This week, amidst the confusion and data loss of an emergency server migration, we’re bringing you something new in lieu of the scheduled comic.  Don’t worry! We’re not canceling the comic, we just have to shuffle the schedule a little bit this week.  In what we hope becomes a regular article from one of the original Kingslayers, Ararat of Blood Legion, Daily Quests give you The Lich King:  An account of the final encounter in Icecrown Citadel.

We all know who he is.  But does he live up to his namesake?  Upon the frozen throne of Icecrown Citadel, raiders finally have a chance to overthrow Arthas Menethil.  The One True King of Azeroth

The Lich King encounter is broken up into five separate phases, and the standard raid makeup consists of two tanks, two melee DPS, three ranged DPS and three healers.  One of the tanks picks up Arthas and all of his ghouls and tanks them near the teleport icon, and the other tank picks up Shambling Horrors and tanks them off to one side of Arthas.  The ranged should be in a camp equal distance from Arthas and the Shambling Horrors.  Every thirty seconds or Arthas will cast Necrotic Plague on a member of the raid, and if it is dispelled it will jump to a nearby target and give Arthas a small, stackable damage buff.  If the plague is not removed within five seconds it will tick for 50,000 damage and kill the afflicted player.  Players with Necrotic Plague should move immediately to where the Shambling Horrors are being tanked.  The plague can then be dispelled and will jump to the Horror and cause it to take extra damage instead of a raid member.  Necrotic Plague stacks on the Horror, and every fifteen seconds it must be dispelled off of the tank so that it jumps back to the Horror.  Once Arthas reaches 70% he will move to the center of the platform and a transition to the second phase will begin.

During phase two, Arthas stands in the middle of his platform and channels Remorseless Winter, inflicting frost damage to anyone standing within the radius of the main platform, effectively moving the fight to the outer easily distinguishable outer ring.  The raid has a few moments to finish off whatever is still being off tanked and prepare for the new mechanics of the phase.  During this time there is raid damage that has to be healed, frozen orbs that lock onto a member of the raid and slowly travel towards them, and mirror images that must be off tanked.  Frozen orbs should be targeted by ranged DPS and dealt with as they spawn, and the mirror images must be turned away from the raid to avoid a cast frontal cone silence effect.  Once the third images appears Arthas will stop channeling and break away the edges of the platform, and you have just a few moments to run back into the distinguishable center while keeping that last controlled and then killed.  Phase three is when the fight truly becomes worthy of the Lich King.

In phase three Arthas must be tanked in the middle of the platform with everyone congregated near the center.  He will periodically summon a Val’kyr that will swoop down and grab a member of the raid, this Val’kyr must be stunned, snared, and killed before it reaches the broken edge of the platform or it will drop the captured player off of the theatre and out of the encounter.  During this phase Arthas also casts a spell called Defile beneath a player which is a void zone that grows as players take damage from it.  Once Defile lands on the ground everyone must move away from it quickly or the entire platform will be consumed.  From this point on the two tanks will need to trade Arthas back and forth based on which of them is targeted by Soul Reaper, a debuff that inflicts the tank with 50,000 damage if he is Arthas’ current target.  The key to this phase is to be in the center of the platform to allow for the most amount of time to kill Val’kyrs and  to be on the outer edges for Defile.  This phase is all about timing the Defile casts and Val’kyr summons and adjusting the positioning of the raid accordingly.  At 40% there is a transition into the fourth phase.

Phase four is identical to the second phase; Arthas reforms the edges of the platform, and the raid is forced on to those edges during the Remorseless Winter.  The only difference is that there will be four images instead of just three, and this means you will have two leftover images to deal with instead of just one..

The transition to the fifth phase is the most important transition in the encounter.  Dealing with the extra images and the mechanics are the hardest part, and as soon as Arthas stops channeling he will select a member of the raid and harvest their soul.  The harvested player will take a heavy load of damage for six seconds, and if they are healed and survive the debuff, they are sent into Frostmourne.  Within Frostmourne they will find King Terenas Menethil fighting a Soul Warden.  The objective of this stage is for you to kill the Soul Warden before King Menethil dies and the thirty second timer runs out, and the key to victory is to interrupt the channeled cast by the Soul Warden.  If you are capable, dispel any debuffs on King Menthil, and if you are a healer then you heal him while interrupting and dispelling.  If you are a DPS you simply attack the Soul Warden and interrupt him whenever possible.  If you fail by letting Menethil die, or if your timer runs out before you kill the Soul Warden, then Arthas will gain a 100% damage buff which is a potential raid destroyer.  If you die while having your soul harvested, Arthas will gain the the damage buff as if the player failed to slay the Soul Warden within Frostmourne.  The harvest ability is used once every minute, and the rest of the phase Arthas is tanked on either the south edge or the north edge of the platform.  Arthas will summon Vile Spirits, kamakazi style ghosts that will target and follow a member of the raid until they die.  Once the Spirits are summoned, Arthas is moved to the opposite edge of the theatre, providing melee time to DPS Arthas and react to the Spirits that may fly towards them.  Ranged should target the Spirits with abilities such as Pestilence, Seed of Corruption, and Mind Seer.  It is vital to do damage damage to all of them at the same time.  Everyone must spread out as the Spirits will begin to sacrifice themselves and explode, inflicting massive damage in AoE zones around them thirty seconds after they spawn.  This portion of the encounter is a rinse and repeat cycle, and Defile will still be cast along with the Soul Reaper attacks that force tank rotations.  Once Arthas reaches 10% the real fun begins . . . but I won’t take all of the fun out of the fight!

The encounter against the Lich King is a very unique encounter that incorporates all sorts of group coordination and precise execution and timing.  It reminds me of Kil’Jaedan and, well, that was one of the best encounters Blizzard has ever created for us, but is the does the fight live up to the name?  That’s for you to decide.  Good luck and have fun!