ICC Rogues' Gallery: Pit of Saron
Amatera
After conquering the Forge of Souls, a portal leads you into the shivering, frosty air of the Pit of Saron. Considering that this is largely an outside dungeon, one might wonder why the Lich King's saronite mining operation doesn't seem to appear on the overworld. Shouldn't you have been able to fly right over it before? Oh well, it wouldn't be the first time Blizzard's played spatial shenanigans with Azeroth, especially where dungeons are concerned.
Three terrible bosses stand before you and the final wing of the Frozen Halls. Can you defeat them and rescue the princess?
Forgemaster Garfrost -- The main section of the Pit of Saron is shaped roughly like a giant triangle, with you entering at the top. The path to the left leads to Krick and Ick, but in my experience on the PTR, most groups follow the one to the right and tackle Garfrost first. Feel free to ignore the giant, floating, demonic skull in the center of the pit as you clear your way to the boss. It may look creepy, but it poses no threat to your party.
It's hard to imagine that Garfrost is a "Forgemaster" of any sort, as surely any tools of the size seen here would just end up all fumbly in his boulder-sized fists. Big, dumb, and brutish does not exactly inspire confidence in the production of fine weapons and armor. But what this twenty-foot-tall abomination is good at is hauling around gigantic chunks of Saronite pulled out of the mine.
And he's not afraid to hurl them at you if you get too close. Utilizing this mechanic correctly is the crux of winning the fight against the Forgemaster. You see, Garfrost constantly pulses an area-of-effect debuff called Permafrost that causes (what else?) Frost damage to stack up on your party members. Every once in awhile, he'll target a player and toss some Saronite their way, which you want to avoid at first because it deals damage when it lands. But once it has done so, using the boulder as cover for a few seconds will allow Permafrost to wear off until you step out from behind it again.
In short, there's really no way to completely avoid Permafrost, but when the stacks get too high, you need to put a rock between yourself and the boss or the healer is going to have a hell of a time keeping up.
At 66%, he enters phase two, in which he will leap over to one of his forges and create a weapon that gives him increased Frost damage. He also earns the ability to send a wave of icy cold water in a cone in front of him.
At 33%, he'll repeat the process and forge a mace that enhances his damage even further, and he'll begin to use Deep Freeze, which slows the movement speed of a chosen target and deals massive Frost Damage after about 14 seconds.
Kill Garfrost and the slaves you rescued along the way will join you and arm themselves with the leftovers.
Krick and Ick -- Make your way along the far-side of the pit and under the cliff, towards the domain of the next boss. Krick is a wormy, little leper gnome sporting a Dayglo pink mohawk, who commands his minions from atop his mount: an unsurprisingly witless zombie named Ick. Together, they oversee the Scourge who haul things to and from the mining pit.
This is not an exceptionally difficult fight as long as you remember to keep moving. Nearly every ability that this diabolical duo has requires you to dance around the battlefield.
The pair will randomly pursue players from time to time, and if you've ever done the Big Bad Wolf version of the Opera Event, you'll be familiar with the tactics required here. Of course, this being a 5-man boss instead of a raid one, Ick is not nearly as fast as his lupine counterpart, but if he does reach you, it could still spell instant death.
Between pursuitis, Ick will cast poison-based spells. One causes the wretched goo to appear on the ground under players (hint: stay out of it, the tank should also probably be kiting the boss around) and the other is a nova-type spell meaning that everyone should be running out of range.
Occasionally Krick will become fed up with his zombie pal's incompetence and decide to get in on the action by, in typical Gnome fashion, conjuring up a menagerie of mines that will randomly spawn for several seconds in the area. They start as small bubbles on the ground and continually grow until they pop, causing damage. Since they have a slightly larger range than the graphic implies, it's hard to completely avoid getting hit, but you can still minimize the pain by paying attention to where they spawn and moving away from the larger groups.
Once Ick is felled, you can practically one-shot Krick, who will give up the secret location of Frostmourne before he perishes (or, in the Horde's case, is force-strangled by Sylvanas!).
Scourgelord Tyrannus -- Blizzard had big plans for the Lich King with Wrath. They realized they had made a mistake with Illidan in Burning Crusade, who stayed holed up in Black Temple and refused to engage the player more than once or twice until they entered his inner sanctum. As a result, you come face-to-face with Arthas multiple times and even delve into his back-story as you quest and raid your way throughout Northrend. Scourgelord Tyrannus serves as a sort of microcosm of this philosophy, as he taunts you from the beginning of the Pit of Saron to the very end. As a result, you really want to give him a good old sock in the jaw once you confront him on the precipice overlooking the mine.
Unfortunately, Tyrannus is not that much of a challenge. While he does have a few tricks up his sleeve, it's fairly easy to tank-and-spank this fight with a minimum of kiting due to the Scourgelord's Frostwyrm mount, Rimefang, spitting ice from above. You just have to make sure your healer is up to the challenge. If not, then you should strategize more effectively as I detail below.
Tyrannus' abilities are primarily focused on dealing extra damage to the tank. He hits relatively hard for a 5-man dungeon boss, and that only increases when he is Empowered (increases damage by 75-100%, depending on difficulty) or uses Forceful Smash, which can cause a sudden, massive spike in damage. Just as well, Overlord's Brand will be cast on random players. If those players are DPS, their hits will be mirrored onto the tank, and if those players are healers, their spells will also affect the boss for the duration of the debuff. Needless to say, if you're a damage-dealer suffering from Overlord's Brand, stop what you're doing because you might kill the tank.
Rimefang will fly around overhead, untargetable, shooting down frostbolts which leave icy patches on the ground. These patches can deal damage and reduce movement speed, but can also be used to slow down the Scourgelord while he is Empowered if you don't think the tank/healer can bear the brunt of it. Just as well, Tyrannus will occasionally command Rimefang to target a specific player, not long after which that player will be frozen for several seconds. It's important for this player to maintain his distance from others, or they will become entombed, as well.
Once you kill Tyrannus, Rimefang will fly away (don't worry, he'll get his later on in Icecrown Citadel).
With the knowledge of Frostmourne's location in hand, it's time to head off to the Halls of Reflection.
Forgemaster Garfrost -- The main section of the Pit of Saron is shaped roughly like a giant triangle, with you entering at the top. The path to the left leads to Krick and Ick, but in my experience on the PTR, most groups follow the one to the right and tackle Garfrost first. Feel free to ignore the giant, floating, demonic skull in the center of the pit as you clear your way to the boss. It may look creepy, but it poses no threat to your party.
It's hard to imagine that Garfrost is a "Forgemaster" of any sort, as surely any tools of the size seen here would just end up all fumbly in his boulder-sized fists. Big, dumb, and brutish does not exactly inspire confidence in the production of fine weapons and armor. But what this twenty-foot-tall abomination is good at is hauling around gigantic chunks of Saronite pulled out of the mine.
And he's not afraid to hurl them at you if you get too close. Utilizing this mechanic correctly is the crux of winning the fight against the Forgemaster. You see, Garfrost constantly pulses an area-of-effect debuff called Permafrost that causes (what else?) Frost damage to stack up on your party members. Every once in awhile, he'll target a player and toss some Saronite their way, which you want to avoid at first because it deals damage when it lands. But once it has done so, using the boulder as cover for a few seconds will allow Permafrost to wear off until you step out from behind it again.
In short, there's really no way to completely avoid Permafrost, but when the stacks get too high, you need to put a rock between yourself and the boss or the healer is going to have a hell of a time keeping up.
At 66%, he enters phase two, in which he will leap over to one of his forges and create a weapon that gives him increased Frost damage. He also earns the ability to send a wave of icy cold water in a cone in front of him.
At 33%, he'll repeat the process and forge a mace that enhances his damage even further, and he'll begin to use Deep Freeze, which slows the movement speed of a chosen target and deals massive Frost Damage after about 14 seconds.
Kill Garfrost and the slaves you rescued along the way will join you and arm themselves with the leftovers.
Krick and Ick -- Make your way along the far-side of the pit and under the cliff, towards the domain of the next boss. Krick is a wormy, little leper gnome sporting a Dayglo pink mohawk, who commands his minions from atop his mount: an unsurprisingly witless zombie named Ick. Together, they oversee the Scourge who haul things to and from the mining pit.
This is not an exceptionally difficult fight as long as you remember to keep moving. Nearly every ability that this diabolical duo has requires you to dance around the battlefield.
The pair will randomly pursue players from time to time, and if you've ever done the Big Bad Wolf version of the Opera Event, you'll be familiar with the tactics required here. Of course, this being a 5-man boss instead of a raid one, Ick is not nearly as fast as his lupine counterpart, but if he does reach you, it could still spell instant death.
Between pursuitis, Ick will cast poison-based spells. One causes the wretched goo to appear on the ground under players (hint: stay out of it, the tank should also probably be kiting the boss around) and the other is a nova-type spell meaning that everyone should be running out of range.
Occasionally Krick will become fed up with his zombie pal's incompetence and decide to get in on the action by, in typical Gnome fashion, conjuring up a menagerie of mines that will randomly spawn for several seconds in the area. They start as small bubbles on the ground and continually grow until they pop, causing damage. Since they have a slightly larger range than the graphic implies, it's hard to completely avoid getting hit, but you can still minimize the pain by paying attention to where they spawn and moving away from the larger groups.
Once Ick is felled, you can practically one-shot Krick, who will give up the secret location of Frostmourne before he perishes (or, in the Horde's case, is force-strangled by Sylvanas!).
Scourgelord Tyrannus -- Blizzard had big plans for the Lich King with Wrath. They realized they had made a mistake with Illidan in Burning Crusade, who stayed holed up in Black Temple and refused to engage the player more than once or twice until they entered his inner sanctum. As a result, you come face-to-face with Arthas multiple times and even delve into his back-story as you quest and raid your way throughout Northrend. Scourgelord Tyrannus serves as a sort of microcosm of this philosophy, as he taunts you from the beginning of the Pit of Saron to the very end. As a result, you really want to give him a good old sock in the jaw once you confront him on the precipice overlooking the mine.
Unfortunately, Tyrannus is not that much of a challenge. While he does have a few tricks up his sleeve, it's fairly easy to tank-and-spank this fight with a minimum of kiting due to the Scourgelord's Frostwyrm mount, Rimefang, spitting ice from above. You just have to make sure your healer is up to the challenge. If not, then you should strategize more effectively as I detail below.
Tyrannus' abilities are primarily focused on dealing extra damage to the tank. He hits relatively hard for a 5-man dungeon boss, and that only increases when he is Empowered (increases damage by 75-100%, depending on difficulty) or uses Forceful Smash, which can cause a sudden, massive spike in damage. Just as well, Overlord's Brand will be cast on random players. If those players are DPS, their hits will be mirrored onto the tank, and if those players are healers, their spells will also affect the boss for the duration of the debuff. Needless to say, if you're a damage-dealer suffering from Overlord's Brand, stop what you're doing because you might kill the tank.
Rimefang will fly around overhead, untargetable, shooting down frostbolts which leave icy patches on the ground. These patches can deal damage and reduce movement speed, but can also be used to slow down the Scourgelord while he is Empowered if you don't think the tank/healer can bear the brunt of it. Just as well, Tyrannus will occasionally command Rimefang to target a specific player, not long after which that player will be frozen for several seconds. It's important for this player to maintain his distance from others, or they will become entombed, as well.
Once you kill Tyrannus, Rimefang will fly away (don't worry, he'll get his later on in Icecrown Citadel).
With the knowledge of Frostmourne's location in hand, it's time to head off to the Halls of Reflection.
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