Raids
Venomous Abyss Story Mode Has Two Bosses—and No Great Vault Credit
The solo finale includes Coiled Altar and Ula'tek, but it is not Raid Finder without a queue. Use it to finish the campaign, not to fill a raid slot in next week's Vault.
Venomous Abyss Story Mode is finally live, and it is slightly more substantial than “fight Ula'tek” suggests. The scenario contains two encounters: The Coiled Altar followed by Ula'tek. It delivers the final movement of the raid story without asking for a raid group or making players wait until Ula'tek reaches Raid Finder on September 8.
It also gives no boss credit to the raid row of the Great Vault.
That boundary is the useful way to understand the mode. Story Mode answers “I want to see how this campaign ends.” It is not a hidden gearing route, and it is not a solo tour of all eight Venomous Abyss bosses.
Why there are two fights
Story finales are usually described around the last boss. Venomous Abyss includes the penultimate encounter because Coiled Altar and Ula'tek form one continuous conclusion. Removing the altar would shorten the scenario, but it would also cut the setup that makes the final confrontation work.
The result is a better story instance than a teleport into one boss room. It remains a narrow slice of the raid. Nek'zali, Entombed Sentinels, Vashnik, the Lost Explorers, Sszorak, and the Twin Fangs are not waiting in solo form behind the door.
Story Mode can introduce the final arenas and broad narrative beats. It should not be treated as practice for the damage, assignments, timings, or failure conditions of Raid Finder, Normal, Heroic, or Mythic.
The unlock is a campaign check, not a gear check
The mode arrived with the week of August 25 reset in North America and August 26 in Europe. A level-90 character needs the first four Curse of Ula'tek campaign chapters:
- 1. Legacy of the Amani
- 2. An Island of Fangs
- 3. Ghosts of the Past
- 4. Original Sin
Zul'jarra then offers “The Venomous Abyss” at Tokka's Landing. Follow the quest into the Vaults of Atal'Utek and speak to Seh'ka the Sturdy at the raid entrance.
If the dialogue is missing, check the quest chain before item level. Story Mode is gated by campaign progress and regional reset timing. A character that can enter an ordinary raid can still lack the story option because one chapter is unfinished.
The followers are rough on the first live build
Multiple players on the official forums report the same launch-night problem: the follower group refuses to take leadership, stands in mechanics, or fails to guide the player from Coiled Altar toward Ula'tek. This is a live report rather than an official confirmation that every instance is affected.
If the group stops moving, try taking leadership yourself instead of repeatedly handing it back to the NPC tank. After Coiled Altar, player reports place the route at the ledge between the drums, down through the poison pool and forward to Ula'tek's platform. That direction is obvious to someone who has already raided there and poorly communicated to the audience Story Mode is meant to serve.
The fights can also lean unusually hard on the only human in the group. Players report being assigned overlapping Coiled Altar jobs while NPC tanks move the boss unpredictably, and needing to kill Ula'tek's eggs themselves. Treat the followers as help, not as an automatic mechanics solution.
If the scenario will not advance after a reset, leave and retry before spending an evening forcing a broken state. Launch-week troubleshooting can get the campaign finished; it does not excuse an onboarding mode that sometimes makes the new player lead an unresponsive raid.
Story Mode does not fill the raid Vault row
The raid row awards choices after enough current-season raid bosses on eligible difficulties. Story Mode is excluded. Finishing both encounters will not turn zero into two, complete a two-boss threshold, or improve a raid slot's difficulty.
Raid Finder is different. Wing 2 also opened this week and contains Entombed Sentinels and Vashnik. Those kills can contribute to the raid row. Players chasing tier, eligible boss loot, or another Vault choice should use an eligible raid difficulty rather than expect Story Mode to do both jobs.
| Mode | What opened this week | Group type | Raid Vault credit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Story Mode | Coiled Altar and Ula'tek finale | Follower scenario | No |
| Raid Finder Wing 2 | Entombed Sentinels and Vashnik | Matchmade raid | Yes |
Both arrived in the same reset and both expose a reduced slice of Venomous Abyss. Their purposes are different.
Who should run it now
Run Story Mode to finish the Curse of Ula'tek campaign, see the ending without spoilers, or clear the quest from a non-raiding character. It is the faster story path for someone who does not want to wait through four Raid Finder wings.
Skip or postpone it if the only goal is raid gear, tier access, a raid Vault slot, or realistic progression practice. The scenario is not designed to reproduce that pressure.
For a character doing both, protect the activity with the nonreplaceable weekly value first. Raid night or Raid Finder can provide eligible boss credit. Story Mode remains available as the campaign conclusion and creates no weekly gearing deadline.
A good boundary with a bad first impression
Including Coiled Altar makes the mode feel like a conclusion rather than a boss teleport. Excluding Story Mode from the raid Vault also preserves a sensible line between seeing the story and earning raid progression rewards.
The first live build muddies that clean design with followers who may not lead the audience that needs them. Go in for two fights, the campaign ending, and a solo-friendly look at Ula'tek. Be prepared to take over if the NPCs stall. Go to Raid Finder or a premade raid when the goal is loot and next week's Vault.