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

Zekvir’s Lair is 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 the Void Delver’s Dirigible mount appearance, 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)
Beat any Delve on level 8 or higher (with revives remaining) for ? difficultyBeat any Delve on level 10 (with revives remaining) for ?? difficultyTravel to western side of City of Threads at coordinates 9.8, 33.8Assign Brann to heal and use raid buffsAvoid attacks, kill Web Terrors, and interrupt Enfeebling Spittle and Regenerating CarapaceLoot the boss and the chests

How to unlock Zekvir’s Lair delve

(Image credit: Wowhead / Blizzard)

In order to fight Zekvir on basic ? difficulty, you must first beat any existing Delve dungeon on level 8 or higher with 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.

Zekvir’s Lair is located inside the big building on the far western side of the City of Threads in the Azj-Kahet underground spider zone, at coordinates 9.8, 33.8. You’ll zone in the same way you tackle any other delve, by running into the shrouded doorway and picking the difficulty you’d like to defeat.

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)

Zekvir is a solo boss, and once you pass through the lobby where you kit out Brann, you’ll see him standing in a large room alone.

He has the following challenging mechanics:

Angler’s Web: A line on the ground that will hook you. It’ll kill you if you stand in itCall Web Terror: This creates a web at the edge of the room that’ll turn into a spider if it’s not killed in 15 seconds. The spider itself can be crowd controlled, so if you have Hibernate, Trap, Fear, Sheep or the like, you can use it on this creature for the full duration. Otherwise you’ll want to kill any spiders that spawn quickly, as they do a Web Blast that will stun you and likely get you killedClaw Smash: A frontal cone. This is a one-shot, so get out of itEnfeebling Spittle: This is a damage over time spell cast by Zekvir that will both kill and slow you. It must be interrupted, which poses more of a challenge to player classes that can’t immune the cast, dispel its effect or interrupt as frequentlyHorrendous Roar: This is a quick-casting AOE fear circle that you must move out ofRegenerating Carapce (?? only): A heal that’ll add back 10% (later, 25%) of Zekvir’s health if not interruptedUnending Spines (?? only): Creates void areas in the room that you must a-void

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)

If you fail, you still get an achievement: Heavy-Handed, for getting killed by Zekvir.

For defeating Zekvir in any size of group on any difficulty in Season 1, you’ll receive the Nemesis 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 the Toxic 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 the Relicblood 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 achievement Hunting the Hunter and the Ascension Breaker title.

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

The Delver’s Dirigible is awarded by completing Brann’s quest Bountiful Delves in Dornogal, which most people will have completed by the time they defeat Zekvir. You can swap your Dirigible to the Void appearance at the Rostrum of Transformation in Dornogal, which looks like the Rostrum you used to cosmetically change your dragonriding mounts in the Dragonflight expansion.

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!