Drowned Halls (Raid)

Background
Drowned Halls a 10-man raid instance and can be entered through a sliver in Lord's Hall in Scarwood Reach. It's intended as an entry level raid instance, and is generally considered easier than the Gilded Prophecy sliver instance. Players geared from Tier 2 Expert dungeons can expect to be able to clear the instance relatively easily. The experience and gear gained from this instance are a nice starter for other raid content in Rift.

Assault Commander Jorb
This is a one-tank fight with an 5 minute enrage timer. All of his abilities seem to be physical damage so no resistances are necessary for this encounter.

Mechanics

 * Stand At Attention
 * When he emotes this with a player's name, he will teleport the character to him and root the player. 2 seconds later will perform a cleave that will do massive damage, usually one-shotting non-tanks. The tank needs to turn or move the boss as soon as this occurs or the targetted player will die.


 * You Can't Hide
 * When the boss emotes this with a player's name, this will cause the player to run about randomly for 5 seconds. This can be cleansed.

Strategy

 * Tank: Everything time Jorb emotes 'Stand At Attention', the tank should rotate the boss 90 degrees to the left or right. The exact direction must be communicated to the rest of the raid beforehand so that melee DPS move in the same direction. The boss will sometimes cause a knockback so be prepared.
 * Healers: Keep up the tank and battle ress anybody who might get cleaved. Cleanse people when the boss emotes 'You Can't Hide'. Stay at maximum range away from the boss so as to be out of range of the cleave when the tank rotates the boss.
 * Melee DPS: Rotate 90 degrees in the same direction as the tank whenever the boss emotes 'Stand At Attention'. Always stand behind the boss.
 * Ranged DPS: Stay at maximum range from the boss so as to be out of range fo the cleave when the tank rotates the boss.

Joloral Ragetide
Joloral spawns in the middle of the room, with a Plated Crippler patrolling in a circle around him. Joloral is a very heavy hitter, capable of hitting an appropriately geared tank for 3-4k physical damage per hit. There is only physical damage involved in this encounter.

Mechanics

 * Summon Creatures of the Deep
 * After Ragetide emotes this, three groups of three Ragetide Carbuncles are summoned one by one. These always spawn in the same 3 places, in the same order. There is also a dead fish skeleton with eggs which spawns prior to the group spawning to indicate the location of the spawn. These adds will always move towards Ragetide; they have 20k health and will be difficult to dps down before they reach Ragetide.


 * Plated Crippler
 * This add is present at the beginning of the encounter. More will spawn through the fight. If this add is too close to the boss, Ragetide will gain a buff which greatly increases his damage. This add has a frontal cleave.


 * Survival Instinct
 * Joloral Ragetide gains this buff when he is in the pool of water in the center of the room. It increases his damage by 30% and should be avoided at all costs.


 * Crippling Ally
 * Joloral Ragetide gains this buf when he is too close to the Plated Crippler. It increases his damage by 30% and should be avoided at all costs.


 * Feeding Frenzy
 * If Joloral Ragetide or the Plated Crippler get too close to one of the Ragetide Carbuncles, they will eat it and gain a stack of this buff, healing them and increasing the damage dealt.


 * AoE Silence (name unknown)
 * The boss will periodically emote the name of a member of the raid. This person will then be stunned, teleported to the center of the room, and shortly afterwards silence anybody nearby.

Strategy
The general idea is to keep Ragetide out of the water and away from the Plated Crippler, while avoiding the Ragetide Carbuncles. The simplest means of dealing with the Carbuncles is to keep the Plated Crippler alive, and use it to consume the Carbuncles before they reach Ragetide. When another Plated Crippler spawns, one of them will have to be killed. Two tanks will be needed, one for Ragetide and the other for the Marauder.


 * Main tank: Position the boss just in front of the exit of the room. As the Ragetide Carbuncles spawn and are consumed by the Plated Crippler, move clockwise around the room, returning to the exit once all three groups have spawned.
 * Off tank: Position the Plated Crippler to the left of the entrance of the room. As the Carbuncles spawn, move clockwise around the room, returning to the entrance once all three groups have spawned.
 * Healers: The tank will be taking massive damage throughout the fight, so use big heals. When the Ragetide Carbuncles are present, be warned that you may lose line-of-sight to the tank as he kites Ragetide around the room. Remain in the center of the room, except when Ragetide emotes at somebody -- move to the outer perimeter of the pool to avoid being silenced.
 * Ranged DPS: Remain in the center of the room, except when Ragetide emotes at somebody -- move to the outer perimeter of the pool to avoid being silenced. DPS the Plated Crippler and Ragetide Carbuncles as needed.
 * Melee DPS: Remain behind the boss. Be careful not to get cleaved as the tank moves Ragetide around when the Carbuncles spawn. DPS the Plated Crippler and Ragetide Carbuncles as needed.

Isskal
This boss spawns in the middle of his room. Only one tank and two healers should be needed for this encounter. However, there should be at least three players capable of interrupting. He hits very lightly on tanks, and does mostly physical damage. Depending on the raid's ability to avoid mechanics, the raid might suffer heavy water damage.

Mechanics

 * Ice Shard
 * This is a spell cast randomly only in phase 1. There does not appear to be any cooldown preventing its use, and it can be cast several times back-to-back or not seen at all for the entire phase. It is cast on the player with the highest threat, and will instantly kill its target. It is interruptible.


 * Whirl of Death
 * This spell is emoted and cast at the beginning of phase 2A and persists throughout. Players moving against the flow, or too slowly, will take water damage. Players moving quickly enough with the flow will suffer no consequences. Halfway through the phase, the flow will change direction. The initial direction of the flow is random.


 * Glacial Wave
 * This spell is emoted and cast at the beginning of phase 2B and persists throughout. It divides the room into 3 concentric rings centered on Isskal, of which only one is safe to stand in at any given time. The initial safe zone is always the middle ring, then going outwards before returning inwards. The danger zones can be anticipated by the small blue tendrils rising off the floor.


 * Abyssal Trappers
 * These are adds with an unknown amount of health which spawn during phase 2A. They deal negligible damage but are dangerous because they inflict a snare which can cause players to take damage from the Whirl of Death.

Strategy
Isskal has three phase: phase 1, phase 2A and phase 2B. He will always start with phase 1, then phase 2 (2A or 2B), and return to phase 1. If phase 2A previously occurred, he will do phase 2B the next time around.


 * Phase 1:
 * Assign three players as Ice Shard interrupters. Have them set up macros to state when they have interrupted, and set up an interrupt order. Letting a single ice shard go off usually results in a wipe.


 * Phase 2A:
 * Players within melee range of Isskal will be teleported away and a wall will prevent melee from attacking, but ranged attacks can still hit him. The entire raid must move in the same direction as the whirlpool while trying to kill the Abyssal Trappers. Be warned that the flow will change directions halfway through the phase.


 * Phase 2B:
 * The beginning of this phase is foretold by the appearance of large white circular lines on the floor -- these indicate the boundaries of the zones. The zones are three concentric rings: the center circle, the middle ring and the outer ring. The middle ring is ALWAYS the first safe zone. Melee should dps at the extremity of the boss's hitbox, and immediately run to the middle ring when the white lines appear. The movement of the safe zone is similar to the Naxxramas Heigan Dance: the player moves outward, then inward, and back again.

Hydriss
No description or tactics known yet.

Loot
No loot is known yet.

Videos
Video's will be added once the instance is launched.