The Black Temple Raid Guide
Tidal Burst Mitigation
High Warlord Naj'entus has a pretty nerve-wracking mechanic with his Tidal Burst, dealing 8500 raid-wide damage after breaking his Tidal Shield. There are only a handful of ways to mitigate this damage, but doing so will be greatly beneficial to your raid overall. Immunities such as Divine Shield and Ice Block will fully protect you from this damage. Mages can also apply Frost Ward to absorb 1100 of the 8500 Frost Damage.
Priest's Power Word: Shield will also absorb some of this damage, and the first should be cast on the tank and anyone with lower maximum HP. The last way to mitigate a healthy amount of damage would be to use the Pendant of Thawing's on-use effect, but this is a bit unnecessary and expensive. However, what everyone should do is use a Master Healthstone immediately after Tidal Burst goes out.
Bring the Wind Reavers Down
The two Dragonmaw Wyrmcallers are always paired with two Dragonmaw Wind Reavers up in the sky. Whenever you aggro the Wyrmcallers, the nearby Wind Reavers will aggro as well. They will stay in the sky and cast their spells on raid members unless players who have threat on them run away from them, forcing them to come down to be in reach of them. However, an easy way to get them grounded quickly is to have a Paladin "bubble pull" with Divine Shield, and once you aggro the Wyrm Callers, the Reavers will immediately come down into melee range as well.
Skip The Ashtongues
The first Ashtongue pack you'll encounter is after defeating Supremus and taking down the Illidari demons guarding the entrance into the temple. In this pack, you'll find an Ashtongue Feral Spirit, which has an insanely large aggro radius. However, if you get a Mage to aggro it while they have Invisibility on, it'll only pull the Fel Spirit, and not the rest of the pack.
After killing the Feral Spirit, you can now skip the rest of the Ashtongue pack if your goal is to save time in raids. However, if you're looking for reputation and trash drops, then just take this trash pack down!
Pre Reliquary/Bloodboil Trash Tips
Before you face either the Reliquary of the Lost or Gurtogg Bloodboil, there are trash packs with Bonechewer Shield Disciples and Bonechewer Blade Furys, along with a couple of other mobs. We recommend first taking down the Blade Furys, as they have a consistent threat drop and Whirlwind, making them incredibly dangerous. A Hunter should place a Frost Trap between the melee/tanks and the ranged/healers to allow the tanks to pick up threat again whenever threat drops. Also, the tanks should make sure they are the top two threat targets on both Blade Furys; that way, when they swap threat, they're only swapping to the next tank.
Next, the Bonechewer Shield Disciples cast this very annoying Shield Wall that does nothing but delay their inevitable death. To prevent them from casting this, a Warlock should Death Coil them as they get close to 20%, as if they go to 20% or lower while having this horror effect on them, it'll prevent them from casting it completely, even after the effect wears off.
The Illidari Council
This fight is arguably the hardest encounter of the phase, as everyone has responsibilities to manage while surviving and avoiding as much raid damage as possible. A war of attrition, not a DPS check, this fight can be brutal for players inexperienced in TBC and not sure of the mechanics. The first tip we have for this fight is for tanks to have a designated pattern of where to move if AoE lands on them; this includes Blizzard, Consecration, and Flamestrike. We recommend moving in an order of 4 spots as shown below, to always telegraph where you are going next for healers and DPS to have planned out, versus moving at random. Make sure no ranged or healers are in this pathing to prevent a spot from getting AoE early.
Next, make sure healers know their assignments for when unavoidable damage, like Deadly Poison/Envenom, goes out. Deadly Poison occurs after Veras reappears from Vanish after exactly 30 seconds, and Envenom happens immediately after Deadly Poison's timer is finished. Assign a healer such as a Resto Druid or Holy Priest to keep these players alive when this goes out. This is on a strict timer, so it's very easy to predict as well. Deadly Poison deals 4000 damage in 4 seconds, and Envenom deals 4250 damage, totaling 8250 damage.
Speaking of Veras, did you know he only has 136 Armor total? Compare this to Gathios and Malande, who have 6193 Armor. This means that when Faerie Fire is cast on him, he will be reduced to 0 armor, making him the best target for your physical DPS when he's active. He is also stunnable, meaning he can also be stripped of his Avoidance as well during that stun. He is also the only member of the council who is tauntable; however, tanks, your taunt might not work when he reappears after Vanish until he picks a threat target, so you'll want to get some damage/threat build on him beforehand, as he'll most likely have aggro on healers when reappearing.
Our final tip for council, and something that can be applied to fights such as Gurtogg Bloodboil, Mother Shahraz, and Illidan Stormrage, is to run an additional healer on this fight if you are struggling to complete it. Although the longer this fight goes, the more you risk running out of mana mid-encounter, there is so much raid damage that can go out that a 6th healer could prevent all possible deaths that may be happening in your progression.
