Project Lore: Five dudes. Four cameras. One World of Warcraft.

Valithria Dreamwalker lays dormany, enthralled by the Lich King's minions.

It’s been a long, long week on the PTR, and the final night of raid testing on the current schedule featured Valithria Dreamwalker, a member of the Green Dragonflight held captive by the Lich King for experimentation and, most likely, a Frostwyrm-style transformation (don’t they already suffer enough from the Emerald Dream?). It’s up to you to stop Arthas from getting his cold, undead hands around the neck of yet another Brood, which means it’s time for a rescue mission! Two videos, and far more spoilers, wait beyond. Read on if you dare!

I mentioned in my post on the Sindragosa fight that mini-bosses are becoming part-and-parcel of the Icecrown Citadel experience. The area leading up to Valithria features a gauntlet-style event with several sets of enemies leading up to a Val’kyr Headmistress, the sinister Sister Svalna. Several brands of Ymirjar defenders stand between you and the winged menace, but don’t worry, you’ve got a little back-up in the form of the Ebon Hand. Led by Crok Scourgebane, these NPCs will both assist you in waylaying the attackers, and occasionally fall to victim to one of Svalna’s spear attacks (it’s scripted, so there’s nothing you can do to save them).

Since there are about 4-5 packs to deal with before the mini-boss, I only recorded about half the vent, but you can get the gist of things from the following video:

With the trash out of the way, the path to Valithria Dreamwalker is (nearly) clear. Upon entering the room where the great dragon sleeps, you’ll see several Archmages channeling a spell that keeps her in a state of dormancy. Engage them to start the encounter, but don’t worry about attacking the beast. There’s an interesting twist to this fight, and you’ve got worse things to deal with anyway. Watch the video to find out what’s up:

As you can see, it’s a lengthy encounter with the burden placed on healers to win the battle instead of DPS. Though there is no enrage (and really, how could there be since there is no “boss” to do so?), if you can’t heal Valithria to full within a reasonable amount of time, adds will eventually come faster and in greater numbers, overwhelming the rest of the raid. Individually, the mobs aren’t all that difficult, but you’ll start to feel the heat once they really start ganging up on you.

This is the first of the test raids that I’ve actually completed so far and I have the members of Forthright (Sisters of Elune) to thank for it. When I was worried that I might not get a chance to see the encounter, they graciously allowed me to shack up with ‘em after a failed first group. Clearly, they were well-prepared and well-organized enough to see it Valithria through to the end.

I suppose we’ll have to wait until Monday for the next round of tests, but for the time being, I’m kind of beat. I think I’m going to take the rest of the weekend off…

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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, PTR 3.3: Sindragosa Raid Encounter [Video], Mo’ Money, Mo’ Problems: Start Hording For Patch 3.3, Icecrown Citadel Raid Preview,

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