Serpentshrine Cavern

Hydross is the first boss and a gear check disguised as a tank-swap fight. He alternates between a Frost form and a Nature form. Each form requires a separate dedicated resistance tank and applies a stacking debuff to anyone in melee range — including the wrong tank, the entire melee, and any healer who creeps in too close. Our 3-warlock comp lets us Banish the Pure Spawn adds rather than tank them, which is a big strategic edge.

Mechanics

• Mark of Hydross (Frost form): raid debuff applied to anyone in his aura. Stacks every 15 seconds, escalating: 10% → 25% → 50% → 100% → 250% → 500% Frost damage taken. Cleared on phase transition. The transition itself is what saves your raid — don't waste cooldowns trying to outheal stacks.
• Mark of Corruption (Nature form): identical mechanic but Nature damage. Same 15s stack timer, same 10/25/50/100/250/500% escalation.
• Threat fully resets on every phase transition. The new tank has zero threat at swap — burst threat openers ready (Sunder spam for Havitz, Avenger's Shield + Holy Shield for Gayboi).
• Water Tomb (Frost only): targets 4 random raiders (non-tank), encases them in ice (~9k HP). Must be broken with damage. Dispellable as Magic before it lands (≈2s window).
• Vile Sludge (Nature only): shadowy ground patch under random ranged. Damages and silences. Move out fast.
• Phase Transition: every 60s, OR when he crosses the cloud line in the middle of the room, OR when he reaches a Pure Spawn elemental.
• Pure Spawns (adds): elementals path toward Hydross from either side every ~45s. If they reach him, he heals to full and switches form. Banishable — our 3 warlocks cycle banishes.

Tank Plan

Two tanks must be in resistance gear and present at all times.

Pure Spawn Strategy — Banish Rotation

3 warlocks, ~45s spawn interval, 30s Banish duration. Easy rotation:

• Glad Banishes the first incoming Pure Spawn. Reapplies at 25s.
• Meta Banishes the second.
• Gond Banishes the third.
• Rotation continues; each warlock has 2 banishes "buffered" between casts.
• Bluelazer bear-pickup any add that breaks free. Should rarely happen.

Healing Assignments

Dispel / Decurse Rotation

• Water Tomb (Magic, dispellable pre-cast): primary Jd (Frost side); backup Kali (Nature side flexes), Morg Cleanse Magic. Glad/Meta/Gond Felhunter Devour Magic available if priests are casting.
• Mark stacks: NOT dispellable. Manage with positioning.
• Vile Sludge: NOT dispellable. Move.

Totem & Aura Setup

• Frost group (Group 1): Frost Resistance Totem from Ellic dropped pre-transition.
• Nature group (Group 5): Nature Resistance Totem from Jerzee.
• Frost Resistance Aura: Morg swap from Concentration to FR Aura on Frost transitions.
• Aspect of the Wild: Dolmar on Nature side — Improved AotW for +20 NR aura.
• Curse of the Elements: Glad when not banishing — –88 resist + 10% magic dmg taken on the boss (Frost school applies here).

Lurker hides under the central platform. He is "fished out" by clicking the strange pool with a fishing pole — the pull is intentional. Once up, the fight cycles: melee on the platform, react to Spout (the rotating beam knockback), survive Whirl (frontal AoE), and burn down adds during Submerge.

Pull & Layout

One person with fishing skill clicks the strange pool to fish Lurker out. Bandet or Dolmar handles it.

The arena is 4 platforms over water: a large central platform (Lurker spawns here) and three smaller outer platforms (NW, NE, S). The raid splits across them so a healer is always in range of every group:

• Central platform: Havitz + all melee. Heals: Morg on Havitz + Jd raid heals + Crpc Chain Heal cluster (melee group).
• NW platform: ranged group + Kali (Holy Priest).
• NE platform: ranged group + Jerzee (Resto Shaman, Chain Heal cluster).
• S platform: ranged group + Littlemoon (Resto Druid). She can heal/swim through water transitions easily, and Entangling Roots locks down any add that strays toward her group.

Mechanics

• Spout: Lurker channels a 360° rotating water beam. Anyone hit takes huge damage and is knocked off platforms. Counter: jump into the water and submerge. Stay submerged the entire channel — do NOT keep jumping out and back in. Each re-entry takes a fresh damage instance.
• Lurker has a ranged attack. If nobody is in melee range after Spout, he targets random raiders with a heavy ranged. Havitz must be the first person back in melee after every Spout — tanks return, raid follows.
• Geyser: targets random ranged with a knockup. Annoying, not lethal.
• Whirl: 360° PBAoE knockback in melee range. Unavoidable for melee — they get pushed back ~10 yards. Tank should be on the inside edge of the central platform (near water but not in it) to minimize knockback distance.
• Submerge phase (every 90s): Lurker dives. 9 adds spawn from the side ramps — 6 Coilfang Guardians (melee elementals) + 3 Coilfang Ambushers (stealth-rogues). Kill before he resurfaces (~60s).

Phase Cycle

Spout Strategy

Submerge Adds — AoE Pack

• Coilfang Guardians (6 melee): picked up by Gayboi at the platform's edge. Holy Shield uptime; Consecrate.
• Coilfang Ambushers (3 stealthers): hunters use Flare to break stealth. Bandet Frost Trap + Aimed Shot priority. Mages frostbolt-slow them.
• AoE turret: Mafe + Kandin Arcane Explosion / Blizzard. Glad/Meta/Gond Seed of Corruption. Outis Hurricane. Spoofy Magma Totem + Chain Lightning.
• Bluelazer stays in cat form on boss DPS unless an add escapes.

Tank Plan

Healing Assignments

Leotheras alternates between Human/Whirlwind form (~45s; spinning melee fixates, threat reset at end of each Whirlwind) and Demon form (caster: Chaos Blast on highest-threat target). At ~30s into Demon form he casts Insidious Whisper on 5 random players — each is sent to a personal Inner Demon plane and must solo a clone. Failure → permanent mind control of that player. Standard TBC strategy: a Warlock with high Fire Resistance gear tanks the Demon form via Soul Link + Voidwalker — not the Prot Warrior. Chaos Blast is Fire damage, and warlock self-mitigation + healer support trivializes it.

Phase Cycle

Mechanics — Human / Whirlwind Phase (~45s)

• Whirlwind: spinning melee that hits anyone in range. Threat fully wipes when Whirlwind ends — top of threat is whoever fixates last.
• Fixate: drops aggro and runs at random raiders. Not tauntable.
• WW tank duty: Bluelazer in bear — Barkskin rolling (1min CD), Frenzied Regeneration on health spikes (3min CD). Threat lead built throughout the phase.

Mechanics — Demon Phase (~45s)

• Chaos Blast: 2.5s cast, ~4k Fire damage to highest-threat target. Cannot be interrupted. Mitigated by Fire Resist + Soul Link self-mitigation.
• Insidious Whisper / Inner Demon: at ~30s into demon phase, 5 random raiders are pulled to the shadow plane. Each must DPS their own clone solo. Surviving demon → permanent mind control on that player.
• Demon Tank: a Warlock (Glad recommended) in Fire Resist gear. Soul Link + Voidwalker pet absorbs damage; a single healer keeps the tanking warlock alive easily. This is a standard TBC strategy — Chaos Blast is Fire, and a self-mitigating tanking warlock outperforms a shielded Prot Warrior in this slot.

Tank Plan

Inner Demon Strategy — Class-by-Class

This is the gut-check moment. ~28 effective seconds to kill a clone with your exact gear and abilities. Tips:

• Fury Warriors (Nocharles, Saexgg, Bushpig): Recklessness + Bloodthirst spam. Stay behind the clone.
• Prot Warrior (Havitz): swap to DPS gear set; Heroic Strike spam, Victory Rush.
• Prot Paladin (Gayboi): Bubble + Crusader Strike + Hammer of Wrath when low.
• Ret Paladin (Grimmy): trivial — Crusader Strike, Judgement, Exorcism. Should clear in <15s.
• Holy Paladin (Morg): hardest case. Bubble immediately, Judgement of Crusader, Exorcism, Hammer of Wrath at <20%. Practice on dummies.
• Feral Druid (Bluelazer): cat form, easy — Mangle + Shred + Tigerfury.
• Resto Druid (Littlemoon): druids cannot use wands. Best play is to shapeshift to Cat form and Mangle + Shred + Tiger's Fury — cat form's armor and built-in attacks beat trying to caster-DPS in resto gear. Pre-build a melee key bar for this.
• Boomkin (Outis): Starfire + Wrath + Insect Swarm. Native form, easiest of the druids.
• Survival Hunter (Bandet): Frost Trap + Aimed Shot + pet.
• BM Hunter (Dolmar): Bestial Wrath + Kill Command + pet does most of the work.
• Rogue (Jays dumbass): Cheap Shot + Kidney to interrupt heals + Eviscerate. Easy.
• Resto Shamans (Crpc, Jerzee): swap to DPS gear — Lightning Bolt + Flame Shock + Earth Shock interrupt-finish.
• Ele Shaman (Spoofy): trivial — native DPS spec.
• Enh Shaman (Ellic): Stormstrike + Earth Shock; Windfury procs do the rest.
• Holy Priests (Jd, Kali): the danger zone. Pre-equip a wand. SW:Pain + Mind Blast + Wand. Practice on a dummy in your DPS swap set.
• Shadow Priest (Moto): trivial — SW:Pain, Vampiric Touch, Mind Blast, Mind Flay.
• Mages (Mafe, Kandin): Blink any disorient; Frostbolt spam; Frost Nova if needed.
• Warlocks (Glad, Meta, Gond): Felhunter eats your clone's casts; Voidwalker tanks; Shadowbolt + Drain Life.

Healing Assignments

Dispel / Decurse

• Insidious Whisper: NOT dispellable.
• Chaos Blast: NOT dispellable, NOT interruptible.
• This fight has no dispel rotation — focus on positioning and demon-killing.

Four targets: Karathress himself plus three lieutenants — Sharkkis (hunter w/ pet), Tidalvess (shaman), and Caribdis (priest). Each lieutenant grants Karathress a passive buff while alive. Pick the right kill order, interrupt rigorously, and burn.

Mechanics — Lieutenants

• Tidalvess (shaman): drops Spitfire Totem (deadly raid AoE — kill on sight), Frost Shock Totem (slows tanks), Earthbind. Totems are priority kills before the shaman himself.
• Sharkkis (hunter): has a pet (Leviathan, ~50k hp). Volley, Multi-Shot. Pet tanked or kited. When Sharkkis dies, Karathress gains The Beast Within.
• Caribdis (siren): Healing Wave on Karathress (KICK every cast). Tidal Surge = knockback on melee (melee CANNOT engage her). Cyclone single-target CC.
• Karathress: Cataclysmic Bolt on tank (instant cast, deals 50% of target's max HP) — non-interruptible. Gains Blessing of the Tides (catastrophic damage buff) if pushed below 75% with any lieutenants alive.

Kill Order

Tidalvess → Sharkkis → Caribdis → Karathress.

• Tidalvess first: his Spitfire Totem is the most dangerous mechanic in the room. Kill the totems on sight; kill him before the others to stop the totem chain.
• Sharkkis second: when he dies, Karathress gains The Beast Within ability (small DPS buff) — manageable.
• Caribdis third: melee DO NOT engage Caribdis (Tidal Surge knockback). Ranged kill her while interrupting her Healing Wave.
• Karathress last: Do NOT push Karathress below 75% before all 3 lieutenants are dead — he gains Blessing of the Tides and likely wipes the raid.

Tank Plan

Interrupt & CC Rotation

Caribdis Healing Wave on Karathress is the bleed mechanic — she must be interrupted on every cast. With 4 shamans, this is trivial.

• Caribdis Healing Wave (Earth Shock chain): rotation Spoofy → Crpc → Jerzee → Ellic. 6s CD on each = 1.5s coverage. Backup: Jays dumbass Kick, Mafe/Kandin Counterspell, Nocharles/Saexgg/Bushpig Pummel.
• Tidalvess Frost Shock: Bash from Bluelazer on cast; backup Counterspell from Mafe.
• Tidalvess Totems: Bandet + Dolmar instant-kill totems with Multi/Arcane Shot.

Healing Assignments

Morogrim is a tank-and-spank with two interruptions: Watery Grave (4 random raiders trapped in bubbles around the room) and the Earthquake/Murloc summons at 75%, 50%, and 25%. The boss himself is straightforward; the murloc waves separate clearable guilds from wipe-fests.

Mechanics

• Tidal Wave: heavy frontal/cone. Tank turns boss away from raid.
• Watery Grave: teleports 4 random raiders to the central waterfall, stuns them, and drops them from the top — they take fall damage. Healers need range on the waterfall. Tanks ARE eligible targets — Murloc tank getting graved during a wave is the wipe scenario. Gayboi Divine Shield breaks Watery Grave instantly if it overlaps with Earthquake.
• Earthquake (at 75% / 50% / 25%): raid-wide AoE pulse + summons 12 Tidewalker Lurker murlocs (6 from each entrance). Phase trigger, not on a timer.
• Knockback: Tidal Wave can throw raid into water if positioned poorly.

Phase Cycle

Murloc Wave Strategy

12 murlocs per Earthquake — 6 from each side entrance. Assign one tank per entrance; both tanks have a mage in their group for slows.

• Gayboi picks up the 6 from one entrance: Avenger's Shield + Consecrate + Holy Wrath (TBC Anniversary all-target stun) + Holy Shield uptime.
• Bluelazer in bear picks up the 6 from the other entrance: Maul threat, Swipe for AoE.
• Mages slow: Mafe (one entrance) and Kandin (the other) drop Frost Nova + Blizzard until threat lands.
• AoE burn: Glad + Meta + Gond Seed of Corruption synced; Outis Hurricane; Spoofy Magma Totem + Chain Lightning.
• Havitz keeps Morogrim tanked at the front — boss stays up during murlocs, melee continue on him.

Watery Grave Strategy

• Healers should always have line-of-sight to the central waterfall — graved raiders spawn there with fall damage on landing.
• Pre-HoT before grave applies if you can predict (it targets random non-tank usually). Lifebloom + Rejuv from Littlemoon.
• Murloc tank can get graved. Burn through murlocs fast — minimize the overlap window. If it happens during murlocs and Gayboi is graved, he can Divine Shield to break the stun and teleport-effect immediately.
• If both raid healers get graved during murloc + Earthquake overlap: Littlemoon Tranquility once gravity-recovered; Outis backup Tranq.

Tank Plan

Healing Assignments

The big one. Vashj is a 3-phase fight: P1 is tank-and-spank with avoid mechanics, P2 is the puzzle (cores carried to elementals while shielded Vashj is unkillable), and P3 is the burn / enrage with poison bolt volleys. Most guilds wipe in P2 for weeks before the relay clicks. Communication is everything. Our 3 warlocks turn P2 from a chaos phase into a controlled clean-up by Banishing Tainted Elementals.

Phase Overview

Phase 1 (100% → 70%)

• Shock Blast: instant nuke on tank. ~10k physical. Shield Wall every CD.
• Static Charge: debuff on a random raider. Chain-lightning to nearby allies. Spread to 10 yards minimum.
• Entangle: AoE root in melee range. Ferals shapeshift out, others wait.
• Multishot Cleave: bow attack on raid. Spread.

Phase 2 (70% → 30%) — The Puzzle Phase

At 70%, Vashj raises a magic shield, becoming immune. Mage adds (Tainted Elementals) start spawning. From them drop Tainted Cores — carried to one of 4 channeling stations at the cardinal points. 4 cores in = shield down.

Tainted Core Relay

The key mechanic. Picking up a Tainted Core ROOTS the carrier in place — they cannot move at all. The core is an inventory item; the only way to pass it is to use the item on another player, which transfers the core (and the root) to them. Cores must reach the 4 generators (cardinal points around the platform) and be used at point-blank range to disable each shield generator. 4 generators down → P3.

Enchanted Elementals & Banish Strategy

• Enchanted Elementals (the small mage adds): spawn continuously from the water's edge and walk toward Vashj — if they reach her, they explode and grant her a stacking damage buff. They drop the Tainted Cores when killed. Glad / Meta / Gond Banish-rotate the ones we don't want active; we kill controlled batches to spawn cores on demand.
• Toxic Spawn (kamikaze adds): NOT banishable. Gayboi Consecrate / Bandet Frost Trap to root.
• Coilfang Striders: NOT banishable. Cannot be melee'd — anyone in melee range gets feared. Must be killed by ranged DPS only, and our roster's DoTs do most of the lifting: Glad/Meta/Gond Corruption + Curse of Agony, Outis Insect Swarm + Moonfire, Moto SW:Pain + Vampiric Touch, Littlemoon/Jerzee Rejuv-tier shouldn't be on striders — but every dot caster contributes. Bandet + Dolmar Serpent Sting + Tranquilizing Shot when striders Frenzy.

Phase 3 (30% → 0%) — Burn

• Shield drops. Vashj is targetable again.
• Poison Bolt Volley: raid-wide nature damage every ~10s. Decurse / poison cleanse fast.
• No more cores, no more elementals from pillars — striders keep spawning.
• Bloodlust on P3 transition from Spoofy.

Tank Plan

Core Relay Assignments

Carrier is rooted. Each generator needs a player positioned next to the generator to receive the core and use it. Two-hand chain: pickup → throw to designated catcher near gen → catcher uses core on generator.

Healing Assignments

Dispel / Decurse Rotation

• Static Charge (P1, Magic): rotation Jd → Kali → Morg Cleanse. Felhunters from Glad/Meta/Gond Devour Magic backup.
• Persistent Shield (Vashj P2): NOT dispellable. Drop cores in generators.
• Poison Bolt Volley (P3, Nature poison): Outis + Littlemoon + Bluelazer Abolish Poison; Morg Cleanse on tanks. Crpc + Jerzee + Spoofy + Ellic Poison Cleansing Totem rotation (4 shamans = constant uptime).

Loot Highlights

• Vashj's Vial Remnant — ATTUNEMENT to Hyjal. Save for whoever leads next attunement chain.
• Cataclysm's Edge — 2H sword, Fury / Ret BiS-tier (Nocharles/Saexgg/Bushpig/Grimmy contestants).
• Glorious Gauntlets of Crestfall — tanking gloves; Havitz/Gayboi.
• Earthsoul Britches — Resto shaman / druid leg (Crpc/Jerzee/Littlemoon).