The Curator is an Arcane Guardian boss in the Menagerie in Karazhan. It is not optional, groups which want to reach the bosses behind it must first defeat the Curator. The encounter is not difficult to learn, but requires good gear. A raid capable to defeat this boss is in principle equipped well enough to defeat all the following bosses, save perhaps Nightbane.
The Curator’s Abilities
- About 660,000 HP, high armor rating.
- Immune to arcane damage.
- Basic Melee: Around 3000 on a tank.
- Summons Astral Flares with 11,000-13000 HP, three target Chain Lightning with 10 yard range for 675-825 arcane damage, arcane melee damage, tankable but not tauntable.
- Hateful Bolt - An arcane bolt that hits for 4000-5500 Arcane damage.
- Evocation - When the Curator runs out of mana, it will evocate for 20 secs and be very vulnerable during that time and will take 200% more damage during his evocation.
- Enrage - At 15% health, melee damage and Hateful Bolt rate both are increased substantially, but no more Astral Flares or Evocates occur.
- Berserk - After 12 minutes it will berserk and wipe the raid.
Defeating The Curator
During the fight, the Curator summons an add every 10 seconds until it’s out of mana, and then recharges with an Evocation. Since each add costs 10% of its mana this means that there are 10 adds between Evocations. During the Evocations it deals no damage, resets the bolt target list (but not the aggro table,) and will take 200% damage from all attacks.
The first priority in the fight is to get the adds under control. The main damage to the boss is done during Evocations. It is perfectly OK to focus on killing the adds as they are summoned, and damage the curator only during the Evocation phases. The Curator can also be attacked outside an Evocation, but only if the current flare is dead, and the party must be ready to immediately pick up the next one summoned.
Only one tank is needed on the Curator. Aggro is a non-issue, because there is ample time between Evocations for the tank to build aggro.
Flares
When the Flares are summoned they start with 1000-2000 threat on a random raid member. This makes them rather hard to control, as they also cannot be taunted. There are basically two methods to set up the raid:
- Distributed, with preferably 10 yards or more between raid members. This will significantly reduce the damage done by the chain lightnings, but at the same time make the job of the flare tank harder, and decrease melee DPS.
- Set up concentrated in one spot. In that case, the adds will all follow the same path, which helps the melee classes and the flare tank. The disadvantage is that this setup will also maximize the damage from the chain lightnings.
The 10th add of each round (which is summoned right before an Evocation) should be killed as fast as possible by all DPS in order to minimize the damage that it does. When it is dead, DPS switch as fast as possible to the Curator. If people are slow at switching targets, it is possible to have some DPS switch to the curator after the 9th add, and have only some (maybe just one) damage dealer kill the 10th add. However it must be made sure that the add is dead before the Evocation is over. The 10th add tank that works well is a dps warrior. A well geared dps warrior can kill the add solo, while the rest of the raid can concentrate on the Curator for the entire Evocation.
Independent of the setup, it is a good idea to designate a “flare tank”, who tries to immediately pick up the adds and kite them away from the rest of the party, thus minimizing the damage taken from the chain lightning.
Evocation
Damage dealers should maximize their DPS output by all means during these phases. Some tips:
- Save trinkets and all other single-use DPS increasing effects for use during Evocations.
- Even holy Priests should DPS if their mana permits.
- Priests should use their Shadowfiend during an Evocation, since the amount of mana gained from this ability will be increased by 200%.
- Warlocks should precision-cast (between the 4th and 5th add) Curse of Doom so that it will go off during an Evocation. Keep an eye on threat though, as it deals a lot of damage (24k is not unusual). Death Coil and Shadowburn are other good spells to cast during the Evocate. Curse of Shadows is useful to cast after the Curse of Doom has went off.
- Shamans should save Bloodlust or Heroism until right before an Evocation, don’t use Tranquil Air (some DPS totem instead).
- Paladin blessings should be optimized for mana or DPS, don’t use Salvation.
- If mana permits, all Paladins should blow Avenging Wrath and melee curator during evocation.
Hateful Bolts
The method of targeting for Hateful Bolts remains somewhat contentious. The original lore was that the hateful bolts hit the raid member with the highest current HP which is not the tank. This seems to be false, because it can be verified that hateful bolt targeting is not based on health alone. It seems the Curator maintains a second aggro list (the “prime” list), which is maintained like the main list, with the difference that resets on each evocation. Hateful Bolts are targeted at the second entry in the prime list. In consequence, even with a dedicated bolt tank, it may be possible for a DPS class to become the hateful bolt target after a particularly damaging Evocation. Finally, it appears that the Curator will remove people temporarily from its “prime” list if their health falls below a certain percentage.
In consequence, the bolt tank must be kept at nearly full HP at all times. One good method to enforce bolt soaker status is to keep him on the curator, and not on the adds (but beware not to steal agro from the main tank).
Due to their usually high Stamina and their self-buff Fel Armor (which increases healing received by 20%), Warlocks are good Hateful Bolt soakers. One HoT from a well-equipped Resto Druid can be enough to keep a Warlock at full health, even if the Warlock has low arcane resistance.
A shadow priest also makes a good soaker due to his abilities Vampiric Embrace. Any class with high HP (and perhaps a healing ability) can be a good bolt soaker, about 200 arcane resistance make the job easier in all cases.
A Paladin tank is also an excellent choice since it is easy for him to gain be second on the aggro list. Also due to Spiritual Attunement, heals aren’t a total waste, he will gain mana when he is healed, and can use that mana to spot heal the raid.
Arcane Resistance
Opinions vary on the use of Arcane Resistance gear for this fight. Although there is a time limit to completing the fight, even low-DPS groups should be able to make it in 12 minutes, usually wipes occur earlier because the healers run out of mana. If the raid uses a Hateful Bolt soaker, that person should have around 200+ AR. All others should not gimp themselves, AR is only needed if the healers find themselves unable to keep everyone up. If a melee class is used to tank the flares, they should also wear about 200 AR. With around 210 AR, the lightnings from the flares will hit for around 300, with a few 500 hits, and a few full resists. With about 300 AR 4k of the Hateful bolt damage is resisted often.
Mana Draining
Nice try - The Curator is immune to all kinds of mana drain effects.
Key Notes
- While learning this encounter all healers will find themselves using a lot of mana. Bring many mana potions, up to 5 per attempt can easily be consumed.
- Warlocks - Using Curse of Doom at the one minute point before an Evocation can make a large dent in The Curator’s health. Use a timer mod or have the tank call out when Curator is at 60% mana. If all else fails, count flares… use Curse of Doom after the 4th flare has appeared. If you time your curse to finish at the very beginning of Evocation, you can throw up Curse of Shadow for the next 50 seconds or so to help your shadow priest.
- Priests - Using your Shadowfiend during an evocation vulnerability will restore three times as much mana. During Evocations even holy Priests should go all-out DPS if their mana permits. Shadow Priests will have an exceptional time not only damaging The Curator during its vulnerability, but also restoring health and mana to the Priest’s party with Vampiric Embrace and Vampiric Touch. The effect of these 2 abilities is also increased 200% due to the fact they rely on a percentage of damage dealt.
- Rogues - Learn to use Cloak of Shadows at the right time to maximize the amount of damage you can negate from the adds. Don’t blow it as soon as it is up; rather, save it for right when a spawn is about to begin hitting you with lightning. As melee, you will be taking damage from every spawn, and you must mitigate as much of it as you can. Evasion will also allow you to dodge their melee hits, which are also Arcane damage.
- Druids - A bear form druid in DPS gear makes a very good flare tank. Stacking Mangle and Maul frontloads a high amount of threat on each new Flare, and will usually be enough to acquire aggro, but the druid has to be fast. A slight mistake causes the Druid to miss an attack, and not acquire enough threat. At that point you can easily hold the flare still for melee and away from the ranged damage dealers and healers. Bear Form’s high stamina also comes in very handy.
- Balance Druids should note that the Curator is immune to Arcane Damage (but not the flares). Use Force of Nature %26amp; trinkets on boss when he evocates.
- Shaman - An Enhancement or Elemental Shaman can also excel at flare tanking. Elemental can front load Frost Shock damage, while an Enhancement Shaman can use it to pull aggro and melee to generate threat.
- Warriors - Prot warrior off-tanks can usually keep the Flares on them by using Shield Slam as soon as the Flare spawns, followed up by usual sunder/revenge spam. Only one Shield Slam can be used per Flare so that it’s cooldown is up for the next Flare. Ensure you have enough rage to Shield Slam the next add once it is out. However, if you lose an add, chances are you won’t get it back, so it may be worth while hitting on the curator to build rage for the next Flare. If you have the rage, landing a heroic strike initially is also a good plan.
- Gear wise for the prot off-tank, go with dps gear first, then put on your arcane resist set, and make sure you have your shield on.
- Paladins - Retribution - If you are designated to soak up Hateful Bolts, wear half DPS gear and half Tank gear if you can. When choosing which Tank gear to use, remember you’re not going to be blocking any melee attacks, so block or parry rating is useless. You want Stamina only.
- During the fight, you should use Judgement of Light on Curator, and have Seal of Vengeance active. Wait until it stacks to 5, then judge. Keep Seal of Vengeance active until he does evocation. The second he does that, turn on Seal of Command, blow all dps trinkets, and blow Avenging Wrath. Avenging Wrath increases all damage dealt by 30%, and during his evocation all damage dealt is increased by 200%, so during evocation Avenging Wrath will increase damage dealt by 90%.
The Curator’s Loot Table
[Dragon-Quake Shoulderguards]
[Forest Wind Shoulderpads]
[Garona's Signet Ring]
[Gloves of the Fallen Champion]
[Gloves of the Fallen Defender]
[Gloves of the Fallen Hero]
[Pauldrons of the Solace-Giver]
[Staff of Infinite Mysteries]
[Wrynn Dynasty Greaves]