Shattered Halls Strategy Guide
Here, we'll go over tips and tricks for not only completing Shattered Halls, but completing it within its timer to overcome the Trial of the Naaru: Mercy.
Group Composition for Shattered Halls
Shattered Halls will have bigger trash mob pulls than the other two Hellfire Heroics, and because of that, having a class that can slow, such as Mages and Hunters, is more required for this. Mobs don't hit nearly as hard as they do in Heroic Blood Furnace, but because of the bigger packs, it's also recommended to have Crowd Control to minimize the amount of trash mobs attacking your tank, making the mage a high-priority class for this dungeon.
Outside of that, stuns will be very helpful for the Shattered Hand Legionnaires, as they will always want to be focused first whenever engaged, as they will keep calling for reinforcements until defeated, and on top of that, they are immune to slows. Although helpful, stuns are not at all required. We wish we could say you bring as many melee as you want, but unfortunately, the first boss, Grand Warlock Nethekurse, will cast Dark Spin near the end of the encounter until death, and this deals significantly more damage to melee than it does to ranged.
For tanks, all tanks are acceptable in this dungeon, but the Protection Paladin will shine bright here due to the large packs. Pairing them with a Mage or Hunter will allow for larger pulls to clear the dungeon faster. But if you are CCing your packs and limiting them down to 3-4, then Warrior and Druid tanks will still be perfectly fine here.
For healers, the final boss, Warchief Kargath Bladefist, deals massive, mostly unavoidable damage to the entire party, which unfortunately can make the Holy Paladin feel weaker here, due to its lack of AoE healing. Resto Shamans will shine bright not only for their AoE healing capabilities, but also for the ability to provide Bloodlust / Heroism to significantly speed up the encounter.
The longer this fight goes, the deadlier it gets! Outside of this, should you have a DPS Shaman for Bloodlust, then the Holy Priest and Resto Druid will be great here as well. Make sure your healers are coming in with a healthy amount of healing power, or the damage will overpower their healing!
Trash Tips for Shattered Halls
As mentioned previously, every Hellfire Citadel Heroic Dungeon will have one mob that cannot be slowed, but can be stunned. In this dungeon, it is the Shattered Hand Legionnaire. They come with an additional mechanic in that they will call on reinforcements to come until they are taken out. In the first hallway, you will find them along with Shattered Hand Heathens. It is highly recommended to wait until the Legionnaire patrols closest towards you and the party to pull him and only 1 Heathen, as these mobs hit particularly hard. Once you eliminate the Legionnaire, this hallway becomes quite easy.
You will then encounter the first two Shattered Hand Sentrys. These mobs have a very dangerous charge ability followed by a melee that can be deadly to your ranged. This can actually cause a crushing blow to players hit by this if they are not 350/350 on their Defense Skill! The next room can be incredibly frustrating, or incredibly simple, and it all depends on which side of the room you pull first. If you go from left to right, you can grab each pair of mobs one by one. If you try to start on the right side, you'll always pull an additional pack, and typically with the patrolling Legionnaire as well.
Like Hellfire Ramparts, there are non-elite dog mobs, Rabid Warhound, that you do NOT want touching your tank at all. These are always led by a Shattered Hand Houndmaster. The Houndmaster does not hit hard, so the tank should be focusing on him, while the rest of the DPS are nuking the two warhounds.
From here on out, it's a simple metric of crowd controlling 2 mobs and pulling the rest back. Line of Sighting (LOS'ing) these packs is highly recommended, as there are several ranged and caster mobs. The more geared your tank is, the less they'll have to kite, as these mobs aren't nearly as deadly as their friends are in the Blood Furnace. But if you simply hard crowd control 1-2 mobs a pack, and play it slow and steady, you will clear this dungeon with little to no issue.
Here are a few more quick tips and warnings as you complete this dungeon: As you approach the longer hallway before the 3rd boss, Warbringer O'mrogg, be careful, as there is a patrolling Shattered Hand Houndmaster with two Rabid Warhounds that scouts all the way from the boss's arena to Blood Guard Porung room. Along with that, a single Shattered Hand Assassin also likes to stray from their usual spot in the final hallway of the instance, and can also be found patrolling the hallway post Blood Guard Porung.
With that being said, having a Hunter helps out a lot to be able to expose these assassins with their Flare. Other classes that can drop AoE from afar, such as a Mage's Blizzard can also expose these mobs before they ambush your players. These will be frequent in the final hallway leading to Warchief Kargath Bladefist.
Boss Tips for Shattered Halls
As mentioned earlier, the first boss, Grand Warlock Nethekurse, is a bit of a challenge only if you are melee-heavy in your group composition, as his Dark Spin that he'll cast at 20% health deals about 2k per swing, along with about 1500 Shadow damage on top of it to all players! It is best to save both offensive and defensive cooldowns on this encounter for the end, as the rest of it is fairly easy.
There is a Heroic-only boss in this dungeon, and that is Blood Guard Porung. He doesn't have any real mechanics outside of a very hard-hitting Cleave, but it is recommended to wait to pull him quickly after you've cleared out a summoned wave of adds, as you don't want any additional mobs to be a part of this encounter.
Warbringer O'mrogg's scariest ability is his "aggro swap" ability. Since he is immune to taunt, tanks will have to rebuild threat to regrab aggro off of whoever he decides to target. DPS should stop attacking to allow the tank to regain threat. A Protection Paladin can cast Blessing of Protection to drop threat temporarily on whoever had aggro and regain it quickly. They can also plan ahead of the aggro swap and apply five stacks of Seal of Vengeance to assist with regaining threat fast.
The final boss, Warchief Kargath Bladefist, is the most challenging boss of the dungeon, and rightfully so, this guy is a Warlord of Draenor after all! His most deadly ability is his Blade Dance, charging random members of the party and deals damage when reaching them. This has a 15-yard range, so you should position the boss closer towards the entrance of his "cage" so that healers can out-range this mechanic. No one should be near the healer to prevent this from chaining over to them. If you have a Paladin, they can use Blessing of Protection on one of your casters to prevent them from taking damage during this mechanic. It is best to also CC the adds that come in, so having Hunters and Mages here is very helpful. A hunter can pre-place Freezing Trap before the encounter to secure the first CC.
