Blood Pact: Running circles around the Lich King
Blood Pact is your weekly warlock digest, brought to you by Dominic Hobbs. "The breaking of this one has been taxing. The atrocities that I have committed upon his soul. He has resisted for so long, but he will bow down before his king soon." -- The Lich King
It's been a while since Blood Pact had a foray into Icecrown Citadel, but we can't leave without a look at the king. With the increasing faction buff, more and more people are starting to encounter the final fight of the instance, either for the first time or as a hard mode. I'm not about to try and explain the whole fight; your best bet is to watch our strategy video for that. What I aim to do here is to once again look at the encounter through the filter of our spell book, to see how we can get that little bit more from the fight.
Phase 1
There are two abilities you need to stay aware of in phase one. The most obvious is Necrotic Plague. This is a disease that will one-shot you after five seconds if not cleansed. The trick to managing it is to have it removed from you while you are standing by one of the adds. This makes it jump to them and eventually kill them. So as soon as you are inflicted, you need to run behind the adds. Don't run amongst them or in front; they can easily one-shot you with Shockwave. You only need an add to be closer to you than another player.
I use DeadlyBossMods to let me know when I get the plague (a trumpet announcement wakes me up every time).It's important to not worry about finishing a cast; just move. I also find it useful to have an addon highlight when the plague has been removed. Here I use TellMeWhen. It means I can have a nice big icon on my screen while the debuff is active (this also works even if your combat log, and therefore DBM, fails). The same effect can be achieved with addons like PowerAuras and most buff frame addons.
Managing Necrotic Plague is also the first opportunity to gain a little time by using a Summoning Circle. It would seem logical to have the circle over by the adds so you can get over there more quickly, but this isn't great. For a start, the adds may move (tanks being flighty at times). Secondly, the person assigned to cleansing the debuff might be looking to see someone run out and miss a sneaky lock teleporting. It saves just as much time to have your circle on the ranged group and then when you get the plague you run out, wait for cleanse and teleport back. This also leaves you turned to face Arthas and ready to shoot.
Transition phases
Not a great deal to add to the basic strat for warlocks here. Don't bother with the phase one adds unless the plague has worn off them all; just stay on the Raging Spirits. It's hyper-important not to over-aggro here. While any tank that is on the ball will simply taunt them back off you, that brief moment when they turn around could well mean your whole group is silenced and possibly killed by a Soul Shriek.
You may want to stand on a Circle again for this one, as it's a good idea to run to the tank if a Raging Spirit is about to burst out of you, so they can pick it up more easily. Again, being able to teleport back to position faster means more DPS for you and less chance of being fried by Pain and Suffering (that should so be a warlock spell).
Since your minions have no fear of Remorseless Winter, you might find it a good idea to set them on the Ice Spheres (or your raid leader might ask you to). Rather than having to turn around and look for them, you can save yourself the hassle with a simple macro.
This is where the demonic circle really comes into its own. Defile is the most dangerous mechanic in this phase but is too unpredictable to be effectively managed with a circle -- better to just learn to run. The Val'kyr are where you can win the day. Generally, the raid group should be bunched up in the middle of the platform so the Val'kyr have a long way to drag their victims -- it's also advisable to have everyone just to one side of center, so all three fly in the same direction. Warlocks are the exception; they should be as close to the edge of the platform as they can be and still nuke the boss. Drop a circle and stand on it. If a Val'kyr swoops in and grabs you, then you should have a short and swift flight to the edge. As they drop you, you can simply teleport back to your place and nuke the bejeezus out of the other Val'kyr.
This ability to defeat the Val'kyr mechanic is truly awesome but isn't unique; hunters can actually Disengage back up if they turn and use it quickly enough. I don't know about mages using Blink; I think it just leaves a mage-shaped imprint on the side of the spire.
Always remember to replace your circle if you have to move for Defile (or simply because the fight has repositioned).
Phase 3
Your position will be determined by the strategy put forward by your raid leader. When the Vile Spirits spawn, you get to show off your fancy, targeted ranged AoE -- Seed of Corruption. Throw as many of these up into the cloud of spirits as you can until they are all dead or you are being chased (then run). Remember to keep an eye out for Defile the whole time.
If you are hit with Harvest Soul, then you will (hopefully) be transferred into Frostmourne. Here you have a choice:Heal Terenas or kill the Spirit Warden. Since bandages aren't all that great, I'd go for the latter if I were you. It is possible to flat-out nuke this fight and simply do more damage to the warden than he does to Terenas in the time. This is hard, though, as he has a real killer spell in Soul Rip (another 'lock spell, surely). This is a channeled spell that does increasing damage over eight seconds. You can and should interrupt the cast. There are a whole host of ways in which you can do this: Spell Lock, Intercept, Shadowfury, Inferno, Demon Charge and maybe more (see comments).
General notes
Don't forget your Shadow Ward. There's a lot of shadow damage in this fight and at times, it can start to overwhelm the healers. Minimize the damage incoming from the likes of Infest and Pain and Suffering with your ward and keep a healthstone handy. Shadow Ward doesn't completely absorb the damage from Defile, though, so even with it up you will still cause it to grow if you stray into one. Just don't.
Infest. This is a nasty ability that knocks a chunk of health off everyone and then is an increasing DoT that is only removed when you get over 90% health. You might not even notice it land on you if you have a discipline priest on the raid (if the bubble absorbs the initial hit, then the DoT doesn't stick), but if you have it on you, then don't Life Tap. The healers should quickly top you off -- and if they don't, then pop a stone, clear the debuff and then you can Tap.
Oh yeah, and don't release when he kills you at 10%.
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.
It's been a while since Blood Pact had a foray into Icecrown Citadel, but we can't leave without a look at the king. With the increasing faction buff, more and more people are starting to encounter the final fight of the instance, either for the first time or as a hard mode. I'm not about to try and explain the whole fight; your best bet is to watch our strategy video for that. What I aim to do here is to once again look at the encounter through the filter of our spell book, to see how we can get that little bit more from the fight.
Phase 1
There are two abilities you need to stay aware of in phase one. The most obvious is Necrotic Plague. This is a disease that will one-shot you after five seconds if not cleansed. The trick to managing it is to have it removed from you while you are standing by one of the adds. This makes it jump to them and eventually kill them. So as soon as you are inflicted, you need to run behind the adds. Don't run amongst them or in front; they can easily one-shot you with Shockwave. You only need an add to be closer to you than another player.
I use DeadlyBossMods to let me know when I get the plague (a trumpet announcement wakes me up every time).It's important to not worry about finishing a cast; just move. I also find it useful to have an addon highlight when the plague has been removed. Here I use TellMeWhen. It means I can have a nice big icon on my screen while the debuff is active (this also works even if your combat log, and therefore DBM, fails). The same effect can be achieved with addons like PowerAuras and most buff frame addons.
Managing Necrotic Plague is also the first opportunity to gain a little time by using a Summoning Circle. It would seem logical to have the circle over by the adds so you can get over there more quickly, but this isn't great. For a start, the adds may move (tanks being flighty at times). Secondly, the person assigned to cleansing the debuff might be looking to see someone run out and miss a sneaky lock teleporting. It saves just as much time to have your circle on the ranged group and then when you get the plague you run out, wait for cleanse and teleport back. This also leaves you turned to face Arthas and ready to shoot.
Transition phases
Not a great deal to add to the basic strat for warlocks here. Don't bother with the phase one adds unless the plague has worn off them all; just stay on the Raging Spirits. It's hyper-important not to over-aggro here. While any tank that is on the ball will simply taunt them back off you, that brief moment when they turn around could well mean your whole group is silenced and possibly killed by a Soul Shriek.
You may want to stand on a Circle again for this one, as it's a good idea to run to the tank if a Raging Spirit is about to burst out of you, so they can pick it up more easily. Again, being able to teleport back to position faster means more DPS for you and less chance of being fried by Pain and Suffering (that should so be a warlock spell).
Since your minions have no fear of Remorseless Winter, you might find it a good idea to set them on the Ice Spheres (or your raid leader might ask you to). Rather than having to turn around and look for them, you can save yourself the hassle with a simple macro.
Phase 2/tar Ice Sphere
/petAttack
/targetLastTarget

This ability to defeat the Val'kyr mechanic is truly awesome but isn't unique; hunters can actually Disengage back up if they turn and use it quickly enough. I don't know about mages using Blink; I think it just leaves a mage-shaped imprint on the side of the spire.
Always remember to replace your circle if you have to move for Defile (or simply because the fight has repositioned).
Phase 3
Your position will be determined by the strategy put forward by your raid leader. When the Vile Spirits spawn, you get to show off your fancy, targeted ranged AoE -- Seed of Corruption. Throw as many of these up into the cloud of spirits as you can until they are all dead or you are being chased (then run). Remember to keep an eye out for Defile the whole time.
If you are hit with Harvest Soul, then you will (hopefully) be transferred into Frostmourne. Here you have a choice:Heal Terenas or kill the Spirit Warden. Since bandages aren't all that great, I'd go for the latter if I were you. It is possible to flat-out nuke this fight and simply do more damage to the warden than he does to Terenas in the time. This is hard, though, as he has a real killer spell in Soul Rip (another 'lock spell, surely). This is a channeled spell that does increasing damage over eight seconds. You can and should interrupt the cast. There are a whole host of ways in which you can do this: Spell Lock, Intercept, Shadowfury, Inferno, Demon Charge and maybe more (see comments).
General notes
Don't forget your Shadow Ward. There's a lot of shadow damage in this fight and at times, it can start to overwhelm the healers. Minimize the damage incoming from the likes of Infest and Pain and Suffering with your ward and keep a healthstone handy. Shadow Ward doesn't completely absorb the damage from Defile, though, so even with it up you will still cause it to grow if you stray into one. Just don't.
Infest. This is a nasty ability that knocks a chunk of health off everyone and then is an increasing DoT that is only removed when you get over 90% health. You might not even notice it land on you if you have a discipline priest on the raid (if the bubble absorbs the initial hit, then the DoT doesn't stick), but if you have it on you, then don't Life Tap. The healers should quickly top you off -- and if they don't, then pop a stone, clear the debuff and then you can Tap.
Oh yeah, and don't release when he kills you at 10%.

Filed under: Warlock, Raiding, (Warlock) Blood Pact
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jeremy Apr 26th 2010 11:06AM
Awesome!
rhorle Apr 26th 2010 11:16AM
The lock should put their circle as close to the edge as they can, not the spot they stand to nuke the boss. As it ensures no matter what you won't be out of range of your circle. It also allows you to run to the edge where your circle is when val'kyr are going to spawn as you then get dropped off right away. This allows you plenty of time to help dps the other two since you were so close to the edge the val'kyr almost dropped you as soon as you were picked up.
tresser Apr 26th 2010 11:45AM
does shadowfury stun the val'kyr?
Alex Apr 26th 2010 12:03PM
Yes. I respecced to pick it up in a stun-light group.
hehealme Apr 26th 2010 12:10PM
Yes, Shadowfury does stun the Val'kyrs.
For phase 1 I definitely recommend using your Demonic Teleport to get to your OT ASAP. The following macro I've found very useful...
/stopcasting
/cast Demonic Circle: Teleport
Its very simple, really. If you're casting, it'll stop your casting and teleport you immediately. Once DBM (or whatever addon you're using) tells you you have Necrotic Plague, just press this macro and you're there :-)
Note: Most dispellers are looking to see people RUN to the OT. It has occurred many times where I've died to Necrotic Plague because the dispeller didn't think I was at the OT yet. So, if you're using your teleport, let your dispeller know :-P
Shuraa Apr 26th 2010 1:06PM
One teensy addition regarding the transition phase from a tank perspective:
'While any tank that is on the ball will simply taunt them back off you'
Can't do that while silenced. Which is why it's triply important to watch aggro on the spirits and do not open fire TOO fast either. And it's not like healers always have the spare time to cleanse/dispel that silence off, especially in the 2nd transition where the extra spirit is piling up a good chunk of damage on the offtank.
Vogie Apr 26th 2010 2:56PM
"I don't know about mages using Blink; I think it just leaves a mage-shaped imprint on the side of the spire."
Thanks to that, I'll be referring to mages from here on out as Bugs Bunny characters...
Pyromelter Apr 26th 2010 3:27PM
Blink does not work. I've heard claims that it can work, but I've never seen it work. Blink generally doesn't move you forward in the air when you are falling, and unless there's a special spot i've never hit, it's never worked for me.
Warlocks are imba for LK.
pancakes Apr 27th 2010 3:10AM
Warlocks are imba for everywhere. It's science or something.
sander May 12th 2010 7:18AM
Blink can work, but the mage needs to have Safe Fall casted on himself before being picked up by the Valkyr.
At least, that's what I've been told by some mage friends. Nobody is willing to risk a wipe to try it though. Bunch of pansies.