Hellfire Citadell: The Shattered Halls - Instance Guide

As the highest level small group instance in Hellfire Citadel, Shattered Halls is a difficult battle against the hardened Fel Orcs. With only three bosses, its most defining characteristic is very large pulls of trash mobs, testing your group's ability to focus fire and prioritize targets.

Gaining Access to Hellfire Citadel's Shattered Halls

The quest chain to get the Hellfire Citadel's Shattered Halls key starts in Shadowmoon Valley, and while you don't necessarily need a flying mount, it's far easier with one. On the northern terrace of the Black Citadel, you'll find a mob named Smith Gorlunk that drops a Primed Key Mold. On returning the mold to Thrallmar or Honor Hold, you're tasked with finding a few minor items and killing one of Fel Reavers that roams Hellfire Peninsula, a relatively easy task with a couple friends. Considering the large number of large pulls in the instance, a lot of crowd control is preferred, so load up on Mages, Hunters, or Rogues (With Improved Sap, that is).

Trash in Hellfire Citadel's Shattered Halls

There are four trash pulls of note in Hellfire Citadel's Shattered Halls. First off are large pulls led by Shattered Hand Legionnaires. Using all the crowd control you can -- even Fear works if you back up far enough -- limit the number of mobs you have to fight and kill the Legionnaire first, taking the rest one at a time with focused fire. Later on, you'll face groups of four Shattered Hand Gladiators and one Shattered Hand Centurion. The Gladiators fight amongst themselves until a certain point, where they stop and are healed; since they're immune to most crowd control and are very damaging, the trick is to wait until they're as low as you can get them, then pull before they heal, giving you four mobs that are very quick to dispatch before dealing with only one at full health. Between the first and second bosses in the Shattered Halls, you face a gauntlet of many non-elite mobs with a few elites at the end; just be sure to move quick and avoid the exploding arrows being shot at you and you'll be fine. Finally, near the end, you'll start finding Shattered Hand Assassins, which aren't too powerful but stealthed, so you need to contend with both a surprise attacker and the fact that someone's often Sapped or Cheap Shotted to start the battle.

Bosses in Hellfire Citadel's Shattered Halls

Grand Warlock Nethekurse

The Grand Warlock has three main attacks. He Deathcoils a random group memeber for minimal damage and a short fear, nothing too bad. He summons void zones under a random group member's feat, very easily avoidable by taking a couple steps in any direction. He's basically a tank and spank until he hits 20%, where he begins a Whirlwind and shoots Shadowbolt Volleys at everyone continuously. At this point, kill him as fast as you can, for the damage he puts out can wipe you in a hurry. Still, it's an easy fight overall, nothing to worry about terribly.

Warbringer O'mrogg

O'mrogg's basic abilities are rather, well, basic. He does a Thunderclap that works just like the Warrior ability, A Blast Wave AoE that works just like the Mage ability, and an AoE fear that hits anyone within about 20 yards. The trick to the fight is that on occasion he will pick a target at random, besides the tank, and start attacking. Depending on your group, you have two options for this fight: First, when he switches targets, everyone besides the healer stops doing anything as the tank tries to get back aggro. While the boss is immune to taunt, eventually he will switch back to the tank, and DPS can continue. Second, you can choose to ignore trying to maintain threat altogether, and burn down the boss as fast as possible. While this method is likely to cause a casualty or two, and requires a better geared group, it's also a bit faster and less technical. The first strategy is probably safer, but it's up to you and your group.

Warchief Kargath Bladefist

Bladefist himself only has one special attack, but it's a doozy. Before we get to that, though, positioning is crutial: Group members should be as spaced out as possible, ranged preferably in their own corner, and with luck you don't have more than one melee. Adds will continously run up from the stairs the way you came in, and one or two group members should be assigned to kill them as soon as they appear. Kargath should be tanked in the center of the platform to give the best positioning for his primary attack, Blade Dance. When he uses Blade Dance, the Warchief will rapidly charge from one group member to another, doing a Cleave each time, damage which is substantial when taken alone and really adds up if you have to eat someone else's Cleaves as well as your own. As long as everyone stays spread out, no one's getting hit by any but their own Cleave. With proper add management he'll go down soon enough, leaving you the ruler of Hellfire Citadel's Shattered Halls.

Hellfire Citadel's Shattered Halls can be a challenging instance but with the right group and a little preparation the Shattered Halls can be a fast and fun instance. If you use this guide you'll have no problem killing Grand Warlock Nethekurse, Warchief Kargath Bladefist, and Warbringer O'mrogg. Good luck and have fun and may all your loots in the Shattered Halls be uber.