The Dreamrift Raid Guide for Midnight TL;DR
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Split the raid into two groups for Alndust Upheaval, rotate them because of Rift Vulnerability, and keep one team in the Rift while the other stays in Reality.
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In Phase 1, kill Manifestations, interrupt Fearsome Cry, and make sure no adds reach Chimaerus or else he gains Cannibalized Essence and likely wipes the raid.
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Watch for Rending Tear, avoid floor puddles from Alndust Essence, and enter Consume with every add dead.
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In Phase 2, avoid boss damage during Rift Shroud, dodge Corrupted Devastation, cleave adds, and use Consuming Miasma to clear puddles.
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Heroic adds stricter Miasma and puddle management, while Mythic adds more player positioning pressure and an extra Alndust Upheaval, plus more add pressure during the air phase.
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Dreamrift Raid Location
Dreamrift is located in Harandar, on the eastern edge of the map. The coordinates are /way 61.0, 64.2, at the lowest level of the Rift of Aln.
Dreamrift Chimaerus Boss Tactics
To quickly sum up the fight, it’s an add management boss with positioning-heavy mechanics and floor space management. You’ll spend half of the fight split into two groups, split between realms(I know, we’ve seen this mechanic before), and another with the entire group tightly packed in a corner.
The entire fight, you’ll have to manage adds, cleaving, and CCing them all the time. I have to mention that I think the boss looks sick(pun intended, you know, he’s both visibly unwell and cool at the same time), even though it’s a reskin of a 10+ years old skeleton.
Phase One
First of all, your raid group should be split evenly to cover both tasks you’ll have in this fight. First group should soak the Alndust Apheaval ability, which will transport them to the dream rift where they’ll fight manifestations, and the other should stay in reality, fighting the boss near the edge of a map. The tank in the rift group should pull all the mobs from the boss, creating distance between them. The group then should cleave the mobs, which’ll pop up in reality after their overshield gets depleted.
After they pop up in reality, the mobs will spawn a damaging puddle and move towards the Chimaerus. There are several things you should keep in mind:
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Reality group should kill them before they reach their destination; otherwise, it’s a wipe.
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It goes without saying that the casts should be interrupted; you might take enough unnecessary damage to fail the fight. The mob to always keep your eyes on the lookout for is the Colossus one - he’s also the biggest one, so I don’t think you’ll overlook him.
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The mobs' kills should also be paced out based on your group’s damage; otherwise, you might encounter too many of them in reality and not be able to deal enough damage in time.
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The tank responsible for handling the boss in reality can manage the boss’s locations - if your group messes up the positioning or fails to kill the adds in time, you can lead the boss away from the adds.
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The boss will also cast Rending Tear, which is an AOE cone-shaped ground slam-type attack, hitting everyone in front of them. From what I’ve seen, during the beta, it was a very slow attack, which nobody should ever get clipped by - otherwise, you’ll probably die.
Another thing to keep in mind is that you’ll be afflicted with Rift Vulnerability after getting hit with an Upheaval and going into the Rift, so groups should cycle their tasks.
At 100 energy, Chimaerus casts Consume. During the channel, the raid takes repeated Nature damage every two seconds for 10 seconds. At the end, Chimaerus knocks players away and consumes any remaining Manifestations, gaining Cannibalized Essence for each one still alive. That means your goal going into Consume is to clean every add.
Phase Two
After Consume ends, Chimaerus takes to the air and gains Rift Shroud, reducing damage taken by 99%. He’ll once again spawn a bunch of adds, which you’ll have to group up and cleave. Both boss and adds will spawn nature damage puddles on the floor during this stage. You’ll have to clear them up using Consuming Miasma, which looks like a large blue circle cast onto the player. Run to the puddles with this circle on you, get dispelled right when the explosion goes off.
Chimaerus will also sweep across the arena with Corrupted Devastation, spawning puddles and dealing large amounts of damage. Just don’t get hit, and look out fot mobs spawned by this attack.
Phase Two ends with Ravenous Dive. Chimaerus crashes back down, deals raid-wide Physical damage, and knocks players into the air. Any remaining Manifestations are consumed, again causing Cannibalized Essence for each one left alive.
This makes Ravenous Dive function like a second cleanup check. Just like Consume, it punishes any raid that carries extra adds too far into the phase. If the room is controlled and the add waves are dead, the dive is manageable. If not, the landing often becomes the wipe point.
Heroic Difficulty Changes
Heroic stays almost the same, but it gets much stricter in terms of target-healing and floor management:
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Consuming Miasma
Chimaerus marks several players with Consuming Miasma, causing heavy Nature damage every 1.5 seconds for 1 minute. When the debuff is removed, it consumes Alndust Essence within 10 yards.
How to execute it: Miasma players should move onto a puddle before calling for a dispel. Stand near the edge of the puddle, not in the middle of it. This clears dangerous Alndust Essence puddles. -
Lingering Miasma
When Consuming Miasma is removed, Lingering Miasma erupts around the target, dealing Nature damage every second for 6 seconds to players within 10 yards and knocking them back.
How to execute it: Always dispel away from the raid. Give the target at least 10 yards of space. Do not overlap multiple dispels unless you are intentionally clearing a safe side of the room and your healers are ready. -
Ravenous Dive no longer clears Alndust Essence
On Heroic, Ravenous Dive still consumes remaining Manifestations, but it no longer removes Alndust Essence from the room, so it’s up to your team to stack the puddles in one place and clean them up efficiently.
Mythic changes
Mythic keeps the same core loop as Normal and Heroic, but it adds cross-realm positioning pressure, and more add strain during the air phase.
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Dissonance
Players periodically inflict Nature damage to all players in the opposing realm within 8 yards. Groups in reality and in the Rift should not stay near each other ever. -
Rift Madness
Targeted players with Alnsight are lost to Rift Madness after 5 seconds, dealing burst damage within 6 yards and applying a pulsing Nature effect that grows stronger every 2 seconds. Players in Reality can stand under them to ground them in Reality and swap realms with them. You can counter this mechanic by assigning a clear swap point and a player who will swap with another group. -
Extra Alndust Upheaval before To The Skies
In Mythic, Chimaerus casts Alndust Upheaval before retreating to the skies. Yup, an extra soak. -
Corrupted Devastation spawns additional Manifestations in the Aln
In Mythic, Corrupted Devastation coalesces extra Manifestations in the Rift during the air phase. You know the drill: cleave the mobs, interrupt Fearsome Cries, win.
Chimaerus drops great items, at least for my spec, so it’s worth memorizing his mechanics. Once you understand the loop, he’s going to turn into a weekly loot pinata.
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