Netherspite Boss Guide: Karazhan World of Warcraft Raid Walkthrough

If you're looking for a World of Warcraft Karazhan Raid Guide for Netherspite, you've come to the right place!

Netherspite, along with Shade of Aran and Terestian Illhoof, is an optional boss. All three of these bosses may be completed in any order that the raid wishes. Often times the raid will kill Shade of Aran on the first run through, then come back for Netherspite and Terestian Illhoof the next day.

Netherspite is a giant, ghostly dragon and is one of the more difficult bosses in Karazhan. Make sure that your entire raid has appropriate consumables including food, elixir/flasks and potions.

Ideal Raid Composition:

2 Tanks (crit immune, class doesn't matter)

3 Healers

5 Good DPS

Having strong DPS is very important in this fight. Once you begin the encounter with Netherspite, a 9 minute enrage timer starts. When that timer reaches zero, he will kill the entire raid within 20 seconds. DPS is by far the most crucial element of this fight, besides making sure to stand in the beams. What beams? Alright then, let's get to some of the big nether dragon's abilities.

Netherspite alternates between two phases during the fight. He goes back and forth between them periodically. Let's go over them, and the strategy during each phase.

Portal Phase

This is the phase that Netherspite will be in when you first begin the fight. Three portals of three different colors will spawn in corners of the room. From these portals, beams of the appropriate color will reach towards the center of the room. If these beams come into contact with Netherspite, they will each give him buffs, like healing him or making him do more damage.

These beams have to be blocked by players standing in the beams. Players blocking a beam get a buff from it, however they each have both a good and bad effect and the buffs continue stacking over time, making the effect more and more extreme. Once the buff wears off of someone, they get a debuff called Nether Exhaustion which prevents them from standing in the same color beam for one minute and 30 seconds, and because of this two people will need to be assigned to each beam, taking turns in the beam each new portal phase.

Red Beam

If someone is standing in the red beam, they will automatically have Netherspite's aggro. Needless to say, the two tanks are the ones assigned to stand in the red beam. This is great, because it makes it very easy to tank him. As a note, while tanking Netherspite you will want to strafe in and out of the red beam for a second or two about once every 10 seconds. This will stop the buff from affecting you too much.

The red beam grants you additional health, defense and reduces the amount of damage you take. However, each additional application reduces your maximum health by 1,000. If the beam hits Netherspite, it reduces his damage taken by 1% for each application - something very major in this DPS race.

Green Beam

This is the healing beam. If it hits Netherspite he heals, so it is very important to not let him touch this one. Two, or even all three of your healers if they're bored or something, will alternate between standing in this beam.

The green beam will reduce the costs for casting spells and increase your +healing with each application, however it also reduces your mana.

Blue Beam

This is the DPS beam. You can have just about anything you'd like in it, though it is suggested that you have your two DPS which are best and most experienced alternate between standing in it. It increases damage done, however also increases damage taken from spells as well as reduces healing received. If it hits Netherspite, he gets a boost to his damage done.

People in the blue beam will keep taking damage from Netherspite's shadow aura, so your DPS standing in the beam should have high health as well. If you have trouble with DPS dying while taking the blue beam, you can use two DPS for each phase, each taking about 20 seconds in the beam.

Banish Phase

This phase lasts for around 30 seconds. Netherspite will go into a sudden rage and start using Netherbreath. However at this point, Netherspite becomes stationary and unable to move. His Netherbreath only has a range of 60 yards and his room is huge. As soon as the banish phase begins, everyone simply turns and runs towards the edge of the room. When around 5 seconds are left in the banish phase, the next red beam tank will start approaching Netherspite and preparing to pick up the red beam, while healers will make sure to stay in range to heal them.

Then Netherspite will switch back into his portal phase, summoning the three portals which may or may not be arranged in the same way. Your raid must immediately stand in the beams and begin DPS again.

That's about it. It's a challenging fight because of all the team strategy required, but once your raid gets it down, it's pretty easy. Here are a few tips and tricks:

- Netherspite is a dragon. Stay away from his head and tail, unless you're tanking him.

- Some shadow resistance can help, if your raid is having trouble. Your raid should have a priest's shadow resist buff if at all possible.

- Don't fret it if you can't down Netherspite on the first try, first week or even first month. Netherspite is the sort of boss where one or two substandard raid members can really spell failure, especially if your DPS isn't strong enough to beat the timer. Feel free to come back with better gear at a later date.

That's all for this World of Warcraft Karazhan Boss Guide for Netherspite! Check back for more World of Warcraft Raid Walkthroughs soon!

Shade of Aran Guide: Karazhan World of Warcraft Raid Walkthrough

If you're looking for a WoW Karazhan Raid Guide for Shade of Aran, you've come to the right place!

Shade of Aran is an optional boss, and along with Terestian Illhoof and Nightbane may be done in any order after The Curator. However, most people choose to skip past Nightbane and Illhoof to do Shade of Aran immediately after Curator. This is because once Shade of Aran is defeated, players may teleport up to his room by talking to Berthold just inside the main entrance to Karazhan.

Ideal Group Composition:

1 Tank (or less)

2-3+ Classes that can interrupt Shade's main attacks (see below)

1-2 Warlocks (useful, though not fully necessary)

Fill the rest with the best DPS you have

The entire raid needs to have a bare minimum of around 7,600 health when raid buffed, preferably 8,000+. This is because aggro is semi-random with Shade of Aran, so everyone needs to be able to absorb his main attacks without dying. Because of this, threat reduction buffs (like Paladin's Blessing of Salvation) are useless, and tanks should switch out to the best DPS gear they have. Healers need to be on their toes, constantly healing the entire raid.

Shade of Aran is on a 12 minute timer. After 12 minutes, the raid will be destroyed. This is usually not a concern. I have personally never failed to either kill him or wipe before the timer runs up.

For most of the fight, Shade of Aran will stand towards the center of the room casting Fireball, Frost Bolt and Arcane Missiles at seemingly random members of the raid. Your raid members need to interrupt the Fireballs and Frost Bolts, but allow the Arcane Missiles to go off so that Shade of Aran uses the most mana.

Druid Feral Charge, Rogue Kick, Warlock Spell Lock, Mage Counterspell, Shaman Earth Shock, and Warrior Pummel and Shield Bash can all interrupt Shade of Aran's spells.

Shade of Aran will also use three other important spells throughout the fight. I will go over them each individually here:

Flame Wreath

When Shade of Aran uses Flame Wreath, you will see flames erupt on the ground in circular shapes. When he does this, everyone in the raid must STOP MOVING immediately. Everyone in the raid needs to stand still, or several members of the raid may take severe damage. Flame Wreath is simple to avoid, but it's one of the main reasons I've seen raids wipe on Shade of Aran. As far as I can tell, pets do not trigger Flame Wreath.

Blizzard

Blizzard is a storm raining down ice that circles around the edge of the room slowly in a clockwise motion. It is easy to see and avoid, but also easy to accidentally get caught in if you aren't on your toes!

Arcane Explosion

Every once in a while, Shade of Aran will pull everyone to the center of the room, slow them, and start casting an Arcane Explosion. Arcane Explosion will most likely kill you. As soon as he pulls you to the center of the room, you must immediately dash towards the wall. Druids may get rid of the slow by shapeshifting, and it may be dispelled as normal, though there is enough time to make it to the wall even if you are slowed. Many raids wipe to Arcane Explosion.

Also of note, Shade of Aran has a permanent AoE Counterspell up around him. Because of this, all casters must keep their distance. There is no other significant effect.

When Shade of Aran reaches 20% mana, he will polymorph the entire raid for a few seconds, sit down and drink to regain his mana. When he finishes drinking, he will Pyroblast the entire raid for around 7.5k damage. There is nothing that can be done to avoid this. The reason that you don't interrupt his Arcane Missiles is so that he loses mana the fastest while still not taking much damage, that way he Pyroblasts early in the fight. If he reaches 20% mana again, he will not Pyroblast.

When Shade of Aran's health reaches 40%, he summons four water elementals. The elementals last for 90 seconds. There are several ways of dealing with them. First of all, a good warlock can functionally crowd control two of them (fear and banish) until they simply despawn. They can be chain stunned by a rogue, or warrior/priest feared. They can also be tanked and killed - they have around 13k health so they aren't that difficult to kill. Our raid usually likes to bring two warlocks to crowd control them as we find it easier and less chaotic that way.

Just a last few notes before I finish this up. First of all, this is a healing and mana intensive fight. Everyone should have stamina (food) buffs. Everyone should have mana and healing potions, as appropriate. Healers really need to be on their toes, especially in keeping the entire raid topped off at full health. Second of all, be aware that shapeshifting, mages using Blink, accepting a rez, and shaman totems can all trigger flame wreath, so be very careful to not fall victim to the deadly flames.

All in all once your raid gets the fight down, Shade of Aran isn't that hard. Your raid needs to have strong DPS and be able to crowd control the elementals. Also, one idiot running around during Flame Wreath can wipe your entire raid - hence all huntards must be removed from the raid before attempting Shade of Aran.

That's all for today, check back soon for more World of Warcraft Raid Guides & Walkthrus!

WoW Raid Guides & Walkthroughs Special Update

I am currently in the process of writing guides for all raid content in order of in-game progression. I will put up miscellaneous other guides like the tanking guide as I get to them.

However I will gladly write something out of order if there is a high demand for it (for example if you would like to see a Void Reaver guide before I do Mag, or think it's about high time I got around to writing that darn tanking guide).

If you would like to see something specific, just let me know by commenting here and I will get right on it.

Terestian Illhoof Boss Guide: World of Warcraft Karazhan Walkthrough

If you're looking for a World of Warcraft Karazhan Raid Boss Guide and Walkthrough for Terestian Illhoof, you've come to the right place!

Terestian Illhoof is an optional boss in Karazhan. Many people opt to skip Illhoof & Nightbane to go on to Shade of Aran. The trash mobs linked to Illhoof only consist of a single room full of imps, so it is easy to clear. Often times people come back later in the week to kill Terestian Illhoof. That being said he isn't that challenging once you've got some practice in and know how the fight goes, and he drops some nice loot.

Ideal Group Composition:

2 Tanks

3 Healers

1 Mage

1 Warlock

3 Other DPS

The Mage and Warlock are necessary in order to AoE down the imp adds that Illhoof summons. It is possible to do this with just one mage or one warlock, though they have to have good gear and be able to AoE really well. By this point in Karazhan your raid should probably be in at least half epics if you want to successfully down Illhoof.

There are several different important aspects of this single phase fight, so I will cover them one by one here.

Tanking

Illhoof needs to be tanked right in the center of the room by the main tank. The off-tank should pick up and tank Kil'rek, his named imp add, as soon as he shows up. If you have a paladin tank or a well geared/knowledgeable tank it is possible for them to tank both at once, though this isn't recommended when you're just starting in Karazhan.

DPS

This fight is all about the DPS. Illhoof is on a 10 minute Enrage timer - that means that he kills everyone if you don't kill him within 10 minutes. Your mage/warlock needs to continually AoE down the non-elite imp adds that Illhoof summons. Besides that, your other DPS needs to focus on Kil'rek when he is up. When they kill Kil'rek, they then attack Illhoof. Kil'rek respawns every 45 seconds or so, but when he is dead it gives Terestian Illhoof a debuff that makes him take 25% more damage, so it is generally worth killing him.

Terestian Illhoof also uses an ability called Sacrifice that all DPS need to be on their toes for. Sacrifice is the number one reason that people fail to down Illhoof. Periodically, Illhoof will draw someone to the center of the room, entangling them with demon chains. While they are in there, he will deal a significant amount of damage to them and also heal himself in the process.

All DPS need to have a simple macro set up: /target Demon Chains

This will allow them to quickly target the chains without having to click on them. This is very important, as it saves a lot of time in switching targets. As soon as Illhoof starts a sacrifice, all DPS need to immediately switch over to the Demon Chains. If Illhoof heals too much or you lose too many raid members to the Demon Chains, you will fail.

Healing

Healing actually isn't all that difficult for Illhoof. Your healers need to be on their toes and it can be mana intensive, however the primary healing in the fight will be done on the main tank, your AoE and any Sacrifice victims.

Besides that, this fight is just a matter of practice makes perfect. If you are having significant trouble with this fight, it is most likely because your DPS isn't strong enough. This can usually be solved by using better consumables, coming back later with better gear or using better raid specs.

Terestian Illhoof Tips & Tricks

- Mages' Ice Block and Paladins' Divine Shield can remove the character from Sacrifice.

- Druids can use Barkskin when they get Sacrificed to reduce the amount of damage taken.

- Paladins can and should put up Shadow Protection (Fire Protection if you have a second paladin). The only exception is if healers are having trouble with pushing by getting aggro from imps, in this case Concentration Aura should be used.

- Priests can use Fade right before Illhoof uses Sacrifice in order to prevent themselves from being the target.

- Hunters should drop Snake Traps as Illhoof will occasionally sacrifice a snake instead of a raid member. It is unknown if this is a bug or intentional and may be fixed at a later date.

- If you are having trouble with too many people dying to Terestian Illhoof's Demon Chains, you may want to have at least one of your healers use the following macro:

/stopcasting
/target Demon Chains
/target targettarget
/cast Regrowth

This will automatically heal whichever member of the raid is currently being Sacrificed. Of course, if you're not a Druid then you'll need to replace Regrowth with whatever your quickest cast healing spell is (Flash Heal, Flash of Light, etc.).

Thanks a lot for reading my World of Warcraft Karazhan Terestian Illhoof Boss Guide & Walkthrough! Come back soon for more World of Warcraft raid guides!

Curator Guide: World of Warcraft Karazhan Walkthrough

The Curator is the first boss in the WoW Burning Crusade expansion that drops Tier level gear - he drops the T4 gloves. He is located in Karazhan and is a bit more challenging than the other bosses you may have faced so far.

Ideal Group Composition:

1 Main Tank (uncrittable)

3 Healers

6 Strong DPS

It is best if your main tank is mostly in epics with perhaps a few blues. The same goes for your healers and DPS. This is the point at which Karazhan bosses (and trash) get a bit more difficult and hit harder, and also these later bosses require more in depth strategies and coordination. You may get stuck on Curator for a while but don't fret, if you're geared enough to down Curator then you're well off enough for all other bosses in Karazhan except maybe Prince Malchezaar and Nightbane.

NOTE: Be very careful when first entering The Curator's room as he has an extremely large aggro radius.

Before you start the fight, all ranged DPS, casters and healers will line up against the wall in Curator's room. They spread out in a semi-circle around the south edge of the room that Curator paces back and forth in. The tank will then pick up Curator when he paces back towards the raid (a hunter misdirect helps). The main tank will gain aggro on Curator as he tanks him 30 yards away from and facing the raid, right in the middle of the large hall he paces in.

Throughout most of the fight The Curator will send Astral Flares at random members of the raid. These need to be killed immediately and all DPS should be attacking them. Flares spawn every 10 seconds and so you need to be able to kill them very quickly.

After a period of spawning Astral Flares, the Curator will turn blue and use an ability called Evocation to restore his mana. During this phase he will not attack anyone and all damage done to him is increased by 200%. This lasts for 20 seconds at a time. This is when all DPS must focus on Curator. Each time he starts to Evocate though there will still be an Astral Flare left, so we assign two of our DPS to take care of remaining orbs before DPSing Curator directly.

That is the general flow of the fight. DPS kill the adds for a while until he evocates, then pop trinkets/cooldowns and wail on Curator. Then he goes back into Flare mode and everyone needs to kill Astral Flares again. The problem is that you are on a timer as The Curator enrages after 10 minutes and will quickly wipe the raid.

The Curator also uses an ability called Hateful Bolt that deals 5-6k arcane damage to whoever is second on his aggro list. This can be solved by having an affliction lock or other high-threat ranged or caster DPS class with high health periodically attack Curator instead of the Flares. They need to stay 2nd on threat, and that isn't all too difficult when they are the only DPS attacking them. The idea is that they soak the Hateful Bolts so that (for example) a healer or random DPS at low health doesn't get it. Healers will need to know who the Hateful Bolt tank is so that they can keep him at full health. A small amount of Arcane Resistance (say 50-100) is useful on the Hateful Bolt tank, though necessary.

Once you get The Curator down to 15%, he will stop summoning Astral Flares and Evocating. His damage output will also increase and he will use Hateful Bolt more. The healers need to spam heals on both the tank and the Hateful Bolt tank in order to keep them up during this phase. DPS and nuke him down and soon the giant mechanical thing in Karazhan known as The Curator will finally be dead.

Curator Tips & Tricks:

- Priests can take advantage of the increased damage during Evocation by sending in their Shadowfiend. They will most likely be rewarded with a completely full mana bar.

- Astral Flares don't stick around long enough for damage over time effects to be useful, so warlocks should use Shadow Bolt and so on.

- Threat is not a concern in this fight, so there is no need for Blessing of Salvation. Use buffs that increase damage output instead, if possible.

- This is a very mana intensive fight. Make sure that your healers have mana potions and mp5 food.

- Most problems encountered with the Curator will be either due to healers running out of mana part way through the fight, or DPS not killing flares fast enough. The best solution when your guild is having problems with this boss is to leave and then come back with more epics, superior raid specs and more consumables (i.e. flasks).

The Curator is perhaps the first serious boss Karazhan and hence in the new Burning Crusade flavored World of Warcraft. He can be quite a hassle and is a major gear check - you may have to make 10 or 20 attempts before you down him if your raid has substandard members (like Subtlety rogues and other non-raid specs or people in trash blues and greens) before you kill him. If you run into trouble, you may simply need to get some crafted epics made or PvP for some gear and then come back next week.

Check back soon for more World of Warcraft Raid Guides & Walkthroughs!

World of Warcraft Karazhan Guide: Romulo & Julianne Opera House Walkthrough

Romulo and Julianne (based on Romeo & Juliet of course) is one of the three possible random encounters your raid might get when you enter the Opera House in Karazhan. The other two can be found here:

Wizard of Oz

Big Bad Wolf

Ideal Group Composition:

1 Warrior Tank (or an overgeared druid/paladin main tank)

1 Decently Geared Offtank

3 Healers (1 with de-poison)

2 DPS /w Consistent Spell Interrupt (Rogue, Shaman etc.)

3 Other DPS

By now your raid should have acquired 4-5 epics to go along with those level 70 quest blues, and maybe a couple crafted or PvP epics as well. Even if so, you may run into some trouble with Romulo & Julianne. It is a fight whose difficulty lies almost entirely in your raid's ability to coordinate.

Romulo & Julianne is a three phase fight. I will outline each phase here:

Phase 1 - Just Julianne

First off, you just fight Julianne. We have our offtank pick her up as he will be the one tanking her later (you'll see). The offtank pulls her into a corner of the stage.

Julianne needs to have someone that can interrupt spells on her at all times. All other spells can be ignored (though it helps to interrupt them), but the massive healing spell she casts called Eternal Affection MUST be interrupted every single time. She also casts an aura on herself that increases her spell damage output - this can be dispelled by a priest, warlock felhunter, shaman purge, mage spellsteal, warrior shield slam and hunter arcane shot. Whew, that's a lot of things that can get rid of her aura, now get rid of it already!

Beyond that, all that's left for stage 1 is to simply DPS her down. Healers will need to be on the ball and cross-healing the raid, as she casts spells somewhat erratically. Make sure she drops in that corner now, that will be important later.

Phase 2 - Just Romulo

In phase two you just fight Romulo. He also has a buff that he casts on himself, though he does not need to be interrupted. He should be picked up by the main (preferably warrior) tank and disarmed as often as possible, as this lowers his DPS a whole lot.

The main tank drags him to the opposite corner from Julianne's corpse and should be tanked with his back to the wall. This is because Romulo uses an ability called Backward Lunge that does a knockback only to people standing behind him. He also uses an ability called Poisoned Thrust that gives the target a debuff that reduces their stats by 10%, stacking multiple times. This needs to be de-poisoned ASAP.

Romulo is a pretty straightforward warrior-type tank 'n spank boss. Just keep DPSing him and again, make sure that he dies in a corner, because now...

Phase 3 - Romulo & Julianne

Now, you must fight both Romulo & Julianne at the same time! They both resurrect and are picked up by their tanks, with the warrior (main tank) on Romulo. They are tanked in the same positions. The problem is, they need to die within ~10 seconds of one another or the other one will resurrect again! Also, Julianne will now try to heal both herself and Romulo. For these reasons, it is necessary to split up your DPS.

Generally, we use our Melee DPS and interrupts on Julianne and our ranged DPS on Romulo. For us this might be for example a Rogue and Enhancement Shaman on Julianne with a Hunter and Mage on Romulo, while our Affliction Warlock keeps DoTs ticking on both of them. Again, Julianne's spells must be interrupted at all costs.

Also members of the raid need to call out over Ventrilo (or Teamspeak, or whatever Internet Voice Program you're using) each 10% on each boss, at least at first. For example we call out "Romulo 90%", "Julianne 80%" and so on, all the way until they get to 10%. When they get to 10%, we will tell everyone to slightly slow down their DPS, then when they are at 5% we will pause DPS momentarily. We then pull them both to the middle of the room so that any AoE classes can AoE, as well as rogues can pop Blade Flurry and so on. The raid leader calls out for DPS to re-start, and the two of them should hopefully die quickly.

If you're having trouble with Romulo & Julianne, then practice is probably the key. If you're gotten this far into Karazhan successfully and find yourself stuck here, don't fret. The Romulo & Julianne event is probably the most challenging event in the Opera House in Karazhan, and it may take your raid a good 6-8 tries to get it down to a science.

WoW Karazhan Raid Guide: Wizard of Oz Opera House Event

The Wizard of Oz event is one of the three possible random spawns in the Opera House in Karazhan. For the others, check the archives to the right of the page.

Ideal Group Composition:
2 Tanks
3 Healers
1 Mage
1 Warlock
3 Other DPS

By now your raid should've picked up 4-5 Karazhan epics to go along with the level 70 blues and maybe PvP epics that they currently have. Having a mage and a warlock is of tantamount importance here. It is possible to do without (as we sometimes have), but when you're making your way through Karazhan for the first time you definitely want to have them.

When you first start the fight, you will see 4 Wizard of Oz characters standing on the stage. They will each activate in turn, about 10-15 seconds apart from one another.

1. Dorothee (/w Tito)
Dorothee is the first of the adds to activate. Dorothee cannot be tanked or taunted - she simply launches random spells at the raid. DPS needs to get on her quick and kill her. She should be disposed of quickly as there is no need for a tank and she has no aggro table.

She also summons an add, her little dog. The dog must be killed AFTER Dorothee or she will go into a rage. The dog needs to be picked up by the offtank and DPS'd down second. He doesn't hit hard, though he is small and can be difficult to target when he first spawns, so a simple /tar Tito macro can be very useful for the offtank.

2. Roar
Roar is the cowardly lion. Your warlock needs to spam fear on him while he is up as he is quite susceptible to the power. He will resist once in a while (and it will suck), but for the most part he can be controlled in this way. Just in case, it is recommended that your offtank build aggro on him after Tito is dead. We kill Roar 3rd.

3. Strawman
Strawman is made of such a flimsy substance, that fire damages him to a great extent. This is why you need a mage - the mage should spam Scorch and Searing Pain on Strawman. When he is damaged by fire abilities he has a great chance of becoming disoriented for 6 seconds. The mage should kite him around as best they can until Dorothee, Tito and Roar are dead. The offtank should also keep an eye on Strawman and be ready to pick him up if he gets out of control.

4. Tinman
Tinman contrary to popular belief, cannot be easily kited by a frost mage. He gets a slowing debuff at random times, but this is not caused by the use of ice spells upon him. Instead, it is much easier to just tank Tinman, and this is what we use the main tank for. As soon as he activates, the main tank needs to pick him up. He should be pulled away from the rest of the raid as he does a cleave attack. We kill Tinman last.

5. The Crone
The Crone or 'Wicked Witch' spawns after all of the other Wizard of Oz characters are dead. The main tank needs to pick her up immediately and begin building aggro. During the fight, she will spawn tornados that will move around the Opera House stage. The raid simply needs to move to avoid them. If you get caught in a tornado, you get hurled up into the air and take roughly 2-3k fall damage. The Crone doesn't have much health and she dies very quickly, so kill her and loot those epics!

The Wizard of Oz event is perhaps the first raid you may have participated in that requires complex group strategy with several raid members playing crucial roles. Of course, this is only if you started with Burning Crusade and didn't raid at 60. A lot of this fight is just a learning curve where everyone learns exactly what they need to do and when.

Also, if you find a weak link - i.e. your warlock isn't fearing well - then feel free to replace them. I know this might seem merciless, but your raiding experience will be much better.

The Wizard of Oz event, assuming 2 decent tanks, 1 warlock and 1 mage, should be able to be cleared in 4-5 tries.

Keep checking back for more World of Warcraft Raid Guides & Walkthroughs!

WoW Karazhan Raid Guide: Opera House - Big Bad Wolf Walkthrough

The Big Bad Wolf is one of the three possible random Karazhan boss encounters that your raid might spawn when they step into the Opera House. See the archives to the right for the other Opera House bosses.

Ideal Group Composition:

1 Warrior Tank

3 Healers

6 DPS

By now you should be in level 70 blues and 4-5 nice epics you picked up from Karazhan, plus possibly a crafted or PvP epic or three. What DPS you bring is mostly irrelevant in this fight, unlike the Wizard of Oz encounter. Having a warrior tank here really helps as the wolf fears, though it isn't entirely necessary as if you have a few fear wards or tremor totems.

When you first encounter the Big Bad Wolf, he will be standing towards the middle of the stage. At this point all DPS and the tank will pick him up while ranged DPS and healers stand at the far left corner of the stage. The tank should pull the wolf to the back left corner and keep him there.

The Big Bad Wolf casts a 3 second AoE fear every 25-35 seconds. With a warrior tank and deadly boss mods timers, the fear is irrelevant as the warrior can switch into berserker stance and pop berserker rage a few seconds before each fear. Fear wards are also useful. That being said, I've tanked this plenty of times on my druid without any fear wards, but this requires your group to be carefully coordinated in order to not get aggro on each fear.

The beast of the Opera House also uses a Little Red Riding Hood ability that gives a random target a debuff. This debuff turns them into Little Red Riding Hood - pacifying, silencing, and reducing their armor and resistances to 0. It also increases their movement speed by 50% though, and this is the key! When you get turned into Little Red Riding Hood the Big Bad Wolf will chase you and try to 1-hit you, but you can kite him around without getting hit by running a circle along the edges and walls of the stage. Whoever gets the debuff must do this until it wears off. He will cast it multiple times during the fight.

If you have a tank that can deal with the fears, you should be able to down this boss within 2-3 tries, once everyone in the raid has gotten a chance to be Little Red Riding Hood and gotten the hang of kiting the Big Bad Wolf. For fist rogues, he drops probably the first usable fist weapon aside from PvP.

Tips & Tricks:

- Mages can and should use Amplify Magic, as Big Bad Wolf does no magical damage.

- Vanish and Feign Death both work while you are Little Red Riding Hood and will stop him from chasing you, but will not remove the debuff. Stay feigned/stealthed until the debuff completely wears off.

- The Paladin bubble Blessing of Protection can prevent the wolf from wailing on someone while they are Little Red Riding Hood.

- Resto Druids should not ever have Tree of Life form active during this fight, because if they get turned into Little Red Riding Hood while in this slow form it is almost a guaranteed death.

Keep checking back for more World of Warcraft Raid Guides & Walkthroughs!

World of Warcraft Karazhan Guide Part 3: Maiden of Virtue Walkthrough

If you're looking for a World of Warcraft Karazhan Maiden of Virtue guide and walkthrough, then you've come to the right place!

Now that you've defeated Moroes, leave The Banquet Hall and head back out to The Grand Ballroom. Clear any necessary trash in the room, and head through the doorway to the left. This leads into The Guest Chambers which is where you will find the Maiden of Virtue. There are several packs of trash first. This trash isn't particularly difficult, use shackles on the undead and a warlock to enslave or banish the demons (concubines). With a warlock, priest, and competent tank, the trash is pretty trivial.

Ideal Group Compisition:

1 Main Tank (crit immune)

3 Healers (at least holy 1 paladin is best)

6 DPS (1 priest, 1 warlock is very useful for trash)

This fight can be a stress on your healers and DPS as everyone takes damage. Often times people die to holy fire or holy ground. It is highly suggested that the raid have no more than 2-3 melee DPS and the rest be ranged.

We usually have our druid offtank switch gear and DPS on this boss and let the warrior main tank him. This is a commonly used strategy as Maiden only requires one tank and it can be a pain to switch people in and out.

After you clear the hallway up to Maiden, get the group ready and buffed up. There is no reason to clear the side rooms, though one of them has a book for a quest, generally we come back later after the trash despawns when Maiden drops). Again, make sure that people have appropriate consumables, deady boss mods, and omen threatmeter.

Before the fight, all ranged DPS and healers are to spread out in a circle around Maiden, standing in between the pillars. The main tank then runs in and engages Maiden, tanking her in the center of her platform where she stands. All DPS should have health potions and bandages (and know how to use them!).

The holy paladin in the group needs to put and keep Blessing of Sacrifice on the main tank the entire fight. This is due to the fact that Maiden occasionally uses an ability called Repentance that will stun everybody in the raid for 12 seconds. However, she also spams an AoE called Holy Ground that deals a few hundred damage to everyone in melee range. Repentance breaks if the target takes damage, so the paladin's Repentance will be broken when Holy Ground ticks on the main tank. This way you have at least one healer available to heal through Repentance so that the melee DPS and the tank don't die.

If you don't have a paladin, it's possible to still do this fight if you have some good heal over time spells on the main tank (preferably from a good resto druid). Melee DPS should be prepared to move out of the Holy Ground radius and bandage themselves, should they find themselves at low health.

Maiden uses two other abilities that are relevant - Holy Wrath and Holy Fire. Holy Wrath does holy damage to a single target, then chains off to another nearby raid member (this doesn't affect pets). This is easily avoided by staying spread out. Holy Fire does fire damage to a random raid member, then ticks 1750 damage every 2 seconds for 12 seconds. This damage over time needs to be dispelled, if any priests or paladins in the raid have the add-on Decursive it is immensely helpful here. As another option, shamans may make the Holy Fire a non-issue for their group (not the whole raid) by using well placed Grounding Totems.

Maiden is a pretty straightforward, single phase fight. Melee can use Holy Protection Potions to help negate the effect of Holy Ground if you're having trouble with melee DPS dying. This is a very healing intensive fight, with the healers needing to be on top of their game and cross heal DPS and everyone in the raid. Everyone must be kept at or near full health or they may die to a surprise Holy Fire. Amplify Magic should never be used here, as it boosts Maiden's damage significantly. Dampen Magic can and should be used on melee DPS.

That's about all for Maiden. It may take a few tries, but using this guide you should be able to down Maiden consistently with a bit of practice. Hang in there, soon enough you'll be on to Curator, Tier 4 gloves, and eventually clearing Karazhan in one night!

World of Warcraft Karazhan Guide Part 2: Moroes Walkthrough

If you're looking for a World of Warcraft Karazhan guide for Moroes, then you've come to the right place!

After defeating Attumen the Huntsman, make your way back towards the entrance of Karazhan where you will find some steps. It is vital for this fight that all DPS and tanks have threatmeters such as Omen. You will need some AoE here, so I will go over the group composition.

Optimal Group Composition:

2 Tanks (crit immune)

3 Healers (at least 2 priests required between healers and DPS for shackle)

5 DPS (1-2 good AoE mage/warlocks needed for trash)

The group should be geared appropriately in level 70 blues and perhaps a few epics.

Start out pulling the trash in the room at the top of the stairs. There are numerous AoE packs here, they're easy groups of nonelites that shouldn't pose too much of a problem unless you accidentally pull more than one group at once. Also note that there are several packs of elites as well that do not need to be pulled. We've pulled them accidentally thinking that they are AoE packs and wiped. There are also several single pull pats around the room, these guys hit hard, especially the valets, so be careful to keep tanks topped off when dealing with those.

Once you have enough of the room cleared to be able to go into the room to the left, then do so. This is the room where you find Moroes, but there is still some more trash to take care of. There are a few 2-pulls up against the wall, each of these guys hits hard and needs a tank. There are AoE packs sitting at the tables that may be dealt with in the same way you dealt with the AoE packs earlier. In addition, there are several Skeletal Waiters wandering around. These guys put a debuff on your tank called Brittle Bones that will occasionally cause their armor to go down a significant amount. When a tank has this debuff on him, he should wait for it to fade before tanking anything else or there is a good chance he will die.

After the room is clear, you're left with Moroes and his four friends. His four friends is what you need 2 priests using shackles for. Both priests should have a focus macro set up as follows:

/clearfocus [modifier:shift] [target=focus,dead] [target=focus,noexists]
/focus [target=focus,noexists]
/script SetRaidTarget("focus", 1)
/cast [target=focus] Shackle Undead

Simply target your shackle and shackle it once, then the macro will automatically retarget and shackle whenever you hit it. This way your priests don't need to actually change targets to keep their shackles up. You will need to kill 2 of the adds and shackle 2 of them. The 4 adds are random out of a possible selection of 6. I will give you a list of possibilities here. The ones at the top of the list are the highest priority to be killed, the ones at the bottom are highest priority for shackles:

Baroness Dorthea Millstipe (Shadow Priest)

Lady Catriona Von'Indi (Holy Priest)

Lady Keira Berrybuck (Holy Paladin)

Baron Rafe Dreuger (Retribution Paladin)

Lord Robin Daris (Arms Warrior)

Lord Crispin Ference (Protection Warrior)

The worst case scenario here would be to get the 2 warriors and the 2 paladins. I have personally never had that happen, though. If you are fighting either the holy priest or the holy paladin then you need to have your rogue on them in order to interrupt the heals (other classes with interrupts work as well).

Have your main tank go in and pick up Moroes and pull him to one side of the room. The adds to be shackled should be shackled immediately and kept shackled throughout the fight. The offtank needs to grab whichever of the adds he is assigned to tank (whichever plate wearer that you don't have a shackle for, or the second add you are planning on killing). He brings the add over to the main tank and must quickly get up to second in threat on Moroes and remain there while still tanking his add. Within 3 or 4 minutes the two adds should be down and you should be focused on Moroes.

Moroes uses several rogue abilities. He periodically vanishes and puts Garrote on a random member of the raid. This is a powerful bleed effect. It can only be removed by paladin shields, stoneform and ice block. For the most part you just need to heal through this bleed effect. In addition, Moroes uses both Blind and Gouge against the tanks. This is why you need 2 tanks on Moroes, as he will use one of those abilities on the main tank and then go after whoever is second on aggro. Very rarely, he will Gouge the main tank and then Blind the offtank. This is just bad luck and there's nothing that you can really do about it.

If you down the 2 adds and keep the other 2 shackled then there's no reason you shouldn't be able to defeat Moroes. Have your DPS focus on Moroes and once he drops, kill the shackled adds one at a time (they don't despawn). After that, loot that pesky butler and enjoy your epics.

World of Warcraft Karazhan Guide Part 1: Attumen the Huntsman

If you're looking for a World of Warcraft Karazhan walkthrough for Attumen the Huntsman then you've come to the right place.

When you first enter Karazhan, go to the left and clear the undead and horses. You'll soon come upon Midnight, sitting alone in his stable. This is what most people kill first and considered the gear check in Karazhan.

Optimal Group Composition:

1 Warrior Tank

1 Offtank Tank (may be a warrior, druid or paladin just fine)

3 Healers (doesn't matter)

5 DPS (doesn't matter)

Most people in the group should at least have mostly level 70 blues if not a few crafted and PvP epics.

Assign your offtank to go in and tank Midnight where he stands in the stables and have your DPS start beating on the horse. When Midnight gets to 95%, his master Attumen spawns. The warrior tank should pick up Attumen and tank him near Midnight. A hunter misdirect helps here, as Attumen can easily one-hit clothies. The Attumen tank should constantly use Disarm and Spell Reflection on Attumen to reduce his DPS and reflect the curse that he uses. Druids and mages should dispel the curse when possible. All melee need to stay away from the front of Attumen due to his cleave.

All DPS continues on Midnight until he gets to 25%, and then Attumen mounts up. Aggro will need to be picked up again, so DPS needs to stop and the main tank needs to grab Attumen. In this phase he starts using a charge ability, but he won't charge people who are very close to him, so the trick is to all group up right behind Attumen, to avoid his cleave and not get charged. Once the tank has sufficient aggro on his mounted form, continue DPS until he dies. Congratulations, you've beaten the first raid boss in The Burning Crusade!

If you're having problems with Attumen the Huntsman, then you are either having aggro control problems and your DPS is dying on transitions, your tanks are dying because they're undergeared, or your tanks are dying because your healers are running out of mana. Make sure everyone has all potions and consumables that their class should use and ensure that everyone has a working threatmeter and is careful to stop DPS on the transitions.

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World of Warcraft Raid Walkthroughs

Welcome to World of Warcraft Raid Guides & Walkthroughs! Here you can find a growing list of walkthroughs and guides that will soon cover all Burning Crusade raid content. In addition, you can find strategy guides for specific raid tasks such as tanking or healing, as well as individual classes.

I am currently in the process of writing guides for all raid content in order of in-game progression. I will put up miscellaneous other guides like the tanking guide as I get to them. However I will gladly write something out of order if there is a high demand for it (for example if you would like to see a Void Reaver guide before I do Mag, or think it's about high time I got around to writing that darn tanking guide). If you would like to see something specific, just let me know by commenting here.