How to Defeat Rasha’nan in WoW: The War Within

The fourth boss of WoW‘s Nerub-ar Palace Raid is a familiar face, as players will likely have faced her previously in the Dawnbreaker Dungeon. Now it’s time to finish the job, so here’s how to defeat Rasha’nan in World of Warcraft: The War Within.

How to beat Rasha’nan in Nerub-ar Palace

Mobility is the watchword in this fight, so make sure your team has their speed boosts ready. Raid-wide buffs like the Druid’s Stampeding Roar or the Shaman’s Windrush Totem will be especially useful, but more on that later. Rasha’nan starts the fight fairly static, clinging to the edge of the platform, and Tanks will needs to use their cooldowns to reduce damage from her Savage Assault ability. Any unmitigated damage will be added as a stackable damage-over-time effect, and she casts this twice so you’ll need to swap with the other tank between casts to avoid getting the DoT twice.

Everyone else will need to watch out for Rasha’nan’s Rolling Acid ability, which works the same way as in the Dawnbreaker dungeon in WoW: The War Within. Two players will be targeted, and after a delay a wave of poison will roll out from them to the left or the right. You’ll see the effect as a bright green line on your character, with a tapered edge indicating the direction the poison will flow. Move to the side of the raid group, making sure the bright, solid line is facing your team. This sometimes also leaves behind acid pools, but if you drop it to the side these shouldn’t be an issue.

Occasionally Rasha’nan will mark players for Spinneret’s Strands which deals damage after a few seconds, drops a patch of web, and tethers the player to it. Plays must run out to the sides of the raid to drop the web, before running away to snap the tether. These webs deal damage and slow, but again they shouldn’t be a problem as long as you get them to the sides and away from the raid, where they will be removed by the Rolling Acid. You can check the diagram below to get a better understanding of positioning for this fight:

Rasha’nan then has a third targeted mechanic, which infests a few players and causes them to spawn little parasites. If you get marked, run to the boss so the adds can get nuked down with cleave effects while still hitting the boss. Survive all these and the boss will eventually jump up and fly away further up the platform, while dropping acid pools all along the way. This is where the big mobility cooldowns come in, as the raid will need to chase her and interrupt the ability she casts to avoid ramping damage and an invulnerability phase. You’ll need to do this twice before she settles down again, so if you’re having trouble reaching her in time assign two mobile classes specifically to get there fast and interrupt her. As long as your raid is quick and paying attention, Rasha’nan should fall to you in WoW: The War Within.

How to beat Rasha’nan in Nerub-ar Palace on Heroic Mode

Like other Heroic difficulty fights in WoW: The War Within, Rasha’nan and her abilities mostly work the same way except they are far more punishing of mistakes. Her web and infestation abilities will now damage (and in the web’s case, tether) anyone around the marked target when it goes off, so make sure you stand off to the side while it pops before moving back to the group. The biggest change is an ability called Web Reave, which marks a player before delivering a huge nuke shared between everyone in the blast area and pulling them in to her. Have the marked player stand a little away from the boss and get everyone but the Tanks to help spread the damage, because if not enough people share the hit then everyone gets pulled off the ledge.

If you enjoyed this guide or found it useful, be sure to check out some of Siliconera’s other guides like How to Defeat Sikran in Nerub-ar Palace, or Where to turn in the Web-Wrapped Curio token.

World of Warcraft and The War Within are immediately available on PC and Mac.