Neltharus is a 4-boss dungeon currently available for playtesting on the Dragonflight Alpha. Petko provides an early look at the dungeon and analyses it in more detail in our latest article.

Neltharus – Dragonflight Dungeon Analysis

Neltharus located in the Waking Shores is the second dungeon to be released in the early Alpha Builds and is looking amazing so far. From great visuals to exceptional boss fights, I am really looking forward to playing this dungeon during the very first season of Dragonflight Mythic+. The dungeon design and visuals are absolutely beautiful, but I do feel like some of the non-boss-enemies were slightly overtuned, so without ado let me tell you all about them:

Chargath, Bane of Scales

By far one of the easier bosses to deal with, there is really only one important detail to watch out for and that is the Grounding Chain which goes on a random target, outside of the tank, which you have to “cross” down to the boss and he will get stunned. After the impact, the Fetter debuff appears on Chargath for 8 seconds, increasing all damage taken by 75%; this is usually a burn phase where you want to hold all of your offensive CDs. Outside of this, the boss feels easy to handle with little to no HPS requirement. I even went to the extreme and pulled a couple of mobs on top of the boss just to make the fight harder, and it still seemed effortless.

Forgemaster Gorek

This is by far the hardest boss I have encountered so far among all dungeons, not only because it is HPS-intensive but also due to the fact that it requires a personal-defensive once you get the Volcanic Axe. He is an extremely fun boss to play, as you have to always pay attention to your health and the unavoidable damage taken from Blazing Hammer and Might of the Forge. The likelihood of the boss getting nerfed is quite certain as right now it feels very overtuned even for the Heroic Difficulty, though again, it is still fun to play.

Magmatusk

This boss feels slightly undertuned as it doesn’t really require anything special to do outside of dodging the Blazing Charge which has a long “charging” time either way. However, classes that benefit from having great mobility and especially being ranged are going to have a great time here. It is quite early to say for certain, but I think one of the most common strategies might be just trying to “bait” the charge on a specific spot since it always charges on a player rather than a random location. I was not really impressed so far with the boss and I expect some further tuning in the future.

Warlord Sargha

Warlord Sargha has been one of the most fun fights to be part of, mainly because it will require you to play as a team while Magma Shield is active. During that period (shown in the clip below) you will have to pick up the weapons on the ground of the boss fight and use it against Sargha; breaking the shield will also increase her damage taken so you can use all of your offensive cooldowns at that point. One thing I quite frankly cannot grasp is the small “soft” enrage timer the boss has, as the slower you are with the weapons, the more damage you will take, and being honest, mostly as a pug player you will deal with such a complication. I hope the boss gets tuned well, so it doesn’t become an impossible wall for uncoordinated Mythic+ groups.

Final Thoughts

From the first look at the dungeon, I can confidently say that this will be a tough dungeon to be part of. Not only will the boss fights be intense, but there are also some non-boss-enemies that will really push the boundaries of your Mythic+ group. I believe that quite early on, people will realize that skipping certain mobs will definitely improve the quality of life of the whole group, hence why using a Rogue’s Shroud utility or an invisibility potion might be your best friend in this dungeon. From a visual point of view, it is an absolutely beautiful dungeon layout, allowing you to experiment with all affixes. Finally, the large open space will also accommodate kiting much better than the narrow corridors, meaning that if you have to sidestep a specific ability or affix, it won’t be as much of a trouble. I am definitely looking forward to seeing how tuning will affect it, but in case it does I will keep an eye out and update all of you.