Posts tagged achievements

If you enter Northrend via the Howling Fjord then your introduction to Wrath of the Lich King instancing is very likely to be Utgarde Keep, home of Ingvar the Plunderer and just two other bosses. So how to take em down on Heroic? Like this…

Utgarde Keep

Prince Keleseth

The first boss you come to is the Prince and it is a relatively easy fight if you follow these simple tactics.

There’s really only two things to worry about. Firstly, he will occasionally Frost Tomb one of your party. This will cause 400 damage every second for 20 seconds. That’s 8,000 damage.

There’s two ways to deal with this, Firstly, your group can destroy the tomb, freeing the player. OR…you can go for the achievement On The Rocks, where you don’t shatter any tombs. This requires a good geared or skilled healer and a bit of luck that it’s not the healer that gets entombed – though the PvP trinket will free them, so carry one if you want to go for it.

The other thing to be aware of is the four skeletons he’ll summon. In my experience, they’ll generally go for the healer, so just have him stand by the tank so he can pick them up fast. Then get your DPS to AoE them down.

Doing it this way has two benefits: you’ll continue to DPS the boss at the same time and the skeletons periodically resurrect, so it’ll be easier to take them down again. Follow that, you’ll get him down easily.

Dalronn & Skarvald

A two-boss fight that just requires a bit of organisation. Or not, if you are confident your healer is competent. The safe way first.

Get your tank to pick up the bosses and build a bit of aggro. All DPS then nuke Skarvald down to around 10%. At this point, switch to Dalronn, where your tank will now have plenty of aggro and nuke him dead. He will now respawn as a spirit which can’t be damaged but has all his original abilities. But with Skarvald already on 10% or so, you will be able to finish him in a few seconds, reducing the damage Dalronn can do while immune. Once both are dead, the spirit despawns. 

Why do it this way round?

Dalronn will attack in spirit form with his Shadow Bolt, which is easily healed through. But Skarvald will randomly Charge any of your party – and this puts your healer at risk. So leave him until last on low HP and you’ll be fine.

The unsafe way to do this is to just nuke them down one at a time. If you have good DPS you’ll be fine doing this, though I still suggest you take Dalronn out first.

Ingvar the Plunderer 

Finally we have the hardest boss in the instance – Ingvar the Plunderer. It is basically a tank and spank fight but you do need to be aware of his capabilities in order to keep yourself alive and not put too much pressure on the healer.

This is a two phase fight, so let’s take a look at Phase One first.

Have your tank pick him up and tank him at the back of the platform, right near where he was standing in the first place, but turn him so he’s facing the edge. He will turn but this does give your DPS the opportunity to get behind and avoid his frontal abilities to some extent - namely Smash and Cleave.

It goes without saying that your ranged DPS should be at maximum range throughout the entire fight, along with your healer. Your melee DPS need to be aware of those two abilities mentioned. Smash has a cast time, so they should use that to get out of range or behind Ingvar if they aren’t already.

His other ability in Phase One is Staggering Roar. More dangerous to casters and healers due to the silence, but still damage dealing. If you feel you need to there’s a two second cast time for you to try and get out of range or Line of Sight (there are two pillars you could try to use).

Speed is also of the essence as he has an Enrage that stacks up to 50 times, increasing attack speed and size by 5%. Your DPS need to work well to avoid this getting out of hand.

Once he’s down Phase Two will begin when he gets resurrected. His new abilities are similar to those in Phase One – but more powerful. Once again, tank him at the far end of the platform and try and face him outwards. Ranged stay at maximum distance and melee DPS stay behind him as often as possible.

I’ll list his abilities here – hover over them for the full details and note the changes from Phase One. It’s very similar tactics, you may just need to adjust things slightly, especially with the 8 second silence from Dreadful Roar.

• Dreadful Roar
• Woe Strike
• Dark Smash
• Shadow Axe

The new ability to be most wary of is, of course, Shadow Axe. It is completely random so you WILL need to look for it and then get out of the way as fast as possible when it hits.

Remember that and follow the previous tactics and you’ll down him relatively easily.

For The Warlock

Warlocks should be hoping that Wand of the San’layn drops from Prince Keleseth. The Blue drop to watch from Ingvar is Breeches of the Caller, while the Epic is a ring, Annhylde’s Ring to be precise. There is nothing for a Warlock from Dalronn and Skarvald unfortunately.