Lady Deathwhisper

thumb|Lady Deathwhisper in Hearthstone.
The lich Lady Deathwhisper is the Supreme Overseer of the Cult of the Damned and the second boss of the Icecrown Citadel raid. The fight is mostly a DPS race (with a high damage output it becomes significantly easier), but also requires high awareness from all raid members. The 25-player Heroic version of this boss is one of the most difficult encounters in the instance.
During the Scourge resurgence, Lady Deathwhisper was one of the undead forces reanimated by Mawsworn kyrian in Icecrown Citadel in Icecrown. Later, adventurers of both the Alliance and the Horde were sent by the Argent Crusade to kill her once again.
==Abilities==
===25-player mode===
====Lady Deathwhisper====
;Both Phases
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::Note: Lady Deathwhisper's D&D uses the same animation as a death knight's but her is a distinct green color, making it easy to distinguish from a friendly player's D&D.
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;Phase one only
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;Phase two only
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====Cult Adherent/Empowered Adherent/Reanimated Adherent====
*Health: 220,000
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====Cult Fanatic/Deformed Fanatic/Reanimated Fanatic====
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====Vengeful Shade====
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===10-player mode===
====Lady Deathwhisper====
;Both Phases
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;Phase one only
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;Phase two only
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====Cult Adherent====
*Health: 220,000
====Empowered Adherent====
====Reanimated Adherent====
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====Cult Fanatic/Deformed Fanatic/Reanimated Fanatic====
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====Vengeful Shade====
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== Preparation ==
This encounter requires two tanks (in 25 player a third tank is optional). The encounter is not particularly healing intensive, so two healers (five in 25-player) are fine. The raid sets up within range of the boss at the center of the room. In 10 player, one tank alternates between the left and right gates (starting left), while the other tank can DPS. In 25 player, one tank stands left, the other right, and the optional third one at the stairs. With two tanks in 25 player, the add from the stairs must be misdirected to one of the side tanks.
Her enrage timer is 10 minutes.
==Phase One==
This Phase is all about killing the adds quickly and efficiently. Ranged DPS in particular need to switch their target frequently, and be highly aware of the general situation.
Phase 1 ends as soon as her mana shield is down. During the phase, all damage she takes is deducted from her mana, Phase 2 starts as soon as it reaches zero. Phase 1 should not take longer than 7 minutes, else there won't be enough time to kill her prior to the enrage.
During Phase 1 she needs no tank. She spams Shadow Bolt, Death and Decay and Dominate Mind on random raid members (Dominate Mind is only cast in 25-player mode, it affects one raid member in normal mode, and multiple targets in heroic mode). The mind controlled raid members need to be Crowd Controlled.
Also randomly, she places Death and Decay, and AoE DoT. Raid members need to move out of this quickly.
After 5 seconds of combat and every 60 seconds thereafter 3/7 (10/25 player) adds spawn. In 10 player, 3 adds spawn alternatively from the three gates on the left and right side. In 25 player, 3 adds spawn on each side every time, and a seventh add of a random type spawns on the stairs. The three gates on the left side of the room always spawn two fanatics and one adherent, the right side gates one fanatic and two adherents. All types of adds can be CC'd.
Living adds can explode (dark martyrdom) at random times, which deals AoE damage and turns them into their reanimated versions. Reanimated Fanatics (melee) are immune to physical damage, Reanimated Adherents are immune to magical damage. Also at random, Lady Deathwhisper buffs living adds. Buffed Adherents become "Empowered Adherents", adding an uninterruptible AOE spell to their abilities, buffed Fanatics are "Deformed Fanatics" and double their melee damage output. These four special add types are the most dangerous, and must be killed as priority targets.
Adherents are caster mobs who spam deathchill bolt, put a cooldown increasing curse on random players, and sometimes shield themselves with a spell reflect shield. The shield (Shroud of the Occult) takes 50,000 damage to remove. While the shield is on them, silencing effects like Shield Bash (Classic) do not work.
Fanatics have a high melee DPS output and a vicious cleave (melee DPS must take care to stand behind them). When buffed (as Deformed Fanatics), they double their damage output. Deformed Fanatics should be kited, which is quite easy because their movement speed is halved. Fanatics (either normal or deformed) are sometimes buffed with Vampiric Might which is another 25% damage increase, plus a self heal for 3x the damage they cause. This can (and should) be removed with a Shaman's Purge or a Mage's Spellsteal. Spellsteal is the preferred method since it benefits the Mage.
Any adds present when the mana shield is depleted stay up for phase 2. If an add wave was about to spawn it may still spawn after Phase 2 started. If such a situation is likely to develop, stop DPS should be called.
=== Basic Tactic ===
The basic method described above is to assign the tanks to the spawn locations. The left and right sides also get a fixed set of melee damage dealers (more to the right side, fewer to the left). When adds spawn, all ranged DPS switch and kill the adds right where they spawn. After all adds are dead, all damage dealers switch back to the Boss, a few seconds prior to the next wave, melee run back to the spawn locations.
This method feels rather natural and it leads to a distributed setup, which helps minimizing the effect of Death and Decay. The drawbacks are rather low DPS (particularly by melee), and frequent target switching.
With some practice, melee can concentrate on the caster adds, and ranged help on the melee adds, if overall DPS is high enough, ranged need to switch only if one of the special adds comes up. Adherents can be gathered by Line of sight pulling, using the nearby walls.
Because of their heavy reliance on DoTs, Affliction Warlocks and Shadow Priests might be more useful if they're assigned to continually attack the boss, and only attack the adds in cases of emergency, as burst damage tends to bring the adds down fairly quickly.
===Alternate Tactic===
A different approach is to group all ranged and healers behind the boss (opposite to the stairs), and set up the tanks and melee group on the stairs side of the boss (on the edge of her hitbox). The whole raid hits the boss until adds spawn. At that time, the DPS casters set up an AoE kill zone (including some snares) right on the melee group. Adds normally aggro healers. Melee adds try to move to them and usually die while passing through the kill zone. Caster adds frequently stop outside the kill zone (and their shields protect them from the AoE). As in the normal method, tanks and melee must move to the caster adds, but the casters stand much closer to the melee group, and thus melee don't have to run far.The special add types still need extra care.
The advantage of this tactic is that damage output is substantially higher, and AoE healing is more effective. The drawback is that the raid stands quite concentrated on one spot, this makes Death and Decay much more dangerous.
==Phase Two==
After her shield is down, Lady Deathwhisper switches to a new set of abilities, she gets an aggro table (in effect her threat is reset) and also starts to melee and cast Frostbolt volley. No more Adherents or Fanatics spawn, instead Vengeful Spirits randomly spawn near players.
Her Frostbolt spell should be interrupted. Dominate Mind and Death and Decay continue as before. She stacks an ability called Touch of Insignificance on her tank. This reduces threat generation by 20% per stack (stacks to 5). On normal difficulty, she can be taunted. The standard tactic (on normal mode) is for the tanks to taunt her off each other to allow the debuff to fall off. In theory a single tank can keep her by using taunt on every CD, but this is only a short-term solution as diminishing returns ensures that she eventually becomes taunt-immune.
Vengeful Spirits pick a random target and follow it for 10 seconds, they explode for 25,000 shadowfrost AoE damage when they catch up. In normal difficulty it's possible to heal through this, in heroic mode probably not. Players targeted by a Vengeful Spirit need to kite it until it goes away.
==Heroic Mode==
Other than every ability simply hitting harder the main difference in the encounter that may encourage groups to alter their strategy is the doubled hit points (but not mana) on Lady Deathwhisper thus extending phase two.
The heroic encounter is similar to the M'uru encounter. Raids probably cannot focus all DPS on adds because more damage must be done on Deathwhisper. It seems likely that Crowd Control may be needed on at least some of the adds through the entirety of phase 2 in order to beat the enrage timer, at least until the encounter is outgeared.
Confirmed live heroic mode differences:
*Immune to taunt.
*One/Three mind controls (10/25 player).
*Adds continue to spawn in phase 2.
*Vengeful Shades explode in a 20 yard radius instead of single target.
One novel strategy is to have one tank kite the Fanatics around the room for the entirety of the fight much like the Razorgore the Untamed encounter in Blackwing Lair since they are affected by all movement impairing effects.
==Minion summary==
Name 	Resistances 	Abilities
Cult Adherent 	None 	Curse of Torpor, Shroud of the Occult
Reanimated Adherent	Nearly impervious to magical damage 	Curse of Torpor, Shroud of the Occult
Empowered Adherent 	Nearly impervious to magical damage 	Deathchill Blast (splash damage)
Cult Fanatic 	None 	Shadow Cleave , Vampiric Might, Necrotic Strike
Reanimated Fanatic 	Nearly impervious to physical damage	Shadow Cleave , Vampiric Might, Necrotic Strike
Deformed Fanatic 	Nearly impervious to physical damage	Deals double damage
==Loot==
===Normal mode===
10 man 	Type 	Description	Slot 	25 man 	Type 	Description	Slot
Njorndar Bone Bow 	Bow 	Phys. DPS 	Ranged 	Zod's Repeating Longbow 	Bow 	Phys. DPS 	Ranged
Scourgelord's Baton 	Off hand	Caster +hit	Off hand	Heartpierce 	One hand	Melee 	Dagger
Deathspeaker Zealot's Helm 	Plate 	Melee 	Head 	Nibelung 	Two hand	Caster 	Staff
Ghoul Commander's Cuirass 	Plate 	Tank 	Chest 	Blood-Soaked Saronite Stompers 	Plate 	Melee 	Feet
Handgrips of Frost and Sleet 	Mail 	Phys. DPS 	Hands 	Fallen Lord's Handguards 	Plate 	Healer 	Hands
Deathspeaker Disciple's Belt 	Mail 	Healer 	Waist 	Broken Ram Skull Helm 	Plate 	Tank 	Head
Chestguard of the Frigid Noose	Leather 	Melee 	Chest 	Leggings of Northern Lights 	Mail 	Phys. DPS 	Legs
Soulthief's Braided Belt 	Leather 	Melee 	Waist 	Necrophotic Greaves 	Mail 	Healer 	Feet
Boots of the Frozen Seed 	Leather 	Caster 	Feet 	Cultist's Bloodsoaked Spaulders	Leather 	Melee 	Shoulders
Sister's Handshrouds 	Cloth 	Caster +hit	Hands 	Deathwhisper Raiment 	Leather 	Caster 	Chest
Bracers of Dark Blessings 	Cloth 	Caster 	Wrist 	Shoulders of Mercy Killing 	Cloth 	Caster +hit	Shoulders
Whispering Fanged Skull 	Trinket 	Melee 	Trinket 	The Lady's Brittle Bracers 	Cloth 	Caster +hit	Wrist
 	 	 	 	Ring of Maddening Whispers 	Finger 	Caster 	Ring
 	 	 	 	Juggernaut Band 	Finger 	Tank 	Ring
 	 	 	 	Ahn'kahar Onyx Neckguard 	Necklace	Melee 	Neck
 	 	 	 	Primordial Saronite 	 	Ingredient 	
 	 	 	 	Shadowfrost Shard 	 	Quest Item 	
===Heroic mode===
10 man 	Type 	Description	Slot 	25 man 	Type 	Description	Slot
Njorndar Bone Bow#Heroic 	Bow 	dps 	Ranged 	Zod's Repeating Longbow#Heroic 	Bow 	Ranged 	Ranged
Scourgelord's Baton#Heroic 	Off hand	Caster +hit	Off hand	Heartpierce#Heroic 	One hand	Melee 	Dagger
Deathspeaker Zealot's Helm#Heroic 	Plate 	Melee 	Head 	Nibelung#Heroic 	Two hand	Caster 	Staff
Ghoul Commander's Cuirass#Heroic 	Plate 	Tank 	Chest 	Blood-Soaked Saronite Stompers#Heroic 	Plate 	Melee 	Feet
Handgrips of Frost and Sleet#Heroic 	Mail 	Melee 	Hands 	Fallen Lord's Handguards#Heroic 	Plate 	Healer 	Hands
Deathspeaker Disciple's Belt#Heroic 	Mail 	Healer 	Waist 	Broken Ram Skull Helm#Heroic 	Plate 	Tank 	Head
Chestguard of the Frigid Noose#Heroic	Leather 	Melee 	Chest 	Leggings of Northern Lights#Heroic 	Mail 	Melee 	Legs
Soulthief's Braided Belt#Heroic 	Leather 	Melee 	Waist 	Necrophotic Greaves#Heroic 	Mail 	Healer 	Feet
Boots of the Frozen Seed#Heroic 	Leather 	Caster 	Feet 	Cultist's Bloodsoaked Spaulders#Heroic	Leather 	Melee 	Shoulders
Sister's Handshrouds#Heroic 	Cloth 	Caster +hit	Hands 	Deathwhisper Raiment#Heroic 	Leather 	Caster 	Chest
Bracers of Dark Blessings#Heroic 	Cloth 	Caster 	Wrist 	Shoulders of Mercy Killing#Heroic 	Cloth 	Caster +hit	Shoulders
Whispering Fanged Skull#Heroic 	Trinket 	Melee 	Trinket 	The Lady's Brittle Bracers#Heroic 	Cloth 	Caster +hit	Wrist
Primordial Saronite 	 	Ingredient 	 	Ring of Maddening Whispers#Heroic 	Finger 	Caster 	Ring
 	 	 	 	Juggernaut Band#Heroic 	Finger 	Tank 	Ring
 	 	 	 	Ahn'kahar Onyx Neckguard#Heroic 	Necklace	Melee 	Neck
 	 	 	 	Primordial Saronite 	 	Ingredient 	
 	 	 	 	Shadowfrost Shard 	 	Quest Item 	
==Related Achievements==
10-player mode 	25-player mode 	Objective
Full House (10 player) 	Full House (25 player) 	Defeat Lady Deathwhisper with at least five different types of Cultists active at the time of her demise
Storming the Citadel (10 player) ()	Storming the Citadel (25 player) ()	Defeat the first four bosses in Icecrown Citadel
==Quotes==
;Intro
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;Aggro
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;Dominate Mind
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;Dark Empowerment
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;Dark Transformation
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;Animate Dead
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;Phase Two
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;Killing a player
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;Berserk
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;Death
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==Videos==
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===10-player Normal encounter===
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===10-player Heroic encounter===
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===25-player Normal encounter===
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===25-player Heroic encounter===
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==Trivia==
*Lady Deathwhisper was the first lich in the game known to be female.
**Instructor Chillheart in the revamped Scholomance in Mists of Pandaria is the second known one.
*A pre-release article refers to her as Sister Deathwhisper.
*Her model's name is called the "Minister of Death".
*Lady Deathwhisper is voiced by Danielle Rayne.Video Game Voice-over: World of Warcraft
==Patch changes==
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==See also==
*Lady Deathwhisper (Assault on Icecrown Citadel), TCG card
==References==
==External links==
Category:Liches
Category:Cult of the Damned
Category:Scourge
Category:Bosses
Category:Deceased characters
Category:Icecrown Citadel mobs