Pullwise

S2 · Week 3

The Venomous Abyss · Wing 3 · The Serpent Warren · Boss 5

The Lost Explorers

Boss 4 · three tortollans and a fish

Heroic1 phaseVerified

A council of three possessed tortollans. Mor'zahi controls one at a time; feed him a Disgusting Fish from Gebbo's crates before Final Ascension finishes, keep only two explorers within 30 yards, and kill all three before his fourth Ascension.

Pull brief

Icy Veins: Bloodlust on the pull; keep two bosses together for cleave and control their individual health. Method: the fish economy is the fight, and heavy cleave or multi-DoT specs are ideal.

  • No fish fed before Final Ascension completes: Empowered Ascension wipes the raid.
  • All three explorers within 30 yards: United Defense.
  • Overlapping Mighty Thud circles, or an empty mark.
  • Carrying an elemental debuff into the opposite patch on Iku's second volley.
  • Mistiming the mushroom jump over the Blast Wave.

Phases · 1

  1. Control cycle
    Pull. Dark Whispers passes control between the explorers; each fish interrupt (Mor'zahi's Command) hands it to the next one with its ultimate. The fourth time he reaches 100 energy is the wipe (Method).

Positioning

B
Mighty Thud — three soak groups, one in melee and two at separate ranged spots, never overlapping.
B
Shell Spin — a cone at a random melee player. Stay close and bait it toward the edge.

Healer plan

  • Crate breakers stack Splinters bleeds; expect increased damage on them (Icy Veins).
  • Frostfire Volley is the raid-cooldown window; the patch clears add raid damage on top.
  • Blink Nova: the marked player takes it far away; everyone else takes less with distance.
  • Cataclysmic Invocation grows with every cast; plan escalating cooldowns.
Verifiedchecked Sep 2, 2026Mechanics from the dungeon journal text on Warcraft Wiki; responses from Icy Veins (updated Aug 13) and Method's Heroic guide (Aug 14). The wiki marks United Defense as Heroic+ while Icy Veins lists it for all difficulties; it is shown for every difficulty here. No Holy-specific notes exist in any source. Sources: Paladin — Midnight 12.1 companion guide (author's own notes, verified Sep 1, 2026) · wow.gg — Venomous Abyss raid guide (raid encounter briefings, source 1) · Skycoach — Venomous Abyss raid guide (raid encounter briefings, source 2, cross-check) · Maxroll — Holy Paladin raid 12.1.0 · Warcraft Wiki — The Lost Explorers (dungeon journal text, patch 12.1.0; strategy a stub) · Icy Veins — Lost Explorers raid guide (updated Aug 13, 2026) · Method — Heroic The Lost Explorers boss guide (Aug 14, 2026) · Icy Veins — Holy Paladin gear & best in slot (updated Aug 25)