wow Ruby Life Pools - Dragonflight Dungeon Analysis

[Petko 7]

Our latest dungeon analysis from the Dragonflight Alpha covers Ruby Life Pools!

Ruby Life Pools - Dragonflight Dungeon Analysis

The Ruby Life Pools dungeon is located in The Waking Shores, on the south part of the zone, and is the 3rd dungeon to make an appearance on the Dragonflight Alpha. One feature that is quite uncommon for the instance is that it is relatively short, consisting of only 3 bosses and quite a small number of non-boss-enemies, which indicates to me that this will be the shortest dungeon we have ever experienced ever since the creation of Mythic+ back in Legion. Without further ado, let's begin!

*DISCLAIMER* This is not a guide on how to play each boss, nor a guide on how to complete the instance, but an overview and my first impressions of the overall difficulty of the dungeon. During the Alpha version of the game, a majority of things will change or be tuned depending on feedback. We will add official guides to each dungeon further down the road.

Melidrussa Chillworn

Melidrussa Chillworn is the first boss in the dungeon, and luckily, it is quite easy to handle as long as you understand her basic mechanics. Your healer must dispel Primal Chill as quickly as possible — other forms of dispelling also works such as a Warlock's Imp Dispel or a Rogue's @@@WoWCloakofShadows@@@). The design of the boss is made in a way that not results in not only single-target damage being important, but also cleave/funnel-damage profile specs will benefit a ton from this fight once Awaken Whelps has been cast. Overall it is a great boss; I really liked the visuals too, as some of them look like Jaina's abilities from the Battle of Dazar'alor raid, like Ice Blast. One small thing that bothers me is not knowing if the "adds" that spawn will increase in difficulty as the key level progresses or if they are going to be scaled to Mythic-0 levels; time will tell.

Kokia Blazehoof

Kokia will be a tricky boss to handle once Mythic+ is released in Dragonflight, not only because it will create a lot of one-shot mechanics but it will also scale with @@@WoWAffixTyrannical@@@. One interesting ability I must note is Molten Boulder, as it creates a giant meteor that if it touches you is likely to one-shot you; Even on Heroic it currently takes over 50% of your HP. Not only this but if you are within twelve yards of the impact you also take massive damage. Periodically once the boss gets to 100 energy, she will summon a Blazebound Firestorm, which you shouldn't really focus on and instead cleave. Just remember to leave the surrounding area once you see it Burnout. Overall, I would say this is a great boss fight, but still, I have the lingering feeling of concern over the one-shot abilities which the whole WoW community is not an enormous fan of. I hope they tune down the damage slightly or make the meteor move slower.

Kyrakka and Erkhart Stormvein

This is by far the hardest boss and it's likely to be one of the hardest among all Mythic+ dungeon bosses in this expansion as it has tons of unavoidable damage throughout the fight, meaning you need a reliable healer that can provide steady HPS. There are frontal abilities directed at a random player, which requires strong team-play and is something pugs are not really known for. This will be a make-or-break boss fight and I hope it gets tuned properly so we don't experience the agony King's Rest offered back in Battle for Azeroth. From a design point of view, the fight has beautiful visuals, especially once Kyrakka joins the fight. Honestly, this might be one of my favorite fights so far, both from a difficulty point of view and also visually.

Final Thoughts

I didn't expect such a short dungeon, which I believe won't have a mythic+ timer of even 25-30 minutes at most; it is likely to be the shortest dungeon created since Maw of Souls. But don't let that fool you, as most of the non-boss-enemies are just as hard as a boss fight. one thing that is tricky is the scarcity of trash in this dungeon. Not only this but while you are clearing the area around Kokia Blazehoof, remember that the trash there is mandatory to be killed in order to spawn the boss, which will probably make players skip the very beginning of the instance with Invisibility Potions or a or Rogue's Shroud of Concealment in order to not go over on trash count and save time. Again, this is simply speculation; it is unlikely that Blizzard will change the dungeon or add another boss to compensate for it. Finally, I must admit the boss fights so far are absolutely fantastic and I am looking forward to trying this dungeon on the live servers once the expansion has been released.

[Ken007 97]

I would love for them to make shorter dungeons in which there was less trash but you had to use a strat on them. Just wasting time blowing through tons of trash mindlessly isn't really fun and doesn't add much to the gaming experience. They really should make the raids a bit shorter too (eight bosses would be fine).