Utgarde Keep Guide
Utgarde Keep is one of two instances located in central Howling Fjord, one of the two zones that serve as starting zones for Northrend. It is intended for characters fresh off the boat to Northrend; no special preperation is necessary.
Quests:
Horde only: “A Score to Settle”, given by High Executor Anselm at Vengeance Landing as the last part of a small chain, requires the slaying of Prince Keleseth.
Both Factions: “Disarmament” and “Ingvar Must Die!,” both given by an NPC in the very front of the instance as soon as you zone in. The former requires five Vyrkul Weapons found in weapon racks throughout the instance. The latter is for the head of the last boss, Ingvar the Plunderer.
Boss Strategies:
Prince Keleseth
The first boss encountered in Utgarde. Prince Keleseth’s main attack is a simple Shadowbolt on his primary target. Occasionally he will encase a random player in a Frost Tomb for 20 seconds, stunning the player and causing 400 damage per second. The Frost Tomb is target-able, and should be killed by unaffected players as quickly as possible. He will also raise Vyrkul Skeletons five at a time; these are weak adds that can be killed by DPS fairly easily. Keleseth will revive the five skeletons where they die, so if kept together they can be quickly AoE’d down as soon as they pop back up. The fight is a simple matter of wearing down Keleseth while effectively switching targets to the frost tombs and skeletons when necessary.
Skarvald & Dalronn
These two bosses are pulled at the same time. Dalronn is a caster who only casts Shadowbolt and will occasionally drop aggro; the tank should watch him to throw off a quick Taunt to get him back. Skarvald will melee the tank and occasionally charge a random party member, stunning them for a short time, before running back to the tank. The trick is this: when the first of the two bosses is killed, he will come back as an invincible spirit and continue attacking as he did when alive. Only when the second also falls will attacks subside. The tank can still and should continue to target the spirit of the first slain to keep it from losing control and killing the healer. The order you choose to kill each boss does not matter; as long as the group isn’t surprised by the spirit, it’s a simple fight to keep in check.
Ingvar the Plunderer
The Ingvar encounter is separated into two distinct phases, though they abilities he uses in each are mostly similar. The first phase, he will melee the tank — fairly hard, so be prepared — cast Cleave, easily avoidable by having melee DPS stand behind him; cast a Staggering Roar, doing a small amount of damage to all group members and interrupting spell casting for six seconds; and Smash, a powerful frontal cone attack. The main concern here is Smash. When the tank sees it being cast, he must immediately run around Ingvar to get behind him to avoid the damage (though, if his gear is good enough, he may be able to eat the Smash anyway. Still, better safe than sorry). After his hit points are depleted, Ingvar will be resurrected as a member of the Scourge, and be healed to full. His attacks are mostly the same, but all of them are slightly stronger; He now uses Dreadful Roar, which does about twice the damage of Staggering Roar as shadow damage, and stacks a debuff causing the target to take 5% more shadow damage per stack. Smash is now Dark Smash, which has the same frontal cone mechanic, but also hits every group member for about 3k unavoidable damage and stuns them for three seconds. Finally, he gains Woe Strike, which places a debuff on the target causing anyone who heals him to take a small amount of damage; the healer should be sure to use big heals on the tank when this is up, as many small heals will quickly take their toll on the healer’s health. As long as the tank avoids the Smashes, and the healer picks up the AoE damage going around, Ingvar can be steadily worn down.
