[#SomeChanges Suggestion] Remove the ability to cheese certain mechanics during The Lich King encounter

[DKenjoyer]

The Lich King is the pinnacle encounter of all of Classic WoW and I think that it should be difficult and defeating this encounter should be considered an accomplishment, but there are certain things that may undermine the difficulty and the accomplishment of defeating this boss. It would be really sad to see the first kill be done by using cheese tactics for certain difficult mechanics and really annoying for everyone else after if the meta becomes stacking certain classes just to use the same cheese tactics.

Cheese tactic #1 The first cheese tactic is for the Val'kyrs that are summoned in phase 2 of the encounter. Raids are going to try to stack as many warlocks, hunters, and feral druids as possible to allow them to ignore the Val'kyrs that pick those classes because they will be able to use Demonic Circle: Teleport, Disengage, and Feral Charge (Cat) to get back to the platform even if they are dropped off the side of it. With enough attempts and luck they will eventually get a pull where they can always ignore 1 to 3 of the Val'kyrs for each set that are summoned, and possibly even ignore 2 to 3. This greatly trivializes one of the most difficult mechanics of the encounter and gives the raid more time to DPS the boss between each set of Val'kyrs which can greatly trivialize the overall boss enrage timer mechanic as well.

Solution: To prevent this players could be hit with an unbreakable stun if they are dropped in an area that would normally kill a player otherwise. The stun would have to ignore things like Hand of Protection, Divine Shield, Ice Block, Free Action Potion, Living Action Potion, Divine Intervention, Will to Survive, PvP Trinket, etc.

Cheese tactic #2 The second cheese tactic is for the Harvest Souls ability in phase 3 of the encounter. I don't know for sure if it works, but there is a theory that you can use Divine Intervention on a player before he casts this ability preventing them from being teleported into Frostmourne and giving them 40-50 seconds of uninterrupted time to DPS the boss. Not only does this mean you have 1 less person to worry about dying or needing healing inside of Frostmourne, but it can greatly trivialize the overall boss enrage timer mechanic as well, especially if you stack multiple paladins to DI multiple people and have the paladins resurrect with soulstones or battle resses.

Solution: Make Harvest Souls ignore Divine Intervention or make it so that player is killed through Divine Intervention.

Cheese tactic #3 Adding this based on the replies to this. The third possible cheese tactic is using target dummies to absorb The Lich King's Soul Reaper ability in phase 2 and 3, completely negating this mechanic and removing the need for tank swapping.

Solution: Make target dummies not work The Lich King. Personally I don't think they should work on any boss raid boss. There are too many times they are used to negate difficult mechanics and make encounters much easier than they should be.

And if there are any other cheese tactics that are discovered I hope that they will also be fixed as well.

[knasen88]

don't forget target dummies ;)

[DKenjoyer]

don't forget target dummies ;)

Like using target dummies to absorb the Soul Reaper mechanic or just in general? Either way I think target dummies shouldn't work on bosses at all. And it definitely shouldn't be able to negate the Soul Reaper mechanic.

[danniellos94]

You can damage the lich king with fire mages (since they have the biggest range from casters) on transition phase I would suggest to make lich king immune to damage on transition phase.

[MghTG]

While I agree with removing cheese tactics 3 and 2... Idk about the first one. Is fire mages, or hunters, being able to hit from far really a problem? You would sacrifice a lot of damage on Raging Spirits stacking them. It could be cheese on 30% zerg mode, but at that point who cares really. Locks being able to return I think more as a cool option.