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Comment by Saavykas

Downed the boss after maybe 40 attempts. Suggestions:

Use a macro to direct your felhunter to cleanse (via Devour Magic) the snare he puts on you. Clicking really doesn't get it done fast enough. I used the macro at the end of this post.
It is possible to resist a felhunter's Devour Magic on yourself. This can be a run-killer, but I've survived it a few times. I recommend keeping Death Coil on hand if he's close, or Amplify Curse + Curse of Exhaustion if he's not quite about to hit you but you have seconds to spare.
I set my felhunter to passive. This is a damage loss but having the felhunter close at hand to Devour Magic is vital. The voidwalker is only out for a second or so before you Sacrifice him.
You can interrupt his Shadow Cleave ability, though note that doing so immediately snaps him back on course toward you.
The damaging cone of the Shadow Cleave ability is not as wide as I originally believed. You cannot Shadow Ward it, but you can dodge to the side if you're close enough. If it has a range limit toward the front, I didn't see it. The further you are from him, the wider it hits.
After the initial Shadow Cleave cast (he drops one regularly, around every 10-15 seconds) and you dodging it, be prepared to Devour Magic the snare he casts off of you. He only casts one between each Shadow Cleave.
Demonic Destruction (his AOE kill spell, blocked by summoning one's Voidwalker and using Sacrifice in the voidy's abilities) appears around 1/3-1/4 HP. It can be started during his Shadow Cleave cast. Pay attention to his cast bar.
He melee hits for immense damage, but with luck you can survive one hit with a fraction of health. I'm 99% certain I never survived two hits in a row. Sometimes he just one-shots you. The Demonic Embrace talent was, I found, pretty useless against him since you won't survive more than two hits and you don't want to decrease spirit (which translates to spell damage) and the stamina bonus won't stave off death. You might be able to heal fast enough to survive two hits *if* you have maxed-out master-channeler-runed drain life running and pop a healthstone, but that's a clutch move because he hits pretty fast.
You *WILL* run out of mana and *WILL* have to life tap. Ideally he'll never touch you once.
Kiting him is delicate. Too far and you won't be able to dodge the Shadow Cleave, too close and he melees you to death. I found my sweet spot was around the 15-20yd range. You have to feel it out, I suppose.
Bring food and water enough to regen after a wipe. The NPC will rez you but it'll be with a tiny fraction of health and mana. Metamorphosis costs 1373 mana at level 60, so that'll be an awkward wait without a way to speed regen.
I recommend waiting to resummon your felhunter until after you enter the instance, since the regular "free instant demon summon" buff makes your demon summon require no soul shard.
Your talents will be heavily Affliction. I found that if the spell wasn't instant, it wasn't worth using on him; he's slowed, but even a 2sec cast (such as Unstable Affliction) can let him get dangerously close. I used Haunt, Master Channeler Drain Life, Corruption (specced to be instant) and Siphon Life for the bulk of my damage. Occasionally Nightfall would proc and I'd fire off a shadowbolt.
Learn how to pivot in midair during a jump to execute your "must face the target" abilities like Haunt, Nightfall Shadowbolt and Drain Life. It takes a little practice but can appreciably boost your damage output.
The fight benefits from patience. Can't stress that enough. I wiped multiple times at sub-30% because I got hasty or cocky and messed up kiting or some other error.
If you manage to keep proper distance from the boss, you will be able to successfully run between his legs during Shadow Cleave cast and not be hit when he starts moving again. I recommend refreshing Curse of Exhaustion during the Shadow Cleave cast. He doesn't start moving immediately after the cast bar completes; Shadow Cleave has a short animation lock it puts the boss in, giving you more time to get distance on him.
Ideally you'll make it between his legs every cast, but if you think you're too far away, move diagonally or parallel to him to hopefully get out of the cone of the Shadow Cleave. Note that he'll be closer than usual after such a maneuver and might require amplified Curse of Exhaustion or a Death Coil to keep you out of reach afterward.
During his cast of Demonic Destruction, he is immune to stuff. You cannot refresh Curse of Exhaustion on him until the cast ends. Use the cast time to get some distance (but not too much!) and prepare to immediately summon your felhunter, because his snare will almost certainly come within a few seconds and he's fast.
I recommend a simple kiting pattern; pull him, run back toward the entrance to the canyon he's in (but not too far!) and then run back down the canyon the other way once the Shadow Cleave cast starts. Repeat until he's dead. I tried more complex paths but this one worked the most consistently.
You will need to repair your armor, probably. Stonard is the closest for Horde, Alliance have Darkshire.
Consumables are optional but I used one of my Flasks of Ancient Knowledge and some Wizard Oil. This isn't really a damage race, but killing him faster means fewer chances to make a mistake.
I was wearing Tier 1/Tier 2 DPS gear (6pc Tier 1 bonuses) and wielding Scythe of Chaos (I'd say, don't use the ability on it unless you're confident you can get the most out of it before summoning in your felhunter again) with +30 spell power, sitting around the 800SP mark. About 3400HP. Might want to wear +hit% gear if it's not going to hit your SP too hard, resists can be a pain here. Tank gear might work.

That's all the advice I can think of. The biggest key is keeping him out of melee but within range to run through him before Shadow Cleave goes off. I have no indication that he has an enrage of any kind, so it's all about execution.
Oh, and I talked to the NPC to teleport me out after killing him, and the teleport put me just outside the room the NPC who starts this is inside... about 400yds in the air. I took lethal fall damage, but I had a Soulstone on me so it wasn't a big deal. No idea if this was expected behavior or just a funny bug. I guess just hearth out to avoid this. Enjoy your wings.

Macro:#showtooltip
/use Devour Magic

Xalus Nihilus <The Demon Within>

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