In Words
This fight consists of 3 main phases with two transitional phases occurring at 70 and 40 percents. We used 2 tanks and our healers were 2 paladins, one druid, one shaman, one discipline priest and one holy priest
The most important thing about phase one is how you handle the necrotic plague. By using this strategy we never got a third shambling. You completely ignore the ghouls and the shamblers and focus all dps on lich king to push him as fast as possible to 70. The ghouls will die either to normal melee AOE's such as whirlwind or as fodder for stacking up the plague. our offtank was a death knight and was death gripping the shamblers to himself but if you do not have a dk tank make sure he gets mds to avoid shockwaving the raid while positioning. We assigned our hunters to watch for enrages, and having two hunters is part of what makes this strategy work as you assign one the first one and the other the seconds one, but a rogue with anesthetic will work as well as long as he is careful of shockwave.
Start with the entire raid almost stacked on lich king with the shambling being tanked away. Once two people successfully get a plague on the shambling, we had all the new ones run out of the raid and get dispelled, as the plague will be removed completely if no one is within 5 yards. Have the offtank grab ghouls until the second shambling spawns to build up the stack. Once the second one is up keep all ghouls away from the shamblings if possible, ensuring the plague will bounce back and fourth between the two shamblers. they will kill themselves without any DPS from the raid at this point just before or just after 70 depending on your raid dps.
For infest, we had our discipline priest shielding as many people as possible, with the druid and shaman topping melee and the holy priest topping the ranged.
The stacking damage buff the lich king gains when the plauge jumps is much scarier than in 10 man. I needed to start using cooldowns as earlier as 15 stacks, getting very scary around 20.
At 72% have the raid move to the edge and be ready for the transition phase. Make sure to dispel the offtank before he runs back in to remove the disease once the last shambler is dead. It will no longer happen the rest of the fight once you successfully remove that one.
Make sure to spread out here when you are on the edge. The main tank should be getting the first raging spirit and the offtank should get the next two so the main tank is clean when lich king cames back up. If possible, try to face them into the middle so melee do not have to worry, it also makes it easier if a melee gets the next one to have a clear spot to drop it. Assign 2 people to the orbs and after a minute when lich king quakes do pay attention and do not run into any that are not dead yet.
I was always given a cooldown as we were running back in, usually a guardian spirit. It is very silly to wipe here because your tank just gets 1shot running back in.
There will likely be one if not 2 ragings still up so focus on those until the valkyrs come. There will be 3 in 25 man so make sure to assign redundant slows to each one. Ideally, depending on how good or bad you are with defile, the tank should be dead center of the platform with the entire raid stacked up right behind him. The reason you do this is because the valkyrs will always fly to the nearest edge.By controlling where you stand you can ensure they fly together, which not only helps a great deal for melee cleave but also ensures AOE slows like piercing howl or desecration will always be up.
Phase 2 is all about handling defiles and proper slows. The person getting targeted by it is rarely the person that makes it grow, but rather the people around the person targeted who are unsure about which way the defile will be ran. We used a general strategy of teleporter to throne. A defile in the middle could have devastating results if a valkyr slower gets picked up. Always be watching the cooldown or have someone call out the cooldown and havethe raid be pre-moving. As long as valkyr are not about to spawn there is no reason people should be anywhere near the middle when the cooldown ends. One thing to be careful of though is that if raid healers get picked up, or people run the long way around defiles, infest may start to tick rather hard.
Using a taunt rotation for soul reaper made tank healing so much easier. It also let you save cooldowns incase a tank healer got picked up instead of being forced to use them at a specific time. Furthermore, they line with defile more often then not which can be disastrous if people run the wrong way.
At around 42% start watching the cooldown on valkyrs. Stop all dps until the next one comes if there is any doubt you will not make it. It is true that should these people get picked up they will safely be dropped on the now raised platform, but it is also true that even standing on the very edge you will take ticks of remorseless winter. This combined with the pain and suffering or orb splashes just makes it safer to wait. Everyone should be as close to the edge as possible before pushing because there is a delay on the platform coming back up. Again spread out to avoid orb splashes and pain and suffering. This time around though there are 4 raging spirits. This is the optimal time for bloodlust or heroism. We have the offtank get the first, third and fourth while the main tank gets the second. You should be able to kill the first two but the fourth will always spawn after the transition.
If due to the soul reaper you were not the last tank in the previous phase, make sure to open up with a taunt as 2 ragings by themselves are enough to almost kill a tank let alone lich king damage. Tank the ragings by the throne with the lich king over by the teleporter. Since the valkyr are gone you should be as close to the edge as possible. Make sure to keep the person with harvest soul alive or the lich king will enrage. As soon as you see him cast vile spirits move completely to the other side of the platform.
We continue a taunt rotation for soul reaper with the tank that has just been taunted off taunting and trying to blow up the highest health spirits.Stay as spread out as possible in this phase. This helps control the defile as well as make sure spirits only ever blow up one person at a time.
This phase is extremely easy as long as you keep the person with harvest soul alive and they successfully do the inside. For that, make sure to interrupt the channel by any means possible or dispell it off of terenas. The only class that should have trouble with this is a night elf boomkin, hunters should be marks for silence shot, and warlocks should summon a felhunter with heroism at the 40% phase. The more hp terenas has the more damage he will do so keep him topped at all times.
This back and forth continues until 10% at which the lich king will kill the entire raid. Do not release this part of the encounter not an enrage mechanic.
