Moroes

Introduction
Moroes is the second boss encounter in Karazhan and is accompanied by four out of a possible six adds which will be discussed below. It is possible to change Moroes' guests by leaving the instance for 30 minutes and the returning. It is possible to skip Moroes if you decide he is not worth the time to kill. However, the trash pulls in the ballroom will continue to respawn until he is dead.


Overview and Preparation
The encounter is basically a kill before being killed fight. The more time you spend fighting Moroes and his guests, the more people will become "Garroted." If too many people become "Garroted" your healers will not be able to keep everyone alive. It is suggested to bring Mana, and Health Potions for the fight, as well as flasks that serve your class if you can afford them and feel they are necessary. Also like almost every fight in the game the more you do it the easier it shall become and you will be able to do it with less potions and without the use of flasks. Shamans should use Strength of Earth totems if with melee groups and Mana Spring if with healers and/or casters. There is no real positioning required for this fight as Moroes has no area effect abilities.


Group Composition
This fight is very dependant on group composition especially for first timers. Two tanks is almost a necessity for reasons that will be explained later on. Also, it helps a great deal to have at least one priest in the raid for the use of Shackle. Paladins are a major help in this fight for the use of Blessing of Protection, Turn Undead, and Cleanse.


Abilities


"Blind"
Moroes will cast "Blind" periodically throughout the fight on whomever is second on his aggro list, causing the target to wander around incapacitated. "Blind" is a poison and can be dispelled.


"Gouge"
Moroes will "Gouge" whomever he has agro on periodically throughout the fight causing the target to be incapacitated.


"Vanish"
Moroes will "Vanish" throughout the fight at which point he will "Garrote" a random member of the raid before returning to the tanks.


"Garrote"
When Moroes Vanishes he will "Garrote" a random target before returning to the tanks. Garrote will deal around 1035 physical damage to the target every three seconds for five minutes. This is the toughest part of this encounter and if you are Garroted it is very helpful to have a paladin use Blessing of Protection on you. It is possible to heal through the Garrotes but as the fight goes on it will become harder and harder as more people will become Garroted and will cause your healers to lose mana rapidly. The dwarven racial ability Stoneform removes Garotte.


"Enrage"
Moroes will Enrage at 30% hp which will increase his attack speed and damage done significantly. If the majority of your raid is still alive, few people have Garrotes, and your healers have mana then Enrage should not prove to be a major problem. He should not cast any of his other abilities while he is Enraged.



Moroes' Guests

4 of these 6 will be in the encounter. The recomended kill order is in the order they are listed here. See below for more details.


Lady Catriona Von'linda
Lady Catriona Von'linda is a holy priest who is very low on HP and armor. She should usually be the first to die in almost any case as she is easily dealt with quickly and will heal the other guests and Moroes if left alive.


Lady Keira Berrybuck
Lady Keira Berrybuck is a holy paladin and does not deal much damage. However, she does heal herself, Moroes, and the other guests making her one of the less dangerous guests, but should be one of the first to die in most cases. She also casts Blessing of Might on herself and others. It can be dispelled, and should be if it is cast on one of the higher damaging guests.


Baroness Dorothea Milstipe
Baroness Borothea Milstipe is a shadow priest with very little HP and armor. However, she can deal quite a bit of damage very quickly. She has a 6000 Mana Burn which should make her usually the second to die (depending on the amount of healing guests that are present) for fear of her mana burning one of the healers.


Baron Rafe Drueger
Baron Rafe Drueger is a retribution paladin and is one of the most dangerous adds. Depending on your number of priests and tanks he will probably need to be Shackled at the beginning of the fight and then killed later on once the other adds are dealt with. One thing that makes this guest very hard is for the reason that if his Shackle, fear, trap, etc breaks for a moment he can Hammer of Justice the target, stunning them and making them unable to crowd control him again before he kills someone.


Lord Robin Daris
Lord Robin Daris is a mortal strike warrior and is arguably the most aggravating of any of the six possible guests. He should be crowd controlled until most other mobs are dead and then dealt with by kiting him around the room. His Mortal Strike can hit excruciatingly hard and will easily one shot most members of your raid. He also casts a Whirlwind where he will be stationary at the time and anyone nearby should get out of his melee range immediately.


Lord Crispin Ference
Lord Crispin Ference is a protection warrior and is one of the less harmful guests. However, due to his large amount of hp, armor, and his use of Shield Wall, it is suggested to either have a warrior tank or have him kited around the room until a Shackle or another crowd control option is available for him. Killing him can take a fair amount of time and this is not suggested as it will allow Moroes to "Garrote" more people throughout the fight.

You may kill the guests in a different order if you feel it best, however it is suggested to kill the holy priest first no matter what the combination. If you have the holy paladin then it is suggested to kill him first unless the holy priest is also present in which case he should be killed second. The shadow priest should be killed immediately after all the healing guests are killed. If the mortal strike warrior or retribution paladin is present then it is suggested to keep them crowd controlled until your DPS is ready to kill them. The protection warrior should be kited around or tanked until the other three quests are killed and then crowd controlled for the remainder of the fight. It is suggested if a priest is available to have him crowd control one of the members throughout the entire fight even if the protection warrior is not present. If you spend too much time fighting the adds Moroes could "Garrote" too many people.

The priests do not need to be tanked while they are being killed as they are spellcasters and they rarely melee attack and are very weak when they do. When killing the mortal strike warrior it is important to kite him around the room or tank him if an extra tank is available, however keep in mind that he will need tight heals while tanking the mortal strike warrior. When killing the holy paladin anyone can tank her as her melee attacks are very low damage. However, the retribution paladin will need to be dealt with in the same manner as the mortal strike warrior; by kiting him or having a warrior tank him. They are able to be slowed by almost any slowing effect making kiting them easier than tanking them.



Strategy
The fight should begin with your MT (Main Tank) and OT (Off Tank) rushing in, one in front of the other. Don't use Misdirection as there are reports of Moroes ignoring it. The MT and OT should bring Moroes to the bottom of the small staircase that leads up to him and his guests as the balcony that he stands on can occasionally provide some line of sight issues for your healers. Those who will be crowd controlling should get their targets quickly so that the tanks will not be getting attacked by them. See above about how to deal with the guests. Once the guests are killed and/or crowd controlled, move on to Moroes.

When Moroes Blinds a tank, it is vital to cleanse him, however if cleanse is not available the other tank on Moroes should turn his/her back to Moroes so that Moroes can not Gouge him/her. If both tanks get incapacitated then Moroes will run rampant through your raid and this will most likely result in a wipe. When Moroes Vanishes and someone is Garroted the person can have a paladin cast Blessing Of Protection on them if available. Also, if a paladin gets Garroted he/she may use divine shield to remove the Garrote. The same goes for frost mages and Ice Block. Continue with this until 30% and he will Enrage, at which point if your healers are low on mana it is vital to burn him down at maximum speed as he can kill your tanks rather quickly. Don't forget about any of Moroes' guests that are still crowd controlled as they will not go away once he is dead. Deal with the remaining guest(s) and collect your loot.

Hunter and warlock pets (warlocks should be in the group with the two tanks that will be tanking Moroes for use of Blood Pact via imp) can be used in the fight. However, be careful not to let them hit a crowd controlled target. Also, priests should be careful with summoning Shadowfiends during the fight as they can break crowd controlled targets. The best time to use Shadowfiend is after all the adds are dead or crowd controlled and immediately after Moroes gets out of a Vanish. Shackle should be reapplied every seven to twelve seconds. Fear and hunter traps can also be used to crowd control, however they are not as effective since they can not be re-applied before the cooldown is up.

Remember: the more crowd control, the easier the encounter will become.

Also, do not forget that if you are having trouble with a particular combination, you always have the option of leaving the instance for 30 minutes and then returning in hopes of an easier combination.