Utgarde Pinnacle Guide
The second instance located within Utgarde Keep in Howling Fjord, Utgarde Pinnacle has you fighting the same Vrykul you fought back around level 70, but with a larger Scourge influence.
Quests:
“Junk in My Trunk” and “Vengeance Be Mine!” are the only two quests for the instance, and they’re both given by an NPC located directly inside the portal. The former has you looting various bits of treasure throughout the instance, while the last has you slaying the final boss of the instance, King Ymiron.
Boss Strategies:
Svala Sorrowgrave
As you enter the room of Svala Sorrowgrave, you see her conversing with the Lich King in the midst of a ritual to transform her into a powerful Scourge minion. As soon as this ritual is complete, she turns on you. Besides a Sinister Strikes for additional damage on the tank, and Call Flames for a small amount of AoE damage on the group, her main ability is the Ritual of the Sword. Every once in a while she will tele-port a random group member to the podium in the center of the room and spawn three mobs that channel a stun onto that group member. At the same time, a large sword will slowly descend onto the podium. The remaining four group members must kill these three adds quickly so the stunned group member can escape the sword in time. Even after they’re free, though, it’s important to move away from the podium, as the sword’s damage comes in the form of a powerful AoE that can hit you anyway. After the Ritual is completed Svala will return to the group and the fight repeats itself.
Gortok Palehoof
Soon you’ll come across a “taxidermy” room, filled with five completely immobile beasts. Clear the room of trash before interacting with the nearby orb. The four nearest statues will start coming to life one at a time to fight you; none of these are particularly difficult, but they will tax the group’s mana a bit before the fifth statue eventually activates, who acts as the actual boss. A large magnataur, Gortok Palehoof has three main abilities: Arcing Smash, a frontal cone that should hit no one but the tank; Impale, which hits a random group member and puts a fairly powerful DoT on them; and the biggest worry, Withering Roar, which deals about 2000 damage and reduces everyone’s max health by 500 and stacks indefinitely. If the fight takes too long, eventually maximum health will drop too far that the healer simply can’t pick up the other group members before Impale kills them, so it’s important to DPS quickly. If you move fast, though, Palehoof himself is not too threatening.
Skadi the Ruthless
The Skadi encounter begins as a gauntlet. You must run down a hallway fighting off packs of elite mobs on the way, while Skadi, riding his protodrake Grauf, bathes one half of the hallway in a highly damaging frost aura. Along the way, the mobs will drop harpoons that can be right clicked and looted. At the far end of the hallway are three harpoon launchers. Someone from the group must loot the harpoons and, as Skadi is lining up for his bombing run, launch the harpoons into Grauf to kill him. After enough hits, Skadi himself will jump down to fight the group personally. Alone, though, he’s not much of a threat: he has a whirlwind that can be easily run out of, and will occasionally hit a group member with a Poisoned Spear damage over time effect, but that’s it. As long as the healer has the mana to continue healing after the gauntlet there shouldn’t be a problem
King Ymiron
Ymiron, at all times, has two normal attacks that he uses. Fetid Rot is a disease he puts on his primary target that acts as a weaker DoT and reduces healing taken by 25%, and should be cleansed if possible. Bane puts a buff on Ymiron that causes him to deal a melee-range AoE attack every time he suffers direct damage; all group members should cease attacking when he gains this buff. Occasionally Ymiron will incapacitate all group members for eight seconds with Screams of the Dead and run to one of the nearby boats and gain some new ability; there are four possible boats he could run to, and which he chooses is random. One will summon a few non-elite ghouls that should be killed. One summons a few white orbs that move slowly and should be avoided, lest they do damage to anyone within range. One gives him the Dark Slash, which does damage equal to half the target’s current health and can quickly reduce a tank to the danger range. And the last gives him a Spirit Strike, which does a small amount of damage and increases physical damage taken by 250 (stacks indefinitely, so can get ugly quick) and a Spirit Burst, which does a moderate amount of damage to all group members. As long as the group stops attacking when he has Bane, and adapts quickly the the abilities he gains after the stun, Ymiron should eventually go down.
