Since I saw a topic popping up about this subject every now and then, and I was bored today, I wrote a guide about it, I hope it can help some warlock tank who try this fight for the first time, and if not, I had fun writing it :)
(1) Who is Leotheras and why do you need a warlock tank?
Leotheras is a battle witch switch between a “human phase” and a “demon phase”, when you get him to 15% you fight both phases at once. He’s on a 10 minute timer. Between phases there is a 100% aggro reset.
Human phase: You use a normal tank here (preferably a druid or paladin because of the Inner Demon spell in the demon phase), he does a “Whirlwind” (12 seconds) that doesn’t hit very hard but leaves a dot that will do significant damage. After the whirlwind there is a total aggro reset, wich makes it quite hard to do heavy damage in this phase because he whirlwinds pretty often. Usually raids use a searing totem to get Leotheras back to the middle after the whirlwind so the tank can pick it up.
Demon phase: He does a spell called “Chaos Blast”, it’s a bolt that does about 100-200 Fire damage to the target and everyone in a 8 yard range. It also gives a debuff that increase fire damage taken by 1,675, and this debuff can stack limitless. This is the reason you can’t have a normal tank here, all the melee would have to stay out or they would die. Because of the whirlwinds in the human phase, you have to go full out on dps in the demon form or you won’t make the 10m enrage timer.
The second spell is “Inner Demon”, which puts a debuff on a few random people, this debuff spawns a “Inner demon” on the target and the demon has the exact same amount of health as the target. Only the target can do damage to the Inner Demon, it has to die within 25 seconds or it will mind control the target for the rest of the fight (so the raid has to kill the mind controlled player then).
15% phase: You have both a Human and a Demon here, the Human has to die while the Demon is offtanked by the warlock. There are no Inner Demon spawns in this phase.
(2) What items do you need to tank Leotheras?
Obviously, you need a lot of Fire Resistance for this fight, there are guides which say you need 250FR unbuffed, there are who say you need more. I myself tanked him with 275FR and it went fine with the correct talent spec. I’ll post a list of easy to get FR items here:
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http://www.thottbot.com/i30762 - Infernoweave Robe - 60FR – Requires 30 [Badge of Justice]
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http://www.thottbot.com/i30761 - Infernoweave Leggings - 55FR – Requires 30 [Badge of Justice]
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http://www.thottbot.com/i30764 - Infernoweave Gloves - 40FR – Requires 20 [Badge of Justice]
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http://www.thottbot.com/i30763 - Infernoweave Boots - 45FR – Requires 20 [Badge of Justice]
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http://www.thottbot.com/i31746 - Phoenix-fire Band - 30FR – Quest reward from Trial of the Naaru: Magtheridon, this quest is a follow up from a long questline that at the Altar of Damnation in Shadowmoon Valley.
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http://www.thottbot.com/i31074 - Amulet of the Torn-heart – 24FR – Quest reward, you get this in the same questline as the Phoenix-fire Band, but much earlier on.
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http://www.thottbot.com/i29196 - Glyph of Fire Warding – 20FR – An enchant you can put a head slot item. Requires Honored with either Thrallmar or Honor Hold and 90 gold.
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http://www.thottbot.com/s25081 - Enchant Cloak - Greater Fire Resistance – 15FR – An enchant you can put on a back slot item. Requires an enchanter with at least 300 skill and 3x Nexus Crystal, 8x Large Brilliant Shard and 4x Essence of Fire. Formula can be bought in Silithus for 10 gold when you’re friendly with the Cenarion Circle.
When you get all this you have enough FR for sure, you can even miss out on 1 or 2 items/enchants of the above list but I would advice a minimum of 250FR unbuffed.
Since your gear is pretty gimped now, I would suggest taking a non-gimped cloak and head to put the FR enchants on.
Also, if you still have gold left by now, +150 health enchant on chest and +12stamina enchant on boots can help a bit.
Runic/Mystic Spell thread on pants for more spell damage and stamina (ask a tailor who got exalted reputation with Scryer for the Mystic Spell thread), I know that there exists a 20FR enchant to legs but this is not really needed and to much of a hassle to get these days.
I’d also advice to enchant Spell Strike on gloves (+15 spell hit rating) since you don’t want to get to many resists on leotheras while tanking him.
(3) What spec do I need to tank Leotheras?
The best way to gain aggro on leotheras is with Searing Pain spamming. Try to get as much spell hitrating as possible (max 16%) to lower the chances of a resist on it, which can be disastrous if you get it when he transforms from human to demon and aggro is reset. You can’t get +hit on Searing Pain from your talents so it mainly has to come from your non-FR gear.
Now, for the times it does hit it is of course good if it crits much, this you can boost with talents heavily with the following talent spec:
http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/warlock/talents.html?0000000000000000000002050030133250100511350055000502030010000000
As you can see you get a total of 20% extra crit to your Searing Pain with this spec.
I’ll explain the other elements of this talent spec:
*Master Demonologist – You will always keep your Fellhunter up, soullink and stationed a bit away from you so he doesn’t get the Chaos Blast debuff.
*Soullink: This can make you last one or two debuffs longer and I would advice keeping this up at all times and have a healer throw a HoT on your pet once in a while.
*Fell domination + Master Summoner: If your pet dies you can get it back in 0.5seconds
*Do not take Destructive Reach, this will lower your aggroregenration on Leotheras.
I think all the other talent choices are quite logical, and the ones who aren’t are just fill-ups ;)
This spec isn’t required, in theory you can tank Leotheras with any spec as long as you have enough FR, but I advice every lock to take this spec the first couple of tries he tanks this boss.
I read a lot of different things about Nether Protection proccing or not from Chaos Blast with aggrochanges as results but the following is now confirmed by Salthem:
"Chaos Blast does not trigger Nether Protection"
(4) Ok I got everything now, how do I tank the bastard?
Quite simple, a few seconds before he transforms from human to demon phase you throw corruption and CoA on him (let another warlock put CoE on) and immediately after he transforms start spamming searing pain, you should never loose aggro this way because ranged and melee dps will go full out on this phase after a few seconds.
If he uses whirlwind a few seconds before he transforms from human to demon, follow him, he will pop from human to demon whether he’s using whirlwind or not so you’d better keep him in range to avoid unnecessary deads and whipes.
I usually tank him on the stairs to the left if I don't have to chase him on a whirlwind, and I set my pet below the stairs against a wall to minimise the chance of it getting hit by the whirlwind, he's also in range of my healers this way and I usually just ask a druid to put a HoT on my pet now and then.
Use DBM (Deadly Boss Mod) or Bigwigs for timers on the phases, be sure that you don’t have any dots on when he transforms from demon to human again!
You are very likely to die a couple of times on the first tries and kills you do on this boss, soulstone yourselve and let a druid have a Combat rez ready, you can summon your demon and soullink it again very fast, but don’t forget to put it away somewhere save and in healers range!
You don’t have to worry about Inner Demons because he will never put the debuff on the one on the top of the aggrolist, which will be you.
On the 15% phase, you offtank his avatar, which looks the same as the demon phase and has the exact same abilities, you basically keep offtanking him until either the raid kills Leotheras or until you die.
(Resumes in next post)
