by wkjezz
Halls of Reflection is the grand finale of the three instances set in the Icecrown Citadel stronghold, and it’s a real tough cookie. Here is a lay of the land, and some tips that might make life happier when reflecting upon this run.
This instance is no push over, and even us Kingslayer folks have been known to get it wrong in here. The run is a gear-check for DPS, and will have tanks and healers working their tails off. Party members who run this heroic will want to be in an average gear set of I213 items, and be reasonably skilled.
The instance is a two part dungeon with a Black Morass/Violet Hold feel to the first half, and a brand new style of “Get the heck outta there!” style action, which I haven’t felt in a game since playing Super Metroid.
The good news is, that it is a reasonably short and very linear dungeon, as will this guide be the same.
The Fall of Falric and Marwyn
General Quests
?Frostmourne (Horde)
?Frostmourne(Alliance)
!Wrath of the Lich King(Horde)
!Wrath of the Lich King(Alliance)
Simply turn in the quest at the start of the dungeon when everyone is ready, and get the continuation. When the event starts, head into Frostmourne’s room and head into the alcove to the left. The tank should be the only person to have line of sight with Frostmourne. DPS are highly recommended to make the tank their focus, with Target’s target activated, this will give you a real time view of where your tank’s attention lies.
The Waves
Farlic and Marwyn are waves 5 and 10 (respectively) of a time and skill paced encounter. Because you are up against the clock, it is easy to get a rush on and out threat the tank, but ultimately it is most important to stay alive. Your healer will be busy, and will likely be interrupted and taking damage, so do as little as possible to take direct damage from mobs as DPS.
Waves 1-4 and 6-9 get increasingly more challenging as they progress. If you are a Pally (including healers), or have AoE stuns (Warlock’s Shadow Fury for example) be sure to use them once the tank has agro often as you can, particularly in wave 4 and 9
Mobs in Order of Kill Priority
Ghostly Priest
Abilities:
Circle of Destruction
Cower in Fear
Dark Mending
Shadow Word: Pain
This mob has 132,300hp and is by far the most lethal. He can stun, fear, cause modest damage and worst of all heal. Top of the list for the kill order.
Shadowy Mercenary
Abilities:
Deadly Poison
Envenomed Dagger Throw
Kidney Shot
Shadowstep
This is 132,300hp of Rogue you don’t want to meet in a dark alley, or a light one for that matter. He has the potential to stack a ton of damage on anyone he chooses, and also stun (look away now healers). It is not uncommon for the cleansing of the Deadly Poision effect to grab this mob’s attention and he’ll Shadowstep > Kidney Shot your healer. After the priest of the group is gone, Kill this guy fast.
Tortured Rifleman
Abilities:
Cursed Arrow
Frost Trap
Ice Shot
Shoot
The last of the mobs with a stun, it is wise to get rid of this guy next. 132,300hp, much like his friends, but his Cursed Arrow really can hurt someone, particularly when paired with the Mage/Hallucination combo.
Phantom Mage
Abilities:
Chains of Ice
Fireball
Flamestrike
Frostbolt
Hallucination
The Mage is a real damage dealer, and a pain when she summons a Hallucination, however causes a lesser threat than the mobs higher on the kill order. She also has 132,300hp.
Spectral Footman
Abilities:
Shield Bash
Spectral Strike
Tortured Enrage
These guys are nasty, but should easily be able to be held for a long time with a confident tank. At 132,300hp they are resonably easy to kill, but your tank may like having these melee swings on him/her for the rage generation or mana recuperation.
Phantom Halluctination
Abilities:
Chains of Ice
Fireball
Flamestrike
Frostbolt
Hallucination
A carbon copy of the Mage, minus the ability to duplicate themselves. These mobs will die by themselves after 30 seconds, and usually cast upon the tank from within the main room.
Now onto the Boss Fights.
Falric – 16 Justice Points
Abilities:
Defiling Horror
Hopelessness | Hopelessness | Hopelessness
Impending Despair
Quivering Strike
This fight is a very simple tank and spank fight. There is no real stratergy involved, just staying alive. The healer will likely have the hardest time in the fight out of anyone. Defiling Horror is a Horrify effect, so fear nullifying measures such as Tremor totems are futile. Because of the frequent nature of spell interrupts and considerable group damage, AOE heals, HOTS, and Absorbs will compliment direct heals greatly. The boss can be disarmed.
As long as the healer is on their game, and the DPS is where it needs to be in terms of output, the 633,606hp should just melt away.
As a footnote, Party Boss Mods (Deadly Boss Mods, Bigwigs) can really assist a healer in timing his or her heals in with the boss’ special casts.
“This Pear, So Delicious”
Loot
Falric’s Wrist-Chopper | Soulsplinter | Bracer of Worn Molars | Chestpiece of High Treason | Spaulders of Black Betrayal | Spiked Toestompers
Marwyn – 16 Justice Points
Abilities:
Corrupted Flesh
Obliterate
Shared Suffering
Well of Corruption
Like Falric, Marwyn is a very simple tank and spank fight, if not a little easier than the first boss. He does have considerably more health (903,227hp) to chip away, but without any timers to beat there is little pressure on. Again there is no real strategy to employ here, just good raid awareness. Corrupted Flesh reduces the maximum hit points of your party, so you cant heal the loss of damage, however and damage taken in this state will seem very spikey for the healer in tow. Shared Suffering is a DoT debuff that can and should be dispelled, it will simply water itself down across the party, instead of take a lump off the person afflicted. And finally, Well of Corruption is a Voidzone, and remember: Spoiler > Voidzones don’t give buffs < Spoiler (Drag select between > < to reveal the spoiler) So get out of them ASAP.
Loot
Orca-Hunter’s Harpoon | Sightless Crown of Ulmaas | Ephemeral Snowflake | Suspiciously Soft Gloves | Choking Hauberk | Frostsworn Bone Chestpiece
When you have defeated Marwyn you will finally have a moment to rest and regenerate. One mob stands between you and the final encounter.
The Miniboss
Frostsworn General
Abilities:
Throw Shield
The DPS and healers should wait near Frostmourne’s pedestal with the tank runs towards the mob and engages. As shown on the map above, the tank should kite the mob into the main room where you just beat Marwyn; then you can tank and spank his 400,000hp+ down. The reason you do it like this is because if you all go in as a group there will be 5 spiritual replicas of the party jump down and join in. However, doing the kite method the replicas will just stay up in the rafters of the General’s room and not attack you, even when you pass by them later.
Genral Quests
?Wrath of the Lich King(Horde)
?Wrath of the Lich King(Alliance)
When you finish the next encounter you will be able to turn in the above quest ender to your faction’s hero character.
Wrath of the Lich King – 16 Justice Points
Acievement – We’re Not Retreating, We’re Advancing in a Different Direction
The above achievement requires no special strategy; your group will either get it or they wont, depending largely on the efficiency of your DPS players.
Mobs:
Each of the 4 sections of this encounter will start off with a gaggle of Raging Ghouls. They are fairly straight forward melee mobs that can easily have their 19,000hp non-elite tails handed to them with some decent AOE. If they are still up when the elite mobs arrive switch off of them and attack the elite mobs as they will likely die to incidental AOE damage.
Risen Witch Doctor
Curse of Doom
Shadow Bolt
Shadow Bolt Volley
These mobs cause the most group-wide damage, so kill these as a priority once they have been picked up by your tank. At 94,500 hp, they are a fairly easy kill.
Lumbering Abomination
Cleave
Regurgitation
These guys are standard abomination material, they cleave and spray slime, so let your tank pick them up, get some aggro, and turn them away from the group. With 189,000hp they take a little more damage to kill, kill these once there are no Witch Doctors on your tank. Once all the elites are killed, AOE or kill any Ghouls, if there are any left to kill.
Each blockade will throw a larger amount of mobs at you than the previous one, so when you get to the 4th and final wave, the groups dps needs to be maximized and focused. If your group is slower on the DPS and you have a Shaman there is no shame in using Bloodlust/Heroism on the 4th wave.
As a final note, don’t try and outrun your faction’s hero, as you can seriously inhibit your success. Just say behind her and take it as it comes. Also, Resurrecting and returning to the dungeon if you die in the waves often resets the event. This is one occasion you want to break the rules and wait for a rez (unless you wipe)
Loot
(The following items have a chance to be looted from the chest on board Orgrimm’s Hammer / The Skeybreaker)
Black Icicle | Liar’s Tongue | Oath of Empress Zoe | Second Helm of the Executioner | Strip of Remorse | Chestguard of Broken Branches | Fossilized Ammonite Choker | Shriveled Heart | Blighted Leather Footpads | Grinning Skull Boots | Hoarfrost Gauntlets | The Lady’s Promise
Should you die…
Should at any point you need to runback to the dungeon, I found this short video explaining how to resume your dungeon in a timely manner
In closing I would like to thank Eric, whose instance guides provided me with the the template I adapted into this guide.
The home page settings areThe home page settings are completely separate, so no worries there.
Unfortunately there are only two options for the main guide settings – “top” and “bottom”. Oh, and not shown 😛
I might move them back to the bottom, we’ll see.
Also I feel bad for hijacking wkjezz’s guides so much for talking about site layout stuff >_< Sorry Jezz!
Hmm, it does a little.Hmm, it does a little. Though it does fix the centering thing (for those who use centered titles n whatnot) that the user image causes – becomes embedded to the right, as part of the guide altering the inline content. It now pushes the content about an inch down so it will be centered accordingly, but it does give a strange impression of ‘huh?’ Is there a way to put the rating on the same line as the ‘Sumbitted by USER on DATE’ if it can’t be raised? if not may be better to have it back at the bottom, but still enable it to appear on the homepage submisson, if that’s at all possible.
-Skum
Yeah, though I have to sayYeah, though I have to say the rating at the top seems to muck about with the layout of the guide a bit – rather than starting to the left of the user image, it starts below it. Looks a little bit worse 🙁
It be at the top
And on theIt be at the top 🙂
And on the homepage posts 🙂
Awesome job is Awesome 😀
-Skum
TestingTesting the new rating set up. Hopefully this works!
Never knew about the kitingNever knew about the kiting the miniboss bit. We generally do just run in and kill them all!
On the offchance people get in a group that does this (very likely if you’re not the tank or don’t tell them), it should be noted that the replicas explode painfully when you kill them. It’s not good to be near them.
It should be also noted that if you wipe on the “Escape the Lich King” guantlet, it is wise to wait for LK to kill Sylvannas/Jaina and despawn. The reason for this? If you corpse-fly back into the instance immediately after dying, when you step in, you might get hit by a little ability called “Fury of Frostmourne” that the Lich King casts upon reaching the ice wall barriers. It will automatically oneshot anyone alive inside the instance as part of the resetting mechanics for the gauntlet.