Having hit 100, I have embarked on my runs of the level-cap normal dungeons. I've now run two of the four - SBG and GRD, I guess. One thing I'll definitely say is that the dungeons are a challenge that this point, though whether they are truly difficult or if it's just that we're so used to two years of plowing through Mists dungeons at a breakneck pace, I can't really say.
Everyone's crit, haste, mastery, etc, is at its lowest level it will ever be. By the end of Mists, I was able to maintain an unbroken string of Shield of the Righteous buffs for what felt like a full minute if I was lucky with Divine Purpose procs, but now I need to be careful about timing with it. I have been blowing all my cool downs quite regularly to keep myself up, and it's not always enough. Some of the trash packs are difficult enough that you'll need to dust off the old CC abilities.
So: the Dungeons!
Shadowmoon Burial Grounds:
SBG is super-cool. It's a vast cavern filled with ghosts and void creatures. The first and last bosses were the ones that gave us the most trouble, and we had to be careful pulling trash. Boss one requires some strong DPS to kill adds before they can heal the boss (though they can be stunned, and I assume slowed.) Also, one needs make sure they stand only on the moon runes when she does her big AoE, and not the corrupted glyphs that ring the platform, as those will kill you very quickly. It's definitely something of a DPS check, as the platform gets filled with more pulsing daggers as the fight goes on.
The second boss is a big void creature. The big mechanic is that you'll have to beat up your own soul and reclaim it when he tries to suck it out of you. Given that once it is "defeated" you can hold off on clicking it, I think there might be some wisdom in making sure the tank does so first.
Boss three is Bonemaw, a giant carrion worm (a new model, but similar to things like Magmaw.) His mechanics are relatively simple. There's an AoE body slam that he telegraphs, and he'll spit out little pools of nasty stuff that will damage players and snare them. However, these pools are crucial for when he does "inhale," because if you aren't standing in them, he'll swallow you, healing himself, dealing a bunch of damage to you, and forcing you to find a water spout to get back up to the platform.
Finally, Ner'zhul himself has only three abilities, but they're all pretty dangerous when combined. First, he'll blast the tank with an AoE cone that gets telegraphed beforehand. He'll also target random players and create a powerful AoE attack that gets less dangerous the farther you are from it. Finally, he'll do Ritual of Bone, which will cause a bunch of skeletons to march across the platform (a bit like the Sylvanas fight in End Time, but linear rather than a ring.) You'll have to kill one of these or the AoE miasma that they drag with them will kill you. Choose one (we tended to go for the far left one) and focus them down asap.
Aside from mechanics, I have to say that I really love the design of the dungeon. The area feels really creepy - it's filled with the undead, and it's Ner'zhul, but it's not quite like the Scourge. Only the second boss, Nihallish, has a kind of nondescript area in which you fight him, but his creature design makes up for it.
Moving on!
Grimrail Depot:
I'm not sure I was doing the initial trash right, but you get a little preview of the first boss. The first boss is a Dire Orc and a Goblin. The tank needs to grab the orc while everyone needs to avoid the missiles that land in random places throughout the room. When the goblin jumps up to one of the platforms, the tank needs to position the orc in such a way that when he does his charge ability, it will knock the goblin down and stun him. As I understand it, the ideal strategy will probably be to try to kill them at the same time, but we killed the orc first and were still able to deal with the goblin (though he would keep jumping around, which was tough on the melee.)
With these guys down, you get to board the actual train. The trash here can be tough, so make sure you're pulling back and using CC. There's not a lot of room to move around. Also, if you have an old computer like mine (new one due in two days!) it's going to be a bit rough, given that 2/3 of the dungeon takes place on a rapidly moving train, with the deserts of northern Gorgrond whipping past you at high speed. The second boss has sort of two, sort of three phases, depending on how you count it. Basically, phase one and three are roughly the same - just fight him. But when phase two begins, the sides of the train open up and he'll jump into a cannon turret. There are other turrets that you'll need to fire back at him. But to get ammo for these, you need to defeat the adds that swarm in. The healer should stick close to the tank while the DPS aids in dispatching enemies and then taking the ammo to the turrets and blowing up his cannon. When the cannon is gone, you'll be able to fight him again.
There's some short but tough trash after that (and a train car with some caustic liquid that you'll want to make sure you don't walk through.) The final boss rides in on a Rylak. The main thing in this fight is that you'll need to move a lot, because she'll be putting down traps that will freeze you in place, and the Rylak will bombard the platform, making about a third of the space electrified at any given point.
Then you get to sabotage the train, which is pretty damn awesome. Really, the whole concept of this dungeon is pretty awesome. You fight on a train. What more do you want?
Two down, two to go:
The dungeons definitely feel a lot harder than the ones in Mists, but then again, one always gets that impression in every expansion. As we get more familiar with these dungeons and there's more of a mix of people with different gear levels, I imagine they'll feel a lot easier. Right now just about everyone who is running them really does need just about any piece of gear they can get out of them. Still, the big lesson to take away is that we are not over-geared anymore, and these fights will be a challenge.
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