I consider myself an expert on Lich King heroic. Sure, I’ve only killed him once, but I have wiped on this fight more than any other in the game. After 200+ wipes, you pick up a few things here and there, and I’d like to share that with you guys.
This is not an easy encounter, and as you wipe and try again over and over, you’ll tweak your rotation, your movement and your general style on the fight.
I am going to assume that you know the general tactics for this fight – there is no need for me to go through them cause, after all, the main way to be useful on Lich King is to know what the hell you’re doing!
Phase 1
First of all, you should position yourself in a position where A) You try to avoid standing on too many people, to avoid having a lot of the raid moving due to shadow traps, B) Where you can actually reach the Lich King and whatever else you need, and C) Where you can deliver the Necrotic Plague to the Horror if you need to, before it kills you off. This will wary a bit depending on how your guild does the fight, but in our guild we had all the ranged inside the metal circle, and the melee and tanks moving outside of it. The Horrors were off to the left.
When he activates, shoot off your treants. You’ll use these many times during the fight, just for added damage and to help later on. Normally, I would use my Starfall right of the bat, but I do hold back on it until my first eclipse procs. There are two reasons for that: Usually by this time, one or both of my trinkets have procced, giving added damage, and because the Ghouls will start to pop up. Obviously, the stars going on the Ghouls will only splash for 25% damage to the Lich King, but it is still a lot of damage that goes around in that little lump of mobs, and you get 20 stars out rather than 10 if it was just the Lich King alone. With the added damage from the trinkets, it all racks up. I don’t worry too much about damage on Ghouls – you might pull aggro on one, but this shouldn’t be a problem. Looking at the damage done solely on Lich King in phase 1 (thus discounting any damage on the Ghouls), I am usually matching the rest of the top DPS’ers.
Continue your normal rotation. After a minute, your Starfall is ready, and by then you should have positioned yourself so that the Starfall will hit Lich King but not the Shambling Horrors – you don’t want to waste stars on the Horrors. As always, move when you throw up a DOT, just for that one GCD, and you should eventually be in a good position.
On our fights, we get into the phase transition just before the two minute mark. My Starfall is usually ready shortly after the first Raging Spirit spawns, which helps to nuke it down. My treants will be off cooldown as the phase transition ends, and I send them on the last Raging Spirit to beat it down.
Phase 2
This phase has a lot of movement. Throw DOTs up whenever you move to maximise the damage. Do NOT use Typhoon, however. It will cause diminishing returns on the Valkyrs, and make your stunners unable to keep them from the edge.
If you use your Starfall when the Valkyrs have just landed, and if they are next to each other, you’ll splash a lot of damage on to them. Unfortunately, your Starfall won’t be up for the next batch of Valkyrs, until after they are halfway to the edge. I usually just use my Starfall on each second wave of Valkyrs. Be mindful though, the Valkyrs floating up ahead will eat more of your stars, so if you can, try to position yourself away from them rather than below them.
It’s important to remember to use your treants. I forget it often. If a stunner gets grabbed, or if shit hits the fan, the extra damage on your Valkyr can save the day. Once the Valkyr is down, move the treants over to Lich King, or any other Valkyr that is still fondling your guildie.
Another really important thing to note is to not DPS Valkyrs more than you have to. You can generally switch off the Valkyr at 55% and let your DOTs and Languish finish it off, as long as your guildie isn’t at risk of being dropped over the edge. Any casts you do at a Valkyr under 50% is wasted damage, and let me tell you, you don’t really have that luxury on this fight.
Phase transition comes, and we move on to…
Phase 3
You’ve made it past the biggest hurdle on this fight, but a bit still remains. When you just move back on the platform, remember that you will still have 1-2 Raging Spirits alive. Don’t waste time attacking the Lich King, you need these down to free up your raid. Nuke them down, and nuke them hard, and remember to continue nuking them once you get out of the Frostmourne room.
Inside the Frostmourne room, you can’t really stand still and nuke the spirits. But you do have two very useful tools for clearing them out. Pop Starfall as soon as you get into the Frostmourne room, and it will take out a lot of the spirits. I mean, a lot. After that, use Typhoon towards the center of the room to clear out a handful more spirits. The more you kill of them, the less explosions your raid will have to deal with.
If you are having a lot of wipes to Lich Kings enrage timer, however, you might want to save your Starfall for him. The damage you do will be lower (because you only get out 10 stars), but it will help your raid if you are lacking DPS to beat the enrage. Remember to minimize your movement and put up DOTs whenever you move. If you about to get pulled into the Frostmourne room, and Lich King is pulled to the middle, you don’t have to run close and hug him – simply stand there and nuke, you’ll spawn close to him after the room event ends.
However, after hitting the enrage timer several times in a row, we revised our strategy and had a good 1-2 minutes until the enrage timer. It’s really more about execution and getting the most out of the fight, than it is about damage – especially when Paragon did it with a 5% buff, and we have a 30% buff.
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The Lich King encounter is very, very difficult. So difficult that I cry with laughter anytime someone says that the game is too easy. And while I choke on my own breath, I am hit with a profound feeling of dread as I realise that I will, eventually, face those horrors again.
Do not despair if you have to wipe a lot of times. Let me rephrase that: A lot, lot, lot, lot, lot of times. Keep revising and improving your performance. If these tips helps on your tries, then great. If you are using a different strategy to kill the Lich King, then maybe this post will spark a bit of creativity. If you have any other tips, put them below!
I can’t wait till my guild stops wasting an hour and a half on idiocy during putricide so we actually have time to try this fight. Great write-up and helpful tips. I’ll be checkin how it all fits together when I get in there next.
Nice job once again Q. These tips should really help for the H LK fight that my guild is now pushing for. Keep them coming!
As a fellow Boomkin who has killed LK 25 HC several times now (though only 4-5 times) this advice is generally very helpful.
A few points though:
- Depending on the tactic, the ability to position yourself may not apply. In our guild, we use 3 groups (tanks and melee, healers and ranged, and horror tank) and I’m the mark for our group. This gives me an additional luxury of moving when appropriate for me.
- Starfall damage on horrors isn’t necessarily wasted, especially if you lose a disease for whatever reason. I wait until 1/2 ghouls have been summoned then pop it – trinkets are usually up as you point out. I then just use it on CD – I can usually get it off (albeit tight) after the first Raging Spirit, being careful that it’s not up just as the second spawns.
- As for typhoon on valks, it won’t cause DR on the stuns (though it does on slows) and our slows are usually fine so I can use it for the little damage as I reposition incase we get defile on the ranged (I change position to more southern on the platform so that any defiles on me won’t be in range of the melee and valks). It also ensures the slow is on at the very start should there be any issues getting it up (we’ve seen bizarre Valk gaps [i.e. the first 2 are almost halfway and the third just picking somebody up]).
- A small delay when Starfalling in the FM room is beneficial so that you still kill the spirits before they’re a threat to the raid, but that the other ranged (who you rely on while Starfall/Typhoon are on CD inside) can get positioned first then start using their own abilities.
Might be worth also noting the use of Typhoon outside during Spirit soaking should they go in an odd direction for whatever reason – you can buy the soaker some time with that.
Gz on your kill. I agree with your statement regarding proper execution and not damage itself.
Do you think its a coincidence that both our guilds use us – the biggest player model in the game – as stacking points?
I do use Typhoon if the Vile Spirits are going crazy, and I do think I’ve saved a few people, but I don’t think anyone in the guild knows it
On the Valkyr’s, I stopped doing it after I heard that they did DR’s – the damage wasn’t really overwhelming, so I didn’t bother to pursue it 
I guess everything helps during movement – this sunday raid, we had several 13% tries, all there we had lost just one or two people to a Valkyr drop or an infest.
The second kill is always the hardest…
Did i miss something?
I don’t remember snares having a DR at all in PvE, so Typhoon shouldn’t have any negative effect since the Val’kyr are knochback immune.
And if it were a stun, we’d probably be prime AoE stunners for that fight, given that it lasts 6 seconds.
I have at times stopped people from falling down by dazing the Val’kyr, and i’ve always gotten the maximum duration. Sadly, we’re still having trouble with the second defile(especially if it comes first, blech) and Val’kyr damage seems rather unstable
There’s no DR caused by Typhoon regarding stuns. It’s a rather good tool to get a slow early on them just to have one there. One of our mages also does Cone of Cold + the planned slows which should do the majority (fury warr shout & DK).
Is glyphing focus/IS (over moonfire/starfire) a bad idea? I seem to be moving around a fair bit. Spamming MF while I do “feels” more useful then refreshing and rerefreshing puny dots.
We’re struggling on the second defile as well over on Defias Brotherhood – Alliance side (the better side Qieth ;-D) but we’re getting there.
My guild has only killed LK 25 heroic once; since then we’ve had a 13% enrage wipe and a 17% wipe due to a person that was disconnected getting defile. T.T
For phase 2 (valkyr and defiles) my raid also marks me with a symbol for everyone to stack on, because I’m so massive. As the valkyr first appear, we try do get as much cleave going as possible, then as they separate a bit and in between stuns we single-target nuke (depending on the class, some just keep up the aoe). I like to stagger my cooldowns. My treants are usually up right before the first wave of valkyr come down, so I put them on LK and swap them to my target symbol when it appears.
I use Starfall for the next wave, and so on. If there is a lot of time (6 seconds or more) before Defile goes out, I’ll use Hurricane (boosted by Gale Winds) on LK and the 3 valks. With our cleave damage, one rarely gets higher than the others, and if it does, all ranged will immediately swap to it and finish it off. Switching back to LK as soon as possible is key; you don’t want to drag out the phase.
For the defiles themselves, we use 4 specific drop areas and I position myself towards that direction and use a /cat form /dash macro to help as well. DXE is fantastic for this fight. I set it to only play a sound when I get Necrotic Plague or Defile, so I move instantly.
For general tips, I use Barkskin a lot. Running out for Remorseless Winter, in the Frostmourne room, if the disc priest is picked up by Valkyr before Infest, etc. We have assigned innervates, and I use mine on cooldown on either of our holy paladins. If I use it early in P1, it’s up again right as the first wave of Valkyr come down.
Keep an eye on your boss timers. Know exactly where you’re going to go before defile, and where you’re going if you get it. Make sure you have Starfall available for the Frostmourne room. It should be up every time you’re in there. Or, like Qieth said, you may want to save it for LK if you’re getting close to enrage. Play smart and stay alive.
I tried using Hurricane to test the DPS, but as it turns out, the valkyrs will usually either spread out too much, or one will get ahead. You can barely do enough damage with AOE on four targets (although I don’t have Gale Winds), so once the valkyrs are split up, your Hurricane is less DPS than a single target nuke. I guess that, with Gale Winds, it might be a different case.
What’s DXE?
DXE is a boss mod- http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/deus-vox-encounters.aspx
And as for Hurricane, I use it situationally, during the initial wave of stuns if there is time before defile, and maybe on the second set of stuns. Ours stay grouped pretty tight the whole way out, and we drag LK along with them. Sometimes though I just forget and nuke my target.
Took me a while to find a good Moonkin vs Heroic LK article – I’m glad to finally have found a good read. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to really learn too much that I hadn’t already figured out, but it is nice to hear that I’m doing it right.
I’m still trying to get a feel for the time between Frostmourne room phases – it feels like I might be able to squeeze in a Starfall as soon as I get out and have it up when I get back in, but I’m always so preoccupied that I haven’t timed it precisely and I didn’t want to run the risk of it being down when we got inside.
One thing I have NOT done is Typhoon inside since I’ve been using it outside – I’d like to try Typhooning immediately inside, Starfalling, then Typhooning again. That way, I’d get two casts in and it will be up again once we are restored.
I have not been using Hurricane on Val’kyrs, although it will be interesting to see if a Solar Eclipse and Gale Winds will make it worthwhile come 4.0.1.