Mechanar

The Mechanar is the first wing of the Tempest Keep instance. It serves as a base for Pathaleon the Calculator and also generates manacells, which contain an incredible amount of power. It once belonged to the Naaru. The area is filled with Mo'args as well as Bloodwarder and Sunseeker blood elves.

This is the purple crystal building south of the main palace. At level 80, the instance is easily soloable on normal mode, while heroic mode is a challenge and requires high-level gear for most classes.

One full run with all mobs cleared yields about 1620 reputation with the Sha'tar.

Background
Among the satellites of Tempest Keep, the Mechanar has been chosen by Kael'Thas to be a factory to create large amounts of power. Mechano-Lord Capacitus appears to be the one creating it using the naaru-technology found in Tempest Keep, and the power is stored in manacells which piles up into walls and heaps inside the satellite. There they are guarded and handled by blood elves directly under the authority of Pathaleon the Calculator, Kael'Thas' prime deviser. The elves are also aided by a large number of demons serving the Burning Legion, Kael'Thas' new ally. The large amount of manacells are smuggled by ethereals to the Sunwell where Kael'Thas plans to use them to power up the summoning of Kil'Jaeden. Some of the manacells are found at the ethereal-camp Bash'ir Landing in Blade's Edge Mountains and even more of them are seen in the Magisters' Terrace close to the sunwell. The Mechanar is the part of Tempest Keep most controlled by Kael'Thas and his blood elves (the Botanica and Arcatraz are suffering various problems), next after The Eye.

Layout
The Mechanar consists of two levels joined by an elevator. The first level has two named elites and one boss. Both named elites must be killed to open the elevator. You must also kill both Gatewatchers to open the Cache of the Legion. The first optional boss (Mechano-Lord Capacitus) has a decent loot table of his own.

On Heroic mode, these first three bosses (prior to Patch 2.3) are known as the Three Free Badges, as the Gatekeepers remain virtually unchanged from regular mode and Mechano-Lord Capacitus becomes a ridiculously easy fight with proper positioning. Moderately geared groups can fight their way through the first floor in less than an hour, even with a wipe or need to retreat. As of Patch 2.3 the Gatekeepers no longer drop a each, instead one is found in the Cache of the Legion.

Both the second optional boss and the end boss of the instance are up the elevator.

Dungeon denizens

 * Arcane guardians
 * Arcane titan (one, Mechano-Lord Capacitus)
 * Blood elves
 * Fire elementals
 * Gan'arg
 * Arcane wraiths
 * Mana surges
 * Mo'arg

Bosses

 * Mechano-Lord Capacitus
 * 72 Elite


 * Nethermancer Sepethrea
 * 72 Elite


 * Pathaleon the Calculator
 * 72 Elite

Mini-bosses
Gatewatcher Gyro-Kill and Gatewatcher Iron-Hand are mini-bosses. Each drops a portion of a key which is used to open the Cache of the Legion just before the elevator.

Issues and bugs
There are currently a number of issues in this instance. They are listed here along with workarounds. These are issues acknowledged in Blizzard posts that are planned to be resolved.

Elevator is not visible
Problem: This client-side issue causes some players to not be able to see the elevator. This occurs on a per-instance basis.

Workaround: If you encounter this problem, the only ways around it are to:
 * Use a Warlock's Ritual of Summoning to go around the elevator.
 * Log into another computer long enough to move your character up the elevator.
 * Full reboot of player's computer (worked at least once)

The upper floor is locked
Problem: Under certain circumstances, the elevator gateway remains closed after the group wipes. This issue is still not fixed as of 7 March 2007 in patch 2.0.10.

Workaround: The best ways to deal with this are:
 * Making sure the group has a wipe bailout in place, such as a soulstone, ankh, Divine Intervention, and so on.
 * Zoning everybody out and back in again.
 * Filing an in-game ticket reporting an environmental issue and putting "Mechanar" as first word in the issue.
 * Similar to zoning everyone out, dying apparently can solve the issue.
 * A "soft reset", which was described by a GM as leaving the instance for 30 minutes.

Note: GM stated that devs have asked that players not be ported to the other side of the gate after this occurs, as this may cause other problems.

Resetting Pathaleon Breaks the Instance
Problem: If attempting to reset the final boss by running towards the elevator, sometimes he may bug, keeping the remainder of the instance inaccessible. When Pathaleon mind-controls the players, they will release and fall under the map. When this happens, the client may be disconnected and will have difficulty getting back on. After this, Pathaleon and his adds will be scattered between several rooms in the back half of the instance, rendering the instance unplayable.

Currently (Patch 2.3.3) there is no known workaround, a GM must be paged to reset the mobs and, occasionally, the players as well.

Free chest-runs for Rogues and Druids
The Mechanar, among other instances, was once famous for allowing Rogues (and some druids) the opportunity to solo their way to several chests inside the instance, boosting the clever Rogues' economy quite a bit as they didn't need to share the chests with anyone. As a result, chests within instances were removed in patch 2.2.0.

Loot
See Mechanar loot.