Lady Vashj Guide: Strategy, Abilities, Loot

Lady Vashj is the sixth and final boss of the Serpentshrine Cavern raid instance. The Lady Vashj encounter is one of the longest encounters in all of The Burning Crusade Classic and includes three unique phases that will require all members of the raid to be aware of their mechanics and how to properly handle them.

Ensure that all of the healers in the raid are evenly spread throughout the platform. The Lady Vashj encounter has a lot of mechanics that will force you to spread, so having assigned areas can help greatly in the first two phases.

This is an extremely long fight; if possible, put an emphasis on MP5/Mana Regeneration. There are no notable periods of high damage but the boss' fight length can make Mana a problem.

Ensure a tank is assigned to handling the Coilfang Elites that spawn and they are faced away from the raid as they have a deadly cleave.

Vashj's threat resets when the fourth and final shield generator is broken so a tank needs to be at the center of the platform ready to pick her up.

Make sure you have major DPS cooldowns ready for the third and final phase as it is the only major dps check in this boss encounter.

The adds that spawn during this boss are absolutely always the priority and should be focused down as quickly as it is safe to.

Melee DPS cannot hit the Coilfang Striders — they will fear anyone within melee range so Ranged DPS must focus these down as quickly as possible.

• Static Charge — A debuff will appear on a random player in the raid and deal 2,000 Nature damage to anyone within 5 yards of them. If you are targeted by this mechanic you must get away from the raid.
• Shock Blast — Deals massive damage to the person with aggro on Lady Vashj and stuns them for five seconds. This can be stopped by using a Shaman's Grounding Totem.
• Shoot — If no one is in melee range Vashj will shoot the highest-threat target dealing about the same damage as her auto attack.
• Entangle — Roots everyone within 15 yards of Lady Vashj; this effect can be cleared by anything that removes movement impairs such as Blessing of Freedom and Cloak of Shadows.
• Multi-Shot — This will target a random player and deal damage to them and players near them.
• Forked Lightning — This is exclusive to the second phase. Lightning will be cast in a cone in front of Vashj, so avoid being in front of the boss if possible.

• Cleave — Deals damage to anyone in front of the Elite. Make sure you are not in front of this mob and it is tanked away from the group.
• Hamstring — Applies a slowing effect to whoever has threat on the Elite.

• Mind Blast — Deals Shadow damage to whoever has aggro on it.
• Panic — Pulses every two seconds; anyone with melee range of this mob will be feared. No one should ever be in melee range of the Coilfang Strider.

• Poison Bolt — Deals a small amount of Nature damage to its target and applies a damage-over-time effect.

• Surge — Enchanted Elementals do nothing but run toward Lady Vashj. If they reach her she will gain the stacking buff Surge which increases her damage done by 5% per stack. It is important to minimize the amount of Elementals that reach Vashj.

• Toxic Spores — Toxic Spore Bats will be dropping puddles of poison on the ground that last for the rest of the boss encounter. This acts as a soft enrage.

Lady Vashj is an extremely lengthy boss fight where spreading throughout the room is crucial. Having assigned positions for healers especially can help minimize any unnecessary deaths and damage the raid will take.

During the first phase of the Lady Vashj encounter the raid will be focused primarily on staying spread to minimize the effects of Static Charge. A Shaman should be ready to use Grounding Totem for Shock Blast. This phase will end once Lady Vashj has reached 70% HP and Phase 2 will begin.

The second phase of this encounter is the most difficult part and requires a large amount of personal responsibility from everyone in the group. At 70% health Lady Vashj will activate her shield and go inactive except for her Forked Lightning ability. She will be immune to damage and stay in the center of the room. There are four shield generators positioned around Vashj's platform that must be disabled to be able to move onto the next phase and make Vashj attackable once again. To disable a generator a player with a Tainted Core in their inventory must be standing next to it, so you will need four players each with a Tainted Core to be able to advance the phase.

During this phase a multitude of adds will be spawning and each must be handled differently.

• The Coilfang Striders that spawn must be slowed at all times. It is important that a ranged tank (any class that can hold threat) picks these up and it is kept at a distance from the raid as it will be constantly pulsing an aura that will fear anyone within melee range. Effects such as Frost Shock from a Shaman or even Slow from an Arcane Mage greatly simplify the process of handling these adds. They are the absolute highest priority for ranged damage dealers.
• The Coilfang Elite is a beefy tank-like mob that will also spawn during this phase. It has a nasty Cleave and must be picked up by a conventional tank; it should be focused down by melee dps. While it is important to kill the Elites they do not need to die instantly and as long as they are dead before the next wave of spawns it should not be an issue to heal through their damage, so do not hesitate to send some of your melee to handle Enchanted or Tainted Elementals.
• Enchanted Elementals will be spawning constantly from the edges of the water surrounding the platform and will try to make their way to Lady Vashj to give her a stacking damage buff. It is important that these are killed as quickly as possible to limit her stacks. Hunters are especially strong with dealing with these thanks to their strong mobility and long range. Pre-assigning hunters to areas of the room for Phase 2 can help if you are struggling to kill these.
• Tainted Elementals are the carriers of the Tainted Cores you will need to disable the generators. Killing the Tainted Elemental will allow a player to loot the Core from the corpse of the Elemental. Having a Tainted Core in your inventory will root you and the only way to move it is by using the Tainted Core item itself on another player, passing the item to them. The easiest way to handle this is by having two players pass the core back and forth until they are in range of the generator where an assigned individual who is positioned near the generator can receive the item and disable it. It is ideal to have a high-health or damage-resistant target as your generator disabler as Forked Lightning can be cast on anyone in the raid, including those who are holding a Core.

Once all four of the generators are disabled Lady Vashj will become active again and Toxic Spore Bats will begin to spawn. Lady Vashj's threat table is completely wiped going into this phase and any remaining adds from Phase 2 should be killed as your absolute highest priority. The Toxic Spore Bats that will be spawning should be the highest priority for any ranged damage dealers to limit the spread of their poison clouds and allow the raid the proper room needed to spread. The rest of the boss is dealing with the Phase One mechanics and burning down Lady Vashj.

Item	Item Type	Slot
Vashj's Vial Remnant	Quest Item	Quest Item
Prism of Inner Calm	Accessory	Trinket
Serpent Spine Longbow	Weapon	Bow
Fang of Vashj	Weapon	Dagger
Lightfathom Scepter	Weapon	Main Hand Mace
Coral Band of the Revived	Accessory	Ring
Ring of Endless Coils	Accessory	Ring
Krakken-Heart Breastplate	Plate	Chest
Glorious Gauntlets of Crestfall	Plate	Gloves
Cobra-Lash Boots	Mail	Boots
Belt of One-Hundred Deaths	Leather	Belt
Runetotem's Mantle	Leather	Shoulders
Vestments of the Sea-Witch	Cloth	Chest
Helm of the Vanquished Defender	Tier Token	Helmet
Helm of the Vanquished Hero	Tier Token	Helmet
Helm of the Vanquished Champion	Tier Token	Helmet