This guide is intended to provide a comprehensive description of theencounter with Gara'jal the Spiritbinder in Mogu'shan Vaults. It is targeted at anyonewho desires to understand the fight mechanics.

This guide is updated for World of Warcraft MoP 5.4.

Gara'jal the Spiritbinder is the third boss in the Mogu'shan Vaults raidinstance. The encounter is a single-phase fight, which will test your raid'sability to work together in a coordinated fashion.

More than anything else, the fight will strain your DPS players, who mustkill the boss before the rather short enrage timer.

1. General Information↑top

2. Loot↑top

2.1. Armor

Item Name	Armor	Slot	Main Stats
Shadowsummoner Spaulders (LFR, Heroic)	Cloth	Shoulders	Intellect
Sandals of the Severed Soul (LFR, Heroic)	Cloth	Feet	Intellect/Spirit
Spaulders of the Divided Mind (LFR, Heroic)	Leather	Shoulders	Intellect
Netherrealm Shoulderpads (LFR, Heroic)	Leather	Shoulders	Agility
Leggings of Imprisoned Will (LFR, Heroic)	Mail	Legs	Intellect
Fetters of Death (LFR, Heroic)	Mail	Waist	Agility
Bindings of Ancient Spirits (LFR, Heroic)	Plate	Wrists	Intellect
Bonded Soul Bracers (LFR, Heroic)	Plate	Wrists	Strength
Sollerets of Spirit Splitting (LFR, Heroic)	Plate	Feet	Strength/Dodge

2.2. Weapons

Item Name	Type	Main Stats
Gara'kal, Fist of the Spiritbinder (LFR, Heroic)	One-Hand Fist Weapon	Agility
Eye of the Ancient Spirit (LFR, Heroic)	Shield	Intellect/Spirit

2.3. Amulets and Rings

Item Name	Type	Main Stats
Soulgrasp Choker (LFR, Heroic)	Amulet	Strength
Circuit of the Frail Soul (LFR, Heroic)	Ring	Intellect/Spirit

3. Overview of the Fight↑top

The fight against Gara'jal the Spiritbinder is a single phase fight thattakes place in two different "realms". The boss, as well as your raid, islocated in what we now call the Normal World. Several adds are locatedwithin the Spirit World, from where they continuously damage yourraid.

Throughout the fight, several raid members will choose (and in some cases,be forced) to temporarily go into the Spirit World, in order to kill adds, andkeep raid damage under control.

When the boss reaches 20% health, he goes into a frenzy, dealing increaseddamage. More importantly, the raid damage will increase as well. Indeed, atthis stage, players will no longer be able to enter the Spirit World to killthe adds. This constitutes a soft enrage mechanics that will eventually wipethe raid.

In addition to the various tasks your raid must perform, a rather highamount of raid DPS is required to beat the enrage timer.

The fight bears many similarities to the heroic version of theValiona and Theralion encounter in The Bastion of Twilight (and, to a lesserextent, to the normal mode of that fight). Those who have not experienced thisencounter need not concern themselves.

3.1. Video by Inner Sanctum

4. The Normal World↑top

The Normal World is where the boss is located for the entire duration ofthe fight. This is also where your raid is located by default. Occasionally,some raid members will be able to take incursions into the Spirit World, forno more than 30 seconds at a time.

In this section, we will discuss everything that pertains to the NormalWorld.

4.1. Abilities

In the Normal World, Gara'jal makes use of a series of abilities.

• Gara'jal will Summon Spirit Totems, every 20 seconds. These totems arethe only means for your raid members to enter the Spirit World, with theexception of your tanks, who have an additional means available, namely Banishment. The totems work differently in the different game modes
  • In LFR, the totems are not attackable. In order to enter the Spirit World,players must simply right-click a totem. Three totems spawn each time, andthere is no limit to the number of players who can enter the Spirit World.
  • In 10 and 25-man, the totems are attackable and killable. When a totem iskilled, the nearest players within 6 yards of the totem will be sent to theSpirit World. The nearest 3 players are sent in 10-man, while the nearest 5 aresent in 25-man. Only one totem is spawned each time. Players who enter theSpirit World in this way are brought down to 30% of their maximum health.
• Gara'jal turns the current tank and 2 other random raid members (3 raidmembers in 25-man and LFR) into Voodoo Dolls. 70% (50% inLFR) of the damage taken by each Voodoo Doll is also dealt to the other VoodooDolls (excluding, of course, the transferred damage from Voodoo Dolls itself).The effect lasts for 1 minute. Voodoo Dolls cannot enter the Spirit World(such as through the use of Spirit Totems).
• Banishment is cast by Gara'jal on the Voodoo Doll tank, as soon asthe Voodoo Doll effect expires. This sends the tank into the Spirit World.
• Every 8 seconds or so, Gara'jal will use a Shadowy Attack againstthe tank. This is simply an attack that deals Shadow damage and ignoresabsorption effects.
• Frenzy increases Gara'jal's attack speed by 50% and hisdamage by 25%, when he reaches 20% health. Once in the Frenzy state, Gara'jalstops summoning Spirit Totems. On the Beta, in LFR, the boss continued tosummon these totems. We have yet to determine if this is intentional.

4.2. Normal World Strategy

The strategy for the Normal World is rather simple. Not counting thespecifics of sending designated players into the Spirit World (coveredin a dedicated section), your raid has thefollowing concerns:

• DPS Gara'jal and heal the raid and tank damage.
• Account for the increased damage taken by Gara'jal's tank.
• The off-tank must prepared to taunt the boss whenever the current tank isBanished to the Spirit World.
• Contend with the very intense damage your tank and raid will sustain afterGara'jal goes below 20% health.

4.2.1. Voodoo Doll Tank Damage

The Voodoo Doll tank will be taking high damage, due to the combinationof boss melee hits and mirrored damage from the other Voodoo Dolls. These otherVoodoo Doll raid members will be taking damage from adds located in theSpirit World, which also damage players in the Normal World (we discuss them indetail in a further section).

Healers must be aware of this increased damage, and always make sure thatthere is ample healing on the tank.

4.2.2. Taunting Gara'jal

The off-tank must be prepared to taunt Gara'jal as soon as the main tank isBanished to the Spirit World. This will happen immediately after Voodoo Dollsexpires from the main tank, and it should be easy to track.

While Vodoo Dolls is active on a tank, Gara'jal will only attack that tank,and it is not possible for the other tank to take over. Taunting Gara'jalduring this time still affects the threat table normally, but the boss willsimply not act on this. As such, the off-tank can make sure to be second (orfirst) on threat by the time the main tank is Banished, at the end of VoodooDolls.

4.2.3. Shadowy Attacks

Every 8 seconds, Gara'jal will hit the tank with a Shadowy Attack.This is only relevant in the sense that Shadowy Attacks deal slightly moredamage than normal attacks, and bypass absorption effects. Tanks and healersmust be prepared for this.

4.2.4. Frenzy

When the Gara'jal goes below 20% health, he goes into a Frenzy.This causes the boss to do increased damage to the tank, but, more importantly,it prevents the raid from entering the Spirit World and killing the addslocated there. This means that the raid damage will continue to escalate asmore and more adds spawn. As a result of this, the tank damage will alsoescalate because of the increased damage on the Voodoo Doll raid members.

Healers must be prepared for this period and have all their defensivecooldowns available. This is also the ideal time for Bloodlust/ Heroism/ Time Warp.

5. Spirit World↑top

The Spirit World is different, depending on whether the player entered itas a result of interacting with a Spirit Totem or, if they are tanks, as aresult of Banishment. Since Spirit Totems are the primary means ofentering the Spirit World, this will be the main focus of this section. Tanksentering the Spirit World through Banishment should refer to this section.

The Spirit World is populated by adds called Shadowy Minions. Theseadds spawn regularly throughout the course of the encounter. They have twospells, one which deals damage to players in the Normal World and one whichdeals damage to players in the Spirit World.

• Spiritual Grasp deals Shadow damage to a random player in the NormalWorld.
• Shadow Bolt deals Shadow damage to a random player in theSpirit World. This spell is not cast in LFR.

5.1. Entering the Spirit World

The only means of entering the Spirit World, for everyone except tanks,is through Spirit Totems. Interacting with these totems is different, dependingon whether you are raiding in LFR or in 10/25-man mode.

5.1.1. LFR

In LFR, players can enter the Spirit World by right clicking the SpiritTotems that Gara'jal summons every 20 seconds. There is no limit to the numberof players who can enter for each totem.

5.1.2. 10/25-man

In 10 and 25-man, entering the Spirit World is slightly more difficult.Here, the Spirit Totems summoned by Gara'jal are attackable and killable (theirhealth is very low). When a Spirit Totem is killed, the closest 3 players(within 6 yards) to it are transported into the Spirit World.

As opposed to LFR, here there is a clear limit to the number of players thatcan be in the Spirit World at one given time. Given the 10-second differencebetween the cooldown Spirit Totems and the duration of the maximum stay in theSpirit World, more than 3 players can sometimes be inside for a brief periodof time (5 players appears to be the absolute limit).

Moreover, and very importantly, players who enter the Spirit World in 10 and25-man are brought to 30% of their maximum health.

5.2. Exiting the Spirit World

Players may remain in the Spirit World for, at most, 30 seconds. At theend of this period of time, depending on whether you are in LFR or 10/25, yourjourney will come to an end in a specific way.

• In LFR, players who are still in the Spirit World when 30 secondsexpire are instantly send back out into the Normal World.
• In 10/25-man, players who are still in the Spirit World when 30seconds expire are instantly killed.

Keeping track of how long you have left in the Spirit World is made easy bya 30-second debuff.

There is only one way to voluntarily exit the Spirit World, namely by using Return Soul, a special action button that will appear on your screen.

In LFR, this button is always present, from the moment when you enterthe Spirit World. Therefore, exiting the Spirit World is a simple matter ofclicking the button.

In 10/25-man, things are, again, a bit more difficult. As we noted inthe section above, players who enter the Spirit World in 10/25-man are broughtdown to 30% health. The only way for the Return Soul button to appear is forthe player to be healed up to 100% health.

Moreover, whenever a player is healed inside the Spirit World, they gain abuff, called Spiritual Innervation. We discuss this below.

5.3. Spiritual Innervation

While inside the Spirit World, any healing done to raid members stacks abuff on them, called Spiritual Innervation. This buff offers playersan increase in haste, as well as an increase in regeneration rate of their mainresource. In some cases, it also offers an increase in the proc rate of certainspecialisation-specific mechanics. We will not go into a list of all the buffsoffered by Spiritual Innvervation, by class, since they are mostlyhomogeneous. The important thing to note is the end result of SpiritualInnervation.

• DPS players will be able to do increased DPS.
• Healers will regenerate their mana very quickly.

It is important to note that the Spiritual Innervation buff lasts for 30seconds, so it will last for well after the players leave the Spirit World.

5.4. Spirit World Strategy

Within the Spirit World, the strategy is simple. The players inside theSpirit World must each perform their own tasks, depending on their role.

• DPS players must interrupt and kill the Shadowy Minions with allurgency.
• Healers must quickly top off all players in the Spirit World (to enable the Return Soul ability), and then continue healing them.

For healers, the Spirit World is a mana regeneration haven, which will, inmost cases, result in filling up the healer's mana pool before they return tothe Normal World.

5.5. Spirit World for Tanks

At the end of Voodoo Dolls, the current tank (who had been made intoa Vodoo Doll) will be banished into the Spirit World. This is a special kindof Spirit World, where they will only have to contend with a single mob, aSeverer of Souls.

The tank has 30 seconds to kill this mob. It has low health, so this shouldreally not be a problem at all. Once the mob is dead, the tank will be sentback out into the Normal World.

Keep in mind that failing to kill the mob in the alloted time will instantlykill the tank.

Other raid members who are inside the Spirit World cannot see the Severerof Souls or attack it in any way.

6. Designating Spirit World Players↑top

The most crucial aspect of planning your success is deciding who will gointo the Spirit World. In LFR, this is hardly a concern because any number ofpeople can go through without difficulty, and because the damage done by mostabilities is low enough that an inefficient strategy will not necessarilycause a wipe.

In 10 and 25-man, however, you will have to send in one healer and a teamof DPS players with each Spirit Totem. To do this, these players will have tobe the closest raid members to that totem when it is killed (they will stackon it, most likely). 2 DPS players will go through in 10-man, while 4 DPSplayers will go through in 25-man.

You should rotate all the raid's healers, so that they each get to enterthe Spirit World one or more times. This is because the mana regenerationwithin the Spirit World is immense.

Take into account that Voodoo Dolls is cast on random raid members,and it prevents them from entering the Spirit World. This means you mustassign back-ups for those designated to enter the Spirit World.

The Shadowy Minions are not hard to kill, so not all DPS players whoenter the Spirit World must remain there for the full 30 seconds. Instead, itis best if some DPS players (1 in 10-man, 2 in 25-man) only enter until theirSpiritual Innervation buff is refreshed and stacked up, at which pointthey should exit the Spirit World and continue DPSing Gara'jal. While insidethe Spirit World, these players can DoT the adds.

In terms of optimising your raid's DPS, it is best to send classes that canAoE or multi-DoT effectively in the Spirit World, while leaving single-targetclasses in the Normal World. Some of these single-target DPS players willbe going into the Spirit World only to refresh their Spiritual Innervationbuff.

7. DPS Challenge↑top

In entry-level raid gear, the Gara'jal 6-minute enrage timer will prove tobe a rather pressing challenge for your raid. While using fewer healers tomaximise raid DPS is one way to alleviate the problem, it will prove to have amuch greater impact to have appropriate uptime of Spiritual Innervationon your DPS players, and to have these players maximise their DPS on theboss.

Gara'jal 6-minute enrage timer will 1-shot the raid, not allowing you tocontinue DPSing at all past this point.

8. When to Use Heroism/Bloodlust/Time Warp↑top

The most difficult time for your raid will be the end of the fight, whenboth tank damage (from Frenzy and Voodoo Dolls) and raiddamage (from overwhelming numbers of Shadowy Minions) will be intense.

Therefore, you should use Heroism/ Bloodlust/ Time Warpwhen the boss is below 20% health.

9. Learning the Fight↑top

As we have mentioned above, the most important element of executing thisfight is assigning players to enter (and exit) the Spirit World properly.

Aside from this, the rest of the encounter should not pose many problemsto your raid.

10. Heroic Mode↑top

The Heroic mode of Gara'jal the Spiritbinder makes for an extremelychallenging fight. The fight presents your raid with a brutal race against theenrage timer, as well as a high amount of damage.

10.1. Differences from Normal Mode

There are several differences from the Normal mode version of the fight.

• Gara'jal has vastly more health, but the enrage timer remains thesame.
• Voodoo Dolls take 100% of the damage taken by the Voodoo Doll tank, up from70% in Normal mode.
• Gara'jal and the adds all deal considerably more damage with all of theirabilities.
• Players who return to the Normal World are debuffed with Frail Soul, which kill them if they attempt to enter the Spirit Worldagain within 30 seconds.
• Tanks who enter the Spirit World as a result of Banishment now haveto defeat three Severer of Souls adds, instead of just one. Two of thesethree adds are also visible to other players in the Spirit World, while theother is only visible to the tank.

10.2. Strategy

The strategy for Heroic Gara'jal the Spiritbinder revolves around severalkey aspects. We discuss them all in the sub-sections below.

10.2.1. Beating the Enrage Timer

While beating the enrage timer is only a consideration that you will have totake into account when you have perfected the other elements of the encounter,it is something that will shape you raid composition, as well as several otherchoices.

Gara'jal has a 6 minute enrage timer, in both 10 and 25-man, and a healthpool that is significantly larger than in Normal mode. This means that you willhave to use the minimum amount of healers for the fight, 2 in 10-man, and 5 in25-man. It is possible to use as few as 4 healers in 25-man, but you then runthe risk of random deaths. Moreover, these healers will have to contributewith DPS whenever they can.

Additionally, of course, it means that your DPS players will have to performexcellently.

10.2.2. Surviving the Damage

The aspect that will cause you the most problems on this fight is thebrutal damage that the tank takes. All of this damage is then transferred tothe Voodoo Dolls, instead of only 70% in Normal mode.

While Gara'jal's regular melee attacks are very damaging (and can result inas much as 180,000 damage on the Voodoo Dolls), it is his ShadowyAttacks that constitute the main cause of death for the Voodoo Dolls.

Note that the Shadowy Attacks bypass absorption effects, such as Power Word: Shield or Shield Barrier.

While tank deaths can, of course, occur, the main risk is the other VoodooDolls will suddenly die. Therefore, it is less important how well a tankcan survive on their own, and more important how much that tank can reduce thedamage that the Voodoo Dolls take.

Some tanking classes are better at this than others. Arguably the best twoclasses for the encounter are Warriors and Monks. In the case of Warriors, thisis becauase they can consistently have Shield Block up for every ShadowyAttack (the attacks can indeed be blocked), which reduces their damagegreatly. Monks are great because their Stagger mechanic works with the ShadowyAttacks (despite the fact that Stagger is only meant to work on Physicaldamage, and Shadowy Attacks are Shadow damage), again leading to greatlyreduced damage on the Voodoo Dolls.

While it is certainly possible to kill the boss with Paladin, Druid, orDeath Knight tanks, these classes are at a disadvantage, since they have noreliable way to ensure that each Shadowy Attack is mitigated. In the case ofDeath Knights, Shadowy Attacks bypass their Mastery: Blood Shield absorption. Eventhough Blood Shield serves to absorb or soften subsequent melee attacks fromGara'jal, the overall survivability of Voodoo Dolls is lower than with aWarrior or Monk tank.

In addition to this, the tanks should be making regular use of theirdefensive cooldowns in order to mitigate the damage that the Voodoo Dolls take.Particularly, the tanks should watch out for times when their active mitigationis unavailable, or when some of the Voodoo Dolls are dangerously low onhealth.

Likewise, the Voodoo Dolls themselves must always be prepared to usedefensive cooldowns if their health is low.

10.2.3. Spirit World Assignments and Strategy

Due to Frail Soul, you cannot have a single team assigned to enteringthe Spirit World. Indeed, a player can only enter the Spirit World every otherSpirit Totem spawn.

In 10-man raids, you will probably have to implement spontaneousassignments, depending on who is turned into a Voodoo Doll. The reason forthis is that out of the 8 players who can theoretically go into the SpiritWorld, 3 will have the Frail Soul debuff, and up to 2 others could haveVoodoo Dolls. This means that the remaining 3 players will have to enter theSpirit World.

In 25-man, you have a bit more flexibility, and you can create somepre-determined assignments (two or three Spirit World teams, and a fewback-ups for each).

Inside the Spirit World, things remain relatively unchanged. The onlydifference is that players inside the Spirit World can see and attack two ofthe tank's Severer of Souls adds. They should focus on killing these adds,generally, but depending on the tank's DPS, you can throttle down the amount ofattention that DPS players give them.

11. Achievement: Sorry, Were You Looking for This?↑top

The Sorry, Were You Looking for This? achievement is part of the Glory of the Pandaria Raider meta achievement. The achievement is bothsimple and easy to complete.

In order to complete the achievement, a raid member must right click andchannel an Ancient Mogu Artifact, located the center of the Spirit World.

Even though channeling this will reduce that player's performance, thisdoes not matter because you do not need to also defeat Gara'jal in the sameattempt. Therefore, this can easily be completed while on a learning attemptor when a wipe has been decided.

12. Concluding Remarks↑top

This concludes our Gara'jal the Spiritbinder raid guide. If you have anyquestions, suggestions, or comments, you are always welcome to post them onour forums, or to send us an e-mail.