Talk:Opening the Dark Portal

Remove Party Makeup Section
This entire section is a bloated mess. Everyone seems to be tacking on "what worked for me!" sections. Great! There are a million ways to kill things in this game and I don't think that we need to report every single one of them on a wiki page when we discover it. I'd be for trashing the whole section and rebuilding its content in a much more concice fashion in a "class tips" sort of section. While I know people find this instance difficult now, in a few months all of this hand-wringing over party make-up will seem very silly.


 * I concur. --Ballistae 18:56, 14 April 2007 (EDT)

Another alternate composition
It seems that this instance isn't quite as unforgiving as it was before - today did it with holy paladin/prot warrior/arcane mage (me)/affliction warlock/balance druid, with the balance druid never shifting out of moonkin to heal - because he didn't need to.

We put the Warlock on adds as my spec doesn't lend very well to it, and although he had some mana efficiency issues he dealt with them very well. Adds seem to aggro on DoT application, and go down very fast with fear + DoTs.

Between myself and the moonkin on the rift lords/keepers, we hammered them down VERY quickly with minimal aggro issues (the new thunderclap change appears to have helped quite a bit, my tank was very pleased with it). Deja was a joke and went down very fast.

Temporus went down fairly fast with myself spellstealing Hasten, he often would let his own debuff stack run out because of his lack of attack speed. We burned one beacon halfway through on adds, didn't need a second as the warlock maintained control on them as well.

With 4 beacons left and the new beacon change, everything from there to Aeonus was trivialized completely. Beacon on waves 14/15/16/17 made it take a ridiculously short amount of time.

Aeonus himself was further trivialized by the paladin resisting his time stop once and bubbling out of the second, as well as myself blinking out to continue DPS, with all of us at a sufficient range to ignore Sand Breath even with him pointed at us.

All in all the beacon change hardly changes a thing (and IMO makes it easier to get through the rest, and more fun), you could even use one on Deja's adds to bring him down even quicker, as well as a second on Temporus' adds and still have two left over for tight points or the last two waves if you so desire.

Melee + hunter strat
My group consisted of 2 feral druids (myself included), 1 resto druid, 1 arms warrior, and 1 hunter. It took 3 or 4 tries to get it down, but by the end it turned out to be an ideal group. Here is the strat we came up with:

For the elite pulls, both druids were in bear form in mostly dps gear (I had about 1500 ap with pots and about 14-15k armor vs my normal 22k). The warrior was also in full dps gear. The other feral druid began each wave by engaging the elite by the portal, with the warrior assisting.

I waited between the portal and Medivh to catch any adds headed for him. Be sure to note that I had to deal damage to aggro the adds. Feral faerie fire and Demoralizing roar did not work to stop them. Neither did growl. The first add is always a single, so I built some rage on him and kept enough to swipe. Since swipe hits 3 targets, it is ideal for hitting all 3 whelps that come at once. With an Idol of Brutality the swipes ranged from 200 base to over 500 crits and killed the whelps quickly. The process was repeated for all the adds up until the first boss.

On the first boss we more or less ignored the adds. I switched from stopping adds to tanking the boss and the other druid went cat for dps. The hunter tagged adds and helped dps the boss. After the first boss was down the shield was at 100%.

The same process was repeated for the second set of waves. On the casters I used bash when I could. On the boss both druids were in bear form. In this fight I made sure to hold down dps and threat since the second boss cannot be taunted. When the other druid stole aggro and my debuff was gone I unloaded on mauls and mangles until I had aggro and repeated the cycle until he was dead. On the second boss, the hunter was full dps on the boss so adds were attacking the shield. When we rounded the adds up and killed them the shield was at 71%.

On this particular run, one of our members forgot to get a new Chrono-beacon. We killed the first of the waves as normal and then each of the gates after that before the boss, we set a beacon at the elite's feet for an easy finish. The last boss was by far the easiest. I just turned him away from the party and the shield and everyone all-out dpsed while the resto druid kept me topped off with HoTs for when we were paralyzed.

Merge with Black Morass
This is actually the quest name, the instance name is Black Morass... either a merge and redirect, or a tidy up with the quest objectives. --Psyker7 09:01, 18 February 2007 (EST)


 * The instance name is "Caverns of Time - Dark Portal" according to the LFG tool. I think the page with the general info should be named that. This article could be moved to a walkthrough page or a quest page. --Ballistae 18:34, 12 March 2007 (EDT)

Hunter Info
It's worth noting, and probably noting, that the range on the "Stop Time" debuff appears to be 35 yards. As a Hunter with 3 points in "Hawk Eye", if I stand at the very, very edge of my range, I'm not subject to timestops, thus giving sustained dps on the 3rd boss through the whole fight

Just in case anybody wishes for the former group composition section
The best setup is a Warrior/Druid Tank, a Mage, a Hunter, a Rogue, and a Priest with a heavy holy build, and some in Discipline for Improved Power Word: Fortitude. A Warlock could work in place of a mage. <-I have to say 'oh gee really? Best party makeup is a tank specced character, 3xDPS and a healing specced character?' Should we paste this into into every 5 man instance in the game? O.o KelvinFrost 10:33, 29 March 2007 (EDT)

Another way to go with group setup is to focus heavily on melee, using a holy priest as dedicated healer, a dps-specced shaman as totemstomper, offhealer and dps, a druid for tanking, and 2 warriors for dps. This will make the encounter ridiculous in terms of difficulty. Have the druid tank the elites close to the rifts themselves, and have all dps focused on it. Every time a new wave of mobs spawn, warriors do a whirlwind, and the mobs will abort their run to Medivh. The warriors have the health and armor to stay alive even with 5-6 mobs hitting each of them, also making the priests Prayer of Mending and Circle of Healing spells very useful. When the elites go down, the mobs will be easily cleared by the warriors and druid. For Tempurus, just have the warriors nuke extra hard, and strap a shield on when they overaggro.

Another way: Tank, Rogue, Hunter, shadow Priest, and holy Paladin mainhealing. The constant healing from the shadow Priest's vampiric embrace helps top off everyone's health, and also keeps the Paladin's mana up (through spiritual attunement: 10% of the heal goes into the Paladin's mana, and as of patch 2.0.8 even overhealing from the shadow priest's vampiric embrace procs spiritual attunement). During Temporus, have the Paladin put blessing of protection on the tank when mortal strike starts stacking up high, at which point the aggro is shed from the tank, and the Rogue should evasion tank, until the main tank loses the mortal strike debuff.

The most "safe" method involves a very specific party makeup of four people and a fifth "wildcard" that could be you; a stamina-heavy protection warrior, a shadow priest, a skilled warlock and a heavy-healer (holy paladin, priest or resto druid). The 5th party member should be strong DPS, melee or ranged.


 * Just another suggestion* I read this article for general info a few days ago, and did this last nite - our group was as follows: Warrior (Protection spec), Warlock (Demonology spec), Shaman (Enhancement spec), Priest (Hybrid Disc/Holy), and myself - Priest (full shadow). We used the felguard and warlock to take care of the adds at each portal while dps was focused on the elite spawns. Worked very well and nothing was lost using this group makeup, while I wouldn't suggest worrying too much about what spec everyone is and counting talent points too closely - make sure you are with a group who works well together and doesn't mind running around in a purely insane manner. We did this run twice in a row - first time we were there together as a group took us 34 minutes, second run 28 minutes. Definitely having vampiric embrace/touch to top off hp & mana was incredibly useful, since there isn't too much time for sitting, and having a shaman with huge melee dps who can also heal if absolutely necessary is very helpful. Good luck & big thanks to our wonderful Argent Dawn team!


 * Warlock Suggestion - I found it helpful to sink the Lord or Keeper with Seed of Corruption regularly throughout each fight. If timed properly, it would detonate on the adds and make it easier for the mage behind me to burn them down. Occasionally, the aggro generated would be to me, but the mage behind me would still be able to burn them down. When we reached the final boss, the shield was at 85%. Made for a relatively "safe" boss fight.


 * Affliction Warlock - I found it very easy for all SINGLE adds except executioners to cast curse of agony, corruption, fear, and siphon life (in that order). Mobs usually die right at my feet once fear is over.  For whelps, cast seed of corruption, followed IMMEDIATELY by a shadow bolt (to splash damage all 3 whelps), then siphon life on all 3, then howl of terror.  For the exeuctioners, curse of agony, immolate, fear, corruption, siphon life (again, in that order, usually die right at my feet when fear breaks).  I was able to use this strategy, dot each rift lord, AND keep the shield at untouched with exception of the Temporus fight (all out DPS).


 * Mage Suggestion - The best suggestion I can make is to have all your mana gems ready with mana potions as backups. Create large amounts of water and stay back from the main group, allowing you to drink after downing an enemy.   Always use mage armour as the 30% mana regeneration helps greatly. Frost mages should use constant frost bolt on the single mobs as they come though, when the 3 mobs come through at once use cone of cold, then two arcane blasts to finish them off. Do NOT use your mana shield or ice shield! only use if your healer is dead and you have arrgo of more than three mobs. It is a shame that mages are the key point in the BM instance, if you can't handle the mobs your group will fail and mages don’t generally have any other role to play than to kill the mobs.


 * Shadow Priest Suggestion - I was in a Black Morass group that burned down this event with relative ease. We had a Holy Paladin, Prot Paladin, Fire or Ice Mage, Subtlety Rogue, and myself (Shadow Priest).  Most, if not all the fights (including the boss fights) were just tank and spanks for us.  The Holy Paladin kept the heals up on the Prot Paladin, myself and the Rogue DPS'd our hearts out, and the Mage burned the adds.  For the second boss fight, I dropped my Chrono Beacon next to Medivh while the Mage came in and helped burn down the boss.  We then cleared up any remaining adds, and finished the rest of the event with great ease.  It is very imperative that your mage knows how to control and kill the adds effectively and efficiently.  Otherwise, your mage will fall and Medivh won't be long after him/her.  The most important thing you can do as a Shadow Priest is to keep Vampiric Embrace on every Elite mob you are DPSing.  The overheal from Vampiric Embrace will trigger Spiritual Attunement for your healing Paladin thus giving him a greater mana pool to keep your tank alive.  As with most fights a Shadow Priest is involved in, Vampiric Embrace along with your three main DoTs (Vampiric Touch, Shadow Word: Pain, and Mind Flay) will keep the overheals going well enough.  If the fights are dragging on, Mind Blast and Shadow Word: Death (used sparingly) will help bring them down faster.


 * Double Mage Suggestion - I have tried the shaodwpriest group, and several groups with offtanks as many people seem to feel is absolutely necessitated. The group that seemed to work best for me is using a tank (ours was a feral druid) *two* mages, a holy priest, and whoever else... I was the whoever else, a hunter.  Tank just tanks the elite, one mage (whoever has a deeper mana pool) is on add removal, the other mage is on elite dps, and the other is on elite dps.... priest did the heals.  We had zero problems, even when my gun broke on wave 12 and I had to run out to repair and back in... only missed 2 waves and they were still fine.  There is no need for an off-tank with this type of group, and all that DPS brings down the bosses fast.  Speaking of the bosses, it works well to just ignore the adds and toss a chrono-beacon or two out.  We didnt even use all the beacons by the end.


 * Warrior, moonkin druid, mage, warlock, priest is a good setup. The mage takes the adds accept for on Temporus. There the mage takes the first add, and the druid roots and sleeps the seccond and third. After that all try to kill the boss asap. When Temporus is dead all take care of the adds. Our best time now to do Black Morass is 19 min and with 100% of the shield left. I think all is about speed and it is really good to have a back up healer that makes good dps too. Fast kills means less adds so we start nuking fast and runs from portal to portal.


 * Double Rogue Suggestion - This i discovered to be a very successful group structure that is also very flexible to incorporate all classes. Of course you start with your Main Tank (Warrior or Feral Druid) along with a healer (holy priest, holy pala, resto druid).  Then you have your 2 rogues.  One is serious dps on the elites and bosses, the other will be on adds duty.  The fifth member of the team can be any dps output class (hunter/mage/warlock).  The advantage of the rogue on the adds is that there is no mana leakage on these and all can be concentrated on the elites and the bosses.  There is usually the need for a quick add clean up after each elite or boss, to mop up the couple outstanding, but this can be carried out with the help of the tank and the other rogue allowing the casters to recharge their mana.  I do suggest that on Tempurus, the adds rogue also goes dps and a beacon is used mid fight on the adds toying with Mendivh's shield.  Using this method the shield will remain largely intact by the end giving a little break before you nuke to the finish line.

Alliance helps?
I've read the part about this, but i still don't get it. The Alliance would never be formed, that is true, but instead we would have 7 mighty kingdoms and Quel'Thalas, without the huge losses against the orcs they would be able to beat back the Scourge, and if they could'nt the Alliance would probably be formed fighting the scourge! And for banishing Sargeras; would'nt it be easier just go there and kill medivh while he opens the portal so Sargeras would be banished? -Rovdyr 10:29, 24 March 2007 (EDT)


 * The Scourge were a reaction to the failed invasion with use of the Orcs, their leader an orc himself. I doubt it they would have existed without the Orc's invasion of Azeroth. Also, remember that it was Medivh himself that guided the mortal races during their battle against the Burning Legion, to correct his mistakes of the past. If Medivh was killed without the Orc's ever entering Azeroth, he would have seen no need in preventing the success of the Burning legion. --Ardelia 0:02, 26 July 2007 (EDT)

Sure, but the initial orc invasions was a result of the Legions influence, remember it was Sargeras(in the shape of Medivh) that opened the portal. Besides if The Scourge was formed to weaken the humans and summon the Legion, it would have been far weaker of several reasons. 1: The main arguments against starting a quarantine is that the people have suffered heavily without being imprisoned, and that the Horde is rebelling and gathering an army. 2: The people would be less likely to join the Cult of the Damned as they haven't suffered in the wars. 3: The quarantine would severely hamper the plague and thus the undead armies would be far weaker. 4: Arthas would be able to investigate the plague straight away without pwning a bunch of orcs.

So the way i see it, the world would be far better off without the orcs. -Rovdyr 16:54, 17 December 2007 (UTC)

I definitely have to agree that the logic of "Oh, the Burning Legion would have won if we didn't make the Portal" is very flawed. Obviously there are dozens of different "what if"s branching off this sort of thing so it's impossible to make absolute statements, but I think that the article could be toned down a bit. I was under impression that the general line was that everyone had to preserve history because it's history, and screwing around with it just messes stuff up bad. The one thing I would say against the current logic is that punching holes in the fabric of a world is bad (Hell, look what it did to Draenor), and it's how demons get in in the first place. In the third War Kel Thuzad, if I recall correctly, has to recover knowledge of portal crafting from Dalaran before he can summon Archimonde. Considering it's not common knowledge, one could even make an argument towards him recoving Medivh's notes, or magic reverse engineered from the Dark Portal. (Considering they had already plundered Quel'Thalas, it seems strange that they didn't knick the magic from the Elves, if the Elves already had it) But I babble... generally the reasoning doesn't sound very good to me, and I think it's best just to stick with "you can't mess with time just because it seems like a good idea" Darien Shields (talk) 06:48, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

Beacons and Waves
The beacons will all despawn (both the from your inventory and any dragons that are already out) when the final boss arrives. My recommendation would be to use 1 or 2 beacons for the second boss (so that you can focus all dps on the boss) then starting at wave 14, stop trying to close the portals. Just hang out by the shield, pop the remaining beacons one at a time, go into complete mana saving mode. Let the dragons do the work and just wand/melee the mobs down. Once the final boss spawns all of the portals will stop spawning adds. That should allow you to engage the boss at full health and mana.--ThatRickGuy 09:44, 28 March 2007 (EDT)

Yet Another alternative group composition (definitely worth reading this one)
A good protection specced paladin can make the dark portal event a piece of cake. With a properly specced and geared paladin, you can have the paladin tank everything during the waves and even during the bosses. Simply have the paladin stand in the path of the adds and use consecrate to aggro them and keep them interested. Open up each riftlord fight with an Avenger's Shield or a Judgment of Righteousness. But I strongly advise the use of consecration as your primary means of aggro generation on the boss. Instead of using a holy damage seal, judge wisdom and keep seal of wisdom up so you have plenty of mana for those consecrates. If you are using a spell damage sword such as the ones that drop in Mechannar and Shadow Lab, those are good choices because of their high spell damage and fast attack speed. Between consecration and holy shield, a paladin with +350 or more spell damage will have no aggro problems whatsoever. And most of the adds will die from the consecrate anyways so you'll have to clean up maybe 2-3 of them once the riftlord is down before moving on.

You can continue to use this method for the bosses, although you may want to let a few adds go by during Temporus because you generally won't be standing in the path of the adds to pick them all up. It can also be an issue because some of the adds cast frostbolts and that can make the kiting method of getting the debuffs off more difficult to use. Just be ready to run in to Medivh's area and drop a consecrate after Temporus goes down to clean up.

With a group like this, a decent healer (doesn't have to be an amazing healer, but they should still bring a mana pot in case and should probably be specced healing) can keep you alive and you can dedicate 3 dps to getting down the riftlords as fast as possible. This means you'll be taking down rifts faster and speed will be less of an issue.

Lorna of Suramar

''I used this exact method. Prot pali about +200 spell damage. As soon as the mobs stepped in the consecration they turned to the pali where the DPS could focus on them one at a time with out chasing them around. Pali would hold em in line while the rest took out the rift lords.

Jeabus

Why does a group need to put one player on adds?
Basically, Black Morass event needs one tank, one healer and 3 random DPS (doesn't matter at all who, 3 mages is just as fine as 3 rogues).

No one should take adds while (mini)boss is alive, all DPS on boss, max 3 waves of adds (our usual is 2, sometimes only 1) then all dps on adds. Shield is there for a reason, as long as there is more than 1% of shield left at the end of event, all is fine.

Beacons: On second boss and following waves. Speeds things up.

This method also works in heroic mode (in heroic, tank needs to tank adds too, put a mage there next time and enjoy the need of 2 healers, one for mage - also lowering dps , bringing more waves and so on and so forth)

Best DPS combo so far is a hunter (for additional aggro to tank - misdirection + 3 high crits, does wonders) and 2 random DPSers.

Tested with over 20 runs, works perfectly, provided people know what they do and are able to dish out major dps. Beginners should still use old method (or people who don't top raid damage meters)

Note on Mortal Strike
The Mortal Strike debuff can also be blocked by a Warrior, which in my groups' experience means it only stacks about 4 times (often resetting to 2) on your tank. This is pretty helpful, as the nuke-healing by a level 70 Holy priest still gets awfully hairy at above 5 stacks. It also should eliminate the possible need for any off-tanking. 08:24, 4 May 2007 (EDT)

Why Medivh plays along?
Setting aside reasons of Alliance or bronze dragons helping, one thing I don't really understand in this instance's scenario is why Medivh instantly assumes that players arrived to protect him, calling them champions and all, at same announcing loudly unleashing of Horde and all the stuff? --Rowaasr13 05:34, 19 June 2007 (UTC)


 * He thinks they were sent to help by Sargeras.-- 00:32, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

Known Bug in Opening the Dark Portal
There are times that the adds in this instance bug out, resulting in a permanent evade while hitting Medivh's shield, causing the group to fail the instance. There are already a significant number of people who have reported this bug, but as of Patch 2.1.3, Blizzard has not fixed this problem.