The frozen earth of Icecrown roils with throngs of the undead Scourge, reanimated bodies so numerous that there are few physical locations where the Horde and the Alliance can build their camps and strongholds. Instead, the defenders of Azeroth take to the sky.
Two gunships, the Skybreaker of the Alliance and Orgrim’s Hammer, named for the former Warchief of the Horde, patrol the skies of Icecrown. Early in the campaign against the Lich King, these grand vessels were used to scout overland terrain, where they frequently came into open conflict with each other, brightening the skies with their cannon fire.
Now, in the wake of the Argent Tournament, the enemies of the Scourge have finally gathered to lay siege to Icecrown Citadel. With the fortress nearly impenetrable on land and the spires of the citadel touching the sky at their peaks, it’s become clear to the leaders of both the Horde and the Alliance that an aerial assault, spearheaded by these two gunships, is the only way to infiltrate Arthas’s stronghold.
Two prominent warriors have stepped forward to lead the attack: Muradin Bronzebeard of the Alliance and High Overlord Saurfang of the Horde. Both seek to defeat the Lich King and spare the living from another plague — but there are other, more personal stakes for these heroes. Saurfang seeks to uncover the fate of his son, whose body was lost at the battle of the Wrath Gate, while Muradin, bearing the weight of Arthas’s atrocities, seeks justice, closure, and possibly even redemption for his former student.
And yet, even with their noble goals, there will be no shared glory for the Alliance and the Horde in this attack. The dock atop Icecrown Citadel is only big enough for one ship. Halfway up the spires, the Skybreaker and Orgrim’s Hammer are fated to clash again in a storm of gunfire, swinging blades, and bellowing warriors. Foremost in this mayhem are the combat crews, veteran heroes who’ve already begun the assault on Icecrown and who will fight to the last for a chance at Arthas — heroes like you.
Tags: Alliance, Argent, Argent Tournament, Arthas, Azeroth, Chance, citadel, Deadly, Deadly Fireworks, fro, From, Frozen, gunship, Gunship Battle, High Overlord Saurfang, horde, Icecrown, Icecrown Citadel, King, Last, Lich, Lich King, Muradin Bronzebeard, Orgrim's Hammer, plague, Saurfang, Scourge, Skybreaker, Spire, Storm, The Lich King, The Spire, Undead, warcraft, warrior, warriors, world of warcraft, wrath, Wrath Gate
Posted on 2009 under Guides, Raids, Wrath of the Lich King |
22
Dec
The Icecrown Gunship Battle is an encounter in Icecrown Citadel that involves an aerial battle between the gunships Skybreaker and Orgrim’s Hammer. Muradin Bronzebeard and High Overlord Saurfang are the gunship commanders.
IMPORTANT: All enemy NPCs except the Commanders and the Battle-Mage/Sorceror will gain experience the longer they are left alive, starting from Regular and progressing to Experienced, then Veteran, and finally Elite. At Experienced rank, opposing NPCs have damage increased by 30% and attack/cast speed increased by 20%. At Veteran rank this rises to 60% and 40% respectively, and finally at Elite rank this buff rises to 120% and 80% respectively. Thus it is important for gunners and boarding party members to pick off enemy NPCs when higher priority targets are absent, as enough Elite NPCs will stress the healers considerably.
Overview
The objective is to deal more siege damage to the enemy gunship than it does to yours. Siege damage is done by firing the guns on your gunship. The enemy gunship will attack yours mainly using rockets and hand-held ranged weapons. The enemy will periodically attack your ship with a boarding party, which must be tanked and killed before they can do too much damage. Ranged DPS are preferred for the defensive party. The enemy will periodically deploy a mage to stand on their deck and freeze the guns of your ship preventing them from firing, and this mage must be killed to free your guns so that you can keep damaging the enemy gunship. In order to do this you should form a boarding party of your own consisting of a single tank, some healers and some damage dealers (preferably melee). The boarding party can jump to the enemy gunship and back using jetpacks provided by your gunship’s engineer. The tank must tank the enemy commander while being healed. The enemy commander will gain a stacking buff over time while in combat that increases his damage, so the boarding party must kill the enemy mage before the commander gains enough buffs to kill the tank. If any time remains the boarding party can also kill the rocket teams. After this it is essential that the entire boarding party jumps back to the friendly ship in order for the enemy commander to be left alone and lose his stacking buff before the next mage comes out and freezes your guns. The enemy ranged infantry can be killed by the defending ranged DPS while they are not killing an enemy boarding party. If all of these things are done you should comfortably win the DPS race.
Tactics by Role
Defenders
Their main role is to eliminate enemy boarding parties that will teleport over. While there is no boarding party they can kill the ranged DPS on the enemy gunship, hence ranged DPS are preferred for this group. The boarding party can be tanked by a single tank, who will of course need healers. The enemy rocketeers will fire rockets at your gunship that should be avoided by looking for the (easy to spot) target markers and moving away before the rocket lands. The boarding party consists of Sergeants and Reavers/Marines. The Sergeants need to be tanked as they hit very hard and can flatten a non-tank. Reavers and Marines can also hit moderately hard but not hard enough to one-shot clothies (unless at elite rank). Any members of the enemy boarding party which have no raid members or NPCs on their aggro table will instead attack the ship with depth charges; this must be avoided at all costs, as this ability is extremely damaging and will sink your gunship in less than a minute if left unchecked.
Gunners
Their main role is to damage the enemy gunship while their guns are not frozen. While their guns are frozen they should leave their guns and help with another activity, such as defending against enemy boarding parties, or damaging the enemy’s ranged DPS. They can also join the boarding party and help kill the mage, but once the mage is down they should jump back immediately to fire their guns again rather than stay and kill the rocketeers.
Guns have two different attacks: a normal shot bound to “1″ which fires a shot that deals 1000 siege damage to the opposing ship, as well as some damage to any enemy NPCs caught in the blast radius. The normal shot also generates between 6 to 10 “heat”, which fills up the heat gauge on the gun (begins at 0, fills at 100, will lose 1-2 heat per second if the gun is not fired). The second shot is a heated shot which immediately expels all the accumulated heat on the gun and deals 1000 damage as well as additional damage for each unit of heat, up to 5000 damage with a nearly filled bar. If the heat meter reaches or exceeds 100, the gun overheats and both shots are locked for the next five seconds until all heat has been drained. Gunners should note that both gunshots not only damage the opposing ship but also damage enemy NPCs, thus shots should be angled at rocketeers/mortar soldiers to wear them down and kill them before they stack to dangerous levels of experience.
Boarding Party
Make sure you pick up a jump pack from your gunship’s engineer and equip it before the fight, as it is a clothing item and cannot be equipped once in combat. The jump pack is used by ‘using’ the item of clothing and selecting a destination to jump to (you can practice before the battle starts). They can defend against enemy boarding parties while not busy, but should remain ready to jump over to the enemy ship when the mage comes out (which will be announced by a raid emote by the enemy commander). A single tank is required who should jump first with his healers shortly after to keep the enemy commander busy. The commander has a ranged attack but should be tanked at melee range, as his ranged attack applies a stacking impale dot that is weak at first but will quickly become unhealable. The other enemy crew members will not bother you. The DPS should kill first the mage, then try to kill the rocketeers, and then jump back. The tank and healers should then make sure they jump back together to avoid being killed on the way out. The boarding party is on a time limit and must at least kill the mage before the enemy commander gets enough buff stacks to endanger the tank (around 20-25 stacks, though this will depend on the strength of your tank and healers and cooldowns used). The boarding party must all leave and wait for the enemy commander to lose his buff before they can return. For this reason the boarding party should only jump over when the mage freezes your guns, and not jump over early. It is not necessary or desirable to DPS the enemy commander – he is only tanked.
Be very careful about units you leave behind on the enemy gunship, namely summoned pets and totems. For example, totems left on the deck of the enemy gunship can keep the enemy boss attacking (and thereby refreshing his stacking damage buff) between two sorceror rounds. This can cause the damage buff to stack as high as 40 to 50, which is untankable. If you drop totems or summon pets on board the enemy ship, recall them as you’re leaving. In addition, after jumping back, be sure to move a comfortable distance away from the edge to ensure that the enemy commander breaks combat with you and resets, as he can use his ranged attack across the gap if you are too close to the edge, which will keep him in combat and delay losing his buff.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdsJTkkR7O4&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
Tags: About, aggro, Alone, Armor, armory, boarding, boss, buff, check, citadel, Don, DPS, Eck, Fire, first, fro, From, Frozen, gain experience, gunship, Gunship Armory, Gunship Battle, healer, healers, High Overlord Saurfang, Icecrown, Icecrown Citadel, jetpacks, King, meter, Muradin Bronzebeard, Orc, Orgrim's Hammer, Patch 3.3.0, raid, Saurfang, Skybreaker, Summon, tank, Target, Time, Weapon, Weapons, wow
Grand Entrance of the Citadel
After breaching the fortress, players will face a legion of undead guards directed to repel any invaders. Commanding the defenders is Lord Marrowgar, a monstrosity fused together from the bones of the undead. Supreme Overseer of the Cult of the Damned, Lady Deathwhisper is the next opponent. She bolsters the faith of her followers by promising them the opportunity to give eternal service in undeath.
As they continue their ascent, the Alliance and Horde heroes ultimately end up outside of the citadel where their hatred for one another erupts into a battle for dominance over the Rampart of Skulls. Players will join in battle alongside High Overlord Saurfang on the Orgrim’s Hammer gunship or Muradin Bronzebeard on The Skybreaker in a unique encounter. Each faction will protect its gunship and try to destroy the other one in a back-and-forth battle to see who is truly worthy of facing the Lich King.
The Lich King’s most powerful death knight then stands as the final obstacle for the heroes to enter the upper reaches of the citadel.
The Wings of Icecrown Citadel
After the heroes of the Alliance or Horde defeat the other faction on the gunships and wipe out the creatures near the entrance, players will venture into an area with three separate wings. Here they will face a multitude of terrors that must be vanquished in order to confront the Lich King.
In the Frostwing Halls players will battle alongside the Ashen Verdict and push into the lair of the deadly frost wyrm Sindragosa, who continues to strengthen her brood with the help of Ymirheim’s vrykul. Along the way, the heroes will stumble upon Valithria Dreamwalker, a captured green dragon whom the Scourge is using as a test subject for their own ends….
The Plagueworks contains the most twisted experiments ever produced by the Scourge. In this wing players will face two new forms of abomination in Festergut and Rotface, who currently protect their devious creator, Professor Putricide.
The Crimson Hall contains the leaders of the San’layn, undead blood elves who oversee the Scourge’s operations throughout Azeroth. The blood-princes Valanar, Keleseth, and Taldaram were raised into undeath by the Lich King to avenge themselves while protecting their blood-queen, Lana’thel.
After clearing all three wings, players will ascend to the Frozen Throne, where the Lich King and his runeblade, Frostmourne, await to deliver them to their deaths….
Tags: Abomination, Alliance, Ashen Verdict, Azeroth, blood elves, citadel, Crimson Hall, Deadly, Death, death knight, dragon, Fall of the Lich King, Festergut, fro, From, Frost, Frost Wyrm, Frostmourne, Frostwing, Frostwing Halls, Frozen, Frozen Throne, gunship, Halls, High Overlord Saurfang, horde, Icecrown, Icecrown Citadel, Keleseth, King, Lana'thel, Lich, Lich King, Lich King's, Lord Marrowgar, Muradin Bronzebeard, Orgrim's Hammer, patch 3.3, Plagueworks, Professor Putricide, Putricide, Rotface, runeblade, San'layn, Saurfang, Scourge, Sindragosa, Skybreaker, Taldaram, The Ashen Verdict, The Frozen Throne, The Lich King, The Plagueworks, Undead, Undeath, Valanar, Valithria, Valithria Dreamwalker, vrykul, Wings, world of warcraft, wow 3.3, wyrm
Posted on 2009 under Cataclysm, Fall of the Lich King, News |
21
Nov
All across the lands of Northrend, many battles have been fought against the vile Scourge. Countless lives have been lost since the Alliance and Horde first reached the frozen wastes, but the champions of Azeroth continue to march forward. Now Icecrown Citadel, the cornerstone of the Scourge’s power and the home base of the Lich King, is their final target. Tirion Fordring and the Argent Crusade have forged an alliance with Darion Mograine and the Knights of the Ebon Blade to form the Ashen Verdict. The strongest combatants of this coalition, along with the champions of the Alliance and Horde, will lead the charge against the citadel.
Icecrown Citadel - The Frozen Throne
This dungeon reveals the culminating story events and battles of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion pack. Join the legendary heroes Highlord Tirion Fordring, High Overlord Saurfang, Muradin Bronzebeard, Highlord Darion Mograine, and King Varian Wrynn in an epic battle against the Scourge and their master.
Icecrown Citadel - The Frozen Throne
Icecrown Citadel features 10- and 25-player versions of the raid dungeon, and each version has 12 encounters. Each encounter can be fought in either normal or Heroic mode, and players can use a new user interface feature to toggle easily between difficulties. The rewards in the raid dungeon start at item level 251 in the normal mode with 10-player encounters, increase to item level 264 in the Heroic mode with 10 players and the normal mode with 25-player encounters, and then finally reach item level 277 in the Heroic mode with 25 players.
Icecrown Citadel - The Frozen Throne
