Gunship Battle Encounter Guide: Strategy, Abilities, Loot

• Always wait for the tank to jump to the enemy ship first to establish aggro on the enemy boss.
• Melee DPS must be ready to move out of Bladestorm.
• Ranged DPS should prioritize killing ranged and caster mobs first on the enemy ship.

• Stay near the ledge of the ship to ensure you are in range of players no matter which side they are on.
• Be mindful of new adds spawning in, as well as any aggro you may have from ranged mobs on the enemy ship.

• Drag the enemy boss to the edge of the ship to ensure you are always in range of your healers.
• Be ready to use cooldowns when the enemy commanders Battle Fury stacks begin to stack up.
• Do not leave the enemy ship early before your DPS have all jumped off or they will die to the commander.

This fight is a mixture of both vehicle combat, as well as normal player character combat. You will need to assign 4 players to mount the cannons on your ship; the amount of damage dealt by the cannon is fixed so any player regardless of gear level can fill this role.

The number 1 job of the cannon operators is to never Overheat. This will occur if your cannon ever reaches 100 heat, so always be mindful of exactly how much heat you have. Luckily the cannon has a second spell, Incinerating Blast, which removes all stored up heat. An easy rule of thumb is to spam Cannon Blast as much as possible until around 90 heat, then release it all with Incinerating Blast. It's worth noting that the cannons damage is not only Siege damage to the enemy ship, but will also damage NPCs. Always try to aim your cannon at a ranged enemy to help clear them quickly.

One tank will need to be assigned to defending your own ship, as multiple waves of enemies will frequently board you through a portal that opens up in the middle of your ships deck. Tanks must quickly pick these up and be ready with any defensive cooldowns during the Wounding Strike, and be aware of the possible Bladestorm that should be avoided.

Lastly, every 45 seconds an enemy mage will use Below Zero, freezing and preventing your cannons from operating. To break this freeze, you must send a party over to the enemy ship to kill the mage and stop this channel. To reach the enemy ship, players must equip Goblin Rocket Pack, which can be acquired from Zafod Boombox found on your ship. Please note that you MUST equip this before entering combat as it is a shirt and combat will prevent you from equipping and using this.

Allow the tank to jump across to the enemy ship, as the enemy commander will activate as soon as anyone lands on his ship. This boss must be quickly picked up by a tank and dragged to the edge of the ship to stay in range of your healers. One the tank has gone across, DPS should quickly follow and dispose of the enemy mage as quickly as possible. Once the mage is dead quickly jump back to your ship and get back into the now usable cannons, and clean up any remaining adds.

While your raid is doing all of this, the enemy ship will also be assaulting yours with siege damage, slowly whittling down your ships health. Your ship will frequently be bombarded with rocket Explosions, which deal around 10,000 Fire damage to nearby players and your ship. Always be looking around the deck of your ship for any of these rockets landing and avoid them whenever possible. The fight ends when either ship reaches 0 health.

• Cannon Blast — Launches a cannonball at the target. Inflicts 1,500 Siege damage and generates 6 to 10 Heat.
• Incinerating Blast — Consumes all of the cannon's Heat to launch a massive ball of fire at the target. Inflicts 1,000 Siege damage plus additional damage per point of Heat.

• Below Zero — Freezes the target in a block of ice by concentrating and freezing moisture in the air. The caster must channel to maintain the ice block.

• Bladestorm — Instantly Whirlwind all nearby targets and for the next 6 seconds you will perform a whirlwind attack every 1 second.
• Wounding Strike — Inflicts 200% weapon damage and leaves the target wounded, reducing the effectiveness of any healing by 40% for 10 seconds.

• Battle Fury — Increases all damage done by 12% per stack.
• Cleave — Inflicts 110% of normal melee damage to an enemy and its nearest allies, affecting up to 3 targets.

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
Ice-Reinforced Vrykul Helm	Mail Head
Pauldrons of Lost Hope	Mail Shoulder
Saronite Gargoyle Cloak	Back
Bracers of Pale Illumination	Plate Wrist
Icecrown Rampart Bracers	Mail Wrist
Cord of Dark Suffering	Leather Waist
Abomination's Bloody Ring	Ring
Muradin's Spyglass	Trinket
Midnight Sun	Main-Hand Dagger
Frost Giant's Cleaver	One-Hand Axe
Neverending Winter	Shield

Item	Type/Slot
Ice-Reinforced Vrykul Helm	Mail Head
Pauldrons of Lost Hope	Mail Shoulder
Saronite Gargoyle Cloak	Back
Bracers of Pale Illumination	Plate Wrist
Icecrown Rampart Bracers	Mail Wrist
Cord of Dark Suffering	Leather Waist
Abomination's Bloody Ring	Ring
Muradin's Spyglass	Trinket
Midnight Sun	Main-Hand Dagger
Frost Giant's Cleaver	One-Hand Axe
Neverending Winter	Shield

Item	Type/Slot
Corp'rethar Ceremonial Crown	Cloth Head
Amulet of the Silent Eulogy	Neck
Boneguard Commander's Pauldrons	Plate Shoulder
Shadowvault Slayer's Cloak	Back
Ikfirus's Sack of Wonder	Leather Chest
Polar Bear Claw Bracers	Plate Wrist
Scourge Hunter's Vambraces	Mail Wrist
Gunship Captain's Mittens	Cloth Hands
Waistband of Righteous Fury	Plate Waist
Boots of Unnatural Growth	Leather Feet
Ring of Rapid Ascent	Ring
Skeleton Lord's Circle	Ring
Althor's Abacus	Trinket
Corpse Tongue Coin	Trinket
Scourgeborne Waraxe

Item	Type/Slot
Corp'rethar Ceremonial Crown	Cloth Head
Amulet of the Silent Eulogy	Neck
Boneguard Commander's Pauldrons	Plate Shoulder
Shadowvault Slayer's Cloak	Back
Ikfirus's Sack of Wonder	Leather Chest
Polar Bear Claw Bracers	Plate Wrist
Scourge Hunter's Vambraces	Mail Wrist
Gunship Captain's Mittens	Cloth Hands
Waistband of Righteous Fury	Plate Waist
Boots of Unnatural Growth	Leather Feet
Ring of Rapid Ascent	Ring
Skeleton Lord's Circle	Ring
Althor's Abacus	Trinket
Corpse Tongue Coin	Trinket
Scourgeborne Waraxe

Achievement	Description
I'm on a Boat (10 player)	Claim victory in the Gunship Battle without any raid member visiting the enemy gunship more than twice in 10-player mode.
I'm on a Boat (25 player)	Claim victory in the Gunship Battle without any raid member visiting the enemy gunship more than once in 25-player mode.

Gunship Battle 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.