Priestess Delrissa

Priestess Delrissa is the third boss in the Magisters' Terrace instance. She comes with four NPCs, randomly chosen, similar to Hex Lord Malacrass in Zul'Aman and Moroes in Karazhan. All 5 of them must be defeated to beat the encounter. The style of fight is similar to an arena 5v5 match, and somewhat like the alternate Ring of the Law encounter in the Blackrock Depths.

According to conversations between Dawnblade blood elves on Quel'Danas, Delrissa was the one who brought Kael'thas Sunstrider back to "health" after his defeat in Tempest Keep.

Priestess Delrissa's abilities

 * Psychic Scream: Delrissa screams, causing 5 enemies within 8 yards to flee for 5 sec. Damage caused may interrupt the effect.
 * Flash Heal: Quickly heals an ally for 398 to 462.
 * Renew: Places a heal over time spell on an ally, healing for 432 every 3 seconds or 600 on heroic.
 * Power Word: Shield: Places a shield on an ally, absorbing 1455 damage.
 * Shadow Word: Pain: Places a debuff on an enemy dealing 36 Shadow damage every 3 seconds, or 48 damage on heroic.
 * Dispel Magic: Dispels 2 harmful spells from her allies or 2 beneficial spells from an enemy.

Crowd Control
Fears, Freezing Traps, Stuns, and Disorients work on any of the NPCs. Individual NPCs are crowd-controllable in additional ways, as listed above. However, they are all immune to Taunt, Enslave, Mind Control, and Seduce. The NPC pets can be affected by Taunt, and seem to follow normal aggro rules.

The priestess is partly CCable (hunter traps, Scatter Shot, stuns including Concussion Blow) but cannot be polymorphed, sapped etc. It is generally advised that you try to keep as many as possible locked down while you deal with each one individually. The Priestess, however, doesn't hit very hard at all in melee (800-900 on cloth in heroic), and can probably be soloed or off-tanked by almost any class, preferably someone that can stun her as sometimes she starts heal-spamming which makes her very hard to interrupt. In most cases she should be nuked down quickly.

If your group has no CC, this fight will be almost impossible on Heroic difficulty unless you vastly outgear the instance, and even then it can be touch and go with the wrong person getting gibbed.

Group Makeup
Since this is a 5v5 fight, it is extremely beneficial to have as many DPS classes that can CC as possible. However it is not necessary, as most of the adds have a fairly low damage output, and good tanks can keep at least two (if not three) on themselves at any given time, lowering the amount of CC necessary to complete this encounter. However tanking adds are extremely difficult as they are immune to taunt and choose their targets seemingly by how hard it is to kill for them (for example warrior types continue to jump to rogues etc.).

If there is only one member in the party who can dispel magic effects, it's advised to let them retain the Shadow Word: Pain-debuff, as it will break most crowd control (apart from Fear/Stun) that lands on you. This is especially important for healers. The anti-CC trinkets from PvP are also quite useful.

Previewing the adds
You can take advantage of the two-floored design of Magisters' Terrace to greatly improve your chances for success with the Delrissa fight by resetting the instance until there is a good combination of adds for your group.

Have a group member enter the instance to where they can glance down into the courtyard and see Delrissa, who is visible under the left side. Mouse over the adds, or type "/tar " until you identify her four adds associated with that particular instance of the dungeon. This method can be done by any class, and not just those with stealthing, tracking, or distance-seeing abilities. If your group does not like the add selection, leave and choose "Reset All Instances" from the party leader's portrait. You may do this as many times as the reset-limit allows for each group member, as long as the leader is not saved.

Bad combination of adds
The Shaman combined with other meleers, particularly the Mortal Strike Naga makes for a lot of pain.

Essentially, the melee NPCs are far worse than the other NPCs.

Strategy
Although there are various strategies available, depending on your group setup, here is a generalization of what should be done to ensure an easy success on this boss:

Pulling
When the fight starts, depending on which adds have been selected, the puller will most likely get charged, feared, or hit with painless but very annoying debuffs (such as Frost Shock). It's advised for the tank and all DPS to stand up front and be ready for the pull while the healer hangs back in clear sight and ideally alone to clear up confusion.

NOTE for rogues: During Blizzard Q&A Hortus has stated that "rogues should be removed from stealth when the NPCs are engaged". This means that rogues who sap should move away before the mobs are engaged so that he is not taken out of stealth in the middle of them.

An alternative pull technique for a paladin tank is to use Avenger's Shield on the corner left or right mini-boss, then run behind one of the pillars that are supporting the arena where Delrissa is. If done correctly, all the bosses will follow the tank to get in melee range behind the pillar, avoiding some serious troubles like the Naga Warrior's charge at start. If the adds in the opposite wing of the pull can be Crowd Controlled (mage Polymorphing or hunter Trapping), the pull will go with a better start. But pay attention to the mini-bosses when using this idea — if any of them has a minion, Avenger's Shield will strike the minion instead, and do no initial threat to Delrissa, only to the minion and the 2 mini-bosses.

An alternative pull technique is also available to engineer tanks who carry a Goblin Rocket Launcher. Standing directly in line of Delrissa at max distance, a shot can be let off. You can then quickly hide behind the nearest pillar before getting any crowd-controlling affects applied to you. When doing this, it may help to have all crowd control inside the room. This will allow them to get their crowd control off quickly, and safely.

After pull
All forms of Crowd Control help. Paladins and Warlocks can control the Demons, Mages can Polymorph and Rogues can Sap the Humanoids (except Delrissa), Hunters can Trap and use their pet to off-tank an add, Shamans can use their Earth Elemental (although the adds are immune to the taunt) and so on.

The main element to remember is that the bosses do not hit hard, save for the Mortal Strike Naga Warrior. Warriors can use Hamstring (and Hunters use Wing Clip) to make this fight significantly easier; Earthbind Totem and Frost Trap can also help. Piercing Howl, Frost Nova, Intimidating Shout, Howl of Terror and Psychic Scream also make the fight much easier.

Delrissa and her minions are difficult to kill as long as she is able to heal. Drain her mana with the usual abilities. Damage her and her minions to prod her into casting Renew, then dispel all her renews, forcing her to continuously re-cast it and use up her mana. Interrupt her Flash Heal when possible. Use Aimed Shot, Mortal Strike, or Wound Poison to reduce the effects of her heals. Once she is out of mana, she is much easier to kill. Once she is dead, her minions are much easier to kill. It is not a fast fight. The key is to survive with an intact group until she runs out of mana and dies.

Aggro
Once your group has applied crowd control, do damage to your heart's content (just not to the adds that have crowd control currently on them). None of the mobs (including Delrissa) have a very strict aggro table—it either resets frequently, is ridiculously touchy, or just does not exist at all. One theory is that it is easily reset, but that healing — not damage — causes high threat. Whatever the case, it is extremely unlikely that a tank will be able to keep everything under control. Delrissa hits for about 500 to 700 on cloth and is easily tanked by a Mage if really necessary.

Another take on the aggro for these mobs is that they follow a PvP-style aggro table, targeting healers and clothies first. With this in mind, your party may find it useful to play in a similar manner, such as having your tank put on DPS gear. Some groups approach this fight like an Arena fight, so consider bringing your PvP gear. Note however, that unlike a true Arena encounter, priests Fade works and lets the mobs turn to another target most of the time. Another help for Priests is Psychic Scream; when the mobs get out of fear, they sometimes target another player.

Hunters can drop a Snake Trap. The boss and her minions tend to focus their attacks and abilities on the low-health snakes, buying some time for the players.

Killing order
There is no preferred killing order, however killing the Priestess first (or, alternatively, one of the healer mini-bosses) seems to be the best strategy, as their heals can make the fight drag on and on. If you have a mage, have him or her Spellsteal the priestess constantly to remove her buffs. Priests, shamans, and hunters can Dispel/Purge/Arcane Shot her frequently to achieve a similar effect.

The minions do not despawn, and must thus be killed sooner or later. If Delrissa dies before her adds, she will not be lootable until they are dead — if you wipe, she will resurrect back up, and she will keep taunting you even from beyond the grave.

Quotes

 * Aggro
 * yell


 * Allies killed
 * (First) yell
 * (Second) yell
 * (Third) yell
 * (Fourth) yell


 * Killing a player
 * (First) yell
 * (Second) yell
 * (Third) yell
 * (Fourth) yell


 * Wipe
 * yell


 * Death
 * yell

Videos
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