How to beat Zekvir's Lair in World of Warcraft: The War Within

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(Image credit:JustBurp(Wowhead) / Blizzard)

A purple airship resting on a rock with stone buildings in the background

Zekvir’s Lairis a delve in World of Warcraft: The War Within with one of the most difficult pieces of solo content since the game’s Mage Tower challenges.

The ultimate boss of the game’s new short, soloable-dungeons, or Delves, Zekvir has a small mountain of health (195 million at the top difficulty) and uses mechanics that can be exceptionally challenging if you’re not ready for them. You can tackle him alone or with friends, on “?” difficulty (yes, that’s just a question mark) or the tougher “??” challenge level. Killing him on “??” solo earns you theVoid Delver’s Dirigible mountappearance, one of the most prestigious in the game at the moment.

If you haven’t gone in search of him, you may have seen him in other Delves: He will rarely spawn and kill you.

Here’s how to beat him and earn your very own smoky purple void-y Hindenberg mount.

Quick steps for unlocking and beating Zekvir’s Lair

(Image credit: Heather N. / Blizzard)

A towering arachnid-like boss named Zekvir standign in a crimson room bedecked with cobwebs

How to unlock Zekvir’s Lair delve

(Image credit:Wowhead/ Blizzard)

An imitated of parchment with a map of Azj-Kahet etched on it and a yellow icon marker in the southeast corner

In order to fight Zekvir on basic ? difficulty, you must firstbeat any existing Delve dungeon on level 8 or higherwith revives remaining, either solo or in a group. This must only be done once across your account, thanks to the expansion’s new Warband features, so defeating it on one character unlocks it for all others. To fight Zekvir on the much-more challenging ?? difficulty, you must successfully complete a level 10 with revives left.

Once you’ve entered, you’ll use the typical Explorers' League Supplies item to assign the specialization and curios you want your companion Brann Bronzebeard to use in the delve.In most cases, you’re going to want Brann to heal, though you may want to tweak the curio selection based on your class and specialization.

The more beefy your Brann is, the better;we recommend tackling ? with a level 20 Brann and ?? with a level 30 Brann as a bare minimum.The more powerful your character is, the less strong Brann needs to be, though it helps. This fight is defeatable at lower item levels if you’re absolutely perfect in how you execute the mechanics. It’ll just take a lot longer and rely more on the utility your particular class brings to the table.

How to beat Zekvir’s Lair

(Image credit: Heather N. / Blizzard)

The War Within screenshot with Brann and Vulpera character fighting the spiney Zekvir with a purple aura

The fight requires nearly constant movement and close attention to your own defensive abilities, as even his melee attacks hit plenty hard. Pet classes may find that it’s easier to tank Zekvir themselves, turning off the taunt abilities on their pets, than to have pets tank him, as he often one-shots them.

Use all typical raid buffs, including flasks, Hearty food (which lasts through death), damage potions, temporary weapon buffs such as oils, and healing potions. Note that Cavedweller’s Delight and Algari Healing potions do not share a cooldown, so bring both.

Be sure to loot the boss (not just the chests) to get all your rewards!

The rewards for beating Zekvir’s Lair

(Image credit: Heather N. / Blizzard)

A fox-like World of Warcraft character wearing a golden armor set with shoulder pads that radiate a holy fire

For defeating Zekvir in any size of group on any difficulty in Season 1, you’ll receive theNemesis achievement and Zekvir’s Raptorial Spine, a somewhat underwhelming red-and-brown spiky back cosmetic item. The Nemesis achievement is required to complete Glory of the Delver, a meta-achievement that awards the Ivory Goliathus peach and silver horned-beetle-style bug mount.

Killing him also completes the quest Zekvir, Hand of the Harbinger, which awards theToxic Victory toy.The quest is the final in a short series from Brann in Dornogal that starts with To Delves! The Toxic Victory toy gives your shoulder armor a very subtle swirl-of-dust appearance.

And finally, you’ll receive theRelicblood of Zekvir, a Brann curio.(You’ll also get this, often at 4/4 quality, upon killing ?? difficulty.) This curio when equipped randomly attaches a bloodbeast to Brann, which throws pieces of itself near you as you fight in Delves. Walking through these pieces increases your damage and healing and reduces your max health.

Defeating Zekvir on ?? difficulty in a group or solo will award you the achievementHunting the Hunter and the Ascension Breaker title.

Defeating him alone on ?? difficulty in Season 1 gives you theLet Me Solo Him achievementand theDelver’s Dirigible Schematic: Void, which allows you to select the Void appearance for your Delver’s Dirigible mount.

The animations of the Dirigible and this new, purple-smoke appearance are pretty nifty; its landing gear retract on takeoff, and its /mountspecial includes a fancy loop-de-loop. Enjoy your newly evil blimp!

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Quick steps for unlocking and beating Zekvir’s Lair#

How to unlock Zekvir’s Lair delve#

How to beat Zekvir’s Lair#

The rewards for beating Zekvir’s Lair#

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Quick steps for unlocking and beating Zekvir’s Lair

How to unlock Zekvir’s Lair delve

How to beat Zekvir’s Lair

The rewards for beating Zekvir’s Lair

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