Yor'sahj the Unsleeping Tank Strategy Guide (Heroic Mode included)

Table of Contents

• 1. Overview of the Fight
• 2. Tanking Yor'sahj
• 3. Additional Tasks when Oozes are Up
• 4. Heroic Mode

Introduction

This guide is intended to provide a comprehensive description of the encounter with Yor'sahj the Unsleeping in Dragon Soul. It is mostly targeted to tanks who desire to have a short but detailed overview of what is expected of them during that fight.

This guide is updated for World of Warcraft WoD 6.1.2.

The Yor'sahj the Unsleeping encounter presents its highest degree of difficulty to the raid leader, who must make certain decisions during the fight. The other roles, including tanks, have a much easier time during this fight.

As a tank, you will have to simply tank the boss in the center of the room for the entire duration of the fight, and possibly perform a tank swap. Additionally, there are a few things you can do to maximise your performance.

The Yor'sahj encounter is essentially a single phase fight. The encounter is unique, in the sense that Yor'sahj has only one ability, which he casts with regularity.

Additionally, Yor'sahj will regularly summon 3 random oozes of a different type (out of 6 possible types). Upon reaching the boss, each ooze buffs the boss, granting him a specific ability that lasts 60 seconds. When there are about 15 seconds left on his buffs, the boss begins summoning the next set of 3 oozes.

Your raid can only kill one of the three oozes each time (as soon as one dies, the other two become immune), so you will have to deal with the combination of the abilities that the two surviving oozes grant the boss.

As a tank on the Yor'sahj encounter, you will mostly have to tank the boss in the middle of the room without any further complications. He will damage you regularly (roughly every 5 seconds) with Void Bolt, which also leaves a stacking Shadow damage DoT (5,000 damage every 2 seconds in 10-man and 30,000 in 25-man).

When the boss summons oozes (once every 75 seconds or so), he will move to the center of the room and he will not need to be tanked (he does not do anything) for 25 seconds. During this time, you can help the raid DPS the designated ooze, although this should hardly be necessary.

Because of the high damage from the Void Bolt DoT, in 25-man difficulty, a tank swap is advised (swap at around 4 stacks). In case you are solo tanking the boss, you should aim at using a defensive cooldown when your stacks of the DoT are high.

Yor'sahj will regularly become empowered by two oozes, each granting him a specific ability. While none of them are of great importance for the tank, there are some things you can do for each ooze.

• If the boss absorbs a Black ooze, he will summon many adds called Forgotten Ones. These adds fixate on random raid members, a few seconds after spawning, but gaining aggro of them right as they spawn will have them fixate on you instead.
• If the boss absorbs a Green ooze, he will regularly cast Digestive Acid, which deals Nature damage to a number of random players and everyone within 4 yards of them. Make sure you are not standing next to any other players.
• If the boss absorbs a Red ooze, he will deal damage to the players who are standing farthest away from him (and the damage will be higher, the farther away they are). As a tank, this should not concern you, but in any case, you should aim to be as close to the boss as possible.
• If the boss absorbs a Purple ooze, each 5th heal cast on a player will deal massive raid damage. As a result, healing on you will be scarce during this time, and you should use defensive cooldowns to survive.
• If the boss absorbs a Yellow ooze, he will deal more damage to you and he will cast Void Bolt more often (stacking the DoT more, as well). Use; defensive cooldowns here.
• If the boss absorbs a Blue ooze, DPS players will need to kill a Mana Void that will spawn. This add does not require tanking. If the other ooze requires the raid to stack on the boss, then you will need to move the boss next to the Mana Void, so that the melee DPS can also attack it.

The main difference between the Normal and Heroic versions of the encounter with Yor'sahj is that your raid will have to kill 1 of 4 oozes (instead of 1 of 3), which means that Yor'sahj will be empowered by 3 oozes.

Other that that, all abilities deal more damage.

As a tank, you will find that the Heroic version of the encounter with Yor'sahj is very similar to the Normal version. The damage is harder to survive, especially in 25-man difficulty, where the DoT from Void Bolt ticks for 50,000 damage (up from 30,000).