Will of the Emperor Detailed Strategy Guide (Heroic Mode included)

Table of Contents

• 1. General Information
• +2. Loot
  • 2.1. Armor
  • 2.2. Weapons
  • 2.3. Amulets and Trinkets
• +3. Overview of the Fight
  • 3.1. Video by Inner Sanctum
• 4. The Environment
• +5. Phase One
  • 5.1. Adds and Abilities
  • 5.2. Strategy
    • 5.2.1. Emperor's Courage
    • 5.2.2. Emperor's Strength
    • 5.2.3. Emperor's Rage
• +6. Phase Two
  • 6.1. Abilities
  • 6.2. Strategy
    • 6.2.1. Positioning
    • 6.2.2. Adds
    • 6.2.3. Devastating Combo
    • 6.2.4. Titan Gas
    • 6.2.5. Healing Concerns
  • 6.3. When to Use Heroism/Bloodlust/Time Warp
• 7. Learning the Fight
• +8. Heroic Mode
  • 8.1. Differences from Normal Mode
  • 8.2. Strategy
• 9. Achievement: Show Me Your Moves!
• 10. Concluding Remarks

Introduction

This guide is intended to provide a comprehensive description of the encounter with Will of the Emperor in Mogu'shan Vaults. It is targeted at anyone who desires to understand the fight mechanics.

This guide is updated for World of Warcraft WoD 6.1.2.

The Will of the Emperor is the 6th and final boss encounter in the Mogu'shan Vaults raid instance. The challenges present in the encounter will test all the various skills your raid has had to employ when killing the first 5 bosses.

While the encounter is quite simple to understand, it will prove to be very chaotic, as there are many different adds present throughout the fight.

The Will of the Emperor encounter is a two-phase fight that needs to be activated by interacting with the control panel located next to the fighting area. After the activation, you have to wait for 25 seconds before the fight really starts.

Phase One lasts for the first 90 seconds of the fight. During this time, your raid will have to handle three different types of adds.

Phase Two begins after 90 seconds, when the two bosses of the encounter, Jan-xi and Qin-xi, become active. The adds from Phase One will continue to spawn until the end of the fight.

Jan-xi and Qin-xi have a shared health pool, and the fight ends with their death.

As you will see below, the main difficulties are dealing with the adds, and successfully avoiding Jan-xi and Qin-xi's abilities.

The encounter takes place in the Forge of the Endless, within the Mogu'shan Vaults raid instance. The room itself is a large semi-circular arena.

All the adds, including the bosses, will spawn from alcoves in the large wall that forms the rounded part of the arena. Each type of add always spawns from the same alcove, and each alcove lights up red for the 5 seconds before an add spawns from it.

During Phase One, your raid will have to handle three different types of adds, for 90 seconds. A new wave of adds spawns every 15 seconds.

After 90 seconds, the phase ends, and the two main bosses become available. Keep in mind that Phase Two is merely an extension of Phase One, and the adds from Phase One will continue to spawn, in the same way, until the end of the fight.

• Emperor's Rage spawn from the central alcoves. Their only ability is Focused Assault, which causes them to fixate on a random raid member, and do nothing except walk towards that target. Upon reaching their target, they perform mildly damaging attacks against them.
  • Emperor's Rage adds can be killed, slowed, stunned, and they are generally susceptible to all forms of crowd control. Each spawn consists of 4 Emperor's Rage in 25-man, and 2 Emperor's Rage in 10-man and LFR.
• Emperor's Courage spawn from alcoves located at the sides of the arena (they jump from alcoves located above ground level, so to see them lighting red you need to look up). Their only ability is Focused Defense, which causes them to fixate on one of your raid's tanks, and do nothing except walk towards that target. Upon reaching their target, they hit them with Impeding Thrust.
  • Impeding Thrust is a damaging attack which stacks a debuff on the target, slowing their movement speed by 25% for 10 seconds, per stack. At 4 stacks, the target is unable to move.
  • Emperor's Courage adds can be killed, but they can only be damaged when attacked from behind (their front is shielded thanks to Half Plate). They can be slowed, but other forms of crowd control do not work against them. Each spawn consists of 2 Emperor's Courage in 25-man, and 1 Emperor's Courage in 10-man and LFR.
• Emperor's Strength spawn from alcoves located half-way between the center and the sides of the arena (they jump from alcoves located above ground level, so to see them lighting red you need to look up). They have normal threat tables, but do not melee their main aggro target. They regularly cast Energizing Smash.
  • Energizing Smash causes the add to hit the ground in front of them, dealing a high amount of Physical damage in 10-yard radius around the impact location, and stunning all affected targets. With each Energizing Smash, the 10-yard radius increases by 1 yard. Energizing Smash is cast about once every 7 seconds.
  • Emperor's Strength adds can be killed, but they are immune to all forms of crowd control. Each spawn consists of 2 Emperor's Strength in 25-man, and 1 Emperor's Strength in 10-man and LFR.

As you can clearly guess, your raid will have to contend with all of the adds that spawn during this phase. Your goal is to have as many of the adds as possible killed (ideally all) by the time the phase ends.

In the sections that follow, we will explain how to deal with each type of add. For now, it is important to note that the priority for killing the adds should be:

1. Emperor's Courage;
2. Emperor's Strength;
3. Emperor's Rage.

These adds are the top priority at all times. They must be killed before they reach the tank that they have fixated on. The tanks will also have to move away from these adds if they get too close.

They have low health, but they must be damaged from behind.

Ideally, all casters should move next to the alcove from where they will spawn, so that as soon as the add spawns, it is possible to attack it from behind.

They are susceptible to slows, and this is something you should aim to keep up on them.

Emperor's Strength are next in order of priority. While the tanks can pick these adds up, they can also easily be handled by melee DPS. It is important to kill them before the radius of their Energizing Smash increases so much that it is impossible for it to be avoided.

They should simply be nuked down when no Emperor's Courage are up.

These adds are the least harmful. Players on whom they fixate should be careful to move away from them until the adds are killed.

Since they are susceptible to all forms of crowd-control, your raid should make ample use of stuns and slows to keep them in check until they can be killed.

Phase Two starts 90 seconds after the start of the encounter. This is marked by the two bosses, Jan-xi and Qin-xi, entering the fight (from central alcoves). All the adds from Phase One will continue to spawn and behave exactly as described above.

The phase ends with the death of the two bosses, who share a health pool.

The two bosses, Jan-xi and Qin-xi, share the same abilities. They each have an Energy bar, with a maximum capacity of 20. Their energy increases over time, at a rate of 1 Energy per second, completely independent of any player action. The two bosses' Energy bars are synchronized.

When the bosses reach maximum Energy, they each perform a Devastating Combo. A Devastating Combo is a series of 5 attacks, used over a period of 15 seconds, during which time the bosses no longer melee or move. Their attacks are a random combination of the following 2 abilities, although the first seems to be used much more than the second.

• Devastating Arc causes the boss to swing his massive weapon and deal damage in a large area in front, to the left, or to the right of the boss. It is easy to tell which area the boss will strike, as blue lights flash in that direction. The boss' animation also serves to clearly indicate where he will strike.
  • When the boss swings his weapon back over his left shoulder, he will strike the area to his right.
  • When the boss swings his weapon back over his right shoulder, he will strike the area to his left.
  • When the boss holds the weapon pointing forward, he will strike the area in front of him.
  Getting hit by this attack, in addition to the damage it deals, also applies a stacking debuff that reduces the target's armor by 10% for 30 seconds, per stack.
• Stomp deals damage to players in a 12-yard radius around the boss, also stunning them for 2 seconds. It is easy to tell when a Stomp is about to happen from the boss' animation. He will lift the weapon up above his head.

While these two abilities are damaging on their own, avoiding them has another, very important benefit. Whenever a player avoids taking damage from all abilities in a Devastating Combo, they gain the Opportunistic Strike ability, in the form of an extra action button. This ability can only be used once, and it deals 500,000 damage to the target.

Each boss also applies a debuff to his main aggro target, called Magnetic Armor. This debuff is harmless when the tank is within 15 yards of the boss. When the tank exceeds this distance, however, he will be instantly pulled back to the boss.

Every 2 minutes and 30 seconds, the room will fill up with Titan Gas. The first 3 Titan Gases last for 20 seconds each. The fourth (and final) Gas lasts until the bosses are killed. Titan Gas has several effects.

• It deals raid-wide Frost damage every second.
• It increases the damage done of all melee players and tanks by 25%.
• It increases the damage done of all enemies by 25%.
• It stops all adds from spawning for the duration.

When Titan Gas is cast for the final time, the adds continue to spawn during this time. This Titan Gas remains in the room until the bosses have been killed, and it acts as a sort of enrage mechanic.

The strategy for this phase revolves around several key aspects.

• All adds must be kept under control and killed in a timely fashion. The same priority order applies as in Phase One.
  1. Emperor's Courage;
  2. Emperor's Strength;
  3. Emperor's Rage.
• The tanks and melee DPS players must avoid as many of the Devastating Combos as possible.
• Healers must be prepared for the very intense moments when the room is covered in Titan Gas.

We will go into detail regarding each of these aspects below.

It is interesting to note that the phase does not get progressively more difficult in any way.

As soon as the two bosses spawn, the two tanks should pick them up. The bosses should be tanked a fair distance apart from one another (roughly 60 yards), in order to avoid overlapping Devastating Arcs. The ranged DPS and healers should be in such a location that their position and the two boss tanking positions form a triangle. This will allow the healers and DPS to be in range of both bosses (and the tanks), without being in danger of being hit by Devastating Arc or Stomp.

Naturally, these positions will be off-set somewhat when random players have to move in order to avoid being hit by adds that fixate on them.

All of the adds should be dealt with in the same way as during Phase One. Even though it may be tempting to DPS the bosses, maintaining proper control of the fight is crucial, so killing the adds remains the top priority.

It is especially important to kill the Emperor's Courage adds quickly, because if they manage to reach the tank and slow them, it will be impossible to avoid being hit by the Devastating Combos.

The Emperor's Strength must also be killed quickly, because as the radius of their Energizing Smash increases over time, it will be impossible for the melee DPS or tanks to avoid being stunned.

The Emperor's Rage, while not very problematic, must also be killed so that too many of them do not accumulate.

Tanks and melee DPS will quickly learn the animations of the various ways in which Devastating Arc can be cast, and avoiding them should only be a matter of concentration.

For tanks, it is especially important to avoid these attacks. This is because the armor-reducing debuff that getting hit by Devastating Arc applies can prove quite dangerous, if the number of stacks is high. Note that the debuff will not have time to expire between Devastating Combos, so avoiding being hit by Devastating Arc is mandatory.

Tanks have an added challenge, here, that DPS players do not share. Because of Magnetic Armor, tanks cannot simply out-range the attacks of the bosses. For the Devastating Arcs, the tanks can quite easily move to the side of the boss that will not be affected. However, in order to avoid the Stomp, tanks will have to move away from the boss, between 13 and 15 yards, where they will not be hit by the Stomp, nor pulled back by Magnetic Armor. This will be tricky to do at first, but it should become easy with some practice.

While Titan Gas is active, everyone must be prepared for the increased damage, from both sides.

On the one hand, melee DPS players should try to use their cooldowns during this time. Additionally, this is the ideal time for using Heroism/ Bloodlust/ Time Warp.

On the other hand, tanks and healers must be prepared to use cooldowns to counter the increased tank damage, as well as the raid damage.

If everyone in the raid plays perfectly during this phase, there should be no raid damage at all outside of Titan Gas. However, healers should still be prepared to heal those raid members who are careless enough to be hit by the Emperor's Rage or by Devastating Combos.

The tank damage should be fairly moderate most of the time, unless the tank has stacks of the armor-reducing debuff applied by Devastating Arc.

An event of particular importance is when the room is filled with gas, due to Titan Gas. Healing and raid cooldowns should be used here in order to mitigate the damage. Because the mobs also do increased damage at this time, healers should coordinate with tanks for proper cooldown usage.

Heroism/ Bloodlust/ Time Warp is best used during Phase Two, when Titan Gas has just been released into the room. This is because at this moment, the raid is benefiting from increased damage, and no new adds are spawning to distract players from attacking the bosses.

Success in this encounter is heavily reliant on two sets of skills that your raid must aquire:

• dealing with the various types of adds;
• avoiding all of the Devastating Combo attacks.

You should focus on these two aspects. Once your raid is comfortable with them, defeating the encounter should only be a matter of time.

The Heroic mode of the Will of the Emperor encounter makes for an extremely challenging fight, although it is not very different from the Normal mode version.

The bosses and adds all deal increased damage, and they also have considerably more health. In addition to this, there are several changes in mechanics.

• The Titan Gas is present throughout the encounter, from beginning to end. Titan Gas also no longer prevents the adds from spawning. Otherwise, there is no change in the way that the ability works.
• Devastating Combos now consist of 10 attacks from each boss, instead of 5 attacks in Normal mode (the attacks themselves remain unchanged, although getting hit by them deals considerably more damage). The Opportunistic Strike ability, with which you are rewarded for avoiding an entire Devastating Combo, now deals 1 million damage, up from 500K.
• Each time one of the adds is killed, another add, called Titan Sparks, will spawn at its location.
  • The Titan Sparks fixate on random raid members, and move slowly towards them. When anyone comes in contact with a Titan Spark, the add will detonate, dealing an extreme amount of Nature damage to all players within 8 yards, and also buffing any bosses or adds within this radius with a 50% attack speed increase for 2 minutes. The Titan Sparks can be attacked and killed, but as we will see in the strategy section, this is highly inefficient.

The permanent presence of the Titan Gas does not change the encounter greatly. It will merely act as a constant strain on your healers.

The changes to Devastating Combo do not affect the strategy and execution of the encounter, either. It simply makes it somewhat harder to avoid an entire Devastating Combo, but for raids attempting this fight on Heroic mode, avoiding Devastating Combos should be second nature.

Finally, the Titan Sparks that spawn each time an add is killed constitute a major change to the encounter. Even though they can be attacked and killed, doing so will significantly lower the amount of damage your raid can do to the bosses and adds, and this is not a valid strategy.

Instead, certain raid members will have to run into the Titan Sparks, and detonate them. Only players who have damage immunities or large damage reductions can do this. Specifically, Paladins (using Divine Shield), Hunters (using Deterrence), Priests (using Dispersion), and Rogues (using Cloak of Shadows) are ideal for this task, but other classes and specs may be able to do the same.

The main source of Titan Sparks is the Emperor's Rage adds. Because of the large number of Titan Sparks that these adds will generate (since they spawn in greater numbers than any other adds), we advise crowd-controlling several waves of them, and killing them together. You can then have a single player detonate all the Titan Sparks by running into all of them at once.

Given the fact that there is very little happening in the fight when the first wave of Emperor's Rages spawns (no other adds are active, and neither are the bosses), you can afford to kill the Titan Sparks that result from the deaths of these Rages. This will allow you not to use a soaker for them, saving their cooldown for later.

You must make sure that no Titan Sparks are detonated in the vicinity of adds or bosses. Moreover, players on whom the Titan Sparks are fixated must make sure that they are not kited into other raid members.

The Show Me Your Moves! achievement is part of the Glory of the Pandaria Raider meta-achievement, which rewards you with the Reins of the Heavenly Crimson Cloud Serpent mount. The achievement is not difficult in itself, but it will require excellent awareness from every single raid member.

The requirement is that every raid member uses the Opportunistic Strike ability against the bosses, after avoiding all the attacks in the same Devastating Combo. This will obviously require a lot of concentration from your raid, and it will probably take many attempts to obtain.

This concludes our guide for the Will of the Emperor encounter. We hope you it has proven of use to your raid in successfully completing all of Mogu'shan Vaults. If you want to help us improve our guide, you can always post on our forums or contact us by e-mail.