Apparently the only screenshots I have from our kills look like a snowman in a snowglobe, so you’re getting a generic one courtesy of these folks.
Last Tuesday kicked off the new arena season and with it another boss from which to steal shiny baubles. By shiny baubles I of course mean warlock pvp gear, since that’s all that seems to ever drop for us. But for a few of you lucky paladins, there’s a shot at Tier 10 gloves and leggings on 10 man, and the sanctified versions of these lovelies on 25. It’s definitely worth running weekly. You can decimate all of Vault in an hour once you get the new fight down.
Preparing for the Raid
Because it requires your faction holding Wintergrasp, Vault is generally done on the fly. Still, you want to make sure you come prepared. Bring two tanks. For a 10 man, two healers will be sufficient so long as one has strong group heals. For 25, we ran with 6 just to be on the safe side, but I’m sure it can be done with 5 exceptional healers. Because this boss has a soft enrage mechanic, the margins for DPS can get a bit tight. Still, you should have no problems doing this with current gear, even in a PUG.
The Trash
There’s only one trash pull before Toravon, ignoring the rock guys that patrol. To get to his hall you head as if you’re gallivanting off toward Archavon (take a left around the circle to avoid pulling Emalon’s trash by accident) and then skip merrily down the right hall. Or not. Your choice, really.
Unfortunately while there is only one pull, it’s because the two in Toravon’s hall seem to be having some sort of watercooler chat and they tend to pull together. You’ll want an offtank picking up the add as these guys will use the same ability Toravon has: Frostbrand weapon. This will inflict a stacking DoT on your tank, and having it stack twice as fast is not recommended. A tank swap should not be necessary.
Toravon the Ice Watcher
Toravon is a frost giant and has the following abilities:
Frozen Mallet – This is the same buff the trash have, only Toravon’s is a lot more painful. Has a chance (unconfirmed proc rate, for now) to proc Frostbite on the tank.
Frostbite – A stacking frost DoT that inflicts about 1k damage in 10 man (2k in 25 man) and slows the target’s movement speed.
Frozen Orb – These spawn periodically throughout the fight. One on 10, three on 25. Anyone within an 8 yard radius will get pummeled with frost damage every second.
Whiteout – Stacking debuff that causes 12k damage on 10 and 14k damage on 25 to everyone in the raid, as well as applying a 25% debuff to frost damage taken.
Freezing Ground – It’s… Frost Nova. Seriously.
The Strategy
Whiteout is going to be your chief healing concern here; you need to be prepared for it. Update DBM if you haven’t already, and be aware that Whiteout is cast every 38 seconds. Barring no other paladins in the raid, you should be running Frost Resistance Aura over anything else. And if you have Aura Mastery, you should definitely be the one running it.
Lead in with your standard Beacon and Sacred Shield HoT on the tank and find yourself a cozy spot out of the way. Our tanks decided to position him more or less against the back wall to give more room for the people killing orbs.
Speaking of orbs, those are going to spawn fairly quickly. They will appear as white rings hovering over the ground before actually creating the frost orb. If you see a ring, move away from it! It’s important to note that they do have a threat table and you will most likely get one on you at some point in time. Just keep moving until it’s dead or drops onto someone else.
Be aware of the tank swap and switch your Beacon accordingly. You will need to help with raid healing here and you can’t afford to have the tank go down after a Whiteout. Our tanks swapped at 5 but you may find another number more comfortable. In theory, at 5 stacks the tank is taking 5k damage every 2 seconds (10k in 25 man), not counting the 25% stacking debuff from Whiteout.
Assuming people are killing the orbs quickly, the first few Whiteouts shouldn’t be a problem. Pop off some quick Flash of Lights to help heal people back to full, then go back to focusing on the tanks during swap transitions. Also keep your Cleanse ready for Freezing Ground. You don’t want someone rooted with Frost Orbs up.
Once you start getting over three stacks of the Whiteout debuff, things are going to get rough. At that point you’ll be taking 75% more frost damage from Whiteout alone, in addition to any orbs that wander in range. I recommend using BubbleSac on the fourth Whiteout to help mitigate some of the damage, then saving an Aura Mastery boosted frost resist for the fifth Whiteout.
If you see a sixth Whiteout… Light help you. The raid will take an additional 150% damage from the cast alone. If you think your DPS is going to be tight, save your Aura Mastery for this Whiteout as it’s going to be your last resort to save someone in the raid and finish him off.
The damage in this fight is very predictable, so it should be fairly easy to heal once you get the hang of the Whiteout timing. Good luck on snagging some free T10!
