(Karazhan) The Curator Strategy Guide

VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sy59cqiuFRc


Fight Overview & Introduction
The Curator is the 5th encounter in the ten man instance Karazhan, located in the Menagerie. He has a fair amount of health, around one million hit points and melees moderately hard. He has a secondary main ability called a "Hateful Bolt", which hits for around 4000 unmitigated arcane damage. He spawns "flares" rapidly throughout the fight. This fight seems to be a big damage check for your raid, as you will need to be able to put out a very high amount of damage to drop him and, more importantly, his flares, quickly. This fight also marks what I would consider a decent difficulty increase over the bosses in the lower end of Karazhan. The actual mechanics for the fight are simple; however, the execution takes practice. With this guide, and an attempt or two, provided you have the gear and coordination to pull it off, some lucky person in your raid should be picking up their tier 4 gloves!

Abilities At A Glance
# Moderately heavy melee damage to the Tank, around 3000 physical damage per swing.
# Hateful Bolt, deals about 4000 arcane damage.
# Rapidly Spawns "Flares" (every 10 seconds), that deal pure arcane damage which have an area-of-effect Arcane Lightning that will chain to players within around 10 yards, dealing 400-700 arcane damage per hit to each player in range.
# Evocation, regains mana, takes 250% extra damage, does not spawn flares.
# Low health enrage at 10-15% health: flares stop spawning and he hits faster with both melee and his Hateful Bolt.


The Group Makeup
This fight seems to be slightly biased toward having a heavy compliment of ranged DPS. A standard group makeup is as follows, along with spec where applicable:

# Tank: Warrior (Protection)
# Soaker: Druid (Feral, in bear form)
# Healer1: Priest (holy)
# Healer2: Priest (Shadow, NOT in shadow form. Keeps VT/VE up on boss)
# Healer3: Paladin (w/ Blessing of Kings)
# Healer4: Paladin
# DPS1: Mage
# DPS2: Warlock
# DPS3: Hunter
# DPS4: Rogue



The Pull & Positioning
Raid Positioning during The Curator Encounter



Have your tank pull The Curator to the middle of the room, slightly closer to the entrance end of the room (see the diagram). The members of the raid need to spread out; not too far, but a distance of about 12-15 yards between each player will be sufficient. The Flares have an arcane only attack which will 'chain' to multiple people in range, dealing on average 600 damage per tick. You will need your healers in range to heal a section of the group, as well as the main tank, soaker, and any melee DPS currently on the boss. Melee players will take a lot of damage from these flares as they must chase them around to do damage to them, however, they must be mindful of chaining the attack to other players. For this reason we use very few melee classes for this fight, however, it can certainly be done with them, they just need to be on the ball. The positioning does not change much, if at all during the fight for non-melee classes. Occasionally you will need to move slightly to avoid taking damage or chaining the attack from the Flares, but afterwards you can move back to your original spot.


The Flare Stage

After an Evocate, or before the first Evocate, the fight is the same; you will be getting 'Flares' that spawn all around The Curator at a rate of about one every ten seconds. The flares have a fair amount of health, around 15,000 hit points. They do not need to be 'tanked' in the standard sense and they do not melee: they do only arcane magical damage. When an add spawns, they seem to randomly pick a target and charge after that target, however, they do seem to have an "aggro list" of sorts, in that you can pull a Flare off another player by doing damage to it. However, initial aggro from flares seems to be rather random.

Dealing With The Flares
Your raid simply must have a vast majority if not all of the available DPS focused on them. Each flare needs to die before the next one spawns, which will be approximately every ten seconds. It's a good idea to shoot for about 7 or 8 seconds per Flare. The Flares are the key to this fight: you must quickly kill them, or else your raid will quickly become overrun and you will wipe.

An important note: right before The Curator enters his Evocate stage, he will spawn a final flare which will be alive during the Evocate. You must burn this Flare down extremely quickly so that you can do maximum damage to The Curator. This "flare" phase lasts for approximately 120 seconds (two minutes).

Raid Roles During This Stage

The Curator About To StrikeTank
Hold solid aggro on The Curator, and keep building threat.

Soaker
Keep steady DPS on The Curator by moving to position 1B in the diagram, try and stay number 2 on the aggro list in the event of tank death, you may be able to buy the raid enough time to knock off those last few percent and prevent a wipe, but don't over do it. You can also help DPS flares if they are not being killed fast enough by moving to position 2B in the diagram.

Melee DPS
Burn down the Flares quickly (Position 2A in diagram), and DPS The Curator when possible (Position 1A in the diagram). You may need to chase the Flares between positions 1A, and 2A periodically, however, do not get too close to other players if the Flare is almost dead, let the ranged DPS finish it off, as you will cause more people to be hit with the arcane area of effect damage from the flares. Instead resume DPS on The Curator.

Ranged DPS
Burn down the flares quickly. DPS The Curator when not killing flares. Try and be efficient while dealing your damage. You don't want to be running out of mana early in this fight.

Healers
Keep the tank and off tank/soaker's health topped off, and help spot heal the raid. Some members will take moderate amounts of arcane damage if the flares get close to them. Note also that your melee damage dealers will typically take much more damage than ranged damage classes due to them having to be within 10 yards of the flare and can chain the arcane area of effect damage to other nearby players as they are 'chasing' the flares to help kill them. Try and be as efficient as possible with heals, as mana will run low later in the fight if you don't; at the same time, you can't afford to lose people early in this fight.

Priests
Do not use your Shadow Fiend, if you can help it, during the flare stage, as you will receive much more mana by using it on The Curator during an evocate stage. If you are shadow, try and keep Vampiric Embrace/Vampiric Touch up on the boss at all times.

Shamans
Using Mana Spring totems and Wrath of Air totems is great for mana users, and damage caster heavy groups. If your group is more melee oriented, you might choose to go with a Windfury Totem, or Grace of Air totem and perhaps a Strength of Earth totem. Save your Heroism (Alliance)/Blood Lust (Horde) for the Enrage state of the fight, or slightly before it.

Warlocks
If you are Demonology, keep your Felguard on The Curator for the entire fight; the positioning is noted in the diagram. Keeping your Felguard on The Curator will help keep steady DPS on him between and during Evocate stages. If not, use the imp for Blood Pact, and keep him phase shifted. You can also time a Curse of Doom to coincide with Evocates for extra damage.

Hunters
While hunter pets can be used, it is better not to use them for this fight as it can make the area around where The Curator is being tanked rather congested and susceptible to chaining the arcane damage around the entire melee group. However, if you decide to use a pet, keep your pet on The Curator for the entire duration of the fight to add extra DPS to the boss. The relative position for your pet is indicated on the diagram.


The Evocate Stage

After The Curator runs out of mana, he will enter an Evocate state. The Curator will not spawn Flares, nor will he do anything other than regain his mana during this time. He is also in a weakened state, taking much more damage!

It is extremely important to have everyone doing any damage possible to the boss at this point. If your priests need mana it is a good idea to have them use their Shadow Fiends during this phase. If they are able to spare the mana, have your healers also do damage during this phase; the quicker you bring him down, the better. If you have a shadow priest who is mainly assisting with the flares, this stage is great to help top everyone off with mana and/or health in their group before you revert back to the Flare stage. This stage of the fight lasts approximately 20 seconds.

The Curator
Raid Roles During An Evocate

There are no significant positioning changes, other than that everyone should move to boss DPS positions and DPS as hard as possible and for as long as possible during this phase.

Tank
Keep building threat, and burn a bit of rage for extra DPS if it's available and you feel comfortable doing it.

Soaker
You should be in position 1B doing as much DPS as possible.

Melee DPS
You should be in position 1A doing as much DPS as possible.

Ranged DPS
Focus fire on the boss!

Healers
DPS if you can spare the mana, if not, regenerate and top people off with health.

Shamans
A Windfury Totem during this stage might be a good idea if your in a melee heavy group. Dropping a Mana Spring totem, and/or Wrath of Air will help your casters out.


The Enrage Stage

When The Curator reaches approximately 10% to 15% health he will enter an Enraged state, where the Hateful Bolts will increase in frequency as will his melee swings, so everyone needs to burn him down extremely quickly upon entering the enraged state.

The positioning for the Enrage phase is identical to the evocate positions. When you get this far, the end is near, and the fight should be over in a few seconds.

Raid Roles During The Enrage


Tank
Keep The Curator on you and burn rage on dealing as much damage as possible if you are confident the Soaker will not pull aggro during the last few percent of the fight.

Soaker
You should be in position 1B doing as much DPS as possible.

Melee DPS
You should be in position 1A doing as much DPS as possible. Bandage if you must, or use health potions if you are targeted with Hateful Bolt.

Ranged DPS
Focus fire on the boss, blow all cool downs, Bandage and or use health pots if you are hit with the Hateful Bolt.

Healers
Keep everyone up during this phase, and the boss will drop very quickly, this phase is very hectic as the Hateful Bolts and melee damage on the tank are coming much faster. Others in the raid at this point may receive unintended Hateful Bolts; just try and keep the tank and soaker topped off, but the main tank is more important, if The Curator gets loose even at 5%, he could easily wipe the group.

Shamans
Burn your Heroism (Alliance)/Blood Lust (Horde)!

Notes


Notes on Hateful Bolt
The 'Hateful Bolt' mechanic is similar to the Patchwerk Hateful Strike mechanic. It will hit the person who is second to the main tank on aggro, with the most health. It will never hit the main tank as long as he has aggro on the boss. This is best explained by example, below is an example of a possible "Hateful Bolt" scenario:

Hateful Bolt 1
Player Threat Current Health Hateful Bolt Hits Player?
Main Tank 10,000 15,000 No
Soaker 6,000 12,000 Yes
AWarlock 7,000 10,000 No
ARogue 6,800 9,500 No

Why does Hateful Bolt hit the Soaker in the above example?
The Soaker's Hit points are higher than anyone else's currently, and he has more threat than anyone else with the same amount of health, except the main tank, which is irrelevant, he will never be hit by the Hateful Bolt so long as he has aggro.

Let's continue the example, and assume that "The Soaker" doesn't get a heal to bring him back up to full or near full health, and let's assume that the Hateful Bolt hit for 4,000 damage even, and let's also assume that no damage was taken by any of the other players and that the threat is fixed at the same values.

Hateful Bolt 2
Player Threat Current Health Hateful Bolt Hits Player?
Main Tank 10,000 15,000 No
Soaker 6,000 8,000 No
AWarlock 7,000 10,000 Yes
ARogue 6,800 9,500 No

Notice now, that the next highest on both health and aggro is "AWarlock", and they will receive the next Hateful Bolt, instead of the soaker.

For this reason, it is recommended to have your off tank/soaker's health topped off or very near topped off after each Hateful Bolt. A feral druid or DPS warrior is a good choice for the "soaker" or "off-tank" duty, as they tend to have a lot of health. It helps if the soaker has arcane resistance gear to mitigate some of the damage; however, it is not absolutely required. This can be done by any class which has a large amount of hit points, and can withstand repeated hits, examples would include (but are not limited to) a rogue, warlock, warrior or druid.


Buffs & Consumables
Here are some buffs and consumables listed by role you may consider using to aid you:

Tank/Soaker
Flask of Titans (if needed), Elixir of Mastery, Well Fed (+stamina), Blessing of Kings, and standard raid buffs.

Melee
Elixir of Major Agility, Well Fed (+stamina), Blessing of Kings, Dampen Magic, and standard raid buffs.

Ranged DPS
Flask of Supreme Power (if needed); Adept's Elixir; Well Fed(+damage or +agility), Blessing of Wisdom, Blessing of Kings, Dampen Magic, and standard raid buffs.

Healers
Mana per 5 consumables, Elixir of Major Healing, Adept's Elixir, Elixir of Mastery, Blessing of Wisdom, Blessing of Kings, and standard raid buffs.