Introduction
The lore tells us that the Black Temple has changed hands many times throughout history. It was once called Temple of Karabor by Draenei and the Black Citadel by the Burning Legion. Today it is known as the current residence of Illidan Stormrage.
Located in Shadowmoon Valley, the Black Temple is an impressive structure. Doomwalker, a world boss, can be seen banging at the main gates. For raiding purposes, the entrance is an instance portal in a breach below the Ruins of Karabor in the south battlement. Near the entrance are Xi’ri and his forces, which are part of the entrance to Black Temple quest line. For those players just gaining access to the Black Temple, follow Xi’ri’s forces once you start and complete the A Distraction for Akama quest, they will lead you to the entrance.
The Black Temple has nine boss encounters for a total of twelve raid bosses. One encounter requires the raid to fight four bosses simultaneously. These encounters are explained in the following chapters. The bosses’ include legendary items from Illidan Stormrage, Tier Six Armor set pieces from a variety of the bosses, and equivalent weapons and armor. Some impressive epic items also drop from the trash mobs, as well as items used to craft armor to assist raids with some of the boss fights.
Trash Mobs
The Black Temple has three trash mob categories: Karabor Sewers, Sanctuary of Shadow, and Gorefiend’s Vigil. While mobs from both the Sanctuary of Shadow and Gorefiend’s Vigil categories are on main floors of the temple, the Karabor Sewers trash mobs are only the bottom floor of the temple, or the sewers. The Karabor Sewers trash mobs include humanoids, elementals, and beasts:
●Aqueous Lord – Summons the aqueous spawns. The vile slime ability reduces damage and healing by 50%.
●Aqueous Spawn – Spawns in pairs and cast a nature AoE spell and DOT that lasts for 9 seconds that slows movement by 20%. They can be stun-locked and banished. They also heal the aqueous lords.
●Coilskar General – Dispels crowd control spells on other targets but is not crowd controllable.

●Coilskar Harpooner – Can be crowd controlled and has the dragon turtle for a pet.
●Dragon Turtle – Can be crowd controlled. The water spit ability does 1,800 frost damage.
●Coilskar Sea-Caller – Casts a multi-target attack but can be polymorphed.
●Coilskar Soothsayer –
●Coilskar Wrangler – Immune to crowd control, has leviathan as a pet, and can make the leviathan use his frenzy ability.
●Leviathan – Immune to crowd control, has a frenzy and poison spit ability.
Sanctuary of Shadow trash mobs are in the main floors of Black Temple. Ashtongue humanoids and Illidari demons are in this category. Once you kill the Shade of Akama and Akama yells to release his people, the Ashtongue in the zone become friendly. The trash includes:
●Ashtongue Battlelord – Cleaves and has a concussive blow ability.
●Ashtongue Feral Spirit – Charges but is trappable by hunters.
●Ashtongue Mystic – Casts bloodlust, cyclones, flameshock, frostshock, and can drop cyclone, searing, and windfury totems. Use crowd control abilities on mystics.
●Ashtongue Primalist – Has an AoE wing clip and cyclone abilities and is crowd controllable.
●Ashtongue Stormcaller – Casts both lighting shield and lighting bolt abilities and is crowd controllable.
●Illidari Boneslicer – Banishable and acts like a rogue with abilities such as AoE gouge, uses poisons, blind, and cloak of shadows.
●Illidari Centurion – Cleaves and is not crowd controllable.
●Illidari Defiler – Banishes players, cast curse of agony spells, and rain of chaos but can be banished.
●Illidari Heartseeker – Uses rapid shots, silencing shots, and a weakened heart curse and are banishable.
●Illidari Nightlord – Can not be crowd controlled and casts hellfire, AoE fears, and can summon shadowfiends.
Gorefiend’s Vigil includes humanoids, undead, and beasts. They also appear on the main floors of the Black Temple. Many of these are crowd controllable. The trash includes:

●Hand of Gorefiend – No special abilities
●Shadowmoon Blood Mage – Siphons life from the raid to heal self and casts single target spells. Remember to turn the blood mage away from the raid to tank.
●Shadowmoon Champion – Drop weapons that whirlwind in place.
●Shadowmoon Deathshaper – Raises a Wrathbone Flayer, casts dreadbolt and death coil. Each is crowd controllable.
●Wrathbone Flayer – Cleaves but can be shackled.
●Shadowmoon Grunt – Casts seed of corruption. Burn him down quickly.
●Shadowmoon Riding Hound – Charges and are crowd controllable.
●Shadowmoon Weapon Master – Whirlwinds.
The Black Temple is a well designed and large zone. When you kill Illidan Stormage as a raid, it truly gives the raid a sense of accomplishment.