Lich King (tactics)

The Lich King is the final boss of Icecrown Citadel and the final major encounter of World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King.

This boss has been available since February 2, 2010 on US servers and February 3 on EU servers.

The Lich King is a long and challenging battle for survival. All classes are tested to the limits of their abilities, in particular all raid members have to react quickly to various abilities, often several at the same time. The encounter is rather unforgiving; most players must react properly in various situations, and all players get ample opportunity to commit mistakes which then wipe the raid. This encounter is a fitting end to Wrath of the Lich King and on par with Yogg-Saron in Ulduar.

Abilities
The Lich King melees for roughly 40,000 on an item level 264 geared tank on 25-player difficulty. The Lich King enrages after 15 minutes of combat, gaining 900% damage and 150% attack speed. However, he is notably still affected by taunt abilities.

Phase 2
The Lich King retains Infest.

Phase 3
The Lich King retains Soul Reaper and Defile.

Preparation
The fight requires the standard raid composition of 2/3 Tanks and 3/5 healers (10/25 player), while learning the encounter more healers can help. No resistance or other special gear is required.

Phase 1
During Phase 1, the Lich King should be tanked by the main tank at a spot near the edge of the platform. On the phase transition this gives Arthas a greater distance to travel before casting Remorseless Winter, thus the raid gets more time to react and a shorter distance to run. Melee sets up behind him, ranged a few yards away, even closer to the edge of the platform. 5 yards to the side of Arthas, the off tank(s) set up to tank the adds. The raid DPS single target Arthas, AoE should not be used.

Harmless ghouls and very dangerous Shambling Horrors spawn during the phase. Horrors have a frontal cleave and an extremely dangerous enrage. To survive the enrage, they must either be tranquilized or stunned.

The adds are mostly killed using the Necrotic Plague mechanism. Every 15 seconds Arthas applies the Necrotic Plague debuff to a player. The plague is a DoT which deals 50k to its target every 5 seconds. Whenever its target dies, or the plague is dispelled, it jumps to any nearby unit - which includes adds. The trick is to have debuffed players run next to the adds and dispel them there, so the plague jumps to an add. The plague also stacks, this means the longer the phase lasts, the faster the adds die. This can be used to kill the Shambling Horrors, because in heroic mode, even the highest dps raids cannot spare the time to switch to the Horrors. Drudge Ghouls can be used to get higher Necrotic Plague stacks before placing it on the Shambling Horror. Each time the plague debuff jumps, Arthas gains one more stack of Plague Siphon, each of which increases his damage dealt by 2%. At about 40 stacks tanks get one-shotted, thus the plague must not jump too frequently.

The Lich King also periodically casts Infest, which requires the target's HP to be topped off quickly to remove the dot. A Discipline priest can proactively shield the raid between Infest casts, helping to minimize the amount the raid needs to be healed.

This phase ends at 70%. Arthas should have about 15 stacks of Plague Siphon. When the last add dies, a player (usually the tank) gets the Plague stack (usually about 20).

Phase 1.5
At 70% health a 1 minute transition phase takes place. The Lich King moves to the center of the arena, away from the tank, and begins casting Remorseless Winter (a 45 yard AoE). When he moves away from the tank, the raid must flee on the edge of the platform to get out of the 45 yard range. He goes on casting Pain and Suffering, and summons a Raging Spirit every 20 seconds. Immediately after the third Spirit, Arthas casts Quake, which destroys the outer ring of the platform - the raid has 2.5 seconds to move away from the edge.

During the transition phase, one player usually gets the plague stack from the last add. This player must move about 10 yards away from everyone else and then get dispelled, this removes the plague (and Plague Siphon from Arthas) without further jumps.

Targets of Raging Spirits have 5 seconds before the add spawns. Raging Spirits melee very hard and possess a frontal cone-area silence ability. They must be killed quickly, so that only one is up in phase two. Frost orbs head towards the raid and explode if they reach it. They have few HP and can be killed by ranged DPS. Pain and Suffering is a stacking DOT that is applied to random raid members. It spreads to nearby players so the raid should spread out some.

When the Lich King kneels and lights up the ground around him, the raid must return to the center area of the platform before the edges of the platform break away (The area that is about to fall becomes very obvious). Continue to kill any remaining Raging Spirits, but the main tank should pick up the Lich King again as quickly as possible.

Phase 2
During Phase 2, the raid must master two different abilities, each of which requires different positioning.

The Val'kyr pick up raid members, carry them to the closest edge of the platform and drop them to their death. To avoid them, the raid should be huddled up closely near the center of the platform, so that the Val'kyr have the longest path to the edge. They must be snared, slowed and nuked.

Defile is an AoE which is centered on a random raid member. Whenever it deals damage, it grows larger and increases its damage output. This ability is extremely dangerous and the major cause of wipes in this encounter. In order to avoid Defile, the raid must be spread out and close to the outer edge of the platform.

Right after the start of Phase 2, Val'kyrs come up next. Thus initially, the raid should group near the center, everyone on the same side (so that all Val'kyr victims are carried in the same direction). Immediately after the Val'kyr have picked up their targets, the raid should spread out, because after 5 seconds, the first Defile takes place.

The area in which the Val'kyr drops their victims is right where the outer ring that dropped away used to be. If a Val'kyr is summoned while the Lich King is close to the transition phase, it might be more valuable to push him to the next phase instead of killing the Val'kyr. When the Lich King resurfaces the outer ring, the victim is dropped safely on the edge, outside of Remorseless Winter.

Soul Reaper is a very damaging debuff applied on the Lich King's current tank every 30 seconds. It's a good idea to switch tank after Soul Reaper, otherwise a combination of Soul Reaper tick plus melee hit may instantly kill the tank.

Phase 2.5 – Remorseless Winter
When the Lich King falls below 40%, he casts Remorseless Winter again, forcing the raid to the edge of the platform. The transition is similar to the first Remorseless Winter. This time every 15 sec a Raging Spirit spawns for a total of four. Some raids like to use DPS cooldowns after 15 sec, so the Raging Spirits die fast. After one minute, Phase 3 starts.

Phase 3
During Phase 3, Arthas continues to cast Defile and Soul Reaper. Instead of Val'kyr, he summons Vile Spirits. Generally, the raid should be well distributed during Phase 3, to minimize the danger from Defile.

At the start of Phase 3 1-2 Raging Spirits are up, so melee DPS should kill them, while ranged deal with the Vile Spirits. Vile Spirits (10-man normal: 66,000 health; 25-man normal: 200,000) move toward raid members and explode when they reach their target. The most obvious way to deal with them is to AoE kill them before they start moving — fire mages, shadow priests, affliction warlocks and moonkins are very effective at this - but only if the spirits are grouped closely together. The Spirits move very quickly at start but slow down over time, thus snares are helpful. An effective strategy is to drag the Lich King to one edge of the room and then drag him all the way to the opposite side after Vile Spirits spawn, and kite them through Earthbind Totems and frost traps. They start with a small amount of threat on a random player but they can be both taunted and outthreated. The tank who is not tanking can taunt the Spirits onto him and absorb their damage. If your raid is low on ranged DPS, attempting to kill them may not be an effective strategy, and the phase can be survived by simply kiting the spirits and staying spread out.

Arthas also casts a new spell called Harvest Soul every 70 seconds on a random raid member, which causes 45,000 (25-man 90,000) damage over six seconds. Victims who survive this are sucked into Frostmourne (see below).

After 15 minutes from when he was engaged Arthas enrages. His enrage gives him an enormous buff to his damage output, but he does not one-shot the raid when he enrages like some other major bosses; therefore it is still possible to push him into phase four (and thus defeat him) after he enrages.

Inside Frostmourne
Inside Frostmourne, King Terenas' spirit (an NPC) fights with the Spirit Warden (a mob). Upon entering, players get the Harvest Soul buff, which increases damage done by 100%, but kills after 60 seconds. The buff is removed when leaving Frostmourne. Players leave Frostmourne when the mob is dead.

This means that the add must die within 60 seconds. The NPC deals nearly enough damage to do the job by himself, but he does need support. The channeled spell from the add (Soul Rip) alone is enough to kill Terenas - it must be interrupted. Tanks should take over the add. Healing classes should heal Terenas. All classes should DPS the add as much as they can, and interrupt Soul Rip. Stunning the add is also very helpful, since it heals itself for 50% damage dealt. It is vulnerable to most forms of CC and interrupts that affect Undead creatures. Restoration Druids can use Incarnation: Tree of Life form to do both healing and damage quickly while in Frostmourne.

If either the player or the NPC die inside Frostmourne, Arthas gains +200% damage for 15 seconds.

Phase 4
At 10% health, the Lich King casts Fury of Frostmourne. This kills all members of the raid and renders them unable to release their spirits (clicking the button displays the message "Your soul belongs to the Lich King"). The Lich King and Tirion will have an exchange during which Tirion destroys Frostmourne using the Ashbringer. The ghost of Terenas Menethil II will appear and resurrect the raid while the spirits that were trapped inside Frostmourne hold the Lich King in place. All raid members who have died during the fight, even from being dropped off the edge by the val'kyr, are resurrected by Terenas at this point. The Lich King becomes immobilized, and players can finish off the Lich King at their leisure.

Should the raid decide not to accept Terenas Menethil's resurrection, Tirion Fordring melees the Lich King to death; which takes approximately one hour. All players still receive the achievement and loot if he dies in this fashion.

Release Bug
After the Lich King uses Fury of Frostmourne, it is normally impossible to release one's spirit. However, once Frostmourne is broken, there is a moment when the block on the release button is lifted, and players can release and be sent out of the instance (losing the kill credit). The obvious way to avoid this glitch is to avoid attempting to release at any time.

Heroic Difficulty
Shadow Traps in phase one spawn on people's locations, and after a few seconds, launch anyone still on them 1,000 yards off the platform (in an extremely comical manner).

Val'kyr HP triples, however they drop their target at 50% health and fly above the raid and begin casting Siphon Life on the raid until they are killed.

In the third phase the entire raid will be pulled into Frostmourne instead of one person. Wicked Spirits will fall from above which must be dodged/killed. Any deaths will still result in Harvested Soul being applied to the Lich King and it can stack.

Phase four is unchanged.

Solo strategy
Stand near the throne and/or one of the pillars in case a Shadow Trap goes off that was unnoticed.

Pop cooldowns on the pull and just blow the Lich King up. Cleave most (with one special exception) adds that spawn: don't waste time focusing them directly. In the 60-second intermission that starts at 70% health, Remorseless Winter does a trivial amount of damage to players attempting to solo him, so feel free to ignore it, but do focus the Ice Spheres, as they will still knock players off the platform. Try to get the Lich King below 30% health during the intermission so he cannot cast Infest and Summon Val'kyr.

In phase three (30%-10%), quickly burst him down so he cannot get a Harvest Souls cast off. Fury of Frostmourne will likely fail to put a dent in the soloing player's health, but the Lich King will stop at 1 health until the script event plays out.

Loot
If the Lich King is defeated while someone in the raid has Shadowmourne equipped on any 25-player difficulty, he will also drop the Sealed Chest, which is only lootable by the wielder of Shadowmourne. This drop only occurs the first time that particular Shadowmourne kills the Lich King.

Quotes

 * Speaking to Tirion Fordring to begin the fight
 * Long have I waited for this day, hero. Are you and your allies prepared to bring the Lich King to justice?  We charge on your command!


 * Intro
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell
 * Tirion runs forward to attack but only gets two strides in when the Lich King casts Ice Lock on him, freezing him in a block of ice.
 * yell


 * Casting Remorseless Winter
 * yell


 * Shattering arena
 * yell


 * Summon Val'kyr
 * yell


 * Casting Harvest Soul
 * yell


 * Inside Frostmourne
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell (Not said on Heroic)


 * Killing a player
 * yell
 * yell


 * Enrage
 * yell


 * Outro
 * The Lich King casts Fury of Frostmourne, killing all players at once.
 * yell
 * yell
 * The Lich King turns to address Tirion.
 * yell
 * Arthas centers himself in the middle of the platform, turns his back on the block of ice and begins to cast | Raise Dead, Frostmourne raised into the air.
 * yell
 * The Lich King laughs.
 * yell
 * yell
 * An arc of Light energy surrounds Tirion, shining and suffusing within the ice block and then after a few moments, smites it, freeing Tirion. He and the Ashbringer are glowing, emanating with the Light itself.  He turns around and runs 2/3rds of the way to the Lich King, covering the rest with a mighty leap and raises the Ashbringer with both hands over his head.
 * As he sails over the Lich King's head, Tirion strikes Frostmourne with the Ashbringer, the runeblade shattering with a clashing echo of metal breaking and a flash of light, the force of the blow causing Arthas to stagger as his sword arm is wrenched downward. Tirion lands on his feet.
 * The Lich King holds up the sundered Frostmourne before his face, recoils in shock and drops the broken hilt as Tirion turns around to confront him.
 * yell
 * A burst of purple energy from the shattered hilt knocks Tirion back to the entrance rune and the Light emanation ends. The souls trapped inside Frostmourne escape and swirl around the Lich King.  He yells as they lift him into the air and immobilize him.
 * yell
 * The ghost of Terenas Menethil II appears.
 * yell
 * Terenas' ghost begins to cast | Mass Resurrection as Tirion runs over to the Lich King and takes an attack position directly west.
 * yell
 * Terenas resurrects all players.
 * Terenas draws his sword from his back (which has the same appearance as a Grand Marshal's Longsword), the blade swishing as it's extended to his side. Tirion quickly runs up and the two attack, and the raid moves in to finish the Lich King.
 * yell
 * yell
 * As the Lich King's HP reaches zero, the swirling maelstrom of souls stops and the Lich King falls to the ground on his hands and knees, grunting in pain and losing the Helm of Domination.
 * Arthas tries to reach for it but loses what little strength he has and collapses, rolling onto his back.


 * Unused quotes
 * Highlord Tirion Fordring: The Lich King MUST FALL!
 * The Lich King: Come then, champions. Feed me your rage!
 * The Lich King: Argh... Frostmourne, obey me!
 * The Lich King: Frostmourne feeds on the soul of your fallen ally!
 * The Lich King: Apocalypse!
 * The Lich King: Bow down before your lord and master!
 * The Lich King: Bah, you gnats actually hurt me; perhaps I've toyed with you long enough. Now, taste the vengeance of the grave!

Closing cinematic

 *  lies supine, the shattered remnants of Frostmourne beside him. He stares as the ghost of  materializes over him from the freed souls circling the area, and the characteristic blue glow dissipates from his eyes.  Terenas kneels down, and cradles his son's head, neck and shoulder so they can properly look at each other.
 * Arthas Menethil: bossemote
 * Terenas lays a comforting hand on Arthas' gauntlet as he answers.
 * Terenas Menethil II: bossemote
 * Arthas Menethil: bossemote
 * Arthas' eyes roll back, his hand falling from his father's to the ground. Terenas closes Arthas' eyes and just holds his boy as  walks closer, just past the inner ring to the Menethils.  As he next speaks, Terenas gently lays his son on the ground.
 * Terenas Menethil II: bossemote
 * Terenas stands, looking at Tirion as the paladin meets his gaze.
 * Terenas Menethil II: bossemote
 * Terenas' ghost and the swirling souls disappear, and Tirion shields his eyes from the blinding light. With the freed souls of Frostmourne gone, Tirion picks up the Helm of Domination with one hand and examines it, looking into the face as his refection in the icy blue gem set in the forehead is split between the two facets.
 * Tirion Fordring: bossemote
 * Bolvar Fordragon: bossemote
 * Tirion looks up in response as someone calls his name.
 * Bolvar Fordragon: bossemote
 * The of  is revealed, sitting atop the Frozen Throne.  Tirion's tone is heartened that Fordragon is not dead in one moment, but equally horrified the next as he takes in Bolvar's condition.
 * Tirion Fordring: bossemote
 * Bolvar Fordragon: bossemote
 * Tirion has ascended the stairs to the Throne and we see him taking the last two steps to stand before Bolvar.
 * Bolvar Fordragon: bossemote
 * With a shake of his head, Tirion turns his back on Bolvar, preparing to walk away.
 * Tirion Fordring: bossemote
 * Bolvar Fordragon: bossemote
 * Tirion closes his eyes in a moment of pained resignation and turns back to face Bolvar, cradling the helm in both hands. The two paladins look at each other for a few moments before Tirion next softly speaks, sadness in his tone.
 * Tirion Fordring: bossemote
 * Bolvar Fordragon: bossemote
 * Tirion nods solemnly. Bolvar bows his head to accept the unimaginably powerful artifact as Tirion slides it onto him.  For a moment the chamber shakes violently in response and Tirion glances about, then back to Bolvar.  Bolvar raises his head and when he opens his eyes there is a flash of light: they are glowing golden yellow through the eye slits of the helm.  The ice blue gem has instantly changed color to a firey orange.  The new Lich King has been crowned.
 * Bolvar Fordragon: bossemote
 * As he speaks, an icy mist forms at Bolvar's feet and rises to envelop him while Tirion cautiously backs away down the steps. The crackle of swift-forming ice can be heard as Bolvar's voice changes, acquiring the Lich King's characteristic echo.
 * Bolvar Fordragon/Lich King: bossemote
 * The Frozen Throne freezes over, encasing Bolvar in ice. From the bottom of the stairs, Tirion looks upward at him.
 * Bolvar Fordragon/Lich King: bossemote

Trivia

 * Nearly all the items in the Lich King's loot table are weapons he stole and corrupted during his reign. Most of them were originally owned by characters Arthas defeated or killed, and many of the latter had their souls stolen by the runeblade Frostmourne. They represent the impressive arsenal which was unable to overcome Frostmourne's singular power, placing its strength above all other weapons, until it was shattered by the Ashbringer.
 * The Lich King's model is slightly different in Icecrown Citadel. If players get close to the Lich King and angle their cameras to see inside his helmet they can see the face of Arthas underneath. All other instances of the Lich King do not show this.
 * This is also easy to notice in the Lich King's target portrait.