ToES (10) Strats

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Protectors of the Endless is council style fight with 3 bosses Protector Kaolan, Elder Regail, and Elder Asani. that varies in difficulty according to the kill order chosen. In this sense it is reminiscent of the Iron Council in Ulduar and the Bug Trio in AQ 40.
Phase one starts when the fight begins, and will have all 3 bosses active. The bosses use a limited number of abilities, have individual health pools, when one of the bosses is killed phase two begins
Phase Two begins and the two remaining bosses are healed to full, each gains a new ability and their damage is increased by 25% for the remainder of the fight.
Phase Three begins when there is only one boss left alive, he is healed to full, gains another new ability and his damage is increased by 25% for the remainder of the fight.
While there are many combinations you could chose there are only 3 kill orders that should be considered as the only increased loot is from killing Protector Kaolan last. The only reason for killing Elder Regail last is for the achievement, Power Overwhelming
  • Protector Kaolan, Elder Regail, Elder Asani: Easy mode!
  • Protector Kaolan, Elder Asani, Elder Regail: This kill order is for the achievement only, there is no bonus loot.
  • Elder Regail, Elder Asani, Protector Kaolan: Elite mode and extra loot.
The boss abilites are numerous and listing in full will make this guide overly long therefore I have simply listed the abilities and linked them to Wowhead so that you can read the tooltips
Phase One Boss Abilities
Phase Two Boss Abilities
Phase Three Boss Abilities
While the fight is in multiple pahses there are a few things that stay consitent while certain bosses are up:
This information should be plenty to get you through to Phase 3 regardless of your chosen kill order as long as everyone does their role well whilst obeying the above rules.
The tricky art is phase 3 which will be covered below in order of difficulty starting with the hardest first.

Protector Kaolan

The extra ability for this phase is Expel Corruption. Every 40 seconds, Kaolan will summon an orb at his location, which pulses AoE Shadow damage every 1.5 seconds in a 30-yard radius, and lasts until the end of the fight. The damage reduces the further away you are from the orb. Kaolan can simply be moved away from the orb to avoid the damage entirely.
This is the biggest test of your raids DPS and healing as the raid will now be taking high amounts of raidwide damage every 3 seconds from the Touch of Sha debuff.
The space you have to work with will be ever-decreasing due to the increasing number of Defiled Ground void zones and Expel Corruption, more and more of the platform will be covered in damaging areas, reducing the amount of space you have as the phase goes on.
As with the other bosses, this is a DPS burn phase that you should save all your cooldowns for.

Elder Regail

The extra ability for this phase is Overwhelming Corruption deals Shadow damage to all raid members every 3 seconds, each time applying a stacking debuff that increases the damage taken from Overwhelming Corruption by 5%. Healers will have to be prepared for the increasing raid damage as well as dispelling Lightning Prison.
Lightning Bolt must be interrupted whenever possible.
Your raid should remain spread out 8 yards, to minimise the damage taken from Lightning Prison and the debuffs from Lightning Prison should be dispelled.
You will still have to avoid the damage from Lightning Storm.
This is a standard burn phase during which you should use all offensive and defensive cooldowns at your disposal to finish off the boss before the raid damage overwhelms your healers.

Elder Asani

Like Elder Regail the extra ability for this phase is Overwhelming Corruption, so healers will have to be prepared for the increasing raid damage.
This is a standard burn phase during which you should use all offensive and defensive cooldowns at your disposal to finish off the boss before the raid damage overwhelms your healers.

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The encounter against Tsulong is a two-phase fight. The first is the Night Phase during which Tsulong is hostile. The second phase, the Day Phase, Tsulong is friendly, and your raid must heal him, while protecting him from various adds. Each phase lasts 2 minutes and is indicated by his energy bar.

Tsulong’s health is reversed each time a phase change occurs, so that the amount of health that is missing from Tsulong’s health in the Night Phase becomes the amount of health he has during the Day Phase. Defeating Tsulong is achieved by killing him during a Night Phase or healing him to full health during a Day Phase.

The first phase is always the Night Phase and he enrages a few seconds after the end of the second Day Phase.

Night Phase
During the Night Phase, Tsulong makes regular use of three main abilities.

  • Shadow Breath: a frontal cone breath attack that deals Shadow damage and applies a stacking debuff, which increases Shadow damage taken by 100% for 30 seconds, per stack;
  • Dread Shadows: a stacking debuff that Tsulong applies to all raid members every 2 seconds and increases the damage that the players take from Dread Shadows by 10%. This can be reset by moving through the Sunbeam Tsulong creates. Unlike LFR, each second that a player stays in the Sunbeam, its radius becomes smaller, until it disappears.
  • Nightmares: is cast at the location of a random player which deals Shadow damage to all players within 8 yards of the point of impact, and also fears them for 3 seconds.

Night Strategy

  • Tsulong should be tanked facing away from the raid, and tanks should swap on every Shadow Breath. The tank currently not tanking Tsulong should NOT  be in front of him.
  • Ranged DPS and healers spread out at least 8 yards apart, to minimise the damage and fears caused by Nightmares. 
  • Move out of teh Nightmare ground effect to avoid getting feared.
  • Resets your stacks of Dread Shadows at 12-18 stacks by walking through the Sunbeams. DO NOT STAND IN THE BEAM FOR MORE THAN 1 SECOND.
  • DPS Tsulong.

Day Phase
During the Day Phase, Tsulong is friendly and needs to be healed he uses 1 ability:

  • Sun Breath: a frontal cone breath attack that deals buffs raid members it hits with Bathed in Light and damages any adds it hits.
  •  Bathed in Light: restores 25% of maximum mana and increases healing done by 500% for 6-seconds.

There are three types of adds during the Day Phase:

  • Embodied Terrors: large adds that place a dispellable debuff called Terrorize on random raid members and on Tsulong himself.
    • When cast on players, Terrorize damages the player for 20% of their current health each second for 10 seconds.
    • When cast on Tsulong, Terrorize damages him for 2% of his total health every 2 seconds for 10 seconds.
  • Fright Spawns: are small adds that are created when an Embodied Terror is killed, that cast Fright in a cone in front of them, dealing a high amount of damage and fearing all affected players.
  • Untable Shas: are adds that spawn around the room and move towards Tsulong. When they reach him, they deal a very high amount of damage to Tsulong before they disappear.

Any adds alive when the Day Phase ends, will not despawn when the Night Phase begins.

Day Strategy

  • Have your healers always stand in front of Tsulong, so as to benefit from Bathed in Light as often as possible and heal Tsulong.
  • Tank the Embodied Terrors and the Fright Spawns in front of Tsulong so that he damages them with his breath. If done correctly, this will cause all the Fight Spawns to be instantly killed by the breath attack.
  • Make sure that the Fright Spawns are always facing away from the raid.
  • Untable Sha adds are the top priority, since they must be killed before they reach Tsulong, or else they deal a massive amount of damage to him. These adds cannot be tanked, but you can stun, slow, and knock them back (inc. Death Grip and Gorefiend’s Grasp).
  • DPS should help heal Tsulong immediately after a Sun Breath if they can cast a heal

Healing Concerns

  • Lay on Hands does NOT work, the cooldown is triggered, Tsulong will gain Forbearance, but no healing will be done.
  • Effects like Guardian Spirit and Life Cocoon DO work.
  • The raid still takes damage and WILL need healing.
  • Tank damage from the melee attacks of the Embodied Terrors and Fright Spawns, as well as very high tank damage from the frontal cone attacks of the Fright Spawns.
  • Healers must be prepared to dispel the following three effects during this phase:
    • the Terrorize debuff from Tsulong;
    • the Terrorize debuff from random raid members;
    • the fear effect caused by  Fright, from tanks or any other raid members hit by this cone attack.

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Overview
Lei Shi is a single-phase fight and when she reaches 80%, 60%, 40%, and 20% health, she summons 3 water elementals, and goes immune until at least one add has been killed. She has two special abilities causing her to either disappear until damaged by AoE attacks or she will channel wind spell that pushes players away from her and damages them until she has been damaged 4% of her health.

Instead, of performing melee attacks, Lei Shi constantly casts Spray at her current target which deals a large amount of Frost damage to them and anyone within 2.5 yards of them. Getting hit by Spray also adds a stacking debuff which increases Frost damage taken by 16% per stack, for 10 seconds.

Every 10% Lei Shi will gain a stack of Afraid which will increase her casting speed 8% per stack which results in Spray being cast more frequently.

Strategy
If you have fought Lei Shi on Raid Finder mode the fight is almost identical and therefore the strategy is the same.

To minimise damage t the tanks they should alternate to avoid the Spray debuff getting too high;

  • During Hide, players should spread out and do AoE attacks to find Lei Shi;
  • During Get Away!, run towards her and use attacks that can be dealt while moving;
  • During Protect, focus down one of the water elementals while the rest are crowd controlled or tanked (when the one is killed the rest vaanish;

Positioning
Optimal positioning to minimise raid damage is to form a triangle centred around Lei Shi with tanks at 2 corners and the raid at the 3rd corner. This allows the tanks to taunt Lei Shi without having them both affected affected by the same Spray, while the raid can remain spray free.

Healing Concerns
There are  3 main sources of damage are Spray, the water elementals and Get Away!

Tank switching deals with Spray as best as possible and crowd controlling the water elementals (Banish, Bind Elemental, Freezing Trap) you are not killing as this removes the need to tank them as they deal very high melee damage.

Get Away! is handled by simply running to Lei Shi as this halves the damage at the cost of reduced DPS unless you are able to use class abilities like Spiritwalker’s Grace or  Kil’jaeden’s Cunning. As Get Away! only ends after Lei Shi loses 4% of her health it is a good time to use personal defensive cooldowns, instant AoE heals. If you can’t heal and have instant offensive attacks you can use against Lei Shi you should do so.

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The Sha of Fear is a single-phase encounter during which he will summon adds and send a tank, a healer and 3 DPS to a remote platform to fight a Terrace Guardian and only after he dies can they return to the main platform, if he does not die before the next group of 5 players are banished the raid will wipe.
  • Tanks MUST stand in the circle of light as this will create a safe zone, called the  Wall of Light, behind the tank. The raid must stand within the Wall of Light so they take 10% less damage, and gain immunity to Breath of Fear.
  • Healers can remain within the safe zone for the entire fight. 
  • Ranged DPS will sometimes have to exit the safe zone to deal with adds spawning on the platform. 
  • Melee DPS will spend most of the fight behind the boss (so outside the safe zone) and they will occasionally move to deal with the adds that spawn on the platform or to take cover within the safe for Breath of Fear.

While the fight is not difficult to understand, there is a high DPS requirement and as you must have 2 tanks (1 on the boss and 1 on a platform) you will have to 2 heal the fight. The real tough parts of the fight are getting the balance between DPS on the boss and killing adds as well as avoiding much damage as possible by avoiding the impact locations of Penetrating Bolts and not getting caught outside the Wall of Light when Breath of Fear.

On the Terrace Guardian platforms, players must master consuming the Sha Globes as the 5% heal will likely result in a wipe as will failing to line of sight Death Blossom.

Dealing with the Sha
The Sha of Fear makes use of 4 main abilities:
  1. Thrash is a buff that the boss gains after every 3 melee attacks that he makes, which causes him to attack 3 times instead of just once on the 4th attack.
  2. Eerie Skull is a spell that the boss essentially spams at the raid. It deals a high amount of Shadow damage to a random raid member, and anyone else within 2 yards of their location.
  3. Breath of Fear is a spell that the boss casts every 30 seconds, whenever his Energy bar fills up. This deals a massive amount of Shadow damage to anyone on the platform who is not within the  Wall of Light, fearing them for 5 seconds.
  4. Ominous Cackle is the spell that the boss uses to send a group of 5 random raid members to an adjacent platform, where they must defeat a corrupted Terrace Guardian. The Sha of Fear casts this spell roughly ever 90 seconds in 10-man, and every 45 seconds in 25-man. We detail this part of the fight in a specific section.

The Sha of Fear also summons Terror Spawns on the main platform, these cannot be damaged if attacked from the front and cast Penetrating Bolt continuously, which deals a large amount of Shadow damage in a 3-yard radius at the location of their target, getting hit also applies a stacking debuff which increases Shadow damage taken by 10% per stack so avoiding them is essential and easily done.

Positioning
Players must spread out more than 2 yards apart, to minimise the damage taken from  Eerie Skull while staying inside the Wall of Light. The only exception to this are DPS players in between casts of Breath of Fear in order to attack and kill the Terror Spawns and melee DPS who will need to stand behind the boss until they need to get into the Wall of Light to avoid Breath of Fear.
Dealing with Terror Spawns
Minimising the number Terror Spawns is essential and will mean that the raid takes less damage and need to move less frequently.
As these cannot be attacked from the front, DPS players will need to leave the safe zone to DPS and kill themwhile not being caught outside the Wall of Light when the boss is about to reach maximum Energy and cast Breath of Fear.
It is not practical to be free of Terror Spawns as you need to balance between DPS between the adds and the Sha of Fear but too many will overwhelm your raid.
Healing Concerns
Healers and tanks must be aware of when Thrash is coming up as this may result a tank death if they are not prepared.
Healers will need to heal the damage that random raid members take from Eerie Skull, as well as the damage that players will sometimes take from Penetrating Bolt.
Dealing with Terrace Guardian Platforms
Every 90 seconds the boss casts Ominous Cackle and a group of 5 raid members (1 tank, 1 healer and 3 DPS) will be sent to fight a Terrace Guardian on a small round platform with many pillars which players must use to line of sight the Terrace Guardian who has 4 main abilities:
  • Shoot: Cast on the main aggro target and deals moderate Physical damage;
  • Dread Spray: is a shadow volley attack that is cast in random directions for 8 seconds, firing a total of 16 volleys. Getting hit 2 times, within the same Dread Spray, will be feared for 2 seconds, this can be dispelled;
  • Death Blossom: is channeled attack that deals a large amount of Physical damage to all players in line of sight;
  • Sha Globes: these are placed on the ground and can be consumed by running into them, they deal a small amount of Shadow damage but also will refill the a player’s primary resource over time. If a Sha Globe is active for 8 seconds the Terrace Guardian is healed 5%;

After defeating a Terrace Guardian players must click the golden globe that appears near the corse to return to the main platform. The 5 players will also recieve the Fearless buff, which increases movement speed, damage and healing done and provides immunity to Breath of Fear for 30 seconds.

While on the Terrace Guardian platform players must:
  • Consume all the Sha Globes within 6 seconds;
  • Non tanks hide behind the pillars when Death Blossom is cast;
  • Tank stay out and collect Sha Globes when Death Blossom is cast;
  • DPS the Terrace Guardian;

While the directions Dread Spray cast are fired appears random, it does actually follow a specific pattern. 

While it is possible to avoid all it isn’t necessary as their damage is not very high. Dispelling the fears is also not recommended as it is low duration and mana intensive.
Line of sighting the Death Blossom spell is always needed, as the damage done by Death Blossom is Physical and very high. As Sha Globes still need to be consumed during this time and the tank will take little damage overall they should stay out and consume the Sha Globes instead of line of sighting Death Blossom.

A final note, a death of a player while on the Terrace Guardian Platform will result in a raid wipe if the boss has anything above a 10% HP as when that group gets sent back to a platform they will almost likely not be able to kill the Guardian before the next group gets their summon. You should therefore wipe if that player cannot be ressed while on the platform as this will save you from wasting time.