Dungeons: Tel’alor Pantheon

Tel’alor Pantheon – 7.2

Location: Tel’abim

CM record title: ‘Loa Arbiter’

Soundtrack: 

Description: Tel’alor is a sacred place. It is here where the Loa gather to rest and discuss the status of the numerous Troll tribes. Tormented by apocalyptic visions and the impending fall of the Zandalari, Zul reopened the gates of these holy chambers beseeching the assistance of the Loa. None but one decided to aid him. Although the Loa have little concern with the issues of mortals, they are indeed aware that the revival of the wayward Loa can prove a serious threat to their already fragile harmony.

Regarding environmental design, the halls of Tel’alor are greatly decorated and heavily painted with very lively and bright colors. Flowery and tribal patterns fill the stone wall corridors and serpentine forms are drawn onto the floor, giving the dungeon a carnivalesque halo. The middle room, where Rakhala is located features a huge flower-shaped carving on the floor. The borders of this room are pools of shallow water. The final room is the seat of the Loa. Figurines and statuettes in honor of the countless Loa lie around the chamber. Mosaics depicting the different Loa are displayed on the walls of this final room.

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Bosses: 3

• Umber Priest Uzumbe: Uzumbe has proven a loyal lieutenant of the Hand of Zul. He has remained inside the Pantheon by command of Zul to study the inscribed hieroglyphs, hoping that they might contain useful knowledge for the Hand of Zul to prosper. Uzumbe now wanders the serpentine halls of Tel’alor ready to unleash a tide of shadow on anyone who disturbs his studies.

As for his encounter, it is rather atypical in structure. We will face him three times along the dungeon. Once in each cross-tiled room. As a Shadow Priest, Uzumbe can hold Shadow Orbs. He gets Shadows Orbs with 3 abilities: 1) Mind Blast, which causes heavy damage at one target; 2) Shadow Word: Death, which instantly kills anyone under 20% health; 3) Shadowy Apparitions from Shadow Word: Pain. Uzumbe casts Shadow Word: Pain on anyone. When Shadow Word: Pain inflicts damage, Shadowy Apparitions begin to surge towards the member with Shadow Word: Pain. If you are fixated you have to make sure the Apparition crashes against Uzumbe and harm him before it reaches you and harms you, otherwise Uzumbe will receive 1 Shadow Orb. Another ability he uses is Mind Spike, which needs to be interrupted. If the tank gets hit twice by Mind Spike, the next Mind Blast (which cannot be interrupted) will cause fatal damage and stun the tank for 12 sec, during which Uzumbe will cast Power Infusion and spam Mind Flay and Mind Blast on the rest of the party. Anytime Uzumbe gets 3 Shadow Orbs he casts Devouring Plague on a target, causing heavy instant damage plus moderate damage over 6 sec. Uzumbe will cast Spectral Guise periodically, creating several copies of himself. Attacking false spectre makes it disappear and deal party wide damage. The rest of mirages fade automatically when the real Uzumbe is found. Also, he casts Vampiric Touch. Whenever Vampiric Touch deals damage, Uzumbe is healed for 1% his maximum health. Healers will have to think twice what debuff to dispell and when. For Challenge Mode Uzumbe also casts Psychic Scream to fear the party. Additionally, he has access to Cascade, Divine Star and Halo, depending on the room he is in. If he casts Cascade, the party should be stacked in order to minimize its damage. Divine Star is a little tricky because he can cast three at once and in different patterns, so watch out. Halo inflicts more damage the further you are from Uzumbe, so keep close to him when he casts it.

Finally, when he reaches 66% and 33%, Uzumbe casts Dispersion and disappears in shadows. That means the combat will resume in the next cross-tiled room. Damaging Uzumbe with at least 50 Shadowy Apparitions over the three encounters awards the achievement [Fifty Shadows of Me].

• Tel’ai Ritualist Rakhala: It was her who opened the gates of Tel’alor for the Prophet Zul. Aware that great power was to be unleashed, she dared not deny his entrance. As a Tel’ai, Rakhala reveres the Pantheon of the Loa as a whole and wears multiple Loa masks from which she draws spiritual power to ward off any other intruder.

Concerning battle mechanics, we find her kneeled in the center of the room surrounded by many floating ritual masks. At the beginning of the fight she will just attack us with spiritual spells.At 80% health, she will begin to perform a ritual dance, during which she is immune. The room darkens and the flower tile starts to levitate. When she is done, her immunity shield wears off and the platform begins to rotate. The remainder of the battle is fought over the rotating flower platform. Afterwards she randomly picks one of the many floating masks and wears it, gaining its power, increasing her damage and getting access to a special ability from the mask. In addition, she gains a spirit shield that has to be broken before she can be damaged again. Some of the abilities from the masks range from summoning spirit pillars we have to dodge as the platform spins to violent shadowy winds that try to push us off the platform. She does this three times at 80%, 50% and 30%, stacking the damage increase but replacing the special ability as she takes a new mask. For Challenge Mode, the masks’ abilities also stack.

After destroying the third mask, she begins to attack us again with spirit spells at an increasing speed as the rest of the masks also swarm us with spiritbolts. The damage of this last phase intensifies over time. Breaking all of the Masks she has (there are many) awards the achievement [Masks of Furious Deities].

• Trial of the Loa: The Loa never bless without sacrifice. As such, anyone willing to have the Troll Pantheon at his side will need to prove worthy to their immortal eyes.

In order to begin the trial, the Loa summon a giant Tiki construct that wields enchanted voodoo weaponry. This Tiki Warrior is the Trial of the Loa. It may be reminiscent to the Will of the Emperor in Mogu’shan Vaults and Forgemaster Throngus of Grim Batol in some ways. This boss has a huge amount of health, but can be countered by doing well its mechanics. The weapons the Tiki has at its disposal are a two-handed sword, a shield, and dual glaives. Any of those are chosen randomly, but never the same twice in a row. The Tiki will chain combos of special attacks, mostly AoE that can be avoided, but are punishing to receive. The less health the boss has, the faster it will perform the combos. Successfully avoiding one of these attacks grants you a short buff to help you avoid the following attacks. Successfully avoiding all of the chained attacks will grant you the buff Champion of the Loa, which greatly increases your damage for 20 sec.

The two-handed sword makes the Tiki able to use Charge (targeted) and grants the following special combo skills: 1) Voodoo Sweep, which is a regular area sweep; 2) Assault of the Loa, with which the Tiki warrior jumps high and then strikes at the ground with great power; 3) Loa Thrust, a front attack; 4) Voodoostorm, a wide range Bladestorm.

The shield prevents attacks coming from the side the shield is on and grants the Tiki the following combo abilities: 1) Voodoo Clash, a front charge with the shield; 2) Shadowshield, emitting shadowflames in a cone from the shield while the boss rotates; 3) Arch of the Loa, which floods the room in shadows and the only safe place is atop the shield that has been previously thrown at a random place; 4) Aegis of the Prelate protects the boss against all attacks, if anyone strikes the barrier, the combo is failed.

Finally, the last set the Tiki can get are two huge glaives, granting it the ability to periodically throw a magic glaive at a given location similar to Nazgrim’s Ravagers, lasting for as much as the glaive phase lasts, and gives the boss the following skills: 1) Glaivestorm throws glaives at random places; 2) Soulshred throws the glaives afar and come back in a spiral pattern; 3) Edge of the Loa causes glaives to spin clock or counter-clockwise around the boss; 4) Trial Pursuit, which conjures spectral glaives to fixate on all players and chase them at increasing speed. The rest is tank and spank. All in all, it might be a long boss if players do not move properly. Successfully avoiding all of the combos awards the achievement [Really Ready for Raiding!].