Chess Event
The Chess Event in Karazhan has to be solved in order to reach Prince Malchezaar. The raid plays a sort of chess match against Medivh. The pieces represent units used during the First War, and are placed like chess pieces on a chess board.
Although the analogy to chess is usable (Doomguards are "stronger" than Footmen for example), it's not very strict. The pieces from the event behave very differently from real chess pieces, in particular all pieces autoattack an enemy piece they face (changed for the faction controlled by the player as of 2.2 to further prevent stealth classes from completing alone or with a single partner), and the Kings are actually the strongest pieces in the game. In order to start the event, a player has to talk to the King piece of their own faction. The objective is to kill the enemy King without losing one's own King. If the game is won, a Dust Covered Chest appears with loot. The Curator's hall is directly below the gameroom, and players there during the event will be qualified for the loot.
Afterwards the pieces are reset and it is possible to play a friendly game within the raid. During such a friendly game, there is a silence debuff in the chess room to prevent clearing the trash mobs leading to Prince Malchezaar.
As of 2.1 it is possible to reset the event by talking to the Echo of Medivh.
Chess Piece Abilities and Control
After the event begins, raid members can control any currently uncontrolled piece of their own faction by talking to it. Upon taking control of a piece the player character is teleported onto a platform at the side of the chess field. The player gains the "control piece" buff, his viewing perspective changes to that of the controlled piece, and their action bar is replaced. It is possible to release control of a piece by removing the control buff (right click it). This incurs a 15 sec debuff, during which time it is not possible to control another piece.
1: Rotate Piece: The same for all pieces, click this and then click the square you would like to face.
2: Move: This moves the piece along the board. Refer to each piece for its movement pattern.
3: Special Ability 1: The piece's first unique ability, see piece description for details.
4: Special Ability 2: The piece's other unique ability, see piece description for details.
The abilities can either be activated by clicking on the action bar, or by using keys 1 through 4. It's faster to use the key shortcuts, particularly because the movement controls have a timeout. Each chess piece will auto-attack enemies it faces. While pieces can move diagonally, they can only face towards four directions. After a diagonal movement, pieces will turn 45° clockwise to realign themselves.
Movement and rotation share a common cooldown of 5 seconds, and the special abilities have another common cooldown of 5 seconds (independent from movement). If an ability has a cooldown of more than 5 seconds, the other ability will only be affected by a 5 second cooldown.
Chess Event Pieces
Piece Alliance Horde Movement Ability 1 Ability 2 Notes
King King Llane Wrynn Warchief Blackhand 1 Space any dir. Sweep / Cleave
Deals 4000 damage to 3 enemy units in front of you. Cooldown 5 secs. Heroism / Bloodlust
Grants 50% increased damage to all allied humanoids on all 8 adjacent spaces, does not affect self. Cooldown 15 secs. High Health/High Damage. The first side to kill the opponent's King wins.
Queen Human Conjurer Orc Warlock Straight 3 / Diagonal 2 Elemental Blast / Fireball
Deals 4000 damage to any chess piece, Cooldown 5 secs. Range: Straight 4 / Diagonal 3. Rain of Fire / Poison Cloud
Deal 6000 damage to any chess piece and all hostile chess pieces adjacent to target. Cooldown 15 secs. Range: Straight 4 / Diagonal 3 Medium Health/High Damage
Bishop Human Cleric Orc Necrolyte 1 Space any dir. Healing / Shadow Mend
Heals any chess piece for 6000. Cooldown 20 secs. Range: Half of board. Holy Lance / Shadow Spear
Deals 2000 damage to any enemy units standing in a straight line of 3 squares in front of you. Cooldown 5 secs. Low Health/Low Damage. Only Healer.
Knight Human Charger Orc Wolf 2 Straight / 1 Diag Smash / Bite
Deals 3000 damage to a target 1 square in front. Cooldown 5 secs. Stomp / Howl
Reduces damage of all adjacent hostile chess pieces by 50%, last for 10 secs. Cooldown 5 secs. Medium Health/Low Damage
Rook Water Elemental Summoned Daemon 1 Space any dir. Geyser / Hellfire
Deals 3000 damage to all adjacent hostile chess pieces. Cooldown 5 secs. Water Shield / Fire Shield
Reduces damage done to self by 50%, last for 5 secs. Cooldown 5 secs. Low Health/Medium Damage
Pawn Footman Grunt 1 Space any dir. Heroic Blow / Vicious Strike
Deals 1000 damage to a target 1 square in front. Cooldown 5 secs. Shield Block / Weapon Deflection
Absorbs 500 damage. Lasts 5 secs. Cooldown 5 secs. Low Health/Low Damage
Warning: Medivh Cheats!
Medivh, at random, will cheat in the middle of the chess game, which can turn the tide of a fight, so be careful and quick about the decisions made on the field. Due to how easy the chess encounter can be, it is easily possible to ignore any changes made by the cheating and still win.
Healing Cheat
Medivh will randomly heal his king (and possibly all the other pieces) to full HP.
Damage Cheat
Medivh will target random units on the player's side of the field and surround them in fire, dealing massive damage to all affected units. Simply move out of the flames to avoid dying, but move quickly.
Berserking Cheat
Medivh will choose a few of his units and buff them. This buff will increase their size, speed and damage immensely. Either take down these pieces immediately or move away.
Strategy
The king is quite strong and thus should be used in an offensive way, he's in fact similar to a DPS tank (be cautious though). A reasonable kill order is to deal with the enemy healers first, then drop the queen and finally the king. If king and queen work together efficiently, and have good support from the bishops, the combats on the remainder of the board are less important. The friendly healers should move only very little, and concentrate on keeping the king and queen at top health.
One simple strategy is to have each player chose one non-pawn piece which they will control later. Then, each player first moves the pawn in front of their piece as far as possible, releases control and takes over their "real" piece. As soon as holes in the pawn line appear, attack with the player controlled pieces.
A more sophisticated strategy has four players initially controlling the four central pawns, and four other players on king, queen and both knights. The two remaining raid members should take the bishops. This allows to move the offensive pieces more quickly.
Quotes
The "Echo" of Medivh will speak at various events during the course of the game:
Event begins: "Very well. Let the game begin."
Cheating: "Perhaps a change is in order." "Time for an alternative scenario." "One must not become too complacent."
Medivh loses a bishop: "A necessary sacrifice."
Medivh loses a knight: "Yes...of course."
Medivh loses a pawn: "Hmm." "Interesting." "No matter."
Medivh loses his queen: "Ahh, I should have known."
Medivh loses a rook: "A minor concern."
Player loses a bishop: "The slightest loss of concentration is all it takes."
Player loses a knight: "Yes...all according to plan."
Player loses a pawn: "A transparent stratagem." "Let us see." "Ah, the wheels have begun to turn."
Player loses the queen: "Now it gets interesting."
Player loses a rook: "Foolish! Very foolish!"
Player's king is in check: "As it should be."
Medivh's king is in check: "And so, the end draws near."
Player is checkmated: "Nothing less than perfection will do."
Medivh is checkmated: "And so it ends."
Home 
