This guide is intended to provide a comprehensive description of theencounter with Council of Elders in Throne of Thunder. It is targeted at anyonewho desires to understand the fight mechanics.
This guide is updated for World of Warcraft MoP 5.4.
The Council of Elders makes up the third boss encounter of the Throne of Thunder.During the fight, you will face four Troll bosses at the same time, and the complexity ofthe fight stems from dealing simultaneously with the abilities that these four bosses use.
The fight adds a number of positioning constraints on the raid and will requirea great deal of control on the DPS you do on each target.
Your raid will have to face all four Trolls until they die. They do not sharehealth and they all have their own abilities, which will present your raidwith many challenges.
To make things harder, the spirit of Gara'jal the Spiritbinderwill provide assistance to the Trolls. As a result, one of the Trolls is alwaysempowered. While empowered, a Troll becomes more dangerousand eventually starts channeling an ability that deals heavy raid-wide damage.A Troll is broken out of his empowerment after receiving 25% health in damage.When this happens, a new Troll gets empowered. This empowerment cycle continuesuntil all the Trolls are dead.
We have released a video guide for the fight against the Council of Elders. Westrongly recommend watching the video in order to get a better visual idea ofthe fight.
On our forums, we are maintaining threads with class-specific advice for each of thefights of Throne of Thunder. So, make sure to check them out, and if you have things toshare, do not hesitate to contribute!
The Spirit of Gara'jal the Spiritbinder will keep empoweringTrolls. When a Troll becomes empowered, the following happens:
the Troll starts using an additional ability or a different set of abilities,it depends on the Troll, as we explainin the next section;
the Troll gains a Dark Energy bar that has a capacity of 100 Dark Energyand starts out empty;
the Dark Energy bar fills up at a rate of 3 Energy every 2 seconds, whichmeans that it takes about 67 seconds for a Troll to reach 100 Dark Energy;
after reaching 100 Dark Energy, the Troll stop using their abilities andkeeps casting Dark Power, which deals increasing damage every second.
To break a Troll out of the empowerment, you need to damage that Trollfor 25% health. For example, if a Troll gets empowered at 90%, then theempowerment will stop when that Troll's health reaches 65%.
After a Troll is broken out of the empowerment, two things happen:
that Troll receives a stack of Lingering Presence, which increasesthe Troll's damage by 10% until the end of the fight and the Troll's DarkEnergy generation by 10% during subsequent empowerments;
a new Troll is empowered by the Spirit of Gara'jal.
Frost King Malakk always seems to be empowered first. We are unsure ifsubsequent empowerments are random or if they target the non-empowered Trollwith the highest health. Let us know if you have an opinion on this issue.
When a Troll dies, the remaining Trolls are not healed, unlike whatusually happens in council fights.
When a Troll dies while empowered, nothing out of the ordinaryhappens, the empowerment will jump to another Troll, and the empowermentcycle will continue with the remaining Trolls.
When a Troll dies while not empowered, there is one thing to watchout for. Namely, if there are only 2 Trolls left and you kill the Trollthat is not empowered, then the empowered Troll will remain empowered untilyou kill it. This can be problematic if the empowered Troll still has a lotof health and is already at 100 Dark Energy.
Frigid Assault deals Frost damage to the tank and also applies astacking debuff on them. The debuff does nothing before it reaches 15 stacks.When this happens, the tank becomes stunned for 15 seconds. Dealing with thisdebuff requires a tank switch.
Biting Cold is cast at a random player, which deals Frost damageto the targeted player and causes them to deal Frost damage every 2 secondsto all allies within 4 yards. This effect lasts 30 seconds.
When Malakk is empowered, Biting Cold becomes Frostbite. Thisability targets a random raid member and deals Frost damage to them. It alsoapplies 5 stacks of Frostbite on them. This debuff causes the player to dealFrost damage every second to all allies within 4 yards (including the playerthemselves), for 30 seconds. The damage dealt to the afflicted players andthe allies within 4 yards is multiplied by the number of stacks. Thestacks can be reduced by doing the following:
in 10-man difficulty, each player within 4 yards of the afflicted player will cause the afflicted player to lose 2 stacks of the debuff;
in 25-man difficulty, each player within 4 yards of the afflicted player will cause the afflicted player to lose 1 stack of the debuff;
in LFR difficulty, each player within 4 yards of the afflicted player will cause the afflicted player to lose 4 stacks of the debuff.
Note that stacks of Frostbite cannot be reduced below 1.
8.2. Kazra'jin
Kazra'jin keeps using Reckless Charge, which causes him torush towards the location of a random raid member, damaging everyone in hispath and knocking back players who are still at the targeted location whenhe arrives.
When Kazra'jin is empowered, he will cast Overload after eachReckless Charge. This causes him to become stunned for 20 seconds,during which he will reflect 50% of the damage he takes as Nature damage.
Sand Bolt targets a random player and deals Nature damage to them aswell as to all players within 5 yards of them. This ability can and should beinterrupted.
Quicksand creates a pool of sand at a random's player location. Everysecond, it deals Nature damage to anyone standing in it. Each time a playertakes damage from Quicksand, they receive a stack of Ensnared, whichreduces their movement speed. If they reach 5 stacks of that debuff, theybecome Entrapped for 30 seconds.
When Sul is empowered, he will cast Sandstorm every 40 seconds(so twice per empowerment, maximum). This abilitytransforms every Quicksand pool into a Living Sand. These addskeep attacking their target with a melee attack. When a Living Sand dies,it leaves behind a Quicksand pool.
While the Living Sands do not deal much damage, it is not a good idea tokeep them alive (the only reason for doing so being that it reduces the numberof Quicksand pools on the ground) because theyreceive a stack of Fortified every time Sandstorm is cast.This buff increases their damage done by 100% and heal them to full health.
Wrath of the Loa targets a random raid member and deals Holydamage to them. This ability can and should be interrupted.
Blessed Loa Spirit summons a Blessed Loa Spirit at Mar'li's location.This spirit does nothing but run towards Mar'li's ally with the lowestremaining health. If it reaches them, it will heal them for 10% of their maximumhealth. If the spirit is still alive after 20 seconds, it will instantly jumpto its target and heal them for 10%. The spirit can be slowed and rooted.
Wrath of the Loa does the same thing as her other ability of thesame name, but it deals Shadow damage instead of Holy damage.
Shadowed Loa Spirit summons a Shadowed Loa Spirit atMar'li's location. This spirit does nothing but fixate on a random raid member.If the spirit comes within 6 yards of that player, they will die. If the spiritis still alive after 20 seconds, it will instantly jump to the targetedplayer and kill them. The spirit can be slowed and rooted.
Having to deal with the abilities of all the Trolls at the same timemakes up for a complex encounter. To explain what the raid has to do moreclearly, we will break down our instructions by role (tank, healer, DPS).That said, there are concerns that everyone shares and we will start withthem.
9.1. Main Concerns
9.1.1. Positioning Issues
The various abilities of the Trolls will put a number of positioningconstraints on the raid, namely:
spread out 7 yards to reduce the damage from Biting Cold andSand Bolt, and the amount of people who have to move awayfrom Quicksand pools;
when Kazra'jin uses Reckless Charge, he will turn towards thetargeted raid member and everyone on his path has a second or two to getout of the way;
when Frost King Malakk is empowered, make sure that 2 players in10-man, 4 players in 25-man, and 1 player in LFR stand within 4 yardsof the afflicted player. This will make Frostbite easier to deal with.
For melee players, it will be harder to spread properly, so they willsimply have to contend with more damage taken. Also, they will often needto all move to avoid the charges from Kazra'jin or the Quicksand pools.
Note that in 25-man, having 0 or 4 players standing within 4 yards of theplayer afflicted by Frostbite does not change the overall damage thatthis ability does (1 hit with 5 stacks is the same as 5 hits with 1 stack).The only difference is that, with 4 players within 4 yards, the damage willbe spread between these players and the afflicted player, making it easierto heal.
For Blessed Loa Spirit, the idea is that if the lowesthealth Troll is Kazra'jin, then you want to avoid him charginga player close to Mar'li just as she summons a Blessed Loa Spirit.
For Shadowed Loa Spirit, the spirit targets a random raid member,so if everyone is far away from Mar'li (except for her tank, whom the spiritnever seems to target), then it will be easier to keepthe spirit away from the targeted player.
When Sul casts Sandstorm during his third and fourth empowerments,you should be prepared tosee a lot of Living Sands spawning. This creates a lot of confusionbecause it is difficult to focus on the ground effects and boss abilities,such as Reckless Charge, when there are so many adds on thescreen. For this reason, the Living Sands need to be picked up quicklyby one of the tanks and AoE-ed down with priority.
Melee players should be mindful of the Quicksand pools thatLiving Sands leave behind when they die.
Most of the boss abilities, such as Reckless Charge, Sand Bolt,Biting Cold, etc. cannot target them. That does not mean, however, that theycan simply ignore them. These abilities can still target melee players next toto them. When this happens, tanks need to react properly, just like otherraid members.
When the Living Sands appear, it is best if the tank that is notcurrently tanking Malakk takes them. Towards the end of the fight,Sandstorm will create a large number of Living Sands, and itmay be a good idea to divide them between the two tanks (the tanknot currently tanking Malakk would be getting a larger share).
In 25-man, you can use a third tank if handling the Living Sandsproves difficult.
9.3. Healing Concerns
As with most raid encounters, there will be a sustained amount ofraid damage. At times, there will be increased damage on some players,and this is what this section focuses on.
Expect higher tank damage when a tank is tanking Frost King Malakk(since they will be tanking Malakk plus another boss). Expect evenhigher tank damage when Sandstorm transforms the Quicksandpools into Living Sands.
If a boss is allowed to reach 100 Dark Energy, they will start castingDark Power every second until the empowerment is removed. The damageof Dark Power increases by 10% after each cast, so raid-wide damage canquickly get out of control.
When Kazra'jin is empowered, he will enter Overload everytime he casts Reckless Charge. As each player will receive, asNature damage, 50% of the damage they deal to Kazra'jin, you should expectto use a few cooldowns when Kazra'jin is empowered.
Loa Spirits and Living Sands should be killed as fast as possible.
While it is important to break the bosses out of their empowermentbefore they reach 100 Dark Energy, the raid should not simply burn themdown when they are empowered.
Mar'li's and Malakk's abilities do not deal more damage while theyare empowered. The increased raid damage from Kazra'jin's empowermentbeing the result of Overload reflecting 50% of the damage hereceives, it is not advised to burn him down.
Therefore, you will want the empowerment for each of these three bossesto run almost its fullcourse, until 80 to 100 Dark Energy. Even if a boss gets to castDark Power, it will not wipe the raid right away, and you willbe able to survive easily through the first 10 seconds or so.
The exception is Sul, as you generally want to avoid the secondcast of his Sandstorm ability, so you should burn him down whilehe is empowered.
A consequence of not having to burn down bosses while they are empoweredis that you can afford to spend some time damaging the other bosses. In thatregard, we have two suggestions to offer.
Try killing Kazra'jin and Sul the Sandcrawler first. This willreduce the number of times they get empowered, in turn reducing the damagethe raid will take from Overload and the number of times Sandstormwill be cast.
Refrain from damaging Frost King Malakk. This will ensure that Malakk isnever the lowest health boss, preventing the Blessed Loa Spirit fromtargeting him, which can be problematic if Mar'li's tank is currently alsotanking Malakk.
9.5. Alternative Strategy: Burning Sul the Sandcrawler
Many raid groups have reported that burning Sul the Sandcrawler madethe fight a lot easier. To do so, tank Sul next to Malakk or Mar'li if theyare empowered and try to break the empowerment from cleave/AoE damage whilefocusing mainly on Sul. Use Heroism/Bloodlust/Time Warpat the pull.
We recommend using Heroism/Bloodlust/Time Warp at thepull, when everyone will benefit from their cooldowns and procs.
Alternatively, you can save it and use it if it becomes necessary,for example, if you will not manage to break a boss out of their empowermentin time or if you have issues handling the last spawn of Living Sands.
To progress through the fight, you need to damage the bossesand properly deal with their abilities. As a result, there is practicallyno room for learning the fight.
The Heroic mode of the Council of Elders encounter is a very challengingfight. The fight resembles the Normal mode in its execution, although thereare several notable changes to the mechanics.
12.1. Differences From Normal Mode
In addition to the increased health and damage of all bosses and adds,something which is to be expected of any Heroic mode, there are severalchanges in mechanics.
Lingering Presence increases damage done and Dark Energy generationrate by 15% per stack, up from 10%.
Every other time that an empowerment is broken, a random raid member willreceive a debuff from the Spirit of Gara'jal, called a Soul Fragment.This Soul Fragment can be passed on to another raid member through an extraaction button that the player also gains. While the Soul Fragment is on aplayer, it stacks a debuff on them every 5 seconds, called Shadowed Soul.Shadowed Soul increases damage taken by 2% per stack, until the end of thefight. Passing the Soul Fragment to another player causes the new player tostart stacking Shadowed Soul on them. The Soul Fragment can be passed alongindefinitely.
Players who take damage from Frost King Malakk's Frostbite areaffected by Body Heat. 8 seconds later, they become unable to soakFrostbite for 8 seconds.
When empowered, Kazra'jin casts Discharge instead ofOverload. This spell reflects a percentage of the damage he takes to allraid members, instead of just to the attacking player.
The Shadowed Loa Spirits no longer exist. Instead, whenHigh Priestess Mar'li is empowered, she casts Twisted Fate. This spelltargets two players (a nearby melee player and the farthest raid member fromthat player) and spawns a small add at the location of each player. Thesetwo adds travel towards one anotherand deal raid damage, which is greater the closer the two adds are to eachother. If one of the two adds dies, the other one pulses AoE raid damageuntil it is killed.
If two Quicksand void zones overlap, then they merge into onelarger void zone. When Sul casts Sandstorm, these large, merged voidzones spawn larger, more powerful adds.
12.2. Strategy
The strategy for the encounter works similarly to that for the Normal mode,with a few key differences. We will list them all here first, beforedetailing them further.
You must make absolutely sure that Sul the Sandcrawler dies before he isever empowered, because the adds resulting from his Quicksand (especiallythose from merged overlapping void zones) are extremely damaging and almostimpossible to handle without many deaths.
You must pass on the Soul Fragment so that each raid memberends up with around 5 stacks of the debuff. Once all raid members have 5stacks, you can start passing it around again until everyone has 10 stacks.
Players affected by Frostbite should stand away from other raidmembers, and they should receive copious amounts of healing, as well asdefensive cooldowns.
You must be very careful with the DPS done to Kazra'jin when he isempowered, since it will result in heavy raid damage.
You must slow, stun and kill the adds summoned by High Priestess Mar'li'sTwisted Fate.
12.2.1. Kill Order
The first thing you need to understand about the Heroic mode strategy isthe importance of the kill order. Sul the Sandcrawler cannot be allowed toever be empowered, as we explained above, so you must kill him before thistime. In order to do this, you will have to do as much DPS as possible to himduring the previous 3 troll empowerments, all while making sure to break eachof them in time.
As the fight starts, you should tank Sul the Sandcrawler together withFrost King Malakk, and focus on Sul withHeroism/Bloodlust/Time Warp. Some cleave damage will be doneto Malakk as well, and you will need to switch to Malakk before he reaches100 Dark Energy and get him to 75% health.
At this point, you should aim for High Priestess Mar'li to have higherhealth than Kazra'jin, so that she is empowered next. You should thenrepeat the same process as before, dealing as much damage to Sul, while makingsure to break Mar'li's empowerment in time.
Once Sul is dead, you should try to kill Kazra'jin next (although FrostKing Malakk is also a valid target).
12.2.2. Handling the Soul Fragments
The way to handle each Soul Fragment is essentially quitesimple. The player who first receives it should keep it until they have 5stacks of the Shadowed Soul debuff (so, about 25 seconds). After that,this player should pass the Soul Fragment on to another player who does nothave any Shadowed Soul stacks, and so on. Tanks should never be given theSoul Fragment until Frost King Malakk is dead.
Once everyone in the raid has 5 stacks of the debuff, players can starttaking it up to 10 stacks, and all bosses should be dead long before anyoneneeds to take more stacks than that.
Finally, players with good damage reduction abilities, such as Warlocks,can take more stacks to lighten the load on the rest of the raid.
12.2.3. Handling Frostbite
Frostbite deals more damage in Heroic mode, and due to theBody Heat debuff, it is not as simple as in Normal mode to reduce itsdamage.
It is possible to set up a rotation of players to move into range of theplayer affected by Frostbite, and then to move out as soon as they aredebuffed by Body Heat (since, not only will they no longer reduce the damage of Frostbite, but they will also take the full unreduced damage themselves).However, we do not find this tactic to be ideal, since it requires a lot ofmoving from your raid members, and it is very easy to have accidental deathsalong the way.
Instead, we recommend the players affected by Frostbite to move out of theraid, and endure the full, unreduced damage of Frostbite there alone. Healerswill need to spam heal these players, and cast external damage reductioncooldowns on them, but this should be possible with a bit of practice.
12.2.4. Handling Discharge
Kazra'jin's Discharge is one of the more problematic issuesof the fight. Whenever Kazra'jin is empowered, the entire raid will take verylarge amounts of damage, so healers will have to use defensive cooldowns andmake sure to keep the raid's health high.
There is not much that you can do to reduce the damage taken, since there isa certain amount of DPS that must be done to Kazra'jin. That said, we recommendthat every DPS player switches to the Blessed Loa Spirits summoned byHigh Priestess Mar'li whenever they spawn. This will give the healers a briefrespite to top the raid off, since there will be no raid damage whileKazra'jin is not taking damage.
12.2.5. Handling Twisted Fate
Twisted Fate is not particularly difficult to handle. Whenever theability is about to be cast, a designated ranged DPS player should move veryfar away from the rest of the raid, so that they are targeted by Twisted Fate(as the farthest-away player). This will result in a large distance between thetwo adds created by Twisted Fate, giving your raid enough time to killthem.
This concludes our raid guide for the Council of Elders. We hope you havefound it helpful. Please do not hesitate to post any feedback you may have onour forums.
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