Zek'voz, Herald of N'zoth

GUIDA IN ITALIANO QUA

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Quick Tips

  • During Surging Darkness, move to the safe area for each explosion to avoid taking lethal damage.

Phase One:

  • Move away from allies when targeted by the Eye Beam.
  • Stack up as a group behind the boss to help funnel the Silithid Warrior adds before focusing them down.

Phase Two:

Phase Three:

  • Soak the Orb of Corruption before it lands on the ground.
  • Damage the Will of the Corruptor mind controlled player to break the effect.
  • Use damage cooldowns and Bloodlust to burn the boss down as soon as possible.

Tank-Specific Quick Tips

Zek'voz Abilities

Zek'voz has three abilities that he will cast throughout all phases in the encounter.

Surging Darkness


Stand in the safe areas
during the Surging Darkness!

Zek'voz has an energy bar that fills over time. Upon reaching 100% energy, the boss will cast Surging Darkness.

  • Surging Darkness is a series of three consecutive explosions which deal high shadow damage to anyone caught within them and a smaller amount to everyone outside of them.
  • These explosions take the form of three circular areas centred around the location of the tank at the time Surging Darkness was initially cast.
  • Two of the three areas will be marked for an explosion, leaving the one remaining area as a safe space for the raid to stand in to dodge the explosion.
  • The pattern of the marked areas will change after the each explosion, forcing the raid to move into the newly available safe space.
  • The safe area will be different for each of the three consecutive explosions. The sequence of which area is safe or not is chosen randomly.

The three areas consists of:

  1. A small circle in the center.
  2. A ring around this central circle.
  3. The entire rest of the encounter space outside of the two previously listed zones.

The raid should move towards the boss before he casts Surging Darkness to ensure that they can move to any of the three areas which may be free.

  • During this time the boss will be actively hitting the tank and casting other abilities.
  • The group should attempt to remain close to one another as they dodge, as this will allow the healers to more efficiently combat the incoming damage.
  • Do note: This ability used to be avoided by running far from the boss, this is no longer possible as the third area now covers the entire encounter space.
  • The series starts with Void Lash, a frontal shockwave which deals a burst of shadow damage and reduces the healing received of any player hit by 25% for 8 seconds. This effect can stack.
    • The tank needs to ensure that they face the boss away from any other player as to take the hit alone. The boss will rotate and move to match the tanks movement during this time.
  • Next in the series is Shatter, a hard hitting physical damage single target attack which causes the tank to take 50% additional physical damage for 40 seconds.
    • The tank needs to have active mitigation up to lessen the blow of this high damage ability.
  • Lastly the boss will cast Void Lash at the tank once again. The tank needs to continue to make sure that nobody else will get hit.

Tanks can choose to either take this entire sequence by themselves whilst using a large cooldown before having the other tank taunt after the last Void Lash.

  • Alternatively, the second tank can taunt just after the Shatter cast. This is preferable when encountering this boss with lesser gear, as it will help spread the damage out more evenly and reduce the chance of a one shot.

This ability will occasionally be cast during a Surging Darkness. The entire raid must make sure that they do not stand in front of the boss during this time.

  • The tank should attempt to face the boss towards the edges of the explosion to help the raid position easier.

Titan Spark

Throughout the encounter, randomly selected groups of players will be taking moderate bursts of arcane damage via the Titan Disc at the side of the encounter space.

  • This damage is unavoidable and is simply there to give the healers something to heal throughout the fight.

Phase One: 100% - 65%

Alongside the abilities listed above, the raid will need to deal with two additional abilities during phase one.

Eye Beam

A player will be marked with an arrow above their head and a circle around their character before being blasted with an Eye Beam 3.5 seconds later. This deals a burst of shadow damage to the marked player before attempting to jump to any player nearby, dealing increased damage with each bounce.

  • The player marked with the Eye Beam should immediately move away from their allies to prevent the damage from bouncing.
  • If this is not achieved, the Eye Beam can quickly start dealing lethal damage to a group of clumped up players, specifically melee groups.
  • This can be cast during the Surging Darkness. The group should be stacked to allow a safe space for the marked player to easily move to.

An example of good positioning
to funnel the Silithid Warrior adds!

A group of 6 Silithid Warrior adds will spawn on a timer. These adds will ignore all threat and will each fixate a random player.

  • Upon reaching a player they will melee hit them and apply a Jagged Mandible physical damage dot with a 10 second duration. This can stack.
  • These adds always spawn at the far west side of the room. The tank should position Zek'voz between these adds and a stacked raid, as this will cause the adds to path directly through the boss.
  • As the adds reach the boss, the group should cleave them down as soon as possible, whilst using crowd control spells to keep them in place, notably stuns, slows, snares and displacement spells are strongest.
  • It is either impossible or highly unlikely for the adds to spawn just before, or during a Surging Darkness!

Upon reaching 65% health, Zek'voz will lose access to the Eye Beam and Silithid Swarmer adds and will enter phase two.

Phase Two: 65% - 30%

During phase two, Zek'voz gains access to two new abilities.

Random non-tank players will be afflicted with the Roiling Deceit debuff.

  • This 12 second shadow damage dot will spawn an Ominous Cloud at the location of afflicted player upon expiration.
  • This cloud is permanent and will slowly drift around the encounter space.
  • Roiling Deceit afflicted players should place the Ominous Cloud at the side of the room, away from high traffic areas.
  • This debuff will be applied to players whilst Surging Darkness is occuring. Just like the Eye Beam, the group should remain stacked up to give the afflicted players suitable areas to drop off the debuff.

Ominous Clouds will slowly drift around. Avoid them!

A Guardian of Yogg-Saron add will spawn if a player runs into the Ominous Cloud.

  • Players must avoid doing this, as the Guardian of Yogg-Saron is very dangerous.
  • The add needs to be tanked and will slowly gain energy over time. Upon death, or upon reaching full energy, the add will cast a Shadow Nova which kills the add whilst dealing a large burst of shadow damage to the raid.
  • If an add is accidentally spawned, the group should nuke it down whilst healers use damage reduction cooldowns and heal the raid in preparation of the high Shadow Nova burst.

On a timer, three Nerubian Voidweaver adds will spawn in a triangular formation in the middle/eastern area of the encounter area.

  • These adds will spam cast Void Bolt, an interruptible cast which deals a burst of shadow damage to a random player.
  • The raid should assign three players per add to ensure that all casts are interrupted. Stuns, silences, displacements and hard crowd control which can affect undead targets can be used to interrupt the cast.
  • Groups that have access to long range displacements such as Death Grip can group the adds up to help the raid kill them more efficiently.
  • All DPS should prioritise killing these Nerubian Voidweaver adds over dealing damage to the boss, whilst the tanks position Zek'voz nearby to allow for cleave DPS.
  • Groups with few interrupts may wish to hard crowd control the adds before killing them off one by one.

The adds can spawn during a Surging Darkness. The group should aim to hard crowd control the adds whilst the explosions are occuring, before switching to them after the cast has completed.

  • Groups with sufficient ranged interrupts and crowd control may want to kill the adds during the Surging Darkness.

Once Zek'voz reaches 30% health, he will lose access to the Roiling Deceit ability and will not spawn any more Nerubian Voidweaver adds as he transitions into phase three.

  • Do note: Any Nerubian Voidweaver adds, Roiling Deceit debuffs and Ominous Clouds active upon transition will remain active going into the last phase.
  • These remaining adds and debuffs should be dealt with as soon as possible so the group can purely focus on phase three mechanics in isolation.

Phase Three: 30% - 0%

During this phase, the Titan Spark will be dealing damage more frequently via the bosses Overload bonus he gains upon transitioning.

  • The raid should remain stacked as much as possible throughout the phase to help healers combat the incoming damage.

Stand in the Orb of Corruption
landing location to soak it!

An Orb of Corruption will spawn above a random point in the encounter area and will slowly descend towards a marked location on the ground.

  • Upon hitting the ground the orb will deal ever increasing bursts of damage to the raid every 5 seconds.
  • A player must stand in the marked location to intercept the orb. Doing so will cause it to move forward in the direction the player is facing whilst raising up the the air.
  • The orb will then begin to slowly descend once again, repeating the cycle.
  • The orb catching player should ensure that they face towards the group when soaking, to ensure the orb doesn't travel too far away from the stacked raid group.
  • The orb must be caught each time it lands, as the ticking damage to the raid in combination with the additional damage from the Titan Spark can quickly overwhelm the healers.
  • This orb will be active during the Surging Darkness. If it is due to land in a zone that is exploding, a player with a large damage reduction cooldown should go and catch it to prevent additional raid damage.

The player who intercepts the orb will gain the Corruptor's Pact debuff, granting them 100% increased health, damage & healing done over 30 seconds.

  • DPS players should be first in line to get this debuff, as the increased damage done will help end the encounter sooner.
  • Upon expiration the player will be afflicted with Will of the Corruptor. This will mind control the player until they have been damaged down to 50%.
  • The mind controlled player should be nuked down by the DPS as soon as possible. The player is susceptible to all forms of crowd control during this time.
  • Will of the Corruptor afflicted players will spam cast Psionic Blast, dealing a burst of damage and fearing a random target for 6 seconds.
  • The Psionic Blast needs to be interrupted as the raids number one priority.

If the group takes too long to defeat the boss, more and more Orb of Corruption will spawn.

  • The group must keep an eye out for these orbs and attempt to soak them as much as possible.

Raid Finder Difficulty

Aside from numerical changes, in which the boss has less health and deals less damage, there is one mechanical change to the Zek'voz encounter on Raid Finder difficulty.

During phase one, the Eye Beams damage will not increase each time it bounces to a new player.

  • This makes the ability far less punishing, as the entire raid could be hit by this ability on Raid Finder difficulty and nobody would die.

Heroic Difficulty

Aside from numerical changes, in which the boss has more health and deals more damage, there are a few mechanical changes to the Zek'voz encounter on Heroic difficulty.

The Void Lash debuff now reduces all healing taken by 50%, up from 25%.

  • If a tank was to take the entire attack sequence, they would be left with an 8 second debuff which reduces all incoming healing by 100%.
  • If large cooldowns are used for the entire sequence, the tank should be left with enough health to safely survive for 8 seconds without incoming healing.
  • That being said, this extra reduced healing does make the taunt after the Shatter far more appealing, as both tanks will be able to receive healing rather than just one.

The Silithid Warriors present during phase one will also slow the movement speed of a player by 50% when they apply Jagged Mandible to them.

  • As the strategy kills the warriors before they reach their target, this additional slow is insignificant.
  • However, if the adds do need to be kited for whatever reason, this will make it far more punishing if they ever reach their target.

The Nerubian Voidweaver adds present during phase two have a permanent passive buff called Shadowbind.

  • This passive roots the add makes them immune to "forced movement effects", notably effecting displacement effects such as Death Grip.
  • This prevents the raid from stacking the adds, instead the group will need to focus them down one by one, or use long range cleave or multi-dot spells.

Move away from allies just
as the Corruptor's Pact debuff expires!

When the Will of the Corruptor debuff is applied during phase three, the target will unleash a Void Wail as soon as the Corruptor's Pact debuff expires.

  • This Void Wail will damage and fear anyone within 8 yards for 6 seconds.
  • Just before a player is due to be mind controlled, they must move at least 8 yards away from their allies to ensure they do not fear the otherwise stacked raid group.
  • The target is still susceptible to all CC, including Death Grips. These spells should be used to attempt to bring the mind controlled player next to the boss to be cleaved down.

The Will of the Corruptor mind control debuff is now only removed once the player is dead.

  • This limits the time you have in phase three significantly, as eventually you will run out of players as the raid slowly withers to the mind control... and eventually death!

Mythic Difficulty

Aside from numerical changes, in which the boss has more health and deals more damage, there are significant phase structure changes to the Zek'voz fight on Mythic difficulty.

Phase one and phase two occur simultaneously, from 100% down to 40%.
You will have to deal with the Eye Beam and Silithid Warriors from phase one, and the Roiling Deceit and Nerubian Voidweavers from phase two.

All of these mechanics function identically, aside from the Nerubian Voidweavers which gain the Void Calling passive over time.

  • This is a stacking 5% damage increase that the add gains every 6 seconds. Upon reaching 10 stacks, the add goes into a Void Trance which makes it immune to all crowd control effects.
  • The raid needs to ensure that all adds are dealt with within the 60 second time period, as otherwise they may become overwhelmed when the Nerubian Voidweavers break free of any crowd control spells.

As phase three begins from 40%, the group will need to save damage cooldowns to ensure that the boss dies before the entire raid is dead from the mind control effects from the Orb of Corruption!

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