Strategies for Zemouregal & Vorkath

This article is a strategy guide for Zemouregal & Vorkath. Information on mechanics, setups, and tactics is on this page.

This article or section is incomplete and could do with improvement. Reason: Only Necromancy has an ability bar recommendation, which appears to be exclusive to Hard Mode; additionally, Melee and Ranged have no strategy or recommended gear setup You can discuss this issue on the talk page or edit this page to improve it.

Zemouregal and Vorkath can be battled in three difficulties: story, normal, and hard. They can be fought in groups of up to 10. To begin a fight, interact with the commemorative statue in Fort Forinthry following completion of Battle of Forinthry.

Recommended levels and equipment

Requirements

Battle of Forinthry

You need to complete the quest Battle of Forinthry to gain access to this boss.

Gameplay

Protection prayers

This boss attacks using all three combat styles, so use any protection prayer if you do not have Soul Split.

Equipment recommendations

Tier 80+ armour

Use Torva or Zaros Anima,  Pernix or Zamorak Anima,  Virtus or Seren Anima,  tier-80 Deathdealer or Deathwarden, or better (see more recommendations).

Tier 90+ weaponry

Use tier 90 weaponry or better
(see recommendations).

Dragonfire protection required

Protection such as super antifires or elder overload salves is required to protect against this boss's dragonfire attacks.

Salve amulet (e)

Provides a 20% accuracy and damage buff against Vorkath and undead monsters.

Jas dragonbane arrows

Provides +30% damage and +20% hit chance against Vorkath only.

Crumble Undead spell

Provides +30% ability damage against Vorkath and undead minions. As an Earth-classed spell, it doubles the damage reduction bonus of Cryptbloom armour, increasing the total magic damage reduction to 24% and melee damage reduction to 16%.

Optional boosts

Damage-boosting familiar

Use a damage-boosting familiar to increase your damage: Ripper Demon, Kal'gerion demon, blood reaver, or steel titan.

Undead slayer

This boss is an undead creature and undead slayer effects provide additional damage against it. Only works against Vorkath and the undead minions, and does not work against Zemouregal.

Slayer helmet

This boss counts as a slayer assignment for Undead', 'Dragons', and Blue dragons. The slayer helmet and its variants provides additional damage and hit chance if you are on task.

Poison immune

This boss is immune to poison. Cinderbane gloves and weapon poisons do not deal additional damage.

Presets

			50

This is a preset for consistent safe kills using the upgraded T90 Tank Necromancy Equipment.

Equipment:

• Deathwarden robe armour.
• Augmented Death guard (tier 90) and Augmented Skull lantern (tier 90).
• Salve amulet (e) as it gives 20% damage and accuracy boost against Vorkath and the undead minions.
• Scripture of Wen or Jas for damage.

			10

This is a BIS preset when going solo or in a group.

Equipment:

• First Necromancer's equipment is used for its powerful passive and damage bonus.
• Augmented Omni guard and Augmented Soulbound lantern.
• Salve amulet (e) as it gives 20% damage and accuracy boost against Vorkath and the undead minions.
• Zemouregal's nexus along with Lesser Bone Shield if defensives are required.

Inventory:

• Essence of Finality amulet (or) with a Death guard special attack, as a necklace switch for Zemouregal.
• Extra prayer potions and food since multiple kills can be performed without banking.

			10

This is a BIS preset for hard mode Zemouregal and is useful for DPS and tank roles. It can be used for duo hard mode kills or larger groups. This helps keep the team alive, as Zemouregal's unannounced and almost no-warning attacks can easily kill players in seconds in phase 3 and 4.

Equipment:

• Full deathwarden is absolutely necessary for its damage reduction and dodge chance, which works well at blocking the various attacks from minions. It is more effective than even 3-pieces of Cryptbloom along with Animate Dead, due to the dodge chance.
• Augmented Omni guard and Augmented Soulbound lantern.
• Salve amulet (e) as it gives 20% damage and accuracy boost against Vorkath and the undead minions.
• Ring of death as players might die and its useful to quickly return to the arena after death and resume the kill.
• Zemouregal's nexus along with Greater Bone Shield for using  Reflect and  Resonance throughout the fight.

Inventory:

• Essence of Finality amulet (or) with a Death guard special attack, as a necklace switch for Zemouregal.
• Powder of protection which boosts damage protection from 50% to 60% when using protection prayers or curses.
• Large rune pouches containing runes for Prism of Restoration.

Familiar

• Darkness incantation for +20% dodge chance.
• When learning, use a Pack yak full of food like Rocktail or Sailfish.
• When advanced, use a hellhound (familiar) along with constant use of Prism of Restoration.

While not the fastest, a BIS solo-magic tank loadout can yield a consistent average of 4:00 kill times on hard-mode. This includes collecting loot at the start of subsequent kills and starting immediately (thus losing 1 inventory spot for slightly faster kill-cycles). It is recommended to use the Salve amulet against Vorkath at almost all times except when using EOF(s). The Caroming switch is particularly for an increased chance to reset the cooldown of Soulfire when used after Greater chain; it can also be used to generally clear minions or increase the number of critical hits.

The dummy is used to help preserve Essence Corruption and Glacial Embrace stacks between kills, with potentially about 15 seconds between kills.

Depending on the player's skill, this can be further tilted towards damage, such as using a Kal'gerion demon and replacing brews.

Familiar: Hellhound

Boosts: Active Blue dragons Slayer assignment (the longest possible task that boosts damage at Vorkath), activated boost from the Slayer helmet stand, lantadyme incense sticks, Might of Het boost, Thermal bath boost (perhaps from ogre vial), Animate Dead. Possibly Powder of protection.

Relics: Conservation of Energy, Fury of the Small, Death Ward

PVM Unlocks: Greater Chain, Corruption blast, Magma Tempest, Greater Sunshine, Greater concentrated blast, Dive, Undead Slayer (ability), Greater Bone Shield, Shard of Genesis Essence, Permanent ring of vigour, etc.

Perks (one possible combination)

• Armour: Biting 4 Mobile, Relentless 5 Cracking 4, Devoted 4 Impatient 4, and Undead Slayer Genocidal (the last is the most specific to this boss).
• Wand: Precise 6 Aftershock 1.
• Primary orb: Aftershock 4 Equilibrium 2.
• Secondary orb: Caroming 4 Equilibrium 2.

EOF: Legatus's Emberstaff, Armadyl battlestaff and Guthix staff; Guthix staff is less important and only for Zemouregal. Optionally, sacrifice a Fractured Staff of Armadyl to an EOF.

It is unknown if poison pools can be mitigated beyond using an Elder overload salve and running away from them.

Styles:

• Necromancy - While any combat style can be used, Necromancy is highly recommended for this encounter due to its survivability and constant damage output.
• Melee - The boss' mechanics severely limit the amount of navigable space by the player, thus melee is not recommended for this fight.
• Magic has issues with AoE damage due to the huge arena and numerous enemies attacking from varying distances and angles.
• Ranged is a feasible option; Vorkath is susceptible to Jas dragonbane arrows, being an undead dragon. This effect stacks with the salve amulet and Undead Slayer.

Notes:

• Salve amulet (e) is very effective on Vorkath, but has no effect on Zemouregal. Bring a necklace switch for attacking Zemouregal.
• Undead Slayer perk grants a 7% damage boost against Vorkath and the undead minions (Invigorating 4 + Undead Slayer or Precise 6 + Undead).

Familiar:

• Blood reaver (familiar) if using Vampyrism aura
• Ripper demon if using any other aura

Overview

The fort under attack by Zemouregal's army

Zemouregal and Vorkath's health will vary in each mode; Vorkath has 375,000, 750,000 and 1,500,000 health per player in story, normal and hard mode, while Zemouregal has 150,000, 250,000 and 500,000 health per player respectively. If more players join in the fight after it's begun, Zemouregal, Vorkath, and all the minions will gain health to compensate.

During the fight, an Extra action button is available; players can order the fort guards to fire a ballista, launching an arrow at every enemy, dealing 10,000 damage to them - this damage is not scaled accordingly in groups. The ballista cooldown is shared between all players in the instance. This button can be safely used outside of phase 3, as Vorkath does not perform his Ice Barrage attack on phases 1 and 2.

Vorkath will primarily attack with magic that hits every player in the arena. Its dragonfire attack will also hit every player in the arena, though unlike other dragons, it is much less accurate and can be mitigated with defensive abilities. It is still recommended to bring antifire protection, as it is a higher tier dragonfire (thus unaffected by prayers) and can instantly kill players if fully empowered and unprotected. Antifire will reduce the damage by ~50%. Vorkath's damage will increase via the power meter underneath its health bar, including the dragonfire attack.

Zemouregal will attack with Necromancy, which will only hit one target outside of Death Skulls. His attacks will gain strength via Zemouregal's Empowerment; even without the buff, he still hits significantly higher than Vorkath. He will also summon minions and launch bone spikes at the team, which can be disabled in normal mode by disrupting their respective place of power. Unlike players' Necromancy equipment, Zemouregal's attack range is longer, around 8 or so tiles from his target.

Tips

• As the siege phase is skipped in hard mode, players should immediately prepare at the gates before entering. For necromancy, players should cast Conjure Undead Army, Life Transfer, Conjure Vengeful Ghost and one player should use Death Mark before starting.

• In group encounters, one player should be designated as a Zemouregal tank, prioritising Protect/Deflect Necromancy to avoid getting killed by his attacks and stay away from other team members, to avoid Death Skulls bouncing onto them. This player should stand to the north-east, as they will also kill any empowering zombies that spawn. Another player should grab Vorkath's attention, while any fillers should simply remain as DPS. The Zemouregal tank will also have to deal with Vorkath's auto-attacks, as they will hit everyone in the arena. The DPS and Vorkath tank should stand close to each other to minimise the impact of Bone Spikes, as this is particularly important if poison pools are present.

• In normal mode, players can easily ignore most of the mechanics outside of the bone spikes; the ballista will severely injure the combat minions while outright killing the support ones; with good gear, a Zemouregal skip can be easily achieved. One ballista shot should be fired when minions first appear, but keep the second one until phase three begins to avoid getting hit by Vorkath's Ice Barrage.

Places of power

Story mode	Normal mode	Hard mode

At the start of the encounter, an array of skeleton knights, zombie warriors, zombie knights, phantom sorcerers, and skeleton archers will spawn from active sites to attack the fort. There is no danger of the fort falling. However, these undead are attackable and will aggro players if struck, so it is important to avoid hitting them unless needing adrenaline.

There are three places of power that need to be cleared by players. Each site is guarded by a small assortment of four undead and an undead giant. They primarily attack with melee that can deal moderately high damage, and a magic stomp attack that deals less. If the giant is damaged by any means, it will cause nearby guards to attack the player, usually within a 25-tile radius from it that also includes over obstacles. It is possible to lure the giants from the forts without enduring this forced attack, making it much quicker with area-of-effect attacks at the cost of time. After the guarding undead giant is killed, the player can disrupt the place of power.

In story mode, disrupting the places of power is mandatory. The Raptor will help the player fight the giants and can defeat them on his own. A player may let the Raptor do the fight while staying near the fort walls as a safe zone saving food and resources for the final boss fight; alternatively, the giants can be lured near the fort to have the Fort Guards deal heavy ranged damage towards them.

Disrupting the places of power becomes optional in normal mode, while the siege phase is skipped entirely in hard mode.

An ideal method to clear these sites is to attack the giant with  Death Mark, lure the guards till they clump up, cast  Threads of Fate,  Soul Sap and  Volley of Souls. This will outright kill the guards and deal significant damage to the giant.

Map of all locations	Site	Image	Recommended to destroy	Notes
	Northern site		Destroy	Killing the giant and disrupting the place of power will stop Zemouregal from summoning undead into the fight. This site is guarded by two skeleton knights and haunting ghosts. It is recommended that players who struggle to deal area-of-effect damage clear this site, as the undead can be very annoying to handle due to their erratic spawn positions, moderately high health and damage.
	North-western site		Skip	Killing the giant and disrupting the place of power will stop the Bone Spikes mechanic during the boss encounter. This site is guarded by two phantom sorcerers and skeleton rangers. Leaving this site untouched is generally recommended due to both its distance and the corresponding mechanic being least dangerous.
	Western site		Destroy	Killing the giant and disrupting the place of power in the west will automatically proceed to the next phase. This site is guarded by two zombie knights and skeleton rangers. Players who are familiar with the mechanics should head straight to the western site to start the fight phase as quickly as possible.

In order to claim reward caskets at the end of the encounter, the player must be inside Fort Forinthry before the fight is started. Otherwise, they will not obtain any loot.

Attacks

In this encounter, Vorkath deals heavy damage in phases 1, 2 and 3. In phase 4, Vorkath flies off and Zemouregal gets enraged.

Zemouregal

• Auto Attack: Zemouregal attacks with Necromancy.
• Bone Spikes: Zemouregal will conjure bone spikes from the ground on all players, indicated with the ground shaking with small debris in a 5x5 area. A few seconds later, a large amount of spikes will burst forth, dealing up to 3,000 soft typeless damage and stunning players in a 7x7 area.
• Undead: Zemouregal can conjure undead to assist him in the fight, consisting of two minions; one combat (phantom wizard, skeleton ranger, zombie warrior, zombie knight or skeleton knight) and one support (ghost healer, empowering zombie, skeletal shielder). Support zombies will no longer be summoned after Vorkath's health reaches 0.
• Necromancy abilities: Zemouregal can utilise an array of abilities:

Ability	Phase 1	Phase 2	Phase 3	Phase 4	Notes
Soul Sap					Generates a Residual Soul stack for Zemouregal.
Soul Strike					Zemouregal will use a Residual Soul stack to inflict a 3 second stun and bind to his target.
Volley of Souls					Available when Zemouregal reaches 3 Residual Souls. Each hit can deal up to 3,800 damage.
Finger of Death					Zemouregal yells DIE! and then performs this attack. This attack can hit upwards of 10,000 damage without protection prayers.
Blood Siphon					Performs a unique variant of Blood Siphon, calling any combat minions in the arena to him. He will drain health from them and any player in range before sending the damage at his target. This attack will deal damage on par with an auto-attack even if nothing was siphoned off of. During the duration of the ability, combat minions will temporarily stop attacking unless struck.
Death Skulls					Used infrequently, will hit for 3 times in total. This can deal up to 5,500 damage without protection prayers.

Vorkath

Vorkath is an undead dragon, though status effects are inconsistent; the Undead Slayer ability and perk work, but the Dragon variants do not work, whereas Jas dragonbane arrows do. As an undead monster, the salve amulet also provides additional damage and accuracy. The slayer helmet and Genocidal perk provides a buff if on a dragon cluster, blue dragons, or undead cluster task.

Below Vorkath's health bar, there is a power level bar that shows Vorkath's damage output. The higher this number is, the more damage Vorkath's attacks will deal. This bar starts at 75% in both modes and will increase 25% after every phase, capping at 125% at phase 3. If an empowered zombie reaches Vorkath, it will increase its power level by 25% (50% in hard mode), capping at 175% on both modes.

Vorkath attacks with magic. This attack will hit all players.

Action required:

• Players can simply  Soul Split through the attack.

Ice Breath & Spikes:

1. Vorkath telegraphs the attack by designating grey zones where spikes will appear soon.
2. Vorkath briefly flies upward and creates rings of ice that go outwards.
3. The spikes are launched from the ground in a 3x3 AoE. A player can walk in and out through the spikes to avoid damage from them, since the previous set of spikes will despawn before the next appears. If the player gets hit by the spikes, they will take up to 4,500 magic damage and part of it will be transferred to familiars.
4. Vorkath then slams into the ground, dealing melee damage to players under him.

Action required:

• The first attack stuns, therefore players need to  Freedom and then  Surge/ Dive from the grey zone to avoid the deadly spikes.
• The second attack onwards will not stun, so simply using  Surge/ Dive to move away from the grey area is sufficient.

Spikes:

1. Zemouregal telegraphs the attack by designating grey zones where spikes will appear soon. This has a 6x6 visual AoE but is highly deceptive; the tiles surrounding the outermost layer of spikes are also unsafe, giving it an effective 7x7 AoE.
2. Getting caught by the attack will deal up to 7,000 soft typeless damage.

Action required:

• Simply using  Surge/ Dive to move away from the grey area is sufficient.

Vorkath will spew dragonfire. Similarly to metal dragons, Protect from Magic and Deflect Magic don't reduce its damage, though antifire protection and defensive abilities will. However, it is not guaranteed to hit. If it does, a small blast of energy will appear under the player.

Potions that reduce damage from this attack:

• Antifire (4)
• Super antifire (4)
• Supreme overload salve (6)
• Elder overload salve (6)

Action required:

• Players can simply  Soul Split through the attack.

Vorkath spits out some pools onto the ground, either in purple or green colours. Players will take heavy poison damage if they stand on them. Up to two sets of pools can persist at any one time during the encounter.

Normal method:

• Simply stay away from the pools and continue attacking Vorkath/Zemouregal.

Unusual methods:

• The Poison Purge aura nullifies damage from the pink pools, but will not heal poison damage otherwise taken. The aura does not nullify damage from the green pools.

Zemouregal screams Cut them down without mercy! and Vorkath will fly into the sky to prepare an arena-wide attack that deals massive Magic damage.

• This is indicated by Vorkath completely disappearing from the arena.
• To counter this attack, the player must use the Extra action button to have the guards fire on Vorkath when it returns;
  • If this is done, the attack will be cancelled and Vorkath will be briefly stunned, taking 10,000 damage.
  • If this is not done, then Vorkath will lauch a massive attack when he returns to the arena which will likely one-hit the player if not mitigated with Devotion or Barricade.
• Against familiars, this will often deal around 16,000 damage.

Action required:

• Players are required to use the Extra action button the moment Vorkath flies off. If it is on cooldown, then they must use their best defensives such as  Barricade when Vorkath is about to reappear.

Animation	Meaning
	Failing to counter the attack. The fort's guards fail to shoot Vorkath, Vorkath launches a massive barrage of ice which usually one-shots the player.
	Successfully countering using the extra action button. Vorkath will be shot in mid-air by the fort's guards, and will collapse to the ground, taking 10,000 damage. The player is unhurt.

From time to time, Vorkath will turn towards Zemouregal and attempt to break free from his mind control by attacking him.

Players can continue to attack Vorkath during this time.

Minions

Zemouregal will be able to summon minions to assist him in the fight. They can be blocked in normal mode, but they will always spawn in hard mode. This will always consist of a combat minion (skeleton knight, zombie knight, skeleton ranger or phantom wizard) and a support minion (ghost healer, empowering zombie or skeletal shielder).

Combat minions will always spawn to the west. Support minions will spawn around Vorkath, mostly to the north (around Zemouregal's spawn point) or east, close to Vorkath. The combat minions, while being able to attack any player in the arena, will generally prioritise whoever Zemouregal is focused on.

	Phantom wizard	Skeleton ranger	Zombie warrior	Zombie knight	Skeleton knight
Normal mode	Only if northern place of power was not disrupted.
Hard mode

Health:

• In normal mode, the combat minions will have 18,000 health per player.
• In hard mode, the combat minions will have 36,000 health per player.

Action required (Normal mode):

• These can be usually ignored, as the ballista can be used to outright kill support minions and severely injure the combat ones, coupled with the high damage output provided by Necromancy.

Action required (Hard mode):

• It is required to stack the combat minions south-west of Vorkath or between it and Zemouregal in order to have them targeted by Threads of Fate/Volley of Souls or Greater Chain. Try to avoid having more than two at a time, especially if they are rangers or magers, as they can all deal up to 1,600 damage each and are quite accurate.
• Use Threads of Fate, Volley of Souls, Soul Sap and then Volley of Souls - this will likely kill them off, or weaken them enough that a subsequent ballista shot will kill them.
• For magic, try to get the minions close to Vorkath or Zemouregal (depending on who is being attacked). Use Corruption Blast, Greater Chain and any high-damage ability of your choosing; options such as Omnipower, Asphyxiate (4+ Tumeken's resplendence equipment) or the Roar of Awakening's special attack, Soulfire, which has a high chance of resetting due to numerous enemies being hit.

Skeletal shielder (top right) with the shield around Vorkath.

One of these support minions will spawn:

• Ghost healers should be killed the moment they appear.
• Empowering zombies must be killed the moment they appear, otherwise their damage buff will greatly amplify Vorkath's damage.
• Skeletal shielders must be killed the moment they appear, otherwise they will frequently cast a shield around Vorkath significantly reducing the damage he takes.

Health:

• In normal mode, the support minions have 3,000 health per player.
• In hard mode, the support minions have 6,000 health per player.

Action required (Hard mode):

• It is very likely that the player will have to deal with all the mechanics of the boss. Try to have a ballista ready for skeletons or zombies. If a ghost spawns, it can be safely ignored, though they should be killed off once two of them are present.
  • If on cooldown, attack them manually.

Phases

Vorkath has access to the following abilities:

• Zonal Ice Breath
• Bone Spikes

During this phase, set up a normal damage rotation and continue attacking Vorkath, using Protect/Deflect Necromancy to reduce Zemouregal's attacks. Zemouregal will primarily focus on weaker Necromancy abilities, though players should keep Freedom on hand as he can use Soul Strike to stun his target, usually after launching some bone spikes. If fighting on hard mode or unable to do Zemouregal skips, cast Death Mark. Attack Vorkath from the south-western most tile possible to lure Zemouregal next to it for the ease of vulnerability bombing. The ballista should only be fired when a skeletal shielder or empowered zombie is present, as to reduce the time spent having to click and attack them (especially with the shielders, as they have a deceptively small hitbox). Ghost healers can be ignored, as their healing is too low to be of significant issue. Zemouregal will always use Soul Strike after Bone Spikes so players should use Anticipation during the ice breath to avoid getting stunned. The ability is lined up during Zonal Ice Breath, so the Zemouregal tank should run away (as each instance of magic damage from the breath causes around 4,500 damage); DPS players can swap to Protect/Deflect Magic instead, though they will need to move out of the way to avoid the incoming spikes. Alternatively they can be dodged by running at the most precise time, however this requires some experience to pull off. Soul Strike deals higher damage than the majority of Zemouregal's attacks in this phase, with each stack dealing around 3,600 damage if not protected against. Upon losing 25% of its health, Vorkath will briefly turn on Zemouregal, dealing 10,000 damage and lifting his damage immunity in favour of a 90% damage reduction effect. If Vorkath's power is over 100%, it will be reverted to 100% at the end of this phase.

Vorkath has access to the following abilities:

• Zonal Ice Breath
• Bone Spikes
• Pools

If the player takes too long to clear this phase, Vorkath will begin launching poison pools, which deal very high damage and severely limits moving space, so it is recommended to avoid this whenever possible. If poison is launched, quickly move to a clear patch of ground, as the poison can deal up to 4,000 damage every few ticks if standing on one. Continue using the ballista as needed, but refrain from using it when Vorkath is close to a phase transition. As with the previous phase, Zemouregal will accumulate a single stack of Residual Soul during Bone Spikes and launch it after they emerge. After the first ice breath attack, if Vorkath has not been phased yet, it will shortly launch poison pools a few auto-attacks later. Try to avoid this from occurring, as it severely limits available space. In normal mode, players should begin building up to full adrenaline for an ultimate damage rotation. Upon losing another 25% of its health, Vorkath will turn on Zemouregal yet again, dealing 10,000 damage to him. If Vorkath's power is over 125%, it will be reverted back to 125% at the end of this phase.

Vorkath uses the following attack pattern:

• 2 auto-attacks
• Ice Barrage
• 1 auto-attack
• Dragonfire
• Auto-attacks
• Zonal Ice Breath
• Auto-attacks
• Pools
• Auto-attacks
• Dragonfire
• Auto-attacks
• Zonal Ice Breath
• Auto-attacks
• Pools
• Loops from top

Zemouregal uses the following attack pattern:

• Auto-attacks
• Finger of Death
• Auto-attacks
• Blood Siphon (in conjunction with Vorkath's poison barrage attack)
• Auto-attacks
• Death Skulls (in conjunction with Vorkath's dragonfire after the poison barrage)
• Auto-attacks
• Volley of Souls (in conjunction with Vorkath's ice spike attack)
• Loops from above

Two auto-attacks after Zemouregal brings Vorkath back under control, Vorkath will fly upwards to initiate the Ice Barrage attack. As soon as it disappears, prepare the ballista immediately, as it takes time for the guards to prepare and using it too late will still result in the team getting hit despite the message stating otherwise. When the ballista is fired in this manner, it will not damage any minions present in the arena, so be mindful of this. If the ballista is on cooldown, the only way to avoid the attack is through defensive abilities. The barrage attack will deal magic damage, making it possible to use Devotion and Protect/Deflect Magic or Barricade to block damage from the attack. It is still discouraged to block the damage via this method unless attempting the Don't Go Ballistic achievement, as failing to block the attack will deal over 16,000 damage, which is also applied onto familiars. Using the ballista on Vorkath will deal 10,000 damage once it returns and stuns it briefly, allowing for a few extra seconds to damage Zemouregal. However, it will not damage any minions present in the arena, so any empowered zombies or skeletal shielders will need to be manually killed off. Continue using the ballista as normal, but be wary about using it if a full attack rotation has been completed and Vorkath is not subdued.

Vorkath can still be damaged from bleeds while flying, and upon landing (or crash-landing), can be targeted by indirect attacks (e.g bounce from Death Skulls). Nonetheless, try to deal as much damage as possible to Zemouregal while Vorkath is away, to make the last phase slightly faster.

Zemouregal will begin to use more highly damaging attacks from this phase onwards, such as Finger of Death, Death Skulls and Volley of Souls (3 stacks). These attacks have the capability of dealing immense damage - both Finger of Death and Volley of Souls can deal well over 10,000 damage, often causing instant death if players are not prepared for them, so players should keep their health above 8,000 and avoid Soul Split flicking until the attack is used. The timing of the attacks will vary depending on the overall DPS provided. In a fairly fast-paced kill (clearing phase 2 before poison pools), Finger of Death will be lined up with Vorkath's ice breath. If the player is slower in phase 2, it is very likely for it to be used off-sync and players should be aware of this. The remaining two attacks - Death Skulls and Volley of Souls, are still on-sync. The only indicator for Finger of Death is when Zemouregal yells "DIE!" (though this is rather rare), and the other two attacks do not have any overhead warnings. Players are more likely to be focused on Vorkath than Zemouregal, so it is possible to die in an instant if not paying attention. Blood Siphon is used somewhat after the first poison barrage, and players should avoid standing near Zemouregal. Ideally, minions should have been killed beforehand, as the sapped health will contribute to its overall damage and can quickly kill an unsuspecting player. Minions will lose aggro until the siphon ends or if they are attacked while in the process of doing so. Death Skulls is used in conjunction with the second dragonfire, so a player should ideally use Reflect or Debilitate (both if possible) on Vorkath and pray Necromancy. Do not run away until Zemouregal launches Death Skulls, and maintain at least 7 tiles from Zemouregal to prevent them from bouncing to another player. Death Skulls can deal over 6,000 damage per hit if not protected against. In the subsequent ice breath attack, immediately use Devotion, as Zemouregal will launch Volley of Souls shortly after the attack starts. In normal and story mode, it is possible to defeat Zemouregal before Vorkath returns. This is much more consistent with Necromancy, as other combat styles may struggle due to the higher adrenaline costs needed to deal the required damage. It is much harder to achieve in hard mode due to the doubled health, but still possible. Ideally, the team should be able to subdue Vorkath before it can attempt a second Ice Barrage.

If Zemouregal is under damage reduction effects, Death Mark will not instantly kill him, rather dealing around 22,000 damage, thus requiring a second use in order to kill him off.

Once Vorkath reaches 0 health, it will fly off, leaving Zemouregal alone. This will usually kill off any ghost healers, empowering zombies and skeletal shielders if present on the field. Occasionally they may persist, but will simply idle without Vorkath. Zemouregal's damage reduction will be fully lifted in this phase. Zemouregal will still be able to summon undead, launch bone spikes and retain his attack pattern from the previous phase, so players lacking in damage should be wary of Finger of Death. The ballista can be freely used when available in this phase.

This phase is skipped if Zemouregal's health was fully depleted in the previous phase.

Once Zemouregal's health reaches 0, the encounter will end and Guard captain Sofía will emerge to the south-east, running into the arena on the tile where Zemouregal was defeated, where she will hand the player their respective reward casket. If the player is not ending the trip at the last kill, simply teleport out and claim the reward casket from the statue, since trying to stop her to claim it is much more tedious.

Hard mode

In hard mode, the mechanics stay the same with the exception of the various types of minions that will spawn. As players skip the places of power stage and directly enter the boss arena, they are unable to block minions from spawning. Minions deal a lot of damage and have a very large health pool, therefore it is a priority to deal with them.

Action bar

The following action bar helps in hard mode, and must be used along with  Greater Bone Shield. Note that the Revolution size must be set to exactly 6 for this to work. The first 6 abilities are automatically executed, and players must manually execute the rest using their own judgement.

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• 6
• 7
• 8
• 9
• 0
• -
• =
• 
• 

Prayers

1. Players need to camp  Deflect Necromancy at all times, to protect against Zemouregal's powerful attacks. Failing to do so will result in the player being one-hit by Volley of Souls or Finger of Death during the last two phases.
2. When entering into a DPS rotation, players can use  Split Soul and  Soul Split for 20 seconds, and then quickly return to the protection prayer when done.

Lifepoints overview (hard mode)

	Solo	Duo	Trio	4-man	5-man	6-man	7-man	8-man	9-man	10-man
Start	1,500,000	3,000,000	4,500,000	6,000,000	7,500,000	9,000,000	10,500,000	12,000,000	13,500,000	15,000,000
Phase 2	1,125,000	2,250,000	3,375,000	4,500,000	5,625,000	6,750,000	7,875,000	9,000,000	10,125,000	11,250,000
Phase 3	750,000	1,500,000	2,250,000	3,000,000	3,750,000	4,500,000	5,250,000	6,000,000	6,750,000	7,500,000
Zemouregal	500,000	1,000,000	1,500,000	2,000,000	2,500,000	3,000,000	3,500,000	4,000,000	4,500,000	5,000,000
Combat minions	36,000	72,000	108,000	144,000	180,000	216,000	252,000	288,000	324,000	360,000
Support minions	6,000	12,000	18,000	24,000	30,000	36,000	42,000	48,000	54,000	60,000