In this guide we travel back to the Caverns of Time for another romp through the history of World Of Warcraft. For those who may not have seen the first guide, the Caverns of time are an entirely new type of instance in the World of Warcraft where you get to time travel back to a critical point in time and help protect the existing time line. Protect the time line from who you ask? Lately a force called the Infinite Dragonflight has made its way in and is attempting to corrupt the timeline and change history as we know it. Because of this Nozdormu and the Bronze Dragonflight have now begun to recruit would be helpers to protect the time line.

In this time instance you are sent back to the Black Morass to protect Medivh in his attempt to open the Dark Portal. To do so, you must stop wave after wave of Infinite Dragonflight MOBs with little rest time in between. The instance is a completely scripted even from start to finish meant for players level 68 and above. It is commonly referred to as BM because of the fact that it takes place in the Black Morass, now called the Swamp of Sorrows.

The other instances in The Caverns of Time are as follows:

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Getting to the Caverns of Time is easy, all you need to do is head to Tanaris and head south from town. That's right it is not even in the Outlands! The first thing you will notice at the Caverns of Time is that Blizzard has moved some of the NPC's around a bit to give free access to the instance entrance. Whereas before you would run into several dragons when you first entered the area, there is now a free path to the back of the area as the dragons where moved to the side. Just before the tunnel at the back of the area is a meeting stone to summon other players and then you can talk to the dragon guide that is in the tunnel that will fly you to the instance area at the bottom of a long tunnel.

There is only one quest in the instance and it is given to you by the NPC just inside the instance itself. It is a little chain of quests as each part directs you to the next NPC, so I have listed it as three separate parts as below:

The Black Morass - Travel through the Caverns of Time to the Black Morass during the opening of the Dark Portal and speak with Sa'at.

This quest is given to you once you complete Tralls escape quest from the first COT instance. It simply has you talk to Sa'at in the next COT instance.

The Opening of the Dark Portal – Sa'at inside the Black Morass of the Caverns of Time has tasked you with defending Medivh until he succeeds in opening the Dark Portal. Return to Sa'at should you succeed in your task.

You need to clear all the waves while protecting Medivh. Not as easy as it sounds. He does provide each player with a Chrono Beacon though that helps greatly. When used it summons a MOB that assists you for a short time. If you need help, use them, they can help catchup in the waves, or give a chance to have a break for mana, health, etc.

Hero of the Brood - Return to the child, Andormu, at the Caverns of Time in the Tanaris desert.

Sa'at does not provide your reward you must travel back to Andormu to claim it.

With each wave of the Infinite Dragonflight there are mini-boss elite MOBs and then several non-elites that need to be dealt with. The elite MOB will stay to keep the portal open and must be destroyed so that non-elite MOBs stop coming through. The non-elite MOBs need to be rounded up and killed or they start attacking Medivh and will drop his shield over time. The Elites come in one of three types:

Mage –This Elite has 4 separate abilities and is probably the most dangerous. It has a AOE damage wave, a Pyroblast that hits a random target for up to 2000 damage, a frostbolt that hits the person with aggro, and can sheep players. They sheep the person second on the aggro list, so it is important to have someone there other than your healer!

Warlock – This is the second most dangerous Elite that spawns. It has an AOE shadowbolt that hits everyone, can single target fear, and casts a curse increasing spell damage by 50%. Because the fear usually goes against the tank, it can cause problems when not resisted.

Warrior – The last type of Elite is a warrior based elite that has Sunder Armor, Thunderclap and Mortal strike.

The first boss is Chrono Lord Deja, who was a large nasty dragon / orc hybrid similar to the ones found in in Blackwing Lair. He is a very easy boss and most groups should have no issue with him. He in almost entirely melee based with only one real ability of note:

AOE Blast - Hits everyone in range for 1000 - 2000 damage.

Keep the tank on him and alive and you can walk through this fight with time to spare. In most cases you should have a 30 second to 1 minute break at the end to rest up and drink.

The second boss is Temporus and comes after the 12th rift opens. Unlike the other boss wave fights, MOBS come through with Temporus. This means that you need to make a choice of killing him fast and get to Medivh to clear the adds off his shield before they kill him, or setup and off tank to pick them up. Its your choice, but Temporus's abilities make picking them up difficult. He has the following abilities:

Mortal Wound - Reduces healing taken by 10%. Stacks to 10x, therefore removing the possibility of heals.

Haste - Significantly increases attack speed. Should be dispelled quickly.

The most common tactic is to let the MOBs go to Medivh and deal with Temporus quickly. Because of his Mortal Wound ability you really need two tanks to trade aggro. The wound only lasts 6 seconds so the off-tank could be almost anyone that can take a few hits. I have seen a rogue, shaman, and even a shadow priest step in for a few seconds (although its not recommended) to give the warrior time to clear the debuff.

Other than the wounds, you just need to burn through him as fast as possible to pick up the adds on Medivh.

The last boss is Aeonus, a HUGE dragon, as in almost Onyxia sized. He comes into the fight alone and heads to Medivh to break his shield and stop the Dark Portal from opening. If you have protected Medivh well, you will have more than enough time to drink up and rebuff before engaging Aeonus. Don't rush into the fight as it will take him some time to get through the shield.

Breath Attack - Hits everyone in his front arc for up to 3000 damage!

Time Stomp -This is an AOE stop effect that hits everyone within 40 yards and stuns them for 3 seconds.

From full health the fight is fairly simple. The tank should hold aggro with Aeonus facing away from everyone else, while the rest of the group sets up behind or beside. The main difficulty in this fight is dealing with the 3 second time freeze while healing. If you have several HOTs it makes it easier, however the main strategy for groups is just to ensure the tank is at full health all the time so that when it happens he can take a few hits.

The instance is essentially one long scripted fight and can be very unforgiving. For example if you only have one rezzer and he/she dies, the instance is a wash. The difficulty issues aside, it is a totally different type of instance and one that I really like. Every group I run it with finds it insanely fun. Better yet the whole instance can be done in less than 40 minutes and offers some amazing loot.

I took many additional screen shots which are all available in our gallery here: TenTonHammer visits the Caverns of Time: Opening the Dark Portal .

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