Prototype Pantheon - Sepulcher of the First Ones Normal & Heroic Strategy Guide

By Hyperdk Updated: 2022/03/22

Prototype PantheonPrototype PantheonPrototype of WarPrototype of RenewalPrototype Pantheon Quick TipsGeneral

When affected by Runecarver's Deathtouch, move into a Bastion's Ward to be dispelled by a healer.

Avoid standing in any effects caused by the boss, such as Pinning Volley, Necrosis, Animastorm, and Wild Stampede.

Move away from the Prototype of Absolution and spread out after Hand of Destruction is cast.

Tanks

Taunt swap after each cast of Humbling Strikes in Phase One.

Taunt swap after each cast of Wracking Pain in Phase Two.

There are two separate debuffs to keep track of in Phase Three, making taunt swaps more difficult.

Healers

Dispel players with Runecarver's Deathtouch once they move into a Bastion's Ward.

Heal Withering Seeds to full when they appear in Phases Two and Three.

The amount of damage the raid takes will increase significantly in the last phase.

DPS

Quickly kill Necrotic Ritualists when they appear to prevent Necrosis from encompassing the platform.

Keep bosses' health relatively equal throughout the encounter. This is less important on Normal difficulty, but becomes a crucial ability on Heroic.

Kill any armaments that might have struck players during Pinning Volley to free them from the stun effect.

Prototype Pantheon Abilities & StrategyPrototype Pantheon Phase One: War and DutyPrototype of WarPrototype of DutyPrototype of WarGloom BoltNecrotic RitualNecrotic RitualNecrosis

Standing in Necrosis will deal Shadow damage and reduce healing received by 100%.

Once all the Necrotic Ritualists are dead, the Necrosis will disappear.

Necrotic Ritualists expanding the Necrosis pool in the encounter area.

Runecarver's Deathtouch

When the debuff expires or is removed, it will deal lethal damage to all players within 8 yards and jump to another player.

Standing in a Bastion's Ward when the debuff is removed will prevent it from jumping to other players.

Prototype of DutyHumbling StrikesPinning VolleyPrototype of Duty

Windswept Wings will constantly push players back during the attack, making it more difficult to navigate.

Pinning Volley will unleash a series of armaments that when struck will pin players to the ground, dealing damage and stunning them until the armament is destroyed.

Windswept Wings and Pinning Volley combination.

Ascension's Call

Bastion's Ward reduces the damage and healing done by players within it by 100%.

Damage taken from Runecarver's Deathtouch is also reduced by 100%, and it will prevent the debuff from jumping to other players when dispelled.

Prototype Pantheon Phase Two: Renewal and AbsolutionPrototype of RenewalPrototype of AbsolutionPrototype of Renewal

Anima Bolt is an interruptible cast that deals damage and applies a dot to the target.

Wild Stampede will cause a herd of wild beasts to run across the platform, dealing physical damage to players caught in the stampede and knocking them back.

Animastorm is a series of slow moving tornadoes that will silence and deal damage to players caught in it.

Withering SeedsWithering Seeds

If a Withering Seed dies, it will trigger a Withering Nova, dealing nature damage and applying a DoT to the whole raid.

If a Withering Seed is healed to full, it will trigger Invigorating Bloom, healing all players and increasing healing done by all players for 30 seconds. This effect can be stacked.

Prototype of Absolution

Burden of Sin is applied to the whole raid when the boss becomes active, dealing periodic damage for the remainder of the encounter.

Hand of Destruction will grip all players to the location of the boss. After 6 seconds an image of the boss will deal a large amount of raid damage. Move away from the image to reduce the amount of damage taken.

Sinful ProjectionSinful ProjectionBurden of Sin

This ability will always coincide with Hand of Destruction, requiring players to spread out quickly after being gripped to the boss.

Hand of Destruction and Sinful Projections combination.

Wracking Pain Prototype Pantheon Phase Three: 50% - 0%Heroic Prototype PantheonComplete Reconstruction

This guide is based on PTR testing, and any changes made to the boss after the live release will be updated.

Comments

Comment by xLunacyx

There's this weird encounter-breaking bug where if you kill Prototype of War at just about the same time he summons the 4 minions, then the minions go away but the circle of death also does not go away and continues to grow until it wipes the raid.

Comment by Chakramaster

Please update the guide with the 40% hp changes and the fact that sinful projection was moved to heroic.

Comment by Jeolene

Update 1/8/25: I finally went in on heroic at ilvl 606 and the fight is pretty much straight forward now with no real surprises. If you haven't done heroic, you have to kill all four at the same time on phase 2, otherwise they just keep healing each other and you won't finish. It takes some coordination, but it can be done. Once I'm done with the quest for the boss skips in a month, I'll follow up with mythic.

Update 12/1/24: I went in a couple days before editing this and ran regular, my ilvl was 600. The fight was trivial at this point, so this whole thing is pretty much outdated by now. I did so much damage so quickly that War didn't summon his adds and it went straight to phase 2.

Update 6/26/24: Just a couple months before 'The War Within', I have maxed out my gear to lvl502 (I don't raid, so I can't go higher). I went in today for fun and this fight is almost trivial now. I didn't interrupt Gloom Bolt and Anima Bolt. By the time the whole pantheon "retreated" for phase three, I was only at eight stacks for Anima Bolt and by the time they came back, it was gone. My health barely ticked down at all.

Update 5/18/24: With 'The War Within' just on the horizon, I have been going back every week to run the LFR fight I continually upgrade my gear (I have the pattern for the last pet I needed from Lihuvim, this has been more for fun). I'm currently ilvl493 and it makes the fight so much easier, but you still should follow the same mechanics until we get to a point where almost one-shotting becomes an option. I still interrupt War's Gloom Bolt and still take out the adds. What changes now (at least for my hunter) is when you enter phase 2, your abilities haven't QUITE finished their cool-down. There's still a pause between phases and by the time Renewal fires her second Anima Bolt, you should be good to pop all your CD's and Primal Rage. I can't stress enough the importance of having a clefthoof for this fight and pretty much any fight. The biggest difference I noticed is that I am doing so much damage now that I completely skipped using Survival of the Fittest, Exhilaration and the healing pots.

I was asked about doing heroic. I think it might still be a bit too much, but I am going to attempt it in the week following as I get some of my gear upgraded as far as it will go. I'm sure with 'The War Within' and ten more levels, it will make this fight trivial at some point, but this is a good jumping off point for those wanting to solo stuff.
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Alright, so I was able to solo the Pantheon on LFR solo-queue, on my hunter (please, no "of course it's a hunter" bulls#!t). I'm going to put out a bit of a disclaimer, I don't know if this is the definitive way to do this and I don't know if similar tactics can be done on other classes (maybe a tank class?). ~~I won't know until next week if this was a fluke either, so please, take what I'm saying here with a grain of salt, I may have just gotten lucky.~~ Update - 2/21/24: I can confirm this works, I did it again this week. It took me a couple tries because I was testing other ways of doing things, but I kept wiping until I followed my own plan. I do know someone does this on heroic with a geared hunter, using a mix of Feign Death and Aspect of the Turtle, some healing pots and other tricks. I'm sure that works too, but I'm doing the 'brute force' attack and it looks like it works too... for LFR at least.

I'm ilvl 454, full enchants and gems that I can have on what gear I have. I have an extra trink ability from Mirror of Fractured Tomorrows that I got from the Great Vault. I also have Paracausal Fragment of Azzinoth, but I was so focused on the fight that I don't know if the felemental even spawned. I can't say for sure if either of these trinks were the deciding factor in the fight, but I wanted to list them anyway just so people have an idea what I used. I do understand that these may not be BIS, but I'm not a hardcore raider/M+ runner either.

*udpate - 5/5/24 - With the current new upgrade system in Dragonflight, I am current ilvl 482 and I have discarded both of the above trinks. Most of the rest of the fight is still the same, I was able to blast through War and his gloom bolts much faster, however Renewel was still a pain. I did still have a stack of gold quality health potions and I had to pop one just to stave off a couple stacks of the Anima Bolt, but I was able to take her down with relative ease. You can still die from this, I'm assuming the Anima Bolt is percent based, so no matter how much health you have, it ticks away a percentage of that instead of a set amount.

I used a clefthoof to tank. I do not recommend a spirit beast even though they have heals, you need that extra burst from Primal Rage. Also, clefthooves have the absolute best self-healing because their leech is off the charts (still waiting for the blizz nerf one day). It also transfers some of that to you. I imagine a healing potion will help too if you have them.

For the first phase, War's Gloom Bolt doesn't do too much damage (it hurts more in regular, though), but I still interrupted it a few times when Countershot was off CD. Just a few ticks off the stacks of the debuff can make all the difference.

You MUST kill the mobs that are channeling the Necrotic Ritual, this is a must. The AoE will kill you faster than the Gloom stacks.

I only used Bestial Wrath, Bloodshed, and Death Chakram to give me a bit of a DPS boost, save other abilities with the long CD's for later. I pretty much ignored Duty so I could focus on interrupting War if I needed to. The fight will last long enough for everything to be off CD just in time for phase 2.

By the time Renewal and Absolution spawn in, the Gloom debuff will have expired.

Phase 2 is where things get ridiculous. Renewal hits you with a similar attack as War, Anima Bolt, this thing hits you hard as it starts stacking. Again, you must interrupt Anima Bolt when Countershot is off CD, if you don't, you will die.

By now, everything was off CD and I popped Bestial Wrath, Bloodshed, Call of the Wild, Primal Rage, and the Mirror trink. As before with Duty, I ignored Absolution and just blew Renewal away with everything I had.

~~I did not look to see how many stacks I had built up from Anima Bolt,~~ but when my health dipped just below 50%, I popped Survival of the Fittest and Exhilaration. I could be wrong, but I believe the pet leech benefits from from Exhilaration because my health shot up to 100% (or at least very, very close to 100%). Another update: As I was testing things, I was able to glance up and watch the stacks from Anima Bolt. 12 is definitely lethal, but 8 seems to be the sweet spot to be able to survive as long as your health is high enough. I'm sure there are some other factors that will make this differ, so as usual, don't hold this as gospel, you may have a completely different outcome.

I was able to outlive the Anima Bolt stacks and just about the time the entire pantheon spawned in, the stacks were gone, only to have both Renewal AND War start hitting me with them, but just interrupt Renewal as she will still hit you harder. I just kept hitting her until I took them all down and passed the fight.

Now, Lihuvim, if you don't give me the last plans I need to finish all the pets, I will find a way to destroy all of creation and it will be all your fault...

Prototype Pantheon - Sepulcher of the First Ones Normal & Heroic Strategy Guide

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