Archavon the Stone Watcher Encounter Guide: Strategy, Abilities, Loot

Archavon the Stone Watcher is the first boss available inside the Vault of Archavon in Phase 1 of WotLK, being the only boss in the entire Raid until Phase 2. Archavon the Stone Watcher is a nature- and earth-based mob, using spells and abilities based on those elements. Archavon himself drops Chests, Gloves and Legs for PvP and PvE sets. On 10-player, these will be item level 200 and on 25-player these will be item level 213. You are able to run both 10-player and 25-player versions of the raid weekly, so be sure and run both every week for the highest chance of getting loot.

• Stay spread out around the room to prevent multiple people being hit by Rock Shards.
• Constantly be aware of any Choking Cloud left in the area and move out of it quickly.
• Ranged DPS should attempt to stay at max range almost all of the time if possible.

• Be ready to quickly heal the tank up after the Stomp, Impale combo. Be aware also after this combo that a tank swap will occur and you will need to start healing the new tank as well.
• Rock Shards deals high damage to a random target and any nearby allies, so be ready to quickly throw a heal at the target or they will die.

• This fight can technically be solo-tanked if players kite the boss around when you are stunned by Impale.
• If you are not solo-tanking, be ready to taunt the boss whenever the other tank gets stunned by Impale as this will cause the boss to drop threat.

• Crushing Leap — Archavon leaps to a random target, dealing damage to all nearby targets and knocks them back.
• Choking Cloud — Leaves a cloud wherever Archavon lands after Crushing Leap. This cloud deals damage over time to targets inside the cloud and reduces their chance to hit by 50%.
• Rock Shards — Deals high damage to a random target over time and any nearby enemies.
• Stomp — Deals moderate damage to everyone and stuns them for 2 seconds. Casts Impale on the tank immediately after.
• Impale — Stuns the current tank for 8 seconds and deals very high Physical damage.

Start the fight off by having the raid spread out around the boss's room, with ranged players staying at maximum range. Be ready to move out of the Choking Clouds and move away from Rock Shards targets. This fight is a pretty standard DPS race, so use all of your cooldowns early on to burn the boss down.

This boss drops Tier 7 PvE Chest, Hands, and Legs Tier pieces (identical to those from Naxxramas); as well as PvP Chest, Hands and Legs for your PvP sets. In the 10-player version two item level 200 gear pieces drops, such as: Hateful Gladiator's Chain Armor, Hateful Gladiator's Chain Gauntlets, or Hateful Gladiator's Chain Leggings for PvP gear sets and Heroes' Cryptstalker Tunic, Heroes' Cryptstalker Handguards, or Heroes' Cryptstalker Legguards for PvE gear sets. For a full list of what available gear drops you desire, be sure to check out your class-specific PvE and PvP guides.

On 25-player difficulty, this boss will drop four pieces of 213 item level gear, such as: Deadly Gladiator's Chain Armor, Deadly Gladiator's Chain Gauntlets, or Deadly Gladiator's Chain Leggings for PvP gear sets and Valorous Cryptstalker Tunic, Valorous Cryptstalker Handguards, or Valorous Cryptstalker Legguards for PvE gear sets. For a full list of what available gear drops you desire, be sure to check out your class-specific PvE and PvP guides. In addition to the gear drops, on 25-player difficulty, Archavon the Stone Watcher also has a small chance of dropping the Reins of the Grand Black War Mammoth/ Reins of the Grand Black War Mammoth, a very large, multiple person mammoth mount.

Achievement	Description
Archavon the Stone Watcher (10 player)	Defeat Archavon the Stone Watcher in 10 player mode.
Archavon the Stone Watcher (25 player)	Defeat Archavon the Stone Watcher in 25 player mode.

Archavon the Stone Watcher is just one of the 4 encounters eventually present in the Vault of Archavon raid of Wrath of the Lich King. If you would like to learn more about the others, please see our other pages for the raid below.