Illidari Council

The Illidari Council is a group of four blood elf bosses in the Black Temple. The fight is comparable to High King Maulgar since it sports a difficult pull and a rather chaotic battle for survival, which requires high situational awareness and fast reflexes from all raid members.

Background
The members of the Illidari Council were among the most talented and powerful blood elves Kael'thas Sunstrider led to Outland. The prince left them in Shadowmoon Valley to advise and assist his master, Illidan Stormrage, while he left for Netherstorm. The council vied for Illidan's favor and frequently schemed against one another, naming themselves the Illidari Council in a mostly ostentatious display, but Illidan acknowledged that they were exceptionally gifted in their respective fields: Gathios the Shatterer in matters of war and logistics, Veras Darkshadow in the realms of espionage and shadowing, Lady Malande's talent for upholding relations with Illidan's other servitors, and High Nethermancer Zerevor's arcane mastery. The council remained some of Illidan's most steadfast followers even after their own prince's defection to the Burning Legion.

On the eve of the Black Temple's fall, it was the council who organized much of the resistance against the Sha'tar and their allies. Illidan, obsessed with his mission to plot the downfall of Argus, had mostly lost interest in the battle's outcome and had come to view his ruined kingdom on Outland as a sacrifice of little consequence. However, after accompanying the council to the temple's ramparts to observe the flow of battle, he knew this clash of the Legion's enemies was what Kil'jaeden had anticipated. The Betrayer ordered the Illidari Council to retreat and prepare for battle, freshly resolved to both win this battle and finish his own personal strike at the Legion's heart. With his demon hunters away on Mardum, the council were Illidan's last line of defense, and fought to their deaths in his service.

Overview
The Illidari Council consists of a powerful paladin, rogue, mage, and priest. They share health and bring their iconic abilities to bear against their foes.

[[file:Dps_icon.png]] Damage Dealers

 * Melee damage dealers should avoid striking High Nethermancer Zerevor due to his Arcane Explosion.
 * Interrupt Lady Malande's Circle of Healing.

[[file:Healer_icon.png]] Healers

 * Allies afflicted with Veras's Envenom require urgent healing attention.

[[file:Tank_icon.png]] Tanks

 * Hold the attention of Gathios the Shatterer and Veras Darkshadow.
 * Keep Gathios the Shatterer away from the other members of the council to avoid buffing them with Devotion Aura.

Abilities

 * Gathios the Shatterer
 * Veras Darkshadow
 * High Nethermancer Zerevor
 * Lady Malande
 * Veras Darkshadow
 * High Nethermancer Zerevor
 * Lady Malande
 * Veras Darkshadow
 * High Nethermancer Zerevor
 * Lady Malande
 * Veras Darkshadow
 * High Nethermancer Zerevor
 * Lady Malande
 * High Nethermancer Zerevor
 * Lady Malande
 * Lady Malande
 * Lady Malande
 * Lady Malande
 * Lady Malande
 * Lady Malande
 * Lady Malande

Preparation

 * 1 main tank (Gathios)
 * 2 off-tanks (Malande and Veras)
 * 1 mage tank (Zerevor)
 * 12-13 damage dealers
 * 8-9 healers

All raid members must have at least 11k HP buffed. A rogue wearing Gladiator's Leather Gloves is extremely useful (for the ranged physical spell interrupt).

The pull
Similar to High King Maulgar, a correct pull is difficult to set up but extremely important. In order of precedence, the mobs should be assigned as follows:
 * A mage buffed with Hand of Protection, a full stack of HoTs and a Power Word: Shield starts the fight by pulling Zerevor (the mage) from 35 yards away, towards the left side of the platform
 * Gathios (the Paladin) should be immediately misdirected to the main tank and tanked on the opposite (right) side of the platform
 * Veras and Malande can both be tanked by one off-tank each near the middle of the stairs, about 15 yards apart. Additional misdirections facilitate this pulling

Gnomes can experience line of sight issues when attempting the pull. They need to either go to the top of the platform or change their character model (e.g. with or ).

Pet pull
The critical element is the mage, who may easily die if one of the other bosses attacks him. It's possible to start the fight with an Imp (or other pet), which then takes the first Arcane Bolt. This gives the raid a second or so to get the mobs under control. Of course, the mage tank must give the pet just a split second head start, and gain Aggro on Zerevor (and spellsteal) as quickly as possible.

Tanking
Lady Malandes heals must be interrupted under all circumstances, and all her other spells should be interrupted as much as possible. Since she's the preferred target of Gathios' blessings, she's invulnerable to one type of damage (physical or magic) most of the time. Therefore a total of four interrupters should stay on her - two physical and two magical. Curse of Tongues, Deathfrost and Numbing Poison are highly recommended. If there's some AoE on her spot and she's blessed vs. magic, the last resort is to have a Rogue wearing the PvP gloves interrupt her by throwing. The group tanking/interrupting her must call out the target if a Divine Wrath gets through so that the raid healers can adjust.

High Nethermancer Zerevors Dampen Magic must be spellstolen as frequently as possible. Everybody must keep at least 10 yards away from him to avoid arcane explosion.

Gathios the Shatterer is the main DPS target. The main tank should use spell reflect when the Seal of Command is Judged (this happens in regular intervals). The melee damage dealers must be extra careful never to attack him from the front since an increase of his attack speed (after a parry) can mean near-instant death for the MT. This is particularly difficult because if there's some AoE taking place, the tank has to move. The best practice is to stop melee until Gathios stands still in his new location.

Aggro (on Gathios) is not an issue, because the spell reflects create a lot of threat. After the second reflected Judgement, all damage dealers can safely ignore their threat meters and go all-out.

After a Vanish, Veras temporarily ignores his aggro list, until he's hit again by the tank. A druid or paladin tank is, therefore, better suited for this task than a warrior. If a warrior must tank him, it's highly advisable to set up a macro that follows an Intercept or Intervene directly with an Autoattack.

Healing
Two healers on the main tank, one on each of the three other tanks, remaining healers on raid heal. The whole raid has to watch out for a lot of different AoE effects. There are about six different types of AoE and debuffs which can occur, and there is nothing predictable. Raid members must be very quick to run out of AoEs, and healers must be extremely alert to heal through some poison debuff or other damage while evading AoEs themselves.

Soloing
This is probably the most difficult encounter in Black Temple to solo, as Lady Malande's heals can effectively mean the player has to do a few million more damage than the Council's starting health to secure a kill. Even when reduced to 1 hit point, Malande and/or Gaithos can still cast a heal before the player lands the killing blow, which can lead to some frustrating moments. The best strategy seems to be to focus on Gathios, blowing all cooldowns at the start. As the player gets close to a kill, he/she needs to put up DOTs or AOEs on Gaithos so as to greatly increase the chances that the player will get in one final damaging blow before Malande gets off a heal at 1 hit point. It is also helpful if the player does the encounter on the platform where the Council starts since any AOEs will hit at least two other members and lower their life pool more quickly as well as make landing the killing blow easier.

Tips
One tactic that can help your tank locate Veras Darkshadow after a vanish is to have a hunter make a spamable macro to mark Veras before he reappears. This should put a big red arrow over Veras about 3 seconds before he reappears.

/focus Veras Darkshadow /cast [target=focus, exists] Hunter's Mark

Lady Malande

 * Aggro
 * yell


 * Special
 * yell
 * yell


 * Kill Comment
 * yell


 * Slaying
 * yell


 * Enraged
 * yell


 * Death
 * yell

Gathios the Shatterer

 * Aggro
 * yell


 * Special
 * yell
 * yell


 * Kill Comment
 * yell


 * Slaying
 * yell


 * Enraged
 * yell


 * Death
 * yell

High Nethermancer Zerevor

 * Aggro
 * yell


 * Special
 * yell
 * yell


 * Killing a Player
 * yell


 * Kill Comment
 * yell


 * Enrage
 * yell


 * Death
 * yell

Veras Darkshadow

 * Aggro
 * yell


 * Special
 * yell
 * yell


 * Kill Comment
 * yell


 * Slaying
 * yell


 * Enraged
 * yell


 * Death
 * yell

Council defeated

 * say
 * say