Imperial Vizier Zor'lok Encounter Guide: Strategy, Abilities, Loot

• Movement and positioning is crucial here; focus on surviving first before worrying about dealing damage.
• Be sure to have all personal offensive cooldowns available for Phase 2 start when Imperial Vizier Zor'lok reaches 40% health.
• Be sure to break out mind-controlled players quickly from Convert, doing your best to not damage them below 50% health.

• Coordinate 1-2 raid-wide defensive cooldowns for each Force and Verve.
• Instant heals can save people during Attenuation, as its very unlikely that nobody takes any damage. Be ready to top anyone off during these casts to help prevent deaths.

• Both Imperial Vizier Zor'lok and the Echos must be tanked at all times to prevent Song of the Empress from wiping the raid.
• Tanks will generally have to avoid more mechanics here, as you will be positioning in a way that allows the rest of your raid to avoid said mechanics by being further away.

Imperial Vizier Zor'lok is the first encounter found in the Heart of Fear; while normally bosses will progress in difficulty the further you venture into a raid, Imperial Vizier Zor'lok is actually (by far) the most difficult encounter in the raid, even as the first boss! This fight is technically a 2 phase encounter, with Phase 1 being split up between the 3 platforms around the room. Imperial Vizier Zor'lok will start on the right platform (while facing the boss room from the entrance), changing platforms every 20% health loss (at 80% 60% and 40% health respectively). Each time Imperial Vizier Zor'lok changes platforms, he will use a new ability specific to the platform he is on (more on these below).

Imperial Vizier Zor'lok has a few abilities that he will use throughout the entire fight, regardless of his current platform. The first thing players will notice is the Pheromones of Zeal (henceforth referred to as "Gas", or "the Gas") Gas that covers the entire middle of the room, dealing damage and silencing players standing inside it. This Gas must be avoided by standing on one of the three platforms, and should be quickly moved through using movement speed increases whenever you must change platforms to follow Imperial Vizier Zor'lok. If no player is in his melee range, Imperial Vizier Zor'lok will cast Song of the Empress, wiping the raid.

The final constant ability players will be dealing with is Exhale. Imperial Vizier Zor'lok will frequently gain a stack of Inhale every few seconds, increasing the damage of Exhale for each stack. If Imperial Vizier Zor'lok has 3 or more stacks of Inhale when he casts Exhale, all stacks of Inhale will be removed. Imperial Vizier Zor'lok will target a random player with Exhale, channeling a beam on the selected player, dealing high damage and stunning them for the duration of the channel. Exhales beam on the targeted player can be intercepted by having a tank move between Imperial Vizier Zor'lok and the player; this will remove the stun from Exhale, and greatly reduces its damage dealt.

On heroic difficulty Imperial Vizier Zor'lok will leave behind an Echo whenever he changes platforms, which will mimic some of his spells. All echos will use Song of the Empress, requiring a tank to always be near them, similar to Imperial Vizier Zor'lok. After Imperial Vizier Zor'lok leaves the first platform at 80%, a Echo of Force and Verve will spawn and use Force and Verve. After Imperial Vizier Zor'lok leaves the Second Platform and Third Platforms (at 60% and 40% health respectively), a Echo of Attenuation will be spawned, which uses Attenuation. These abilities and how to handle the Echos will be discussed in full below, on their respective platforms. If you are engaging on Normal Difficulty you can ignore the sections about the Echos, as they are only on Heroic Difficulty.

Start off with everyone quickly getting to the right platform; avoid being in the center for as long as possible as the Gas deals high damage-over-time and silences players inside. Remember that a tank always needs to be near Imperial Vizier Zor'lok (and the echos) to prevent the raid wiping cast of Song of the Empress. Tanks will need to be aware of Exhale targets and be ready to move into the beam to free the targeted, stunned player; be mindful of Inhale stacks and use a minor defensive cooldown as needed while other mechanics are going on.

On this first platform Imperial Vizier Zor'loks main ability will be Force and Verve, a channeled spell that deals high Physical damage to all players; note that this damage is raid-wide and will hit all players in the raid, not just players on the same platform. Approximately every 40-seconds Imperial Vizier Zor'lok will begin to channel Force and Verve and create 3 "Shields" around him, which spawn in varying distances around him:

1. The first shield will spawn next to him, in melee range;
2. The second shield will spawn approximately 10-yards away from him;
3. The third shield will spawn approximately 20-yards away from him.

Players standing inside these shields will gain the Noise Cancelling buff, reducing the damage of Force and Verve by 60%. These shields have a limited amount of space, and can only buff a few players at once (4 players in 10-man, and 9 players on 25-man per shield); this requires you to split the raid up for all 3 shields, having Melee utilize the shield near the boss while Ranged use the 2 shields further away. Make sure players stack inside the shields as assigned when they spawn, and use 1 or 2 raid-wide defensive cooldowns to further help reduce the damage if needed. While channeling Force and Verve Imperial Vizier Zor'lok can not use Exhale, making positioning a non-issue during this 10-second channel. Deal with each Force and Verve cast until Imperial Vizier Zor'lok reaches 80% and flies across the room to the Second Platform.

On Heroic difficulty Imperial Vizier Zor'lok will leave behind a Echo of Force and Verve on the First Platform while he himself flies over to the Second Platform. The Echo of Attenuation will, as you may have guessed, use Force and Verve on this First Platform (and create the same 3 Shields at varying locations around itself); remember that Force and Verve is raid-wide damage and will hit all players, no matter the platform they are on. As both the Echo and Imperial Vizier Zor'lok will cast Song of the Empress if no player is within their melee range, a tank is needed on both platforms. For this we recommend keeping almost everyone on the First Platform, sending only 1 tank and 1 or 2 healers with the tank, to deal with Imperial Vizier Zor'lok on the Second Platform. This tank and healer team will need to survive Force and Verve with any available personal or external defensive cooldowns they have, as the Shields will only spawn near the Echo of Force and Verve and none will spawn by Imperial Vizier Zor'lok. Finish the Echo of Force and Verve off as soon as possible before heading across the Gas to the Second Platform.

Use any available movement speed buffs, Demonic Gateways, or personal cooldowns such as Nitro Boosts to get across the Gas as soon as possible and re-group together on the Second Platform. Imperial Vizier Zor'lok will no longer use Force and Verve here, but will instead use his iconic ability Attenuation. This is the main ability of this encounter, and will be the cause of the majority of your wipes. Here, players will need to do a "dance", moving around a constant stream of "Disks" flying at them from all directions.

Every 45-seconds Imperial Vizier Zor'lok will channel Attenuation, sending out numerous yellow Sonic Rings (and green Sonic Pulses on Heroic difficulty), in a spiralling pattern around himself. These "Disks" will travel in either a clockwise or counter-clockwise direction, starting from around the bosses hitbox and quickly moving to the outside of the room. These Disks will sometimes split into two disks and change directions once they have traveled some distance, and are able to bounce of nearby walls, changing their direction of movement. For this reason, always keep Imperial Vizier Zor'lok tanked in the center of the Platform, allowing players the most room to move. These Disks deal damage to players each second you are inside them, rather than just being 1 hit of damage only; this will quickly kill you if you take more than even just 1 tick of damage ( Sonic Pulse is most certainly instant death on Heroic mode). Sometimes you will need to run through a Yellow Disk to avoid additional damage; if you do so, run the opposite direction of the Disk by running directly through it. This will limit the damage you take and allow you to gain better positioning.

This will require several attempts for players to become familiar with this ability, allowing them to instantly recognize which direction the Disks are going, either clockwise or counter-clockwise. From here players will need to position themselves in a manner that is nether too close to Imperial Vizier Zor'lok (avoiding being hit instantly be fresh Disk spawns), but not far enough away to be hit by Disks as they split (and change directions), or bounce off of nearby walls. This "sweet spot" will allow a player to move at the same speed as the Disks as they spawn in, continually following their spiral pattern around Imperial Vizier Zor'lok until the 9-second channel of Attenuation ends. Melee DPS should take advantage of Imperial Vizier Zor'loks large hitbox, attacking from the maximum possible melee-range at all times. Continue this "dance" until Imperial Vizier Zor'lok reaches 60% health and heads to the next Platform.

On Heroic difficulty Imperial Vizier Zor'lok will leave behind a Echo of Attenuation this time, which will continue to use Attenuation on the Second Platform while Imperial Vizier Zor'lok himself flies over to the Third Platform. This time, we recommend having 1 Tank, half the Healers, and all Ranged DPS stay behind on the Second Platform to deal with the Echo of Attenuation; this will allow the Melee DPS to no longer need to worry about missing out on damage while trying to avoid the Disks, but is not required. Have your raid deal with the Echo of Attenuation as quickly as possible before everyone gathers together on the Third (and final) Platform of Phase 1.

On this Third Platform Imperial Vizier Zor'lok will no longer use Attenuation, instead he will mainly use Convert. Convert mind controls random players (2 players on 10-man, 5 players on 25-man), requiring them to be damaged down to 50% health to free them. Each attack against the mind-controlled players has a chance to instantly break Convert early, and this chance will increase the closer that the targeted players health is to 50%. For this we will simply stack up and use AoE crowd control skills, such as Solar Beam and Ring of Peace, to silence the Convert targets, buying you time to set them free. Be sure to keep certain abilities such as Psychic Scream and Intimidating Shout on cooldown before Convert goes out, as these can cause chaos if a mind-controlled player fears people around the room or into the Gas. This Platform lasts until Imperial Vizier Zor'lok reaches 40% health, where he will fly into the middle of the room and begin Phase 2.

On Heroic Difficulty the Echo of Attenuation will continue casting Attenuation on the second platform, with some of the Disks reaching the Third Platform briefly before they expire. We recommend stacking on the opposite side of the Second Platform (as shown on the picture above), limiting the numbner of Disks that are able to reach the raid. The tank should be aware of any Disks coming in behind them and avoid them as needed. Unlike previous Platforms, no Echo will spawn on the Third Platform once Imperial Vizier Zor'lok leaves.

At 40% health Imperial Vizier Zor'lok will fly into the middle of the room and inhale all of the Gas, gaining 10% damage and 20% haste for the rest of the encounter. After this, he will pull the entire raid on top of himself and place "barriers" on all three Platforms, preventing players from accessing those areas. This is where you will want to use all major DPS cooldowns such as Bloodlust, burning down as much health as possible before all of the mechanics begin.

Here the chaos begins, as Imperial Vizier Zor'lok will now use all three of his main abilities: Force and Verve, Attenuation, and Convert; note that Force and Verve and Attenuation are both channeled spells and can not occur at the same time. We recommend keeping Imperial Vizier Zor'lok in the middle of the room and stacking together at maximum melee range, allowing you to quickly deal with Converts and keeping distance for Attenuation Disks when they spawn.

Force and Verve will also continue to happen frequently, along with the 3 Shields that come along side it. These Shields have an added benefit of also reducing the damage of Attenuations Sonic Rings (Yellow Disks) by 75% while inside; note that this does not reduce the damage of Sonic Pulse (Green Disks) on Heroic difficulty.

Dealing with all three mechanics at once is an extremely difficult challenge for players, and will require a steep learning curve before raids can take down Imperial Vizier Zor'lok with ease. It is recommended to attempt several "practice runs" once you start making it to Phase 2, focusing entirely on avoiding mechanics rather than trying to kill the boss. Getting these repetitions in will allow players to fully understand the movements and attention required to survive during Phase 2, reducing deaths and overall damage taken.

On Heroic difficulty a third Echo, another Echo of Attenuation, will spawn 1-minute into Phase 2, wherever Imperial Vizier Zor'lok is. This Echo should be tanked on the opposite side of the room, dragging Imperial Vizier Zor'lok away from it once it spawns; this will give players the most room possible to avoid the Disks. As with the previous Echo of Attenuation, this one will also use Attenuation; this makes Phase 2 absolutely nuts, as players will need to dodge Attenuation from both the Echo, as well as Imperial Vizier Zor'loks.

The combination of 2 waves of Sonic Rings and 2 waves Sonic Pulse will absolutely cover the entire area with Green and Yellow Disks. This will require constant movement and awareness to avoid dying, as this will be the hardest part of this entire raid. Always look for the gaps between the Disks coming from both directions, always having a safe-spot that you are moving towards. Remember that you can always run through a Yellow Disk quickly to get to a safer spot, but you must avoid the Green Disks at all times.

Once your raid has a strong understanding of Phase 2, you will finally be able to finish Imperial Vizier Zor'lok off! This is the most difficult encounter in the instance, so expect to have many, many wipes here, especially during Phase 2. Once you have this fight down however, the rest of the raid should feel like a walk in the park.

3.

Imperial Vizier Zor'lok Loot

Celestial Normal Heroic

Below you will find all of the loot available for this boss encounter. Use the different buttons to view the different loot between all difficulties.

3.1.

Celestial Dungeon Loot

Item
Attenuating Bracers
Gloves of Grasping Claws
Scent-Soaked Sandals
Gauntlets of Undesired Gifts
Boots of the Still Breath
Mail of Screaming Secrets
Zor'lok's Fizzing Chestguard
Chestplate of the Forbidden Tower
Warbelt of Sealed Pods
Articulated Legplates
Pheromone-Coated Choker
Hisek's Chrysanthemum Cape
Fragment of Fear Made Flesh
Vizier's Ruby Signet

Below you will find all of the loot available for this boss encounter. Use the different buttons to view the different loot between all difficulties.

3.2.

Normal Difficulty Loot

Item
Attenuating Bracers
Gloves of Grasping Claws
Scent-Soaked Sandals
Gauntlets of Undesired Gifts
Boots of the Still Breath
Mail of Screaming Secrets
Zor'lok's Fizzing Chestguard
Chestplate of the Forbidden Tower
Warbelt of Sealed Pods
Articulated Legplates
Pheromone-Coated Choker
Hisek's Chrysanthemum Cape
Fragment of Fear Made Flesh
Vizier's Ruby Signet

Below you will find all of the loot available for this boss encounter. Use the different buttons to view the different loot between all difficulties.

3.3.

Heroic Difficulty Loot

Item
Attenuating Bracers
Gloves of Grasping Claws
Scent-Soaked Sandals
Gauntlets of Undesired Gifts
Boots of the Still Breath
Mail of Screaming Secrets
Zor'lok's Fizzing Chestguard
Chestplate of the Forbidden Tower
Warbelt of Sealed Pods
Articulated Legplates
Pheromone-Coated Choker
Hisek's Chrysanthemum Cape
Fragment of Fear Made Flesh
Vizier's Ruby Signet

Achievement	Description
Overzealous	Defeat Imperial Vizier Zor'lok while every member of the raid is afflicted with the Zealous Parasite debuff.
Heroic: Imperial Vizier Zor'lok	Defeat Imperial Vizier Zor'lok in Heart of Fear on Heroic difficulty.

Imperial Vizier Zor'lok is just one of the six encounters present in the Heart of Fear raid of Mists of Pandaria. If you would like to learn more about the others, please see our other pages for the raid below.