The final major content patch before the release of Cataclysm in 2018, patch 3.3: The Fall of Lich King comes with new challenges for players both just having reached level 80, and those who have been grinding away at the game’s upper tier for the last few months. AmanQQ is there to tell you all about the Forge of Souls along with some of the best tips and recommendations that you can follow in order to master the game.

The Forge of Souls is the first of a series of three 5-man dungeons located on the upper west side of Icecrown Citadel. A back entrance has been discovered to the Lich King’s sanctum, the Halls of Reflection, and the way in begins with the Forge.

Players will initially be given a quest to speak with either Lady Sylvanas Windrunner or Jaina Proudmoore, depending on which faction they play for. Sylvanas and Jania are found just inside the entrance of the Forge of Souls.

As with all 5-man dungeons, Forge of Souls (FoS, henceforth) can be completed on either normal or heroic mode. Either mode will count toward the quest being completed, but FoS must be finished at least once on either difficultly before a player can move on to the next instance, the Pit of Saron. In normal mode, the dungeon drops iLevel 219 gear, and in heroic it drops iLevel 232.

The Layout

FoS is a series of large platforms strung together, with a boss in the central chamber and one at the end. The platforms are often simply grated metal with no railings – and yes, you can plummet to your death, so watch your footing. The area is dark and fiery, with floating skulls and a creepy synth-pop background music track playing.

The Trash Pulls

As with any WoW instance, you have to deal with the trash before you get to the bosses and the good loot. The first trash is floating skulls, which will randomly float by and aggro the party. While they do not have much health, they will cast an uninterpretable AoE if left unkilled long enough which will damage the entire party. Kill them quickly and you’ll be fine.

Most of the other trash falls into one of two groups. First, there are patches of 4 to 5 enemies at a time consisting almost entirely of magic users. They have a very large aggro radius and do a lot more AoE and randomly-targeted spells than in previous heroic instances. The healer will have to be prepared to actually use some mana, and the tank will need to be or their toes, as it is easy to pull a group of these by accident.

When killing the large groups, always kill the Adept first. The Adepts are healers and will make life very difficult if left unattended. Next, the best choice is to kill the Soul Horror, a black wraith-like shape, as it can randomly teleport behind party members, making it very dangerous to healers and spell casters.

The other type of trash the party will face are patrols consisting of two large skeletons. Not difficult in and of themselves, spellcasters must watch out for the spell reflect shield they throw up as it can easily kill any unwary mage or warlock who is unloading all of their spells on to the target.

The Bosses

Bronjahm

The first boss, located in the central platform’s chamber, is Bronjahm, Godfather of Souls, and a reference to James Brown. If one listens carefully, one can hear that the synth-pop in the background after killing Bronjahm is in fact “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag”, which is also the name of a 20-slot bag the boss drops.

Bronjahm is mostly a simple tank-and-spank, with one notable exception. During the fight, he will randomly cast “Corrupt Soul” on a target, and a beam of light will arc from him to the intended victim. The party member with the beam must back up to the edge of the platform, as far from the boss as they can get. Once the beam is finished, a corrupt soul fragment will spawn from the player’s body and drift toward Bronjahm. At this point, the tank needs to kite Bronjahm away from the fragment while the DPS kill it, as if it reaches the boss, it will heal him. Once it has been killed, the tank can hold Bronjahm where he is.

The only other thing to watch out for with the first boss is “Soulstorm”, which he casts at 30% health. Soulstorm creates a swirling vortex 10 yards out from Bronjahm, dealing AoE damage to anyone in it. Everyone needs to get within 10 yards of the boss and burn him down. During this phase, he will also fear random targets, sending them running into Soulstorm. A Shaman with a tremor totem down is useful here, but a healer with their head on straight and their eyes open will do just as well. Once Bronjahm is down, there are only a few pulls until the second boss, The Devourer of Souls.

The Devourer of Souls

The Devourer of Souls is a large, two-faced creature at the end of FoS, and it has several nasty abilities that can kill an unprepared group. The first thing it will do is start casting “Phantom Blast”, which will deal somewhere in the nature of 10k damage to the tank if not interrupted. If possible, stop these from happening altogether. It will earn the party and achievement and likely keep the tank alive.

The Devourer will also cast Well of Souls periodically, which spawns a pink pit of souls on the ground. As with all things on the ground in Lich King dungeons, don’t stand in it. As well, the boss will also cast Unleash Souls, which will summon a number of specters to attack players. They are unkillable and simply have to be healed through and avoided as much as possible.

The two most dangerous abilities, however, are Mirrored Soul and Wailing Souls. Mirrored Soul shoots a beam of energy at a player, causing them to share a portion of the damage the boss is taking with the player. All DPS must stop when someone gets the debuff, or high-DPS groups risk killing a damager-dealer of a healer.

Wailing Souls will be preceded with an announcement, and all players must get away from the front of the Devourer. When cast, souls will be unleashed from the devourer and it will ream stationary, but rotate 90 degrees. If a player is in front of the boss while this effect is occurring, they will take anywhere from 5k damage per second on normal to 7k damage per second on heroic. Just stand behind the boss, it will make everyone’s life easier.

Once the Devourer has been killed, reinforcements for the party’s faction will storm the room and a portal will be opened to the next instance, the Pit of Saron.