Faction Champions Encounter Guide: Strategy, Abilities, Loot

The Faction Champions is the third boss in the Trial of the Crusader raid instance. This boss will test your your raids familiarity with class abilities and your reaction time to a constantly changing battlefield.

• Use crowd control! The most important part of this encounter is keeping the NPCs controlled to prevent any unnecessary deaths or even possibly a wipe.
• Prioritize Interrupting over your personal DPS, stay aware of what mob is targeting which member of your raid and never hesitate to kite.

• Use crowd control! The most important part of this encounter is keeping the NPCs controlled to prevent any unnecessary deaths or even possibly a wipe.
• Prioritize Interrupting over your personal DPS, stay aware of what mob is targetting which member of your raid and never hesitate to kite.

• Use crowd control! The most important part of this encounter is keeping the NPCs controlled to prevent any unnecessary deaths or even possibly a wipe.
• Prioritize Interrupting over your personal DPS, stay aware of what mob is targeting which member of your raid and never hesitate to kite.
• While tanks are not needed for this encounter some tank specializations, especially Protection Warrior can offer powerful benefits to your raid via talents like Shockwave, Concussive Blow and Improved Disarm.

The configuration of your raid will depend entirely on your groups confidence in handling the Champions, Tanks are not required for this encounter but can be helpful in specific situations and can offer unique utility, Protection Warrior specifically is quite strong thanks to its talents: Shockwave, Concussive Blow, and Improved Disarm to name a few. 3-4 healers is recommended but feel free to include more if you feel that you are struggle to keep people alive but ensure you are using your defensive cool downs effectively before adding more healers as the longer the Champions are alive the more they will need to be crowd controlled.

The Faction Champions are a unique boss in that there is not a single 'boss' type mob or a series of mini bosses but a team of 10 Champions on 25 player and 6 Champions on 10 man. These champions are modeled after player classes and use many of their class abilities. The Champions do not follow the same aggro rules as most traditional NPCs but the pets that belonging to the Hunter and Warlock Champions are tauntable. Because there is no traditional aggro table the Champions will choose targets largely at random so it is crucial to constantly be aware of who they are targeting to ensure survival. The Champions also do not follow traditional crowd control rules for NPCs but instead go by player CC rules therefore diminishing returns are something you must keep in mind at all times. Assigning specific members of your raid to using their crowd controlling abilities will greatly increase your odds in defeating the Champions. Make note of what crowd controlling abilities share diminishing returns with others to maximize the amount of time you can keep any given Champion out of the fight, an example of a strong rotation being a Mage's Polymorph into a Warlock's Fear into any kind of stun. Dispels both friendly and hostile are absolutely crucial to killing this boss, if you see a debuff on a member of your raid make sure to dispel it, same with any buffs you see on any of the champions. Interrupts are also crucial, if your class has the ability to kick try to use it on cooldown if you do not have a pre-assigned target, any interrupt is a good interrupt. Bloodlust and Heroism are typically best used at the start of this encounter as you will want to focus down the Healers first and you will have the most members of your raid alive. Always kill the healers first and then start to focus down whatever DPS class your raid finds the most dangerous, the configuration of your raid and the availability of things such as slows and stuns may change your raids specific kill priority once the healers have been killed.

A rough kill order and some tips on how to deal with each that can be changed and configured depending on your specific raids struggles is as follows:

• Holy Paladin — Make sure you are kicking every cast possible and stunning as soon as diminishing returns are available, be ready to Mass Dispel when they cast Divine Shield at low health.
• Restoration Shaman — Assign one member of your raid to kill totems, otherwise make sure you are kicking every cast possible and stunning as soon as diminishing returns are available. If this is not your current kill target try to ensure it is under some form of crowd control.
• Disciple Priest — Have a member of your raid who is able to dispel constantly purging the Power Word: Shields this champion will be casting. Make sure you are kicking every cast possible and stunning as soon as diminishing returns are available. If this is not your current kill target try to ensure it is under some form of crowd control.
• Restoration Druid — Have a member of your raid who is able to dispel constantly purging the Heal over time abilities this champion will be casting. Make sure you are kicking every cast possible and stunning as soon as diminishing returns are available. If this is not your current kill target try to ensure it is under some form of crowd control, unlike the other Champions the Restoration druid is able to be Banished by a Warlock.
• Rogue — Try to keep this mob slowed, stunned or crowd controlled at all times, abilities such as Desecration from a Death Knight, Frost Trap from a Hunter or the glyphed version of Shadowflame from a warlock are especially potent slows and can be more reliable than some other crowd controlling abilities.
• Hunter — Even as a non-tank spec do not hesitate to taunt the Hunter's pet. Targeted crowd controlling abilities and stuns are especially important when dealing with this Champion as slows do little to mitigate it's damage due to it being a ranged mob.
• Warlock — Even as a non-tank spec do not hesitate to taunt the Warlock's pet. Make sure you are kicking every cast possible and stunning as soon as diminishing returns are available. If this is not your current kill target try to ensure it is under some form of crowd control. The Warlocks Hellfire ability will quickly kill anyone around him so Melee should avoid attacking this target unless it is stunned or interrupted.
• Enhancement Shaman — Assign one member of your raid to kill totems. Try to keep this mob slowed, stunned or crowd controlled at all times, abilities such as Desecration from a Death Knight, Frost Trap from a Hunter or the glyphed version of Shadowflame from a warlock are especially potent slows and can be more reliable than some other crowd controlling abilities.
• Retribution Paladin — Try to keep this mob slowed, stunned or crowd controlled at all times, abilities such as Desecration from a Death Knight, Frost Trap from a Hunter or the glyphed version of Shadowflame from a warlock are especially potent slows and can be more reliable than some other crowd controlling abilities. be ready to Mass Dispel when they cast Divine Shield at low health.
• Moonkin — Make sure you are kicking every cast possible and stunning as soon as diminishing returns are available. If this is not your current kill target try to ensure it is under some form of crowd control.
• Mage — Make sure you are kicking every cast possible and stunning as soon as diminishing returns are available. If this is not your current kill target try to ensure it is under some form of crowd control. Make sure you dispel your raid members if they are Polymorphed by the mage.
• Warrior — Try to keep this mob slowed, stunned or crowd controlled at all times, abilities such as Desecration from a Death Knight, Frost Trap from a Hunter or the glyphed version of Shadowflame from a warlock are especially potent slows and can be more reliable than some other crowd controlling abilities. If you see the Warrior intercept a member of your raid do not hesitate to use a defensive cooldown on them such as Hand of Protection or Pain Supression.
• Death Knight — Try to keep this mob slowed, stunned or crowd controlled at all times, abilities such as Desecration from a Death Knight, Frost Trap from a Hunter or the glyphed version of Shadowflame from a warlock are especially potent slows and can be more reliable than some other crowd controlling abilities. If you see the Death Knight Death grip a member of your raid do not hesitate to use a defensive cooldown on them such as Hand of Protection or Pain Supression.
• Shadow Priest — Make sure you are kicking every cast possible and stunning as soon as diminishing returns are available. If this is not your current kill target try to ensure it is under some form of crowd control.

The configuration of what champions you face is random week to week but will always consist of 3 Healers and the rest DPS on 25 player and 2 healers on 10 player.

Item	Type/Slot
Victor's Call	Trinket
Fervor of the Frostborn	Trinket
Talisman of Volatile Power	Trinket
Binding Light	Trinket
Faceplate of the Silver Champion	Plate Helmet
Blade of the Silver Disciple	Dagger
Pauldrons of the Silver Defender	Plate Shoulders
Sandals of the Silver Magus	Cloth Boots

Item	Type/Slot
Binding Stone	Trinket
Sunreaver Ranger's Helm	Mail Helmet
Vengeance of the Forsaken	Trinket
Eitrigg's Oath	Trinket
Fetish of Volatile Power	Trinket
Sunreaver Defender's Pauldrons	Plate Shoulders
Sunreaver Assassin's Gloves	Leather Gloves
Sunreaver Magus' Sandals	Cloth Boots
Sunreaver Champion's Faceplate	Plate Helmet
Sunreaver Disciple's Blade	Dagger

Item	Type/Slot
Chestplate of the Frostborn Hero	Plate Chest
Justicebringer	Two-Handed Axe
Boots of Tremoring Earth	Mail Boots
Cord of Biting Cold	Cloth Belt
Boots of the Mourning Widow	Cloth Boots
Satrina's Impeding Scarab	Trinket
Bracers of the Untold Massacre	Mail Bracers
Ring of Callous Aggression	Ring
Vestments of the Shattered Fellowship	Leather Chest
Vambraces of the Broken Bond	Plate Bracers
Cloak of Displacement	Cloak
Girdle of Bloodied Scars	Plate Belt
Treads of the Icewalker	Leather Boots
Legguards of Concealed Hatred	Mail Pants
Bastion of Purity	Shield

Item	Type/Slot
Band of Callous Aggression	Ring
Belt of Biting Cold	Cloth Belt
Sabatons of Tremoring Earth	Mail Boots
Juggernaut's Vitality	Trinket
Robes of the Shattered Fellowship	Leather Chest
Chestplate of the Frostwolf Hero	Plate Chest
Bracers of the Silent Massacre	Mail Bracers
Icewalker Treads	Leather Boots
Bastion of Resolve	Shield
Bracers of the Broken Bond	Plate Bracers
Shroud of Displacement	Cloak
Dual-blade Butcher	Two-Handed Axe
Sandals of the Mourning Widow	Cloth Boots
Belt of Bloodied Scars	Plate Belt

Faction Champions is one of five encounters present in the Trial of the Crusader raid of Wrath of the Lich King Classic. If you would like to learn more about the others, or would like to see the loot tables of every boss at the same time, please see our other pages for the raid below.