High Priestess Mar'li

The troll Mar'li was the High Priestess of the Primal God Shadra, the god spider.

In order to quell Hakkar the Soulflayer, the trolls of the land banded together and sent a contingent of High Priests into the ancient city of Zul'Gurub. Each priest was a powerful champion of the Primal Gods, but despite their best efforts they fell under the sway of Hakkar. Now the champions and their Primal God aspects feed the awesome power of the Soulflayer. Any adventurers brave enough to venture into the foreboding ruins must overcome the High Priests if they are to have any hope of confronting the mighty blood god.

Mar'li has two main forms, like the other bosses in Zul'Gurub. She starts off in her troll form where she can spawn adds and cast 30 yard AoE poison. These spider adds quickly gain strength and size if not killed quickly. When she transforms into her spider form she will web everyone standing near her in place and charge. As soon as she webs everyone she will attack the person with the highest aggro that has not been webbed (usually a healer if they are out of range.)

Strategy
For this fight you need two tanks. To start the fight, have a priest Mind Control the Speaker and make the Speaker attack Mar'li. At this point four spiders will spawn that need to be AoE'ed down right away. Once the spiders are down, and the Speaker gets pwned by Mar'li, the tank will pick up aggro and all ranged classes should cluster up outside of her AoE range. So set up like this:

xx xx               r xx  OT          r BOSS MT xx                r xx

x = Ranged / Healers

MT = tank #1 (Main tank)

OT = tank #2 (Off tank)

r = Rogues

Once the tank gets aggro, all melee apart from the OT begin attacking. Periodically, she will shapeshift into a spider form. When she does this, she'll web all the melee around her and wipe their aggro. She'll then charge the ranged group where the other tank will be waiting to pick up aggro and pull her back to the MT position. The OT is now the main tank, and the MT heads back to the ranged group to pick up the next charge. Be sure the ranged stay clustered up, otherwise it will be difficult for the tank to pick her up right away.

Periodically, a spider will spawn. If the spider is not immediately killed it will grow larger and more powerful and will wipe the raid. Just call it out and have your ranged deal with them right away, they drop quickly.

When in caster form, Mar'li will attempt to life drain someone. Be sure to immediately counter this with an interrupt ability such as Kick or Shield Bash. It is sometimes hard to see if she is life draining or not, so pay attention. Do not let her heal herself; it is a significant amount. There is some debate about the usefulness of mana drain. Some claim that it will not prevent her from casting her life drain, but direct experience from others contradicts this. Mana drain does appear to be a useful tactic.

Alternate opening Strategy
The OT should tank the Speaker, while the MT tank the boss. The OT take the speaker back to the main raid place. Its pretty fast killing, so the OT will have the time to get to his place and be ready to the Archnopoly. This way you don't need the MC, just two tanks.

Quotes
Spawn spiders: Shadra form: Troll form: Death:
 * Aid me my brood!
 * Shadra, make of me your avatar!
 * The brood shall not fall!
 * Bless you, mortals, for this release...Hakkar controls me no longer.