You must complete the Saving Thrall instance (Old Hillsbrad
Foothills) in the Caverns of Time before you attempt The Black
Morass.
In the Black Morass, you and four friends are tasked with defending
Medivh from an unknown dragonflight from the future that wants to
disrupt the past by killing Medivh as he tries to open the Dark
Portal, preventing the Horde from ever reaching Azeroth and,
therefore, the Alliance from forming! IF THIS WERE TO HAPPEN, THE
BURNING LEGION WOULD SIMPLY HAVE BEEN ABLE TO DESTROY AN AZEROTH IN
DISUNITY, AND THE WORLD OF WARCRAFT WOULD CEASE TO EXIST AS WE KNOW
IT! EPIC!
Back to the task at hand. Your mission, should you choose to accept
it, is to defend Medivh through 18 rounds of enemy advances. Medivh
has a shield that starts at 100%, and goes down if enemies are
attacking him. Each round (except for 6, 12, and 18, which are boss
rounds... we will discuss these later) consists of two seperate
things happening at once.
- A rift opens and an elite, high HP mob called a Rift Keeper spawns
from it
- After the Keeper spawns, nonelite dragonkin will spawn out of the
portal every 5-10 seconds and head straight to Medivh
The Rift Keeper for each portal comes in different variations. There
is a melee version, a warlock version, and a mage version. You need
to keep at least two steady DPSers and a tank on the Rift Keeper at
all times. It is imperative that you get him down as FAST as
possible. There are several reasons for this. First, if you take too
long, another portal will open and you will probably wipe. Second,
by getting him down as quickly as possible, you keep the number of
non-elite adds that spawn to a minimum.
As for the adds, you must have one SOLID DPSer dealing with them. Be
smart when assigning your DPS tasks in this instance. A hunter or
pally would be an excellent choice to take care of the adds, because
both classes have the ability to tank them with minimal damage taken
(hunter has a pet, pally has plate). A rogue, on the other hand, is
much better suited to stay on the Rift Keeper at all times, because
they have extremely high (and more importantly, sustained) single
target DPS.
DPSers, LISTEN UP: You CANNOT slack during this instance or your
group WILL wipe. In other instances, you can jerk off during a boss
fight, and as long as you have an excellent healer with a large mana
pool, you can still get the job done... it'll just take a bit
longer. In the Black Morass, if you are not producing, your group
WILL wipe because more portals will spawn. This instance rides
heavily on the ability of a group's DPSers. THAT SAID, attempting
the Black Morass without three SOLID DPSers is extremely
inadvisable.
Okay, so you made it to round 6. Now you get your first boss, but
first, we must discuss Chrono-Beacons. At the beginning of the
instance, everyone will get a Chrono-Beacon from the Caverns of Time
NPC. When used, this item spawns a huge dragon for about 20 seconds.
The dragon will help you kill whatever you spawn it near. However,
if the dragon gets too close to a boss, the boss will despawn it.
Therefore, use your dragons for:
- Cleaning up adds if they start to get out of control
- Taking out Rift Keepers in rounds 15, 16, and 17. We will discuss
this later.
CHRONO LORD DEJA!
This guy is relatively easy. He has an arcane missiles-esque AE
attack that hits everyone for around 2k. Tranquility/Prayer of
Healing/HoTs, etc. You know the drill. Simply tank him and spank
him.
Particularly if you are new at this instance, you will want to use
one of your dragons to care of adds during this round, because you
will need all three of your DPSers focused on the boss. Placement of
the dragon is EXTREMELY important. The Chrono-Beacon can be used at
a very long range, and its targeting functions much like the Mage
spell Blizzard or the Hunter spell Volley. Simply click where you
want the dragon to spawn, and he will stay in that general vinicity.
So here's what you do:
1. Boss spawns, tank picks him up and tanks him AT THE RIFT.
DPS starts immediately... tank has got to be on his game (hunters
use your Misdirection)
2. Adds begin spawning.
3. Once there are 3-4 adds attacking Medivh, a designated
person uses his or her Chrono-Beacon. They must deploy it very close
to Medivh so that the dragon will not venture near the boss and
therefore be despawned.
4. The dragon takes care of the adds in very short order, and
continues killing adds for about 20 seconds... at which point it
despawns.
5. You need to have the boss dead or nearly dead by this
point. You can't waste more than one dragon on any boss round.
(Note that, if you're really leet, you can get through the boss
rounds without using a dragon. Simply kill the boss really fast,
then go kill all the adds. If you can save your Chrono-Beacons up in
this way, it gives you a lot more flexibility during rounds 13-18,
when the portals will be spawning very fast.)
So you beat Deja! Grats on your mediocre loot. You get a short break
to rest up, rebuff, pass our the loot, etc. As soon as portal 7
opens, get there and start burning that Keeper down. Don't screw
around or you will waste time and wipe. Portals 7-11 function
essentially the same way as 1-5. Don't screw up or disconnect, and
everything will be fine.
TEMPORUS!
Temporus is the second and hardest boss, and he spawns from portal
12. He has a 10% healing reducing Mortal Strike effect that stacks
up to 10 times (100% reduced healing). There are several ways to
deal with this; all of them are dangerous.
- A lesser invulnerability pot, if chugged at the appropriate
second, will ensure that the debuff falls off
- Blessing of Freedom
- An off-tank (unadvisable, because wasting a spot for a tanking-specced
OT will leave your DPS too weak)
- You may get lucky and the debuff will fall off naturally
The first two, which are also the two best options, both involve the
tank losing aggro. It's unfortunate that that happens, but you just
have to deal. Priests spam fade, hunters FD, rogues vanish, fire
mages... hahahhaha. You get the picture. You should only have to
aggro-clear to clear the debuff once in the fight.
That's about it for this guy. Use a dragon as before to take care of
adds (if necessary) and enjoy your loot. There are a few really
awesome drops off this guy. Now rest up and get ready for the
hardest part of the instance... portals 13-17.
PORTALS 13-17!
These get their own section because they are truly much harder than
the boss at portal 18. The reason they are so hard is because they
spawn really, really fast.
The SECOND 13 opens, you need to be there and your DPS needs to be
tearing @*!@ up. Then get to 14 right away, and to 15 right after
that. On 16, you may need to use a dragon if you are getting behind.
You can use your dragon right on top of the Rift Keeper, and he will
not despawn it. Only bosses despawn dragons. So, depending on how
your group is doing, it's a good idea to use a dragon on 16 and 17.
Hell, even use one on 15 if you still have three left at that point.
At this point you have killed everything and closed all the portals
through 17. Nice work. But before you pat yourself on the back,
notice that portal 18 has opened and a massive, Nefarian-type dragon
is now beating on Medivh's shield. Before engaging him, stay at a
distance and drink up/rebuff. You should still have plenty of
Medivh's shield left, so you have a while to let him beat on it.
AENOUS!
Unlike Deja and Temporus, who stay at their rifts, the final boss
will head straight to Medivh and start beating on him. HOWEVER, also
unlike portals 6 and 12, portal 18 does NOT spawn any adds. Once 17
is closed, you are free of adds forever.
Aenous does hit pretty hard, and he does have a time-stop ability (kinda
like Chrom's), but he is the easiest boss overall (partly due to his
lack of adds). It's really nice to have a pally in your group at
this point to help your priest/druid heal, but it can definitely be
done without one.
Claim your loot, and talk to Medivh to complete your quest. Now
hearth to Shatt'rath and talk to Khadgar to get your Karazhan key!
Grats to rogues (his droprate for Handguards of Assassination is
100%) and good job beating the Black Morass, aka the most P.I.T.A.
instance to ever exist. Hopefully this guide helped you =)
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