ICC Preview: Deathbringer Saurfang

This is real simple, if you don’t want to know squadoosh about the Icecrown Citadel raid then don’t bother reading this article.  My definition of a spoiler, however, is going into a raid encounter not knowing what to do, so I’ve been doing a little homework on the first four bosses that will be available when patch 3.3 is released.

Today’s article is about Deathbringer Saurfang, the fourth boss you’ll face.

There wasn’t a whole lot of testing done on this encounter, so any strategies are very preliminary at this point.  The video floating around is of a failed attempt.  That being said, it looks like Hunters may play an important role in this encounter.

During the encounter some very dangerous adds will constantly spawn and it looks like they’ll need to be handled by ranged dps.  Frost traps, Distracting Shot, and kiting might all come into play here.  The goal is not only to kill the adds, but to make sure nobody gets hit by them. There are a ton of things that can happen that will heal the boss in this encounter.

This fight may end up being a lot like the Gluth encounter in Naxxramas.  It could be very easy or extremely hard.  In Gluth, if the back of the room couldn’t control the Zombie Chow then you’d fail miserably.  If they could then it was a very easy fight.  I suspect that the Deathbringer Saurfang encounter will have a similar feel to it.

Resources

My Thought for Hunters
  • Hunters will play a very big role in this fight.  This may be our moment to shine outside of the meters.
  • We’ll have to constantly lay down our frost traps to keep the adds slowed.
  • We’ll need to dps and kite the adds.
  • We may need to keep distracting shot at the ready to peel off adds from other players.
  • Two hunters may be needed, and those hunters may have to coordinate with each other during the encounter.
  • If there’s one fight I’d choose to study it’s this one.

Loot

Things a hunter might want.

Item iLevel Item Type Slot Source
Hauberk of a Thousand Cuts 251 Mail Chest 10-man
Saurfang’s Cold-Forged Band 251 Miscellaneous Finger 10-man
Bloodvenom Blade 264 Sword One-Hand 25-man
Deathbringer’s Will 264 Miscellaneous Trinket 25-man