Lord Marrowgar

Raid Preparation

An appropriately geared raid for this instance will have spent some time gathering equipment in Trial of the Crusader. You will want your raid members to have a majority of item level 245+ gear for the 25 man version, and 232+ for the 10 man version.

It is especially important that your tanks and tank healers be as geared up as possible, because this first encounter in Icecrown Citadel introduces players to the Chill of the Throne. This is an aura that debuffs all players in or around the Citadel, allowing mobs to ignore 20% of an affected player's dodge when hitting them with melee attacks and abilities. Additionally, Lord Marrowgar is a "gear check" boss, in that, if your tanks are not geared enough, his Saber Lash will simply kill them outright. Your healers will need to be at similar levels to keep everyone alive, especially the tanks.

As always, your raiders should be prepared to utilize the usual assortment of consumables: flasks/elixirs, buff food, and potions, should all be used in order to have the best chance at success.

Raid Composition

25 Man
3 tanks - You will need one Main Tank ("MT") to actually keep agro on the boss, and two tanks to stand next to the MT to help soak damage from Saber Lash.

5-7 healers - You will want 2-3 dedicated tank healers, and 2-3 healers assigned to heal the raid from accidental fire damage and to heal the players hit with Bone Spike Graveyard every time Lord Marrowgar uses it. All healers should always watch to cover for each other should one or more of them be Impaled, and all healers should help heal anyone in range during Bone Storm.

15-17 DPS - There are no specific DPS classes or specs required for this fight, but all of them must be adept at swapping targets quickly, and at moving out of the way of Coldflame. A good balance of physical and magical DPS will be best, but the specific composition is quite flexible. A hunter to Misdirect Lord Marrowgar back to the MT after each Bone Storm will be helpful, but isn't required.

10 Man
2 tanks - You will need one Main Tank ("MT") to actually keep agro on the boss, and one tank to stand next to the MT to help soak damage from Saber Lash.

2-3 healers - You will want 2 dedicated tank healers, and possibly a third assigned to heal the raid from accidental fire damage and to heal the players hit with Bone Spike Graveyard. All healers should always watch to cover for each other should one of them be Impaled, and all healers should heal anyone in range during Bone Storm.

5-6 DPS - There are no specific DPS classes or specs required for this fight, but all of them must be adept at swapping targets quickly, and at moving out of the way of Coldflame. A good balance of physical and magical DPS will be best, but the specific composition is quite flexible. A hunter to Misdirect Marrowgar back to the MT after each Bone Storm will be helpful, but isn't required.

Mobs and Abilities

Lord Marrowgar

~5 million HP in 10 man; ~23.7 million HP in 25 man

Lord Marrowgar will melee swing for ~12-16k on a properly geared tank.

Saber Lash - This is a melee attack that splits 300% of normal melee damage (200% in 10 man) between Lord Marrowgar's current target and its two nearest allies within 5 yards . If this hits anything but 3 well geared tanks, it can do enormous damage, enough to kill any single player in 1 hit. Lord Marrowgar will use this attack approximately every 15-20 seconds, though there is no set cool down on it. This attack also appears to give those it hits a hidden buff which prevents them from being valid targets for Bone Spike Graveyard for ~30 seconds.
10 man: Details 25 man: Details

Coldflame - This ability is targeted on a random raid member's location, and travels outward in a line from the edge of Lord Marrowgar's hitbox to that spot, leaving a line of bright blue frost fire. The targeted player and all others in the way must move quickly. Any player who doesn't get out of the way will be hit by the fire, which ticks each second for ~7k frost damage. Because some players will be near the boss, some hits are inevitable, but it's easy to shift a step or two and get out of the fire. Tanks can be targeted by this, and must be careful to move as a group so as to stay stacked for soaking Saber Lash. A new Coldflame will go out every ~5 seconds or so.
10 man: Details 25 man: Details

VIDEO TALKTHROUGH: Lord Marrowgar 25 Normal Mode - Cuties Only

Take a look at a Lord Marrowgar kill with flawless execution by Cuties Only in this video - complete with strat commentary and pointers by our experts!
Bone Spike Graveyard - This ability will be used on random players (3 at a time in 25 man, 1 at a time in 10 man) every 20 seconds or so throughout the fight. They will be stuck at the top of a big white spike coming out of the ground, and they will lose 10% of their max health per second for 5 minutes (or until the player or the bone spike is killed). The afflicted players must immediately be healed at the same time all DPS turns to kill the spike and free them. The spikes have ~10k HP in 10 man and ~38k HP in 25 man.
Details
(This tooltip can be a bit misleading. Reading it, you may get the impression that if no one was in the way, no one would get hit. But in reality, it can't be avoided. 1 random player in 10 man and 3 random players in 25 man get hit by the ability every time regardless or range or position relative to the boss.)

Impale - This is the initial hit when a player is put on a Bone Spike, which hits for ~7,500 physical damage.

Impaled - This is the debuff that players receive once stuck on a Bone Spike. It ticks for 10% of the player's HP each second, and lasts 6 minutes or until the Bone Spike or player dies.
Details

Bone Storm - Lord Marrowgar will yell "Bone Storm!" as he uses this ability, and there is also a raid warning that says "Marrowgar falls apart and his bones begin to spin!" Everyone in melee range needs to run out immediately when they see this warning or hear the boss yell. Lord Marrowgar will start to spin around (using the same basic animation as Whirlwind), and move through the room for 20 seconds, randomly targeting and moving toward raid member positions. During these 20 seconds, all players in the room will take damage every 2 seconds from the Bone Storm. The amount of damage per pulse is determined by a given player's proximity to Lord Marrowgar; it hits for less the farther you are from the boss. Being right under him will result in death within a pulse or two, while those all the way across the room will be hit for a very small amount. When each Bone Storm is over, Lord Marrowgar's threat list is wiped. The first Bone Storm happens ~45 seconds into the encounter, and then repeats throughout, with a minute between one Bone Storm ending and the next beginning.
Details
(This tooltp can be misleading. The boss spins for ~20 seconds, not 1 minute.)

Strategy

This encounter is a single-phase fight, and positioning only changes with small shifts to accommodate the lines of Coldflame.



Have your tanks run in together, with the MT slightly ahead to gain agro on Lord Marrowgar. The tanks should move together while positioning the boss against the wall, with the rest of the raid following in behind them. The soaking tank(s) should be certain to stay positioned in front of Lord Marrowgar and very close to, if not on top of, the MT. All melee DPS should be careful to stay more than 5 yards from the MT and to stay behind the boss, so they cannot be hit with Saber Lash. The ranged DPS and healers should spread out behind Lord Marrowgar as well, so that the majority of the Coldflame lines run backwards, and the tanks only have to move for the rare Coldflame that is targeted on one of them. As soon as the MT has a solid threat lead, DPS can attack in full force.

Each time Coldflame is cast, those in the way should immediately adjust a few yards one way or another to get out of its path. It ticks for damage every second, so standing still for even a single cast will be very dangerous.

Each time Bone Spike Graveyard is cast, all DPS should swap to the nearest spike and kill it before returning to Lord Marrowgar, and the assigned healer(s) should make sure Impaled players don't die if DPS is slow to free them. Be especially careful to quickly free those Impaled right before a Bone Storm; if they are stuck in place and Lord Marrowgar runs over them, they will almost certainly die. If your raid consistently loses players to this ability, it is a good indication that they either need more gear (to DPS and heal harder), faster reaction times, or both. Additionally, healers should be vigilant for the rare instance where a Coldflame takes a path under a player Impaled on a Bone Spike. The Coldflame will still hit that player even though he/she is stuck in the air, and the combined damage is substantial. It will require quick healing and possibly using cooldowns for that player to survive long enough for the Coldflame to travel away.

Each time Saber Lash is used, healers should top the tanks up as quickly as possible (while still paying attention to their surroundings). If your tanks are being hit hard enough that they die to the Saber Lash, or if they are getting hit so hard that they die to Lord Marrowgar's next melee swing before they can be healed, they need to gear up a bit more. Having enough health to survive these large hits is necessary for your raid to have a chance at success.

When Bone Storm is used, everyone should run away as far as possible so that, if they are targeted by Lord Marrowgar, to minimize the damage they take from the room-wide Bone Storm damage pulses. Lord Marrowgar will target a random player, spin to their location, stop for a moment and release 4 Coldflames at 90 degree angles from each other, and then pick a new target and begin spinning toward them.

VIDEO TALKTHROUGH: Lord Marrowgar PTR 25 Normal by Cuties Only

This Lord Marrowgar kill on the PTR provides an excellent view of all his abilities and matches the live version exactly. Take a good look at a well-executed strategy by Cuties Only!
Everyone should constantly adjust for Lord Marrowgar's new path and position, while taking care to stay out of the fires. Healing will need to be constant throughout so that no one dies. Once the Bone Storm has ended, everyone should resume normal positions, with the DPS waiting for positioning to settle and the MT to regain a threat lead before starting back in on the boss. If possible, having one of your tanks put down an area effect such as Concecrate or Death and Decay underneath Lord Marrowgar to generate threat as the Bone Storm comes to an end will help control this transition.

Although this fight is mechanically simple, the damage numbers involved and the reaction times needed make it still quite challenging to pull off. Gear up and concentrate hard to succeed.

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Lady Deathwhisper

VIDEO TALKTHROUGH: Lady Deathwhisper 25 Normal Mode - Cuties Only

This early kill of Lady Deathwhisper's 25 player Normal mode by Cuties Only gives us a great look at all of her mechanics, a great planning tool for any guild going into Icecrown Citadel.
This encounter is a two phase fight, during which your raid must not only kill Lady Deathwhisper, but also her plentiful and devoted followers. During the first phase of the fight, Lady Deathwhisper will shield herself from harm, and her followers will attack your raid in waves. Not even death will stop them from protecting their mistress, so be wary of the corpses around you: Lady Deathwhisper will revive them to fight again. Once your DPS has exhausted Lady Deathwhisper's shield, she will cease calling followers, and instead start to melee attack. During this second phase, the main challenge will be to interrupt her attempts to cast a massive Frostbolt at your tank, while your DPS continues to bring her down. You'll have 8 minutes to complete both phases and kill her, before she gets really angry.

Raid Preparation

An appropriately geared raid for this instance will have spent some time gathering equipment in Trial of the Crusader. You will want most of your raid members to have a majority of item level 245+ gear for the 25 man version, and 232+ for the 10 man version. In the same way that Lord Marrowgar is a "gear check" for your tanks and healers, Lady Deathwhisper is a "gear check" for your DPS. She has a ten minute hard enrage, and in this time your DPS must put out enough damage to burn through her significant mana shield, the life pools of 20+ adds, and her own life pool as well.

As always, your raiders should be prepared to utilize the usual assortment of consumables: flasks/elixirs, buff food, and potions, should all be used in order to have the best chance at success.

Raid Composition

25 Man
2 tanks - Both will need to pick up and control multiple adds in Phase 1, and both will need to take turns serving as the Main Tank ("MT") for Lady Deathwhisper herself during Phase 2.

5-6 healers - You will want to assign 1-2 healers for each tank, and have another 2-3 healers assigned to keeping the raid healed up from the various randomly targeted damage effects.

17-18 DPS - It is very important that your raid have an even balance of physical and magical DPS, because there are adds which are immune to each type of damage.

Having a shaman for Heroism/Bloodlust is nearly mandatory because of the enrage timer. You will want several players with quick and reliable Crowd Control ("CC"), to neutralize the members of your raid who become mind controlled. It is also quite helpful to have at least one player who can decurse and another who can remove diseases. Having either Misdirect from a hunter or Tricks of the Trade from a rogue (or both) can be helpful to make sure that Lady Deathwhisper gets picked up smoothly by your tank when she transitions between phases.

10 Man
2 tanks - Both will need to pick up and control multiple adds in Phase 1, and both will need to take turns serving as MT for Lady Deathwhisper herself during Phase 2.

2 healers - You will need two healers that can cover the tanks and also the raid between them; it will be very difficult to put out the damage needed to keep up with the add spawns and still beat her enrage if you have 3 healers.

6 DPS - It is very important that your raid have an even balance of physical and ranged DPS, because there are adds which are immune to each type of damage.

Having a shaman for Heroism/Bloodlust is nearly mandatory because of the enrage timer. It is also quite helpful to have at least one player who can decurse and another who can remove diseases. Having either Misdirect from a hunter or Tricks of the Trade from a rogue (or both) can be helpful to make sure that Lady Deathwhisper gets picked up smoothly by your tank when she transitions between phases.

Mobs and Abilities

Lady Deathwhisper

She has 13.9 million mana and 13.4 million health in 25 man.

Mana Barrier - This is a bubble around Lady Deathwhisper, which will instantly heal any damage done to her for as long as she has mana to maintain it. It consumes her mana at a 1:1 ratio for each point of damage that would have otherwise been done to her health.
Details

Shadow Bolt (Phase 1) - This is a 2 second cast ability that is used on random players throughout Phase 1. It is a single hit of ~7-9k shadow damage that just needs to be healed up.
10 man: Details 25 man: Details

Frostbolt (Phase 2) - This is a 2 second cast that must be interrupted. It is targeted on the acting MT throughout Phase 2. If she finishes the cast, the targeted person will take a 50k+ hit of unresistable frost damage. If the hit doesn't kill them, their movement speed will be slowed by 50% for 4 seconds.
10 man: Details 25 man: Details

Frostbolt Volley (Phase 2) - This is an instant cast ability that Lady Deatwhisper uses throughout Phase 2. It has an 8 second cool down time, but she doesn't always use it immediately. It will hit all players in the room (it has a 200 yard radius, centered on the boss) for 10-13k frost damage, and slow the movement speed of everyone it hits by 50% for 4 seconds.
10man: Details 25man: Details

Death and Decay - This is basically identical to the death knight ability, except hers is bright green instead of red and hits a good bit harder. It is cast in random locations throughout the fight. Don't stand in it.
10 man: Details 25 man: Details

VIDEO TALKTHROUGH: Lady Deathwhisper 25 Normal Mode - Alpha

Take a close look at each add type in the Lady Deathwhisper encounter with this tank perspective video by Alpha.
Dominate Mind - This is a 20 second mind control, periodically placed on a random player in the 25 man version of the encounter. While a player is mind controlled, their damage will be increased by 200%, and healing increased by 500%.
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Dark Empowerment - This is a buff that Lady Deathwhisper will periodically place on one of her adds. It affects each type's behaviour differently, but makes all of them immune to interruption.
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Touch of Insignificance (Phase 2) - This is a stacking debuff that Lady Deathwhisper periodically places on her current target (the acting MT) that reduces the target's threat generation with her by 20%. It stacks up to 5 times.
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Enrage - Lady Deathwhisper will enrage 10 minutes after combat with her begins, doing ~500% extra damage with all her attacks.

Summon Reanimated Adherent (Phase 1) - Lady Deathwhisper will revive one of the Cult Adherents' bodies, as a Reanimated Adherent.

Summon Reanimated Fanatic (Phase 1) - Lady Deathwhisper will revive one of the Cult Fanatic's bodies, as a Reanimated Fanatic.

Summon Spirit (Phase 2) - Lady Deathwhisper will summon a Vengeful Shade, which will rise from any dead body in the room, including those of dead players, and chase a random raid member.

Vengeful Shade - This summoned mob has a melee swing of around 200-300.
Vengeful Blast - if a Vengeful Shade gets within melee range of a player, it will explode for ~17-18k shadow damage, hitting everyone within 15 yards.
10 man: Details 25 man: Details

Cult Adherent

Frost Fever - This is a disease cast on random players, which lasts for 15 seconds, doing frost damage and slowing the movement and casting speed of the afflicted player. Keep this cleansed off anyone it hits.
10 man: Details 25 man: Details

Curse of Torpor - This curse is randomly cast on players as well, increasing the cooldowns on all of the player's abilities by 15 seconds while it lasts. Keep this cleansed off anyone it hits.
Details

Deathchill Bolt - This is the Adherent's main attack, hitting their current target for 6-8k specialized shadowfrost damage (meaning neither shadow resistance nor frost resistance has any effect on the amount of damage taken).
10 man: Details 25 man: Details

Shroud of the Occult - This ability is only used if the Adherent receives Dark Empowerment from Lady Deathwhisper. When used, it shields the mob from, and reflects onto the caster, all magical damage. It also absorbs 50,000 damage before breaking.
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Deathchill Blast - This ability is only used if the Adherent receives Dark Empowerment from Lady Deathwhisper, after the Adherent has used Shroud of the Occult. It will be targeted on a random raid member, and hit that person and all other raid members within 10 yards of them for ~9-10k shadowfrost damage.
man: Details 25 man: Details

Dark Martyrdom - This is a 4 second cast ability, which is immune to interruption. When the cast finishes, the Adherent will explode and damage any players within 15 yards.
10 man: Details 25 man: Details

Reanimated Adherent

The revived add will have all of the abilities it had before as a Cult Adherent, and will also have a buff called Adherent's Determination.

Adherent's Determination - This buff is always present on any Reanimated Adherents, and it makes them 99% immune to magical damage.
Details

Cult Fanatic/Reanimated Fanatic

Shadow Cleave - This is a basic melee cleave attack. It will hit any players in front of the mob in melee range for ~15-17k shadow damage.
man: Details 25 man: Details

Necrotic Strike - This is the Fanatic's main attack, hitting their current target for 70% of weapon damage and leaving a debuff that negates the next 15,000 healing received by that player. It must constantly be healed through.
10 man: Details 25 man: Details

Vampiric Might - This self-buff will only be used if the Fanatic receives Dark Empowerment from Lady Deathwhisper. It increases the mob's damage by 25% and heals the mob for 300% of it's damage dealt. It lasts 15 seconds, so the mob should be CC'd until it falls off.
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Dark Martyrdom - This is a 4 second cast ability. When the cast finishes, the Adherent will explode and damage any players within 15 yards. (Possibly interrupting this cast will prevent the add from being reanimated)
10 man: Details 25 man: Details

Reanimated Fanatic

The revived add will have all of the abilities it had before as a Cult Fanatic, and will also have a buff called Fanatic's Determination.

Fanatic's Determination - This buff is always present on any Reanimated Fanatics, and it makes them 99% immune to physical damage.
Details

Strategy

Phase 1

When your raid first engages Lady Deathwhisper, she will simply stand in place and yell a bit.



DPS can go full-force immediately, because she doesn't follow any threat table for her attacks. Throughout the whole of Phase 1, Lady Deathwhisper will cast Shadow Bolts at random raid members, place Death and Decay areas randomly throughout the room, and heal herself with her Mana Barrier. In the 25 man version, she will also periodically mind control a random raid member who should be promptly crowd controlled. Phase 1 will continue until enough damage has been done to Lady Deathwhisper to completely exhaust mana pool through her using it to keep her shield up. Because her mana pool is roughly the same size as her health, Phase 1 will actually last longer than Phase 2. This is because your DPS will also have to deal with killing multiple adds during Phase 1.

The first set of adds will come ~15 seconds into the fight, and another set will come out every ~40 seconds after that until the phase ends. Cult Adherents and Cult Fanatics spawn from the alcoves along the side walls (see diagram A). In the 10 man version, one side or the other will spawn adds (1 from each alcove on that side). In the 25 man, both sides spawn each time, so there will be 6 adds coming from the alcoves. Additionally, a single add will come from the stairs where the raid entered Lady Deathwhisper's room, bringing the wave totals to 4 for 10 man, and 7 for 25 man. In 10 man you can split the adds among the two tanks however seems convenient. In 25 man, each tank will need to take a side and pick up all 3 adds that spawn on their side, and one of them will need to watch for the lone 7th add and pick it up as well. The adds are CC-able, so use Shackle, stuns, etc. freely to control adds that aren't being burnt down if it helps your raid to focus their damage more effectively. Shackle can be especially useful on the Cult Fanatics, as they only have melee-range attacks.

At this point, and continuing on until the end of the phase, DPS will need to move between killing the sets of adds, and doing damage to Lady Deathwhisper.

While there are adds alive, Lady Deathwhisper will occasionally pick a random add to cast Dark Empowerment on. Regardless of which type is chosen, it should be dealt with as quickly as possible, as it will become much more dangerous than any other adds alive. This is how to deal with them:

- A Cult Adherent who receives Dark Empowerment will use their Shroud of Occult and then start using Deathchill Blast. All raid members should quickly run away from the person targeted by the empowered add for the Deathchill Blast, while the Shroud of the Occult is burnt through by all DPS who deal physical damage, and then the add killed as quickly as possible by all DPS.

- A Cult Fanatic who receives the Dark Empowerment will at some point use Vampiric Might, quickly healing to full while hitting very hard. When it uses Vampiric Might, CC it until the buff wears off (15 seconds), then continue to burn it down. When the add doesn't have Vampiric Might up, all DPS should kill this add as fast as possible. Your tanks should Taunt it off each other in order to kite it while it is killed, being careful to face the mob away from players in range of its Shadow Cleave.

If you are doing the 25 man version of the encounter, your raid must also deal with randomly mind controlled players once Lady Deathwhisper is engaged. These players should just be CC'd for the 20 seconds it takes the Dominate Mind to wear off.

Phase 2

Once Lady Deathwhisper runs out of mana and can't keep up her shield anymore, she will begin to attack normally. It is critical that you have a tank free of adds to Taunt her at this time, and that all DPS stop hitting her until the tank has her firmly under control.



It isn't important where she is tanked, just that she gets picked up before she can kill your DPS or healers. No more Cult Fanatics or Cult Adherents will spawn once Phase 2 begins, but if there are any currently alive they will still need to be killed off. Lady Deathwhisper will no longer reanimate their bodies once Phase 2 begins. As soon as all the adds are dead and all of your DPS players are focused on Lady Deathwhisper, use Bloodlust/Heroism and cooldowns to try to kill her as fast as possible.

Throughout Phase 2, Lady Deathwhisper will continue to cast Death and Decay, so players will need to continue to move out of it. She will also continue to mind control players if you are in the 25 man version of the fight, so they will still need to be CC'd. However, she will stop casting Shadow Bolts, and instead begin using her Frost Bolt ability on the acting MT. This Frost Bolt cast should be interrupted every time she tries to use it, or it may kill your tank. So, once Phase 2 starts, make sure that there are always good interrupters on the boss to prevent this from being successfully cast. She will also begin to use Touch of Insignificance on the acting MT; when this debuff has stacked to 2 or 3, your second tank should Taunt her, so that DPS aren't forced to hold back out of fear of pulling agro. The tanks will need to continue to swap back and forth like this for the remainder of the encounter.

Lady Deathwhisper will also begin to periodically raise ghosts from random dead bodies in the room; these ghosts will simply target a random player and move slowly toward that person for about 10 seconds and then fade away. If they get within melee range of a player before fading away, they will explode for a significant amount of damage. So, everyone should watch for these ghosts and move out of their paths.

Ten minutes after she is first engaged, Lady Deathwhisper will enter a hard enrage. At this point, she will start killing players off in single hits, and you will have very little time to finish her off before everyone is dead. If your raid is consistently controlling and killing the adds, but not doing so fast enough to leave adequate time to complete Phase 2, you may need to simply spend a bit more time gearing up your DPS in the lower tiers of raid content so that they can kill everything a little bit faster.


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Gunship Battle

VIDEO TALKTHROUGH: Gunship Battle 25 Normal Mode - Cuties Only

Take a look at all the elements that go into the faction gunship battle in Icecrown Citadel by Cuties Only with this video and strategy commentary.

Tensions have been rising between the forces of Horde and Alliance since long before either set foot on Northrend's shores. Now, the final assault against the very home fortress of the Lich King has begun, and tempers finally flare to breaking point. In the skies around Icecrown Citadel, a fight breaks out between the forces of the Alliance and the Horde. If you want to progress further in the battle against Arthas' forces, you'll need to destroy the opposing faction's Gunship before they shoot yours out of the sky!

Raid Preparation

An appropriately geared raid for this instance will have spent some time gathering equipment in Trial of the Crusader. You will want most of your raid members to have a majority of item level 245+ gear for the 25 man version, and 232+ for the 10 man version. Generally, if your raid as a whole has gotten past the two preceding bosses in the instance, that same group of people should be geared enough for this encounter as well.

Additionally, your raiders should be prepared to utilize the usual assortment of consumables: flasks/elixirs, buff food, and potions, should all be used in order to have the best chance at success.

Raid Composition

Your raid is going to need to be divided into two groups. For the remainder of this strategy guide, we're going to refer to these two groups as the Offense and the Defense.

VIDEO TALKTHROUGH: Gunship Battle 25 Normal Mode - Alpha

Get a good look at the enemy gunship with this video of a tank's perspective on the away team!
25 Man
2 tanks - You will want one tank well suited to handle a single mob that hits fast and progressively harder as the fight goes on (Offense tank), and a second tank that is well suited and practiced at picking up and controlling multiple mobs at once (Defense tank).

5-6 healers - You will want at least one dedicated tank healer for each tank, and 3-4 healers that can help with the tanks while also healing the rest of the raid. Assign 1 tank healer and 1 other healer to the Defense, and the rest to the Offense.

16-17 DPS - You will want at least 4-5 ranged DPS to be Defense. The rest of the DPS can be of any variety, and should be Offense.

The last 3 raid spots can be filled by any spec/class combination that suits your raid roster. These players will be controlling a vehicle for the duration of the encounter. Not even their gear level matters as the vehicle does a flat amount of specialized damage regardless of who is controlling it.

10 Man
2 tanks - You will want one tank well suited to handle a single mob that hits fast and progressively harder as the fight goes on (Offense tank), and a second tank that is well suited and practiced at picking up and controlling multiple mobs at once (Defense tank).

2-3 healers - You will want an Offense healer, a Defense healer, and possibly a third to help out if either of the first two has trouble keeping their tank alive while also covering the other players on their Gunship.

3-4 DPS - You will want 1-2 ranged DPS to be Defense. The rest of the DPS can be of any variety, and should be Offense.

The last 2 raid spots can be filled by any spec/class combination that suits your raid roster. These players will be controlling a vehicle for the duration of the encounter. Not even their gear level really matters as the vehicle does a predetermined amount of specialized damage regardless of who is controlling it.

Goal

Your raid wins the encounter by using your Gunship's cannons to reduce the "health" of the enemy Gunship to zero.

Mobs and Abilities

All mobs except the Faction Leader and the Kor'kron Battle-Mages/Skybreaker Sorcerers share two abilities:

Experienced - This buff appears ~ 20 seconds after a given mob is engaged in combat, increasing the mob's damage done by 30% and speed by 20%.
Details

Veteran - This buff appears ~ 40 seconds after a given mob is engaged in combat, increasing the mob's damage done by 60% and speed by 40%. This buff replaces the Experienced buff.
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Elite - This buff appears ~ 60 seconds after a given mob is engaged in combat, increasing the mob's damage done by 120% and speed by 80%. This buff replaces the Veteran buff, and remains until the mob dies.
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Desperate Resolve - This is an ability used when the mob falls below 20% HP. It increases armor and attack speed by 60%. A single mob with this buff isn't dangerous, but healers should watch for damage spikes any time multiple mobs are being killed simultaneously with Area of Effect ("AoE") damage.
Details
On the enemy Gunship:

Faction Leader - Overlord Saurfang/Muradin Bronzebeard

Both of these faction leaders will be present; your faction's leader will help you fight, and the enemy faction leader will defend the other mobs aboard the enemy Gunship. Both of them have the same two abilities, as well as a basic melee swing that starts off hitting fairly light. The enemy faction leader will need to be picked up and tanked any time you have players aboard the enemy Gunship, or he will kill them very quickly.

Battle Fury - This is a buff that the Faction Leaders stack on themselves, and it stacks up to 75 times. Each stack increases damage done by 10%. This buff stacks each time the faction leader hits his target. It lasts 20 seconds, but new stacks refresh the duration.
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Cleave - This is a basic melee cleave attack. It hits the faction leader's current target and up to 2 other players within range for 110% of normal melee damage. As is always the case with a melee cleave, this ability means that the faction leader should be tanked facing away from any other players nearby.
Details

Kor'kron Rocketeer/Skybreaker Mortar Soldier

This mob type stands along the far edge of the enemy Gunship, and fires rockets at your Gunship. There are 2 of these in 10 man and 4 in 25 man. They should be killed off as often as possible, as they are the source of damage done to your Gunship. They will respawn up to their original numbers periodically. As a given mob is alive longer and longer, it will gain stacks of the Experienced buff, which will increase the damage done to your Gunship. This should be avoided at all costs.

Rocket Artillery - This is the 5 second cast ability that launches a rocket toward your Gunship. While the cast is occurring, a roughly circular red animation will appear on your ship where the rocket is going to hit. All Defense players should move away from these animations, so they don't get hit by Explosion.
Details

Explosion - This is what happens when the above cast finishes and the rocket is fired into your Gunship. The explosion affects an approximately 10 yard radius, dealing fire damage to players within range, and siege damage to your Gunship.
10 man Details
25 man Details

Kor'kron Axethrower/Skybreaker Rifleman

This mob type stands along the front edge of the enemy Gunship, and does damage randomly to players on your Gunship. There are 4 of them in 10 man and 8 in 25 man. These mobs should be killed off as much as possible to minimize the damage done to your raid, but they are a low priority as they only damage players and not your Gunship. They will respawn up to their initial numbers throughout the fight.

Hurl Axe/Shoot - This is a single hit of ~2-3k damage, randomly used on any player aboard your Gunship. It just needs to be healed through.
Hurl Axe 10 man Details
Hurl Axe 25 man Details
Shoot 10 man Details
Shoot25 man Details

Kor'kron Battle-Mage/Skybreaker Sorcerer

There are 3 of this mob type present on the enemy gunship, and they mostly just stand around. However, when the enemy Gunship reaches 75%, 50%, 25% , and then 5% HP, one of them will move to the center of the enemy deck, and begin to channel a spell that freezes your cannons. At that point, killing the channeling mob should be your Offense group's biggest priority as the Gunship Cannons are the only way to deal damage to the enemy Gunship and defeat the encounter. These mobs will respawn back to their original count of 3 when killed, so don't waste time on them when they aren't channeling.

Below Zero - This is the ability that freezes your Gunship Cannons. The caster must channel to maintain the ice block, and will continue doing so until killed.
Details

Boarding your Gunship:
Shortly after pulling alongside the enemy Gunship and starting the fight, a portal will appear above the deck of your gunship. For the remainder of the encounter, attacking NPCs will come out of this portal in packs, with a new pack roughly every 30 seconds. In 10 man, each pack will contain 1 Kor'kron/Skybreaker Sergeant and 3 Kor'kron Reavers/Skybreaker Marines. In 25 man, each pack will contain 2 Kor'kron/Skybreaker Sergeants, and 6 Kor'kron Reavers/Skybreaker Marines.

Kor'kron Sergeant/Skybreaker Sergeant

Bladestorm - This ability is an instant whirlwind effect, identical to the arms warrior talent with the same name. The Sergeant will spin around for 6 seconds, hitting up to 4 players in melee range for damage every second.
Details

Wounding Strike - This ability is basically identical to the warrior ability Mortal Strike. It will debuff his current target, reducing the effects of all healing done to the target. Just heal the tank harder while this debuff is active.
Details

Kor'kron Reaver/Skybreaker Marine

These mobs have no special abilities. They just attack with a basic melee swing, and gain Desperate Resolve and Experienced/Veteran/Elite like the other enemy mobs.

The following will be available to help in your fight:

Gunship Cannon

Arranged along the edge of your Gunship, facing the other faction, there will be vehicle cannons that can be controlled by a player. In 10 man there are two, and in 25 man there are four. These Gunship Cannons use Heat as a resource, and have two abilities. Both of their abilities deal siege damage, a type of damage specific to this encounter that hurts the enemy Gunship as well as players and NPCs.

Cannon Blast - This is an instant cast ability which fires a cannon blast at the opposing Gunship and does 1000 siege damage. This ability builds Heat in the Gunship Cannon.
Details

Incinerating Blast - This is an instant cast ability as well, but instead of creating Heat, it uses all the Heat built up, doing more siege damage the higher the Heat was.
Details

The basic idea is to use Cannon Blast to build up Heat in the Gunship Cannon, and to use Incinerating Blast once the Heat is almost full to get maximum damage out of it. However, one must be careful to not build up to 100% Heat, because if you do, the Gunship Cannon will overheat and become unusable for ~15 seconds.

Rocket Pack - this is a shirt-slot item that can be acquired from an NPC on your Gunship. When used, the Rocket Pack will allow players to jump a fairly large distance: enough to clear the gap and board the enemy Gunship.

Strategy

As the Gunship begins to fly upward, everyone in the raid should pick up a Rocket Pack from the NPC aboard your Gunship. Only the Offense players need one, but it's best to have everyone prepared. Also, make sure everyone has ready access to the Rocket Pack's use ability (drag it onto an action bar spot, or make a macro, etc.) so they can launch themselves quickly when needed.

As soon as they have their Rocket Packs, have the players who will be controlling the Gunship Cannons get into place. As the two Gunships pull up parallel to each other, the encounter begins in earnest. The players controlling the Gunship Cannons can begin firing, and all of your Offense players should jump to the enemy Gunship.



Once they are in place, the Offense tank will need to pick up the enemy faction leader, and keep him under control for the remainder of the fight. This isn't done through traditional tanking, however. After hitting the faction leader a few times to establish threat, the tank will need to spend the remainder of the fight kiting him around and getting hit as little as possible. This is accomplished by using the Rocket Pack to jump around the deck, staying constantly ahead of the chasing mob. Tanking in this fashion prevents the enemy faction leader from gaining too many stacks of Battle Fury. The tank should always be careful to stay in range of healers though, because some stacks are inevitable. As the fight goes on, this Offense tank will need more and more healing, so plan accordingly.

VIDEO TALKTHROUGH: Gunship Battle PTR 25 Normal - Might

Rocket pack goodness with this PTR preview of the Icecrown Citadel Gunship Battle! Watch Might with commentary from Bosskillers.com. Set the video to HD for the best viewing experience!

If your raid consistently has trouble with the Offense tank not being able to stay alive, an alternate strategy is to have the entire Offense retreat periodically to the friendly Gunship for the 20 seconds it takes the faction leader's stack of Battle Fury to fall off, and then jump back to continue the attack. This is a safer approach as far as player survival is concerned, but will risk more of the enemy soldiers gaining damage buffs because they will die off more slowly. If you choose this tactic, be careful that the Kor'kron Rocketeers/Skybreaker Mortar Soldiers aren't allowed to outpace the damage of your own cannon users, or it will cause a failed attempt.

The other mobs on the enemy Gunship simply stand in place when being hit. Although they do shoot at those with agro, they don't do much damage at all. So they don't need to be tanked, just killed off while the Offense healer(s) heal up the damage they do to DPS. The priority should be to kill the existing Kor'kron Rocketeers/Skybreaker Mortar Soldiers, and then go kill off as many Kor'kron Axethrowers/Skybreaker Riflemen as possible (hopefully all of them) before the Kor'kron Rocketeers/Skybreaker Mortar Soldiers respawn. DPS should go at a quick but sustainable pace, saving cool downs for now. Once a new set of Kor'kron Rocketeers/Skybreaker Mortar Soldiers has all reappeared, go back and kill them before returning to the Kor'kron Axethrowers/Skybreaker Riflemen. Continue rotating targets like this until a Kor'kron Battle-Mage/Skybreaker Sorcerer moves to the center of the deck and begins to channel Below Zero. As soon as that happens, all Offense DPS should move in and kill the Kor'kron Battle-Mage/Skybreaker Sorcerer as fast as possible (here's where cooldowns should be used) since it will continue to hold your Gunship's Cannons (and the players controlling them) frozen until killed.

After the Kor'kron Battle-Mage/Skybreaker Sorcerer is dead, the Offense should switch back to the previous rotation between Kor'kron Rocketeers/Skybreaker Mortar Soldiers if they are alive and Kor'kron Axethrowers/Skybreaker Riflemen, until the next Kor'kron Battle-Mage/Skybreaker Sorcerer begins to channel. This continues until the end of the encounter. 1-2 of the Offense healers will need to constantly watch the tank, keeping in range to heal him/her in case the enemy faction leader lands a hit. The remaining healer(s) should watch for any Offense DPS taking damage from the smaller adds, but be prepared to help more and more with the Offense tank as the fight goes on.

While the Offense are dealing with the enemy Gunship's ranks, the Defense will have their own battle to fight. At first, all the Defense DPS should run to the edge of the Gunship and hit any Kor'kron Axethrowers/Skybreaker Riflemen they can reach. About 30 seconds into the encounter, a portal will appear in the middle of your Gunship's deck, and the Defense tank should go pick up the mobs that start jumping out. As soon as the Defense tank has the pack under control, Defense DPS should switch to killing them. If your faction leader doesn't immediately jump in to help, the Defense tank should drag the pack over toward him, so that he engages, because he does quite a bit of damage.

Use AoE to kill off the weaker Kor'kron Reavers/Skybreaker Marines first (Defense healers watch for the spike in damage as the mobs are brought to low health and use Desperate Resolve), then single-target DPS to finish the Kor'kron Sergeants/Skybreaker Sergeants. Once the wave is dead, the Defense DPS can move back to the edge and help kill more Kor'kron Axethrowers/Skybreaker Riflemen. Every 30-45 seconds, a new pack will come out of the portal and need to be picked up by the tank. Each time this happens, the Defense DPS should turn and kill them before continuing to help kill the mobs on the enemy Gunship. All the while, everyone on the Defense side will have to dodge the rockets being launched at them from the enemy Gunship. Defense healers will need to watch the Defense tank for spikes of damage as each new wave comes out, and also watch all the other Defense players in case someone gets hit by a rocket.

This process of switching targets will continue for both the Offense and Defense throughout the fight, while the players controlling the Gunship Cannons slowly damage the enemy Gunship beyond repair. Once the enemy gunship has been destroyed, it will fall back toward the ground, leaving your Gunship to continue up and dock against Ice Crown Citadel. Players still on the enemy Gunship when if falls will simply be ported up to the docking point, and once your ship has docked, a chest will appear on its deck, containing your loot.

Warning: There is currently a bug with this encounter that causes your Gunship to sometimes not dock properly after a successful kill. Because of this, (if your raid uses master looting) be sure that master looting duties are assigned to someone who will be sure to stay on your friendly Gunship, and if that person dies and can't be brought back to life with Rebirth, assign master looting to someone else on the friendly Gunship before combat ends. Otherwise, you may be unable to access your loot chest.

***********************************************************************************************************

Deathbringer Saurfang

VIDEO TALKTHROUGH: Deathbringer Saurfang 25 Normal Mode Cuties Only

This live server kill of Deathbringer Saurfang by Cuties Only is a great demonstration of both a good strategy for the fight and proper execution.

This is a single phase fight, during which Deathbringer Saurfang will repeatedly build up and then use the power of blood by doing damage to your raid. He'll summon waves of adds to attack your raid and help him build this Blood Power, which serves as both a resource and a stacking buff for this boss. He will also heal himself by leeching life from your tank if you let him, and he'll mark members of your raid, regaining health if any of them die. The challenge of this encounter is all about limiting how fast Deathbringer Saurfang can accumulate and use Blood Power. If he is allowed to stack and then use it too quickly, there will simply be too much damage for your raid to survive.

Raid Preparation

An appropriately geared raid for this instance will have spent some time gathering equipment in Trial of the Crusader. You will want most of your raid members to have a majority of item level 245+ gear for the 25 man version, and 232+ for the 10 man version. In general, the same group of players that beat the first three bosses in this instance should be geared enough to attempt this encounter.

As always, your raiders should be prepared to utilize the usual assortment of consumables: flasks/elixirs, buff food, and potions, should all be used in order to have the best chance at success.

Raid Composition

25 Man
2 tanks - each will need to tank Deathbringer Saurfang in a rotation throughout the fight. Use the highest avoidance tanks you have, to minimize how quickly Deathbringer Saurfang can land melee swings and thus stack his Blood Power.

5-6 healers - your raid will want 2-3 solid healers dedicated to the tanks, and another 3+ healers dedicated to the raid. Damage is widespread, random, and constantly increasing throughout this encounter.

17-18 DPS - there are no particular classes/specs needed for this fight, but it is a good idea to have as many forms of slows/stuns/roots/etc that you can pack into the raid, in order to kill the Blood Beasts without them hitting anyone, since each time they land a hit on any player, it will stack Deathbringer Saurfang's Blood Power.

10 Man
2 tanks - each will need to tank Deathbringer Saurfang in a rotation throughout the fight. Use the highest avoidance tanks you have, to minimize how quickly Deathbringer Saurfang can land melee swings and thus stack his Blood Power.

3 healers - Your raid will want at least one healer dedicated to the tanks and a second dedicated to the raid. Because of the constantly increasing, randomly targeted raid damage, a third healer that can float between both duties will likely be a necessity to keep everyone up and keep things under control.

5 DPS - there are no particular classes/specs needed for this fight, but it is a good idea to have as many forms of slows/stuns/roots/etc that you can pack into the raid, in order to kill the Blood Beasts without them hitting anyone, since each time they land a hit on any player, it will stack Deathbringer Saurfang's Blood Power.

VIDEO TALKTHROUGH: Deathbringer Saurfang 25 Normal - Alpha

This video demonstrates both the benefits and downsides to a "raid clumping" strategy on Deathbringer Saurfang - take a look at a unique perspective on this fight!

Mobs and Abilities

Deathbringer Saurfang

(~31.1 million HP in 25 man)

Blood Link - This is a permanent effect on Deathbringer Saurfang, which lets him gain a stack of Blood Power each time he does damage with special abilities or summoned creatures (does not stack with his basic melee swings, but does stack for every tick of Boiling Blood, as well as all damage from his other special abilities and the melee swings of his summoned adds).
Details

Blood Power - This is a stacking self-buff of Deathbringer Saurfang's. For each stack, he grows 1% larger and deals 1% more damage. It stacks to 100, and the stack is consumed when Mark of the Fallen Champion is used.
Details

Mark of the Fallen Champion - This is a debuff that Deathbringer Saurfang places on a random player each time his Blood Power reaches 100. It cannot be removed, and persists through death until either Deathbringer Saurfang is killed or the raid wipes and combat resets. It causes afflicted players to take damage each time Deathbringer Saurfang successfully lands a melee swing. If a player dies while under this effect Deathbringer Saurfang is healed for 5% of his total health. While typical debuff-removing effects won't remove this, they will still stop the damage ticks while active, and thus stop Deathbringer Saurfang from gaining Blood Power.
10 man: Details
25 man: Details

Rune of Blood - This is a debuff that Deathbringer Saurfang places on his current target, which lasts for 20 seconds. It doesn't have a set cooldown, but he generally casts it within 10 seconds or so of the previous application ending. When he performs melee attacks on targets marked with Rune of Blood, he leeches health from them and heals himself for 5 times the amount leeched. When it is used on the current tank, the other tank should immediately Taunt.
10 man: Details
25 man: Details

Blood Nova - This is an instant cast ability used periodically on random ranged players throughout the encounter. It causes all players within ~10 yards of the targeted raider to take a large hit of physical damage (but not the targetted player themselves). Each player hit will count individually toward Deathbringer Saurfang's Blood Power stacks, so all ranged players should try to stay more than 10 yards from each other at all times to avoid its effects.
10 man: Details
25 man: Details

VIDEO TALKTHROUGH: Deathbringer Saurfang PTR 25 Normal Cuties Only

This PTR video of Deathbringer Saurfang by Cuties Only wasn't a kill, but we'll still walk you through the strategy and each element of the fight, which is the same as on the live servers.
Boiling Blood - This is a Damage over Time ("DoT") effect that Deathbringer Saurfang periodically places on random players. It ticks for 5000 physical damage every 3 seconds for 24 seconds. While typical debuff removing effects won't remove this one, they will still stop the damage ticks while active, and thus stop Deathbringer Saurfang from gaining Blood Power.
Details

Frenzy - Deathbringer Saurfang goes into a frenzy, increasing his attack speed by 30%, when he is brought to 25% HP. This is the point in the encounter where your raid will want to use Bloodlust/Heroism and any other cooldowns available to finish Deathbringer Saurfang off as fast as possible.
Details

Call Blood Beast - Saurfang calls forth a pack of Blood Beasts every 30 seconds. (There are 2 per pack in 10 man; 5 per pack in 25 man)
Details
Although the tooltip says 'pair', there are indeed 5 Blood Beasts per summon in the 25 man version of this fight.

Blood Beast

~93,000 HP in 25 man
The Blood Beasts will melee for ~4,000 physical damage in the 25 man version of the encounter.

Scent of Blood - This is a buff on the Blood Beasts for the first few seconds after they are summoned, which reduces the movement speed of players within ~20 yards of them by 80% and increases their damage by 300%. It lasts for 10 seconds.
Details

Resistant Skin - This is a constant buff on the Blood Beasts that reduces the damage they take from Area of Effect ("AoE") attacks by 95% and diseases by 70%.
Details

Strategy

After talking to High Overlord Saurfang/Muradin Bronzebeard to start the event, there will be some rather extensive dialogue back and forth between your faction leader NPC and Deathbringer Saurfang as he walks out onto the balcony. While this is happening, your raid should take up positions as indicated in this diagram.



Eventually, the dialogue will stop, and combat will begin. The first tank should immediately pick up Deathbringer Saurfang, and DPS should begin attacking as quickly as is safe.

About 15 seconds into the fight, and continuing periodically for its duration, Deathbringer Saurfang will cast Blood Boil on a couple random raid members, which must be healed through.

About 30 seconds into the fight, and every 30 seconds thereafter, Deathbringer Saurfang will summon a pack of Blood Beasts to attack your raid. When this is about to happen, all melee (including the tanks) should stop any AoE so that they don't gain initial agro on these Blood Beasts, which appear at Deathbringer Saurfang's feet. When the Blood Beasts spawn, they should be immediately slowed/stunned/kited while all DPS who aren't being actively targeted by one of the Blood Beasts focus fire down one after the other. Usually the Blood Beasts will initially agro onto one of your raid healers, so have them stand to the south, while the tank healers stand to the east and west sides.



Set up a plan before starting the encounter to utilize whatever means of movement control are available to your particular raid (Earthbind Totems, Frost Traps, Typhoon, Deathgrip, etc), and also assign a Main Assist ("MA") DPS player for all other DPS to follow, so there is no confusion about which Blood Beast is being killed off at any given point.

Anyone who is being chased by one of the Blood Beasts should take every measure possible to make sure they don't get hit so that the boss doesn't gain extra stacks of Blood Power. However, even while kiting the adds, everyone will still need to control their movements so as to stay more than 10 yards away from other players as much as possible, because Deathbringer Saurfang will continue to cast Blood Nova during this time. After the Blood Beasts are all dead, DPS should resume on Deathbringer Saurfang until the next pack is summoned.

While this is going on, Deathbringer Saurfang will likely have used Blood Rune on the first tank. When this happens, the second tank will need to immediately Taunt the boss, and the tank healers will need to swap to the new tank. This rotation between the two tanks will continue for the entire encounter. Tanks and tank healers should keep an eye on how many stacks of Blood Power Deathbringer Saurfang has, and use defensive measures accordingly as his hits become stronger and stronger.

When Deathbringer Saurfang has landed enough hits to stack his Blood Power all the way to 100, he will put Mark of the Fallen Champion on a random raid member, and his Blood Power stacks will reset. Tank healing will get lighter again for a while, but raid healing will increase since the afflicted player will, from that point on, take damage each time Deathbringer Saurfang lands a hit on the tank. Because this damage also stacks Blood Power on the boss, the debuff serves as an effective timer on the fight. As more players are marked, Blood Power will stack faster and faster on the boss, increasing how fast he marks another person, continuing in this spiral until the damage wipes your raid.

To some extent, the tank healers will be able to help out with healing up this increasing raid damage during the times when Deathbringer Saurfang's stacks of Blood Power are low, but eventually your raid healers will simply be overwhelmed, and deaths will be inevitable. Raid healers will want to prolong the attempt as much as possible by prioritizing heals on those with Mark of the Fallen Champion, but once your raid starts to lose members, things will go downhill very quickly.

For the remainder of the fight, your raid must minimize the damage taken so as to limit Blood Power stacking as much as possible. Everyone must be aware of any living Blood Beasts and keep away from them while simultaneously keeping distance from their fellow raiders. While doing so, DPS must burn add targets quickly and efficiently to keep maximum DPS uptime on Deathbringer Saurfang himself. Healers must coordinate keeping the tanks alive through high stacks of Blood Power, and also keeping the raid as a whole from dying to Blood Boil or (especially) Mark of the Fallen Champion. Tanks must rotate on time, every time, to keep Deathbringer Saurfang from healing via Blood Rune.

When Deathbringer Saurfang reaches 25% of his HP, he will go into a frenzy and start attacking 30% faster. This will, of course, cause Blood Power to stack faster. At this point, everything else must stay under control, but everyone in the raid will need to kick it up a notch in order to kill the boss before his ever-increasing damage and debuff spreading kills you all.