World of Warcraft Wednesday: Shadowfang Keep
Lore:
The Wizard Aragul was tired of Tirisfal being overrun by Scourge zombies, and by the wizards in Dalaran just falling over and dying about it. So he opened up a portal to another dimension to get help. As anyone who knows anything about Warcraft and portals to other dimensions, things didn’t turn out well.
Instead of help killing the scourge, Aragul got a huge army of rabid werewolves who, in his defense, did indeed start driving out the Scourge. And anything ese. Rather than mope around about it, Aragul just declared himself king of the werewolves and took over a fortress so that they could play fetch in private.
Well, until you go in there and ruin his fun.
Degree of Difficulty: Medium
Shadowfang Keep is pretty linear, and not a difficult instance per se. The thing that most people have difficulty with in this instance is all the trash. And there is a lot of it. The halls are packed end to end with Worgen, and they all hit decently hard for their level. Additionally there are a few non-aggressive elites that AoE can accidentally cause to attack.
As for the bosses? A well put together group shouldn’t have any trouble with them. They might take you a little while to get the hang of, but overall they’re not particularily difficult or out of the realm of possibility, even for characters that are just inside of the level requirement for SFK.
Bosses:
Rethilgore: He’s actually one of the tougher bosses in the instance. He’s got plenty of HP and he’s got a Drain Life ability that will knock a player out of combat for a few seconds.
Razorclaw the Butcher: Simple tank and spank fight, that is only made a smidge more difficult in that he has a patrol that will sometimes (but not always) pull with him, and whom you can remove seperate from him.
Odo the Blindwatcher: Wasn’t he on Deep Space Nine? Anyway, tough, insofar as he has a pair of bat mobs that will always pull with him (but are easy to kill), and he has a rage timer that can make healing in later rounds of combat more difficult.
Baron Silverlaine: He’s a ghost. He has a debuff that will absorb 75% of healing on a target, which can really suck for your tank and might mean the end of the group if you don’t recover quickly. Other than that, he’s kind of weak.
Commander Springvale: Hillarious palladin abilities! Hammer of Justice! Holy Light! A Bubble! This can get annoying, but he’s not really difficult unless you get hit with a silence.
Fenrus the Devourer: He is just a regular dog with a bunch of health. There are a few void walker adds that hit in a scripted event with Arugal before the fight.
Verdan the Everliving: Grasping Vines kind of sucks, as it’ll knock a player or two out of combat for a few seconds, and he hits ridiculously hard for a level 20 mob.
Wolf Master Nandos: He’s got some Worgs that you have to beat back before (and during) your battle with him, which artificially extends the battle with him. Otherwise he’s not difficult.
Archmage Arugal: Surprisingly powerful. He has a lot of abilities that can hamper you. A teleport combined with a ranged attack that does good damage. A stun. High yield melee attacks. A mind control. This is really a challenge to see if your healer can heal through the first stages of the fight until he can be taken down.
Special Features:
During the “Love Is in the Air” holiday event, three level 80 bosses are added to the instances. They had a fun mechanic where you had to swap out potions to prevent yourself from getting hit with AoE. Also, there will be in a Heroic version of this instance some time after Cataclysm drops.
Recommended for Levels: 16-24
Sort of more of a marathon than a challenging instance, Shadowfang keep does have some really great boss fights. Arugal, for example, is a pretty awesome encounter for low level characters in learning to handle bosses with multiple abilities. It’s also a great instance to practice crowd control with all the mobs packed in here. The drops are pretty mediocre, but as starter instances go, it’s a good test of your endurance.