Killin' the Baddies (Heroic Faction Champions)

One of the hardest fights in Trial of the Crusader, and the biggest progression cockblock in tier 9 is the faction champions.

These guys don't play fair, they don't obey the usual PVE rules, and they don't like warlocks. Nobody does. Not even me. And I'm a warlock. So are you. So either piss off or read this article about how to survive against the Heroic Faction Champions.

Spec
This is the one fight in ToC that really calls for a nonstandard spec. You can get away with a normal spec, but the more survivability you stack on, the better off you'll be.

PVP specs are the standard fare on the fight. Soul link, especially with the glyph, is a godsend. A demonic brutality boosted bubble is also a lifesaver, absorbs are always better than heals on this fight. However, traditional PVP specs aren't completely ideal, either - the fight does call for more sustained damage, since your opponents all have millions of health rather than just tens of thousands. The specifics don't matter too much, though, and DPS isn't a factor in the fight, survival is.

I personally prefer using a standard meta/ruin build, but with a voidwalker out instead of a felguard. I use metamorphosis as a defensive cooldown against melee attackers, and demon charge to quickly move away from an attacker.

Buffs
Ditch your frost wyrm flask for a tank flask on this fight. You can go back when you're comfortable, but learning the fight you'll want every edge you can get.

Don't use fel armor on the fight, at all. A lot of warlocks died testing, but for some reason fel armor is a magnet, given the choice between two identical warlocks, the one with fel armor will almost always get beat on more heavily. Demon armor gives you a decent amount of armor (the most dangerous champions are melee) and more importantly increases the healing you receive.

Use a spell stone, as well, regardless of your spec. More of the fight is about CC and avoiding damage than it is doing damage. A spellstone will speed up your fear and banish casts a little bit, and give you an easier time firing them off on the run.

Gear
Any stamina gear you have - PVP gear, tank trinkets you saved from shards, Brightbrew and Balebrew charms from Brewfest. One of my favorites is my Titanium Frostguard ring with a stamina gem. Use it all, get as much health as you can pile on, anything that'll put a bit more buffer between that rogue and your favorite body parts.

Threat
"Threat" works strangely with this fight. It's not entirely understood, but a lot of tests have been done. One big factor is how "wounded" you are. If you're not at full health, you're a more attractive target, and the lower your health, the more attractive you are. This is why you want to absorb every point of damage you can - a voidwalker is your best friend here, sacrifice the second one of the champions looks at you funny. Shadow ward should be in an easy to reach spot - if the shadow priest, warlock, or DK starts messing with you, pop that for a bit more buffer.

This thread over on Maintankadin has some of the more extensive collection of faction champion agro mechanics you can find. Their findings were that the three primary factors were ARMOR, PROXIMITY, and HEALTH DEFICIT.

Armor is why you should use demon armor at all times, and also why warlocks tend to be such attractive targets. A warlock in fel armor is the lowest armor player controlled object in the game. This makes you a very attractive target.

Health deficit is what I've already covered, and why absorbs, dispells, mitigation, and avoidance are all very important - no matter how much you can heal, to heal you have to take damage, which gives you a health deficit.

Proximity is a hard one to control, since the fight is very chaotic. Turn on enemy nameplates if you normally have them off, ideally you never want to see a bar on your screen, but the nameplates make a good early warning if a champion is moving towards or past you.

Proximity is also why I mention that demon portal is a big risk. You move farther from your current attackers, but you move closer to others. If you use it while you're already wounded, you suddenly become a very good target to new attackers, and can doom yourself even worse than you already were.

 Survival
You'll most likely be assigned a CC target, or two to alternate between. You may be given the rest druid, who you'll alternate banish>banish>banish>fear>fear>fear on to keep it locked down as much as possible. Focus on this, make a macro to quickly reaquire your assigned target(s), and don't try to hard to DPS.

The less you do, the less attention you seem to get. There will be people not assigned to CC who will be dealing with the kill targets. As targets thin out, it's safer to do more to help out elsewhere in the fight. Melee DPS is the most worrysome, try to stay out of trouble until they're thinned out.

The rogue, warrior, DK, ret pally, and hunter are the particular threats, and should all be high priority kill targets for the whole raid. In fact, it's generally a better idea to kill melee first rather than healers, it can simply become unhealable if three of them get on a clothie.

When you have agro from a caster, don't worry too much. None of the casters pose major damage threats, though some pose serious disruption hazards. Make use of sacrifice and shadow ward to stave off damage, but melee are the real dangers. Kite them through hunter traps, run away, deathcoil them, whatever you have.

Demon Portal
This is the one exception to the "whatever you have" rule. Be careful about when you use your portal, and make sure you move it to a safe place regularly. You don't want to come out of that near the warrior or rogue especially. It's always good to escape your current attacker, but teleporting seems to make nearby champions "reevaluate" you as a potential target. Portaling with low health can be a worse death sentence than taking it like a man.

The Profit
A common story in TOC, with short loot lists and few bosses, there's not many attractions here. Two items of use. A belt, Biting Cold, is a hit/crit belt. Not an amazingly itemized option, but it does edge out the hit/haste belt from heroic 10 man slightly. The boots, Mourning Widow, are an excellent haste/spirit option, with two gem slots, red/blue with a good bonus.

The trinket, event hough it's a tank trinket, gets special mention because of it's use on this fight specifically - 216 stamina is a lot of extra health, particularly backed up by demonic embrace and fel vitality.