Council of Elders is the 3rd encounter in the raid.

This fight requires

1. 2 Tanks
2. 2-3 Healers
3. 5-6 DPS

This encounter has 4 Troll Elders.  Any of which can be possessed by Gara'jal (from MSV) at any given time.  Once they are possessed by Gara'jal, their abilities can change/be buffed.  Gara'jal will flee the current Council member he has possessed once that specific boss has suffered 25% dmg of their max health.

Each boss has approx 76.5 mil health (10-man) and ~225mil health (25-man)

This is a traditional Council fight where the bosses have their own individual health pool, but unlike Protectors of the Endless and Iron Council, they will NOT restore their health up to max once one of them dies.

While this is a "council" fight, there is a "shared mechanic" for all of them called "Dark Energy".  When they are possessed by Gara'jal, they will gain Dark Energy.  Once a council member has reached 100 Dark Energy, they will cast an AoE called "Dark Power" that will deal increasing shadow damage every second until the boss has lost 25% of its health and leaves the body.  Once it leaves the body, the dark energy reverts to 0, but the mob that was possessed will now have a Lingerying Presence buff, that will cause them to deal 10% increased damage and gain dark energy faster the next time that specific boss is possessed through the remainder of the fight.  This effect will stack each time that boss is possessed.

The first boss possessed will ALWAYS be Frost King Malakk.  However, the order of the possessions after that will change weekly, similar to Spirit Kings in MSV.

Bosses

1. Frost King Malakk - Duel 1h wielding Troll. Gara'jal will always possess this boss first.  He MUST be tanked at all times.  
   • Frigid Assault - Will randomly buff himself which will cause his weapon attacks to deal ~75k frost dmg.  Each melee attack MAY also apply a stack to the tank, if the stacks reach 15, the tank will be stunned for 15 seconds.  EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF WILL NOT BREAK YOU OUT OF THIS STUN!
   • Biting Cold - Shrouds a player in an ice debuff, dealing an initial 94k frost damage and will deal ~115k dmg to any players within 4 yards every 2 sec.  30 sec duration.
     • Possessed
     • Frostbite - Replaces Biting Cold for the duration of Possession.  This mechanic deals ~110k dmg to the player and gives them 5 stacks of Frostbite debuff.  This debuff will deal 22k frost damage (per stack) to the player and any players within 4 yards every sec for 30 secs.  The stacks of frostbite are reduced by 2 for each person stacking with the affected player on 10-man, 1 per person stacking on 25-man.  However, stacks cannot be reduced below 1.  The goal of this, is when Frostbite is out, designate 2(10-man) or 4(25-man) people to stack with the person, so there should be 22k frost damage going out those players, instead of ALL the damage going out to one person.  It will be more raid healing, but will be less damage taken overall.  The way we countered this in 10-man, was assigned 3 people as frostbite soakers,  whichever 2 people were closer to the affected person, they would stack with them.  And if one of them was the affected person, then there was already 2 ppl tasked to stack.
2. High Priestess Mar'li - She can be tanked, not it may not be necessary if boss positioning is good.  She starts out as a holy priest and will change to shadow when possessed by Gara'jal. She stands in place unless her casts are interrupted.
   • Wrath of the Loa - deals 140k holy dmg to the target.  Should be focused on tank who pulled her for good majority of beginning of the encounter, but will changed to random targetting later in the fight.  CAN BE REFLECTED!
   • Blessed Loa Spirit - Spawn a spiritualesc mob that will fly from her to the council member with the lowest health.  If it gets to them, or is still alive after 20 seconds, it will instantly heal the boss for 5% of its maximum health.  The Loa Spirits can be slowed, stunned etc and should be the primary focus when they spawn.  NOTE** She CANNOT heal herself with this ability
     • Possesed - Turns into a shadow priest.  
     • Wrath of the Loa - Shadow bolt that deals ~165k shadow damage.  CAN BE REFLECTED!
     • Shadowed Loa Spirit - Sends her Loa Spirit at a RANDOM player (favoring ranged).  It needs to be killed ASAP, as it will explode and instantly kill the targeted player if it gets within 6 yards of them, OR if it is still alive after 20 seconds.  It is easily kitable.  We noticed on 10-man attempts that there appears to be a circle around the boss on the ground which may be the indicator for when it will explode if a player hits it, IE similar to Garalons circle.
3. Sul the Sandcrawler - Tankable, but nonstop casts (similar to High Priestess).  Abilities have splash damage (hence punishing for stacking) and slowing abilities.  
   • Sand Bolt - Targets a random players location and deals ~165k damage to players within 5 yards of the targeted location.  This is supposedly avoidable damage, but on 10-man we noted that it seemed impossible for the targetted player to avoid the damage.  Only way it appears to be avoidable is by people who are spread more than 5 yards apart.  INTERRUPTABLE AND MUST BE AS OFTEN AS POSSIBLE!
   • Quicksand - Creates a pool of quicksand at a players location and deals ~137.5k nature damage every second to players within 7 yards and can ensnare them. Ensnare will stack on players for every second they are inside, slowing movement speed by 15% per stack.  If it reaches 5 stacks they become "Entrapped" and frozen in place for 30 seconds, can be dispelled.
     • Possessed
     • Sandstorm - Summons a sandstorm that deals ~38.5k damage to all raid members every second for 8 seconds.  This will also "animate" all pools of quicksand that are in the room and turn then into "Living Sand" adds.  
     • Living Sand - Sand elementals that need to be focused and killed.  If an add is still alive when he casts "Sandstorm" again, they will become "Fortified" and will heal themselves to full health and increases the damage they deal by 100% until they die.  The Fortified effect stacks.  NOTE**  When they are killed, they will revert back to quicksand pools.  So tanks who are tanking them need to ensure they are also kiting so they dont have pools spawning under them as they are killed.
4. Kazra'jin - This boss is fairly simple, he cannot be tanked, and for the most part does absolutely nothing to affect the raid so long as they pay attention.  He has 1 ability.
   • Reckless Charge - Targets a random player and charges at them, will deal ~90k damage to anyone that is in a line between him and his target, and will knockback anyone within 5 yards of his target when he lands.  The line should be observed as dark ground rumbling animation on the ground during the fight, just stay away from it.
     • Possessed
     • Overload - This is just added onto his charge ability.  When he completes his charge, he will then "overload" and stun himself for 20 seconds, BUT while stuneed will reflect 50% of all damage dealt to him, back at the caster.

This fight is all about focusing the boss possessed to get them out of their empowered stance, and wittling them down one by one, other than Sul the Sandcrawler.

Sul the Sandcrawler is the bitch of this fight.  It is recommended that you leave melee dps on him full time throughout the fight, as many as feasible as long as you can push the other bosses out of their possesions before they gain full energy.  You need to interrupt as many sand bolts from him as possible as they are the most threatening part of the fight.  The goal is to get him down the fastest possible as when he is empowered, is very devestating with adds and sandstorm aoe damage.

In 10-man, we were blowing heroism at the start and nuking Sul down as fast as we could, then switching to Frost King at 50 energy to push him out of possession.  After that we would focus on whichever boss was possessed next and left 1 melee dps on him as well as a tank to help with interrupts and bringing him down slowly.  It was working out well, but so far we havent received a kill as we are still working with the other mechanics of the fight.

High Priest Mar'li is somewhat of a joke, even when Possessed.  Her Loa spirits dont have a lot of health, and with being able to stun, slow, etc, they drop really fast.  Also, we noticed when it was a Shadowed Spirit, a hunter pet could non-stop taunt it and almost prevent it from moving entirely.  Really made it a joke.  However, her non-stop casting Wrath of the Loa CAN be a problem, so it might be worthwhile to tank Frost King on top of her and have one tank interrupt her while holding threat on FK, and leave the other tank on Sul.

Needless to say, the #1 source of incoming damage on our attempts thus far have been Sand Storm, until we put melee full time on Sul, then it switched to Wrath of the Loa.