Using that Mace: Lord Marrowgar

It's been really foggy around these parts lately. It makes me feel very mystical and lost in time... until I get into my car and drive through it! Can't stop me, fog!

Anywho, Icecrown Citadel has been out for... quite a while now (three months-ish). The King has been slain. Hell, the heroic King has been slain as well! It's only a matter of time (and ICC raid buffs) until everyone catches up with the top guilds. So, for some reason beyond my understanding, I have decided to write a ret's guide to the Lower Spire!

[Edit: writing out a guide for Marrowgar and his associated trash took up many more words than I thought, so I'll be splitting up my Lower Spire guide, and most likely subsequent ICC guides, into the individual boss encounters.]

When you enter the instance, you're greeted with Tirion and his band of merry Argent men. Luckily, Tirion brought some smiths with him, so you can come back here and repair whenever you need, using those oh-so-seldomly-placed teleport pads. Also, the ring vendor is on the left, so when you get Friendly/Honored/Revered/Exalted, remember to come back here and get a new ring.



The trash leading up to Marrowgar is what makes all the ladies swoon over us; Seal of Command + Holy Wrath + Consecrate = ....

Sick eh?

Just go with the flow for these pulls. Your tanks should mark some kill targets (which are typically the Servant of the Throne guys, as their Glacial Blast hurts but can be interrupted), but just cleave to your heart's content. Your rogues might not disable some of the traps (or you might not have a rogue to do so), which just means that some big mean skeleton guys will come alive and try to kill you. Typical "don't stand in front, let tank get aggro" business here. There's just a couple rooms of trash and you'll get to the first big bad.

LORD MARROWGAR

So... we've got a bone to pick with this guy. Just don't work your fingers to the bone on this fight, the cold is not good for the circulation. I mean, if you're not wearing your official Remember Jong! ret paladin sweater, then you're going to get chilled to the bone in here.

Har. Ok, so we got a big, floaty, winged, four-headed bone monster. God, Arthas has some imagination, doesn't he?

For us DPS, there's a few important points to this encounter. First, the tanks will pick it up and do the whole facing-away-from-the-raid thing. You do NOT want to attack from the front on this boss, not just because you'll do less damage due to the elevated expertise cap, but because anyone too close to the tanks will get hit with Saber Lash, which will one-shot you if you are closer than the second tank to the first tank that is getting hit.

Kinda confusing, but trust me, don't go up there.

Another ability that will be cast rather frequently is Bone Spike Graveyard, which will impale randomly selected raid members on... bone spikes. No wai, amirite? These spikes are targetable and killable, so kill 'em and save your buds. Depending on which strategy you use, you can just leave them and let cleave/splash damage from your raid DPS attacking the boss kill the spikes, as long as everyone stacks in one area. Just listen to your raid leader for the strat you're using and adjust accordingly.

The last ability you need to look out for is called Bone Storm. During this phase, the boss will spin around the room and cleave anything that gets in his way. It doesn't hurt that much, but it's not recommended to chase him like how you chased that ice-cream truck last week. That was shameful, YOU'RE 28 YEARS OLD, TOM, BUY YOUR OWN ICE CREAM!!!

Aggro mechanics are ignored during this portion of the fight, but as of March 4th, 2010, he no longer drops threat at the end of his storm, so go ahead and hit him a few times to keep your SoV stacks up.

Finally, at any point in the encounter he'll drop patches of Coldflame around random players, which extend outwards in a cross. It's blue fire. ... It's fire. It is bad to stand in fire.

The encounter just alternates between these abilities. To recap:

• Attack Marrowgar from behind (never by the tanks)
• Stay out of the blue fire
• Get people down from bone spikes
• Stay away from the whirlwind of bony death

Mix those ingredients in a shaker and boom, loot time!

On 10m, loot that you might want from Marrowgar:

Citadel Enforcer's Claymore (pretty nice, and the assloads of Hit on this piece allow you to jostle some gear around if you're equipping a Mark of Supremacy, for example.

Shawl of Nerubian Silk (I'd only pick this up if no one else needs it (for either MS or OS) AND you're wearing something akin to Might of the Nerub)

On 25m, loot that you might want from Marrowgar:

Bryntroll, the Bone Arbiter (/want)

Gendarme's Cuirass (If you're still rockin' 2pT9 chest/something else, don't give that up until you can get 4pT10, not even for this baby! Trust me, that set bonus is gooooooood)

Band of the Bone Colossus (Again, only if no one else needs it (for either MS or OS) AND you're wearing something akin to Ring of the Violent Temperament)

Until next time... honor and vengeance, paladin!