Tuesday, October 14, 2014

UBRS at 90 - A Quick Look at the Preview

Upper Blackrock Spire is partially open today, until the launch of Warlords. You'll be able to fight the first three bosses of this new 5-boss dungeon. The layout of UBRS is exactly the same as it used to be, but enemies have been shifted around, and there are new bosses.

Trash before Gor'ashan:

The trash here is reminiscent of the old trash. You'll start in a room with several side-rooms with sigils in them. Killing the pack of mobs in here will extinguish the sigil, and when all the sigils are gone, you'll be able to proceed. Notable here are mobs that plant rallying banners, which will attract additional packs, and engineers, who will turn on automated turrets that need to be defeated. I believe that if you get to the turret first you can have them attack the orcs, rather than your party.

Orebender Gor'ashan:

After killing the trash in here (which is very easy,) Gor'ashan will be available to fight. There are several iron traps around the room, and Gor'ashan stands on a central platform. He'll never leave this platform. Each activated trap will reduce the damage he takes, and while the traps are active, he'll cast an AoE pulse to anyone up there with him. Periodically, he'll send a spark down to the lower level, which will go in a big square, activating some of the traps. Avoid this spark and undo the traps, then go back and whack on him some more until he's dead.

Trash before Kyrak:

You'll find Engineers and Alchemists, as well as big dragon abominations left over from when Nefarian was in charge of the Spire. The dragon kin things will cast a nasty disorient effect that will cause them to attack other things, so tanks should be wary of this and get out of the way of the cast and also face the mobs away from the group.

Kyrak:

Kyrak is one of those weird dragon-humanoid things like the boss in Blackwing Descent. He'll have two of the dragon kin abominations with him, so kill those first. However, you'll also need to interrupt the boss, as he periodically casts a spell that causes him to fixate on a random group member. Once cast he'll have to channel the spell, so it can still be interrupted. He will also cast a self-heal buff (not sure if this can be purged off of him, but I'd guess so.) At some point, he'll gain a buff that causes him to spew poison pools on the ground. Don't stand in these.

Trash before Tharbek:

You'll have a few packs of adds before the next boss, usually taking the form of four orcs or an ogre or two. The ogres have a cone attack that can be dodged. The most dangerous of the orcs are the summoners, who can summon additional forces.

Commander Tharbek:

This, the final boss of the preview dungeon, works very similarly to the old Rend Blackhand fight. You'll jump down into his arena (Warlord Zaela even echoes Nefarian, telling him to attack the one in the dress,) and you'll get waves of adds - orcs similar to the ones you've been fighting as trash, and several small Rylaks that will fly around and bombard the party. Kill each wave of adds and eventually Tharbek will mount his own adult Rylak. Attack the Rylak and face him away from the raid, as he has a powerful fire breath. Eventually, Tharbek will dismount. Kill the Rylak and then focus on Tharbek. His most potent ability is that he will toss spinning axes that effectively bounce around the walls, slowly moving through the arena and doing a bunch of damage to anyone hit by them. These accumulate, so you'll want to be careful and quick.

The loot that drops from these encounters is iLevel 550, which should be attractive for most players. You have no guarantee of loot. Unlike typical LFR-style personal loot, you'll actually have to physically loot the boss to see if you got anything, but each player will have their own chance, and two players could get the same piece off the same kill.

Oddly there's no achievement affiliated with this. You'll simply defeat Tharbek and then be on your merry way.

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