Zor'lok shrieks his proclamations so they're heard throughout the sprawling mantid palace. He is the Voice of the Empress, and his words alone inspire the insectoid race's warriors to give their lives without question. Unwaveringly loyal, Zor'lok will stop at nothing to defend his beloved matriarch, regardless of the corruption within her.

Make sure, that You have read the Encounter Journal, first!

The encounter against Imperial Vizier Zor'lok is a two-phase fight.

During Phase 1, the raid will have to fight Zor'lok on the three elevated platforms around the room. He will always go to all three platforms (flying to a new platform every time you remove 20% of his life), but the order in which he does so is random. On each platform, Zor'lok will use an extra ability specific to that platform. Also, at ground level, the room will be filled with Pheromones of Zeal, a damaging/silencing gas that the raid will have to traverse when following Zor'lok to a new platform.

When Zor'lok health reaches 40%, he enters Phase 2. He will fly to the center of the room, absorb all the gas to buff his damage, and pull everyone to his location. Throughout this phase, Zor'lok will keep using all of the abilities that were previously granted to him only when he was standing on a specific platform.

Zor'lok has a few abilities that he uses throughout the fight, regardless of the phase.

Inhale increases the damage of Exhale by 100% for each stack present and lasts until Exhale triggers with 3 or more stacks.

Exhale - Imperial Vizier Zor'lok selects a random player and screams at them, inflicting physical damage and stunning them for 6s. The first player between Imperial Vizier Zor'lok and the initial target suffers additional physical damage every 0.5s.

Phase 1 : Her Gifts are Many

Imperial Vizier Zor'lok flies to a random platform in the room, then attacks the players from there. When Zor'lok loses 20% of his total health, he changes positions to a different platform. Imperial Vizier Zor'lok gains one ability while at each platform, but loses that ability when he moves to a different platform.

Pheromones of Zeal - the lower section of Imperial Vizier Zor'lok's chamber fills with toxic Pheromones of Zeal. Players in the area suffer 19,000 damage per second and are silenced for as long they are in the area of effect.

Attenuation - Zor'lok emits a dizzying series of sonic rings that travel outward from him in a spiraling pattern. Sonic rings inflict 125,000 physical damage to all targets in their path.

Force and Verve - Zor'lok shouts with pure volume to inflict 80,000 physical damage to all players every 1.5s for 10s. Players standing in Noise Cancelling zones suffer 40% less damage from this ability.

Noise Cancelling - before Zor'lok begins channeling Force and Verve, he summons Noise Cancelling zones nearby. Standing in these zones reduces the damage of Force and Verve by 40%. In 10/25 player heroic, only three/four players can benefit from each Noise Cancelling zone at a time, respectively.

Convert - Zor'lok uses the pure voice of the Empress to sway the allegiance of one player, causing them to fight for the Mantid Empire. Convert lasts until the victim reaches 50%, but the effect may end whenever the victim suffers spell damage. The chance to break increases as the victim reaches 50% health.

Phase 2 : We Will Not Disappoint Her

When Imperial Vizier Zor'lok reaches 40% remaining health, he flies to the center of the chamber and inhales the Pheromones of Zeal. Imperial Vizier Zor'lok now uses all his abilities from Phase 1.

Inhale Pheromones - Zor'lok inhales all of the Pheromones in the chamber, increasing his damage by 10% and haste by 20%.

Song of the Empress - when Zor'lok finishes a transition he will raise his voice in praise to the empress. Failing to engage Imperial Vizier Zor'lok in melee combat will result in him inflicting physical damage to all players until they die. Engaging Imperial Vizier Zor'lok in melee combat will end this effect.

Echo of Attenuation - use Zor'lok's Attenuation ability as well as fight players in melee combat.

Echo of Force and Verve - use Zor'lok's Force and Verve ability as well as fight players in melee combat.

Start the encounter with a Stampeding Roar, then attack the boss to see which platform he flies to first. The entire lower floor is covered in pheromones which tick for 19,000 nature damage every second and silences all units inside it, so getting to a platform quickly is imperative. In none heroic mode difficulties, Zor'lok can choose either the left or right platform to start the fight. Every 20% health lost, he will move to another platform. Heal up and get shielded before entering the pheromones to cross to join him.

Attenuation

Attuenation spawning counter-clockwise.

The left platform grants Zor'lok Attenuation. Attenuation is a large set of sonic rings traveling outward from the center of the platform in a spiral pattern in a straight line, before splitting near the outer wall. The rings will spawn in either a clockwise or counter-clockwise direction. To avoid attenuation, the most fool proof way is to swing the camera from above and follow the movement of the spiral. Don't be too far out. Don't be too far in, and don't run too fast!

Force and Verve

The right platform grants Force and Verve. Zor'lok will spawn three Noise Cancelling zones randomly around the platform. In most difficulties, there is a limit to the number of players who can benefit from the shields to prevent the entire raid from stacking in one bubble. The first shield will be cast in melee range, then the second a few yards away from the boss, and the third out at range. Thus, melee and the tank should move to the first shield spawned, healers should look to the second, and ranged attackers should find themselves under the third.

Convert

At 60% health, Zor'lok will fly to the back platform and start Converting players. Converted players are mind controlled and have their health and damage outputs increased dramatically. Converted players will revert back to normal below 50% health, but may break out early each time they take spell damage. It is important not to kill converted players with damage over time abilities!

Final phase

At 40% health, Zor'lok will fly from the third platform to the center of the room and inhale all of the pheromones, then Death Grip all members of the raid to his location. He will then start using all of his Phase 1 abilities at the same time. This is thus a burn phase, so pop Heroism, Bloodlust or Time Warp and all other cooldowns to quickly burn him down, all the while dancing through Attenuation, running under the shields for Force and Verve, and freeing Converted players.

Imperial Vizier Zor'lok will leave copies of himself behind at the first two platforms he visits. During Phase 2 of the encounter he will randomly summon Echoes of Power to aid him in battle. Echoes of Power inherit one of Imperial Vizier Zor'lok's abilities and will continue to use that power until they are defeated.

Any echoes that Imperial Vizier Zor'lok has summoned will use the Song of the Empress any time they are not actively using one of their abilities and they are not engaged in melee combat. As with Imperial Vizier Zor'lok, engaging the echoes in melee combat will end this effect.

Ta'yak is known for his patience and intelligence. In battle, he is a master at discovering his opponent's weaknesses and awaiting the perfect opportunity to strike. Ta'yak's skill with a blade is unmatched, and he cherishes imparting his martial knowledge on young mantid warriors.

Make sure, that You have read the Encounter Journal, first!

The encounter against Blade Lord Ta'yak is a two-phase fight. This is purely a single target fight, during which your only enemy will be Ta'yak himself.

Phase 1 lasts between 100% and 20% of the boss health. During this time, the boss will use several abilities against your raid, which mainly require that you stack up and spread out in a coordinated manner.

Phase 2 begins at 20% health. During this phase, your raid will mostly have to dodge incoming tornadoes, and deal damage to the boss. This phase places high emphasis on movement.

Throughout the fight, Ta'yak gains a stacking buff that increases his damage done, acting as a soft enrage that will eventually wipe your raid. Additionally, Phase 1 has a second soft enrage mechanic of its own.

Phase 1

Tempest Slash - Ta'yak slashes the air, creating a tornado that inflicts 100,000 nature damage and knocks away any enemies in its path.

Unseen Strike - Ta'yak fixes his eyes on a random player and then disappears. He reappears 5s later and inflicts 3,000,000 physical damage split amongst all players in a 15 yard long cone in front of him and knocking them back.

Wind Step - Ta'yak teleports to a random player and inflicts a quick strike. The blow causes all targets within 8 yards to bleed for 80,000 physical damage every 3s for 30s.

Intensify - Ta'yak's fury intensifies during the encounter. Every 60s Ta'yak increases his damage dealt by 5% and his haste by 5%. This effect stacks.

Overwhelming Assault - Ta'yak performs an overwhelming attack on his current target, inflicting 200% of a normal melee swing's attack. The attack leaves the target's defenses exposed, increasing the target's damage taken when an Overwhelming Strike lands by 100% for 45s.

First, spread out to limit damage taken from Wind Steps. Second, collapse the entire raid on top of players who have been targeted for an Unseen Strike. Finally, keep spread out while avoiding the circling tornadoes that are frequently spawned. As the fight progresses, it may become necessary to move the boss to another part of the room to get clear of the tornadoes.

Phase 2

Storm Unleashed - Ta'yak traps all of the players within a mass of tornadoes, moving them to one end of the hall. The constant buffering of the powerful winds on every player inflicts 8075 to 8925 nature damage every second. This damage increases with Ta'yak's current intensity level. Ta'yak then assumes position on the opposite side of the hall, then unleashes a barrage of tornadoes towards the players. Tornadoes that pass over players carry the player away from Ta'yak.

Ta'yak will trap all members of the raid in tornadoes and send them to one side of the long hall, while he takes up position at the other. This is a platforming mechanic - run forward toward Ta'yak while strafing left or right to steer clear of the tornadoes. Up close to the wall behind Ta'yak is safe from tornadoes, so adventurers can stand still and attack the boss. Ta'yak will jump to the opposite side of the hall at 10%, repeating the tornado-dodging exercise.

It may be time to reconsider stepping on bugs. Don't make fun of this hulking behemoth's tiny wings, that'll just make him angry.

Make sure, that You have read the Encounter Journal, first!

Garalon is a single-phase fight. The boss does not melee, and must instead be kited for the duration of the encounter. Tanks are still required, however.

Garalon will always fixate on a random raid member, and move towards them. Who he fixates on is determined by a debuff that the boss applies, which can be passed from one player to another. Therefore, your raid can control who the boss is following. The same player cannot have the debuff for very long, though, since it deals increasing damage to them.

All 4 of Garalon's legs are separate NPCs which can be attacked and killed. Killing one of his legs damages and slows Garalon (the slow effect is proportional to the number of legs killed). Slowing Garalon makes kiting him considerably easier and ensures that the kiter does not get close enough to get hit by very damaging abilities that Garalon uses. Garalon will periodically revive his legs, so killing them is something that must be done throughout the entire fight. Note that attacking the legs is not a dps loss as the damage dealt to the legs is transferred to Garalon.

The tanks only role in the encounter is to soak the damage from a frontal cone attack that the boss does and that needs to hit at least two players.

You must understand the debuff that Garalon applies, since this is the key to the encounter. When engaged, Garalon will cast Pheromones on the player that pulls him. He only casts this debuff once, but it will remain active for the entire duration of the fight. Pheromones has several effects.

While Pheromones is active, it will constantly deal a small, yet increasing amount of nature damage to the entire raid, every 2s.

Garalon fixates on the player who is currently carrying Pheromones, and moves towards them.

The player who is currently carrying the Pheromones is affected in two ways. They receive a stacking debuff, called Pungency, which increases the damage that Pheromones deals (to all raid members), by 10% of its base damage, per stack. Pungency lasts for 2m in 10 man and 4m in 25 man. A new stack is applied every 2s. They leave a trail of damaging void zones behind, called Pheromone Trail.

Pheromones can be passed on to a different player, simply by coming into contact with them. This is to say, when the player currently carrying the debuff comes within 2 yards or so of another player, the debuff will move to the new player.

The damage of Pheromones is reset to its base value each time the carrying player changes. So, for example, if the player currently carrying the debuff has 10 stacks of Pungency, then Pheromones will deal 100% extra damage to all raid members. When the debuff passes to a new player (who has no stacks of Pungency), Pheromones will deal its base damage to all raid members (including to the player with the Pungency stacks). Therefore, the damage that the raid takes from Pheromones will have a predictable pattern of low-medium-high-low.

If, however, a player who already has stacks of Pungency takes the debuff when it is passed on, Pheromones will deal its damage based on this player's stacks of Pungency.

If the player currently carrying the debuff dies, the debuff will remain on their corpse, and its number of stacks will continue to increase. If this happens, someone has to move over to the player's corpse and take the debuff from them just as they would if the player were alive.

The next aspect that you must understand is the damage that Garalon deals. Garalon has two damaging abilities.

Crush is a raid-wide damaging attack that Garalon can cast. It deals a high amount of damage to all raid members, and an extremely high amount of damage to any raid members who are under Garalon. The boss casts this when one of the following two conditions is met: the Pheromones debuff passes to a new target and a raid member is under Garalon.

Furious Swipe is a frontal cone attack that Garalon casts roughly every 8s. This deals a high amount of physical damage. While this attack can be avoided, if it does not hit at least two players each time, the boss gains a stack of a stacking buff, called Fury.

Fury increases Garalon's damage and movement speed by 10% per stack.

For the purpose of the mechanics in the encounter, under Garalon means within 12 yards of the center of his hitbox. Since Garalon has a massive model, the 12 yard radius is still under his model. This 12 yard radius is indicated visually by a circle on the ground, under Garalon.

Garalon's legs are separate NPCs which can be targeted, attacked and killed. They do not share a health pool, neither with each other, nor with Garalon himself. These legs are located on the outer edges of Garalon's massive model, in the four corners (if you imagine Garalon as being a square).

Each time one of Garalon's legs is killed, Garalon takes 3% of his maximum health in damage, and receives a stack of a debuff that slows him for 15% per stack, stacking up to 4 times.

Killing the legs is made easy by Weak Points, a buff that players receive when they are within 12 yards of one of Garalon's legs. This increases the damage that they deal to that leg by 100%. Players who are in the 12 yard radius around a leg must be careful not to accidentally move under Garalon.

Garalon will periodically cast Mend Leg, which instantly revives one of his legs.

Wind Lord Mel'jarak commands the mantid's numerous aerial forces. Although he exudes arrogance, the cunning insectoid is fiercely protective of his soldiers and enjoys fighting at their side. Mel'jarak believes the mantid are superior to all other races, convinced that his kind cannot be defeated.

Make sure, that You have read the Encounter Journal, first!

The encounter against Wind Lord Mel'jarak is a single-phase fight. During the fight, you will have to fight Mel'jarak, as well as 9 adds: 3 Sra-thik Amber-Trappers, 3 Kor'thic Elite Blademasters, and 3 Zar'thik Battle-Menders. The adds will all become active as soon as you engage the boss.

Handling and killing the adds plays a central part in the encounter. They have a number of mechanics associated to them, which will decide your raid strategy.

Adds of the same kind share a health pool and have the same abilities.

Killing 3 adds of the same kind grants Mel'jarak a stack of a buff that increases his damage done and his damage taken.

Adds can be crowd-controlled: when 9 adds are alive, you can crowd-control 4 adds, when 6 adds are alive, you can crowd-control 2 adds, when 3 adds are alive, you can crowd-control 0 adds.

The fight can be done in a number of ways, depending the order in which you kill the adds, which adds you crowd-control, whether you decide to finish off 2 kinds of adds at the same time (to reduce the amount of time that you have to fight non crowd-controlled adds), etc.

The key mechanic of the encounter is the ability to crowd-control these adds. Most crowd-control spells, such as Polymorph or Freezing Trap, can be used. The encounter also provides you with an easy way to crowd-control, regardless of your raid composition. Around the edges of the room, there are 4 weapon racks. Interacting with these racks will grant players (1 per rack) a special ability called Impaling Spear.

Impaling Spear is a form of crowd control. It effectively stuns the targeted add for 50s. The stun is broken by direct damage done to the add, but not by damage that the add takes due to other adds of the same kind being attacked. The same applies to all other forms of crowd-control, namely that indirect damage dealt to that mob (through its shared health pool) does not break the crowd-control.

Have one tank pick up the boss and one or two of the adds, while the other tank(s) pick(s) up the remaining adds.

Spread out in a circle around the boss, to minimise damage from Whirling Blade, and to avoid having more than one person caught in Amber Prison.

Make sure that players move from the landing location of Wind Bombs, and that no one triggers the Wind Bombs after they arm.

Crowd-control as many of the adds as the limit allows.

Handle the various add abilities:

Interrupt Mending.

Dispel Quickening.

Have players affected by Corrosive Resin move, and place the void zones in such a way that it does not inconvenience the raid.

Free players from Amber Prison.

First of all, dpsing Mel'jarak is not a priority until the adds have been killed. Of course, any damage that you are able to deal to him through cleaving or DoTs is welcome, and will make the fight easier, especially if the enrage timer proves to be strict.

Secondly, it is important to note that when adds are killed, the remaining adds are not healed. This means that it is possible to bring all adds of two kinds (or even 3) to low health before finally killing them. This is something we strongly recommend, as it makes it much easier to control the mobs, especially the Blademasters (because you keep the ability to crowd-control 4 adds).

It is possible, however, that the complications resulting from keeping all adds alive for a long time may overwhelm your raid. In this case, you can focus down one type of adds.

Since the enrage timer of the encounter is somewhat strict, you should try to do as much as damage to Mel'jarak while killing the adds as possible. This mostly means keeping up DoTs on him, spreading diseases, and so on.

Mel'jarak will be active for the entire duration of the fight. Even though his abilities are not at the forefront, they will still have to be dealt with. As we mentioned before, Mel'jarak also melees for a large amount of damage, something that is increased each time adds are killed.

10 man raids will want to use two tanks for this fight, but it is possible to one-tank the fight with a properly geared tank. In this case, this tank will benefit from a very large amount of Attack Power from Vengeance, greatly boosting their dps and self-healing. If using two tanks, one tank will have to pick up Mel'jarak, and one or two of the remaining 5 non-crowd-controlled adds. The other tank will have to tank the rest of the adds.

25 man raids have the option of using three tanks. This makes the tank healing considerably easier. One tank should take Mel'jarak and one add, while the remaining adds should be split between the other two tanks.

All the adds that are not crowd-controlled should be tanked in the same place, together with the boss. This allows for easy cleaving and aoe damage, which will help lower the health of multiple types of adds simultaneously.

Eager to please his empress, Un'sok has produced several innovative concoctions. Yet this brilliant young alchemist's proximity to the mantid queen has allowed the sha's negative energies to take root in his mind. Now, Un'sok's overwhelming fear of failure drives him to create increasingly deadlier weapons.

Make sure, that You have read the Encounter Journal, first!

The encounter against Amber-Shaper Un'sok is a three-phase fight.

Phase 1 starts when the boss is engaged, and lasts until the boss reaches 70% health. During this phase, your raid will mainly have to kill small adds and avoid damaging ground effects.

Phase 2 starts when the boss reaches 70% health, at which point he summons an add. Phase 2 ends when the add is killed by your raid. During this phase, Un'sok takes 99% reduced damage.

Phase 3 starts when the add that the boss summons at the start of Phase 2 is killed, and lasts until Un'sok dies. This is a very intense phase, for both healers and dps players. During this phase, the boss gains a sizeable increase in his damage.

Throughout the fight, Un'sok will regularly transform random raid members into a type of elemental mob, called a Mutated Construct. When transformed in such a way, the player can use certain special abilities, and must perform a very complex role. In fact, the players who are transformed into Mutated Constructs play the most important part in the encounter, so it is imperative to have an excellent understanding of the Construct.

Because the tank is regularly turned into a Mutated Construct, and also due to an ability that the boss casts in Phase 2 that targets the current tank and incapacitates them, your raid will require two tanks for this encounter.

Every 50s, during Phases 1 and 2, and more often, during Phase 3, Un'sok will cast an ability called Reshape Life. This ability targets a random raid member, and transforms that player into a Mutated Construct. During Phase 1, the ability only targets tanks (provided that both tanks are not already Mutated Constructs), while in Phases 2 and 3, it can target anyone in the raid.

The Mutated Construct (which is under the full control of the transformed player) has a unique resource, called Willpower. This resource must be used wisely, and it is the key to defeating the encounter. Willpower starts out at full capacity when the player is first transformed, and then slowly decreases over time. When the Mutated Construct runs out of Willpower, the transformed player is instantly killed.

The only way to avoid being killed is to use one of the Mutated Construct's abilities, which causes the player to leave the Mutated Construct. This ability is only usable when the Mutated Construct is below 20% of its maximum health. The implication of this is that the raid will have to dps the Construct, ensuring that the transformed player can exit it before running out of Willpower.

If the Mutated Construct is killed (i.e., if the transformed player has not exited the Construct himself), then the transformed player will also die.

In addition to using this ability before their Willpower runs out, the transformed player has 3 abilities that they can, and should use, in specific ways, throughout the encounter.

It is important to note that Un'sok will continue to cast Reshape Life even if there is already a Mutated Construct present, meaning that there can be two or more Mutated Constructs active at the same time.

The Mutated Construct is hostile to both the rest of the raid, and to the boss. This is relevant, because the Construct must attack the boss, and the raid must attack the Construct.

Of the 4 abilities that the Mutated Construct has, one generates Willpower, one costs Willpower, while the other two neither generate Willpower, nor cost any.

Consume Amber causes the Mutated Construct to absorb a pool of Burning Amber (a type of void zone that is present in the encounter). Doing so generates 20 Willpower, but also increases the Mutated Construct's maximum health by a small amount (around 5%), also healing it for that amount in the process. Consume Amber has no cooldown, and no Willpower cost. As you can guess, the fact that the Construct is healed, and its health increased is detrimental to your raid, because it means that additional damage must be done to the Construct so that the transformed player can leave it. Despite being detrimental, it may sometimes be required to use Consume Amber, if the Mutated Construct is not low enough on health that the transformed player can leave it before their Willpower runs out. This situation could happen if the raid does not dps the Construct, for some reason.

Struggle for Control costs 8 Willpower and is a self-interrupt. This ability is useful, because the Mutated Construct sometimes casts an ability called Amber Explosion, which deals high raid-wide damage (remember that the Construct is hostile to the raid, so it can damage them). This spell cannot be interrupted through any other means. Using Struggle for Control also increases the damage taken by the Construct by 100% for 5s.

Amber Strike is a single-target attack, with a 6s cooldown. This deals a large amount of damage to the target. The attack also applies a stacking debuff to the target, which increases its damage taken by 10% per stack, for 12s (there appears to be no cap to the number of stacks). Additionally, Amber Strike interrupts the target's spellcasting. This is particularly useful in Phase 2, as the add (spawned by the boss in this phase) regularly casts a very dangerous raid-wide damaging spell that cannot be otherwise interrupted. This ability is also called Amber Explosion, and it is almost identical (there is a slight difference in the damage value) with the ability that the Construct casts.

Break Free is an ability that causes the transformed raid member to break free of the Mutated Construct. The Construct must be below 20% of its maximum health for this ability to be usable.

Finally, it is not possible for the Mutated Construct to act as a tank, as both the boss and the add from Phase 2 have the Destroy Will ability, which causes them to drain 40 Willpower from the Construct each time they melee it.

Phase 1

During this phase, your raid will mostly focus on dpsing the Mutated Constructs, and bringing Un'sok to 70% health. There are many different tasks your players must perform, although each one is rather simple individually. The most complex role belongs to whoever is transformed into a Mutated Construct.

If your strategy is executed correctly, there should always be only one Mutated Construct active at one time.

Damage Mutated Constructs as soon as they appear (their in-game name is the same as the name of the player who is transformed), bringing them below 20% of their maximum health (but not killing them). Be mindful that if the Construct consumes any void zones (from Burning Amber), it will heal itself slightly and may need to be damaged further.

Damage Un'sok when a Mutated Construct does not need to be attacked.

Avoid being hit by the Amber Scalpel beam, and ideally kite it away and out of the raid each time it is cast.

Kill Living Amber adds to keep the raid-wide damage under control. Killing too many adds will result in a large amount of void zones to avoid, but given the size of the room, this should not be a problem. These void zones are useful for your raid much later in the fight, so having many of them (as long as you can avoid standing in them) is not detrimental at all.

Have the Mutated Construct maintain the damage-increasing debuff up on the boss at all times.

Heal the players affected by Parasitic Growth as little as possible, while keeping them alive. We expect that Parasitic Growth can be removed by invulnerabilities such as Divine Shield and Ice Block.

Make sure that the Mutated Construct interrupts each of its cast of Amber Explosion, through the use of Struggle for Control.

If you are the player who is controlling the Mutated Construct (if you are one of the tanks, you will almost certainly have to perform this role several times during the fight), then there are a few things you need to understand.

Your top priority is to use Amber Strike on Un'sok on cooldown. Your goal is to stack the Amber Strike debuff as high as possible.

Also very importantly, you must pay attention to when your Mutated Construct begins casting Amber Explosion, and you must promptly interrupt the cast by using Struggle for Control.

You must keep an eye on your Willpower bar, and be prepared to exit the vehicle before it runs out. To do this you will use your Break Free ability, but keep in mind that you must be below 20% health to use it.

You should not consume void zones unless you are running out of Willpower and your health is not below 20% to allow you to use Break Free. Additionally, you can consume void zones if there are so many of them that your raid has nowhere to move, but this should not happen.

Keep in mind that consuming void zones will heal you, though, which will cause the raid to have to do more dps to you. Also, you should aim to be out of the Mutated Construct before the next Reshape Life is cast.

Make sure that you do not accidentally use Amber Strike on fellow raid members. They are hostile targets, so you will have to be a bit careful.

Finally, and quite importantly, the player currently in the Mutated Construct must not exit until Reshape Life is being cast again, or has just been cast. This is because there must always be a Construct active or within a few seconds of activating, so that the debuff can be maintained on Un'sok.

Phase 2

During this phase, your raid will have to handle all the abilities from Phase 1, while also dealing with the several abilities that the Amber Monstrosity brings. The focus in this phase is to kill the Amber Monstrosity, in order to push Un'sok into Phase 3.

The Amber Monstrosity adds a few constraints for your raid.

Ranged dps players and healers should be at least 15 yards away from the Amber Monstrosity, so that they do not get damaged and knocked back by its Massive Stomp.

The tanks must be prepared for the fact that Amber Monstrosity will regularly pick up and throw its current tank. The thrown tank will also be stunned for a few seconds at their landing location.

The player controlling the Mutated Construct must be prepared to interrupt the Amber Monstrosity's Amber Explosion every time it is cast.

Amber Strike, the Mutated Construct's interrupt ability, has a 6s cooldown. The cast time of Amber Explosion is 2.5s. This means that it is not possible to simply spam Amber Strike, in order to stack the damage taken-increasing debuff. Instead, the player who is controlling the Mutated Construct will have to watch the boss mod timers for when Amber Explosion is about to be cast, and make sure that Amber Strike is available at that time.

Phase 3

At the start of the phase, Un'sok will cast Concentrated Mutation, buffing his damage done and his attack speed by 50%.

During this phase Un'sok no longer casts Amber Scalpel, but retains Parasitic Growth, and, as we mentioned much earlier, casts Reshape Life much more often. The increased rate of Reshape Life casts will act as a soft enrage mechanic in this phase.

The only added mechanic is Volatile Amber. Un'sok will regularly cause one of the amber pools located around the edges of the room to explode. This fires a barrage of amber shards at the raid, which strike the first player that they come into contact with. When striking a player, it deals a moderate amount of nature damage to them.

If the Mutated Construct is hit by Volatile Amber, it is healed for 20% of its maximum health.

Phase 3 is a dps burn phase. The greatly increased damage that Un'sok deals due to his Concentrated Mutation buff will eventually run your healers out of mana. Additionally, the increased rate at which Reshape Life is cast will make it impossible for your raid to keep up with killing the Mutated Constructs.

Your own raid's dps will dictate how you should approach this phase. If your raid's dps is high, then you should simply focus on burning the boss and ignoring any damage on the Mutated Constructs. These Constructs should stack Amber Strike on Un'sok as much as possible, and they should consume Burning Amber void zones whenever needed to replenish their Willpower. This is why we advised consuming as few void zones as possible in the previous two phases, namely so that you would have an ample amount during this final phase.

Executing this strategy will result in a kill where you have several players turned into Mutated Constructs.

Alternatively, if your dps is not high enough to allow you to kill the boss before your Mutated Constructs run out of Willpower, or too many players are turned into Mutated Constructs, you can dps the first few Mutated Constructs, allowing those players to Break Free. This will keep the number of Mutated Constructs in check, and give some time to stack Amber Strike on the boss. Then, after damaging a number of Mutated Constructs (the number will depend on your raid dps), you should just ignore the future ones and dps Un'sok.

Finally, it is important to avoid Volatile Amber healing the Mutated Construct, if you are trying to help players exit the Constructs. Your raid members will have to shield the Mutated Construct with their bodies, so that the amber shards from Volatile Amber hit them, and do not reach the Construct.

The ancient Klaxxi order has come to a mournful decision: the tainted Grand Empress Shek'zeer must be deposed. Traditionally, mantid rulers are displaced in their old age by a carefully chosen successor. However, Shek'zeer's intended replacement is still too young and weak to unseat her, leaving the Klaxxi with no choice, but to kill the current empress. If action is not taken against her soon, all of Pandaria may crumble before the mantid's ravenous swarms.

Make sure, that You have read the Encounter Journal, first!

The encounter against Grand Empress Shek'zeer is a three-phase fight.

Phases 1 and 2 will alternate until the boss reaches 30% health, at which point Phase 3 begins.

Phase 1 begins when the boss is engaged, and ends after 2m and 30s. During this phase, your only enemy is Grand Empress Shek'zeer.

Phase 2 begins at the end of Phase 1, and ends when all the adds that spawn during this phase are killed, or when 2m and 30s have elapsed since the start of the phase. Shek'zeer is not present during this phase, and cannot be damaged.

Phase 1 then starts again, and this cycle continues until Shek'zeer reaches 30% health, at which point Phase 3 begins. During this phase, your only enemy is once again Shek'zeer.

Even though you could theoretically have several Phase 1-2 alternations, the enrage timer of the fight makes it so that in order to defeat Shek'zeer, you can only afford to have a single Phase 2, and that you must bring Shek'zeer to 30% health during the second Phase 1.

Phase 1

Twice during Phase 1 (30s into the phase, and 60s after that) Shek'zeer will place two Dissonance Fields on the ground, a little way apart from one another. For lack of a better description, these are yellowish swirly zones.

The Dissonance Fields have health pools, but they cannot be damaged by conventional means. They instead lose health each time a raid member casts a spell. Eventually, this causes the Dissonance Fields to die. All spells cast by your raid affect both Fields equally, so that they will normally die at the same time. Each time a Field dies, it deals a large amount of raid-wide physical damage, through an ability called Sonic Discharge.

Your raid's goal is to avoid having both fields die at the same time, since the combined damage will most likely cause several deaths, if not a wipe altogether. There is only one way to make one Dissonance Field die faster than the other, and that is by having players affected by Cry of Terror stand inside the Dissonance Field. Cry of Terror is a debuff that Shek'zeer places on a random raid member (excluding tanks), 4 times during Phase 1. Whenever the debuff is active, every raid member suffers a moderate amount of shadow damage every 2s for 20s.

Very importantly, when the player debuffed by Cry of Terror moves inside one of the Dissonance Fields, several things happen.

Cry of Terror no longer damages the raid.

The Dissonance Field takes increased damage (as compared to the other Dissonance Field), causing its health to go down faster.

The player cannot be healed while inside the Dissonance Field, all spells on them being absorbed. Interestingly, absorption effects such as Power Word: Shield still work to mitigate the damage that this player takes.

The player takes a moderate amount of damage every second while inside the Dissonance Field.

We will begin by stating two basic things that your raid must do during this phase, namely spread out at least 5 yards apart and perform a tank switch. These two tasks constitute the foundation of your strategy.

Additionally, your raid will have to handle the Dissonance Fields, and this will prove to be the greatest challenge of the phase.

The idea is that you should avoid having two Dissonance Fields dying within a few seconds of one another. To do this, you will have to choose a Dissonance Field to kill first, and have the player affected by Cry of Terror move inside it.

As we mentioned, your two tanks will have to alternate tanking Shek'zeer. We advise tanks to switch at 4 stacks of the debuff. There is no complexity to this task.

In case a tank reaches 5 stacks, and thus becomes fully corrupted, you have no option but to dps them down and resurrect them, in an attempt to continue the fight. In reality, though, this will probably lead to a wipe.

Your raid will have to spend the entire phase spread out at least 5 yards apart, to avoid taking unnecessary damage from Dread Screech. When players affected by Cry of Terror have to move to a Dissonance Field, they may briefly come within 5 yards of other players, but this is not really avoidable, nor should it cause any real problems.

Phase 2

As soon as Phase 2 starts, several adds will join the fight.

In both 10 and 25 man, 2 Kor'thik Reavers and 6 Set'thik Windblades spawn.

Set'thik Windblades are small adds that have several abilities.

Fixate sometimes causes the Windblade to fixate on a random target, moving towards that target at highly reduced movement speed. The Fixate effect lasts for 30s.

Dispatch is an interruptible spell that deals high amounts of physical damage to random raid members.

Sonic Blade is an attack that the Windblade uses on its current target, which deals a high amount of damage and interrupts spell casting.

Sticky Resin is a sort of void zone that the Windblade places on the ground. When a player walks over a void zone, the void zone sticks to the player (being removed from the ground), and applies a debuff that deals a moderate amount of nature damage every second to that player, also slowing their movement speed by 30%. When a player with this debuff walks over another void zone, the debuff disappears and the two void zones merge. If this process is repeated 3 more times (so when a total of 4 void zones are brought to an existing one), they turn into an Amber Trap, which stuns the first mob that it comes in contact with and deals 5% of the mob's maximum health in damage every 2s. The trapped add will remain stunned and continue to take damage until it dies. However, if any Windblades are alive when an add is trapped, they will go to them and free them from the trap.

Kor'thik Reavers are large adds that also have several abilities.

Poison Bomb is a 10s debuff that the Reavers will sometimes cast on random players. When the debuff is applied, it deals a moderate amount of nature damage to its target. Afterwards, it deals a small amount of nature damage to a random raid member every 2s.

Toxic Slime is a frontal cone attack that deals a high amount of nature damage.

Poison-Drenched Armor is a debuff that the Reaver places on its current target. The debuff deals moderate nature damage to the affected player, but also gives nearby raid members a chance to deal additional nature damage with each attack.

When an add is within 8 yards of another add, they will both benefit from a buff called Band of Valor, which increases their damage done by 30% for each add within 8 yards.

Phase 3

Shek'zeer retains her Eyes of the Empress ability from Phase 1.

In addition to this, she gains several new abilities.

Sha Energy is a spell that Shek'zeer uses to deal a moderate amount of shadow damage to random raid members. It affects 2 targets in 10 man, and 5 targets in 25 man.

Consuming Terror is a frontal cone attack that deals a high amount of shadow damage and fears all affected players for 8s.

Visions of Demise is a two-part debuff applied to a number of random raid members (2 in 10 man, and 5 in 25 man), at regular intervals throughout the phase. Initially, it is 4s debuff, which does nothing to the affected player, except trigger the second debuff. After 4s, the player will have a new debuff applied to them and any other players within 8 yards, causing them to be feared and take a moderate amount of shadow damage every second for 20s. This second debuff can be dispelled. Shek'zeer casts Visions of Demise roughly every 15-20s.

Calamity is a spell that Grand Empress Shek'zeer casts roughly every 6-10s, which deals shadow damage to all raid members, equal to 50% of their current health.

Amassing Darkness causes a random target to take a moderate amount of shadow damage. The spell affects an increasing number of players, eventually dealing a large amount of raid damage.

This phase is extremely brutal, and your raid's healing will be put to the test more than at any point so far in Tier 14 normal mode encounters.

Preliminarily, your raid should remain spread out, so that Visions of Demise does not affect more players than necessary. Your tanks will still have to alternate tanking the boss, and Shek'zeer should be faced away from the raid at all times.

Her frontal cone attack has a cast time, making it possible to avoid it. Any players unfortunate enough to be hit by it should have their fear dispelled.

Additionally, regarding dispelling, players who are affected by Visions of Demise should be dispelled as soon as possible (once the initial 4s debuff turns into the second, dispellable one).

The hardest part of the phase is surviving the immense raid damage that your raid will encounter. Even though Calamity appears to dictate that you should have players at low health, so as to ensure that they take less damage from this ability, this is not really the case. Sha Energy and Amassing Darkness deal a lot of damage and make it extremely risky to have players at low health. Additionally, you will have to account for the damage from Visions of Demise, for the few seconds that it has a chance to tick on each player. Therefore, it is best to try to top people off as much as possible.

In 10 man, it is possible to have your raid stack up behind Shek'zeer, in order to facilitate healing, and simply having the players affected by Visions of Demise move out of the raid immediately. This may also be possible in 25 man, but the increased number of players who must move out is problematic.

This is a standard burn phase, where you will want to use all your raid's cooldowns to stay alive and increase your dps on the boss.