Vintage bookshelf games – With patch 3.3 Blizzard added a new raid to the World of Warcraft, Icecrown Citadel, home to the Lich King and the final battle between him and the champions of Azeroth.
The first boss in this raid of this one of the best vintage bookshelf games was Lord Marrowgar, visible from the entrance of Icecrown Citadel (ICC), and reachable after several trash pulls.
Lord Marrowgar: The Basics
Lord Marrowgar is a hovering, multi-headed skeleton carrying a giant axe, and is Arthas’ first line of defence. He has 6,000,000 hp on 10 man mode and 23,000,000 hp on 25 man. The Lord Marrowgar fight is composed of two phases, one in which he is stationary and held by the tanks, and one in which he speeds around the room, targeting random raid members.
Lord Marrowgar: Phase 1
Lord Marrowgar begins the fight facing the raid in this one of the most popular vintage bookshelf games. Two tanks will be necessary for him on 10 man, and three on 25 man. The tanks need to run in, pick up aggro, and then turn him away from the raid. The melee DPS can then set up behind him with the ranged and healers spread out behind the melee DPS in a semi-circle. Lord Marrowgar has a large hitbox, so melee don’t need to stand right on top of him. The ranged and healers also need to stand relatively close to the melee, due to the “Bone Spike” ability.
The first ability which the boss has in phase 1 is “Sabre Lash”. This is used on his next melee swing and splits 200% of his normal melee damage between up to three targets standing in front of him. On 10 man, two tanks can soak up this damage, but on 25 man it will take three. This means that the only people in front of the boss should be the tanks, and they both need to be there. If a tank is alone, they will eat a 30k hit from the boss on a sabre lash. In this respect, the fight resembles Koralon the Flame watcher from VoA. The tanks need to stand on top of each other to soak Sabre Lash.
The next thing that Marrowgar will do in this one of the most famous vintage bookshelf games is cast “Bone Spike”. This will cause a spike (1 on 10 man and 3 on 25) to come up out of the ground and impale a player. It will do 10% of their maximum hp in damage every second. These spikes can be targeted and destroyed and they must be the focus of the group until the affected player is freed. If the group has enough DPS, one or two high damage dealers can be assigned to the spikes while everyone else remains on the boss. It is for the sake of the spikes that the ranged and healers must not stand too far from the melee, so that if they are spiked the melee can quickly get to them.
The last thing Marrowgar will do in phase 1 is cast “Coldflame” which sends out a line of blue flame from him into the raid. If the melee is in tight enough, they can avoid this flame, but it will also show up as a lighter blue color before it is actually cast, giving raid members a chance to get out of the way. As always, fire is bad, so don’t stand in it.
Lord Marrowgar: Phase 2
After 30 seconds, Lord Marrowgar will cast “Bone Storm” and enter phase 2. During this phase he does an uninterruptible whirlwind continuously, then targets and charges random players. When he reaches the targeted player, he will stop and unleash four lines of cold flame at right angles from his body. Once he has hit four players, hit will stop and return to phase 1.
As mentioned, Bone Storm cannot be interrupted, and the boss can also not be avoided – he moves extremely quickly. The healers in this one of the most played vintage bookshelf games will have to be on their toes for raid healing those affected by the bone storm, which does somewhere in the nature of 8k over 3 seconds to the affected player, and the entire raid will have to avoid standing in fire. This can be difficult after the second or third target change, as there will be a lot of fire on the ground.
Lord Marrowgar: The Transition
It is the transition between phase 2 and back to phase 1 that will wipe most groups. The problem is that Marrowgar has a threat wipe after Bone Storm has ended, and will attack the first target which attacks him, or is closest to him. This means that after the third target has been hit, all DPS on the boss needs to stop except for the tanks.
It is crucial that both tanks pick him up immediately after the Bone Storm ends, and turn him away from the raid, usually to face one of the walls of the chamber, as the first thing he will do after going back to phase one will be a Sabre Lash. If a DPS or healer is in the way, they will die. If one of the tanks is alone, they will, as mentioned above, take at least a 30k hit. This is a tank-intensive fight, as they need to make sure to stand on top of each other, and move togehter. Marking the tanks can be very useful in this fight.
Lord Marrowgar: Some Final Advice
As long as the group is paying attention to fires, killing spikes when they happen and letting the tanks get aggro after phase 2 ends, the fight is not bad. A well-geared group will not have an issue in burning down Marrowgar before the enrage timer goes off, and so long as the healers and ranged stay near the melee, the bone spikes can be dealt with easily.
The hunter skill “misdirect” can be very useful in this fight as well, both to begin it and to ensure that the tank picks up aggro after the end of phase 2. With proper set-up and everyone on their game, the raid can easily start getting their first iLevel 251 gear, and move on to their next challenge, Lady Deathwhisper in this one of the most challenging vintage bookshelf games.