Labels

9.23.2011

How to priest "Through a Glass, Darkly"

Last night I got all my Eternal Embers for the legendary questline, so off to Coldarra I went for the next stage of the quest, Through a Glass, Darkly. Now if you've never tried to solo a tough group quest or dungeon this will probably be the single hardest thing you've done in WoW by yourself, it's meant to be a bit of a challenge and certain parts really wear the novelty of it thin. I refused to watch any videos or read any guides beforehand and I'm glad I did, but if you find yourself a little stuck, here's my guide for how to complete the quest with a regular old shadow priest raiding spec. Bear in mind I did this at ~375 ilvl so you may struggle more or less with some parts.

Load up with food and water, and in case you struggle, bring some health pots, buff food and a flask or two. Make sure you have keybindings for shielding and healing yourself, Psychic Scream and most importantly to use Dispel Magic on enemies. If you're saved to Malygos give up now because according to wowhead comments you're stuffed until the next reset. If you get into trouble at any point, a handy trick throughout the encounter is to bust out your Shadowfiend and then Fade to let him tank for a few seconds. Head to Coldarra in Borean Tundra and you'll be treated to a cutscene. Talk to Tarecgosa and head into the Nexus, the entrance is at the bottom down a ramp.

Go to Tarecgosa and chat, buff the both of you and follow her. She'll cast Invisibility on both of you to get past the Nexus Warden although later she'll conveniently forget how to do this. Follow her to the next mob and dps away while avoiding the spikes that appear under your feet, it has a buff you can dispel but I didn't find it necessary. After a few seconds a doggy will add, these hateful creatures are more dangerous than they look because they will often cast Spell Lock and can also buff themselves although again dispelling it isn't strictly necessary. The key is just to be watchful and nuke it down as soon as you see it, I used dots because you'll be dodging spikes but Mind Spike could work well too. You'll probably get a couple before the big guy dies.

Follow Tarecgosa some more dodging through the jets. She'll tank the next Sentinel while you should be killing the dogs, dot both then focus one down, followed by the other, then take down the Sentinel. Remember to be shielding yourself as much as possible.

Run forward a little and Tarecgosa will freeze you (y u no invis me?), wait it out and she'll bugger off suddenly forgetting all about you and your safety. Don't worry, she'll be fine, sorta, you on the other hand now have three doggies incoming and face the first time you're really in danger of dying if you don't do everything right. If you're closer to the passage Tarecgosa ran down, the dogs should spawn from where you came from. Shield, dot one or two of them up and as soon as they're in range hit Psychic Scream and nuke one of the dotted dogs followed by the other. Finish up the remaining dog and sigh because you're still in combat. Heal up and regen mana with Dispersion, you'll need a fair bit for the next challenge.

The corridor leading up is full of low health adds that are frozen but will break out when you're within around 15yds. I tried a few tactics and I can assure you, going slowly and carefully doesn't work because they respawn in seconds, similarly rushing through is pointless because you'll just grab too many to deal with when you have to stop. You need to go at just the right speed so you get far enough past the respawns, which means trying to spawn two to four at a time and Mind Spiking and insta Mind Blasting them. It's real easy at the right pace and otherwise impossible so good luck and try not to throw your monitor out the window if you die and have to do all the previous sections again.

When you reach the top you'll still be in combat so once again heal up and regen some mana. There are two Sentinels at half health channelling on Tarecgosa, who has somehow managed to get herself captured despite being known to the guards and allowed to walk about freely a few moments before. You can engage one at a time from maximum range so you might as well take the GCD to dispel their buff, then they'll be a walkover. When you attack the second one Tarecgosa will join in.

Follow your scatterbrained dragon buddy once more, she'll stop to breathe on a wall and you'll face off against against Mid Level Boss Dog. Same deal as the regular doggies with added Don't Stand In The Fire. You should probably dispel the buff to make your life easier.

Next up you'll kill stuff on platforms then click to jump to those platforms. Shield yourself, dps things down and you'll be done before you know it. This is probably the easiest part of the whole encounter but if you have any difficulties you can click one of the four orbs at the edges of the larger platforms for a shield. If you're unlucky, on the very last platform you might aggro one of the patrolling mobs from below but it shouldn't be too much of a problem. The last platform will fall to the ground below, try to click an orb before they disappear for one last shield.

Time to meet another annoying mob. Same annoying counterspell but nothing particularly special about killing them. You'll see quite a few towards the ramp on your left but as you get close Tarecgosa will one shot all of them for you, having suddenly remembered she's an ancient, magic wielding badass. I guess your brain gets a bit addled after a few millennia of doing so little no one has ever heard of you. (Yes, I know, we were trying to sneak in and now we're not). Anyway, if you're lucky she may even take out a few of the ones you'd otherwise have to fight by yourself, not sure what triggers her but it's probably how close to the ramp you are so maybe try heading straight over there to save yourself some fighting.

Wow is it time for the final boss already? I've only been here, like, forever, solving rubbish trial and error puzzles with limited CC, a terrible interrupt if I even specced into it and no kiting tools. Fortunately if you die now you'll have a portal at the entrance to take you right back here. You'll probably need it.

Head up the ramp. Thyrinar will incapacitate Tarecgosa and start pelting you with spells. The most important thing to do is watch for him buffing himself with Twilight Restoration and because we're not a filthy, cheating mage all we can do is dispel it as soon as possible. I'd even recommend setting him on focus and adding a warning for it in your addon of choice (Power Auras Classic, WeakAuras, TellMeWhen etc), it's kinda important because it'll heal him and make the fight last so much longer, you don't want to miss it. You want that warning for your focus target because you'll be switching off to nuke a Twilight Invader every so often, which will come one at a time from the ramp. Spot them early and deal with them quickly. The only thing that'll really do for you here is if you get caught by the fire breath Thyrinar will chase you with, ideally you'll be standing by one side of the ramp and kite the breath around the outside in a U shape to the other, leaving the ramp clear to get to the adds quickly. After a while Tarecgosa will give a haste buff but nothing really changes, just keep at it until the boss is eating dust. This fight is a bit of a war of attrition, try to shield yourself every opportunity and remember your Fade/Shadowfiend trick for any adds that are giving you trouble, I'd recommend trying to save it for the second one that comes because I found it lined up with being chased by the breath in a really dangerous way. Renew won't do a lot for you but it's quite a long fight and it'll add up, there's only so much you can cast while running away anyhow.

Interact with the eye in front of Tarecgosa to finish up. Yay, a cutscene! Try not to think too hard about how implausible what you just saw is and you're off to the next step of the quest chain. Well done you.

No comments:

Post a Comment