Icecrown Gunship Battle

Source: Darksend (25-man)
Welcome to the Tankspot Icecrown citadel Raid Guide. My name is Darksend and in this video I will show you our strategy for the Gunship Battle, The third encounter in the lower spire.

If you'd like more information or would like to learn more about downloading this movie, click "more info" on the movie information box on YouTube to head directly to TankSpot! Also, be sure to subscribe by clicking the Subscribe button to the right to be automatically notified as we release movies. Finally, TankSpot Donors can download all of these movies in High Definition directly from our servers -- click the second link in the movie information box to learn more!

Depending on your faction, you will take control of one of the ships that normally float around icecrown that act as quest hubs. After taking the elevator up, horde you will go right and take control of Orgrim's Hammer and alliance you will go left and take control of The Skybreaker.

Make sure everyone has a jet-pack equipped, even if they are not assigned to go over to the other ship, as it is a good idea to have a contingency in case someone who is going over dies. Once that is done you start the fight by talking to either Saurfang if you are horde and Bronzebeard if you are alliance.

The goal of the encounter is to destroy the other ship through use of the guns located on the side of the ship. We assigned 4 ranged DPS to control the guns. The goal of the gunners is to build up "heat" using the normal cannon blast in order to maximize the secondary cannon blast, which converts all the heat into extra damage. The trick is to make sure you do not overheat your gun while still maximizing the secondary weapon. if you overheat you will render your gun useless for several seconds.

Periodically, a Battle mage will spawn on the enemy ship and the guns will get frozen. When this happens the melee, one tank, and a healer or two jump over to the other ship and kill the mage. While over there the opposing leader gains a stacking buff which increases his damage done. If the tank starts getting into trouble simply have everyone jump back onto your own ship and the leaders buff will reset. Ideally, you want the leader to have 0 stacks when the gets get frozen so you can go over and break the channel immediately, as the guns are the only way to win the encounter.

While this is happening, a portal will appear above your own ship and spawn several marines and 2 sergeants periodically. Skybreaker Sergeants do a wounding strike which reduces healing taken by 25%. They also have a bladestorm.

After a while both the sergeants and the marines will gain a permanent stacking buff called experienced, this increases their damage by 30% and attack and casting speed by 20% per stack. They also periodically gain a buff called desperate resolve, which increases armor by 60% and attack speed by 60%, the buff lasts 30 seconds. These waves are killed by ranged classes with strong aoe abilities and aoed down by the melee when they are on your own ship letting the other leaders stack reset. If they are not tanked they will use an ability called burning pitch, this deals siege damage to your ship.the skybreaker does not have guns the same way orgrims hammer does, instead they have skybreaker rifleman. your ranged without strong aoe abilities should be lined up along the edge of your ship shooting across killing these rifleman. It should be noted however that if the adds coming out of the portal being to overwhelm the tank these ranged should switch and begin single targeting them down immediately.

Finally, Throughout the entire fight the enemy will constantly be shooting rockets over, they are very easy to avoid as it takes several seconds for them to land after the graphic appears.

It should be noted that this is the horde version of this fight, the names of the ships are reveresed as well as the names of the individual units will be different on the alliance side.

Thanks for watching this movie! As always, feel free to ask questions or add suggestions either on YouTube or in the strategy thread on TankSpot.com.

Source: Lore (10-man)
Welcome back to the Icecrown Citadel raid guide. I'm Lore, and in this video I'll show you the 10-man Normal version of the Icecrown Gunship Battle.

The Gunship Battle is a fairly easy encounter that's a lot of fun. First, before the encounter begins, make sure to get a jetpack from the NPC on the deck. This is equipped in your shirt slot, so make sure to equip it and put it someplace handy on your action bar. Not everyone needs to use the jetpacks normally, but it's not a bad idea to have them available just in case.

You'll also need to designate two players to man the cannons, preferably players of DPS specs as the tanks and healers have other obligations. The cannons have two abilities. The first simply fires a cannonball, but also generates a small amount of heat, which is visible in the cannon's energy bar. The second ability unleashes all of this heat, dealing higher damage depending on how much heat was available. However, if the cannon reaches 100 heat, it will shut down momentarily and all of that heat will be lost. Therefore, the best strategy for your cannoneers to use is to build up heat until the cannon passes 90, and then fire the second ability.

The object of the encounter is to use the cannons to shoot down the enemy ship. However, from time to time the enemy will call out a sorceror to freeze the cannons, which kicks anyone manning the cannons out and renders them unusable until the sorceror is killed. This is what the jetpacks are for. All of your DPS and one tank will need to use them to jump over to the other ship. The tank will need to pick up the enemy leader and hold onto him while the DPS kills the sorceror. The leader, who is Muradin Bronzebeard if you're a Horde player and High Warlord Saurfang if you're Alliance, will gain a stacking buff as they continue to attack that steadily increases the amount of damage they deal. Once the sorceror is killed, everyone should jump back to their own ship to let this buff reset.

Note that if the tank holds the enemy leader near the close edge of the enemy ship, they can be reached by healers standing on edge of their own ship, so having healers jump over isn't really necessary.

Meanwhile, as you've probably noticed already, enemy NPC's will be appearing through a portal on your ship. These need to be picked up, tanked, and killed by DPS when they're not working on killing a sorceror. Although they don't hit very hard at first, these NPCs become stronger the longer they're alive, so killing them is important.

You've also probably noticed the targetting reticles that are appearing occasionally on the ship's deck. These indicate where a mortar, fired by an NPC on the other ship, is about to land. Obviously, getting hit by things is bad, so move out of these as they appear. You can kill the mortar teams on the far side of the enemy ship if you like to stop them from firing. However, this means more time spent tanking the enemy leader, which means he's dealing more damage to the tank, and more mortar teams will come out anyway. We found it easiest to simply ignore them and just avoid the mortars on our own ship, but the option is there should you find yourselves being overrun by mortars.

There will also be a team of Riflemen, or Axe Throwers if you're Alliance, firing at players on your ship. The damage is easily healed through, but like the rest of the enemy NPC's, they will become stronger the longer they're alive. Fortunately, they take damage from cannon fire, so as long as your cannons are firing at an angle that will also hit the Riflemen, they shouldn't be alive for long.

It's important to remember that as long as the enemy leader is attacking, he will continue to stack up his damage buff. Who or what he's attacking is ultimately unimportant. He also has a ranged attack that can reach to the other ship if a player is standing too close to the edge. Therefore, be very careful about using things like totems or temporary pets when on the other ship. Totems especially can keep the enemy leader in combat for quite some time, so if you're going to drop them while you're over there, be sure to recall them when you leave. Also, make sure once you're back on your own boat that everyone moves away from the edge to make sure the enemy leader resets.

Once you've got the basic rhythm of the fight down, it's really very simple. DPS alternates between killing enemies on your ship and sorcerors on the other. The two cannoneers simply fire at the enemy riflemen until the sorceror comes out, jump over to help kill it, then get back into their cannon. One tank stays on your ship to keep the enemy NPC's under control, while the other jumps over to tank the enemy leader when needed. Aside from that, just stay away from the mortars, and you should have no problems with this encounter.

Thanks for watching this video. As always, if you'd like more information on this or any other encounter, including the 25-man version, just check the Project Marmot forums at Tankspot.com. If you're watching this on YouTube, just follow the link in the movie details. Good luck!

(Information provided by http://tankspot.com)