Karazhan Guide - Shade of Aran

The Shade of Aran in Kara is quite a fun boss, fairly easy to take down but requires your raid to know exactly what to do. Karazhans Aran is often thought of as a good training methodwise for the Lurker in Serpentshrine Cavern, due to the similar methods of moving and stopping required for a successful takedown.

The Shade of Aran is one of karas optional bosses, he is however highly recommended since killing him opens up a telleport from the doorkeepers to Arans Room.

But back to basics, Aran is susceptable to melee attacks, and Interupts are great to stop his spells. He is however imune to silence and spell slowing effects.

Aran has 5 basic spells which will hit you anywhere in the instance and tend to be on random targets. These can be interrupted, some groups find it best not to interupt his fire spells though, as when he goes into melee he tends to move out of position.

• Frostbolt - Three second cast, 3500 to 4500 frost damage and four second slow.
• Fireball - Two second cast, 3910 to 5290 fire damage.
• Arcane Missiles - Five second channeled, shoots five missiles each dealing 1260 to 1540 arcane damage (6300-7700 total) keep an eye out for this incase emergency healing is needed!
• Chains of Ice - Ten second root, doesn't break on damage and can be dispelled. it is a chance on hit spell with frostbolt.
• AoE Counterspell - Ten yard radius AoE around Aran, occurs very often. Locks out schools of magic for ten seconds. Ranged, keep your distance!

Around every thirty seconds Aran will use one of three abilities which make him unique in Kara.

His three abilites need to be known by your group or they could wipe you very easily.

Every 30-35 seconds, Aran uses one of his three special abilities (never the same twice in a row). The special abilities cannot be interrupted or locked out, and they are real killers.

• Flame Wreath: Five-second cast which creates a fiery aura around three random characters in the raid. When the auras are triggered by moving over them, they deal 3,000–4,000 fire damage to everyone in the room. The auras last 20 seconds. When this occurs everyone MUST stand still!
• Circular Blizzard: Large AoE that moves slowly clockwise around the room. Deals 1313 to 1687 frost damage every two seconds and slows movement speed by 65%, The Blizzard eventually covers half the room, but does not hit the center of the room. There is a graphic which looks like a small blue tornado at the front end of the blizzard to make it easier to see it. Ranged simply stay on the opposite side of the marker to avoid the blizzard effect, melee do not need to worry about this as the blizzard does not effect people ten yards or less towards Aran!
• Magnetic Pull / Slow / Super Arcane Explosion: Pulls everyone to the center of the room and Slows them. This is followed by a ten-second cast Arcane Explosion that deals 9,000-11,000 damage in a 20 yard radius. As soon as this happens everyone should run to the wall, there is plenty of time to do this :) If someone is falling behind the slow effect is dispellable, so priests and pallies keep on your toes!.

At 40% health Aran will also summon water elementals, these can be feared, banished, can have Curse of Tongues placed on them and only have 13k health. Ether keeping these feared or taking them down should depend on the DPS quality in your raid.

If for any reason he reaches 20% mana then he will polymorph the enitire raid and drink. After he finishes drinking he will send out a pyro blast dealing around 7.5k damage. If your raid suffers from a pyroblast all DPS should Bandage/Pot/Healthstone to save on healers mana.

If the water elementals are out they will break the polymorph, if you are lucky they will hit one of your healers who can use this time to heal the raid (Any one who cant heal should bandage those in dire ened before the pyro blast otherwise) Whatever you do do not break his drinking or he will drink a mana potion instead and throw out the pyroblast straight away. The good news is that as of patch 2.2 this pyroblast can be interrupted, so you should have any clast that can do this attempt to do so immediately!

The tactics behind this boss are relatively simple, interrupts should be placed on the basic spells (Arcane missiles should be countered asap, fierballs and frostolts just beforet hey are cast)

The following interrupts can be used on Aran

• Rogues Kick
• Warriors Pummel and Shield Bash
• Shamans Earth Shock
• Druids Feral Charge
• Mages Counterspell
• Warlocks Spell Lock

When a special ability is cast just do what is advised above, these are the real killers in an instance so everybody MUST know what to do.

Flame wreath is a killer, critting for well over 7.5k on each person. Everyone stay still when this happens unless you are sure you will not effect it.

The Blizzard can be avoided by staying in the middle (Not advised for casters due to silence effect) or simply stay on the opposite side of the room.

The Magnetic pull is the easiest to avoid, run to the nearest wall as soon as you get pulled in.

Overall the different effects make this an incredibly fun boss, and surprisingly easy to beat, but everyone in your raid needs to learn the special moves!!