What this page is
The Wowutils plan for Vashnik the Malignant: Guide for how to approach Cooldown Planning, and the jobs covered in the assignment planner. It is assumed that you already know the basics of the fight. For full boss guides, see the links in Full mechanics.
It covers
- CD Planning and Personal Defensives
- The Wowutils Assignments
- Raid-night quick reference
It skips
- Basic boss strategy
- Tank/Dps stuff
- The stuff other guides already cover
Vashnik is one phase on a 1:24 Imbibe cycle, and the two sides he drains decide how hard each cycle hits. Most raids keep Fire and Shadow in all fight, so every cycle brings the Burning Venoms and two Exploding Infection waves, and every Imbibe hits harder than the one before. On that rotation raid DR goes on the Imbibes from the second on, the biggest stack on the fourth, and healing cooldowns go on the first infection wave after each Imbibe, where the venoms die as the dispels detonate. The first wave of the fight is where kills lose players. If your rotation benches Fire for a cycle, that cycle is the light one.
- 1Imbibe (every 1:24 from 0:24): The drained sides hit the raid as the cast ends, venoms crawl out toward the central cavity, and the vapor stacks once more. Mythic: Malignant Tumors rise around the drained fountains.
- 2Venoms and the first wave: The first Catalyst lands, the venoms die one by one, and the first infection wave is dispelled on top of them. With Fire in, this is the heaviest healing stretch of the cycle. A venom that reaches the cavity is a wipe-level burst.
- 3Froth and the quiet middle: Two Plague Froth sets around the second Catalyst. Mythic: their waves have to clear every tumor before the next Imbibe, and the second set is the last chance.
- 4Second wave into the Imbibe repeats: The second infection wave runs right up to the next Imbibe, so one raid DR pressed just before the cast covers both. Then it repeats, heavier for every side kept in.
Toxic Vapor stacks with every Imbibe and never resets, and on every Fire cycle the Burning Venoms pulse the raid on top of it. The raid is never topped off for free, and a late cycle is always harder than the same cycle early.
With Fire and Shadow kept all fight, the fourth Imbibe takes the biggest stack of raid DR and the second and third take one each. The first infection wave of each cycle takes the healing cooldowns, heaviest on the first wave of the fight and after the third Imbibe. The second Catalyst and the Froth sets are the quiet stretches.
The spacing fits no cooldown cleanly: one minute cooldowns end up holding, and ninety second ones drift later every cycle. Two minute cooldowns reach every other Imbibe, so the ones spent on the second are back for the fourth. Three minute cooldowns pressed in the opener are back for the wave after the third Imbibe. After the sixth Imbibe the cycle collapses into rapid final casts.
Personal defensives
Ability timeline
Your Cooldown Plan
Every 1:24 from 0:24 Vashnik drains the two active fountains: their Expulsions hit the whole raid as the cast ends, and living venoms crawl out from each side. Every cycle a side stays in adds a stack to it, so a pair kept all fight makes each Imbibe hit harder than the one before.
The first lands on a full raid with the opening cooldowns up.
Press the DR a few seconds before the cast ends, so it also catches the tail of the second infection wave.
The fourth is the biggest hit of most kills: add personals to the stack. A fifth, if the kill gets there, takes a stack again.
DR belongs on the hit itself. The venom pulses and the wave after it are healing work.
If your rotation benches a side, its stacks reset and the next Imbibe drops back down, so move the stack to wherever the kept sides peak.
After the sixth Imbibe the cycle collapses into rapid casts with the final pair locked in and still stacking, on top of fully ramped vapor. Hold real cover for that closing stretch.
Every Exploding Infection dispel detonates on the whole raid, and nobody can outrun it. A wave lands as a string of detonations, one per dispel, so it lasts as long as the dispels take rather than one hit. Two waves per cycle while Fire is in: one shortly after the Imbibe and one late in the cycle.
- The first wave lands while the Burning Venoms are dying, so their explosions and pulses pile onto the detonations.
- The first wave of the fight is where kills lose players, with the first bile soak landing in the same seconds. Add a raid DR to the opening cooldowns.
- The wave after the third Imbibe is the heaviest stretch of most kills.
- The second wave runs up to the next Imbibe, so the Imbibe's DR covers its tail. Before the second Imbibe add a healing cooldown as well: the opening ones are spent by then.
- Coverage that keeps healing through the string of detonations is worth more than one burst heal.
- A cycle without Fire has no waves: ride it on smaller coverage and save the cooldowns for the Fire cycles.
Twice per cycle Vashnik explodes an orb of venom over the central cavity: a hit on the whole raid, then Catalytic Bile sprays that each need to catch at least one player. A spray that lands on nobody hits the whole raid far harder.
The first of each pair lands just before the first infection wave and is covered by that wave's plan. The second sits alone in the quiet middle of the cycle, where short and leftover cooldowns are enough.
The bile sprays are a soak check, not a healing check: make sure every spray is caught. A missed one on the first wave of the fight is one of the ways kills lose a player there.
Other boss mechanics
Hemo Expulsion团队伤害Blood's share of the Imbibe burst, only on cycles with Blood in. Covered by the Imbibe plan.
Gloom Expulsion团队伤害Shadow's share of the Imbibe burst. Covered by the Imbibe plan.
Exploding Infection团队减益效果, 分散Fire infection on three or four players: a DoT that never expires on its own, so it has to be dispelled, and every removal sets off Caustic Explosion. Dispel on a set order: several dispels together land as one big hit, so only batch them under a raid cooldown. Mythic: the DoT keeps ramping until it is removed, so the players dispelled last want a personal or an external.
Toxic Vapor团队DOT, Ramping RotThe chamber's rot: it stacks with every Imbibe, ticks from pull to kill, and never resets. Every mechanic hits into a higher floor as the fight goes on, and the closing stretch is the hardest part of the fight because of it.
Burning Presence团队DOTWhile any Burning Venom is alive it pulses fire damage on the whole raid. It starts as the venoms spawn and stops when the last one dies, so a slow venom kill stretches it into the first infection wave.
Caustic Surge团队DOT, 团队伤害On Fire cycles each Burning Venom explodes as it dies, hitting the whole raid and stacking a short DoT. They die on your kill speed, not a boss timer, and the deaths usually land right on the first infection wave, so healing follows the adds dying.
Blood infection, only on cycles with Blood in: a heavy DoT that shuts off the target's healing received and pulses damage into anyone nearby. Keep infected players out of the group, dispel it, and use a personal. On a Blood and Fire cycle it lands with the Exploding wave, so the field pulses under the detonations. Mythic: the pulse hits anyone nearby far harder.
Stygian Infection团队减益效果Shadow infection: a short DoT with a healing absorb that repeatedly bursts the ground at the target's location. Move it away from the group and heal through the absorb; personals help here.
Plague Froth移动, 团队减益效果Corrosive venom on six players, once on the opener and twice per cycle after that: it hurts anyone near them, and on expiry Plague Waves erupt in cardinal directions, dodge those. Raid movement cooldowns go on the run into the second set of each cycle. Mythic: the waves are what destroys the Malignant Tumors each Imbibe raises, and the second set is the last clear before the next Imbibe. A tumor still standing when the Imbibe lands poisons the whole raid with a stacking DoT for a full minute, so the next venoms and infection wave land on a raid that is already poisoned. Before the last Imbibe of a kill, treat a missed tumor as a wipe.
The jobs we settle on for Vashnik the Malignant, and the reasoning behind each. Slot players on the planner; this page is the why.
Keep long range casters, such as Hunters or Shadow Priests, at max range so they can cover far away soaks or clears the rest of the raid cannot reach in time.
A Priest is a nice pick here, since Leap of Faith can grip a Plague Froth target out to clear a far totem.
Assumes the Fire/Shadow strategy.
We deliberately don't re-teach the pull here. For first-timers, exact add pathing, and the complete ability list, these cover it better than we would.
A mechanics video for this boss is coming soon.
Hand-picked sources for this boss are coming soon.