Vigilant Guardian, Healer Guide
Updated 1 year, 2 months ago for patch 9.2.7 by Preston. View the change log.
This page covers a healer-focused strategy for Vigilant Guardian in Sepulcher of the First Ones in Shadowlands. While it's tailored for healers, other roles may also find the information useful. If you have any suggestions or feedback, you can leave a comment below or tweet @PrestonDvorak.
This guide has been updated and maintained based on my own experiences with the encounter, combat log information, and Dungeon Journal information. I'll continue to update it as-needed.
General Mechanics and Abilities
Normal and Heroic
All Stages
Throughout the encounter, players will be fighting against lesser enemies which, when killed, will go on to power and activate other enemies.
- Enemies affected by Powered Down can be granted power when another enemy is killed and eventually become active.
- Automated Defense Matrix
- Creates a Force Field players must use to reduce damage taken from Exposed Core, detailed below.
- On Heroic, Force Field also greatly reduces damage taken by enemies within it.
- On Heroic, deals moderate damage over time to random players with Sear.
- Upon death, drops an Unstable Core.
- Unstable Core must be picked up by a player and brought to the Vigilant Guardian, where it can be Detonated using the Extra Action Button.
- Creates a Force Field players must use to reduce damage taken from Exposed Core, detailed below.
- Point Defense Drone
- Stay more than 3-yards away from other players to avoid chaining the damage from Blast.
- On Heroic, deals moderate damage over time to random players with Searing Ablation.
- Pre-Fabricated Sentry
- The tanks will be dealing with increasing damage from stacks of Dissonance.
- Avoid the paths of Wave of Disintegration patches.
- Volatile Materium
- Steadily gains stacks of Adaptive Subroutines, increasing movement speed and damage dealt.
Stage One - Systems Online!
This stage begins the encounter and ends when Vigilant Guardian reaches 40% health.
- Vigilant Guardian is protected behind a door and must be damaged by Unstable Cores dropped by Automated Defense Matrix.
- When targeted by Deresolution, move so the resulting beam doesn't pass through other players.
- During Exposed Core, stand in a Force Field to reduce the damage taken.
- Avoid the Refracted Blast beams targeted at random players.
- Persistently deals light damage to all players with Radioactive Core.
Stage Two - Roll Out, then Transform
This stage begins when Vigilant Guardian reaches 40% health and ends when it reaches 15% health.
- Vigilant Guardian joins the encounter directly.
- The tanks will be dealing with heavy damage from Split Resolution.
- All players must avoid the Split Resolution patches that move out from the tank's location.
- At 50% energy, the tanks will also be dealing with increasing damage from stacks of
- Refracted Blast continues during this stage.
- During Matter Dissolution, avoid the Anti-Matter orbs that rotate in towards the affected player.
- Persistently deals moderate damage to all players with Fractured Core.
Stage Three - Self-Destruct Sequence
This stage begins when Vigilant Guardian reaches 15% health and ends when it's killed.
- Deals increasing moderate to heavy damage over time to all players with Core Overload
Mythic Differences
Stage One - Systems Online!
- Vigilant Guardian joins the encounter directly, causing stage two abilities to be used from the beginning of the encounter.
- Avoid the Spike of Creation created by Refracted Blast.
- After Exposed Core, Optimal Core Temperature/Overclock must be interrupted using an Unstable Core.
Healing Notes
Quick Notes, All Difficulties
The notes below mostly pertain to progression difficulty, meaning if you out-gear the difficulty you're on or use extra healers they may not apply.
- Use Major Cooldowns
- on Exposed Core [occurs about every 1-minute 45-seconds]
- during stage three
- (Mythic) when Spike of Creation are broken [occurs about every 45-seconds]
- Use Minor Cooldowns
- as-needed during stage one
- Pre-heal Before (mainly for heal over time classes)
- Exposed Core
- stage three
- (Mythic) Spike of Creation are broken
- Potion of Spiritual Clarity use
- just as stage one is ending
- Other things to watch for
- Healing is persistent during this encounter, with increases into stage two and three.
Debuffs to Track
Major
- Dissonance can cause the tanks to need additional healing.
- Several abilities cause players to need moderate healing over time.
Useful Addons
Comment on Vigilant Guardian, Healer Guide