Being the last boss in the raid Lady Vashj is also the most difficult to defeat. Her fight involves three separate phases with various abilities, which include::

Frostfathom Shots - Vashj shoots people throughout phase 1 and 3 with her bow, Frostfathom, after she entangles players (described below) or when there is no one in melee range.. Her basic attacks hit for up to 5,000 damage and she also has a multi-shot ability that his the target and up to 4 nearby players for up to 7,000 damage.

Shock Burst - Vashj uses this attack only during phase 1 and 3. This ability hits a player for up to 10,000 damage and stuns them for 5 seconds. While effected by the stun Vashj will attack the next player down the aggro list.

Static Charge - This is a single target debuff that Vashj puts on a random player during phase 1 and 3. The debuff hits that player and anyone nearby (within about 8 yards) for up to 3,000 damage per second for 30 seconds. It can not be dispelled or cleansed, but cloak of shadows, a Pally bubble or ice block can remove it.

Entangle - This ability is again used during phase 1 and 3, and roots everyone within 15 yards of Vashj for 10 seconds. It also does a DoT for roughly 500 damage every 2 seconds while you are rooted. It can not be dispelled or cleansed, but cloak of shadows, a Pally bubble or ice block can remove it.

Forked Lightning - During phase 2 Lady Vashj uses this ability back to back. It hits a random player in her front arc, and everyone in a roughly 60 degree cone, for up to 2,500 per hit

Because this is a long fight where everyone is going to take damage it is important to gather at the entrance of the room and ensure everyone is buffed, healed, and ready. When everyone is ready the tank can move in to engage, while everyone else moves into the room to setup two rings around her. While this is happening you need 2 healers casting on the main tank to ensure he stays up during the setup.

The two rings of players need to be separated to an inner ring of melee DPS and an outer ring of ranged dps and healers. This is done so that when static charge comes up on a random target the outer ring player effected can just step back, or the inner DPS effected has a hollow zone to step back into.

Once the fight has started you are in phase 1. For the first little bit it is just setting up positioning and avoiding static charges. If the MT gets static charge you have 2 options. The first is melee DPS backs off, the second is that the OT takes over and the MT steps into the hollow area between rings. Either choice works well and largely depends on your groups reaction ability and your OT's gear. If your OT has gear equal to the MT, it is easier for one player to move than many. The choice is yours though.

When the MT gets hit by shock burst, Vashj will drop aggro and attack the OT. Healers need to switch quickly to keep the OT up. Once the stun is over the MT can pick Vashj back up.

The other ability used in phase 1 by Vashj is entangle. When she does this all melee will become rooted and she will move away and start shooting players with her bow. As soon as this happens the tank must have blessing of freedom cast on him so that he can move out and pick Vashj back up.

Vashj continues using these abilities until you drop her below 70% health. It is critical that you reach the end of phase 1 without losing players. Ideally you should not lose anyone.

Several things happen in phase 2 that need to be addressed. First, Vashj will retreat to the center of the room, start casting forked lighting continuously and put up a protective bubble around herself that makes her immune to all normal forms of damage. Fork lighting will hit everyone in a 60 degree cone of a random target. There is nothing that can be done about this other than to try and stay spread out and to heal through it. Secondly, elementals will start spawning from the edge of the room at each of the stairs. Lastly, Coilfang Elite MOBS and Coilfang Striders will start spawning in the central area.

To get Vashj out of the bubble you need to shut down the 4 generators located around her. To do this you need to use a tainted core on them, which drops from a tainted elemental which spawns instead of a normal elemental roughly every minute. To do this you need to handle the adds.

To deal with the elemental adds you need to setup at least 2 DPS and a healer at each of the stairways. When an elemental spawns the DPS needs to drop the elemental before it makes its way to the center and Vashj. The elemental only has about 8,000 health so it shouldn't be too much of an issue for DPS at this point. However, it is critical that the elemental not reach Vashj. For each that does reach Vashj she will receive a buff that adds 5% damage. This buff stacks, and if she does receives many you are looking at a wipe in phase 3 as the healers will not be able to keep up.

The other spawns are the coilfang elites which spawn every 45 seconds. This is a very nasty mob that has a large health pool (roughly 170,000) and can hit for 5,000 damage on a tank and has a cleave that hits everyone in the front arc. The tank needs to pick this MOB up and be moved to the center quickly, where the remainder of the DPS helps kill it before the next one spawns.

Also every 60 seconds or so, a coilfang strider is spawned. This Mob has a huge health pool as well (roughly 170,000), but also has a very nasty AOE fear that is cast every 3 seconds, which makes it un-tankable. The best way to deal with this MOB is to have someone pull him as soon as he spawns and then kite it around the room away from players, while everyone DOTs it and damages it from range. Kiting can be done by a Warlock, Mage or Hunter and is simplified by the use of traps, snares and other slowing effects, all of which effect the strider.

The last part of this phase is the shutting down of the generators and the bubble around Vashj. Roughly every minute one of the elementals spawned will be a tainted elemental. This MOB only stays up for roughly 15 seconds and shoots poison bolts at a nearby player. The DPS nearby must kill it before it despawns. Once killed you need to loot the tainted elementals corpse and obtain its core. Once you do, you may not move, but need to throw the core to someone closer to the generators. Who will then throw it again to the next nearest person. You can through it roughly 40 yards and it will then appear in their inventory. After 2 - 3 throws it should get to someone standing next to a generator and can be used to shut that generator down. In addition each generator shut down causes Vashj 5% damage.

It is critical to communicate in this phase. Everything from when an elite spawns, who is kiting the strider, when a tainted elemental spawns, who the core is being thrown to and more are all critical in this fight.

Once all 4 generators are shut down Lady Vashj will be at 50% health, the bubble will go down and you will enter phase 3 of the fight. Because Lady Vashj is released as soon as the last generator is shut down you may want to hold off a few seconds, if you can, to kill the last elite or strider that spawned. This depends on their current health and position. Many groups power through regardless, others that are consistently dropping them before the next spawns kill it off.

Phase 3 is a repeat of phase 1 with the addition of flying spore bats. Basically though, you follow the positioning and tactics of phase 1.

The spore bats start flying into the room at a slow pace and then multiple quickly as the fight goes on. The spore bats circle the room dropping toxic spores on the ground that create poison clouds where they land that do roughly 1,500 damage per second to anyone in them. The clouds last a while and eventually will fill up most of the room in patches. At least initially the bats can be thinned out by having 2-3 players (Hunters, Warlocks, Shadow Priests, Mages all work well) stand at the west stairs and hit them and dot them as they enter. In this way you have less of them to deal with throughout this phase.

After a while though (about 5 - 6 minutes) there will be so many bats that moving becomes very treacherous and players start dieing due to movement alone. This is a sort of encounter timer. Your goal is to down Lady Vashj before this time.

Enjoy the encounter and if you have gotten into phase 3, it is just a matter of time before you complete the encounter successfully.

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