ICC Iced

Svenn had his first look into Icecrown Citadel this weekend. After completing a quick trash clear as DPS on Saturday, he was asked to Off-Tank another rep run on Sunday. While no bosses were downed, he had some surprising insights into Pally tanking in ICC.

The 20% dodge reduction aura makes Pally tanks an attractive option for ICC. While mitigation remains less desirable that huge amounts of total health, the hit to dodge makes Pallys’ high block chance shine all the more.

The presence of all those undead also makes Pally tanks an attractive option. No one does undead like Pallys, and ICC is chock full of them. With a fairly diverse raid composition, Svenn was able to pull over 4.5k DPS as a tank. Being able to throw decent DPS as a tank is important as many of the mobs (at least the ones that come from the traps) are taunt immune.

Svenn used a modified tanking build that takes Seal of Command and most of the improved crit talents out of the Ret Tree. Additionally, Svenn glyphed for improved Holy Wrath (lowering the cooldown by 15secs), as well as Hammer of the Righteous (hit one additional target). Aside from the increase in DPS provided by the Holy Wrath Glyph, the ability to AoE stun all undead every 15secs is huge-making Holy Wrath a must have Glyph for ICC (a must for Ret as well and even Holy Pallys should consider getting it for ICC).

All in all it was a good time, and Svenn was able to get about halfway to friendly with the Ashen Verdict.

SIDE NOTE: Svenn was able to solo the first pull in ICC. How it works: Range pull the 1st bone skeleton guy [note to self:look up name of bone dude] using a taunt or dynamite, judge wisdom (you will be burning through mana) when he comes in range (let the friendly NPCs pick up the other mob). Throw your shield to slow his movement while you begin kiting him around the front “lobby” area. Keep judging wisdom and throwing exorcisms while kiting. Rotate between Avenger’s Shield, Holy Wrath and Hammer of Justice to keep the mob at range while the friendly NPCs at the entrance help DPS it down. You can use fear too, but you need to be careful with that and be ready to stun/break fear, if it looks as if the mob may pull others. As long as you maintain aggro, and do a modicum of DPS on the mob you will get the rep when it finally dies.While not a very time effective way to earn rep, it is doable if you have the inclination to try.

EDIT: It seems Blizzard may have hot fixed some of the ICC mobs. Svenn went in last night with Smanthakitty to clear the first trash pull, and the friendly NPCs at the front did not pick up the second skeleton. While he still managed to down the first one and net the 19 rep, he also could not DI any of the NPCs and ended up eating the repair bill when the 2nd skeleton guy killed him :(