Saurfang has some strategic similarities to Vaelastrasz - while there's no direct enrage timer, there's a very high pressure to end the encounter while the raid is still capable of functioning.
There's two basic strategies, one of which is heroic viable and one of which trivializes the fight on normal but will be completely impossible on heroic. I'll discuss both, but the primary focus will be on the "correct" strategy.
Spec
Affliction has one of it's bad points on this fight in dealing with blood beasts. Blood beasts die fairly quickly, shadowbolt with focus fire from other ranged will finish them fast enough, and you can maintain dots on Saurfang while you go. Never dot blood beasts and you'll be pretty much ok.
Demonology also has some benefit on the fight, in that you will very often proc decimation off blood beasts and you can turn several soulfires on Saurfang. Soul link is also a huge boon if you get marked.
Destruction's all around solid on the fight, but as with demonology, there's something to be said here about soul link. Strong imp spec will have it anyway, and it fits comfortably into suppression spec, or even the "every little bit counts" 14/57 soul link spec that was often used by guilds fighting for tribute to immortality. Of even more note than soul link, however, is shadowfury. A reliable 3 second stun that hits all 5 blood beasts is pretty big for kiting - combined with piercing howl it's enough to kill them before they even get far out of their starting positions.
Macros
/target blood beast
Short and sweet, you'll be doing this a lot, macro it and love it.
Blood Power
Saurfang has a red resource meter that functions similar to runic power in some ways. There's a number of ways he generates blood power:
- He debuffs tanks, causing his hits on them to generate blood power and heal him for five times the damage done (This is mitigated by tank switching)
- He casts blood boil on random targets, which ticks every three seconds for 24 seconds. Each tick generates blood power (This cannot be mitigated)
- He casts blood nova on random targets, hitting them and everybody within 12 yards, every person hit generates blood power (This is mitigated by spreading out - in 25 man space becomes a real concern, doubling a few people up is preferrable to packing in tighter, so that only two people will be hit at most.
- Blood beasts generate blood power every time they deal damage (this is mitigated with stuns, knockbacks, kiting, absorbs, and just killing them faster than they can reach ranged)
- Lastly, every time he reaches 100 blood power, he marks a random target, causing his melee swings to hit them as well. Every hit on the marked player(s) generates blood power, meaning an exponential increase in blood generation as the fight goes on. This can be eased by absorbs (absorbed hits in all cases don't generate blood power), but the debuff persists through death and resurrection, immune effects, everything.
The Easy Way
If your guild is not seriously considering hard mode, or if you're having considerable difficulty with the fight on normal mode, simply allow marked players to die. They will heal Saurfang for 5%, but will also starve his blood generation. It's entirely possible to kill him with only a single mark this way, even with sloppy execution.
This will NOT work on heroic mode, however. The heal is 25%.
The Real Way (and specifics for the easy way)
Normally your guild will heal through marks.
The primary concern in the fight is blood beasts. They (2 on 10 man, 5 on 25) are summoned on a strict timer. Blood beasts take 95% reduced damage from AOE and 75% reduced damage from diseases. They can't be tanked without generating massive amounts of blood power, but they don't have terribly high health. Two ranged DPS can focus fire them down before they close distance.
Drop a portal somewhere (it really doesn't make too much difference where, but preferrably where you won't accidentally blood nova six people - I've actually had good results putting mine in melee range) to escape if a blood beast does close to melee range of you, portal and run away, let somebody else finish it off. If you're all focusing on them, they won't last long.
Dealing with Marks
Mark of the Fallen Champion is mostly a healer concern. If you get the first one, you're generally safe and can continue business as usual. However, depending on how many marks you have when the frenzy hits at 25%, the healing may become a concern. The more marks you get, the faster they'll come. If you're mitigating enough of the blood generation you shouldn't get more than 3, maybe 4, and it's possible to get only one or two.
This is something where communication with healers is important - if mark healing is becoming an issue and you're one of the marks, switch to fel armor. It will reduce the damage you're taking (mark hits are physical) and increase the healing you receive.
As a last resort, if you're hitting like 5-6 marks, a voidwalker. Unfortunately this is limited to specs with fel domination, so only demo can take full advantage, but absorbs are a serious help on blood power generation.
This is one of those fights where your guild will be glad for every absorb it has, most blood power sources won't generate power from a fully absorbed hit. Running a second disc priest isn't as counterproductive as it is on some fights, and if you have three Val'anyrs like my guild you'll have a key advantage over a guild with one or even none.
The Profit
The toughest fight in the first gate of ICC, hands down, and promising to be a brutal test of both healing and DPS prowess on heroic. You'll get your Storming the Citadel achievement here, and you can also get I've Gone and Made a Mess if you get less than 5 marks (3 in 10 man). It's not a difficult achievement if you're mitigating blood power, my guild has managed as few as 2 marks without letting anyone die. If you do let marks die, the achievement is basically a given.
His loot's a bit lackluster, but not outright terrible, from a caster standpoint. He's also the first source of the mid-grade tier tokens.
10 man
There's a lot here, but unfortunately there's good reasons not to take a lot of it. It IS still ICC gear, though, itemlevel 251 is nothing to piss on regardless. Sheer numbers can and do make up for unideal itemization.
Icecrown Spire Sandals - hit/crit boots. Not an entirely attractive stat combination but still nothing terribly notable.
Mag'hari Chieftain's Staff - Staves generally fall behind mainhand/offhand combos, and this is no exception. Unlike Nibelung, this one doesn't have an interesting proc effect that can prop it up in AOE situations.
Soulcleave Pendant - Haste/crit is the bog standard of DPS gear in ICC, like it or not, this is the bog standard neck. It's not too bad, one of the better picks from 10 man at least, and the main attraction on his 10 man loot list.
Thaumaturge's Crackling Cowl - haste/spirit, hallelujah! One of the good, well itemized picks in the zone. Shame it lands on a tier set slot, but this would be a decent enough pick for a 10 man raider to take as their 5th slot. Pants still look like the better one to drop, being a weaker set piece and having stronger offset options (even a 10 man raider would have access to 3 socket crafted pants).
25 man
The loot list on 25 man is pretty short. Not just from a caster standpoint, from any standpoint. This is mostly due to the first item on our list:
Conqueror's Mark of Sanctification - This is your all purpose tier token. Trade this plus any piece of itemlevel 251 Dark Coven's Regalia to upgrade it to the itemlevel 264 Sanctified Dark Coven's Regalia.
Greatcloak of the Turned Champion - haste/spirit again, and this time in ilevel 264 flavor. This is where a lot of stuff is at, it's just an all around excellent cloak. It's also pretty much the best warlock cloak out there right now, being beaten only by the Tribute to Insanity cloaks from ToC.
The... WTF IS THAT?
OH MY GOD HIS EYES ARE STILL BLINKING. WHAT THE BLEEDING FUCK? HIS EYES ARE STILL BLINKING!
Storyline foreshadowing or a graphical oversight in the implementation of death knight glowing eyes? Probably just the graphical limitation, but just the same HIS EYES ARE STILL BLINKING.
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