Sunken Temple: Formidable Challenges on Day One - Season of Discovery

Greetings, adventurers! Welcome to our detailed blog post about the latest raid in WoW Classic, the Sunken Temple. In this post, we will provide you with an overview of the raid, its challenging bosses, and the strategies used by top guilds to secure world first kills. So grab your potions, sharpen your blades, and let's dive into the Sunken Temple!

Sunken Temple Raid Overview

Blizzard Developers have recently commented that adjustments will be made to Sunken Temple to make it more accessible for "the average joes". This raid has proven to be one of the most difficult challenges in WoW Classic, with no guilds clearing it completely yet. Nerfs are expected to arrive on Friday, April 5.

Sunken Temple Raid Loot

The Sunken Temple raid has been a true test of skill and determination for many guilds. The coveted world first ranking on the new Season of Discovery Phase 3 raid has been pursued by multiple guilds, with a focus on earning the prestigious title. Mage-focused compositions have proven to be popular, not because they are overpowered, but because mages are quick to level, allowing guilds to form raid groups more efficiently.

Leading the pack is the guild , dominating the raid by securing world first kills on every boss except the Avatar of Hakkar and the Shade of Eranikus. Trailing closely behind are the guilds and . Guild has been particularly helpful, as they have continued to stream their raid progress and provide valuable insights into the encounters.

Atal'alrion in Sunken Temple

The first boss encounter in the Sunken Temple is Atal'alrion. This boss requires clearing the trash mobs on the balconies and disabling the pillars. Once these preparations are complete, the boss becomes significantly weaker. The key mechanic of this encounter involves drakes falling from the sky onto pillars, which buff the boss's damage if left intact. To counter this, the raid strategically positions themselves to be knocked back into the pillars using the boss's Demolishing Smash ability, destroying them and disabling the buff.

It is important for healers to keep the raid healthy throughout the encounter due to the high AoE damage from the knockback ability. The rest of the fight mainly involves tanking and dealing damage until the boss is defeated, making it a relatively easier boss compared to others.

World First Kill of Atal'alrion.

Festering Rot Slime in Sunken Temple

The second boss encounter, Festering Rotslime, offers a more confusing mechanic. The raid focuses on kiting the boss while avoiding poison to minimize raid damage. Additionally, the raid must kill certain objects consumed by the boss, which cancels its movement speed buff. Maintaining range during this encounter proves beneficial.

Mana consumables play a crucial role in this fight, as they significantly contribute to the raid's success. Kiting the boss and destroying objects to prevent movement speed buffs is the key strategy here.

World First Kill of the Festering Rotslime.

Atal'ai Defenders in Sunken Temple

Next, the raid faces the Atal'ai Defenders, a challenging encounter involving multiple bosses. The raid starts by killing Zul'Lor, followed by combat with Mijan. The ghost of Zul'Lor is quickly crowd-controlled by a priest's chain and ignored. Then the raid engages Zolo while maintaining the chain on the previous bosses' ghosts and using Freezing Trap for additional control.

Gasher is the next boss to defeat while all three previous boss ghosts remain chained. Once Gasher is dealt with, Loro becomes the target, utilizing the presence of four priests in to maintain chain control throughout. When Loro dies, it respawns as a ghost and is trapped and slowed while the raid handles Hukku.

The raid expertly manages crowd control to keep the encounter under control, with options like hunter traps and slows to substitute for increased priest numbers.

World First Kill of the Atal'ai Defenders encounter.

Dreamscythe and Weaver in Sunken Temple

The Dreamscythe and Weaver encounter proves to be a lengthy and challenging fight. The key mechanics involve avoiding poison pools surrounding the boss arena and dealing with dragon adds that periodically return to their positions, casting a breath spell that knocks back the entire raid. Avoiding the poison and maximizing uptime is crucial for damage dealers, while healers face a significant mana management challenge due to constant damage and potential high damage over time effects.

Tanks play a vital role in this encounter, using three tanks to rotate tanking duties and minimize damage from breath abilities. Keeping the bosses' positions stable also reduces errors and positional mistakes.

World First Kill of Dreamscythe and Weaver.

Jammal'an and Ogom in Sunken Temple

Jammal'an the Prophet and Ogom the Wretched make up the next boss encounter. Jammal'an casts AoE spells, summoning holy novas that players must avoid. Meanwhile, Ogom is a straightforward tank and spank boss. The raid focuses on killing Ogom first while evading Jammal'an's holy novas. Once Ogom is defeated, Jammal'an drains him and transforms into a shadow priest, casting more AoE spells and curses/magic debuffs. Immediate dispelling of these debuffs is crucial to avoid high damage.

This encounter is relatively shorter than the previous ones but still poses a challenge.

World First Kill of Jammal'an the Prophet and Ogom the Wretched.

Morphaz and Hazzas in Sunken Temple

After a considerable wait, managed to defeat Morphaz and Hazzas, the second-to-last encounter in the raid. This encounter requires basic tanking and damage dealing, with an added DPS check to avoid a raid-wide wipe mechanic. The raid took a break to level their hunters and optimize specialization and runes. On their final attempt, they successfully defeated the bosses, though some may believe they had to exploit a bug due to the unbalanced DPS check in the last phase. However, other guilds like showed that it was possible to survive the wipe mechanic by line of sighting the Lucid Dreaming ability at 30% health.

World Third Kill of Morphaz and Hazzas.

Shade of Eranikus in Sunken Temple

Most guilds vying for the world first ranking are currently facing the Shade of Eranikus encounter, the final boss of the Sunken Temple raid. This boss boasts a substantial health pool comparable to Patchwerk in difficulty, and features punishing mechanics. One notable mechanic is the breath ability, which forces a tank swipe and applies a stacking debuff that increases damage taken. While target dummies can partially cheese this mechanic, it is not a reliable strategy for most players.

The boss also employs an AoE poison that must be cleansed promptly to avoid massive damage. Alliance players may face challenges in dealing with this mechanic, as they lack certain tools available to the Horde, like shaman totems. Additionally, the boss drops poison clouds when players are dispelled, causing sleep and making it necessary to quickly move out of them. Falling asleep is useful for the Waking Nightmare spell, which instantly kills awake players.

At 70% health, the encounter enters a new phase, spawning adds while the boss sleeps. The raid must efficiently dispatch these adds to continue the fight. Numerous whelp adds will continuously spawn alongside the boss, requiring coordinated strategies to avoid casualties while managing the mechanics from the first phase.

As for the outcome of this encounter, only time will tell. Will a guild claim the world first title for defeating the Shade of Eranikus? Stay tuned for further updates!

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