4.3 Sneak Preview: How to kill Captain Varo'then


There was huge news announced on Monday about the upcoming 4.3 content, including extensive detail about the three new 5-man dungeons: End Time, Well of Eternity, and Hour of Twilight.

All of the dungeons seem awesome and exciting! End Time (with a dead, IMPALED-ON-WYRMREST-TEMPLE DEATHWING) has us fight haunted faction leaders! In Well of Eternity we go back thousands of years and face off against Azshara and Mannoroth! And the (SPOILER WITHHELD) Twilight Father shows up in Hour of Twilight - I'm glad we get to see him in-game so quickly after the Thrall novel. Oh man, lore overload!

I was intrigued to see that one of the boss encounters in Well of Eternity would be Mannoroth and Captain Varo'then. Mannoroth is, of course, the pit lord whose blood tainted the Orcs, and Varo'then - who we first met in the War of the Ancients novel trilogy - was captain of Queen Azshara's personal guard, and later on, her close personal advisor. He was also insanely in love/infatuated with her, but that was pretty much par for the course when it came to Azshara.

This sounds like it will be a fearsome battle. Mannoroth is sure to be a challenge, and Varo'then is no slouch himself. And it sounds like we'll have to fight them both at the same time! Double-boss fights are always complicated.

However, here's a little trick that Blizzard doesn't want you to know - you can actually kill Captain Varo'then early, by himself. That's right, you read it here first. Here's my exhaustive guide on how to defeat this dangerous Night Elf traitor, whose brutal suite of abilities is sure to challenge even the most hardy raid team.

First, get your raid buffs up. All of them, you're going to need them. Hell, bring in those classes you don't have, get their buffs, and then kick them. YOU WILL NEED THEM ALL, to take down this badass Kaldorei soldier.

Next, head to Azshara (the zone). That's right, Varo'then is so mighty he can't be contained in a single raid instance! Head to Lake Mennar and starting searching! If you're lucky, you'll spot this legendary foe before he sees you. Pray this is the case, because if he notices you first, you'll just wake up at the graveyard, with all your gear broken and the points in your talent trees knocked into disarray.


OH SHIT

If you can, pull Varo'then near the lake, because when he uses his Doompocalypse of Ten Thousand Hatreds spell, he'll hurl your entire raid 5000 yards into the air, and apply a damage-over-time effect that deals 1 damage every half second, just to prevent you from using Slow Fall or Levitate. (He's kind of an ass.) Hopefully, some of you will land in the water and survive.

Varo'then's melee swings hit ridiculously hard, so your tanks and healers will need to bring their A games. On 10-man it's a 3 tank, 5 healer fight, and you'll need to cycle mitigation cooldowns constantly throughout the fight. Additionally, you will also need a total sustained DPS output of 175,000 DPS to beat his 27 second enrage timer.


Don't let this screenshot fool you. Fabulor might be winning, but come on - it's FABULOR.

You'll also need to bring at least 4 players with short-cooldown interrupts to stop his I Really Freaking Hate Malfurion spell, which has a 0.321 second cast time and, if not interrupted, will kill everyone in your guild that is online, and Malfurion Stormrage (permanently). Offline players will receive a mail labeled "A gift for you" which upon being read, will instantly kill them and any other players within a 500 yard radius. As well as Malfurion, no matter where he is.

Finally, if your raid has a Rogue, Varo'then will instantly wipe the group and despawn for a week, because, fuck Rogues.


Even the ferocious Mistwing Cliffdweller flees in terror from Varo'then!

If you manage to down Varo'then, good luck receiving the drops you want - his loot list clocks in at over 200 items, including the coveted Simple Britches, the elusive Imbued Infantry Gauntlets, or if you're extremely lucky, the awesome Recipe: Elixir of Minor Agility.

6 Responses Subscribe to comments

  1. gravatar
    Aralosseien

    <3 you, Rades. That's made my day!

    September 21, 2011 at 9:57 AM

  2. gravatar
    skinnemuva

    I wonder if prot pallies and blood dks will be able to solo him when the level cap is 115?

    September 21, 2011 at 10:25 AM

  3. gravatar
    Kayeri

    heh, yes, I admit I was having loregasms reading through all the new info, but it's been a long time since I mixed it up with Varo'then's Ghost... until now I wasn't even sure his ghost had survived into Cata. :)

    September 21, 2011 at 10:41 AM

  4. gravatar
    Bronte

    I appreciate the post, but clearly I am not ready to tackle this rare.

    *runs away crying*

    September 21, 2011 at 11:05 AM

  5. gravatar
    Mittenz

    WAT

    September 22, 2011 at 5:09 AM

  6. gravatar
    Jamin

    But.. WHERE IS THE ACHIEVEMENT?!

    Interesting post as always :)

    - Jamin

    September 23, 2011 at 9:17 AM