Utgarde Keep

Utgarde Keep is the first 5 man instance wing (in Utgarde Keep ) for levels 70+ (normal mode) located in the Howling Fjord in Northrend, on the shores of Lake Cauldros. The instance is mostly comprised of Vrykul (half giant warriors), with the odd scourge and proto-dragon added in. Mobwise either CC spell casters (runes), or kill them first, they are trouble makers with a mean firey AOE which will cause you problems if not controlled.

Unlike The Burning Crusade you don't require any keys or reputation with a faction to unlock heroic difficulty. Mobs in HC mode are ofc 80+ rather then 70-72 in normal mode.

As you enter the instance Dark Ranger Marrah will be waiting to offer you the quest Ingvar Must Die.

There are three bosses located in the instance: -

Prince Keleseth
Skarvald the Constructor
Ingvar the Plunderer

Prince Keleseth
Not too difficult a fight but must be taken down fast, essentially the same for both modes. He spawns adds throughtout the fight if you have a Paladin or a Mage in your party this is much easier as they can generally nova and AOE or holy wrath and consecrate (in the case of the paladin), the group down in no time at all. At least one party member should be assigned to take care of these spawns or they will go straight for the healer. If there is no AOE class in your group this fight will be a lot harder.

Throughout the fight he will randomly cast Frost Tomb on party memebers, which does 8000 damage if not destroyed. When this happens you must target the effected player and destroy the frost tomb releasing the trapped member before they are killed or brought close to death. Paladins can bubble out of frost tomb.

The easiest way of doing this fight is if everyone stands realtively close to the tank so he can keep agro and also lend a hand with destroying frost tombs and also AOE agro the skeleton spawns.

Skarvald the Constructor
Easily the hardest and most frustrating boss fight in here. Skarvald is accompanied by Dalronn and will both have to be tackled in the same fight. Just like Romeo and Juliets final fight phase in Kara, they both need to die at the same time or within seconds of each other as upon death an untargetable spirit version of them will appear and attack party members.

The way to do this is dps Skarvald to 10% (warlocks careful with curses or you may finish him off by accident and wipe the group), then switch to Dalronn and repeat the process. When both are down to 10% you can either AOE them both down at the same time or kill Dalronn first and then Skarvald a few seconds later. Skarvald randomly charges party members and will continue to do so as a spirit and will more then likely stay on the healer since he cannot be taunted off like he can when he is alive, which is why it's best to kill Dalronn first.

If everyone stays on top of or close to the tank Skarvald will not charge (intercept), and the tank can maintain agro much easier. On heroic mode his intercept no longer has a minium range and Dalronn spawns around four skelly adds throughout the fight. These can be CC'd and should be taken care of by the dps as quickly as possible as they will head striaght for the healer.

On heroic the kill order remains the same as Skarvald does way to much damage running around as an targetable spirit and must go down second.

Ingvar the Plunderer
Tbh the final boss isn't very difficult in either mode compared to the other two, he has two phases during this fight. During both phases the tank should tank him facing away from the group and all melee fighters par the tank must stay behind him. When he casts smash and dark smash depending on what phase your in, the tank has 3 seconds to move out of his 10 yard cone range and must do so, but also staying away from the melee dps or the cone will damage them and will either kill them instantly or bring them very close to death. In heroic mode dark smash affects an area around him and all melee must GET THE HELL AWAY FROM HIM!!! This includes pets if you control one.

In the second phase when he is brought back to life he does more damage and also deals out shadow damage. Every now and then he will throw his axe at party members. The axe spins around in place and causes damage so just move out the way to avoid it.

He will also interrupt any spellcasting and lock any spell of that magic school if used when he roars (dreadful roar), either stop casting when he does this or you can move behind one of the pillars in the area to avoid this. Dreadful roar also does aprox 3-4k shadow damage to everyone in a 60 yard radius.

This boss can be harder if you lack ranged dps, the damage taken by two many melee dps can cause mana problems for healers in the second phase as you cannot drink between phases. If your a holy priest put down a light well for the ranged dps this will save you mana in the long run as the ranged dps can stay near it and heal themselves if needed, leaving you to concentrate and save mana for keeping the tank up.

On normal mode he doesn't move once Smash or Dark Smash has begun casting, so the tank can simply run through him to where the melee dps are to avoid the attack. Its only on heroic difficulty where he spins to follow the tank, meaning the tank has to back away out of the 10yrd radius to avoid the attack and prevent it hitting others.