Blood Prince Council Encounter

[Spiritus]

Hello, and welcome to Tankspot's written pre-release strategy guide on the Blood Prince Council Encounter in Icecrown Citadel. My name is Spiritus and I will be going over the abilities seen on the PTR for this fight, as well as some basic speculative strategy on how to approach your first attempts.

BIG NOTE: As always, this is all speculative, but well researched. Nothing is ever certain until launch day, and even then the fight mechanics can change overnight. If I feel dodgy on something, I say so. Below is the best capture I could find:

Environment, Positioning, and Pull:

(1) The BPC room is an amphitheater shape and has one entrance, which becomes gated once the encounter starts.

(2) Three tanks are needed for this fight, two physical for Taldaram & Valanar and one ranged for Keleseth [properly spec'd warlock preferred].

(3) Valanar will be the first prince you can attack.

(4) The three princes all share a health pool, however, only the prince empowered through Invocation of Blood can be DPSed. This mechanic will be discussed below. The encounter chooses which prince you will attack and when. You cannot, say, just attack Keleseth until they are all dead.

(5) Positioning is extremely fluid in this fight due to the many abilities that require movement. As a rule, ranged should be spread out 15 yards apart, though "perfect" positioning isn't as important as, say, DBS. Doing this will lessen the impact of Taldaram's Conjured Flames and Valanar's Shock Vortex. Also, Taldaram must be faced away from the raid as he does a frontal cone. Valanar should be kept a fair bit away from the other two princes due to his knock-backs.

Figure 1. Pre-pull Positioning

(6) This fight is about quick DPS switches and proper handling the many different abilities that each prince will throw at you. The final enrage timer is yet unknown, if there is one.

Figure 2. Post-pull Positioning

Boss/Environment Abilities:
There is a lot going on in this fight, but if you break each ability down, its not that bad. The challenge is juggling all the abilities together.

Invocation of Blood
The Darkfallen Orb empowers a Blood Prince, granting him more formidable abilities.
At the start of the video, you can see that the central prince (Valanar) has a Divine Aegis looking bubble around him. You will also note the other princes have 1 HP. The prince with the orb will be attack-able and empowered, while the other two are immune to damage and dish out "normal" attacks. In essence, follow the bouncing ball. If you find yourself attacking a prince with 1HP, your wrong.

The Orb randomly switches from prince to prince, so your raid must be quick to recognize who is vulnerable to attack, but also be aware of their empowered abilities. The princes have a shared health pool, so if you knock 10% HP off Valanar and the orb switches to Keleseth, he will become "empowered" with 90% health.

<---Keleseth--->

25.1m HP
Keleseth is the shadow element prince. Surprisingly, he does a lot of shadow damage. Of the three, he is the most technical to tank, but also has the easiest abilities to avoid. You will want a ranged tank for Keleseth, preferably a properly spec'd warlock.

Dark Nucleus
Instant Cast. Unknown frequency [approx 20-30sec].
Summons a Dark Nucleus which causes Shadow Resonance. This causes the nearest target to resonate with shadow, suffering 1000 damage and reducing Shadow damage taken from all sources by 35% for until canceled. Dark Nuclei Dark Nuclei feed on their own energy, causing them to destroy themselves over [unconfirmed]78sec[/unconfirmed].
These are the atomic blueberries in the video that "latch-on" to the ranged tank. It is imperative that the ranged tank has at least 3 Nuclei latched to him in-order to survive Keleseth's empowered shadow lance. The problem is, I have no idea how to get the nuclei to attach themselves to the proper person. It may be proximity, it may be aggro table (though I doubt this), or it may be an "attraction" buff placed on the tank via shadow lance.

At any-rate, the mechanic should become quite apparent after your first attempt. The Dark Nuclei seem to spawn at random points around the room, and it seems like the ranged tank must move around to pick them up. If you haven't figured this out: once the ranged tank has a healthy threat lead and has 3+ nuclei [effectively making him immune to Keleseth], he may assist DPSing down the currently empowered prince.

Shadow Lance
1.5sec cast. 30yd range. Possibly Interuptable.
Hurls a bolt of dark magic at an enemy, inflicting 18038 to 18962 Shadow damage.
This is Keleseth's only attack, but it hits like a truck. If it ends up being interuptable, it may be worth setting up an interupt rotation on Keleseth until your ranged tank has at least two nuclei following him/her giving 2 stacks of shadow resonance. If not, it may be wise to chain some defensive CDs until this happens (IE- Pain Sup, Bubble-Sac, Shadow Prot Pot, Void Sac, etc). After 3 stacks of Shadow Resonance, it becomes inconsequential.

EMPOWERED Shadow Lance [Cast when Empowered]
1.5sec cast. 30yd range. Possibly Interuptable.
Hurls a bolt of dark magic at an enemy, inflicting 90188 to 94812 Shadow damage.
This is the ability Keleseth uses when he becomes "hurt-able." This is also the reason why your tank must have 3 stacks of Shadow Resonance. Remember, if you keep up the 3 stack, you are effectively immune to Keleseth.

<---Taldaram--->

25.1m HP
Taldaram is the fire element prince. Surprisingly, he does a lot of fire damage. Of the three, he is the easiest to tank, but also has the most technical abilities to avoid. Any physical tank will do well with Taldaram.

Glittering Sparks
Instant Cast. 90yd range.
Glittering sparks shoot from the caster's hands in a cone, burning enemies for 14820 Fire damage over 8 sec and reducing their movement speed by 20%.
Frontal cone, don't know the angle. Needless to say, face Taldaram away from the raid.

Conjure Flame
3sec cast. 10sec CD.
Conjures a ball of flames that flies through the air toward the target and explodes for a minimum of 10,000 fire damage in a 15yd radius on impact. Larger balls of flame deal additional damage based on size.
A raid member is randomly targeted with this ability. I am not certain if it will target someone in melee range, though I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't. The longer the time it takes for the ball to reach its target, the smaller it becomes, and thus the less damage it will do. The trick is to recognize that you are the "target" as soon as possible and kite the sphere as long as you can, while ending in a spot at least 15 yards away from anyone else. NOTE: It is also possible that this ability will just do a flat amount of damage regardless of the distance of the kite.

EMPOWERED Conjured Flame [Cast when Empowered]
3sec cast. 10sec CD.
Conjures a ball of flames that flies through the air toward the target and explodes for a minimum of 10,000 fire damage in a 15yd radius on impact. Larger balls of flame deal additional damage based on size. The Empowered Conjured Flame also shoots out Empowered Flares, inflicting 1,000 fire damage to everyone in a 10yd radius.
The more Empowered Flares that are discharged, the less damage the Empowered Conjured Flame will do on impact. This is one of the rare instances where "standing in the fire" is a good thing. The "target" behaves the same as a normal Conjured Flame. As long as your evenly spread out, the ball should shoot out enough flares to do the job without need for much movement by the raid.

Figure 3. Conjured Flame Mechanic

<---Valanar--->

25.1m HP
Valanar is the "force" element prince. Surprisingly, he does a lot of physical damage, but in the form of kinetic "spells" not sword swings. Of the three, he is the middle child. His abilities are more annoying than damaging and he is moderately easy to tank. A warrior or druid tank would work great here with their ability to charge after knock-backs.

Kinetic Bomb
1.5sec Cast.
Summons a Kinetic Bomb. The bomb drifts toward the ground and explodes for 9900 to 12100 Physical damage and knocking enemies back in a 50yd radius on contact. Direct damage is absorbed by the bomb and converted into energy, propelling the bomb higher in the air with each hit.
Keep the beach ball in the air, if not your entire raid will take the damage and be flung ala Icehowl against the walls of the room. The easiest known way to take care of this is to have a hunter focus the bomb and shoot it when it gets too low. COOL IDEA: I do not know if this will work, but it may be possible to put an Imp on the Kinetic Bomb as a set and forget. Your hunters will thank you if this works. After [unconfirmed]72sec[/unconfirmed] the Kenetic Bomb will disappear and a new one will be cast.

Shock Vortex
1.5sec. 30sec duration.
Creates a vortex of swirling force near an enemy target that inflicts 7,000 physical damage and knocks back enemies within 13yds. Vortices dissipate after 30sec.

Shock Votices are cast ever so often on a random raid member. After a few seconds, the "ring" placed on the ground will activate and knock-back anyone standing within 13yds of the center and dealing 7k damage. Essentially, it creates a 30sec "no-go" zone. If it is cast on you, move. If it is cast in the melee, all tanks/melee must move. If you are outside of the vortex and you run into it, you need help.

EMPOWERED Shock Vortex [Cast when Empowered]
4.5sec cast. 30yd range. No duration.
Creates force vortices on all enemies within 30yds, inflicting 7,000 Physical damage and knocking enemies withing 13yds of the target away.
A more creative version of the generic boss insta-gib "shockwave." So, lets say you have 10 people in melee range. Thats 10 vorticies overlapping for 7k damage a piece for a total of 70k damage. The easiest way to avoid this from happening is to have all tanks/melee start running as soon as the 4.5sec cast time pops up. If people aren't sleeping they should easily clear the 30yd range. Ranged have no excuse to be within 30yds when this goes off.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

(1) The key to this fight is fast target switches and everyone in the raid being mindful of the myriad of abilities and their empowered versions. High raid awareness, as always, is clutch.

(2) Three tanks: two physical, one ranged (Keleseth). CAN you tank Keleseth with a physical tank? Yup, sure can. But its an overall DPS loss to do so if your third tank has a decent gear for his/her DPS offspec.

(3a) Don't face Taldaram into the raid.
(3b) Don't stand in swirling circles of doom.
(3c) Run away from the big orange ball when it wants to play with you.
(3d) It will not be a happy new year if you let the little white/orange ball hit the ground.
(3e) If you're DPSing a boss with 1HP, you are not doing it right.

(4) Ranged stay spread out. Try for 13-15yds. It makes life easier, but exact intervals are not needed ala DBS.

(5) All three princes share a health pool. You can only damage the prince that is under the effect of Invocation of Blood. While under the effect of Invocation of Blood, the prince becomes empowered, changing the mechanics of his attacks and/or making them stronger.

This encounter seems chaotic, but is relatively simple once you understand all the mechanics.

As always, feel free to add info to this post that will further everyone's understanding of the fight.

Good luck on the Blood Prince Council Encounter and clearing the first boss in the third wing of ICC! Stay tuned for strats on Blood Queen Lana'thel.

[Proletaria]

Thanks for this. Your game-plan covers quite a few things i must have missed from the video. Lookin forward to next week even more now >_D.

[Rhonyzul]

I'm a Meta-Ruin warlock with 21k hp unbuffed. Would you suggest any out of the norm talents for range tanking Keleseth, or should your basic Meta-Ruin talent set be fine enough?

I guess the only real points of debate are Molten Skin, Improved Searing Pain, and Demonic Resilience. Nether Protection is too deep in Destro to reach for.

I've range tanked Mimiron Phase 3 before with no talent changes, so I imagine Keleseth shouldn't be much different besides the ability to pop Shadow Ward.

[Drodylicious]

ive just been playing wow starting last year.. can anybody help me in what the proper spec for a warlock is? for this fight..???

[Spiritus]

I'm not an expert on the current "best" warlock tank talent build. The main thing in this encounter for Warlock tanks is their ability to generate threat via searing pain. After all, you will be immune to shadow damage as long as you have three stacks of Shadow Resonance (which should be 100% once you get there).

[Drodylicious]

soo a demo lock will be ok for it? or i mean any spec of warlock can basically do it.. or should they spec for imp searing just to make sure??

[Rhonyzul]

I don't think Imp. Searing Pain should be necessary. With full raid buffs I have a Crit rate just above 40%. You should be critting about half the time anyhow.

[Antimonic]

Any high threat ranged dps will work. As an FYI searing threat spam is less threat for me than a normal destro/afflic rotation. It's really a question of "can you dps while moving".

[Djtk]

Is it possible for a DK to tank Valanar and Death Grip him? If so, then a DK tank might also be worth it as well.

Good write up. I had a few chuckles at a few of the things that you mentioned. I'll have to go back and read your other write ups.

[tuffmuffin]

Is it possible for a DK to tank Valanar and Death Grip him? If so, then a DK tank might also be worth it as well.

Highly doubt it. Name one "boss" level mob that can be Death Gripped to a DK. They can still tank him, just can't charge back into melee instantly.

[Djtk]

Eh, you have a point. I can't think of one boss that can be Death Gripped. Ah well, it was a thought.

[maniac]

One thing about the dark nucleus you need to hit them to attach them to you. They used to have it so that you would run through them although this didnt make alot of sence otherwise the tank could loose the ones already attached to him when trying to pick up more if another player were trying to pass them to the tank. At any rate I guess things could change again since the boss was on the prt.

[Nitros14]

Might I add there's a spell Ball of Flames Proc - Spell - World of Warcraft with 40 stacks that gives the ball of flames 2,000 extra damage per stack. Also a Ball of Flames Periodic - Spell - World of Warcraft. I would conjecture that ball of flames does 90,000 damage reduced by 2,000 per 0.5 or 1 (?) second(s) it is kited to its minimum of 10,000 damage.

Just a guess but I imagine Empowered Ball of Flames will need to tick 40 times on people before hitting its target to be reduced to its minimum.

How NOT to do Blood Prince Council. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eswac8fkfXQ

[Spiritus]

One thing about the dark nucleus you need to hit them to attach them to you. They used to have it so that you would run through them although this didnt make alot of sence otherwise the tank could loose the ones already attached to him when trying to pick up more if another player were trying to pass them to the tank. At any rate I guess things could change again since the boss was on the prt.

This is what honestly has confused me most in this raid. I've seen/heard both attack and proximity being the methods for "latching" onto the nuclei. I would see where the attack would work, but is there an aggro table? Shared aggro table with Keleseth? First person to scratch it becomes fixated? If proximity based, then how does it know to like you over someone else? Lots o' questions on how this will go live.

[Nitros14]

Highly doubt it. Name one "boss" level mob that can be Death Gripped to a DK. They can still tank him, just can't charge back into melee instantly.

Stormcaller Brundir is the only boss level mob that can be Death Gripped to a Death Knight.

...Just saying!

[Djtk]

Of course, there's always one...amirite?

[gacktt]

Why does it have to be a ranged tank? Keleseth does not have any "you can't use a melee tank here" abilities like blast wave, arcane explosion + pushback or any other spell a "council mage" has. A traditional tank also has interrupts of his own which makes it easier, as well as triple the health of a lock, and except for paladins, they have plenty of mobility to move around if nucleus is set on a random position.

[Djtk]

As noted by Spiritus in the initial post:

(2) Three tanks: two physical, one ranged (Keleseth). CAN you tank Keleseth with a physical tank? Yup, sure can. But its an overall DPS loss to do so if your third tank has a decent gear for his/her DPS offspec.

[saedo]

"This causes the nearest target to resonate with shadow, suffering 1000 damage and reducing Shadow damage taken from all sources by 35% for until canceled"

With this part, it could mean a melee tank on Keleseth could make some of the Shadow Nucleus affect him. Further reducing your raid dps.

[tuffmuffin]

Stormcaller Brundir is the only boss level mob that can be Death Gripped to a Death Knight.

...Just saying!

Oh right. Completely blocked Failduar out of my mind, thanks for refreshing me on that. (Though he was immune to it when he was the final one alive~)