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!