Valithria Dreamwalker

Raid Composition

25 Man
2 tanks - Your raid will need two tanks, both capable of quickly and constantly picking up multiple adds throughout the encounter. As you are trying to rescue Valithria Dreamwalker rather than kill her, she doesn't need to be tanked.

6-8 healers - Your raid will need the highest output healers you can bring. The entire encounter depends on healers bringing Valithria Dreamwalker to full HP, and the rest of the raid won't take heavy damage if adds are killed off correctly, so make sure all of your healers are specializing in output rather than damage prevention measures.

15-17 DPS - Even though this encounter seems on the surface to test healers more than DPS, bringing top-notch damage dealers is equally important. This is not only because very high individual damage might allow your raid to bring an extra healer, but also because of the nature of the damage that does need doing. During the entire encounter, there will be constant adds of different types coming into the room, and all of your DPS need to be able to switch targets quickly, making snap decisions about which targets have the highest priority, while still putting out maximum damage and reacting to the various mob abilities.

10 Man
1 tank - Your raid will need a tank capable of quickly and constantly picking up multiple adds throughout the encounter. As you are trying to rescue Valithria Dreamwalker rather than kill her, she doesn't need to be tanked.

2-3 healers - Your raid will need the highest output healers you can bring. The entire encounter depends on healers bringing Valithria Dreamwalker to full HP, and the rest of the raid won't take heavy damage if adds are killed off correctly, so make sure all of your healers are specializing in output rather than damage prevention measures.

6-7 DPS - Even though this encounter seems on the surface to test healers more than DPS, bringing top-notch damage dealers is equally important. This is not only because very high individual damage might allow your raid to bring an extra healer, but also because of the nature of the damage that does need doing. During the entire encounter, there will be constant adds of different types coming into the room, and all of your DPS need to be able to switch targets quickly, making snap decisions about which targets have the highest priority, while still putting out max damage and reacting to the various mob abilities.

Special Mechanics
In order to make healing Valithria Dreamwalker to full HP actually possible with a regular healing roster, you're going to need help. Luckily, such help can be found inside the nightmare version of the room, which is accessible through the Nightmare Portals the dragon herself provides.

Summon Nightmare Portal - Valithria Dreamwalker will use this ability every ~35 seconds to open portals into her nightmare. She emotes, and there is a casting animation where lines of energy arc out from her, leaving small glowing balls floating in place for ~5-8 seconds, After those few seconds, the balls open into portals. Once a player clicks one of these portals, he/she will be phased into a gravity-free version of the room, and the clicked portal will despawn from the outside world. Inside this nightmare, Valithria is awake, and surrounded bymultiple floating Nightmare Clouds, full of energy ready to enhance your raiders' abilities.

Nightmare Clouds - These are floating clouds of green energy inside of the nightmare version of the room. Players gain stacks of Emerald Vigor by being within 10 yards of these as they are burst open. During one PTR test, these were low-HP killable mobs that had to be targeted. During another PTR test, they simply burst as players came in range, without any targeting needed. The later incarnation is the one expected to go live.

Emerald Vigor - This is the debuff gained by being near a Nightmare Cloud when it bursts. Each stack increases damage and healing done by 10%, and grants 200 MP5 (Mana Per 5 seconds). The debuff lasts 35 seconds, with new stacks refreshing the timer. The debuff can stack to 100, and persists after exiting the nightmare version of the room, until its duration expires. During PTR testing, there was a version of this that also had a small damage over time component per stack, so be aware in case it goes live that way.
Details

Usually the best plan for utilizing these portals is to send in a mix of healers and DPS, heavy on the healer side. As far as which players to send in when, there are a couple of different options. One is to divide up your healers so that half of them alternate going into each set of portals, and then fill the rest of the available portal spots with your best burst-damage DPS. This boosts raid DPS by a good amount, and keeps all of the adds well under control. It also ensures that none of your healers ever run out of mana (since the Emerald Vigor debuff will basically fill any mana bar once it is stacked a few times), which is a valid concern since all of them will be using every global cooldown available chain casting heals on Valithria while keeping the rest of the raid alive as well. Another viable strategy is to have your highest output healers take a portal every time to keep maximum uptime on their Emerald Vigor debuff stacks and heal Valithria faster, while keeping 1-2 healers outside at all times healing the tanks and DPS. You will probably still want to leave at least 1 portal out of each set for a high burst-damage DPS, so that player can quickly kill off the most dangerous adds when they come out. The exact best strategy will depend heavily on your raid makeup and particular players, so don't be afraid to shift things around to suit your members. Just remember that, each time a player takes a portal, they are stuck in Valithria's nightmare for a set amount of time (~20 seconds), and cannot leave early.

Mobs and Abilities

Valithria Dreamwalker
HP (PTR was ~10 million in 10 man, ~30 million in 25 man). She starts the encounter at 50% HP, so only half this amount will need to be healed in order to succeed.

Summon Nightmare Portal - Valithria Dreamwalker uses this ability every ~30 seconds to summon a set of Nightmare Portals. The portals first appear as floating orbs of energy, and then open into their usable form after ~5-8 seconds. In 10 man, 3 portals will spawn at a time; in 25 man, there will be 6. Players need to use these portals to be phased into the nightmare version of the room, where they fly around and pick up as many stacks of Emerald Vigor as possible before the timer wears off and they phase back out. Each portal will despawn after a player goes through it (like the portals into Yogg-Saron's brain room), so it is a good idea to plan out which players will use which portals ahead of time. If a portal isn't used, it will persist until Valithria Dreamwalker uses the ability again. See the Special Mechanics section for more details.

Dreamwalker's Rage - Valithria Dreamwalker uses this ability once she has been healed to full. It instantly kills all the adds that are alive, and effectively ends the encounter.

Risen Archmage
HP (PTR was 104k in 10 man; 326k in 25 man)

Frostbolt Volley - Risen Archmages use this 2 second cast ability every ~15 seconds to fire frostbolts at all raid members within 40 yards. Any players hit will take frost damage, have some of their mana drained (assuming they use mana as a resource), and have their movement speed reduced by 50% for 8 seconds. It is very important that this spell be interrupted consistently so that your raid doesn't spend too much time slowed and fall behind pace in killing all the other adds.

Mana Void - Risen Archmages will use this instant cast ability to place a void zone under a random raid member. The void zones are 6 yards across, and will persist for 30 seconds. Any player who stands in one of these void zones will have mana drained from them every second until they move or the zone fades away.

Column of Frost - This instant cast ability is used by Risen Archmages to mark a random raid member's location. 2 seconds after that spot is marked, a giant beam of frost will erupt from the ground under the mark, dealing a large amount of damage to any players within 3 yards of it, and also knocking them 50 yards into the air (thus causing additional fall damage when they land).

Blazing Skeleton
HP (PTR was 70k in 10 man; XX in 25 man)

Lay Waste - This ability is the main threat from Blazing Skeletons. They will channel it for 12 seconds, dealing fire damage every 2 seconds while the channel lasts to all players in the room. This ability also hits Valithria Dreamwalker. The Blazing Skeletons will start chanelling this ability around 20 seconds after they spawn, and continue using it until killed. On the PTR, it couldn't be interrupted, making the Blazing Skeletons a very high priority kill target since it directly erases your progress in healing the boss.

Fireball - When they aren't channeling Lay Waste, Blazing Skeletons will repeatedly use this 5 second cast ability to hurl fireballs at random raid members.

Suppressor
HP (PTR was XX in 10 man; 126k in 25 man)

Suppression - When Suppressors spawn, they run immediately to Valithria Dreamwalker and begin channeling this ability on her. While it is being channeled, it reduces all healing done to the boss by 10%. If there are multiple Suppressors channeling, their channels stack. The only way to stop the channel is to kill the Suppressor.
Details

Blistering Zombie
HP (PTR was 76k in 10 man; 252k in 25 man)

Corrosion - Every time a Blistering Zombie lands a melee swing on its target, the melee swing also applies this stacking debuff. Each stack of the debuff deals nature damage over time ("DoT"), and reduces the afflicted player's armor by 10%. This debuff can stack up to 5 times on a single target, and lasts 6 seconds, with new stacks refreshing the duration.

Acid Burst - When Blistering Zombies are close to death , they will use this 0.75 second cast ability to make themselves explode. Any players caught within 15 yards of them when they explode will take a large hit of nature damage, and will also have a 20 second DoT applied to them that deals more nature damage every second until it fades away. The DoT is also called Acid Burst. Melee DPS should make sure to run away from these adds once they get low on health, and let the ranged DPS deal the last bit of damage from a safe distance, so the effects of this ability are minimized. On the PTR, it was also possible to stun these mobs as they got to low HP, and prevent this ability from ever being used.

Gluttonous Abomination
HP (PTR was 209k in 10 man; 697k in 25 man)

Gut Spray - Gluttonous Abominations will use this ability to spray their current target (and anyone else within 8 yards) with a large amount of nature damage. This ability also leaves an 8 second DoT that deals more nature damage each second, and increases physical damage taken by the afflicted players by 25%.

Rot Worms
HP (PTR was 25k in 10 man; 63k in 25 man)

These worms have a very heavy melee swing. (On the PTR they each hit for 10k+) Make sure not to get agro on them if you're not a tank, and make sure not to let any of them get to the boss.

These worms spawn from the bodies of Gluttonous Abominations when the Gluttonous Abominations are killed. The worms don't have any special abilities aside from their deadly melee swing, and have low HP, but will need to be picked up by a tank in order to keep them from wiggling to Valithria Dreamwalker and hitting her. They should be killed quickly by area of effect ("AoE") damage from your raid's DPS.

Strategy
Once your raid is ready to go, have the tanks charge in and pick up the 4 Risen Archmages already present, with the rest of the raid following behind. DPS can kill these adds as soon as the tanks have solid control of them. Once these four are dead, the encounter begins in earnest.

Valithria Dreamwalker will summon the first set of Nightmare Portals ~30 seconds after the initial 4 Risen Archmages die and the encounter starts. . The players taking the portals should use the small floating balls which appear first to get into position early, making sure that there's only one player intending to go through each portal since it will despawn once used. Once the assigned players enter the nightmare realm, they should float around collecting as many stacks of Emerald Vigor as possible before being forced back into the normal world. This process repeats every ~35-40 seconds throughout the rest of the encounter.



After healers exit the nightmare, and continuing throughout the entire encounter, all healers with Emerald Vigor (and even those without it) should spend as much time as possible healing Valithria Dreamwalker. Only the minimum of healing needed to keep the raid alive should be used on players, while the main focus continues to be the boss. Keep in mind that the best thing to use on the raid are group heals, since they spread the most healing per global cooldown used, allowing healers to return their focus to the boss faster. The exact composition of your healing roster will determine if precise assignments or loose priorities work best for your raid, but whichever you decide on, make sure that all healers know to heal Valithria any time they possibly can, in order to heal her as fast as possible. The faster she is healed up, the easier time the rest of your raid will have in keeping the adds under control.

Before the first set of Nightmare Portals, and continuing until Valithria Dreamwalker is healed to full, waves containing random add types will begin to enter the room from the gated doorways to each side of the boss. At first, the waves will contain only a couple of mobs, with a new wave coming every 30 seconds or so. As the encounter continues, more mobs will come with each wave, and the waves will come faster and faster, creating a 'timer' on the fight after which your raid will just be overwhelmed by adds.

Because of the random nature of the add spawns in the normal realm, a strict kill order isn't really possible. Neither is any constant and set raid position. Instead, your raid will have to react according to a priority list, changing targets as needed to take out the higher-danger adds when they come in, and moving positions as required to avoid Mana Voids and Columns of Frost. It can be helpful to have DPS assist targets set, so that your raid's damage is as focused as possible. The general priority for killing off mobs is as follows:

1) Kill all Suppressors immediately. They don't need to be tanked; all they do is run to Valithria Dreamwalker and start their Suppression channel. Kill them quickly so they don't channel for long, or your healers will never be able to get Valithria to 100% before the raid is overrun by mobs.

2) Kill any Blazing Skeletons as fast as can be managed. If there are Suppressors alive they should still be killed first, but killing Blazing Skeletons is very high priority as well. Remember that Lay Waste will hit Valithria too; if she takes too much damage, your healers will fall behind and adds might start coming too fast to handle before Valithria is at full health. Your raid may want to plan for a few assigned DPS to immediately switch to Blazing Skeletons when they spawn even if there are Suppressors alive, since the Blazing Skeletons don't have very high HP that would require the focus of the whole DPS roster.

3) Risen Archmages are the third priority. If something else is alive with a higher priority, make sure that someone stays on the Risen Archmage to interrupt each attempted Frostbolt Volley cast if possible. Also, while any Risen Archmages are alive, make sure all of your raiders are watching out for Mana Voids and Columns of Frost.

4) Any time none of the above mobs are alive, kill off any Blistering Zombies or Gluttonous Abominations present. If the tanks are struggling to stay alive due to high stacks of Corrosion, or the combination of Corrosion and Gut Spray, your raid might need to move these mob types higher on the priority list, but always make sure Suppressors stay at the top of the list, and that there are players who can interrupt staying on any Risen Archmages or Blazing Skeletons. Also, each time a Gluttonous Abomination is killed, make sure DPS remember to also kill the Rot Worms that come out of the corpse, before turning their attention elsewhere.

As the encounter goes on, your healers will be forced to spend more and more time healing raid members due to the increasing number of incoming adds. Therefore, it is a good idea to use Bloodlust/Heroism, as well as any individual cooldowns, the very first time healers come back into the normal world with their stacks of Emerald Vigor. This will allow for the greatest boost in healing done directly to Valithria Dreamwalker, which will in turn speed up the encounter as a whole.

http://www.stratfu.com/strats/valithiria-dreamwalker

moar hps!

As paladins are obviously gonna be pwnage for this, if anyone wants to take my holy pala in for the raid ima cool with it

Update for Heroic Mode:

Video: Apart from the portals being red instead of green, there's nothing new to see. If you want though, there's plenty of 25m hard mode vids on youtube, from all sorts of pov.

While she doesn't have a bigger health pool, the most obvious change you'll notice in this fight is that Valithria consistently loses a significant amount of health. The only way to counteract this mechanic is to properly utilize portals to the Emerald Dream. As you will see in this video, more than the first half of the encounter is spent slowly getting Valithria past 60% health until our healers acquire high amounts of Emerald Vigor stacks, but more about that later.

Both raid and tank damage are increased significantly. The add kill order remains roughly the same, but here are some things you should know:

- The Arch Mages' Frostbolt Volley drains approximately 2k mana per cast.
- Gut Spray is cleansable and should be removed from your tank as soon as you see it, since it increases physical damage done by 50% and can quickly wreck a tank that has a lot of mobs on him.
- Corrosion is another move that tends to drastically change a tank's survivability - to avoid having it stack up, you can kite the zombies.
- Lay Waste still hurts.
- Don't leave any suppressors up.

Mana conservation is key for the outside healers and taking as little damage as possible while killing adds efficiently is key for the rest of the outside team. If available, keep an innervate ready to use on your outside healer as they will not be able to enter the Emerald Dream.

The healers taking the emerald portals (note they're red in the heroic version) cannot, under any circumstances, let their Emerald Vigor stacks fall off. High stacks are an absolute necessity to win this fight. It's worth noting that the nightmare clouds in the emerald dream do not re-spawn like they do in the normal mode of this fight and that touching one will inflict some minor damage. Heal yourself if necessary.

Make sure to pick up a cloud right before your time in the Emerald Dream runs out and take a new portal as soon as it opens, then immediately float up and hit another cloud to avoid having your stacks fall off. If your outside healers are doing their job well, you should not need to spend any time healing the raid, but do keep an eye on your tanks especially if they have multiple stacks of corrosion on them.

Don't be irritated by the slow start of this encounter, as long as your portal healers keep up their stacks, you'll see an exponential increase in healing quickly.

Aliena - Tankspot


Since Valithria will be taking damage on heroic mode, i won't use Amplify Magic from the start, where damage taken might exceed healing done. Instead, i'll use it after the second portal phase, when healers will have collected a decent amount of stacks.
I'm assuming healers will want to agree on a route to take through the clouds on forehand, in order to gather as much stacks as possible. If stacks drop off, it'll make the fight go on too long, and tanks and dps will get overwhelmed by the increasing spawn rate of adds.

In my own experience, designating a meet point and a pre determined route actually caused more problems than it solved, as all it took was one person to be slightly too fast, and the rest missed that cloud, and possibly dropped their stacks. We had much greater success when healers looked after their own stacks, granted it means the more efficient out there will have much higher stacks than others, but as the clouds are finite, so long as they all get used, theres no problem. Id hold off till the 3rd portals to use Amp magic though, as you pretty much dont move her health untill then.