Pandaria is under siege by the pesky, bug-like mantid. It reminds me of an alternate universe Starship Troopers. The Serpent's Spine, a massive fortified wall, has kept them out but the mantid have already started laying siege to the main gate. The pandaren could sure use your help. Is there a vulnerability? The Gate of the Setting Sun seems to be where mantid forces are concentrated and that's where you'll be needed. This instance is only accessible at max level on heroic difficulty.

As you make your way across the battlements of the gate, you'll notice timed charges being dropped on the wall. In addition to clearing out pesky bug mobs that get in your way, you'll need to dodge these Bomberman style explosives. Seriously, they'll detonate and their explosions don't explode outward. They explode in four cardinal directions. In other words, stand diagonally to avoid getting fried.

1. Saboteur Kip'tilak

You won't have to travel far before you eventually run into Saboteur Kip'tilak in the first chamber. He's partly responsible for all those explosives that you and your party have been dodging! Again, try to stay away from the Stable Munitions. For a heroic, this is the situational awareness fight that you'll want to be able to get a handle on early for practice. If you get too close to a bomb, it's going to go off in the same cardinal directions as you experienced in the trash leading up to it.

Kip'tilak will periodically throw explosives that will stick to different players (Sabotage). If one happens to find itself attached to your body, don't strafe or go forward. Move in a diagonal direction to minimize the damage you're about to receive.

Oh yeah, and you can expect Kip to detonate all the bombs in the room at 70% and 30%. Might not be a bad idea to send someone around to intentionally blow some of them up especially if they're in inconvenient locations (like the middle of the room).

2. Striker Go'dak

As you make your way along the wall, you'll eventually realize that the place you're trying to get to is being constantly lit on fire. The pandaren garrison is trying to send someone across but the fires are too much. You need to ground the flyer that's bombarding it. Conveniently enough, there's an elevator which will bring you to the top of one of the forts where you can challenge Striker Gad'ok. The Strikers are the aerial units of the mantid empire with the express purpose of weakening their enemies before their army sweeps in.

Don't expect Gad'ok to be a complete pushover. He'll charge the closest member in the group with Prey Time and Impaling Strike his current target. Every so often, Ga'dok will do a Strafing Run on the platform with bombs from one side to the next. Easily avoidable if you don't stand in front or anywhere along his path.

Krik'thik Disruptors will throw Acid Bombs at various locations. Stay off the green! Meanwhile, Krik'thik Strikers will jump onto the platform and harass you.

When you and your party takes care of Ga'dok, you'll be able to descend and move on.

3. Commander Ri'mok

You'll reach the end of the wall before your party becomes boxed in by Commander Ri'mok. He's like the main point man for mantid ground forces that's battering the gates. Ri'mok must have taken some lessons from Hagara as he's capable of launching a Frenzied Assault. Watch out for the Viscous Fluid that gets thrown around. Doesn't really affect the healer since the debuff only reduces damage deal (but standing in it allows Ri'mok to deal more damage to affected players).

While you're busy trying to put down this bug, he'll be summoning constant reinforcements. Some serious bug management will be needed here or else you and your team will get overrun by Krik'thik Swarmers. The real danger is the Krik'thik Saboteurs since they'll be throwing bombs all over the place. Remember that you're fighting on a wall. There's limited room for you to go to so get those Saboteurs out of the way or else you'll have no where else to run.

With the Commander down, you'll need to rush back to the main gates and stop the monstrous beast from breaking through the inner gate.

4. Raigonn

This thing's a behemoth. You probably saw him as you were dashing through the ramparts (if you looked down at least). Ultimately, Raigonn manages to break through the first gate. Left unchecked, he could break open another gate. Raigonn has an unbelieveably tough exterior which reduces damage taken to almost nothing. Your party needs to somehow remove that vulnerability before you can tackle Raigonn head on.

If you look around the staging area, you'll see some launchers and catapults which will fling you onto Raigonn's head. Someone needs to climb in and launch themselves and start DPSing his head! Don't expect to stay up there very long since his constant charging of the inner door is going to knock players off (and the impact's enough to almost kill anyone within 10 yards). The rest of the party needs to contend with other Krik'thik's joining the fray trying to keep you off Raigonn.

• Krik'thik Protectorate: Hive Mind
• Krik'thik Engulfer: Engulfing Winds
• Krik'thik Swarm Binrger: Screeching Swarm

As soon as Raigonn becomes vulnerable, he'll start focusing your group. A Broken Carapace means you can actually deal some decent damage now. Don't stay too close as Raigonn will randomly Fixate players. Don't take your time with him either since his Stomps cause him to gain a stack of Frenzy (increashing his damage by 25% each time).

Whew!

Nice job team! Okay, let's not come in tomorrow. Let's just take a day. You repelled a giant bug army and managed to hold the wall for now. Rest up some as you haven't seen the last of the mantid quite yet.

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It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!

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Tags: dungeon, gate-of-the-setting-sun, heroic, instance, mists-of-pandaria, mists-of-pandaria-beta, mop

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Mists of Pandaria