Zekvir’s Lair Delve guide: Strategies, rewards, and more!
A comprehensive Zekvir’s Lair Delve guide that will help you get that prestigious “Let Me Solo Him” achievement, Void appearance for your Delver’s Dirigible, transmog, and more!
Table of Contents
- What is Zekvir’s Lair in Delve The War Within
- Zekvir’s Lair difficulties
- Where is Zekvir’s Lair
- How to unlock Zekvir’s Lair
- All Zekvir’s Lair quests and events
- Zekvir’s Lair gear requirements and recommendations
- Zekvir’s Lair boss strategy: How to defeat Zekvir
- Zekvir’s Lair rewards and achievements
- Zekvir’s Lair Delve guide: Conclusion
The War Within brought new endgame content and excited many players about the latest expansion. Called Delves, these dungeon-esque challenges allow players to test their mettle against many foes and enemies. What makes them different from dungeons, then? The main difference is that one can complete them solo. This makes Delves a perfect end-game content for those who dislike relying on others or prefer to play solo.
If Mythic+ or Raid feels like too much for you or not your kind of PvE, we advise you to give Delves a try.
What is Zekvir’s Lair in Delve The War Within
Each Season of The War Within is planned to have its own challenge Delve. These serve as the ultimate goal for the Delves, the same as completing high-tier keys or defeating a final boss on the Mythic difficulty in Raids.
Zekvir’s Lair is such a challenge Delve for Season 1 of The War Within. And even though it is not as hard as a raid or M+ dungeons, there is a catch that makes it quite a feat to clear. To get all the limited seasonal rewards, one must complete it solo. You can compare it to the Mage Tower Challenge, as it feels similar.
Zekvir’s Lair difficulties
Challenge Delves have two cryptic levels of difficulty. For Zevkir’s Lair they are Tier ? and Tier ??. Yes, with question marks.
Tier ? is the base tier for such Delve. It is easier than Tier ??, as the boss has fewer mechanics and Health. Completing that Tier opens the ??. Due to this difficulty, the boss has extra health, damage, and new mechanics.
Where is Zekvir’s Lair
Delve is located in the Azj-Kahet zone. There is a part of the map called the City of Threads. Here, in the western part, you can find the Zekvir’s Lair entrance.
How to unlock Zekvir’s Lair
Just arriving at the Lair doesn’t grant you entrance. First, you must fulfill some requirements to participate in this challenge Delve. For Tier ? you need to complete any Tier 8 Delve with revives remaining, Tier ?? requires you to do the same, but for any Tier 10 Delve.
All Zekvir’s Lair quests and events
Regarding the Zekvir’s Lair quest, the seasonal Delve currently has only one. In the case of Season 1, this is Zekvir, The Hand of the Harbinger. There are also several achievements to earn unique rewards from this Delve.
Zekvir’s Lair gear requirements and recommendations
The Zekvir’s Lair gear recommendations for Tier ? is 600. This should be enough in most cases to clear that instance. Tier ?? is more challenging, so the higher your item level is, the better. However, there are clears with item level around 612. This, however, depends on your class and spec, but more of this latter.
Zekvir’s Lair boss strategy: How to defeat Zekvir
Zekvir is a boss on the complexity level close to Raid or final Dungeon bosses. He doesn’t have that many mechanics, but they require you to pay attention, as things can quickly go sour. Our guide is based on the current tuning of Zekvir’s Lair and Delves. We plan to update this Zekvir’s Lair walkthrough if the situation changes.
Tier ?
- Claw Smash. A frontal cone aimed at either the player or Bran. Deals damage to any cocoons caught in AoE.
- Angler’s Web. Incapacitating attack quickly cast in front of the boss. Catches its target and is more likely to kill them.
- Call Web Terror. Summons a cocoon that will turn into an add after 15 seconds. The add, Web Terror, has twice the Health of the web and can stun its target.
- Enfeebling Spittle. Quick interruptible cast that applies powerful DoT and slows all player’s movement. The debuff can be removed with magic dispel.
- Horrendous Roar. An AoE around the boss deals damage and Fears anyone caught in it for 4 seconds.
The Tier ? is not hard to solo as the fight is straightforward. Dodge everything that can be avoided, especially Horrendous Roar and Angler’s Web. Kill the cocoons to prevent adds from spawning, as they have an interruptible stun spell. Cocoon and Web Terror share the HP pool. So even if you won’t be able to deal with an egg on time, you can still finish the add right after. Another possible option is to use hard crowd-control on them. Abilities and spells like Freezing Trap, Hibernate, Polymorph, etc. can keep adds in place. This tactic has drawbacks, as there are diminishing returns on such effects, while adds will keep spawning until the end of the fight. There is also a possibility of Brann attacking a Web Terror, removing control from him. Interrupt Enfeebling Spittle to avoid taking extra damage and slow. If you get hit, use magic dispels to remove the negative effect.
Having item level 600 should be more than enough to clear this difficulty. Tier ? does somewhat work as practice for Tier ??. You can learn the general flow of the fight and practice your reaction to adds and AoEs. If you have trouble with Tier ? you are not ready to tackle ??.
Tier ??
- Claw Smash, Angler’s Web, Horrendous Roar. The cast time for these abilities is reduced to 1.5 seconds.
- Call Web Terror. The summoned cocoon became sturdier, now with 15 million Health. The add and cocoon no longer share the Health pool.
- Enfeebling Spittle. Damage from the DoT effect has increased significantly.
- Regenerative Carapace. Interruptible cast that heals Zekvir for 10% of his maximum Health.
- Black Blood. A phase transition ability is used at 60% of boss Health. For about 10 seconds Zekvir will take only 1% of all damage inflicted. After the transition ends, he gets a new attack. While 3 other moves get upgraded.
- Regenerative Carapace becomes Blood-infused Carapace. The healing is increased from 10% to 25% of Zekvir’s maximum Health.
- Horrendous Roar becomes Infinite Horror. The Fear effect now lasts indefinitely.
- Unending Spines. Rifts appear all over the arena conjuring spikes. This can be avoided by moving away from affected zones.
- Angler’s Web now creates a set of portals. When the boss shoots, the projectiles fly from one portal to another.
Aside from everything becoming faster, stronger, and tankier, the biggest problem of the fight is the boss having two casts that need to be interrupted. This is quite a problem for classes with long cooldowns on such abilities. For example, Druids or Priests have 60 and 45-second cooldowns respectively.
This brings us to another important part of the solo run. We are talking about Brann Bronzebeard, your companion for Delves in Season 1. Since the classes in WoW have their own identity with weak and strong sides, helping NPC is added to Delves to balance out classes and ensure players can complete them. For that reason, Brann in Season 1 can be a Support or DPS.
Sadly, with recent hotfixes, it is impossible to solo this fight relying fully on Brann. Previously, players let Brann hold aggro while keeping him alive and saving bursts for adds. After the nerfs to Brann, he doesn’t deal enough damage to keep the aggro and even if he does, Zekvir now finishes him off in several hits. So if anything, Brann is there to support you and not carry you.
As of now, there are not many clears, as the hardest part of the fight is to pass the DPS checks on the adds. Since Web Terrors stun unless interrupted, this spreads thin already limited resources. And failing to interrupt them leaves you open to any follow-up attacks from the Zekvir himself. As of now, the only 100% confirmed post-nerf clear we managed to find is of ilvl 612 Arcane Mage. This class manages to pump enough damage for that fight.
Following the guidelines should help you secure victory in this challenge. We placed them in order of priority, with the most important one being on top.
- Save your bursts and resources for the Web Terror’s cocoons. It takes about 10 seconds for an add to hatch, so if you can do 15m of damage in that time, you should be good. Killing adds is crucial to avoid their stuns, as getting stunned guarantees death in most cases. If the adds hatches, you can use hard CC, such as Hibernate, Polymorph, etc. to control him. But try to avoid hatching in the first place. The key to victory is staying safe and consistent.
- Interrupt Enfeebling Spittle and Regenerative Carapace. Both have nearly the same priority, but Carapace is more important in the second phase. The choice is obvious if you have magic dispel. Otherwise, you have to decide which cast to prioritize and which one to leave to Brann. Zekvir doesn’t have a strict rotation, but rather a set of skills he uses when they are off cooldown. Both Enfeebling Spittle and Regenerative Carapace have about 30 seconds of cooldown. So if you have an interrupt under 30s cd, you can consistently deal with one of these casts. We recommend going for Carapace, as in the second phase it recovers 25%. Since the fight doesn’t tolerate mistakes, you don’t want to prolong it.
- Set Brann to the Support role. After nerfs Brann can’t deal as much damage as before or tank the boss for you. The best way to utilize him is to let him heal you. Again, Brann, being an NPC, makes him too unreliable, so don’t build your tactics around him doing something consistently. Treat him as a nice bonus to what you have, but don’t expect him to carry you. As for the curios, something that helps you survive or provides extra stats is great. This includes Idol of Earthmother, Light-touched Idol, Porcelain Arrowhead Idol, Amorphous Relic, etc.
- Pick talents that increase your survivability. Classes have different defensive options, and you want as many of those as you can get to make sure you survive that fight. One of the reasons Arcane Mage is capable of clearing that challenge is not only his damage but also survivability thanks to Barriers. For example, the Mage who cleared the fight post-nerf used these talents.
- Get better gear and raise Brann’s level. No matter how good you are, the nerfs showed us that this content is supposed to be time-gated. This means that until a specific item level is reached, it is nearly impossible to clear the fight on particular classes.
Zekvir’s Lair rewards and achievements
Completing Zekvir’s Lair rewards players with various items and achievements.
- Nemesis. Beating Zekvir for the first time in his lair grants this limited-time achievement.
- Hunting the Hunter. Beating Zekvir on Tier ?? grants this achievement with the title “Ascension Breaker”.
- Let Me Solo Him. Defeating Zekvir on Tier ?? while being solo during this Delve season grants this achievement with a new Void appearance for your Delver’s Dirigible.
- Zekvir’s Raptorial Spine. A transmog cape you can get from the chest in Zekvir’s Lair after defeating him.
- Toxic Victory. A toy that creates toxic green circles around your shoulders for an hour. Granted for completing Zekvir, the Hand of Harbinger quest.
Zekvir’s Lair Delve guide: Conclusion
And this is it for our Zekvir’s Lair delve guide. We hope it helped you to gain insight into the Let Me Solo Him challenge and learn about Zekvir’s Lair. We hope that Blizzard addresses the situation with that fight so every class can solo it. But as of now, keep practicing and upgrading your gear, and one day, the achievement will be yours!
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