[CC] 99 instances – In their absence, Ost dunhoth

Rooted in lore and expanded by Turbine the instance cluster for In their absence revolves around our favorite undead boy band. Thadur, Fendur, Drugoth, Ivar and Gotheron are gaunt lords created by Morgoth (evil’s upper management) in the First age. Each embodying a facet of evil. Wrapping up the wight-quest lines from Shadows of Angmar

Pre-launch
Before the instance were released 5 mysterious relics popped up around middle-earth. Each of these would have a quest and information about the upcoming instances. Speculation and rumors about what these relics meant. Going around Middle-earth to find these will complete a deed and this or an envelope will send you to Barliman Butterbur to start you on your journey. Alone though, cause in the absence of the Grey Company that have gone south to join Aragorn. Evil has started to stir in the North. And questpacks around Eriador need to be bought.

Northcotton farms
Slapping hobbits taking to a new record? Well, that and the poison element of Thadur the Ravager. The silence of the Shire has gone through the roof as some hobbits have gone missing. As your party makes its way you will find these hobbits caught in spiderwebs, up trees or in cocoons. Legbarthil and eventually Thadur himself brought out the value pack of evil with spiders, goblins and boars. The mobs are easily dispatched and boss 1 and boss 3 are quite easily done if you follow the tactics. The difficulty in the instance is within the damage taken and timing on Thadur himself. Move out of puddles, follow the instructions from him and run away if he asks.

The real fun comes from the easy challenge and your chance to slap some “mind-controlled” hobbits as they make their way for pies. Meanwhile you need to defeat a named cauldron and control your placement of the puddles. Quick, hobbity scenery and a great pick up instance to do with your friends.

Stoneheight
A town taken over after standing in Angmars way in yonder years. Stoneheight is the only instance that doesn’t have a gaunt-lord in it. Instead you’ll face a trio of goblins (and some wolves if you miss click) that depending on your party can be challenged in plenty a way.

On your way to the Dale Truit you’ll come across Bubhoas-grat with it’s massive aoe damage, but the stars of this part are the sleeping wolves. And as the proverb goes, don’t wake sleepings dogs.

The final boss has a nice twist on tier 2 where you’ll have to face both bosses instead of Dale alone. While Dale goes in stealth it becomes a fight about interruption that can be complicated by Buhhosh running amok. Forget to do this or slowed by caltops he might just kill your healer. An easy to finish, but quick to go sour instance if you don’t pay attention.

Lost temple and Sari surma
Rounding out the element with frost and disease the two 6-mans in this cluster feel a bit more generic then the 3-mans. Each instance has plenty of thematic mobs on their way to their first bosses. While Coldbear is the enemy of every burst dps class and the twins are nightmare fuel for any healer or tank. They fall in the middle of a lengthy instance. Each could make a good boss fight in a skirmish, but in the end they don’t tickle my interest.

The 2nd boss in Sari Surma and all the minibosses in Lost temple are extras. We can make a little quiz
Question 1: What is the name of the second boss in Sari Surma?
Question 2: Name any of the mini-bosses in Lost temple inner temple?

Google said it was Osan and that the minibosses had no names. So we can keep it short, atleast the rooms in the Inner temple prepare you for the adds in the final fight.

The stars of the instances are the Gauntlords. Fendur is fight about precision and patience. Drugoth will pull and tuck you around the arena. Each boss gives you the option to go for a quick and speedy kill for your quest or box run. But with a tier 2 or challenge group, both will have a trick up their sleeve. More loot, more challenge and more ways to mess up. Just as the doctor ordered. Could do with a little trimming around the waist.

Ost Dunhoth
A massive raid when released and later cut up into 3 sets of 2 boss fights. Ost dunhoth got the same treatment as Fornost or Helegrod when it became a scaled instance. With a fresh mechanic for each boss and just a few thrash groups before them it would still require plenty of tries to complete.

Wound wing – 3 deadly piglets
Guaredan and 3 mammoth are poised to ride you over as your group makes it way down the 3 corridors. Having to wait at the gates with them bouldering down upon on your group. Praying to illuvatar the other group got to the levers in time to reach the last room.

Slowly dwindling down the morale of these piglets only to find out that these aren’t the dangermouse. The wardens and adds will overwhelm any overzealous group. Complete chaos with these and 3 mumaks running amok with your group still trying to defeat them within 7 minutes for the challenge.

Fear wing – Durins Bane
Thrash mobs being more difficult then the boss happens, the Fear wing needed as much control on these as the mammoths you just disposed off. Easily disposed of with just more dps. But at launch they weren’t a time to let your guard down.

The boss is Durins Bane. The balrog you find at the bottom of Zirik zigil in Moria. Alas it’s just a figment conjured by Duregoth, but it’s the famous balrog in all of it’s purpose. His wip and sword doing a massive amount of frontal aoe, summoning fire all around him and anyone that dares to face him taking a swat of shadow damage all made it fight to remember.

These days the penalty of wiping the raid if 6 people died and the adds are trivial. The wound wing has survived the passing of time a lot better. A raid even still being run as a box run is amendable, but finding a group for the challenge deed is hard.

Disease and poison wing – Frothmar and the reflect trees
Introducing the platforms before Frothmar the giant was a challenge at the time. The damage done by the water was high enough without the adds themselves. Having your ranged classes hit the spirit, before a tank was near enough, would quickly kill then.  But overtime the aura of damage got lessened and the adds and eventually the boss became just a stepping stone to the poison wing.

As with any disease you get a build in immunity. Having a slight relief on the platform was great, but now you wonder what was so bad about those chicken pox you had as a child only to be reminded by the elders in your kin how it truly was back then.

Followed by a classic setup of adds, giving each type a role and a mob group to target on. The beetles doing too much damage to melee them with their shells still intact and the kegrims summoning interrupted or needing to be dispatched as quick as possible.  A quick test of coordination and target switching you’d want for the infamous trees.

Dourbark and Baleleaf
Each of these trees has made its allegiance clear. Red and white are their teams. As are their protectors. Choose a team and stick with it or be killed near instantly. Each boglurker will need to be killed before their Huorn will become vulnerable again. Only if you hit the wrong lurker you’ll lose 25% of your morale and switch colours. Offsetting the delicate balance your raidleader made in each group. Not that much fuzz at lower levels, but if you go on level the trees might heal up again and your raid has to be in tight control or start over again to get the trees in sync again. Lots of snickering to be had while it was a box run.

Ivar and Gortheron
The boss with the longest deed list in the game awaits you. Ivar can be a footstep or your destination in this wing. Ivar is protected by 4 guardians. Each of which can feel like a seperate raid boss in itself. Every guardian has an aura/corruption he can put on himself, if anyone hit that boss he will get a unique debuff depending on his effect.

So you just nuke each boss and remove corruptions then? You can on tier 1, but the challenge is to let the auras run their time making the fight more chaotic as it goes on. Once you defeat a champion the buff he gives himself will be transfered to Ivar himself. Going into this fight with a group of tanks and healers means you can outlast the guardians while you kill Ivar or kill the biggest hardships quickly with a dps raid.

Ivars champions
The hardest and most unique deed, title and item you could get was the Ivars Champion deed. With 4 guardians and Ivar you can make 24 different kill orders. Each and every single one was needed to finish the deed. Over time you could set the level lower and lower and run the instance on t1. At level 65, the only way was to find be in a kin that had some heavily invested 12 players to make sure all the kills were done correctly.

Gortheron
Right after Ivars buddies there is just one guy remaining. Gortheron will call upon all 4 of his pet projects for reinforcements as you dwindle his morale down to nearly 0. We’ll call it 0, but you will have to wait for the only challenger to Draigochs death speech.

How hard the final raid boss is will depend on the time you were killing him and the difficulty. There are a million adds that each add stacks to to Gortheron for a total of 50 * 10 % damage (500%). Dispatch his adds as quickly as you can. Unless you do the challenge and he needs to be at tier 50 (for the shortest time possible, poor tanks).

Ost dunhoth, the mother of all challenge modes
Where as nearly all multi-wing raids are fixed in their level and their difficulty and challenge can be avoided by using a higher level. The fact that challenges are only an option at max level makes them a different story. Erebor, deepening wall and helegrod might have their difficulties, Ost Dunhoth challenge modes might be the most underrated title you can get.