With World of Warcraft: Shadowlands finally releasing today, players will once again encounter some important lore figures in the afterlife. But while the focus is on these past legends, other characters from recent expansions are also making a return. For example, heroes adventuring through Ardenweald will learn more about the Troll loa Bwonsamdi who played a major role in the Horde Battle for Azeroth storyline. MINOR STORY SPOILERS AHEAD
As the Loa of Death, Bwonsamdi grows stronger as more souls come under his care. This quirk has allowed him to protect deceased Troll souls from funneling into the Maw and even revive those recently slain as Zekhan aka Zappy Boi learned in the Shadows Rising novel. Unfortunately, his rival loa Mueh'zala has invaded De Other Side to claim those safeguarded souls for the Jailer. Now players must cross through into this alternate dimension of the afterlife and help Bwonsamdi drive off threats within his domain.
Important Trash Mobs
- Atal'ai Devoted: Interrupt and kill it before the Devoted Sacrifice cast finishes or it becomes a Son of Hakkar that fixates World of Warcraft players and leaves a blood pool when it dies.
- Defunct Dental Drill: Line-of-sight (LoS) the Haywire cast which deals massive AoE damage by hiding behind a nearby wall.
- Headless Client: Get out of melee range when Spinning Up is cast.
- Weald Shimmermoth: Soporific Shimmerdust will put players to sleep if it stacks, but jumping clears the debuff.
Hakkar the Soulflayer
Throughout the fight, Son of Hakkar adds will spawn that fixate players and drop a damaging Spilled Essence pool that also revives the add after 20 seconds. Anyone affected by Corrupted Blood must move away from the party to avoid spreading the DoT.
Hakkar will cast Blood Barrier at full energy, damaging everything and putting up a shield that prevents players from interrupting his Blood Barrage channel. Make sure no Sons of Hakkar are alive and use defensive cooldowns beforehand to reduce the shield value. Break the shield while dodging Blood Barrage projectiles and interrupt Hakkar to transition back to Phase 1.
The Manastorms
Players start the battle against Millhouse Manastorm. He will use Power Overwhelming which puts down a crystal that fires a beam. If the beam hits Millhouse, it will increase his damage and pulse AoE on the group, but anyone can intercept it for the buff instead. Have players rotate who soaks once the damage becomes unhealable. The other boss, Millificent Manastorm will use Echo Finger Laser X-treme which marks 2 players before damaging and stunning everything between them several seconds later, including Millhouse. Stay away from the targeted party members but have them position to hit the boss.
Eventually, Millificent will swap into the fight. Tank classes will take high damage from her Buzz-Saw ability and the stacking Bleeding DoT so have defensive cooldowns ready or try to kite her until the bleed falls off. Click on the Experimental Squirrel Bombs to disarm them before they explode. Millhouse targets a random player with Shadowfury so make sure no one is in the circle but Millificent to stun her.
Dealer Xy'exa
The boss places Displacement Trap zones that knock players into the air and cause fall damage, but are key to dealing with other abilities. Localized Explosive Contrivance puts a bomb on one player who must trigger a trap so the explosion detonates in the air. On the other hand, everyone must use a trap to avoid Explosive Contrivance at ground level. Finally, dodge Displaced Blastwave beams that are marked by a line before firing.
Mueh'zala
Mueh'zala casts Soulcrusher on the tank which deals damage and applies a DoT that repeats the initial damage so use mitigation to reduce its effects. Everyone else gets the Cosmic Artifice DoT which does AoE damage when expiring but can be dispelled to drop it as a void zone. Have the healer class remove at least one DoT to lessen the AoE burst once everything falls off. Finally, Mueh'zala will use Master of Death, slamming the platform 3 times. The order which he slams is random, but he will rear an arm backwards for the left and right side while raising both arms for the front.
In the intermission phase, everyone must take one of the eight portals that spawn to prevent being killed by Shatter Reality. Players are then transported to another platform where they have 25 seconds to kill a Shattered Visage add and click the totem. Once the party is dragged back, Bwonsamdi will damage Mueh'zala for 20-percent of his health for every totem that was clicked in addition to buffing players with haste and movespeed. There are four totems divided between the portals so have the group cover 2 platforms each intermission and save DPS class cooldowns to burst the rest of Mueh'zala's HP upon returning.
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands releases on November 23rd for PC.
Source: Wowhead