The Lower part of Return to Karazhan is one of the old dungeons that were added in Mythic+ pool of Season 4. Those who farmed both Return to Karazhan dungeons in Legion can repeat that memorable experience. Newcomers on other hand, can feel how it was in those days, although some seasonal features will make that experience a little bit different.
Where is Lower Karazhan?
Karazhan has quite many entrances. This is why there’s no surprise that many players want to know how to get to Lower Karazhan. First of all, they need to reach Karazhan tower in Deadwind Pass. The easiest way to do it now is to use a portal in Oribos. Portals to locations of the current Mythic+ dungeons can be found not far from Oribos flightpath point.
However, there are a few other ways to get there. For instance, if you got stuck in Orgrimmar, ask any mage to make you a portal to Swamp of Sorrows and fly to Karazhan from there. Or reach Northern Stranglethorn via a zeppelin and travel to Deadwind Pass on a flying mount. The Alliance capital is much closer to the location of lower Karazhan. You can just fly southeast from Stormwind to Duskwood and then head to Deadwind Pass, where you’ll soon come across a grand mystic tower.
When you are there, don’t let the main entrance at the bottom of Karazhan mislead you. To get to M+ Lower Karazhan you’ll need to use the side entrance. To find it, just look to the right of the main entrance and you will immediately notice a narrow bridge above. It leads to the Return to Karazhan entrance. And the one who found the Lower Karazhan entrance may no longer ask how to get to the Upper part. As both of them are parts of a former single megadungeon, the entrance to their M+ versions is the same. You choose the needed dungeon by putting a keystone on a pedestal near the entrance.
Lower Karazhan Walkthrough
Lower Karazhan Mythic+ walkthrough requires deep thinking on what route to choose to complete a dungeon without losses of valuable time. Enormous sizes even of a separate Karazhan part offer too many options on how to do it properly. For example, «Lower Kara +15-22 Tyr Team Allegedly» and «Epi’s S4» differ very much on how many and what mobs to pull in Banquet Hall, the Guest Chambers, and Servant’s Quarters.
That makes it very important to think through the Lower Karazhan route wisely. A strategy can depend on the level of your Mythic+ key and the affixes which are in the rotation this week. Besides, think through your stack’s ability to fight a large number of enemies, which will be strengthened by the Shrouded affix. A few Nathrezims appearing in the middle of a fight with too many pulled enemies can become a threat to a successful M+ run. .
But regardless of what route and the exact order of pulls have been chosen by your party, it’ll be crucial to pay attention to especially deadly mobs and their spells. For instance, right after going through the entrance to Lower Karazhan, you will come across Forlorn Spirit and Ghostly Philanthropists. A healer must save Tank from the painful effect of the Shadow Rend, and all the party must pay attention to the Soul Leech spell cast by Spirit.
That spell has the highest priority of interruption. Any swirlies cast by the same mob or the Philanthropists are not so dangerous in total, as the only Soul Leech. Besides, the effects of those skills can be avoided, and this one — not. While farming the Lower part of Return to Karazhan, you will face only one Forlorn Spirit, but its ability to heal itself at the cost of your party’s HP can take too much of your time right at the beginning of the dungeon.
Then, Ghostly Understudies and Phantom Crew. The first mob is recommended to pull to the Opera room so that the party has a space to dodge the deadly Final Curtain spell triggered with its death. Besides, Tank must move this mob from the Spotlight light beam which increases its damage. Finally, the dangerous Poetry Slam AoE stun is a good reason to remember any kind of AoE stun that you have in your spellbooks. Dangerous AoE is also cast by Phantom Crew, but it’s quite impossible to interrupt it properly. By the way, its Hammer Down spell will cause many troubles to Tank, significantly increasing the damage they receive. The only way to survive this all is to carefully deal with Understudies and then quickly finish Phantom Crew.
Backup Singers can cause big troubles with the Firelands Portal spell that is dealing damage itself and summons an additional enemy from the Firelands after 3 seconds of cast. One of the weakest dungeon’s mob, the Spectral Patron can thus become dangerous if pulled in tandem with Singers. A Portal cast must be interrupted at any cost so that you don’t get surrounded by too much trash.
You’d likely want to pull as many Phantom Guests as possible to easily farm the percentage for your M+ run. The greatest threat posed by these mobs is their number, and many types of their AoE, dangerous for different roles of the party. Holy Nova and Goblin Dragon Gun will make melee DPS suffer, and the Throw Dynamite spell is a threat for Healers and Ranged DPS. But the best way to diminish the damage done by these and other skills of Guests is to quickly AoE them down in response.
Another dangerous combo is a Flashlight spell cast by Skeletal Usher and Shackles of Servitude cast by Undying Servants. Flashlight will disorient anyone who didn’t turn away from the caster, and if a damage-dealer is also affected by the Shackles, he or she may become useless for about 20 seconds in total. Be ready to turn away from the first spell and interrupt or dispel the second one.
On a way to Maiden boss (the Guest Chambers on the map of Lower Karazhan), you will come across beautiful but menacing ladies: Wholesome Hostesses, Reformest Maiden, and Virtuous Lady. The first mobs are of the highest priority to reduce their HP to 50% so that they get out of ghost form and stop stacking the Allured effect. Because if they don’t, after getting 100 stacks your party member will become controlled by Hostesses. Two other types of mobs also have mechanics connected with the HP level. Maiden Flirts with players, but only to break their hearts with damage from Heartbreaker when Maiden’s HP is lower than 50%. Finally, Virtuous Lady also tries to charm players with Charming Perfume, which is just an unpleasant DoT cast on players around the mob. But when it receives a Shadow Bolt skill after reaching the same level of HP, it becomes especially dangerous. It’d be better to save your interruptions until this moment.
Finally, while moving to Attumen boss, you may be taken by surprise with the spells of Spectral Journeymen and Spectral Apprentices. For example, Journeyman’s Smash spell works in a very familiar way: it’s aimed at the Tank but knocks back anyone else who is hit. Such a trivial mechanic is quite unusual after everything you have seen in Karazhan. And the Burning Brand cast by Apprentices is a simple but very painful debuff. It’s aimed at different players except for tanks, burns them with fire damage for 8 seconds, stacks, and every 8 seconds produces an explosion. The additional damage of an explosion depends on the number of stacks on a player. Because there will likely be more than one explosion at one time at the most narrow place on the map of Lower Karazhan, that spell can truly be named one of the deadliest spells of the instance.
Return to Karazhan: Lower Bosses
Opera
Opera Event is one of the easiest Boss encounters of the Lower part of Return to Karazhan. The main difficulty is that you can’t expect what exact encounter you will have to deal with. The type of opera is randomly chosen out of three options every time you start farming this dungeon.
Those three scenarios are Beautiful Beast, Westfall Story, and Wikket. If you get to take part in the first encounter, it’ll be important to try to kill the helpers of the Coggleston boss strictly one by one. Your damage to other helpers will be pointless because when one of them dies others are healed to the full. The best order is the following: Babblet — Luminore — Mrs. Cauldrons. However, on higher levels of Key, it may be better to kill Mrs. Cauldrons first as there’s a danger of getting one-shotted by her by the end of the encounter.
If you are taking part in the second type of opera, prepare for three phases of painful experience. Dashing Flame Gale cast by Toe Knee is one of the most dangerous spells of the first phase as the Flame Gale puddle remains until the end of the fight. You have to prevent the boss from setting the stage on fire. Keep to the edges of the stage and try to put puddles close to each other.
During the second phase of a fight, Mrrgia and her faithful murlocs arrive and start playing with your nerves. For example, by casting the Bubble Blast spell which damages every player who didn’t run from it far enough and knocks back everyone else around. And Mrrgia herself can just one-shot those players who didn’t manage to fill in the gap inside a wave cast by the Wash Away spell.
Mrrgia and Toe Knee HP must have been reduced to 50% to start a new phase. But in the third phase, they both return. Without helpers, but with all other skills that have already made you move so much. The only combination of Dashing Flame Gale and Wash Away is something that must make you save BL for this part of a fight.
Finally, the Wikket encounter. Prevent Galindre from casting powerful Flashy Bolt. Try to hit both her and Elfyra with cleave damage, as they share HP. Besides, you would definitely like to simultaneously kill mobs summoned by Elfyra with the Summon Assistants spell. The most dangerous part of the encounter is when Galindre casts Magic Magnificent: it one-shots everyone staying on the stage. Sounds terrific, but there is an easy way to avoid getting one-shotted by using void zones that appear as the result of Elfyra’s Defy Gravity spell. They will launch you into the air, saving you from dying on the ground.
Maiden of Virtue
Maiden of Virtue is the most straightforward boss in Mythic Lower Karazhan. Holy Shock must be prevented as often and fast as possible. You don’t want your Tank to receive too many stacks which will make him receive even more holy damage. Holy Bolt spell is a reason for all the members of the party to keep at least 6 yards distance from each other. Otherwise, prepare for massive damage from holy chains and for a possibility of a wipe, because a Holy Bolt chain spreads infinitely.
Players should avoid the growing Sacred Ground puddle, but get ready to take one stack of its effect right before the boss ends casting Mass Repentance. Because the last spell will make them useless for 30 seconds or until any damage is received. After Maiden attempts to incapacitate you, she will cast a strong shield Holy Bulwark on herself. Its main strength is that under that shield boss starts casting the deadliest spell of the encounter — Holy Wrath.
It’s crucial to interrupt that spell, but that’s possible only when the shield is destroyed. That’s one more reason to do it as fast as possible. Another reason is that Maiden continues casting Sacred Ground on various players and that every puddle cast by it continuously grows. Besides, Maiden doesn’t limit herself with one attempt to cast Mass Repentance. It would be better not to let her do it more than two times during a fight.
Moroes
Moroes himself is not as dangerous as his servants. From time to time he will Vanish and hit one player with Garrote which effect can last until the end of the encounter and stack with each further Garrote from Moroes. Besides, he will cause trouble to Tank with a Coat Check spell that will significantly lower Tank’s protection.
However, servants of Moroes are even less hospitable than their boss. There are six servants, and only two of them can be controlled for a huge part of a fight with a help of two traps that can be found in the room. It’s important to define the most troublesome servants for your stack before the fight, especially considering the current affix rotation. One of the universally effective pieces of advice is to put into trap two servants that are least dangerous because you would definitely want to take down the most dangerous first. Besides, you must do it before the boss reaches 60% HP, as after that he will be able to put all his servants out of your control.
Beware of Dorothea Millstipe, whose Mana Drain can leave your Healer without any mana if not interrupted. Crispin Ference inflicts huge amounts of frontal damage with a regular cast of the Will Breaker spell. Empowered Arms cast by Keira Berryback greatly buffs the damage and attack speed of Moroes. Rafe Dreuger has an annoying Iron Whirlwind AoE and Robin Daris also casts a bladestorm, but by throwing a weapon at the distance of a random player. Catriona Von’Indi damages the party with Smite and, when Moroes HP is reduced to 40%, can heal him to full with a Healing Stream. All in all, it’s up to you to choose the right order of dealing with servants of Moroes.
Attumen
The last boss of the M+ Lower Karazhan is Attumen. Your readiness to dispel the debuff cast by the boss has never been so demanded, as Attumen has a spell Intangible Presence. It puts a dangerous DoT on all the players and can be dispelled only in a very specific way. One of the players with a DoT will be followed by a ghost that only this player can see. And that player must inform the party of him being haunted by a ghost because dispelling it from the correct player will end the DoT on the whole party. And dispelling another one will damage everyone else.
At the same time, Attumen’s horse Midnight, which he rides from the start of a fight, damages nearby players with Mighty Stomp and interrupts their spells. Besides, from time to time Midnight summons spectral horses with a Spectral Charge, and the charge of those ghosts is one more deadly AoE that can and must be avoided. Attumen himself casts Mounted Strike, but most dangerous are those Attumen’s spells which are cast when he is unmounted.
Lowering Midnight’s HP to 50% forces it to run on the edge of the boss fight area, from time to time casting Mezair. After casting that spell the horse charges at her unmounted owner and simply kills anybody who didn’t move from her route. That’s not the only lethal spell in this encounter. The Attumen’s Shared Suffering will also kill a player if he or she faces that strike of Attumen alone and doesn’t share its damage with teammates.
However, there is an interesting feature connected with this spell. If the boss can’t cast it on anyone, he starts recasting while moving to another target with an increased speed. That’s a good possibility to kite Attumen and deal him additional damage. You’ll have time to do it until Midnight regenerates HP and forces him to mount her again, which will return you to the first phase.
