Council Down, Crosshairs on Illidan

It was certainly quite the intense campaign. The first several wipes of the night were my fault. 3 wipes, and I suffered 8 deaths. Why? Because I’m way too slow and sluggish and I got suckered by the Rogue several times. No big deal before I repositioned myself on the far right on top of the stairs and just did laps around the area.

Highlights of the Night

Our first kill involved one of our Warlocks being locked out because he was on the wrong side of the door. Ergo, we had no choice but to 24 man him. I thought we were going to wipe because we had one less DPS but it turns out I had nothing to worry about.

This is nothing more than a straight up survival and endurance fight. As a CoH Priest, I was uniquely suited to run around and heal ranged DPS or melee DPS if it was needed.

After the kill, we paid a quick visit to Hyjal…

…and wiped to Rage. After being in BT for so long, it seemed as if we had lost our raid legs in Hyjal. No worries! Got him down in the next attempt after our Holy Paladin randomly DI’d a Druid. Thank goodness it wasn’t the main tank.

And now it all ends here. I started Karazhan last year around February. I did not expect to see Illidan at all. I’ve trained long and hard for this opportunity. Every boss up to this point had a lesson to teach. It won’t be easy, but we’ll sure as hell give him a bloody nose.

I want to give a very special shout out and thank you to reader Wynthea. She stayed up late last night helping me plan the different healing roles. She talked me through the encounter as it was happening ensuring I didn’t lose my cool. Without her help, Illidari Council will have taken another week or two. I’m in your debt.

So. Whose got some Illidan Priestly pointers?

6 thoughts on “Council Down, Crosshairs on Illidan”

Matt… Thanks. You just made my night.

As for Illidan, Bosskillers will tell you the gist of the fight. Read that first, because there are 5 phases, and it can get confusing.

Phase 1:
Watch the timer once the dialog begins – when it hits 20 sec, throw a PW:S on the MT. ProM at around 7 sec. Renew at 5. Put a G.heal in the pipe, and then let your paladins take over. As a CoH priest, keep your eyes on the members of the raid that catch the shadowfiend debuff, and watch your warlocks. They like to lifetap.

A word about the shadow fiends (or parasites, whatever.): It’s helpful to have a frost mage around to handle them. They should be stationed on the grate in the middle… if you get the fiends, run to the frost mage, let THEM handle it, and run back. Don’t try to dps your own fiends.

Phase 2:
Two fire tanks. A lot of raid damage. Arrange your raid in little clumps by group. ProH your group, and CoH the others. Keep ProM, PW:S, and Renew up on both fire tanks as you can, but mostly let paladins and druids handle them.

Randomly, “Dark Barrage” will happen to one person. They take a TON of damage, very fast. Ask your shammys to save NS, and your druids to save SM for them. YOU save your Vial of the Sunwell for those guys; they’ll need it. (Mages CAN iceblock this, and rogues CAN cloak it, just FYI.) Keep your own OHNOEZ!! macro handy.

Phase 3/4:
These shift back and forth. Phase three is a re-do of phase 1, but now with an Agonizing flames DoT. Throw that person a renew, let your druids know that they’ll need a Lifebloom. Phase 4 you’ll have a warlock tank. Stay max range… he’ll be exploding a bit, and that will kill you. In fact, pay close attention to your DBM distance monitor, because there’s massive shadow damage to the whole raid (you’ll see huge blue/white orbs falling from the sky. Start your ProH THEN so it lands RIGHT after the damage) and if anyone is near you, you will die.

When switching between the phases, a few raiders will be randomly frozen, and gazed by shadow-critters. (they look like sleepy willy…) your dps’ers will have to kill them FAST, so make sure you just keep the lucky people healed, and keep an eye on the MT, since he’ll be scooping illidan up from the warlock tank. General whole-raid healing here. CoH is very useful, as is Renew.

These phases go back and forth, so just pot early and often, but only shadow fiend when it’s NOT the warlock tank. (aka Demon Phase)

Okay, you have a little break and a discussion before phase 5. Yay Mana Regen!

Phase 5 is a lot like Phase 1. Just keep the MT up, and heal the raid. The tank may or may not kite Illidan to traps laid by Ms. Shadowsong. If he does, just make sure he doesn’t forget to block. Lots of PW:S, ProM, and Renew, of course, but mainly let the pallies deal with it, and keep an eye on the raid.

Once Illidan is dead… Cross your fingers and hope he drops a Crystal Spire of Karabor!

Luv,
Wyn.