Ready Check: Icecrown Citadel introduction quests, pt III
Halls of Reflection
I don't know the script for Alliance side, but when Sylvanas walks into the Halls of Reflection, she's none to pleased. Confronted with Frostmourne, she's pretty certain she's going to meet her final destiny. She nearly does, ultimately, but I'm trying to avoid the big spoiler at the end. Nonetheless, the climax to this run is quite worth it.
Halls of Reflection is really just one long story event. It's quite worth it, but the fight itself is pretty straightforward. You'll see two waves of adds coming to kill you, before you finally have to flee old Arthas himself. Each wave has its own mini-boss.
The waves are probably more difficult than the boss itself, depending on your tank's ability to handle large groups. The waves have Riflemen, Mages, and Priests. The casters will need to be silenced (or Death Gripped, if you're ex-Scourge yourself) in order to get them to move. Otherwise, just tank and spank them down. Kill the Priest first, or else it will heal its friends and give you a big pain in the butt.
The first mini-boss is Falric. His annoying trick is the occasional Defiling Horror. Even though Falric doesn't attack during your fear, it throws your party into disarray and is pretty frustrating. You're going to want someone in your party who can dispel magic effects in order to handle Impending Despair.
The second mini-boss, Marwyn, is more straightforward. Don't stand in the Well of Corruption and otherwise just burn the guy down as fast as possible.
The final "fight" is with Arthas. Well, not actually. Arthas roughs up Sylvanas a bit, and Sylvanas warns you all to flee. Once you confirm your readiness, you follow the outside path to flee. Arthas stalks you slowly, certainly, and with murder in his eye. He reminded me mostly of Jason Voorhees in this phase. However, Arthas has magic that Jason didn't and will throw giant walls of ice in your way.
Because Arthas has to move slowly, he needs help. He'll summon several waves of undead for you to fight while you try and flee. You have to kill these waves of undead while Sylvanas (or Jaina, if you're Alliance) breaks down each wall of ice. The undead aren't really fantastic or special, but they'll definitely lay some serious damage on your tank. This is an endurance fight, since you won't have much time to drink or such while fleeing.
When you reach the end of the path, Sylvanas will warn you to gird your loins for the final confrontation. Don't worry -- it's not time to fight Arthas yet. But once you've gotten this far, congratulations, you've won.
Summary
This entire faux-attunement series can be done in an hour or two, and each instance goes by pretty quickly. The story is fantastic, and does a great job queuing you to go into the Icecrown Citadel. I think this is a wonderful technique by Blizzard's team. It really helps ground you in the genre and mood of the raid, while helping make sure your characters are adequately geared for those fights.
The gearing part can't be underestimated. Going through these fights in Heroic is probably your last, best check to make sure you can actually handle the Icecrown Citadel raid. Use them as a test. If you get through without much trouble, you're ready to step in to the final raid of Wrath of the Lich King.
We'll pick up Icecrown Citadel next week, starting with Marrowgar.
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