Deathbringer Saurfang Deathbringer Saurfang is the fourth boss in the Icecrown Citadel raid . He is described as being the Lich King ' s most powerful death knight . It ' s mainly a DPS race with an interesting twist ( Blood Power ) . After falling to Frostmourne at the Battle of Angrathar the Wrathgate , Dranosh Saurfang was raised in undeath by the Lich King and brought to Icecrown Citadel . Imbued with the power of the Scourge , the Deathbringer bars the way of any attackers trying to enter the Upper Spire . Reset . This fight can be reset by running back on the gunship while it ' s still there - it despawns after some time . Strategy . The fight has only one phase . Saurfang does hard enrage after 8 minutes . At 30 % there ' s a soft enrage ( Frenzy ) , DPS cooldowns are normally saved for that point ( although some raids have success using them early , and thus delaying the first Mark as long as possible ) . Mages can use Amplify Magic during this fight , as all of the damage is Physical . Blood Power . Saurfang starts with 0 Blood Power . He can accumulate up to 100 in his Energy bar ( akin to death knights ) . He gains Blood Power whenever one of his special attacks hits or ticks . When Blood Power reaches 100 , he casts Mark of the Fallen Champion on a random raid member , resetting his Blood Power to 0 . Each active Mark increases the rate at which he gains Blood Power . For this reason , it ' s imperative to limit the amount of Blood Power he gains . Saurfang should be at 60 % or lower before he casts the first Mark . Tanking . Saurfang should be tanked right where he spawns , his melee damage is not high . Tanks must pay attention though that Saurfang doesn ' t gain Blood Power from . If a tank gets it , another tank must quickly taunt and take over . The debuff lasts 20 seconds . Positioning . The melee should stand right on Saurfang . Ranged damage dealers can stand closer to the boss , while healers should be furthest away . Healers need to be well spread out , so that all raid members are in range of several healers . All non - melee raid members must stay at least 12 yards away from each other to avoid activating , else Saurfang receives extra Blood Power . Blood Beasts . Saurfang summons Blood Beasts every 35 seconds . In : Saurfang gains Blood Power whenever a Blood Beast deals melee damage , thus they must be slowed and kited , and killed by ranged DPS . Since Blood Beasts are resistant to AoE it ' s pointless to use such abilities . Melee in particular should avoid using any multi - target abilities ( such as Heart Strike , Seal of Command , Improved Revenge , Hammer of the Righteous , or Divine Storm ) in order to avoid drawing aggro . The Blood Beasts must leave the platform ASAP ( in hard mode they ' re also likely to one - shot melee ) . Blood Beasts are immune to crowd - control . They are susceptible to root , snare , slow and stun . Be careful not to root them within melee range of anybody . Classes with a root , snare , or stun ability should use this macro whenever the Blood Beasts spawn : This immediately uses the ability on the closest Blood Beast and then targets Saurfang . The Beasts normally aggro healers after some time , therefore healers should stand away from the boss . Alternately , healers can stand on the platform among the melee . Initially the Beasts can be pulled away by the DPS pretty easily , later on they move back towards the platform when they aggro a healer . At this point , it helps a lot if the healer can temporarily reduce aggro , such as a priest using Fade . Ranged DPS should target the beast furthest away , and as soon as the beast gains aggro , switch away to another one . Ping - ponged between different ranged DPS prevents anyone from being hit in melee . Melee players ( or the tank ) can help by taunting Beasts that are far away from them . If a Beast gets close to its target , that target must run away and start kiting — do not let them hit anyone . If the raid is too melee - heavy , it is possible to stunlock one Beast and kill it with melee , while the other beasts are kited by ranged . Class - specific tactics . These abilities are particularly helpful for slowing down Blood Beasts : Boiling Blood . Saurfang casts on random raid members . This can easily be healed through . Every tick grants Blood Power . removes it , though that should only be needed in Hard Mode on a player afflicted with . Mark of the Fallen Champion . Whenever Saurfang gains 100 Blood Power , he casts on a random raid member . This debuff inflicts heavy damage ( about 6 , 000 per second in 25 player ) and yields a lot of Blood Power to the boss . When a player with a Mark dies , this heals Saurfang about 5 % . The Mark persists through death — " do not combat rez a player that dies from it " . A good healer can handle about two active Marks if focusing exclusively on the Mark targets . Two active Marks in 10 player usually lead to a wipe , in 25 players the limit is about 8 Marks . It may be a viable tactic to let the Mark of the Fallen Champion victims die . It ' s much easier to deal an extra 5 % damage to Saurfang than to heal the Mark victim and deal with the increased frequency of future Marks . There are diminishing returns however , as living DPS are required to take down the Blood Beasts . Heroic Mode . The primary differences of Heroic mode are a shorter enrage timer ( 6 minutes ) , Blood Beasts catching 5 seconds after spawning , reducing the movement speed of the entire raid by 80 % for 10 seconds , and Saurfang healing for 20 % HP upon a mark of the fallen champion death . His blood power gain is also much faster compared to normal . Blood Beasts also hit hard enough to one shot any non tank . On a first kill , prepare for at least two marks on 10 - man and six marks on 25 - man . Assign one dedicated healer per mark . If healers are struggling towards the end of the fight , they can stop healing one of the tanks because of the mechanics of .