The Council of Blood Strategy Guide for Castle Nathria

Throughout the fight:

• Kill Baroness Frieda, then Castellan Niklaus, and then Lord Stavros.
• The tanks should taunt swap on Stavros and Niklaus at as few stacks as possible, while also tanking Stavros slightly away from the raid.
• Interrupt every cast of Frieda's Dreadbolt Volley.
• Quickly kill the add that shields the bosses.
• When you get the Dark Recital debuff, quickly stack with your partner and keep moving.
• At 50% health of each boss, get to your indicated dancing spot and copy the movement of the NPC servants ( Danse Macabre).

After Freida dies:

• Bring the servant adds toward the bosses and cleave them down.
• Dodge the dancers that slide around the room in a square pattern ( Waltz of Blood).

After Niklaus dies:

• Dodge Stavros's charge by not standing behind him ( Evasive Lunge).
• Avoid the explosions from the dancers ( Violent Uproar).

The Council of Blood encounter is a three-boss fight where you have to kill the members of the council off one at a time, because killing each member heals the other bosses to full health and empowers them. You get to choose your own kill order, depending on which members you want to get rid of and which empowered ability you would prefer to deal with. It is definitely possible to beat this encounter with any kill order, but we think there is one that will be better for most groups, so we will focus on that one.

Long story short: kill Baroness Frieda first, then Castellan Niklaus, and then Lord Stavros.

Killing Frieda:

• On pull, tank the bosses together, with Stavros slightly away from the other two, and start attacking Frieda. All other boss damage is irrelevant, so make sure you are focusing her down.
• The tanks need to taunt swap on Niklaus and Stavros, because they both apply stacking debuffs that increase the damage taken from each of their tank abilities, Duelist's Riposte and Evasive Lunge. Niklaus's ability is simple, it just hits the tank for physical damage, but Stavros's is a bit weird. He teleports behind the tank and then charges through them, hitting anyone in a 20-yard line in front of the tank. So the tank with Stavros should aim the charge away from everyone else. This is also why you should generally keep Stavros slightly away from the other bosses.
• You frequently need to interrupt Frieda's Dreadbolt Volley cast. If the cast goes off, it does damage to the entire raid and applies a dispellable DoT to the entire raid. This DoT stacks too, so continually interrupting this cast is a big deal, and it is one of the main reasons Frieda should be killed first.
• Frieda also occasionally channels Drain Essence on a few random players. This just does ticking damage, and these players need to be focus healed.
• Niklaus will occasionally summon an add that protects the council member with the lowest health, making them immune to damage. Everyone needs to focus this add down every time it spawns in order to keep doing damage to Frieda.
• And Stavros occasionally pairs several random players together with Dark Recital. These players need to find their partner, stack with them, and keep moving together for a few seconds. Each player takes a ton of damage when they are too far from their partner, and red swirlies spawn under all of the paired players' feet which do even more damage. So everyone will need to dodge these swirlies while the paired players are running around together.
• When Frieda gets to 50% health, all of the bosses retreat, and it is time for the dance ( Danse Macabre). Everyone will need to quickly run to their indicated place in the room, and then move in the same directions that the servant NPCs move. Moving correctly gives you a stacking haste buff, and moving incorrectly causes you to take damage and lose your haste buff. After a few movements, the dance will end, the bosses will return, and the players who did the entire dance correctly will have a big haste buff for a few seconds to get right back into nuking Frieda.
• By this point, a passive DoT debuff that has been slowly stacking on the raid will have gained several stacks ( Oppressive Atmosphere), so healers may find the need to use cooldowns in these sub-50% phases. When any council member dies, the debuff resets back to one stack.
• Once Frieda is dead, switch to attacking Niklaus.

Killing Niklaus:

• Now you do not have to worry about constantly interrupting Frieda anymore. The tanks are still taunt swapping on Niklaus and Stavros, while everyone is killing the shield add when it spawns and moving for Dark Recital. But now both bosses each get a new ability.
• Niklaus now occasionally spawns a few servants adds around the room that obey threat, but just constantly do damage to random players. Try to bring these in closer to the bosses and cleave them down.
• And Stavros occasionally spawns untargetable dancers that slide around the room and stun anyone they come into contact with. They spawn in square patterns and only move within their square, so just move away from the squares while they are active.
• When Niklaus gets to 50% health, you will have to do the dance again. Then you come back to finish him off. Once Niklaus is dead, you finally switch to Stavros.

Killing Stavros:

• Now the tanks only have to taunt swap on Stavros, but he starts casting Evasive Lunge more often, so the tanks will have to survive higher stacks of the debuff.
• Neither the shield add or the servant adds spawn anymore, but now Stavros gains his final ability.
• Stavros spawns more dancers around the room that occasionally explode around themselves ( Violent Uproar). Just stay out of the explosions.
• On Heroic difficulty, Stavros also applies a stacking slow to players while they are moving, Two Left Feet. The slow stacks up quickly, but standing still for long enough makes the stacks drop. So make sure to only move when you need to.
• Melee players will need to be especially careful to avoid Stavros's Evasive Lunge now that they are attacking him directly. The frontal happens in the direction that the tank is facing, so make sure to stand on either side of the boss and you should be fine.
• When Stavros gets to 50% health, you will have to do the dance one last time. Then you come back and kill him to finish the fight!

We have encounter journal pages for each of the four difficulties, which you can access by clicking the links below.

For each class, we provide advice on how to tackle The Council of Blood encounter, complete with actual tips, but also recommendations for talents and Legendary Powers.