The Nexus Guide
The Nexus is one of three instances located in the structure known as The Nexus, in Coldarra in northwestern Borean Tundra. It’s the second easiest instance in Northrend; while slightly harder than Utgarde Keep, they’re similar enough that any group capable of Utgarde should be fine in The Nexus.
Quests:
“Postponing the Inevitable,” which requires using a given item at the location where you fight Anomalus in the instance; “Prisoner of War,” which requires the death of Keristrasza, the final boss of the instance; “Quickening,” which requires five Arcane Splinters acquired off trash mobs you’re sure to pass; and “Have They No Shame?,” which tasks you with finding a book inside the instance. The book is located in a circular room between Grand Magus Telestra and Anomalus. All four of these quests are at the end of quest chains starting at the Transitus Shield in Coldarra, so it’s advised that you quest in that area before heading into the instance proper.
Boss Strategies:
Grand Magus Telestra
The first three bosses of The Nexus can technically be done in any order, as the zone layout is that of a circle around a center room where you fight the last boss; but, I advise you begin heading left from the entrance. In doing so you first come across the Grand Magus. In her normal form, she casts a few basic Mage bolt spells at her primary target, nothing special. She also casts Gravity Well, which makes all five group members fly wildly around Telestra while taking small amounts of damage. Melee classes can occasionally smack the magus as they fly by her; spell casters can use instant cast spells to heal or damage while flying through the air. In any case, it only lasts a few seconds and does little damage, so it’s not a big threat. At around 30% health she splits herself into three forms: Fire, Frost, and Arcane versions of herself. Fire will cast Scorch, Fireblast, and a Fireball with small AoE damage; Frost casts Ice Lance, Frost Nova, and Blizzard; and Arcane casts Polymorph, Arcane Blast, and Time Stop, which is a 3 second stun on all group members. The Arcane versions stuns and polymorph make her the most threatening, so the tank should round up all three while Arcane is killed first, followed by Frost, then Fire. Once all three are dead, Telestra will come back at 30% health again, and the fight continues as it did before until she dies.
Anomalus
Anomalus only has one ability himself, besides a normal melee attack: a nonthreatening Arcane Bolt on his main target. The gimmick comes in that every 20%, Anomalus will become immune to all damage, go inactive, and spawn a Chaotic Rift on his platform. The Rift will itself spawn small non-elite adds. All group members should shift targets to the Rift and kill it as quickly as possible, followed by any adds that spawned. Once the rift is down Anomalus will become vulnerable again and the fight continues as before. Rinse and repeat until he’s down.
Ormorok the Tree-Shaper
Besides a normal melee swing, Ormorok has a fairly weak point blank AoE that hits anyone in melee range (including those behind him), and will occasionally buff himself with Spell Reflection, which will reflect four spells back to the caster (casters should wait 15 seconds for it to tick off). His primary ability sends crystal shards along the ground all around him at 90 degree intervals; the shards can be seen for about three seconds before they explode upward, doing a fair amount of damage to anyone caught in them and sending them into the air, causing additional fall damage when they land. All group members, including the tank, need merely to watch for the spines along the group and sidestep them before they pop up. If the spikes are consistently dodged, Ormorok is nothing to fear.
Keristrasza
Besides the normal tail sweep common to all dragons, Keristrasza has three unique attacks. First, and most important, is an Intense Cold aura: as long as any member of the group is standing still, a debuff will stack on them, once per second, that deals periodic damage and slows attack and casting speeds. Upon any movement, be it walking or jumping, all stacks of the debuff are cleared. As such, it is important to be constantly moving at all times, even the tank. Melee can constantly jump to keep the debuff off without moving out of range much, but casters need to use primarily instant casts or shorter cast time spells. In addition, Keri has a Crystalfire Breath, which is a simple damage cone to the front that only the tank should be hit by, and Crystal Chains, which renders a group member immobile for ten seconds. The trick with Crystal Chains is that for these ten seconds, Intense Cold cannot be removed; if anyone in the group is able, Chains should be dispelled as quickly as possible. If not, the healer needs to make sure to keep heals on the afflicted member. As long as everyone keeps moving, Keristrasza should go down fairly easily.
