Site Manager Posts: 1525 Joined: 5 Aug 2003 | Blizzcon 2007: Utgarde Keep - Relentless vs Prince Keleseth
At Blizzcon this year, attendees were able to preview a small portion of the upcoming expansion - Wrath of the Lich King. Players were able to transfer their existing level 70 characters to the Blizzcon Test Realm, or had the option to use a pre generated character. Myself, and some guild mates decided to tackle some of the new content together.
Due to the size of the crowd and the limited number of machines, Blizzard was only allowing groups to use the computers in 30 minute intervals before the next group of players got their turn. That being said the experience was somewhat limited, but over all I must say this part of the con was run very well, lines were long but moved very fast.
Session 1
As expected most of the players were either running around PvP flagged ganking each other, or spamming general chat with something unintelligible . We grouped up and started exploring. Shortly after arriving in Northrend we were able to locate the Uthergrade Keep instance, and zoned in. Having spent our talent points, while on the boat to Northrend (departed from Auberdine) we spent our talent points and picked up some consumables, Unfortunately, our warrior (Merihem) did not have his tanking set on him when he copied his character, so he spec'ed MS. Alastor (Paladin) had his tanking set on him, and went prot. We entered the instance and started pulling. I think the first 2 or 3 pulls were packs of 2, followed by an open circular room with a forge in the center, extending outwards from the forge to the wall were walls of fire that you were unable to pass between. Between the flame walls were packs of 5 (72 Elite humanoids). The packs of 5 needed to be cleared before the fire from the forge would be extinguished. In all there were for 4 sections that needed to be cleared, we had originally thought that the center of the forge would then open to reveal a boss encounter. However, we were clearing the last pack of 5 when our time ran out.
After this session we headed out to grab a bite to eat and catch a few panels. Around 9:00 PM we headed back to the WoW demo area to try our hand at Uthergrade again.
Session 2
This time, knowing what to expect, we headed straight to the instance and stared chain pulling the packs. After clearing the 4 pack of 5 in the forge room, the center of the forge did not 'open' and we were forced to head to a hall way that lead away from the forge room. In the hall way I believe we killed 3 packs of 2 (72 Elite humanoids). We didn't have much CC for the packs of 5 - just the prot paladin and the warrior grabbing them, while the druid and the warlock DPS'ed them down. At the end of this hall way was a room with some humanoid packs, of 3 I believe and also some level 72 Elite dragonkin that were linked. In this room there were a total of about 5 pulls, but the last pack could be skipped. The dragonkin had a knock back, so they had to be moved to the wall to avoid being knocked back into the other packs. After this room was a staircase with I believe 2 packs of 2. Atop of staircase stood another circular room with a raised circle in the center with Prince Keleseth positioned in the center. I think there were 2 packs of 2 in the room that had to be cleared prior to engaging the boss.
We engaged the boss, not knowing what to expect, at first the fight seemed like a pretty straight forward tank and spank encounter, at about 20 seconds (I am guessing here) 5 skeletons spawned from the corner and rushed the tank. The DPS warrior grabbed the pack and pulled them away. We were thinking this was similar to the Baron fight in Stratholme. The adds died fairly quick, with the lock just using Seed of Corruption. After these adds were dead, they popped back up (much to our surprise =P) so we repeated the same process while continuing to DPS the boss. Aside from the relentless skeletons, the boss would also entomb random (didn't see any pattern with agro) party members. The tomb would last 30 seconds, and could be dispelled with a paladin bubble, blessing of protection, and stone from. While entombed in the Ice Tomb players took damage over time to the tune of about 300- 500 frost damage every 3 seconds and could not cast. Also the Keleseth would shadow bolt the entombed player for about 2500-4000 shadow damage. We lost the druid to a tomb, and the encounter started getting out of hand, we managed, amongst the confusion, to get the boss down to 2% before dying.
At this point the developers / blizzard employees running the demo area were watching us and were disappointed that we could not finish him off, but were nice enough to extend our session by another 20 minutes because they "wanted to see him dead". We had also noticed during the confusion that the Ice Tombs were targetable and could be killed, much like the Demon Chains in the Terestian Illhoof fight in Karazahn. Once we were back in we changed our start a bit, we had the MS warrior tank Keleseth (with his 2 Hander, oops shield in the bank!) and had the prot paladin AoE tank the adds when they came. We also now had the druid and the lock assist on the Ice Tombs when players were incased in them. This attempt went much smoother; the boss did not hit very hard, even on the MS warrior wielding a 2 hander, the paladin off tank worked great with the AoE, and the boss died fairly easy. And congratulations were expressed to us by the development team. (Although, letting us keep the pet as a souvenir would have been nice! =P)
All of the trash mobs in the instance did not drop any loot (sparkles but no loot table) and granted about 1800 XP (rested), however Prince Keleseth did drop 5 blue items, all identical 'Bananas' which when used summoned a chimp pet that followed us around.
Below is the list of the guild mates that participated in the encounter
<Relentless> of Kilrogg (some member former)
Alastor - Protection Paladin
Amelante - Destruction Warlock
Boot - Holy Paladin
Husker - Hybrid Druid (mostly restoration)
Merihem - Arms Warrior
I hope you all enjoyed this short write up, I apologize if I have some of the details are slightly incorrect, I did not take any notes during the demo, but I believe I am recalling most of it accurately.
Special thanks to Ken 'Boot' Weinreich of Relentless for sharing his Blizzcon experiences. If you have a story to share, please email wownews@warcry.com your story.
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Blizzcon 2007: Utgarde Keep - Relentless vs Prince Keleseth
At Blizzcon this year, attendees were able to preview a small portion of the upcoming expansion - Wrath of the Lich King. Players were able to transfer their existing level 70 characters to the Blizzcon Test Realm, or had the option to use a pre generated character. Myself, and some guild mates decided to tackle some of the new content together.
Due to the size of the crowd and the limited number of machines, Blizzard was only allowing groups to use the computers in 30 minute intervals before the next group of players got their turn. That being said the experience was somewhat limited, but over all I must say this part of the con was run very well, lines were long but moved very fast.
Session 1
As expected most of the players were either running around PvP flagged ganking each other, or spamming general chat with something unintelligible . We grouped up and started exploring. Shortly after arriving in Northrend we were able to locate the Uthergrade Keep instance, and zoned in. Having spent our talent points, while on the boat to Northrend (departed from Auberdine) we spent our talent points and picked up some consumables, Unfortunately, our warrior (Merihem) did not have his tanking set on him when he copied his character, so he spec'ed MS. Alastor (Paladin) had his tanking set on him, and went prot. We entered the instance and started pulling. I think the first 2 or 3 pulls were packs of 2, followed by an open circular room with a forge in the center, extending outwards from the forge to the wall were walls of fire that you were unable to pass between. Between the flame walls were packs of 5 (72 Elite humanoids). The packs of 5 needed to be cleared before the fire from the forge would be extinguished. In all there were for 4 sections that needed to be cleared, we had originally thought that the center of the forge would then open to reveal a boss encounter. However, we were clearing the last pack of 5 when our time ran out.
After this session we headed out to grab a bite to eat and catch a few panels. Around 9:00 PM we headed back to the WoW demo area to try our hand at Uthergrade again.
Session 2
This time, knowing what to expect, we headed straight to the instance and stared chain pulling the packs. After clearing the 4 pack of 5 in the forge room, the center of the forge did not 'open' and we were forced to head to a hall way that lead away from the forge room. In the hall way I believe we killed 3 packs of 2 (72 Elite humanoids). We didn't have much CC for the packs of 5 - just the prot paladin and the warrior grabbing them, while the druid and the warlock DPS'ed them down. At the end of this hall way was a room with some humanoid packs, of 3 I believe and also some level 72 Elite dragonkin that were linked. In this room there were a total of about 5 pulls, but the last pack could be skipped. The dragonkin had a knock back, so they had to be moved to the wall to avoid being knocked back into the other packs. After this room was a staircase with I believe 2 packs of 2. Atop of staircase stood another circular room with a raised circle in the center with Prince Keleseth positioned in the center. I think there were 2 packs of 2 in the room that had to be cleared prior to engaging the boss.
We engaged the boss, not knowing what to expect, at first the fight seemed like a pretty straight forward tank and spank encounter, at about 20 seconds (I am guessing here) 5 skeletons spawned from the corner and rushed the tank. The DPS warrior grabbed the pack and pulled them away. We were thinking this was similar to the Baron fight in Stratholme. The adds died fairly quick, with the lock just using Seed of Corruption. After these adds were dead, they popped back up (much to our surprise =P) so we repeated the same process while continuing to DPS the boss. Aside from the relentless skeletons, the boss would also entomb random (didn't see any pattern with agro) party members. The tomb would last 30 seconds, and could be dispelled with a paladin bubble, blessing of protection, and stone from. While entombed in the Ice Tomb players took damage over time to the tune of about 300- 500 frost damage every 3 seconds and could not cast. Also the Keleseth would shadow bolt the entombed player for about 2500-4000 shadow damage. We lost the druid to a tomb, and the encounter started getting out of hand, we managed, amongst the confusion, to get the boss down to 2% before dying.
At this point the developers / blizzard employees running the demo area were watching us and were disappointed that we could not finish him off, but were nice enough to extend our session by another 20 minutes because they "wanted to see him dead". We had also noticed during the confusion that the Ice Tombs were targetable and could be killed, much like the Demon Chains in the Terestian Illhoof fight in Karazahn. Once we were back in we changed our start a bit, we had the MS warrior tank Keleseth (with his 2 Hander, oops shield in the bank!) and had the prot paladin AoE tank the adds when they came. We also now had the druid and the lock assist on the Ice Tombs when players were incased in them. This attempt went much smoother; the boss did not hit very hard, even on the MS warrior wielding a 2 hander, the paladin off tank worked great with the AoE, and the boss died fairly easy. And congratulations were expressed to us by the development team. (Although, letting us keep the pet as a souvenir would have been nice! =P)
All of the trash mobs in the instance did not drop any loot (sparkles but no loot table) and granted about 1800 XP (rested), however Prince Keleseth did drop 5 blue items, all identical 'Bananas' which when used summoned a chimp pet that followed us around.
Below is the list of the guild mates that participated in the encounter
<Relentless> of Kilrogg (some member former)
Alastor - Protection Paladin
Amelante - Destruction Warlock
Boot - Holy Paladin
Husker - Hybrid Druid (mostly restoration)
Merihem - Arms Warrior
I hope you all enjoyed this short write up, I apologize if I have some of the details are slightly incorrect, I did not take any notes during the demo, but I believe I am recalling most of it accurately.
Special thanks to Ken 'Boot' Weinreich of Relentless for sharing his Blizzcon experiences. If you have a story to share, please email wownews@warcry.com your story.
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