Karazhan - The Curator

The Curator is one of the first 'real' bosses of Karazhan. Defeating him should indicate that your gear is good enough to reach the two end bosses of Kara, Nightbane and Prince Malchezaar.

The fight itself is pretty mana intensive, so you will find if the raid group is undergeared you will notice priests running out of mana too fast. If your group is having trouble with this the best way to beat him is to stock up on pots and consumables over trying new tactics.

The Curator stands at around 660,000hp and a large amount of armour, not to mention being immune to arcane spells and abilities. He has a wide range of attacks, listed here.

Basic Melee Damage: Around 3000 on a tank
Hateful Bolt: An arcane bolt that hits a non-tank character for around 4500-6000 Arcane damage.
Summon Astral Flare:Summon one Astral Flare every 10 seconds (Flare Phase)
Evocation: He stops attacking for 20 seconds while regenerating mana and increases damage taken by 200% (Evocation Phase)
Enrage: At 15% health, increase melee attack speed and Hateful Bolt cast rate while ceasing new Evocations or Astral Flare summons
Berserk: After 10 minutes, give all raid members an non-removable debuff which increases arcane damage taken by 500%

The astral flares he creates must be destroyed ASAP, if two of these are spawned at once your raid is in serious trouble. They have about 12k hp and are untauntable, but the main problem with these guys is there one major skill.

Arcing Sear is a rapid-fire chained attack which hits up to three targets within ten yards for 675-825 arcane damage each, doesn't sound like much but it recasts VERY quickly , and if more than one astral flares sending these chain lightening towards your raid you will find yourself up the proverbial creek.

The boss has three distinct phases, each of which requires significantly different tactics.

Flare Phase
Evocation Phase
Enrage Phase

The flare phase is the source of most wipes on the Curator, and are infact one of the first major stumbling blocks of new entrants to Karazhan. The most important thing to remember is to nuke these things down as quickly as possible, forget DPSing the boss. Each flare summoned consumes 10% of the curators mana. When he runs out of mana his evocation stage begins.

If you are having trouble on these adds try making sure your raid group is well spread out, as the chain lightning (Arcing Sear) cast does have a limited range. It may help if you designate a flare tank. While the Astral Flares spawn with 1000 agro on a random raid member and are untauntable a tank can get to 1000 agro fairly quickly and move the flare away from the group.

The evocation phase is where you need to DPS the Curator, make sure all the flares are down first though!

During the evocation phase the curator takes 200% more damage, allowing you significantly reduce his health. At the same time though his mana regenerates, allowing for another flares phase.

Any DPS boosting trinkets, spells or totems should be used during evocation to make best use of the 200% boost to damage taken.

Priests, during this phase use your shadowfiend when you are low on mana, it will restore your mana to full due to the increased damage taken by the curator.

Warlocks with a mod such as deadly boss mods can predict a curse of doom just under one minute before evocation starts, this gives huge damage.

Rogues can use Cloak of shadows just before arcing sear is finished casting by an Astral Flare to negate the damage, and if targeted sometime even the whole spell.

Feral Druids can be good Flare tanks due to their high armour and inbuilt resistances.

The tactics here are all fairly irrelevant when it truly comes down to it though.

This boss is purely and simply a gear test. Poor geared groups will find this boss a severe challenge, whereas the better geared groups will find this a breeze, swiping the astral flares and knocking them down in seconds.

If you really need to progress on this boss at may be an idea to stack around 200 Arcane Resistance. This will heavily reduce the damage dealt out by the curator.