Ready Check: Icecrown Citadel introduction quests, pt III
by Michael Gray 
Dec 13th 2009 at 12:00PM
Halls of Reflection
I don't know the script for Alliance side, but when Sylvanas walks into the Halls of Reflection, she's none to pleased. Confronted with Frostmourne, she's pretty certain she's going to meet her final destiny. She nearly does, ultimately, but I'm trying to avoid the big spoiler at the end. Nonetheless, the climax to this run is quite worth it.
Halls of Reflection is really just one long story event. It's quite worth it, but the fight itself is pretty straightforward. You'll see two waves of adds coming to kill you, before you finally have to flee old Arthas himself. Each wave has its own mini-boss.
The waves are probably more difficult than the boss itself, depending on your tank's ability to handle large groups. The waves have Riflemen, Mages, and Priests. The casters will need to be silenced (or Death Gripped, if you're ex-Scourge yourself) in order to get them to move. Otherwise, just tank and spank them down. Kill the Priest first, or else it will heal its friends and give you a big pain in the butt.
The first mini-boss is Falric. His annoying trick is the occasional Defiling Horror. Even though Falric doesn't attack during your fear, it throws your party into disarray and is pretty frustrating. You're going to want someone in your party who can dispel magic effects in order to handle Impending Despair.
The second mini-boss, Marwyn, is more straightforward. Don't stand in the Well of Corruption and otherwise just burn the guy down as fast as possible.
The final "fight" is with Arthas. Well, not actually. Arthas roughs up Sylvanas a bit, and Sylvanas warns you all to flee. Once you confirm your readiness, you follow the outside path to flee. Arthas stalks you slowly, certainly, and with murder in his eye. He reminded me mostly of Jason Voorhees in this phase. However, Arthas has magic that Jason didn't and will throw giant walls of ice in your way.Because Arthas has to move slowly, he needs help. He'll summon several waves of undead for you to fight while you try and flee. You have to kill these waves of undead while Sylvanas (or Jaina, if you're Alliance) breaks down each wall of ice. The undead aren't really fantastic or special, but they'll definitely lay some serious damage on your tank. This is an endurance fight, since you won't have much time to drink or such while fleeing.
When you reach the end of the path, Sylvanas will warn you to gird your loins for the final confrontation. Don't worry -- it's not time to fight Arthas yet. But once you've gotten this far, congratulations, you've won.
Summary
This entire faux-attunement series can be done in an hour or two, and each instance goes by pretty quickly. The story is fantastic, and does a great job queuing you to go into the Icecrown Citadel. I think this is a wonderful technique by Blizzard's team. It really helps ground you in the genre and mood of the raid, while helping make sure your characters are adequately geared for those fights.
The gearing part can't be underestimated. Going through these fights in Heroic is probably your last, best check to make sure you can actually handle the Icecrown Citadel raid. Use them as a test. If you get through without much trouble, you're ready to step in to the final raid of Wrath of the Lich King.
We'll pick up Icecrown Citadel next week, starting with Marrowgar.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Sylargrey Dec 13th 2009 12:10PM
All fun instances! I'm glad they aren't straightforward tank and spank but actually are each unique (per se) and fun to run in a row if not any order!
Mognet T Dec 13th 2009 12:17PM
Don't worry, Micheal. Jaina is more or less the same, except she also contemplates rescuing Arthas from the Lich King. She learns a lesson about that...
Shizukera Dec 13th 2009 1:00PM
LOL, yeah. It's kind of interesting to watch how her attitude changes over the course of the quest chain ...
I love the new 5-mans, even though it literally took all week to get through the Arthas chase. That thing's a nightmare if your dps isn't on their A-game. I don't remember the last time I had that much fun wiping though.
Sorro Dec 13th 2009 12:38PM
I can't understate the challenge of Halls of Reflection. The waves, especially the later ones before the second boss, can be pretty tough to tank and to heal. I've gotten through it both ways, but only with 4 other quality 25-man raiders from my guild. And the DPS needs to be top notch to kill the mobs fast enough in the gauntlet at the end.
Don't get me wrong, I love it, but assuming you can get through this because you just cleared your first Halls of Lightning would be folly.
Jamie Dec 13th 2009 6:32PM
Another thing to note about HoR's wave sequence is that if you wipe between the two mini bosses, you will restart at wave 6, the encounter isn't like Violet Hold fortunately (ie. have to fight through every wave + bosses).
Thanks for that Blizzard, and yes the Footmen hurt hard.
tkokesh Dec 13th 2009 1:07PM
The one thing you didn't mention about the final fight in HoR is that there are four (on Heroic, anyway) ice walls that Arthas will put up to block the escape. Because the ice walls go down as soon as the adds are cleared, and because of the number of adds on the fourth ice wall, cooldowns (e.g., Heroism/Bloodlust) should be saved for that last wall.
West Dec 13th 2009 2:28PM
Agreed. Need to blow every cooldown on that last wall. Army makes the first part of that last wave much easier so the tank can really focus on properly picking up the big dudes that come a few seconds after the ghouls..
peanutbutterjug Dec 13th 2009 1:26PM
I'm really happy that the gear drops from the heroic versions that does, because otherwise I wouldn't get to experience the raid for a very long time.
Ianmis Dec 13th 2009 1:50PM
There are also rogues and soldiers in the waves. While the soldiers don't seem to be much threat except to cloth, the rogues do seem to be a problem if the tank doesn't pick them up in time. I was in on my ret pally and one of them two shot backstab me. We found burning them and then the preist seem to be best. Other than that, the riflemen seem week and I just repented the mages til we burned the others.
Mugutu Dec 13th 2009 1:56PM
Suggestion for Tyrannus - if you can, tank him on the ice RImefang throws down. He takes damage from standing on the ice just like players do, so make sure he's standing on it to make the fight go a bit faster.
nekorion Dec 13th 2009 1:58PM
I think depending on how you go about the encounter for marwyn, the fight seems to have randomly different "difficult" mobs.
We had a tank that wasn't great at picking up all mobs, so we tended to los each wave, making the mages with their flame strikes seem annoyingly overpowered. The soldiers didnt make me happy with all the interuptions either.
Vladeon Dec 13th 2009 2:09PM
The best way that I've found to take on the adds is to stack everyone in what I call, "the hole" next to where Marwyn or Falric are standing. there's a little area where your healer and ranged dps can stand where they're out of line of sight from the waves and your tank can use to get those pesky ranged dps mobs a bit closer. Also, if you have a DK in your party, having them use army on the 9th wave helps quite a bit as the extra dps goes a long way towards killing those pesky casters.
For the final gauntlet, kill the Witchdoctors as they come by because they will eat up and spit out your squishy healer/casting dps. Also, try to make sure that, as the tank, you're pointing the Abominations away from the rest of the party, 'cause they do this thing where they spew out some green nastiness, and while it may come off of plate easily, it stains leather and cloth something terrible and there's no oxyclean in WoW.
Tankadin Dec 13th 2009 2:40PM
There are a few ways to handle the waves on HoR. If your tank says that he wants to LOS (Line Of Sight) them, he/she is not talking about a special tank attack that you've never heard of. It means he/she is going to hide out of sight and make the mobs come to them instead of chasing the mobs all over the room.
I know this may run counter to some ranged DPS's ideas on killing things ("If they can't see me, I can't see them... How do I kill them?") but trust your tank. If you are standing out in the open then YOU, Mr. Top-O-The-Charts are going to be the one the ghost mages and hunters will target.
As a pally I have one ranged attack that will bring the mages to me. It has a longish cooldown and does nothing to the hunters expect piss them off, maybe enough so they start attacking me, but not if you let loose on them.
So if I say I'm going to LOS the mobs and then I run away... Follow me, I'm not doing it because I'm scared. Then you hide. This makes the room so very much easier. I have your best interests at heart, I want you to stay alive.
I'm a tank, you can trust me.
P.S. And just like in your raid group, rogues die first (Spectral Merc's).
cassandri Dec 13th 2009 7:04PM
Most tanks that I've played with prefer the LoSing method that people are suggesting here. As a healer, having tried several methods on both normal and heroic difficult I find that LoSing is the hardest to heal.
If you have suitable CC or silences in your party, I find that it's best to just CC the casters - Shackle and Hunter traps work very well. Mages and DKs (as the author described) do a good job of pulling unruly casters to the tank.
If you use the LoS method I think it's important to kill the Mage asap (perhaps after the Priest if the healing is a problem). Flame strike on the ground where you'll all grouped up + Frost tomb from the Rifleman freezing your healer can quickly kill your group.
Gimmlette Dec 13th 2009 3:32PM
My guild started running people in earnest Friday night through all three. As GL, I gave up my spot in several of the groups just to make sure the guild members got to go. Finally, around 11:30 p.m., a 5-man set off with me in the group.
The priest had done these earlier in the week and could walk us through the encounters. We did them regular owing to the hour and the fact that 4 of us were a couple sheets to the wind.
We wiped exactly twice. I don't remember where the first one was. The second one was on the "Run Away" from Arthas part of the Halls of Remembrance. Otherwise, regular was a stroll down a country lane.
Last night, we took on the heroic versions of each with 3 people who had never been in the instances. We wiped on Forgemaster because we forgot about the stacking debuffs. Letting those get to a dozen or more ticks does serious damage even a well geared healer will have difficulty healing you through.
One of our mottos is, "It's not a wipe if the hunter FD's" so it wasn't a wipe on Tyrannus the first time. Second time, our lock was annihilated within the first 30 seconds but we then 4-manned him.
We wiped once on the waves and once on Marwyn. Kill priests and mages first. Then kill the mercenary. If you have enough dps, once the priest (if there is one) is down, have a ranged take out the rifleman in the wave. We found the rifleman seemed to consistently target our healer. Once I targeted him and my pet and I got his attention, she could heal the group without the interrupts from his damage. We died on Marwyn because where we were standing, we couldn't see the circles on the floor clearly. Suddenly your health starts going down and you aren't exactly sure why. We recommend staying on the left side alcove of that room and running to meet Marwyn towards the center. It could have been we were tired, but that Well of Corruption was hard to see clearly until we caught him in the center of the room.
We stalled at the last icewall barrier. We blew every single cool-down we had but were consistently 30 to 45 seconds too slow. I found that dropping a frost trap 3/4ths of the way between barriers was a huge help in slowing down the mobs enough for us to dps them down. It probably didn't slow down Arthas, but we think, if he started into the remnants of the trap he was slowed. That could be what we want to think. I even sent my pet on him which distracted him at first, but not enough that it bought us the 30 more seconds we seemed to need. Still, if you have a hunter in the group, drop a frost trap 2/3rds to 3/4ths of the way between ice walls. That is a huge help in slowing the elites so you can concentrate your dps on them.
All-in-all, I'm pleased with the encounter. I told guild members to do the quest chain simply because the encounter makes so much more sense. I also would recommend a lower geared group, such as one with Naxx level only gear, run the regular first, to get a feel for the fights. I was glad I had done it on regular first because it's easy to get lost in the pit. Plus, having some idea of the fights made it easier to convey to the three new people what to go and "Oh yeah. Stay out of the green stuff."
The music is exceptional. As a casual player, I think the Forge of Souls is a bit too easy, but Halls more than makes up for that. My character received 2 big gear upgrades.
For kicks and giggles, we ran into the raid and tried to clear the first skeletons. That was spectacular. However, we can't wait to have enough people geared to try that.
Vladeon Dec 13th 2009 4:53PM
An interesting thing happened when our hunter put a frost trap at Arthas' feet right before talking to Jaina and starting the event. The frost trap actually cancelled out the slow effect on Arthas and he came barreling out of the room at normal running speed. It wasn't until he got outside and about 10 meters away from the room that he regained the slow effect. It was quite odd and, on heroic, fairly scary.
clundgren Dec 13th 2009 4:10PM
HoR is definitely tough, but will get easier as players dust off their long-neglected CC skills.
A few tips: CC a clothy right away, and kill the other one. I usually try to put repentance on the mage, as the priest will come in with the melee, thus making it easier for the tank to control the whole group while you burn him.
Also, tanks, need to be automarking their primary target. With the proliferation of AoE, it is very easy for your DPS to get aggro if tanks aren't doing this. We've all gotten sloppy about focusing targets because we're used to easy heroics, but these mobs are a significant step up and will give your healer big headaches if aggro is split.
Kill order should be: priest, rogue, whatever (cc the mage). The rogue drops aggro and can mess up your healer.
Oh, and for god's sake don't try to fight in the centre of the room where this encounter starts! Get back to the entrance or into a corner, or your tank will have an aneurysm!
For the final chase segment:
Time to dust off those old CoS skills, because this phase demands a mobile tank, who keeps pulling the mobs away from Arthas. Your DPS has to burn like crazy, because you don't have a lot of time to kill those mobs. Make sure you save your offensive and defensive cooldowns for the final wave, because it can get pretty chaotic: the tank has a LOT of mobs to control at the same time as DPS has to be going all out. I've run this many times successfully, but never without a few mobs getting away from the tank at times. And this is with good, experienced, geared tanks.
By the way, when this phase starts, RUN; don't back away from Arthas. Not only is this what you are supposed to be doing, but he starts off going faster than you do if you are walking backwards. I was with a party that kept facing him, wanting to see what he does, I suppose. What he does is kill you instantly if he reaches you.
One last thing: you never have to engage Arthas, and shouldn't. We didn't know this the first time through, and charged in to help Sylvanas. I somehow managed to pull aggro from her and got rather spectacularly one-shot. The group had a good laugh before rezzing me to start the final phase. Similarly, in my last run the tank nobly ran to engage Arthas when we were "trapped." What happened next was sad but funny.
Good luck!
Sky Dec 13th 2009 8:41PM
can Matt Low do the Ready Check for Lord Marrowgar...
or has he already done the Raid Rx for LM
Cody Dec 13th 2009 9:05PM
Is unholy power dispellable?
Kyol Dec 14th 2009 2:21AM
One trick that I've tried successfully in HoR is to use Aspect of the Pack in the chase sequence. Bust down the wall, throw up pack, haul it to the next wall, go back into dragonhawk. The mobs that Artie spawns will run up to you, but Artie plods along like usual, which negates some of the HE'S RIGHT ON TOP OF US factor at the 4th wall.