Pre-Event
In front of your loading location you will see a Blood Legion Captain. Talking with him will allow you to continue up a tunnel to your right after a few moments. As you progress up the tunnel you will find a series of snowballs, rolling towards you which are hellbent on your destruction. Being hit by one will not only ruin your self-esteem and ego, but it will undoubtedly push you back to the start of the tunnel as well. There are a few safe spots along both sides of the tunnel that you can use to avoid the snowballs. Alternatively, you can also roleplay as Leeroy Jenkins and charge through the snowballs fearlessly without issue if you have a source of Stability.
After some more conversation with Rytlock and Crecia, you will need to perform some jumping and basic gliding manuevers to continue. A few "Grothmar Valley Chests" are scattered about the platforms. There are a few short cuts that can be taken to shorten this part, namely near the ice stalagmite pit. At the end of the mini jumping puzzle, you will reach a snowed-over clearing which will house the Icebrood Construct. There is a brazier on the left hand side that when walked up to will automatically light and allow other members to use the map or minimap to teleport to it by simply left clicking the Teleport Beacon icon. All squad members will revive at this beacon if they die for any reason after it is lit.
A lot of fighting Icebrood Construct comes down to simply stacking up (grouping together) in melee of the boss and doing damage to him! The major things to look out for is giving Stability for it's Ice Arm Swing and Shatter Arm attacks!
Phase One
100% - 85% HPIcebrood Construct will begin performing attacks in the following pattern.
- Casts Ice Shock Wave.
- Casts Ice Shock Wave (again).
- Will turn Clockwise 90 Degrees.
- Casts Ice Shock Wave (Cha-Cha real smooth).
- Will turn 180 Degrees.
- Casts Spinning Ice.
You do take passive arena tick damage while fighting Icebrood Construct. It's around 500 damage on light armor every 3 seconds. So nothing major to worry about.
Ice Shock Wave
This is Icebrood Construct's most common attack. Icebrood Construct will target a specific area, and slam down after 2 seconds sending a shockwave attack outwards dealing damage. Standing inside of where the slam happens deals 250% damage, and falls off at 1200 range. The shockwave attack can be jumped, similar to Samarog's .
Spinning Ice
Icebrood Construct will slam his arm into the ground forcefully causing an shockwave to ripple outwards dealing slight damage. A number of small snowballs will begin rotating around the arena. These snowballs will deal damage to anything they pass through until they despawn 20 seconds later.
Phase Two
85% - 50% HPIce Arm Swing
Starting at 85% HP Icebrood Construct will frequently target half the arena and swing his arm dealing damage and causing Knockdown on players for 1 second. Then all players in the arena will begin swirling around Icebrood Construct counter clockwise for 8 seconds. It is best to stay within melee of the boss to make sure you still recieve boons and healing during this time. Remember to regroup and restack after Icebrood Construct's Ice Arm Swing is done!
Ice Crystal
Starting at 75% HP Icebrood Construct will target a player randomly indicated by a ground targeted red circle and an icicle will spawn above their head. 2 seconds later the icicle will crash down causing minor damage and 5 seconds of Chilled. This mechanic can be easily stepped out of. Alternatively this can be condition cleansed after the damage is done and Chilled has been applied.
50% Interlude
Shatter ArmAt exactly 50% HP Icebrood Construct will go Invulnerable for 10 seconds and his left arm will shatter. When only 1 second of Invulnerable is left Icebrood Construct will sweep broadly with his remaining right arm, pushing back and inflicting Knockdown. Stability will prevent the Knockdown while Aegis will prevent the both the damage and Knockdown.
Icebrood Construct will target a player randomly indicated by a ground targeted red circle and an icicle will spawn above their head. 2 seconds later the icicle will crash down causing minor damage and 5 seconds of Chilled. This mechanic can be easily stepped out of. Alternatively condition cleansed after the damage is done and Chilled is applied.
Phase Three
50% - 0% HPIcebrood Construct will begin performing attacks in the following pattern.
- Spawns an Ice Plateu in front and behind of the boss, called Ice Shatter (see below).
- Uses Ice Arm Swing on the front Ice Shatter.
- Turns Anti-Clockwise 90 Degrees.
- Casts Ice Arm Swing Attack
- Turns Anti-Clockwise 90 Degrees
- Destroys Ice Shatter. The one that started behind Icebrood Construct as of the first step in this rotation.
Ice Shatter
Icebrood Construct will toss down 2 small ice platforms. These will both began shooting out small ice orbs for 10 seconds that when touched apply Chilled and a small amount of damage. When 10 seconds have elapsed, Icebrood Construct will face towards one of the ice platforms and began charging up energy for 6 seconds. He then strikes the ice platform and it explodes violently causing massive damage and a Knockdown. The Knockdown can be avoided with Stability. The damage however is essentially unavoidable.
All of Aegis, Invulnerable, Evade, and any channeled block are ineffective at mitigating the damage. Use Protection and healing instead!
Additional Notes
The boss is not considered as defiant, therefore mechanics that rely on CC's do not register correctly. This means no stacks of on Spellbreaker, and no cooldown reduction from on Untamed.
Rewards
You get a large Grothmar Valley Chest for completing the strike. Three bonus chests (requiring no masteries to open) are rewarded for completing the strike quickly. One for completing it before the enrage timer. One for completing it under 7 minutes, and the last for under 4 minutes. These bonus chests are only awarded once a day. Due to the low health of the Icebrood Construct, and high uptime on the boss, getting all three bonus chests should be commonplace, so don't fret about it!
Oddities
Hitting the enrage timer will instantly kill everyone, awarding 10,002 Experience and 33 Copper.