Yashima Plays

Map to Sethekk Halls Stealth Runs:
So that’s what I did after Kara last night. Mr. Feral whom I had been complaining to, that we had not played together for quite some time asked if I still had the Heroic Daily for Ikiss open. Of course I had. I rarely do instances and even less often I get the Heroic Daily.

We have done this before. Though usually one of us was specced Resto at the time. It should not have taken us an hour to down Ikiss. I messed up a bit being rather tired. Still: two feral druids downed Ikiss on Heroic mode last night.

And you can do it, too!

Here’s how:

Preparation and General Hints

You both should have the Talent that improves your Stealth level. Otherwise bring a Rogue who can use “Distract” (?) to well distract the mobs that might see through your Stealth. You can bring your Master’s Treads or similar Stealth enhancing boots. Do not bring Stealth potions, you need to unstealth to use them anyway.

Get naked, you don’t need to fight any mobs anyhow and if you are seen you will at least not have rep-costs.

There are a lot of pairs of guards at entrances and exits to and from rooms in the instance. I tried to paint them all in the map as well as I remember them. These guards will turn to face you if you get close to them. Do not worry: they turn but they have not yet discovered you. Stop moving. They will eventually return to their original position and you can continue.

The yellow dots are the “easy” guards. Just pass at the center between them. The red ones are harder and should be handled very carefully. You must be at the exact center when you pass them or try to pass behind them. These may take practice to avoid! I had a human guide for my first run, you made need several tries to get it right.

Stealth Part I

Several pairs of guards to avoid and a few easy patrols. The first two pairs of guards are easy. Pass the first room either on the left-hand wall or right through the center.

The hardest is the pair of guards at the exit of the first room. Pass them at the center if you have improved Stealth. They will turn to face you. If one of you does not have improved Stealth they may use the short time they are turned to pass behind the guard into the hallway.

Stealth at the right-hand wall of the second room and pass behind the guard the the exit. Immediately look for the bird patrolling there.

Pass to the left or right of the guards, guarding the Syth’s room and immediately press against the wall or you will aggro the boss.

Boss 1: Syth

Now the important but easy part is to get around the first boss and his Stealth Detection. He’s the reason you can’t just keep trying this because you need a Battle Rez.

1. Check for the bird patrolling and start right after he left the boss’ room.
2. Have one (nekkid) player Stealth into the room turning left. He will be detected. Use sprint and turn into Bear when the boss starts hitting you. Try to die in good view of the exit of the room and close enough to be rezzed but not too close or your companion will be discovered, too.
3. So while one player keeps the boss busy, the other takes the right-hand route and sprints – in Stealth! – through the room to the other side. There should be enough time to get there. Hide behind the doorway until the boss resets.
4. Rezz your companion and continue stealthing

Stealth Part II

The next room has quite a few patrolling mobs in it. With improved Stealth you can easily take the route through the center carefully avoiding the moving creatures. Without improved Stealth you should take the route along the left wall. There’s a ramp leading up to the second level of the instance. There’s a patrol on the ramp avoid it by hiding on some of the outcrops.

Sneak behind the first set of door guards on the upper level. You will next see a bunch of non-elite birds. These are better killed. One Druid tanks them the other heals. Do not forget to put on some armor before the pull. The Tank should start aggro-ing them with Hurricane. That should be enough to get ahead on aggro for the Healer to do his job.

The room behind the birds is a bit tricky as you will have to avoid the patrolling mobs again. There’s a route right through the center of the room though.

The next room is already the Raven God’s room. This is very easy to pass through, just a few easy patrols to avoid and the guards at the exit.

There is just one more difficult group awaiting you before Ikiss. The last set of guards consists of four guards plus a patrolling bird at the entrance of Ikiss’ room. The really scary part is that you have to wait till the bird passes to the left side and then hurry into the spot right between the guards, just far enough that the bird will not detect you anymore and the guards not yet. The guards will turn to face you however – they often do – just stop moving until they return to their original position and then pass between them to the left to hide behind some of the columns.

You and your companion are now alone with Ikiss. Decide who tanks and who heals, put on your Armor and do it.

Boss 2: The Fight with Ikiss

This fight is easiest with a Resto and a Feral specced Druid. You do not need incredible high-end gear to pull this of.

Tank Gear: I tanked last night with 415 defense, 24k armor and 13k life. If you have tanked Heroics or Kara with your gear before you should be fine. You may want to try and up your Attack Power a bit because the Tank will have to burn Ikiss down.

Healing Gear: as a Resto I have healed this fight with 1200 +heal and about 80mp5. Mr. Feral has about 1500 +heal and managed to pull this off Feral specced! You may want to bring some Mana Potions though.

The fight goes much like a standard Ikiss fight I guess only it takes longer. I believe it took us about 6-7 minutes on average.

Tanking Ikiss

• Position: Tank Ikiss just beneath to the upper left column (see map), so your healer can dance behind the column to avoid getting sheeped (unless he’s a tree and sheep immune anyway).
• Abilities to use: Basically as a Tank you have to keep up your Debuffs: Mangle, Lacerate, Demo Roar and Fairy Fire. I also use Maul when I have excess Rage. Try to keep your heal for when your Healer is sheeped. Use your Trinkets!
• Avoid Damage: At 75%, 50% and 25% (about) Ikiss casts an Arcane Explosion. When he starts casting run behind one of the columns to avoid that damage. You may have been slowed by Ikiss: just shift to get rid of that. After the cast Ikiss ports to one player.
• Regain Aggro: Here’s the true challenge of the fight: you have to regain aggro quickly or your healer is dead (you may want to have a Barkskin+Rebirth macro for that case). Ikiss is not Taunt immune! You may be used to Taunt immune mobs from Kara etc., do not forget to taunt him if he targets your healer.
  
• Slowly burn him down
• Try to give the healer your Innervate during the second Arcane Explosion
  

Healing on Ikiss

• Conserve Mana. If you don’t have enough mana regen start using Potions as early as possible so you can make the most out of your potion cooldown.
• Let yourself get sheeped to Heal up, put enough HoTs on your Tank so he’ll survive the Sheep phase. You can move behind the column when Ikiss starts to sheep. He’ll try again and be rather too busy going after you instead of your tank.
• Avoid Damage: Arcane Explosion will hurt you just as much as the tank. Shift out of Tree to get behind a column you may be too slow otherwise
• Stop healing after the Arcane Explosion, you do not want aggro right now!
• Remember your trinkets and cooldowns!
• Stay cool, don’t panic (I always do *g*)

Rogues on Ikiss

• If you brought a rogue and your healer is a tree, the rogue will probably be sheeped for the whole fight and forget to evade the Arcane Explosion and die.
• If your healer is not a tree the rogue will not always be sheeped but he will probably die.
• If the rogue is not sheeped: do damage while you live!
• Bandage up if you manage to avoid the Arcane Explosion, there’s not much mana to heal Rogues

Finale: Loot
After some time Ikiss will be dead and you richer He usually drops 2 blues and an epic item plus the Primal Nether the crafters will want and the Badge of Justice (3 if you have the Daily). If you brought an Enchanter (Mr. Feral is ^^) you’ll be even richer. Port home and do it again tomorrow.

Admittedly it took us quite long yesterday: I aggro-ed Syth early because I didn’t realize we had already come to his room. I died on the 4 guards right before Ikiss and had to be rezzed and I messed up our first try on Ikiss because of I forgot Demo Roar and Mr. Feral, my Healer, died to bad luck (or bad gear, it was a resisted Growl). We spend about one hour on that run. It can go as fast as 25-30 minutes if you do everything right.

Have fun!