones for me personally), Jailer's Gauntlet layer 8, etc.

Ky'veza ? is a step up from all of them.

Comment by verduran

Went in blind with my 719ilvl Prot Pally trying to brute-force it. Ended up taking 53 attempts (around 2.5-3 hours of prog). The fight took 7:54 with me doing 1.46M and Brann doing 793k. Below are my tips:

1. I would highly recommend pulling out the one-button assistant and smash it. You want your full attention on dodging one-shot mechanics.

2. At first I went in with a standard Delve Lightsmith build but ultimately switched to a Templar build. It has better overall damage and healing with less button to worry about, and less damage taken when Brann messes up the black hole. You do not need to worry about anything other than dealing with mechanics (and pressing wings every 2 mins)

3. I used a DPS Brann with the standard Hatarang + Battered Aegis build. Note that with Battered Aegis you gain a stack of buff that reduces your damage after every wipe so you may want to reset the stack after every attempt (by swapping out the Aegis skill and back in).

4. I did not know about turning off anti-aliasing but I did move to graphic slider all the way down to 1 which helps a lot to be able to see the red lines from the clones.

5. Over 90% of my wipes were from the Massacres (the angle where you're safe is very narrow), you will definitely want to memorise the order the clones spawn, at the very least you need to know which clone is going to attack next.

6. The initial set of daggers is usually the most deadly, my way of dealing with it is either to stick very closely to Ky'veza or be constantly strafing around her when daggers are about to spawn.

7. Brann will occasionally mess up placing the black holes (when he is casting Stormbolt and was rooted) so save your chargers when you have bad black holes placements (and toss yourself a heal or two if you are Lightsmith).

8. I do not have any tips for Invoke the Shadows, I think I have only messed it up once or twice during my prog. Maybe try to move the camera angle up so that the patterns look more far apart.

Overall this has been very fun fight and definitely much harder than the previous 2 ? challenges (at least by the time I attempted them).
Hope this will help anyone still working on the achievement!

Comment by effect92

I struggled as a priest, i ended up as disc and bran as tank. Had the weakaura that removes the ui when you need to dodge, also had the timer weakaura. My breakthrough was the 4x tww movement speed enchants and elusive blasphemite gem so i had 10% increased movement speed. This was a game changer in dodging the daggers. When you need to face his clones, hold right mouse button and alternate pressing W and S to align (try to stay in the middle of the room). Focus on the clone movement when they raise their arm, and then focus on the red arrow on the ground. If you only focus on the red arrow on the ground it will be hard for you to know who the next clone to face is on time.

Comment by ctadashi

Did it as a 725 Ret paladin with brann healer

took 17 tries and roughly 47 minutes. It was ROUGH. Kill time 6 minutes 54 seconds

Only advice that helped me on the last pull was during her dark massacre, I kited them around in a semi-circle which seemed to help me track them better

Comment by PeteM177

Just did it as a 728 evoker (silly me thinking gear would make much of a difference- all it did was make the fight a bit shorter). I normally main heals but I did it as a dev evoker with Brann as tank. Brann also works well as heals but I figured I might get a bit more dps out of him as tank. The fight took just over 8 min. Let me tell you this is probably one of the hardest things I've done in wow. I've also done the mage tower and got the book mount, which is probably the runner up. The clones are by far the hardest part, but it's more that you can't make a single mistake during the whole encounter. Other delve bosses in the past have been hard, but there was usually a way to recover from a mistake...not here though...For the clones, I heard a lot about the backing up method, but i just set my sights on the first one early, then moved my camera, but not my character to the 2nd one, then immediately turned once hit, and repeat. Also, I recommend using your speed boost RIGHT as she starts daggers, that helped a lot, as well as taking a long hard look at your talent set up. Good luck to everyone!

Comment by Veratus

Underpin and Zek'vir felt like a challenge that wasn't just going to immediately end the fight for a single slipup regardless of what it was.

For this I'm having to make sure I have the right graphics settings just to make it even doable. The timing and lack of visibility for dark massacre just serves the make the fight unsatisfying. This is challenging, but for all of the wrong reasons.

Comment by Paperclips

If you're looking for her, she's in a delve that's in the city of Tazavesh at 40, 50, hidden behind a curtain.

Comment by Asarkhadon

It's impossible to track her clones to determine which is a correct one. I had no problems with barrels of fun WQ in Legion but this...

Comment by Alakard

Yep..my boomer reactions cant compete with this, no thanks

Comment by Zitchdog

Even with the nerfs this fight is still a pain in the *ss. For me as an arcane mage its so hard to put out damage with the amount of movement you gotta do and it felt impossible. If your a mage I suggest you go frost and don't go for the talent Ice cold. Whenever you just for 1 second lose focus , your dead. Ice block helps with the one shot mechanics and if you use Cold Snap you have another use of Ice Block after 30 secs incase something should go wrong.

Comment by Yindyar

Just finished, completed post nerf due to lag issues with clones. Issues is largely solved however, it does a feel a bit cheaper. Took me an hour or so to complete, 3 min 24 second kill time. ( arms warrior). Was dying a lot to daggers initially, was losing places to stand as i tried to precise step the lines, figured out later on you just haul ass and the floor opens up just fine. Brann was on dps (lvl 71), sheared about 200mil health off her, pretty good tbh, he did die twice, id imagine had he not, he would of done 300 plus. Dodging clones post nerf is pretty easy, I usually backpedaled around, tracking them as they spawn so i kinda new what was coming helps alot, again staying moving seemed to help as well. Drums and pot is available, however I forgot to press them for the kill. Turtle shell mechanic can be a little RNG, feels bad when u lose track of her at 30% health and u know the run is just borked. I missed it twice out of the 30 or so attempts.

I can see this being very frustrating for any rooted casting ranged spec with limited mobility. I cannot imagine what yalls 7 plus minute kills looked like. Judging by how the fight plays out, wild stalker resto druids probably work very well on this fight. As long as the 1bil hp is adjusted down. Neat little side activity. I wouldnt be intimidated by the pace, is actually pretty slow after about 20 or so attempts and just a muscle memory refinement. I actually lucked into deep prog on my 5th attempt at 14% health, but I stepped in daggers. Learning on how to consistently deal with the daggers will probably be everyones major hurdle now that shadows are so forgiving.

Comment by Seahnjin

This took much shorter than I thought it would, a little under an hour from 1st attempt to kill as a 708 Assassination Rogue with level 100 Brann. I suspect being a DOT-heavy melee is pretty OP for this fight.

The shadow clone nerf hit her hard, I used a WA to hide UI and visualize lines, and the actual range detection was quite a bit wider than what the WA showed. Very forgiving now. Once I deactivated anti-aliasing to properly see the red outline, I pretty much stopped dying to shadows.

The turtle shell game from the Kirin Tor Legion dailies is legitimately harder than hers IMO because of the uneven distances. Ky’veza’s is all equal distances, had no trouble following her with my eyes and never died on this. Dunno if it helped, but I always put her real self in the same place on my screen when the game started.

It was actually the stupid daggers and the pulsing damage from the three void zones that killed me most often.

For the daggers: don’t try to sidestep them because it gets way too crowded fast, just run the hell away into the open. Still a bit of a crapshoot depending on your luck with the placement.

For the void AOE damage: setting my curios to Ethereal Energy Converter and Battered Aegis as suggested here really helped. Try to delay picking up Brann’s potions until this phase comes on, and rotate your defensive abilities.

And yes, Brann. They’re trying to pull us in.

Comment by Tnax

Got my vacation time in, so it was finally time to sit down and do this.

It's gotten way easier with a) gear, b) nerfs or more like bug fixes to ghosts. c) getting bran to 100 and d) Single Button Rotation.

As a Fury warrior 725, I got my Arcano 730, Scream 717 for a bit of boost to damage. Bran, if he did not die, was healing me well. Curios: Ethereal Energy Converter and Battered Aegis (remember to re-equip it to not have the damage debuff).

I put my SBR on R button (just the easiest one for me to use), turned off my UI, set highlight on Outline, and charged in.

Lines: adjust constantly to a place where there are no lines or gaps are big, no big moves, just tap by tap.
Succ: stay in the middle, move to the end of "square" and it will give you just a gentle pull.
Ghosts: Focus on where the first 3 spawn. BEWARE: They can spawn inside of each other. Turn off Anti-Aliasing if you can't see them properly.

Rotating ghosts/Hat Game: Stand next to her (for me it was on the right, a bit below her. Focus the camera on the middle, KEEP LOOKING AT LIKE TOP LEFT CORNER AND LET YOUR PERIPHERAL VISION DO THE WORK. When I was trying to follow her with a whole eye, I was just getting lost.
She jumps 12 times, and it's fast.

After you've done it, pop big CDs and slap her, constantly adjust/move so you are ready for the next lines.
Do this (for me it was 4 minutes, about 2 and 1/2 rotations I believe) until she is dead, and you hear that victory song. Turn your UI back on and be done with it.

Comment by NullKore35

This boss was awful, but I've managed to beat her as a Ret Paladin 711. Battered aegis, Hatarang and all the buffs I could get. Drums at 25% (after the last puzzle intermission). Once I perfected Dark Massacre (I thought I had to SIDE STEP instead of just watching the shadows lol) and learnt to run away from daggers, the fight was just about not being cocky and being patient af.
One thing: SIngle button rotation SUCKS. If you have high haste it might not be a problem, but slower GCD made me die A LOT because I couldn't pop up my defensives, not just to ignore mechanics with bubble (which I didn't do much) but because I could actually die from melee + portals that deal lots of damage even at high gear. So, use it ONLY if you have trouble following your rotation while doing mechanics. Don't be afraid to actually stop DPS if that makes paying attention to mechanics easier.
Aside from that, I hated the fact that I couldn't use a WeakAura to instantly target the correct shadow during the puzzle. It's not that it's hard, but it's more cognitive load, and that is something to pay attention to because if I'm overwhelmed by stimuli, I can't function. I'm autistic btw, so it was tough to regulate myself while playing because I got overwhelmed really often. Singing Brighter from Hazbin Hotel helped me calm down, lol. Thanks Christian Borle <3

TL;DR: this fight sucks, it isn't quite accessible to some people but I've managed to do it.

EDIT: I forgot about graphics settings:
- Gamma 1,4
- no anti-aliasing
- low shadows
- outline maxed out
- essential spells
That's all.

Comment by ejpp

Killed her on 4th attempt as a 673 WW Monk. TBH I think she's the easiest of the three. Takes a few times to learn the mechanics, but once you get it it's very straight forward.

Comment by Torick

Arcane Sunfury mage 728 here, took me around 1.5 hours of trying before the kill

Tips:
1. GUI hide WA is A MUST, gamma 1.4 and turning AA off helps too.
2. Save big bursts on gravity phase: evocation - blink to the placement spot - surge - touch - go center
3. Clone phase: barrage only, arcane soul will kick in around 4-5th clone, just go bar-bar-missiles
4. Daggers phase: the most difficult, blinking out helps A LOT, you can even blink the same moment as the first knive clone is spawn, and most probably you won't have knife spawners around you after you blink. Just don't go to far into the shadows.
5. There's no specific strategy on puzzle phase, unfortunately it's a pure arcade mechanic.
6. Transmogging to a small frame (e.g. G.O.L.E.M. Jr) may help a bit

Here's a video of a kill: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4j-Ayf7Us4

Comment by xxxguzxxx

This has to be the worst designed solo fight. You can even see most of the crap going on.

Comment by Tanidor

As a moonkin, I'm not even going to bother to attempt. It is not worth the stress. Plenty of mounts anyway to work towards, which is a lot easier and less stressful.

Comment by Osaye

I completed it as a Balance Druid with 720 item level. It took me around 30–35 attempts, and there was absolutely no room for mistakes. Clearly the hardest fight in my 16 years of playing WoW.

I admit that at first I struggled with Dark Massacre and thought I would never figure it out, but eventually it became really easy, and I was able to deal with it without making any mistakes. In the end, my last 10 wipes were caused by Nexus Daggers — sometimes you’re just unlucky.

Comment by vacua

Edited version:

okay then.. I wrote my opinion on how easy the boss was for me compared to the season1 boss and also was so kind to list some tips and tricks for the encounter to help those peabrains out there that cant even walk forward in the game without sweating. But all they do is downvote it because they are miserable bitter people that cant handle the truth that they might absolutely suck at the game. Only real eyes realize real lies.

so then, im not giving out my experience and tips for some toxic peabrains out there. This comment section has already multiple tips and tricks and it seems there are still lots of braindead ppl that cant figure out how to do it somehow. Kinda sucks when you cant overpower content with overpowered gear/items at the end of an expansion, huh? And people are astonished that the community sucks nowadays. Only toxic peabrains are left.

@Seahnjin thanks. one of the only few left with a functional brain.

Comment by Dogeburger

I find it easier to dodge the daggers if you walk backwards with the S button and keep turning/rotating around the boss and stand in any safe areas that are up, idk if it has something to do with the way the lines spawn or what but it helped a lot when I did this on my monk.

Comment by astratea

finally killed her after 90 wipes and my combat was 6:36 min as 714 prot war.
tried 700 bm hunter but she kicked me hard so i think tanks are way easier to manage this fight (at least you dont need to watch ur hp so much)

checklist what helped me:
1. choose solo-target build. max dmg
2. use WA "Nexus-Princess Ky'veza - Hide UI during mechanics" - really helps
3. anti-aliasing i turned off from the start, and change UI scale to tiny helped me a lot
4. bran: 66 lvl, damage, hatarang, audio amp crystal. he did 389m damage
5. remove Nameplates of enemy (press \) ....because when i got excited i wiped on 30%....

i didnt use drums, only algari oil - but every extra buff is not necessary, fight will be a bit longer that's all.
when i started i was dying from every mechanic ~~(i felt stupid and wanted ragequit)~~ and the most deadly mechanic was daggers........ sometimes they spawn evenly, but sometimes they all spawn under ur feet at once....

after 50ish wipes you will be eating those dark massacre i swear

Comment by Auror

Kyveza Solo Encounter – Practical Guide
This guide focuses on simplifying the Kyveza encounter, improving consistency, and helping you master the beam dance, clone facing, and the clone guessing game.

Recommended Setup

Spec: Protection Paladin
• Strong defensives
• Divine SteedDivine Steed for fast repositioning
• Tank durability reduces punishment for mistakes

Brann Setup:
• Battered Aegis
• Hatarang
If you die, unequip and re-equip the Aegis at the dungeon stone to reset the stacking death dps debuff.

Rotation:
Use a one‑button macro or GSE so you can focus entirely on mechanics.

WeakAura:
UI-hiding + clone helper:
https://wago.io/TpCX0IuAv

Learning Approach

This encounter behaves like a Mage Tower challenge:
• Mechanics follow fixed patterns
• Early mechanics are easy to practice, later ones are not
• The goal is muscle memory, not rushing the kill

Try to reach the first clone guessing game early in your attempts.

Encounter Strategy

Opening:
• Start at range to dodge the first beam easily
• Use small left/right taps — no need to run across the whole room
• For later beam mechanics is better to just run over from middle in the side
• If you messed up or feels you are trapped just try to wait before first beams disappears. so you can move over that space
• If beams spawned in your front you need to some speed ability to run over it. Back pedal is slow and from my tries run over first beam which is spawned in from of you directly is better
• Move toward the center during the first beams, try hit Kyveza with Steel Traps
• If Brann bugs and died, form a triangle with the portals — standing exactly in the center is not required

Clone Facing Phase

This phase has RNG. Some spawns are easy, some are awful.

Tips:
• Count to 6 to time the clones
• Use peripheral vision to anticipate the next clone
• Sometimes moving forward is better than backpedaling
• Arrow keys are too slow — avoid them

Clone Guessing Game (Hardest Part)

Setup:
• Stand in the middle
• Fix your “target clone” at 12 o’clock or 6 o’clock
• Max zoom out, top‑down camera
• Blink, relax, focus

Movement Logic:
• Clones never bounce back — if it looks like they did, they just moved to another point
• Focus on the clone’s beam after it moves
• With max zoom, tracking your clone is easier than staring at the center

Practice this phase heavily — it’s the main wall.

Progression Tips

• First goal: master beam movement
• Try to reach the clone guessing game early to practice it
• Most deaths come from beams, not clone facing
• Don’t panic at 60% or 40% — treat each attempt as part of a long series
• Aim your progress by boss HP:
80% → 60% → 40% → 20% → kill
• RNG exists — some patterns are easier than others
• Gear matters:
– Around 728 GS item level, the kill took ~6 minutes
– Lower gear = longer fight = more chances to make mistakes
• Auto-rotation or GSE helps keep focus on mechanics

This encounter feels like an easier Mage Tower challenge — punishing at first, but very learnable with repetition.

Comment by arhorn3

Have killed her today.
Disc Priest - Oracle 693 ilvl. ~100 pulls.

It has not been a plan to kill her as a healer, this spec is just my best during TWW.
BUT: the boss has ~800M HP compared to 1.1B when I tried it as a DH.

Talents: WoWhead calculator. It's a standard Raid Oracle but with tweaks around DPS () and one-click utilities (Luminous Barrier instead of Power Word: Barrier).
Brann setup: Battered Aegis + Hatarang. Level 86.

After mastering all the mechanics, the most dangerous thing is Nether Rift with 3+ stacks of Death Cloak. It can vaporise you in a second so be ready to use defensives.
Avg DPS on good pulls was ~1M (700-800K Brann + 200-300K me).
Good luck, you can do it!

And a side-note (if Blizzard ever pays attention to the community ofc).
The boss is cool for those who likes Souls-like games. It has the same difficulty and mastery curve but there is little space to gear up and overcome it by pure DPS and/or survivability.
I hope that future Nemesis bosses will never be like that. It's not the proper game for them :)

I'd expect such bosses to be either pure mechanical (learn it -> complete it -> boss dies) or with stages when the boss is just stunned with a +Damage debuff (like it's done in other encounters).
In the current state, the cognitive load doesn't worth the reward.

Comment by erro3

Cleared today as a 710 Feral Druid. (I consider myself an average player... used to do HM raiding, now play casually the past couple xpacs.)
One button assist / 2.15mil dps / 7:54 min / 45-50 pulls
Food / Flask / Wep Oil / Drums after last shell game

Talents: CcGAkuH5GdQpDrgY32rlVGnyqBAAAAAgxMwMbjZMzsNLjx2MzMmZGAAAAAgtgZBGzMqZMLsMzMGDDAAAAAAYAAAAAamlZZmZbmtZWa2mZZDMzAYxMDD
Brann: Healer, Nether Overlay Matrix, Audio Amplification Crystal

Things that were helpful for me:

Simplify your bars and rotation as much as possible if you can.
- Because so much attention is required for perfection, I went with the one button assistant.
- I put my heals and survival spells next to the assistant on my bars. I wanted as little hand movement around the keyboard as possible so I wouldn't botch moving for mechanics.
- Only worry about popping dps CDs during the portal phase. Everything else takes focus and will waste the dps boost.

Consider rethinking your talents:
Drop talents you don't need like kick, CCs, AoEs.
If you use one button assistant, your dps will be lower than normal because of the penalty (this is fine and doable!) I found that my normal talent load-out was variably pulling 1.4-1.8 mil dps with the assistant (yikes). While a little bit of the low dps was me trying to get used to the fight, it was also holding me back by making the fight longer. I decided to look through my talents and run some sims on raidbots.com. I finally settled on talents that had a good baseline of CONSISTENT damage rather than burst dps windows. As a feral, I really made sure to lock in on any dot based talent just to keep the damage going while running around dodging all the things. This brought my dps up to 2-2.15 mil consistently across pulls with one button assist.

Check your trinkets:
One of my trinkets has a spell effect that makes void splotches on the ground, sometimes this interfered with being able to see mechanics. I swapped that one out for sanity after it proc'd and interfered with visibility of the shell game a few times.

Enable chat bubbles if you keep them off normally.
- allows you to identify which is the real Kyveza when the cup game starts
- without the bubble you won't know which one to watch unless you are quick to position yourself

Sound on:
- The shadows make noise when they charge you. Can be helpful to make sure you don't turn to the next one too early.
- Set DBM/Big Wigs to make custom sounds on mechanics. For me, this was a helpful notification for when the daggers were coming up.
- Dialog sound can be off, just keep the chat bubbles.

Graphics Quality: everything on low except-
Anti-aliasing: None
Particle density: good
Outline: high
Spell Density: essential
Gamma: 1 ( For me, increasing gamma threw me off)

Weakauras:
- Theres a weakaura that will auto hide your UI during the mechanics. Super useful.
- I used this one: https://wago.io/TpCX0IuAv/1

Finally, believe in yourself. Yes the fight is intense. Yes you will suck the first 20 pulls trying to get mechanics down. At first I genuinely did not think I could manage to lock in perfection for 10 minutes, especially when trying wipe after wipe. Take a short break if needed. Eventually it will click.

Focus on the mechanics at the end, not the HP bar. Don't let yourself panic dps that last 10%. Continue to repeat mechanics at the end and boss is dead.

Stay positive, you can do this! Good luck!

Comment by sarahlogic

I just did this as 725 brewmaster monk. Having higher ilvl helps especially with damage and survivability, and leads to a shorter fight duration, although it is doable at much lower ilvl. I chose tank because I liked not having to worry about relying on Brann healing and there is less visual clutter. I also rarely felt in danger as a tank during the pull phase. Monk feels like the best class for these challenges because you have a ridiculous amount of mobility with 3 charges of roll and tiger's lust. This gave me enough mobility to have no issues with my placement at any time in the fight regardless of how far out I ran for daggers. I tried chi torpedo but the distance didn't really help me and having fewer charges felt more limiting.

Fight length: 5m 30s
Damage: 1.65m DPS, Brann 1.78m DPS
Wipe count: 162 (lots of dumb mistakes early on before the mechanics really set in, on top of mastering the cup game)
Brann: level 100, DPS, hatarang, and battered aegis (reset at the start of every wipe by clicking to another curio and back to aegis)

Damage source and CD usage:
Most of my damage came from Brand of Ceaseless Ire trinket (you can buy this from the dinar vendor), harmonic surge, and tiger palm. I didn't use my Weapons of Order cooldown until Brann placed the portal to hopefully avoid him setting his gryphon up in a bad place.

Talents: I swapped to a ST master of harmony build even though I usually run shado-pan. I rarely had to use additional self heals with this setup:
CwQAvmhRP2rMmMXAL1blVepCkBAAAgxGmxMmlZsNmZGAAAAAAAWWwImZgZYgxYZmZGmlxMjFLzEzysNzMMbAAwysNtMbzsMAABBwMsA

More thoughts post-kill for what helped me:
(Forgive me if this repeats what others have said, but reading new posts like this helped me get over the hump as I progressed and I hope it helps you a bit)

Take breaks: I usually only went for about an hour at a time until my consumables wore off. When I started making a lot of mistakes I took a break.
Make your character smaller: It may help for easier dodging (or at least better visual) of the daggers especially if your character's base race has a large hitbox. You can alternate Gleeful Glamour: Gnome or Mechagnome enchants (1hr duration for 2hr CD, buy from the AH) with the Atomic Recalibrator toy (12hr CD) if you run for longer than an hour. Run across the recalibrator until you get a gnome figure (or whatever race works for you).
Use consumables: especially in later pulls when you are more confident (hearty beledar's bounty food, Brann's campfire, augment rune, flask, weapon oil, and tempered potions.)
Try single button rotation: it helps you focus on mechanics. The fight may take slightly longer, but it's worth it if you can execute the mechanics better. Do not greed to get an extra hit in, respect all mechanics.
Practice, practice, practice: It may be maddening and feel like you will never get it but eventually your ability to do the mechanics will feel almost like second nature.
Don't beat yourself up, you will make mistakes! Your wipe count isn't your identity!
Talk to yourself out loud: count to 6 for the massacre, count to 12 for the shuffles, I even said "careful, careful" on the daggers so I just watched my feet and tiptoed around instead of brute force running. It might seem dumb but it could help keep your focus if that works for you.
Take deep breaths to calm your mind and focus, it's easy to get panicked and make mistakes especially as you are closer to the kill.
Use eye drops, blink a few times when you have a moment before each mechanic hits so that you can prepare to focus for a short stretch. Staring at these mechanics for hours will dry your eyes out really fast.

Tips for the specific mechanics:

Daggers: I like to move far away asap when they are about to drop, then make micro movements to dodge. If a bunch stack on top of you, you can try to get out fast, but may get caught. Sometimes you will get a bad cluster due to bad RNG
Rifts: make an equilateral triangle with your rift as best you can even if Brann gets stuck in place on his gryphon. If I couldn't and the suck was strong, I used tiger's lust here. If Brann got sucked in and got incapacitated (thankfully rarely for me) I just wiped and went again. Go hard on DPS and use cooldowns during this phase as you place a rift and get sucked in.
Dark massacre: as others have suggested, turning off anti-aliasing is essential, but you also have to be situationally aware. I never backpedaled or repositioned like most videos suggest, I just stood in place and watched for the glow and turned towards each one as the beam was aiming at me. This is completely viable if you can turn and aim the mouse quickly. Don't worry about DPSing during this phase if it's too distracting. This takes a lot of practice to get right, you just have to remember in your periphery where they are dropping. Since the nerf, the required angle is way less punishing. Sometimes several of them will stack on each other and you may more easily make a mistake.
Invoke the shadows (cup game): for me, this was the biggest wall. I thought I would never overcome it, even though it is the simplest part for some players. Sometimes the clones will shuffle back to where they just came from and was really difficult for me to follow properly. Originally I tried the periphery trick I use in the Legion barrel world quest where you don't look directly at the barrels and you can see where it goes out of the corner of your eye. This did not reliably work with the abnormal shuffle swaps. The only thing that worked was staring at the real Ky'veza (look for her speech bubble) and follow her with my eyes to her charge locations, then focusing on the shadow trail that she left behind. It is easier said than done and took me a long time to execute it correctly. I watched hours of other people's kill videos, slowing them down and rewinding, practicing finding the real Ky'veza, and still struggled until I tried this method. It still is not fool proof because it's easy for an odd swap pattern to trick your eyes. Practicing on videos means fewer wipes after getting to that phase. It was always frustrating to master everything else and wipe every time I got to the shuffle. I positioned my camera mostly from the top down and tried to position the real Ky'veza in the same position every time for consistency (to the right of my character).

Settings I changed for the fight to reduce visual clutter (although most likely not all are necessary):
Shadow low, liquid low, Particle density disabled, SSAO disabled, Depth effects disabled, Compute effects low, Outline mode high, Texture resolution high, Spell density essential, Projected textures enabled
View distance 3, Environment detail 1, Ground clutter 1

I used the weakaura that hid my UI during important visual mechanics, although it occasionally glitched: https://wago.io/TpCX0IuAv

Don't give up, you can do it!

Comment by Roxunsainted

Edit: Over +200 attempts in 6 consecutive hours, wipes at 3% and 5%, achieved with a BM hunter 722 (Changed a ring for +7% versatility, this worked as a charm).
Against all odds, I decided to try Brann TANKS since the healer, as many recommended, was useless.
I used a tenacity pet for sustain + Lust, I didn't use defensive items until the second round of the shuffle, but it's not bad to use Exhalation to avoid the 10% kill.

It helped me a lot to always stay as far away from Kyveza as possible; this reduced my deaths with daggers (I feel like they spawn near her, maybe that's not the case).
And always keeping moving in Massacre.
My trinkets were Ara-Kara Mythic 8/8 and Seaforium Peacemaker Mythic 8/8.

I still think absolutely everything below; it's disgusting.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Personally, I think this is the worst-designed fight in WoW to date.
I don't know who designed this, but it's completely unnecessary, haven't been able to beat it with my level 723 Hunter BM (M items). Unlike Zekvir and Underpin, which did have a curve and potential, and were simply difficult fights, Ky'veza is impossible for me. My pet doesn't last more than 5 hits, Brann isn't very useful in any spec outside of DPS, and he tends to jump to completely random places even when I'm playing melee, I tried using Lust with a ferocity pet and then swapping to tenacity, full potions, consumables, etc, nothing was enough.

It feels completely unfair that this is possible (or easier) only for a specific class pull (like anyone with a tank spec or a class with absurd sustain).

It's not worth the frustration of doing this.

Comment by slowbi

Instead of trying to follow her directly, stare in the middle of the screen with a top down view and track her with your peripheral vision during the clone shell game phase. It makes the fight much easier. You've got much more leeway with the other mechanics than you think, the dagger hitboxes are tiny and the massacre clones give you a good bit of time before they strike, so the important part is to just not panic.

Comment by jeian7

Easily the most frustrating and badly designed thing I've ever done in WoW.

Nothing like perfectly dodging insta-deaths for 5 minutes, and then wiping at 8% because four shadow daggers spawned within 5 meters of you.

Comment by Justys

Some advice I could offer after completing it:

Get one of the addons which mutes Brann and removes his chat bubbles.
Particle Density graphic setting to ultra seemed to make clone directions easier to see.
Brute force it if you are just starting, don't use consumables or bother with Brann campfire, just run in quickly after wipes to learn tactics.
If your UI covers parts of the middle of your screen make a new profile and just move everything to the sides to improve visibility.
Sometimes it feels that the daggers spawns just wrecks you no matter what, but running further from center felt easier.

Comment by Cimegs5088

Bit late to the party, never thought i could defeat her so i never even attempt until today (a day ish to midnight pre patch). Done everything on Legion Remix, and got nothing else to do, so i thought, why not? Went in there as ilvl 629 (lol well...yeah so i wouldnt be able to advise much on the ongoing auto attack damage from her) tauren bm hunter (again, i probably got it easy as a mobile spec, but if i'm being honest, each spec need to find its own way against each mech, for example, i reckon the way melee and ranged deal with dark massacre would be different, as ranged we can pre position while melee just have to be agile on character turning) and got her down in 1 hour ish of trying.

Just wanted to share a few tips for people that might have same issue as me (i use legacy movement keybind, so i'm definitely a dumbo when it comes to movement)

Nexus Dagger
- when it's coming, try to pre position her closer to center of the room while staying close to her
- when it's about to happen (or happen), run through her to her back because first dagger will always be facing where you are. After that wait for second dagger to happen, and MOVE WITHIN THE GAP of second dagger TOWARDS THE BROADER END so you always got more space to do your little sidesteps to dodge those lines. Staying around the narrower end will risk being stuck in crowded conjunctions.
- dont panic, do small steps. If you are large race like me being tauren, try to tilt the camera upward so you can look down on your character when moving. The reason is because tauren is so huge, sometime if you're stuck in narrow spaces between line, you might actually stepped into line without knowing.

Dark Massacre
- the shadow will always be facing you, so preposition yourself while facing them, to also face the next shadow (they will light up red before they do the charge)
- you can sort of see which shadow is the next even before your current firing shadow actually charge
- there is weakaura that auto turn off all ui during massacre that might help (https://wago.io/qRdBnmHlN/1)

Invoke the Shadow (clones)
- Nothing much i can advise here really, as it's not a mechanic that is challenging to me personally but i fully understand that it can be extremely difficult for some (ie, my wife). The way i did it was just watching it, and follow it, it's one of the mech i dare not to say i can success 100%. Usually there are 2 ways of doing it, either you "zoom out" your eyes and not focus on him, and just sort of watch the path he move by having your eyes set at middle of the clones, or you watch him closely but not too tight (sometime there are other nearby clones that also path very closely and you might lost track)
- tuning some graphical settings would also help to better see these phantoms' pathing (as well as Dark Massacre actually). If you do not know whats the optimal setting to improve for this fight, you can try this weakaura (https://wago.io/m8XYeorWu/1)

Nether Rift
- bring her closer to mid when it's about to happen (brann can be trolling for this mech as he might just take spot closer to you - which happen most of the time for me - he legit leap from afar just to take my spot. -.-)

The mechanic flow goes like this

Nexus Daggers -> Nether Rift -> Dark Massacre -> Nexus Daggers -> Nether Rift -> Dark Massacre -> Invoke the Shadow -> rinse and repeat

- Normally your best window to use cd (both offensive and defensive lol) is during Nether Rift as there will not be many things going on aside from her hitting like truck
- Do not let your HP drop too low, i would say keep yourself above 30% even though her execute passive says below 10%. This is because her auto attack can hit like truck, and i believe she got a damage stacking buff on her so it get more painful eventually, so save your healing potions (or brann's) and CDs for moment where you drop too low (usually during those nether rift phase where you dont have any damage reduction cds)
- after trying multiple combo, i find that the best brann's curio are Quizzical Device and Battered Aegis. Don't worry too much about...reducing her damage, unless your ilvl are extremely low and it's really unforgiving for you. Otherwise the extra damage to shorten the fight (so you don't need to stay focused for long and risk losing focus) is more productive imo.
- using single button rotation assist or have it on one of the keybind where you can easily spam it during movement will helps, as they can come in handy while u doing mechanic. Any extra bit of dps will shorten the fight and hence less time needed to stay focus to not risk losing focus and get one shot by mechanic (all mechanic will one shot you).
- if you have immunity (Aspect of the Turtle, Divine Shield, etc) , try to save it for hairy moments (basically just when you're low health and got nothing to use or when you're stucked in crowded line during Nexus Daggers)
- This is a test of focus, so whatever that can improve your focus would help. It's about staying focus and do the mechanic perfectly while grinding down her HP. (any extra dps that does not cost you focus or survival are welcome, such as brain dead talents and drums, etc)
- failing badly in beginning is normal, and extremely important. Do not give up. If you are frustrated, take a break. Like said, all your experiences of dying and failing in the beginning are extremely crucial, essential, and important in helping you to kill her eventually. You might not feel so before you kill her, but eventually when you kill her and start reviewing the whole journey, you will come to realise that all those failing build up your experiences in doing this fight AS YOUR SPEC, BY YOU. What one learnt and experiences, might not be perfectly useful for another person and another spec. Even if two person playing the same spec and same talents, the differences in individual will still lead to different experiences that are unique to you yourself. So don't need to be frustrated when failing badly in beginning, it's a journey of you learning from your own experiences, do your own interpretation and understanding of the fight, honing skills and becoming better and closer to killing her.

Hope my experiences on this would help anyone trying at last minutes.

Comment by Monkfupanta

just did it on my ww ilvl 726 with 84 lvl brann (hatarang/battered aegis).had to reset battered aegis on every attempt cause it would bug .for trinkets i used Screams of a Forgotten Sky(7.1 of my total dmg)and Sigil of the Cosmic Hunt(3.4 of my total dmg)
talents
C0QAvmhRP2rMmMXAL1blVepCkNzYmBjZYWmZGzMAAAAAAAAAAAYZZYEzMwMM2WMDbzMzwsNMDWmJAAWGzMmZY2mBCgllZZZ2mZmgAAA

for the fight,same as everyone else,lower/adjust my graphics,from that alone you can see how much of a well designed fight this is.also love how rng the daggers and the dark massacre are,another great design by blizzard
3 tips that worked for me
for the daggers i would just run away seconds before they started so that i could have more space between them(literally going from 1 side of the room to the other)
for the dark massacre ,back pedal and watching the clones where and which order they spawned
for the clones,alt+V to clean my UI and just focused where she was going
kept dying because i would try to do dmg while doing the mechanics
mechanics>dps
just practice till you are comfortable,i ended up doing it half sick but practice helped to adjust.you do need a bit of rng on your side tbh

Comment by Dromes

Just to throw in my piece of advice for those doing it last minute like me. 725 Retri, took about 9 attempts, though all of my deaths were actually in the first full cycle, above 80% boss hp, so I was very close to giving up after few insta deaths. My advice this late into the season is to truly forget about dps, whenever an ability starts, just purely focus on that, they're easy to dodge but only if you pay attention to them. Not half attention, it has to be truly the only thing on your mind. Use the WA the hides your UI if needed.

Comment by krunklegom

Did it as an ilvl 695 Havoc DH - absolutely horrible idea because you need to rotate defensives and get her dead fast to survive the damage in the suck phase without being overwhelmed by the stacking damage buff. Brann will die on the suck phase if he is lower than 50, mine was 58 and never died (hatarang + battered aegis).

You can felrush before the blades, but try not to do it during them - small steps is the key.

Single button assistant lets you damage her in all phases except the blades, but try not to eyebeam just before the blades appear.

I found fel-scarred much better than aldrachi reaver - instant huge DPS boost. Don't waste meta just before she becomes immune on the shell game.

Get all the leech, enchants, potions and flasks you can find. Once you are finally comfortable with the clones and can get through a few intermissions, start using potions to burn her down in the burn phases and the fight is doable with this gear.

Comment by Thajal

Just made it, I beat Kyvesa couple mins ago on Tier ? and I can confirm that this achiev is gone.
I only got the achievement "Pruning the Princess" which gives the title "Contract Killer".
Can't say anything on the "My Stab-Happy Nemesis" from Tier ? since I got it earlier in the season.

Comment by Barsafol

Don't be like me and try this during the pre-patch. I assumed the achievement was like the other ones "defeat XX prior the release of next season of delves". Oh well, at least I enjoyed this little dance with Ky'veza.

Comment by Robstah

Links

Let Me Solo Her: Nexus-Princess Ky'veza

Defeat Nexus-Princess Ky'veza in her lair on Tier ?? without any other players in your party, before the release of the Midnight Pre-Patch.

Rewards

You will receive:

	Delver's Mana-Skimmer Schematic: Hyperdrive

Guides

Delves Season 3 Guide

Let Me Solo Her: Nexus-Princess Ky'veza

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