Overall

This encounter is much like an arena match between you and 10 (6 at 10-man) quasi-player NPCs. Before even attempting this encounter, your raid will need to assume a PvP mindset. The enemies you will face in this encounter act very much like a good arena team does and some (but not all) PvP mechanics are applied to these NPCs.

For example:

• The NPC healers will switch to spam healing your DPS target(s) and should be Crowd Controlled when possible, or stun-locked by a Rogue(s).
• The NPC damage dealers will gang up on a single raid member and focus fire him dead
• All NPCs, including healers, will use player crowd control abilities like Polymorph, Fear, Hex, and even Banish - Tremor Totem and the like are very useful here.
• NPCs in this counter are affected by the same diminishing return rules for player-cast crowd controls as other players are Resilience does not reduce damage taken by the NPC enemies
• Faction champions do more damage than typical players, have drastically more health (2.4 million on 25 man), and cast enormous heals - the druid champion's rejuvenation, for example, heals for more than 50,000 per tick
• The NPCs cannot be mind controlled. All other forms of crowd control seem to work, but are subject to Diminishing Returns - after 3 casts, the NPC will be immune to that Crowd Control effect for that fight.

As with any arena match, picking a damage target and focusing it down is critical. While one target is picked to be killed, all other enemy combatants should be controlled by whatever mechanics are available, including player CCs and focused distractions (e.g., keeping a warrior on the rogue NPC to disarm, hamstring, intercept, stun etc.). The NPCs appear to indiscriminately pick their own targets and they will gang up on a single raid member - healers do not appear to be disproportionately targeted as they often are in real arena combat. The NPCs generally cannot be tanked.

As a result of the chaotic nature of this fight (especially early on when all 10 NPCs are alive), every raid member needs to be fast on his feet. When one or more of the melee champions targets a soft target, that target needs to run, fear, snare, escape, stay alive. To facilitate these maneuvers, it is best not to clump together. Every second that a champion is traveling to its target is a second that it is not doing damage to any particular target, so the more you can keep them moving the safer your raid will be.

Another aspect of this encounter at odds with an arena match is that all of your opponents and their classes are known ahead of time, so it is possible to create a variety of control macros that target specific roles by name. This is strongly recommended. It is often very difficult to pick your control target from within the crowd while also performing your other role. Every class with a control ability should be using it as often as possible, including healers. Because of diminishing returns, as the fight goes on, your crowd control target will become actually or effectively immune to your ability, so don't be afraid to use control on any active target that is not the current focus fire target.

The fight becomes exponentially easier as each champion is killed, so getting the first one down as soon as possible greatly increases your odds of winning. All cooldowns, including Bloodlust/Heroism, should be used immediately to facilitate a speedy kill on the first target. The target you pick will be dependent upon your raid makeup, but for the majority of groups the most effective strategy is unsurprisingly to kill the healers first.

The four healers are a restoration druid, a restoration shaman, a holy paladin, and a holy priest.

• The restoration druid casts Rejuvenation, Lifebloom, Nourish, and Regrowth. Two of these can be interrupted, and three of these must be dispelled.
• The restoration shaman casts Greater Healing Wave, Lesser Healing Wave, Earth Shield, and Chain Heal. Three of these can be interrupted, and one of these must be dispelled.
• The holy paladin casts Flash of Light, Holy Light, Hand of Freedom and Divine Protection. Her Divine Protection will be cast when she is at around 25% health and should be broken swiftly (by Shattering Throw or Mass Dispel) so the Holy Light which she inevitably starts casting afterwards can be interrupted.
• The holy priest casts Greater Heal, Flash Heal, Renew, and Power Word: Shield. Two of these can be interrupted, and two of these must be dispelled.

The most effective healer is the restoration druid. As with arena combat, they are very difficult to kill by themselves. In this encounter, in addition to the restoration druid healing himself, the other two healers will also focus heal while your raid focuses damage; this is true regardless of the target you pick. However, because the druid casts three very powerful healing-over-time effects that must be dispelled (as opposed to one from the shaman and two from the priest), if you leave the restoration druid up, a small interruption in chain dispelling from another champion's control abilities, such as a fear bomb, can quickly undo a great deal of damage progress. While focussing the restoration druid from the start, use as many stuns and interrupts as possible, use your longest-duration crowd controls on the other two healers, and burn him.

If you have competent warlocks and can keep the druid banished, you may have better luck burning one of the others first. Remember that your banishes will be subject to PvP limits and diminishing returns, so unless you can kill one of the healers before the druid becomes immune to banishes, you may find yourself chewing through druid heal buffs on your kill target, which may greatly slow your kill time.

After the restoration druid is dead, choose either the shaman, the paladin, or the priest. The shaman will use a powerful earth shield which makes him slightly more dangerous than the priest; in addition, he casts Hex on your raid. The shaman cannot resurrect himself like a player shaman can. The paladin will use Divine Protection on low health which should be broken swiftly so her Holy Light can be interrupted, and will use Hand of Freedom to break her allies out of Crowd Control effects.

After the healers are dead, the next highest priority should be the melee DPS. The rogue is probably the most dangerous followed by the warrior, the retribution paladin, and the death knight; the rogue is also a softer target than the plate wearers and will consequently die sooner. The enhancement shaman is the weakest of the melee champions and is weaker than most of the ranged. It is safe to kill him last.

Once the three healers are dead the fight becomes several orders of magnitude simpler and boils down to a burn phase. Keep the DPS champions chasing and your healers alive. Players assigned to distraction on various enemies should continue distracting until their target is picked for the kill. One of the primary jobs for distraction players will be to watch their target's target and call out who they're pursuing.

Two of the most important abilities in this encounter are offensive dispelling and spell interrupts. All of the champions are susceptible to spell interrupts, and offensive dispel is critical to cut through the healers' effects. Another strong ability to remember is mass dispel, which can cut through Divine Shields and Ice Blocks, both of which will be used by enemy champions. Mortal Strike and Wound Poison will also greatly aid you in taking out the healers early on. The death knight and rogue will use disease and poison effects so Cleansing Totems should be down.

Your PvP trinkets will come in handy in this encounter as well, as you will be constantly controlled throughout the fight. For all but the most elite raid groups, you can expect this fight to last close to 10 minutes, so you will use your trinket several times throughout the battle.

To avoid healers being overwhelmed with switching targets to try to heal those being focused, reserve anyone who can crowd control melee and casters to remain on that target until they are dead.

• Any tanking class will be able to taunt their target to fixate it away. Taunts are still subject to DR. Fixate taunts like Hunter's Distraction Shot do not work on bosses.
• Death Knights are perfect for pinning down melee (warrior, retribution paladin, rogue, death knight) with Chains of Ice, Dark Command, and Death Grip.
• Warriors can spam Hamstring, Shockwave, and Charge stun the warrior and the rogue to prevent them from moving.
• Rogues are able to keep casters (mage, shadow priest, holy priest) on lockdown with constant stuns and interrupts. If you are on the mage, he will blink when stunned so unless you have Throwing Specialization try not to do it while rooted. Vanish, Cloak of Shadows, Improved Sprint, and Killing Spree will dispel the Shattered Barrier and Frost Nova.

A combination of warlock and balance druid is able to chain Cyclone and Banish on the restoration druid, switching off every time the CC chain cannot continue due to DR.

Fear bomb if enough champions reach their target.

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