Patch 5.2 is on its way to World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria and with it a brand new raid will be released.  The raid will be called the Throne of Thunder and can be found on the newly revealed Isle of the Thunder King. 

Getting to the Isle of the Thunder King

The newly revealed island can be found to the north east of Pandaria, however you can not fly there as it is an entirely instanced island.  Instead you must reach it by way of a portal to it from the Shado-Pan Garrison in the Townlong Steppes. 

Once on the island each faction has their own base camp. If you are an Alliance player you can find yours north of the portal, while Horde players will need to head southeast.

The Throne of Thunder raid entrance can be found covering the northeast corner of the island.

Throne of Thunder Size and Layout

The Throne of Thunder is shaping up to be one of the biggest raids Blizzard has created.  The citadel covers most of the north part of the island and is a massive fortress. 

The Throne of Thunder is so large that it is split into four different wings, each of which will be queued for separately if you enter it though the Raid Finder version.

To fill these four wings, Blizzard has created 12 new raid encounters, and a 13th for players that are able to defeat the 12th boss Emperor Lei Shen on heroic mode.  From the maps available we are able to tell how the 12 regular bosses are distributed between the 7 different maps that make up the raid.  The seven different sections are the Overgrown Statuary, Royal Amphitheatre, Forgotten, Roost of Ji-Kun, Halls of Shaping, Hall of Kings, and the Pinnacle of Storms.

Reputation in the Throne of Thunder

While working your way through this new raid you will also be working on a brand new reputation in the game.  This is the new Shado-pan Assault faction.  Unlike the other factions so far in Mists of Pandaria that require you to complete daily quests to earn reputation, this rep is gained in the Throne of Thunder raid instance.

You will need to earn rep with the Shado-pan Assault in order to gain access to the new Valor items being added to the game.

Bosses in the Throne of Thunder

src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/247764" alt="jin'rokh the breaker"
style="border: 0px solid ; width: 250px;">

Jin’rokh the Breaker – This is a return visit to the game for this troll.  He was first seen helping players on Yojamba Isle off the Stranglethorn Vale coast when Zul’Grub was released.  He now returns, but this time you need to fight him.

Horridon – This is a huge triceratop type dinosaur creature that you mist fight.  In addition to dealing with this beast and his impaling horns, you will also be forced to deal with many different adds throughout the fight.  These come in waves from the various troll tribes: Farraki, Gurubashi, Drakkari, and Amani.

Council of Elders – This third encounter is against a representative from each of the great troll tribes and therefore a group encounter.  You will need to fight Gara’jal from the Zandalari., Kazra’jin from the Anami, King Malakk from the Drakkari tribe, , and Sul from the Farraki.

Tortos – This boss is a mutated giant dragon turtle that you need to fight while dealing with a constant stream of smaller turtles that he can summon into the fight. 

Megaera – This fight sounds extremely interesting as it is against an ancient multi-headed hydra.  As with any hydra, when you cut off one head, two grow back in its place.  This fight will work against you as you kill each head, it deals damage to the bosses body, but you will then need to deal with two in it’s place.  Magaera will have 4 different kinds of heads that can spawn, each with their own abilities: Arcane, Fire, Frost, and Poison.

Ji-kun – This boss is a giant scavenging bird that has consumed the discarded creations of the Mogu flesh-shapers. Over time she has grown to monstrous size and gained many different abilities.

Durumu – This beholder style boss has many different abilities that are known so far.  Probably the most deadly revolves around his disintegration beam that instantly kills anyone that is in his front arc and the fact that he can summon walls of ice around the platform to block your movement.

In addition to Durumus disintegration beam, he has an interesting sounding mechanic where he can summon several other types of smaller eyes that need to be dealt with.  There are three coloured eyes that display a beam of light that is either blue, red, or yellow.  Those eyes focus on a random player and display a beam of light that can reveal many other types of eyes that are otherwise invisible which then need to be dealt with.  It sounds like an extremely challenging and entertaining encounter.

Primordius – This is a giant saurok boss that evolves throughout the fight. Through the mutations the fight changes over time as he gains and loses them.  In addition players can mutate by moving through pools in the room granting them addition beneficial or detrimentally buffs.

src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/247765" alt="lei shen"
style="border: 0px solid ; width: 250px;">

Dark Animus – This boss is a giant animated mechanical construct.  While cool looking, not
much is know about the fight yet.

Iron Qon – This fight is against the Mogu Iron Qon and his three quilen mounts.  The fight has you deal with all four initially and as you defeat each of the mounts Qon gets stronger with more abilities.

Twin Consorts – Not much is know about this encounter other than it is against Lei Shen’s two queens.

Lei Shen – This fight is a huge multi-phase encounter that centres around Lei Shen’s ability to manipulate electricity with the various conduits around his throne room.  There are three separate main phases as well as sub-phases for the transitions.  This is the last fight that most players will do in this raid since the thirteenth boss fight is only available in heroic mode.

Ra-den – This is the 13th and final boss in the Throne of Thunder, but is only available to players in Heroic mode and only after they have defeated Lei Shen on heroic mode.  It is rumoured that Ra-den is the titan that granted Lei Shen the power to forge and empire. If that is true, will anyone have the power to defeat him?