For those interested. Mea Culpa is Latin for "My fault"

Talk about a difficult fight! This guy is a total pita!

Prior to downing Valthalak we killed Ossirian and Nef on the same night. Of the 3 fights everyone in my group agreed that Valthalak was the most difficult. I am not sure if Blizzard scales the difficulty depending on your gear but considering how much trouble we had with him this is definitely possible.

Our group consisted of the following

1 Warrior
2 Paladins
1 Priest (me)
1 Warlock
3 Rogues
1 Mage
1 Hunter

Almost all players had some tier 2 and a good amount of tier 1. I personally had 3 tier 2 and 3 tier 1 with Benediction.

Our strategy for our successful attempt went like this:

Our tank pulled Valthalak to the wall where you stage to kill the Beast. He was accompanied by 1 rogue to kill adds that appear close to Valthalak. All others stood back and DPSed with a primary focus on the adds. The lock and occasionally the hunter focused on burning his mana. This is very important as when he has mana he seems to heal himself. Our mage also hit him with improved counter spell whenever possible.

After 40% stage 1 ends and it is an easy fight as it is just a matter of DPSing him down and keeping the main tank up.

Vent was very helpful as we could call out when we were being stunned so that no one died due to being stunned for the full 8 seconds.

Even with this strat it was not easy and did not go perfectly. I died just as stage 1 ended as he hit me with a shadow bolt that did 4700 damage. Our tank died when Valthalak had about 10K health remaining as our palies were out of mana. Thankfully the remaining members were able to do some awesome DPS and finished him quickly.

Things to remember

1

Downed him last night.

1 Priest
1 Shaman
3 Mages
2 Warriors
1 Hunter (me me me)
1 Warlock
1 Rogue

Warloc on mana drain non stop.
Hunter on drain and adds
3 mages on dps
1 Warrior as tank
1 warrior + 1 rogue on adds
1 Priest on...healing
1 Shaman on adds and support healing

Went really smooth, adds killed fast and the mages did wonders with their dps.

Second Phase went really well, mages nuked like crazy and he went down to phase 3 in about 20 seconds

Phase 3 was a surprise, the aoe kille d3 of us fast but the rest of us managed to kill him anyway.

Had we used Sp potion in phase 3 it would have been a lot easier and we would have lived.

Most of us are mainly blue, with the occational green and purple.

1 of the mages was all epics. He really aint hard as in taking a long time to kill, as long as ppl stay focused he drops fast. We will do him again, but this time we will bring pots ^^

almost done now, just need a strong group to whack this guy. good luck.

1 prot tank - tanking him.
1 fury warr - dps and for staggered disarm.
2 disc/holy priests.
2 shammies.
1 hunter.
1 druid.
2 mages.

Two groups, one in the SW corner, one in the SW corner. Tank and DPS warr in center.

Everyone was well geared, 5 man blues, and some had epics from ZG. Took three tries, this was the first time for everyone on this and only the main priest (who was doing the quest) knew about the fight. Spent some time talking about it in vent. It would have been a lot better for more to have read about this fight first.

First attempt - 46%, we had the 2 shammies doing mele dps and totems for warr. Mistake, not enough mele killing for the adds that went right for the casters, hunter had dead zone issues and our group was burning him down way too fast and mana users were going OOM. Once one of the priests went down from the adds, then the dps warr went down from the adds. Then adds all over the place, a lot of folks stunned = wipe. Good learning exp.

Second attempt - 27%. Moved the shammies back with the casters, they did a good job on the adds but went OOM too fast. DPS warr killed all adds that stayed by the tank or by him (about 1/4 of the adds stay up there) - again we lost the 2nd priest. Both tank and DPS warr did disarm at the same time so we&nbsp failed to stagger it - mele dmg was too much causing OOM on remaining healer, once stage 3 hit (we were not really expecting it until 20% but we got the shadow dmg starting at 30%), the shadow dmg was crazy, dps war (me) took almost 4k in a few secs, and went down, rest of group took him down a few more percent. Another wipe.

Third attempt. This time the shammies rank reduced their spells (conserve mana), use aoe totems. One wind fury totem for the warrs by them, mana spring for the casters. DPS war took care of all adds near him. Stage 1 no prob - everyone be ready to kill adds, don�t worry about max dps on him, slow and steady works a lot better. Stage 2, warriors staggered disarm, 30 secs apart worked really well. Still conserving mana - this is not the time for the all out attack, we were in good shape. Folks except tank use bandage if necessary to conserve mana. Stage 3 hit, fury war went down around at the 20% point from shadow dmg, healers caught tank just in time. It was close, tank died at 7% and remaining died as they use their last spells/abilities. 3 were left standing at end, killing blow was from mage wand with the remaining completly mana drained and almost dead.

Now that we have done it, here are some notes on what we will do next time someone needs it.

Start off with everyone taking shadow protection pots before fight starts - they will make a huge difference (wait a bit until you are out of the cooldown for mana/health pots). Just have tank and dps warr by him every else as far away as range attacks/healing allows. The shadow dmg appears to jump and increase so you dont want many mele near him when stage 3 hits.

Have shammies/rogues ready to kill adds by casters by downranking spells and aoe totems. Hunter and lock (if you have one) keep him mana drained (hard, he has one heck of a tick regen). DPS warr must be ready to kill any adds by tank instantly, hunter kill those that stun the dps warr and/or tank. Vent is really needed to communicate stuns. Go slow, take your time, everyone but tank and healer on tank worry mainly about the adds and dps him when you can but be ready to break off for the adds instantly. The adds each have around about 450hp(?) they go down easy - you just have to do it fast. Arcane explosion from mages will work but cost mana. Mana pot early, this is a long fight, and you will most likely be able to pot again in stage 3. For the DPS warr, the adds you kill will be easy to get, they are right by ya - whirlwind works great here - once down back to dps on him. Note that I tried thunderclap and piercing howl and they don't interrupt the adds, they continue to life drain. The adds are not tauntable - they are there simply to life drain someone.

Right when he gets to 50% make sure the tank and dsp warr are fully healed. PW:Shield the tank, and tank blow shield wall when you see him pull out his wep BEFORE you take the first hit. Tank and dps warr stagger disarm so you can disarm him every 30 secs. Healers will need to really focus on that tank, he is taking a lot of dmg. Tank do the tank thing, spam shield block every time it is up. A prot tank should not have any problems here holding aggro with a good group. Folks in corners no longer need to worry about adds and the dps will really start to take him down fast.&nbsp Folks can bandage if they need heals left over from the stage 1 � don�t have healers waste mana on renews if you are 1/2 health or higher � just do a fast 8 sec HR bandage. Make sure you are FULLY healed before stage 3 hits or the shadow will melt ya face.

Stage 3, get ready for big time shadow dmg. Tank will need heavy healing. DPS warr now is the time for recklessness and death wish cause mostly likely you will die from the shadow soon - 2nd healer keep the dps warr up until the cooldowns are done then he is expendable. If your cooldowns pull aggro, just keep unloading until you either die or tank gets it back. Shammies can run in and mele now and shock when they have mana - healers let them die also - you MUST keep that tank up. This is an all out attack to burn him down before he kills you with his shadow dmg - thus the huge advantage shadow protection pots will give. Non mana mele, pot another shadow protection pot if the first one is gone from dmg instead of health pot. If you have the AB trinket, pop it for a free mini shield.&nbsp Prot tank do everything you can to hold aggro cause your team will be doing everything they can to take it away. Stance dance to battle for mocking blow if you have to&nbsp - you have been taking so much dmg from stage 2 you would have a full rage bar to work with. If you took care of the adds in stage 1 fast and conserved mana (via early potting) this final stage is an all out hella fun attack.

Most importantly - have fun. We all had a blast, it is fun to be challenged with a hard fight and it feels great to walk away with victory (forget about the big repair bills). Heck of a great feeling with the cheers when he is down. I�m sure with practice he can be put on farm status and we are looking forward to the ones we can now summon in the other instances.