Lich King 25 Heroic Healer Notes
Lich King 25 heroic healer guide: Infest, Soul Reaper, Defile and Necrotic Plague, with Discipline Priest, Holy Paladin, Holy Priest, Shaman and Druid notes.
The Lich King is the fight that decides most Icecrown raids, and on heroic it changes a lot from normal. This page is the plan for the whole raid, phase by phase, and then the healing notes: how Infest and Soul Reaper work, and what each healing class does. It uses notes from players who raid the fight every week, rewritten by us.
Watch Iqui's video of a Holy Paladin solo-healing this fight (linked in the class guide) to see how much a good healer can carry. Hover or tap any coloured spell for its tooltip.
1.The fight at a glance
Necrotic Plague, Infest, Drudge Ghouls, Shambling Horrors, Shadow Traps and Soul Reaper.
Remorseless Winter, Raging Spirits and Ice Spheres. Spread out.
Defile, Val'kyr Shadowguard, Infest and Soul Reaper. Stack, and use Heroism.
The same as the first one: spread, and kill the spheres.
Vile Spirits, Harvest Soul, Defile, Infest and Soul Reaper.
The raid follows him into Frostmourne, and comes back out to finish him.
2.Phase 1: three groups
On heroic the boss throws Shadow Traps at random player positions, so the raid splits into two stacked groups: ranged on one side and melee on the other. A trap lands near one group or the other, and the whole group moves. If ten players are stacked, you do not have to notice the trap yourself: when you see the group move, you move too. In the middle, between the two groups, stands the second tank with the Shambling Horrors. The three groups move slowly towards the edge of the platform with each Shadow Trap.
Ranged group, melee group, and the off-tank between them with the horrors. Everyone drifts toward the edge as the traps land.
It has a cleave that can one-shot you. Never, ever go in front of it. Stay behind it at all times.
Players with the plague go behind the Shambling Horror and get dispelled there, so it jumps to the adds and not the raid. The tank stays with the horrors and waits for them.
When a horror enrages (it turns red), a Hunter casts Tranquilizing Shot on it to remove the enrage.
The Shambling Horror cleave deals enough damage to kill a player in one hit. Nobody walks in front of it, and that includes people running to get dispelled.
3.Transitions and phase 2
Phase 2 is the moment where your group should have enough damage to get out of phase 1 without trouble. Then the Shaman casts Heroism or Bloodlust, and it must happen the moment the raid gets back to the center of the room to fight the boss, so all the damage lands in the phase where it counts.
During the transitions the entire raid stays spread: no more than 3 to 4 people in a spot, and about 8 yards apart. If you are stacked, you receive increasing damage.
In the transitions the Lich King sends out frost orbs at the group. The Shadow Priests have the job of destroying them before they reach the raid.
On heroic the Val'kyr do not have to be fully killed: at about 55% health they fly away and release their target.
Spreads on the ground. Defile goes far away from the raid, and the raid moves out of it at once.
4.Phase 3 and Frostmourne
In phase 3 the main change is Harvest Soul. On normal it takes one player at a time, and on heroic it harvests the entire group at once. You get pulled inside the chamber, and shadow bombs start slowly dropping from the ceiling.
Tanks
Stay outside and keep the Lich King under control until the raid is back.
Healers
Have your health high before Harvest Soul. Inside, help keep the group alive while it moves.
Damage dealers
Ranged damage kills the Spirits that fly above you inside the chamber. Melee follow the group, and a Paladin or a Feral Druid can help the healers with Flash of Light and Rejuvenation: it is not much, but everything helps at this point.
Everyone
Stack and move as a group to avoid the shadow bombs. Nobody stays behind.
If a player dies inside Frostmourne, then when you are restored to the platform the Lich King enrages, and that can wipe the entire raid. Nobody may die in there.
5.Infest and Soul Reaper (healers)
Infest is cast about every 20 seconds. It damages the raid and leaves a damage-over-time on everyone below 90% health. It goes away when they are healed above 90%, so the whole job of the raid healers is to bring everyone back up quickly, and the more you shield and heal before the next Infest, the fewer players carry it.
Soul Reaper is the tank killer. Every 30 seconds it hits the tank, and five seconds later it deals a big shadow blow when the debuff expires, while the Lich King swings twice as fast. Tanks rotate their big cooldowns for every one of them, and healers pre-cast so the tank is at full health when the shadow damage lands. The dangerous moment is when the shadow damage arrives together with a melee hit. The Lich King's swing timer resets every time he casts something like Infest, so the timing of the melee hits changes, and the tank needs the most attention right after the shadow blow.
Discipline PriestThe Infest killer
Shields, and shields, and more shields. If you cast enough shields, few players will carry an Infest debuff, and the other healers can focus on the tanks. A Discipline Priest that plays this fight well makes it a different fight for everyone else.
Start about 20 seconds before the pull, on everyone except the tanks. Put Prayer of Mending on the tank right after, and at the last second start a Penance on the tank so the Divine Aegis proc absorbs the first hit.
Cast at least one Penance just before the shadow blow ticks. The blow is roughly 30 to 50 thousand damage on the tank, and that is when tanks usually die.
Do not cast without a Borrowed Time buff if you can help it: the next cast has 25% haste.
Use Rapture smartly. Do not waste it on tanks when it is not on cooldown, and you will need no other mana source.
Keep shielding, and shield even more in the busy phases. If you do not, many players carry Infest, the other healers have to heal them instead of the tank, and that usually ends in a tank death and a wipe.
The other healersPaladin, Priest, Shaman, Druid
Holy Paladin
Beacon of Light on the tank and Holy Light when Soul Reaper is coming, Holy Shock as your instant, and Divine Sacrifice and Hand of Sacrifice for the tanks.
Holy Priest
Pre-cast Greater Heal right before the shadow blow. Do not rely on HoTs to remove Infest: the target has to be healed above 90%. Guardian Spirit before the Reapers, Divine Hymn for an emergency.
Restoration Shaman
Chain Heal for the groups, Earth Shield on the tank, and Riptide on the players who drop under 90%.
Restoration Druid
Put Wild Growth and Rejuvenation on the groups before Infest lands. You are also the tank's best friend after a Soul Reaper.
6.The rules that keep the raid alive
- Never dispel Necrotic Plague randomly. Dispel it once, behind the horror, so it jumps to the adds.
- Give two big cooldowns to every Soul Reaper, never just one.
- Spread before Defile with your movement speed items, and heal through it after it spawns.
- Stay spread in the transitions, 3 to 4 people in a spot, 8 yards apart.
- Before Harvest Soul have 70% health or more, and nobody dies inside Frostmourne.
- Keep the raid above 90% health as much as you can, because that removes Infest.