a Darkened Soul

Just like when Blizzard released Magister’s Terace at the end of Burning Crusade, the new 5 man instance Trial of the Champion seems to be giving some players a bit of trouble. I have been in groups where the problem has been the tank, and groups where it is the healer, and sometimes the overall dps is just too low. Whatever the problem is 99% of the time effective strategy and good knowledge of an encounter trump most deficiencies a group will bring. Since I have tanked this on my Warrior, healed it on my Priest, and dps’d it on both my DK and Priest I feel I have a fairly well rounded set of experience and knowledge involving ToC so I thought that instead of just writing this from a Shadow Priests point-of-view I’d give the full view. I don’t normally do this but I’m on a real kick lately about players learning what is required from the other classes in a fight so that they can see full scope of what is involved in encounter. Learning the jobs of other classes will make you a better player and better teammate.

ToC- Setting up

If you are the group lead there are a few things to know that will help when setting up a group. First of, if anyone in your group is inexperienced at jousting they are going to make the first fight much harder on everyone else. Second, the first and third bosses are not very friendly to melee so i wouldn’t grab a tank and three melee dps unless you have a rocking healer. Last thing to think about in the set up is that this is not a instance to test out a new or under geared healer. Low dps or slightly under geared tank are both possible to drag through but of all the current heroics this one will give novice healers a good reason to go back to there main spec or reroll.

ToC- The Champions

The first boss of the instance is the ridiculous intro that requires +5 to Red Bull to sit through. At the end you will see the three champions enter the ring, each with an entourage of three Lieutenant level mobs all on horseback. So…obviously you will be jousting. Yay. As if this mechanic hasn’t been ground into us enough over the course of the Tournament.

Before the fight starts be sure to get up three shields. All 5 group members should attack the left of the three mobs when each group comes forward to fight. If each member charges the same target, it will be downed immediately and you can move on to the next target. In case you are new to the jousting or never got the hang of it, the order is Shield Breaker, Charge, and while you are charging the target use your sword strike. Immediately after passing the target renew your shield. Repeat this process until all nine minor mobs are dead.

The champions will been random so get an idea of who you will be fighting during the jousting against them. They will be either a Shaman, Warrior, Rogue, Hunter, or Mage the names of which will be dependant on whether you are Horde or Alliance.

The Champions are slightly harder than the previous mobs and have an additional ability to remount and resume combat if they are left alone for a period of time. The way to keep them from remounting is to run over them like you do the skeletons in the Battle Before the Citadel quest. You do not have to charge them.

It is highly recommended that if your mount becomes close to dying that you approach another mount and when you are sure you wont get charged grab a new one. This can be done unlimited times so feel free to do it whenever you like. Also, if you do happen to die you are not locked out of the instance. You may reenter as fast as you can get back to the arena.

When you have defeated all three of the mounted champions the next phase will begin. I highly recommend running out of the instance to reset the mobs against the far wall. The reason being that you need to equip your weapons and the mobs will most likely be spread out leaving the tank with a much harder time with starting aggro.

Each of the champions have different abilities that make them challenging. However, the Warrior and Hunter cause the most problems in my opinion due to the Warrior’s Whirlwind and the Hunter’s Poison Traps. Both of these do horrific AoE damage and can take group members out without giving the healer a chance if they are not prepared. Melee needs to run away as soon as the whirlwind begins. The Warrior also has a charge ability that is specifically designed to annoy healers. The Hunter will quickly fill up the area will poison patches on the ground and anyone standing in them will take more damage than the healer can handle after more than a few seconds, even the tank. The other champions are each annoying in their own way but on a lesser scale. The rogue does high damage and applies poisons to a target, however this is single target and not terribly difficult to heal through. The Shaman will attempt to heal the group so if you get him he needs to be the first to die and have an interrupter up his ass the whole time. The Mage is by far the least amount of trouble except if his Polymorph hits a healer at a bad time.

Overall the best way to take down this group is to single target beginning with the healer if he is present, and ending with the Mage. Unless you are a DoT class caster or a DK do not worry about AoEing these mobs. you need to focus fire each down. Spriests, Afflic Locks, and DKs are more than welcome to spread around their STDs before singling out the kill target.

The healer needs to be wary of sudden AoE damage that might occur if Whirlwind or Poison Traps are used. After the first mob goes down the damge to the tank and group goes down signifigantly so you only have about 30 seconds of hardcore healing to do before the rest is smooth sailing. You should always remember to apply HoTs and/or Shields to the tank constantly so a poorly timed Charge or Polymorph doesn’t wipe the group while you sit helpless.

The tank probably has the easiest job as long as your group runs out after jousting. If not…well good luck to you. I hope you are good. Otherwise grabbing three stationary, close together mobs and holding aggro as the first target attacking should be pretty simple for any gear level, skill level, and class. Just remember to pick up the Warrior quickly when he charges someone and taunting even quicker if you lose aggro on one. As I said about the healers the hardest part is obviously when all three are up so blow you cool down in the beginning. you won’t need them later.

ToC- Eadric/Paleteress

Once you have completed looting from the Champions encounter, you will need to talk to Arelas Brightstart to begin the next boss.

One of two bosses will come out to gloat about how awesome they are while surrounding you with 9 more trash mobs. The mobs are in groups of three consisting of a Priest, Pally, and Monk. Kill the Priest first then the Pally and finally the Monk. These mobs are annoyingly weak and seem to cause the encounter to drag out far longer than it should. For fun I recommend pulling two or three groups. Until the last mob dies the Boss will not aggro so dont be afraid to get close to it. On a side note, it is an constant irritation but one that should be addressed. The Monk mob will go immune when he is about to die. As a Priest I get a lot of pug player yelling at me to dispell the shield. I have no problem doing so but for everyone’s information the mob does not heal himself or do anything else after the shield wears off. He just sits there and can be one shot by any player.

Eadric the Pure

Eadric is the easier of the two since he is a very simple tank and spank with almost no group threatening abilities. Every 20 seconds or so a warning will flash on your screen that Eadric will flash a blinding light or some jazz. Turn and face away and it will not effect you at all. If you do not you will become blinded and run around for a few seconds without control of your character. You will also take a, not life threatening, but substantial amount of damage. Eadric’s only other noteworthy move is Hammer of Justice which immobilizes a player and if not removed causes them to become vulnerable to Hammer of Righteousness, which does 14000 damage if hit by it. The hammer from Hammer of Righteousness can be hurled back at Eadric for a large amount of damage and if it kills him will complete an achievement.

There is no complicated strat for this boss. Just do what you do and when it says a warning on the screen turn away from the boss. Pretty simple really.

Argent Confessor Paleteress

While this fight is considered by most people to be the harder of the two, it is still a very simple fight. Especially if you ahve even completed the Cathedral in Scarlet Monestary. The Boss herself is very weak and healers will find they barely have to heal the tank while only she is active. At about half health or so she will summon a Memory of the Past, which a random significant character from WoW lore. However, the Shadows do not actually have different moves meaning it doesn’t mater which you get. After summoning the Shadow Paleteress will go immune and cast weak spells at you until you defeat her minion. The Shadow hits pretty hard  and has both a Fear/Dot and a move that reduces your attack/casting speed by 90% for 4 seconds. I have heard from many people that it help to kite the Shadow or leave someone on Paleteress but neither of these are necessary. They only add another factor to the fight that can cause a wipe.

Tank the Shadow near Paleteress and use Tremor Totems, Fear Wards, Berserker Rage, or whatever to get out of the fears when you can. If you can’t its not going to kill you. The tank does not typically lose aggro because of the fear unless he was about to lose it anyway. Healers just look while feared at who has the lowest health and throw them a fast heal or a group heal before returning to the tank. Dots classes will once again shine on this fight since they can continue damage while feared.

After the Shadow has been defeated resume throttling Paleteress until she screams like a little girl and begs you to take her loot.

ToC- The Black Knight

And that concludes our entertainment for this evening……Wait! Whats that by the rafters! Damit its the Black Knight again. This guy is really starting to get on my nerves.

After you finish with Eadric/Paleteress and talk to Brightstar again the Black Knight will come down and go all emo before throwing Brightstar against a wall. Then hes like “Whoa ima kick you ass and such”. At that point he feebly attempts to kill you with weak attacks and a mildly annoying add the can explode if you aren’t careful.

But wait these more! He decides he doesn’t need skin and come back as a skelly and cast Army of the Dead before continuing to weakly attacking the tank. The Army itself does very little damage unless you are a melee heavy group and don’t move out before they start exploding. Kill the adds first the the boss. The tank should wait about 5 seconds into the second phase before using an AoE taunt. Constant AoE threat is recommended to keep aggro on the adds.

If all of your group is pretty full on health at the beginning of the third phase you are in good shape. The Black Knight decides bones were weighing him down also and becomes a ghost. Unfortunately for you he is a better ghost than a DK or Skelly. He does a respectable amount of regular AoE damage but as long as the healer focuses  on the marked target and occasionally throws a group heal or round of HoTs or the group you should be fine. Any kind of dps boosts, avoidance boosts, or speed boosts are recommended during this phase because it can wear down even the best healer if it drags on too long. There is really no special strat to Phase 3 other than do lots of dps and focus healing on the marked target while throwing occasional group heals.

That it for my guide to Heroic Trial of the Champion. I hope this was useful as it is but if you have any questions please feel free to email/twitter me anytime.

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