This page covers a healer-focused strategy for Archavon the Stone Watcher in Vault of Archavon in Wrath of the Lich King. 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.

To enter the Vault of Archavon, your faction must be in control of Wintergrasp.

• The tanks will be dealing with a series of abilities:
  • First, they are Stunned and take extra damage from Impale.
  • Then, they're thrown back to the ground and are Stunned and take extra damage from Stomp (Stomp on 10-Player).
  • The Stun effects will force the affected tank to temporarily lose threat.
• As much as possible, stay more than 10-yards away from other players to avoid chaining the damage from several abilities:
  • Rock Shards (Rock Shards on 10-Player) will chain the moderate damage over time effect to any players within 5-yards.
  • Crushing Leap affects a 10-yard area, targeted on a random player and chaining the light damage and knock back effect to other players.
• Avoid the locations of Choking Clouds left behind by Crushing Leap.
• After 5-minutes, goes Berserk, greatly increasing Attack Speed and damage dealt.

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 Cooldowns as-needed
  
  • to keep the tanks alive through Impale and Stomp (Stomp on 10-Player)
  • if too many players chain the damage from Rock Shards (Rock Shards on 10-Player)
• Pre-heal Before (mainly for heal over time classes)
  • There's nothing to pre-heal before, but keeping heal over time effects active on the tanks can be beneficial.
• Other things to watch for
  • If mana and healing permit, you can help DPS the boss to beat the relatively short enrage timer.

Major

• Stomp (Stomp on 10-Player) causes the tanks to need additional healing.
• Rock Shards (Rock Shards on 10-Player) causes players to need additional moderate healing over time.