A walk-through of the Fall of Theramore scenario from the Alliance side
The Fall of Theramore is live on European servers, so as your spy across the pond I thought I'd run it as soon as possible to bring you a review and how-to from the Alliance side. Please note that if you don't want spoilers, don't read this. This post is going to be very spoiler-heavy if you want to be surprised by Theramore's fall.
Last warning! Spoilers behind the cut!
The cutscene before the scenario shows a horde zeppelin flying over Theramore, the eagle-eyed will notice the Goblin Captain saying that the Horde are going to "turn this place into a sinkhole". The horde zeppelin then drops a mana bomb onto the centre of Theramore, blowing the place to smithereens.
This scenario is done as a group of three. Your trio is then dropped on a ship in the harbour of Theramore. Your group could be 3 DPS, as long as you can provide some off-heals here and there, I've done it a few times with 3 DPS now, but as an elemental shaman I have considerable healing at my disposal! A tanking class would be handy, but not vital. These mobs don't hit hard, and in my conquest point PvP gear I didn't take much damage, but was able to one-shot lesser enemies. There are elites on each ship, one at the end of the first pier, and the three bosses. As ever, keep an eye on anything with a name!
The Fall of Theramore is in six stages:
Stage One: Welcome to Theramore
Defend the ship from oncoming Horde!
And that's exactly what you do. There are a couple of waves of horde coming towards the ship, but once you've taken the first group out you can start progressing along the pier towards Theramore itself, killing as much as takes your fancy along the way. Once the ship is "defended", you'll automatically move on to...
Stage Two: Sweep the Harbor
You've got 3 captains to slay, three ships to burn and 20 Rok'nah invaders to take down. Your first target should be the Horde ship to the left of the dock you've arrived on, filled with several very squishy mobs, one captain, and a leaky oil barrel. To torch the ship, click on the oil barrel, and you're away! Then head on down the pier towards the island, turning either left or right to fight your way to the second Horde ship, kill the patrols, kill the captain, torch the ship. Then rinse and repeat for whichever side you didn't do.
Stage Three: Into the Ruins
As the name suggests, we're leaving the pier and heading into the ruins of Theramore. Our objectives now are to take out eight more of those pesky Rok'nah invaders, as well as Gash'nul and his two Vicious Wyvern sidekicks. Again, nothing hits particularly hard in full PvP gear, but if you were to go in here as three mages at the minimum item level you might want to pull out some CC. Gash'Nul summons Storm Totems, which you are advised to either avoid or destroy, and groups without a healer would certainly be advised to follow this advice. Once he hits the deck, then you're moving on to...
Stage Four: The Lady Proudmoore
All you have to do for stage four is locate Jaina. Given that you can almost see her from where Gash'nul falls, it's not that hard, she's hanging out in the crater with the mana bomb, and six mobs who she has considerately frozen in ice blocks. They don't get broken out by AoE, but you don't need to know that just yet, as Jaina has an assignment for you...
Stage Five: Destroy the Destroyer
Jaina's going to secure the artifact while she sends you off to deal with a more pressing concern. Head west, up the slope out of the huge crater left by the mana-bomb.
You need to retrieve three banners, and take down a Horde siege engine called Gatecrusher. The banners are all surrounded by packs of mobs, again, if you're raid geared you're not going to struggle with them. Lower geared players should be far more cautious! They are obviously named melee and caster mobs. Once you've taken them down, grab a banner. Once you have a banner, you gain a 15% damage done buff, so it's probably a good idea to take one each.
It's probably an idea, again especially at lower gear levels, to clear the area and grab the three banners before engaging Gatecrusher. If the siege engine isn't immediately visible once you've grabbed the banners, don't worry, like a fel reaver it's surprisingly stealthy for something of its size. It will likely be hiding behind the wall, and reappear through the hole in the wall to the right of the gate. Gatecrusher targets one of your party, then launches a large bomb at them. Especially if you don't have good healing, don't be standing in its targeting circle when the attack lands!
Final Stage: The Last Stand!
Once Gatecrusher's down, hot-foot it back over to Jaina, who's still in the crater with her icy buddies. She will summon a group of water elementals to fight by your side, while you protect her from the Horde onslaught. Don't concern yourself too much with mobs attacking Jaina at first, she's pretty hard-wearing and will start making a fuss if she's struggling. At this point, any tanking class would be handy, as the mobs, while not really tough, are numerous, and do hit relatively hard. If you have a plate-wearer in your group, it's probably a good idea to ask them nicely to try to aggro things first. If you're in lower level gear, watch your AoE, as it's easy to over-aggro. You can pick them off one pack at a time, the Water Elementals tank them unless out-aggroed.
After a short while, Warlord Rok'Nah will appear. He has weapon-based abilities, as there are warnings that he has drawn his sword and shield, presumably reducing his damage taken. Once he hits low health, he will drop his shield, and draw a dagger, inflicting more damage, but taking more.
When Rok'Nah's down, the scenario is complete! Jaina thanks you profoundly, explaining that, with the focusing iris at the centre of the mana bomb removed, it becomes nothing more than a testament to Garrosh's brutality.
Once you've completed the scenario for the first time, Jaina uses the in-game mail to send you a Theramore Tabard, which allows you to plant a Theramore Banner. It's a seriously pretty tabard, the Theramore anchor in gold on a white background.
And using it generates this rather attractive banner, which you can position with your mouse in your near vicinity. Each completion will also earn you Spoils of Theramore, placed in your bags upon completion of the scenario, which for me, so far, has yielded nothing but fireworks. It can, however, drop 384 weapons and armor. Good luck!
It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!
