Rage Winterchill

[dredrock]

Introduction
Rage Winterchill is the first boss fight in Hyjal, and while it's one of the most annoying, it's quite easy.

As you'll probably have only 25 or fewer people attuned, you'll most often take your Kael'Thas or Vashj group setups to Mount Hyjal as well.

The fight can be done with 23, or even 21, people, so don't worry if you can't get a full raid of 25 in.



Raid Setup
Tanks: 4 (A mix of Prot Warriors, Feral Druids and Prot Paladin)
Healers: 7
DPS: 14

Alter this setup depending on the number of people you have attuned, but in general make sure to bring at least 2 feral druids and 3-4 warriors. Some of the "tanks" can be DPS specced and change from tanking gear to DPS gear at the end of the waves.

(this was the old way, new way is fill the raid, and pound your way through the 8 waves of junk)



Buffs, Potions and Gear
No special potions are required besides the ones you use on every raid. Full damage potions for the DPS is crucial. (not so much on this boss)



Boss Abilities


Rage Winterchill

HP - 4,200,000
Melee Strength - 3k on plate.

Icebolt - Shoots at a random target, dealing 4250-5750 frost damage, encasing the person in a frozen tomb, which deals 2500 damage per second, lasting a total of 4 seconds. It's an instant cast and Winterchill will target the person he fires it at for a split second before he returns to the tank.
(this is CRITICAL! If you are a healer learn to heal people through this, you litterally have like 1-2 seconds to heal or someone is dead, also don't pull agro if it goes on the tank...)

Frost Nova - A Frost Nova spells that freezes anyone in the area it's used over, just like the Mage's Water Elemental's Frost Nova spells, immobilising people affected by it, for 6 second. It's dispellable but it's often not worth it. He won't use Death and Decay while you're frozen.
(this is lame, I think you can even mass dispell this)

Death and Decay - A 10 second channelled spell, affecting a patch of ground, much like the Vashj Toxic Spores, dealing to each person in the area damage equal to 15% of that person's max health each second. He won't use Death and Decay while you're frozen with Frost Nova.
(also another lame ability, simply run out of it...or you fail)

Frost Armor - An exact copy of the mage ability, reducing attack speed and movement.
(nothing to worry about just don't pull agro)



The Mobs


Abominations
These start coming with wave 6 and are in almost every group after that, ranging from 2 to 6 in number.

HP - 180,000
Melee Strength - About 3k on plate.

Poison Aura - Sometimes the Abomination will use a poison cloud-like ability, dealing roughly 750 damage to everyone around the Abomination every 3 seconds.

Shackle-able / Fear-able/ Trap-able



Ghouls
Ghouls are a part of nearly every single wave.

HP - 140,000
Melee Strength - About 1.5k on plate.

Cannibalise - When they go low on health, the ghouls will run to a corpse and start cannibalizing it, restoring about 7% of their health every 2 seconds, for 10 seconds.

If you see a ghoul cannibalizing, you must stun it or Shackle it or even fear it as fast as you can to prevent it restoring health. A cannibalizing ghoul takes an entire raid's worth of DPS to kill.

Shackle-able / Fear-able/ Trap-able



Shadowy Necromancers
These guys are a part of most waves after wave 4. Potentially the deadliest mobs in the waves.

HP - 120,000

Unholy Frenzy - Increases an ally's attack speed by 100% for 20 sec, but also inflicts 500 nature damage to that ally every 2 sec.

Shadow Bolt - A bolt of shadow dealing 2250-2750 to the current target.

Cripple - Increases the time between an enemy's attacks by 100% and decreases movement speed by 50%, in addition to reducing its strength by 50%. Lasts 15 sec. Can be dispelled.

Summon Skeletons - Summon a skeleton from a nearby corpse. They can be either a Skeleton Invader, with 32k HP, or a Skeleton Mage with 24k HP. One is a melee type, the other one is a caster. They are no real threat, just an irritation.

Sheep-able / Fear-able / Trap-able



Crypt Fiends
In most waves Crypt Fiends put in an appearance, though they are most noticable in the first and last waves.

HP - 170,000
Melee Strength - About 2k on plate.

They will sometimes shoot out tiny spiders at a random person in range. They do about 300-400 damage total. Absolutely nothing to worry about.

Web - They will sometimes put a web around someone, immobilizing him for 10 seconds.

Shackle-able / Fear-able / Trap-able



Alliance NPCs
They're all Elite, do mediocre damage and have tons of HP.

The alliance base is full of NPCs who will help you throughout the encounter. Their aggro range isn't too big however, so the hunters should pull mobs, as described below, to the alliance groups in the back to engage them in the fight as well.

The NPCs cannot be buffed or healed or interacted with in any way. The only exception is that Jaina Proudmoore gives an aura to people in 20 yards that increases their spirit by 100%. In general, it is useful to Taunt mobs off the NPCs if they are close to dying, since the can be easily killed and the damage they contribute is very useful.

The NPCs will reset and regen health when the raid goes out of combat. However, if an NPC dies it's down for the try.



The Fight





Trash Waves
Two ranged DPS players, hunters preferably, should be assigned to peel off one weaker mob each, from every wave (like a Ghoul) and drag it back to Jaina Proudmoore and the Riflemen, in order to make them join the fight, since they are a great help. After the back NPCs have aggroed the kited mob, the hunters should try to kite it through the AoE area so it can take more damage.

If there is a mob attacking the NPCs, usually a group of 5-6 NPCs can sucessfully kill it on their own, but 1-2 will die in the process. Since they are valuable DPS, it is a good idea to have any extra non-tank feral druids or warriors, or even the tank themselves, Taunt the mobs off the NPCs so they won't die.

Each wave consists of about 12 to 18 mobs and they come roughly every 2 minutes.

If you kill the current wave before the next one comes, you'll be placed out of combat and you can drink or eat till the next one comes.

In general, if you do not kill all mobs before the next wave, you'll get overrun in a wave or two at most. With good performance you should have about 10-15 seconds break before each wave.



Wave 1
The first wave consists of Crypt Fiends and Ghouls.

The tanks grab about 2-3 mobs each and start building aggro on all of them. While the tanks are building up aggro, the raid focuses DPS on some Crypt Fiend or Ghoul, which is tanked either by the NPCs or an extra fury warrior/feral druid. When that mob is dead, and by judge of the tanks, AoE can begin. Every single class should try to help the AoE. Mages, warlocks, paladin, warriors, druids, rogues - everyone with some kind of multi-hitting ability should help out.

The next few waves should have a similiar setup.


Wave 4
This is when the Shadowy Necromancers join along with the Ghouls and Crypt Fiends.

The Shadowy Necromancers will aggro the first player or mob they'll see, though most often a player. If more than 2-3 Shadowy Necromancers come, and there's a healer or caster in front and he gets targeted, in 90% of the cases he'll die from being hit by 2-3 Shadow Bolts simultaneously.

The Shadowy Necromancers should be sheeped or feared.

In these waves, Melee is assigned to killing the Shadowy Necromancers while mages, warlocks and paladins are assigned to AoE-ing the Crypt Fiends and Ghouls.

When there's only about 1-2 Shadowy Necromancers left alive, the melee should get back and help on whatever's left alive from the AoE, after which the entire raid focuses fire on the remaining Shadowy Necromancers.

It goes on like this for about 2 more waves.



Wave 6
At wave 6, Abominations will start joining the fight. Wave 6 should contain only 2 Abominations. Those are treated as Crypt Fiends.
These phases go like a mix of Wave 1 and Wave 4. Tanks build aggro on all undead mobs. Melee is assigned to killing the Shadowy Necromancers, while the Warlocks, Mages and Paladins are assigned to AoE. When there's only about 1-2 Shadowy Necromancers left alive, the melee should get back and help on whatever's left alive from the AoE, after which the entire raid focuses fire on the remaining Shadowy Necromancers.

The rest of the waves are a mix of Abominations, Crypt Fiends, Shadowy Necromancers and Ghouls and mostly resemble Wave 6. Here;s a complete breakdown:
Wave Mobs Total Number
1 10 Ghouls 10
2 10 Ghouls, 2 Crypt Fiends 12
3 6 Ghouls, 6 Crypt Fiends 12
4 6 Ghouls, 4 Crypt Fiends, 2 Necromancers 12
5 2 Ghouls, 6 Crypt Fiends, 4 Necromancers 12
6 6 Ghouls, 6 Abominations 12
7 4 Ghouls, 4 Necromancers, 4 Abominations 12
8 6 Ghouls, 4 Crypt Fiends, 2 Abominations, 2 Necromancers 14

On wave 8, you'll have about 3 minutes before Rage Winterchill spawns so you can drink/eat rebuff, etc.



Boss



Rage Winterchill
It doesn't matter where he's tanked, as long as he is away from Jaina Proudmoore, as his spells will kill her and reset the event. He will arrive like the rest of the mobs and engage the person closest to him. Misdirect him to your main tank and let him build up some aggro before you start DPS-ing.

There's nothing special about him. He will use his abilities pretty randomly and relatively often.

An important rule of thumb is to keep everybody topped up. It is important for everybody to have their Spell Details in Video Options up to full , or you won't see the Death and Decay. As soon as you see the Death and Decay (red bubbles on the ground, same as the mobs in Botanica), it is imperative you stop what you're doing and move out. He won't use Death and Decay while you're frozen.

Icebolt, which he uses very often, is the biggest hazard. It does over 10,000 damage in about 3 seconds, and will kill most people before then. The key to dealing with this ability is simply having lightning reactions and casting fast heals, or even pre-casting on a person the moment you see the Icebolt flying at him, so the heal can land together with the bolt.

As an overview, keep everybody topped up, be lightning fast on the Icebolt and always immediately move out from the Death & Decay.



Class Comments
Tanks - Do a lot of tanking! Taunt loose mobs, don't let them get on the casters, and be ready with an AoE Taunt if anything goes wrong.

Fury Warriors, Feral Druids - If you're not tanking any mobs, make sure to Taunt mobs off the Alliance NPCs if the NPCs get low on health.

Rogues - Focus on the single-target damage of the pre-AoE targets, help kill the AoE-d mobs after AoE is called, and finish off the Shadowy Necromancers.

Mages - On the non-Abomination waves, position is irrelevant. In Abomination waves it's crucial to be out of melee range of the abominations. Sheep the Shadowy Necromancers, counterspell their Shadowbolts, and keep an eye on the sheep.

Warlocks - On the non-Abomination waves, position is irrelevant. In Abomination waves it's crucial to be out of melee range of the Abominations. Fear the Shadowy Necromancers if the sheeping isn't fast enough, but don't fear too much as chasing down feared mobs saps raid DPS.

Hunters - You'll be kiting the Ghouls to the back of the raid, to engage Jaina and the other NPCs at the back into the fight. Use Aspect of the Cheetah if you're having troubles, and don't let the mobs hit you. Kite the mobs through the AoE whenever you can.

Healers - Simply keep the raid alive. Shamans can use Magma Totems and paladins can use Holy Wrath/Consecration to help out on the AoE.



Miscellaneous Notes
If you die in the fight, you can corpse-run back in and rejoin at any time, even midway through a wave fight, but not during the boss itself.