For Instance: A Death Knight’s Guide to Nexus

Well, some of you have probably decided to level up that Death Knight, or if you’re like me, you’ve decided to make it your main.  Questing as a DK is rather easy, since almost every quest (including some of the “Bring Three Friends!” quests) is soloable.  But eventually, you’re going to hit an instance.  Do you know what to do as a DK DPS?  Probably.  But here are some helpful hints and Boss tips that I’ve found rather helpful.  This is for NORMAL RUNS, since that’s the only version I’ve done before.

In the dungeon, you’re always going to want to take down the casters first.  Caster Dragonkin, caster humanoids, etc.  Casters.  Kill them first.  Most of them have some kind of silence, which will be pretty painful.

With the groups of mobs, be sure to spread your disease around.  It won’t aggro you too much, and if you’re spamming Death Strike, you should be able to keep your health up if a mob decides you’re a better kill.  You should not use Death and Decay by ANY MEANS because it will cause a crap load of aggro you don’t need.  Trust me.  Stay away from that ability.  On the other hand, (if you’re specced Unholy) Unholy Blight does seem to add that DPS without aggro-in’ too badly.  Don’t forget to get behind the boss and to keep your Bone Armor and Horn of Winter up.  Don’t worry too much about your undead minion – chances are that they’ll die rather quickly.

I would also change it up between Unholy presense and Blood – I like having the low cooldown to throw off some abilities, but during tougher group fights, the blood might make your healer love you more.

Oh, and if you run into a Chaotic rift that’s part of a group, kill them first.  Even before the casters.  They’ll give you trouble if you leave them be.

So you’ve made it to your first boss!  The Nexus lets you kill the three main bosses before you attempt the dragon in the center, but you can kill them in any order you wish.

Grand Magus Telestra

She’s a bad-ass mage with some heavy hits, but isn’t too hard a fight with the right people.  The first phase is a good ol’ fashioned tank’n spank – stay behind her and hit her hard.  Your silences won’t work here, so keep the damage going.  I would recommend using a blood presense here – your damage and healing will be increased and this isn’t a DPS speed battle.

She has an ability called “Gravity well” which grabs the group like an octopus and throws you around.  You can still use your abilities here!  So throw out your Death coils and Icy Touches since they are your only real ranged attacks.  You can also try to time your normal attacks when you get close, but that isn’t likely to happen.

At 50%, she disappears and becomes three different clones, each of which are specialized in a different magic – Frost, Fire and Arcane.  These clones CAN be polymorph and I’m pretty sure they can be silenced too.  I made a macro that targets the Arcane mage first (/target Arcane Magus) and attempt to take her down.  If your group prefers you to go after the frost one first, change the macro.  But I’ve survived attacking that one.

You need to take these down quickly, and a good group will do that.  Don’t forget to throw out your diseases!  Keep the Arcane away from your healer – this Magus polymorphs and stuns, which could end in a wipe.

Once the clones are killed, she returns and it’s a tank n’ spank again.  Loot!

The only plate gear she drops is Paladin gear, so no sweet Death Knight love here.  On heroic she does drop a sweet helm, The Arcane Shielded Helm, with 1760 armor, 61 strength and 93 stamina, along with some slick slots for gems!  You also get a 36 raise in defense and 52 dodge rating.

Anomalus

Next up is the large voidwrath Anomalus.  This too is a normal tank ‘n spank, but at various intervals, he creates a “chaotic rift.”  You must, MUST take these rifts down first.  Immediately.  Any way you can.  Much like the mob rifts, they’re going to more or less kill you if left up too long.  So take them out.  There will be a text notifier when a rift is made, so switch targets, then once the rift is out, switch back.  Not too bad!

And for killing him, us Death Knights are really left out.  Nothing on normal mode, but on Heroic, there are some slick boots, Rift Striders, 1489 armor, +50 strength and +85 stamina, a red socket with a +4 critical strike rating socket bonus and another critical strike rating increase of 50 just for putting them on!

Ormorok the Tree-Shaper

Here lies a huge hulking elemental, which is, again, more or less tank and kill.  Stay behind this guy, because his attacks are painful.  The one thing to watch out for is his crystal spike attack, which throws you up in the air, giving you falling damage on top of normal damage.  There will be a visual cue if he’s about to hit you with it, so you can easily move to the side and continue fighting.  Just keep an eye out for it.

This big boy drops a pretty nice shoulder for us,  The Chistled Stalagmite Pauldrons, 1351 Armor, +55 strength, +48 stamina and critical strike rating increase by 23.  You’ll probably find better stuff questing around later in the game, but it’s a nice upgrade when you’re running this.

On Heroic, this guy drops a nice ring, Band of Frosted Thorns, with +45 strength, +63 stamina and a critical strike rating increase by 42.

Keristrasza

She’s the final boss of this instance and is a little tricky.  First of all, you’re going to need to unlock her from her ice prison.  Make sure the tank is stationed and ready, because he’s going to need to grab aggro fast.  The easiest placement for you is on the dragon’s side instead of behind her because of her tail attacks.

Now, the tricky part.  Just by attacking her you get a debuff that not only gives you 100 damage per second, but also slows down your attacking AND can stack.  Not good.  The best way to get it off you?

Moving.

Jump, baby, jump!  After every attack you make, jump, and the debuff is gone.  It looks a little silly, but you’ll stay alive.  If you let it stack too much, you get this imprisioned in “Crystal Chains” which can stop your attacking for up to 10 seconds.  She also occasionally casts this too, so just keep an eye on the debuff anyway.  If you have a PVP trinket that clears crowd control, make sure you have it on and ready.

Once you take her down, you get rewards! Normal mode ain’t so hot, but Heroic does give you a nice gift!  You’ve got a plate girdle, the Flame-Bathed Steel Girdle to be exact, which gives you +66 strength and +85 stamina, +4 socket bonus to strength, and a Critical strike rating increase of 59.  NOICE.

So there you have it.  A basic idea of how to survive Nexus.  I hope this helps you out, the dungeon isn’t too hard to get through.  Always do your damage from behind, and take out those casters.  Be ready to death grip a mob off your healer, don’t be afraid to off tank, throw up an Unholy Blight to let your enemies taste insect and most of all, have fun.