The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Warriors in Icecrown Citadel, Part 1
by Matthew Rossi 
Dec 18th 2009 at 5:00PM
Before I get to the meat of the discussion this week, which is tanking/DPSing the four new encounters in Icecrown Citadel, let me just say that I'm still ridiculously excited about running PuG's on both my Alliance and Horde warriors using the new Dungeon Finder. I tweeted this week that my tanking perfectionism is getting in the way of enjoyment for me so I slapped my DPS gear on and took the breaks between PuG's as excuse to do things like eat, read, use the facilities (where those aromatic essential oils lurk in wait... the spearmint one is very nice, actually)... it's reduced my stress factor considerably, and I'm pleasantly surprised at how solid my DPS is considering that I haven't work on my gear or spec in a while.
Well, okay, except for Halls of Reflection, where I had a run that consisted of me being afraid to even hit Whirlwind for fear of instantly pulling aggro. What was that guy doing?
However, this column isn't about the new five mans, or PuGging. Let's get to the meat of the post and talk about our quartet of encounters in ICC.
Before we talk about bosses, let me just say that for those of us (including me) who said we missed trash, it's back, baby! Some of it can be AoE'd down zerg style, but some CC is actually really useful and beneficial here. Also, if you're not the tank, don't stand in front of the big giants who spawn when the traps are set off, as they have a nasty frontal cleave. (If you are the tank, go ahead and stand in that. But please try and point it away from the DPS.)
Lord Marrowgar
Lord Marrowgar isn't a ridiculously hard fight, but it has a few elements to be aware of. (Note: I'm aware that Marrowgar is now tauntable, but he wasn't every time I've killed him, so we tended to fight him wherever he stopped moving and had the raid adjust.) First up is his Saber Lash which does 300% of Marrowgar's normal damage to the tank and two other tanks who get to stand next to the tank and do almost nothing the entire fight. Yay. We really missed that from Black Temple, boy. (And yes, ZA.)
Marrowgar will also use an ability called Bone Spike Graveyard. This is a ridiculously irritating ability. First off, he picks a player at random and hurls a bone spike at him, which impales not only the target but everyone between Marrowgar and the target on bone spikes that continue to deal damage on them until the spikes are destroyed. My raid has all available DPS switch over and destroy the impales as fast as they can, including DPS warriors (yay for Charge and Intercept). While all of this is going on, Marrowgar casts Coldflame, which is Doomfire all over again - it targets a player at range and makes a beeline for him or her, so just move (even the target can move) to avoid being hit.
His final ability is Bone Storm, where he starts whirlwinding, charging random targets and generally running all over the place like a toddler overdoed on pixie sticks. After a few annoying moments of this (20 seconds, I believe) he resets and wipes aggro, but while this previously required a Misdirect or Tricks of the Trade to help tanks regain aggro, he's tauntable now so he can be reset fairly easily. Bone Storm is physical damage and for a DPS warrior it doesn't hit very hard, so while you shouldn't stand in it you should be able to get out of the effect with minimal difficulty.
For a DPS warrior this fight is basically all about maximizing your mobility: get out of Coldflame, switch to Bone Spikes fast, don't stand in Bone Storm. For a tank this fight is pretty boring, frankly. If you're the MT you'll at least be able to work on threat, the offtank (we do it with 2 tanks on 10 man) or offtanks will be standing around trying to give the MT reassuring hugs and backrubs the entire time. I've found Intervene is very useful as an offtank to help collapse to the MT faster to make sure he doesn't eat a Saber Lash, and as MT I use it to get away from the Bone Storms. Once you get through Marrowgar's array of terribly annoying abilities, it's on to the next boss.
Lady Deathwhisper
Here's a fight all about adds. Until it's not about adds anymore. Stll, if you like adds, Lady Deathwhisper has you covered.
Lady Deathwhisper has two phases. In phase 1 she puts up a mana shield that the raid will need to burn through in order to be able to hurt her at all (triggering phase 2) while at the same time periodically summoning waves of adds. I've only run this fight as a warrior on 25 (I healed it on 10's) but from what I understand the adds only spawn from one side of the room at a time on 10's while on 25's they spawn from both sides.
The complication here is that each kind of add has a buff that means you will have to coordinate DPS to kill them: DPS warriors should be focusing on Cult Adherents, due to their Adherent's Determination buff that makes them almost totally immune to magical damage. If you are a DPS warrior and you are attacking a Cult Fanatic, stop it, they have Fanatic's Determination and they barely even feel it. Adherents are the caster mobs and Fanatics are the melee mobs, so always be meleeing casters and avoiding melee targets. Deathwhisper also raises these guys from the dead as Reanimated Adherents and Fanatics when you kill them, so if you're OTing prepare to have to tank them again. There's various curses and debuffs to be dealt with here, but you're a warrior, so you can't do anything about those. You might want to keep hitting Spell Reflect when it's up just in case her Shadow Bolts are randomly targeting you... it helps keep your damage down while you're tanking the casters anyway.
She's supposed to cast Mind Control on various players during the encounter ala KT, but I can't say I saw it happen. Doesn't mean it didn't, but we have crazy fast polymorphing mages and hexing shamans and I was tanking a lot of adds at this point. If you see a player get MC'd, please don't kill him or her (if you're DPS), because as funny as you may think it is, that's DPS or healing you'll want later.
In phase 2, Deathwhisper's shield comes down and the fun begins. If you're a tank, you'll either pick Deathwhisper up now or prepare to do so, because she has an ability called Touch of Insignificance which reduces your threat generation by 20%, and it stacks up to five. (It's very annoying.) So you will have to have her taunted off before it stacks to five (we prefer swapping tanks at three stacks) and then letting it fall off so you can taunt her back. Taunt rotations are fun, aren't they? So much fun. Look at how much fun we're having!
While Deathwhisper is being a jerk about aggro, she's also casting Frostbolts that hit for over 40k on 25. If you are DPS, interrupt these. If you're tanking, interrupt these. They are bad. (An easily worked out interrupt rotation like the one you probably had for Vezax or Kel'Thuzad will come in handy here.) She also puts Death and Decay on the ground, so don't stand in that. I wish just once a boss would put Cherry Happy Sunshine Aura of Glee down on the ground and if we stood in it we would all smell nice and feel happier. Finally, she summons Vengeful Shades that will blow up on a random target, so run out of the raid if you get that so you don't blow other people up.
Taunt trade her off, interrupt the frost bolts, don't stand in D&D, don't let ghosts blow up the raid, she dies and you get loot. It's a fairly involved fight to tank, but nothing too terrible, and DPS mostly has to help out with interrupts and not stand in stuff between making sure to target the mobs that aren't invulnerable to their kind of damage.
Next up are the two fun fights in the instance. We'll cover the Gunship Battle and Deathbringer Saurfang in next week's post, which is sure to contain delicious morsels. Literally. I promise you I will mention food several times.
Patch 3.3 is the last major patch of Wrath of the Lich King. With the new Icecrown Citadel 5-man dungeons and 10/25-man raid arriving soon, patch 3.3 will deal the final blow to Arthas. WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.3 will keep you updated with all the latest patch news.Filed under: Warrior, (Warrior) The Care and Feeding of Warriors, Classes, Raiding, Instances, News items, Odds and ends, Analysis / Opinion, Patches, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
SternOne Dec 18th 2009 5:22PM
Its not a frontal cleave that those big giants use in the trash before Marrowgar - its a Saber Lash, similar to that which Marrowgar uses. Its a subtle difference to be sure, but it means that the damage is split between all of the targets it hits. So ideally you want to put the 2 (or 3 in 25 man) tanks in front of that guy right on top of eachother in order to reduce the damage significantly.
Matthew Rossi Dec 18th 2009 5:53PM
You sure about this? Because I can solo tank one of them in 25's with no one else standing in front, if it were a saber lash I wouldn't expect to be able to do that.
SternOne Dec 18th 2009 6:14PM
I'm pretty confident that I'm correct - check the combat log. It said saber lash for me. It doesn't deal a crazy amount of damage to the point where a tank will be in danger if you don't do it properly, but it works in the same way as every other saber lash.
Sleutel Dec 18th 2009 8:04PM
Without having seen actual numbers from the fight, it was my impression that I was taking much less damage when two-tanking those big trap adds than when single-tanking them.
Tushar Bharadia Dec 18th 2009 9:08PM
It is a saber lash, but the damage is far less than that which Marrowgar uses, which is why you can hold one like that. On my 10mans, I stand with with the other tank and the damage drops even more.
Amusingly, it seems that the boss abilities are mirrored in the trash, at least for Marrowgar. The caster mobs leading up to him do a glacial spike (moving line of cold stuff), the spider mobs do a web wrap (Bone Spike), and then you have the giant saber lash.
Seems like a pretty good way to get the raid warmed up for the boss if you ask me.
Also, I love this column. Just had to say that. Cheers.
thinkasumtinb3tr Dec 18th 2009 11:38PM
It is a saber lash, I have seen our enh shaman die to [Saberlash] in the combat logs far too many times.
Heilig Dec 19th 2009 1:28AM
The odd part is that the icon associated with the ability is that of a cleave, not a Saber lash, and it barely hits at all. I know it SAYS Saber lash, but I'm pretty convinced the actual mechanic at work is a cleave, especially since it hits me for around 8K in 10 man regardless of who else gets killed by it.
thebvp Dec 18th 2009 5:22PM
Re: Getting boned.
Making a macro to target bone spikes is supposed to make things a lot easier on Marrowgar (like demon chains in Kara), but then again, what do I know, I'm a healer, I just play whack a mole and try not to stand in fires. It's probably /target bone spike.
At any rate, can someone verify?
pilsen Dec 20th 2009 1:10PM
A target macro isn't necessary as there is no other targets besides the boss and the bone spike. Just use tab to target.
Tim Dec 18th 2009 5:36PM
If I OT should I run away from from (kite) the spolding ghosts so as to not hurt the raid/ MT?
Finnicks Dec 18th 2009 5:39PM
What was he DOING?
Probably mashing every button in his repetoire just trying to establish a modicom of aggro on everything.
The first part of that place is really crazy hard to tank.
Especially for me. Bear tank FTL.
/2 WTB Reliable interrupt for bears to pull casters. PST.
Chris Dec 18th 2009 6:01PM
"DPS warriors should be focusing on Cult Adherents, due to their Adherent's Determination buff that makes them almost totally immune to magical damage. If you are a DPS warrior and you are attacking a Cult Fanatic, stop it, they have Fanatic's Determination and they barely even feel it."
This statement is quite wrong. They only gain the "fanatic's determination" you speak of after they become Re-animated. Therefore you can attack Fanatics as much as you want until they are reanimated.
Heilig Dec 19th 2009 1:29AM
"/2 WTB Reliable interrupt for bears to pull casters. PST."
There are walls. With corners. Around which you can hide. Utilize them.
Finnicks Dec 19th 2009 2:17AM
Tried that. The healer always collaspes under the weight of all the krazy AoE damage that happens when you cram the group into the tiny nooks.
Krabork Dec 18th 2009 6:15PM
Marrowgar bone spikes 3 players on 25, not a number of people in a row.
The only mobs that have any kind of "determination" immunity on the Deathwhisper fight are the Reanimated Fanatics and Reanimated Adherents. If they haven't been exploded and subsequently resurrected, any damage can hit them. The only concern comes on Adherents which sometimes put up a spell reflect shield, but that isn't the same as a -99% damage reduction, and it can be burned down by the melee.
So while certain types of DPS are better suited to attack certain targets, saying it can't be done is incorrect. At least in the warrior's case, it let's you take advantage of sweeping strikes if you're near another mob. It also means that if there is a fanatic nearby, you can hit it just fine, as long as you don't pull aggro on the tank/kiter.
dude Dec 18th 2009 6:32PM
Do you use any sort of threat meters when you are tanking? I'm the MT for a small guild and as a protection specced warrior I'm always looking for tips on maintaining agro on groups of mobs, beyond Thunderclapping and Shockwaving whenever they are off cooldown.
I would think a nice threat meter that had easy visualizations of my threat level on each mob would be awesome. Sort of like the Healbot ui, but instead of party health it would show my threat level on each mob.
DraconisXC Dec 18th 2009 7:08PM
I use Omen3 whether I'm tanking or DPSing. If you're really determined to hold threat on larger pulls and you're not tanking a lot of raids, give Glyph of Cleaving a shot.
Sleutel Dec 18th 2009 8:09PM
TC and SW whenever they're up. Spam the hell out of Cleave (put it on your mousewheel if you can to save your fingers). Tab-target or manually switch targets to get a special attack in on each mob you're tanking in sequence (e.g., tab, SS, tab, Revenge, tab, Devastate...). Don't just stay on one mob, even if it's the main target and you're not just AOEing everything down, and expect to hold the whole group. Keep Shield Block up as much as you can, for the extra threat from Damage Shield (which talent you should have); I have mine macro'd into Shield Slam.
Sleutel Dec 18th 2009 8:03PM
"Well, okay, except for Halls of Reflection, where I had a run that consisted of me being afraid to even hit Whirlwind for fear of instantly pulling aggro. What was that guy doing?"
I think the mobs have actually been bugged. The second and most recent time I tried H-HoR (cleared it the first time), I COULD NOT keep adds off of the DPS and healer. Didn't matter if they held off until after I'd dropped TC/SW on the adds--they'd head straight for anyone but me. The clincher for the "bug" theory is things like (a) my friend playing her Ret pally telling me that she'd wait until the Priest mob hit 75% health before even touching it, at which point she'd rip if off me with a single attack (and Ret is her offspec, where she does maybe 2k DPS, and I'm in a combo of TotGC10/ToC25/TotGC25 gear) and (b) taunting a mob off someone else, only to glance down at Omen and see that I have a HUGE aggro lead on the next person, where if I'd actually just used Taunt on someone who'd surpassed me, we should be about equal.
"First up is his Saber Lash which does 300% of Marrowgar's normal damage to the tank and two other tanks who get to stand next to the tank and do almost nothing the entire fight. Yay. We really missed that from Black Temple, boy. (And yes, ZA.)"
And Patchwerk, although obviously the mechanics are a little different. Doing the fight on 10-man, I didn't have any Rage issues, either, which was nice, after the joy of Rage starvation that was often being a Hateful tank on Patch.
Shimonu Dec 19th 2009 11:24AM
last time when we fight with lady on 25 our druid heal got mind controlled. someone on vent said chop the tree and it was done. effect: wipe. good lesson for those that are attacking everything that is red.