Apparently nerfs to the encounter are now being called “hotfixes”.  The following nerfs were applied to ICC:

• In the Lord Marrowgar encounters, the boss will no longer reset threat after a bone storm and will now wait a small amount of time before attacking at the end of a bone storm.
• In the Deathbringer Saurfang encounters, the boss is now less likely to cast Blood Nova on targets affected by Mark of the Fallen Champion.
• In both normal and heroic versions of the 10 player Rotface encounter, the mutated infection ability will not be cast as quickly while the fight progresses.
• In the 10- and 25-player heroic Festergut encounters, the malleable goo ability should no longer target pets.
• In the Valithria Dreamwalker encounters, the duration of Emerald Vigor and Twisted Nightmares were slightly increased.
• In the Sindragosa encounters, the duration of the instability debuff was slightly reduced.

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We killed Lich King on 25man tonight, after many many hours perfecting (and I use that word loosely), phase 3.  I must say it’s probably the most fun I’ve ever had in any single encounter, and for the most part, redeems Icecrown Citadel for me.  The really amazing thing is how they’ve made a role for all classes, including us moonkin.  We bring much value to the fight, and I’ve had those in my guild tell me if I hadn’t been there they wouldn’t have killed it.

The essentials:  [Glyph of Starfall] helps a lot.  But what you REALLY need is [Glyph of Typhoon], unglyphed, so you can knock back the vile spirits in phase 5.  It makes them so much more manageable. The daze also helps slow the Val’kyr when they land so stuns can be put out easier.

NOTE:  The mobs in phase 1 ARE able to be knocked back, so you probably do NOT want to use Typhoon there.

I’ll post a kill shot once it becomes available.

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It was announced today that a hotfix is being applied that no longer deducts attempts from the limited attempts pool on normal mode.  This does not remove the counter, however, only stops the deduction.

That also means that you must have one attempt remaining on heroic to attempt the boss on normal instead.

Let’s see how this affects guild progress.

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Click here to see the weapons dropped off the Lich King.  Notice how the DPS caster weapon is a SWORD.  Thanks Blizzard.

This is the 10man list.

10man items to note:

[Halion, Staff of Forgotten Love] (Heroic: [Halion, Staff of Forgotten Love])

[Tel'thas, Dagger of the Blood King] (Heroic: [Tel'thas, Dagger of the Blood King])

25man items to note:

[Archus, Greatstaff of Antonidas] (Heroic: [Archus, Greatstaff of Antonidas])

[Tel'thas, Dagger of the Blood King] appears to be best in slot, however if you manage to kill 25man heroic Arthas, [Royal Scepter of Terenas II], the healing mace, may be a better option just because of the insane stats on it.

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I too finally picked up [Nibelung].  There’s been a flurry of activity throughout the forums and DPS blogosphere about the stats for the Nibelung, so I won’t bore you too much.  I’ll try to touch on the main moonkin items:

1. Many abilities proc Nibelung.  These include [Glyph of Starfall], [Earth and Moon], and [Languish].  That means when Lunar Eclipse is active, you effectively have quadrupled your proc-rate for the Val’kyrs.  (The proc rate is 1%. This assumes you have 4pc T10).
2. The val’kyrs currently do not enjoy the same AoE avoidance as hunter pets, treants, etc.  However, it seems just like pets, there are some fights in which they are immune to certain AoE damage.  (Festergut being an example).
3. [Glyph of Starfall] may be a wise replacement for [Glyph of Insect Swarm].  I’m currently testing it out.  Starfall is great at forcing the Nibelung to proc.
4. After about 7 minutes on a heroic training dummy, (about 3 million damage worth), the Val’kyrs were 8.2% of my damage.  My treants were about 3.6%.

There are some fights the Val’kyr get absolutely raped, so it’s handy to have a good MH/OH combination ready.  Blood Queen Lana’thel is one of those fights.

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There were some hotfixes to Crimson Halls today.  The Blood Queen hotfix seems to make her much easier.  Congratulations to the 160 or so guilds worldwide who killed her pre-nerf!

Blood Prince Council

• Prince Keleseth will no longer melee players. So if you get knocked into Keleseth or happen to move by him, he won’t swipe in between his casts and kill a non-tank.
• The first Shadow Resonance should appear earlier in the fight, which will allow the Keleseth tank to have more orbs on him or her if Keleseth is empowered second instead of third. We didn’t want which Blood Prince was empowered second to be a major element of the difficulty in the fight.
• We reduced the melee damage for the Princes by 10% for the 10 player difficulty. They were doing less damage than the 25 player before the hotfix, but this change lowers the damage further.
• Empowered Flames will now run out of power after shooting fewer firebolts in the 10 player difficulty. We did not change the initial impact damage.

Blood-Queen Lana’thel

• The Blood-Queen is no longer spawned until the Blood Princes dies. This will prevent any unfortunate entry of her highness while a raid is fighting the Blood Princes. The initial hotfix for this causes the Blood-Queen to not spawn at all in a particular circumstance, but this was also fixed last night.
• We increased the duration of Essence of the Blood Queen to 60 seconds in 25 player difficulty, and 75 seconds in 10 player difficulty. A strategy developed for managing the Essences throughout the fight that involved intentionally killing a player, and this change addresses that strategy. The new timing does interact with some of her other abilities in new ways, but there are methods that players have to lessen that impact.

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Killed Blood Queen Lana’thel today.  It’s a rather coordinated fight, as well as having a high DPS requirement.  I doubt our alt 25man run will be able to kill it for awhile, let alone most casual guilds/pugs.  I’ll post a picture of the kill once we have it available.

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The Crimson Hall wing of Icecrown Citadel is set to unlock this Tuesday, allowing you to access both The Blood Prince Council and Blood Queen Lana’thel.

Gear of importance to moonkin:

10man:

[Cerise Coiled Ring] (Blood Prince Council)

25man:

[Shadow Silk Spindle] (Blood Prince Council)

[Blood Queen's Crimson Choker] (Blood Queen Lana’thel)

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I’ve been remiss in my goal to give brief previews of the different battles for those who have yet to see Icecrown Citadel, or want a very topical description of the fights.  This is in no means a fully inclusive boss strategy, just a high level view of the fight, and those things pertinent to a moonkin.

This is in the point of view of Alliance.  The character names/models are changed if you’re Horde, but the abilities are the same.

There are several different elements occuring at the same time of Gunship Battle.  I’ll try to break them down.

Cannons: (4 on 25man, 2 on 10man)

There are cannons which are used to attack the opposing gunship.  Generally melee are placed in these, and they attack the Kor'kron Rocketeer.  If the rocketeers are dead, they can begin to attack the Kor'kron Axethrower.  The cannons have two abilities, first they use [Cannon Blast], which produces an energy bar called “Heat”.  Once your heat is 80+, you should use the “finishing move”, [Incinerating Blast].  If your heat reaches 100, however, you will begin to [Overheat], which will lock out the cannon for 3 seconds.

Kor'kron Rocketeer:

The rocketeers will launch rockets at your ship, and their destination is marked with a large cross on the ground.  Dodge the rocketstrikes.  The cannons should be attacking them.

Kor'kron Axethrower:

The axe throwers will randomly attack people on your ship.  Your ranged DPS should be killing these.

Kor'kron Sergeant / Kor'kron Reaver

These mobs will teleport onto your gunship and need to be offtanked.  Casters should occasionally AoE them down, as they will begin to do more damage as time goes on.  The Sergeants will also use [Bladestorm] and [Wounding Strike].

Kor'kron Battle-Mage

The Battle-Mage will arrive and [Below Zero].  This will cause your cannons to be frozen and unusable.  Your melee will need to jump over and kill the mage.

High Overlord Saurfang

High Overlord Saurfang needs to be tanked when the melee go over to kill the Battle Mage.  The offtank should jump over BEFORE the melee, and return AFTER them, so Saurfang does not attack any of the melee.  He cannot be killed, and his damage grows in time as he’s in combat, so it’s important to recall totems and return to your own gunship after the mage is killed.

Moonkin loot of interest:

10man:

[Cord of Dark Suffering]

[Muradin's Spyglass]

25man:

[Ring of Rapid Ascent]

[Boots of Unnatural Growth]

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A few hotfixes went out for the Putricide encounter today:

• Professor Putricide’s Tear Gas will no longer remove player auras.
• The Growing Ooze Puddles in the Professor Putricide encounter will no longer continue to grow while players are stunned.

A few heroic dungeons were also nerfed to allow faster clears.

On a side note, the 2 piece Balance T10 proc is called [Omen of Doom].  Doing 20k+ Starfires and 14k+ wraths is pretty neat.

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