WoW Wednesday: Mists of Pandaria Dungeon Preview
By Meredith Watson, OnRPG WoW Specialist
There will be three new raids and nine new dungeons in World of Warcraft’s Mists of Pandaria expansion. Of these new instances a total of six are located in the land of pandas. Stormstout Brewery and The Temple of the Jade Serpent are the first two of these new dungeons you will face in Mists of Pandaria and are meant for levels 85 to 87.
Stormstout Brewery
When Chen Stormstout arrived in the Valley of the Four Winds, he journeyed to the renowned brewery of his namesake, hoping to connect with his relatives. What he found was his ancestral home in disarray. Under the watch of the incompetent Uncle Gao, loathsome virmen and unruly hozen have infiltrated the brewery, sparking a destructive revel that will soon devastate the region’s supply of tasty beer.
Stormstout Brewery is full of partying hozen and virmen which are monkey and rabbit like creatures that have overtaken the brewery. There are three bosses in this short and rather cute but gimmicky dungeon. The first boss is Ook-Ook a very large hozen with several abilities with the most notable being going Bananas. At 90%, 60%, and 30% health remaining, Ook-Ook increases his attack speed by 15% and his damage dealt by 15%. This ability can stack up to three times. The kookiest part of Going Bananas is the wave of rolling barrels that do smart if hit by one but they can also be jumped on. Ground Pound, Rolling Barrel and Brew explosion (his other three abilities) all have to do with more barrels. To say there are a lot of barrels in this fight is an understatement. Overall it isn’t particularly challenging just mind the barrels. After the fight, there is a bizarre monkey line dance that doesn’t seem to have any point.
Next boss is Hoptallus which can only be described as a deranged bunny on steroids. On the way to him the players kill virmen which are carrying large mallets. This is the gauntlet section of the dungeon. Once those virmen die the player can pick up the mallet and bop subsequent virmen on the head. It brings to mind Little Bunny Foo Foo. This may or may not be intentional. Hoptallus has a whirlwind effect which means move out of the way. There are also waves of virmen with mallets, again, that need to be picked up for more bunny bopping. Another easy fight if you remember to move out of whirlwind and pick up mallets, so killing mallet holding virmen first is a good idea. There will be a large button on the screen which enables the bopping. Oh yeah and he spits carrot juice.
Finally, the last boss is Yhan-Zhu an alemental (get it? Brewery? Ale?) Anyway. Yhan-Zhu has many different abilities and it is really down to luck as to which of his abilities the party will experience. Brew bolts inflicts frost damage while Bloat inebriates the target causing brew to stream out of their ears, inflicting frost damage and knocking back targets on either side of the afflicted player. Blackout Brew puts the target to sleep (obviously). Yhan-Zhu can become encased in bubbles with Bubble Shield causing 10% damage reduction. Carbonation, frost damage every second, means running into Fizzy Bubbles so that the player does not become asphyxiated which prevents any action from the player. Lastly, Yhan-Zhu may give the players Sudsy which allows them to jump really high. Why? The Wall of Suds of course.
Temple of the Jade Serpent
Rising high above the east coast of Pandaria, the Temple of the Jade Serpent stands as a sacred monument to the legendary pandaren emperor Shao Hao’s victory over the Sha of Doubt thousands of years ago. Recently, a disastrous conflict in the Jade Forest unleashed the sha, and several of the entities have raided the temple’s most treasured stores of wisdom and knowledge.
The Temple of the Jade serpent has four bosses and is considerably more challenging than Stormstout Brewery.
Wise Mari is the first boss fight and has two phases. The first phase consists of several abilities. Corrupted Waters does 5000 shadow damage every 0.25 seconds. Wise Mari will also create a Water Bubble around him making him immune and knocking back players that touch the bubble. Hydrolance does 20,000 damage when it ripples and 28500 when it explodes. Wise Mari will also summon living water with Call Water and Corrupt Living Water. Corrupt Droplet is the four corrupt droplets that are formed after a Corrupt living Water is defeated and they will attack nearby players. Also when a Corrupt Living Water is defeated it will create a puddle of Sha Residue at that spot which inflicts 10,000 frost damage every second to any player in the puddle. You will want to avoid standing in it as with any WoW encounter.
After the Corrupted Living Water are defeated the second phase begins with Wise Mari bursting his bubble dealing frost damage and knockback. Lastly, Wise Mari will channel a stream of water knocking back players and dealing more frost damage. There is a lot going on in this fight, but it isn’t too difficult if you mind the puddles on the floor.
Next is the library event which will spawn one of two encounters: Zao Sunseeker or Yaungol.
In phase one of Zao Sunseeker the suns will cast Sunfire Rays. When they are killed they will Extract Sha. When all suns and Haunted Sha have been defeated phase two begins and Zao Sunseeker will become corrupted and quickly continue to fire Hellfire Arrows. The second event is the Trial of Yaungol which consists of two bosses Anger and Strife. Strife will get a buff as he is DPS’d increasing his damage. He will become immune to all damage received when his buff reaches ten. Anger and Strife cast Agony which does a large amount of shadow damage. This fight can be quite tricky the first time and really requires a good healer and the party’s ability to switch between the two mobs while the tank maintains aggro. The shadow damage is very nasty.
Liu Flameheart is an easy fight though she does have many abilities. Her abilities are melee and fire based. This is essentially just a tank and spank encounter.
Lastly is the Sha of Doubt, easily the hardest fight in The Temple of the Jade Serpent. The Sha of Doubt only uses four abilities but they are used very effectively making for a challenging fight. The first thing that the player needs to know about this fight is that the doors shut so the entire party needs to run in including ranged or they will get left out. Wither Will is the first of the Sha of Doubt’s abilities. The Sha of Doubt will target to random players and wither their will causing 32,375 to 37,625 shadow damage. Next the Sha of Doubt can employ Touch of Nothingness which periodically inflicts 32,375 to 37,625 Shadow damage to a nearby player every two seconds. One of the hardest abilities to survive, especially for squishies, is the Figments of Doubt which forces the player to confront their own doubt in the form of their shadow self. Each Figment of Doubt siphons energy from the player. When completely infused with energy, the figment explodes and inflicts 73,125 to 76,875 shadow damage while healing the Sha of Doubt for 10% of its total health. These figments must be killed quickly and the tank will need to try to pick them all up to get them off the cloth wearers especially.
These two dungeons are still very much a work in progress. There are bugs and issues with loading screens and zoning back into Stormstout Brewery lands the player in a pit of bunnies. Again that may or may not be intentional. One quest NPC is definitely bugged at this time. However, these dungeons are very much typical of WoW dungeons and are both fun and challenging if a bit quirky. There are some exciting changes happening with dungeons and raids in Mists of Pandaria. Stay tuned!
