Posted by Amatera on Friday, November 13th, 2009 - 24 Comments
Tags: 3.3, arthas, deathbringer, icc, icecrown citadel, lich king, ptr, saurfang, video, wrath, wrathgate
Deathbringer is one of the few remaining fights not previously tested on the PTR, and perhaps for good reason! The lore surrounding this fight connects right back to one of Wrath of the Lich King’s most iconic events. If you’ve experienced it yourself, then you probably already know which one I’m referring to. If not, please be aware that there are spoilers ahead. Not only will I mention them in passing, but the recording captures the cinematic event that leads up to the encounter, as well.
Elder Saurfang, straight after an intense Gunship Battle.
If there’s something to be said, it is that Saurfang is one tough mother. The attempt you’ll find in video form below was only one of four that our meager group managed to squeeze in during the testing period (woeful disconnects and people randomly leaving because they don’t seem to understand what a test is) was our best, and even then we could barely make a dent in his health.
You see, the main mechanic of this fight is Deathbringer’s ability to both dish out a lot of damage and heal himself in the process. It’s like fighting a super-charged Blood-spec Death Knight, and considering what Saurfang has been turned into, that’s not such a far-fetched comparison.
In addition to this, you’ll have to put up with some Blood Beast adds, whose attacks are both painful, and funnel some of their own damage back to their master in the process. After they start spawning, they will continue to do so throughout the fight ever 15 seconds or so. Dealing with them, as well as keeping DPS on the boss, will no doubt be the key to winning this fight. Check out what I managed to capture below:
Whether it was due to a bug or just over-tuning, I’m not entirely sure, but Saurfang also had an insane dodge chance, certainly above and beyond that of the average boss. Though we failed to kill him, I feel that we were in good company. It seems that few, if any, groups managed to down the Deathbringer in this round of testing. If he goes up again, I fully anticipate Blizzard changing a few things.
Nonetheless, he could end up being one of the toughest fights in Icecrown Citadel, and a good gateway encounter that leads into the second part of the dungeon.
Related Posts: PTR 3.3: Raid Test Schedule 11/6-11/7, PTR 3.3: ICC Raid Testing Schedule (11/18-11/20), PuG With the Blues 3, 3.3: Icecrown Citadel Boss List, (Some) Achievements Revealed, Wipe, 3.3: Icecrown Citadel To Feature “Gated” Content Release,
By cocopuff on Friday, November 13th, 2009 at 8:16 pm
first
By ViperhawkZ on Friday, November 13th, 2009 at 8:31 pm
Wait a minute… I thought Saurfang Jr. was a brown-skinned Mag’hari orc. But in this he has green skin.
Is it just unfinished? Or what?
By Amatera on Friday, November 13th, 2009 at 8:37 pm
@Viper
It’s actually more of an ashen white color since he’s sorta… living impaired now.
By Amatera on Friday, November 13th, 2009 at 8:43 pm
Also @Viper
And if you’re referring to Elder Saurfang, he’s always been green.
By Taskun on Friday, November 13th, 2009 at 9:10 pm
Do they have a different fight for Alliance?
By Amatera on Friday, November 13th, 2009 at 10:35 pm
@Taskun
I don’t think so, though I imagine the dialogue is different (since your hero would be Muradin Bronzebeard).
By antonio on Saturday, November 14th, 2009 at 12:00 am
Cool fight. Brutal, but still a nice post. Thanks.
By Zreena on Saturday, November 14th, 2009 at 2:26 am
Thanks much, Amatera for these posts/vids.
By Amatera on Saturday, November 14th, 2009 at 3:01 am
@Zreena
Hey, no problem. It’s our pleasure to bring you guys *some* sort of videos while…. “other things” are being worked on.
By amidaman on Saturday, November 14th, 2009 at 5:09 am
the alliance will probably be fighting Bolvar Fordragon.
Great, we have to deal with wtfpwned Saurfang, and the alliance pussies get to fight a wimp like Bolvar
By Amatera on Saturday, November 14th, 2009 at 6:44 am
@amidaman
I’m not sure about that, and I suppose it’s quite possible when it goes live, but I believe that everyone, Alliance *or* Horde, tested Saurfang the other day.
By WarlockWookie on Saturday, November 14th, 2009 at 8:17 am
Yeah, Alliance do fight him. When you engage him he says, “Haha, Dwarves!”
By LadyWolf on Saturday, November 14th, 2009 at 4:05 pm
Looks to be a nice ender for the wrathgate events. I wondered what would happen after that. ICC is shaping up to be quite a finish for this xpac. Now I just want to see what happens with Arthas.
Blood DK? Interesting choice. And just my two cents but with all the nerfs they have received, dks definitely are NOT OP any longer. All this “on par with other classes” nonsense has made them not worth playing except as a money getter on a new server. Sad.
By Octaviax on Saturday, November 14th, 2009 at 6:35 pm
@ LadyWolf
lulwut?
Death Knights aren’t OP - you are correct. But that was NEVER the intent or design. That was NEVER the draw of the class.
We play DK’s because we like to play them as a class, who gives a shit as to how powerful they are?
By Displace on Saturday, November 14th, 2009 at 7:12 pm
@LadyWolf
I am offended. I play a DK as my main now, and they are definitely worth playing. It doesn’t matter which tree you spec into, they bring something good to the group/raid.
They are very much worth playing - if you know how to play them. If you don’t like their mechanics that’s fine, but to say they are not worth playing is letting your ignorance show.
By BlahbahBlah on Saturday, November 14th, 2009 at 10:09 pm
I’m gonna wait a while before getting on my dk again. Thanks to the masses of inexperienced, fail dks out there (read: gnome dks) it’s more difficult to get grouped as a death knight than any other class. I think eventually the fails will either get smart or get gone and the dk can be a totally normal class.
By Pygmy on Sunday, November 15th, 2009 at 11:05 am
@ BlahbahBlah
…No its still harder to get a group as a rogue, at least on my server it is.
By BobbyG on Sunday, November 15th, 2009 at 11:35 am
really, its impossible fro me to get into a raid with my resto druid or holy priest!
By BobbyG on Sunday, November 15th, 2009 at 11:36 am
oops it was supposed to be a
By denalo on Sunday, November 15th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
Darn lol i was hopeing we’d have to fight bolvar.hmm mabye he’s in the second half? well still im going to have to switch to an orc/undead warrior to fully enjoy the surfang fight xD
By Alayea on Sunday, November 15th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
To sum up the fight in a word: YIKES. :O
By Togarox on Sunday, November 15th, 2009 at 7:03 pm
By Amatera on Saturday, November 14th, 2009 at 3:01 am
@Zreena
Hey, no problem. It’s our pleasure to bring you guys *some* sort of videos while…. “other things” are being worked on.
Do I sniff a hint that we might see the PL team back in action soon?
Or maybe Amatera just farted… hmm
By Xianghua on Sunday, November 15th, 2009 at 10:44 pm
eeek. That fight looked nasty…. those adds seemed to be coming faster… though that may have been due to your group losing dps people? hard to tell.
By Wallsnipes on Tuesday, November 17th, 2009 at 11:12 pm
i wasnt on to test this fight but i dont think anybody will fight bolvar since the lich king never got to him in the wrathgate video. go back and watch if you dont remember.