Sennarth, the Cold Breath Raid Guide in Vault of the Incarnates

The following guide is preliminary and based on Dragonflight testing. As such, it may contain incomplete, outdated, or otherwise inaccurate information that we will fix as soon as we have seen the raid on Live Servers.

I also have my own website dedicated to both tanks and raid leaders where I share my insight on the bosses with strategy and preparation advice which I will update after my guild has completed progress. If you are interested in this or want to discuss it on Discord, the links to them are below:

• https://www.tanknotes.com
• Discord Invite Link

• Ice patches in this room are slippy, and you will slide!
• Players with Enveloping Webs need to run away to drop their webs for other players to use. They will drop on your location every second.
• Standing on the web will apply Sticky Webbing, which reduces your movement speed. Reaching 10 stacks will apply Wrapped in Webs, requiring other players to kill a Caustic Spiderling on you to be released.
• When Caustic Spiderlings die, they cast Caustic Eruption and explode. Being in this explosion will remove Sticky Webbing and Wrapped in Webs.
• When Sennarth casts Gossamer Burst, she will pull all players towards her and even pull you off the platform to your death. You can prevent this by getting pulled through Sticky Webbing (or against a wall).
• Spread with Chilling Blast.
• Focus on killing the Frostbreath Arachnids on each platform as soon as possible.
• After one cycle of abilities Sennarth will climb up her web. You will need to follow her up, and the fight repeats as above until she reaches the top.
• Tanks: Face the Frostbreath Arachnids away from the raid to ensure Freezing Breath does not cover the room.
• Tanks: Swap on 9-10 stacks of Web Blast.

• Chilling Blast now leaves bombs on the ground, which knock you away if you run into them.
• Enveloping Webs is replaced with Suffocating Webs, which will knock back players and immediately apply Wrapped in Webs to them.
• Gossamer Burst is replaced with Repelling Burst, which pushes players away from the boss.

The goal of this phase is to try and get Sennarth as low as possible to make the Phase 2 burn as easy as possible. This phase will be split into two sections; when Sennarth is on a platform and when she is climbing.

• There will be one Frostbreath Arachnid on every platform and some Caustic Spiderlings with the boss.
• The DPS should focus on killing the Frostbreath Arachnid as a priority, as it deals pulsing damage to the raid and increases damage over time.
• Throughout this phase, Sennarth will cast Breath of Ice, which creates Ice puddles. Move out of these. These areas will now become slippy, and you will slide if you walk over them.
• Chilling Blast will apply a debuff to every player. When this expires it will deal damage to the player and any other players within 4 yards.

Chilling Blast mechanic example video

• Players with Enveloping Webs need to run away to drop their webs for other players to use. They will drop on your location every second. If you are slow to move, you will debuff yourself, which then increases your chances of being hit by more of them, causing you to get slowed.
• Standing in the webs will apply Sticky Webbing which reduces your movement speed. Reaching 10 stacks will apply Wrapped in Webs, which will slow you by 75%.
• Sticky Webbing can be removed with movement speed removal tools such as Blessing of Freedom or Tiger's Lust.
• When Caustic Spiderlings die, they will cast Caustic Eruption and explode. Being in this explosion will remove Sticky Webbing and Wrapped in Webs.
• The Caustic Spiderlings can be displaced with tools such as Death Grip and Typhoon to place them on players who are Wrapped in Webs.
• When Sennarth reaches 100 energy, she will cast Gossamer Burst. She will pull all players towards her and can even pull you off the platform and apply Wrapped in Webs. You can prevent this by getting pulled through Sticky Webbing (or against a wall).

Gossamer Burst mechanic example video

• Tanks: Face the Frostbreath Arachnids away from the raid to ensure Freezing Breath does not cover the room.

Freezing Breath mechanic example video

• Tanks: Swap on 9-10 stacks of Web Blast.
• After a full cycle of abilities, Sennarth will start to climb up her web.

Heroic changes:

• Wrapped in Webs will stun you in a web cocoon. This will require other players to kill a caustic spiderling on top of you to free you from this web.

Freeing a player with Wrapped in Webs using a Caustic Spiderling example video

• If this happens to a player during the climbing phase, you can move this player with Leap of Faith or Rescue.
• If Sennarth pushes you off the platform, you will die!

Mythic changes:

• The movement speed reduction from Sticky Webbing is increased to 35%.
• The amount of stacks required to get Wrapped in Webs has been reduced to 8.
• These two changes do not alter your strategy in any meaningful way, but they do punish poor handling of Enveloping Webs.
• A brand new mechanic has been added to this part of the encounter, which was not part of any of the raid testing, Gusting Rime.
• Based on the spell description, I suspect that you would bait this to the right of the room as you enter and then keep baiting it behind you as you ascend so that you do not block your path.
• Caustic Eruption will now apply a debuff increasing your damage taken from it by 300% for 30 seconds. This means that you cannot use it to clear your stacks often, and when you do, you need to be very mindful of where they are exploding as this could lead to unnecessary death.

• Tanks: Sennarth will continue to cast Web Blast on the tank. Make sure you stay in range of her to mitigate this effectively.
• Sennarth will continue to use Gossamer Burst, which can be problematic as there may not be any Sticky Webbing to utilize. If this is the case, you can get pulled against the rocks to prevent falling off. Make sure you can walk into the rock before attempting this, as you could get pulled over it and die!
• Once she reaches the next platform, the platform phase will begin again.

You've reached the top of the web. Sennarth will now come down to the platform and fight you directly. Your goal in this phase is to defeat her before the room is filled with Chilling Blast bombs.

• Interrupt Apex of Ice as soon as possible to start this phase.
• This entire platform is made slippery with Icy Ground. Be careful not to fall off the edge!
• Tanks: Web Blast is no longer used!
• Aim to keep the boss near where she landed, as this will make this phase easier.
• The area you came from now is now covered in Permafrost, making it deadly.
• Chilling Blast has been modified and now leaves bombs on the ground which knocks you away if you run into it. These should ideally be placed on the side of the room to prevent players from being knocked around endlessly and potentially knocked off.

Chilling Blast p3 mechanic example video

• Enveloping Webs is replaced with Suffocating Webs which will knock back players and immediately apply Wrapped in Webs to them. These players should move toward the boss and be knocked toward the middle of the platform. Caustic Spiderlings should then be killed here.
• Gossamer Burst is replaced with Repelling Burst which pushes players away from the boss. You should aim to be on the boss when this happens and get pushed towards the staircase. Be careful not to get pushed on the staircase as Permafrost may kill you.

Repelling Burst mechanic example video