WoW: The War Within – How to Unlock & Beat Zekvir’s Lair

When you make it to the pinnacle of endgame content for Delves in World of Warcraft, you will come face to face with Zekvir. This giant monstrosity has been a thorn in your side as he randomly shows up in Delves or empowers the foes you encounter within, but once you’ve reached his lair you will be able to take the fight to him.

Of course, slaying Zekvir is easier said than done. While not quite as difficult, Zekvir is tuned to be around the Mage Tower challenges from back during Legion. While you don’t have to face Zekvir solo, bringing a group can make the encounter significantly more difficult. If you are having a hard time taking down Zekvir, here is how you can beat him.

How to Unlock Zekvir’s Lair

Before you can fight Zekvir you will first need to unlock the Delve that he is in. Zekvir’s Lair can only be unlocked by clearing a Tier 8 Delve with revives remaining. This unlocks the default difficulty for Zekvir, which is referred to as “Tier ?”. There is a second tier which is unlocked by clearing a Delve on Tier 10 with at least one revive left.

How to Beat Zekvir

Unlocking Zekvir’s Lair can certainly be a challenge if you are undergeared, but actually beating Zekvir is even more difficult. To begin with, you will want to make sure you are no lower than item level 590. To make the encounter more manageable, aim to have at least item level 600+ gear. If you are behind on gear, the Great Vault can help. Using food, flasks, and potions is highly recommended as well, if not borderline mandatory.

Whether you have Brann set to healer or DPS will depend on your class, but you should have him be no lower than Level 30 regardless. In addition, having all your curios maxed out is a good idea as well. Before discussing strategy, here are the abilities that you will need to watch out for as you fight Zekvir.

• Claw Smash: Does colossal damage to all targets within the cone that appears in front of Zekvir.
• Enfeebling Spittle: Puts a 20 second debuff onto the target. The debuff does a significant amount of damage over time and slows your movement speed significantly. This ability can be interrupted.
• Horrendous Roar: A circle appears around Zekvir. If you stand in it when the ability goes off, you get feared for four seconds and take damage.
• Angler’s Web: Zekvir aims at the player he is currently targeting and pulls them in if they stay in the cone on the ground.
• Call Web Terror: Spawns a cocoon that hatches into a Web Terror after 15 seconds. This spider casts an ability that can be interrupted, which is essential since it stuns the target for five seconds.

Claw Smash, Horrendous Roar, and Angler’s Web can all be easily avoided. Enfeebling Spittle can be interrupted before it is cast, and it can be cleansed off of a target as well. The problem is that it is difficult to dodge all of these abilities and interrupt/cleanse Enfeebling Spittle while also dealing with the Web Terrors. Once the cocoon spawns, you need to prioritize taking it down immediately. The problem is that sometimes Zekvir will cast Claw Smash right where the cocoon is, forcing you to move away from the cocoon to avoid getting one shot.

If you don’t kill the cocoon, but manage to do enough damage to it, the Web Terror will spawn with less than 50% health. In this scenario, make sure to interrupt the Web Terror as much as possible while killing it. Not only does the Web Terror do a significant amount of damage, but also its five-second stun can easily kill you, since that will be around the time that Zekvir decides to cast Claw Smash while you are unable to move.

Once the cocoon/Web Terror has been dealt with, switch back to Zekvir and continue damaging him while also interrupting Enfeebling Spittle. It is important to try and interrupt this ability as much as possible as a badly timed Enfeebling Spittle will make it much more difficult to get to a cocoon in time and then the whole run can spiral out of control. Essentially, this fight is a massive gear check combined with mechanics that must be mastered in order to beat Zekvir. Even then, there is a lot of RNG in this fight and all it takes is one thing going wrong to cause a wipe.

Tier ?? Differences

As if Zekvir wasn’t hard enough, he is even more difficult on Tier ??. On this harder difficulty, Zekvir gains the following abilities:

• Regenerating Carapace: Upon finishing the cast on this ability, Zekvir heals for 10%. This can be interrupted.
• Black Blood: After taking enough damage, Zekvir will cast this ability. During the cast time, Zekvir takes 99% less damage. Once this ability is cast, all of Zekvir’s abilities get upgraded. Regenerating Carapace will now heal for 25%. Horrendous Roar will now inflict a permanent fear debuff.
• Unending Spines: A series of circles appear on the ground and a spike shoots up from them soon after. There will also be portals that you need to watch out for.

On Tier ??, cocoons have significantly more health and Web Terrors will spawn at full health rather than half health. On top of all of this, Zekvir has more health and does much more damage. It is a difficult fight, but if you manage to beat it you get a title. If you can kill Zekvir on Tier ?? solo, you also get a unique appearance for the Delver’s Dirigible.