Lady Deathwhisper: a DPS DK Perspective

The second installment of Icecrown Citadel for DPS DKs is here!
While I've cleared the 10 man version weekly, it was just this week that I found a group to clear the 25 man version, so I'm sure I'll be finding further ways to optimize my play as we go. If anything major comes up later, I can always add a post.

The second fight in Icecrown Citadel is Lady Deathwhisper, a lich. As I'm sure you know by now, my goal is not to cover the fight in general as there is plenty of available info elsewhere. You're here for some thoughts on how to maximize your performance as a DK.


Pull/Phase One: This is one fight where even a dps DK may have a variety of roles.

Role #1: DPS burn. You may be asked to stay on LD to burn her mana shield down. if so, just run in at pull, and dps to your heart's content. You might be asked to interrupt her frostbolts, so make sure Mind Freeze is accessible. If you are in a death & decay, you can pop anti-magic shield for a little extra runic power, but don't stand in it too long. Otherwise, just use pets on cd and go to town.  If you're unholy, you can use army of the dead on the boss, but be careful, and if you're not unholy, don't use it on this fight. It will mess with your control of adds.

Role #2: Add dps. You may be burning down the adds on one side or the other - or some guilds will try to clump them all in the middle. Just focus on adherents, but you still want to pestilence all the time - not only will it boost your dps, but it applies that precious debuff to the fanatics so casters can kill them. Aoe when possible, otherwise burn adherents.

Role #3: Control. Instead of dps, you may be asked to focus on helping control the fight. In the 25-man fight I did, I Death-gripped the 7th add that spawns on the stairs to one side, silenced them and dragged them to the dps group. In addition, you may need to help keep mind-controlled teammates cc'd. While sheep and whirlwind are better, keep an eye out and icy chains any loose mc'd teammate.

In the 10-man version, there is no mind control and adds only spawn from one side and then the next. It's a much simpler fight. Generally, you'll run from one side to the other and focus on adherents. If your dps is high enough, you can run to the boss, hit her a bit, then to the next set of adds.


Phase Two: DPS burn on Deathwhisper. Simple straight dps here. Just be careful of vengeful spirits. Min-maxing the fight means you can use anti-magic shield to soak death & decay. Your ghoul/drw/gargoyle should be up again, so use them when you can (if your raid heroism/bloodlusts here, time cds with that. You can use army here, but be careful, as they may attack mc'd teammates. I probably won't use them unless we figure out a safer time to do so. 


Your dps will probably suffer if you're not sticking to the boss. There's too many immunities and running around, especially if you're controlling the 7th add. But you can squeeze some nice dps out in Phase two, and if adds are clumped well enough, you can add decent aoe dps. Winning the fight is much more important than big numbers, obviously.


Enjoy!