{How to!} Black Morass (Opening the Dark Portal)

by **Apple** Sun Apr 18, 2010 6:40 am

Heya, Despite told me once that Black Morass is bugged...Today I tried out and it works great! I will explain here, where the mobs will spawn and how to do this.

Requirements: Escorted Thrall out from Durnhold Keep, and quest
The Opening of the Dark Portal.

Then, when you are in Black Morass, you can notice that the place looks like Swamp of Sorrows, because it is it. But all mobs there are 69-71lvl

1. How to get to Dark Portal and start the dark portal event?
-Travel through Swamp of Sorrows, like you're going to Blasted Lands. There where should be the path to Blasted Lands, is the dark portal and Medivh.
When you get enough close Medivh, he will start the event.
You get these texts up to your screen.
${How to!} Black Morass (Opening the Dark Portal) Rift_t10$
Tho Medivh's Shield Remaining should be 100% and Time Rifts Opened: 1/18.

2. Time Rifts
-Every 1-2 minute, a new Time Rift will spawn. You will see which Time Rift have been opened from top of your screen. Here are the spawn locations for Rifts.
${How to!} Black Morass (Opening the Dark Portal) Rift_l10$
Red spots are the spawning locations. Rifts will spawn to random location.
At every Time Rift, there is Rift Lord or Rift Keeper holding the Rift up.
${How to!} Black Morass (Opening the Dark Portal) Rift_l11$
Rift Lord pictured, and random snake got in picture too.
At Time Rifts 6/18, 12/18, and 18/18, there is a boss encounter. All of the portals will spawn mobs that will seek to drain Medivh's shield and eventually kill him.

~Time Rifts opened 1-5 / 18
While the portal is open, adds will spawn every 15 or 20 seconds according to this repeating cycle: 1 Assassin, 3 Whelps, 1 Chronomancer. These adds will head directly towards Medivh, and must be dealt with or they will drain his shield and kill him.
The non-elites all do small amounts of damage. Once you destroy the elite in a wave, everyone should kill the remaining non-elites and rest up for the next portal. The longer you wait, the more adds you will have to deal with and the farther behind you will get on new portals opening.

~Time Rifts opened 6 / 18
1st boss: Chrono Lord Deja
Health: 89,000
Mana: 33,090

Special Abilities:
-Time Lapse — Magic AoE debuff: Attack speed and movement speed reduced by 60%.(dispellable) Twenty yard range.
-Arcane Discharge — Arcane Damage: Hit all targets in a fifty yard range for 2200-2600 damage.

This fight can easily be done by four players, while the fifth defeats the spawning non-elite mobs. Alternatively, you can all dps him down and then use a beacon to clean up the remaining adds. Chrono Lord Deja takes the place of the Rift Lord or Rift Keeper that would normally spawn with portal six.

Chrono Lord Deja is an easy fight. The only ability of note is the Arcane Discharge. This is easily healed through, and the party member assigned to deal with the trash headed for Medivh should still be able to do so during this encounter.

After Chrono Lord Deja is defeated, your group should have thirty seconds to a minute of rest before the seventh wave arrives, depending on how fast you killed him.

Heroic: Pulls people towards him, making his chain attacks much harder to avoid. Additionally, his Arcane Discharge is much more frequent and damaging. It now deals around 4000 damage.

~Time Rifts opened 7-11 / 18
Same as 1-5. Adds spawn according to this repeating cycle: 1 Executioner, 1 Chronomancer, 3 Whelps, 1 Assassin.

~Time Rifts opened 12 / 18
2nd boss: Temporus
Health: 110,000
Mana: 0/0

Special Abilities:
-Mortal Wound — Debuff, cannot be dispelled: Decreases healing on target by 10%, stacks up to 7 (as of patch 2.2) times. Lasts 12 seconds.
-Haste — Buff, can be dispelled/spellstolen: Temporus's attack speed and run speed is increased dramatically (+200%).
-Knock Away — Physical Damage, AoE: Knocks back all nearby enemies and reduces the threat of those affected.
-Untauntable — Temporus cannot be taunted.

You have several options for dealing with his Mortal Wound debuff:

1. Have all five members focus on defeating the boss quickly before the debuff stacks too high, then kill the remaining non-elites after he is dealt with. Warriors can use last stand and shield wall towards the end to try and stay alive: if an off-tank is available, losing the MT towards the end can be an acceptable loss since there will be time to res afterwards.
2. Use an off-tank to switch aggro. Switching aggro can be quite difficult, however, because Temporus is not tauntable.
3. Try to evade Temporus for long enough that the Mortal Wound debuff wears off. The debuff is applied every six seconds and lasts 12 seconds. Note: If the tank runs Temporus too far away from the portal, he flies back and resets himself to full health immediately, making a wipe almost inevitable.
4. Apply a paladin Blessing of Protection, switching quickly to an off-tank that can busy Temporus while the debuff wears off.
5. Use an ability or item which increases avoidance, such as dodge trinkets, shield block, etc. to avoid or block a Mortal Wound attack. Avoiding even a single one will cause the stack to expire before it is reapplied again.

The Mortal Wounds ability is applied every 3 seconds instead of 6 if Temporus is under the Haste effect. Therefore, this ability must be spellstolen or removed immediately.

Temporus is one boss where it is highly recommended to allow the non-elite mobs to pass by, then when Temporus is defeated to drop a Chrono-beacon near Medivh to clean up the remaining mobs. You may need to use beacons at some point just to deal with the amount of adds who have aggroed to the party and are attacking casters. Just be sure not to use the beacon too close to Temporus himself, as it will fail and be wasted.

This fight can get tough if your tank has trouble blocking or dodging Mortal Wound. In this case, a Subtlety rogue can evasion tank Temporus for the first 30 seconds by using Preparation. After that, the tank can step in. If a feral druid is tanking and Mortal Wound has stacked too high, a priest may want to keep a shield up; the druid should still be able to keep rage. On a side note, Frenzied Regeneration is unaffected by the debuff, so it can be used to make a last stand, if necessary.

Be warned that the threat reduction effect of Temporus' knock back ability can make it difficult for the main tank to maintain his top position on the aggro list. It is recommended — in spite of the urgency of this fight — to grant the tank some time to build up aggro before the damage dealers join in. It's advisable to have the party kill two or three waves of the non-elites before starting to dish out damage on the boss.

Heroic: Has a 6 second duration spell reflect.

~Time Rifts opened 13-17 / 18
- Waves spawn at an accelerated rate, sometimes with as little as one minute between portals.
- Adds spawn according to this repeating cycle: 1 Executioner, 1 Vanquisher, 1 Chronomancer, 1 Assassin.
- Aeonus will likely spawn before the last Rift Lord is dead: simply ignore this and finish off the portals and the adds.

~Time Rifts opened 18 / 18
3rd and the final boss: Aeonus
Health: 150,000
Mana: 0/0

Special Abilities:
-Time Stop - AoE Debuff: Stuns all players for four seconds.
-Sand Breath - Arcane Damage: Deals 3500-4500 damage with a cone in front of Aeonus.
-Frenzy - Buff: Increases Aeonus's attack speed. Can be countered with a hunter's tranq shot.

The final boss and wave of the encounter, Aeonus spawns alone. He will immediately head towards Medivh and attack him. If Medivh's shield is in respectable condition, it is recommended that the party rest up before the battle. While Sand Breath is arcane damage, it appears that arcane resist gear does not dampen the damage dealt when he uses the skill. In any case, it is not so much a problem as it might look, as long as the tank faces him away from the rest of the party. That way the healer can focus on the tank.

Besides his abilities, Aeonus hits for very high amounts on any players. This is compounded by the Time Stop ability, causing Aeonus to continue to attack the highest aggro target while healing is unavailable. If healing is kept at a maximum, Aeonus will quickly fall to focused dps. Spell Reflection (and bubble, of course) can be used to negate the effect of Time Stop, and give the tank time to use cooldowns such as potions or Shield Wall if need be.

Killing Aeonus will complete your quest and MAYBE start the whole thing again, so just ignore it and go away.

Credits to WoWwiki, Wowhead and Apple