Archavon the Stone Watcher Strategy Guide – Vault of Archavon (25)

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Vault of Archavon (25) Guide

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Archavon the Stone Watcher

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Vault of Archavon (25) Loot

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Emalon the Storm Watcher

Archavon the Stone Watcher is the first boss of the Vault of Archavon. He is available in Phase 1 and can be found at the furthest end of the raid itself.

This encounter is mostly a DPS race, requiring the raid to beat Archavon within 5 minutes or have to deal with his enrage.

25 man Archavon drops the Valorous Tier & Deadly Gladiator chest, gloves, and pants. Unlike other raid bosses, Archavon will drop the actual tier item as opposed to a shared token.

This guide will offer a detailed, step-by-step tutorial on how to defeat Archavon the Stone Watcher.

Role Summaries

  • The off-tank will need to either make sure they are consistently second on threat, or to taunt Archavon during Impale.

Abilities

Archavon the Stone Watcher

Archavon will fling rocks at a random raid member roughly every 15 seconds, dealing high damage constantly for 3 seconds to everyone within 5-yards of the target.

To manage this, make sure you always stay 5-yards away from other players, while Healers should focus on healing the player targeted.

Archavon stomps on the ground, stunning the entire raid for 2 seconds and incapacitating his current target for 8 seconds. This requires the off-tank to taunt as soon as they come out of the stun, taking over tanking until the main-tank is free to taunt back.

If the off-tank is second on threat they will automatically get aggro during this, instead of having to taunt. This is significantly safer but requires the off-tank to keep an eye on their threat here.

Archavon will leap to a random player further than 10-yards away, knocking them back and leaving a Choking Cloud in his wake. He will then run back to the main-tank and continue the fight.

This cloud will last for around 20 seconds and deals high damage every second. Handle this by quickly moving out of the cloud if it lands on you.

Raid Composition & Preparation

This fight has no specific class requirements and will be best dealt with by a balanced raid composition.

It is recommended to bring 3-6 Healers for this fight. While the fight itself isn’t extremely healing intensive, some of the loot will be Healer loot either way, so why not make sure someone can use it for their main spec!

There are no strict requirements for DPS classes or specs here, you simply want a combination of good raid buffs and debuffs.

You will want at least 2 tanks for this fight. Your main-tank will be tanking for the majority of the fight, while the off-tank takes over during Impale.

archavon on right

The Pull

Archavon will pull as soon as you descend his stairs. The main-tank should run through the boss, turning his back towards the raid.

The raid should try to spread as best they can, with a minimum of 5-yards between each player.

archavon positioning

The Fight

This fight is one of the simpler encounters of Wrath of the Lich King. Archavon will periodically charge to a raid member, dealing damage and dropping a Choking Cloud on their position. Players should try to immediately move out of this cloud to minimize the damage they take.

Periodically, Archavon will throw Rock Shards at a player, dealing damage to them and everyone within 5-yards of them over 3 seconds. This is the main raid healing to be done and as long as most players keep their distance, this should not require much healing.

The final mechanic is a glorified taunt swap. Archavon will stomp on the ground, stunning everyone in the raid for 2 seconds and incapacitating the tank for 8 seconds. He will then move on to attacking the player second on threat. Ideally, this should be the off-tank, but if it isn’t the off-tank will have to taunt Archavon as soon as they come out of the stun.

After 5 minutes, Archavon will Enrage, massively increasing his damage dealt. It is very difficult to survive through this, but 5 minutes should be more than enough to deal with the boss.

Congratulations on defeating Archavon and claiming your free loot!

 

About the Author

Passion

I love MMOs of all shades, especially the nitty gritty numbers parts of them. You might recognize me from the Shadow Priest discord, otherwise I play a little bit of everything, especially games with support roles available.
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OMEGADAMAGE
OMEGADAMAGE
2 years ago

3-6 healers is absurd. 2nd week in a row I solo heal it

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Jamielolx
Jamielolx
Reply to  OMEGADAMAGE
1 year ago

I don’t wanna speak for Passion but this is likely due to the nature how VOA raids are usually balanced (1 spec per player) for loot distribution, as the bosses aren’t particularly difficult and drop spec specific items.

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Passion
Passion
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Reply to  Jamielolx
1 year ago

This is correct. There is no reason to bring fewer healers, you’ll never bring 25 players anyway.

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