Varshan Lair Boss Guide (Season 8)

Varshan is an Initiate Lair Boss with his own unique loot pool. To earn rewards, you will need to take him down while managing a few mechanics. You can adjust the world tier in town to make the fight easier or more challenging. Higher Torment difficulty will reward you with better drops.

How to Summon Varshan

To open Varshan’s treasure after his defeat, you will need 12 Malignant Heart, which can be collected by completing Whispers, or as random drops from Elites, chests, and Treasure Goblins during Helltides.

Once you have all four, head to the Malignant Burrow, located right next to the Tree of Whispers. You can travel directly to the dungeon by right-clicking. Make your way through the short cave, and at the end, you will find an altar where you can summon Varshan. The Malignant Hearts are consumed upon opening the reward chest after killing Varshan.

Preparations

There are a few things you can do before challenging Varshan:

• Stack Shadow Resistance: Make sure your Shadow Resistance is as high as possible. You can also boost your Max Shadow Resistance with the Elixir of Shadow Resistance II. Or reach the armor cap with the Elixir of Iron Barbs II.
• Play a Build You Trust: Bring a build with strong single-target damage and survivability. If unsure, check out our Boss Tier list for suggestions.

Boss Mechanics

Varshan deals mostly Shadow and Physical damage. Like most Lair bosses, he has a Stagger Bar; once it’s filled, it turns blue and will stun the boss temporarily, giving you a free damage window.

During the fight, in addition to his default attacks, Varshan has a few mechanics to look out for:

• Tentacle Attack: Varshan lashes out with intestine-like tentacles and fires projectiles. Dodge to avoid both the melee and ranged components.

• Blood Swipe: Swipes forward in a rectangular area marked on the ground. Avoid standing in front of him when this attack goes off.

• Blood Dance: Teleports to the center and marks several zones with a red-pink glow. These detonate shortly after. Watch the pattern and time your movement to avoid them.

• Summons – Minions: Varshan summons 3 minions at each corner of the room and attempts to absorb their power. These should be killed immediately. If he absorbs them, the fight becomes significantly harder.

Loot Table

To get your loot, you will need to use the required materials to open the reward chest or hoard after the fight. The first Unique dropped is guaranteed to come from the boss-specific loot table below. Any additional Uniques have a 50% chance to come from the general Unique pool instead.

If you are playing in a group, each additional party member increases the chance of an extra Unique dropping by 33%.

In addition, Varshan also drops Shard of Agony required to summon Duriel or Stygian Stone required to craft any Lair Keys.

All Classes: Frostburn Mother’s Embrace	Mythic Uniques: Melted Heart of Selig Andariel’s Visage Harlequin Crest Ring of Starless Skies	Tyrael’s Might Heir of Perdition Shroud of False Death Shattered Vow
Barbarian: Fields of Crimson 100,000 Steps Gohr’s Devastating Grips Ring of Red Furor The Grandfather Doombringer	Druid: Mad Wolf’s Glee Vasily’s Prayer Greatstaff of the Crone Airidah’s Inexorable Will Ahavarion, Spear of Lycander Doombringer	Necromancer: Bloodless Scream Deathless Visage Deathspeaker’s Pendant Ring of the Sacrilegious Soul The Grandfather Doombringer
Rogue: Condemnation Eyes in the Dark Skyhunter Writhing Band of Trickery Doombringer	Sorcerer: Staff of Endless Rage Esu’s Heirloom Raiment of the Infinite Tal Rasha’s Iridescent Loop Ahavarion, Spear of Lycander Doombringer	Spiritborn: Craze of the Dead God Ring of the Midday Hunt Ring of Writhing Moon Sunstained War-Crozier Nesekem, the Herald

You can also earn the Flesh-Weld Rod Mount Trophy cosmetic.

Belial Ambush Encounter

After defeating a Lair Boss, there is a small chance that Belial will ambush you. This unexpected encounter brings its own set of challenges, as Belial uses a mix of Blood and Poison magic that you will need to avoid.

Defeating this smaller form of Belial will grant you a second round of loot from the Lair Boss you just killed, without requiring any additional materials. He will also drop the Betrayer’s Husk, the item needed to challenge Belial’s Exalted Lair Boss form.

To learn more about the ambush mechanics and how to deal with them, check out our Belial guide.