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Comment by Lithic

Special Abilities

Polymorph – Randomly targeted polymorph, 5 second duration, can be dispelled and will regenerate the party member afflicted.
Arcane Volley – 40 yard range AoE Arcane bolts, dealing about 1400-1900 arcane damage.
Blink – same as mage.
Arcane Explosion – After Blinking Talon King will charge up his Arcane Explosion, 5 second cast with 40 yard range deals 5000-6000 arcane damage. Can be interrupted in the first 2 seconds after which he becomes immune to interrupting skills.
Mana Shield – same as mage.

Strategy

Not an incredibly complicated fight, his Arcane Volley can only be avoided easily by a Hunter since it has so much range. You can tank him in the center to easily see when and where he blinks. As soon as he blinks he must be interrupted within 1-2 seconds if he is not his Arcane Explosion can easily kill players with 6000 or less hp and bring our tank to his knees.

Do not be surprised if you wipe, but once you get down interrupting his Arcane Explosion he is a cake walk.

Comment by 58

Just killed him today. His arcane explosion seems more like 30 yards instead of 40. I tanked him in the middle of the room and when he blinked, the rest of my party out-ranged his arcane explosion. It's a pretty long cast so the party has plenty of time to get away.

Its a pretty easy fight once your party is able to avoid the arcane explosion. Make sure to shield bash his polymorph if you only have one healer.

Comment by Schnitzel

Took him down a few minutes ago. I tanked him beside one of the columns.

When he blinked and started to cast the arcane explosion my party just ran to the other side of the column out of the line of sight. If you do it this way make sure the polymorph is dispelled before the AE.

But pay attention with the aggro the blink seems to be a kind of a threat wipe. But a taunt should solve the problem ;)

(Sorry for the bad english, I'm from Germany).

Comment by 16911

When he is preparing to do his arcane explosion a burst of light appears around him for a moment and he emotes that he is beginning to channel his arcane energy. Like others have said, if you miss the interrupt, just run away 30+ yards. The most effective method is to have the tank keep him in the center, and when he blinks to someone else, have them pull Ikiss back to the center to the tank. This makes it much easier when avoiding his arcane blast.

Comment by 17601

Have a rogue stay with him all the time to kick the Arcane Explosion. Rogue should ignore Polymorph to have kick ready for the Arcane Explosion. Rogue should also be dispelled if polymorphed.

Comment by 14687

The only difficulty with this boss is his arcane explosion. Before he does an arcane explosion he will blink to the 2nd person on the aggro list. For us it was a rogue so he blinked "in-place" right beside the tank.

Once he blinks every run away from him while he casts the explosion effect. Tank should switch to berserker stance and intercept immediately after explosion.

Curse of tongues if you have a warlock, mind-numbing posion from a rogue will increase the casting time for the explosion making it even easier to run away.

This fight is like gar in molten core, just run in and out and you'll be fine.

Comment by 11346

We made him yesterday evening with warrior, mage, rogue, hunter and me, priest. We died in the first try by his blink/arcane explosion combo. The second try was very easy because we silenced him very effectively with shield bash, kick, counterspell and silencing shot. Additionally, everone moved as close to the boss as possible to avoid blinking with the hunter at minimum attack range.

Comment by Xarrot

This fight is sooo easy, just make sure you interrupt in time. If u don't ... erm get out of LoS .. in time :D

Comment by 12172

This is a good fight to have a feral Druid MT. In bear form they are immune to polymorph. Also, feral charge is another spell interrupt the party will have at their disposal. Start off by tanking him towards the back of the room while the rest of the healers and ranged DPS stay towards the front. When he blinks and starts to do his arcane explosion feral charge him and have those who are ranged run back to the back of the room while you stay and tank him in the front now. Repeat this process for the last explosion. This works best if the majority of the party is at range because when he blinks and does his arcane explosion he tends to go towards the bulk of the party. If they are all bunched up close he only teleports a short distance, inside the minimum of feral charge. It is still nice having a spell interrup available like a rogue's kick or a mage's counterspell works too in case you miss with the feral charge. Note if the mage has improved counterspell it will say "Immune" when used. This only applies to the silencing part of the skill. Counterspell still interrupts the casting fine.

Comment by 15529

VERY easy boss if you just let a rogue interrupt his Arcane Explosion after the blink...Piece of cake:)

Comment by deepesh

The fight has been changed somewhat to make it a little harder now

The AOE he does after he blinks CANNOT be interrupted with kick, counter spell, shield bash etc

The only thing that can interrupt him is a rogue's deadly throw
The rogue also needs to have this item https://www.wowhead.com/tbc/item=28836

"Equip: Causes your Deadly Throw ability to interrupt spellcasting and prevent any spell in that school from being cast for 3 sec."

Comment by 17424

On heroic he is still easy. The hard part of the instance is the first boss.

Comment by 4130

Mind-numbing poison trivializes this fight completely. If Ikiss has mind-numbing poison on him no matter where the party is they can happily saunter over and interrupt him before he casts his world-ending AOE.

Comment by 16744

As of Patch 2.07 he is immune to any form of interrupt and also to Mind Numbing poison or any other form of slowing his casts.

He's a pain, but not too bad as long as you remember to break LoS. He always blinks before he casts his AOE and he does an emote that lets you know he is casting. A note to 70 mages, you can Spellsteal his Mana Shield. It also might be a decent idea to keep your PvP trinket on to break sheep, especially if you're a/the healer and no one else can cleanse.

Comment by 19356

Is it correct that he does not drop a Badge of Justice on Heroic mode?

Comment by CelesseDruid

I just did this boss.

As stated, he's immune to stun effects. The trick is to tank him next to a pillar in the room and keep all of your party members close together. That way, when he teleports he barely moves. Immediately after he ports, run to the other side of the pillar and you won't be hit by the blast :)

Comment by 20846

This boss is more or less free loot, even with the changes made regarding immunity to interrupts.

Tank the boss next to one of the pilars, watch your fury warrior be sheeped 100 times while you bash the boss. When he starts to channel the aoe, break los, rinse and repeat.

Note to rogues, you can CoS to avoid the aoe and evasion tank the boss if your wanting to down him even faster ^^

Comment by 24814

Little Tip...if you are lacking adequate healing on this boss..advise everyone to bandage when u run around the pillar to avoid the aoe. its like ~2k extra healing per aoe. kinda nice to counter act the arcane bolt volleys he throws

Comment by 25371

▄▄▄▄▄ For the Rogues ▄▄▄▄▄

As rogue class leader I set up stealth runs with 1 druid and 4 rogues. The route is stealthable and not very difficult. His AOE was not interruptible, but running away and CloS was effective enough to beat him easily. There is no need to hide behind pillars, simply get far enough away from him in any direction after he blinks. Mind numbing poison does not work, but his AOE takes a while to cast. We farmed everyone's shoulders in approximately 3-4 hours, and a healthy amount of spirit shards for our rings.

Hey, if we can't get groups... we'll figure out ways to gear up without em. Good luck to you rogues.

Comment by slivki

For the Priests

4-manned Ikiss last night with a PUG. Having to break LOS on the AE makes it more tricky than it was before, but other than that the healing requirements are pretty slim. With old-world +healing gear (assuming 400-700 +healing) Prayer of Healing gets you through the volleys and he hits like a wimp on the tank. With all the running around and polymorphing, having Renew up pretty well constantly on the tank worked well. Throw out the occasional decurse on the Polymorph and that was about it. Didn't seem too tricky.

NOTE: I was on the opposite side of the room while Ikiss was at the entrance. If the AE can be outranged (i.e. if the room is bigger than 40 yards), color me surprised. Getting out of range may be impossible depending on where he teleports (e.g. right on top of you) so the pillar method still seems the most reliable.

Comment by 14058

Very easy way to 3 man this

Druid tank + Rogue + Rogue = profit

Make sure you have a character that can DE the blues that drop and make sure you have the buff to get the shards. Runs take 10 minutes.

Stealth to Ikiss, buff up, and engage. Right near back pillar as person above said so you can get out of LOS for when the arcane explosion pops off. Let druid tank get 1 mangle off on Ikiss and then start unloading on him. Ikiss will poly the person highest on the aggro list and when he polys you *taa daa* you heal to full. When he blinks run out of LOS and bandage if you need to, druid will cast rejuv and regrowth or what not. To buy your druid more time rush Ikiss and start ripping him up, he will hit you for 2-4k and then poly you pretty much immediatley. This buys your druid another 2 seconds to get a regrowth off.

Repeat till you get your shoulders and or other loots/shards that you need.

Comment by Nocturnity

Mind Numbing poison does work. its a 6 second cast without it and its a 9 seconds with it on him. If you can apply the poison it works. Mind numbing sticks.

Comment by 26303

I haven't seen this strategy posted yet. We made 3 attempts on him yesterday, the first two we tried tanking him by a pillar and then running behind when he did his arcane explosion. the third time one of our members suggested a different strategy - we pulled him back into the hallway and tanked him by the archway to the previous room. whenever he started his explosion, we ran to the other side of the archway. it worked well. you have to make sure, however, that you are out of LOS - on the other side of the archway is not enough, you have to be around the corner, because his explosion goes through the doorway.

Comment by 20340

CoT doesn't work as of 2-28, lock gets an immune message when he tried it.

Comment by 23646

Can be 3 man stealth'd.

2 Druids, 1 Rogue

You'll need to move as a group as there are a few points where the mobs need to be distracted before moving past.

Go in, stealth past the first two guards then cut a tight left and stick to that wall to get past the pat and guards at the door.
Work your way through to room to the left and distract the guards at the doorway as they will see you about 50% of the time.
It's pretty straight forward until you get to the room with all the "hawks".
Distract them to face right and then hug the left wall, there is a small ledge you can jump to to help you stay hidden.
Then right before Ikiss there are 6 mobs. Most people think that if you distract, you can shoot right up the middle....not so.
Distract right and go far left.

Once you get to Ikiss, choose either pillar behind him to use as the "tank spot".

Get the Druid to go Bear Form and tank Ikiss on the "inside" of the pillar. (inside being relative to the circle the pillars create)

Tank/Spank/Heal until Ikiss blinks.

Once he blinks, run around the pillar you were tanking until you are out of LoS of the Arcane Explosion. Right away Ikiss will run after the Healing Druid so be aware of which path he'll take.

His Arcane Missles do about 1500 damage so a HoT will bring you back up before he casts it again.

If you all get hit by the Arcane Explosion, your healer will probably go OOM before you can DPS Ikiss down.

The reason you need 2 Druids in this is because they are immune to Polymorph.

The Rogue can be Poly'd as long as it wears off before Ikiss blinks. The Poly will usually heal the Rogue to full health and allow the Druid Tank to build up some more aggro.

If your healer gets sheeped, shift to bear/cat then back.

Easy way to get both the Shoulders of Assassination and the Cloak Of Avian Feathers or Spirit Shard farming.

Comment by 28301

I learned to fight him in the Hallway. Then when he does the AoE either hide in the next room or around the corner. Healers and DPS stay alive longer.

Comment by 7703

Mind-Numbing does NOT work. You will get an IMMUNE message if you try.

Stealth runs are easy for him. There are two parts you have to watch out for. One is a bird pat before Syth that moves fast. Distract him. The second part is a group of non-elite birds. Distract them to keep them from looking at you as you don't have much room to work with.

King Talon himself wasn't that hard. Pots and Bandages are the only consumables used. Took us 2-3 runs to learn all the little tricks. We tanked him near the north eastern pillar. Let the the druid get a mangle off, then open with Garrote. Then have the rogues SnD, and spam SS until he starts to cast poly. Target of Target helps here a lot. As soon as he starts to cast poly, the other rogue (who will not be poly'd) cast AR and burn. When he blinks, throw a few SS in but don't use your eviscerate. He will go immune to all damage shortly after his blink so you want to save the CP. Run behind the pillar and wait. During this time the druid should shift out and cast a HOT on himself. After the blink, start again, but this time, the rogue that was poly'd needs to go easy DPS. This will insure that the poly will go to the rogue who should be lower in health. If you start to see Talon is casting poly on yourself, when the other rogue needs it, vanish.

Sometimes a rogue will be poly'd and then Talon will blink. This is bad as the chance of the rogue getting behind the pillar is slim. Use CoS for this.

Other then that, its mostly shifting back and forth between polymorphs and healing while he does his AOE. If you can get Talon down to 20% you should be able to finish him with only 2 if a rogue happens to die. But when this happens, the rogue will be getting Polymorphed very often. In this case have the rogue start DPSing and the druid healing himself. When the rogue becomes polymorphed the druid needs to take over tanking. Keep shifting back and forth and get him down as fast as you can. The little errors add up here more then ever.

Comment by 16487

Please note;

If your group is full of idiots who don't know when or how to get out of LOS, you will either end up 2 manning this boss, or wiping. Take special care to only invite people who don't suck. It also helps to have an offhealer, in case too much AOE goes flying around. Failing this, get a Warlock to drop a soul thingo so that you may all get a Master Healthstone. Helps a lot.

Comment by 36338

The stairs down that can also be used to break line of sight (LOS) are long enough to allow him to reset. About half way down he will evade and return, so if you want to fight, be careful not to go past this point, and if you want to bail out consider using this to reset him.

Comment by 20843

Just finished stealth farming Shoulders of Assassination for me and my friend. I can confirm that this is actually doable with just 2 druids. It took 12 runs to get the shoulders for both of us. Average reset time was 10-15 min. Fastest run being slightly under 10 min.

Also tried heroic, and I believe that it would still be doable with just 2 druids. Though its bit hard to get there unnoticed (last pack spotted me although I had 3/3 Feral Instinct).

Comment by 34251

My first time in Sethekk Halls was pretty cool, but I got a couple of questions. We went around a long way, and after killing Ikiss we found out that there was a path way to the right of his room which lead to rooms we cleared earlier!

So does this mean we could just go that way and get to him straight away? For instance if I wanted to farm something.

Comment by Khane

Rawrsauce Ja Ja

Comment by 41566

I farm this guy alot lately with my rogue friend. All you need is some brains and ok gear. I just start tanking him with a rejuv and lifebloom to start with and at 75%/50%/25% we have plenty enough time to run behind the pillar and heal up. The rogue (Hemo specced btw) doesn't need any healing since he gets sheeped back to full health. And there ya go, nice way to make 100g per person in about 50 minutes if 1 of u can disenchant ;)

BTW if the druid is not that sure about his gear, he should bring a arcane prot. pot, helps a bunch at start.

Comment by dkane

From the 2.1.0 test realm notes: "Darkweaver Syth's aggro radius has been increased, and he can now see through both stealth and invisibility." This is presumably to make stealth Ikiss runs harder.

For Ikiss himself: "Talon King Ikiss on Heroic difficulty has been significantly reworked. He now has a point blank area of effect slow spell, increased damage on the Arcane volley , increased damage on the 'Arcane Explosion', and reduced the frequency on his 'Polymorph'.
"Talon King Ikiss is more obvious when he is about to cast 'Arcane Explosion'."

Comment by 5427

This is one of the best fights in the 5-men content imo, it worths to check there even if you don't care about the loot =)

Comment by Coocks

i dont think people really care about how people solo'ed this boss with their rogues. i was rather interested about his skills on heroic mode. no one wrote about those, gonna fight him and see i guess

Comment by Nomak

realy easy if everyone in group has more than 6000+ hp , if doesn't priest should drop a shield on him before he explodes and than just twice prayer of healing.

zerg boss.

Comment by magilync

Duoed this on heroic not long ago. Feral druid and I am a moonkin druid. Basically just kept him healed, threw insect swarm on him here and here, kept all my hots on my feral buddy, and he took him down. I don't have any points into imp stealth, but I did have 3 sneaking potions, used one at very beginning with dash, and got to the 1st boss, used 2nd on the 2nd floor just before the huge pack of birds and rested in the room before ikiss, drank my 3rd and went straight to the boss. GL. :)

Comment by aasartor

Quoted from the 2.1.0 patch notes regarding heroic Talon King Ikiss:

"Talon King Ikiss on Heroic difficulty has been significantly reworked. He now has a point blank area of effect slow spell, increased damage on the Arcane volley , increased damage on the Arcane Explosion, and reduced the frequency on his Polymorph."

In my heroic run today, I noticed the following things:

Arcane Volley hit for approximately 3k to everybody in the party.
Arcane Explosion 1-hit killed the people that didn't run out of LoS (although they were probably missing health from Arcane Volley)
Slow lasts for 6 seconds, but our paladin did a good job of cleansing it off of melee.
Talon King has fairly low health. He only managed to get 2 or 3 teleports off before he died, even considering our mage was dead for half the fight.

Comment by 18228

Currently attempting this in 2.1.0 *heroic* with myself (arc/fire mage), feral druid tank, hunter, frost mage and holy priest.

We have been having a lot of problems controlling this boss especially when he polymorphs our healer, it pretty much guarantees a wipe as we have no backup dispel. He can take the clothies out in one hit and if he isn't picked up after an aoe aggro reset he will usually kill someone off. We are on our fifth attempt and finding it quite difficult so far, just to give people a heads up it might pay to have a priest/pally combo.

Also remember to keep mana shield/pws up to absorb the arcane bolts that he does, they can chip away your health if you aren't careful. The point blank slow will make it hard if you aren't near a pillar to survive too because you are sure to be hit by the aoe after he blinks. The aoe nova can be survived if you are on max hp (over 6k.)

Even though he has low health, it seems without the proper class balance it will be a very difficult fight.

Comment by 886

As of patch 2.1.0 this boss is STILL 2 manable in a stealth run. We did it as 2 x Feral Druid 10 minutes ago (Feral + Resto will help alot though). Was alot harder than pre-patch, and we also had to deal with the stealth detection on Syth but we still one shotted it.

Comment by Yeoman

At Heroic using Arcane resistance helps a lot. With 155 AR my combat log is full with arcane damage recived 1600, resisted 1600, or sometimes even arcane dmg recived 780, resisted 2340 (every hit in total is around 3200 arcane damage).

I think all, except tank can use Arcane Resist gear, if you have good one (blue or purple).

Comment by 55516

Easiest way to do it is tank him near the doorway to the room before the boss's room. Run out of LOS after he blinks...smooth sailing...no Arcane Resist gear necessary.

Comment by absorb

HEROIC: 2.1.0
Firstly your group must choose a pillar to hide around. Your group will then hide around that pillar and only around that pillar when Arcane Explosion occurs, includes the tank. This strategy helps ease the fight by a lot because:
a)The tank can taunt off anyone immediately since every member is in that area
b)Heals in range
c)Polymorph will not happen on the tank because by the time Talon King gets in LOS, tank would have taunted him by then

Warrior should always have Spell reflection up, it reflects arcane volley, polymorph and even his blink before the arcane explosion. When this happens talon king will just begin to cast explosion at where he is. Whether or not this is helpful it doesn matter, spell reflection is to reduce damage taken. Grounding totems may help (unconfirmed)

Equip insignias that dispel polymorph. If by chance tank or healer gets poly, this nifty trinket will get you out of trouble quickly. It will also save your life if you happened to be poly while arcane explosion is being casted. Damage on Arcane explosion is roughly 6.5k+ if i recall correctly

Good luck, and Oh you can reset it by running out of the chamber

Comment by 64966

Anyone know anyway to prevent the dps from dying due to the arcane volleys? It wasn't a good group that I had for the heroic sethek (rogue had little over 6k health I think, 7k or so in PVP gear...+our hunter was BM, but he wasn't that bad during the boss fights since he just popped all his cooldowns)

Had a paladin healing btw, he had like +1500 or so healing so gear wasn't an issue, at least, not an issue on his part.

Comment by 68364

You can spell steal his shield/bubble thing and it made the heroic fight much easier. After wiping 3 times with 2 mages, paladin (tank), druid (healer), and a hunter one of mages stole his bubble and we killed him bery fast.

Comment by 57225

Killed him with spriest (me),hunter,rogue,warrior,holy pally

Dpsing wasn't working out so great so I switched to heal mode as we were just sustaining too much dmg for a single healer to handle.

Being secondary healer helped as he outputs massive AE dmg every ~10 sec in the form of non-line of sightable arcane volleys that hit for ~3k dmg on everyone. Spamming PWS whenever it was up, dispelling AE Slow and healing as long as I could til I ran out of mana and died seemed to have done the trick. In the end the pally was able to keep himself and tank topped off while the rogue kept getting polyed/healed back to 100% hp to help finish him off.

I was told the tank could reflect every arcane volley with spell reflect (10sec cd) which is probably how the pally was able to keep the tank and himself up for the last 15-10% after me and the hunter died. I did see the pally bubble himself at one point which really helped him survive.

Tough fight but a little arcane resist would've come in handy.

Comment by Zaina

To make it alot easier, hide behind the pillars just before he casts the Arcane explosion.

Comment by Kathucka

This guy is an absolute nightmare on heroic difficulty.

Heavy damage from his arcane volley can't be avoided, and his aggro is very touchy after an arcane explosion. It appears to be a threat wipe and he often jumps on the healer. It's just too much for the healer to deal with. A polymorph at the wrong time or place is a guaranteed wipe. Mass slow can make it impossible to get away from the explosion. Overgeared groups can sail through the rest of the instance, slam into this brick wall, and wipe 10 times.

Still, you have to fight him. His trinkets are just so damn good. You can't stay away from them.

Everyone stick close to the tank so he can pick up aggro after an explosion. Put raid markers on the tank and the boss to make this easier.
Pick a single pillar and run around it for the whole fight. It makes things much easier to control.
Yes, arcane resistance actually does help.
Group heals (Chain Heal, Prayer of Healing) and heal-over-time spells (Renew, Lifebloom) work well here. Even Lightwell is nice, if timed properly. Paladins have a really tough time healing for this fight.
He appears to polymorph the closest enemy that isn't the tank. This can be a snake from a trap or a pet, which makes things easier.
Mass slow + explosion is deadly. Stay close to that pillar at all times!
Use self-heals (healthstones, potions) liberally.
He's immune to everything while he channels his explosion. Don't stay to fight. Just run away.
He appears to be resistant to taunts. After each explosion, make sure the tank has a firm grip before doing anything, even healing.
For God's sake, purge/dispel/spellsteal his mana shield when he pops it at low health. Wiping when he's that low on health because you can't burn through his mana shield...hurts. It's also much harder for your tank to maintain threat when that thing is up.
Casters, wear stamina instead of mana gear. It's not a long fight. If you're wearing your mana gear, you're going to die with 75% of your mana.
If all else fails, a Cauldron of Major Arcane Protection really helps, by absorbing a few of the arcane bolt volleys. One minute before pulling, drop the cauldron, pop one potion, and pick up another. Use that one one minute into the fight and pick up another. It's unlikely that the fight will last that long, but at least you'll have it for later.

Finally, whatever you do, make sure that you want one of his (really nice) drops. Don't fight him for the Badge of Justice. The massive headache is just not worth a single Badge. Go to Mechanar or something instead.

Comment by Ismat

Fighting him on heroic mode, I noted that his arcane volley hits everyone for about 3000 and his explosion does 7500-8000 damage. His slow can make it extremely dicey to get to the other side of a pillar in time if he teleports right on top of you, but it's still possible if you are standing close to a pillar and start running instantly.

I can verify that grounding totem absorbs his polymorph spell, both on normal and heroic. This helps a lot if you only have one healer.

He doesn't have much health, so if you can keep everyone alive the fight will be over quickly with reasonable dps. On our first attempt he took out 2 of the 3 dps with the first explosion and we still got him to 20%. Probably a healer-heavy group should have an easy time on him.

Comment by 100232

Heroic:

If you can handle the AOE, you should be fine. I lost all of my DPS by 50%, leaving me(tank) and a pally healer alive. He AOE'd twice, but we managed to clear LOS. It took a while, but the healer and I downed him the rest of the way. The healer even spent most of the time poly'd.

If you think it's a wipe, it might not be.

I do suggest not tanking in the center of the room. Tank near one of the pillars on the inside, so you can quickly get LOS.

Comment by 37019

This boss seems like a reference to one of the Skeksis from the movie, The Dark Crystal.

Whenever he kills someone he goes "Hmmmm!" in the exact same way as the Chamberlain, whom had a bad habit of saying that just about every time he appeared in a scene.

Comment by Jessia

The absolute easiest way to kill him is to tank him at the doorway leading to his room. Just keep him about 10 yards on his side and everyone gets to unload. When he blinks, just move around corner. The doorway is not straight so you can hide around the bend if he is straddling the door but you never have to move more than a few feet at any time. Every one is together making tank pick up easy and Aoe heals are simple cause everyone is always together.

Completed this trick on normal and heroic.

Give it a try

Comment by 96105

Killed today, my first time here in heroic mod, and easy to kill boss.. Our dps rogue and mage died at %75-70 and we able to kill it only 3 people.. Me (prot warrior in dps gear) tank druid and pala healer. Key is ay try to cause more aggro then tank -in def form ı can get near him- and he sheeps me.. sheep gives me healt so pala only have to heal the tank.. easy to evoid arcane exp. and that exp gives time to heal all party up.

dropped my tank shoulders, dps ring and dps belt; at the same time.. Makes really happy :)

Comment by 97333

Ive done this boss 2man party. Rogue and Druid
Not to hard to get pass first boss.
Rogue gets aggro and let me pass (feral druid) then he just use vanish.
And boom you have 5 large prismatic shards / 1 hour / each

Druid (full s1+all vindi items (14epics)) (Unbuffed 10,6k hp / 6,8k mana)
Rogue (s1,s2+vindi items (full epic i think)) (10,4k hp / 110 energy)

No need to heal the rogue a single time cuz Ikiss will poly him cuz druids are immun to poly while hugga bear ;D

= ez mode

Update: Talon King Ikiss best run time (5times) 2man party still, Hemo mace rogue pvp gear and me once agian feral druid with pvp gear.
The 5 runs we made took about 45mins and he dropped 10 blue items, 1 primal nether, and Ace of something and 2 green items in total for us those runs.

If your a rogue or druid find a a new friend with enchanting :) and start farming.

Comment by NeronaS

Just for your information, this is the only <70lvl boss that drops Primal Nether but on a 3% chance.
( https://www.wowhead.com/tbc/item=23572#dropped-by:0+2-7+1 )
Every other boss in the list only drops it in heroic mode. Unless it's some kind of mistake in the site.

Comment by Keepertje8

Duo'd it as a prot warrior with 292AR with a holy paladin... took 10 minutes, but was peace of cake. To bad the other 3 guys, who were killed at 95%, couldnt go back in, so they lost the loot... Blizzard should fix that.

Comment by 111428

From what he says in game.... It seems like he likes trinkets.

Comment by jurian

***HEROIC***
The easiest method I have seen is to pull him to the doorway entering the room. This way, when he casts his AE, you can hide on opposite corners of the doorway rather than trying to get around a pillar.

Comment by Keepertje8

This is one of the encounters, like the 2nd boss in Magister's Terrace, the section before the 1st boss in Mechanar and the trash to Aran, in which Arcane Resistance removes all the difficulties of the fight, as a tank. I have over 300 Arcane resistance, and can easily duo this with a healer who's a little bit skilled.

Comment by 71496

/script PlaySoundFile("Sound\\Creature\\TalonkingIkiss\\Auch_Ikiss_Intro01.wav")

Trinkets, yes, pretty trinkets. Power, great power! Power in trinkets!

Copy the code into WoW chat to hear the soundfile.

I like this boss, he is fun and challenging, and his audio is some of the best in WoW.

There was a 'rumor' going around that using trinkets on this boss would somehow enrage him, this is however complete bull.

Other sounds:
/script PlaySoundFile("Sound\\Creature\\TalonkingIkiss\\Auch_Ikiss_Aggro01.wav")
/script PlaySoundFile("Sound\\Creature\\TalonkingIkiss\\Auch_Ikiss_Aggro02.wav")
/script PlaySoundFile("Sound\\Creature\\TalonkingIkiss\\Auch_Ikiss_Aggro03.wav")
/script PlaySoundFile("Sound\\Creature\\TalonkingIkiss\\Auch_Ikiss_Death01.wav")
/script PlaySoundFile("Sound\\Creature\\TalonkingIkiss\\Auch_Ikiss_Slay01.wav")
/script PlaySoundFile("Sound\\Creature\\TalonkingIkiss\\Auch_Ikiss_Slay02.wav")

Comment by beforememory

Just killed on heroic, strategies that helped were:
*all staying on same pillar for healer
*Lock using Felhunter for spell interupt
*Fast DPS
Good Luck

Comment by 109021

Just a little heads up to healers-

After an explosion, your HoTs and everything will probably get you aggro very quickly. And sometimes you'll be forced to pick up more aggro than you can dump via your skills.

So in backup, I always have a nice little trinket for when I know I'm going to be getting aggro.
There're a number, but here are some easy-to-get ones.
Hypnotist's Watch comes from a Hellfire Peninsula quest.
Jewel of Charismatic Mystique drops from Grandmster Vorpil in Shadow Labs.
Timelapse Shard is sold by the Keepers of Time faction vendor for those who are exalted.

I never go anywhere without one of them. :]

(Edited for Hypnotist's Watch. Thanks Nummytaterz)

Comment by Louhiorotta

can Cloak of shadows resist it?

Comment by 82522

No longer drops the key Btw it is in the chest in his room make sure to grab it!

Comment by airtonix

Heroic Mode

His room, which gives people the false impression that spreading out is a good thing, makes this encounter harder.

There is less time to run behind pillars
More running around required of the tank
which equals more time the others have to endure being hit on while tank aggros again

The door way to his room however is better.

\ | Z & X = talon king tanks spots
\ | Talon King at
|-------||-------|| Xy - Z then hide at Zy
o o o o o o o o Zy|| - X then hide at Xy
|| - o = bad hiding spot.

X Z

||
o o o o o o o o Zy||
|-------||-------|| Xy
/ |
/ |

when talon king is casting arcane explosion at Z or X hide at the matching spots marked Zy or Xy

can hide much faster
tank doesnt have to run far to pick up aggro again
healer can aoe heal more reliably
and most important, dps/healer can strafe at the Zy and Xy spots to avoid polymorph

As of patch 2.0.7, you cannot interrupt him anymore. You must either run out of range (30 yards) or behind a pillar.

The last point is also a good way to make him waste casting time. i had him trying to polymorph me about 7 times, each time by strafing to the side to break los and quickly back again. this is how you interupt his polymorph, his other spells however cannot be interrupted.

Also DO NOT try to outrun his ARCANE EXPLOSION by running down the hallway...wont work. you have to hide in the corners of the door way arch like the diagram shows

Comment by airtonix

No longer drops the key Btw it is in the chest in his room make sure to grab it!

It's been this way since 2.3

Comment by morik

Strategy: I have used this about four or five times now as a prot paladin. Have everyone stack on you by pillar, dont try to tank him in middle or anything. When he blinks move to get out of los from the arcane explosion. When he blinks and comes back everyone is stacked so it isnt an issue of los to get aggro back. Just have Consecration down and hit your Righteous Defense. Rinse and repeat.

Comment by 168831

He should polymorph a random party member in Normal, i dont know if he does it in heroic.. But suddently he teleports and starts to cast an aoe then you should run behind a pillar fast otherwise he'll do lotsa damage on you.

And also the key Shadow Labyrint key is in a chest behind him

Comment by sgtsolidus

Personally, I've never had troubles with this boss as a bm hunter. Always have a good tank and a fast acting healer who can get off heals quick enough to take care of anyone who is too slow. in my experience it's an easy fight. basically just dps him down while making sure your party members are aware of his polymorph and when he charges up go run behind a pillar. also unless you are really attentive and have no lag you're pet will die. keep it alive as long as possible but don't waste too much mana on it.

Comment by Thottbot

This is confirmed, Kick, Pummel, and Shield Bash -do not- interrupt his arcane blast. Might have done so before the patch, but not any more. Also, the range of his AoE seems to reach almost across the entire room.

Comment by Thottbot

Tuesday's patch has made his casts uninterruptable now. Kick, Shield Bash, etc. no longer works.

You have to run out of line of sight to avoid the aoe. Have your tank tank him in a position where you simply need to step behind a pillar to get out of sight. (kinda like Firemaw in BWL)

It gets trickier when he blinks and then casts his aoe... so ya just have to be on your toes.

Comment by Thottbot

Curse of Tongues no longer works, he is immune. So no more longer cast times...

Comment by Thottbot

He sheeps (not sure which player), blinks to 2nd on aggro list, then casts an Arcane Blast which hits everyone in line of sight for 5K+ dmg, as well as his intermittent 1-2K arcane shots. He cannot be interrupted, nor stunned, and many warlock curses don't work.

When his health gets low--15% or so--he goes immune to damage for about a minute, then resumes regular damage.

Stay close together so his blink doesn't move him far, then hide behind a pillar when he starts casting the blast--five seconds should get you out of LoS. Bring some heavy healing, heavy DPS, magic-removal (anti-sheep), and if you've got it, an arcane mage--Slow still works, I've heard.

We didn't have enough DPS, wiped five times. :P

Comment by Thottbot

Ran it last night just for the shards. I already had the pants so really just there for that. After a few wipes of people getting hit by the AOE healer being dead after 3rd AOE, i tried Spell Steal on him when he threw up his shield at 15%. AND IT WORKED! Bring a 70 mage with you who has spell steal. Once i took it, i noticed that it was a Mana Shield. It had 53 secs left on it once i got it, and works exactly like the mage mana shield, meaning it drains mana instead of health and last for 60secs. I used detect magic on him early on in the fight, and it doesn't detect anything, and there is nothing to steal, but once he uses his shield, it can be stolen. Also the incanter's droped along with the Priest legs, since i already had the incanter's i just greeded, but won them again.

Zarthus
70 Mage
Gnomeregan

Comment by Thottbot

Okay I have a great story...

I am a 70 paladin and I ran a party with a 69 dps warrior, 2 70 mages, and a 70 tank warrior

I was the main healer...

we finally get to the final boss and within the first few minutes the dps warrior, and both mages are DEAD!

That AoE is killer if you can't get out of LoS.

So basically he has 30-50% health left (I don't remember) and it is just me and our tank...

It looks like we have no chance... I just conserve my mana, use my cooldowns, lay on hands etc. After a while he gets really low and I am amazed that we aren't dead yet. I use my mana potion and just try to take him...

amazingly me and the warrior just do a plain tank and spank against this boss and end up taking him, just us two took the final boss when he was at 40% health give or take... I thought it was awesome

Comment by Thottbot

Okay so I thought this fight was gonna be harder than it was. I took alot of the strats from this, and this was how we did it :

We had a :

70 feral druid tank
70 Shadow Priest DPS
70 balance/resto druid
69 Combat Spec Rogue (me)
68 Warlock

So basically we had enough DPS to bring him down fast. Casters DPS'ed behind the left pillar. Nobody got hit by his AOE, and other than that.. it was smooth sailing.

Thanks guys! I'd definitely suggest not using more than one melee DPS, because you really need the different CC's for pretty much the entire instance.

Comment by Thottbot

We did this 4 times last night with 3 ppl.
set up:

1x Rogue
1x Moonkin Druid (healed)
1x Feral Druid (tanked)

Stealthed our way to the first boss. He has stealth detection so the rogue had to aggro him while the druids sprinted in stealth threw the room. Once we were across, the rogue vanished. Then it's just stealth all the way to the boss. Tanked him at the back of the room to not aggro the guards. Then just run like hell behind a pilar when he starts his arcane blast. (put on show enemy castbar from the interface meny).

Took us a total of 15 min to get in, kill him and get out to reset.
4 runs untill rouge and feral druid had the shoulders.

Comment by Thottbot

I've beaten him several times with several different group set-up's. I found the easiest way to do this boss is to bring two priests (Shadow and Holy), if you have that luxury. Shadow can off heal if necessary and have everyone else DPS the #$%^ out of him. Make sure to keep everyone not doing melee behind the same pillar so when he blinks and uses the arcane blast he doesnt run all over the place. Makes things a lot less chaotic. Admittedly, the first couple times I faced this boss my party wiped. But using the above strategy, I do multiple runs per day now. =)

Now if only that Crow Wing Reaper Axe or Deathforge Girdle would drop.....Need something for us warriors in there ;)

Comment by Thottbot

After figuring out how to kill him it was easy. At one point I was only one left (I was MT) and I kept backing out of the room, when I pulled him through the hallway, he broke combat when I had 45 hp left.

Comment by Thottbot

Not bad on heroic with fire mage, frost mage, balance druid, feral druid, resto shaman. He sheeps the closest target to him that isnt the tank, so we just had the balance druid stay in elf form and just shift out of polymorph, worked really well in negating that effect. And yes run away from the aoes, havent tried spell steal on his shield yet but it didnt last long enough to be too bad. Epic bracers dropped.

Worst part about him is the arcane missle aoe by far, took lots of chain heals and whatnot to keep us up.

Comment by Thottbot

ok now I see on the map on wowkiki that theres a path to the last boss directly. Is it confirmed that it is a straight through path? because early in a heroic we couldnt down him so 8 hours later i want to go in again and kill him. The shortcut would help. Thanks

Comment by Thottbot

15th run tonight. Still no Axe. Iv been going there since I was a wee little 67 warrior, im now 70. Iv seen every single drop! Even the shoulders of assasination twice! But still no damn Axe. I swear blizz make it so the drops arn't right for the classes who run him!

For you tanking warriors, spell reflect doesnt reflect is aoe OR his arcane missile just after unfortunately. As soon as the missile hits you switch to zerker stance, use intercept (this is if you arnt prot ofc) charge him, he wont be stunnned but it gets you there alot faster than running. (obviously switch back to def n taunt). I'v noticed he hardly ever/ never runs back to the tank,, he will always head for highest dps or healer so be on your toes. He really isn't that difficult if your group knows what to do! (making a macro to tell people to run when he blinks saves lives ;))

Good luck out there.

Mozis
Hellscream
70 Warrior

Comment by Thottbot

Also, is there a direct route to this guy? Would be so useful if there was!

Comment by Thottbot

Trick is to get out of his "line of sight" when he's casting aracne explsion, just run behind the other side of a pillar in the boss room and you should be fine.

Although we had the worst tank and healer ever, We had lots of DPS and were able to take him down (by avooiding his exlposion)

Comment by Thottbot

Hey everyone, just when you thought damn the loot in Setthek is boring, bang Ikiss drops:

https://www.wowhead.com/tbc/item=27986/crow-wing-reaper

& Greaves of Desolation.

A bit strange cause thott tells you that the axe drops off him. But hey a little excitement where it wasn't expected.

Comment by Thottbot

Now, to begin with, this was a Shadow Priest (70 - Me) healing a Fury Warrior (66) with a 70 Hunter, 67 Mage and 67 Rogue...

In all, the hard part wasn't his MONSTER AoE attack, it was his little one that shoots stupid little 1k dmg bolts out. I had to spam heals on the MT just to keep him alive, so everyone would wipe at like 45%... ugh. Get a real tank (Prot War or Pally) or a real healer (Holy Priest/Pally, Resto Druid/Shaman) for this - you probably don't need both, but one is important.

Comment by Thottbot

If you're having problems with this fight, this might help.

I've done this fight several times in Heroic mode on my Disc/Holy priest, but recently decided to cut down on the Arcane Missile damage I was taking by throwing on my Arcane Resist set (+270 Arcane Resist, including +25 from GoTW).

What I then noticed was I resisted every single Polymorph he threw at me, almost 10 in all. As a result, the fight went much smoother than previous attempts because the only healer in the group wasn't taking much damage and wasn't out of commission at any time due to sheepage.

I've been in fights where the tank was sheeped and things got messy, so when my prot warrior gets his Heroic key, I'll be heading in there with plenty of Arcane resist tanking gear to see how I do.

Comment by Thottbot

I just finished building my arcane resist gear, so now I've got 426 resist when I want and about 11500 hp as a lock. I don't know what minnimum I need to resist his AoE, but when he does it, I either resist or take about 15% of the explosion... it's quite nice... though I haven't tested it in heroic... going to do that soon since I want the staff.

Comment by Thottbot

The solution to this fight is to engage him right next to one of the columns. Although he'll blink to different players and the healers must concentrate on staying in LOS of everyone, this strategy allows everyone to get around the back of the column before his AoE casts. We fought him next to the left column as you enter the room, with our 69 fure spec warrior in front of the column (toward the center of the room) and supporting cast to the side. With about half the screen space taken up with the column, but still able to hit him with my spells, it was very easy to run from the AoE.

We also had the shoulderpads of assassination drop, but no rogue in the group. Alas for the alliance.

Comment by Thottbot

Did full run on Sethekk for the first time yesterday. Group was great, mage, lock, rogue (me), priest and warrior, all 70, and as expected all instance was a breeze. Ikiss is exactly as mentioned above in other posts: hits hard with non-interruptable arcane explosion, during which you just have to hide on opposite side of pillar. You got about 4-5 secs from warning to explosion, that's more than enough if you're concentrated. Apart from that he's not much.
Too bad wasn't my lucky day and he didn't drop Shoulderpads of Assassination; just Oblivion for the joy of the clothies!

Comment by Thottbot

I played the paladin tank in a group that attempted to down Ikiss today.

EVERY SINGLE ONE of my Righteous Defense taunts failed to give me aggro.

Is Ikiss untauntable by paladins?

Comment by Thottbot

I believe we've found the perfect Heroic Seth group.

70 Prot Warrior
70 Resto Shaman (me)
70 Affliction Warlock
70 Shadow Priest
70 Arcane/Fire Mage

We've run the instance with this group setup several times, with good success. We usually only wipe once during the instance, if at all.

You could exchange the tank or healer for another class, but you need the priest for Shackle Undead, you need the Mage for Polymorph, and you need the Warlock for Fear and Howl of Terror (first boss); not to mention that healthstones and soulstones make the healer's life much much better.

Comment by Thottbot

After a few wipes we managed to down the boss, dropped the rogue shoulders and mage legs, being a mage I got happy, end of the story. ;>

Comment by Thottbot

Shaman healer, Mage, Warlock, Rouge..me tanking

After a few wipes we learned a few things and finally brought him down.

He is immune to Taunt, spell interruption...just about anything he is immune.

The key for us is to establish who is on second aggro list cause whoever is on second aggro list gets the polymorph. On initial pull the rouge went in with tank to establish second aggro. Then ranged dps went all out. It keeps polymorph on the rouge

After Exposion...All ranged dps stops until tank gets aggro and rouge establishes second aggro.

So the key for us was ...Clothies must stop DPS after explosion and let the tank and designated polymorph guy get aggro cause he is not tauntable. Or else clothies will die. They must stop dps after explosion.

Hope this tip helps out

Comment by Thottbot

Did this on heroic today:

Prot warrior (me)
Holy Priest
Mage
Hunter
Elemental Shammy

For some reason we found it impossible to keep the dps up he would simple wipe agro and run around until they were all dead, even avoiding all arcane explosions it was hard to heal through the Arcane Volly's he does.

Here is what we did, i stayed in through the explosion, popped shield wall 1st time, last stand 2nd time. Dps died when he was at around 50% with me and healer up, and we took him down slowly, he seems to not like casting explosion while less people are up and the poly kept the healer topped up full health.

My advice is to keep the healer and tank up and let the dps go crazy and die, then go slowly from there, he doesnt hit hard and is very easy healing only 1 person. If u can keep the dps up tho ur flying.

Dropped Bracers of the hunt
Ace of storms
+ DE junk and nether

Comment by Thottbot

A lot has been changed about this boss on Heroic setting as of 2.3.2. He no longer sheeps the second on his TPS list - he sheeps everyone (tank included).

Spamming spell reflect will give the tank an immunity to polymorph, so pallies probably wouldn't do well against this boss.

He resets aggro after every arcane blast, so make sure it's your tank that hit's him first.

Passive healers (like resto druids) will have a hard time with this boss as they tend to pull a massive amount of aggro after resets.

My trick was to tank in the middle of the room, close to the LEFT front pillar, and get out of LoS when he exploded.

Remember to bring your Arcane resist gear boys and girls!

Sterlo - Aman'Thul

Edit: I forgot to add that he casts "slow", so make sure your tanking close to a pillar.

Comment by Thottbot

Clob is absolutely right. Did this yesterday with a solid PUG group on my prot pally, no problems up to final boss, then wiped twice trying to keep the dpsers up. On the third try he killed all the dps while he was at 60% health, leaving me and the priest. We just kept at him, whittling him down. Every time he sheeped the priest I would self heal and let the priest regen health and mana, if I was sheeped the priest would cleanse. When he died both the priest and I were near full health and mana, and lay on hands and shields were unused. His hits on plate are weak and arcane explosion highly avoidable. Tough fight to keep everyone alive on, but simple and easy once it was just two of us on him.

Comment by Thottbot

BTW this was in heroic, so that part is same as in regular. Easier with two than with a full group. Also I noted that with the whole group up he did two arcane explosions in 40% of his health, but after there were only two of us he did only one all the way from 60% to 0%.

Comment by Thottbot

Ikiss is tricky on heroic. Although he's amazingly easy. He tend to kill all your dps (well atleast when the healer concentrates on keeping your tank and himself alive), but that does not mean he is unkillable after that.

I've duoed Ikiss several times on heroic difficulty. He seems to stop blinking and exploding when there's only 2 alive. If those two happen to be the tank and healer, it's perfectly doable. Ikiss will chain-sheep the healer (as a tank I have never been sheeped, he doesn't seem to sheep his aggro target) which in return keeps the healer alive. The healer will restore enough health to survive the bolts. In addition Ikiss does not hit hard enough, even in heroic, for a decent tank to die when the healer is sheeped.

So even if your dps starts to die like flies around you, don't give up - it's perfectly duoable.

Comment by Thottbot

OMG! This boss sucked! Whether regular or heroic, it sucked! Anywho, this is how we did it. It's quite funny actually ...

Players (all level 70, not all epic-geared out either, but with some nice blues and some epics)...

Warrior tank, Druid, Pally healer, Hunter, Demo Lock (use imp for stam buff).

After literally a dozen tries or more, tank pulled Ikiss into hallway between her starting point and the southern room. Everyone stayed in hallway until Ikiss readied her arcane shot, then DPS and healer ran into southern room behind lip of door. Repeat as necessary, keep an eye on DOTs, self-heal as required.

About 30% down, all were dead save for the pally and tank. They deafeated Ikiss the rest of the 70% of it's miserable existence! Amazing! There was a snag around 15% but afterwards Ikiss's health meter dwindled swiftly!

This was a total healer-tank v. Ikiss standoff. DPS do help but know that all is not lost if you have a "good" tank and healer.

In the end we were all disappointed with the drops (mail and leather items, and a ring (maybe) good for PVP). But if you have an enchanter you can roll for shards.

Good luck!

Lebeau

Comment by Thottbot

MUHAHA! Im so OP! we 3 manned this guys WITHOUT a healer

Comment by Allakhazam

I agree he seems a lot tougher now but it seems easier with certain group combos. We wiped numerous times and had a number of member and class changes we were down to 4 man group at the end with Pally (Holy), Druid (Feral), Mage (Fire) and Hunter (Marks) . Both myself (Mage) and Hunter died and the pally and druid were able to tank him long enough for me to run all the way back and nuke him a few times before he died. =)

Comment by Allakhazam

stealthed to Ikiss.. stealthed him with 2 druids and rogue a million times until i got my shoulders. this is such a fun boss, didn't wipe once against him hehe

Comment by Allakhazam

He is immune to silencing shot. FYI

Comment by Allakhazam

Farmed this guy with 2 rogues and 2 feral druids. Killed him 9 times. Only dropped one set of shoulders on the 7th run. 3 out of the nine times we saw 2 pairs of cloth pants and I would say we saw 3 other cloth pants drop with something else (usually a cloak or the axe). Ravenclaw band didn't drop once. I think Blizzard is toying with all the rogues and druids by jacking up the drop rate on all the cloth. Probably could have gotten him more, but we were getting tired at the end and making missteps stealthing into his room. Back to work at it again tomorrow.

Comment by Allakhazam

He polymorphs randomly throughout the fight. The AoE is interruptable through spells and abilities that say "interrupts spell casting," but not by things that only silence (like hunter's silence shot). The mana shield he puts up is purgable by shamans, and should be done a.s.a.p.

If there is a shaman in the group, he is a cake-walk. Just save your earth shocks for the explosion (don't waste 'em on polymorph, it only lasts like 5 seconds) and purge the mana shield. ^_^

Comment by Allakhazam

This boss is very very easy.

First off...GET A TANK that knows how to play.

The Arcane explosion can no longer be interupted since the patch...big deal....just learn to use Line of Sight to your advantage.

The Boss will blink...and then begin the aoe cast. The tank should hold aggro near a pillar...so that the rest of the group can jet to the otherside when the boss blinks. This being done the boss will be easy to pwn...get behind the pillar...bandage if needed.

At 8-15% the boss pops a mana shield. If you have a mage...then it is time to spell steal...and its all over from there....enjoy the fat loots.

Eloop - 70 10/0/41 Mage
Relapse - Dragonmaw

Comment by Allakhazam

the first 2 attempts with us
67 mage
70 warrior
70 priest
70 hunter
68 rogue(myself)

we got destroyed

then, we went ahead and attempted the line of sight trick
the first 2 times it wasnt even a fight, just slaughter, not even to 50%

when we hid behind the pillars was ez, no one died

and shoulders of assassination dropped for me, now i dont have to come back here!

Comment by Allakhazam

Fought him for the first time the other day and it didn't go well at all. We wiped twice then I had to leave. Best we could do was get him down to just below half health. We didn't have any 70's, so that would've helped. We avoided most of the arcane explosions, but if he sheeps you, then it's sometimes impossible to get behind a pillar in time. I wouldn't call this guy easy even if you do avoid all his explosions. He practically has you or one of your groupies sheeped the entire fight and if it's your healer and he goes to down with those arcane shots, then they'll be hard pressed to keep your party alive when they recover.

Has anyone fought this guy on heroic? If this is a tough fight on norm, then I'd imagine it'd be a nightmare on heroic difficulty.

Edit: Took him down with a myself (67 lock), a lvl 70 lock, a 68 mage, 69 shammy healer, and a 66 fd tank. It went pretty smoothly. Staying close to the pillars seems to be the trick, which means having your mt tank him close to the pillar. I found that if you're pretty much next to the pillar the whole time, there's usually enough time to get behind it before his aoe goes off, even if you get sheeped. The arcane volleys will definitely keep your healer busy though.

Edited, Jan 17th 2008 11:54am by jedibaracuda

Comment by Allakhazam

As a hunter I have "killed" him a couple of times -- meaning i lay dead and watched some of my group kill him off. It's easy enough to get away from the explosion, but the missiles kill me every time. Someone suggested geting in melee range, but he was hitting me there anyway, and I can't exactly dps. Is there some way around this other than expecting the healer to heal everyone?

Comment by Allakhazam

Polymorfs and at 75%, 50%, 25% he blinks and begins charging for an nasty +5000 arcane AOE (Watch for a warning in chat). An easy fight if everyone avoids the aoe.

Comment by Allakhazam

so much enhance shaman loot O.O i probably get a bit more int gear but the ring the desolation item the axe and the shadow labs key make me really want to run sethekk halls,wish i could get more people into doing it

Comment by Allakhazam

He's soo easy. We had 2 warriors in our group and we just stood there and shield bash/pummel every time he was casting anything. It worked like a charm and he never did his aoe thing.

Comment by Allakhazam

He always uses his AOE after he blinks. Before he blinks he is just sheeping ppl, when he is channeling his AOE he will be immune to everything. To avoid his AOE run behind the pillars. If you dont you will get hit for 5-5.5k and the healers will probably die.

Run behind the pillars after blinks!

Edited, Feb 15th 2007 3:42am by Rujiji

Comment by Allakhazam

3 man this guy for money. 2 druids and a rogue. Easy stuff.

Comment by Allakhazam

I tanked him by one of the pillars, but he usually blinked to the other pillar and did his aoe thing so I'm not really sure where he should be tanked.
He randomly sheeps ppl, than blinks, than does that aoe and everyone should run behind the pillar to avoid the blast. Tank gets back on him. Rinse, repeat. He always does that painful aoe after he blinks. Sheeps are dispellable. And I think he does some arcane dmg to everyone (Arcane Volley?)which made healing a pain, because of this I think arcane resistance gear for everyone would help tremendously on this fight.

You can't interupt any of his spells. And towards the end he has some shield thing, read other's comments about that.

Comment by Allakhazam

The volley he throws periodically and after the Arcane Explosion is arcane damage. If your rogues and druids have any of the enchanted clefthoof gear from the scryers, it could help a lot in this fight, because if everyone is handling the fight correctly then the Arcane Bolt Volley will be a bigger concern than the Arcane Explosion. It would be a good idea to get them because melee classes need arcane resistance for the Curator in Karazhan anyway. If you manage to make them (the mats are a pain), then take them along to this instance. Although he's totally doable without any arcane resistance whatsoever.

If you have an alchemist in the group, Arcane Resistance pots are invaluable when you're having trouble with him. Rogues can Cloak of Shadows to resist the AE or the Volley (great if you want to pop it after he AE's to resist the incoming volley so you can start bandaging. Frost Mages can also Ice Block if they're not going to make it out of the AE or won't survive the volley.

As was said, since the patch YOU CAN NOT INTERRUPT HIS ARCANE EXPLOSION OR POLYMORPH BY ANY MEANS. I always group with one moron who won't believe me when I say it was changed. "No man all you have to do is kick/shield bash/earth shock/silencing shot/counterspell/etc. He's ez. Fskin n00b." That person invariably gets killed and ends up wiping the group. Don't be a hero. Run like a %^&*!.

Yes the Poly is dispellable but if he casts it on someone who's hurting, you might want to let it run its course because it's also a free heal. However, if they're already good on HP or they're about to eat an AE because they can't run, or it's your tank and he's about to start pimp smacking some DPSers, dispel it asap.

Running away from the AE is much more reliable (in regards to actually avoiding the attack) than running behind a pillar, but if your healer is having LOS or range problems after everyone scattters, tank him next to a pillar and do your best to stay on the complete opposite side of the pillar from him. The ends that jut out at the bottom of the pillar won't block the AE; you need to be completely behind it.

Also, at around 15-20% he throws up the priest/mage shield that everyone has been talking about, it absorbs a good amount of damage and prolongs the fight. If you have a shaman in your group, they can purge it and make the fight much quicker. Imba ftw :)

It's a tough fight to get down on the first try, and if there's someone in your group who hasn't done it yet, you're almost guaranteed a wipe whiile they learn how it goes. But once you have the strategy down, he's a piece of cake. A piece of cake that won't drop my god damn shoulders. 13 runs and nothing. If you can't tell, i've fought him waaayyyy too many times. I'm going to go get some KFC out of spite.

-----

Edit: Up to 16 runs now and still nothing. Not even a Terrok's Nightmace so I can MH it with my Blackout Truncheon in OH and spec back away from daggers. The only 2 pieces I HAVEN'T seen drop off him are the 1 that I could possibly use, and the 1 that I REALLY REALLY REALLY want. I HATE YOU IKISS. >.<

Edited, Mar 1st 2007 3:20am by Gaebora

Comment by Allakhazam

Polymorfs and at 75%, 50%, 25% he blinks and begins charging for an nasty +5000 arcane AOE (Watch for a warning in chat). An easy fight if everyone avoids the aoe.

Comment by Allakhazam

We just ran him about 10 minutes ago, very interesting fight with the group set up I had. Realm: The Forgotten Coast

Drakkill - Fury/proc Warrior (Tank) LvL 64 (ROFL It was amazing how he could tank this insance at his level.
Scrïm - Fire/frost Mage LvL 66
Unknovvn - Assassian Rogue LvL 66
Phukanot - Shadowpriest LvL 65
Pandasama - Resto Shammy 70

First off the Warrior is way too low for this instance, but he actualy pulled through holding hate vs the mage who would crit fireballs for 2-3k and the shadowpriest spamming mindflay for hp/mp regen. Half the instance is full of 67s and the other half is 68-69. The shammy was incredible at healing and earthen shield helped keep the warrior up. CC was a great help here, shackle, sheep, and sap cut down the trouble we had to deal with being lower levels.

The Boss was kinda a pain, we wiped a good 2-3 times. Basically you cannot have anyone die. If anyone dies before the boss is even down below 50% your going to have a hard time downing him. Like Gaebora said, RUN LIKE A #$%^& when he is casting that arcane explosion. Dispell any sheeped members when hes casting arance explosion so they can get out of the way. We kept a slow dps pace and stayed away from arcane explosion until he was around 50% life. Shaman then popped Bloodlust and Fire elemental Totem and we just Gave him HELL. He got down to 12% and popped up a shield that reflected spells back and killed the shadowpriest, and the tank went down too. The mage quickly finished him off and luckily he dropped a Primal Nether for me! :D 1 down 9 to go!

Comment by Allakhazam

Have people near the pillars. Then when he blinks at someone and starts the cast, run around the otherside of the pillar and the blast will not hit you.

Regards

Evad

Comment by Allakhazam

anyone know much info about doing this guy on heroic?

Comment by Allakhazam

Downed him with guildies last night. Rogue(me), priest, warlock, mage, hunter. Very easy fight if you have a good group. Ours just dps'd the hell out of everything before our priest was overwhelmed. If you just dps near a piller or wall its easy to see when he blinks, then just run away. Wash rinse repeat until he pops his mana shield around 15% or so and then if you have a mage, spell steal it and game over. Out of curiosity, whats this instance like on heroic?

Comment by Allakhazam

I can't seem to get a group that can drop this biatch. Most successful attempt was with a warrior (who could barely tank this guy), a ret pally, a priest, a mage, and me (a hunter). We were doing well until about 50% in on his health, we started dropping like flies. Ret pally was tanking more then the tank and was dropped after his Aoe/blink/arcane missile combo. Priest then didnt hide behind the pillar, and i was dropped shortly after without heals. Mage and tank got him down to about 10% and then were dropped. I hate this guy.

Comment by Allakhazam

Feral Charge works on this boss. Makes the fight SOOOOO easy.

Comment by Allakhazam

Has anyone noticed if this encounter is quite a bit more difficult since the maintenance day on 2/27? We had a great deal of trouble (numerous wipes) with him tonight in a group that should have downed him. Don't know if it was the group make-up or if the encounter has been buffed up since there are so many claims on how easy he is/was.

Group was:
70 feral druid, 70 hunter, 66 prot. warrior, 68 priest, and 67 mage.

We wiped on him 9 times in a row and never got him below 20% no matter what strat we tried or how we mixed it up. He was quite a bit easier to do the night before the patch.

Comment by Allakhazam

We hit Ikiss for the first time today, first try he did his big aoe and flattened the whole group, so we did our corpse run and tried again.

His arcane volley is annoying, as is his habit of porting around behind the pillars where the healer cant see. He wiped out our mage, rogue and shaman by 60% health. The warrior and I then managed to nuke him alone. His big aoe can be avoided as long as you are ready for it, just run, NOT BACKWARDS! He has a nasty habit of chain polymorphing the healer at the end but we just (barely) dropped him. To top off the day he dropped both the incanters and hallowed pants....hooray!

You really gotta watch the big aoe, he tends to follow-up with an immediate volley so anyone caught in the first is toast

Comment by Allakhazam

so i just tanked this guy, and we wiped the first time because hunter didn't know to get behind pillars. really simple fight if you just make sure you hide behind pillars with arcane blast - he critted me at one point for 4935 arcane blast... yeah, ouch.

anyway, our mage dc'ed and was gone for like, 10 minutes, so we (68 warrior - me, 70 lock, 70 priest, and 67 hunter) decided to try and 4-man him. we figured we'd wipe, but we actually ended up taking him down. pretty sweet.

the axe and rogue shoulders dropped. i was fortunate to pick up the axe for myself.. going back and forth between axe and the polearm quest reward. the axe is too sweet though; and with the right sockets, can be an awesome pvp weapon. :)

Comment by Allakhazam

can stealth to this boss, farmed him for spirit shards with:

3 people
feral druid
rogue
resto druid(me)

increadibly easy boss, very easy on healing since the boss helps to heal with polymorph lol!

Comment by Allakhazam

After several wipes,(2 mages, 1 warrior, 1 enhance shammy and me resto shammy) one of the mages left. We had then wiped at least 3 times. That f*ckin arcane blast is fearsome. But we didn't surrender and instead drafted a lvl 70 rogue to join us. this proved not to be much of a help actually ;D

During our third try with the new party member, about 6th or 7th try total, everyone but me and the warrior wiped. So what happened after that?
We Pawned his sorry ass!

He was atleast 70% health at the point of all the killed partymembers. And we managed to take him down with 2 men. nothing special really, just Great teamwork ;D Great Dps + Great Heling = Dead Mobs!

Kire(Shammy) and Iteki(Warrior) of the Maelstrom server!

Edited, Feb 20th 2007 8:08pm by Erkolin

Comment by Allakhazam

Soloed Ikiss as a level 10 warlock. Just tossed a couple level one Shadow Bolts his way....gouged him with my amazing dagger and boom he was down. Just watch the LOS. Geesh.

Comment by Allakhazam

Finally, 12 attempts and a good 16g repair bill later, this guy finally met his maker.

We found out some invaluable information while fighting him however.

The group layout:

lvl 67 prot spec warrior,lvl 67 fury spec warrior,lvl 67 combat hybrid rogue,lvl 68 holy priest,lvl 70 destrolock.

With this group layout we killed him first try and everyone lived.

The kill:

The MT tanked him near the first right pillar and after 3 sunders the DPS let loose on him. We used his polymorphs for free heals and waititng for his blink effect to run around to the otherside of the left front pillar where our priest had a lightwell setup. Towards the end of the fight we had him down to 10% and he went to do his arcane blast again I hit cloak of shadows and resisted it completely popped my bladefist's breadth and we finished him off easy as pie.

Remember this fight is all about LOS. If you can differenciate between his polymorph (glowing hands) and his arcane blast (runes under his feet swirling) and make sure everyone knows to get behind a pillar; this fight is so simple it'll hurt your face.

Comment by Allakhazam

I have never had as much trouble with any (5 man) boss as I have had with this guy. I can easily see how this could be easy, but the setup of our group did not allow it to be so. We had; a 66 Mage (Frost), a 67 hunter(MS), a 67 pally (holy), a 68 pally(our tank), and myself, a 69 0/41/19 mostly enhance but some healing shammy. In fact, my healing gear is better than my DPS gear, so I was helping the pally heal the group (in fact, I out healed him :P), and my wep skills were low because of a recent change so I could barely hit anything. The mage had less than 4k hp, so keeping him alive was a pain - in fact, the mage was overall quite a hindrance to our group, dying almost every pull and never resheeping - but we did get to Ikiss. The biggest problem we had with him was that we couldn't down him fast enough, and the volleys were really draining the healers mana. Also, the Pally Tank had a hell of a time regaining aggro after the explosion - he seems to reset aggro now when he does it, and almost inevitably, he would go after a healer or the mage. We tried everything... blowing CD's at the beginning, at the middle, but we could never even get him to the mana shield part I've read about. Thank god he's resettable, I would've gone insane from the long run there. With 2 Pallies and myself (shammy) we had lots of rezzers... and we needed it. After wipe 14 we finally gave up - about 1/2 the group had to go as we were approching the 3 hour mark of the instance, whiel the other half got some new members... never found out how they did. Im not as ticked about this as I would be if I could've used any of the quest rewards, but some of the loot that dropps off him would've been major upgrades for me - In fact, i wouldve taken all but the plate belt and the +dmg cloth legs... Oh well, gonna go back with the guild and get him later. Overall, i think you really have to have a ton of dps to get him down before he exausts your healers, and we just didnt have that.

Comment by Allakhazam

Sethekk Oracle Cloak

Comment by Allakhazam

The line of sight trick works very well. Just make sure everyone knows to duck behind a pillar. Bandages are helpful on the healer, and his polymorph was really nice when health started to get low. Just watch his feet, and when they have a circle, run. We did this in a pick-up group with a druid tank and a shaman healer. The druid, our hunter, and the resto shaman (me) survived. I didn't even have to reincarnate during the fight or break out any elementals.

Comment by Allakhazam

Tell you the truth, I didn't find him that much different in heroics (maybe a bit more hp and damage). Tank and spank him, and have everyone run out of los when he blinks (maybe his cast time on the aoe is shorter, but I haven't run normal Sethekk in a long time so I don't remember). The only difficult thing about Sethekk Halls in heroic is the two-guard pulls that are everywhere. They hit for a crap load and are immune to cc, so have a mage, shammie, or whatever kite one away while the others kill the other guard. Oh, and the last few guard pulls (with a different name than the ones at the beginning) are more annoying since the remaining guard enrages when one dies (dealing, of course, even more dmg). If you get the guard pulls down, it's a pretty easy heroic imo (albeit with only 2 badges).

Comment by Allakhazam

just did this today with

63 paladin (healer)
65 Warlock (me)
66 warrior
70 Hunter
70 Warrior (tank)

i died at the begining of the fight but thank to the healer only the hunter died (aside from me) who managed to get back in time to help out at the end

so in effct it was done by a 4 man group as i was dead for most of this fight

we didn't wipe once, well on the boss anyway ^^

Comment by Allakhazam

Polymorfs and at 75%, 50%, 25% he blinks and begins charging for an nasty +5000 arcane AOE (Watch for a warning in chat. An easy fight if everyone avoids the aoe.

Edited, Jan 24th 2007 6:42pm by Ajninmia

Edited, Jan 24th 2007 6:44pm by Ajninmia

Comment by Allakhazam

The arcane explosion can no longer be interrupted as of February 14th.

Comment by Allakhazam

You can't interrupt his arcane explosion if he has mana shield on. It makes him immune to spell effects? Not sure if you can dispel it or not. But if it on and you can't and he gonna do a arcane explosion the group better run out of range.

Comment by Allakhazam

You don't have to hide behind the pillars for this guy. I normally just have our group run as FAR away as you can, and don't stop until you see his Arcane Blast go off. Works every time. I also think I remember a party member saying getting behind the pillar didn't work. Dunno, could be wrong, but I know for sure you don't have to get behind them.

Comment by Allakhazam

The first time I did this, i found that this guy was pretty tough- even though we had a pretty solid group, a 68 mage (me), a 70 holy pally healing, a 68 enhancement sham, a 70 prot warrior tanking and a 68 lock, we wiped and retried about 4 times. I think they main problem was his massive arcane explosion, which we sometimes could not avoid even if we hit hid behind pillars and it would hit about 5k + giving out healer a hard time. Finally we managed to down this guy with only me dieing from the arcane volleys (the healer was focusing on the tank) but unfortunately the warlock needed and won my incanter's trousers before realising that they gave mage bonuses.

Good luck fighting this guy- hes hard but not impossible

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Talon King Ikiss

Sethekk HallsDarkweaver SythTalon King IkissAnzuTalon King IkissEye-kissDarkweaver SythTerokkSethekk HallsAbilities

Normal Attack: 2000 on cloth, 800-1000 on plate.

Arcane Volley: Hits surrounding targets for around 1500 arcane damage. This effect has a very long range and ignores LoS.

Arcane Explosion: Massive and huge AoE (approx 40 yard range) that deals 4500 to 5000 damage. Damage is only dealt to targets that are within line of sight. Has a cast time.

Blink: Often to someone (even if they are out of LoS). Right after this he begins casting Arcane Explosion.

: Turns someone into a sheep. Lasts for 10 seconds, regenerates health but does not break on damage. Warriors can reflect this to prevent getting sheeped.

General Tips

It is generally a good idea to dispel the polymorph as Ikiss is easier if you kill him fast.

Try to tank him in the center of the room, and have the party stand inside the pillars. Once he blinks, have everyone run behind the nearest pillar, and thus easily avoid the arcane explosion.

After the arcane explosion allow the tank to reestablish aggro to avoid having Ikiss run around the room.

It is possible to reset the encounter by running out of the room and through the previous hallway.

Quotes (7)

Gains

After killing this NPC you will gain:

Heroic
- 250 reputation with Lower City

Normal
- 90 reputation with Lower City

Normal
- 90 reputation with Lower City

Heroic
- 250 reputation with Lower City

Guides

Sethekk Halls Dungeon Quests Guide for Burning Crusade Classic

Talon King Ikiss

Quotes (7)

Gains

Guides

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