Boss Tactics

Trash

The instance only has four Archavon Warders to clear before encountering Archavon. There are only three things to remember with the trash:

- Melee DPS should run out before Whirl is cast or take very high damage.
- Ranged DPS should run out of casted Rock Falls.
- The offtank should taunt when the main tank has been Shield Crushed.

Archavon

Abilities
Melee: Hits for moderate damage on a tank.

Impale: Every 45 seconds or so, Archavon will stomp his feet on the ground, dealing 4000 (Heroic: 8000) damage and a 2 second stun to all members of the raid. At the same time, he'll lunge for his threat target (usually the Main Tank) and lift him into the air, incapacitating him for 8 seconds. During this time, Archavon will attack whoever's second on his threat list.

Choking Cloud: Every 30 seconds or so, Archavon will leap at a random player in the raid. The leap will deal around 4000 (Heroic: 8000) Physical damage (mitigated by armor) to its target and anyone else within 10 yards. A Choking Cloud will appear for up to 30 seconds wherever Archavon lands; standing in this cloud afflicts players with a -50% chance to hit debuff.

Rock Shards: Every 15 seconds or so, Archavon will shower a random player in the raid with stone shards. The shards will deal around 10,000 (Heroic: 20,000) Physical damage (mitigated by armor) over 3 seconds to the player and anyone else within 5 yards of him. If the player moves, the Rock Shards will follow him; the damage is unavoidable.

Berserk: Five minutes after being engaged, if Archavon is still alive his damage will increase dramatically and he will quickly lay waste to your raid.

Tactics

Tanks
Simply charge into the room and engage Archavon, building threat.

Build threat on Archavon (the Main Tank should be at the #1 threat position; the Offtank should be at the #2 position). If Archavon leaps toward a random player in the raid, he is using his Leap / Choking Cloud ability; this is not an aggro drop, so just wait for him to come back to you. However, if he stuns everyone and actually picks up the tank (it will be accompanied by the emote "Archavon the Stone Watcher lunges for
"), he's using Impale, and will start attacking the second person on his threat list. At this point the Offtank needs to taunt Archavon if he's not already second on threat, and tank him until the Main Tank is released.

DPS & Healers
Follow the Main Tank into Archavon's room and spread out as much as possible in the space available to you.

Melee DPS: Spread out around the sides and back of Archavon as best you can, to minimize the number of Melee DPS who will be caught in Rock Shards when it gets cast.

Damage Archavon and heal up any players who are injured. If a Choking Cloud appears on you, get out of it ASAP. If Rock Shards start falling on your head, you can't avoid them; heal yourself if you can, and do your best to get away from other players so you don't cause them to take damage as well. Melee should back away from the rest of the melee group, as Rock Shards is very dangerous if it's damaging five players at once.