Lady Deathwhisper Encounter Guide: Strategy, Abilities, Loot

• Be mindful of threat when AoEing.
• Watch the Dominate Mind cooldown and stop AoEing briefly to avoid killing your friends.
• Use the entire area and spread out to prevent splash damage on other nearby players.

• Utilize raid defensive cooldowns to mitigate predictable AoE damage.
• Dispelling and decursing are your top priority.

• Always be mindful of Cult Fanatics as they will often get buffed by Dark Transformation, as this significantly increases their damage output, but slows their movement speed by 50% allowing you to kite them instead.
• Use all possible offensive cooldowns as often and early as possible against Lady Deathwhisper herself to build as much threat as you can.
• Evenly spread and maintain threat on all targets you are tanking.

Start off by having the raid run in together, having healers and ranged DPS stack up behind Lady Deathwhisper to force the adds to funnel in together towards the boss. Have Hunters drop slowing traps on either side to give your tanks additional time to grab all of the adds; there are 7 adds total, 3 on both sides, and 1 in the entrance of the room. The goal to to clump everything together on top of Lady Deathwhisper and AoE it all down. Tanks must be mindful of the Shadow Cleave and keep the mobs facing away from the raid.

The adds are the main focus of the fight; be sure to allow your tanks time to gather and position them before starting AoE. The Cult Fanatics are by far the most deadly add in the fight. Tanks will need to keep these faced away from the raid at all times as they have a powerful Shadow Cleave. They will frequently use Necrotic Strike on the tank, which absorbs 20,000 incoming healing. Healers must quickly overheal the tank with this debuff to remove it and top them. Finally at 25% health, the Fanatics will gain Vampiric Might, increasing their damage dealt and healing for 300% of all damage dealt. This should be dispelled as soon as possible, ideally by a Mage with Spellsteal.

Cult Adherents must be interrupted at all times, as they cast multiple spells that will likely cause a death if not kicked. Frequently they will also apply a Curse of Torpor on a random player. This must be decursed as soon as possible as this will add a 15 second cooldown to all spells, drastically limiting what you can do. Lastly, they will periodically gain Shroud of the Occult, making them immune to interrupts and reflecting all spells back to the caster. Physical DPS will need to quickly burn this shield down and interrupt, and your tank will likely want to use a minor cooldown if these adds start casting while this shield is up.

Tanks must always be aware of any Fanatics gaining Dark Transformation, as this will make them extremely deadly, likely killing your tank in 1 or 2 attacks only. This buff however, slows their movement speed down by 50%, allowing the tank to kite them around instead of simply face tanking them. DPS need to be aware of any Reanimated Fanatics or Reanimated Adherents that Lady Deathwhisper revives, as the Fanatics are now immune to all physical damage, and the Adherents are now immune to magical damage. DPS need to quickly swap to whichever add they are able to damage and kill them quickly.

Phase two begins once Lady Deathwhisper reaches zero mana and her Mana Barrier breaks. You will want to stop DPS when she is very low on mana. Quickly clean up any adds still alive, or deal with a new wave about to spawn, then burn the last bit of her mana to transition into the next phase. The start of Phase 2 is the most ideal timing to use all offensive cooldowns and burn the boss as much as possible.

Lady Deathwhisper has a traditional threat table in Phase 2 and requires the tanks to generate as much threat as possible. Two tanks should be assigned to Lady Deathwhisper herself, and aim to deal the highest amount of threat per second possible. She will very frequently apply Touch of Insignificance to her current target, quickly stacking up to -100% threat generation.

The largest threat in this phase are the Vengeful Shades that Lady Deathwhisper will frequently spawn in. These will spawn in near 3 random players and slowly move towards them. If they reach their target they will explode (Vengeful Blast), dealing 23160 to 24840 Shadowfrost damage to all nearby enemies. This will essentially be a wipe if it ever goes off, and needs to be the #1 priority for the entire raid to look for. In addition, she will also continue to use both Dominate Mind and Death and Decay in this phase.

Lady Deathwhisper is immune to taunt on Heroic difficulty. The two tanks must maintain a threat lead over the DPS, and continually "leap-frog" each other on aggro, taking turns gaining and losing stacks. It is vital that you wait for your stacks to fall off before regaining aggro again, or she will simply refresh them right away. The 2 tanks will need to continually alternate between being first and second on threat here.

In addition to this, adds will continually spawn in during Phase 2 on Heroic mode. These are easiest to handle by having a third tank available to manage the adds while the other 2 tanks fight for threat on Lady Deathwhisper herself.

• Dark Empowerment — Empowers the recipient's spells, causing them to deal area damage and making them immune to interrupts.
• Dark Transformation — Transforms the recipient into an undead behemoth, significantly increasing size and damage dealt.
• Death and Decay — 6,000 Shadow damage inflicted every 1 second to all targets in the affected area for 10 seconds.
• Dominate Mind — Subdues the will of target enemy, causing them to become charmed for 12 seconds, with their damage dealt increased by 200% and healing done increased by 500% during that time.
• Frostbolt — Inflicts 58,500 to 61,500 Frost damage to an enemy and reduces its movement speed by 50% for 4 seconds.
• Frostbolt Volley — Inflicts 14,400 to 17,600 Frost damage to nearby enemies, reducing their movement speed for 4 seconds.
• Mana Barrier — Envelops the caster in a powerful barrier that continually replenishes any lost health, at the expense of the caster's mana.
• Death and Decay — 6,000 Shadow damage inflicted every 1 second to all targets in the affected area for 10 sec.
• Shadow Bolt — Inflicts 11,375 to 14,625 Shadow damage to an enemy.
• Summon Spirit — Summons a Vengeful Spirit to pursue and destroy an enemy target.
• Touch of Insignificance — Reduces the target's threat generation by 20%.

• Shadow Cleave — Inflicts 19,000 to 21,000 Shadow damage to enemies in front of the attacker.
• Necrotic Strike — Strikes an enemy with a cursed blade, dealing 70% of weapon damage to the target and inflicting a lasting malady that negates the next 20,000 healing received.
• Vampiric Might — Empowers the caster with dark might, increasing all damage dealt by 25% and heals the caster for 300% of his damage dealt.

• Deathchill Bolt — Deals 11,563 to 13,437 Shadowfrost damage to an enemy target.
• Curse of Torpor — Afflicts an enemy target with a curse that increases ability cooldowns by 15 seconds.
• Shroud of the Occult — Envelops the caster in a powerful barrier that deflects all harmful magic, prevents cast interruption, and absorbs up to 50,000 damage before breaking.

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
Deathspeaker Zealot's Helm	Plate Helm
Chestguard of the Frigid Noose	Leather Chest
Ghoul Commander's Cuirass	Plate Chest
Bracers of Dark Blessings	Cloth Wrist
Handgrips of Frost and Sleet	Mail Hands
Sister's Handshrouds	Cloth Hands
Deathspeaker Disciple's Belt	Mail Waist
Soulthief's Braided Belt	Leather Waist
Boots of the Frozen Seed	Leather Feet
Whispering Fanged Skull	Trinket
Scourgelord's Baton	Off-Hand
Njorndar Bone Bow	Bow

Item	Type/Slot
Deathspeaker Zealot's Helm	Plate Helm
Chestguard of the Frigid Noose	Leather Chest
Ghoul Commander's Cuirass	Plate Chest
Bracers of Dark Blessings	Cloth Wrist
Handgrips of Frost and Sleet	Mail Hands
Sister's Handshrouds	Cloth Hands
Deathspeaker Disciple's Belt	Mail Waist
Soulthief's Braided Belt	Leather Waist
Boots of the Frozen Seed	Leather Feet
Whispering Fanged Skull	Trinket
Scourgelord's Baton	Off-Hand
Njorndar Bone Bow	Bow

Item	Type/Slot
Broken Ram Skull Helm	Plate Head
Ahn'kahar Onyx Neckguard	Neck
Cultist's Bloodsoaked Spaulders	Leather Shoulder
Shoulders of Mercy Killing	Cloth Shoulder
Deathwhisper Raiment	Leather Chest
The Lady's Brittle Bracers	Cloth Wrist
Fallen Lord's Handguards	Plate Hands
Leggings of Northern Lights	Mail Legs
Blood-Soaked Saronite Stompers	Plate Feet
Necrophotic Greaves	Mail Feet
Juggernaut Band	Ring
Ring of Maddening Whispers	Ring
Heartpierce	One-Hand Dagger
Nibelung	Staff
Zod's Repeating Longbow	Bow

Item	Type/Slot
Broken Ram Skull Helm	Plate Head
Ahn'kahar Onyx Neckguard	Neck
Cultist's Bloodsoaked Spaulders	Leather Shoulder
Shoulders of Mercy Killing	Cloth Shoulder
Deathwhisper Raiment	Leather Chest
The Lady's Brittle Bracers	Cloth Wrist
Fallen Lord's Handguards	Plate Hands
Leggings of Northern Lights	Mail Legs
Blood-Soaked Saronite Stompers	Plate Feet
Necrophotic Greaves	Mail Feet
Juggernaut Band	Ring
Ring of Maddening Whispers	Ring
Heartpierce	One-Hand Dagger
Nibelung	Staff
Zod's Repeating Longbow	Bow

Achievement	Description
Full House (10 player)	Defeat Lady Deathwhisper with at least five different types of Cultists active at the time of her demise in 10-player mode.
Full House (25 player)	Defeat Lady Deathwhisper with at least five different types of Cultists active at the time of her demise in 25-player mode.

Lady Deathwhisper 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.