Icecrown Gunship Battle

The Icecrown Gunship Battle is an aerial battle between the gunships Skybreaker and Orgrim's Hammer around the spire of Icecrown Citadel. The encounter has some fun elements, and most guilds and PuGs manage it easily, therefore it is often referred to as the "Lootship Battle".

Abilities
All NPCs have the same abilities regardless whether they're Alliance or Horde, only their designations change.

Own ship








Boarding party







 * Shared abilities

All enemy NPCs except the Commanders and the Battle-Mage/Sorceror gain experience the longer they are left alive, starting from Regular and progressing to Experienced, then Veteran, and finally Elite. Depending on rank, damage and attack speed are increased.

Due to this progression it's a good idea to kill enemy NPCs quickly.

Strategy
Both ships deal siege damage to each other. The one going down first loses the battle. Siege damage is dealt to the enemy ship by firing the guns. The enemy gunship deals siege damage to the player's ship by shooting rockets.

Besides this siege battle, the players have to deal with enemy boarding parties and also need to send an offensive boarding party on the enemy ship from time to time. Additionally, the rocket teams and other enemy ranged damage dealers keep strafing all players. The rockets can be avoided by moving away from their target marks (similar to Mimiron's rockets, but less damaging than these), the ranged damage can simply be healed through.

The raid should be split up in a (smaller) offensive team which includes enough damage dealers (melee preferred) to man the guns, one tank and an appropriate number of healers (1 in 10 player, 2-3 in 25 player), and a (larger) defensive team including everyone else.

Only the offensive team needs the jet packs provided by the engineer NPC on the player's ship, but usually the whole raid finds them interesting enough that everybody takes one. They need to be equipped before entering combat, as they are a clothing item (shirt) and cannot be equipped once in combat. The jump pack is used by 'using' it and selecting a destination to jump to (this is usually practiced intensely before the battle starts).

Defense
The defensive team is concerned with keeping the player's gunship free of enemy boarding parties and with killing enemy ranged attackers.

Enemy boarders who don't have players on their aggro list instead attack the player's gunship with burning pitch, which deals very high amounts of siege damage. Therefore, all members of the enemy boarding party must be tanked immediately. Ranged AoE is highly effective. Due to their whirlwind, melee must be careful until all Sergeants are dead.

A few seconds after all members of the previous boarding party are dead, a new boarding party spawns. It may be a good idea to leave the last member of the boarding party alive for some time, so that the ranged damage-dealers can kill the ranged damage dealers on the enemy ship. Another option is to dedicate some ranged damage-dealers full-time to killing the mobs on the enemy ship.

Offense
The offensive team consists of melee attackers, a tank, and dedicated healers for that tank.

The offensive team fires the guns until they're frozen. This freeze occurs every 45 seconds or so. When the guns are frozen, they cannot fire. They're unfrozen by killing the mage on board of the enemy ship. The offensive team leaves the guns and jumps over to the other ship (the healers can actually stay on the edge of their own ship). The tank needs to keep the enemy commander busy. The enemy commander gains a stacking buff while in combat, thus the offensive party must be quick to kill the mage (depending on tank gear 20–30 seconds). After the mage is dead, they jump back and resume firing the guns.

Even if the boarding party is fast, they should not try to kill a few extra mobs on the enemy ship - it is more efficient to quickly man the guns again.

The offensive team must be careful not to leave behind anything which could keep the enemy commander in combat (totems, pets or the like). Back on the player's ship, the offensive team should move away from the enemy ship to make sure the Commander gets out of combat.

The ship's guns have two different attacks: a normal shot bound to "1" which deals 1000 siege damage. Firing a normal shot also generates between 6 to 10 heat, which fills up the heat gauge on the gun (begins at 0, maximum 100, losing 1-2 heat per second while not firing). The second shot is bound to "2". It's a heated shot which immediately expels all the accumulated heat on the gun and deals 1000 siege damage plus extra damage for each unit of heat, up to just under 10000 with a nearly filled bar. If the heat meter reaches or exceeds 100, the gun overheats and both shots are locked for five seconds until all heat has been drained.

Both types of shot not only deal siege damage but also damage enemy mobs, thus shots should be angled at the rocketeers/ranged NPCs.

The siege damage to the player's ship is mainly dealt by the rocketeers. So disrupting them and not allowing them to gain high levels of experience significantly reduces the damage done to the player's ship. This is most effectively done by the gunners shooting at the rocketeers.

Alternate
Keep everything this same, except for the Offensive squad. If the tank and his/her healer can hold the boarding party long enough, all of the DPS can jump to the far boat to down the enemy mage faster, resulting in a faster battle and more time to DPS the enemy boat down. Make sure the tank and healer can handle the mobs long enough for your raid to get over there and back without dying. Try kiting them over to the leader to have him assist if needed.

Heroic Mode

 * Rockets have a 7 Yard knockback
 * Mage has more HP
 * Enemy Gunship has more HP

Solo strategy
The hardest part of the fight is keeping the ship alive long enough to do enough damage to the opposing ship. There are three sources of damage to the player's ship:
 * Axe throwers casting Burning Pitch
 * The assault team casting Burning Pitch
 * Rockets

The burning pitch is what does the most damage, so any units that can cast burning pitch cannot be left alive while the player is either inside a cannon or on the opposing ship, killing the mage.

As of Patch 6.0.2, the damage dealt by your ship's cannon scales with your item level. At level 90+, the enemy ship can be easily destroyed in seconds, before the enemy adds even have a chance to attack.

Alliance

 * First squad assisted
 * say
 * say
 * Skybreaker Sorcerer summons a Skybreaker Battle Standard.


 * Second squad assisted
 * say
 * say
 * say
 * say
 * say
 * bossemote
 * A Spire Frostwyrm lands just before the Skybreaker.


 * Speaking with Muradin Bronzebeard
 * The old wounds still linger, . I can feel 'em in me bones, even now. Aye, I got a score to settle with Arthas and ye can believe I'm gonna give that boy the beatin' I shoulda given 'im when he was a wee lad.  Always knew there was something wrong with 'im.
 * Tell me when yer crew is ready and we'll lift off for the top o' the citadel.
 * Arthas won't be expectin' this!


 * Event begin
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell


 * Boarding The Skybreaker
 * yell
 * yell


 * New Axethrowers Spawned
 * yell


 * New Rocketeers Spawned
 * yell


 * New Battle-Mage Spawned
 * yell


 * Alliance victory
 * yell
 * Once the ship docks, Muradin walks over to the edge of the rise, then despawns and respawns on the rise along with four Skybreaker Marines.


 * Alliance defeat
 * yell


 * Unused quote
 * Muradin Bronzebeard: This isn't looking good lads.

Horde

 * First squad assisted
 * say
 * say
 * Kor'kron Invoker summons a Kor'kron Battle Standard.


 * Second squad assisted
 * say
 * say
 * say
 * say
 * bossemote
 * A Spire Frostwyrm lands just before Orgrim's Hammer.


 * Speaking with High Overlord Saurfang
 * I have heard tale of my boy being here. That he's now a powerful death knight in service of the Lich King. If this is true, then it must be me that ends the bloodline.
 * My charge now is to command Orgrim's Hammer to the top of Icecrown Citadel and destroy all Scourge that get in our way. We leave when you and your allies are ready.


 * Event begin
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell


 * Boarding Orgrim's Hammer
 * yell
 * yell


 * New Riflemen Spawned
 * yell


 * New Mortar Team Spawned
 * yell


 * New Mage Spawned
 * yell


 * Horde victory
 * yell


 * Horde defeat
 * yell


 * Unused quote
 * High Overlord Saurfang: We have failed.