Finishing up in Utgarde Pinnacle

We are getting down to the last few instances available to us in Wrath Classic.  This past weekend when we got together, there were three possibilities on the agenda, but really only one we were up for.  We’ll get to the Culling of Stratholme for certain, and we’ll even do the Oculus, if only for the sake of comedy,

But the next on the list for us was to finish up Utgarde Pinnacle.

Those following along might recall that we have been to Utgarde Pinnacle before, during the Lunar Festival, when we needed to get in and past the third boss, Skadi, in order to get to one of the elders required for the meta achievement.

Elder Chogan’gada deep in Utgarde Pinnacle

The difficulty there was that we were a little light in levels to take on the dungeon.  We were all level 76 or 77 at the time, and you need to be level 78 to even use the meeting stone outside the instance to summon people.  Fortunately, it is just upstairs from the Utgarde Keep stone, so we were able to assemble for that effort, which took some creativity on our part.

But now we’re all a level or more up the scale.

The group for our venture

So we were able to get there… I was able to use my engineer’s Northrend wormhole generator, which drops you right by the instance… and summon whoever was left behind and get going fairly quickly.

Into Utgarde Keep

We were all able to pick up the quests this time as well, because you have to be level 78 for that too.

Then we rolled on in.  We were not expecting too much difficulty, having gotten at least as far as the third boss when none of us were level 78.  This, of course, made us a bit sloppy because we had the power to absorb an add now and then.  This would, of course, wreck us later.

But we made it through the first boss, Svala Sorrowgrave without much issue.

Yeah, tell me about it

She even coughed up a serious upgrade for me, some blue plate wrists.

Svala’s bloody shackles

The name implies that she was wearing them, but I suppose even first bosses can get away with that sort of thing.

So we rolled on, clearing and collecting items for the “junk in the trunk” quest that three of us had to do.  It involves picking up bits and pieces along the way.

The second boss, Gortok Palehoof and his pets, was also not a big effort.

Go on Gortok

He and his pets were dispatched without too much angst.  Each has a special routine, but none surprised us.

Which led us to Skadi.  Him we had had problems with before.  But I think by this point we had also attempted him at least ten times, so we knew the routine.  We got sloppy, I called out the wrong side to stand on when the frost carpet was laid out for us, but we somehow managed to hang on, brought Skadi down off his dragon, and slew him.

Skadi’s end

We were now on the path to the final boss, King Ymiron.  There was just a bit of trash to clear on the way.  And that is where we wiped.

We took on a group of four, two shaman and two necros, and then pair of berserkers we hadn’t seen wandered in, and things seemed like they were under control until one of the necros feared us all just as Fergorin was winding up for a big heal that I really needed.  Feared you cannot use a potion or a health stone, so I went down, and then the rest of the party.  It was a wipe.

But we had a soul stone, so Fergorin could revive on the spot and ress me, and together we ressed the rest of the party.

Cleanup outside of King Ymiron’s chamber

We had at least knocked out the two shaman, so once we were all back upright, finishing things off in the room went quickly.  And then we went up the ramp at the other side of the room and were facing King Ymiron.

This is his place

I won’t say this fight was hard, because we managed to get through it on the first go.  But it was definitely a fight that made us work a bit for it, a fight where a serious screw up could have, would have, led to a wipe.  King Ymiron hits hard and has some special attack and towards the end of the fight gets all over the place.

King Ymiron beating on me… also, check out how deep that rug is

The onus was really on Fergorin to keep me alive.  But he managed it, and the king was thrown down.  One of the drops was a nice sword, suitable for a holy pally, so Fergorin got that.

The Jeweled Coronation Sword

Then it was time for a pic of the group at the throne.

The group at the end

That did not take us too long.  We had enough time to look into something else, so Ula opened a portal to Theremore.  But where we went from there is for another post.

Anyway, we did this better than our 2009 run at the instance, though I think that was largely due to having practiced on Skadi as many times as we did.  Back then we wiped on him even though the group was all level 80.