WoW Raid Bosses: The Icecrown Gunship Battle

Retro Game WOW – After the raid group has defeated Lord Marrowgar and Lady Deathwhisper, they will ascend to the second level of Icecrown Citadel. A few simple trash pulls later and the group will find itself standing at the ramp to their faction’s gunship, the Skybreaker for the Alliance and Orgrim’s Hammer for the Horde. Everyone can run onto the ship without fear of starting the event.

Once on the ship, it is essential that everyone on in the party speak to the ship’s engineer and obtain a rocket pack, which is a clothing item that is equipped on the chest. Everyone needs to put it on before the fight begins or else they will be unable to do so when combat starts.

The Gunship Battle – The Plan

Each gunship has a commander, Murdain Bronzebeard on the Alliance side and High Overlord Saurfang for the Horde. The goal is not to kill these commanders, but rather the other faction’s ship. This is accomplished by the use of gun turrets located on the side of the ship – 2 turrets in 10 man and 3 in 25. The turrets fire a single cannon shot by pressing “1”, dealing 1,000 siege damage to the other ship.

Firing the cannon will also generate heat, 6 to 10 per shot, which can then be “burned off” by pressing ‘2″ in order to launch a massive ball of fire, called an “Incinerating Shot” at the other ship, which deals more damage per point of heat. The goal is to use “2” when the heat of the cannon is as close to 100 as possible, to deal the maximum amount of damage.

There will also be elite mobs from the other ship teleporting to the center of raid’s ship, and there must be a dedicated tank and DPS to pick these up and deal with them.

Lastly, there will be a “Kor’kron Battle Mage” or “Skybreaker Sorcerer” which will come out periodically and freeze the raid’s cannons. They will be located on the deck of the other ship, and there must be a team assigned to use their rocket packs to jump across to the other ship and deal with the spell caster. Once the caster dies, the guns will be unfrozen.

The Gunship Battle – Who to Have do What

It is best to assign specific raid members to the job of handling the cannons, so there will be no confusion about who is supposed to go where. The ideal setup is to have ranged DPS man the cannons, who can then jump out of them while they are frozen and either help deal with boarding parties on their own ship, or fire across the gap between the ships to kill mobs on the other side.

As well, there need to be 2 tanks assigned, one to remain on the raid’s ship and deal with boarding parties, and one to jump across to the other ship when the spell caster comes out. If possible, take most or all of the melee DPS across to the other ship and leave the ranged DPS and boarding party tank on the raid’s ship. A healer must also go with the attack party.

The trickiest part of this fight is the battle on the other ship. When the spell caster comes out and freezes the cannons, the raid’s attack party must immediately rocket jump to the other ship. The rocket pack will provide a small green target area where the player should land, but always aim it farther then the intended landing point, as the jump will often fall a few feet short.

Once on the other ship, the tank needs to pick up the commander, be it Saurfang or Murdain. All of the DPS need to immediately attack the spell caster and burn them down. The caster will be busy channelling to maintain the ice blocks on the guns, and will do very little damage to the DPS attacking him. The commander, however, is a different story.

The longer the tank fights him, the more powerful he will become, gaining a stacking buff which will increase his attack damage and casting speeds. This buff has three levels, experienced, veteran, and elite. It increases attack damage by 30, 60, and 120 percent and speed by 20, 40 and 80 percent. It is essential that the DPS in the attack party burn the spell caster down as quickly as possible and that the party then get back to their own ship ASAP to allow time for the buff to wear off the commander before the next spell caster comes out.

The Gunship Battle – Other Good Things to Know

All of the enemy mobs can also gain the damage and speed increasing buff, so for those on the raid’s ship it is essential to burn down those enemies which have acquired stacks of the buff, or it can be a great drain on the healers.

This same principle applies to the attack party. They need to come back to the raid’s ship as soon as the spell caster is dead, and not return until the spell caster is back out and has frozen the guns. If they dally too long, the commander will gain the elite level of the buff, and even a well-geared tank cannot endure constant hits at 120% damage and 80% greater speed.

As well, when attack party is not on the other ship, they can be assisting the defenders on their ship with killing the mobs there. If the raid’s ship becomes overwhelmed with mobs, the gunners will be killed, and they are the only way of damaging the other ship.It is also worth noting that the other side will fire rockets at the raid’s ship, so if a targeting reticule appears beneath a raid members feet, they need to move or risk taking serious fire damage.

Provided that everyone knows their role and sticks to it, this fight is actually quite simple and should take less than 10 minutes. People simply need to keep their heads in the game, and soon they will see the other ship plummet to the frozen wastes of Icecrown below.

Once disembarked, the raid will face the final challenge in the first part of Icecrown Citadel, Deathbringer Saurfang.