Blood-Queen Lana'thel – Icecrown Citadel (10) - WotLK Classic

Author: Passion
Date: October 14, 2023
Updated: October 18, 2023
Expansion: WotLK Classic

Once an ally to Kael’thas Sunstrider, Lana’thel fell against the Scourge in Northrend. Revived by the Lich King, Lana’thel was made the blood queen of the San’layn.

This guide will offer a detailed, step-by-step tutorial on how to deal with Blood-Queen Lana’thel and her crimson thirst.

Gather at a pre-designated spot when linked with Pact of the Darkfallen.
Remain spread at all times.
Break Incite Terror as soon as possible.
Plan your Vampiric Bite target ahead of time.
Move Swarming Shadows out of the raid and away from the linked spot.

Save your raid cooldowns for Bloodbolt Whirl.

Avoid staying in a single stack.

Make sure both tanks are first and second on threat for the first few seconds of the fight.
Stay put during the flight phase so Lana’thel returns to her original positioning.

Call out the first Vampiric Bite target.
Call out Frenzied Bloodthirst Phases.
Call out Air Phases.
Call out the names of linked players.

Abilities

Blood-Queen Lana’thel

3 seconds into the fight, Lana’thel will debuff the player second on threat with Blood Mirror. This causes 100% of the damage dealt to the main-tank to be mirrored onto the off-tank as Shadow damage.

Every 20 seconds, Lana’thel will attack the off-tank with Delirious Slash, dealing a chunk of Physical damage, followed by a Bleed for 15 seconds.

15 seconds into the fight, Lana’thel will bite a random non-tank. Vampiric Bite deals a chunk of Physical damage and debuffs the target with Essence of the Blood Queen.

Essence of the Blood Queen transforms the player into a vampire, doubling their damage dealt and healing them for 10% of their damage dealt.

This player will enter Frenzied Bloodthirst every minute, and if they do not use Vampiric Bite on another player within 10 seconds, they will enter an Uncontrollable Frenzy. Every time this repeats the number of vampires will double until you have 8 Vampires around 3 minutes into the fight. At this point, further Frenzied Bloodthirsts will cause mass Mind Control as there are not enough non-vampires to go around.

Roughly every 25 seconds, Lana’thel will link 2 players together for 28 seconds. This will deal AoE Shadow damage to everyone within 15 yards of that player. To break the link, both players will need to gather together. This is ideally done in a pre-designated spot, towards the middle of the room.

Every 30 seconds, Lana’thel will debuff a player with Swarming Shadows, dealing Shadow damage every second for 6 seconds, and spawning a void zone underneath the player every 0.5 seconds. Players affected by this will need to run to one of the edges of the room, dropping the void zones in a safe area.

Every 2 seconds, Lana’thel will pulsate a small amount of Shadow damage to every player within 40 yards.

Presence of the Darkfallen will empower Shroud of Sorrows, increasing its damage by 5% for every currently active vampire.

Every 15 seconds Lana’thel will cast Twilight Bloodbolt at a random non-tank. This deals heavy Shadow damage to the target and everyone within 6 yards of them.

Roughly every 100 seconds, Lana’thel will enter her Air Phase. This is marked by her running to the center of the room and casting Incite Terror, fearing everyone for 4 seconds.

While flying, Lana’thel will channel Bloodbolt Whirl, throwing Bloodbolts at half the raid, dealing heavy Shadow damage to the targets and everyone within 6 yards of them.

Raid Composition & Preparation

This fight has no specific class or spec requirements, and as long as your group can out-DPS the strict timer.

You will want 1-3 healers for this fight. There is a lot of raid damage happening consistently, but there is also a strict timer and more healers means less DPS.

There are no strict requirements for DPS classes or specs here, you simply want a combination of good raid buffs and debuffs, as well as the best players you can muster.

You will need 2 tanks for this fight.

Heroic vs Normal

On normal difficulty, Presence of the Darkfallen will not be active, making Shroud of Sorrow significantly less dangerous.

The Pull

Before starting the fight, be sure your UI will correctly display bonus abilities. If you are unsure your UI will, create this macro ahead of time:

#showtooltip
/cast Vampiric Bite

Better be safe than sorry!

The Fight

Ground Phase

Lana’thel may very well end up being one of the three hardest fights in the raid, being on a strict timer and requiring players to dynamically adjust to mechanics.

Vampiric Bite is this fight’s most iconic mechanic. 15 seconds into the fight, Lana’thel will use Vampiric Bite on the player third on threat. This will turn give them the effect Essence of the Blood Queen, turning them into a vampire for the fight. This effect will double your damage dealt, as well as healing you for a small portion of damage dealt, as well as removing all threat generation. After a minute, vampires will enter Frenzied Bloodthirst, requiring them to bite another player using Vampiric Bite within 10 seconds or become Mind Controlled. This will create a new vampire, and cure Frenzied Bloodthirst. This effect will happen once a minute, requiring all vampires to bite a player. This means that the number of vampires will double every minute, a vital mechanic for beating the strict enrage timer.

There is no universal rule for who to bite first, but having an established order can make it significantly less chaotic during the 10-second Frenzied Bloodthirst window. Bites also deal a significant amount of damage, so make sure you don’t kill anyone! Keep in mind to not bite a healer, as they receive no benefit from the effects. 3 minutes and 30 seconds into the fight you will have 8 vampires, meaning that one minute later a lot of your vampires will be Mind Controlled. This creates an effective limit of 4 minutes and 20 seconds to finish this fight.

You will need two tanks for this fight, consistently staying on the top 2 for threat. 3 seconds into the fight, Lana’thel will link the two players on top of the threat with Blood Mirror. This causes the off-tank to take Shadow damage equal to the damage the main-tank takes. The off-tank will never have to actually tank the boss, and as such should equip high Stamina gear, instead of avoidability and mitigation. Every 20 seconds, Lana’thel will use Delirious Slash on the off-tank, dealing a portion of her auto swing damage to them, as well as a Bleed for 15 seconds. Delirious Slash cannot be avoided, giving even more reason to focus on high Stamina gear.

Roughly every 15 seconds, Lana’thel will cast Twilight Bloodbolt on a random non-tank. This deals significant Shadow damage to the target, as well as hitting everyone within 6 yards with Bloodbolt Splash. To avoid this, the raid will want to always remain at least 6 yards away from each other. Melee players should avoid standing in one giant stack, instead opting for 2-3 smaller stacks to mitigate portions of Bloodbolt Splash.

Shroud of Sorrow is a constantly active aura, dealing Shadow damage every 2 seconds to everyone within 40 yards of the boss, except the off-tank. This is constant raid-wide damage that will need to be handled but cannot be reasonably avoided. For every targeted infected with Essence of the Blood Queen, this will deal 5% additional damage. This will inevitably deal a massive amount of damage as your raid peaks at 16 active vampires.

Roughly every 30 seconds, Lana’thel will link 2 players together with Pact of the Darkfallen. This will deal rapid Shadow damage to the targets and everyone within 15 yards of them. To break this link, both players must move within 5 yards of each other. This should be done using a pre-picked spot. Both targets will want to run to that spot using whatever mobility is available to them to break the link as soon as possible.

Lana’thel will also cast Swarming Shadows every 30 seconds. This will deal rapid Shadow damage to them for 6 seconds, as well as spawning Swarming Shadows at their feet with every tick. This is effectively the same mechanic as the fire during Lord Jaraxxus. The debuffed player should immediately move to a designated area, dropping fire there. It is especially important that this fire never end up near the Pact of the Darkfallen gathering spot.

Flight Phase

2 minutes into the fight, and 100 seconds after that, Lana’thel will move to the center of the room and take flight for 12 seconds. As she takes flight, she will Incite Terror, fearing the entire raid for 4 seconds. Breaking this on as many players as possible is vital. Shamans should place Tremor Totems, and Priests should Fear Ward themselves, followed by Mass Dispels. Undead players can utilize Will of the Forsaken, and Human players can utilize Every Man For Himself.

While flying, Lana’thel will channel Bloodbolt Whirl, barraging the raid with Bloodbolt Whirl. This will deal AoE damage to everyone within 6 yards of the target. This makes it vital to return to a minimum 6-yard spread after Incite Terror. Defensive cooldowns will be important here, both personal and raid-wide.

Once Bloodbolt Whirl has finished casting, Lana’thel will land and resume her normal threat table, starting the Ground Phase again.

Here are some of the main things that can typically go wrong in this fight:

Failing to spread Essence of the Blood Queen.
- This includes biting someone to death.
Vampires dying, losing a lot of raid DPS.
Poorly positioned Swarming Shadows.
Linked players reacting slowly.

Congratulations on defeating Blood-Queen Lana’thel! Go back the way you came and jump through the new hole in the floor. Time for the next wing.

About the Author

Passion

I love MMOs of all shades, especially the nitty gritty numbers parts of them. You might recognize me from the Shadow Priest discord, otherwise I play a little bit of everything, especially games with support roles available.