Lich King discussion

[Tolwen]

Hey all,
since we had a few good tries on him last week and got passed the first transion phase and I'd bet we would get some tries on him tonight. I'm starting this thread so we can discuss our strategy for this fight.
I watched the tankspot video last week but it wasn't a very good one and as Goz pointed out it made it look a loooooot scarier than it really was.
This is what i found on WoW.com: http://www.wow.com/2010/03/19/lich-king-strategy-and-tutorial-video/
it's a very clear video and goes over all the things we need to know for this fight.

[Oilslick]

I thought the ten man normal mode tankspot video was pretty good personally.  Notice the main tank fc-bashing the valk's in addition to holding the LK.

[Docsamson]

I think this is one of those "information overload" fights.  The TankSpot video, while very good at illustrating all points of the fight, has the problem of being a "one guide fits all" video.  It's too much, and no single person has to deal with all of that information.  About 75% of the mechanics are ignored by any one player, but TankSpot just dumps them all on everyone, and confuses people in the process, because there is a LOT to deal with.  So, what we should do here is break it all down into nice easy chunks.

I propose 4 separate discussions, one for each phase.  For each ability, we need to know 3 things, and I think this is the order of importance as to what each of us, as players, needs to know.

• 1) Who needs to worry about it
• 2) What it does
• 3) What you can do about it

So, let's start breaking it down for each phase!

Phase 1
Infest

• Who: Healers
• What it does:Deals increasing Shadow damage per second. Removed when target has more than 90% health.
• What can I do about it:  If you're not a priest, you get to spam the raid back up to full after it "pops".  It'll deal initial damage, about 7k, then start dealing a moderate amount per tick, ramping upwards.  It's best to heal it up as quickly as possible, as the damage does ramp up fairly quickly.

Necrotic Plague

• Who: Everyone
• What it does:This is the "jumping plague".  It deals an enormous amount of damage per tick, and will kill players easily.  It will also kill the ghouls.
• What can I do about it:  If you have it on you, you run to the pile of Shambling Horrors and wait to get dispelled.  This needs to happen quickly, as five seconds after you get it, it will tick and kill you.  Everyone needs to be watching their debuffs for this, as it the most important part of P1 for non-healers, and the easiest way to wipe a raid.

Shambling Horrors

• Who: Melee DPS w/ auto-cleaves, Off-Tank, Rogues, Hunters, DPS/Tank paladins
• What it does:This is the "big add".  It hits like a truck, and needs to be off-tanked.  They'll randomly spawn around the Lich King on a set timer.  They hit hard, have an enrage, and do a frontal cone AoE
• What can I do about it:Melee w/ cleave abilities (all passive AoE) need to be mindful of when they're spawning so you don't make it too hard for the off-tank to nab them.  Rogues/Hunters may want to help out with a misdirect, depending on what class the off-tank is.  The Enrage is a typical enrage effect.  It increases damage by a lot, and makes them hit faster.  Hunters/Rogues can use Tranq/Anesthetic to remove it.  Paladins can (and should) Hammer of Justice/Holy Wrath them.  Warrior off-tanks can Shockwave the enrage, then take a few steps back.  The entire enrage will be spent on them being stunned then running back to you.  Bears get the short end of the stick here, and I'm not really sure what they can do with them.

Drudge Ghouls

• Who:OT, Melee DPS with passive AoE, Rogues/Hunters
• What it does:This is the little add.  It hits like a little girl, has no enrage, and is summoned by the Lich King in a semicircle around him on a set timer.
• What can I do about it: These need to be off-tanked like the Shambling Horror, because they're your "disease carriers" for Necrotic Plague.  Melee DPS needs to watch their cleaving when they spawn so the OT can pick them up, Hunters/Rogues may want to misdirect them to the OT.  Warriors can use Shockwave/TClap/whatever else you have to pick them up.  Paladins, once again, have it easy.  The LK spawns 3 of them.  Avenger's Shield hits 3 targets.  The CD on Shield lines up with the ghoul spawns.  Stand far enough away that the adds already on you don't get bounced to, shield a ghoul, Hand of Reckoning the last one.  You have just picked up all 3 ghouls.  Bears, once again, have the short end of the stick.
  

[Avelandra]

/applaud Doc

I have watched all the strats and this is by far the easiest to understand what the hell I am going to need to be aware of in the fight.

[Oilslick]

bears can bash and back up a step or two for the enrages on shambling horrors

for picking up adds - we've got faerie fire, which won't hold aggro over a single heal from any of our healers so about the only thing we druids can do is single target taunt and hope swipe will grab them - swipe will become less and less effective at picking them up the more mobs that are on the offtank as it's damage and threat are split evenly among the adds being hit (if you're aoe dps, now you know why you steal our aggro so easily when you start aoe'ing without waiting a few seconds first).

one strategy for dual druid tanking is to have the maintank work single target taunts on the LK into his rotation to intentionally make the LK taunt immune so the offtank can occasionally use his aoe taunt - but this will reduce maintank threat per second significantly while keeping the LK taunt immune, so i don't recommend it.

One last thing I noticed while maintanking the Lich King the other day...positioning him initially as a bear can be very easy...or it can be very tough, and it all hinges on one thing.  I think one of the earliest sentences in the tankspot video sums it up nicely, "DPS (and healers) should wait several seconds after the tank has picked up the Lich King before doing anything."  Count to three...heck, maybe even five.  This should go without saying, but has become easily overlooked as the 14k tps pally's and "guaranteed 3 seconds of aggro" from a dk's deathgrip not to mention completely out of balance aoe threat (so unbalanced that instead of giving ferals a decent two piece bonus for bear, the bonus is slightly more aoe threat) have led to less disciplined approaches to dps across the board in WOTLK.