Spooncraft

I am starting this series of threads to inform our readers where to go for instances for their given level.  You don’t want to walk into The Oculus at level 70 and you wouldn’t want to be spinning your wheels in The Nexxus at level 79. So here is a helpfull guide to get you started into Northrend.

Utgarde Keep 70-72

Located in the Howling Fjord, Utgarde Keep is one of the first instances you will encounter as you step into Northrend.  There you will encounter a few relativelyt simple bosses:

Prince Keleseth, the first Death Knight type boss you will encounter in the expansion.  He cast Ice tombs on a random member ot the group (including the tank) for 20 secs.  he also summons 4 adds that have very low health and can be AoE’d down very quickly.  The boss will also ressurect the adds which need to be killed again.  have your tank grab them together really quick and shoould make the boss vend some loot with ease.

Skarvald the Constructor and Dalronn the Controller, are dual bosses and the second challenge of the instance.  This pull is very similar to Romulo and Julliane in Kara, they both are relatively weak and need to die at about the same time. Skarvald does a random charge and a fair amount of melee damage while Dalronn is a Shadow Bolt spamming lock who gives the group a casting debuff.  If you don’t kill them within a few seconds of each other the other will summon a spirit of the fallen boss that is untargetable, unkillable, and has all the previous abilities.  So kill them within a few seconds or have a ghost killing you till the other is dead. Dalronn has a random aggro table and will drop aggro and switch to someone else during the fight so healers need to be on thier toes.

Ingvar the Plunderer, the final boss of the instance, has a few hard hitting abilities but all have cast times.  He is what I would describe as Murmur and with melee.  He has a few really nasty melee cleaves and smashes that can be avoided by running when he starts casting, and a few devestating AoE’s that do a fair amount of damage and add a debuff which stacks.  Most of his melee damage has a cast timer so be sure to get out of the way (think hammer smash in Mechanar) and a few debuffs.  Stay mobile and pay attention it should be a fun fight.

Be sure that when you go into these instances that you pick up any quests associated with them and share your quests with everyone in your group.

-Malhoof