The Mists of Pandaria Postmortem - The Raids, Tier 14

First off, like the Dungeons article, I'm going to focus on the raids themselves, and not raiding as a whole over the course of Mists. Additionally, because Siege of Orgrimmar is still missing nearly half of its bosses on LFR, I'm going to break this section up by tier.

Thankfully, after the pretty sorry number of raids (or rather, the rather sorry size of said raids) that came with Cataclysm, Mists of Pandaria has released a series of grand, epic raids.

Tier Fourteen used the Burning Crusade raid tier model, dividing the tier between three raids, or perhaps more precisely, having a "pre-tier" beginning raid in addition to tier 14 proper. Each of these raids on its own is fairly small, but put together, one gets an impressive 16-boss raid tier, making it the largest since tier 7.

Also, unlike, say, tier 5 or tier 11, the raids here are meant to be completed in a specific order. The first raid within the tier actually awards a lower quality of gear, and does not have any tier tokens within it, making it the clear "starter raid."

Mogu'shan Vaults:

Somewhat in the tradition of Karazhan, MSV is a raid that's all about exploring. Lorewalker Cho accompanies you the whole way, giving insight (or expressing a mutual confusion) about whatever you're dealing with.

Mechanically, the bosses are varied in interesting ways. The Stone Guard feels a little like Halfus Wyrmbreaker in that it varies from week to week. Personally I think Feng the Accursed should have been the first boss, as his mechanics are simpler for a raid to deal with and therefore he makes for a good "gatekeeper" boss, but such is life. I enjoyed Gara'jal the Spiritbinder quite a bit, though his totem mechanic is far more complicated on Normal than it is on Raid Finder (and I'll get into that issue when I do my big "raids, dungeons, and scenarios" article.) The Spirit Kings also had some fun variation, in that you could find yourself fighting them in a different order each week.

And then there's Elegon, the guy who drops you through the floor. On one hand, it was annoying to see how many people would fall, but then, I can't really blame Blizzard here. My only issue with this fight was the degree of lag that I encountered during it. Finally Will of the Emperor was one of those fights that I detested at first, and then grew to find very fun. Essentially, this is one of those fights where you need the raid to commit to performing the mechanics the way they were intended, or else you're going to have a mess on your hands. Once the dps realizes the purpose of Titan Gas and the tanks figure out how to dodge the dual bosses' attacks (DBM helps a lot there.) it actually becomes a sort of elegant dance of a fight, which are always fun.

Aesthetically, I'm always a big fan of going into forbidden ruins. While it's hard to create a good sense of stakes in such a situation (Ulduar being an exception,) I think that as a convention for the beginning raid of any expansion, it makes a lot of sense. Also, Lorewalker Cho is always fun to have around.

Heart of Fear:

While the Klaxxi are my favorite of the 5.0 factions, I felt that Heart of Fear was sort of the dullest of the raids in Mists. Granted, I'm not saying it's a bad raid, and there are fun mechanics (and one really painful one,) but so many of the bosses felt like another "kill this one Mantid guy." I realize that it's the Mantid headquarters, so it would be kind of funny to do anything other than kill Mantid, but oh well.

Aesthetically I also think they could have played a little more with the fact that you're up in a tree. Really at no point in the raid does the building you're in feel organic.

There were a few mechanics here that made little bursts of lag a real pain, particularly on the Blade Lord's final phase. One could find oneself running down the little corridor, getting almost to the end, and then simply because of luck, a new tornado would form underneath you on the previously-pristine section of the floor you were on. This could be very frustrating.

And then there's Garalon. First of all, it's always tough to get someone who's willing to do pheromones, and usually when there is, they're terrible at it. The buff one gets when dealing with the legs is nice, but the area you have to stand in is pretty tiny, and the fact that the boss is often turning very quickly means that you'll rarely benefit from it to any great effect. Still, I will say that this was a boss that had unique mechanics, and was a very good one for training tanks how to use active mitigation, as he had really just one big telegraphed move to deal with.

I did enjoy the Amber Shaper fight, mainly because I always thought that there ought to be a fight where players have to attack one of their own raid members.

Terrace of Endless Spring:

On one hand, this raid commits the grave sin of being tiny and having you fight two bosses in the exact same place (though admittedly, Sunwell did this too.) On the other hand, there are some cool mechanics here.

The Protectors of the Endless have a lot of things going on, but aren't terribly interesting. On the other hand, Tsulong does something cool by blending a conventional boss fight with a variation on Valithria Dreamwalker.

Lei Shi is kind of annoying for two reasons: one is that the water elemental adds spawn at percentages rather than after a set amount of time, meaning that you're going to have to deal with them very frequently if you overgear the place. The other is that those classes that don't have much in the way of untargeted AoE (Ret Paladins have none at all) don't really have anything to do when she hides (and she hides a lot!)

However, the crown jewel of tier 14 is the Sha of Fear, and this is a fight that I actually enjoy quite a lot. Not only is this one of those fights that was great for introducing this new Active Mitigation tanking concept (Thrash) but we also got to be sent off in little 5-man groups to fight mini-bosses at the same time.

While small, and not varying much, at the very least the Terrace of Endless Spring gave you a nice view. Given the current state of the Vale of Eternal Blossoms, it may in fact be the last place to see how pleasant the old Vale used to be.

Tier 14 Conclusion:

The first tier of any expansion is the one where you're going to want the most variation, and Tier 14 certainly delivered that. While the linear nature of the tier meant you didn't have much in the way of options for how you would like to progress, it did solve the old problem of arguing with your guild over which of the new raids you'd want to go to.

And there's a release date for the Warcraft movie... which is cool, I guess.

Looks like Dec. 15, 2015 will see the release of the long-awaited Warcraft movie.

We don't know exactly what story they'll be telling, but we do know that Duncan Jones - who is mostly known for his smaller, indie sci-fi films Moon and Source Code (the former of which I have seen, and thought it was fantastic) - will be directing it, and there are a handful of actors either rumored or signed.

Here's the thing:

I think the Warcraft setting is great, and has a lot of very exciting stories that take place within it.

I love movies.

What I've seen of Jones' work, I have liked a lot.

But:

Has there ever been a good video game movie? As far as I know, the Prince of Persia movie was passable, if not actually good, and I guess people liked the first Tomb Raider movie, but the vast majority of video game films are absolute dreck.

Also, Warcraft is a great setting, but "great" refers to both quality and scope. There's no way that one can touch on everything here in one movie. Sure, I bet they're hoping to make it a franchise, but getting this first one out is going to be a challenge.

For the record, I'm immensely skeptical. If this movie winds up being good at all, I'll be pleasantly surprised.

But just in the event that it is, here's what I'd like to see reflected in the story:

Warcraft's main strength (and one that has been tested a little during Garrosh's reign as Warchief) is that the "bad guy" races are actually not truly evil (the Forsaken are the closest, though.) Tolkien always struggled with making his Orcs purely evil, as it kind of clashed with his Catholic belief in the possibility for redemption. In Warcraft, the Orcs are fully capable of redemption, and indeed, there are some, like Thrall, who are far more noble and good-hearted than a lot of humans. Sure, they can make a film about the conflict between Alliance and Horde (or if they start with the First War, they can go with Stormwind vs. the Horde,) but I'd love for them to at least touch on the fact that some Orcs aren't actually evil. If they could give folks like Durotan some screentime (assuming it's First War-era) to show that the Orcs aren't inherently bad guys, it would really help to show off the central nuance of the Warcraft setting.

Again, not getting my hopes up, but there you have it.

Timetable for Expansion 5

As I've said before, the current situation is unprecedented in WoW history (except possibly during Vanilla,) which is that we've got our final raid patch before we've heard a peep out of Blizzard about the content of the subsequent expansion, except for the inference we can make that it will probably bring us to level 100, given that I doubt the Hellscream heirloom weapons are meant to last us two expansions.

While I cannot quite remember how long the gap between 2.4 and 3.0 was (I think it was only a few months, as I recall Sunwell coming out in early 2008,) the time between 3.3 and 4.0 and the time between 4.3 and 5.0 both took a very long time (I could be mistaken, but I believe 3.3 was the longest-running patch, and may have been over a year, though we did get the Ruby Sanctum during that time.)

So, with 5.4 out on September 10th (for my future records!) and Blizzcon essentially two months after that, on November 8th and 9th, one wonders how long 5.4 will last.

Blizzard has stated time and again that they want to speed up the content cycle this time around, and while they've certainly brought patches faster and more furiously, only every other one has brought a new raid. Now, I'm definitely not saying that raids are the only content of worth in WoW. Not only did the "in-between" patches bring a lot of balance and tweaking, but the 5.1 daily hubs were also the most popular ones in the expansion (doubly impressive, given how sick and tired people were of daily quests after 5.0.)

And yet, the raids of Mists of Pandaria actually came out at roughly the same pace they have in previous expansions. We had the usual fall launch, the second tier coming out in the summer, and the third tier coming out the following fall. This pretty closely adheres to the schedule of Cataclysm.

So the question is: can we expect them to be any faster in coming out with the next expansion? I'm certainly not sick of Siege of Orgrimmar yet - only eight of the fourteen bosses are even out on LFR, and I'm hoping that I can get my guild running the flex mode so we can make something like progress.

And I'm all for letting the final patch of an expansion drag out for a bit. This is the time when you get to get your alts geared up, and when you get to go back to the old raids and farm achievements, or take the time doing the silly things.

But do we want to spend a year sieging Orgrimmar? Maybe not.

Of course, the funny thing is that there's nothing really to get excited about yet. We don't know if we're going to be fighting the Burning Legion or the Old Gods or the Great Gazoo, and we don't know if we're getting playable Murlocs, a Tinker class, or just some fancy-looking new character models (I'd guess the latter.)

The thing is, these expansions have to go through months of Alpha testing, and then Beta testing. Historically, Blizzard has generally done an internal Alpha, then a Friends and Family Alpha (which is when most of the first exciting leaks show up, as some of those friends or family members seem to talk to MMO-Champion) and then the closed Beta, where the lucky few get to see the new expansion at its ugliest and most broken (I'm really mixed on doing the Beta, as it kind of spoils the sense of discovery when you first arrive in the new zones at launch. I primarily enjoyed leveling up Icatia, a female human Monk. I think I got her up through Badlands before the beta ended. Oh man, did they make Tiger Palm less annoying.)

But all this testing time means that it will take that much longer to launch the expansion.

We might just have to resign ourselves to the understanding that WoW expansions will generally come out roughly every two years, which means we'll be spending another year in Pandaria. It's not the end of the world, but it does kind of contradict Blizzard's faster content goals.

Alternatively, here's the surprise I'd like to hear at Blizzcon: announce that the Beta is starting like a week, or maybe a month after the announcement.

I don't think we'll have a release date at Blizzcon, as they really do want to test the thing out on the masses to find any nasty bugs. But if they could start the Beta before the end of 2013, they would be set up for a far earlier launch, as early as late spring/early summer.

In the Infinite Days of Future Past

When can you be sure that you have defeated an enemy that can travel through time?

Their motivations remain mysterious, and even after we killed their leader, the Infinite Dragonflight still has the potential to be the greatest threat that Azeroth has ever faced. All of our past victories, all hope for the future, remain in danger of falling under the Infinites' grasp.

Our greatest victory against the Infinite Dragonflight occurred in a future that no longer exists. Deathwing was defeated before he could bring about the Hour of Twilight, and so there was never any End Time in which we could fight and defeat Murozond.

What is it that the Infinites desire?

Nozdormu is a noble mind, who adheres to his mission, and yet he is also well aware that he will one day become Murozond, and set about undoing all the work he has dedicated his life to.

The Infinites threaten to play havoc with the timeline. And yet, their goals have often seemed well-intentioned. They seek to stop the opening of the Dark Portal and spare Azeroth the chaos wrought by a demon-blood-fueled Horde. They seek to stop Arthas before he can travel to Northrend and become one with the Scourge.

One might argue that they seek to avoid catastrophe. Without Arthas, the Scourge may never have invaded Dalaran, and the Third War may have been stopped in its tracks. Without the opening of the Dark Portal, the First and Second Wars would have never come about.

But the question then lies in what may have happened otherwise. Without the Orcs, the Third War may have been lost, and without Arthas, the Burning Legion may have kept total control of the Scourge, presenting a relentless united front that may have consumed Azeroth.

Murozond locked the timeways to us, requiring us to go into the End Time and defeat him so that we could recover the one weapon that might destroy Deathwing. Yet Murozond again claims to have almost noble intentions. He mocks his past self for calling this vision of the world the "End Time," when in his mind it is a far preferably alternative to what else he has seen.

A desolate waste, devoid of life, seems like a bleak "preferable alternative." Just what is it that Murozond has seen?

We have been fighting the Infinites since the Burning Crusade, and yet the Bronze Dragons of our present are still very much on the side of good. Could we have possibly defeated them before the flight even formed? This is Time Travel, so I won't rule it out, but given our experiences on the Timeless Isle and the visions we're seeing of the future, I am made very uneasy.

If you've been doing the weekly Epoch Stone quests, you've mostly seen Thrall and Saurfang fighting their way into Orgrimmar. The third vision shows the leaders of the Alliance and Horde standing over a defeated Garrosh, but high above them, Kairoz, the bronze dragon who sent you on this mission in the first place, is also watching. Kairoz is surprised to hear this. Why is he there?

An optimist may believe that Murozond's defeat in the End Time, and the de-powering of the Aspects following Deathwing's demise, would mean that the Infinites would never come to pass. And yet, could it not be that very optimism that brings them into being?

The Infinites, in may of our interactions, seem to be wanting to save the world. Nozdormu was shown how he would die to instill the humility required of a guardian of time. But after seeing everything change at the dawn of the Age of Mortals, Nozdormu may have had a most dangerous notion - that fate, both is own and that of Azeroth, could be changed.

That deadly seed could grow to rip asunder the flow of causality. Far from being done with the Infinite Dragonflight, or whoever else they may draw into their service, I fear that this threat has only just begun.

The Mists of Pandaria Postmortem: the Pandaren and the Wandering Isle.

With an expansion that centered around Pandaria and the Pandaren people, it would be pretty ridiculous to give them to one faction and not the other. Supposedly, in the initial design stages of Burning Crusade, the Alliance would have gotten the Pandaren instead of the Draenei. For whatever reason, that fell through (and as huge fan of the Draenei, I'm glad it did.)

One of the old design theories Blizzard had long held to was that of the "silhouette." One was supposed to be able to determine both the power level and faction of a character by their basic look. Transmogrification obviously changed that in terms of power level, but with WoW's first (and possibly only) neutral race, they completely abandoned this notion.

So, Pandaren actually get to level 12 or 13, completing all the quests on the Wandering Isle, before they are able to even pick a side.

The Wandering Isle is a fairly cool-looking zone, especially toward the end of its quests when you get to speak with the great turtle him(or her?)self. The Alliance and Horde do not play a major role in the quests there until very near the end, but you do get to see something of the two competing philosophies: Tushui and Huojin. At this point, they are merely different ways of looking at the world, but they will become the defining factors in one's future allegiance.

The Wandering Isle gives you a sneak preview at Pandaria, showing you Virmen, Hozen, and (as-yet-unidentified) Saurok. Likewise, you get to know the various elemental spirits as seen by the Pandaren, who seem a lot more affable than the ones you tend to encounter elsewhere in Azeroth.

With your decision made at the end of the chain, you have your meeting with either Garrosh or Varian, and from there your story is basically over.

While we might be seeing a little more of them in the Siege of Orgrimmar raid, for the most part the Pandaren of the Wandering Isle kind of fade into the background to make room for the mainland Pandaren (the exception being Chen Stormstout and his niece Lili.)

In terms of animation and model, the Pandaren are definitely recognizable as being far better-looking than the vanilla or BC races. While I can't quite tell if they're any fancier than the Cataclysm races, it's clear that the Worgen, Goblins and Pandaren all show why we need new character models for the older races.

Pandaren have a decent selection of classes, but the inevitable consequence of releasing an expansion with both a new race and a new class is that the vast majority of them will be Monks. This is even worse than in BC, when it seemed all Blood Elves were Paladins and all Draenei were Shamans. Over time, of course, this has become less of an issue, and I expect that one or two expansions from now, we'll see a large variety of non-Pandaren Monks and non-Monk Pandaren.

With this new precedent of a neutral race, it does open up Blizzard's options to introduce single races in future expansions. On the other hand, this could be a slippery slope into homogenizing the factions. While I think it made perfect sense for the Pandaren, I would hope and expect Blizzard to continue releasing races in pairs.

Where on Azeroth Have We Not Yet Been?

Azeroth's a big world, but we've been making our way through the place pretty thoroughly. After all, most of the previously-established world from the RTS games was implemented in Vanilla, and in Cataclysm, many of the previously-unexplored part of said world were added, namely Hyjal, Uldum, Grim Batol, and the Elemental Planes.

Burning Crusade added Outland (which is technically not part of Azeroth, but did exist in the previous games) and Wrath of the Lich King added Northrend. Mists of Pandaria had to make up an entirely new continent, and so clearly Blizzard can keep adding areas as long as there's money to support the development (and even with subscription losses, there's plenty of that) and ideas to try.

So let's talk about the areas we've established.

Planets:

Warcraft is a multi-world setting. The Orcs and Ogres come from Draenor (which is now the broken-up "Outland," and we know of many other worlds.

Outland/Draenor: Ultimately, we've been here. While it's perfectly possible that we could find other bits of it, I think we've definitely had our "Outland Expansion." The only area established in the RTS games that we never saw was Deathwing's lair, but given that Deathwing got disintegrated, and his story is pretty solidly over, I doubt that would be enough of a draw to bring us back. On the other hand, Outland is literally stuck in the Twisting Nether, meaning that it has a strong connection to the demons and the Burning Legion. Hold on, does that mean that if we kill demons there, they truly die?

Argus: The homeland of the Eredar, this seems like an obvious place for us to mess it up with the Burning Legion. Not only is it probably a Legion stronghold (assuming they didn't just torch it on the way out,) but it's the planet that the Draenei have literally spent twenty-five thousand years trying to return to. No one likes the Legion, and frankly, I think the Orcs kind of owe them help in taking it back (though most Orcs seem to be in utter denial about their role in massacring the Draenei.)

Xoroth: While we know tiny details about Argus, the only thing we know about Xoroth is that it's the world that Dreadsteeds are from. Demonic horses seem pretty cool, but it's not a lot to go on. However, if Xoroth is actually the homeland of the Dreadlords, or Nathrezim, that would make it a lot more important. The Dreadlords, after all, are some of the original members of the Legion, the ones whose actions drove Sargeras to his fall, and seem to have been demons before Sargeras got to them. We've interacted with a number of Dreadlords over the years, and while they haven't seemed to be quite as powerful as the Manari Eredar, they're certainly nothing to sneeze at. Not only that, but consider that Dreadlords seem to be nigh-unkillable. Even Mal'ganis, who was killed with Frostmourne, and so you would think that his soul would be trapped within the blade (though that's a moot point now) would mean he was utterly defeated, but hey, he's still out there.

K'aresh: The home of the Ethereals, we know that this planet was taken by the Voidwalkers, forcing the Ethereals to flee (not unlike the Draenei, actually.) We don't know a whole lot about the Ethereals, even though they are now chilling out in our capital cities, but I wonder if they have the same desire to return home that the Draenei have.

Wherever the Hell Turalyon and Alleria Went: We know that these two jumped through a random portal after Draenor started to break apart, but we don't actually know which planet they arrived on. Given that they're said many times that they want to bring these guys back, we might follow them where they're going.

Places on Azeroth:

Ok, so we've got the whole of Eastern Kingdoms, Kalimdor, Northrend and Pandaria. We've been to the Maelstrom, and we've seen the elemental planes. What does that leave?

The Tomb of Sargeras: Oh yeah, this is a big one. Hidden somewhere on the islands in the oceans near the Maelstrom, the Tomb of Sargeras holds the remains of the Dark Titan's avatar that fought Aegwynn. This seems to be one of the most dangerous repositories of demonic power in the world, such that even Gul'dan, arguably the most powerful mortal Warlock ever, was torn apart by its denizens. Gul'dan skull was taken from there (and tossed around like a hot potato, it seems, until it wound up with Illidan,) but surely there's a lot of dangerous and valuable stuff to be taken there. Perhaps it's not enough for an expansion, but I'd love to go in here as a raid.

The Emerald Dream: We've actually had the occasional trip into the Dream in various quests, but we haven't really explored it in full. Blizzard has struggled with how to implement this in game, and whether they should. As an expansion, you could imagine fleshing the place out, but you might have trouble coming up with areas that aren't just wilderness, yet a raid seems like it wouldn't quite be enough to do it justice.

Kul Tiras: Jaina's homeland was supposedly shifted out into the ocean after the Cataclysm, and we still have yet to see what has happened to it. Theoretically, Kul Tiras could actually be another thriving human nation, but we really don't know what has happened to them. And given that Jaina kinda-sorta let her dad die to save the people who would later nuke Theramore in thanks, she might have some awkwardness to deal with when she comes home.

Zandalar: The Zandalari have been causing us trouble for the past few years, after they had seemed so friendly for so long. There's actually a lot that could be done with Zandalar, for example, showing why the Zandalari turned on us. We know that the Island is slowly sinking and dealing with horrific flooding, and that while King Rakhastan remains on the throne, it is this strange prophet, Zul, who has captured the hearts of the Zandalari people. Who the hell is Zul? What the hell is Zul?

All of this is stuff that we've heard about in the past. I'm sure we'll get new areas like Pandaria, that are more or less entirely invented for their given expansions, but there are still plenty of pre-established locations to check out.

Gates of Retribution - DPS Perspective

First off, a little rant: People are absurdly wipe-averse these days. These are new bosses that most of us have never seen before. Read up ahead of time (and while these reviews will give you the basic gist of the fights, I recommend looking at Icy Veins for a more in-depth review.) My group in this wing this morning was reduced to less than ten players on multiple occasions. Please, don't queue unless you intend to clear the wing. You will have wipes. These are new fights. People are still learning them. Get over it.

Ahem.

Moving on:

Galakras:

Really the only major thing I have to say about Galakras is that you only need about five or six dps to go up with a tank and maybe one healer for the tower team. The rest of you should stick to the road.

Tower teams should also wait for the demolishers to be destroyed before you try to take the towers.

On the ground, you'll want to prioritize killing healing totems, war banners, and any Bonecrackers that fixate on an NPC (though they still did not seem to be doing that much damage.)

When Galakras comes down, be sure to stack up to share the love on the fireballs, and if you're low on health (or you're targeted) back up a little to let your allies take the brunt of it. If you're at full health though, step up and take the heat for your teammates.

Iron Juggernaut:

Really the only thing I'll tell dps to do here is to make sure you aren't in front of the boss and also don't run the laser through the oil. If you're at full health, feel free to take the crawler mines for the team, but on LFR the damage is not as terrible if you don't manage to detonate them ahead of time.

Trash Before Dark Shaman:

This is where you actually get to truly raid Orgrimmar itself. First, for Alliance, Tyrande will show up with her elite huntresses and clear out the Kor'kron Grunts immediately at the gate. After defeating a Blind Blademaster, you'll emerge into the Valley of Strength. This place you're going to have to clear out, which will take a good long while. You actually wind up killing some of the innocuous shopkeepers and such, as well as a hell of a lot of Kor'kron folk. In the Bank, there is a named NPC who will Bribe people, effectively mind-controlling them, so you'll want to focus him down to break the MC. He'll drop a key that will allow you to release some Theramore prisoners (I assume this is different on Horde,) which includes a shaman who will put up a resistance totem.

Once you've cleared out the area, you can fight the Dark Shaman.

Kor'kron Dark Shaman:

The two shaman are in Grommash Hold, but after the first pull, they will subsequently spawn in front of the hold, Earthbreaker Haromm and Wavebinder Kardris. Fun Fact: these guys used to be friendly Shaman trainer NPCs, located in Stonard and Orgrimmar respectively.

The two shaman share a health pool, so you can focus down one of them, though of course multi-dotting and cleave effects will work to speed up their demise, though given the stuff they spawn, you may want to keep them separated.

When the fight begins, the two will be riding their war wolves. These guys have very little health and should just be killed immediately.

When we did this, I switched to tank-spec to make things easier, because Haromm has a tank-swap debuff. Normally, you would need the tanks to swap bosses, but this way, you take a little hit to your dps and can simply have on tank handle Kardris while the other two juggle Haromm.

Every 25%, these guys will gain new abilities. Much of the fight involves them putting nasty things on the ground, so you should try to slowly move them around in a circle around the valley, depositing poison clouds and dark cyclones and all that bad stuff methodically.

Adds will spawn from one of Kardris' abilities (I believe it's her Water-based ability) that should be AoE'd down quickly, as they deal damage to anyone nearby.

Likewise, Ashen Walls will need to be navigated around as they do a ton of damage.

At 25%, the two cast Bloodlust, increasing their haste and damage by 25%, so this is probably a good time to do likewise.

Trash before General Nazgrim:

With the Valley of Strength cleared out, you can make your way down the Drag, fighting a couple of Blind Blademasters again. As you round the corner, though, High Overlord Runthak (Saurfang's successor) will launch a bombardment from demolishers at you. You'll want to rush him and kill the demolishers before dealing with the High Overlord. After doing so, you'll be able to free Gamon, who will help you with the next set of trash as well as General Nazgrim, though if he dies, he does not come back.

The rest of the trash is a series of groups of the types of adds that spawn during the boss fight. Be especially careful to separate out the Shamans, as they will heal each other. Also, be wary of the Ironblades, as their collective AoE is a really quite dangerous.

General Nazgrim:

We actually figured out what I'm sure will be the typical strategy for this fight, and it works wonderfully.

Ranged DPS should focus on adds. At all times. Seriously, always on adds. If, somehow, you get them all down, you can toss a DoT or two on the boss, but your top priority is always adds.

Melee should be on the boss whenever he is not in Defensive Stance. You can think of Nazgrim as sliding back and forth along a scale. In the middle is Battle Stance, and on either side is Berserker and Defensive. So, he'll go Battle, Berserker, Battle, Defensive, Battle, Berserker, Battle, Defensive, etc. Melee should stop attacking him during Defensive Stance and instead go and help the ranged dps with the adds.

Otherwise, add priority is, I believe, Healing Totems, War Banners (which melee can get, as he tends to put them down next to himself,) Shamans, and then whatever else is up. Melee should try to avoid Ironblades, as their AoE is dangerous, and if an Assassin fixates on you, turn to face them so they can't stab you in the back.

You should also be absolutely sure to keep the shamans as far away from Nazgrim as you can, because their totems will heal him anyone for 10% a tick.

To the Underhold!

With Nazgrim dead, you are done with the Gates of Retribution. Right now it's a holy hell of a pain in the ass to get through, because people who are used to running Throne of Thunder for the twentieth time get upset when they don't down a boss on the first try, but just like the first wing, this is all just about execution.