How To ICC 10/25 Tactics – The Lich King

Have your MT position the Lich King opposite to the Frozen Throne ideally near the transporter. Position your casters about 10-15 yards away, with your OT almost as far. Set-up your raid in a tree style (triangular) with your MT -> Melee DPS -> OT -> Ranged DPS & Healers creating the positions.

Phase 1 is about taking care of the adds. Every 20 seconds sets of 3 Drudge Ghouls will spawn and approximately every minute a Shambling Horror. The OT mustpick up the Shambling Horror and face him away from the raid as he is an undead Vrykul with an ability called Shockwave. The OT can pick up some of the ghouls however even a plate DPS class can handle these if the OT/MT is unable to. The MT should try and pick all the Ghouls up leaving the Shambling Horrors with the OT.

DPS should be on the Lich King and whenever a raid member gets debuffed with Necrotic Plague they should run close to a Shambling Horror (try to approach from behind so your closer to the Shambling Horror rather than the OT). The Necrotic Plague will jump to the Shambling Horror or nearby ghouls and then should be cleansed off the targeted raid member with 5 seconds of its application.

Deadly Boss Mods will show timers for this along with most good debuff type addons. It will also infect the OT so should be immediately removed as it’s 50k damage per 5 seconds tick.

As the Drudge Ghouls are not that tough they should die to passive AoE (cleaves, diseases, etc..) or Necrotic Plague for any around the OT.

If your raid feels more comfortable to avoid too much movement then you can DPS the Shambling Horrors (skull em up) cleansing the Necrotic Plague straight away (probably best in PUG’s since communication is not always at its best).

The Lich King’s ability to watch out for in this phase is called Infest which is an AoE move that will cause and increase shadow damage to everybody the longer it stays in effect. To remove Infest the Raid Members must take their health above 90%. Any type of absorbtion shield that can reduce damage caused preventing the player from going below 90% health can negate the DoT effect.

When the Lich King is down to 72%-73% the MT should ensure that the positioning is at the side opposite of the Frozen Throne. All other raid members should start to shift in the same direction.

The Lich King at 70% will enter a transition phase where he will run to the middle of the platform and cast Remorseless Winter then Pain and Suffering. Form some small groups around the edge to minimalise the damage from Pain and Suffering, 3-4 should do (Tanks+melee, caster DPS, and healers is an easy way to split your raid).

Every 20 seconds a Raging Spirit will spawn, get it tanked and face it away from the raid to avoid Soul Shriek which is a frontal cone attack that can silence and damage. There should be a total of three on 10 man so burn them down quickly.

You will also see Ice Spheres spawn which will target a raid member dealing frost damage per second and move towards them slowly. Assign a ranged DPS to focus on these as if they reach the targeted raid member they will explode, knock your group back off the platform and cause a wipe.

This transition phase lasts 60 seconds whereby at the end the Lich King will cast Quake, destroying the outer most part of the platform so ensure your raid moves in before its cast.

Phase 2 is between 70% and 40% where the Lich King will continue to use Infest however instead of Shambling Horrors and Drudge Ghouls he will summon a Val’kyr Shadowguard. The Val’kyr will target a random raid member and lift them into the air in an attempt to drop them off the edge of the platform. All DPS should switch to this target and kill them quickly. They can be stunned, slowed etc.. so use these.

The Lich King’s main ability in this phase is Defile which he will emote “The Lich King starts casting Defile”. He will target a random raid member and for 2 seconds cast Defile where a mass of shadows (black whirlpool type thing) will appear at the spot of that raider. Its about as big as Death and Decay or Consecration and will deal damage every second where it will increase in size and damage done, so Raiders need to get out of this ASAP.

When you take the Lich Kings health to 40% the transition phase will once again begin, so same as before as its identical to the one at 70%, Remorseless Winter, Pain and Suffering, Raging Spirits, and Ice Spheres, followed by a Quake. When the phase begins the platform outer edge will re-appear so get your raid to move to it or Remorseless Winter will wipe you.

The third and final phase begins at 40% where the Lich King attacks with Defile and Soul Reaper. There is no Infest and the Horrors, Ghouls or Val’kyr have been replaced with packs of Vile Spirits. The Spirits are on a 30 second timer to explode and will cause quite a bit of damage however they do not have much health so should be killed quickly plus they are capable of being taunted or stunned.

The Lich Kings phase 3 ability is called Harvest Soul. When the phase starts a random raid member will be targeted and the Lich King will begin to channel Harvest Soul. Healers should HoT and heal up the raider to ensure survival as it will deal 45k damage over six seconds. If the raider survives the channelled damage then that raider’s soul will be transferred into Frostmourne. Once inside the raider will see Terenas Menethil fighting a Spirit Warden. DPS should attack the Spirit Warden and Healers should focus on Terenas Menethil as the more health he regains the more damage he does. The most important part of this encounter is to (if you can) interupt the Spirit Warden’s attack Soul Rip as it will cause alot of damage to Terenas Menethil.

At 10% The lich king will kill the whole raid. Do not release (you should not be able to) and watch the ending scene. You will then be resurrected to finish off the Lich King.

Congratulations on completing ICC 10 Man.

During the transition phase (70% & 40%) the Lich King will summon a Raging Spirit every 15 seconds.

During the phase where the Lich King’s health is between 70% and 40% there will be three Val’kyr Shadowguards.

Harvest Soul will cause 90k damage over six seconds so get your healers to focus here, two should be enough, use a damage reduction ability.

In phase 1 the Lich King will cast Shadow Trap on a random raid member which will knock anybody within it off the platform. It’s trigger time is three seconds so ensure your raid moves quickly.

The Val’kyrs in phase 2 do not die instead when their health reaches 50% they will drop the raid member and fly above the raid where they will be unattackable.
They will periodically drain health from the raid to heal themselves finally dropping down again to pick up a raid member.

Harvest Soul (10/25) in phase 3 will become raid wide sending everybody inside Frostmourne. You will not see Terenas fighting the Spirit Warden however you will see lots of wicked spirits floating above the floor. Kill these quickly as they do AoE damage when they reach the floor dead or alive (alive is substantially more). Once these spirits have been dealt with Terenas will restore the raids souls where you will fight the Lich King again. Upon exiting you will be stacked around the boss so ensure to retake your positions quickly avoiding any of the Lich Kings abilities that may still be present i.e. Defile.