The Illidari Council Guide: Strategy, Abilities, Loot (2024)

Last updated on Dec 29, 2021 at 19:30by Abide1 comment

The Illidari Council is the eighth boss you will encounter inBlack Temple. The Illidari Council can be a chaotic boss battle,with tons of random, area damage happening throughout the entire fight. This isa boss where people can easily go from 100% health to dead in a matter ofseconds. Check out our full guide below to fully understand what you need to doto best survive.

The Illidari Council is the eighth boss you will encounter in theBlack Temple. The Illidari Council is one of the harder bosses in theraid, if not the hardest. There is a lot of raidwide burst damage, as well asvery high tank damage. This is another fight players will want to prioritizeStamina gear to survive mechanics.

This fight is also unique compared to all of the other encounters in theraid, as it is a "council" based fight. You will face 4 enemies at once who allshare the same health pool through their Balance of Power buff and allmust be handled in different ways.

There is quite a lot of damage that happens during this fight. Tanks will betaking high damage consistently, while random raid members will be taking highbursts of damage from multiple different abilities. If assigned to heal a tank,be sure to keep them topped up at all times. Healers assigned to the raid needto be quick on their feet and ready to top off any members hit by bossabilities.

This is another fight you will want to prioritize Stamina gear for as thereare many random damage abilities that can easily kill you. Be ready at any timeto move out of any area damage or use any of your defensive abilities tosurvive incoming damage.

Caster DPS may want to change targets over to High Nethermancer Zerevorwhenever Chromatic Resistance Aura is active to prevent their spellsfrom resisting much more often.

Tanks will want to prioritize high health for this fight as there is plentyof magic damage going out consistently throughout the encounter. The tankassigned to Gathios the Shatterer in particular should play extra defensively,as this is one of the hardest-hitting bosses in the game.

Gathios the Shatterer should be moved frequently to keep your meleeDPS out of AoE abilities. If using aProtection Warriorto tank him, you can Spell Reflection his Seal of CommandJudgement combo back at him, saving you tons of health and generatingall the threat you need.

A Mage tank will be required to tankHigh Nethermancer Zerevor, similar to Krosh Firehand on theHigh King Maulgar fight from Gruul's Lair. SimplySpellsteal the Dampen Magic buff whenever possible toreduce your damage taken and generate some threat to keep him attacking you.Avoid being near him at all times.

As this fight has 4 different bosses, we will list each boss and theirspecific abilities down below.

• Empowered Smite — This is a 2-second cast, dealing 5,463 to6,037 Holy damage. It is used as her main attack.
• Divine Wrath — Cast at a random target, dealing 5,000initial Holy damage plus an 8-second DoT for 2,500 damage every 2 seconds.
• Reflective Shield — This 20-second self-shield buff absorbsup to 25,000 damage. Half of the absorbed damage is reflected back to theattacker, but it does not protect Malande against interrupts.
• Circle of Healing — 2.5-second cast that heals the combined bosshealth pool for 100,000 with a 20-second cooldown; it can be interrupted.

• Arcane Bolt — This 2-second cast deals roughly 15,000 Arcanedamage to the current target. It is used as Zerevor's main attack.
• Flamestrike — Deals damage in a 10-yard AoE on a randomtarget. This will deal 5,000 initial Fire damage and then 3,000 damage per tickin the impact area, with a 12-second duration.
• Blizzard — This is a 10-yard AoE on a random target. Itdeals 6,000 Frost damage per tick over a 12-second duration.
• Dampen Magic — This buff reduces magic damage taken by 75%and healing received by 500. However, it can be spellstolen or dispelled.
• Arcane Explosion — This 10-yard AoE spell is centered aroundZerevor and deals 9,000 Arcane damage. It is only used if any target is within10 yards of him.

• Hammer of Justice — Stuns a random target within 40 yards for6 seconds. However, it can be dispelled.
• Consecration — Drops a Consecrate at Gathios' feet, dealing2,250 Holy damage to nearby enemies every 3 seconds for 20 seconds.
• Seal of Command — 30-second buff, increasing melee damagedealt by 70%; shares a cooldown with Seal of Blood.
• Seal of Blood — 30-second buff, adding 800 Holy damage tomelee attacks; shares a cooldown with Seal of Command.
• Judgement — Both seals above can be judged.Seal of Command deals 7,000 Holy damage when judged and can be spellreflected. Seal of Blood deals 11,000 Holy damage over 9 seconds whenjudged.
• Blessing of Spell Warding — 15-second buff, granting immunityto magic spells. Can be cast on any of the other bosses, but never himself. Itshares a cooldown with Blessing of Protection.
• Blessing of Protection — 15-second buff, granting immunity toPhysical abilities. Can be cast on any of the other bosses, but never himself.It shares a cooldown with Blessing of Spell Warding.
• Chromatic Resistance Aura — 30-second buff, increasing allresistances of allies by 250 and has a 30-yard range. It shares a 1-minute cooldownwith Devotion Aura.
• Devotion Aura — 30-second buff, increasing the Armor of alliesby 20% and has a 30-yard range. It shares a 1-minute cooldown withChromatic Resistance Aura.

• Deadly Poison — Debuff a random target, dealing 1,000 Naturedamage a second for 4 seconds. It cannot be removed.
• Envenom — Used on targets debuffed withDeadly Poison; at the end of the 4-second debuff, Envenomdeals 6,000 Nature damage to the target.
• Vanish — Every 30 seconds or so, Veras Darkshadow willVanish, becoming untargetable. He will then pick random targets touse his Deadly Poison and Envenom combo on.

Pulling The Illidari Council is one of the most difficult parts of the fight,if not the most difficult. Having multiple Hunters available forMisdirection makes things much easier. Allow theMage tank to initiate the pull, with every other tankinstantly ready to follow it up and grab their assigned target. This pull maketake some practice, so do not be frustrated if it takes your group a few timesto get the pull down.

Illidari Council can be a very chaotic boss. With 4 tanks taking damage at atime, along with multiple different instances of random damage, things canquickly get out of hand here. Healers assigned to tanks need to keep theirtanks topped at all times, as the tanks can also be targets of this randomdamage, quickly leading to tank deaths.

When Gathios the Shatterer uses Chromatic Resistance Aura,casters will want to swap over to High Nethermancer Zerevor,who should be tanked in a position that is out of range of this aura. Thisallows caster DPS to continue dealing damage while avoiding the high spellresistance gained from the aura, and since the health pool is shared between allfour bosses, this is a large DPS gain for the raid. Always be aware of yourthreat on High Nethermancer Zerevor, as theMage may not have had time to builda significant threat lead yet.

Gathios the Shatterer will be the main target the raid is focusing.Melee players, and anyone nearby him, need to be ready to move away from theboss at all times, as he will be constantly dropping Consecration onthe ground, and this can easily be combined with any other source of damage,easily leading to a melee player's death.

The raid should always be aware of High Nethermancer Zerevor's position,as going within 10 yards of him will trigger Arcane Explosion, likelykilling anyone nearby. The Mageassigned to tanking him will want to make sure he is far on the side, away fromwhere the raid will be spreading. Be aware of your healers' positions and do notgo too far away from them. Healers will also need to constantly be aware ofVeras Darkshadow, as he will be doing his Deadly Poison andEnvenom combo while he is Vanished, and reset his threatafter the Vanish ends.

The entire raid should spread out throughout the room to avoid as many peoplebeing hit by the same Flamestrikes and Blizzards aspossible. Everyone in the raid has a personal responsibility to move out of AoEdamage effects as soon as possible to prevent random deaths. Be ready to use anypersonal defensive abilities available to you, as well as help with off-healingif your class is capable of doing so. The raid needs to survive here.

As Lady Malande is primarily a caster-based NPC, she can beinterrupted on the majority of her spell casts. This becomes significantlyeasier to do by making sure to keep either Curse of Tongues orMind-numbing Poison's debuff applied to her at all times to increaseher casting time. A common tactic is to have aRogue assigned to wear PvP glovesand interrupt as many casts as possible with both Kick andDeadly Throw, as any Rogue PvP gloves allow Deadly Throwto be used as an additional ranged interrupt, even against bosses.

Multiple interrupts will be needed for Lady Malande, as she canreceive either Blessing of Spell Warding orBlessing of Protection from Gathios the Shatterer, making herimmune to either Physical- or magic-based spells, including interrupts. Therecommended tactic is to have a dedicated Physical interrupter assigned to her,typically your Rogue wearing PvPgloves. Then have yourElemental Shamanready to interrupt Circle of Healing if she gains aBlessing of Protection, as the Rogue will no longer be able to interrupt.Lastly, have yourRestoration Shamans,or any other interrupters ready to interrupt Divine Wrath if she gainsa Blessing of Protection. With proper interrupt assignments and solidcoordination and awareness, Lady Malande can be easily trivialized duringthis encounter.

Item	Item Type	Slot
Leggings of the Forgotten Conqueror	Tier Token	Legs
Leggings of the Forgotten Protector	Tier Token	Legs
Leggings of the Forgotten Vanquisher	Tier Token	Legs
Belt of Divine Guidance	Cloth	Waist
Cloak of the Illidari Council	Accessory	Back
Forest Prowler's Helm	Mail	Head
Helm of the Illidari Shatterer	Plate	Head
Madness of the Betrayer	Accessory	Trinket
Veil of Turning Leaves	Leather	Shoulder

If you were looking for a full guide for the Black Temple raid, or wouldlike to know what specializations the loot from The Illidari Council should beprioritized to, see the links below.