| Boss: | General Vezax |
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| Zone: | Ulduar |
| Modes: | 10N, 25N |
| Type: | Normal boss kill |
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| Kyth <Fusion> |
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| 49 guides |
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| Created: 05 Nov 2009 Updated: 2 weeks ago |
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Overview
General Vezax is the last boss before Yogg-Saron in Ulduar.
You can only reach him if you have killed the four Keepers first.
This fight is unique in Ulduar in that no normal mana regen functions for any non-physical classes. The only way to regain mana is to kill the Saronite Vapors and stand in them to exchange health for mana.
Raid Composition
| Tanks: | 2 |
| Healers: | 5-7 |
| Melee: | any |
| Ranged: | any |
You need to have at least some reliable interrupters. Rogues are traditional, but any melee class can do it (ranged might be running away from a Shadow Crash when they need to interrupt, or may be away from the raid with Mark of the Faceless.)
Phase 1: Boss
In general the strategy here is pretty simple. Vezax is just a bit of a reimagining of your standard tank and spank fight.
This fight mostly breaks down to getting Searing Flames interrupts under control, managing Shadow Crash for maximum caster dps and minimal raid damage, reducing healing from Mark of the Faceless either through strategy or running out of the raid, and healers knowing how hard they can push healing without bottoming out their mana.
Tank Tips
The tank needs to be watching carefully for the Surge of Darkness cast and be ready to kite as soon as he sees it. It is helpful to work out a kite path with your healers ahead of time, so that you do not find yourself out of their reach. We generally just go back and forth across the middle of the room.
If you have a warrior tank, he can intervene a healer partway down the kite path. This ensures that there is a healer in range of the tank as well as getting the tank away from him quickly.
Alternatively, if you have a DK, you can skip the kiting and just use cooldowns to get through Surge of Darkness.
Heal Tips
Healers have to manage mana as best they can and coordinate the usage of saronite vapors in order to last until the boss is dead.
Since Shadow Crash results in -healing done as well (discourging all but disc priests from standing in them), you can move some of your healers to melee range. This will allow them to ignore Mark of the Faceless and Shadow Crash unless they're out getting mana back from Vapors.
If you *do* have healers in melee range, make sure that you have healers available at the end of the kite path if you're kiting Surge of Darkness.
Assign a DPS to break off and kill Vapors when they healers need them. Saronite Vapors won't despawn so you can leave them up until you want a pool. Have healers ask for a pool when they need one.
Melee Tips
Melee has only one job: interrupt Searing Flames.
Like RoS, this can be done with two rogues alternating.
If you're not on interrupt duty, just hug him the entire time and DPS.
Assign a physical DPS to kill the Saronite Vapors as well: DK's are excellent since they can deathgrip them into place to make it convenient for the healers. Saronite Vapors won't despawn so you can leave them up until you want a pool. Have healers ask for a pool when they need one.
Ranged Tips
Casters need to spread out and bit and react quickly to Shadow Crash casts. They need to get away from the person the cast is targeted at, and then quickly reassemble in the buff pool left after the crash hits.
Shadow Crash has a flight time, so standing at 30' from the boss is far better than standing at 12' -- you'll have time to react and get out before being hit by Shadow Crash.
They also must react quickly to Mark of the Faceless, which does heavy damage to your raid and heals him (it has a 15 yard radius.)
If your casters are poor at reacting to Mark of the Faceless, consider using two different ranged groups that never share Shadow Crash pools -- this ensures that at least he will only heal up from half the raid.
Your casters will likely run OOM and will need to use the pools from the Saronite Vapors. Like the healers, they shouldn't take more than 6-7 ticks or they will die.