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Comment by Powerstream

Vaelastrasz is a really hard boss since you have to nuke down his HP (which is higher than Ragnaros) in three minutes. A buff giving you unlimited Energy, Rage and Mana will help you.

Fire resistance is a must in this fight since Vaelastrasz will be using a fire-based AoE doing ~600 fire damage every three seconds. Tanks must have at least 300 since apart from the aoe they get a flame breath doing 3-3.5k. The rest of the raid is ok with 150+. Fire Resistance Pots are not as helpful here as in raggy.

It's a guild-killer boss since it's common for guild to be unable to kill him which sometimes makes guilds tear up.

This is a summary. For full guides you can visit www.wowwiki.com

Tip: Bring lots of rogues and feral druids in this fight. Unlimited Energy really helps.

Comment by HaKProduct

Tanks for Vael:

Go for 250FR. Have 7.5K HP. His stacking flame breath and fire based spike damage breath are the tank killers. Use your shield wall when you get burning. Make sure it's understood who the next tank is. MTT will still show you as the tank. If you're next up to tank, heroic strike occasionally. No more than 1 every 5 seconds. This helps ensure you'll be next.

Tank control is crucial.

Comment by Meldryn

Mages should seriously consider speccing into 5/5 IAM for this fight if your guild is having trouble garnering the DPS necessary to down him before healing fails.

Comment by ragnorr

5/5 AM aint really needed, if you renew it often it wont matter much due to unlimited mana, make them use the points in less chance to resist on arcane spells, simply cause newly guilds on this guy got fairly low +hit from gear

Comment by supernovah

Vaelstraz's debuff, much like Gheddons bomb debuff in Molten Core, blows the guy who gets it, up. He will suffer death and also aoe in a 20 yard radius, to damage his team for about 4500 damage. Also when you get his debuff if you do, your casts become instant so spam like a CooCoo Clown ^_^

Comment by stellas

I love this battle because its a PERFECT example of how every class relys on each other. This battle requires little mistake and is pretty harsh if one is made. Classes are required to be in a certain position while engaged.

Lets say The Throne is the North:

Tank should be attacking by the throne so that Vael is facing it.

Other Wariors should be be to the west out of the way of DIRECT fire, hacking away and waiting for transition.

Rogues: should be in the opposite position as the Warriors (across from warriors) stabbing to their hearts content. When Agro is drawn from Rogues, Vael turns to them (AND HE WILL) they should Vanish so to avoid being flamed and being attacked. Note: When Vael is breathing fire towards the Rogues it will also flame the Casters that will be far east up against the wall. The quicker the Rogues Vanish the less deaths will happen. If done correctly Vael will turn back to the warriors.

Hunters/Mages/Locks/Druids/Pallys/Preists: Should be back towards the wall and spread out so to minimize damage taken as a whole. Shooting,Nuking and healing is all they need to do. It is important that the casters stay alive long enough in case they get BA for a chance to do some super DAMAGE. BA on a Lock or Mage is a very good thing because they will do a great ammount of damage in a mater of seconds.

I'm gonna go on a whim here and say Warriors are probally the most important class in this paticular battle. It requires practicaly error free Transitioning between the warriors when the Tank is about to die. If the warriors die too quickly then...Well...All hell breaks loose.

Also, when you are BA'ed, run to the designated Death zone so you don't blow up your comrades!

Comment by Garrior

This is an amazingly fun fight, IF you can do it. If not, its definitly a gear check. If you have killed Razorgore, you are 3/4 of the way there. My only advice, and thats all it is, is to have a full, and balanced raid. When he does BA (Burning Adrenaline), it will randomly target 1 party member with mana. This causes their damage to go WAYY up, but they will die quickly. Every third BA will go to the one on the top of the agro list (your Tank). Healers should keep him healed, but at the same time let him die before he would blow up.

You will likely need 3-4 tanks for Vael, but more dosent hurt. Keep them from dying prematurley, and he will go down.

Edit: 2.0.1 The Warlock pet Felguards can be affected by BA. if warlocks are paying attention and dismiss their pets when they get it, it can easily save a member of your raid.

edit: In version 2.0, the Felguards CAN be hit by BA. If the warlocks are on top of it, they can dismiss the pet before it goes up, saving one member of your raid from a feiry death. very helpful

Everyone says this is a 3 minute fight, but that is only about 80% true. After the debuff (Essence of the Red) is gone, it is still possible to kill him, just more difficult since there is no rapid rage/energy/mana regeneration. In reality, you have about 3:45 to do it.

This is about what my guild does on time:
First 8 seconds:
Main tank goes in at 1 and start counting. Off-tanks will go at 2-4. Healing should start ~3. At 8 all DPS will begin.
By the time the first tank gets BA, Vaelstraz should be at 22%. 23 is ok, less is better. At 20% he is vulnerable to execute, so warriors go nuts.
At 2 minutes left on the buff, Vael should be around 18-20%.
At 1 minute left, he should be ~ 10-12%.
Hopefully he was dead when the buff runs out, but if not keep going. The last percent is the hardest.

One final note: this is the one boss which is easiest to wipe on for the voctorious guilds, only because BA is random. If all your key healers die to the first few BA's, its game over.

Good luck!

Comment by kreghx

General Info
Vaelastraz the corrup is the 2nd boss in Blackwing Lair right after Razorgore the Untamed. Before the fight, Vaelastraz is sound asleep and everyone can roam freely in the room. The fight is started by talking to him. After a brief cut-scene the fight begins. Vaelastraz will now stay awake for exactly 60 minutes before he dies and despawns for 12 hours. While he is awake it is no longer possible to roam freely. Vael will attack anyone within 20 yds of his "middle". Since he's huge and ranged cant be made out accurately, as a general rule the raid should stay outside the inner "courtyard marked by the columns.

Abilities

Everyone in the room will receive this buff when the fight starts:

Essence of Rend
Restores 500 mana per second.
Restores 50 energy per second.
Generates 20 rage per second.
3 minutes remaining

Random ranged members of the raid as well as Vael's main target will get:

Burning Adrenaline
Damage done increased by 100%.
Attack speed increased by 100%.
Reduces max. health by 5% every second. --> down to 18% after 20 sec.
Deals 4375 to 5625 damge to nearby allies upon death.
20 seconds remaining.

Fire breath:
AoE fire that hits everyone in an approximately 90� arc in front of him for ??-?? fire damage.

Cleave:
AoE physical that hits everyone in front of him for 1500-3000 physical damage.

Tailwipe:
AoE knockback that hits for 500-700 physical damage. Hits everyone in an 90� arc to the back of Vael.

Aura:
Damage aura that hits everyone for 300-700 fire damage per tick.

Burning Adrenaline
BA is lethal. We use a mod to announce the burning one of his buff/debuff, so he can action accordingly --> run away from your allies (min 30yd) and resume DPS (which is largely increased). DPS only for ranged classes of course. If the MT has BA he turns Vael slightly to the right in order to make room for MT2, then dies in that spot. More on that later.

Comment by kreghx

Frontal damage/MTs
We need to work something out to prevent Vael's fre breath from killing the dps (just like onyxia)... now if they MT could be kept alive this would be no problem. However we have to feed up to 6 tanks to Vael before he dies.

The whole idea here is to make it impossible for vael to face the DPS by placing the 6 most hated chars (warriors) into strategic positions that direct his flame breath away from the DPS if a Tank dies and another one has to take over

Vael has 3 limited AoE and 1 Aura type damage abilities. The damage zones are shown in the picture above. Note that he has a blind angle just over his rear legs.

Pulling Vael is done by one warrior that runs through him from the wall opposite the throne. By that he turns him and makes sure he doesnt move. 5 seconds afer initial aggro the offtanks move in and fight for aggro. 10 seconds after initial aggro all dps begins.

Positions during the battle are as shown above with raid entirely in the blind angle. All tanks are on one side. When Vael is at 20% Warriors activate Recklessness and Execute for maximum damage. At 10% all Rogues and Hunters stop DPS for 10 seconds. Rogues use feint and vanish whenever available. If it is resisted they stop all backstabs until they can cast a successful feint again. Hunters have to be carefull with dps after a good aimed shot crit. Feign death whenever available is mandatory.

If a ranged char gets BA, he will immediately run away from his allies to one of the green zones (around the columns). Once he arrives there and is still alive he resumes DPS which is greatly increased. If possible he stays clear of Vaels Flame breath and within 40yd of a priest, but never at the expense of safety for the raid.

When the current Main Tank gets burning adrenaline he stays in position. The offtanks get ready to get aggro and immediately turn vael back to the tank positions. During the transition vael must not move. So it is important for tanks to always stay within melee range of vael. Occationally on the transition healers might get a tailwipe and a short gap in the MT healing occurs. To bridge that we have 2 priests flashhealing the MT.

Note: An observation in regard to Vaels flame breath was, that he only does it when his target is stationary. So should you ever see yourself targetted by Vael, start to strafe right away in order to turn Vael away from your allies.

Healing
Everyone takes damage, so the best solution is Prayer of Healing, which means 8 priests, one fore each group. If less than 8 are available, use druids with chaining renew+regrowth on all of their partymembers. But the easiers setup is 8 priests.

Then setup 2 druids or 2 more priests + 1 Paladin to chain heals exclusively on the current Tank so that at all time he has 1x PoH, 1x HL and 2x HT incoming on him. All priests who PoH, will also occationaly send a Flash Heal to the MT.

Buffs
5 Warriors will be dedicated tanks and buffed as usual. The surplus tanks will get BoS and join rogues for DPS. All other DPS will get BoS too as well as all healers. Rogues do not get Blessing of Might (to limit their DPS and crits so tanks can keep up) --> Essence of rend buffs damage, but not taunt/sunder armor.

Comment by goomba

blizzard probably nerfed it, but if a pally gets the burning adrenaline debuff, can they bubble to get rid of it? or not.

Comment by Thelion

No, it can't be removed.

Comment by GradiusicCyber

Not sure if it has been mentioned, and I know this boss fight is rarely done anymore. HOWEVER, I have done it a few times with one of my previous guilds back when 60 was the level cap and I can tell you it's definitely a gear and raid coordination check.

The biggest problems we had as a guild coming out of MC were:

1. Didn't have enough DPS to take Vael down fast enough.

2. Our MTs kept dying too quickly even after we got the positioning down and could transition well between them.

3. Our priests and healers kept getting hit with BA too fast and we'd lose the tanks and/or DPS too fast.

Number three seemed like a case of bad luck, and sometimes there was nothing we could do about it except wipe and try again. The first one got better as we got more gear from MC, but number two was our biggest problem. After some investigating we found out why...tanks need to have huge FR numbers to take Vael's fire breath attacks, but that was the problem. The FR gear they were wearing was cutting into their other stats, since FR gear at the time really only offered Stamina and FR and little else. We also found out this was a problem with our DPS since they needed FR for Vael's fire nova.

After about two weeks of trying we came across a rather nice 'workaround' for this problem...FR buffs from the first spellcasters you encounter in Blackrock Spire. I forget their exact names, but we would have ten people go into the start of BRS and get two or three of them MC'd by our priests. Then, we would funnel the rest of the raid in and have the spellcasters cast an FR buff that gave a whopping 90 FR and it lasted for one hour! This allowed our DPS and tanks to wear more of their MC gear, which translated into more damage, HP, and threat generation.

We also found that using Power Word: Shield on the MT at the start of the Vael fight and having the tanks use Flask of the Titans (I think that was it) significantly reduced the chances of Vael screwing the tanks over with unlucky burst damage. It was a bit costly at the time, but finally beating a very tough boss and getting great gear and progressing further into BWL...that is worth any amount of gold spent.

So yeah, I know Vael isn't fought too much anymore, but if you ever choose to fight him with 40 level 60s, then I hope these few tips help you out.

Comment by Vorph

As a side note, he's the only red dragon currently in-game (not talking about drakes, but dragons).

Comment by blackcrusader

ah, he will step down from that pedestal in a few months when WotLK is released, when Alexstraza and other leaders of the red dragonflight are added.

Comment by Darsh

Be careful trying him at 70 with a small group. Because of the speed at which he puts up the bomb, if you go in with 10-20 people, they will die to the bomb extremely quickly.

Comment by Arknarok

Essence of the Red ( http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=23513 ) has been modified to also restore Runic Power. Feel free to bring your Death Knights.

UPDATE: Now also restores Focus! Hunters rejoice!

Comment by Bloodanger

Heres a fun fact.
He is a Red Dragon from the red Dragonflight, and his mother is Alexstrasza, the well known nemisis of Deathwing, And Nefarian is the kin of Deathwing.
Also, his brother Caelestrasz is part of the AQ40 encounter.

Comment by HoofyKT

The Vael fight was definately fun and was sure a big adrenaline rush (hehe). The story behind him is that he has vowed to hunt Nerfarian until death. But during his hunt, Vealastrasz was injured and corrupted. When the raid enters the room, he is near full corruption but the sane part of his mind sees that your raid of heroes may have what is needed to finally kill Nefarian. He then uses the last of his good power to give your raid the Blessing of Alextrasza-Essence of the Red and corruption finally takes him over therefore making him Vaelastrasz the Corrupt. The fight is extremely fast and there is no room for mistakes. I'm not sure how easy it is to do this at lvl 80. The fight lasts for 3 minutes. This is because the Essence of the Red only last for 3 minutes and is needed to kill this boss since his HP is ridiculously high.

Comment by Kethlan

Anyone know if Guardian Spirit will save the tank from death on this fight?

Comment by Thorongil

Can a Paladin tank this guy and be subject to the Burning Adrenaline debuff every 45 seconds? Or is BA completely random (can hit a tanking Paladin randomly, not just every 3rd BA application) without regard to Mana-Using tanks?

Comment by Demondan

Anyone else noticed that this NPC has been looted 1337 times?

Comment by Necroticon

... No. It makes you 100% faster... ie twice as fast.

edit: the original post has been removed - Someone asked whether 100% faster meant an attack speed of 0.0, leading to infinite dps.

Comment by bearforce

5 Manned tonight

Bear tank
Rogue
Ret Paly
Holy Paly
Mage

Vael died before BA went off
Very close encounter, believe it possible to maybe 4 man

Comment by fibby

Has anyone tried this strategy:
when you're hit by adrenaline rush, immediately unequip all your weapons. This lowers your max hp by about 5-10% (alternatively, you can start the fight without any weapons). Make sure you have means to survive aoe from boss, say priests' bubble or even a potion of limited invulnerability. When there's only few seconds left on your debuff, equip your weapons back on. This will increase your max hp by a static amount about 1.5k. After the debuff wears off, you should still have those hitpoints and will still be alive (theoretically)...

Another thing to try is warrior's last stand / pvp trinket which increases max health temporarily.

Comment by pHishr

If you're 5 manning him just dps like hell.

Comment by nyctric

First defeated by Ascent of Medivh on the 12th of July, 2005.

Comment by weezel

3manned this with 1 prot paladin (me) and 2 rogues (1 mutilate, 1 combat) as soon as i (tank) got the burning adrenaline, i popped wings and got tricks to max my own DPS (a whopping 2400 ish) to about 11% ish, where i died and the rogues took turns evasion tanking it (the mutilate rogue took the adrenaline buff)

it died with the combat rogue standing and me and the muti rogue dead. tight fight but doable like that with those classes.

oh, and 2 shaman belts! wtf is with that : (

Comment by CastorKrieg

We managed to 4-man Vael yesterday. The setup was:

DK Blood (me)
Frost Mage
DK Blood Tank
Holy Pally (healer)

Pally did insignificant damage, Tank approx. 130k, I did 580k and Mage approx. 300k because he got BA first. He respecced to Arcane today and with stacking debuff he is confident he will be critting for 40k when he gets it next week. Will try it out and let all of you know how it goes.

Vael is for sure the hardest fight, took us 3 tries to kill him, a lot depends on RNG. Later we did all the bosses (minus Ebonroc and Flamegore) with no problem.

Comment by Lmjkdd6

Every time I read strategy on this boss, it says he has 3 mil hp. But I've killed him several times, and all of the times hes had 999k. What's going on?

Comment by Tciddados

vael starts the fight at 30% HP (or something near that), so his actual health is around 3 mil but you only have to do 1 mil damage to him, like Murmur in shadow lab.

Comment by HarTstaRx

3 manned with a reto druid, a mutilate rogue and a affliction warlock. Full dps the three of us.

Comment by Fefe31619

I feel sad I had to kill him. After so much begging and pleading that there must be another way to remove the curse he insists on killing him and my team/guilds plan on killing him, such savages!

Plus, he was my friends favorate character, and she doesn't play Warcraft v.v

Comment by LuShiT

Successfully 2-manned this as level 80 Combat Rogue and Protection Warrior in early patch 3.3.

What we did is:
The tank used a few fire resistance items (179 FR)
Using Drums of the Wild and Drums of Forgotten Kings.

Rogue pulls, uses evasion first thing and starts tanking until first flame breath. Use Cloak of Shadows to resist it (should be fully resisted with the resistance provided from Drums of the Wild).

Next thing Warrior takes over aggro, around this time, shatter should be up. If the Warrior has difficulties taking over aggro, use a vanish. After this it's pretty much a dps-race. Use every damaging cooldown you possibly can (including Potion of Speed). Damage reduction cooldowns when applicable. I must say it was a close call in the gear we had (between 3000 and 3100 GS according to wow-heroes.com) but we managed. Prot Warrior had around 4-4.5k dps, rogue about 9k dps.

Had some Elixirs scraping around that we used, namely the 50 crit, also had some 30 crit well fed food that we used.

Also noteable is that the Warrior was a Draenei so Gift of Naaru came in to play (on himself).

Good luck chaps :).

Edit: Might also add: Everything up to Chromag is 2-mannable without heals in this setup (provided you have the Onyxia Scale Cloak). We made about 450 (pure) gold on bosses and trash, and got a couple of elementium ores.

The characters in play were:
Enasy@Dragonblight EU (Protection Warrior)
Caeda@Dragonblight EU (Rogue)

Comment by Hellcat

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivl9C-S81V8

2 manned by feral dps (me) and retri paladin. You can see the fight from retri paly perspective. We both are early ICC10 geared.
Good luck :)

Comment by randomguy43

kite her away from vaels room?

Comment by Thradar

Ahhhh, Vael...Destroyer of Guilds. How I miss thee.

How can you not love a boss that can go from "We got this!" to all 40 people dead in about 1 second because a random rogue or mage spiked in DPS? Thus...Destroyer of Guilds.

Comment by ellbereth

Did this the other day as enhn shammy and feral druid.

Shammy (me) took agro first and tanked him till I got burning Adre...I died, druid B-rezzd me. I got burning adrenaline again and obviously died in about 20 sec...then ahnk'd. At this point the druid got adrenaline....I popped a couple heals on him and myself. Then I got burning adrenaline again....I was spamming lightening bolts and right when I died I sent 1 more bolt at vael. I died...then the LB killed vael....as close as you can get to failing...w/o failing.

fun fight, awesome to see big crits/dmg

Comment by Nafe

Since he starts off as a friendly unit prior to engaging, has anyone tried using Hysteria?
I had previously thought that Blizzard would have automatically made all bosses immune to the spell, but then I read this comment that some stupid DK cast it on Valithria Dreamwalker.

However, I'd imagine that Blizzard did think about this for a bit and that Vael is immune, but I'd love to hear a tested answer anyways =)

Comment by Nafe

Comment by Thund3rfury

Well I Bad English But I Try Help Ppls Who Playing Pre-Tbc <3 :3 Yeah Its Rly Hard Boss But Its Easy To Kill. Tips. How To:
1) Whole Raid Must Stay In Near Each Other So 2-3 Priests Can Aoe Heal With Spell Looks Like Arcane Explosion. And Its Very Very To Kill. :3
When We Not Used That Tact We Get Wiped Rly Fast.:)
I Hope It Helps U Little Bit :)

Comment by zingar

im surprised the pvp trinkets such as Battlemaster's Ruination (only require honor to get) havent been mentioned.
using them would be like last stand and would let you survive burning adrenaline.

edit: increasing your max HP wont save you from burning adrenaline.
ill leave this comment just in case anyone is wandering the same thing

Comment by naalagaat

It is 3 man able with a Retri - Pally, Frost dps - DK, Shadow - Priest :D cheers

Comment by Eukanubae

Did this 2 man the 31juli 2010

Fury warrior 6050Gearscore full fury gear. Eukanubae - Me

Fury warrior 5518Gearscore full fury gear. Crystalskull - Friend

I were the one to start "tanking" the boss. I use two x Bryntroll with Lifeward on it.
I have 30561hp

We used every cooldown we had in the start, used Potion of Speed.

Got him down with my friend at 5k hp left.

This IS possible to do with two fury warriors. So why not try two rogues? :P

Buffed used: Runescroll of fortitude, Drums of the Wild, Drums of forgotten kings.

Eukanubae on Stormreaver
Crystalskull on Stormreaver

Comment by LeminaAusa

If your raid group is farming BWL for elementium, after killing razorgore, when running into vael's room, try and engage all the goblin technicians you can (a single hit on one member of each seperate pack will do). The goblins have a chance to drop elementium ingots and will run away from you the moment you enter vael's room. Having the engineering nitro boosts tinker will help, especially if you have a spammable AE (arcane explosion, holy nova, fan of knives, etc).

Comment by stmilosh

He is soloable on Cata.
You have 45+20 seconds to deal 1M dmg which is roughly 30k dps.

Comment by qasaq

Still no focus for hunters, been on my mind for weeks now!
Hope blizzard will fix this.

Comment by Shageki

Has anyone tried having a pet tank this guy?

I'm curious as to whether or not he'd use Burning Adrenaline on it, since I know some bosses avoid casting certain abilities on pets.

Comment by Lasengnomad

Solo possible as Beast Master hunter at 80 -- was with a group trying to help me get Chromaggus and I needed them for the first boss. After Razorgore went down, they had to leave for a guild raid though and I was left staring at Vael.

Switched to Ferocity pet (a cat) that was specced into both Heart of the Phoenix and 3/3 Great Resistance -- these being both extremely important for the success of this fight.

When Vael engages pet (make sure you are at max distance on the flank side), MD and go nuts since Essence of the Red basically gives you unlimited Focus for 3 minutes (forget steady shot and spam the hell out of Arcane and Kill Command).

Burning Adrenaline will eventually kill your pet -- hopefully, by this time, Vael's health should be almost down to 20-30%. Vael will go after you -- hit Heart of the Phoenix Heart of the Phoenix, Feign Death and allow pet to get aggro again, and finish the %^&*! off.

As a sweetener, I was able to go through all the other bosses and get Chromaggus on my own. Will try Nef tonight.

Japayuki
Exodar

Comment by Wooticus

As of writing this, Vaelastrasz can be soloed by a Fury warrior effortlessly. The combination of Execute and unlimited rage give you an insane damage output. Although this is slightly redundant if you're aiming to solo the entire raid, as Razorgore still requires at least two people.

Comment by Lindorage

Easily soloable by a MM hunter. did about 16k dps. was lucky enough to have my pet get the burning adrenaline that way if he died i could rez him. though i killed him before my pet died so it could have been beneficial(dps wise) to let myself get the debuff. either way, went down very smoothly.

Comment by Nobbel

How to Duo/Solo in Cataclysm:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBal4uMCfOk

Comment by Kaldrake

If the adds in Razorgore's room are still spawned when Vaelastrasz is engaged, there is a good chance that the encounter will glitch.

He will cast Burning Adrenalin once every 1-5 second(s), going down the line until everyone has this debuff. It's a sure cause of a wipe unless you have the numbers (both in people, and dps) to down him before the time runs down on everyone.

The glitch thus far seems avoidable by exiting the instance, and allowing Razorgore's adds to despawn (Usually after 15 minutes. Ensure that anyone dead inside pops their corpses and res outside, otherwise the adds do not seem to despawn).

Comment by Iroared

I usually have my 60 priest standing in the corner when I do bwl (its needed for razorgore, and I'm still collecting t2 on it), and it often takes burning adrenaline instead of me. Either way, I can rez the other character. Today, however, it managed to cast adrenaline on both of us for some reason. If that happens, finish off the boss and quickly cast rez/mass rez, it will be an instant cast =)

Comment by Nobbel

A video guide on how to solo BWL as a hunter (or a goblin) without killing Ebonroc/Chromagus:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkrUOVxe9Oo&hd=1

Hope it helps!
Nobbel - Terokkar EU

Comment by Beranis

A DK can use Army of the Dead to buy a little time before the boss gives the debuff to him/her or the raid. If soloing, the DK will still need to do a lot of DPS after casting the spell.

And no, Cheat Death, Cauterize, Ardent Defender, Divine Shield, and Ice Block will not protect you from the death effect of Burning Adrenaline.

Went on a run with the guild to prove the anti-death immunities for this fight false. (Edited because talent ranks don't exist anymore.)

Comment by RegiRuler

This guy and razorgore seem, in hindsight, the perfect bosses to counter soloing.

Comment by BloodWren

On the old Blizzard website, there was a page which listed mobs that killed the most players. For most of Vanilla, the top two spots were held by Defias Pillager and Vaelastrasz the Corrupt. :)

Comment by Tomah

Vael seems to wait much longer before the first application of Burning Adrenaline post-5.1. I didn't see it until at least 40s into the fight.

Comment by kronchev

I just solod this on a paladin. My spec choices were Holy and Prot. Prot didn't come close to the damage output. I went Holy and took the damage glyphs:

Glyph of Harsh Words
Glyph of Denounce
Glyph of Holy Shock

I also grabbed as talents Sanctified Wrath and Execution Sentence.

Wearing all 463 gear I managed to get him just as I died. Popped both cooldowns, hit Ex Sent, used Shock, HoW, and 3 charge WoG when they were up, filled with Denounce as a filler. Very, very close.

I'm sure with a 1k int flask and noticeably better gear, it would have been a little easier.

Comment by Ryegore

Did this last night as a level 89 Arms warrior with an ilvl of about 428. It took 3 tries. The first two were as Prot and I couldn't beat the dps race.

On the 3rd try, I Popped Enraged Regen about 60 sec in and spammed execute at the end to finish him off. I had 80K health left when the boss died, had time to loot him, and then the debuff killed me again, so take a health potion with you for your victory celebration.

Comment by Ethlin

He got his HP buffed (Likely to frustrate players attempting to solo9 BWL for the pets). He used to have about 3 million (Of which you only needed to kill 1 million), now he has over 6M (Of which you need to kill about 2M).

Comment by zim804

A friend and I tried to two man it tonight. Failed miserably as prot pallys. Any tips, or should we just get more dps?

Comment by kylejn

Easily soloed as a 442 Retribution Paladin. Start with Exorcism, Judgment, Avenging Wrath, Guardian of Ancient Kinds, pop Inquisition as soon as possible and hit Execution Sentence. Templar's Verdict him every chance you get, pop Exorcism when it procs, and he'll fall quick.

Comment by Furydeath

This boss sucks only cause of the "run back" even if you do win.

Comment by Vorh

So people don't try what I did and die as a result, he will still cast the debuff on you if you are out of los and dark bargin will not prevent you from dying, it is no help at all.

Edit, Just downed him, as a ivl 416, lv 88 orc demonology warlock. Pop all cds and meta as soon as he puts the debuff on you. Instant cast soulfire him down, once you run of of fury then just keep using soul fire in normal form till dead. I used glyph of sacrafice to power up soulfire even more. Curse of elements is very important to have up.

I killed him just as i died with 51.8k dps

Comment by Dianora

I tried doing this as an affliction warlock. For some reason, none of my channel spell does enough damage against him.

Comment by nitrous

Note that if you have enough DPS, you can survive Burning Adrenaline. Vaelastrasz casts the spell around 14 or 15 seconds into the fight, so if you manage to kill him in 13 seconds or less, you will not be afflicted by it and you will survive.

Personally, as Elemental Shaman with item level 484, I managed to kill him in 13 seconds using (pre-cast) Bloodlust, Fire Elemental and Ascendance.

Good luck!

Comment by Ugluxx

Undoable as a lv 87 Demonology Warlock, popping everything (Dark Soul, trinkets, summoning Doomguard) and then insta-Soulfire while Metamorphed and also proccing the AOE fire damage, i could only bring him to 660K before dying to Burning Adrenaline.

Comment by silverhazed

As I've taken so much from this site (no, you can't have it back!), I'd thought I'd share my own (eventual) triumphs.

Just solo'd this beast as tankadin (I've 6 - won't play anything else).

Respec'd from "normal" tank talents & glyphs to -
Charred Glyph & Charred Glyph with instead of my normal Light's Hammer
Used Darkmist Vortex & Iron Belly Wok (although I always use/have these equipped)
with Flask of Winter's Bite & Potion of Mogu Power on the pull.

As you can see from the video, I only died as a result of Vaelastraszs' corpse falling on me! *cough* The timing of my demise still makes me laugh!
http://youtu.be/7TAVNKwQHBs

Comment by Zuhukanah

A small tip for the fellow locks who don't quite have the damage to solo it yet. If you SS yourself and pop it immediately as you die, the boss won't reset so you'll get another chance.

Comment by jamesboxers

The most common problem with soloing this instance now is the debuff Burning Adrenaline as stated in several other comments. In solo encounters it becomes your death timer and you HAVE to kill him before the debuff reaches 0.

There was one simple runaround I found to avoiding it but it takes a LOT of DPS to ensure you can do it effectively, speaking from a level 90 Retribution Paladin.

When you first encounter Vaelastrasz, before he is corrupted, speak to him and start scene of him being converted. Run out of the room and to the lockout gate near the entrance, do NOT stand behind it, it will reset Vaelastrasz, stand in front. If you have already initiated the fight once, attack Vaelastrasz at maximum range and run to the same place.

Use up whatever cooldowns, buffs, potions you need to do your best DPS, your cut off time will be when your Burning Adrenaline debuff reaches a remaining time of 6 seconds, the time needed to run from your current position to the instance portal. If you cannot kill Vaelastrasz within this time, this will not work.

When Vaelastrasz is dead, and your Burning Adrenaline debuff reaches 6 seconds, begin to run out of the instance. You'll want to leave before it's duration ends so you do not die in the instance. If you're lucky, sometimes that last health removal tick isn't counted and you're left with 5% of your health remaining out of your original health pool, if not, you'll die outside the instance. I haven't tested if dying here will bring you to the spirit guardian outside Blackrock Depths but if it does, it'll save a very, very long fly/run distance you initially do from the far side of Searing Gorge (For the Horde).

I'll try to create a video to recreate this scenario on the next reset of next week to demonstrate how this works. Until then, text description.

Comment by Furydeath

The strange thing about this fight is my 490 mage who kills him in about 15-16 seconds always dies yet my 360 monk who takes almost 30 seconds to kill it NEVER get's the debuff.

Comment by Dannardi

Killed him last night as a lvl 85 fury warrior. Didn't know how the debuff worked before going into the fight and died 7 times before bring him down. At the last try I saved all my cool downs until the debuff popped up, which was about the same time execute became available. Then popped all cool downs and spamed execute with a full rage bar. I died a few seconds after killing him but was able to loot and move on after running back.

Comment by direpath

Just to note, once you enter the room, two packs of three Goblins start running for the top exit. If you tag any one of each group they will stop to fight you. They can drop Elementium Ore. I usually cast judgement on the first pack and run up the stairs to hit the other group before they leave the room.

Comment by direpath

I am able to solo this at iLvL 414 as a retribution paladin. I pop all cooldowns, including my Guardian and I also us my Terracota Fragment I have been killing him within a few seconds of Burning Adrenaline killing me.

Comment by Whoisthiscook

Don't hesitate to attempt to solo this boss as a level 86 Combat Rogue with ilvl 397 (BoA iLvl 450 dagger mind you). I got him down 3 seconds before Burning Adrenaline killed me. Also, I didn't manage to kill him as Sub, wiped on 1%, but that might be because I fooled around with the Cloak And Dagger talent, dealing no damage to the boss for 3-5 seconds. Might have been possible in Sub if I hadn't fooled around.

Comment by Arxae

With Xuen it's a breeze. Xuen took the first burning adrenaline and vael didn't get a chance to cast a second.

Comment by Morbius

Soloed this with my 85 DK in unholy spec wearing Jade Forest greens and auction house blues. My equipped item level is 417. I did it in unholy to try to kill her before I got hit with the debuff. I got close but I just missed it. Just a little more DPS would have done it. I tried to run out to see if that would clear the debuff, as someone below speculated, but I didn't make it.

Here's the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtifU4PAHkc

Comment by brothertim

solo'd as a 90 blood dk in frost presence with 2x 1handers. I summoned ghoul and army before the combat actually started and never got hit with BA.

Comment by Koshut

managed to solo him with my retri pala after a few wipes at lvl 88 the key is to nuke as hard as you can and use all of your dmg cds i killed hi and after i died from his amazing debuff hope this helps

Comment by sniperorc

My experience soloing this with 90s of various classes:

1) If you're a mana-user, you will almost certainly die. Vael casts Burning Adrenaline in a three-target rotation in 15 second increments: random mana-user, random mana-user, top of threat list. If you're soloing him and you're not a mana-user, he won't cast on you until the 45 second mark. (And maybe never. I don't know if his BA rotation will get stuck if he doesn't have any eligible targets for the first cast.)

Still, at level 90, if you can't burn him in 45 seconds, you shouldn't be here.

But if you're a level-90 mana-based caster, you only have 15 seconds before you get the first BA of the event. After that, you have 20 additional seconds of massive caster bad-assery (instant casts, double damage) before you are dead. No exceptions. No escape. And after you've gotten BA cast on you, winning doesn't actually save you. The debuff stays on even after Vael is down. I hope you like ghost-running and a repair bill. Still, it's worth it if you can down him before dying.

To save yourself that, burn him fast. He officially has 6.4 million health, but he starts the fight wounded (from Nefarian pwning him) at 30% max health, or 1.92 million. So, 128k dps. Easy peasy. :-P

To win at all as a mana-user, you have to do that 1.92 million in 35 seconds (15 secs until BA, 20 secs after BA to unavoidable death). That's roughly 55k DPS. Doable. Especially since during BA your DPS will spike hard.

2) If you're not a mana-using level 90, you'll never notice Burning Adrenaline. I never saw it cast when I was soloing on my hunter, not even on my pet. Frankly, I didn't realize this was supposed to be a tough fight until I tried it on my enhancement shaman.

There isn't really much else to this fight as a 90. Burning Adrenaline is the only mechanic that you HAVE to beat.

Comment by Lordplatypus

I kill him weekly just so I can sit on his chair.

Comment by digitalutopia1

In case you were wondering why absolutely zero of the recent posts included a strategy for a Shadow Priest, you need to remember that this class is mostly a DoT machine - not exactly the best choice for a fight that absolutely requires burst damage.

That being said, it is possible - provided that you're around 435 item level, at level 90. My Shadow Priest only had about 8k intellect, so of you have that or above, this should be doable.

1. Moar Powah

First off, you're going to need to get some feast-quality int food (275+), pots, and flasks - and anything else at your disposal to increase spell power/int. Make no mistake, this is a DPS race - you need to hit about 53k DPS to finish him off, or it's game over. Not exactly an easy task for lower item level 90s.

2. Instant Gratification

Second, you're going to need to switch up your talents a bit. From Darkness, Comes Light, and Divine Insight/Twist of Fate are generally recommended for your average dungeon/raid, they're not going to help as much on a burst fight. Instead, go with Solace and Insanity, for extra damage from Mind Flay, and Power Infusion, to give you a straight up DPS cooldown.

3. Like Mana Ain't A Thing

Generally speaking, a Shadow Priest's normal rotation is designed to balance DPS and Mana - after all, if you don't have mana, you can't do much. In this case, however - no matter what you do, you're going to be dead well before you run out of mana. So the rotation is going to reflect that. Make sure you've got your flask and food buffs.

1. Start off like normal - with your SW:P and Vamp Touch DoTs,

2. Pop your pot. While you can pre-pot, it doesn't really matter - as you're going to be dead before the cooldown is up.

3. Fire off Shadowfiend

4. Fire off Power Infusion

5. Until you get two orbs, alternate between Mind Blast and Mind Spike - remembering to refresh SW:P/VT after each Mind Spike.

6. Hit Devouring Plague

7. Alternate between Mind Flay and Mind Blast, firing off Devouring Plague, and Mind Spike only when they proc, or Mind Spike if you start having issues with channeling your Mind Flay.

8. Remember to keep reapplying your DoTs, if they expire - or get canceled by a off-proc Mind Spike

9. Hit Shadow Word: Death as often as you can.

If everything goes well, you should be able to get her down shortly before you die. Yes, you will die. That's a given. So you're going to want to take him down first.

Comment by joker102877

SOLOABLE - As an 86 Retribution Paladin

This was a trial and error run for me but I finally determined the optimal configuration. I started out with full ilevel 372 vendor gear, since my Cata gear wasn't even epic. Upon consistent failures, I would either obtain higher gear through MoP questing or dungeons, upgrading 2-3 pieces at a time and retrying. Below was my configuration and spell rotation upon a successful kill:

Gear (effective item level 385):

Head - **
Neck - **
Shoulder - **
Back - Tasting Room Tablecloth
Chest - Jade Tiger Chestpiece
Wrist - Jade Tiger Armplates
Gloves - Partycrasher's Gauntlets
Belt - **
Legs - Sunsong Armored Legguards
Boots - **
Ring 1 - Blossoming Ring
Ring 2 - Jade Smasher Band
Trinket 1 - **
Trinket 2 - Jade Raccoon
Weapon - Jinyu Greatsword

** ilevel 372 (vendor gear from Dawn's Blossom, bought with gold).

Reforging and Enchants:
All gear without Hit or Expertise was reforged with Hit and Expertise rating to a minimum of 7.50%, treating Crit and Mastery as the weakest and next-to-weakest stats (respectively), and Haste as the highest.

As far as enchants, I only used Enchant Gloves - Superior Expertise and Enchant Bracer - Greater Expertise (because that's what was available).

Buffs used:
Blessing of Might (lvl 86 version naturally).
Seal of Truth

Spell Rotation:
Opened with my offensive cooldown macro: #showtooltip
/cast Avenging Wrath
/cast Guardian of Ancient Kings
and alternated between Hammer of Wrath and a Holy Power building spell for the duration of Avenging Wrath, building enough Holy Power for a full Inquisition and spending subsequent full Holy Power on Templar's Verdict while still maintaining the Hammer of Wrath alternation.

Holy Power building rotation priority:

This resulted in enough DPS for a successful kill, but not prior to Burning Adrenaline being cast and killing me. But the most important thing is the kill, since you just run back to the attunement orb and loot Vaelastrasz upon re-entering.

I hope this information helps other classes as well. The basics are the same. Hit and Expertise rating are extremely important because, even though you out-level the boss by roughly 23 levels, it is a "boss" and subjected to boss damage mitigation mechanics, which is 3 levels above yours so you must adjust Hit and Expertise accordingly. If you're not hitting the boss, or the boss is dodging and parrying your attacks, it doesn't really matter how much DPS you are capable of outputting.

Comment by joker102877

Comment by Uilde

Very easy in MoP. As a 532 gemmed/enchanted ret pally, I was able to burn him down without a potion before he even cast the debuff on me :) (it took about 10 seconds).

Comment by FlayOnDarkIron

I managed a kill on my 89 destro lock. First attempt was a wipe with 47k dps, second attempt was a kill with 57k dps. Had about 3 seconds to spare before BA killed me.

I'd say 55k is roughly about the absolute minimum needed.

Comment by Foxworth

If you are trying to solo this as a warlock, you cannot use the orb while you have a demon summoned. Also, if Vaelstrasz gets low health at any point, walk within range of yourself and use health funnel. You will lose control of Vaelstrasz, but the health funnel works to get him to full health.

Comment by erlkonig

Just soloed him as a level 81 beast master hunter in ilvl ~277 (with a Snub-Nosed Pistol, ilvl 292) using Skoll as my pet - I had to resummon him a few times from him dying in the expected ways. Tried to use the upper balcony, but got summoned to the floor each time my pet died. Still took him down on the second try. Talented with Blink Strikes and Dire Beast, used heavily.

Lost about 20% health from V's attack each time I had to Revive Pet (somehow forgot I could use Heart of the Phoenix). Spirit Bond and Glyph of Animal Bond probably helped.

Comment by Cascius

After 6.0.2, easy fight. Solo'd as a 90 Hunter in 4 seconds, didn't get dead buff.

Comment by Zarcelito

On the old Blizzard website, there was a page which listed mobs that killed the most players. For most of Vanilla, the top two spots were held by Defias Pillager and Vaelastrasz the Corrupt.

It's amazing how, now in WoD, this formerly guild killer boss is easily soleable by any class in less than 30 seconds.

Comment by The8th

Pala ilv 700 Tank.
1 shot it.

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Vaelastrasz the Corrupt

This NPC can be found in Blackwing Lair.

Blackwing LairRazorgore the UntamedVaelastrasz the CorruptBroodlord LashlayerFiremawEbonrocFlamegorChromaggusNefarianVaelastrasz the CorruptBlackwing LairBurning Adrenaline

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Vaelastrasz the Corrupt

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