Utgarde Keep
Well the day is upon us. We will all be headed to Northrend this evening. Well technically we will be headed to our favorite game store this evening and to Northrend early tomorrow morning. Antipas luckily got to play in the beta for the expansion and as a special treat for release night we are going to take a look at the encounters in the first instance you will be going to do once you reach Northrend. Utgarde Keep!
General Background
Utgarde Keep is the first 5 man entry level dungeon of Utgarde Keep. Utgarde Keep ranges from levels 10-30. If Chromie Time is enabled, Utgarde Keep's level range is 10-50, but can only be queued if you're using Chromie Time on the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. Check more information on Chromie Time in our guide! Utgarde Keep is similar to hellfire peninsula in the aspect as when blizzard made it, it was intended for players who are just entering northrend, to reflect that, it's drops are low to mediocre to people who have been raiding before wotlk, for that reason, there's no real reason for people who have been raiding to do this instance, except for players who like a different change of pace from the seemingly endless chain of quests, or for players who like a little extra experience.
As I pointed out above, Utgarde keep is the first Instance you will come to in Wrath of the Lich King. While it is the name of the instance itself, it is also the name of the entire keep which also houses another instance for level 80 characters, Utgarde Pinnacle.
Utgarde Keep stands majestically, albeit a bit morbidly, above the shimmering waters of Lake Cauldros. It is inhabited by the mighty Vyrkul. These warriors are very reminiscent of the Valkyries of Norse mythology. They are said to serve their slumbering King Ymiron, Though they believe that Arthas will raise up the mightiest among them to serve in his undead army.
Utgarde Keep Catacombs Entrance
Now that we know a little about who, what and where Utgarde Keep is, lets forge ahead and look at the three bosses we will face here.
Prince Keleseth
The first boss in this instance is a Darkfallen named Prince Keleseth. He is the Scourge Overlord of Howling Fjord. He does your standard shadow bolt attack but also likes to summon a group of 5 skellies to help him out. He also casts a spell called frost tome that is a dot that ticks off on the players. Over its full span it does 8k damage which will leave you very close to dead and easily killable by the skellies or his shadow bolt. With a well geared group, burning down the tome and using crowd control on the skellies is the best route to killing him.
The tank should use keep spell reflect up when he can. Tanking the loose skeletons is your other major responsibility here. Prince Keleseth will summon more skellies as you kill them, this is why using crowd control on the adds is the most advisable route. If you can best this prince you will be rewarded with your random drop of Dragon Stabler’s Gauntlets, Reinforced Velvet Helm, Keleseth’s Blade of Evocation or aStone Keeper’s Shard
Skarvald the Constructor
The next encounter in the instance will be with a Vrykul named Skarvald the Constructor. He also gets pulled with a mob named Dalronn the Controller. The fight here is somewhat similar to the Romeo and Juliette fight from Kara. Both mobs will need to be killed at roughly the same time. When one dies it spawns a spirit form of itself that acts exactly as the real mob does, with one exception. It has no aggro table and cannot be tanked. So the advisable strategy is to dps Skar down to almost dead then kill the controller and move back to Skar.
When you manage to down this viking and his buddy you can have your loot and eat it too! Chestplate of Northern Lights, Skarvald’s Dragonskin Habergeon or Arm Blade of Augelmir
Ingvar the Plunderer
Ingvar the Plunderer is King Crap of turd island in this instance. He has many devastating abilities. Most of them have a cast time, allowing melee dps (tank included) to back away to avoid the massive damage he pumps outs. All casters need to stay at max range for the whole duration of this fight. One of his abilities is an AOE that interupts all casting, knocksback and does some serious damage. After you kill him once, Annhylde the Caller come trotting out and resurrects Ingvar as an undead minion of the Lich King. Basically he is now a super version of his first form. Same strategy as before but healing will be more intense for the latter half of the fight.
Kill this heavily armored block head and feel the satisfaction of having destroyed the defenses of Utgarde Keep. Bide your time and soon you will be able to assault the Utgarde Pinnacle! Oh, and before you hearth make sure you pick up the sexy loot! Holistic Patchwork Breeches, Overlaid Chain Spaulders or finally Ingvar’s Monolithic Cleaver.
This is a very fun instance to go hit right out of the gate. The loot isn’t half bad looking either! Until next time I hope you all have fun leveling up again and stay warm!
Utgarde Pinnacle is a dungeon whose entrance is located in Howling Fjord on the continent of Northrend in the World of Warcraft game. The level range for the normal dungeon is 75-80. The instance was released in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. The dungeon contains 4 bosses. The end boss of Utgarde Pinnacle is King Ymiron.
Utgarde Keep Bosses
Utgarde Pinnacle is one of two dungeon instances whose location is in the giant Utgarde Keep citadel in Howling Fjord. The other is aptly named Utgarde Keep. This is the higher of the two dungeons and which can only be undertaken for levels 80, the max level for the expansion. The bonus for this dungeon is that the third boss drops a blue proto-drake some times for roll. It can only drop on heroic or when doing a timewalking dungeon.
The dungeon is home to King Ymiron, the king of the Vrykuls, the giant humanoids that inhabit this part of Northrend. The king is the last boss you encounter here but if you're only here for the mounts, you'd probably leave after the third boss without getting to him. Once you have killed the final boss, rather than teleporting out or running back the way you came, a doorway opens out to the where the entrance is.
Utgarde Pinnacle is on the north side of the citadel whilst Utgarde Keep is on the southern side. Make sure you get the right entrance. If you see a blast furnace in front of you when you start, you know you're in the Utgarde Keep not Pinnacle dungeon.
The dungeons are conveniently located near Valgarde which is the Alliance output in this zone.
During Children's Week, a celebration in the game which is a nod towards a real life Japanese celebration, you need to taken a young child to the final boss and let him witness the kill of the final boss. Before you go to kill the boss, you need to pick up the whistle from Stormwind and then go to the heroic level of the dungeon and kill the boss. If the kid is not present, the achievement doesn't count.
TomTom Location Coordinates for Entrance : /way Howling Fjord 57.29, 46.73 Utgarde Pinnacle
List of Utgarde Pinnacle Dungeon Bosses
Utgarde Keep Drops
Utgarde Pinnacle Location
Utgarde Pinnacle Entrance
Utgarde Keep Entrance Location
List of Mount(s) Obtainable From Utgarde Pinnacle