Blood Pact: Tanking the Blood Prince Council
Blood Pact is your weekly warlock digest brought to you by Dominic Hobbs. "Did they look like psychos? Is that what they looked like? They were vampires. Psychos do not explode when sunlight hits them, I don't give a damn how crazy they are!" ~ Seth Gecko
So there you are, raiding your way through Icecrown Citadel, merrily destroying everything in your path with shadow and flame, when all of a sudden your raid leader tells you that you're tanking the next boss. "That can't be right - surely" you think to yourself, "I'm still wearing this dress, I don't have a sword or shield, I don't feel any more stupid than before - why would I suddenly want to tank anything?". Well, Blood Prince Council is one of those special fights where a clothie can do the job of a meat-shield. When this is called for, there's simply no better clothie than a warlock to get the job done. So, step up and lets look at how to do it.
Why bother?
Despite some big-name bosses having had designated ranged tanks, some people still think that it can't or should never be done. Now, I'm not talking about such fights as Sartharion, where a voidwalker could do the same job as a tank in the same way. Nor am I talking about Instructor Razuvious where shadow priests Mind Control adds to tank the boss. I'm not even talking about fights where ranged classes kite a boss. What I'm talking about is having a caster stand away from a boss, get their aggro and take the damage they deal.
For the naysayers, I assure you I have tanked Leotheras the Blind, Grand Astromancer Capernian, Illidan, Mimiron's Aerial Command Unit and even a Jormungar in Northrend Beasts. It can, and indeed should, be done under the right circumstances. Those circumstances are when the said boss will not simply run up and start hitting you but rather stand back and cast, when being near the boss is very bad, when special resistance gear is called for and also when tanks are in short supply. For example, in phase four, Illidan turned into a big old demon and would cast Shadow Blasts at whoever had aggro on him (resetting when he turned). He also summoned demons that would paralyze random raid members and kill them if they touched them - this (and the Aura of Dread) meant you couldn't stand close to him. You needed a ranged tank.
The Blood Prince Council (and Prince Keleseth in particular) is a bit different to these other examples though. While he does like to stand back and cast he isn't especially dangerous to stand next to, he supplies his own resistances mechanic and there's probably enough tanks to go around. If you have three tanks then it makes sense to have them tank the three bosses and let the DPS do the damage. Even if you have only two tanks, you can have one look after both Taldaram and Valanar together if you want to (and they are up to it). If you only have the one tank in your raid then I'm not sure how you got through the trash.
All that said, it is not unknown or unreasonable for the raid leader to decide that the ranged tank is the way to go. It can offer a slight DPS advantage if you assume that none is wasted by having tanks DPSing and a caster can have an easier time of collecting Dark Nuclei than many tank classes. There's also the issue of player skill -- tanking this guy can be tricky and while some tanks can be a bit rubbish, all locks are, by our very nature, awesome at all times.
How to prepare
Warlocks have a ton of neat survival abilities. We're somewhat short on panic buttons but when it comes to living longer than the next guy we're doing ok. We have a good few that trickle health back to us, things like Siphon Life and Haunt in the affliction tree as well as Soul Leach in destruction. There's also the obvious Drain Life and Death Coil. While such abilities are very nice at topping off incidental damage they are very limited when it comes to dealing with incoming boss damage. For that you need a healer and well, you'll have one. So what we're interested in are abilities that reduce the damage we take in the first place or give the healers a chance to do their thing before we decorate the walls. For that we're looking at abilities like Molten Skin and Demonic Embrace. Our real ace in the hole is Soul Link, if you try tanking without this baby you will be hit for 25% more damage than the lock who has it. Ask a tank if they would invest one talent point into an ability that offered that kind of mitigation.
So, with all those talents and abilities you would think there's a perfect build that snags as many of them as possible and that I'm about to tell you what that is -- well, I'm not. I've seen a lot of builds for this fight and put a few together myself, but ultimately I don't think it's worth it. The only talent you need to make the fight do-able is Soul Link, if you have that you should be fine. The only standard raid build that has Soul Link is the Demonic Pact-based demonology build (as featured right here last October). The awesome raid damage advantage this build offers makes it a great offspec even if you don't want it as your main, so for a lot of raid groups this will mean no expense or hassle of a respec.
That's it, other than knowing the fight and having that spec in your pocket, you're all set.
How to execute
The first decision is which minion to summon. They all have different advantages and disadvantages in this fight so I'll list them out:
It's important to know this fight well in order to do this job. It's a highly mobile fight even when you only have to worry about DPS but you will have more on your mind when tanking Keleseth. First off you need to get a decent amount of threat on the guy. It's worth having a hunter Misdirect him onto you so you don't have to run all the way up to him at the start. Open up with a Shadow Bolt which (as he is only on 1 HP) will trigger the Decimation effect. From there on you can just keep throwing Soul Fires at him until he is empowered (when his HP will go up). This will get you a load of threat and the only problem you should have from there is if he gets empowered second and Bloodlust/Heroism is popped right away. It's good to have this popped when the DPS are on Keleseth (as there is less running about) but that early in the fight might cause some threat issues. Keep it in mind and call for help from MD or TotT if required, failing that ask for BL/Hero later in the fight. You can use Searing Pain if you like (that's how we always used to do this kind of thing) but you will probably do as much (if not more) threat with your normal rotation (remembering Soul fire when Decimation is up) -- you will certainly do more damage when he's empowered. That said, you're not going to have a lot of time to stand about shooting the guy.
The second thing is to gather Dark Nuclei. These are little purple balls of fluff floating about the room. They spawn all through the fight and when they pick a target they channel a beam at them which does 1000DPS (resistible) and blocks 35% of shadow damage taken. So you want a load of these beaming at you to reduce the pain from Shadow Lance and especially Empowered Shadow Lance. In essence, three is enough to keep you alive but they can be taken off you and they do die, so get as many as you can for safety. Basically you want to spend the whole time running about the place like a kid that's just mugged the fairground balloon guy.
The easiest way to collect Dark Nuclei is to cast Corruption or Curse of Agony on them. They don't have a whole load of health and this will speed their demise but it'll keep ticking the damage and stopping healers taking aggro. Rank one is often all you need and while Corruption will get their attention sooner, CoA will stay on them for longer. It won't stop a DPS class from stealing them though, so everyone needs to be careful what they are targeting. You are going to have to run about to catch the things and that's going to cause issues, especially when Valanar is empowered. If he starts to cast Empowered Shock Vortex you need to find a free patch of floor to stand in quickly. Also, be aware of Taldaram casting Conjure Empowered Flame at you, you still need to run away from it until it's been discharged. Amid all that running about, try and be aware of where you and your minion are in relation to the healers. Without them you are toast, so hiding from them is a bad idea. If you do need to go far away from your healers, make sure it's when Keleseth is not empowered, you are at full health and try to use a Circle to get back quickly.
How to support
It's not your normal tank-and-spank affair to have a lock holding onto a boss, so here's some thoughts for others in the raid on how to adjust to the situation:
Blood Pact is a weekly column detailing DoTs, demons, and all the dastardly deeds done by Warlocks. If you're curious about what's new with Locks since the last patch, check out WoW.com's guide to patch 3.3 or find out what's upcoming in Cataclysm from the BlizzCon 2009: Class Discussion Panel.
So there you are, raiding your way through Icecrown Citadel, merrily destroying everything in your path with shadow and flame, when all of a sudden your raid leader tells you that you're tanking the next boss. "That can't be right - surely" you think to yourself, "I'm still wearing this dress, I don't have a sword or shield, I don't feel any more stupid than before - why would I suddenly want to tank anything?". Well, Blood Prince Council is one of those special fights where a clothie can do the job of a meat-shield. When this is called for, there's simply no better clothie than a warlock to get the job done. So, step up and lets look at how to do it.
Why bother?
Despite some big-name bosses having had designated ranged tanks, some people still think that it can't or should never be done. Now, I'm not talking about such fights as Sartharion, where a voidwalker could do the same job as a tank in the same way. Nor am I talking about Instructor Razuvious where shadow priests Mind Control adds to tank the boss. I'm not even talking about fights where ranged classes kite a boss. What I'm talking about is having a caster stand away from a boss, get their aggro and take the damage they deal.
For the naysayers, I assure you I have tanked Leotheras the Blind, Grand Astromancer Capernian, Illidan, Mimiron's Aerial Command Unit and even a Jormungar in Northrend Beasts. It can, and indeed should, be done under the right circumstances. Those circumstances are when the said boss will not simply run up and start hitting you but rather stand back and cast, when being near the boss is very bad, when special resistance gear is called for and also when tanks are in short supply. For example, in phase four, Illidan turned into a big old demon and would cast Shadow Blasts at whoever had aggro on him (resetting when he turned). He also summoned demons that would paralyze random raid members and kill them if they touched them - this (and the Aura of Dread) meant you couldn't stand close to him. You needed a ranged tank.
The Blood Prince Council (and Prince Keleseth in particular) is a bit different to these other examples though. While he does like to stand back and cast he isn't especially dangerous to stand next to, he supplies his own resistances mechanic and there's probably enough tanks to go around. If you have three tanks then it makes sense to have them tank the three bosses and let the DPS do the damage. Even if you have only two tanks, you can have one look after both Taldaram and Valanar together if you want to (and they are up to it). If you only have the one tank in your raid then I'm not sure how you got through the trash.
All that said, it is not unknown or unreasonable for the raid leader to decide that the ranged tank is the way to go. It can offer a slight DPS advantage if you assume that none is wasted by having tanks DPSing and a caster can have an easier time of collecting Dark Nuclei than many tank classes. There's also the issue of player skill -- tanking this guy can be tricky and while some tanks can be a bit rubbish, all locks are, by our very nature, awesome at all times.
How to prepare
Warlocks have a ton of neat survival abilities. We're somewhat short on panic buttons but when it comes to living longer than the next guy we're doing ok. We have a good few that trickle health back to us, things like Siphon Life and Haunt in the affliction tree as well as Soul Leach in destruction. There's also the obvious Drain Life and Death Coil. While such abilities are very nice at topping off incidental damage they are very limited when it comes to dealing with incoming boss damage. For that you need a healer and well, you'll have one. So what we're interested in are abilities that reduce the damage we take in the first place or give the healers a chance to do their thing before we decorate the walls. For that we're looking at abilities like Molten Skin and Demonic Embrace. Our real ace in the hole is Soul Link, if you try tanking without this baby you will be hit for 25% more damage than the lock who has it. Ask a tank if they would invest one talent point into an ability that offered that kind of mitigation.
So, with all those talents and abilities you would think there's a perfect build that snags as many of them as possible and that I'm about to tell you what that is -- well, I'm not. I've seen a lot of builds for this fight and put a few together myself, but ultimately I don't think it's worth it. The only talent you need to make the fight do-able is Soul Link, if you have that you should be fine. The only standard raid build that has Soul Link is the Demonic Pact-based demonology build (as featured right here last October). The awesome raid damage advantage this build offers makes it a great offspec even if you don't want it as your main, so for a lot of raid groups this will mean no expense or hassle of a respec.
That's it, other than knowing the fight and having that spec in your pocket, you're all set.
How to execute
The first decision is which minion to summon. They all have different advantages and disadvantages in this fight so I'll list them out:
- Imp - has the ability to be set onto the Kinetic Bombs to help keep them afloat. Increases fire damage done (therefore more threat). Low health pool - liable to die.
- Voidwalker - Can shield the lock every so often. Reduces bomb and vortex damage by 10%.
- Succubus - Can wiggle at the vampires, putting them off (maybe). Increases shadow damage done (therefore more threat).
- Felhunter - Reduces spell damage taken by 10%.
- Felguard - Increases all damage done (therefore more threat) and reduces all damage taken by 5%. Has the highest Demonic Pact proc rate. Cleave can be troublesome.
It's important to know this fight well in order to do this job. It's a highly mobile fight even when you only have to worry about DPS but you will have more on your mind when tanking Keleseth. First off you need to get a decent amount of threat on the guy. It's worth having a hunter Misdirect him onto you so you don't have to run all the way up to him at the start. Open up with a Shadow Bolt which (as he is only on 1 HP) will trigger the Decimation effect. From there on you can just keep throwing Soul Fires at him until he is empowered (when his HP will go up). This will get you a load of threat and the only problem you should have from there is if he gets empowered second and Bloodlust/Heroism is popped right away. It's good to have this popped when the DPS are on Keleseth (as there is less running about) but that early in the fight might cause some threat issues. Keep it in mind and call for help from MD or TotT if required, failing that ask for BL/Hero later in the fight. You can use Searing Pain if you like (that's how we always used to do this kind of thing) but you will probably do as much (if not more) threat with your normal rotation (remembering Soul fire when Decimation is up) -- you will certainly do more damage when he's empowered. That said, you're not going to have a lot of time to stand about shooting the guy.
The second thing is to gather Dark Nuclei. These are little purple balls of fluff floating about the room. They spawn all through the fight and when they pick a target they channel a beam at them which does 1000DPS (resistible) and blocks 35% of shadow damage taken. So you want a load of these beaming at you to reduce the pain from Shadow Lance and especially Empowered Shadow Lance. In essence, three is enough to keep you alive but they can be taken off you and they do die, so get as many as you can for safety. Basically you want to spend the whole time running about the place like a kid that's just mugged the fairground balloon guy.
The easiest way to collect Dark Nuclei is to cast Corruption or Curse of Agony on them. They don't have a whole load of health and this will speed their demise but it'll keep ticking the damage and stopping healers taking aggro. Rank one is often all you need and while Corruption will get their attention sooner, CoA will stay on them for longer. It won't stop a DPS class from stealing them though, so everyone needs to be careful what they are targeting. You are going to have to run about to catch the things and that's going to cause issues, especially when Valanar is empowered. If he starts to cast Empowered Shock Vortex you need to find a free patch of floor to stand in quickly. Also, be aware of Taldaram casting Conjure Empowered Flame at you, you still need to run away from it until it's been discharged. Amid all that running about, try and be aware of where you and your minion are in relation to the healers. Without them you are toast, so hiding from them is a bad idea. If you do need to go far away from your healers, make sure it's when Keleseth is not empowered, you are at full health and try to use a Circle to get back quickly.
How to support
It's not your normal tank-and-spank affair to have a lock holding onto a boss, so here's some thoughts for others in the raid on how to adjust to the situation:
- Throw heals and absorbs to both the lock and the minion - minions will ignore 90% of AoE damage which is typically all they take, this will not be the case for this fight and the minion will be taking big hits. If they die the lock will take a lot more damage.
- With a smaller health pool than your regular tank, shields, HoTs and small heals have a higher value on a lock. This is especially true if the lock is using Demon Armor.
- Heroism/Bloodlust is best timed when Keleseth is empowered but probably not if that's after the first change.
- Mark the warlock with a raid symbol to help the healers keep an eye on him.
- Keleseth can be taunted if the lock should die, this is obviously dangerous without a load of Nuclei but can save a wipe.
Blood Pact is a weekly column detailing DoTs, demons, and all the dastardly deeds done by Warlocks. If you're curious about what's new with Locks since the last patch, check out WoW.com's guide to patch 3.3 or find out what's upcoming in Cataclysm from the BlizzCon 2009: Class Discussion Panel.
Filed under: Warlock, Raiding, (Warlock) Blood Pact
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
jsmith215 Feb 15th 2010 4:25PM
That pic made me roll on the floor laughing.
Cascade Feb 15th 2010 4:45PM
We use a shadow priest to tank...no big deal.
Probably any class could do it /shrug
-maybe before you might need a lock, but not now.
Viper007Bond Feb 15th 2010 4:48PM
A shadow priest can easily do it, but a Warlock is better due to threat. With a shadow priest, you're making it hard on your DPS because they're easily going to catch the shadow priest on boss switch. A Warlock can spam searing pain on the boss inbetween grabbing orbs and have a much bigger threat lead.
Undra Feb 16th 2010 1:30AM
My guild had me do it (hunter) since I already had range tank gear for absorbing the orbs for the Twins and a suite of instant shots.
rhorle Feb 15th 2010 4:50PM
My guild uses a normal tank, and really it is probably the best option since the change to make him no longer melee. The dark nuclei can be troublesome for a normal tank to keep "aggro" but no more so then a warlock or ranged is at times.
The benifit of having a traditional tank over a range is the tanks cooldowns where most ranged don't have "tank" cooldowns to help them survive better. Of course I didn't have problems as a lock tanking other then losing aggro on nuclei when i'd get knockbacked from other failures in the raid.
rhorle Feb 15th 2010 4:52PM
Forgot to add I wouldn't heroism during keleseth because of threat. You are best to do it during the flame orb guy as it is least movement with a traditional tank generating normal threat. And if he is second it gives the ranged tank the increased rate of threat without having to compete with dps.
shadou Feb 15th 2010 4:57PM
I tank this regularly as a shadow priest... while I admit my threat isn't fantastic like a warlock's would be, I just have our two hunters MD me and rogues ToT as soon as their in range. Our dps watches Omen but it's really only ever necessary on Keleseth's first empowerment.
shadou Feb 15th 2010 4:59PM
Grammar oh grammar... as soon as they're in range**
Lucidien Feb 15th 2010 6:01PM
I cringed. But then you corrected, I totally wasn't expecting it, and I felt my spirit lift a little, well done sir! (or madam?)
Ashleigh Feb 15th 2010 5:20PM
You forgot to mention that Shadow Ward will absorb the nuclei, causing you to get one shot on the improved shadow lances. Important stuff!
rawrawrawr Feb 16th 2010 1:59AM
I haven't actually done the fight, but i was going to bring this up. Shadow Ward is neglected by a lot of Warlocks, i think, but it really is a great ability.
Brent Traut Feb 15th 2010 5:18PM
Our guild uses a Warlock (me) to tank as well. There are really only two concerns in the fight: Survivability and threat generation. I feel I've found a good balance of each with the following spec with the Voidwalker pet:
http://www.wowhead.com/?profile=20806038#talents
The talents were chosen to maximize survivability (Soul Leech, Molten Skin, Nether Protection, etc), yet also produce a fair bit of damage (and thus threat) with Searing Pain.
Traditionally, I only use a few spells. I keep Shadow Ward on cooldown. When Keleseth becomes active, I complement it with my Voidwalker's Sacrifice and Death Coil. To collect the orbs, I use Searing Pain. One shot is almost always enough to pull off anyone else who may have created threat through incidental AoE, and its range is huge thanks to talents. Unlike DoTs, Searing Pain will only do damage once, and runs a lower risk of killing the orb prematurely.
When I have time, I spam Searing Pain on Keleseth. I can traditionally get about 300k threat on Keleseth per switch, and thus a max of 600k threat before he becomes active the first time. This has been plenty to ensure no one pulls off me.
zk Feb 15th 2010 6:01PM
I tried tanking this both as affliction and destro, but couldn't do it. I'd get killed before I had the chance to pick up any floating balls. I have 18K and 23K unbuffed hp in those two specs respectfully. Our demonology warlock has no problems with it though. When he's not around we have a hunter do it in pvp gear. 30k hp with brewfest trinkets :P And aggro is of course not a problem for hunters. Only thing missing is the demonic pact, but we're a 10man guild and always have a shaman there anyway.
Ira Feb 15th 2010 7:24PM
I tank this in both 10 and 25 with my normal raid affliction spec and a normal pve destro. The only time we have problems is if Keleseth empowers 2nd and I haven't grabbed enough nuclei or when my healers underestimate the amount of damage I'm taking. I'm sure that taking the survivability talents would make it easier overall, but it's not exactly necessary.
Ylspeth Feb 15th 2010 8:17PM
Okay, I got to ask. Where do you get the balloons?
Rubitard Feb 15th 2010 11:12PM
A little place in Ironforge called PhotoShop.
Heath Feb 16th 2010 4:13AM
Can any of you leet locks give me tips on upping my dps for fast trash pulls in heroics? It seems I don't really have time to invest on getting dots up (or do I?) and while my dps is fine on bosses, I'm always lagging on the Recount overall. Am I missing something? Usually I'll throw up Corruption and CoA cause they're fast and then Rain of Fire till the pull is done.
Cascade Feb 16th 2010 8:29AM
count 3 seconds and seed of corruption...non-stop.
shatter if you have to but you should pwn the meters.
garetjax.ironman Feb 16th 2010 10:23AM
For 5-mans unless you have sick gear and by sick I mean over 5k gear score you shouldn't even consider running any build other than 41/30. Affliction is never going to put out the DPS on trash that you want because trash in 5-mans is dead way too fast. The only other build, if you have the gear, would be a destro biuld. If you run a 41/30 build you simply want to Rain of fire groups. Otherwise incinerate like crazy. And be sure to use your spell stone to increase your haste. The 41/30 build won't do the damage on bosses that a destro build will do but your overall damage through the run will be higher and you will definitely be slamming the meters on trash. Here is the build.
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-talents.xml?r=Eredar&cn=Flesher&group=1
BTW. I also have not had an affliction lock with GS close to mine out DPS me yet in raids. I run the conflag/Incinerate destro build.
Ullrik Feb 16th 2010 7:22AM
i tank this puppy with an ele shaman.