the ICC quest chain for the mount, questions

[Sukurachi]

I know this isn't hunter-related, but I can't seem to find the right answers anywhere else.

I'm trying to drag my warrior through ICC to get the horsey mount that comes at the end of the Shadowmourne quest chain.

I've been able to dual-box up to Professor Putridus (that one took me two tries to understand what it was I had to do.)

But I am completely stuck on the vampire queen quest.

I understand that there needs to be enough people to bite, so I can bring a couple guildies.

Do those people have to die for it to succeed? (most of the people who would help me are level 100... most of my toons are 100, except my warrior who's 91)

Today I tried triple-boxing the quest, with a warlock (soulstone) and a hunter (quilen pet battlerez), and my warrior... but my warrior kept dying shortly after giving the first bite.

Even at level 91, I have to wail on the vampire queen to keep myself alive (Fury spec), except that brings her down VERY fast! Today I managed to try the quest 7 times, committing suicide on all my toons the first 6 times. Sadly, by the 7th attempt, I got one bite in, and the vampire queen was already nearly dead. Before I could commit suicide, she died, and now I'm stuck waiting until next week to redo the quest.

Do I have to wait until my warrior is level 100 to do this? Or do I simply have to get used to the idea that I will have to do this with a group of people who can heal each other?

On top of that, it takes forever to commit suicide in that quest at level 100!!!

is there a fool-proof strategy?
is there an idiot-proof strategy?
(I think the latter would be more my style)

In my guild, I have access to other players at level 100 or very bear, who are the following classes:
Hunter
Monk
Rogue
Warlock (one of my alts I can dual/triple box with)
my Warrior, obviously
the highest Shaman we have is level 85
and one level 100 paladin.

[Rawr]

This one was the hardest for my bf to get, and he got it in content. I'll give you the summery of what he did:

Make sure you are using Shadowmorne on your warrior
Make your warrior the off-tank
After your warrior bites the lowest dps nuke the queen, save all CDs for nuking stage

Here is a WoWHead guide if that doesn't help:

For players who are attempting to complete this quest after the release of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm this will be the most difficult part of the quest chain due to the mechanics of the Blood-Queen Lana'thel encounter. It is also the most confusing of the quests in the chain. The player should ensure that Shadow's Edge is equipped before beginning the Blood-Queen fight. The player should also not tank on this fight, as it makes biting other difficult as well as causing additional damage from the fights mechanics.

On the pull the player should follow the tank closely, ensuring that they get the Blood Mirror debuff, which causes the nearest player to the tank to share half the damage inflicted on the tank. The player does not need to keep this buff for any length of time, only obtain it, so typically the player will get the buff and then immediately move out to allow the offtank to take over the Blood Mirror debuff. Obtaining the Blood Mirror debuff gives the player on the quest an additional debuff (which doesn't go away) called Gushing Wound. Gushing Wound does ≈1500 damage to the player per second and reduces the damage the player does by ten percent. This damage reduction makes the next step more difficult, though certainly not impossible. The player should attempt to maintain a lead on the DPS charts as Lana'thel typically favors the top DPS'er for her Essence of the Blood Queen debuff (also known as her "bite"). In an ideal situation the quester would receive this debuff first, though it is entirely possible to complete the quest if they are second bitten. Once bitten the player waits the full sixty seconds for the debuff to run out and convert to Frenzied Bloodthirst, then uses Vampiric Bite on another player. Biting another player increases the number of stacks of Gushing Wound the player has, increasing the damage the debuff does and getting the player closer to completing their quest. The player must use bite three times, and then defeat Blood-Queen Lana'thel in order to complete the quest.

While there is no time limit on the quest, it does become difficult to complete if the player is not the first person bitten. In the post-WotLK WoW it will be quite difficult for the player, who is wielding a lvl 80 weapon, to maintain a DPS lead on the rest of the raid. If the raid is complicit with the player they might be relied on to hold their DPS until the player is bitten first. Another common tactic is to have whoever is bitten first bite the player as soon as they are able and then simply die to make biting others later on in the fight easier. Another important point is that the fight must actually last long enough for the player to bite three people. This is very difficult in post-WotLK since players do exponentially more damage than they did at lvl 80. The raid must hold back their damage until the player gets their third bite off and then finish Lana'thel. If the player is the first person bitten this can be accomplished on the fourth bite phase, or when there are four players who need to bite others. In a ten man raid if the player is the second bitten, then the first bitten player MUST die before the second bite phase or the quester will not be able to complete three bites before there are more bitten players than players who can be bitten. In a twenty-five man raid that is capable of coordinating eight bites, the first player can be allowed to live, though it is still recommended to let them die, as missing one lvl 85+ player is easier to manage than getting eight people to find eight non-bitten players.

Good luck


EDIT: When I said off-tank I meant second on the threat meter, that way the warrior gets bit 1st, also if she is dieing too fast have the tank taunt and nothing more, the warrior hit her with an auto attack so he is second on the meter, and everyone else just stand there and look pretty, until its time to nuke.

[Sukurachi]

Yes, part of the problem is the gushing wound debuff... 1500/sec means that by the time my warrior can bite someone, she's been dead for 10 seconds already.

So we need three of either warrior, DL or paladin in the party, plus a healer, at absolute minimum.

My warrior, then a tank (who could be Warrior, Paladin or DK) and the "off-tank (again, one of Warrior, Pally or DK).
And a healer who makes sure that I don't die from the gushing wound debuff?

I imagine it would be best to have a Paladin main tank, since they can self heal?

I also imagine that it would be best to have a couple of extra players present who would be "victims" for my bite? I imagine it would be bad for the main tank to die of my vampire bite? Unless paladins have a healing ability that cures that sort of debuff?

[Rawr]

Yes having the tank heal themselves is a good idea. Try having your warrior get bit, bite a low dps, while healer spams heals, then nuke the queen. I did this in content when we had 25 ppl in the raid, all I know is you hold Shadowmorne, get bit, bite someone, kill queen.

[Sukurachi]

but I have to bite the queen three times!!

I've been able to get my first bite in, no problem.
But I always die before I can get a 2nd, forget even trying for a third, bite in.

It's that gushing wound debuff for three entire minutes!
that's too much for my warrior. right now, at 91, she only has around 66k HP.
mind you, she has on the plate looms, which seem to have really crappy stats compared to the quest rewards she just got from starting Draenor. I'll have to test and see how much more HP I can squeeze out of changing her gear. She could have a set just for this quest, and keep the exp+ looms for actual questing in Draenor.

[Sukurachi]

A bit of news:

Members of my guild will help me try fo this part of the quest, and Wain has most kindly offered to join us if play times coincide (I'm honestly hoping they do! it would be such a pleasure to have a fellow Petopian in the group, and I'm sure we could learn a ton from his experience).

I've levelled my Warrior up a couple more levels, through Frostfire Ridge, and already her HP is showing a massive leap, from 66k HP to now around 105k HP. I imagine if she had all better gear it would be a bit higher. And I've been playing her as a main (I normally dual-box, so one toon ends up being a follow with a limited "assist" macro, and access to a few abilities but not much mobility), and am actually enjoying it immensely. It's taken me a while to get over the "GAH! I'm too squishy! Stay away from me.. let me throw things at you from way over here!" attitude of having almost always played only ranged classes.