The Blood Prince Council is the first encounter in the Crimson Hall wing in Icecrown Citadel. The council consists of the darkfallen princes Keleseth, Valanar and Taldaram. The fight is pretty straightforward, with just a few quirks.
All of them have been fought and killed by players (Keleseth in Utgarde Keep, Valanar at Naxxanar in Borean Tundra, and Taldaram in Ahn'kahet: The Old Kingdom) and brought back to Icecrown Citadel to once again serve the Lich King.
This encounter was made available January 19, 2010 on US servers and January 20 on EU servers.
Abilities[]
10 player[]
Prince Valanar[]
- Shock Vortex 50,000 yd range — Creates a vortex of swirling force near an enemy target that inflicts damage and knocks back enemies near it. 1.5 second cast.
- Shock Vortex— Deals 8000 damage to all enemies within 12 yards and knocks them back.
- Kinetic Bomb 50 yd range — Summons a Kinetic Bomb. The bomb drifts toward the ground and explodes on contact. Direct damage is absorbed by the bomb and converted into energy, propelling the bomb higher in the air with each hit. Instant cast.
- Kinetic Bomb— Explodes on impact with the ground, inflicting 10800 to 13200 Physical damage and knocking enemies back in a wide area.
- Empowered Shock Vortex 50,000 yd range — Creates force vortices on all nearby enemies, inflicting 5000 Physical damage and knocking enemies with ~12 yds of the the target away. 4.5 second cast.
Prince Taldaram[]
- [Conjure Flame]ω ϖ 50 yd range—Conjures a ball of flames that flies through the air toward the target and explodes on impact.
- [Conjure Empowered Flame]ω ϖ 50 yd range—Conjures an empowered ball of flames that flies through the air toward the target and explodes on impact. 3 second cast.
- [Glittering Sparks]ω ϖ 90 yd range—Glittering sparks shoot from the caster's hands in a cone, burning enemies for 12920 Fire damage over 8 sec and reducing their movement speed by 20%. Instant, Magic Dispellable
Prince Keleseth[]
- [Shadow Lance]ω ϖ 40 yd range—Hurls a bolt of dark magic at an enemy, inflicting 15600 to 16400 Shadow damage. 1.5 second cast.
- [Shadow Resonance]ω ϖ—Summons a Dark Nucleus. Dark Nuclei feed on their own energy, causing them to destroy themselves over time. Instant
- [Empowered Shadow Lance]ω ϖ 40 yd range—Hurls a bolt of dark magic at an enemy, inflicting 78000 to 82000 Shadow damage. 1.5 second cast.
Dark Nucleus[]
- [Shadow Resonance]ω ϖ 15 yd range—The nearest target resonates with shadow, suffering 1000 damage and reducing Shadow damage taken from all sources by 35% for until cancelled. Channeled, lasts 6 seconds.
Hardmode[]
- [Shadow Prison]ω ϖ 50,000 yd range—Binds an enemy. Movement by a bound enemy inflicts 350 initial Shadow damage, increasing by 500 for each second of movement. Remaining motionless for 10 sec will reset the stack. Instant
25 player[]
Prince Valanar[]
- [Shock Vortex] 50,000 yd range—Creates a vortex of swirling force near an enemy target that inflicts damage and knocks back enemies near it. 1.5 sec cast
- [Kinetic Bomb] 50 yd range—Summons a Kinetic Bomb that floats towards the floor and explodes for 12,000 physical damage to every player in the room, knocking them back 200 yards. 3 second cast.
- [Empowered Shock Vortex] 50,000 yd range—Creates force vortices on all enemies, inflicting 7,000 Physical damage and knocking enemies near the target away.
Prince Taldaram[]
- [Conjure Ball of Flames] 50 yd range—Conjures a ball of flames that flies through the air toward the target and explodes on impact. 10,000 damage minimum.
- [Conjure Empowered Ball of Flames] 50 yd range—Conjures a ball of flames that flies through the air toward the target and explodes on impact, dealing fire damage to nearby enemies along the way. 3 second cast.
- [Glittering Sparks] 90 yd range—Glittering sparks shoot from the caster's hands in a cone, burning enemies for 16,152 Fire damage over 8 seconds and reducing their movement speed by 20%. Instant
Prince Keleseth[]
- [Shadow Lance] 40 yd range—Hurls a bolt of dark magic at an enemy, inflicting 17063 to 17937 Shadow damage. 1.5 second cast.
- [Shadow Resonance]—Summons a Dark Nucleus. Instant
- [Empowered Shadow Lance] 40 yd range—Hurls a bolt of dark magic at an enemy, inflicting 85,313 to 89,687 unresistable Shadow damage. 1.5 second cast.
Dark Nucleus[]
- [Shadow Resonance] 15 yd range—The nearest target resonates with shadow, suffering 1,000 damage and reducing Shadow damage taken from all sources by 35% for until canceled [sic].
Hardmode[]
- [Shadow Prison]ω ϖ 50,000 yd range—Binds an enemy. Movement by a bound enemy inflicts 350 initial Shadow damage, increasing by 500 for each second of movement. Remaining motionless for 10 sec will reset the stack. Instant
- [Kinetic Bomb] 50 yd range—The Kenetic Bombs will now fall 2x-3x times faster. It's a smart idea to have either a few dedicated bomb hitters or if you raid can manage the awareness, have all range target any bombs near them. 3 second cast.
Strategy[]
The encounter consists of one phase. The 10 minute enrage timer is generous and should not be of any consequence. Three tanks are required, one of them can be a ranged tank (e.g. Warlock).
At all times, one of the three princes has Invocation of Blood. The two without the buff have 1 HP and cannot be damaged, only the buffed prince has a proper health score and can take damage.
Invocation of blood always starts on Prince Valanar (middle), and switches randomly every 30 seconds to another prince.
All three princes have rather low armor and thus take high melee damage. DPS cooldowns should be used on Keleseth, if the tank has sufficient threat, since he frequently casts Shadow Lance which makes it impossible for him to dodge.
Prince Keleseth[]
This prince can basically be tanked by any class with a ranged attack. He does not use any melee abilities, he instead spams Shadow Lance.
For this reason, the Keleseth tank must gain shadow mitigation from the Dark Nuclei. These spawn randomly around the room, and the Keleseth tank must grab them to gain the stacking Shadow Resonance buff. Dark Nuclei do not follow the normal aggro table, they instead attack the last player that hit them. Melee aoe abilities do not pull Dark Nuclei off the Keleseth tank (excepting Hammer of the Righteous and Heartstrike). The Dark Nuclei destroy themselves over time, necessitating finding more to keep the shadow resistance buff up. Note that the damage reduction from Dark Nuclei is multiplicative not additive, so even with 6 Nuclei the tank still takes some damage. More than 6 Nuclei is not advisable, since at that point the tank takes more damage from the Nuclei than from Shadow Lance.
Some 10 player groups have had success using a tanking geared Death Knight, or a Protection Paladin as the ranged tank. The other tank then tanks Valanar and Taladaram. 3 healers can be positioned between the 2 tanks. When Keleseth is empowered, and the ranged tank requires more attention from the healers, the Valanar/Taladaram tank can use a survival cooldown or two, during this time.
Prince Valanar[]
Valanar summons Kinetic bombs so that 2/3 (10/25 player) are up at all times. These Bombs float in the air and slowly move to the floor, upon impact they explode for ~16k damage. Every time they take damage, they float a little upwards. After 1 minute, they despawn.
To prevent the bombs from exploding, they must be continually damaged. The easiest method to achieve this is to use a warlock or hunter melee pet. A melee pet set on a bomb just sits below the bomb until it floats low enough, then attacks it until it floats up out of range again. This may fail though when the pet is effectively kicking the bomb up the stairs. They best way to ensure that this does not happen is to position the pet so that the bomb is between the door from which the raid enters the room and the pet, not the pet between the door and the bomb. Using a warlock imp is not optimal either, as the imp may use all its mana and then be unable to keep the bomb up.
Ranged damage dealers can do this too, but this leads to loss of DPS on the bosses. Players thus want to switch from the Bomb to a boss and back, but this can lead to errors (like accidentally targeting Nuclei). Switching on nameplates or using a targeting macro will help avoid these errors.
Sometimes a kinetic bomb glitches and gets stuck in the floor and not go back up, no matter how hard it's being hit. If this is the case, then someone needs to continually beat on the bomb until it dissipates, otherwise it explodes. This tends to happen on the raised stage in the back of the room.
Valanar puts shock vortexes under random raid members, which are preceded by a small white swirl for 1.5 seconds before expanding into a full vortex, knocking back any player that enters it. The white colored vortexes have a radius of approximately 12 yards, persist for about 20 seconds, and should not be approached. Because of the short cast time, not much can be done about this attack.
When he gains Invocation of Blood he casts Empowered Shock Vortex which creates this effect on every player in the room; melee needs to scatter and get away from each other, while the rest of the raid should already be spread out. Players must keep 12 yards away from everyone else to avoid damaging and knocking around other raid members when it goes off.
Prince Taldaram[]
Prince Taldaram conjures balls of flame which follow a random raid member and explode when they reach their target. When they pass through other players, the damage they do is reduced, down to a minimum of 10k. When Taldaram has Invocation of Blood he launches Empowered Balls of Flame which follow the same mechanism, but deal higher damage, and also damage the players they pass on their way to their target.
Players who are NOT targeted by Empowered Balls of Flame should stick together and stay close to the route of the ball, especially ranged dps. In this way you drain the energy of the Empowered Balls of Flame and that makes it hurt less.
Also Priests should avoid fading during this fight while an Orb is in play, as this can cause the Orbs to detarget and change directions. This is especially bad during an Empowered Orb.
Taldaram also casts Glittering Sparks in a random player's direction so spreading out mitigates that somewhat.
Heroic Difficulty[]
In Heroic Mode, the Shadow Prison debuff is added, which does increasing damage to players every second whenever they move or jump. Therefore, all players (except the Keleseth tank) must minimise movement during the entire fight.
Kinetic Bombs are now summoned closer to the ground and drop faster. With the reduced movement, one or two ranged players cannot keep all Kinetic Bombs in the air. Spread ranged players all over the room, and all of are responsible for any Kinetic Bombs in their area. This is especially important when someone in their area is targetted for Empowered Conjured Flame.
Glittering Sparks now reduces movement speed by 40%. Assign a priest to mass dispel melees when Valanar is empowered so they can run out for Empowered Shock Vortex. A chained Empowered Shock Vortex most likely results in multiple deaths.
Keleseth also hits much harder in heroic mode. A normal melee tank is therefore recommended over a ranged tank.
Loot[]
Normal mode[]
Heroic mode[]
Quotes[]
- Intro
- Blood-Queen Lana'thel yells: Foolish mortals. You thought us defeated so easily? The San'layn are the Lich King's immortal soldiers! Now you shall face their might combined!
- Blood-Queen Lana'thel yells: Rise up, brothers, and destroy our enemies.
Prince Keleseth[]
- Invocation of Blood
- Such wondrous power! The Darkfallen Orb has made me INVINCIBLE!
- Special ability
- Blood will flow!
- Killing a player
- Were you ever a threat?
- Truth is found in death.
- Berserk
- Prince Keleseth cackles maniacally!
- Death
- My queen... they come...
Prince Taldaram[]
- Invocation of Blood
- Tremble before Taldaram, mortals, for the power of the orb flows through me!
- Special ability
- Delight in the pain!
- Killing a player
- Worm food.
- Beg for mercy!
- Berserk
- Prince Taldaram laughs.
- Death
- Prince Taldaram gurgles and dies.
Prince Valanar[]
- Invocation of Blood
- Naxxanar was merely a setback! With the power of the orb, Valanar will have his vengeance!
- Special ability
- My cup runneth over.
- Killing a player
- Dinner... is served.
- Do you see NOW the power of the Darkfallen?
- Berserk
- BOW DOWN BEFORE THE SAN'LAYN!
- Death
- ...why...?
Trivia[]
- Valanar's quotes:
- "My cup runneth over." is from Psalm 23:5 in the Judeo-Christian Bible.
- "Naxxanar was merely a setback!" is based upon Kael'thas Sunstrider's infamous quote.
Related achievements[]
10-player mode | 25-player mode | Objective |
---|---|---|
[The Crimson Hall] ( Heroic) | [The Crimson Hall] ( Heroic) | Defeat the bosses of The Crimson Hall in Icecrown Citadel |
[The Orb Whisperer] | [The Orb Whisperer] | Defeat the Blood Council without anyone in the raid taking more than 21,000 spell damage in a single hit. |
Videos[]
Solo Heroic encounter[]
10-player Normal encounter[]
10-player Heroic encounter[]
25-player Normal encounter[]
<youtube>Wwzm3hF5peE</youtube>
25-player Heroic encounter[]
Additional videos[]
Patches and Hotfixes[]
- Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Inlinegfx/img_link_data.json' not found. Hotfix (2010-01-22): "
- Prince Keleseth will no longer melee players. So if you get knocked into Keleseth or happen to move by him, he won't swipe in between his casts and kill a non-tank.
- The first Shadow Resonance should appear earlier in the fight, which will allow the Keleseth tank to have more orbs on him or her if Keleseth is empowered second instead of third. We didn't want which Blood Prince was empowered second to be a major element of the difficulty in the fight.
- We reduced the melee damage for the Princes by 10% for the 10 player difficulty. They were doing less damage than the 25 player before the hotfix, but this change lowers the damage further.
- Empowered Flames will now run out of power after shooting fewer firebolts in the 10 player difficulty. We did not change the initial impact damage."
- Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Inlinegfx/img_link_data.json' not found. Hotfix (2010-01-21): "Kinetic Bombs no longer aggro Blood Queen Lana’thel."
- Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Inlinegfx/img_link_data.json' not found. Patch 3.3.0 (08-Dec-2009): Added.
External links[]
Prince Keleseth | Prince Valanar | Prince Taldaram |
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