Lady Vashj Strategy Guide Strategy Guide (SSC)

SSC Raid Guide

SSC Attunement

SSC Loot

Hydross the Unstable

The Lurker Below

Morogrim Tidewalker

Fathom-Lord Karathress

Leotheras the Blind

Lady Vashj

Lady Vashj is the fifth and final encounter in Serpenstshrine Cavern!

Getting Started

The encounter with Lady Vashj is broken into three different phases. Keep in mind that both Phase 1 and 3 are the same, except for the addition of the Spore Bats that spawn during Phase 3. During Phase 2 is a true test of the raid and their ability to work together. Every single member of the raid group is important during Phase 2 and a simple mistake can cause a wipe. Here is a breakdown of each Phase and what you will encounter during them:

• Phase One: This is the start of the fight and is considered a simple tank and spank. Lady Vashj will transition to Phase 2 at 70%
• Phase Two: Between 70% to 50% health, Lady Vashj will summon many adds and hide behind a shield. This shield will need to be removed by using tainted cores to turn off the four shield generators. Each time a generator gets shut off, it will reduce her health by 5%.
• Phase Three: Starting at 50% health, this phase remains similar to Phase One but with the addition of Spore Bats spawning.

Raid Composition

• 2 Tanks
• 1 Kiter
• 7-8 Healers
• 8-11 Ranged DPS
• 4-7 Melee DPS

Positioning

During Phase 2, where you are located/positioned at during this encounter is considered the most the crucial part of the duration of Phase 2. During Phase 1, spreading out to minimize any damage from her Static Charge is the only important issue to remember. Each player should be located close to their Phase 2 positions to help avoid any wipes. For Phase 2, the positions are:

• Tanks and Melee will want to be in the central area located on top of the stairs.
• Ranged DPS will want to be spread out in a wide circle atop of the stairs. This will help each ranged damage dealer have Line Of Sight (LOS) to both the stairs and the top area.
• Healers will to want to be split between being inside the shield generators and on top of the stairs.

Role Summaries

DPS

• During Phase 2, kill the Coilfang Elites while keeping an eye on a stair section for Tainted Elementals.
• During Phase 1 and 3, Ranged will want to focus on Vahj and will want to focus on the elementals and putting DoT’s on the Striders during Phase 2.

Tanks

• Stay focused on Vashj in Phase 1 and Phase 3.
• Quickly take the Coilfang Elites during Phase 2 due to them one-shotting any cloth wearing class.

Healers

• All healers will want to pay attention to those who are within range due to the high amount of AoE damage that gets done during this fight.
• During Phases 1 and 3, Healers will want to want to have their focus on the Tank.
• During Phase 2, Focus will need to be on everyone else in the party and on the Kiter.

Fight Overview

Phase One

The entirety of Phase One of this encounter is pretty straight forward and will require mainly assistance from the healers to keep your tank up. The only issue that can be problematic come from her special attacks. Lady Vashj will cast Shock Burst on it’s target throughout Phase One. To prevent this, there should be one Shaman in your Main Tank’s group permanently keeping a Grounding Totem up to help nullify the cast. Paladins will want to have a Blessing of Freedom on both the Main Tank and Melee DPS if rooted or rooted with Static Charge. Lastly, any player that is affected by Static Charge must stay away from everyone else and will require the healer to top them off. If the Main Tank is hit by Static Charge, they will need to run to the middle while the other melee classes stay away from him. Keep this up until Lady Vashj hits 70% health and Phase 2 begins.

Phase Two

When Lady Vashj hits 70% health, she will run to the middle of her platform and surround herself in a shield that will make her invulnerable. In order to take the shield down, members of the raid will need to collect a Tainted Core, from the Tainted Elementals, and use them on the Shield Generators to deactivate and bring down the shield. Throughout Phase 2, there are four types of adds that will spawn:

1. Coilfang Elites: These are to be tanked and killed by both the tanks and the Melee DPS.
2. Coilfang Striders: These are kited and killed with DoTs. Every class, this includes Healers, within the raid that has any DoTs they can cast should be helping kill these.
3. Enchanted Elementals: These are to be killed by the Ranged DPS.
4. Tainted Elementals: These are what drop Tainted Cores, which are used to turn Lady Vashj’s shield generators off. This task will require teamwork from the raid and will need to develop a tactic on how to handle it.

In order to deal with these adds , you will need to need to have 2 DPS and 1 Healer at each of the stairways. Once an elemental spawns, DPS will need to take them down before they are able to make their way to the center where Lady Vashj is located. While each elemental that spawns only has around 8,000 HP, it is crucial that none of them that spawn reach Lady Vashj. Each Elemental that makes their way to the center will give Lady Vashj a 5% damage buff. If one too many make their way to her, there is a chance that you will wipe due to this buff stacking indefinitely.

Coilfang Elites will begin spawning every 45 Seconds through this phase and the tank will need to pick the mob up and move them to the center so that DPS can burn it down before the next one spawns. Coilfang Elites not only have a large health pool, around 17k, but can also hit the tank for up to 5k and has a frontal Cleave that hits anyone within the arc.

Coilfang Striders will also begin spawning every 60 seconds and will require a Warlock, Mage or Hunter from the raid group to pull and kite them as soon as they’ve spawned in. The other players will need to cast DoTs and damage it to burn it down effectively. This mob has the same healthpool, around 17k, as the Coilfang Elites but will cast an AoE fear every 3 seconds, making it difficult for any tank.

Lastly, a Tainted Elemental will begin to spawn every minute after an Elemental spawns and will drop the Tainted Core that is needed to shut down the generators providing the shield to Lady Vashj. Keep in mind that the Tainted Elemental will only stay up for 15 seconds before despawning. During the 15 seconds, it will shoot poison bolts at a nearby player and will need to be burned down quickly. Once a Tainted Core is obtained, the player may not move but throw it to someone who is closer to the generators. Every generator that is successfully shut down, it will cause 5% damage to Lady Vashj.

Upon shutting every generator down, which turns off her shield, Lady Vashj will be at 50% health thus beginning Phase 3 of the encounter.

Phase 3

You will start Phase 3 focusing on killing all remaining adds from Phase 2. The Elementals can provide Lady Vashj with an increase to her damage, so it is important to make sure they don’t reach her.

Raid members will be mind controlled every little while, and since they cannot be CC’d while mind controlled, melees might want to unequip weapons as the MC timer approaches. Tanks can taunt MC’d players as well.

Spore Bats will spawn and leave behind a poison cloud. A few ranged DPS should be assigned to kill the initial wave of Spore Bats. If you find your group is running out of room due to Spore Bats leaving the poison cloud on the ground, you can avoid killing the subsequent waves to ensure you don’t run out of room completely.