World of Warcraft at Ten Ton Hammer

If you're 68, it's time to pack your bags and set your looking for group tag for Utgarde Keep, the first instance of Northrend.  The normal enemies from boss to boss are remarkably sparse, but the bosses tend to be more difficult than the other instances at the Heroic level.  Stay for a spell, er, a bloodrage perhaps.  Within we'll take a look at what we need to watch out for from a DPS and Tanking perspective as Warriors, and what kind of treasures await!

Notable Monsters - note that almost all of humanoids here can be disarmed!

Dragonflayer Metalworkers -  These enrage when low on life, and it's pretty potent.   If you have more than one in an engagement, make sure single target damage is being used and not area of effect, or you or the tank are going to hit the floor more than likely.

Dragonflayer Overseers -  Watch out for the random charges, and stay on top of them so you don't lose hate when they run off if you are tanking.  Charge with them!

Dragonflayer Runecasters - They cast a defensive shield spell fairly often, shown by a soft clear bubble encasing their target.  If you are tanking, shield slam this immediately, it can be dispelled as a magic effect.

Enslaved Proto-Drakes -  Make sure you have them facing away from the group if tanking, and stay at their sides otherwise to avoid the fire breath.  These are probably the most dangerous enemies in the instance, so don't hold back even though you encounter them early on!

Specific Boss Strategies

Prince Keleseth is a pushover as long as the Frost Tombs and Skeletons are managed.  If your group is melee heavy, you may need to charge or intercept a Tomb to draw attention to it to get the DPS freeing up the healer or ranged attacker.  The initial skeleton wave always comes from the door.  Charge them before they reach the ground and handle them there so that when they resurrect, they aren't on top of your party already.  He drops two things of note on heroic : A solid DPS belt in the Strategist's Belt, and the Infantry Assault Blade, which will last you until you get an epic tanking weapon.

Dalronn and Skarvald have a lot of annoying issues with hate and randomly firing off spells and charging away.  Stay focused, and make sure you're causing enough damage yourself to maintain hate as a tank.   Remember to switch targets from time to time to keep their attention focused on you and lessen the resurrected time of the first one to die.  Unfortunately, nothing of worth really drops for us from him and his necromancer companion.  Fortunately that's all made up for by

Ingvar the Plunderer is a bit of a pain for us largely due to Smash and Dark Smash.  Both of these abilities will slaughter you if you are standing in front of them.  However, they have a decent range when it comes to how far the shockwave goes from Ingvar so it's imperative as a tank to keep him facing away from everyone at all times.  Try to move him as little as possible though.  Be careful about creating line of sight issues with the pillars there when trying to dodge the Smashes.  Also note that while Dark Smash will still do good damage and knock down everyone if it whiffs, it does still have that powerhouse frontal component!   It's rare, but sometimes Ingvar will lob his weapon for additional damage.  I would advise hitting shield wall or bandaging after it if you are an offensive type, as running around is hardly an option due to all the other stuff going on.   For your efforts, you can earn an amazing level 70 axe with fantastic stats on normal, or on heroic, have access to a fine set of DPS legs and a very solid defensive ring.

Nothing to it, right?  Utgarde Keep is one of the easier instances for us Warriors.  There is very little to worry about, and we would have it no other way!  So mount up and good luck on getting those DPS legs, they'll last you quite a while.  Just remember, DPS doesn't need that stamina bonus, so go all out on the offensive gems!  We'll talk more about that in our next piece when we cover the steps and goals of getting to that illustrious raid-ready point.  Good luck rolling high when what you want drops!