WotLK Instances: Utgarde Keep
As I am leveling, I will write short guides about all the leveling instances in Northrend, with particular focus on tanking tips for trash and bosses alike. At the moment this is all about normal instances, but once I hit 80, I will update to include changes for heroic mode. These guides are not intended for experienced people, but for those who maybe just started tanking and are looking for some advice.
Utgarde Keep
Utgarde Keep is a level 70-72 instance located in Howling Fjord. It’s low in difficulty, very linear, and easy to clear. Inside you will find three boss encounters, with three quests for the Horde and two quests for Alliance players.
Quest rewards for tanks:
Alliance: Woven Steel Necklace from the quest Disarmament, you obtain this quest in Wyrmskull Village
Horde: Tiled-Stone Pendant from the quest Disarmament, you obtain this quest inside the instance
None of the other two quests offer tank rewards, though the plate bracers from the Horde quest ‘A Score to Settle‘ are good for DPS sets.
Trash pulls:
Most pulls are groups of 3 Vrykuls, mostly 2 melee, one caster. Near the exit to the outer area you will have a couple four-pulls. If you want to use CC, try having the Runecasters, Spiritualists or Heartsplitters CC’d. Note that the Runecasters can be pulled without using LoS. Some Vrykul have worg companions which die very easily.
The second pull in the instance can get messy due to a pathing mob between the groups on the sides, and runners. I had no real trouble tanking two groups here at all, but if you’re not pimped out in TBC epics, be careful with pulling here.
You will encounter a few proto-drakes, those need to be tanked not facing the group because of their flamebreath, and don’t have your back to the next group as they do a knockback. Unless you like knockback pulling, which could be fun. The proto-drakes are the highest exp mob in the instance, so I would advise killing all of them.
Inbetween the first and second boss encounters you have a section where undead are digging a tunnel. Usually an elite Overseer will be with them. Have people stand close by to avoid their Charge and remind people to hold the AoE until you’ve gotten a solid Shockwave/Consecrate/Swipe in first.
Bosses:
Prince Keleseth:
Once you have engaged him, build solid threat on him. His spells cannot be interrupted nor reflected (that I noticed), which is sadmaking. Keep an eye on the doorway, not long after the fight starts, four skeletons will come running in, going straight for your healer. Pick them up, have DPS burn them in place and go back to tanking Keleseth. If people are on the ball and kill skeletons and Ice Tombs quickly, it’s an easy tank and spank fight.
Dalronn & Skarvald:
Skarvald is a melee mob, whereas Dalronn is a caster. Dalronn will randomly drop aggro and cast shadow bolts at party members, which makes this a very heal-intense fight. Skarvald has a charge, so people should stand as close to the tank as they can to avoid that. You have three options here.
1. Bring one of the bosses to 10%, then kill the other and burn the other one quickly.
2. Kill Dalron first, switch to Skarvald, have the healer heal through the damage the ghost of Dalronn causes until Skarvald is dead.
3. Kill Skarvald first, switch to Dalronn, pick the ghost of Skarvald up via taunt and keep him on you.
My recommendation would be either 1 or 3.
Ingvar the Plunderer:
Ingvar is the end-boss and stands on a platform chatting with a couple drake-riders. Don’t worry, they’re just there for flavor (which is a great touch), you only fight Ingvar by himself.
This is a two phase fight, in which he has roughly the same abilities, but they’re just a bit nastier in phase 2. All ranged DPS needs to be at max range to avoid the silence effect of his Roar. When he starts casting Smash, strafe to the left or right as tank to avoid the damage spike, then afterwards run back to him. Once you have killed him, he will be resurrected as undead servant of the Lich King. Same rules apply, but it will be incredibly useful to have a mage or druid for decursing the Woe Strike, so your healer won’t take shadow damage. As tank, it’s your job to run out of the Dark Smash, which is even worse burst damage than the Smash from phase 1. As always, minimize damage as much as you can, reapply Demoralizing Shout and Thunderclap whenever they have run out, and this fight is probably the only good time for using Shield Wall in UK.
Loot:
No specific tank drops in there. If you want to mess around as Arms or Fury warrior, Ingvar’s Monolithic Cleaver certainly deserves the name, and has lots of strength and hit.
Next up: The Nexus!
Do you know if Dark Smash can be reflected? I was completely unable to avoid it, even running through Ingvar and standing behind him. It hit me for 9700.
In fact, everyone I’ve spoken to in my guild so far has been unable to avoid Dark Smash. What’s the trick?
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admin Reply:
November 19th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
I was able to strafe to one of the pillars as soon as he started casting it. You can’t escape the knockdown, but the frontal damage you should be able to escape.
I find strafing a bit safer than running through him as I don’t want him to come any closer to the rest of the party.
I do not know about the reflection, but I doubt it. I am always disappointed when spell reflect doesn’t work on bosses.
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I think you should modify this to note that this instance is completely manageable with toons as low as 68 in the group. The tank and healer should be at least 70 with epics or 72 with NR greens and blues.
I’ve done this with my toons:
spriest 70 (epics) – all characters 70
druid 70 (epics) – I tanked and all characters were 70. I aoe tanked everything with no down time.
death knight 68 (mostly DK starting gear with a few upgrades) – The tank was 72 and the healer was 70. Very easy run, we aoe all pulls.
Further, with the final boss not only should range dps/healer stay max range, but they should also spread out to avoid unnecessary hammer damage.
This is a good guide for beginners. Great job!
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Utgarrde Keep is alot more fun that the Nexus. I also really enjoyed Azjol-Nerub. The Nexus seemed to be a bit longer which is probably why I liked the other ones better.
Darraxus´s last blog post..Getting the Fiance to play, day 2
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Can also take resto shamans for decursing too now, as an only semi-related sidenote.
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admin Reply:
November 19th, 2008 at 8:19 pm
When did that happen and why didn’t I know this? :O
Also, think a little under 900 spellpower is cutting it for trying to heal an early WotLK instance? I want to try resto soon.
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Vetiverr Reply:
November 19th, 2008 at 8:37 pm
3.0 talent trees gave resto shamans Cleanse Spirit, which rids diseases/poisons/curses. It’s very nice.
You should be fine. Early Wrath instances are pretty easy for shamans to heal in my opinion, and they’re honestly a bit of a step down from most BC heroics (which you’d have been more than good for as well).
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Yeah, I AoE-tanked this instance in a PuG within about 20 minutes of entering the game.
We did wipe a couple times while people figured out that fire was bad, but it wasn’t horrible. Wiped once on Ingvar, but got him the second time. Shield Wall ftw. 
I like the *grab the melee ghost* option on the 2nd boss, really.
Warrior in Heroic/some T4 was just about right, really.
Utgarde keep was pretty fun, but I really like the Nexus!
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Thanks for the guide! I’m actually working on a warrior right now as a replacement for my resto druid main. One question I have is this: do you need to be prot spec’d to tank regular Northrend instances? In BC I have been able to tank the few I tried in Arms spec, and I’d hate to have to constantly respec to tank instances. One of the things I want to make sure I do is learn how to tank!
PTD
PTD´s last blog post..It’s About the Fun
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admin Reply:
November 20th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
No, you don’t need to be prot spec. Blizzard specifically stated that warriors of all specs should be able to tank all normal instances. You should be prot for heroics, but normal instances will be fine.
Wear Sword&Board, spend it in def stance, and do the normal prioritization that prot warriors use. Obviously you can’t Devastate, but you guys got Shield Slam now.
Have fun, let me know how that goes, I was wondering how that’s panning out.
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I’m not in Northrend quite yet, but it’s going well. (I do play Part Time, after all!) I got to 69 last night, and I’ve only done a handful of quests in Nagrand. I started in Outlands at 60, and essentially “cleared” Hellfire, Zang and then Terokkar, that got me well into 68. I expect I should ding 70 in Nagrand, or be very close by the time I clear all the quests there.
I tell you what, I don’t know if I could live without Bladestorm!
PTD´s last blog post..It’s About the Fun
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A quick note on the second boss(es)-
My experience may be a little different than others, but I observed that the caster is interruptible, and will melee the tank (assuming they maintain highest threat) while interrupted (silence did not work), so that should alleviate some pressure on the healer. May be helpful if DPS can use interrupts as well. In this fight it seems the more work you do as a tank, the less your healer has to.
As for the third boss-
Pillars are the intended way to avoid the damage. There are some other ways to mitigate the damage, and I’ve yet to be able to pull off ducking behind one in the short casting time he has, but it hasn’t prevented groups from being able to complete the encounter, it is just VERY healer intensive.
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