Shade of Aran Shade of Aran is a boss in the abandoned tower of Karazhan . He is the spirit of Nielas Aran , the father of Medivh — the previous occupant of Karazhan . He is located in the Guardian ' s Library , which is a small , circular room ( about 45 yards in diameter ) with one door that closes and locks as soon as the fight begins . Shade of Aran is an optional boss . However , after he is defeated , a teleport to his room becomes available from , and all trash mobs from The Curator to Aran ( exc . one pack outside Illhoof ' s door ) cease to respawn . Characteristics . Basic spells . All of Aran ' s basic spells have infinite range ( even through walls — they hit anywhere in the instance ) and are randomly targeted . Pets are valid targets for these spells , including the snakes from Snake Trap s . All slowing and root effects are dispellable ( magic ) , and can be broken by the usual methods . It is possible to interrupt and lock out all his basic abilities to the point where he starts to use his melee attack . He sometimes takes a swing even when not all his schools are locked . When meleeing , he uses a normal aggro table . This can cause problems , as he can move out of the center of the room and leave the raid out of position . Arcane Missiles seem to be semi - intelligently targeted at the raid member with the lowest percentage health , but this may simply be a random effect . Special abilities . Every 30 – 35 seconds , Aran uses one of his three special abilities ( never the same twice in a row ) . The special abilities cannot be interrupted or locked out . Conjured Water Elementals . At 40 % health , the Shade of Aran summons four elite Conjured Water Elementals with 13 , 000 health . They shoot a constant stream of Waterbolts for ~ 1000 - 2000 damage and despawn after 90 seconds . Polymorph / Drink / Pyroblast . At 20 % mana or less ( about 30k ) , Aran mass Polymorph s the entire raid , conjures some water , and starts drinking . After about ten seconds , or if his drinking is interrupted , the polymorph breaks and Aran does a pyroblast for 7000 - 7500 fire damage on the whole raid . Shadows of Aran . After 12 minutes , he goes berserk and calls Shadows of Aran . They have various high - damage AoE abilities which wipe the raid within seconds . This is not a serious concern ; the fight should never take that long . Strategy . The key to success here is survival . The Shade of Aran ' s basic attacks are not very dangerous , but the special attacks are deadly . Each raid member must pay attention to which attack is upcoming ; nobody can sit back and just do their usual routine . Once everybody learns how to move ( or when not to move ) , the fight actually becomes rather easy . In order to avoid the Magnetic Pull / Arcane Explosion , everybody must run to the outer wall of the room ; the Blizzard forces people towards the center ( or the other side of the room ) ; and Flame Wreath inhibits movement . Beyond this , casters want to stay outside the AoE silence , and classes with spell - interrupt abilities want to concentrate on what he ' s casting . The encounter cannot be reset . Safe zone . There seems to be a " safe zone " that provides good positioning for healers and ranged DPS during the encounter . Drawing a 3x3 grid using the floor tiles around Shade shows four corners that are out of range of both the AoE counterspell as well as Blizzard . Although it ' s possible to find a safe spot there , Aran may move a little and thus put players there in the counterspell . The Blizzard may also sometimes affect these spots . Blizzard has given no indication that they consider use of these safe spots to be an exploit . Gear . Aggro is of almost no relevance , because Aran chooses his targets semi - randomly . Hence it is important to remember to replace all threat - reducing buffs , such as the Paladin ' s Blessing of Salvation , with something offensive instead . The tanks should wear damage - dealing gear . If the raid chooses not to interrupt arcane missiles , some arcane resistance can be useful . Everyone in the group should strive for at least 8 , 000 health after buffs . More is better . Even healers and ranged damage - dealers must be able to survive a wave of arcane missiles ( 7 , 000 damage ) , and everybody must be able to survive the Pyroblast ( 7 , 500 damage ) . Interrupts . Aran ' s standard attacks ( Fireball , Frost Bolt , and Arcane Missile ) can all be interrupted . By interrupting his spells , the raid can influence how fast Aran spends his mana . This is important , because the Polymorph / Pyroblast ( at 20 % mana ) and the Water Elementals ( at 40 % health ) must not occur close to each other . When either health or mana reach the critical percentage , the other must be clearly away from the threshold . For a raid new to this encounter ( with comparably low damage output ) , it is advisable to interrupt only Arcane Missile , and let him freely cast Frost Bolt and Fireball . This will maximize Aran ' s mana usage , and thus the Polymorph / Pyroblast occurs early , well before he reaches 40 % health . After the Pyroblast , the raid can interrupt any of his spells , to minimize damage taken . If the raid ' s damage output is high enough that Polymorph / Pyroblast and Water Elementals happen close to each other even though only the Arcane Missiles are interrupted , it ' s time to switch to letting Aran cast the Missiles freely and interrupting Fireball and Frost Bolt . This conserves his mana , so that the Water Elementals occur first . If damage output is really high , the Polymorph / Pyroblast does not occur at all . Fireballs and Frost Bolts should be interrupted near the end of their casting time , because he expends mana only at the end of the cast and does nothing else for nearly two seconds . Arcane Missiles should be interrupted early , as he spends the mana upfront anyway , and early interruption reduces the spell ' s damage output . It is useful to assign each player with an interrupt ability one type of spell . This avoids everybody interrupting at the same time and , therefore , having nobody left available to interrupt the next spell . The following abilities interrupt a Shade of Aran cast : The druid , mage , and warlock abilities have long cool - downs , and are thus not very effective . Note that the Shade is immune to the silence , daze , and root effects of some of these abilities , so casting them produces an " Immune " message . However , the abilities still interrupt the spell cast . Also , a druid with the gloves from Vengeful Gladiator ' s Sanctuary can interrupt Shade of Aran with the Maim ability . Rogues that have Gladiator ' s Leather Gloves , Merciless Gladiator ' s Leather Gloves , or Vengeful Gladiator ' s Leather Gloves equipped can interrupt Shade using their Deadly Throw ability . Opportunist ' s Leather Gloves , Grand Marshal ' s Leather Gloves , and High Warlord ' s Leather Gloves also work with doing this . Particularly for healers : To save mana , it is generally a good idea to understand when an interrupt is successful and a heal is not needed . There are two ways to achieve this : Healers can improve their response time to ( Fireball , Frost Bolt and Arcane Missile ) with the macro : Circular Blizzard . This special attack materializes as a blue , translucent cloud on the floor that slowly moves clockwise along the outer perimeter of the room . It is trailed by a damaging Blizzard which fills up to half the room . The cloud and the Blizzard snare anyone caught in them . The Blizzard does not affect the center of the room . Players in melee range to Aran normally do not have to worry about the Blizzard ( as long they stay in the center of the room ) . Ranged classes should always keep a lookout for the cloud and run away clockwise ( but avoid running into the tail of the Blizzard ) . When caught , players get snared and should immediately turn and move to the center of the room . The periodic AoE silence / counterspell there is the lesser of two evils . Flame Wreath . If Flame Wreath is upcoming , the whole raid must immediately stop moving , simple as that . People must wait until the auras are clearly visible , and may only move again when they are sure they will in no way come near one of them . Melee ' rs have a few seconds to move into melee range of Aran from the second Flame Wreath is announced and until he casts it ; however , this requires some practice and careful timing . The effect is triggered by the following : The following do not trigger the effect : Flame Wreath is confirmed to crit , having an estimated crit chance of 10 - 15 % , dealing 7 . 000 + damage to the target . Magnetic Pull / Slow / Arcane Explosion . Magnetic Pull can be avoided by standing behind one of the tables near the wall — players fixed there do not need to worry about the pull or the explosion at all . All other raid members must immediately run to the outer edge of the room — no turning or finishing up an attack . Even with the slow debuff , everybody can reach the wall well before the Explosion . If possible a priest in the raid should cast a Mass Dispel centered on the Shade immediately after Magnetic Pull . This automatically takes care of everybody reacting slowly and Chains of Ice . If Mass Dispel is not available ( or the raid feels confident and wants to save priest mana ) , Priests and Paladins still should pay attention to slow reactions or Chains of Ice . Water Elementals . The Water Elementals can be banished , stunned , and feared ; and are susceptible to Curse of Tongues . Crowd control , tank , and kill them quickly ; they have only 13 , 000 HP each . It helps if the tank wears some frost - resistance gear . They despawn after 90 seconds . One warlock can keep two crowd controlled the entire time ( fear and banish ) ; with two warlocks , you can just keep all four of them crowd controlled until they despawn . If the Elementals spawn at the same time as one of the special attacks takes place , it ' s difficult to control them properly . It is a good idea to control DPS and bring the Shade ' s health down to 40 % at a time when there is no risk of a Flame Wreath , Blizzard , or Polymorph / Pyroblast . Trinkets and abilities with cool - downs should be used when the Elementals spawn . Polymorph / Pyroblast . If the raid ' s DPS is high enough and the interrupt s work well , this phase may not occur at all . If it does , the healers have to be on their toes to heal the raid very quickly after the Pyroblast ( preferably using AoE heals ) . The Polymorph breaks at the same time as Pyroblast is cast , so there ' s just the spell ' s travel time to cast something before it hits . This can only be effectively done by healers outside melee range . After the blast , all raid members should use health potions and Healthstone s to heal quickly . This Polymorph works on characters who are normally immune . Only druids in Tree of Life form remain unaffected . If Aran is interrupted while drinking , he simply uses a potion and Pyroblasts anyway . PvP insignias do not break the Mass Polymorph ; only the Water Elementals may break sheep during this time . The Pyroblast can be interrupted . If Aran reaches 20 % mana again after the first Mass Polymorph , he does not Polymorph and Pyroblast again . He just drinks a potion and continues . Tips for healers . Healing for this fight is noticeably different from the other encounters in Karazhan for two reasons : The ability to heal while moving is very useful . Priests and Druids excel at this as they have several instant casts . Instant casts also have the major advantage that they cannot be counterspelled by Aran ' s AOE counterspell . Aran ' s counterspell is not continuous , so quite often you can get a flash heal or equivalent off , but attempting to cast a longer spell like Chain Heal , Greater Heal , or Holy Light when close to Aran is highly unrecommended as getting locked out of your healing spell school can be devastating . Dispel Magic and Cleanse are important spells for this fight ; be prepared to dispel anyone who is ice - chained and cannot move . This is especially critical if a Blizzard is going on at the same time . Dispel yourself and those around you when Aran does his Magnetic Pull . If your raid is sheeped , be prepared to immediately start group heals the moment you are out of the polymorph . You may wish to coordinate with the other healers to pre - determine who heals which group for this . It ' s important to have 8k HP , and PvP gear is a good way of getting this , but care should be taken because PvP gear is itemized for stamina and burst healing , and you may well find yourself running out of mana in a full PvP set . Unlike Aran , the conjured elementals use a standard aggro mechanism , so if not attacked or controlled they will very quickly lock on to healers . For your own sake , ensure your raid has a plan to deal with them . The elementals are vulnerable to most forms of CC , so self - defense mechanisms like Psychic Scream will work on an elemental that takes an interest in you . Quotes . Sound scripts . / script PlaySoundFile ( " Sound \ \ Creature \ \ ShadeOfAran \ \ AranAggro01 . wav " )