How to: The Gauntlet at Utgarde Pinnacle (Skadi)

For the past month our heroic group has been running Utgarde Pinnacle to help the tank get Red Sword of Courage to drop from King Ymiron, the final boss. Most of the runs were smooth except the annoying gauntlet part after the second boss. It seemed like no matter how many times we tried it, something always went wrong and there was a “one wipe minimum” per run.

Lately we got it perfect and nobody died. This is how.

Skadi the Ruthless

The gauntlet is a long, narrow, outdoor hallway. Upon exiting the Trophy Room, and into the hall, you’ll notice that Skadi the Ruthless stands before you with his trusty drake.  When you aggro him, he jumps on his drake and flies out of range which starts the encounter. If you want finish this the easy way (and the way Blizzard probably didn’t design the encounter to unfold), confirm with the group that you’re going to “farm harpoons”.

Farm What?

The goal of the gauntlet is to work your way to the end the hallway where the harpoon guns are, waiting for the “Skadi is in range of the harpoon gun” message, and blowing the drake out of the sky. There will be spawns of warriors and ‘harpooners’ that will appear infinitely until you’ve taken the dragon out of the sky. The harpooners drop harpoons which you need in order to use the harpoon guns at the end of the hall. It takes roughly six shots to bring the dragon down.

There are potential problems with doing things the ‘normal’ way. First of all, the dragon will continuously fly by and hit either the left or right side of the room with a frost breath. The breath coats the ground and does a nasty DoT to any player standing in it. Then there are the waves and waves of elites that you’ll need to kill for the harpoons. And finally, at the end of the hall is a large group of mobs that you’ll have to kill amongst the waves. If you manage to collect the harpoons, avoid the frost breath, kill the elite mob packs, and gun down the dragon with the harpoon, THEN you’ll have to fight the boss, most likely with low mana.

Ok, Give Me the Easy Way

When you enter the gauntlet, have the tank aggro the boss but everybody will stay at the beginning of the hallway. The harpooners will spawn and charge the party, but they are such an easy fight that any decent party can fight them forever without running out of mana.  The dragon will announce that he’s going to blow frost breath, but the frost breath DOES NOT reach this part of the hallway, so you won’t have to worry about it.

So you’ll stay at this end of the hall until you’ve farmed about eight harpoons, to be safe. I recommend having two different dps players farm the harpoons (four each).

When both players have four harpoons, the party should run back to the Trophy Room, where you just fought the previous boss. When all five players are in this room for a few seconds, you’ll see the mobs who followed you will despawn/disappear. When you notice that, IMMEDIATELY run back to the gauntlet and to the opposite end of the hallway (where the harpoon guns are). If you did it correctly, the hall will be empty, including Skadi.

After roughly ten seconds, Skadi and his dragon will appear (reset), but this time you’ll be BEHIND them.

Four of your party members, including the tank and healer, should stand at the end of the hallway by the harpoon guns. The tank should stand a little closer to the doorway to prepare for the spawns. When everybody is at full health and mana, tell one dps to aggro the boss. Get ready for the most difficult part of the encounter.

The instant the boss is aggroed, a bunch of mobs will spawn under your feet. The tank needs to do his AOE threat spell immediately, while the rest of the dps combines their AOE damage spells. Things have to die very quickly.  If done quickly enough, the two dps who have harpoons in their inventory will be able to get to their guns and burn down the dragon, ideally at the first opportunity. If the dragon doesn’t fall, get ready to shift to the left or right side of the hall because there will be frost breath coming. There will also be another wave of adds in the meantime. Shoot more harpoons and Skadi will fall off of his dragon and join the fight.

This is an important and stressful transition for the tank because he’ll have to pick up Skadi immediately. I haven’t been able to figure out Skadi’s initial aggro pattern, but it seems like the one player he HASN’T defaulted to is the tank. The tank will taunt him, then bring him back towards the end of the hall so the dps can get in max range. If there are spawns still alive, the dps must burn them down first before worrying about Skadi.

When the spawns are dead, the only two things worth mentioning with Skadi is his nasty whirlwind, and his poison arrow. The whirlwind is unique in that he’ll change aggro while he’s spinning and “Tazmanian Devil” his way towards whoever his target is. Ranged dps needs to back up, melee dps will probably die, but if possible can try a 180-degree turn (think, Murmur) and sprint away. The poison arrow applies a nasty DoT but the only time it becomes a lethal problem is when it’s on the tank and he and the healer have gone “out of range” because of having to flee Skadi’s whirlwind. The dwarf racial ‘Stoneform’ can remove the poison.

Once he’s dead, loot his stupid body.

To Sum It Up

• Aggro the boss, stay at the beginning of the hall to farm 8 harpoons.
• Once 8 harpoons are collected, flee to Trophy Room and wait for mobs to despawn.
• Upon despawn, run back into gauntlet to opposite side of the hall, near harpoon guns.
• Get full mana/health.
• Have 1 dps aggro the boss while the other four players work on AoE burning the mass  of mobs that will spawn under your feet.
• Shoot harpoon guns when raid message says boss is “in range of harpoon guns”. If you don’t kill him on first lap, beware of frost breath.
• Tank must taunt Skadi when he falls to the ground.
• DPS burns down remaining adds.
• Be careful of Skadi’s whirlwind.
• Loot