Ah, the Burning Crusade. Some of the fights in this expansion were a little more sophisticated than the previous batch, and there are three absolutely dastardly fights that can catch you out if you’re not prepared (heh, no Illidan is not one of them).
And yes, one of these fights isn’t a fight.
KARAZHAN
12 bosses. Only 1 poses any threat to you, and not in the traditional sense.
Notable bosses
Attumen the Horseman: Notable for only one reason: He drops the Fiery Warhorse’s Reins. It’s like a 1% drop chance. Have fun.
Opera Event (Red Riding Hood): The opera event changes each week (and I believe it’s random across characters too, so your warlock may get one event, your warrior a different one). The Red Riding Hood version has a chance to drop a battle pet item, the Spiky Collar (Lil’ Bad Wolf)
Nightbane: This one requires some faffing around to be able to summon him in the first place. Firstly, be honored with the Violet Eye. You then pick up a quest called Medivh’s Journal from Archmage Alturus. Follow that long and boring quest chain, and then you will be able to summon this underwhelming boss once a week. Huzzah.
The Curator: He drops the Menagerie Custodian battle pet.
Prince Malchezaar: Drops the Netherspace Abyssal battle pet. He also drops Gorehowl, if you’re interested in that.
Chess Event: Here’s the toughie. Here’s one of those dastardly fights I mentioned earlier. It’s also the “not a fight” fight. You basically play chess against Medivh, only the guy is a cheating bastard. I cannot guarantee this strategy will work for you, but personally, I haven’t lost with it yet. Remember, unit movements are not bound by ACTUAL chess rules.
Enter your king. Hero/Lust. Exit king.
Move both pawns in front of your knights forward one square.
Move your rooks diagonally 2 squares.
Move the pawns in front of your king and queen.
Occupy the queen, kill anything that gets close. Spam attack the enemy king if you can. When Medivh cheats, move the queen out the flame, exit her, move the king out, hero/lust, then go back to the queen.
Collect loot.
There, that wasn’t so bad, was it?
MAGTHERIDON’S LAIR
The fight is a non-issue. Literally the only notable thing here is that he drops a 20-slot bag, which is nice.
GRUUL’S LAIR
Gruul himself is another non-issue. Nuke the bastard. The previous boss is a slightly different matter, however.
High King Maulgar: This fight has a kill priority. You face 5 enemies simultaneously. Kill Olm the Summoner first to stop the constant fearing, then either Blindeye or Krosh (to stop the healing or the polymorphing respectively). Kiggler is your 4th target, and Maulgar your 5th.
This fight is only tough if you let the CCers live too long. Don’t let them. Think of this as a training session for part of the Kael’thas fight.
SERPENTSHRINE CAVERN
An easy place to solo, up to a point. You can skip all the bosses and go straight to Lady Vashj, but bear in mind Hydross the Unstable and Morogrim Tidewalker (as well as Vashj herself) drop battle pets.
Notable bosses
Fathom-Lord Karathress: You wanna nuke him down very quickly, as his Cataclysm Bolt attack deals 5000 damage, +10% of your maximum health. That’s a lot. If you need to, kill his adds first, this’ll prevent interruptions. Just don’t dally! Clear all trash before engaging him.
Lady Vashj: This is the second of the tough Burning Crusade bosses. Back before 5.4 changed how Mannoroth’s Fury works, I’d have used that talent, but now I’d recommend Kil’jaeden’s Cunning, as you’re gonna be moving a lot. First phase is easy. Nuke her. Third phase is easy, nuke her. It’s the time in between that is the frustrating part.
She stands in the middle, and creates a shield that renders her immune to all attacks. The shield is powered by 4 generators, you need to deactivate them one by one with an item called Tainted Core. These drop from Tainted Elementals. One spawns every 30 seconds or so, throws a few bolts at you, then despawns. Zoom out as far as you can, and try and discern where the bolt comes from (it’s bright green). Go over to them (Burning Rush if you need to) and nuke them. I’d go petless for this fight, as your demon has a habit of going over and twatting them to death, preventing you from looting it. While you are holding a core, no more Tainted Elementals will spawn, so use it promptly by clicking on one of the generators.
There are three other adds in this fight. Enchanted Elementals spawn from the outside of the platform and walk (do they walk? Hover?) towards Vashj. When they reach her, they die and put a buff on her that increases her damage output by 10%. It stacks to 99. Ouch. Try and kill as many as you can while waiting for the Tainted Elemental to spawn.
Coilfang Elites are naga that run to you and slow you. Kill them. Coilfang Striders are annoying lanky monsters that fear you. Kill them VERY QUICKLY. They’re disruptive.
Once you have deactivated the shield, it becomes a frenetic “kill her before she kills me” kinda deal, as she’ll be hitting VERY hard. Frankly, with my warlock’s health (840k when using GoSac & Soul Link together) I can let Vashj get to 99 stacks and not really feel much from her, but lower geared characters will wanna pop their damage-reducing cooldowns here, as well as their offensive ones, and kill this fishy bitch before she manages to nuke you.
And with that, I am done. Next time, we’re causing a setback in Tempest Keep, getting prepared for the Black Temple, getting immensely bored in the Battle for Mount Hyjal, and pushing Kil’jaeden back through the Sunwell!
Panda Steve Types Stuff 