Blood-Queen Lana'thel Encounter Guide: Strategy, Abilities, Loot

• FOLLOW YOUR ASSIGNED BITE ORDER. You're not that guy pal.
• Save long, personal-DPS cooldowns for after you get the Vampiric Bite.

• Coordinate raid-wide defensive cooldowns for each Bloodbolt Whirl every 2 minutes; ideally always having something up during this phase.
• This fight is fairly intensive healing-wise, be sure to manage your mana properly and ask for externals such as Innervate often and early.

• Make sure you are stacking together as both tanks, and standing as close as possible to Blood-Queen Lana'thel.
• Quickly get back into starting position and stack with the other tank after Bloodbolt Whirl ends.
• Try to save as many personal defensive cooldowns as late into the fight as possible, once most of the raid is bitten.

Before engaging the boss, have your ranged DPS and healers spread around the room, ideally in pre-assigned positions. These players will need to memorize their positioning and be sure to return to their assigned spot whenever they are forced to move.

The main mechanic of the Blood-Queen Lana'thel fight is the Vampiric Bite. 15 seconds into the fight the Blood-Queen will charge a DPS player and Bite them, infecting them with Essence of the Blood Queen. This debuff lasts for 1 minute, and when it expires the player will enter a Frenzied Bloodthirst, replacing your action bar with 1 ability only, Vampiric Bite. This requires them to bite another player in the next 10 seconds, or become Mind Controlled for the rest of the encounter. Players will then need to bite someone new 1 minute later, in addition to their first victim needing to bite someone. This quickly snowballs the amount of bites rolling around in during the fight. Below is a table you can use as a reference for how bites should roughly look.

These bites must be properly managed in order to meet the DPS check of the fight, as the buff grants 100% increased damage. Prioritize your highest DPS members early on, as you want them dealing 100% increased damage for as much of the fight as possible. To make these bite assignments automated and MUCH easier to manage, we recommend using the Fojji Bite Weakaura, which will automatically display assignments for bites that will prioritize higher DPS classes first. The weakaura might not work perfectly depending on your composition and player skill levels, but it is very strongly recommended to use regardless as it makes this fight significantly easier. This weakaura alone makes the fight the easiest end-tier boss in the raid.

While the Blood-Queen Lana'thel fight only has 1 monster to tank, it does still require 2 tanks. The second tank will need to stack directly on top of the main-tank, as this places the Blood Mirror debuff on them, mirror the damage Lana'thel deals to her main tank unto the second tank. In addition, the second tank will frequently be hit by Delirious Slash, dealing 75% of normal weapon damage and causing the victim bleed for 7,000 to 9,000 Physical damage every 3 seconds for 15 seconds total. This attack can not be avoided, so be ready to quickly top the off-tank up as they will be taking more damage than the main-tank.

Consistently throughout the fight until defeated, Blood-Queen Lana'thel will damage the entire raid every 2 seconds with Shroud of Sorrow, dealing 4,500 Shadow damage. In addition to this, she will constantly target random raid members with Twilight Bloodbolt, dealing 11,250 to 13,750 damage to the target and all surrounding allies within 6 yards. This is the main reason we have the ranged and healers spread out throughout the room, and will require the melee DPS to split up into 3 groups behind the boss.

Next, Blood-Queen Lana'thel will cast Pact of the Darkfallen every 30 seconds, linking 3 players together with red beams. While these players are linked to each other, they will be taking 2,500 Shadow damage a second as well any nearby allies. To break this link, these 3 players must quickly stack together in the center of the room. This is the most ideal time to use movement speed boosts such as Nitro Boosts.

Blood-Queen Lana'thel will also cast Swarming Shadows on a random non-tank player every 30 seconds, dealing inflict 3,238 to 3,762 Shadow damage every second for 6 seconds. With each tick of damage, the victim will also spawn Swarming Shadows, patches of purple fire, beneath them. The target of this spell needs to quickly move to the outside walls and run along side them until the debuff fades away. Be ready with a personal defensive cooldown as you may be out of range for some healers depending how far you go.

Lastly, every 2 minutes Blood-Queen Lana'thel will run to the center of the room and fly into the air. Once she has taken off, she will cast Incite Terror, fearing the entire raid for 4 seconds. The best way to handle this mechanic is to simply have all Priests use Fear Ward on themselves and time a Mass Dispel on as much of the raid as possible.

Once flying in the air, Blood-Queen Lana'thel will start to channel Bloodbolt Whirl for 6 seconds, sending out a devastating barrage of Bloodbolt Whirl at half of the raid at random every 2 seconds for the whole 6 second duration. It is crucial to have multiple raid-wide defensive cooldowns available for this entire 6-8 second window, as the damage dealt during this phase will easily be what wipes you. It is important to note that Bloodbolt Whirl splashes the damage to any nearby allies, requiring the raid to spread out as even 2 people being stacked will cause deaths. Once the Bloodbolt Whirl channel ends, Blood-Queen Lana'thel will land and the normal begining mechanics will continue.

The only ability that Blood-Queen Lana'thel gains on Heroic difficulty is Presence of the Darkfallen, which increases the power of Shroud of Sorrow by 5% for every unique Vampiric Bite that is currently out. Towards the end of the fight, this will ramp the raid-wide Shroud of Sorrow damage up from 4,500 Shadow damage every 2 seconds, to 8,100 Shadow damage every 2 seconds, assuming everyone with a Vampiric Bite remains alive. This is a massive increase in healing output required later on in the fight, especially during the Air Phase. Make sure everyone is aware of the defensive cooldown rotation and players should be ready with their own personal cooldowns to help survive.

• Blood Mirror — 100% of damage done to you is dealt to the linked source.
• Bloodbolt Whirl — Summons a maelstrom of Bloodbolt Whirl.
• Delirious Slash — Inflicts 75% of weapon damage to an enemy and causes it to bleed for 7,000 to 9,000 damage per application every 3 seconds for 15 seconds.
• Incite Terror — Strikes fear into enemies, causing them to flee in terror for up to 4 seconds.
• Pact of the Darkfallen — Deals growing Shadow damage to you and nearby non-linked allies. This effect expires when all linked targets are within 5 yards of each other.
• Shroud of Sorrow — An aura of sorrow and despair emanates from the caster, inflicting 4,500 Shadow damage every 2 seconds to nearby enemies.
• Swarming Shadows — A swarming void consumes the target, causing a mass of shadows to appear beneath the target every 0.5 seconds.
• Twilight Bloodbolt — Hurls a bolt of dark blood at the target, dealing 11250 to 13750 damage to the target and surrounding allies within 6 yards.
• Vampiric Bite — Deals 10,175 to 11,825 damage to the target, granting them the Essence of the Blood Queen.

Icecrown Citadel bosses have 4 varying difficulties that they can be engaged on, with each difficulty dropping geared tailored to match its' challenges. Below you can find a list of gear dropped on each and every difficulty for this boss encounter.

Item	Type/Slot
Cowl of Malefic Repose	Cloth Head
Collar of Haughty Disdain	Neck
Shoulderpads of the Searing Kiss	Leather Shoulder
Chestguard of Siphoned Elements	Mail Chest
Throatrender Handguards	Plate Hands
Veincrusher Gauntlets	Plate Hands
Tightening Waistband	Plate Waist
Ivory-Inlaid Leggings	Leather Legs
Seal of the Twilight Queen	Ring
Bloodsipper	One-Hand
Lana'thel's Bloody Nail	Wand
Stakethrower	Gun

Item	Type/Slot
Cowl of Malefic Repose	Cloth Head
Collar of Haughty Disdain	Neck
Shoulderpads of the Searing Kiss	Leather Shoulder
Chestguard of Siphoned Elements	Mail Chest
Throatrender Handguards	Plate Hands
Veincrusher Gauntlets	Plate Hands
Tightening Waistband	Plate Waist
Ivory-Inlaid Leggings	Leather Legs
Seal of the Twilight Queen	Ring
Bloodsipper	One-Hand
Lana'thel's Bloody Nail	Wand
Stakethrower	Gun
Conqueror's Mark of Sanctification	Set Token
Protector's Mark of Sanctification	Set Token
Vanquisher's Mark of Sanctification	Set Token

Item	Type/Slot
Blood Queen's Crimson Choker	Neck
Lana'thel's Chain of Flagellation	Neck
Bauble of True Blood	Trinket
Bloodfall	Polearm
Dying Light	Staff
Icecrown Glacial Wall	Shield
Conqueror's Mark of Sanctification	Set Token
Protector's Mark of Sanctification	Set Token
Vanquisher's Mark of Sanctification	Set Token

Item	Type/Slot
Blood Queen's Crimson Choker	Neck
Lana'thel's Chain of Flagellation	Neck
Bauble of True Blood	Trinket
Bloodfall	Polearm
Dying Light	Staff
Icecrown Glacial Wall	Shield
Conqueror's Mark of Sanctification	Set Token
Protector's Mark of Sanctification	Set Token
Vanquisher's Mark of Sanctification	Set Token

Achievement	Description
Once Bitten, Twice Shy (25 player)	Defeat Blood-Queen Lana'thel once as a vampire and again without becoming a vampire in 25-player mode.

Blood-Queen Lana'thel is just one of the twelve encounters present in the Icecrown Citadel raid of Wrath of the Lich King. If you would like to learn more about the others, please see our other pages for the raid below.