Gurtog Bloodboil - The Black Temple

If there was ever a fight that teaches people to respect the healers, this is the one. This boss makes healing the toughest job in the raid. To that end, do whatever you can to lessen the healing they must concentrate on you.

For warlocks, this means:

- life tapping as little as possible

- use mana pots every time they are off of cool-down instead of life-tapping

- use those healthstones, freely

- make sure everyone in the raid party has a chance at healthstones. You may need to put up 2-3 soulwells to get enough stones out to everyone.

- if you have the ability, have all 3 levels of healthstones available to your raid party. If you have 3 warlocks in the raid, you should have all 3 levels of healthstones available.

- make sure your Drain Life spell is handy.

- affliction locks need to get their imp buffed so that he has maximum mana and maximum mp5. If you don't have a spirit buff in your raid, bring along Scrolls to apply to him.

Curses used for this boss. Warlock #1 (preferably the affliction warlock) - Curse of Elements (Curse of Shadows before 2.4.3). Warlock #2 - Curse of Weakness. Warlock #3 - Curse of Doom.

Gurtogg is impressively armored. He looks like the biggest, baddest tank to ever swagger into an instance. He looks mean and like he would hurt you. This fight has two basic phases which alternate, the tanking phase and the fel rage phase. You MUST watch your threat on this fight. Gurtogg is untauntable and he disorients the main tank occassionally, causing him to lose threat. Stay below the top three tanks on the threat meter.

Gurtogg will throw out tons of damage during phase 1, using Acidic Wound - inflicting 250 nature damage to the main tank every 2-3 seconds and reduces his armor by 500. Stacks up to 99 times and lasts for 1 minute. Disorients the main tank and attacks the person second on the treat meter. Knockbacks the main tank, causing him to lose threat. Arcing smash that frontal cleaves the main tank and those in front of him with 5000 damage and applies a debuff which reduces healing taken by 50%.

As you look down into his room, there are waterfalls on each side. When the boss is pulled, he will be tanked in the center in front of one of those waterfalls. For simplicity sake, we'll say he'll be tanked on the left side looking into the room. The ranged people will be lined-up in front of the other waterfall and in a column down the center of the room.

Now, imagine two nice neat columns of ranged dps that literally perform a timed square dance during the Phase 1 (tanking) portions of this fight. Every 10 seconds after Gurtogg is engaged, he will place a debuff on the 5 people farthest from him (the group against the right side waterfall). This debuff, called Bloodboil, inflicts about 14,400 damage over 24 seconds and is stackable up to 5 times. Three of the raid groups will be assigned as sponges, each alternating to the right side waterfall for their turn to receive the debuff. You will want to practice your square dance of these three groups alternating positions before attempting this boss.

About 90 seconds after the beginning of phase 1, Gurtogg will cast Fel Rage on a random target and shower that person (and anyone within 5 yards of that person) with Fel-Acid Breath, inflicting 2850-3150 Nature damage and an additional 2750 damage every 1 second for 5 seconds.

The Fel Rage target will have the following debuff: 15,000 armor increase, 30,000 health increase, increase in size of 175%, damage done increases by 300%, decreased cost of spells by 50%, and increases healing done by 100% if you are one of those classes. While in Phase 2, Gurtogg will only focus on the Fel Raged person until that person is dead or the Fel Rage wears off. This is the time to do maximum damage, not worrying about your threat.

During Phase 2, Gurtogg may also apply the following: Arcing Smash - Lashing out in a vicious arc, inflicting normal damage plus 125 to enemies in a cone in front of him, also reducing healing effects by 50%. Acid Geyser - same effect as Fel-Acid Breath.

This fight will continue to alternate between the two phases until the boss is dead. He enrages 10 minutes after the first pull. As you can see, there are tremendous amounts of damage dealt during this boss fight. The healers will be strained to the extent of their abilities. Be aware of that and watch how much you tap them for healing.

High Warlord Naj'entus - Black Temple

Welcome to The Black Temple. For many, the ability to enter this instance was quite an accomplishment. When Patch 2.4 was released, the attunement for entry was lifted and many new people are venturing into Illidan’s lair. You still need great gear and the ability to play your class well to be successful here. We owe a great deal of thanks to the players who came before us, took down these bosses, and wrote strategy guides to help us survive.

The first boss you encounter is High Warlord Naj’entus, who I think looks like a caterpillar on steroids. This fight is fundamental in that there are basically two phases (normal and Tidal Shield) which repeat themselves until he is dead.

Naj’entus is tanked in the center of the room with the rest of the raid party spread around him.

Throughout the fight, Naj’entus casts Needle Spine, striking 3 targets at a time and causing around 3,000 physical damage. The healers will basically heal through this. He will not cast this while he is in the Tidal Shield phase.

Naj’entus fires an Impaling Spine, literally impaling a target. People are standing there with this huge thing sticking out of them. It deals 4513-4987 physical damage and stuns the target. While the target has this huge missile sticking out of him, he is immobilized and will bleed for 2750 damage per second.

Someone must click on the target to remove the spine. As you mouse over the impaled victim, you will get a loot cursor. Once you’ve looted that person, they are freed and you have a Naj’entus Spine in your inventory. You can hold up to 5 of these at once.

Many raid parties adopt the buddy system for this fight. You pair up everyone, other than the main tank, with a buddy. If your buddy gets impaled, you loot him for the spine and thus free him. He will be eternally grateful to you and will buy you a beer after the boss is dead. If your buddy fails to return the favor, then you can call him names in raid chat.

Every 60 seconds, the boss throws up a Tidal Shield where he is immune to all attacks and spells. Now, you click on that Spine in your inventory, and it will break his shield. Do not Life Tap during the Tidal Shield because when it bursts, it causes 8,500 frost damage to all of the raid members.

Here are some macros you can setup to help with throwing the Spine during the Tidal Shield phase.

For DPS:
/use Naj'entus Spine

For Main Tank Healer(s):
/target High warlord Naj'Entus
/use Naj'entus Spine
/assist High warlord Naj'Entus

For Raid Healers:
/target High warlord Naj'Entus
/use Naj'entus Spine

Lock Loot - Slippers of the Seacaller, The Maelstrom's Fury and Ring of Captured Storms

PTR 2.4.3 Warlock Review

Yesterday, WoW opened the Public Test Realm and released patch notes for 2.4.3. People were expecting this to be a test of the new Season 4 armor but were surprised to find actual tweaks to the game. The PTR forums have a blue post specifically stating that this PTR is NOT to test Season 4 since it was tested in a previous PTR. Here are some of the changes I find important to warlocks.

1. Curse of Shadows: This spell has been removed. Curse of Elements: This spell now applies to Arcane and Shadow damage, as well as Frost and Fire.

WOW! This is very cool. Having one curse that applies to all of these types of damage is wonderful. Currently, when raiding, it takes the curses of two warlocks to cover this. Now, one warlock (preferably malediction affliction) will cover this and the other locks can use the big bad-boy spells like Curse of Doom more often.

2. Demonic Sacrifice: This ability will now interact correctly with the Spirit Guide resurrection system in battlegrounds. A sacrificed pet will not be resummoned on death, and will not prevent keeping a record of the most recently created pet

Ha ha! I'm not a sacrifice lock so I didn't know about this. But, it makes sense to change it. If you sacrifice a pet, you should have to resummon one.

3. Mounts at 30?! Yes, it's true: Apprentice Riding and mounts are now available at level 30. Training costs 35 gold. Summon Felsteed is now available at level 30.

I think this will be a big relief to people playing alts. How many have you given up on before level 40 because it got boring having to run everywhere. The reduction in gold is another sweet gem.

4. Numerous flying non-combat pets have had their flight height modified to no longer skim along the ground: captured firefly, dragonhawk hatchlings, moths, owls, parrots, phoenix hatchling, spirit of summer, sprite darter, and tiny sporebat. Nether Ray Fry (a non-combat pet) is now available from the Skyguard Quartermaster. This requires an Exalted reputation with Sha'tari Skyguard.

I am one of those that used to collect non-combat pets but stopped for some reason... it may have been due to bank space. I think this tweak now means that my sprite darter will be over my head. :-(

5. Cheat Death: This talent has been rebalanced significantly. Killing blows are no longer 100% absorbed. If the Rogue is below 10% health, the killing blow is still completely absorbed; if the Rogue is over 10% health, enough damage will be absorbed to reduce the Rogue's health down to 10%. For the following 3 seconds, damage is not always reduced by 90%; it is now reduced by a maximum of 90%, depending on how much resilience the Rogue has. The damage reduction will be four times the damage reduction resilience causes against critical strikes.

May rogues will die earlier now on boss fights so we can finally top them in damage.

6. Mycah of Sporeggar has discovered how to create 28 slot herb bags.

Many warlocks are tailors. Tailors with the Cenarian Circle rep to attain the pre-BC Cenarian Herb Bag or Satchel of Cenarius will now have competition on the market. Those things were big money-makers since few had the pattern. With Sporeggar rep, this pattern is now available in Outland. I may have to grind this rep myself.

7. Players can now be summoned to raid instances from heroic dungeons.

8. Shattered Sun Pendant of Acumen: The triggered effect from this Item can now occur on periodic damage ticks.

This is a biggie for warlocks who use DoTs. I have GOT to finish my Shattered Sun Rep.

9. Target buff/debuff timers that appear when you cast a spell are now more visible.

10. For the flower pickers out there... Looting a Nightmare Vine will now properly no longer apply poison when the node is looted.

11. Nightbane will no longer become unresponsive and unkillable during his air phase.

Warlocks are going to have to pay more attention to their threat generation now during this boss fight.

12. Changes to the Magister's Terrace and Sunwell Plateau instances that can affect parties and raids.

The latest test realm patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/test-realm-patchnotes.html

Rage Winterchill - The Battle for Mount Hyjal

Rage Winterchill is one fancy-lookin’ skeleton. He is the first boss in Mount Hyjal. Before 2.4, players had to kill Lady Vashj in Serpentshrine Caverns and Kael’thas Sunstrider in Tempest Keep to complete quests for attunement to The Battle for Mount Hyjal. Kael’thas is known to be one of the 2-3 hardest bosses in the entire game. So, after the grand task of taking him down, you arrive in Mount Hyjal, head held high for greater challenges. And there you find Rage Winterchill. He’s not exactly challenging. This is an easy fight.

As with all but one boss in MH, there are successive waves of trash mobs that must be cleared before the main encounter. Here are the strats for them.

Wave 1, Wave 2, Wave 3, Wave 4, Wave 5, Wave 6, Wave 7, Wave 8 – Try to DoT as many of the mobs as they enter the camp with Curse of Shadows. If there is a second warlock in the raid, also put up Curse of Elements. I also recommend trying to apply Curse of Tongues to as many of the Necromancers as you can. Then, wait til the raid leader calls for AoE. The mobs have been gathered to a central location. Open up with Seed of Corruption.

This type of encounter is new in the progression chain. There are no Bio- or Smoke-breaks during trash and very little time between the trash waves and the arrival of the boss. Once you begin the event, you see it through, from Wave 1 to Rage Winterchill’s death.

The Boss – Winterchill has 4 main abilities that you must contend with. Your primary objective is to protect Jaina Proudmoore. If she dies, the event will reset.

Death and Decay – one of the important things to note about this ability is that you should have your Spell Details in Video Options set to full or you won’t be able to see the effect. Deadly Boss Mods can help with announcing it but you really need to be able to see the red bubbles on the ground so you can get out of it. This is another one of those times where you just stop what you are doing and move.

Icebolt – Winterchill will target a person a split second before casting this spell so you can see it coming and your boss addon should announce it. You will be encased in a frozen tomb which initially deals up to 5750 frost damage and 10,000 frost damage over 4 seconds (2,500 per second). You are just going to have to trust that healers will keep you topped off. It is important that you not Life Tap if you are targeted for the Icebolt.

Frost Nova – He casts this spell, immobilizing you for about 6 seconds. It is dispellable but most people don’t even bother. The good news is that you won’t be hit with Death and Decay while immobilized…. in theory.

And that’s it for the first encounter in Mount Hyjal. Congratulations for progressing this far, here’s your reward.

Lock Loot - Cuffs of Devastation and Chronicle of Dark Secrets

Quest - Don't forget to loot the skeleton for the Time-Phased Phylactery which you turn into Akama in Shadowmoon Valley to complete An Artifact from the Past.

Raid Strategies

Raid Strategies - I am in the process of posting a collection of strats that specify Warlock moves on boss fights. I'm not going to try to redefine other published strats. I'm simply trying to add information to that. Please let me know if you have any information to contribute.

Karazhan

Serpentshrine Caverns
Leotheras The Blind - the warlock tank guide
Lady Vashj

Tempest Keep - The Eye

The Battle for Mount Hyjal
Rage Winterchill
Anetheron
Kaz'Rogal
Azgalor

Kaz'rogal - The Battle for Mount Hyjal

Walk tall and carry a really big sword. That was my first thought when this boss was misdirected/kited to our main tank. Jesus, that's a big sword.

You need to come to this fight seriously prepared with mana pots, of any kind. Any you might want to consider changing your elixir combination as well. Possibly change out your Elixir of Draenic Wisdom (guardian elixir) for Elixir of Major Mageblood (+16 mana regen). You need mana for this fight, or you die. We'll get to that right after we deal with the trash. One of the things about Mount Hyjal that is very different from other instances is that once you start trash, there's no taking a break until after the boss is dead.

Wave 1 - 4 abominations, 2 Banshees, 4 ghouls, 2 shadowy necromancers - As these mobs approach through the main gate of the Horde encampment, place curses on all of them except the banshees who will most likely be shackled by priests. The A-bombs (abominations) and ghouls should all get Curse of Shadows first. Second, they should get Curse of Elements. These 8 mobs will be AoE'd together once the main tank calls for it. I usually put up Curse of Tongues on the necromancers to slow down their shadow bolts just a bit.

Wave 2 - 4 ghouls and 10 gargoyles - Mount up and ride to the rear of the encampment. The tanks will stay behind with a healer or two to deal with the ghouls. All others should go get gargoyles. These ugly guys will be flying in so look up and target them. Each person should grab aggro on one target. Then you will kite it down to the main tanks. Healers will be with you. The gargoyles don't deal heavy damage so you should be able to take it. Once you've targeted a gargoyle, make sure you are the only person on it by looking at debuffs on him. Each person needs to grab their own. Spam Searing Pain (max rank) several times. This spell generates a lot of threat. Then, take off running. You will run out of range of the gargoyle so slow down every once in a while, turn around, cast another Searing Pain or two, then go again. Just make sure you hang onto him. Once the gargoyles are all down the hill, they will be AoE'd with any remaining ghouls.

Wave 3 - 6 crypt fieds, 4 shadowy necromancers, 4 ghouls - this is the first of the waves where everyone must say a prayer over the main tank. Those necromancers hit him really hard. Once again, Curse of Shadows the crypt fiends and ghouls for aoe. And then Curse of Elements if you have a second warlock. Curse of Tongues on the necromancers.

Wave 4 - 6 gargoyles, 6 crypt fiends, 2 shadowy necromancers - same song as wave 2 and Curses as mentioned above.

Wave 5 - 4 ghouls, 4 shadowy necromancers, 6 abominations - wince as the tank takes a beating and pray for his soul. Same Curses apply and wait for the raid leader to call for AoE.

Wave 6 - 8 gargoyles, 1 Frost Wyrm - Warlock Tank! The Frost Wyrm is tanked independently of the others, by a warlock or mage. If you are the warlock tanking this trash mob, click off your Salvation buff and spam Searing Pain, as it causes a high level of threat. The Frost Wyrm should be pulled away from the raid party. When the warlock tank has sufficient aggro, the raid party will focus fire on the Frost Wyrm to burn it down. Do whatever you have to to hold aggro.

Wave 7 - same tactics as wave 6

Wave 8 - 2 crypt fiends, 6 ghouls, 2 banshees, 2 shadowy necromancers, 6 abominations - poor, poor tank. At this point, if he stays alive, send a shout out to the raid healers. Let them know they've done a good job. Nothing different on this wave, Curse what you can and wait for the call to AoE.

Now, mana up. Do not engage Kaz'rogal until you are at 100%. You'll have time as the hunters kite him to the main tank, who is probably positioned close to Thrall. Do not be the first thing Kaz'rogal sees or he'll walk over a squash you like a bug. I know this from personal experience.

All mana users should stay 10-15 yards apart. All of the melee dps will stand behind the boss to avoid his frontal cleave which hits on plate around 10,000. However, this guy is so big, that the melee dps can stand pretty far back from him and still hit him. This will be important for them to not be affected by his War Stomp.

The really nasty boss ability is the Mark of Kaz'rogal. I don't know who taught him this, but it is specifically designed to take down the ranged dps. It has no effect on non-mana users. On everyone else, it drains 600 mana every second for 5 seconds for a total of 3000 mana. If you don't have any mana to drain, you will detonate for 10213 to 11287 shadow damage in a 10-15 yard area around you. Which means you will probably take out the clothie standing next to you. So, don't run out of mana. Manage it well. Here's your basic mana strategy.

Affliction - DPS down to about 50% mana, mana pot. DPS to 50% mana, dark pact. DPS to 50% mana, life tap, pop a healthstone. Repeat this as you can and try not to strain the healers, as they are managing their mana too.

Destruction - Consider sacrificing a felhunter for 3% mana every 4 seconds. DPS down to 50% mana, mana pot. DPS to 50% mana, life tap, pop a healthstone. Rinse and repeat, try not to strain the healers.

Lock loot - Blue Suede Shoes and Leggings of Channeled Elements

So, how many macros you got?

I'm not an expert by any means on macros. I understand the mechanics but I have not written my own. Frankly, I've had no need. There are tons of great WoW forums post dedicated to the topic and quite a few websites as well. The macros I'm listing here are the ones I have used. I will say this, I'm not big on modifier keys so I don't use macros that way, although most of these have them. These are the basics for every warlock.

Fear - this macro helps you set your focus on a target and keep it chain feared. Your focus target usually has it's own display on your UI and so you can watch for the fear to break. And since it is set to focus, you can actually target something else and be killing it. When you see the fear break, simply run this macro again (preferably hotkeyed).

#show Fear
/clearfocus [target=focus,dead][target=focus,noexists]
/focus [target=focus,noexists]
/cast [target=focus] Fear

Banish - Same as the Fear macro, with the obvious change.

#show Banish
/clearfocus [target=focus,dead][target=focus,noexists]
/focus [target=focus,noexists]
/cast [target=focus] Banish

Seduction (focused) - once again, this sets your seduction target into focus so that you can go about sucking the life out of another target. Aside from sacrificing the succubus as a destruction warlock, this is the main use for her. Enjoy her emotes as she trails around behind you with her whip. The modifier here clears your focus if you want to change your seduce target.

#show Seduction
/clearfocus [modifier:alt]
/focus [target=focus,noexists]; [target=focus,dead]
/clearfocus [target=focus,help]
/petstay
/petfollow
/stopcasting
/cast [pet:succubus,target=focus,exists,harm] Seduction; Seduction

The Amplified, Trinket'd Curse of Doom Macro (ZOMG!)- this is the biggest spell you can cast. Watch out for the number on this baby. And watch out for the warlock that can cast a shadowbolt with the same number!

#showtooltip Curse of Doom
#show Curse of Doom
/use 13
/stopcasting
/use 14
/stopcasting
/cast Amplify Curse
/stopcasting
/cast Curse of Doom

Devour Magic - put that puppy to use in the arena. This is why people are scared of warlocks in the 3v3 arena.

#showtooltip
/cast [pet:Felhunter,button:1,target=party1] Devour Magic;
/cast [pet:Felhunter,button:2,target=party2] Devour Magic;
/cast [pet:Felhunter,button:3,target=player] Devour Magic;

Affliction Warlock DoT Cast Sequence for Trash Mobs - You basically only want to throw your instant-cast spells on trash mobs. This will maximize your dps. You need to click the macro 3 times on each target for all of the spells to be cast.

/castsequence reset=10 Corruption, Curse of Agony, Siphon Life

Affliction Warlock DoT Cast Sequence for Bosses - this is for the big fight. Modify this macro based on your assigned curse duty. You need to click this macro 4 times for all of the spells to be cast.

/castsequence Curse of Shadows, Unstable Affliction, Corruption, Siphon Life

All of these macros can be found at http://www.wowwiki.com/Useful_macros/Warlock which is where I stole many of them to begin with. Enjoy and good luck!

Tip for copying these macros - When trying to copy these macros into the write window, you can't right click to paste. Copy from the internet site with right click or Ctrl-c. Pop into WoW, open the macro window and Ctrl-v to paste.

Addon - Necrosis

Warlocks need some very basic mods to help with spell management, spell timers, etc.

I have one favorite mod, called Necrosis LdC. It is an addon that helps warlocks manage stones, shards and demons. This mod is currently maintained by Lomig, Liadora and Eliah and can be found on Curse.com or on their website.

So, what does it do? It's a radial UI with smaller buttons surrounding a large center one. The center button can be configured for different colors (skins) and functions as a customizable hotkey. Mine is set to apply Fel Armor, but other uses could be Life Tap, Deathcoil, Shadow Ward, etc. The number in the center of the button shows your shard count, your resurrection timer, your mana, or your health. You can also change the size of the UI and move it around the screen.

Probably one of the most popular uses of the addon is Shard Management. You can set the mod to store shards in a certain bag and to manage the number. If you set the mod to only keep 28 shards, it will destroy all others created after that. This is quite handy for those locks that like to finish every fight draining the soul from their victim.

The addon also comes with modifiable speech lua's. When I call for my steed, my toon yells, "I summon a steed from nightmare! Rise from the ashes! Rise!" I also call my felhound like he's a dog. And I yell at my imp to hurry up. There are also customizable speeches for summoning demons, opening summoning portals, and soulstoning.

The buttons that encircle the large one have a variety of functions as well. What I love about these is that I eliminate about half of my buttons from my bars. Most of the buttons expand when you mouse over them for a selection menu. Examples of these are demon summoning, curses and spells. There are also buttons for creating and using soulstones, firestones, spellstones and healthstones, left clicking the button creates the stone and right clicking applies it. The buttons can also be individually removed from the UI if you don't use them.

Necrosis contains a few other customizations that you'll just have to play with. This is an addon for the casual newb and the dedicated raider.

WoW Warlock DPS Spreadsheet

Leulier has compiled a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet for calculating warlock dps. You input your talent build, your stats (including shadow damage, spell hit, spell crit, etc.) and the spells you use. The spreadsheet will calculate your probable dps output, as well as DPM (damage per mana). The really great advantage of this spreadsheet is that you can look at different talent specs or gear upgrades and see the calculated differences in dps.

It takes some time to complete the spreadsheet, but if you are a theory-geek like me, it's well worth it.

http://www.leulier.com/

Just to give some perspective on accuracy, the spreadsheet calculated my dps to be 1539. My usual output is around 1100 and that's when I'm casting hard and furious, using Curse of Shadows. I'm officially in mid-T5 armor and am fully enchanted, gemmed for my spec.

As the Guild Turns

I recently morned the disbanding of my favorite guild to idolize, Death and Taxes of the Korgath realm. They were the world leader in accomplishments for quite some time. I can't count the hours I spent analyzing their players for talent build and spell rotation. Two or three other major guilds have also recently disbanded, Risen and Forte. Curse.com wrote an article this month about what makes a guild crumble. I recommend it for reading: http://wow.curse.com/articles/details/10527/

In homage to Death and Taxes, here is why I idolized them.

World Firsts
Viscidus - 3/5/06
Patchwek - 6/23/06
Grobbulus - 6/23/06
Gluth - 6/26/06
Thaddius - 6/30/06
The Four Horsemen - 8/23/06
Sapphiron - 9/1/06
High King Maulgar - 1/23/07
Nightbane - 1/28/07
Leotheras the Blind - 3/4/07
Fathom-Lord Karathress - 3/6/07
Morogrim Tidewalker - 3/7/07
The Lurker Below - 3/9/07

US Firsts
Gruul - 2/6/07
Magtheridon - 2/27/07
Void Reaver - 3/19/07
Al'ar - 3/15/07
Kael'thas - 5/27/07
High Warlord Naj'entus - 5/31/07
Supremus - 5/31/07
Gurtogg Bloodboil - 6/1/07
Shade of Akama - 6/2/07
Teron Gorefied - 6/2/07
Anetheron - 6/3/07
Reliquary of Souls - 6/11/07
Mother Shahraz - 6/19/07
Azgalor - 6/19/07
Archimonde - 6/20/07
Illidan Stormrage - 6/30/07

Look at how fast they learned new bosses, and without strategy guides.

Azgalor - The Battle for Mount Hyjal

Azgalor is the 4th boss in the Battle for Mount Hyjal. The encounter and preceeding waves occur at the Horde encampment. Thrall and his army are there to assist you and trust me, they come in handy. This is a fight built for warlocks! We get to AoE, we get to Soulstone on the fly and we get to hit his ugly, fat body as hard as we possibly can.

Like all of the earlier battles in Mount Hyjal, 8 waves of trash come before the boss encounter. Here's the run-down.

Wave 1 - 6 Abominations, 6 Shadowy Necromancers - affliction warlocks should DoT all of the targets (at least the abominations) with Curse of Shadows - The abominations are handled first, single targeting until AoE is called for. Stay out of melee range of the abominations. Then, single targeting on the necromancers.

Wave 2 - 5 Ghouls, 8 Gargoyles, 1 Frost Wyrm - The ghouls and gargoyles will be AoE'd. Try to get Curse of Shadows up on as many as possible while the tanks establish aggro. The Frost Wyrm is tanked independently of the others, by a warlock or mage. If you are the warlock tanking this trash mob, click off your Salvation buff and spam Searing Pain, as it causes a high level of threat. The Frost Wyrm should be pulled away from the raid party. When the warlock tank has sufficient aggro, the raid party will focus fire on the Frost Wyrm to burn it down. Do whatever you have to to hold aggro.

Wave 3 - 6 Ghouls, 8 Giant Infernals - Banish or fear infernals that are not being tanked. Single target these to kill, then mop up the ghouls after.

Wave 4 - 6 Fel Stalkers, 8 Giant Infernals - Banish, fear and kill the infernals first. Then banish and kill remaining fel stalkers.

Wave 5 - 4 Abominations, 6 Fel Stalkers, 4 Shadowy Necromancers - Banish as many fel stalkers as you can, then apply Curse of Shadows to as many abominations as possible. Kill the abominations first, then the others.

Wave 6 - 8 Shadowy Necromancers, 6 Banshees - Kill the necromancers first.

Wave 7 - 6 Giant Infernals, 2 Fel Stalkers, 2 Crypt Fiends, 2 Ghouls - Same as wave 4. The crypt fiends and ghouls will be killed last.

Wave 8 - 4 Abominations, 4 Crypt Fiends, 2 Fel Stalkers, 2 Shadowy Necromancers, 4 Banshees - Same as wave 5.

BOSS TIME! Azgalor will be tanked behind the large hut at the entrance, in a clear field. The timing between wave 8 and the boss is immediate. You will have little time to refresh so sit the second you are out of combat from the last wave. You should sit and eat here instead of straining the healers with life tap. They have to mana up too.

You should have a soulstone in your bag that hasn't been applied. Just hold on to it. You'll know where to use it soon.

Position yourself at maximum range from Azgalor between him and Thrall's starting position. From here, this is a dps race. Kill him as fast as you possibly can because you will be losing raid members every 40-45 seconds.

The boss himself is not that difficult. He'll randomly cast Rain of Fire. Get out of it immediately. Every 15-20 seconds, he'll cast Howl of Azgalor which has a silencing effect for 5 seconds. Just enough to be annoying. He has a frontal cleave that will slice you in half so stay away from him.

Every 45-50 seconds, he will cast Doom on a raid party member. The targeted doomed soul needs to run toward where Thrall stands, past the tank back there. After 20 seconds, the Doom will tick down and kill the target and a Lesser Doomguard is spawned. This second tank will pick up these Doomguards.

If you see a healer with Doom cast on them, try to put your soulstone on them so they can ressurect after dieing. It can be tricky but it's the reason you are positioned between Azgalor and the Lesser Doomguard tank spot. You need to watch your Deadly Boss Mods or your Big Wigs and be ready to target the Doomed and cast that SS asap.

Lock Loot: Gloves of the Malefic (Tier 6!)

Anetheron - The Battle for Mount Hyjal

Last night was my first chance to help take down Anetheron, the second boss in Mount Hyjal. I was running with my new guild, Twilight Ascension on the Dalaran realm. Although I did not live through the encounter, I enjoyed watching the fight immensely. My goal next time is to stay alive.

The thing I love about Mount Hyjal is the dps number I have at the end of the night. Since I spend the majority of my time AoE'ing the trash mob waves, I have higher than normal dps. Generally speaking, warlocks aren't the big numbers on trash. The cast time of shadow bolt is so long that you can usually only get off one, maybe two on a trash mob before the raid kills it. As an affliction warlock, my dps is even lower on trash mobs because my DoT's don't get the chance to tick more than once or twice.

There are 8 waves of trash before Anetheron spawns.

Wave 1 - 10 Ghouls - each tank grabs 2-3 ghouls and builds aggro, after they have sufficient aggro, target through one of the tanks and cast Seed of Corruption (SoC) repeatedly until all or most of the ghouls are dead. When mobs get down to 2-3 in number, sometimes, it's more efficient to single target kill those.

Wave 2 - 4 Abominations, 8 Ghouls - Each abomination will be marked. As an affliction warlock, I DoT each of the while waiting for the tank's to build aggro. Once they have sufficient aggro, I begin Seeding through the first abomination in the kill order. And I continue targeting the abominations through the mark kill order and using SoC.

Wave 3 - 4 Shadowy Necromancers, 4 Crypt Fiends, and 4 Ghouls - The crypt fiends are marked as the abominations were and once again I DoT them up. I continue with the strat of wave 2. The Shadowy Necromancers are sheeped or feared and killed last. If you are asked to fear them, just be careful of their range. It can take be time-consuming if you have to hunt them down.

Wave 4 - 2 Banshees, 6 Crypt Fiends and 4 Ghouls - Same strat as Wave 3. The Banshees are shackled during this wave and killed last.

Wave 5 - 4 Banshees, 6 Crypt Fiends and 2 Shadowy Necromancers - Banshees are shackled. Shadowy Necromancers are sheeped/feared. The Crypt Fiends are marked and single targeted for killing or AoE'd.

Wave 6 - 2 Abominations, 4 Shadowy Necromancers and 6 Ghouls - Targets are handled as described in previous waves. Affliction locks should DoT the Abominations. AoE once the tanks have sufficient threat.

Wave 7 - 4 Abominations, 4 Crypt Fiends and 4 Banshees - Some strats suggest kiting one of the Abominations and killing it first while the tanks build threat on the remaining Abominations and Crypt Fiends. The Banshees are shackled and tanked, if you don't have enough priests to shackle all 4. Affliction locks should DoT the Abominations and Crypt Fiends. AoE once the tanks have sufficient threat.

Wave 8 - 4 Abominations, 3 Crypt Fiends, 2 Banshees, 2 Shadowy Necromancers and 3 Ghouls - by the time you get to this wave, you are good at what you are doing. Same strats apply as above waves. Affliction locks should DoT the Abominations and Crypt Fiends. AoE once the tanks have sufficient threat. Then finish off the Banshees and Necromancers through single-targeting.

Here comes the big guy! Anetheron spawns and runs into the arena, targeting the first thing he sees. A hunter will misdirect him to the main tank. All ranged dps should be well-spread out, in an arc in front of him, but not too close together.

Carrion Swarm - Anetheron sends out a green cone of about 60 degrees from the target he casts it on. This swarm deals 4250-5750 shadow damage and debuffs the healing ability of the healers by 75%. Thus, the healers should be spread even farther apart than the dps. The debuff lasts for 20 seconds and the green wave occurs approximately every 11-15 seconds. Try to throw up your Shadow Ward as often as you can.

Inferno - Here comes the hurt. Anetheron casts this at random, every minute. A meteor will fall from the sky aimed at the person it was cast on. When it lands, it causes 2500 fire damage, stuns the target for 2 seconds and spawns a Towering Infernal. The target must kite the Infernal to the Infernal Tank or a hunter must mis-direct the Infernal. As this infernal runs, he is surrounded by an 8 yard AoE of fire damage. Get out of their way.

If you are the affliction warlock in the tank group, make sure you put your imp on stay, phase-shifted close to the infernal tank. Make sure you can still dark pact from him and be in range of Anetheron. With practive you will learn where to leave him.

Sleep - He sleeps up to 3 people at random for 10 seconds. So, you stand there and watch the action, unable to participate. It is, of course, at this time that an infernal will be running straight at you and then stand still on your head while you die.

Vampiric Aura - The rogues will need to keep Wound Poison fully stacked as this will heal Anetheron for 300% of the damage he deals.

Lock Loot - Anetheron's Noose and Hatefury Mantle