Leotheras the Blind

Leotheras the Blind, a blood elf demon hunter is the third boss of Serpentshrine Cavern in Coilfang Reservoir.

Background
Leotheras is seemingly possessed by a demon himself. Kael'thas Sunstrider originally sent Illidan Stormrage five blood elves to train as demon hunters. Three of them died in the vigourous, exhausting training. Another, a prodigy known as Varedis Felsoul, succeeded and now trains more demon hunters at the Black Temple. The fifth one, Leotheras, went insane from the training and was exiled to Zangarmarsh, where he found his way into the lair of Lady Vashj. He probably found his way in and in his madness, started wreaking havoc. Judging by the three Greyheart Spellbinders that keep him banished, Lady Vashj's minions sucessfully subdued him and are now keeping him imprisoned.

Abilities

 * Leotheras alternates between Humanoid Form (~45 sec) and Demon Form (~60 sec) through most of the fight. He wipes threat upon transition between forms.
 * At 15% health, the two forms split apart and must be handled separately.
 * Berserk: Leotheras' damage is increased by 500% and attack speed is increased by 150%, wiping the raid very quickly. This occurs 10 minutes after Leotheras becomes active.

Humanoid Form Abilities
Melee: 2500-3000 on plate

Whirlwind:
 * 12 sec duration
 * Leotheras spins around the room (similar to Sartura in Ahn'Qiraj)
 * ~3000 damage instant (mitigated by armor) plus a 15s bleed for 2500 per 3s tick (no mitigation)
 * 15 sec cooldown
 * Randomly switches targets during, and resets threat at the end

Demon Form Abilities
Chaos Blast : Leotheras' only attack in this phase, centered on his current target.
 * 2 sec cast
 * 150 fire damage AoE
 * Applies a 45 sec debuff which increases fire damage taken by 1675 and can stack up to 20 times

Inner Demon
About 25 sec into the Demon Form phase, Leotheras summons Inner Demons for up to five raid members (never for the person with aggro). The inner demons can only be attacked by the person to whom they belong. If Leotheras returns to humanoid form while an Inner Demon is still alive, that person becomes Mind Controlled for 10 minutes (non-removable). Pet classes must make sure their pet does not get the killing blow, the Mind Control is only prevented if the player deals the death blow.

Inner Demon capabilities:
 * ~11,000 health
 * melee damage: ~1000
 * spell damage: Shadow Bolt for ~3500 (reflectable)
 * take increased damage (+65%) from arcane, nature, and holy spells
 * take slightly reduced damage (-20%) from shadow and fire spells
 * vulnerable to most forms of CC like daze, stun, disorient, fear and even banish (not recommended)

Suggested Raid Build

 * 7-8 healers: In the worst case there are 5 inner demons on healers, two healers are absolutely needed for the warlock tank
 * 2-3 tanks: One being warlock, one to two for regaining aggro after whirlwind. Paladins are good for quickly pulling Leotheras back to them with Avenger's Shield after the demon phase. Druid tanks are also good, as they can DPS better during the demon phase and kill their Inner Demon much more easily than a Protection Warrior in tank gear.
 * 16-14 DPS classes. Because of the whirlwind ability, ranged DPS have an easier time than melee.

Whirlwind
During a Whirlwind, Leotheras targets his victim. If that person runs away fast and far enough, he will deaggro and whirl towards someone else. It is possible to have ALL raid members avoid being hit. If people are hit by Whirlwind, they must be healed. The DoT part can only be removed with Divine Shield, Blessing of Protection, or Ice Block (Stoneform no longer removes it).

The aggro wipe can be overcome with a hunters Misdirection. Other tricks include having someone place Gnomish Flame Turret/Searing Totem on the tanking spot (Leotheras will aggro this, allowing the MT to get aggro back easily). Bleeds or any other tank DoTs also help them gain aggro immediately when they tick after the aggro wipe. Having a Paladin main tank this encounter is also a good idea because he doesn't have to chase down Leotheras, but can simply throw an Avenger's Shield. Like most raid bosses, Leotheras is immune to taunt.

Demon Form
It's a frequently used tactic to have a demo specced warlock with felhunter and high fire resistance tank this encounter. Nonetheless, it's also possible to tank him conventionally. A combination also works - a normal tank taking the first few attacks can help the warlock tank survive the entire phase.

Tips for warrior tanks
You need to have about 365 fire resistance and about 18K health raid buffed. Flasks of Chromatic Wonder are great for this. Tank him at the edge of his hitbox to protect melee DPS from being hit by the Chaos Blast splash.

The incoming damage will go from zero (no debuffs) to most of your health bar, but if healers are on the ball you should be able to go up to about 12-14 debuffs before being instagibbed. Thunderclap seems to reduce the frequency of attacks which will make you survive longer.

Threat will probably be a problem, especially when you're not taking damage, so using Mighty Rage Potions is a very good idea and will allow your raid to squeeze out more DPS. High stamina DPS gear will also help assuming you can reach the maximum fire resistance, and use Battle Shout until you have about 4 debuffs then switch to Commanding Shout.

Ask a friendly Paladin to cast Divine Intervention on you during the last 15% if your debuffs stack too high, as this will remove them. Ideally do this when you have a full rage bar to allow you to get him back off healers, and click it off quickly before people start dying.

Inner Demon
Whenever a player has to deal with an inner demon, he should be healed by the non-affected healers, even if self healing-capable. DPS classes should find this encounter rather easy. For some classes a few hints may help:


 * Holy Priest: Simply spamming Smite will effectively kill the Inner Demon with an incredible amount of time left over, almost one of the fastest classes able to kill their demon. Due to the demon taking increased damage from holy, any shadow spells are probably a waste of time. Fearing often causes the demon to run out of DPS range. Any form of healing should not be used except Healthstones, as your priority is to kill your Inner Demon as soon as possible—other healers not Demon'd will take care of you, but feel free to PW:S or Renew before he uses the spell in case you receive it, just waste no time NOT killing your demon. No spell damage gear should be needed.


 * Holy Paladin: Start by use Avenging Wrath and Seal of Righteousness, then continue with Consecration, Exorcism, Holy Shock and Judgement of Righteousness. Clean up with Hammer of Wrath.


 * Retribution Paladin: Easy target, just pop Seal of Blood or Seal of Command, use Exorcism and Crusader Strike to crush it and turn back on the boss.


 * Restoration Druid: Start with Moonfire, break Tree of Life, then continue with Barkskin, followed by spamming Wrath. Barkskin lasts 12 seconds during that time cast about five Wraths. After that start spamming Moonfire since Wrath gets pushback. Also use Insect Swarm if possible.


 * Restoration Shaman: Keep Lightning Shield active. Do not try to melee DPS the Demon, instead use Chain Lightning and Lightning Bolt. Keep a Searing Totem up. Use Earth Shock to interrupt Shadow Bolts.


 * Protection Warriors: Warriors should try to be at 100% rage before they can get the demon. This is achieved by simply attacking Leotheras in battle stance in his demon form, economizing on rage as much as possible. When the inner demon is there, spell reflect the demon's shadow bolt. Wear a mix of DPS and tanking gear for this fight.


 * Hunters: Pets can be used, but that's a little dangerous (lest the pet gets the kill). It's safe to use the pet until about 20%, then put it on passive. If the pet had growl on auto-cast before, it should still hold aggro until the demon is dead. Hunters who can't use their pet (or prefer to leave it on the boss) can use the hunter dance and should be fine too. You can use Freezing Trap also. If you are in melee range and want to get far from your inner demon, freeze him and step back.


 * Combat Rogues: These have a particularly easy time with inner demons, they can stay on the boss and simply kill the Demon with Blade Flurry.

Split Phase
At 15% health, Leotheras' Demon Form splits from his Humanoid Form, and both forms must be handled together. The Demon Form starts with 100% health, while the Humanoid Form retains its current health. The Humanoid Form abilities are the same as before. The Demon Form still uses Chaos Blast, but no longer spawns the Inner Demons. Upon defeating the Humanoid Form, the Demon Form despawns.

Soloing Leotheras the Blind
This boss is not an easy one to defeat. You cannot just rush in and try to burn him without any tactics.

Solo as a Death Knight The easiest spec to solo him in is Blood, provided you have the appropriate gear. I would recommend having over 160k hp in Blood Presence. The Chaos Blasts are ultimately quite survivable with judicious use of cooldowns, and made almost trivial with the use of Mirror of Broken Images. The most effective cooldown usage I found was as follows:

Make sure diseases are up when he enters the demon phase, and reapply with Outbreak. This will slow the accumulation of stacks. Use Rune Tap as soon as your health dips below 140k or so. Will of the Necropolis should pop near the end of the phase to keep you alive. Leotheras will cast Insidious Whispers around the middle of the phase. At this point I use Anti-Magic Shell to give you six seconds of the buff not accumulating. When that runs out, wait until around 15 stacks and then use Mirror of Broken Images if you have it. Also throw out Vampiric Blood and Bone Shield at this point for a little extra survivability. Heal yourself with Lichborne and Death Coil as necessary, although I prefer to save that for the second Demon Phase so that it is up in time for Phase 3. Use Icebound Fortitude during the first Chaos Bolt phase, and it also should be up in time for Phase 3. In the third Demon Phase, I like to use Empower Rune Weapon to get a couple extra Death Strikes out.

Leotheras is of no danger to you outside of the Demon Phase, and no Inner Demon will spawn. Use Phase 1 to heal yourself back to full, then rinse and repeat. As Leotheras is about to enter his 4th demon phase, he should be about to enter Phase 3. The KEY to the fight is to not push Leotheras past 15% until the debuff wears off and he starts to make the transition to the demon phase. If you can manage this, you'll enter Phase 3 with no stacks of the debuff and all your cooldowns up, at which point it's a relatively simple task to stay alive and burn him down.

Should you lack the gear to kill him with Blood spec, this Unholy strat is also usable:

Use Outbreak as much as possible to reapply diseases should they drop off instead of an Icy Touch + Plague Strike combo. This opens up a set of runes for Death Strike. In addition, use Festering Strikes to change all blood and frost runes to death runes. This allows you to maximise your self healing with Death Strike. You should only use unholy runes for Dark Transformation or to reapply Blood Plague if Outbreak is on cooldown.

Firstly, kill the 3 Spellbinders to free Leotheras. Ensure that you are at full health when his banishment ends. When Leotheras is in his Blood Elf Form, he will use Whirlwind. Run away from it to avoid some of damage. Your goal is to try to stay near full health as much as possible when he is in Blood Elf Form.

After 60 seconds, Leotheras's inner demon will take control and will morph into Demon Form. Make sure you can use Dark Transformation on the ghoul as your ghoul will be tanking Leotheras through demon form. The reasoning behind this is due to the fact that Leotheras' Chaos Blasts will deal increasing damage to you and you will swiftly die. The moment he morphs into Demon Form, use Dark Transformation, cast Anti-Magic Shell, throw a few Death Coils at Leotheras or at your ghoul to heal him and run far away. When you reach a sufficient distance, Leotheras will aggro your ghoul and you are free to bandage yourself. He will summon your Inner Demon to plague you too. Kill it quickly. When your diseases fall off, run back, reaply them with Outbreak, perhaps heal your ghoul with Death Coils and run back quickly. Do not stand there and take damage from Chaos Blasts.

Sometimes, if diseases are on him when he morphs into Demon Form, it can take some time for your ghoul to aggro him. Just keep kiting Leotheras around. If you are of sufficient distance, after he summons your Inner Demon, he will attack the ghoul.

After 45 seconds, Leotheras will take control and revert to his Blood Elf form. He will alternate between Blood Elf form and Demon Form until you bring him to 15% health. When that happens, Leotheras will be unable to suppress his demon and it will emerge from his body. Use Dark Transformation and set your ghoul on the Shadow of Leotheras (his inner demon). Meanwhile, use Anti-Magic Shell, taunt Leotheras and kite him far away from the Shadow of Leotheras. At this point, kill him as fast as possible. However, do not be complacent as Leotheras himself can deal a lot of damage even at this last stage.

He drops 250 gold, 3 Tier 5 tokens and 1 epic item.

Quotes

 * Aggro
 * yell


 * Transition to Demon phase
 * yell


 * Insidious Whisper
 * yell


 * Killing a player
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell


 * At 15%
 * yell
 * yell


 * Death
 * yell

Trivia

 * Eye of Leotheras is a demon hunter honor talent.

Speculation

 * It should be noted that Leotheras' demonic side seems to be out of his control, easily leading to the theory he was the Blood Elf, of the first trained, that went insane.
 * It is possible that the Blind Hero in the Brawler's Guild is Leotheras. His hair, body markings, clothing, and blade all resemble Leotheras's attire. Furthermore, his undead status points to his death in Serpentshrine Cavern.