Lethon Guide: Strategy, Abilities, Loot
Lethon is one of the four Dragons of Nightmare and can be found in one of the four random spawn locations at Feralas, The Hinterlands, Ashenvale, and Duskwood when the bosses are spawned.
This guide will help you prepare for his unique special abilities, explain a strategy to maximize your odds of success, and go into detail on his loot table.
Lethon Summary by Role
Tanks
- You will need at least 2 tanks so that Noxious Breath can be prevented on the current tank most of the time, allowing for greater threat generation.
- You should turn the boss around periodically in order to make Shadow Bolt Whirl never hits the raid at all. Turn him every time his feet glow four times in a row (assuming that he was not hitting the raid with Shadow Bolts from those volleys), as that is when he switches the sides he is throwing Shadow Bolts from.
- As usual with Dragon bosses, keep him turned away from the raid such that your raid group is standing to the side of the boss, as they will do a very dangerous breath attack from the front and also have a tail sweep attack from their backs.
- Their breath attack, Noxious Breath inflicts a damage over time effect, increases the cooldown on your abilities by 10 seconds and stacks up to 6 times. This all but requires a tank swap, as even one application of the breath will cause you to fall very behind on threat generation.
Healers
- Make sure to avoid the green clouds that roam the encounter area, as they will sleep you for 5 seconds, possibly causing deaths in the process.
- If Shadow Bolt Whirl hits the raid, it will do a lot of raid damage, so be ready with group heals.
DPS
- Make sure to avoid the green clouds that roam the encounter area, as they will sleep you for 5 seconds, possibly causing deaths in the process.
- Kill as many Spirits raised by Draw Spirit as you can. They only have 500 health each, but are immune to area of effect abilities, so make sure to target them individually.
Lethon Important Abilities
- Shadow Bolt Whirl is the most important mechanic of this fight. Lethon will fire off Shadow Bolt volleys at the raid almost constantly, which will quickly deplete your healer Mana reserves.
- Draw Spirit stuns the raid group for 5 seconds and causes Spirits to come out of players, which slowly move towards Lethon, healing him for a massive amount if they reach. Because he will only cast this the first time he hits 75%, 50% and 25% life, it is possible to ignore them and kill the boss, but if you want to shorten the fight, it is advisable for DPS players to run further than 100 yards away from the boss to stop the spirits from spawning altogether or be far enough away that you have time to kill the Spirits individually before they reach the boss.
- Mark of Nature is cast on any player who dies during the fight, lasts for 15 minutes and causes them to fall asleep for the duration of the debuff if they re-engage Lethon, thus preventing players from re-joining the fight if they die at any point.
- Noxious Breath is a breath attack in front of the boss and forces a tank swap by reducing the threat output of the affected tank significantly.
Strategy for Lethon
Lethon can be the hardest Dragon of Nightmare, or the easiest, all down to how your tanks handle Shadow Bolt Whirl. The idea is to have the whole raid stack up together on one side of the boss, and strategically turn him every time his feet glow four times in a row in order to avoid taking any raid damage at all.
If you fail the dance, the raid will likely take too much damage from the Shadow Bolts and die before being able to kill him.
Start the fight by pulling the boss to the bottom of the ramp and have your main tank turn him sideways, such that the raid group can stack up on his side.
Whenever the boss approaches 75%, 50% and 25% health, you might want most of the DPS run 100 yards away from the boss, thus avoiding Draw Spirit entirely and making the boss heal for less. Otherwise, make sure to kill as many Spirits as you can, but you will have plenty of time to kill the boss if Shadow Bolt Whirl is dealt with. Rinse and repeat until he is dead, and good luck with the loot!
You can see an example kill here, by Baron / Cstrike Gaming.
Lethon Loot
Item | Slot |
---|---|
Gauntlets of the Shining Light | Hands |
Deviate Growth Cap | Head |
Acid Inscribed Greaves | Boots |
Ancient Corroded Leggings | Legs |
Gloves of Delusional Power | Gloves |
Trance Stone | Off-Hand |
Dragonspur Wraps | Wrist |
Green Dragonskin Cloak | Back |
Staff of Rampant Growth | Two-Hand |
Dark Heart Pants | Legs |
Black Bark Wristbands | Wrist |
Dragonbone Wristguards | Wrist |
Hammer of Bestial Fury | Main-Hand |
Belt of the Dark Bog | Waist |
Changelog
- 18 Nov. 2024: Page updated for SoD P6 & Classic Anniversary.
- 06 Aug. 2024: Guide reviewed and updated.
- 06 Jul. 2020: Corrected the amount of Shadow Bolt Volley casts you need to count before turning the boss around.
- 16 Apr. 2020: Guide added.
This guide has been written by Abide, TBC veteran for nearly a decade. Abide is a Warrior tank and multi-class expert currently playing on Faerlina as Horde. You can find him in the the Icy Veins Discord. You can also see him live on Twitch.
- Patch 1.15.5 Notes: Season of Discovery Phase 6 & WoW Classic Anniversary Realm Details
- Changes Coming to PvP Layering on Anniversary Classic Realms
- Anniversary Realms to Introduce Dual Spec, Instant Mail, and More
- Mists of Pandaria Classic Reveal Trailer
- WoW Classic Relaunch and Fresh Start LFG Tool, Rules and Realm Sizes Announced
- WoW Classic Roadmap for 2025: Mists of Pandaria Classic, New Endgame Content in SoD, and New Classic Cycle
- New WoW Classic Cycle Begins November 21 with Fresh Vanilla Start and Hardcore Servers!
- Is Mists of Pandaria Classic Coming? New Mount Icons in Patch 11.0.7 Fuel Speculation for Warcraft Direct Announcement