The lair of the Lich King is at the very top of the Icecrown Citadel, which stands upon the Icecrown Glacier. The circular platform is accessible only via a special portal that becomes activated only with the death of Sindragosa. The platform is open to the skies of Northrend. It's a very long way down. The Lich King sits on his Throne at the top of a set of steep set of ice stairs. Everything is ice. It's also very, very cold up here.
Standing at the center of the platform staring up at the Lich King is Tirion Fordring. The human has a long history including his leadership of the Argent Crusade against the Lich King and the Scourge. The two mighty leaders have fought each other numerous times and now stand against each other once more.
When the Lich King settled in Northrend he could have destroyed the adventurers that sought him out. Instead, he sought to forge us into the most powerful army in the world, and wield us as his slaves. The Argent Tournament and it's challenge of champions was intended to cull the lesser adventurers, leaving only the most accomplished to be forced to serve the Lich King. Instead, Fordring championed the greatest of the adventurers, ensuring they would not be swayed by the Lich King's dark powers. Fordring now stood with his adventurers to end the Lich King's reign once and for all.
As we assembled for battle the Lich King rose, pulling the legendary sword Frostmourne from it's sheath, and shouted at Fordring. "Shall I lay down Frostmourne and throw myself at your mercy, Fordring?"
Fordring returned the mockery. "We will grant you a swift death, Arthas. More than can be said for the thousands you've tortured and slain."
The Lich King was moving down the stairs as they shouted at each other. "When my work is complete, you will beg for mercy -- and I will deny you."
Fordring raised his own sword and shouted back, "So be it. Champions, attack!"
While they clashed back and forth in words, we had been preparing. The main tank moved toward the center, staying behind Fordring but ready to join in the battle. The off tank stood further back from Fordring, standing ready for whatever tricks LK might throw at us. The rest of the raid was a few more feet behind the off tank, clustered together, tense with determination, resolve, and no small amount of fear.
The Lich King reached the bottom of the stairs and stretched a hand toward Fordring. Fordring was immediately encased in ice. "I'll keep you alive to witness the end, Fordring," he says. "I would not want the Light's greatest champion to miss seeing this wretched world remade in my image."
With Fordring encased in ice, the main tank engaged the Lich King. The tank pulled LK toward the rest of us, forming a triangle with the off tank and the rest of the clustered group of raiders. Groups of ghouls began spawning that the off tank would have to engage and keep busy. At the same time LK cast Infest, which did massive and increasing damage to the entire raid.
Wild and our priest healer, Pl, immediately picked up the healing pace, already frenetic, to get raider health above 90%, which is the only way to remove the escalating damage of the spell. All of the DPS were pounding the Lich King with everything they had. We were then hit with another nasty plague, Necrotic Plague. Wild was one of the first exposed. Wild rushed forward to the off tank and our paladin healer, Kd, cast his dispel to remove the plague. Wild wasn't fast enough in getting turned around and back out of the way, and the plague leaped back onto Wild. Wild made an about-face and swept back into range of the dispel. The plague leaped again, but this time it found the Shambling Horror that the off tank was fighting. That was the pattern of beginning of this long fight.
The DPS kept up the damage on LK, the off tank kept the horrors and ghouls off the rest of us, and the healers battled to maintain raid health and keep off the plagues. We had already lost a couple of raiders, victims of the plague or infest, Wild wasn't sure, but it was maddening having to maintain almost his full attention on keeping the Lich King from massacring the main tank while knowing Wild still had to spam heals on the many raiders feeling the effects of both Infest and Necrotic Plague.
Somehow we battled the Lich King down to 70% health, and more things started happening. The ghouls were mostly dead just from the waves of AoE damage coming from raiders, and the Necrotic Plague was doing in the shambling horrors. More raiders had died, though. Wild got one of them resurrected, but when another druid attempted a second battle rez, it failed. That's when we learned that another change for Cata had been implemented - only one battle rez was allowed during a single battle. We had four druids, so we thought we had four battle rezzes. But now it was only one.
At 70% the Lich King ran to the center of the platform while the raid broke up into two groups along the edge of the platform. Wild, in his rush to get into position, came very close to the edge. Did I mention it was a long way down? Wild gulped and stepped back a couple of feet, but never stopped healing. LK cast Relentless Winter, death in seconds to anyone within 45 yards of LK. LK also spammed Pain ond Suffering, a frontal cone of shadow damage we just have to heal through. Raging Spirits spawned and the tanks fought to keep them turned away from the two groups of raiders, as they cast a Silence that stopped the healing. Wild, battling to keep the main tank alive, was living a purple hell with Pain and Suffering coursing through him. Pl got a Shield on Wild just before I was targeted by an Ice Sphere. Wild thanked her with a heal back at her while the DPS tried to kill the Ice sphere before it killed me. One ice sphere reached a raider, immediately exploded, and blew the raider clean off the platform. It was, as I've said, a long, long way down. Another dead raider.
At sixty seconds from the 70% mark, LK cast Quake. Anyone now still standing at the edge of the platform was in deep trouble. Quake broke free the entire outer rim of the platform. Ice and rock cracked with a thunderous noise and began showering down the glacier. More raiders, late to realize what was happening, fell with the debris.
The main tank re-acquired the Lich King at the center and the rest of the raid spread out around him. The "right" distance between the center and the new, much closer edge of the platform was a dicey decision. The first Val'kyr shadowguard flew into view and grappled with one of the raiders. The raider was lifted into the sky and carried off. The DPS turned and shot the val'kyr down right before it reached the edge of the platform. The raider survived the fall. LK, never one to use a single attack when he can use several, cast Defile.
Defile is a deep, black mass of thick shadow stuff forming on the ground. It targets a single raider to set it's position, but it spreads rapidly each time it does damage by contact with a raider. On the small platform there are few places to run. The raider next to Wild was the unlucky target, and Wild beat feet away from him as quickly as possible while other raiders did the same. One raider who'd run near the edge of the platform to escape the Defile was nabbed by a val'kyr and swept away before the DPS could kill it. Once past the edge of the platform, the val'kyr let him go.
One more time. It's a very, very long way down.
On our best attempt we got the Lich King down to 44% health. This was only the G2's third night against LK, so we considered that to be considerable progress. There were nine attempts. We got pretty competent at the first phase, which covers the start of the fight down to the 70% mark, and we're starting to figure out the phase between 70% and 40%. Obviously, we haven't seen what happens at 40%. Yet.
There were no extraordinary healing numbers. That was slightly diluted because there were three healers vice the usual two we have for earlier ICC battles. But I also think that the tweaking continues as part of the ramp up to Cata, and it appears our healing was adjusted a bit. At any rate, Wild, in his first battle with LK, was pleased that he led the healing in all nine attempts. Overall healing wrapped up as follows:
#1: Wild, 4366 hps, 41.7% of all healing
#2: Pl, 3217/28.5%
#3: Kd, 4065/21.1%
According to the notes from the updated Recount addon (which provides the healing and DPS stats), priest and paladin shield absorption is now included in the healing numbers, so the numbers above should be pretty accurate.
Kd gets credit for all the dispelling he had to do in the early phase, which lowered his total healing percentage. As a full time healer his hps indicates he might have surpassed Pl. But someone has to dispel in this fight, and Kd was our man.
I also need to explain that the above description of the fight is a compendium of the nine attempts so that all that we saw and learned could be included in one report instead of nine. Wild managed to die in most of the ways described above, in one attempt or another.
As with the last post, I will leave you with a few pictures of Wild's first night against the Lich King. It was a memorable night for me. I fully intend to kill LK, that thing that can no longer be truly called a man, before Cata. But if the gods deny me that, I will still be happy to have this night of battle against him.
The Pictures -
There were four druids in the raid. Three of us posed with Tirion Fordring in cat form. Wild is the kittie on the right.
Here's a nice view of the sky around the platform. Wild was killed and was left hanging in the air when the outer edge of the platform broke up. It's a long way down.
Here, Wild was nabbed by a val'kyr. The ranged DPS tried to shoot him down but the val'kyr made it past the edge of the platform and let go. Down Wild went.
Finally, here's what the platform looks like from underneath. Very pretty. Except that you have to be dead to get this view.
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