Kael'thas Strat, or "How To Farm Your Phoenixes"

Where: The Eye of Tempest Keep (Netherstorm, Outlands)
What: Kael'thas Sunstrider, 2% Drop Rate for Ashes of Al'ar
When: Once a Week

You can skip all the other bosses and go straight to him. The trash is annoying and dangerous, with knockbacks and whirlwinds, but you can handle it if you can handle the boss.

Recommended Level 80 Team Requirements:

• 3 Melee
• 2 Heals
• 1 Ranged
• 1 Tank
  

^ This requirement list is for level 80 if your gear is post-Ulduar and pre-Icecrown. If it's below Uld, get one more of everything.

When starting out at 85, I recommend using 5-7 players. You shouldn't try with less than 5 because of mind control (he controls 3 players at a time, and your teammates will try to kill you) and the fact that mind control won't break until a non-mind-controlled player breaks it.  Using 4 players is theoretically possible, but I imagine more complications.

Melee & Tank

1. Phase 1: Stay on left side of the room and kill all but the woman boss over there.
2. Phase 2: Kill Cosmic Infuser (heals) first, then others. Pick up Infinity Blade for your main hand.
3. Phase 3: Kill Thaladred (gazes/knockback), Telonicus (random stuns), Sanguinar (fear). Stay in range of one Staff-bearer to keep from being affected by stuns and fears.
   
4. Phase 4: Equip Infinity Blade. Kael'thas will mind control 3 people at a time. Use a melee ability (NOT auto-attack) to hit your mind-controlled friends and break it. If all three of you are MC'd at once, tough break, wipe and try again.
5. Phase 5: Kael'thas will fly and MC is no longer a danger, so reequip your real weapons. Stay low to the ground (but not on the ground) and away from him and each other while remaining close to healers. When he is flying, stay away. When he is landed, kill him.
   

Ranged

1. Phase 1: Stay on right side of the room and kill the woman boss over there.
2. Phase 2: Kill Cosmic Infuser (heals) first, then others. Pick up the Staff of Disintegration and make sure it's macro'd to a spell you use every 30 seconds or so:
   /cast Spell Name
   /use Staff of Disintegration
3. Phase 3: Equip Staff of Disintegration. Tank and kill woman boss (Capernian). Stay grouped up on the Staff user(s) or her aoe will disorient you, as well as other boss's abilities affecting everyone.
4. Phase 4: Kill phoenixes and eggs when they're up. Kill Kael'thas when they're not. Stay grouped on Staff user(s).
   
5. Phase 5: Reequip real weapons. Stay low to the ground when you're flying (but not on the ground) and away from others while in range of healers. KILL KAEL'THAS. The melee can't get to him until he lands.

Healers

• One for each group (melee vs ranged).
• Pick up and equip Cosmic Infuser after killing the weapons.
• Exception: If lacking in ranged, the melee healer should pick up a Staff of Disintegration and use the relevant macro. You don't need more than 2 Staffs in play.

Me Rambling About Personal Stuff

Ashes has been my one big goal in the game since May 2007. I actually got pretty obsessed with it for a while -- like Golem with The One Ring -- and husband made me chill and stop thinking about it until it was actually feasible.

Now that I have one (squee!), what am I going to do?

I made a list:

• Show it off in front of the Alliance gankers I hate, or horde who think only raw power can get you stuff.
• Help my guild. Now that I have my big item, I want to give back.
• Get my sister-in-law a Zulian Tiger. She makes a sad noise every time she sees someone else on it.
• Give my friends all the credit for the mount drop. Really, they did this out of love and it couldn't have happened without them. I will be groveling in gratitude for months. I consider it a gift from all the people who helped, and I'm just completely humbled by it.
  
• Thank God for such a great weekend. Packing, cleaning, found an apartment, get to see my brother in a few weeks, won a RL auction for husband's Christmas present, completed a huge game goal in an unlikely amount of time... it's all too good to be coincidence.
• Try not to shove it in the faces of people I like. It's very pretty, and I'm super-thrilled, but I don't want to be gloaty and make anyone (nice) feel bad that they don't have one.

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