Vault of Archavon

Your friendly guide to tackling the Vault of Archavon raid in World of Warcraft. Learn boss strategies for Archavon, Emalon, and Koralon to secure victory.

Alright, so you're looking to dive into the Vault of Archavon? This raid is located in Wintergrasp, and you'll need to control the keep to get in. Keep in mind that the raid setup can change depending on which bosses you're aiming for. While you might find groups for just one boss, it's more common these days to go for all three.

Boss Strategies:

Archavon

• TL;DR: Stay out of the clouds he spawns, and the tank needs to keep him moving. It's a DPS race against his enrage timer.
• Strategy: The main thing here is positioning. Everyone needs to be off the stairs. Archavon will spawn clouds, and if you're standing in one, you're going to die. The tank's job is simple: keep Archavon's backside off these clouds. Beyond that, it's all about burning him down fast. You've got about six minutes before his enrage timer kicks in, so don't hold back on your damage cooldowns!

Emalon

• TL;DR: Requires well-geared players (40k+ health for tanks). Tanks split aggro, DPS focuses Emalon, and everyone avoids Chain Lightning and Lightning Nova. A dangerous add spawns later that needs to be nuked down quickly.
• Strategy: This fight is strictly for the well-geared. Tanks should be pushing 40,000 health. The off-tank pulls all the adds while the main tank taunts Emalon. The off-tank takes the adds to one side (left), and the main tank takes Emalon to the other (right). Crucially, nobody should be DPSing the adds; all focus fire is on Emalon. Ranged players and healers need to spread out, staying at least 10 yards apart, because Chain Lightning jumps between players and gets stronger with each jump.
• Lightning Nova: Emalon will eventually cast Lightning Nova. If you're within 20 yards of him when this happens, you're looking at instant death if you have 15,000 health or less. Melee classes should back off immediately, and anyone with a magic resist ability, like Cloak of Shadows, should use it.
• Enraged Add: After the Nova, Emalon enrages one of the adds. This add grows huge and starts stacking a buff. You have about 10 seconds – roughly 10 stacks of the buff – before your raid wipes. This means every single DPS player needs to switch targets and burn this add down with everything they've got. If your healing is weak or your tanks aren't up to par, this fight can go south fast. It's not overly complex, but everyone has to play their role perfectly.

Koralon

• TL;DR: If you can avoid standing in fire, you can beat this boss. Requires Naxx gear or better. It's a tank-and-spank with a focus on avoiding fire and managing a stacking debuff.
• Strategy: The main mechanic here is pretty straightforward: don't stand in the fire! You'll want to go into this fight with gear that's at least equivalent to what you'd get from Naxxramas. It's largely a tank-and-spank encounter. You'll need two tanks. Both should get out of the fire that appears under their feet. Koralon applies a stacking debuff, which acts as a soft enrage timer, so your DPS needs to be high. Having a second tank is also beneficial for handling his frontal cleave, allowing the two tanks to split the damage.