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The fourth boss in ICC (and the last one available as of the date of this post) is by far the most challenging.  He has an interesting fight mechanic that will challenge your raid’s awareness and control.

The primary mechanic in this fight is the boss’s Blood Power.  You can see it in the boss’ unit frame where his mana/rage/energy bar would be.  It starts at zero, and it will increase during the course of the fight. Saurfang gains Blood Power every time either he or his minions do damage to anyone in the raid.

For each point of Blood Power he gains, his size and damage will increase by 1%.  As if that wasn’t bad enough, if it reaches 100 (a full bar) then Saurfang will place a Mark of the Fallen Champion on a raid member.  That raid member will take continuous damage.  The Mark cannot be dispelled, and even persists through death.  Not only does the Mark do damage, but that damage will also contribute more points to Saurfang’s Blood Power gain.  His Blood Power returns to zero when he casts Mark of the Fallen Champion, and the process starts again.

As you can see, the key to this fight is to avoid damage as much as possible to minimize his Blood Power gain.  No matter how good your tanks and healers are, if there are too many Marks of the Fallen Champion on the raid then the fight is lost.

Here are the ways he does damage (and gains Blood Power):

* Boiling Blood – a debuff cast on random raid members.  Its unavoidable and can’t be dispelled, although a priest’s Power Word: Shield.will block the damage on you (and prevent Blood Power gains).  Don’t waste your CoS trying to get rid of it – it won’t work.  (I don’t think it even prevented the damage ticks – can anyone else confirm this?)
* Blood Nova – this is only cast on players at range, so it shouldn’t have any impact on us rogues.  The person with Blood Nova doesn’t take damage himself, but does damage to anyone within 12 yards.  Ranged players must stay spread out to avoid this.
* Rune of Blood – cast only on the tanks, so rogues won’t get this either.  The target with this takes debuff extra damage, and the damage heals Saurfang for 10x the amount dealt.  For this reason, tanks will swap during the fight.  Be aware of that in case it causes threat issues.
* Summon Blood Beasts – he will summon minions (2 on 10-man, 5 on 25-man) who give him a point of Blood Power each time they hit someone.  It is imperative that no one gets hit by them.  They are mostly immune to AoE damage, so they must be focused down.  They can be slowed and snared.

The most important, and most challenging,  part of the fight is to prevent the Blood Beasts from hitting anyone.  If your players can do that, then Saurfang’s Blood Power gain, while inevitable, will be slow enough that you can kill him before his Marks overwhelm the raid.

The “textbook” strategy listed in all of the guides is to have the ranged dps get aggro on the Blood Beasts and kite them, using slow and snare effects, so that they can be killed before they reach anyone.  If your raid can accomplish that, then the melee dps is free to stay on Saurfang for the entire fight.  As long as rogues stay in melee range on the boss, they will avoid the Blood Nova, get healed through Boiling Blood, and ignore the Blood Beasts.  Its a very simple fight for melee, in that case.  All the pressure is on the ranged dps to kite and kill the beasts, and the healers to heal through the Marks.

One way a rogue can help other than pure dps is to Dismantle Saurfang when he gets to higher levels of Blood Power.  Since his damage is increased at this point, it will help minimize the severity of hits on the tank.

When my guild did this fight, we found that the Marks were a real issue for us.  When someone gets a Mark, not only does that divert healing but it also speeds up the rate that Saurfang gets Blood Power, making the second Mark come faster.  We made the decision to let the first Marked player die if it was a dps.  The slower Blood Power gain was more important than the loss of dps.  That worked well for us, although it was a bummer for the person who got the first Mark.

But…

What if your raid Doesn’t have the ranged dps to kill both Blood Beasts quickly?  What if you have a melee-heavy group?  That’s what my guild was faced with when we fought Saurfang, and we came up with a different strategy that worked.  In fact, we got the achievement I’ve Gone and Made a Mess on our first kill.

We were in 10-man ICC so we had only two Beasts to deal with.  Our raid leader assigned one of the Blood Beasts to ranged, and the other to melee.  In order for this to work, melee had to burn down the Blood Beast without getting hit.  The key was having multiple stuns available from the melee group.

When the two Blood Beasts spawned, our ranged dps pulled and kited one and focused it down.  The other one got immediately stunned where it spawned by one of our tanks.

During the stun, melee dps would open up on it, which gave me a chance to build up some combo points quickly.  When that first stun broke, the ret paladin in our melee group taunted it and pulled it a short way away from the tanks, and then he would stun it a second time.  During this stun, I popped my TotT on the main tank.  When that second stun broke, I had enough combo points to hit it with Kidney Shot and stun it a third time.  If it wasn’t dead by the time that third stun was finished, then it would start moving back toward the tank (from my TotT) and we would kill it before it got there.

If, by chance, I got aggro on the Blood Beast (usually due to the pally’s stun being on cooldown) then I could use Evasion to avoid damage, or Vanish and Cheap Shot to get another stun, or get a PW:S from a priest as a last option.

This strategy can be varied depending on the group makeup.  It is dependent on your melee having several stuns available, and it would be easier with multiple rogues to alternate stuns since they have a longer duration and shorter cooldown than pally stuns.

After he is killed, there is a nice bit of lore that you watch, and then the loot is found in a chest off in a corner.  He drops some nice stuff. On 10-man, you’ll be watching for the Scourge Stranglers for your hand slot or Saurfang’s Cold-Forged Band as a nice ring.

If you’re in a 25-man raid, you’ll keep your eyes open for the Bloodvenom Blade if you are Combat Swords.  Toskk’s Maximized Wristguards are a nice wrist item as well.  Most interesting is Deathbringer’s Will.  Its a trinket with 155 Armor Penetration, which is nice on its own for combat rogues.  However, it also has a proc that is unusual.  When it procs, it will give you either 1200 AP, 600 Agility, or 600 ArPen.  While the unpredictability is inconvenient if you’re trying to stack Armor Pen to the cap, it still a really nice proc no matter which way it goes.  Its slightly better for combat rogues than mutilate rogues, but definitely worth it for either.

Before we can walk in and show Frostmourne and company what’s up, we have to cut our teeth on Arthas’ doorkeepers first. The first four bosses of Icecrown Citadel are now available to tackle, and provide some of the most interesting and innovative mechanics that we’ve seen in a boss fight yet. Considering that you’ll be facing these same 4 bosses for the new few weeks, it provides a great opportunity to really learn the fights and capitalize on any tricks that will keep you alive. Read on for my analysis of the first wing of ICC from a rogue’s perspective, with specific tips and tricks for assassins only!

Trash

Immediately when you step into ICC, you’ll find the new T10 gear vendors. Feel free to drool over the new set, and then move on to taking out the trash between yourself and the first boss. Most of it is pretty standard stuff, although there is one specific rogue-only tip I can provide. There are a pair of traps in each of the starting rooms, that are visible while you are stealthed and can be disarmed. These traps will trigger a frost/slowing aura on your raid and will summon a giant skeleton add to come attack your group if they are triggered.

While you can safely disarm them from 20y away while in Stealth, remember that by skipping the mobs, you will lose out on 75 reputation with the Ashen Verdict for each one you skip. For this reason, I suggest you simply mark the trap with a flare or other notification, so that you can trigger it on your own. This will net you some extra reputation, which can be key as you work your way up the food chain towards the very awesome Ashen Verdict exalted rings. Once exalted, and on farm runs later, your raid leader will probably ask for these traps to be disarmed instead of activated.

First Encounter: Lord Marrowgar

The first boss of ICC is a giant flying triple-headed skeleton, and is honestly one of the most amazing bosses I’ve ever fought from a visual perspective. As a rogue, you are going to spend 99% of this fight burning the boss down. Ranged DPS will be assigned to popping the Bone Spike Graveyards that come up, and they’ll be dodging the Coldflame trails that radiate out from the boss. Melee doesn’t really have anything to worry about, as long as you remain a safe distance from the tank so you don’t get cleaved by his Saber Lash attack. You might get put into a Bone Spike Graveyard (and no, Cloak / Vanish / Killing Spree won’t save you), but you simply have to wait for your friends to break you out.

The boss will initiate a spinning whirlwind attack, similar to Skadi in Utgarde Pinnacle, though dealing significantly less damage. You can Feint if you are close to the boss to lower the AoE damage, but just running away will probably be fine. Be sure to avoid the fire during this phase, and also remember to Tricks of the Trade to your tank as his whirlwind is ending. He resets threat during this time, so your tank will need some extra help picking the boss back up. Because this boss is intended to be easily killed for the weekly raid quest, you won’t really find too much of a challenge taking him out.

Second Encounter: Lady Deathwhisper

Here’s a fight where a well-played rogue can really clean up a fight and make it easier for everyone involved. It plays out in basically two phases: mana shield up, and mana shield down. The ‘mana shield up’ phase is basically Freya from Ulduar, with the exception that you do need a couple of your DPS sticking on the boss at all times. As a Mutilate rogue, you should really ask to be left on the boss, as your mix of physical/magical damage makes you a bad candidate for taking out the resistant mobs. Your rotation also thrives in a single-target burn situation, and so you should try to get out of add killing duties.

As Combat rogue, you are well suited to handle some of the add control. There are two types of adds: Adherents and Fanatics. Adherents can gain near immunity to magic, while Fanatics can boost their defenses to be almost immune to physical damage. This means that you’ll be focusing on killing Adherents, while your casters knock out the Fanatics. You’ll want to kick as many of the Adherents’ spells as you can, and use your CDs to burst through their Shroud of the Occult damage shield. Using Tricks of the Trade to help your tanks pick up aggro will also help with some of the tricky parts of this fight as well.

Once the boss’ mana shield is down, due to the damage of the people on her full time, you’ll want to switch to attacking the boss. Her key ability here will be Frostbolt, as it deals massive damage but can easily be interrupted with a Kick. Try to always have some energy in your pool to Kick this spell to save your tank some significant damage. You may get chased by a Vengeful Shade (one of those invulnerable ghosts), just run away!

Third Encounter: Gunship

The Gunship Encounter is one of the easiest (and most entertaining) raid fights I’ve had the pleasure of conquering. Pick up a Rocket Shirt from the engineer on-board your ship, and get ready to fight the opposing faction’s Gunship. I find that rogues are best delegated to add duty on this fight, as Tricks of the Trade and their melee nature make them perfect candidates. Adds will spawn via a portal on your ship, assist your tank in killing these adds swiftly. Use Tricks and your other available tools to keep them at a minimum level. If you do get asked to visit the other ship, you simply use your Rocket Shirt to hop over and destroy the Battle-Mage that is freezing your guns. Killing Spree or Overkill would be utilized perfectly for this bursty phase, simply remember to jump back once you’re finished!

Fourth Encounter: Deathbringer Saurfang

Saurfang rounds out the first wing of ICC, and his difficulty is definitely a step up from any of the prior 3 fights. He functions on something similar to a Runic Power / Rage / Energy system, where he builds up a primary resource, and then empties it once his tank is full. Your goal is to minimize how fast that tank fills up, while burning him quickly due to his soft enrage timers. The rule of thumb is that every damaging ability he uses will generate 1 energy for him.

The most prevalent mechanic on this fight is Saurfang’s Mark of the Fallen Champion. Once Saurfang reaches 100 energy, he’ll unleash this via a short cast on a raid member. Once cast, his attacks start hitting that target for a few extra thousand damage on every swing. This damage causes him to build up energy even faster, and he’ll cast another mark, which eventually escalates into chaos. He also heals back up 5% of his HP if someone with the Mark dies, which means that the entire fight starts slowly and ramps up quickly. Save your CDs for the late-fight, as he has a Frenzy move that means you’ll want to end the fight ASAP.

Rogues have a unique way to deal with this issue: Vanish. If a rogue uses Vanish to avoid Mark of the Fallen Champion, they can avoid having the ability cast at all. Note that if you Vanish too early, he’ll simply cast it on someone else. But if you time it just right, you can Vanish/Immune the ability, effectively resetting his energy to 0 and yet not ramping up the pace of the fight at all. It’s a trick maneuver to pull off, but there’s no real reason not to blow a nearly-useless Vanish cooldown to switch this fight from difficult to cake. If you manage to be hit by the Mark anyway, reports are indicating that Feint will reduce the damage you take from the Mark. Doing so may or may not be worth using, depending on your healing situation. For further research on this, feel free to read the Elitist Jerk’s thread on ICC rogue optimization.

His second core ability is summoning a few Blood Beasts which will then start chasing after your healers and ranged DPS. You can use Tricks to help one of your ranged classes gain aggro, or some raids may have melee pile onto one of the adds to burn it up. Whatever you do, be sure to NOT be hit by this add. Use Evasion, Kidney Shot, Vanish, anything that will save you from being hit. If you are hit, it starts feeding into Saurfang’s energy timer, increasing the tempo faster than it should be. Don’t bother using AoE on these adds, as they have the same passive aura as the Faction Champion that makes them super-resistant to it.

Conclusion

The first few bosses of ICC will give you plenty to practice on, especially if you’re planning to tackle hard modes in the months to come. Luckily, there is still plenty of time for you to go back and work on ToC and Ulduar for achievements and gear, as we won’t see any new encounters for another 3 weeks.

SliceAdmiral can be best described as an info-center for maximizing Rogue damage. It contains a bunch of timer bars, stat displays, and audio notifications that add up to nearly everything you need to know to properly time your Rogue’s DPS cycle. It has a compact and configurable UI that features…

* Timer Bars for Slice and Dice, Rupture, Hunger for Blood, Deadly Poison, and Envenom buff
* Timer Bar sorting based on refresh priority
* Audio Reminders for refreshing and expiring abilities (SnD, Rupture, and HfB)
* Stat displays for Attack Power, Crit %, and Attack Speed
* Rupture and Deadly Poison DoT damage and crit indicators
* Combo Point bar
* Energy bar
* New Options Menu interface, rebuilt from the ground up

Little to no setup needed. Just load the mod and you’re ready to rock! Good for Rogues of any spec.

SliceAdmiral is a continuation of SliceCommander. Big thanks to the original authors for starting up this much-needed Rogue DPS project!

Bug fixes 1.0 -> 1.0.1

* Fixed a malformed number error that sometimes showed during initialization
* The options menu now correctly hides when logged on a non-Rogue character
* Fixed the German Envenom translation
* The German Options menu should now function properly
* Added some missing French options strings (They’re in English, but at least it works now!)
* Took a stab at fixing the Mac loading issue (Unverified. Mac users – please test and report back)

Big thanks to Minati for helping me out with the German stuff! Your English rocks compared to my German :)

Features planned for SliceAdmiral 1.1:

* Tricks of the Trade visual indicators for both outgoing and incoming Tricks.
* Ability to select the stats present in the stat bar
* Out of Combat fading option
* Still taking feedback/suggestions for additional features and fixes!!

PoisonSwapper manages weapon swaps for maximum poison damage by automatically swapping in a weapon with instant or wound poison to your offhand when you have a 5 stack of Deadly Poison up with more than 5 seconds remaining. This allows you to use a damage poison, like Wound or Instant as is appropriate to your spec in order to achieve maximum throughput.

This can result in a 300 DPS gain for a BIS combat rogue, and a 600 DPS gain for a BIS Mutilate rogue.

To use it, just poison your primary offhand with Instant or Wound Poison as appropriate, and a secondary offhand with Deadly. Your Instant/Wound hand should have better uptime, so you generally want that weapon to be your better one, and your Deadly weapon should be fast, due to Deadly’s flat 30% (before talents) proc rate. The mod does the rest and automatically swaps weapons for you. You can toggle it on and off with /ps, or by clicking the included LDB entry.

PoisonSwapper supports a PVP mode, as well, which will equip poisons with the priority: Crippling -> Mind Numbing (If caster target. This includes ret paladins and enhance shaman at the moment, unfortunately) -> Damage Poison. It is automatically enabled against PVP targets, and can be forced on (for something like faction champs) with /ps pvp. Do be aware that in a PVP environment, where poisons are often removed, this will cause you to be on the GCD a lot and might potentially be an overall strategic loss. Usage is left to the user’s discretion.

* /ps boss – Toggle on boss-only. Boss-only will only use Deadly poison on boss mobs, damage poison on others. Default Off.
* /ps debug – Toggle debug mode. Can help identify why the addon may not be working. Default Off.
* /ps [pvp/pve/auto] – Force PvP, PvE, or Auto mode. Default is Auto.
* /ps toggle – Toggle PoisonSwapper on and off.
* /ps time <number> – Set the number of seconds at which to swap back to your primary poison. Default 5.

Finally, PoisonSwapper includes an intelligent swing estimator, and will attempt to only equip weapons immediately following a white mainhand swing. Changing weapons resets your swing timer on both hands, so swapping halfway through a mainhand swing timer is rather expensive. This causes PoisonSwapper to produce superior overall DPS compared to poison swapping macros or manual swapping.