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Venomous Abyss Bosses, Loot and Rewards

The Venomous Abyss is the eight-boss raid headlining WoW Midnight Season 2, sunk beneath the Coiled Isle inside the Vaults of Atal'Utek. Ula'tek sat sealed for sixteen thousand years. Patch 12.1 is the tier where she claws back out, dragging possessed tortollan explorers and her own venom-golem sentinels up through the vaults behind her.

Everything you need to plan your runs sits in one place: the boss order, every weapon, armor piece, trinket and tier token sorted by boss, the Mistcrest upgrade path, and the achievement list down to the per-boss feats. Item level climbs as you descend. A Mythic kill on the opener pays 318, the last two bosses pay 344, and the tier set drops off five bosses plus a wildcard Curio token that Ula'tek hands out for whichever slot you still need.

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The Venomous Abyss Raid Explained

The Venomous Abyss is Midnight's second raid. It headlines the Curse of Ula'tek patch and sits inside the Vaults of Atal'Utek on the Coiled Isle, the new snake-themed zone that doubles as Season 2's questing and endgame hub. Thematically it is a homecoming to Amani territory: the vaults are stacked with reanimated troll dead, a Soulcoil Well full of restless Amani spirits, and a warlord you may remember from Zul'Aman. For a faster route, check our Venomous Abyss boost.

  • Bosses: 8, gated for Raid Finder across four wings
  • Difficulties: Story Mode, Raid Finder, Normal, Heroic, Mythic
  • Required level: 90
  • Raid Finder minimum item level: 273
  • Location: Vaults of Atal'Utek, Coiled Isle
  • Final boss: Ula'tek, an ancient serpent goddess
  • Tier tokens: five bosses drop armor-type tokens; Ula'tek drops a wildcard Curio

Getting in takes a detour. The Vaults of Atal'Utek are their own subzone under the Coiled Isle with three surface gates leading down — the Serpent Eye in the north, the Eastern Fang and the Western Fang along the southern shore — and the raid portal sits toward the north end once you are inside.

/way #2509 47.2 21.7 The Venomous Abyss Raid Entrance

The roster leans hard into add fights. Four of the eight encounters put more than one enemy in front of you at once — the Entombed Sentinels, the possessed tortollans of The Lost Explorers, Vexhul and Ithraz at The Twin Fangs, and the shaman-and-warlord pairing at The Coiled Altar. Almost every boss down here spends the fight throwing living venom, hatchlings, or mind-controlled allies into the room. This is an add-control raid first and a patchwork-damage raid second, so interrupts and well-timed stuns matter more than they did across most of Season 1.

Who is Ula'tek?

Ula'tek is the great shame of the Amani empire: a weapon they built, then buried under the vast complex of Atal'Utek once she proved as dangerous as the enemy she was meant to kill. Sixteen thousand years later she is awake. Guided by Hex Lord Malacrass, Zul'jan freed her broods from that prison, and his sister Zul'jarra is the one calling for champions to go down and finish what he started. Down in the vaults the ghostly Nek'zali the Soulcoiler coils around the Amani dead at the Soulcoil Well, the Zul'jan you fight has been twisted into a vessel, and Hex Lord Malacrass wants that vessel for himself. It pays off the Zul'Aman thread that has been dormant for years.

Venomous Abyss Release Date and Difficulty Schedule

The Venomous Abyss opened on the week of August 18 alongside Midnight Season 2, and it opened wide: Normal, Heroic and Mythic all went live in that same first week with all eight bosses available. Only Raid Finder is staggered. It splits the vaults into four two-boss wings released a week apart, with Story Mode arriving alongside Wing 2. Every unlock lands with each region's weekly maintenance reset.

Week Unlocks Bosses
August 18 Normal, Heroic, Mythic, Raid Finder Wing 1 (The Soulcoilers) All 8 on Normal and above; Nek'zali the Soulcoiler and The Twin Fangs on Raid Finder
August 25 Story Mode, Raid Finder Wing 2 (The Essence of Venom) Entombed Sentinels, Vashnik the Malignant
September 1 Raid Finder Wing 3 (The Serpent Warren) The Lost Explorers, Sszorak
September 8 Raid Finder Wing 4 (The Tomb of Ula'tek) The Coiled Altar, Ula'tek

That schedule has one practical consequence. A Raid Finder group cannot reach Ula'tek until September 8, five weeks into the season, while a Normal or Heroic group could kill her on day one. Heroic is the difficulty to farm from launch week if you want Ahead of the Curve: Ula'tek before the next tier retires it, and Mythic being available immediately means Hall of Fame guilds have been racing since week one.


The Venomous Abyss Boss Order and Raid Layout

The Venomous Abyss Bosses

The vaults are not a straight corridor. Nek'zali the Soulcoiler guards the Soulcoil Well at the entrance, and past her the raid splits into two branches you have to clear before it opens up again: the Vile Crypt, where the Entombed Sentinels bar the way to Vashnik's inner sanctum, and the Crypt of the Soulcoilers, holding The Lost Explorers and then Sszorak. Clear both and you drop back into the central Pit of Fangs for the sixth boss, then push through the Coiled Altar to Ula'tek herself. That order is what the item level ladder is keyed to, so it decides what each kill is worth.

Order Encounter Area Made Up Of Tier Slot
1 Nek'zali the Soulcoiler The Soulcoil Well Single boss -
2 Entombed Sentinels The Vile Crypt Breath of Ula'tek & Blood of Ula'tek Hands
3 The Lost Explorers Crypt of the Soulcoilers Mor'zahi & possessed tortollans Shoulders
4 Vashnik the Malignant The Vile Crypt Single boss Chest
5 Sszorak Crypt of the Soulcoilers Single boss Legs
6 The Twin Fangs Pit of Fangs Vexhul & Ithraz Helm
7 The Coiled Altar The Coiled Altar Zul'jan & Hex Lord Malacrass -
8 Ula'tek The Coiled Altar Single boss Curio (any slot)

Venomous Abyss Loot, Item Levels and Crests

Item level is not one flat number. It steps up four times as you move through the boss order, so the same difficulty pays differently depending on which boss dropped the piece. Every drop upgrades with Season 2 Mistcrests rather than the Dawncrests you fed your gear in Season 1, and each difficulty hands out its own crest tier alongside the loot.

Difficulty Boss 1 Bosses 2-3 Bosses 4-6 Bosses 7-8 Crest
Raid Finder 279 282 285 289 Veteran Mistcrest
Normal 292 295 298 302 Champion Mistcrest
Heroic 305 308 311 315 Hero Mistcrest
Mythic 318 321 324 344 Myth Mistcrest

Read the Mythic row again. That last column is not a typo: The Coiled Altar and Ula'tek drop item level 344 gear on Mythic, the equivalent of Myth 9, which sits twenty-six item levels above the Myth 1/6 drops off Nek'zali and ten above a fully capped Myth 6/6 piece. Blizzard added that jump to pay for how much harder the last two encounters are. Very Rare drops on Mythic land at the same 344, and there are four of them in the raid.

Everything below runs the normal six-rank track. A Mythic drop enters at Myth 1/6 and Myth Mistcrests carry it to 6/6 at item level 334; Heroic runs 305 to 321, Normal 292 to 308, and Raid Finder 279 to 295. Weapons, trinkets and necklaces get one extra route on top of that, and it has not opened yet. Ascendant Venomstones are Season 2's answer to last season's Ascendant Voidcore, and they will push those three slots to the equivalent of Myth 8 once a piece is already capped on the Hero or Myth track. The rules are published; the currency is not in the game. When it opens, an upgrade will take 10 of them, and they will drop at a guaranteed rate from Heroic and Mythic boss kills, from Mythic+ at +10 and above, and from Tier 11 Bountiful Delves plus the first two Nightmare Prey each week. An upgraded piece gains Ascendant status and takes nothing further. Nothing drops one today, so plan this season around Mistcrests.

Venomous Abyss Great Vault and Bonus Roll Rewards

Patch 12.1 buffed what a raid week is worth in the Great Vault, and every difficulty moved up a full track. Six boss kills fill the raid row. Below Mythic the reward now lands a full track above what the bosses themselves dropped, and a Mythic week hands you a capped Myth piece outright.

  • Raid Finder week: Vault choices at Champion 1/6, item level 292
  • Normal week: Vault choices at Hero 1/6, item level 305
  • Heroic week: Vault choices at Myth 1/6, item level 318
  • Mythic week: Vault choices at a fully capped Myth 6/6, item level 334
  • Last two bosses on Mythic: Vault choices at Myth 9, item level 344

Bonus rolls got cheaper too. A raid bonus roll now costs one Nebulous Voidcore instead of the two Season 1 charged, and you can take a Voidcore straight out of the Great Vault instead of an item once you have three rewards waiting there. From week 8 onward Orin Straylight beside the Catalyst in Silvermoon hands out one free roll a week on top. Bonus loot pulls from a separate per-class table, and anything you win there is struck off that table for good. That is why a bonus roll is the sharpest tool you have for a specific trinket or weapon.

Venomous Abyss Tier Sets

Bosses 2 through 6 each drop a tier-set token for one fixed slot, and the Season 2 set splits by armor type instead of the old cross-class groupings. Nek'zali and The Coiled Altar drop none. Ula'tek does, and hers is the useful one: a Slumbering Coil Curio that every class in the raid rolls on and that converts into whichever set piece you are still missing.

Boss Token Tier Slot
Entombed Sentinels Idol Hands
The Lost Explorers Remnant Shoulders
Vashnik the Malignant Icon Chest
Sszorak Relic Legs
The Twin Fangs Effigy Helm
Ula'tek Curio Any slot you choose

The Curio ignores the armor-type split. Take it to Kirana in Silvermoon City at 40.2, 64.7, standing just right of the Matrix Catalyst, and trade it for the set piece of your choice. That single item is what stops a run of bad luck from stranding your four-piece one slot short for three weeks.

The prefix on each token tells you which armor class it belongs to. Tokens are shared by armor type across the four groups:

  • Venomwoven (Cloth): Mage, Priest, Warlock
  • Venomcured (Leather): Demon Hunter, Druid, Monk, Rogue
  • Venomcast (Mail): Evoker, Hunter, Shaman
  • Venomforged (Plate): Death Knight, Paladin, Warrior

That comes to twenty tokens across the five slots, plus the Curio:

Once converted, the token becomes your class's own named set. Every spec gets a rebuilt one out of this raid:

Class Season 2 Set
Death Knight Baleful Grave-Knight's Crucible
Demon Hunter Abyssal Doomhound's Pursuit
Druid Bark of the Enigmatic Dreamwatcher
Evoker Echo of Calamity
Hunter Skulking Viper's Ambush
Mage Primal Leywarden's Attire
Monk Guile of the Monkey King
Paladin Radiance of the Consecrated Flame
Priest Cosmic Penitent's Raiment
Rogue Chosen Bloodslayer's Hexweave
Shaman Ophidian Oracle's Prophecy
Warlock Damned Necrolyte's Shattered Restraints
Warrior Jade Warlord's Dominion

The Matrix Catalyst in Silvermoon still converts off-pieces into set pieces, and Season 2 fixed its worst habit. A converted piece now inherits the secondary stats of the item you fed in, along with any cantrip effect it carried, so feeding it a well-rolled non-set item no longer hands you stat-bricked tier.


Venomous Abyss Weapon Drops

The vaults cover nearly every weapon type. The standout pieces come off the back half of the raid, where four weapons carry the Very Rare tag: the rarest drop class in the instance, and the one that ignores the normal difficulty ladder, since a Very Rare weapon from Mythic lands at item level 344 whichever boss dropped it. The Coiled Altar holds two of them, both warlord axes that deal extra Venomfang damage, and Ula'tek holds the other two as a matched pair of daggers.

Item Type Boss Notes
Strongblood's Ceremonial Cleaver One-Hand Axe Nek'zali the Soulcoiler -
Hexing Spiritrender Dagger Nek'zali the Soulcoiler -
Tomb-Creeper's Claw Fist Weapon Nek'zali the Soulcoiler -
Ancient Construct's Venomshiv Dagger Entombed Sentinels -
Caustic Keeper-Crusher Two-Hand Mace Entombed Sentinels -
Malevolent Spiritcudgel One-Hand Mace The Lost Explorers -
Gebbo's Backup Blaster Gun The Lost Explorers -
Venomancer's Winged Channeler Staff Vashnik the Malignant -
Malignant Toothed Edge Two-Hand Sword Vashnik the Malignant -
Venomous Boneglaive Warglaive Sszorak -
Slithering Savage's Gavel One-Hand Mace Sszorak -
Ravenous Feaster's Fang Dagger The Twin Fangs -
Baleful Hexblade One-Hand Sword The Coiled Altar -
Aman'muso, Warlord's Vengeance One-Hand Axe The Coiled Altar Very Rare
Maze-roa, Warlord's Fury Two-Hand Axe The Coiled Altar Very Rare
Jaw of the Shackled Goddess One-Hand Sword Ula'tek -
Abyssal Broodfiend's Bardiche Polearm Ula'tek -
Caustic Repose Greatbow Bow Ula'tek -
Zatha'tek, Breath of Corruption Dagger Ula'tek Very Rare
Jan'thrazet, the Soul Fang Dagger Ula'tek Very Rare

Venomous Abyss Armor Drops

Outside the five tier slots, every armor slot has a non-set drop somewhere in the vaults. The table runs by slot and lists the armor type, so cloth, leather, mail, and plate wearers can scan straight to what they need. One set of four is worth calling out ahead of the table: every armor piece Ula'tek drops is Venomcursed, carrying a proc that pumps some of your secondary stats while suppressing the rest. Only those four do it.

Item Slot Armor Boss
Skullguard of the Risen Sacrifice Head Plate Nek'zali the Soulcoiler
Crown of the Eternal Fang Head Mail Nek'zali the Soulcoiler
Shadow Hunter's Warmask Head Leather Entombed Sentinels
Errant Scrollsage's Hood Head Cloth The Lost Explorers
Venomkeeper's Horrific Cowl Head Cloth Ula'tek
Gaze of the Coiled Watcher Head Leather Ula'tek
Soulslither Spaulders Shoulders Mail The Coiled Altar
Frothing Venom Spaulders Shoulders Leather Vashnik the Malignant
Ornaments of the Eternal Coil Shoulders Cloth The Twin Fangs
Vestment of the Awakening Chest Leather Nek'zali the Soulcoiler
Ophidian Fangmail Chest Mail The Twin Fangs
Reckless Spirit Breastplate Chest Plate The Coiled Altar
Awoken Dreadfang Cuirass Chest Mail Ula'tek
Cursed Reliquary Cincture Waist Mail Nek'zali the Soulcoiler
Serpentine Mixing Belt Waist Mail Vashnik the Malignant
Unpossessed Skullsash Waist Leather The Lost Explorers
Caustic Chain-Wrapped Sash Waist Cloth Sszorak
Sash of the Forlorn Vessel Waist Leather The Coiled Altar
Girdle of Toxic Regret Waist Plate The Coiled Altar
Initiate's Sacrificial Tights Legs Cloth Nek'zali the Soulcoiler
Venom Warden's Greaves Legs Plate Entombed Sentinels
Coiled Hex Legguards Legs Leather The Coiled Altar
Cuisses of the Uncoiled Union Legs Mail The Coiled Altar
Chausses of Unbound Rancor Legs Plate Ula'tek
Nek'zali's Spiritwalkers Feet Cloth Nek'zali the Soulcoiler
Entombed Cultist's Sabatons Feet Plate Nek'zali the Soulcoiler
Scaled Fiend's Warboots Feet Plate Vashnik the Malignant
Boots of the Reckless Wayfarer Feet Mail The Lost Explorers
Bespittled Slitherslippers Feet Leather The Twin Fangs
Ferocious Scaleboots Feet Mail Sszorak
Cackling Soultreads Feet Cloth The Coiled Altar
Restless Spirit Shackles Wrist Leather Nek'zali the Soulcoiler
Venom-Singed Cuffs Wrist Cloth Entombed Sentinels
Shellbound Bracers Wrist Plate The Lost Explorers
Scaleplate Strangulators Hands Plate The Twin Fangs
Ruthless Slaughtergrips Hands Leather Sszorak
Grasps of the Eternal Shadow Hands Cloth The Coiled Altar
Amani Summoning Shawl Back Cloak Nek'zali the Soulcoiler
Silken Voodoo Drape Back Cloak The Coiled Altar

Venomous Abyss Trinkets, Jewelry and Off-Hands

Fourteen trinkets drop across the eight bosses. Nek'zali and the Entombed Sentinels hand out one each; every boss after them drops two, which is why the back half of the raid is where trinket farming actually happens. Three carry a role tag in their loot table: the Soulcoiler Ritual Vessel and the Preternatural Antivenom are flagged for healers, and First Mate's Shellward is a tank piece.

Trinket Boss
Soulcoiler Ritual Vessel Nek'zali the Soulcoiler
Fang of Umbral Malignance Vashnik the Malignant
Vashnik's Sanguine Rancor Vashnik the Malignant
Keeper's Seething Core Entombed Sentinels
First Mate's Shellward The Lost Explorers
Gebbo's Bottomless Bag The Lost Explorers
Vexhul's Everflowing Gland The Twin Fangs
Preternatural Antivenom The Twin Fangs
Sszorak's Ferocity Sszorak
Idol of the Howling Nexus Sszorak
Hex Lord's Dooming Idol The Coiled Altar
Zul'jin's Guillotine Technique The Coiled Altar
Font of Venomous Rage Ula'tek
Voracious Heart of Ula'tek Ula'tek

The neck, ring, shield and off-hand drops round out the slots the tier set and trinkets do not cover. Seven pieces across six bosses, and the Entombed Sentinels are the only encounter carrying two of them:

Item Slot Boss
Sentinel's Vitriolic Chain Neck Entombed Sentinels
Spine of the Hissing Abyss Off-Hand Entombed Sentinels
Venom-Slashed Scuteward Shield The Lost Explorers
Vile Alchemist's Band Ring Vashnik the Malignant
Apex Brute's Claw Ring Ring Sszorak
Amulet of the Twin Fangs Neck The Twin Fangs
Aqirbane Reliquary Neck Ula'tek

Venomous Abyss BoE Drops

Trash in the vaults drops nine Bind-on-Equip pieces: two per armor type plus a necklace. They roll randomized secondary stats, they are tradeable, and they go in the Warband Bank or straight onto the auction house for gold, which makes them the cheapest way to put raid-level gear on a fresh alt without ever zoning into a lockout. Worth watching the AH for.

One more tradeable comes off a boss instead of trash. The Twin Fangs drop Pattern: Adorned Fang, a Midnight Leatherworking recipe, and it is the only crafting pattern in the instance.


The Venomous Abyss Achievements

Beyond gear, the vaults carry a full achievement set — per-boss feats that force you to play the mechanics the hard way, on top of the usual difficulty clears and the limited prestige runs that vanish when the next tier lands. Start with the ones on a clock.

Limited-Time Prestige

These close when the next raid tier opens, so they only matter this season:

Mythic Boss Progression

Encounter Feats

Each one scripts a specific, awkward way to kill a boss, and all of them need Normal difficulty or higher:

Those eight are the meta. Clear the set and Glory of the Venomous Raider pays out the Crimson Venomfang mount, and since the meta asks for nothing harder than Normal and carries no deadline, it stays farmable long after the tier itself has retired.

Exploration

  • Comforting Da Spirits sits outside the boss fights entirely: trigger an Ancestral Vision and comfort all nine trapped spirits scattered through the vaults — Talon-Sworn Ra'ven, Farmer Su'mekaya, Stone Crafter Babooi'jin, Hexweaver Vola'ni, Chef Momo'jin, Trapper Haka'li, Scout Jino'ka, Shieldbearer Kora'man and B'faloh. It is not part of the Glory meta.

Raid Clears and Guild Runs

Two of them carry titles. Mythic: Ula'tek awards Venom's End, and Hall of Fame adds Famed Slayer of Ula'tek on top for the first two hundred guilds.


Venomous Abyss Mount, Pet and Transmog Rewards

The raid carries two mounts. Primeval Skyfriend is a straight drop from Mythic Ula'tek, an elder skyfiend out of the vaults themselves, and the hardest single reward the tier has to give. Three copies drop per Mythic kill, so the roll is kinder than the usual one-mount lottery. Crimson Venomfang comes from Glory of the Venomous Raider instead, so a Normal-difficulty group willing to grind the eight encounter feats gets a mount without ever touching Mythic.

Below the mounts sit two smaller collections. Nek'zali has a chance to drop the Soulcoil Remnant battle pet on any difficulty, and No Egg Scramble adds Ula'took, which makes this a two-pet tier for anyone already clearing it on Normal.

Three helm appearances drop alongside them, two of them off the same boss:

Soulcoiler's Rush'kah

Soulcoiler's Rush'kah drops from Nek'zali the Soulcoiler, the boss guarding the Soulcoil Well at the entrance.

Soulcoiler's Rush'kah helm appearance from The Venomous Abyss
Hex Lord's Visage

Hex Lord's Visage drops from The Coiled Altar, the Zul'jan and Hex Lord Malacrass pairing at boss seven.

Hex Lord's Visage helm appearance from The Coiled Altar
Hex Lord's Gaze

Hex Lord's Gaze comes off the same encounter on Mythic difficulty only.

Hex Lord's Gaze helm appearance from Mythic The Coiled Altar
Primeval Skyfriend has exactly one source: Ula'tek on Mythic, at the end of an eight-boss clear. If your roster stalls before her, our raiders run Venomous Abyss Mythic boss by boss, Ula'tek included.

Venomous Abyss Player Housing Rewards

The raid feeds the housing system too. Every boss drops a themed decor piece on any difficulty, and Ula'tek adds the Vanquisher trophies on top: prestige props that drop for every player in the raid, with the difficulty you killed her on deciding how many you walk out with. Heroic hands over the Argent as well, and Mythic gives you all three.

Decor Item Boss
Soulcoiler's Ritual Candle Nek'zali the Soulcoiler
Hexed Tomb Brazier Entombed Sentinels
Lost Explorers' Mailbox The Lost Explorers
Venomous Pyre Vashnik the Malignant
Venom-Fanged Font The Twin Fangs
Vessel of the Howling Ossuary Sszorak
Pillar of the Coiled Isle The Coiled Altar
"Rage of the Shackled" Mural Ula'tek

Venomous Abyss Raid FAQ

How many bosses are in the Venomous Abyss?

Eight, ending on the serpent goddess Ula'tek. Four are multi-enemy fights: the Entombed Sentinels, The Lost Explorers, The Twin Fangs and The Coiled Altar.

When does the Venomous Abyss release?

It opened the week of August 18 with Normal, Heroic and Mythic all live at once and every boss available. Raid Finder is the only staggered part: Wing 1 on August 18, Wing 2 and Story Mode on August 25, Wing 3 on September 1, Wing 4 on September 8.

What item level is Venomous Abyss gear?

Both difficulty and boss matter. Raid Finder runs 279 to 289, Normal 292 to 302, Heroic 305 to 315, and Mythic 318 to 324 with the last two bosses jumping to 344. Mistcrests upgrade each piece six ranks up its own track, which caps a Mythic drop at 334.

Does the raid drop a mount?

Two of them drop here. Primeval Skyfriend comes off Ula'tek on Mythic, and Crimson Venomfang comes from the Glory of the Venomous Raider meta-achievement, which needs nothing harder than Normal.

Which bosses drop tier set tokens?

Bosses 2 through 6: Entombed Sentinels for hands, The Lost Explorers for shoulders, Vashnik the Malignant for chest, Sszorak for legs, and The Twin Fangs for the helm. Ula'tek drops a Slumbering Coil Curio that any class can roll on and trade for the slot of their choice.


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