Wrath 101: The Vault of Archavon
by Zach Yonzon 
Dec 20th 2008 at 4:00PM
While there are no level restrictions to entering Wintergrasp (though if you can't fly you'll either have to take the portal or be summoned), players must be Level 80 and in a raid group in order to enter the Vault of Archavon raid instance. It's a very short raid with exactly four trash mobs who have special abilities, but are essentially tank and spank and prepare the raid for how the boss will be like. Archavon is a DPS race.
Raids will need two tanks, the necessary healers, and a whole lot of good DPS. The off-tank is needed for when Archavon picks up the main tank and uses him to mash other members of the raid for eight seconds. It doesn't even have to be a real tank, just someone tough enough to take some heavy hits. Archavon will also leap at random raid members, dealing some damage and creating an AoE cloud that deals about 2k per tick. He just has to be moved out of this cloud to allow melee DPS to do their thing. Lastly, he shoots out rock shards at random raid members, which deals damage to anyone within 5 yards of the target. If you're the target, simply stay put. If you're not, just move away from the rocks.
The only real difficulty with Archavon is his 5-minute enrage timer. Groups must pump up enough DPS to kill him before he wipes the raid. It's an extremely straightforward fight and is the easiest raid boss in Wrath of the Lich King. He drops two pieces of either Tier 7 (10-man) or Hateful Gladiator chest, legs, or gloves in the normal version, and four pieces of either Tier 7 (25-man) or Deadly Gladiator chest, legs, or gloves in heroic. The Gladiator pieces do not require ratings and can be worn when picked up. He also drops 2 Emblems of Heroism or 2 Emblems of Valor in normal and heroic versions, respectively.
There is absolutely no reason not to do Archavon every week, as he promises the best reward-to-effort ratio than any other boss. It usually takes longer to organize a group, usually a PUG, than it is to actually finish the instance. Aside from itemset drops, Archavon also reportedly drops the extremely rare Grand Black War Mammoth, which is also an Achievement. So even if you have no interest in PvP or Wintergrasp, Archavon should always be a weekly stop for the promise of free and easy upgrades.
Whether or not you're a fan of PvP, we think you'll enjoy Wintergrasp. Blizzard's latest and greatest attempt at World PvP is one of the most fun aspects of Wrath of the Lich King, and the more people play it, the crazier it gets! Learn all about Wintergrasp in WoW Insider's complete guide.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
mike Dec 20th 2008 4:10PM
They really need to change the reset timer for both the normal and the herioc. Waiting a week to for a boss that takes a whole 10 minutes to kill and drops class-specific loot. Maybe have the normal reset every 3 days and the heroic every 5?
Also it wouldn't hurt to change it so that if you're looting the boss the raid instance won't automatically kick you out when its time for the Wintergrasp battle.
Joey Dec 20th 2008 4:14PM
Isn't it easy enough to get gear without them gimping it more? Twice a week is fine. You get 2 chances at the guy with Normal/Heroic.
Radiophonic Dec 20th 2008 5:27PM
Why, so people can get pimped out on epics the easiest way possible? There's a reason his reset is so long ya know. And I heartell they'll be making him harder to kill soon which is good, this guy is too easy.
kaion Dec 20th 2008 6:34PM
He was a 3 day timer and was hot fixed to a week so people had to wait to get gear and not just welfare it all.
Manatank Dec 20th 2008 4:22PM
They need to up the difficulty on this instance. It's a complete joke.
Matthew Rossi Dec 20th 2008 4:25PM
From a dedicated raiding perspective, yes. He's very easy. I think he's tuned with the idea of 10 or 25 random Wintergrasp PvP spec/geared players taking him on, though.
Manatank Dec 20th 2008 4:37PM
Then he shouldn't drop PvE epics. Last time we downed his 25 man version 3 of the 4 loot drops were PvE tier pieces.
PeeWee Dec 20th 2008 5:13PM
They tuned the boss to fit the PvP:ers raiding skill. Anything but a tank and spank would mean a wipefest.
Manatank Dec 20th 2008 5:53PM
If they didn't want to make it an option for easy PvE epics they either should have excluded them from the loot table, or limited participating in the event it to people in PvP gear.
This could be achieved by having some kind of raid wide damage that has say a 5% chance to crit. If it crits it does some insane amount of unhealable damage. Then the only way to do the fight would be to ensure that every member of the raid has some minimum amount of resilience/defense to negate the raid damage. This keeps the PvE only people out. It could also be tuned to require PvPers with some reasonable amount of entry gear before they could complete it as well. No more free epics, and at the same time it accomplishes the goal of allowing PvPers a special event.
Mugutu Dec 20th 2008 7:04PM
Except that any mage can just as easily use Molten Armor and completely avoid that crit change from the start. Not to say it's a bad idea though - as a mage, I personally would rather just get the resilience and use Mage Armor for the mana regen, I'd need it while in PvP gear anyway.
Matthew Rossi Dec 20th 2008 4:23PM
Some notes from a fury warrior:
1 - he can be main tanked by a fury warrior in tanking gear. There are no adds so single target threat is the only concern. 30k buffed in tank gear seems to be plenty.
1 - he can be offtanked by a DPS member of a tanking class (cat druid, fury or arms warrior, ret pally, non tanking DK) with the simple adjustment into various tanking forms or stances. Warriors and paladins should equip a shield if possible for that time period.
3 - a dedicated tank (bear druid, prot pally or warrior, tanking DK in tanking gear and frost presence) can often survive surprisingly long even in enrage. If he goes enraged but is almost dead, don't lose hope, just keep pouring on the DPS. I've yet to see him live to enrage on 25 man version, but in 10 man an unlucky death can make it a squeaker.
Masarah Dec 20th 2008 4:34PM
What I've noticed is a lot of the raid groups put together to either attack or defend WG are going directly to the Vault afterwards. Its a good way to get a good group together.
Sanar Dec 31st 2008 12:19PM
As a hunter, make sure your pet is also lvl 80. I made that mistake once and my cat just sat by the stairs the whole fight.
Masarah Dec 20th 2008 5:09PM
Just a bit OT here - Anyone else having problems changing their avatar?
I've clicked my name, logged in and clicked Upload. Then found the the jpg on my desktop and it says its sucessful however it doesn't seem to update - even half an hour later?
Fireflash38 Dec 20th 2008 6:20PM
@PeeWee:
So, PvE is harder than PvP? Why is it then that an extremely simple, hardcoded "pvp" fight like in Magisters Terrace caused endless QQ on the forums?
I would like to see your 2.2k rated team for you to say that PvE is harder than PvP.
Dahras Dec 21st 2008 2:24PM
Ummm... He wasn't saying that PvP was easier than PvE, he was saying that PvP'ers may not have the skills to do a hard raid boss, just like Raiders wouldn't have the skill to fight a skilled arena team.
Raiding is a completely different skill set from PvP, and even though they are equal (or PvP is harder), that doesn't mean a great PvP'er can traipse into a raid and just own the place automatically, just like a Pro Football player couldn't suddenly switch to the NBA.
Kanuris Dec 21st 2008 6:19PM
They moaned because it was a PvP style fight in a PvE style instance. Some of us just plain don't like PvP.
Fireflash38 Dec 21st 2008 7:50PM
PvE requires a different gear set, not skill set.
If arenas were non-existent, people would see the Magister's Terrace fight as PvE encounter. It really is PvE, they have a set ability list and actions, and they will not vary from it.
PvP is dynamic, PvE is not (the boss fights don't change sporadically, they don't do target swaps and CC rotations etc).
I'm not saying PvE takes no skill, just it is in no way harder than PvP.
kye Dec 20th 2008 11:19PM
I don't know anything about this raid other than whats in the article at the top, but I think that a week is just fine for this one. They should also make him tougher, it sounds like it's too easy to get those epics.
tarheel24 Dec 21st 2008 12:10PM
eh leave him be. without token drops its hit or miss on if the loot can even be used. I know ive been in 3 10 man versions and 2 25 man version where the loot was just left there because we didnt have the class that dropped. Also a cpl of guild healers joined a pug for 25 and it was lotz o' failz for the dps on the enrage timer so I think it works for what it is and what it developed for.