Valithria Dreamwalker Encounter Guide: Strategy, Abilities, Loot

• Blazing Skeleton followed by Suppressers are your priority kill targets, always swap to these right away.
• Ranged DPS must properly kite the Blistering Zombies. Utilize some form of slow on them.

• Coordinating your raid-wide healing increase cooldowns while your healers have high stacks of Emerald Vigor is crucial to winning this encounter.
• Make sure you always have healers up top to heal the tank and raid.
• Immediately dispel the Gut Spray debuff off of your tank.

• Face the Gluttonous Abominations away from the raid to prevent additional damage from Gut Spray.
• If a Blistering Zombie will reach the raid, you can taunt it and kite it. Do not tank them or bring them into the raid group.

Valithria Dreamwalker is a unique encounter, in which players will aim to heal the boss to full health, rather than reducing her health to zero. To aid in this, you will want a handful of your DPS players that have a healing off-spec to swap to that instead for this fight, as the more healing available, the better. The "sweet spot" number of healers for this fight is about 10, as anymore than this will start to have reduced value as only 8 players can enter the Summon Nightmare Portals.

The primary mechanic on this fight that the raid must master are the Summon Nightmare Portals that will spawn every 45 seconds. These portals grant access to a Dream State, bringing players into Valithria Dreamwalkers on-going nightmare. Healers understanding how this realm works is vital to defeating this encounter.

You will always want 2 healers in the normal realm, one on either side of the room, to keep your raid members that remain in the normal realm alive. All of the other healers that are assigned to take Nightmare Portals must quickly enter the nearest portal, doing their best to lightly spread out before they start to appear.

While inside the Dream State, players will see a handful of Nightmare Clouds; these clouds will detonate as soon as a player touches them, debuffing all nearby players with a stack of Emerald Vigor. As this buff grants 200 Mana every 3 seconds, as well as 10% increased healing done per stack, this "debuff" is the key to beating this boss. Healers must understand how to gain this buff, and keep it running throughout the entire fight once they begin to acquire stacks of it.

Immediately upon entering the Nightmare Portal, all players should look for the nearest Nightmare Cloud and run on top of it to refresh their stacks of Emerald Vigor. Once your stacks are refreshed, the healers will want to collapse to a pre-arranged spot and continue to move around as a group to each of the Nightmare Clouds, gaining as many stacks of Emerald Vigor as possible. Utilize your instant cast heals here as you do not want to stop moving once during this part. Healers must quickly organize and follow in the same direction, as there are a limited number of Nightmare Clouds available, and getting as many stacks of Emerald Vigor as possible is your main goal.

With the healers jobs sorted, we will focus on what the tank and the DPS players will be doing during this fight. For the tank, your job is very simple; pick up any Gluttonous Abominations that spawn and quickly face them away from the raid. These are the only important mob that needs to be tanked as they will kill any DPS they touch. When these Gluttonous Abominations die, they will spawn in a large group of Rot Worms; simply have these AoE'd down instantly and avoid being hit by them if possible.

DPS players will have a few different targets to prioritize. Firstly, any and all Blazing Skeletons must be killed as soon as possible. If these are allowed to live for 10 seconds, they will start to channel Lay Waste, dealing 5,891 to 6,609 Fire damage to all enemies every 2 seconds.

Once any Blazing Skeletons are dead, your next priority targets are the Suppressers. These have no threat table and will never attack you, so feel free to immediately start to nuke these down as soon as you can. If left alive, the Suppressers will cast Suppression on Valithria Dreamwalker as soon as they reach her, reducing her healing received by 10% per stack. Since the entire fight revolves around healing Valithria Dreamwalker to full health, these are a huge detriment to the raid and should be quickly killed off.

Risen Archmages are the third kill priority for melee DPS as they cast multiple deadly spells, such as Mana Void and Column of Frost. These should be interrupted as much as possible and stunned whenever they are in a good position, stopping them from casting entirely. These will still usually get a couple Mana Voids or Column of Frosts off, so the raid must constantly be looking at their feet and moving out of the ground effects.

Lastly, ranged players should be prioritizing the Blistering Zombies third, as they must be kited and killed away from the rest of the raid. When the Blistering Zombie dies it will explode with Acid Burst, dealing 17,672 to 19,828 Nature damage instantly and 1,250 Nature damage per second to all enemies for 20 seconds. Use a slowing ability on these, such as Chains of Ice, and have your ranged DPS focus these down and kite them away from the raid group.

From this point on the fight simply repeats, with DPS needing to continually kill fresh waves of adds, and healers needing to constantly maintain their Emerald Vigor stacks until they can fully heal Valithria Dreamwalker and complete the encounter.

On heroic difficulty, players will be debuffed by Twisted Nightmares instead of Emerald Vigor whilst inside of the Dream State. This debuff still grants the same 200 mana every 3 seconds, as well as 10% increased healing done per stack; but also adds 200 Nature damage a second per stack. This will require the healers to always be topping themselves up, especially while in the Dream State.

The main threat to healers with this debuff is when they are moving together in the Dream State. The use of all available instant cast spells to keep people alive while moving is required, and possibly stopping for 1 or 2 seconds to cast a quick heal might also help to top people off. Overall you want to prioritize moving to the next Nightmare Cloud, unless someone will die if you do not hard-cast a heal.

After 20 seconds, these healers will return to the surface and should return to healing Valithria Dreamwalker. The healers assigned to always be in the normal realm should be ready to keep the healers with Twisted Nightmares alive, as their time should be focused o Valithria Dreamwalker herself. The easiest way to trivialize this mechanic is to have a Holy Paladin place their Beacon of Light on Valithria Dreamwalker herself, then spam Holy Light into the group of stacked healers with Twisted Nightmares debuffs.

Following this, the Holy Paladin should be able to nearly solo-heal the group of healers afflicted with Twisted Nightmares, with some help every now and then. Seeing as there are no other great places to use raid-wide defensive cooldowns, it is recommended to begin rotating these at around 80% health on Valithria Dreamwalker, or whenever your raid makes the call to make the last healing push to top her health up entirely. This will allow the healers to focus more on the Dreamwalker herself and finish the encounter up quickly.

• Dreamwalker's Rage — Deals 10,000,000 Nature damage to all surrounding enemies up reaching 100% health.
• Summon Nightmare Portal — Summons in Nightmare Portals every 45 seconds, allowing access to the dream realm.
• Emerald Vigor — Invigorates the target with dreams, regenerating 200 Mana every 3 seconds. The target's damage and healing will also be increased by 10%. Stacks up to 100 times. Lasts 40 seconds.
• Twisted Nightmares — Afflicts the target with nightmares, dealing 200 Nature damage per second. In addition, the target will regenerate 200 Mana every 3 seconds. The target's damage and healing will also be increased by 10%. Stacks up to 100 times. Lasts 40 seconds.

• Lay Waste — Surrounds the caster in flames for 12 sec, pulsing 5,891 to 6,609 Fire damage to all enemies every 2 seconds, unless interrupted.
• Fireball — Inflicts 5,891 to 6,609 Fire damage to an enemy.

• Acid Burst — The caster explodes, dealing 17,672 to 19,828 Nature damage instantly and 1,250 Nature damage per second to all enemies within 15 yards. Lasts 20 seconds.
• Corrosion — Whenever the caster lands a melee swing, the target takes 3,125 Nature damage every 3 seconds and their armor is reduced by 10%. This effect can stack up to 5 times. Lasts 6 seconds.

• Gut Spray — Deals 3,750 Nature damage per second and increases Physical damage taken by 25% for 12 seconds.
• Rot Worm — Summons in a large pack of Rot Worms upon death.

• Frostbolt Volley — Inflicts 4,713 to 5,287 Frost damage to nearby enemies, reducing their movement speed by 50% for 8 seconds.
• Column of Frost — Marks the location under a random player target. After 2 seconds, a column of frost erupts from this location, dealing 17,672 to 19,828 Frost damage to all enemies within 3 yards and knocks them into the air.
• Mana Void — Summons a Mana Void at a random enemies location. This Mana Void burns 1,250 mana per second to all enemies within a 6 radius. Lasts 30 seconds.

• Suppression — Reduces healing received by the target by 10%. Lasts until canceled. Multiple Suppresser can apply this to Valithria at the same time, further reducing healing received.

Icecrown Citadel bosses have 4 varying difficulties that they can be engaged on, with each difficulty dropping geared tailored to match its' challenges. Below you can find a list of gear dropped on each and every difficulty for this boss encounter.

Item	Type/Slot
Sister Svalna's Spangenhelm	Leather Head
Emerald Saint's Spaulders	Plate Shoulder
Skinned Whelp Shoulders	Leather Shoulder
Lich Wrappings	Back
Taiga Bindings	Plate Wrist
Stormbringer Gloves	Mail Hands
Ironrope Belt of Ymirjar	Plate Waist
Leggings of the Refracted Mind	Cloth Legs
Legguards of the Twisted Dream	Mail Legs
Oxheart	Two-Hand Mace
Sister Svalna's Aether Staff	Staff
Dreamhunter's Carbine	Gun

Item	Type/Slot
Sister Svalna's Spangenhelm	Leather Head
Emerald Saint's Spaulders	Plate Shoulder
Skinned Whelp Shoulders	Leather Shoulder
Lich Wrappings	Back
Taiga Bindings	Plate Wrist
Stormbringer Gloves	Mail Hands
Ironrope Belt of Ymirjar	Plate Waist
Leggings of the Refracted Mind	Cloth Legs
Legguards of the Twisted Dream	Mail Legs
Oxheart	Two-Hand Mace
Sister Svalna's Aether Staff	Staff
Dreamhunter's Carbine	Gun

Item	Type/Slot
Snowstorm Helm	Mail Head
Noose of Malachite	Neck
Robe of the Waking Nightmare	Cloth Chest
Bracers of Eternal Dreaming	Leather Wrist
Anub'ar Stalker's Gloves	Mail Hands
Coldwraith Links	Plate Waist
Leggings of Dying Candles	Plate Legs
Scourge Reaver's Legplates	Plate Legs
Boots of the Funeral March	Plate Feet
Devium's Eternally Cold Ring	Ring
Frostbrood Sapphire Ring	Ring
Lungbreaker	One-Hand Dagger
Nightmare Ender	Wand

Item	Type/Slot
Snowstorm Helm	Mail Head
Noose of Malachite	Neck
Robe of the Waking Nightmare	Cloth Chest
Bracers of Eternal Dreaming	Leather Wrist
Anub'ar Stalker's Gloves	Mail Hands
Coldwraith Links	Plate Waist
Leggings of Dying Candles	Plate Legs
Scourge Reaver's Legplates	Plate Legs
Boots of the Funeral March	Plate Feet
Devium's Eternally Cold Ring	Ring
Frostbrood Sapphire Ring	Ring
Lungbreaker	One-Hand Dagger
Nightmare Ender	Wand

Achievement	Description
Portal Jockey (10 player)	Enter every portal spawned by Valithria Dreamwalker before healing her to full health in 10-player mode.
Portal Jockey (25 player)	Enter every portal spawned by Valithria Dreamwalker before healing her to full health in 25-player mode.

Valithria Dreamwalker is just one of the twelve encounters present in the Icecrown Citadel 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.