There are many new instances in the World of Warcraft:Wrath of the Lich King (WotLK), some of them you need to travel a long distance to reach, others are located right underneath your nose. One such instance is the Violet Hold found right in the heart of Northrend's main city of Dalaran. The Violent Hold is an instance in much the same vein as the Stockades in Stormwind, it is the cities prison. Also similar to the Stockades, the instance has been overrun by the bad guys. In this case the bad guys are the blue dragonflight who are trying to over run the guards by attacking and setting inmates free in an attempt to break out into the city.

As mentioned, the instance itself can be found right inside the city of Dalaran. When you first find it, it will be locked. However, all you need to do is to be level 75 and accept a simple quest and you will gain access. Once inside you are greeted by a stark looking prison hall. There is a large common area in the centre with cells along the ground and balcony level. In the cells are various prisoners locked behind magical barriers. Kirin Tor guards are fighting off blue dragonflight attackers on the steps in front of you.

The main hall, balcony and cells comprise the entire instance. That's right, one room is all you get here. Once you talk to the NPC at the front door as you walk in the instance starts, and it is very similar to the Caverns of Time: Black Morass instance. The instance is comprised of 18 waves of enemies that spawn through portals that appear around the area. The 6th and 12th waves are not spawned but instead they are two random mini-bosses released from the cells. The 18th wave is the final boss, the blue dragon Cyanigosa.

To start the instance, you simply talk to Lieutenant Sinclari at the door and she will pull the guards out and lock and seal the door behind her. Portals start opening and the waves then start, at which point you must start defending the door's seal. Each portal will spawn one of three possible guardians: a caster, a warrior, or a group of four elites. In addition to the guardians the portal will occasionally spawn other creatures that will make their way to the doorway and try to break the seal.

The tanks job for each wave is to grab the guardians and hold them. DPS should work on the guardian as much as possible, while switching over to any additional creatures that are spawned. The additional creatures (adds) should go down fairly quickly with even just a single DPSer on them. If the person assigned to the adds gets behind they should call for help. You have a few minutes to deal with each wave before the next portal opens. If you are quick you will have time to rest, eat and drink in between waves, if not, you could end up with multiple portals open at a single time.

Once you have completed 5 portals you move onto the first of the random bosses. When the 6th and 12th wave starts a saboteur emerges from a portal and runs to one of the cells to set a prisoner free, you can not stop the saboteur. There are six possible bosses that you could get. They are Erekem (an Arakkoa), Ichoron (a water elemental), Lavanthor (a core hound), Moragg (a beholder), Xevozz (an ethereal), and Zuramat (a void lord).

The first possible boss, Erekem, is an Arakkoa bird man that spawns additional creatures to assist him. Erekem and both adds are able to cast bloodlust which ups their damage output. It can de dispelled though, so players need to watch for it and remove it. In addition if both the adds die before Erekem is defeated then Erekem will enrage boosting his damage output and attack speed significantly.

The trick to defeating Erekem is for the tank to hold him and his adds in one place, then kill one of the adds, then kill Erekem. The whole time removing bloodlust any time it is cast. If the tank is geared well enough, you can leave both of the adds up, however it lowers damage taken by removing one early.

The second of the possible bosses is Ichoron, a water elemental. When you fight him at intervals he breaks apart and has pieces flung all over the room. These parts them start moving back towards his body in the center. You need to kill as many of these pieces as possible as each piece that gets back to hi body heals him. If they all get back they will restore almost all of his lost health. It is a very different kind of fight having players running all over to track down the elemental bits of him.

The third possible boss that can spawn is Lavanthor, which is a core hound pulled from the Molten Core. Lavanthor is a fairly easy boss as his main ability is a flame breath with a front arc. All the tanks needs to do is face him away from the party, the healer will then have a fairly simple job since the tank will be the only player tanking damage.

Comments or questions? Email us ([email protected]) or post on our forums!