Trial of the Champion
The Faction Champions
This encounter is unlike almost any other fight in the game as it is a PvP encounter in a PvE setting. The raid will face off against 10 (6) Champions of the opposing faction all at once. The raid needs to take on a PvP mindset when approaching this fight because you cannot simply tank and burn the NPCs one at a time, nor can you round them up and AoE them all down like a large trash pack. The Champions have 2 levels of health as well: some will have 2.4mil hp and others will have 1.9mil hp (403,200/322,600). The following list contains the possible Horde Champions that you can face off against.
Gorgrim Shadowcleave - Death Knight
Birana Stormhoof - Moonkin
Erin Misthoof - Resto Druid
Ruj'kah - Hunter with lioness pet
Ginselle Blightslinger - Mage
Liandra Suncaller - Holy Paladin
Malithas Brightblade - Ret Paladin
Caiphus the Stern - Holy Priest
Vivienne Blackwhisper - Shadow Priest
Maz'dinah - Rogue
Thrakgar - Resto Shaman
Broln Stouthorn - Enhance Shaman
Harkzog - Warlock with Felhunter pet
Narrhok Steelbreaker Warrior
Abilities:
Just like in PvP, anything that you can do as that class, they can do as well. While this can make for a very difficult encounter, use that knowledge to your advantage and turn your own class weaknesses into a strength against your opponents. PvP rules apply here for crowd control abilities as well and are subject to diminishing returns, so while that also makes things more difficult, it also works to the raid's advantage when those abilities are used against you.
Strategy:
The strategy for this encounter varies a lot depending on your own raid composition as well as just which NPCs you face off against. You will always face off against 3 healers and an assortment of ranged and melee in 25man. The encounter can somewhat be broken down into 3 phases however, no matter what composition you have or are up against:
Phase 1: Healers
Your first major hurdle is to burn down the opposing healers. You need to do this as quickly as possible, so choose a squishy target and get them down first. The resto Druid tends to be the most dangerous healer since they can spam off a lot of HoTs that heal for an incredible amount, so you'll generally want to burn them down first. If you have the holy Paladin I'd recommend leaving them for 3rd since their plate and bubble defense can slow down your dps. While burning down a healer everyone on the NPC needs to keep up with stuns, interrupts and constantly dispel any buffs or HoTs they may have on. Keep doing this as you burn down the 2nd and 3rd healer as well. Once you get all the opposing healers down, the fight becomes much easier to manage.
Phase 2: Heavy DPS
The second major hurdle is to burn down the heaviest dps from the opposing side. Generally the biggest dangers come from the melee such as the Rogue, Warrior, Death Knight and Ret Pally. The Rogue can be especially dangerous since his attacks can do massive damage against your own healers and clothies and he can frequently pop Fan of Knives to poison multiple people. The Warrior can jump into the middle of the raid and take out a lot of people with his Whirlwind attack as well, so always keep an eye for where he's at. Just like dealing with the healers, I would recommend burning down the easiest of this group first, which will generally be the Rogue since he is in Leather as opposed to the Plate wearers. Keep up on stuns and interrupts with these NPCs as well, and if you have Rogues and Warriors in your own raid, use disarming abilities whenever you can to keep their attacks lessened.
Phase 3: Mop-up
If you make it this far with more than 1/2 of your raid alive, you're pretty likely to win (unless the dead 1/2 contains all of your healers). At this point the raid leader should just start calling out a target to keep everyone focused on the same NPC. Choose your target according to whatever is giving you the most issues at the time. Generally the Warlock and Mage are likely to be two of your bigger issues left by now, and the Enhance Shaman and Shadow Priest should give some of the least trouble. Optionally you can also choose to go ahead and take down the pets that might still be out before starting the NPC mop-up instead. They're more an annoyance than any real threat, but they have very little hp compared to the NPCs.
General Tips
There's a number of things to keep in mind during this fight and a few odds and ends that it helps knowing about:
- The opposing healers will try to spam heal your burn target, so keep stuns/interrupts on them at all times
- The opposing dps will focus fire people as well, which makes battle rez'ing all but useless until late in the fight
- All crowd control you can use, they can and will use against you. Everything but Mind Control seems fair game
- Just like in Arena, crowd control is subject to diminishing returns, so eventually NPCs gain resistance and immunity to them
- Resilience does not reduce damage, so keep your PvE gear on
- PvP trinkets for escaping crowd control/stuns/roots ARE useful here
- Don't group up; NPCs have dangerous AoE abilities and WILL use them. Avoid Whirlwind and Hellfire especially
- Blow Heroism at the start of the fight; getting their healers down asap is priority
- NPCs cannot be tanked, however, taunting does grab their attention for a moment and drops their current target
Achievements:
Resilience Will Fix It - Kill the enemy heroes within 60 seconds of each other.
Video:
Tankspot Video