Rivendare

Baron Rivendare

Baron Rivendare is the death knight leader of the Scourge forces in the city of Stratholme, a former noble of Lordaeron who coordinated the efforts of the Lich King in the Plaguelands until his death at the hands of operatives in the employ of the Argent Dawn.

In World of Warcraft, he drops a very rare epic mount, the Deathcharger. He also drops all the leg items - one per kill - for what is considered the first end game overall Item Sets for all classes (also known as Tier 0 or "blue" sets).

Baron Rivendare on Thottbot.com

Strategy

The Baron Rivendare fight presents two major challenges. First, his damage aura, which applies shadow damage to everyone in range. Second, he periodically spawns waves of skeletons from the bone piles scattered around his room. If these skeletons survive long enough, he casts Death Pact on them, killing them but healing himself.

To deal with the shadow aura, have your tank position the Baron against one wall of the chamber. Have your healers and ranged damage dealers stand on the opposite wall. This will allow them to stay out of range of the aura, avoiding the damage and casting interruptions. The tank and melee damage dealers will have to absorb the aura's damage. A Priest can buff the group with Shadow Protection, or a Paladin can use the Shadow Protection Aura to mitigate that damage.

The skeletons will almost always immediately aggro your healer. One of the easiest ways to deal with this is to have a class with high AOE damage, like a Mage or a Warlock in the group, and position them right next to the healer. They can then AOE the skeletons, which have moderate damage but very low hit points, as they rush towards the healer.

If you don't have an Mage or a Warlock in the group, there are other ways to deal with the skeletons. A Priest with the [Holy Nova] talent can kill the skeletons and keep the ranged party members healed at the same time, but this is very mana intensive, and he might need that mana to heal through the Baron's damage.

You can also try having members of your party use the Stratholme Holy Water that can be gathered throughout the instance. One bottle is generally enough for each wave of skeletons.