Below is an overview video and detailed walk-through strategy guide on how to easily defeat the Blood Queen Lana'thel encounter in Icecrown Citadel! The Blood Queen Lana'thel encounter is a unique, high paced, fun, and interesting fight that will take some cordination and getting use to. This Blood Queen Strategy Guide will give an overview of the Blood Queen Lana'thel encounter and all players' roles.

• Overview: How to Easily Defeat the Blood Queen Lana'thel encounter in Icecrown Citadel!
  Suggestions: Shadow resistance buff, Flasks, buff food, vent, and most importantly, have fun!

Icecrown Citadel - Blood Queen Lana'thel Strategy Guide: Overview and Setup

• The Blood Queen Lana'thel encounter is a high paced, fun, and interesting fight that will take some cordination and getting use to. The raid comp should consist of 2 tanks, 2-3 healers, and the rest dps.
• Setting up for this fight is quite simple. Pre-hot the raid, range and healers need to spread out leaving the middle open, and most importantly, decide on a bite order. Each player should know who they are biting. The highest threat generating dps will be bitten first by Blood Queen but it's not uncommon for a holy paladin who buffed righteous fury to be bitten so make sure to not use it in the beginning of the fight. Having a healer being bit is quite pointless and can cause a wipe. If possible, always bite top dps first.

Icecrown Citadel - Blood Queen Lana'thel Strategy Guide: Encounter

• The fight consists of two phases, a ground phase and an air phase. The ground phase doesn't have too many surprises and the raid should have no problem learning it.
• Healers will immediately notice the mass amount of raid damage that continues throughout the fight caused mainly by three of Blood Queen's abilities. First is Shroud of Sorrow, an aura that continues throughout the encounter and causes 4k-ish shadow damage every 3 seconds. Second is Swarming Shadows, which lays shadow flames at the feet of the target. Simply run on the outskirts to reduce damage. Rogues can cloak out of it. Finally Pact of the Darkfallen, which inflicts damage on nearby players and yourself. Pact of the Darkfallen links two players together and they must come together to get rid of the link. We've found it easiest to have anyone inflicted with it, meet in the middle of the room and wait until the debuff is off before spreading back out.
• Healers will immediately notice the mass amount of raid damage that continues throughout the fight caused mainly by three of Blood Queen's abilities. First is Shroud of Sorrow, an aura that continues throughout the encounter and causes 4k-ish shadow damage every 3 seconds. Second is Swarming Shadows, which lays shadow flames at the feet of the target. Simply run on the outskirts to reduce damage. Rogues can cloak out of it. Finally Pact of the Darkfallen, which inflicts damage on nearby players and yourself. Pact of the Darkfallen links two players together and they must come together to get rid of the link. We've found it easiest to have anyone inflicted with it, meet in the middle of the room and wait until the debuff is off before spreading back out.
• As I said earlier, the most important part of this fight is getting bitten and gaining the Essence of the Blood Queen. The buff increases damage by 100% and heals for 10% of damage inflicted. You also cause no threat. This fight is a dps race and without gaining this buff, your raid is sure to hit the enrage timer and wipe. Work out the order before the pull and make any changes over vent if need be as the bite window is only 10 seconds. If you don't bite someone you'll be mc'd and wipe the raid so it's more important to bite someone than noone. The bite order should start with your highest dps and end on your tanks. It's helpful to alert healers who you are biting so they can make sure the target is at full health because it's possible to kill someone with the bite if they are low on hp.
• The most dangerous phase is actually the air phase. It is very quick but can be hectic with each player being hit by several bloodbolts and feared into shadow flames essentially causing a wipe. During the air phase, be sure to spread out and if you have a priest, just before the phase shift, buff fear ward and dispel the raid to alleviate some of the damage and hecticness. This phase can also cause some problems with the bite order if the next to be bitten is too far away. If you don't think it's possible to bite your next target, simply bite the nearest dps who hasn't been bitten and call it out on vent. Using raid marks can be an effective way for your dps to see their bite target. Once enough DPS have been bitten, pop Bloodlust or Heroism and take the Blood Queen out.

Icecrown Citadel - Blood Queen Lana'thel Strategy Guide: Short Recap

• Spread out.
  Leave middle open.
  Linked players meet up in mid.
  Drop shadow flames on the outskirts.
  Arrange bite order.
  Keep bites going.
  Top off next bite target.
  Pop BL or Heroism when most DPS have been bitten.
  and most importantly, have fun!
• So there you have it. A simple walkthrough of the fight with the Blood Queen Lana'thel. She's an awesome, intense fight with a pace that most players should like.

Good luck and I hope you enjoyed this guide. If you have any suggestions, comments, or feedback, please make a post on our forums.