City of Dalaran

Who to bring

Crowd control can be the right answer when there are too many enemies for a tank to safely control at once. Dalaran is the first big test of immunities: an arcane elemental is probably immune to Arcane, and Arcane Mages hit this, though they still have tools.

• Immunities: plan on little or no Arcane damage against the arcane bosses; bring Fire, Frost, Nature, Shadow or physical damage.
• Tanks: much of the trash's damage, melee included, is arcane, and Warrior and Paladin tanks cannot block it.
• Interrupts, stuns and water: Mana Phantoms and some other mobs mana-burn; bring interrupts or water.
• Dispels: Manamorph is dispellable, Curse of Thorns wants a decurse, and Blessing of Freedom or an escape breaks Fel Ancient's roots.
• Crowd control: Sap, Polymorph, fear and stuns all have uses; Phantasms reflect magic with Reflection Field, so check the target before casting.

Bosses

1. Arcane Anomaly tank in the middle, move ahead of the sweeping beam, kill the small adds.
2. Fel Ancient take the fight out of the fumes, free rooted allies, never stand in a pool.
3. Mana Devourer clear the room, drink, burst it down before the mana runs out.
4. Mana Elemental kill the phantoms first, dispel the polymorph, keep healers out of the Silence.
5. Unstable Sentinel face him away, ranged stay beyond 25 yards, stun or dodge the Malfunction.
6. Shade of the Archmage move him off the sphere, survive the Explosion, save cooldowns for after Evocation.
7. Lyn the Ignored keep the group topped up, remove Curse of Thorns, tank the skeletons.
8. Atrexis the Grave Knight thin out the necromancers first, kill early adds, then burn the boss.
9. Mana Wraith no strategy is known yet; it comes last in the client's order.

In the order the client lists them. Every boss’s strategy and abilities

Lore

Dalaran, the mages' city, sits in Alterac under its violet dome, and the dungeon takes the group through the Underbelly and the city's grounds: undead Kirin Tor remnants, escaped mana creatures, a fel-corrupted ancient and, at the end, a magical shade of a great archmage. Both factions slip in through the sewers, so a Horde group reaches the dungeon even though Horde players are attacked on sight in the open-world city.

The dungeon is the way to unlock the city, which is Alliance-only. The Skyborne get an exclusive area behind the Violet Citadel doors, and the run is non-linear, so a group can reach the end in about 20 minutes or clear every boss. Resistances and immunities are deliberately kept.

Areas inside