Azjol-Nerub: Pit of DOOM!

Posted by admin on 02 11th, 2009

Categories: Featured Articles | no responses

We have a problem! Apparently, my spam filter is a bit more vicious than I thought, and for some reason, Dervisch’s emails didn’t get through to me during round two posting. Having checked my spam filter, I found his emails (along with his submission) and have decided to reset the voting for round two and post his submission now. After all, he worked hard on this submission and shouldn’t be left out in the cold just because, for some reason, technology decided to be hateful. We haven’t entirely got the problem sorted out yet… he still isn’t able to log into WordPress or the forums, so I’ll be posting his round two submission today on his behalf. My apologies to everyone, author and visitor alike. It should have occurred to me to check my spam filter when I hadn’t heard from folks, but in the whirlwind of preparation I just didn’t think of it. I hope you’ll forgive the oversight. With that out of the way, lets take a look at Dervisch’s submission! Before You Venture Forth This is not a dungeon for the weak of heart; no, this is a dungeon for the brave. For most heroics I won’t even bother with buff food, but for AJN I bring that and some Major Mage Blood elixirs. If you’re attempting to pug this you should ask specific questions like, “Have you done this instance on heroic mode before?” or “Is your DPS over 1300?”. Can you pull a fresh 80 through this instance? Sure, but it may be painful. A healer with a large mana pool and an uncrittable tank can make or break the run, but if you have high DPS there is, as always, more leeway. Krik’thir the Gate Watcher Alone, Krik’thir is laughable, but with this team of watchers he’s one of the hardest bosses on heroic mode. Sure, there are other bosses where some CC is nice, but on Krik’thir it’s almost a necessity. Dust off those traps and let’s get down to business! Krik’thir is basically the second pull in the instance so take your time getting mana back and buffing up all proper-like. The fight consists of three waves of three mobs each then the boss. If you wipe, the entire fight will reset. Also, the mobs are chained to each other with a timer of sorts. After you pull the first group you have about a minute to kill them before the next group approaches. If you attempt to pull the next group quicker the fight MAY bug causing two groups to be pulled instead of one (the groups don’t necessarily come from left to right or anything). Each of the watchers have two shared abilities, Infected Bite and Web Wrap, as well as a unique ability to guard against. Infected Bite is nature damage based, but doesn’t hurt that bad (so don’t worry about AoTW), and Web Wrap hits one person, potentially killing them if you don’t DPS them out of it quick enough. Make sure your healer’s on his toes and get that person out quick. As for the three unique abilities, Watcher Silthik has a nasty Poison Spray, so if you don’t have a shaman along for the nature resist or poison cleansing totems, put your Aspect of the Wild on to help reduce the damage until your healer can remove it. Watcher Narjil’s ability, Blinding Webs, is the scariest ability that the three watchers possess and there are a few ways to combat it. If you have specced into The Beast Within use it while he is casting the webs (it’s a two second cast) because you will gain immunity to their effects. After they are cast use Master’s Call to break out a party member (read: HEALER) to keep everyone else alive. If you are not specced into The Beast Within throw a trap down to help organize the chaos (more on this in a few). If the tank doesn’t have three mobs beating on him/her they’re more likely to survive. The last Watcher, Gashra, has an Enrage that can be removed by Tranquilizing Shot, but it’s really not that bad. There are three other kinds of mobs that come with the watchers: Anub’ar Skirmishers, Anub’ar Shadowcasters, and Anub’ar Warriors. As far as difficulty goes, it’s Skirmisher > Shadowcaster > Warriors and you should CC accordingly. The best way to deal with these guys is to use your Freezing Arrow about 20 seconds before you pull the first group and keep one CC’d until you’ve killed the other two. You may need to drop a second Freezing Arrow on the first CC target if your DPS is a little slow, but if it’s taking more than two traps you’re going to run into timer issues. As soon as your trap is off cooldown get another Freezing Arrow out to wait for the next group’s CC taget. It’s basically an extended chain trap for multiple targets. If your group has a priest don’t be afraid to ask them for help; shackle undead makes a nice compliment and being able to CC both targets is always nice. As far as abilities are concerned, the only ones to worry about are the Skirmisher’s charge and the Shadowcaster’s volley. If there is a Skirmisher, stand BEHIND the healer. The Skirmisher chooses the furthest target to charge. Tranquilizing Shot is supposed to remove this effect, but they are immune to taunt CC, etc while it is active. They do not drop threat; they are just ignoring it for 10 seconds. Whatever you do, DON’T turn around. They have a nasty backstab that will kill you too quickly for heals. Feign Death should work, but I’ve had it bug where they just get back on me as soon as I break FD. The best thing to do is stun them as much as possible when you have to DPS them and make sure that your healer isn’t going to be the one taking the damage. As for the volley, not much you can do to avoid it, but anything your party members can do to help mitigate the shadow damage (Shadow Resistance Aura or Prayer of Shadow Protection) is spiffy. The Shadowcasters are squishy so just take them down fast. So after you’ve taken down the three waves, you finally get to Krik’thir. His abilities aren’t that nasty, but I do recommend spreading out to reduce how many people get hit with his Curse of Fatigue. Also, drop an Immolation Trap on top of your healer to catch any of the little bugs he summons with his skittering swarm. They’ll slow the healer’s casts and can cause a wipe. Other than that he frenzies, but doesn’t hit very hard, and he has a Mind Flay which also doesn’t hit very hard. So once you get to Krik’thir you’re pretty much home free. Hadronox After a short run from Krik’thir’s chamber you will see a bridge over a large spider web. Hadronox, the giant spider son of Maexxna, will be below fighting off the Nerubians. Before you can pull Hadronox there are a few short phased pulls (two groups show up one after you pull the first set away) but make sure to keep them well and back from the middle of the web. When you have finished the second set of pulls Hadronox will make his way across the web and close off the doors to keep more Nerubians from entering. The easiest way to kill him is to let him finish off the other Nerubians before you engage him, but you CAN pull him without doing so. Hadronox is mostly a tank and spank. There are a few abilities to watch for, but nothing much for the ranged. Hadronox drops a big green Acid Cloud that can really beat up the melee so, again, if you don’t have another class that can remove/reduce the poison quickly it may be best to use Aspect of the Wild to help the group out. Also, try to keep your pet out of the Acid Clouds that he drops (even with Avoidance they can be killed; that stuff is nasty) because every time something dies near him that’s effected by his Leech Poison he regains 10% of his health. Leech Poison also does some damage, but more importantly HEALS HADRONOX with its DOT, so it’s best to call out and get that removed as soon as you see it. Lastly, Hadronox has a Web Grab ability much like Cyanigosa’s Arcane Vacuum. Use Disengage or run straight out (or strafe; just don’t back up it’s too slow). Don’t bother with worrying what side you’re on, living is more important. He likes to drop an Acid Cloud at the same time and can eat a party up pretty quick. Anub’arak To get to Anub’arak, run out of Hadronox’s chamber through the right hand opening and jump down the rabbit hole (or Nerubian hole, as the case may be). You will fall into the water beneath and not suffer any damage… unless you have a deathknight with a bad sense of humor and a quick finger on Path of Frost. Kill the few mobs that are in your way and head down the wide stairs to the floating island that holds the final boss. Before you aggro the boss, make sure that everyone is standing just inside of the island because he webs the door shut. This guy can be something of a pain to kill. Though he doesn’t hit that hard, one of his abilities can and will one-shot even the best tank if they’re unlucky. Pound (that lovely one-shot ability) is a long-cast ability that hits everyone in front of Anub’arak for OMGWTFBBQ amounts of damage (no… really!) especially on a crit. Make sure that your tank has at least read up on this fight or you’ll find yourself in an endless wipe-fest. When you see the pound getting cast it’s best to pull your pet completely off of the boss (That means YOU Beastmasters!) because a little less DPS is better than losing your pet entirely. Another ability to watch for is Locust Swarm, an AoE that damages everyone in the party. This damage is nature based, and can therefore be mitigated with AotW. He also summons carrion beetles, which should be killed quickly to keep them off the healer. When the boss is around 75% he’ll submerge himself the first time. During his submerged phase he’s immune to damage and summons various Nerubians to aide him. Volley, Immolation Trap, and having your pet on aggressive can really help things. Set the Immolation Trap near where the healer is standing and tell them to stay in range if they can. Then Volley the little non-elite swarmers down before they chew you up too much. (You < Healer… let’s face facts.) The tank should pick up the spawned elites and any non-AOE DPS should help them out. If all you have is AOE designate who’s doing what ahead of time because if all three of you are busy going AOE happy then the fight can take too long. Generally, you only need one person on the AOE and the rest can single target the elites. Very important: if the ground looks like it’s moving beneath your feet MOVE! Anub’arak’s Impale ability can nearly kill a DPS and severely injure even a tank. It’s a cast ability that causes the floor where it will happen to look like the rocks or sand is moving. Again, don’t back up: strafe or run/jump foward as you need to move quickly. You can heal your pet through the spikes but it’s best not to have to so keep an eye on them as well. After you defeat two elites Anub’arak will rise out of the ground for a repeat of the first time. Watch for pound and DPS like cazy! At about 50% he’ll submerge again. Second verse, same as the first… more elites: much, much worse. This time there are four elites: two are like last time (easy) and two are Anub’ar Venomancers. *Ahem* If you don’t have a class that can quickly remove poison use AotW to reduce it’s effects. That stuff HURTS and they cast it in both volley and single target form. Make sure the tank has aggro on those guys before you go crazy, but they need to be taken down fast. Again, watch the Impales and AOE the swarmers. When you kill the elites there’s a short pause, then Anub’arak rises from the ground again. If you can nuke him quick sometimes he doesn’t go under a third time. This is the MUCH easier way to kill him. If he does submerge a third time the fight against the elites is harder and he impales more quickly, but the fight is essentially the same as before. Loot, Achievements, Etc. Unfortunately there is a dismal amount of good hunter loot to be found in AJN. Only Hadronox’s Hollowed Mandible Legplates are really any good, but oh how good they are. For a survival hunter these legs are as nice as you can get pre-Naxx 10. Socket with two Delicate Scarlet Rubies and you can gain a whopping +94 Agility off of these puppies. The Leggings of the Stone Halls may be epic, but I think the Hollowed Mandible Leggings are just as nice for those specced into Lightning Reflexes and Expose Weakness. As far as achievements go, there are several that you can gain besides the dungeon completion ones. For Watch Him Die, you have to kill Krik’thir without killing the watchers first. I’ve never attempted this, but another group from my guild was able to do this with two tanks and an off healing Ret Pally. They simply used the Ret Pally/ OT to tank the watchers while the other three downed Krik’thir. This is one of the hardest achievements for Glory of the Hero and you should really read up on it! Hadronox yields the achievement Hadronox Denied wherein you must kill the boss without letting him web the doors. Remember, he can cast Leech Poison and heal himself 10% of his life each time he kills one of the adds, not to mention that after you kill him those adds are likely to swarm and kill you! Anub’arak’s achievement, Gotta Go!, is purely a timer; all you have to do is beat him in four minutes or less (recently changed from two minutes or less). There are no quests solely for the Heroic version of Azjol-Nerub - other than the daily quest Proof of Demise: Anub’arak that you can pick up in the Violet Hold area of Dalaran. Also, there are no requirements for entering this zone beyond being level 80. Just remember to bring your tabard and champion your cause. (Hooray for free rep!) Good luck and happy hunting, Dervisch Note from Lass: Keep in mind that email formatting leaves something to be desired, so images and links may be lacking here, but that’s not necessarily a reflection on Dervisch. Also, for those that are interested, Dervisch’s submission from round one can be found here . Again, my apologies for the inconvenience to both my authors and visitors. I very clearly bungled things! The round two voting poll has now been reset and Dervisch has been added to the poll. Please take a look over the submissions again and continue with voting! The poll was originally set to close on Friday, and I’m tempted to keep that the same. I’ll wait to see what voter turn-out is like, and if it seems like we haven’t received many votes, I’ll extend the poll a couple extra days. Thanks again! Related Posts Gemming for Success So Many Scopes, So Many Possibilites Hunter Island: Round Two Voting A Hunter’s Guide to The Underbog, er… I mean Ahn’Kahet The Hunter’s Guide to Black Morass Pt Deux AKA Violet Hold This Post From: The Hunter's Mark .

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