Icecrown Citadel Bosses and Information, The Crimson Halls
Blood Princes Council
You might recognize the trio of princes that comprise the Council. Keleseth, Valanar and Taldaram are Darkfallen princes. Suffice it to say, they're a form of undead blood elves that now serve Arthas. You might recognize them from your encounters in Utgarde Keep, Borean Tundra and Ahn'kahet.
This is a multi-boss encounter. Your raid group needs to deal with three undead blood elves at the same time time. Each one has their own abilities, strengths, and weaknesses. The main deal with the fight is that only one prince can be targeted and hit. This will constantly change due to a buff placed on the princes called Invocation of Blood.
Not only that, you'll need a three tanks total: Your main tank, an off tank and a Warlock tank.
Prince Valanar - Be wary of the Shock Vortex. Anyone near it will take damage and it does have a powerful knock back effect. In addition, keep an eye out for Kinetic Bombs. The bombs can be targeted. If they reach the ground, they will explode. They need to be targeted and attacked so that the bomb will not reach the floor. With the Invocation of Blood buff, Empowered Shock Vortex will create a vortex above every player within 30 yards. In other words, if you're within that 30 yard range, stop what you're doing and run out.
Prince Taldaram - For one, Taldaram does a frontal conical fire attack called Glittering Sparks. If you get hit, you'll take a high amount of fire DoT damage and be slowed down (about 20%). If possible, have your tank face Taldaram away from the raid. He will conjure these floating balls of fire (Conjure Flame) and direct them against raid members at random. Again, if you get targeted, stop what you're doing and run away from them. The longer the distance that these balls have traveled, the less damage they will do when the target is hit. When Taldaram gains Invocation of Blood, Empowered Flame will be launched toward the target but it will also hit anyone along the way.
Prince Keleseth - I hope your warlock has brushed up on their tanking skills! Don't worry, there are a few environmental factors that will help you out.Watch for a Dark Nucleus around Keleseth as it will give Shadow Resonance. This stacking buff is applied which will decrease shadow damage taken by the warlock. Your warlock needs to gain threat on them and stand near them. Have a healer keep an eye on anyone targeted by Shadow Lance. Once Keleseth gains Invocation of Blood, his Empowered Shadow Lance will deal close to 85000 - 90000 damage to the warlock which should be reduced by his buffs.
Additional information
Queen Lana'thel
Ever wondered how Quel'Delar made it to Northrend? Lana'thel was the blood elf who brought Dawnseeker's blade to the north. After she was taken down by Arthas, she was raised from the dead to aid the armies of Arthas. Once you destroy the Blood Princes Council, you'll find her in her chamber above.
Note: She is one of the few bosses in the instance where you only have limited attempts to take her down.
Queen Lana'thel is a two phase encounter. It consists of a land phase and an air phase. In phase 1, you'll need two tanks to tank swap in order to mitigate the bleed damage from her Delirious Slash. In addition, they need to be close to each other. In fact, the person closest to the tank gains an ability called Blood Mirror where they will also take 100% of the damage done to Lana'thels tank.
The rest of the ranged and healers will need to spread out from each other. Try to keep around 6 yards away. Do this in order to avoid Twilight Bloodbolt. The main target gets hit for damage and it will chain to players around them.
Swarming Shadows - Legion Flame is back and darker than ever! Yes, its the same mechanic. If you get it, run to the outside of the room. If you see a player with a trail of purple clouds behind them, you would do well to sidestep them.
Pact of the Darkfallen - 3 random players will be affected by this. A triangle will form between the 3 players and any unlinked players close by will take damage. It is important that the 3 players stop what they are doing and run towards each other in order to shake off the spell.Use the center of the room.
Shroud of Sorrow - This aura deals shadow damage constantly throughout the fight. Healers beware.
The other aspect of the fight is this whole biting of other players thing. Vampiric Bite will do a high amount of physical damage to a player but it gives them a buff called Essence of the Blood Queen. This doubles the damage dealt by the player. Any damage they deal will heal them up and their attacks will not generate any threat. However, the trick is that the bitten player needs to bite another friendly player. This refreshes the Essence of the Blood Queen buff on the original player and grants the new player the same thing. If a player affected by Essence of the Blood Queen does not bite an unaffected player within 60 seconds, then they become mind controlled by Lana'thel. Their health increases and they hit like a truck. Its a virtual wipe at that stage.
So yes, your raid is on the clock. Otherwise you will run out of targets to bite.
In case you still don't get it, I will use us as an example.
Matticus gains Essence of the Blood Queen. After 50 seconds, he bites Adam (as he is obviously the highest DPS player who will make the most use out of the damage buff). Both players now have Essence of the Blood Queen. 50 seconds after that, Matticus bites Sacco and Adam bites Alex. All the buffs have refreshed and now 4 players have it. Then another 4 players will need to be bitten resulting in a total of 8 affected players. Its going to keep going until you run out of players to bite. Save your Heroism or Bloodlust for maximum impact. Wait until the majority of players have been affected by the Essence.
Air phase
Thankfully the air phase isn't as complicated. After a couple of minutes, the Blood Queen will run to the center of the room and leap into the air. Melee players (including tanks) will need to space themselves out. Multiple Bloodbolt Whirls will be fired at the raid. This is the high stress healing phase. Consider using your defensive healing cooldowns at this point.
Additional information
Stratfu: Videos and detailed strategy
Patch 3.3 is the last major patch of Wrath of the Lich King. With the new Icecrown Citadel 5-man dungeons and 10/25-man raid arriving soon, patch 3.3 will deal the final blow to Arthas. WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.3 will keep you updated with all the latest patch news.
