We fought the Lich King!

I tried to get everyone in frame...

One must speak to Fordring to start the encounter—but before that the Lich King waits patient and potent on his throne for the encounter to begin. That means group photos!

Oh, we did not kill the Lich King in our first encounter, but we did get routinely into Phase Two of the fight, which I think is very good considering it was our first time there.

Let’s talk about mage strategy shall we? Our very first combat lasted 45 seconds but we quickly learned from that so there are still some things I can share even at this early stage.

Phase One

The strategy we employed last night was very easy for mages: DPS the Lich King until phase two begins.

OK, there was another thing to remember: When you get the plague, run to the off tank who’s OTing the adds. Thus, when you’re cleansed by helpful cleansers, the plague will spread to the adds and you can then run back to the “ranged group.”

Oh, yes, the “ranged group.” Our strategy was to tank the Lich King rather near the stairs, the ranged folks (like mages!) all grouped tight at the edge of the platform, and the OT between us and the Lich King but off to the side a touch. It worked very well! The idea was to make the running distance to the OT short but not so close as to kill us all.

Phase Two

Oh, my gosh. What a phase. I was on ice orb duty and helped with the spirits. I’ll explain.

The orbs appear then target a raid member and inexorably float toward them like the bubble in The Prisoner except with more dire consequences. They must be destroyed but only have 6K hit points. If they hit anyone—their target or not—that person will likely be exploded off the platform.

The spirits are party members like what the val’kyrs create. They have lots of hit points and are spoiling for trouble. They actually appear right around the end of phase one and the beginning of phase two.

But the worst!

The worst threat of the phase, for us, was the val’kyr. One will come down, snatch up a raid member, carry them off the edge of the platform, and drop them to their death. There’s no way for such a person to re-join the fight so the val’kyr Must Be Stopped.

Unfortunately, the val’kyr have infinite hit points and move slightly slower than the speed of light. At least that’s how it seemed last night. 😉

That’s about as far as we got on our first attempt. It was super-much fun though and I anxiously look forward to going back and getting to phase three!

Escape Route

If you know the raid’s going to wipe—you can survive. Turn invisible then run to the Lich King’s throne! Seriously! It works! It’s the last place any of them would look for you and is far enough away to get away.

Good luck!