Lord Valthalak



Lord Valthalak was a drakonid boss summoned in Upper Blackrock Spire by a Brazier of Beckoning. He was the last boss in the Dungeon Set 2 quest line.

He could still be summoned until patch 6.0.2 by players who still possessed a Brazier of Invocation. His health was significantly buffed in Mists of Pandaria, which made for a very long fight.

Background
A drakonid noble and a warlock of immense power, Valthalak was the former General of Blackrock Spire before Drakkisath rose to power. He was slain by the Veiled Blade mercenary company for his spellbook, but ended up avenging himself even after his death using his necromantic powers.

Phase 1
Valthalak has a caster type weak melee attack in phase 1. A slow one that does 400-500 damage to a warrior.

Shadow Wrath
A shadow-based, chain life drain, which obviously translates into healing for himself. Hits for 750 Shadow damage on the first target, and will jump to another target if anyone is close enough. Each time it jumps, it doubles in damage in the manner of Holy Wrath from High Priest Venoxis from Zul'Gurub. At the 4th jump, the damage will be 6k and lethal for most people. Being a life-drain, all damage dealt will heal Valthalak.


 * Keep him away from the raid party and don't let anyone get close enough for a bounce to chain to the rest of the group. A distance of 20 to 30 yards is fine.
 * Ensure that your party is spread out from each other so if a chain is unavoidable, you at least minimize the bounces.

Heal
The chain life drain (noted above) will replenish his health, so it is important that you have a warrior tank the mob alone (until phase 2). Alternately, if you have more people in melee range, you will need to interrupt when he casts the life drain. It will show as a purple beam that chains between friendly targets.

Have one or two people mana drain him (his regen and total mana are quite low). The spell is also interruptible using standard methods (Shield Bash, Earth Shock, Counterspell, etc.). A mod such as EnemyCast or Spell Alert can be helpful. All his spells will sadly not show up on the standard 'EnemyCastBar' you can have displayed below the enemy portrait.

Lord Valthalak apparently has no specific animations when he heals. Warriors with Mortal Strike would greatly assist, as well as rogues with wound poisons. It is also possible to just DPS through the heals. The rate that Valthalak heals himself appears to be random.

Spectral Assassins
These spawn two at a time throughout phase 1. They will run towards someone in your raid (can include pets) and eventually cast a mindflay-like Defile ability (a purple vile beam). Defile cannot be dispelled/cleansed and stuns its target for ten seconds. If the spell is allowed to complete, its target dies and is transformed into an additional Spectral Assassin. The assassins have around 1,500 hp with little to no armor and resistances.


 * Everyone must kill Spectral Assassins as soon as they appear. Be wary if you use a mouse to target because they can be hard to see and click. You can hit 'v' to bring up the Mob Health panes or use this macro: /target Spec (recommended). If you use a keyboard for targeting, no adjustments are necessary; just do as usual.


 * They can be damaged by Area of Effect spells.


 * The spectral assassins' Defile cannot be interrupted by normal methods (Kick, Shield Bash, etc). Other abilities like Scatter Shot, Concussion Blow, Hammer of Justice,... do work. Use them if you cannot kill the Assassin in time to save a raid member.


 * Ranged DPS plays a key role here as Hunters, Mages, Warlocks, and Shaman can kill the assassins without having to frantically cross the room. This can be critical particularly when they spawn at or near Valthalak.


 * Stun spells work best to disrupt Defile.

Phase 2: Enrage
At 40% health he will switch weapons and start hitting very hard. He stops spawning Spectral Assassins but still does Shadow Wrath if he has mana.
 * Disarm him whenever available.
 * By this point your tank should have a great deal of threat accumulated so just burn him down.

Phase 3: Shadow Bolt Volley
At 15% health, he will frequently cast an AoE Shadow Bolt on the entire raid in addition to the changes in phase 2.


 * Maximize your DPS, finish him fast.
 * Use a Greater Shadow Protection Potion if necessary to minimize the shadow damage.

General advice

 * If you plan on doing several attempts, have someone logout a character that can resurrect in The Beast's room. If you wipe, you can simply log them in and resurrect a healer in your party to continue.
 * Valthalak can be disarmed so do it whenever it's up (particularly in phase 2). He doesn't hit that hard to begin with, but this will help your healers conserve mana, which will be much more needed when his damage picks up in phases 2 and 3.
 * If all rogues and other melee dps stay behind Valthalak at max range opposite the tank shadow wrath will not hop to them.
 * Have priests cast Prayer of Shadow Protection on the group before starting.

Summary
This strategy results in an easy, but long fight, usually 7–10 minutes. Your healers need to come prepared for an endurance fight, other than that it makes for an easy run.

Solo notes
He is still a tough fight at level 80 even in Tier 10-level gear if you intend to solo him. The spectral assassins must be dealt with immediately before they can cast Defile with its 10-second stun; otherwise, Valthalak will get 10 seconds of free DPS and healing if Life Drain is also up (meaning death to cloth-wearing characters). Life Drain also works on pets/minions, which makes this ability all the more dangerous to either you or your pet, depending on which one is at the end of the chain. This is a major DPS race to try to keep more than a couple of spectral assassins from spawning while keeping Valthalak's damaging abilities to a minimum. Be prepared for several deaths while you get the feel of the fight.

Objective of

 * Mea Culpa, Lord Valthalak

Quotes

 * Yell
 * Say
 * Yell
 * yell