What is with these obnoxious boss fights and HOW do you do it?!

[Ghallo]

Before commenting on how your 5x shammies wipe the floor with everything, bear in mind I run a mixed group (per my sig). Has anyone running a mixed group (more than 2 classes) been able to do the new content? I have stayed out of instances since trying Utgarde out of the gate (trash was dead simple... but I can't get the FIRST boss to even 50%). So, being 75 now I thought I'd pick up the xmas hat from the first boss in Nexus... especially since people were 2 manning it.

OMFG. It was almost like they put real thought into making a boss that would be as obnoxious as possible to multiboxers. Seriously.

So, what is everyone's thoughts on this boss... and am I the only one having issues?

[Malekyth]

Hah! Not alone. My 70+ team is a pally, three locks and a priest. I had the same experience with Utgarde Keep, including the wild disparity between trash and boss difficulty, though I *might have gotten the first boss as far down as 50%. It's nice to see you mention peoples' shaman experiences, btw. It seems every time I've had a problem with a boss and had to check wowwiki or these forums, it's always, "pfft, it's easy. Just drop grounding totems and use chain lightning ..."

I've put that team on the shelf for now and am working on a new one DK, three mages and a shaman for anti-magic zone, lots of CC and nukeage and yes, one damn grounding totem.

[Dominian]

Please use search before you start a new tread..

There are guides to most dungeons on the Pve Instances and Advanced Tactics fourm, while there are movies on how to do Utgarde Keep and manny more under the Movie forum.

If you still cant find your answer ask in the Pve forum, but there are like 10 treads about UK so im sure you will find your answer.

[Frosty]

but there are like 10 treads about UK so im sure you will find your answer.

It's because Utgarde sucks...IMHO.

I gave up on Utgarde too. I can make it to the first boss and get him to about 10% before I wipe. But, I also did a lot of stupid things.
I tried Nexus last night (no bosses yet) to get some of the easy quest rewards and was amazed when I tanked 4 elites and 4 normals with almost no problems at all.

[Tynk]

This IS a problem, most of (if not all) multi-boxing guides/videos are focused on shaman based or single class groups. The guides/videos that are not shaman based or single class are non-multiboxer and thus do not take into account positioning or other special circumstances needed for multi-boxing.

That being said, here is what I have found so far. While I have not run all of the instances, and I got quite frustrated in the 71-75 range, I did get a few bosses down.
I run a Warrior tank, shadow priest, balance druid, fire mage, holy paladin on three computers and FTL.

1st boss in UK did take a few attempts to figure it out, but the key is to keep your slaves on follow and keep them on your tank, add a line to your tanks spam macro that says /target IceBlock (or whatever it is) and just burn him down, when the skeletons spawn hit your aoe on your tank and ignore them. They have low HP and will die but will just respawn as soon as you kill them so no use worrying about them.

The second boss in UK I do not follow the standard guides. They say treat it like romeo and juliet but I just tank the melee guy and have my casters burn down the caster then turn on the melee, the caster will be loose and shooting everyone, but I have not been able to keep agro on him with my tank when he is alive, so I see no difference. Just make sure the caster dies first.

Ingvar: I have some thoughts but I never beat him at level, and have not bothered to go back and try again.

The next Instance I tried was Drak'Tharon Keep
Started working into the isntance but the first couple pulls caused me some problems, sheep the humanoids and burn down the little guys (they drop a black void on the ground that does decent damage). Trollgore was a push over tank and spank. I even had my pally tossing some spells on him. have the tank on the stairs and your group at the bottom, the explosion is horizontal so your group should be below the damage area. That is unfortunately all the farther I got as I was unable to work out a strat on the summoner before I got frustrated.

Then we have Gundrak, the trash is straight forward and pretty easy to control, there are only one or two pats you need to keep an eye out for. I would clear the trash here for exp then reset. The only boss I was able to down was Moorabi, simple tank and spank, try and interupt his changes but no biggie once you miss it. Slad'ran I had trouble with, never quite found the right position so the aoe would not tear me up and the Drakkari Collosus just aoe'd me down in his elemental form. Everyone says it is cake with a nature resist totem, but I do not have one.

The last one I did was Halls of Stone. I would clear all the trash in here for exp and is how I finished off to 80.
Krystallus is a joke once you get your positioning down. There are 4 rock outcrops on opposite of where he stands, a big one on the left as you are facing him, place a ranged dps here, a smaller one to the right (healer goes here), a single rock that you skip, then another outcropping you place another ranged dps on. Put the last ranged dps up the wall abit so you are still out of range. With this, once you get the exact right placing, the knock back will not move your teams at all and they will all be within range of healing and out of range of the other shatters. I believe I have an advantage on this one with a prot warrior though, as soon as he does the knock back I just use charge and I am right on top of him again so he never moves.
Then it is just a tank and spank burn the bastage down.

Maiden of Grief: This one I did just like the normal group strat says. Park the ranged in the center and circle them with your tank walking backwards. She does an agro whipe with her Shock of Sorrow, taunt how ever makes it through this, so I just taunted right before the cast completed, I would be on top of the agro list when she was done and would break my tank free. If this does not work for your set up, just step into one of the black voids right before the cast is done. You have to make sure your tank breaks free or you are toast. It also helped with my priest and mage mostly using channeled spells for dps as this causes them to turn with the mob and can keep up dps where the druid can only do it for 50% of the circle.

The event I was never able to beat and thus never made it to the last boss.

The rest of the instances I have not actually done as a group though I have run most of them on solo characters. I am just pushing to gear my tank for raiding then will jump back on other stuff. I hope this helps at least a little bit.

[Turenn]

How to kill the first boss in UK.

This is how I do it anyway. I pull the boss into the corridor leading up to her. All my dps and healer are standing ontop of each other so that I will not have any los problems getting the ice tomb down. So I pull her down and I start tanking her close to my slaves, close enough so that chain heal jumps to my slaves. Tank and spank till the ice tomb, then I use a /target ice tomb macro and kill it, back to the boss. When the adds comes running I just use a thunderclap and let the CL kill them, no rush. Pop heroism and just kill her, she isn't hard once you manage the ice tombs.

Setup: Warrior, Boomkin, 2 elemental 1 resto shammie.


^^ Beat me to it : \

[Mercurio]

I run only mixed groups and have been challenged by WotLK dungeons but have been able to do all the ones I've tried.

My groups have pallies or warriors to tank, priests or shaman to heal, and a mix of shamans, boomkins, hunters, and mages to DPS. None of my teams has more than one of any class (actually, one has two shaman - one resto and one elemental).

At level 72, three different mixed teams of mine did UK.

At level 74, two mixed teams did Nexus.

At level 75 I did Nerub with one team.

At level 75 I did Drak with one team.

At level 76 I did Gundrak with one team.

In every case I wiped about 3 times the first time I ran a new dungeon on the first team that did it.

Set up prep macros, blow cooldowns for offense macros, and "the *#&% has hit the fan" macros as well as basic DPS and healing ones. Read the comments on the bosses from Wowhead or another site and you should be fine. Not a cakewalk, but the fights have been the perfect difficulty from my point of view - challenging enough to be exciting when you win but not "beat your head against the wall" hard, either.

[Svpernova09]

This IS a problem, most of (if not all) multi-boxing guides/videos are focused on shaman based or single class groups. The guides/videos that are not shaman based or single class are non-multiboxer and thus do not take into account positioning or other special circumstances needed for multi-boxing.

*snip*

Then why not look for regular (non boxing) videos of how to down the bosses? Remember that instances are not designed around being multiboxed. They're designed for 5 classes filling 3 roles, all thinking differently reacting differently and moving differently. BC instances where retardedly easy compared to WotLK instances. Utgarde is MUCH harder at low 70s than ramps was at low 60s. And if you ask me, thats how it SHOULD be. I'm working on getting a mixed team in range to start 5 boxing instances and I look forward to the challenges.

[TheBigBB]

My mixed team full cleared 7 instances on the way to 80, and now one-shot Culling of Stratholme last night in just the blues I got from leveling. I think I was 72 by the time I did UK, but I only wiped once in there. Other than the typical tricks people will tell you about, my one greatest trick to staying alive has been to abuse the AOE healing of my priest. When anything goes wrong, COH or prayer of healing save me big time. The priest is better than a shaman because her main AOE heal is instant cast, so therefore won't be affected by interrupts and she can heal while running. Even after the upcoming patch's 6 second cooldown on COH, with the Glyph of Holy Nova you can heal for the same amount as COH every GCD if you collapse onto her, and with Prayer of Healing I now get an AOE HOT component with the glyph. I'm not saying content can't be done without a priest, but it sure makes it easier to beat a boss your first try.

[Boylston]

A couple comments:

Nexus is easier than UK, in my opinion. You may want to focus on it.

You mention the "1st Boss" of Nexus, but there really isn't one. It's non linear and you can do any of 3 bosses "first". Which one are you struggling with?

I have run all instances up to Halls of Lightning with my 4xHunters+Druid team. Some of them have taken a LOT of time to learn, however. Don't give up. Like others mentioned, read strategies for normal groups and adapt to your multibox mixed group as needed. There are certainly very few "tank and spank" bosses in LK, but I think that fact favors mixed groups more than the standard 4x/5xShaman setup.