Priestess Delrissa, bringing a little PvP to your PvE
by Alex Ziebart 
Mar 29th 2008 at 3:00PM
If you have never seen this encounter before, or don't know how it works, Eliah touches on it a bit in his Magisters' Terrace guide. Basically, it's a 5v5 arena match. You can't tank it, there are no threat tables. It's a game of control and survival. Priestess Delrissa, who is a Holy Priest, can spawn with four random friends, chosen from a pool of eight.
Those friends of hers can be any of the following:
- Zelfan - Gan'arg Engineer
- Kagani Nightstrike - Blood Elf Rogue
- Ellrys Duskhallow - Blood Elf Warlock with her imp Fizzle.
- Apoko - Broken Shaman
- Yazzai - Ethereal Mage
- Garaxxas - Satyr Hunter with his pet ravager, Sliver
- Eramas Brightblaze - Blood Elf Fury Warrior
- Warlord Salaris - Naga Arms Warrior
Before I go on, I must admit that this fight is way harder if you get Warlord Salaris. Not impossible, not horrible. He just makes the fight take much more effort. He hits like a truck, Intercepts all over the place, and can spam Intimidating Shout. I'm not sure of the cooldown on his fear, but I have seen him chain it before. Not to mention he spamstrings, and Mortal Strikes cloth for about seven thousand. If you CC him you'll be just fine, but if he breaks loose for even a second or two he can turn the battle against you.
This fight is just downright exciting, I think. No tank and spank, no specific routine. My groups always clear the entire rest of the room first so we can use the entire area for kiting, fearing, all of that. Like PvP, the healers always go down first. A rush to Delrissa, move on to Apoko if we have him, then start picking apart the DPS one by one. If you have PvP gear, I recommend using it, but it isn't necessary.
As long as you don't approach this as a typical PvE encounter, it won't prove to be too difficult. If you're the tank, find other ways to be helpful like stuns, Intervene, Blessing of Freedom, or kittycat form. Be on your toes, be ready to run. Use LOS to your advantage, but don't LOS your healers. If you're having a hard time, just hang in there. The most important thing is to not become discouraged. If something isn't working for you, try something else. Change your CC targets. Change your kill order. Don't beat your head against the same thing repeatedly. Something as small as flipping your first and second kill targets can make this fight go from nearly impossible to smooth as butter.
Good luck, and I hope you guys start to enjoy this fight as much as I do!
Filed under: Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Tips, Instances, Guides
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
ErsatzPotato Mar 29th 2008 3:10PM
It's disliked because some players hate WoW PvP. I'm one of them. I PvP with chainguns or in Guild Wars and if forced to in WoW I'd quit. My main has eleven lifetime honor.
That said, it is a new type of instance fight so I can't be upset about it. Novelty has value, so yay idiot arena priestess, especially because the boss after her is pure PvE fun.
If they do it again, Blizzard is getting a big smack to the side of the head.
SpaceDog Mar 29th 2008 4:16PM
It might be *like* PVP in some ways but it's not PVP, so I don't think that's really a valid reason to dislike it.
This fight can be horrible but over all, I think it's a great encounter. It's different and keeps you on your toes.
heartless_ Mar 29th 2008 5:29PM
It's a PvE encounter that isn't built in predefined steps. To me, it sounds like you just want predictable, easier content. PvP has nothing to do with this.
Personally, I have yet to get a group for MgT. I've been invited to several PUGs and guild groups, but then they found out I was an Enhance Shaman, not Resto, and promptly kicked. Yes, guild groups.
LFGuild?
my2cents Mar 29th 2008 8:34PM
I guess you never did the gauntlet in BRD for your .5 set? =P It was pretty much like this.
I like these fights. It's really not like PvP imo. In a 5v5 arena, you're (generally) fighting 5 players who are a lot smarter and more clever than 5 mobs, and they have resil of their own as well as trinkets to get out of CC. Granted these mobs have a lot more HP than 5 players. But I think those differences still keep this encounter well within the mechanics of PvE.
ErsatzPotato Mar 30th 2008 1:15PM
Obviously they don't play the same way a human arena team does but the PvP comparison is apt IMO. Btw, done the fight quite a few times, normal and heroic, in t4/badge (or blues normal on another toon). It's annoying as all get out but not horribly difficult. Kill healers, keep the MS warrior cc'd.
"It's a PvE encounter that isn't built in predefined steps. To me, it sounds like you just want predictable, easier content."
Second sentence doesn't automatically follow from the first.
Anyway... highly randomized encounters are annoying. Large doses of chance as a way to amp difficulty is sloppy design. PvE encounters are puzzles to be worked out. Less fun on the millionth repeat as a result--so you redo them naked or solo. :) The only puzzle here first night was quickly solved, "Oh. It's a pretend arena fight. Put on resilience gear if you have it and call out focus fire order, no tanking." That type of fighting I personally prefer to do in other games--many players hate doing it *at all* and that's why a lot of people already hate this boss.
Umbrae Mar 29th 2008 3:16PM
I have to admit, as a (druid) tank, this fight frustrates me a bit; it's especially nasty on Heroic, without the proper CC. My guildmates and I ran it a few times last night, though, and I discovered a good way of being useful: Cycloning and Bashing the living daylight out of as many of the mobs as I could while they whittled the rest down. I still wouldn't expect to one-shot the encounter on Heroic (without massive CC), but at least I feel a bit more crucial than I did before I realised the mobs had no true threat tables. At first, I just thought I was a bad tank!
Balasan Mar 29th 2008 3:27PM
Having fought Warlord Salaris in heroics and wiping 3 times to him nuking our tank and fearing away the healer (me), I'd just like to say:
nerf arms warriors.
Oh and Zalfan's a downright bastard too. Thankfully I'm a paladin so I can sort of keep him cc'ed.
I don't play arenas at all. I don't pvp much on any of my chars, so playing an arena match with NPCs is a nice change of pace from the normal tank and spank PvE. I enjoy this battle a lot, and having just got my Vial of The Sunwell trinket, I'm loving this instance more.
Oh and I really really really love the fact that Kael's pyroblast in heroics is handled differently between all the 3 tanking classes. It really shows variety, and I like blizz's way of thinking for the fight.
Dalymar Mar 29th 2008 3:39PM
I absolutely adore this fight.
Well, the reason might be that I've never done it in heroic... but still. :P
Never had any actual problems with them, never wiped here - must have been luck. (that's including getting the warlord every single time)
The group usually had a fair amount of CC, we set up a kill order, we kited - and, of course, we always screwd it up. :P
We were never able to kill the healers first, some misplaced AoE broke my sheep every 5 secs, and there seemed to be a threat table - well, everyone always went for the healer.
Still, through some heroic (hehe) effort, that one fear, or the emergency elemental, we always managed to take them all down.
Of course, I might be so happy merely because Kael finally gave me that phoenix hatchling of his (quite surprising, after all the grown up ones I've kited 'round the room :P )
Fermoot Mar 29th 2008 3:40PM
Wow... this was a fun fight.... The first time I did it a year and a half ago. Back when it was the summoned fight in BRD from the old world Dungeon Set 2 Quest line. http://thottbot.com/q9015 here is the quest. This is a lot easier now, back then you didn't know what you were getting till they were beating on you. At least now you know ahead of time what mobs you have to CC.
rick gregory Mar 29th 2008 4:04PM
I like this fight (not done heroic yet, though). It breaks you out of the 'tank, taunt all of them and we'll burn them down in turn' snooze mold. It's like Moroes in Kara in some respects semi-random adds, CC makes it very easy, otherwise you need to actually know how to play your class and react to the situation in front of you.
If done it with only one mage and no other CC - first time we wiped learning the fight (day 1 of the patch) then we one shotted here.
She and, to some degree Kael are the only interesting fights in there though and I was a bit sad to see Blizz recycle old fight mechanics so much (first boss = Kalithresh, second = Curator). She's a refreshing change as is the last part of the Kael fight.
anonymoose Mar 29th 2008 4:20PM
Maybe it's the heroic mode that is inspiring all the flame? I don't know, have only done normal mode on both my resto sham and heal priest. I found it fairly easy, but our groups usually had 1-2 CC...and yes a number of us PvP and I'm a PvP fiend. But I didn't really feel like it was a situation like PvP at all. It reminded me more of Hex Lord in ZA where you get random mobs with the boss.
Montas Apr 1st 2008 3:58AM
If you ask me, i love this instance as whole... that part with lot of small guys giving mana :) (deep frost mage :P ) tho have been there today with realy good group with 3 mages... this instance makes us realy usefull so we (mages) dont have problem to get group.
Luciferchrist Mar 29th 2008 4:48PM
Yeah.. they can't be seduced.. at least the naga warrior nor the lock can... my succy died quite fast.
K-OSS Mar 29th 2008 5:39PM
Had a similar experience, our CC consisted of two locks and a rogue. On the fight we ended up attempting to seduce both Salaris and Apoko, and sapping Yazzai. Sapped worked fine, but both Salaris and Apoko were immune to the Seduce. Eventually our tank just decided to tank three of the four, we had a lucky break chain fearing Salaris, and of course Sapping Yazz still.
In the end, we made it through. It struck as odd that the seduce wasn't working when everything we could find on the instance said it would... just another thing to remember for the next run I s'pose.
matt Mar 29th 2008 4:47PM
MgT requires heavy CC throughout. If you don't have enough CC for this fight, how are you going to get through the 6-pulls before Kael?
Balasan Mar 29th 2008 6:24PM
I've done it with a warrior tank, feral druid (myself), shaman healer, ele shaman and one measly trap. And we got through the group.
Granted it's not easy. We had to clear all the packs in Delrissa's room, but with a well-timed fear, 2 earth elemental totems, and myself off-tanking 2, we passed the 6-trash pack fine.
Think outside the box.
Oh and with 2 shamans and 2 bloodlusts Delrissa's team and Kael went down quick.
Rich Mar 29th 2008 6:36PM
CC is a crutch alot people rely on too heavily sometimes. There is no encounter in the game(that I can think of) that can't be done without having any CC. CC is butter when you get it, but in a skilled group its not necessary.
Bootsanator Mar 29th 2008 6:06PM
Hahaha, yeah, this is definitely right up there with Blackheart the Inciter, I love both of those fights. I've been told by guildmates that apparently entertained wipefests much closer to BC launch that they Hate that guy, but as a BC n00b, I love that fight.
Tinwhisker Mar 29th 2008 8:07PM
My first heroic run of this had the Naga Warrior, the rogue, the lock and the hunter, the Naga's tough but I only wish I could find hunters as good as that Satyr. That satyr hunter is really a pain as he seems to be spec'd 41/41/41 and every Wing Clip immobilizes.
Seriously, one of the add choices should be a prot class though.
hisame Mar 29th 2008 9:15PM
Did this on normal with a shadow priest (myself), prot warrior, resto druid, hunter and warlock (not sure of their specs).
We were up against the priestess, shaman, warrior, rogue, and hunter.
The poor warlock was in charge of banishing the hunter and seducing and fearing the rogue and warrior, while the hunter ice trapped the shaman.
I ended up tanking a lot since there is no threat table and managed to get off two fears before dying (CC eventually broke). We did wipe a couple of times trying different things (no you cannot open with MC since you get within aggro range).
It was a very exciting fight, though the loot rewards were somewhat disappointing. I reminded me of FFXI's Divine Might fight. I can't imagine doing this on heroic though.