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Vault of Archavon Guide
The raid currently contains three bosses, but has expanded from one on initial release. Currently in ascending order of difficulty the bosses are: Archavon the Stone Watcher, Emalon the Storm Watcher, and Koralon the Flame Watcher. While we will describe the fights and strategies in this order, realize that most groups will start with the hardest boss first. That way if they fail to down him, they are not saved to a failed group and can instead look for a better group of raiders. If you are raiding with your guild, then this is not an issue and you can do the bosses in any order.
Archavon the Stone Watcher
Archavon is a pretty simple fight that is a DPS race due to his 5 minute enrage timer. While he has a few abilities that need to be dealt with, nothing is overly complicated. He does, however, require two tanks due to his abilities.
Archavon Fight Strategy
The fight starts with both tanks engaging Archavon and fighting for threat to ensure both are ahead of all other players. Ranged DPS and healers need to spread out around the room to minimize the damage taken from Archavon’s AOE abilities. While you should have some distance between everyone, you also want to be close together so that everyone can be healed and players are not running all over. Once everyone is in place DPS can lay into Archavon.
When rock spikes are shot at a ranged player if no one else is near simply stand in place and take the hits. If someone is near, move away from them. If someone in melee is targeted, the tank should move the boss away, while the targeted player moves away in an opposite direction. In general though, you want as few people moving as possible.
When Archavon leaps at a player and places a choking cloud, everyone simply needs to move out of the cloud area and wait for Archavon to return to the tank. The distance and time that it takes Archavon to return is based on how far players are standing apart. This means that while you should not group up, you should also not stand 30+ yards away from each other.
Emalon the Storm Watcher
Emalon the Storm Watcher is a boss in VOA that is accompanied by a group of four guards called Tempest Minions. These guards respawn whenever they are killed, therefore DPS should not be wasted on them other than when required. Instead they are simply held by the off-tank. Emalon himself has a few abilities that need to be watched for, while the guards’ main ability is to explode when overcharged.
Emalon’s Abilites
Chain Lightning – This spell hits the target and then bounces to additional nearby targets increasing the damage it causes to each subsequent target.
Lightning Nova – This is an AOE damage attack that Emalon casts roughly every 20 seconds. It hits everyone nearby for a large amount of damage, and will wipe most non-tank players. The damage it causes is maximized if you are within 20 yards of Emalon. Lightning Nova has a long cast time though, so melee DPS has a plenty of time to get away.
Overcharge – Emalon casts this ability on one of the Tempest Minions 45 seconds after the last overcharge ended. It applies a stacking buff to one of the minions that grants 20% extra damage caused and grows the minion to roughly double the size. A new stack of the buff is granted every 2 seconds, and when the stack hits 10 the minion will explode causing significant damage and most likely wiping the raid.
Strategy
KoralonThe fight requires two tanks to be present, although the off-tank can focus more on damage than threat. Determine which way Koralon will be moved during the fight and let everyone else in the raid know before engaging. Normally he is dragged counter-clockwise around the room. Both tanks move in and engage Koralon and get him into position just outside of the glass octagon on the floor. An ideal distance is 5-10 yards away from the octagon so that players can clearly see the fire pools that are dropped. Once engaged the tanks stay stacked on top of each other for the duration of the fight.
The whole fight revolves around the tanks positioning Koralon away from fire so melee DPS can engage him, staying stacked in front for Meteor Fists, and everyone else avoiding standing in fire. The last item, as mentioned in the intro, is usually what wipes the raid.
Koralon is the only boss in VOA that does not have a hard enrage timer, instead he gains his burning fury buff every 20 seconds. This means that 7 minutes into the fight he is doing twice as much damage as at the beginning. Most players will not survive this amount of incoming damage from his AOE or the fire pools, so your objective is to kill him within 4 minutes or less.
