Usually when I do a boss strategy post I reserve one boss for each post and go into quite a bit of detail.  This time, though, I figure if you’ve gotten this far in the game you have a good idea of the kind of things you need to do in a raid.  So, in this post, I include all four bosses of the Lower Spire and just point out the important parts for a Holy Paladin to remember for each fight.  Feel free to add your own strategies and techniques in the comments below.

1.  Lord Marrowgar

Lord Marrowgar is the first boss you’ll clear in Icecrown Citadel.  He’s the big 4 headed monstrosity that watches you as you clear the opening trash.  Lord Marrowgar has just two repeating phases you’ll need to worry about.

Phase One

The first thing you need to watch out for is how hard Lord Marrowgar hits both of your tanks.  They will be taking a lot of damage that you need to stay on top of your heals.  Your tanks will stay stacked on top of each other to split the damage from  Saber Lash, and they’ll both be taking quite a bit of damage.  This isn’t bad at all for us Holy Paladins.  However, the fight also requires some movement and environmental awareness to avoid his Coldflame ability.  Coldflame is a straight jet of ice that travels on the ground in four directions away from Lord Marrowgar.  It does move a little slowly, so you have time to get out of the way, but you still have to pay attention and move appropriately because it hits hard and it slows you as well so its hard to get out off once you’re in it. 

If you have the time, you’ll also want to help with heals on people getting hit by Coldflame or Marrowgar’s other ability, Bone Spike Graveyard.  Bone Spike Graveyard will stun the person it is cast on.  The only way out of it is to dps down the Bone Spike.  This ability can kill someone quickly, especially since luck always seems to combine it with Coldflame on the same person.  Hitting them quickly with a Holy Shock and whatever else you can spare between tank heals can help keep them alive.

The big tank killer in Phase 1 is when one of your healers, especially a tank healer (like you), gets hit with Bone Spike Graveyard and can’t heal for 5+ seconds.  Because Marrowgar hits so hard, the loss of a healer, especially a tank healer, for even a few seconds, can mean a wipe.  To help alleviate this, a good strategy is for the healers to stand almost directly behind the melee dps.  Then, when you get a Bone Spike, the melee dps can simply turn around and break you out.  They should be able to get you out within a couple seconds.  Just make sure to avoid the Coldflames (along with your melee dps) and you’re good.

Phase 2

In Phase 2, Marrowgar starts spinning around, doing his Bone Storm.  During this time, everyone in the raid will be taking AoE damage.  The closer you are to Marrowgar, the more damage you take.  He moves around the room quickly, so its difficult to avoid him.  You’ll be healing the raid in this phase, but do what you can to try to move away from him if he is near.  The biggest danger during this phase, however, are the Coldflames he’ll be shooting out.  They will be coming out much faster and more frequently than in phase 1 and they still do a ton of damage.  Most of your raid damage during this phase will probably be coming from Coldflame.  For the most part, during this phase, don’t worry too much about getting away from Marrowgar.  The damage his Bone Storm does can be healed through pretty easily, except possibly if he’s right on top of someone.  However, avoid the Coldflames at all cost and keep your fellow raiders alive.  Focus more on throwing out your heals rather than running away from Marrowgar.  You can also use your bubble once during this phase if you don’t want to worry at all about moving around.

Gather the Loot!

Marrowgar will repeat these two phases.  The only other thing to worry about is getting aggro between phase 2 and phase 1, but you shouldn’t have to worry about that with good tanks.  Enjoy your loot!

• Ancient Skeletal Boots
• Corrupted Silverplate Leggings
• Sliver of Pure Ice
• Coldwraith Bracers

Lady Deathwhisper

Lady Deathwhisper is actually a pretty simple fight for Holy Paladins.  The healing can be intensive but there isn’t a lot of tricks you need to worry about.  You’ll want to heal your tanks who are tanking the adds and heal any raid damage going out, especially if a dps or healer gets aggro from something.  If you can, try to throw out some Hammer of Justice and Holy Wrath stuns, especially if you get aggro.  The dps have the hardest part in this fight.  Make sure your (melee) physical dps are on the Adherents and your (ranged) spell dps are on the fanatics.  Since we were lacking in ranged spell dps, we had our hunters kite the Deformed Fanatics a bit, and our Ret pally and death knight had no problem taking them down quickly after that.  The only thing you really need to worry about on Lady Deathwhisper is her Death and Decay.  Its very large and hits hard and it can take some time to run out of it, so make sure you do so immediately, or use your bubble.  On phase 2, make sure to heal both tanks since they’ll be swapping aggro.  Also, run away from the Vengeful Spirits if you can on phase 2, although it is possible to heal through their damage.

Loot

• Deathspeaker Disciple’s Belt

Icecrown Gunship Battle

The gunship battle is a very fun fight, as you probably guessed.  The fight is pretty straightforward.  If you’ve been assigned to jump across to the enemy’s ship (which you probably should be), then that’s the main thing you’ll need to worry about.  Make sure to use your jet pack immediately when you see the frost on your cannons, because the tank is going to be taking a ton of damage over there and you don’t want to lag behind.  The general on the other ship hits very hard, so make sure you’re ready with heals on the tank who jumped over as soon as you land, and that you’re right behind him the entire time.  Be ready to jump back as soon as the tank does as well.

Besides that, avoid the cannon targets that appear all over the ground on both ships.  This can take quite a bit of moving around, but they’re fairly easy to avoid if you pay attention.  Heal everyone who needs healing, and eventually, you win!

Loot

• Bracers of Pale Illumination
• Ice-Reinforced Vrykul Helm

Deathbringer Saurfang

Update:  Saurfang has been hotfixed so its not longer possible to single-tank him.  We tried him again after the hotfix with two tanks, and he was absurdely easy.  He never cast one mark and I never went below 95% mana.  It ended up being a very boring fight for everyone.  So, here’s a pro-tip:  use two tanks.

The last boss you’ll face in the Lower Spire is Deathbringer Saurfang.  Saurfang will hit your tank extremely hard, especially when his Blood Power builds up and when he goes into a Frenzy at 30% health.  Make sure you’re keeping heals up on your tank at all times.  There will be some minor raid damage going out as well, but it isn’t too bad, especially at the start.  The big thing your raid is going to need to worry about on Saurfang is managing the Blood Beasts.  The blood beasts are two adds that are summoned every 40 seconds.  They do quite a bit of melee damage and also heal Saurfang with every melee hit they do.  You don’t want to tank these.  They move kind of slowly, so your ranged dps should be able to kite them, although I’m not claiming it will be easy all the time.

One thing that can help a lot are your Hammer of Justice stuns on the Blood Beasts.  To handle the Blood Beasts, my group used me and a Ret Pally to alternate stuns on one of the Blood Beasts as soon as it appeared, and then the melee dps quickly switched to it and burned it down before the stun wore off (I stood just behind the melee dps).  Meanwhile, our 2 hunters and warlock kited and killed the 2nd blood beast.  This took care of both of them fairly quickly and then all of our dps could go back to burning down Saurfang.  The damage can really get out of control if you let the Blood Beast start hitting people, not to mention that it also heals Saurfang.

The other major ability to worry about is Mark of the Fallen Champion.  Mark of the Fallen Champion is cast once Saurfang reaches 100 Blood Power.  Conveniently, he’ll start hitting your tank little less after this is cast since his blood power is reset to 0, but the Mark target will be taking a ton of damage instead, and it can be difficult to heal through.  Make sure to keep the Mark target alive along with the tank.  If the target dies, Saurfang will be healed for 5%.  Do not rez this person during the fight (Battle Rez, Soulstone) unless you can get heals on them again very quickly.  They’ll die almost immediately after being rezzed since the Mark lasts even through death, and then Saurfang will heal for another 5%.  The damage can get really crazy once Saurfang gets near 100 Blood Power, is frenzied, and  has 2 - 3 Marks out, so make sure to be ready to heal like mad and bubble if you have to (especially if you get the mark).  We were able to down him before he cast his 3rd mark (getting the I’ve Gone and Made a Mess achievement).  We went with 7 dps so we could burn him down quickly.  Our group consisted of one tank and 2 healers, me (Holy Pally) and a Discipline Priest.  Good luck!

Loot

• Soulcleave Pendant