The Vaelastrasz the Corrupt Encounter
The Vaelastrasz encounter is, in many ways, quite simple in concept. But the devil is in the details! This encounter requires extremely careful execution and complete focus, since its elements of extreme unpredictability mean that any one mistake can trigger a complete raid wipe - in mere seconds.
The Environment
The Vaelastrasz encounter takes place in the second room of Blackwing Lair, directly "north" of Razorgore's room. Once the previous encounter has been defeated, the gate separating these two rooms will open. Keep in mind that we refer to the direction you are facing when you first zone into BWL as "north" even if it does not exactly match up with north on a compass or your minimap.
The room itself is a medium sized rectangle, longer on the east-west axis than the north-south axis. In the middle of the east end of the chamber, a small ramp leads up to an enclosed area with two seats. In the southeastern and northeastern corners of the chamber, ramps lead up to a U-shaped balcony which runs the length of the northern, western, and southern walls of the chamber. There is an exit from this chamber in the middle of the western wall, at the balcony level, which remains shut until Vaelastrasz has been defeated.
Each time you zone into Blackwing Lair with a reset instance, whether it has a saved raidID or not, the dragon Vaelastrasz will be lying down on the ground in the center of the chamber, facing the "throne" area. He will initially be marked friendly (green). Whenever Vaelastrasz is non-agressive (green), a member of the raid must speak to him in order to trigger the encounter.
The first time you enter this room after defeating Razorgore in a given instance, 7 other mobs will be present in addition to the languishing dragon. Victor Nefarius (in humanoid form) will be seated on the raised "throne" area. He is untargetable and immediately begins a scripted storyline event when the raid enters the chamber, after which he will vanish. In addition, 3 Blackwing Technicians (goblins) will be located just to the north and south of Vaelastrasz, or 6 Technicians in total. At the same time Nefarius begins his scripted event, these Technicians will flee to the SE and NE, ascend to the balcony, and run to the western gate to escape the chamber.
The Blackwing Technicians
The 6 goblin Technicians which are present in Vaelastrasz's chamber the first time you enter it in each instance are examples of a mob type that will recur later on in the instance. They do not offer an appreciable threat to the raid, but it is in our interests to kill as many of them as possible in each instance, since these mobs can drop the elusive Elementium Ore that is ultimately necessary in the creation quest for Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker. The individual chance for Elementium Ore to drop from each Technician is low (~3-4%), and thus every one of these mobs we can kill counts, given our desire to collect the Ore necessary for our members to attain Thunderfury.
To accomplish this task is fairly straightforward. The raid will prepare and organize itself at the northern end of Razorgore's chamber. Once the raid is prepared, *EVERYONE* should rush into Vaelastrasz' area together. Those in odd groups should head to the NE corner of the chamber, to cut off escape for the 3 Technicians that head north. Those in even groups should head to the SE corner, to cut off escape for the 3 Techniciant that head south. Players should use Aspect of the Pack, Charge, Sprint, Blink, and other such abilities to quickly close the distance to and tag all 6 Technicians. Once the Technicians have been engaged, they should be quickly but safely dispatched.
Technicians have one primary mode of attack: once aggro'd and engaged in combat, they will tend to stand in place and frequently throw short-range explosive grenades at targets near them. In these numbers (3 per group), those grenades are not a significant threat unless players get careless. Later on in Blackwing Lair, Technicians will become more of a nuisance. Once as many Technicians as possible have been killed, the raid may buff up, get to their positions, and engage Vaelastrasz.
Vaelastrasz the Corrupt, Scion of the Red Dragonflight
As noted previously, Vaelastrasz is a dragon, and shares many features and basic attacks in common with other dragons such as Onyxia and Azuregos. Vaelastrasz's non-physical attacks are all fire-based, similar to Onyxia's. He has the following abilities:
1. Single-target melee attack, which will be directed at the MT.
2. Frontal melee cleave, which should ideally only affect the MT (or MTs, depending on positioning). It is vital to note that this attack can "jump" from one affected player to someone else nearby (within melee range). In other words, anyone that is within ~10 yards of a player hit by the cleave can also be hit, and the effect can chain across a very large number of targets before in that manner, even hitting targets directly behind the dragon in certain circumstances. It is absolutely crucial that rogues remain safe from the cleave, and thus all of the players on the ground floor of the chamber while fighting Vaelastrasz must position themselves accordingly (see below).
3. Frontal cone flame breath, which should ideally only affect the MT (or MTs, during an aggro transition). The primary reason for MTs to equip FR gear is to mitigate this effect.
4. Tail whip, which includes a knockback effect.
5. Fire Nova - An AoE fire-based attack with exceedingly high range. Approximately every 5 seconds, every raid member within Vaelastrasz's chamber will be hit by this effect, which causes approximately 500-600 damage if unresisted, as well as causing noticeable disruption to spells with casting or channeling bars. It is considered a Direct Damage effect, and thus 100/75/50/25/0% of the damage may be resisted from any single pulse. No location in the chamber is safe from this AoE; the only way to escape it is to move all the way to the southern portion of Razorgore's chamber, and/or for Vaelastrasz to de-aggro and reset.
6. Essence of the Red - A debuff that Vaelastrasz applies to the raid when he is aggro'd, lasting 3 minutes but actually offering a tremendous boost to the raid's effectiveness while it lasts. See below for more details.
7. Burning Adrenaline - A debuff that Vaelastrasz applies to members of the raid every ~15 seconds once the encounter begins. It significantly enhances damage output and casting ability, lasts 20 seconds and (if the recipient survives that long) causing the affected person to explode spectacularly when its time limit is reached. See below for more details.
8. Vaelastrasz is untauntable.
It should be noted that Vaelastrasz always begin the encounter wounded, already reduced to 30% of his overall health. Even so, 30% of Vaelastrasz's health is a comparable number of HP to the entire health bar of Azuregos, which means that to bring him down, the raid must do a spectacular amount of damage in a very short amount of time.
Essence of the Red
This debuff is applied to every member of the raid, immediately, when Vaelastrasz is aggro'd. It lasts for 3 minutes, and restores 500 mana, 50 energy, or 20 rage (as applicable) to every affected player each second.
This debuff is one of the key elements of the Vaelastrasz encounter, enabling the entire raid group to sustain incredible amounts of DPS and healing for the full duration of its effects. Because of the incredible rate at which those affected generate mana, energy, or rage, it means that each individual can, in general terms, use his most effective and powerful abilities, almost continuously (or as often as cooldowns allow) for the duration of the encounter, without needing to worry about depleting their mana/energy/rage whatsoever.
The only ways currently known to remove Essence of the Red before it fades naturally are to die or for a paladin to use a Divine Shield. Both of these must be avoided at all costs, due to the integral nature of this debuff to the raid group's success.
The only raid members that are assigned Soul Stones during the Vaelastrasz encounter, as a result, are Rogues. This is done because rogues are the only class which can realistically operate at close to optimal capacity for an extended amount of time during this encounter, even if they are missing the Essence debuff; any other class will quickly run out of mana or rage and be rendered minimally useful otherwise.
Burning Adrenaline
This debuff is applied to one or more members of the raid, approximately every 15 seconds starting when the encounter begins. The overall pattern of who will receive this debuff, and when, is predictable and operates as follows:
1. Every ~15 sec after the encounter starts, a *completely random* mana user (druid/hunter/mage/paladin/priest/warlock) will receive the debuff.
2. Every ~45 sec after the encounter starts, the current leader of Vaelastrasz' aggro list will receive the debuff. Unless things have already gone awry, this should always be the currently active MT.
The only class which should *NEVER* receive Burning Adrenaline whatsoever are rogues (assuming, of course, that aggro is never unintentionally pulled from the current MT).
The effects of Burning Adrenaline (BA) are as follows:
1. All your attacks do +100% damage.
2. All your spells and abilities with non-instant casting times become instant. Note that this does NOT affect cooldowns, only casting times.
3. Every second, your MAXIMUM health will be reduced by 5%. Since there is no way to live with a maximum health of 0 HP, anyone that receives BA is guaranteed to die from it after 20 seconds, if they are not killed sooner by one of Vaelastrasz's other attacks.
4. If you survive until the debuff expires and your maximum HP is reduced to 0, you will explode in a similar fashion to the "Living Bomb" during the Baron Geddon encounter in MC. This explosion typically inflicts 5k-6k damage (including the +100% damage effect) to everyone within an AoE radius of 10 yds.
To beat this encounter, the raid group must deal appropriately with all of these aspects of BA.
Members of DPS classes that receive the debuff must maximize its +damage and casting speed effects to increase the raid's overall DPS before they, inevitably, die.
Members of healing classes that receive the debuff must maximize its instant-cast effect to increast the amount of healing they can perform before they, inevitably, die.
All classes must move, upon receiving the debuff, in such a way that they will not kill any other raid members if they survive until the debuff expires and explode.
All classes must make the proper adjustments to cover for and fill in as members of the raid, one by one, receive the debuff and die. This requires that the remaining healers adjust to take over MT healing duties when an MT healer receives the debuff, for example. It is also the key reason why our warriors must implement an ordered set of aggro transitions, from one MT to the next, as each one in the sequence receives BA at 45-second intervals.
The Warrior Aggro Transitions
The single most difficult task of this encounter, the "meat and potatoes" of a successful attempt, lies in the ordered transition of aggro from one MT to the next, as each one in turn receives BA. If the current MT dies before he is "scheduled" to receive BA, if the current MT dies before the next MT in sequence has gained aggro in a smooth transition, or if any DPSer or healer steals aggro from the current MT at *ANY* point during the encounter, it is exceedingly likely that Vaelastrasz will turn...and some combination of his cleave and flame breath attacks will likely wipe the raid group within mere seconds.
As long as these transitions occur properly, the current MT is always kept alive until he receives BA and dies a "natural" death, DPS is maintained without any pulling aggro from the current MT, and the healers are able to ensure that no raid member dies unless it is unavoidable (such as upon receiving BA), then Vaelastrasz can be defeated.
The most important elements are as follows:
5 Warriors will be assigned into a predetermined MT order, numbered from 1-5. MT1 will start on the ramp leading to the "throne" platform, directly east of Vaelastrasz, with MT2-5 outside the area of effect of the dragon's frontal cleave & breath weapon (see below for details on positioning). MT1 initiates the encounter by moving directly into Vaelastrasz's aggro radius and beginning to attack. The remaining MT2-5 will each move into range with the dragon and begin attacking at 5-second intervals once the encounter begins, to help ensure that an ordered progression of threat levels are established across all of the MTs.
MT1 should begin the encounter in Defensive stance, and continuously spam Sunder Armor, Heroic Strike, and Shield Slam/Mortal Strike. MT2-3 should begin the encounter in Defensive stance, and as each one engages in turn he should spam Heroic Strike and Shield Slam/Mortal Strike. MT4-5 should begin the encounter in Battle stance, with Blessing of Salvation applied, and as each one engages in turn he should spam Heroic Strike and Shield Slam/Mortal Strike.
When MT1 receives Burning Adrenaline, MT2 must immediately move into position directly in front of Vaelastrasz and augment his existing attack spam with Sunder Armor and Revenge to rapidly build aggro, until MT1 dies and aggro shifts to MT2.
After aggro has transferred to MT2, he should stay in Defensive stance until the dragon's health has been reduced to 20%. Once this occurs, he should switch into Battle stance and begin spamming Execute.
When MT2 receives Burning Adrenaline, MT3 must immediately move into position in front of Vaelastrasz and augment his existing attack spam with Sunder Armor and Revenge to rapidly build aggro, until MT2 dies and aggro shifts to MT3.
After aggro has transferred to MT3, he should immediately switch into Battle stance and begin spamming Execute. At the same time that MT3 begins spamming Execute, MT4-5 (who should still be in Battle stance with Blessing of Salvation applied) should begin spamming Execute as well.
When MT3 receives Burning Adrenaline, MT4 must immediately move into position as described above, disable Blessing of Salvation (via right-click), and continue to spam Execute, until MT3 dies and aggro shifts to MT4.
After aggro has transferred to MT4, he should simply continue spamming Execute.
The transition of aggro from MT4 to MT5 should occur when MT4 receives Burning Adrenaline, in exactly the same fashion as for 3->4.
Note that each MT that receives BA in turn should Last Stand, if available, and continue to attack for as long as he can after receiving the debuff. Healers should continue to heal each MT that receives BA for as long as possible as well. As the maximum health of each MT is reduced by the effects of BA over time, eventually it is certain that one of Vaelastrasz's attack will "one-shot" the MT, and thus he need not worry about exploding or moving out of the way of others as a result.
Positioning and Grouping
The raid is divided into party groups as follows:
The warriors are divided into two groups, each of which has a paladin (for FR aura) and warlock (for Blood Pact) included.
The rogues are divided into three groups, each of which has a hunter (for TS aura), paladin (FR aura), and priest included. The priests assigned to these groups should actively use Prayer of Healing to maximize their effective healing capabilities across the rogue groups.
The remaining healers and ranged DPS classes are divided up evenly into the last three groups.
The raid is positioned during the encounter as follows:
MT1 will tank Vaelastrasz so that the dragon is facing directly east toward the "throne" platform. MT1 should be on or just in front of the ramp leading up to this platform.
MT2-5 will be to Vaelastrasz's front right, just behind his front leg, to avoid cleave and fire breath. As each MT in sequence is ready to make an aggro transition when the previous MT receives BA, he should move to a spot directly in front of Vaelastrasz, on or just in front of the ramp leading up to the throne platform. At all times, Vaelastrasz should be kept facing east, towards the the active MT. Note that when Vaelastrasz applies BA to a mana user, he will briefly turn, but should not use any other attacks while turned to apply BA; these momentary lapses of attention are acceptable and expected. MT2-5 must be spaced at least ~10 yards away from the rogues.
Rogues will be to Vaelastrasz's rear right, just in front of his rear leg, to avoid cleave and fire breath as well as tail whip. The rogues must be spaced at least ~10 yards away from MT2-5.
Paladins will be split up, with those in warrior groups on the ground floor positioned in amongst the rogues, to allow them to heal as well as provide aura coverage. Paladins on the ground floor should not be positioned so as to be affected by the cleave themselves, and must NOT stand between the rogues and warriors; doing so can "bridge the gap" between them and allow the cleave effect to chain onto the rogues with disastrous results.
Ranged DPS and primary Healers will be on top of the balcony south or southwest of Vaelastrasz, just at the edge. They should group up tightly to minimize the distance anyone who receives BA must cover to reach sufficient separation from the rest of the group before exploding.
Whenever any player except for an MT gains BA, they will need to move sufficiently far from the rest of the raid group that nobody is killed when they explode.
Those on top of the balcony can move directly east or west along the balcony to safety, or (what is often simpler and faster) move obliquely off the balcony's edge, falling onto the ground level in a spot that is clear of other raid members. If needed, someone who drops off the edge can then back up towards the southern wall as well.
Healing and Fire Resist
Healers must maintain dual focuses during this encounter: keeping the MT alive, and keeping the raid alive to inflict damage on Vaelastrasz. Both of these tasks are aided by the inclusion of FR, especially on our MTs. All MTs should have 315 buffed FR for this encounter, or as close to 315 as possible, to minimize the effect of both the flame breath and Fire Nova.
The rest of the raid should aim for a buffed FR of at least 200, and more if it is possible without sacrificing too many key stats, to help alleviate some of the damage they will be taking from the Fire Nova. Keep in mind that the FR buff given by Scarshield Spellbinders in BRS will NOT be used in general, due to the time contraints necessary in doing so.
At least 3 primary Healers (Druids/Priests) should be healing the current MT at all times, with the help of our Paladins.
The remaining primary Healers and Paladins should aim to keep every member of the raid alive until and unless they die unavoidably as a result of receiving Burning Adrenaline. Generally speaking, this means a significant amount of spot healing, as well as party-based healing via Prayer of Healing, will be needed to counteract the continuous damage output of Vaelastrasz's Fire Nova.
As healers themselves are killed as a result of receiving BA, other healers must actively adjust to make up for the difference, re-prioritizing to ensure that the dwindling numbers of the raid continue to survive to the end of the encounter.
Healers that receive BA should, once they have moved to a safe spot, make the best use of BA possible before they die, sending out max-rank heals that have been converted into instant casts.
DPS
All DPS classes, both ranged and melee, will wait for 10 seconds after the encounter begins before attacking Vaelastrasz. Once they begin attacking, however, they should not hold back unless it is absolutely necessary. Any classes with aggro-reducing abilities, including Feint and Feign Death, should be used as often as their cooldowns allow. Rogues should also Vanish as soon as MT2 receives the BA debuff.
DPS classes that receive BA should, once they have moved to a safe spot, make the best use of BA possible before they die, using their most effective combat abilities and sending out max-rank spells that have been converted into instant casts.
Summary
The Vaelastrasz the Corrupt encounter is one of the most unpredictable and fast-paced encounters in World of Warcraft that we have experienced thus far. It requires focus, skill, and an absolute minimum of mistakes.
Success is dependent upon superlative tanking, amazing healing, excellent aggro control, and shockingly high DPS. All of these things must come together for the encounter to work.
