User:Serillian/Pholcidread
The contents herein are entirely player made and in no way represent official Warcraft lore or history. The characters and events listed are of an independent nature and are applied for roleplaying purposes only.
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This article or section includes speculation, observations or opinions possibly supported by lore or by Blizzard officials. It should not be taken as representing official lore.
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 Pholcidread | |||
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| Title | <Mate of Tarantulon> | ||
| Race | Spider (Beast) | ||
| Level | ?? Boss | ||
| Location | Pholcidread's Webbed Lair, Palace of the Risen Emperor | ||
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| Palace of the Risen Emperor | |||
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| PotRE | |||
| Location | Isle of Storms | ||
| End boss | Lei Shen | ||
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Pholcidread is the sixth encounter within the Palace of the Risen Emperor. She has made her home within Lei Shen's Palace catacombs, spinning multiple webs throughout her lair to capture her victims. Her lair reaches high into the catacombs and allows her to spring traps from anywhere.
Background
With the Catacombs all but unable to be reclaimed, Lei Shen has order for a blockade to be built in order to fend off any wandering horrors that may venture into the Warbound Halls. In a recent attempt to retake a portion of the catacombs, Lei Shen's men has fall prey one by one to a massive spider who has made her lair near the very entrance to the halls of the Warbound. Capable of creating a series of thick webs as her home, Pholcidread the Misery of Mogu, has practically been at war with the Stormbound and Tian Lo mogu, luring in and consuming her enemies the moment they leave the safety of their military quarters. Instead of combating the beats himself, the Thunder King looks to make an example out of her by forcing his soldiers to battle with such ferocity. The enormous spider dangles brazenly near the ground level of her webbed lair in eyesight of her mogu enemies, effectively taunting them and their King. This ferocious creature is capable of holding her own against the Thunder King's own men, the chances of intruders standing up to her appears slim to none.
Encounter Abilities
Pholcidread's Lair contains 4 elevation levels: Ground Level, Web Level 1, Web Level 2, and Web Summit. Before combat begins, Pholcidread dangles from above the ground on the Ground Level and flees to the Web Summit when engaged. On each level, Pholcidread has laid a Doom Egg that causes her to seek out her enemies and defend the egg fiercely when it is attacked. Pholcidread will also continuously harass her enemies with her brood whom she calls out to on a constant basis. Pholcidread goes berserk after 12 minutes on non-Heroic difficulties. This timer becomes 10 minutes for Heroic mode.
Stage One: The Broodmother's Gambit
Pholcidread does not always engage her enemies in combat during this part of the encounter. She instead sends her brood to attack her enemies to drive them out of her lair and from damaging her Doom Eggs. If Pholcidread reaches the level of the Doom Egg that is currently being attacked, she engages the raid for a short time before fleeing again. She will wait 40 seconds after each Venom Spew before returning to defend the Doom Egg.
Venom Spew — When Pholcidread reaches the Web Summit at the beginning of the encounter, she retaliates with Venom Spew, dealing 40,000 (LFR: 25,000 /
: 80,000) Nature damage per sec. for 8 seconds to all players. This attack also infuses her with Venom Veins for the remainder of the encounter. Channeled. Pholcidread will also cast Venom Spew whenever she flees from the raid after engaging them for a short time.
Venom Veins — Casting Venom Spew causes venom to flow throughout Pholcidread's veins and bloodstream. This increases the Nature damage she inflicts by 15% (LFR: 8% /: 25%) per stack for the remainder of the encounter.
Fierce Protector 
— If Pholcidread reaches the elevation level of the Doom Egg that is being attacked, she goes into a temporary frenzy and attacks viciously for 30 seconds before fleeing. : Pholcidread gains a 10% bonus to her attack speed every 5 seconds during Fierce Protector.
Poisoned Fang 
— Pholcidread sinks her envenomed fangs into her enemy, causing 200,000 (LFR: 100,000 /: 400,000) Nature damage and injecting the venom into the target's bloodstream. For the next 15 seconds, that target deals an additional 40,000 Nature damage with all attacks and suffers an additional 40,000 Nature damage when suffering damage from melee attacks and abilities. This effect stacks. 3 second cooldown.
Necrotic Venom — Pholcidread faces a random direction and releases a blast of toxic in a 45 yard arc that deals 225,000 (LFR: 105,000 /: 450,000) Nature damage. Enemies hit by this attack will take 60% (LFR: 30% /: 90%) reduced healing for 30 seconds. 2.5 sec cast. 8 second cooldown.
Toxic Bolt — Pholcidread spits up gushing venom in all directions, striking players for 115,000 (LFR: 65,400/: 240,000) Nature damage and coating them in hefty poison for 8 seconds. This inflicts 20,000 (LFR: 11,500 /: 55,000) Nature damage every second for the duration. This effect stacks. 2 second cooldown.
Pholcidread's Lair
Throughout her lair, Pholcidread nurses many eggs which contain her numerous children and her slain foes. The eggs that are most important to her are the Doom Eggs which will cause the Broodmother to focus on her attackers directly. There is a Doom Egg on each elevation level of her lair which must be destroyed before Pholcidread forcefully hatches the egg herself.
Doom Egg — On each level of Pholcidread's massive lair, her Doom Eggs lay unguarded at first. When attacked, Pholcidread calls for her children to defend the egg while she is on another level. She goes into Fierce Protector once she reaches the level of the attacked egg. : Toxicfang Broodguards will surround the Doom Egg their defending with a venom shield that protects it from all attacks and abilities until the Broodguard is defeated.
- 10: 89,985,720
- 10H: 143,774,568
- LFR: 134,978,580
- 25: 269,957,160
- 25H: 431,323,704
Loose Web — As Pholcidread moves about her web complex and as her brood comes down from the upper reaches to deal with intruders, they will leave behind strands of sticky webbing that will allow players to climb up into the next elevation level of Pholcidread's Lair. These webs lasts for 20 seconds. : Players will slip and fall from the strand of web if they are not constantly interacting with the web to climb.
Doomweb Guardian
If Pholcidread attacks players who are fighting the same Doom Egg for a third time, she will hatch the Doom Egg which in turn reveals a Doomweb Guardian.
- 10: 180,400,000
- 10H: 261,700,000
- LFR: 270,600,000
- 25: 541,200,000
- 25H: 785,100,000
Poison Barrier — Upon birth, the Guardian shields itself with special poison, reducing damage taken by 50% until the Guardian is defeated.
Doom Fixation — Shortly after being born, the Doomweb Guardian will fixate on a random player for 30 seconds. While fixating on its target, the Guardian gains 100% increased movement speed and attacks 100% faster.
- Toxic Volley — With each melee attack that deals damage, the Guardian releases a burst of toxic poison that damages all players for 200,000 (LFR: 85,000 /: 550,000) Nature damage.
Toxicfang Broodguard
These powerful children of Pholcidread arrive at the behest of the broodmother, ready to protect her Doom Eggs from intruders and send their corpse dangling from above. Pholcidread calls forth her children to attack every 40 (: 30) seconds.
- 10: 68,445,800
- 10H: 92,235,612
- LFR: 102,668,700
- 25: 205,337,400
- 25H: 276,706,836
Acid Strikes — Melee attacks performed by the Broodguard corrodes its enemy with acid. This effect deals 20,000 (LFR: 10,000 /: 40,000) Nature damage per sec. for 8 seconds. This effect stacks. Special abilities from the Broodguard will contribute to the stacking effect of Acid Strikes.
Wide Swipe — The Broodguard strikes at all enemies in a 180 degree arc in front of it, dealing 250,000 (LFR: 105,000 /: 480,000) Physical damage. 4 sec cooldown.
Poison Frenzy — As the Broodguard reaches 20% (: 45%) health, it enters an acidic rage which causes all of its melee attacks to deal Nature damage. In addition, the Broodguard gains a 20% increase in attack speed.
Fury Aura — While active, the Broodguard enhances the combat prowess of itself and allies within 15 yards. This effect increases attack speed by 50% and causes abilities to occur twice as often.
Egg Warden
When Pholcidread calls for her children to defend the Doom Egg, a pair of Egg Wardens will arrive alongside the Toxicfang Broodguards. These wardens carry a sack of spider eggs on their backs and will drop it upon death, revealing many spiderlings.
- 10: 31,508,448
- 10H: 48,566,452
- LFR: 47,262,672
- 25: 94,525,344
- 25H: 145,699,356
- Poison Charge
— The Warden charges at a distant target, dealing 120,000 (LFR: 45,000 /: 310,000) Nature damage to all nearby players and afflicts affected enemies with poison. This poison deals 40,000 (LFR: 15,000 /: 85,000) Nature damage every 2 sec. for 10 seconds. 5 second cooldown.
Web Nova — The Warden seeks to trap all nearby foes with its sticky web. This ability deals 40,000 (LFR: 20,000 /: 60,000) Physical damage and immobilizes affected players for 5 seconds. 8 second cooldown.
Vital Venom — The Egg Warden strikes its target with a poisoned fang, causing them to suffer Nature damage every 3 seconds equal to 12% of their maximum health for 24 seconds. 4 second cooldown.
Egg Hatchling
Upon death, the Egg Wardens will drop the sack of eggs they carry on their backs. These eggs reveal many spider hatchlings that will attack players at random. They only possess melee attacks. 5 hatchlings will spawn per warden on 10-player difficulties. 8 will spawn per warden on Raid Finder difficulty and 10 will spawn per warden on 25-player difficulties.
- 10: 1,164,000
- 10H: 1,365,800
- LFR: 1,746,000
- 25: 3,492,000
- 25H: 4,097,400
Stage Two: Mother's Mayhem
If all 4 Doom Eggs are destroyed, Pholcidread fixates on her enemies directly instead of resorting to hit-and-run tactics. She adopts a new arsenal of abilities to help tear her foes apart. : Pholcidread will screech for the assistance of her more grown children throughout this stage of the battle.
Web Blast — Pholcidread sprays spins a web in all directions, dealing 115,000 (LFR: 35,000 /: 230,000) Physical damage to all players and traps them in a sticky web. This effect stuns for 4 (LFR: 2 /: 8) seconds. 25 second cooldown.
- Cone of Poison — Pholcidread releases a blast of poison in front of her, dealing 1,000,000 (LFR: 200,000 /: 1,900,000) Nature damage to her all enemies facing her. If a player in front of her is facing away from the Brood Mother, Cone of Poison will inflict 25% of its damage instead. 1.5 sec cast. 12 second cooldown.
Venom Spit — The Broodmother spits out at multiple players over 2 seconds, hurling globs of poison at their location that lasts for 2 minutes. Any player coming into contact with the poison will suffer 100,000 (LFR: 45,000 /: 225,000) Nature damage per sec. for as long as they remain in the effect. Channeled. 15 second cooldown.
Frenzy 
— When Pholcidread reaches 20% health, she goes into a deadly killing frenzy. Her attack speed increased by 100% and her melee attacks deal 30% additional damage. Pholcidread will also use her abilities more often while in this state.
Toxic Crawler
When Pholcidread begins to directly attack her enemies on Heroic difficulty, she starts calling for her mature children constantly to assist her. Every 45 seconds, a Toxic Crawler will rush in to protect its mother. The time between crawlers is reduced by 5 seconds, down to a minimum of 5 seconds.
- 10H: 77,490,00
- 25H: 232,470,000
Toxic Bite 
— The Crawler gnaws at its target, dealing 150,000 Nature damage increased by the effect of Pholcidread's Venom Veins. The target will also suffer from excruciating toxins, reducing healing taken by 5% per stack lasting 20 seconds. 6 second cooldown.
Debilitating Spit — The crawler spits at a random target, dealing 200,000 Nature damage increased by the effect of Pholcidread's Venom Veins. The poison takes hold of the player, dealing 50,000 Nature damage per sec. and reduces healing taken and damage done by 60% for 20 seconds. The periodic damage component also benefits from Pholcidread's Venom Veins effect. 10 second cooldown.
Strategy
Pholcidread is not a terribly difficult encounter to master. Somewhat similar to Beth'tilac, Pholcidread is a two-phase encounter with the first one being the longest. When she is engaged, Pholcidread runs up from the bottom floor to the top of her web lair. Her lair has 4 different levels that can only be accessed by Loose Webs that is left behind by Pholcidread or any of her adds. Players start on the bottom floor but with the use of the Loose Webs, they are able to reach the higher points of the lair.
Phase One
The majority of this Phase is spent not focused on Pholcidread, but special adds that do not fight back. These adds are known as Doom Eggs. These eggs are the main focus of Phase One. There is one egg per level of Pholcidread's lair. Once all four eggs are destroyed, Pholcidread enters Phase Two where she becomes the main focus.
When engaged, Pholcidread should be ignored and all damage must be on the nearby Doom Egg in order to do as much damage to it before the boss calls forth adds. She will cast Venom Spew on the raid after she runs away to the top of her web lair. This damage must be healed through as it hits harder per use as Venom Veins is applied with each cast. As players progress from Egg to Egg, Pholcidread will cast it each time she leaves from engaged players. Pholcidread will also attack players (running back down to them) 40 seconds following a Venom Spew.
Focus all damage on the Egg until adds spawn at the 40 second mark. Afterwards, players should focus their attention on the three adds that will spawn. There is no danger in keeping the adds next to the Doom Egg so that should be done to allow for cleaving abilities to inflict damage to the egg as well.
Pholcidread's Children
Every 40 seconds, Pholcidread calls out to her children which attack in groups of three. Players have to contend with two Egg Wards and a single Toxicfang Broodguard. These add need to be killed quick to get some time on the egg before the next group comes out.
Egg Warden
Players should focus the egg wardens down to prevent their frequent use of Poison Charge which disrupts any attempt at stacking up as the charge will affect everyone in range of the charge target. The will also Web Nova those in melee range which, when combined with the attacks of the Broodguard, can deal serious damage to non-tanks. When each of these adds are killed, they will also release several small adds called Egg Hatchlings that just needs to be AoE'd down. Once both Wardens are dead, players can move in to attack the Broodguard.
Toxicfang Broodguard
These should be stunned as often as possible to avoid their stacking Acid Strikes from overwhelming tanks. The stuns will also help prevent their Wide Swipe ability from occurring quite as often. Upon reaching low health, they gain the Poison Frenzy that makes each of their melee attacks deal pure Nature damage and increases the attack speed of the Broodguard. This contributes to high tank damage going that calls for a defensive cooldown to shake off the damage during this point.
Doomweb Guardian
Players need to be quick in killing the adds while doing high damage to the Doom Egg on each level. If Pholcidread reaches the web level of the attacked Doom Egg for a third time, she will hatch the egg which in turn spawns the very deadly Doomweb Guardian. This occurs effectively two minutes after Pholcidread first reaches the level players are on. This add should never come into play during any attempt as it can and will wipe the raid. Upon spawning it will cast Poison Barrier which halves all damage taken while it lives. This makes any attempt at killing it pointless. The add will also fixate on random players for 30 seconds before fixating again. While affected by Doom Fixation, the Guardian will gain 100% increased movement and attack speed. This ensures the guardian kills each target it fixates upon. Lastly, this add will cast Toxic Volley with each melee attack that lands which when combined with the 100% attack speed from the fixate, the guardian will make quick work of the raid as the damage strikes the whole raid and is unavoidable. The only way to avoid this is to never have this add join the fight and thus quickly kill the Doom Egg before the boss makes a third trip to the same level.
Pholcidread
Each time the boss climbs down and reaches the same level players are on, she enters a Fierce Protector state that causes her to attack players for 30 seconds with a set of abilities.
Poisoned Fang serves as a tank swap mechanic when several stacks of this ability are affecting the tank. With each stack that player deal additional Nature damage and takes extra Nature damage from abilities and melee attacks. This combined with the fast attack speed of Pholcidread and her adds can take down a tank quickly even with just a few stacks.
Player should also take notice of when Pholcidread faces away from her tank and begins casting Necrotic Venom, for this attack inflicts a high amount of damage (don't forget that Pholcidread gains an increasing number of Venom Veins stacks each time she flees from the raid, including when the encounter starts) and reduces healing taken by a good amount. Healers should keep an eye on those that do manage to get hit as Pholcidread will be constantly using Toxic Bolt during her Fierce Protector buff. Healers and players in general should take note that each time Pholcidread returns to attack the raid, she is going to be more stronger than before as each Venom Spew cast will add to another stack of Venom Veins. So while players are on the last Doom Egg and Pholcidread climbs up towards the raid, her attack will gain the power to one shot her targets, especially Poisoned Fang and Necrotic Venom. Healing will be hard at this point since her Toxic Bolt direct damage and the periodic damage will bring players close to death.
Phase Two
Once players have successfully ascended throughout her lair and destroyed each Doom Egg, Pholcidread herself will face the raid and no longer calls in adds (at least on Normal and below) and does not flee to the farthest part of her lair. She becomes an all out DPS race in an attempt to take out her remaining health before her highly stacked Venom Veins-empowered abilities make short work of the raid.
Web Blast may cause problems for healers trying to heal tanks that are low on health. This effect cannot be avoided it must simply be dealt with. Making sure everyone is full on health ensure no one dies from damage from Pholcidread. This ability can also be problematic for tanks as they must avoid facing Pholcidread when she casts Cone of Poison as it can and will one-shot those it hits. By facing away, tanks are able to live through the damage (even though the damage inflicted will still be high with the high number of Venom Veins stacks).
Other than Web Blast, healers and players in general must deal with Venom Spit carefully to prevent poison pools from littering the area. One such way is to have everyone stack behind the boss in melee range and everyone moves to the left or right when the channel is finished to make sure all pools land in the same area and thus only one spot is affected and then having the boss moved once there is nowhere else to stack. Using this tactic ensure players are almost always out of the area of effect. However, with Web Blast, this can be problematic as being unable to move can kill a player, even from full health.
Lastly, once she hits 20% health, Pholcidread gains Frenzy which doubles her attack speed and increases her melee damage by 30% and causes her to use her abilities twice as often. This is the moment where 
[Bloodlust]/
[Heroism] should be used along with cooldowns to survive the increased intensity that occurs at this point. With Web Blast going off almost constantly and Cone of Poison being used quite often on tanks along with players having to move from Venom Spit pools, Pholcidread at this state can be treated as a separate phase in itself as the encounter can quickly end in defeat if things are done incorrectly.
Heroic Changes
- While in Fierce Protector, Pholcidread attacks 10% quicker every 5 seconds while she attacks players.
- Players will need to constantly click the Loose Webs they are on to successfully ascend to the next web level lest they lose their grip and fall back down to the previous level.
- While alive, Toxicfang Broodguards will cast Venom Shield on the Doom Egg their defending that prevents it from taking damage from players.
- Toxicfang Broodguards gain the Fury Aura ability that amplifies its attack speed and that of its allies and causes them to use their abilities twice as often. This forces the Broodguard to have priority over the Egg Wardens.
- Egg Wardens gain the Vital Venom attack which deals a high amount of damage to their targets that must be healed through.
- During the second Phase of the encounter, Pholcidread periodically calls out to Toxic Crawlers with increasing frequency that possess abilities that can disrupt a raid's attempt to safely deal with Pholcidread's abilities.
Quotes
- Intro
- Lei Shen yells: Ha! The foolish invaders willingly sacrifice themselves to the broodmother! Do not let them escape!
- Aggro
- Storm Soldier Kyun-Dao yells: Seal the entrance! Do not let them leave! They shall serve as her playthings!
- Fierce Protector
- Pholcidread goes into a frenzy to drive you out!
- Call Children
- Pholcidread releases a cry for help from her young!
- Hatch Doom Egg
- Pholcidread forces the egg to hatch into a Doomweb Guardian!
- Phase Two
- Pholcidread chitters furiously!
- Player killed
- Pholcidread glares at the corpse of her foe!
- Frenzy
- Pholcidread goes into a killing frenzy!
- Berserk
- Pholcidread goes into a berserker rage!
- Death
- The makeshift barricade fails as Pholcidread's body slams through her webbed lair to the ground.
- Storm Soldier Kyun-Dao yells: Weaklings! You have merely delayed what was written! Your fates remain sealed! Approach and face the power of the storms!
Achievements
Heroic: Pholcidread — Defeat Pholcidread in Palace of the Risen Emperor on Heroic difficulty.
- They're Everywhere! — Destroy each Doom Egg before killing Pholcidread's children on each elevation level on Normal or Heroic difficulty, and then defeat Pholcidread.