Instance Guide: Heroic Violet Hold

The Violet Hold instance is a series of 18 portals that spawn inside Dalaran’s Ultra-Secure Prison. To enter a Hunter must have a friend open the door or be lvl75 and get the key from Rhonin in the Violet Citedel.

Just like the original Black Morass the 18 portals spawn randomly and there is a boss at the 6th, 12th and 18th portals. Unlike Black Morass the space is much smaller, and  the first 2 bosses are randomly picked from a selection of 6 choices.

This guide will touch on all 7 bossess you could see on any given run in Heroic mode from the Hunter’s perspective.

Erekem (The Arakkoa)

This boss will arrive with 2 adds. Erekem is a Shaman and will do heavy nature damage. It is important that the adds are not killed first, In Heroic Erekem gets angry and seems to spam Stormstrike with no CD. The adds can be Hex‘ed and silenced, but not normal CC.

Hunters on this fight need to watch for Earth Shield and Tranqshot it. Other then that, single-target fire on Erekem and burn him. Do not waste mana on volley since the adds need to not die and you know someone else is spamming cleave or killing spree. If you miss a few Tranqshots, don’t bug out, you only added about another 10 sec to the fight.

Should the boss not enrage you will be possibly rewarded with Cloak of the Gushing Wound. Which is an amazing Hit/AP cloak until you kill Sapphiron 10 man. [Note: Embrace of Sorrow in Halls of Stone Normal is the only other comparable Hit/AP cloak]

Moragg (The Floating Eye)

This boss is has no real tricks, concerns, or loot for hunters (except possibly SV because of Hunter vs Wild, but there are much better choices that also have agi)

A hunter here just stands back (or SV trap-dances) and tries their best to out DPS the tank.  [A good prot warrior with spell reflect can duo this boss, reflect has a CD unfortunately]

Ichoron (The Water PITA)

BM hunters have it cake on this boss.  I never recommend doing Defenceless if you get his boss, rather get Dehydration instead.  As BM you send pet in and run to a switch. When Ichoron splatters you use switch. Rince and Repeat. MM and SV hunters need to keep mend pet spam going so your pet doesn’t die, else same as BM.
If you have 2 points in Hawk Eye you can also attack from any switch except the ones on the ramp can put you LOS.

Collect your achievement and hopefully Globule Signet [Very very nice crit/int ring, You do have 3/3 careful aim right?]. This ring is easily replaceable later but if you just dinged 80 this is a nice early ring to get your crit/ap up and will also boost volley, arcane shot, and explosive shot.

Xevozz (The Etheral)

This boss is a test of your tank’s ability to kite and your ability to attack on the run. Xevozz  will summon 2 orbs in heroic mode and if any party member gets hit by one its a wipe. My experience has been to stay in front of the tank and lay immolation trap, keep serpent sting up, and burn instants.  If you are SV you can chain trap one of the orb adds, if you can do it without too much downtime on Xevozz.  Most runs kite him up the ramp and kill him by where Lavantor is.

Xevozz’s bounty is Necklace of Arcane Spheres a very nice Hunter Amulet.

Lavanthor (The Core Hound)

This puppy can meet your puppy and get owned,  it seems core hounds exist to eat gnomes and drop loot. On heroic he will cast a debuff on the party increasing fire damage by 35% but unless you are trap-dancing  you need not be concerned. You will be standing on the opening steps at sniper-training range and unloading your full target dummy / patchwerk shot rotation into his hide. Pet health if you didn’t get 3/3 Avoidence can be an issue so work mend pet into that rotaton or have a pally put fire resistance aura on [Until it gets fixed your pet still double dip on raid buffs for resistance, stam, and AP] giving your pet an additional 170 fire resist.

When you loot the core hound you can get The Key, an excellent +hit 1H; and Twin-Headed Boots, these boots really should say Class: Hunter.

Zuramat the Obliterator (The Angry Blueberry)

The Shroud of Darkness ability plays heavily in heroic.  It is a magic ability so Tranqshot every opportunity. Also be aware of your void zone debuff and burn those adds down if you are debuffed. I suggest splitting pet and you on different adds if BM and leaving pet on Zuramat and focus-fire on adds is MM/SV.

Victory loot here is Shroud of Darkness. Depending on luck this might be the first meta socket you get at 80.  The rogue will not mind if you ninja it, we promise.

Cyanigosa (the blue dragon)

First rule of fighing dragons: Stay away from head and tail.
Second rule of fighting dragons: watch for AoE, there is no “safe” spot just spots that hurt less then others.

Imoprtant concideration here is to have disengage ready and use it after every arcane vacuum, also reapply  MD because the vacuum also threat wipes. Keep mend pet up as long as possible. If you are in the blizzard run out of range then run back in and it should be gone. Also you can pop viper and run out and get a few ticks of regen before running back in and dragonhawk as Cyanigosa also will mana burn.

When the city is safe you can be rewarded with Handgrips of the Savage Emissary which are the top Hunter gloves pre Naxx10. I recommend getting 2 of these if you are a leatherworker and putting Frost Resist on the spare for Saph.  Also Staff of Trickery is a former feral cat stave that is now a nice hunter weapon.  And if you are really having an issue getting that 2% hit difference between heroics and raids get Mark of the War Prisoner which is the highest +hit you can get on a trinket pre Naxx25.