Beta Build 12644, Throne of the Tides

Here’s a look at the new dungeon named Throne of the Tides. The random dungeon finder tool says it’s 80-82, I believe. I have run this dungeon probably about seven or eight times and only completed it once.

This is the first thing people need to know about the dungeons: they aren’t pushovers like Utgarde Keep and The Nexus. They require some forethought, some crowd control, environmental awareness and some luck.

Trash

The first pull is nothing to scoff at. You’ll be faced with two casters and two melee.

Now, if I’m not mistaken, the melee are Naz’jar Invaders and they cast a brutal Lacerate that can stack to 30. 250×30 = 7500 damage per second. The casters, of course, heal. (Naz’jar Spiritmenders?)

This pull means that you cannot just run in and AOE everything down. You will almost certainly wipe or suffer casualties as your poor healer panics at the incoming damage.

Ideally, you will CC both casters and one melee. Doing so reduces the frequency with which your tank gets Lacerate stacks and you don’t need to worry about the target being healed by one of the casters. Of course, many groups won’t have three CCers, so aim for CCing one of each mob. It’s vital that the Lacerate not tick up past 18 or so, maybe 20, because at that point, your tank is taking 5000 damage per second in addition to the regular damage being taken. You also want to interrupt the heals from the caster so as to not extend the fight.

If you only have one CC, but have more than one interrupt, CC a melee and interrupt the heals from the casters, then burn them down with the melee first, the two casters, then the last melee.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is just the first pull.

It’s a rude awakening for those who sleepwalk through Wrath of the Lich King heroics without paying attention to debuffs, without using crowd control, who don’t know how to appropriately play their classes.

There are several spots in the instance where you’ll come across a similar configuration, so knowing how to handle the first pull will help immeasurably. Always CC a Naz’jar Invader to prevent the Lacerate from building too quickly on your tank.

What I actually took to doing was casting Hand of Protection on the tank, even while they were tanking, and then hitting Hand of Freedom immediately after. Yes, the melee took a hit or two, but then the tank got aggro again, as HoF overwrites the BOP, which I used to wipe off the Lacerate. (Dwarves, I imagine Stoneform would work as well.)

There’s a tricky bunch of mobs after you teleport/take the elevator when it gets implemented. It’s not quite a gauntlet, but you get waves of adds and only then can you fight Lady Naz’jar, I think.

There IS a gauntlet when you go down the west hallway. Best to break this up into bits and pieces but continue forward motion.

There’s another trash mob that gives people problems, but that’s only because he drops poison on the ground. Don’t stand in it. And I don’t mean “finish your cast and then move”. I mean move.

The last trash mob that gave me problems, personally, was the Faceless Watcher. This looks like a Forgotten One and does two major abilities. The first is Void Rip which makes you and your party hover in the air for a few seconds. Then you drop to the ground, unceremoniously, and he’ll cast his second ability, Ground Pound (not yet in the database on WoWHead, sadly). This is an earthquake-like ability that lasts five seconds, but seems to do something like seven ticks, so you’re going to take fall damage and then damage from his cast. We’re looking at about 3000 damage per person per tick per cast, so about 21,000 damage to everyone in your party who’s in range. I am not sure, but I think that getting away from him after your fall will prevent you from taking all the ticks. I stood at range (so I could hit everyone with Light of Dawn) and didn’t seem to take any damage from it.

Bosses

1) Lady Naz’jar

Not a terribly difficult encounter. Don’t stand in the swirly blue stuff on the ground; this is a geyser and it hurts. A lot.

Interrupt her Shock Blast, since that also hurts a lot. In the area of 30k+.

Don’t stand in the green crap on the ground.

She’ll shield herself (66%/33%? or 50%/25%?) and summon three adds. I think you have a set time to kill them (45s? 1 minute?) before she’ll return to being active, whether they’re dead or not. Note that the melee add does some kind of a nasty cleave, so melee, please stand behind the melee add. Your healers will appreciate it.

All told, not a difficult encounter.

2) Commander Ulthok

Basically, a tank and spank, but with a slight twist. Think of Azjol-Nerub and Anub’arak’s Pound or Utgarde Keep and Ingvar’s Dark Smash. Every so often, this dude will cast something called Dark Fissure. When he does, get the hell away from where he’s looking, which is usually where the tank is. Not only does it do insane damage (that one-shots people) when he casts it, but it leaves behind a void zone of shorts that also does stupid damage (10k?) every second you stand in it. RUN AWAY, LITTLE GIRL, RUN AWAY.

Every so often, he’ll grip someone to him, sort of like Kologarn in Ulduar, and just hold on to them, damaging them. This isn’t too bad in terms of damage, particularly if the target was already topped off. You can heal them while they’re gripped.

That’s basically the fight. Don’t stand in front of him during his Dark Fissure.

Or else this happens:

[01:14:26.007] Commander Ulthok Dark Fissure Mercutio 32991 (O: 8487, R: 17776)

Yes, that reads 32991 damage, 8487 overkill and 17k+ resisted. It hurts.

3) Erunak Stonespeaker

This is what I call the mind-control fight. Erunak is supposedly a good guy who is mind controlled. When he hits 50%, he will no longer be mind-controlled and someone else will be. Take them down to 50% bearing in mind that your dots do not get removed when the MC drops off.

There’s all kinds of crap on the floor here, earthquake thing, fire stuff, I believe, so just be aware and move out of all of it. The green stuff pacifies you and I think also silences you!

Paladins can bubble out of the MC and I believe mages can also drop it with Iceblock.

Not a particularly difficult encounter.

4) Ozumat

The last encounter has you chilling out with Neptulon and dealing with about seventeen different kinds of adds. :P There’s a defile mechanic, there are these things called sappers that need to die… There are three phases. P1 is the murlocs and some adds. P2 is more adds with a defile-like mechanic. P3 … yeah, you basically get a buff from Neptulon and you have to beat the crap out of Ozumat, who I think is behind a wall, as of this build, it seems. I admit, I couldn’t see a bloody thing for all the crap going on.

I recommend marking your tank and your healer so you guys know not to be out of range of each other.

I’ve only killed Ozumat once, but once we got the hang of it, it wasn’t too bad. The second phase is extremely chaotic, however.

Various Screenshots

Here are some screenshots I’ve taken of Throne of the Tides:

Commander Ulthok

Erunak Stoneshaper and the Green Crap of Pacification

End of the Gauntlet on the West

Phase Two on Ozumat

Lady Naz’jar, Shielded

Phase Three on Ozumat (1)

Phase Three on Ozumat (2)

There ya go, hope that was useful. Next up, at least part of Blackrock Caverns. :)