Prince Malchezaar Strategy Guide (Karazhan)

Karazhan Raid Guide

Karazhan Attunement

Karazhan Loot

Attumen the Huntsman

Moroes

Maiden of Virtue

Opera Event

The Curator

Terestian Illhoof

Shade of Aran

Netherspite

Chess Event

Prince Malchezaar

Nightbane

Thanks for checking out of Prince Malchezaar strategy guide for Burning Crusade Classic’s Karazhan! The Prince is technically the final encounter in the raid, but is often killed before Nightbane due to the difficulty difference. He uses several different abilities and features three different phases during the encounter. Despite this, the encounter is not particularly difficult but bad RNG can still put you in a dangerous situation. Let’s look at how you can tackle Prince Malchezaar!

Getting Started

The Prince can be found at the end of the instance after clearing the Chess Event. His room is located at the top of the tower and will have players traverse across the Netherspace to position properly. The trash leading up to the boss is arguably the hardest in all of Karazhan, so extra caution is required. Pulling more than one pack a time will almost surely be a wipe. Make sure to focus one Fleshbeast as quickly as possible to mitigate incoming damage. Once you reach the Netherspace, it’s time to get ready for the pull.

Role Summaries

DPS

• Avoid Netherspite Infernals, especially during Enfeeble.
• Run away from Shadow Nova.
• Alert healers if you are targeted by axes in phase three.

Healers

• Avoid Netherspite Infernals.
• Run away from Shadow Nova.
• Remove Shadow Word: Pain during phases one and three.
• Overheal the tank during phase two.
• Try to conserve mana for phase three.

Tanks

• Avoid Netherspite Infernals.
• Run away from Shadow Nova.
• Alternative defensive cooldowns during phase two to survive.
• Use physical damage debuffs if available.
• Keep moving the boss so that there’s always safe spots for the melee to stand in.

Fight Overview

Prince Malchezaar uses several different spells throughout his three-phase fight. Some are used in all phases while others are specific to just one or two of them. Phase one lasts until 60% health, which will begin phase two. At 30% health, phase three of the fight will start. To keep things separated for clarity, we’ll explain each phase individually below.

Phase One

In general, the fight tends to get progressively harder. This means that phase one is the easier part of the encounter and minimizing deaths is essential to surviving the later stages of the fight. During the first phase, he will use four spells, two of which will continue throughout the entire encounter. His abilities during phase one include Summon Infernal, Shadow Nova, Enfeeble, and Shadow Word: Pain.

Summon Infernal is cast every 45 seconds, spawning a Netherspite Infernal that spams Hellfire. It cannot be attacked and will remain where it spawns for 3 minutes. With this in mind, you often will have 4 infernals active during the most chaotic parts of the fight. The only way to handle these is by running away from them. This will require constant repositioning by the raid. It is helpful to have a raid member assigned to marking and announcing locations of infernal spawns.

Shadow Nova does moderate shadow damage to all targets within 25 yards, also knocking them back. It has a 3 second cast time, which gives plenty of time to avoid getting hit. Ranged DPS and healers should be standing far enough away to not need to move, meaning that only melee members will need to run. This spell is typically cast 4 seconds after an Enfeeble, giving even more time to prepare. Make sure the tank has their back to a wall to avoid being knocked back!

Enfeeble is cast on 5 random raid members, changing their maximum health to just a single hitpoint. Any damage will cause a death. The effect will fade and restore maximum health after 7 seconds. As Shadow Nova is cast 4 seconds after, raid members affected by Enfeeble must always be ready to run away.

The only other spell Malchezaar will use during phase one is Shadow Word: Pain. This does moderate damage every few seconds and is used on the tank. It can and should be dispelled to help reduce healing burden.

Putting this all together, phase one gives you a good taste of what to expect for the rest of the fight. All three phases feature Summon Infernal and Shadow Nova. For phase one, they aren’t particularly problematic unless there is an unlucky infernal spawn on top of a recent batch of enfeebled raid members. To push this phase through, simply prioritize avoiding infernals and Shadow Nova.

Phase Two

Phase two starts at 60% health and this where the fight really gets interesting. It isn’t much different from phase one, but Malchezaar has a few extra abilities that make his overall damage output particularly threatening. You’ll still need to remember to properly handle Summon Infernal, Enfeeble, and Shadow Nova like in phase one. Shadow Word: Pain will not be used during phase two.

Instead, the Prince gains access to Sunder Armor, Thrash, and Parry. Sunder Armor will hit the tank and increase how much the boss hits them for. Thrash is used frequently and randomly, allowing Malchezaar to attack twice in quick succession. Parry will deflect a melee attack, but also increases the speed of the boss’ next attack by 40%.

With this in mind, the boss is a heavy melee threat to the tank during phase two. They will be weakened by Sunder Armor and the combination of Thrash and Parry can cause the tank to die in less than a second if unlucky. The only solution for this is to ensure the tank is topped off all times, using large heals proactively to anticipate incoming damage. Any physical damage debuffs like Demoralizing Shout and Curse of Weakness should be used to help lessen the burden on healers.

Most of your wipes when learning the boss will happen during phase two. The Prince is highly unpredictable and the randomness of infernal spawns can make some situations overly difficult. The strategy is fairly simple, but execution is not as easy due to the volatility of the fight. For phase two, remember to manage Summon Infernal, Enfeeble, and Shadow Nova properly while also paying extra attention to keeping the tank alive.

Phase Three

The final phase begins at 30% health and it’s now a race against the clock to kill the boss before he wipes the raid. During this phase, he will no longer use his melee abilities from phase two (Sunder Armor, Thrash, and Parry) or Enfeeble. He will continue to cast Summon Infernal and Shadow Nova. Shadow Word: Pain from phase one returns, but is cast on a secondary target this time as well.

It’s also important to note that Summon Infernal and Shadow Nova behave differently during this phase. During phase three, the cooldown of Summon Infernal is dramatically dropped to 15 seconds, meaning that infernal spawns will be frequent and overwhelming. While there isn’t technically an enrage timer, unmanageable damage from infernals after 2 minutes of phase three is the likeliest cause of a wipe during this phase.

Shadow Nova differs in that it can be cast at any time. Previously, it would be cast 4 seconds after an Enfeeble, which is no longer used during this phase. This means that the raid must always be prepared to move during phase three. Unfortunately, this is often tricky due to the number of infernal spawns.

Malchezaar also gains two additional spells during phase three. This includes Flying Axes and Amplify Damage. Flying Axes hits a random raid member for physical damage. They will linger by the target and continue to hit them, slowly increasing in damage. They cannot be targeted and must be healed through. Whoever is being hit must alert the healers so they are prepared with extra healing.

Amplify Damage is another random cast that will hit someone in the raid. It doubles the damage they take and cannot be removed. Whoever is hit by this will likely die unless they’re lucky enough to avoid infernal spawns.

In phase two, the concern was tank damage from the boss. Phase three is all about raid damage from infernals and Shadow Nova. While phase three poses a bigger threat, phase two is much more difficult and a kill is certainly achievable once you’re able to reach phase three. Any DPS cooldowns should be saved for this phase to burst through it as quickly as possible. Remember to heal whoever’s being smacked by axes, avoid Shadow Nova, and steer clear from infernal spawns as much as possible to take down Karazhan’s sweet prince.