Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Icecrown Citadel. Over the next few weeks, Spiritual Guidance will be providing start-to-finish coverage of the Wrath of the Lich King's final and greatest raid instance. This week, we start at the very beginning.

The first four battles were designed to be quite accessible to beginning raiders and PUGs, with a relatively low difficulty level as compared to the rest of the content inside. The encounters inside include a cuddly bone dragon monster thing (so cute!), what appears to be the result of Kel'Thuzad after his sex-change operation, a battle involving ROCKETBEARS, and... a lone orc -- against the might of the Alliance?

Anyway. Step in, wipe your feet, and let's earn you that achievement that all those PUG raid leaders demand you have.

LORD MARROWGAR

Your Mission: Stay alive. Burn down spikes. DPS the boss. Give the downed boss cuddles.

One of the easier of the Icecrown Citadel bosses, Lord Marrowgar primarily exists to grease the wheels of progression. Every raid team could use an easy win or two, especially when that easy win comes loaded with 2 Emblems of Frost and a loot table that should make even the most advance raider jealous. Of course, Marrowgar is only easy if you know how to approach the fight. He has two different phases, and your primary goal in each is to stay alive while doing as much damage as you can (though really, in what fight does that not apply?).

Phase 1

• Lord Marrowgar has a frontal cleave attack that will absolutely kill you in one shot if you get hit by it. It's the tanks who need to soak up this damage, not the loveable shadow priests. Never approach him from the front.
• Marrowgar has an ability called Cold Flame, where he'll shoot slow-moving lines of fire out into the raid. The damage the fire does isn't huge, but it can add up quick if you don't react to it. Most Marrowgar strategies involve all melee and ranged raiders gathering inside Marrowgar's hit box, which eliminates the threat of Cold Flame.
• After you've settled into the fight, Lord Marrowgar will start casting Bone Spike Graveyard. This attack targets three raid members at random (in 25-man mode), impaling and incapacitating them. If you don't get targeted by them, it's your mission to burn them down. If everyone has gathered inside Marrowgar's hit box, all three spikes (in 25-man) can be hit with an AoE attack like Mind Sear. For those attempting the fight on ten-man mode, attacks that deal instant damage, such as Devouring Plague and Shadow Word: Death, work well. Remember, these bone spikes have a low number of health points so most DoTs will be useless.
• If you get impaled on a bone spike, you're prevented from casting. The one thing you can do is cast Dispersion -- doing so will reduce the damage you take from the spike by 90% and restore a solid chunk of your mana in the process. Your healers will thank you, but you may lose DPS time if your raid is quick to react to the spikes.
• When you're not attacking bone spikes, you should be attacking Marrowgar. As for any boss encounter, try to keep all your DoT spells active on him at all times.

Phase 2

• After throwing bone spikes out to the raid three times, Marrowgar will cast Bone Storm and start flying around the room. During this time, everyone in the raid will suffer constant ticks of damage proportional to how close they are to Marrowgar. Obviously, your goal here is to stay at the maximum casting range.
• Marrowgar also continues to throw out lines of Cold Flame, which pile up quickly during the phase. Since there will be constant background damage, try to avoid running through them, even for just one tick.
• If possible, try to keep DPSing the boss, at least during the beginning of the phase. Vampiric Embrace will provide constant heals, which will mitigate almost all of the environmental damage you'll be taking. If you're running from the boss, you can still take advantage of the upfront damage component of Devouring Plague. (You should avoid using Shadow Word: Death, since a crit could cost you about 1/4 of your health during a time where you're already taking constant damage.)
• When the phase ends, Marrowgar will go through an aggro reset, which has the potential to be deadly if you've still got DoTs ticking away. In my experience, most tanks are capable enough to pick him up before this can be an issue, but be prepared to use Fade if needed, just in case.

The Loot
The Frozen Bonespike is the end all, be all of 25-man Marrowgar loot. It's the shadow priest's best one-handed weapon, excluding what drops off the Lich King. Be prepared to spend your raid karma, DKP, or even pray to Yogg Saron for a high roll -- this piece is worth it. The Crushing Coldwraith Belt is another must-have item, containing our holy trinity of spell power, haste, and crit, all in the same piece of gear.
The gear that drops off of 10-man Marrowgar is better suited for healers, but shadow priests will still get good use out of the Cord of the Patronizing Practitioner despite it being loaded with spirit.


LADY DEATHWHISPER

Your Mission: Stay alive. Kill the Cult Fanatics and Deformed Fanatics that spawn. DPS the boss. Educate yourself about the transgendered.

Lady Deathwhisper, the second Icecrown Citadel encounter, is one where a skilled target-switching shadow priest can really shine due to the ability to multi-dot (and due to melee's need to constantly be on the move from target to target). The encounter will test your most basic of Warcraft skills: not standing in fire, target switching, and situational awareness to avoid getting hit by ghosts.

Phase 1

• During the first phase, Lady Deathwhisper will remain motionless on her podium without needing to be tanked. Don't worry about getting aggro during this first phase -- her attention is the least of your worries. If Deathwhisper is the only baddie on the screen, DPS the snot out of her.
• From time to time, Deathwhisper will cast Death and Decay. This is a basic AoE spell that you'll have to move out of. Eternal WoW truth: If the floor glows, it is time to get off that part of the floor.
• Five seconds into the encounter, Lady Deathwhisper will send a group of adds into the room (several groups on the 25-man version). During this part of the fight, it is the shadow priest's primary goal to attack the Cult Fanatics (they're the ones that look like melee adds). From time to time, Deathwhisper will do her evil magic thing and turn a Cult Fanatic into a Deformed Fanatic. Those need to be attacked and defeated as soon as possible, so switch over to them immediately.
• Cult Adherents (the ones that look like casters) are pretty resistant to your magical attacks, and even have a reflect ability. Let the melee members of your raid take care of them.
• Keep an eye on Lady Deathwhisper's mana bar. During the first phase, attacks on her lower her mana, not her health, and that mana bar needs to get to zero before Phase 2 can begin. Deathwhisper will break loose from her self-imposed rooting once her mana is gone, so ideally, your raid should pace itself and make sure that there aren't any adds still up. This requires you to be careful with applying DoTs near the end of Phase 1.
• Though we're removing Deathwhisper's mana, don't bother with Mana Burn -- it's still more inefficient than your regular attacks. Stick with your normal spell priority.

Phase 2

Phase 2 is fairly simple -- it mostly involves DPSing the boss. Occasionally, though, you will be targeted by Vengeful Shades, ghosts that wander through the raid. What you really need to look out for are their Vengeful Blasts -- an attack that rocks you for five-digit damage that they'll cast if they get within melee range. One of those alone probably won't be enough to kill you, but combine that with one of Deathwhisper's Frostbolt Volleys a couple seconds before or after and you'll be dead.

The Loot

Anyone who's read my past column on the subject will know about my love affair with the Nibelung, a really fun (though not best-in-slot) staff that drops off Lady Deathwhisper in 25-man difficulty. She also drops a couple of cloth items with hit on it, like the Shoulders of Mercy Killing and The Lady's Brittle Bracers (the latter being a high-value bind-on-equip item). The Ring of Maddening Whispers isn't ideal for shadow priests (the ring off the next encounter is far better), but will do if you're desperate for an upgrade.
In 10-man mode, Deathwhisper is again loaded with hit-heavy gear, like the off-hand Scourgelord's Baton and the Sister's Handshrouds. She also drops the Bracers of Dark Blessings, which make a good off-spec piece for shadow priests interested in healing.

GUNSHIP BATTLE

Your Mission: Stay alive. Cause siege damage. Burn down each Kor'kron Battle-Mage or Skybreaker Sorcerer ASAP. DPS adds. Make a gnome engineer repairman's life a living hell.

The gunship encounter is unlike any other in Icecrown Citadel. The boss is the enemy ship itself -- for Horde players, you're going to take down The Skybreaker, for Alliance players, your target is Orgrim's Hammer. (Though I suppose technically you're not really destroying the ship, just causing enough damage to put it out of commission until next Tuesday.) There are two general jobs you can be tasked to do as a shadow priest: offense and defense.

Before the battle begins, be sure to talk to the goblin on your ship and pick up a rocket pack. Bind it to a key you find convenient so you can readily use it to jump between ships if needed.

Offense

• If you're chosen to be one of the four cannoneers, you have a relatively simple job. Your main attack is the Cannon Blast (the "1" key), which does siege damage to the enemy ship and that ship's defenders, if you have good aim. Each time you use Cannon Blast, you generate 6 to 10 points worth of heat.
• Once you get to 90 points of heat or more, fire an Incinerating Blast (the "2" key), which hits for bonus damage.
• After a while, the enemy captain will call out for a Kor'kron Battle-Mage or a Skybreaker Sorcerer (faction dependent, of course) to cast Below Zero, which will freeze your cannons and lock you out from doing damage.
• When you're locked out, you will likely be called upon by your raid leader to use your rocket pack to jump to the enemy ship and DPS the mage/sorcerer. Remember that you can still cast Devouring Plague and Shadow Word: Pain while jumping, so help out your raid by DoT-ing while in the air. Hop back into the cannon as soon as you can.

Defense

• Players on defense are called on to take on the many adds that will appear on your own gunship during the encounter. This mostly means DPSing the Skybreaker Sergeants and Kor'kron Sergeants, the high health and high damage adds that get teleported to your ship. When combined with a group of Kor'kron Reavers or Skybreaker Marines, you can often use Mind Sear to drop the adds quickly.
• After the adds on your ship are down, begin DoT-ing up and attacking the Kor'kron Axethrowers and Skybreaker Riflemen. You only need to stand on the edge of your own airship to be in range to hit them -- no rocket pack required. Taking these guys out will help to limit the near-constant damage they inflict on the raid.

The Loot
The gunship encounter has some excellent drops for shadow priests. The best item on 25-man difficulty is the Ring of Rapid Ascent, which has spell power, haste, and crit -- a perfect fit for your second ring slot. If you're looking for a great neck piece with hit, the Amulet of the Silent Eulogy is a great drop. The Gunship Captain's Mittens also carry hit, if you need it. Last but not least, the Corp'rethar Ceremonial Crown is a solid headpiece with spirit and crit (ideal off-spec disc priests).
For 10-man groups, the Midnight Sun is an acceptable dagger if you're desperate for a weapon upgrade. The real piece of loot you should be drooling over is Muradin's Spyglass, a terrific trinket that works much like the Illustration of the Dragon Soul of yore.


DEATHBRINGER SAURFANG

Your Mission: Stay alive. Prevent self damage. Slow Blood Beasts with Mind Flay. DPS the boss. Endure a painfully repetitive roleplay scene week after week after week.

This encounter has gone through a few changes since it initially went live in December. This is an exciting fight from a shadow priest's perspective, because there's a lot of value you can add to the raid aside from just mindlessly DPSing.

Phase 1

• The first phase involves just you and Saurfang. Clearly, your job is to DPS him as hard as possible.
• Saurfang's attacks have numerous consequences for you raid. First, he will regularly cast Blood Nova -- if it targets you it will damage you and anyone else within 12 yards of you, so maintain safe distance from your teammates. He'll also randomly target you with Boiling Blood, another DoT effect. Each time either of those attacks hit, Deathbringer Saurfang gains something called Blood Power, making him hit the tank harder and bringing him closer to calling forth a rather devastating attack.
• If Saurfang gets 100 points worth of Blood Power, he casts Mark of the Fallen Champion, which effectively acts as a permanent DoT that also heals Saurfang. If you're targeted, you need to make sure you're doing as much DPS as possible on a constant basis -- Vampiric Embrace can make up for a lot of health lost. If you die while afflicted, Saurfang is healed for a massive amount of health, which can mean the difference between success and a wipe. (Note: The old Saurfang strategy called for letting people die, because he gained huge amounts of Blood Points from each hit of damage. This is no longer the case, and players afflicted should be kept alive as long as possible to prevent the giant heal and to keep up maximum DPS pressure.)
• Damage mitigation is key. If you're the only priest in the raid, be sure to apply Power Word: Shield on yourself whenever possible -- this will limit the amount of Blood Power Saurfang can get from attacking you. If there's a disc-spec priest in the raid, communicate before hand when you should use Power Word: Shield to avoid having to work around the Weakened Soul debuff.

Phase 2

• At regular intervals, Deathbringer Saurfang will call forth Blood Beasts, which need to be aggroed, kited, and drawn away from melee as soon as possible. Each summoning will capture your full attention for extended periods of time, so if you have an add-on like Deadly Boss Mods to tell you when to expect each wave, refresh your DoTs on Saurfang immediately before they're called to maximize your damage.
• Two Blood Beasts will be summoned in ten-player mode; five will be summoned in 25-man raids. In the latter situation, you have time to cast Vampiric Touch on one beast, and then quickly target switch to another. Once on your main target (or in ten-man raids in general), Mind Blast is great for catching the Beasts' attention. Once you have it, Mind Flay slows them down to keep them from reaching you. The goal is to never let them reach melee range of you -- if they're almost that close, run.
• If a Blood Beast is chasing after another player, you can use Mind Flay to slow it down and "rescue" them, but be sure to make sure you're not being chased yourself first.
• Clearing Blood Beasts quickly is a key part of downing Saurfang. Don't be afraid to use your cooldowns during this phase.
• Don't waste Devouring Plague on Blood Beasts -- their Resistant Skin severely limits the damage they take from it. From a DPS perspective, you're better off letting the DoT continue to tick on Saurfang.

The Loot
There are two drops of interest from the 25-man version of Deathbringer Saurfang. First, the Conqueror's Mark of Sanctification will allow you to upgrade one of your Tier 10 pieces to an item level of 264 -- you should aspire to collect all four of these (and don't be afraid to eat any gnome warlocks who try to claim it). The other drop is the Greatcloak of the Turned Champion -- though loaded with spirit, it still makes a great DPS back piece.

In 10-man difficulty, there are a number of top-notch pieces to be on the lookout for. The Mag'hari Chieftan's Staff is hands down one of the best two-handed staffs in the game for shadow priests. The Shadowcleave Pendant has great itemization, carrying with it spell power, haste, and crit -- it's the best neck piece in the game at its item level. The Thaumaturge's Crackling Cowl is a terrific head piece to use until you can buy your tier 10, and the Icecrown Spire Sandals are a good way to add a little bit of hit to your spriest if you need it.

Once you down the first four bosses, you'll be ready to make your way into the bulk of Icecrown Citadel (while Jaina Proudmoore cries like a little girl). There, far more challenging encounters await. We'll cover the Plagueworks in our next column, and follow that up with the Crimson Hall and the Frostwing Halls, all leading up to our epic battle with the Lich King.

Until then, as always, don't do anything I wouldn't do.