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Comment by 83214

Drak'Tharon Keep is the same place where Arthas stayed while looking for the runeblade Frostmourne, and that it's also the place where his death is foretold my Mal'Ganis. Also, based on difficulty and level at this point, this will be the Mana-Tombs of WotLK.

Comment by 64496

On a fairly interesting side note, this is the instance in which you learn of the origins of Drakuru. Drakuru is an NPC which you will undoubtedly deal with one one way or another throughout questing in Zul'Drak. Chronologically, doing this instance and then doing the quest chain that begins from the Unliving Choker you will have seen the entire "Drakuru story." If you happen to want to follow him from creation till death this is the route to take.

Comment by Mumpley

*SPOLIER*

Drakuru's real story starts with him caged up in Granite Springs; a camp ran by Budd Nedreck's partners and explorers. After escorting Budd to play hide and seek with Ice Trolls via banging their heads with frying pans in the quest,Filling the Cages Drakuru will become a questgiver. Drakuru will hand out the quest Truce? and you'll begin his first questline.

So if you want to sequence Drakuru's Events like Devenu said,do his first questchain in Grizzly Hills ending with Cleansing Drak'Tharon then do the Zul'Drak One. That way you'll understand that Drakuru was promoted by The Lich King and it'll make more sense to what your doing. =P

Comment by 245626

I did this instance last night at level 70. It's challenging at level 70, which probably still isn't true when you get to level 74 when you're supposed to do it. It's more or less a joke.

This instance, along with Ahn'kahet & Azjol-Nerub are extremely easy for a level 70. We were AoEing down every trash pack. Bosses actually took a bit of effort in this and Ahn'kahet but they're still quite easy.

When you say it's the "Mana-Tombs of WotLK", I don't think you could do Mana Tombs at level 60...the instances in WotLK are easier, faster, and quite well designed, if a bit under tuned for our level and gear.

That said though, it's a fun instance, nevertheless. I suggest doing it at 70-71 if you want to be challenged until you get to do it on Heroic.

Comment by praez

Some notes I took running it 2 times in a row tanking the instance (feral druid point of view)

Raid setup isn't such a big issue, cleared it with:
feral druid, holy priest, retripala, arms warrior and demono lock/bm hunter
All geared with tbc t4/t5 raid+badge level gear & random greens and blues from Northrend

We soon realized paladin+priest was a good pick as most of the mobs are Undead and can, or should be shackled/repetanced/ud feared. Trash pulls we're 3 to 4 mobs wide. First pulls we're a bit harsh on us as Risen Drakkari Soulmages casted an Shadow Void on the earth, ticking ~1500 damage. Other pulls we're simple with CC done properly, 2nd run we completed it with almost zero CC and it went fine apart from the annoying warrior threat.

Bosses we're a laugh.
1st Trollgore: Mostly tank&spank if your healer is actually healing spec. Fight itself is a dps race as the boss stacks up a damage buff. Boss explodes corpses once in a while, does few thousand damage.
2nd Novos the Summoner: Trash starts coming after you pull the boss, just grab the elite ones and you should be fine. Watch out for the blizzard too, ticks about 1.5k. Casts a curse that hurts for 10k over 10sec.
3rd King Dred: Tank&spank, easiest boss in a while.
4th: Awesome boss with 2 phases, skeleton phase you play as yourself and about 4 times transformed us into skeletons and we had 4 abilities. Won the fight by just spamming all of them.

Overall an easy instance with atleast some gear and brain. Loot.. is bad for a feral druid :]

Comment by 150056

1st Boss - Didn't realise it was a boss, it's that easy....
2nd Boss - After killing some Elites/normal mobs, it's very easy
3rd Boss - T & S
4th Boss - Normal DPS till Skeleton, then spam 4.

Very easy.

Comment by 8153

A note on the Wretched Belcher; turn them around! Unless you have a Paladin or Priest on standby to cleanse your entire party they will add a debuff to a cone in front of them doing 10,000 total damage. This can easily cause you an unnecessary wipe on an otherwise very simple instance.

Comment by 245270

These are quest strings that open up and lead to quests inside the instance:

strings start at 73

Good Troll Hunting opens up after completing My Enemy's Friend
In order to open that quest up you have to complete "The Thane of Voldrune" - https://www.wowhead.com/wotlk/quest=12259
(which is the end of the Voldrune three part line)

start with Good Troll Hunting (from Sergeant Thurkin, Conquest Hold, Grizzly Hills)
which leads to Filling the Cages (from Samir in Granite Springs, Grizzly Hills)
which opens Truce?
that leads to Vial of Visions
that leads to Subject to Interpretation
leads to Sacrifices Must be Made
which leads to Heart of the Ancients
which leads to My Heart is in Your Hands
which leads to Voices From the Dust
leads (finally) to Cleansing Drak'Tharon (which is a quest for inside Drak'Tharon Keep)

after doing up to Subject to Interpretation and Scourgekabob
(a single quest from Prigmon in Granite Springs, Grizzly Hills)
Seared Scourge opens,
which leads to Search and Rescue (another inside the Instance Quest)
after you do that quest (completed in the instance) Head Games opens and is doable
(use the quest item on the corpse of the second boss).

Comment by organiclockwork

Spoilers ahead

Could anyone clarify for me what exactly goes on in this instance, particularly in relation to the quest The Cleansing of Drak'Tharon? You slaughter a whole keep full of Scourge only to find out that Arthas was manipulating Drakuru who was manipulating you. But what exactly does Arthas have to gain from slaughtering a whole fortress of his own troops? Was it just some kind of test to see if Drakuru was worthy to lead, or what? It seems there would have been better ways to accomplish that than having a group of people go in and massacre a bunch of infantry and a Lich. Anyone care to fill me in?

Comment by 65665

What reputation does this instance give, if any ?

Comment by alorathepriest

Heroic Draktharon Keep awards just over 2000 Reputation.

Comment by Acosn

Notes for Heroic:
Trash mobs: These guys are not hard. The only thing that comes to mind is the trash after the third boss (the t-rex) leading to the fourth boss. You need to remember to pull the mobs fighting when they're at lower HP (think shattered halls, just a lot more forgiving) and watch yourself! its really easy to pull adds. It would be appropriate as well to point out that the absolute last few pulls before the prophet will also cast fear on people. If you know for a fact that your group isn't having a good time about the dungeon this could be a real pain.

BOSSES:
Trollgore: Tank and Spank. He'll cast corpse explosion on mobs (they'll get a green cloud around them as a warning) just remember to stand clear of the mobs and he's a push over. EDIT: He'll also get a stacking buff called consume. You'll know you don't have enough DPS if it stacks too high- every tick of it grants like +2 %-4% damage.

Novos the Summoner: more of the same. He's basically just a rehashing of normal version. If you're feeling adventerous remember to keep one person (probably DPS that can manage on their own, like ret paladins or feral druids) covering the add spawns from the stairway so that you can get the bonus achievement for the heroic dungeon. As the key holders spawn kill them. Once four die the shield drops and novos starts spamming spells. Only thing noteworthy is that the blizzard will hurt, but even that really isn't damaging.

King Dred: tank n' spank. He'll throw a few bleeds around, and fear. If you cant pull some of the mobs around him, pull HIM back some to avoid adds. He can also call mob pairs for help, and at about 20% he'll start doing a frenzy variant where he starts spamming DPS on the tank.

The Prophet: Its the normal version all over again. Tank n' Spank, skeleton mode (remember NOT to spam taunt if you're not the tank! its a good way to die otherwise) and more tanking. Occaisonally the boss tosses a poison nova out. Stay away, but otherwise its an easy fight.

Comment by 265053

STAY AFTER KILLING LAST BOSS ITS MOVIE TIME

Comment by 241720

Heres a video of the boss + annotations;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7fpries4jA

Comment by 186549

Tanks need to pay special attention to the one room with the Ghouls.

I've seen more wipes as a Tank and DPS in this room then anywhere else in the instance; the Flesheating Ghouls have an instant -30% armor debuff, and will then promptly frenzy on you with two buddies that can Cleave.

I can personally attest, that that one group is capable of hitting harder all at once then Trollgore can seconds later in the instance.

My last group on Heroic DK actually double-checked to make sure I was hit-capped after three ghouls dropped me down to 47% in seconds.

If possible, CC the Flesheaters and dispose of their friends, it's not that it's unmanageable, but you WILL be hammering a panic button before you know it if you just try to AOE tank them.

Comment by kujabuja

So, after running the instance... I truly would have to say it really lacks any form of cohesion.

The instance starts out and you're facing trolls.
Then it decides throw spiders at you.
Then you kill a lich.
After the lich there is *ONE* room full of bats
After the bat room you come to the section involving dinosaurs, a few dinosaur riders, and a devilsaur boss.
Afterwards you kill some trolls that are fighting some undead...And finally, you get to kill hakkar 2.0

Comment by 309966

been thru this twice, y cant i get achievement

Comment by 302591

Can this inst be tanked by a 74 prot warrior?

Comment by 191636

Has anyone had issues with the same items dropping on every run? I have ran this 4 times and the same items have dropped, including green zone drops.

Comment by aceysmith

Video of hunter soloing every boss on regular

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZYQHo8kyS8

Comment by TrollTrain

Can a DK with the following stats tank this instance ?

13k armor, 392 def, 8% dodge, 9% parry, 14k hp

I think not, but my friend is trying to say I can..

Comment by morillus

Going through and trying to solo the regular WotK instances and just soloed this on a Blood/UD DK. Died a few times on #$%^ing up pulls, but as long as you are careful with pulls you should be fine. Surprisingly, the bosses were the easiest part, especially the last one (easiest of the lot). Just keep health up with blood tap/vampiric blood/death strike and use AotD when each boss has about 100K health left - the ghouls will die just as you kill the boss.

Gear is an average of ilvl 213, mainly PvP gear, so would be much easier with PvE gear. :P

Comment by 539691

I Got a question. Where the hell is the entrance ?

Comment by Rotab

The instance portal is at 28.64, 86.94 (Zul'drak)

Comment by breaker581

This is my fav WotLK dungeon for soloing on my Blood DK enchanter. Quick, relatively easy, and the boss drops disenchant into Dream Shards.

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