Karazhan Strategy Guide Part TWO

The trash, consisiting of Arcane Watchman, arcane elementals, and mana wyrms, is on a 45-50 minute respawn timer, so make sure you start fast and keep a quick pace in order to avoid respawns.

Arcane Watchman: These two mobs are similiar to the Curator themselves, and come in a linked pull. They hit hard (proportional to their size), and are untauntable. Their unique ability is a debuff called \’Overload\’ which is cast on a random player in the raid. This debuff causes the player to explode, dealing an exponentially increasing amount of damage to nearby players. The first explosion causes 400 arcane damage, but subsequent explosions double the damage, finally ending with a 3.2k damage explosion. The simplest way to counteract this is through placement of the raid.

Sample Raid Placement: Have a main tank and an off-tank for each watchman. Position the two mobs seperately, so that if a tank gets the overload debuff the OT will not have to suffer through the explosions. All ranged DPS and healers should stand together at the entrance to the hallway. Once overload is cast on a player, that player simply runs back across the plank bridge and waits by the barrels. Alternatively, the player can simply strafe off the bridge (this will cause 0-1 ticks of the explosion on teh raid) and then run back up the stairs to the raid to receive heals.

Arcane Elementals and Mana Wyrms: This pull consists of one Arcane Elemental and 5-6 Mana Wyrms. The elementals have a mana shield, meaning their mana bar acts as their health bar. They also have a blink ability, which they use often. The blink causes an aggro dump, meaning the Elemental will often aggro onto a nearby healer. To avoid unnecessary deaths, the OT should be prepared to taunt the elemental. However, if the MT has a quick reaction time, they should be able to intervene or intercept and pull a taunt off in time. Also, tanking the mob near the healers also works well. We fight the first 2-3 groups in the room with the statue, and the rest at the end of the hall that the Curator patrols. If you have a paladin, have them concecrate to hold down the adds and then continuously decurse the group to remove the \”drain mana\” the wyrms will constantly do. They definately need to keep it off the MH and Mages for the AoE. When the pally has aggro, lay down Flamestrike and/or Blizzard. (Personally find Flamestrike works better overall). When the adds are down, take down the elemental. When his shield is completely gone, he will explode into a mana shower that restores mana to all in the nearby vicinity. Get all mana users in it for some free mana.

Other Curator Notes:

Hateful Bolt Mechanics: The Curator prefers to hateful bolt people closer to him, a rogue on him is far more likely to take a hateful bolt than some warlock who is DPSing. Arcane resistance is quite helpful, as the bolts can be partially resisted, and arcane resistance helps against the flare\’s chain damage as well (the chain lighting the flares do is arcane based). However, it should be noted that many guilds do not use any arcane resist gear (outside of perhaps the AR trinket you receive from the questline to kill the prince, but by then, you\’ve already killed the curator).

Alternate Hateful Bolt theory: Other sites suggest that Hateful Bolt is similar to Patchwerk\’s Hateful Strike ability. Basically, it will hit the person who is a) highest on his aggro list but is not the MT, and b) has the highest health. So to ensure the same person soaks every bolt, healers need to keep his or her health completely topped off.

At 150ish Arcane resist unbuffed, plus Mark of the Wild, the offtank mitigates roughly half of the damage from Hateful Bolt.

Priests - Using your Shadowfiend during an evocation vulnerability will restore a large portion of your mana pool. Normally a Shadowfiend does about 100-200 damage a hit, however an evocation vulnerability will increase this to 300-600 damage a hit, and giving this damage to the caster directly as mana. Dependent of how many healers you have it is advisable to use the Shadowfiend in the second or third damage phase. Also note that keeping Vampiric Touch and Vampiric Embrace on the boss will be a chore. Depending on the group setup and DPS in the group it might be wise to only use the spells when he starts to Evocation his mana back to 100%.

Shamans A bloodlust just before the evocation can be used to both increase the speed of killing the final add and adding a substantial amount of damage to The Curator.

While learning this encounter as a healer, you will use a lot of mana healing people. Bring at least 5 Major/Volatile/Super Mana Potions per attempt, it may save a wipe.

Rogues - Learn to use Cloak of Shadows at the right time to maximize the amount of damage you can negate from the adds. Don\’t blow it as soon as it is up; rather, save it for right when a spawn is about to begin hitting you with lightning. As melee you will be taking damage from every spawn and you must mitigate as much of it as you can. Evasion will also allow you to dodge their melee hits, which are also Arcane damage.

Warlocks - He spawns adds at an interval of about 10 secs and 10 adds on one mana bar, getting a Curse of Doom on him when there is just under 1 minute left till evocation it will deal massive damage (around 20k) to the boss.

Terestian Illhoof
Attacks and Abilities
This fight was made significantly harder in patch 2.0.8
Terestian Illhoof comes with an elite imp minion.
Terestian deals a high amount of melee damage
The imp does decent melee damage (1500-2000 on cloth).
If the imp is killed, Illhoof gains a debuff called \”Broken Pact\” which increases all damage done to him by 25%.
Terestian summons a constant stream of non-elite imps that fireball for around 250 (500+ with amplify flames) and have 5k HP.
Terestian will occasionally Sacrifice one player. This teleports them to the altar in the center of the room, wraps them in Demon Chains, paralyzes them, and deals 1.5k per tick (about 1-2 ticks per second!) while healing Terestian extremely fast.
The Dark Chains must be DPSed down to free the affected player IMMEDIATELY and the player in the chains must be spammed with heals so they do not die. This is similar to Maexxna\’s Web Wrap, but far far more damaging.
The chains have ~12,500 health.
Terestian\’s pet applies the Amplify Flames debuff, increasing fire damage taken by 500. This makes the imps hit much much harder.
Kil\’Rek (his imp) must be offtanked and killed as fast as possible so that Illhoof gets the Broken Pact debuff, and so no one gets the Amplify Flames debuff.
It is possible for a hunter pet (cat or bear) specced for extra health, armor and some FR to off tank Kil\’Rek assuming the hunter controlling him is on the ball.
Terestian will go berserk after approximately 10 minutes, and he will begin to spam cast shadowbolt volleys every 2-3 seconds; they hit for approximately 7000 each, and hit everyone in the raid.
Strategy

Video of Illhoof Kill

Healers will take heavy damage from imp fire, they spend a lot of mana healing themselves.
Focus DPS on Terestian, doing as much melee AoE to kill his elite imp pet. After it is at ~30% hp and a demon chain kill it, this give you ~20 seconds of 100% more damage to Terestian. Keep in mind that Terestian\’s pet will constantly cast the Amplify Flames debuff, increasing fire damage taken by 500 (It is NOT dispelable). He often times casts it on the healers, who are already getting attacked by the imps. This spell makes it much harder for the healers to heal themselves and the raid.
The most important thing in the fight is to DPS down Demon Chains as soon as they appear. Otherwise, the Sacrifice victim will die very quickly, and Terestian will heal a lot.
Every once in a while, the raid leader should call AoE to clear out the non-elite imps. Once most of them are dead, the group should resume hard DPS on the boss.
Warlocks can enslave one of the elite imps in the pack before Terestian in order to add a substantial amount of DPS and Mana for those who Dark Pact. They shoot a fireball that hits for about 800-1600 every second.
The best addition to your raid setup is a destruction warlock specced with Nether Protection and spamming Seed of Corruption on Illhoof. He also gains immune to the sacrifice damage when his Nether Protection is active. A mage with Magic Absorption and heavy Fire Resistance is also a great way to make the kill if you have no warlock, the mage acts as the bolt soaker, and thanks to the talent, will continually regenerate mana, assuming a high enough FR, thus allowing continual AoE on the imps.
Another alternative to taking care of the imps that come out of the portal is to have a warlock with Intensity and Nether Protection along with a paladin for Concentration Aura and to stand in between the portals and Hellfire. Make sure to have a dedicated healer to heal the warlock.
Let somebody offtank and build aggro on Kil\’Rek with damage while your main tank tanks Illhoof. Let him taunt and get on the top of his hatelist with some ability. That way the healing is only focused on two targets (the warlock and the main tank, most of the time)
Get Kil\’Rek below 20% when the sacrifice starts and let your main tank execute (if he is a warrior) Kil\’Rek so that you can fully extend the Broken Pact debuff.

Shade of Aran
Basic Info
Aran is located in the Guardian\’s Library in Karazhan. He has ~900k HP and very low armor - melee DPS is brutally effective against him. He must be fought in a very small arena which is a circle approximately 35 yards in diameter. He is completely untankable - he almost never melees, doesn\’t have a standard aggro list, and if he gets away from the center of his arena, he\’ll run right back.

In patch 2.0.7, a change was made that allowed Berthold the Doorman to teleport players to the Shade of Aran\’s room after the Shade\’s death.

Spells and Abilities
All of Aran\’s basic spells have infinite range and are semi-randomly targeted. (He is intelligent and will keep nuking a target that\’s low on HP.) They can all be affected by Counterspell/Pummel/Earth Shock etc. If someone accidentally pulls Aran and you just zoned in at the start of the instance, he can still nuke you. It should be noted that Earth Shock is a poor substitute for other forms of interrupts and spell locks for this fight due to earth shock only being able to lock down the school for 2 seconds.

Aran has a weak melee attack that he will only use if all 3 spell trees (Fire/Frost/Arcane) are locked out by Counterspell-type abilities.
Aran has a threat list for his melee. This means if you lock down all 3 spell trees, he will melee whoever is at the top of his threat list. This can cause 2 things to happen: he will chase people around the room to attempt to melee and he will crushing blow for 4k+ on poorly armored targets, sometimes killing people in combination with spells. If this is causing any trouble at all, have a Druid DPS him in bear form to maintain the top of the threat list.



Basic Abilities
Frostbolt - 3 sec cast, 4400ish damage.
Fireball - 3 sec cast, 4400ish damage.
Arcane Missiles - 5 sec channeled, 1500 damage per missile.
Chains of Ice - 10 second Root, does not break on damage. Dispellable.
Conflagration - Deals 8000 fire damage over 10 sec to the affected player, and a smaller amount of damage to nearby players. Conflagged players are disoriented and cannot use any spells or abilities.
Slow - Reduces movement and melee attack speed by a considerable amount for 10 seconds. Dispellable. Druids can shape shift to remove the reduce movement effect.
Special Abilities
NOTE: Aran\’s special abilities cannot be locked out by Counterspell-like abilities. For example, if you lock out a Fireball, he can\’t Fireball for 10 seconds, but he could Flame Wreath at any time.



Flame Wreath - 5 sec uninterruptable cast. Targets 3 random people in the raid. If there is no one close to them, nothing happens. If there are any other players near the target, it creates a circle of fire on the ground for 15 seconds. Anyone who crosses the flame wreath (moving in or out) will trigger a 3-4k Explosion that hits everyone in the room. It is important that everyone in the raid hold still as his flame wreath finishes casting, even if standing in a blizzard. If you continue moving, it is possible to step across a wreath before it becomes visible on your screen.
NOTE: As of 2/26/07 pets no longer trigger this effect. Additionally, a rogue using Cloak of Shadows that remains still will also not trigger Flame Wreath. (Cloak of Shadows had previously proc\’d it.)

AoE Counterspell - 10 yard radius AoE around Aran, occurs very often. Any caster in range is quickly rendered useless. Note that this will only affect you if it pulses *while* you are casting; instant-cast spells won\’t get you silenced, and you\’re free to stand next to Aran as long as you\’re not actively casting any spells.
Blizzard - 1700 damage per second, large AoE that moves slowly clockwise 360 degrees around the edge of his arena. Resembles a less damaging C\’Thun dark glare. The Blizzard has a large area of effect and it covers one side of the room. You will be hit by the Blizzard if you are meleeing him and on the side it\’s traveling on.
Magnetic Pull / Super Arcane Explosion - Pulls everyone to the center of the room, Slows everyone, then starts a 10(?) second uninterruptable cast that deals 12,000 damage to a 30 yard radius (note that the room is only 35 yards wide). If you start running as soon as you\’re pulled, you can avoid the AE even while Slowed. Rogues using Cloak of Shadows can get rid of the slow (and possibly avoid the Super Arcane Explosion, though this should really only be used as a last resort in case of lag or other circumstances prevented you from escaping in time). Aspect of Cheetah/Pack will also speed your run to the outside if you are delayed in the middle. Priests and paladins should keep an eye out for any slow reactions (or anyone in \”Chains of Ice\”), since the slowing effect can be dispelled.



Water Elementals
At 40% HP, Nielas Aran summons 4 elite Water Elementals. They have about 30,000 HP, and will despawn after 90 seconds. They shoot a constant stream of frostbolts for 1000-2000ish damage. They can be banished and feared, and Fear is the main method of controlling them.

A second option is taking a high aggro class, such as a warrior or druid, dressed up in frost resistance gear. Prot Tanks are obviously preferred as their damage is less critical on Aran than another class would be (and there\’s a spell damage reduction talent that compliments this option nicely.) Since the Water Elementals use exclusively frost damage, a high frost resistance tank can make them a non factor relatively easily. This eliminates the need of a second warlock but one is absolutely crucial: asking a tank to maintain aggro on four adds is not suggested, but tanking two is certainly feasible.

NOTE: The elementals have recently been nerfed. They now have about 30,000 HP and are most killable.

Enrage
When Nielas Aran gets about 0% mana, he will do an emote (\”Give an old man some time for a refreshing drink\”), polymorph the entire raid (causing you to regain most if not all of your hp) and start drinking. After he drinks for 10 seconds he will start casting an AoE Pyroblast. If Aran is interrupted while drinking, he will simply Potion and Pyroblast. The Pyroblast does 7000-7500 damage. Two druids using tranquility and independent heals can heal back the whole raid.

http://empowermentalk.com/blog/rmyx356/archives/12

Arcane Elementals and Mana Wyrms: This pull consists of one Arcane Elemental and 5-6 Mana Wyrms. The elementals have a mana shield, meaning their mana bar acts as their health bar. They also have a blink ability, which they use often. The blink causes an aggro dump, meaning the Elemental will often aggro onto a nearby healer. To avoid unnecessary deaths, the OT should be prepared to taunt the elemental. However, if the MT has a quick reaction time, they should be able to intervene or intercept and pull a taunt off in time. Also, tanking the mob near the healers also works well. We fight the first 2-3 groups in the room with the statue, and the rest at the end of the hall that the Curator patrols.