This week the Order of Copernicus took a look at Icecrown Citadel . This is the first time the OCC has attempted new raid content during the week of its release. We spent a good amount of time learning the trash up to the first boss, Lord Marrowgar . We then proceeded to wipe quickly and often on Lord Marrowgar himself. Despite the lack of loot, overall this was great experience with the fight.
Read on for a few observations.
The Pull:
Two tanks stack, similar to Koralon the Flame Watcher, when tanking the boss. The idea is to split the damage from Saber Lash between the two meat shields. We initially had issues keeping the tanks alive during the pull. It is important for the tanks to move together during the pull to prevent a tank taking Saber Lash solo. We tried using cool downs during the pull for extra margin but I do not think it was necessary. The big cool downs are best saved for when a healer gets Bone Spike Graveyard. It was helpful to have healers call out on vent when they got Bone Spike Graveyard so that tanks know when to use a cool down.
Phase 1:
The Ranged and Healers spread out in a semi-circle. Healers are positioned with the raid healer in the center and a tank healer on the left and right. Melee DPS stay behind Marrowgar to avoid the Saber Lash. The raid Healer’s priority is the person with Bone Spike. It is important for the DPS to spread out a bit so they do not have to move when Coldflame is cast in their direction. The DPS priority is to kill the Bone Spike Graveyard. Our DPS used a macro (/tar = bone spike) to quickly deal with the spike. They did an amazing job.
Phase 2:
Phase 2 begins when Marrowgar casts Bone Storm . This is a whirl wind attack. Marrowgar will target a random raid member and quickly move to the spot they were last standing. He will spin in place for a few seconds and then target someone else. The whirlwind is death for non-tank types. To complicate the matter, he continues to cast coldflame in all sorts of crazy directions. We had issues with folks getting killed by the whirlwind. I do not see a lot of reason to attempt to DPS him during phase 2. The priority should be run away from whirlwind then avoid coldflame. Phase 2 ends after about 60 seconds and an aggro wipe. Marrowgar is immune to taunts. We lost a few DPS and Healers to the aggro reset. It is important for both tanks to chase him down so they can quickly pick him up during the transition back to phase 1.
A bit about the trash:
There are several large packs leading up to Marrowgar. We pulled the left and right side then hit the middle. There are at least two casters in each group. Line of sight pulls makes things a bit easier (everyone has to move out of sight of the casters or it doesn’t work). Even easier is to have a priest shackle one of them then burn down the other. There are large skeletons that are activated by traps. Have a tank pop them to get the skeleton to start pathing. Pull them when they path close to the raid.
We had a little bit different raid than usual. Eg traded his cloth for plate and tanked on Skandanner . We also brought a new raider Arcanefelroy . Both got gear out of ToC before we hit ICC and everyone got their emblems from the weekly raid (Noth the Plaugebringer Must Die! ) so the night was productive.
Thanks everyone. Let’s do it again next week. Maybe I will get to write about Lady Deathwhisper .
Here are the Tankspot.com videos:
And one for next week: Lady Deathwhisper .
0