Azjol-Nerub will be played quiet a lot by players who wish to level up from 71-74. It is a quick run with only three boss events. There are quests in Agmar’s Hammer(Horde) and Star’s Rest(Alliance) that will send you to investigate the entrance to Azjol-Nerub. Nerubians stand by the zone in to the Gilded Gate dungeon with a quest or two. Once inside, you are a few pulls from reaching the first boss: Krik’thir the Gatewatcher.

This boss is a scripted event. He has three or four mini-bosses.  Each mini-boss has at least two nerubian pets ranging melee and casters classes.  Once you engage, the first mini-boss and its pets will come.  The second group next, and so on, then finally Krik’thir. You will have some drink breaks between each wave.

These mobs are heavy on poison debuffs, but the most annoying abilities are to web your face disorienting you for some seconds, and web-wrapping a random player rendering you unable to move or cast. They even web-wrap the tank. Players need to watch out and attack the webbed person to break’em free.

Once you defeat Krik’thir, move through the gate and walk across the long bridge. The second boss event starts as soon as you step down from the platform. You will see an Anub’ar Crypt Fiend and other nerubian spiders. I recommend staying up there where you dropped off the platform. Don’t go to the mobs. Let them come to you. The reasoning is that from the stairs on both sides spawn spiders that run down the cave to attack the boss Hadronox. If you go after the mobs, you will aggro these other spiders that spawn nonstop. You would become overwhelmed and wiped. Do yourself a favor and stick to the wall area, and let them come to you. They move pretty slow. You will get about 8 waves of Anub’ar Crypt Fiends, and Anub’ar Crushers (Crypt lords). Then the boss. Make sure to drink/eat between waves.

If you observe through the web-floor, and read the warning message, Hadronox is slowly walking toward the top where you are and eventually will face you. He is being attacked by dozens of spiders as he crawls upwards. Hadronox is the spawn of Maexxna (the Naxxramas spider boss). This boss will shoot a web at all party members and pull everyone toward him. Sorta like Scorpion in Mortal Kombat. Everyone not melee should run away back to their former position. As he pulls everyone, clouds of poison spawn beneath him afflicting you with nasty poison that ticks with a lot of damage. Other than that Hadronox dies in about 1:15 minutes from the moment he attacks the tank.

The third and last boss in this dungeon is well-known by old-school Warcraft III: Frozen Throne players: Cryptlord King Anub’arak. He has similar abilities from the RTS game. Tanks and melee will find him quietly annoying.  He will burrow underground, coming up barely for around 15 seconds.  During this time you have to DPS him madly before he burrows again. In the meantime, anub’ar assassins which are small bugs and crypt fiends will spawn to attack you. Stay together and hit them hard. However, watch your feet. When you see underground tunneling-like movement walk away. Shortly after the animation you will see spikes coming off the ground. They do damage and sets you up into the air, getting additional fall damage.

The boss encounter is pretty easy once you get the hang of it. He dies in about 4:15 minutes from the moment he is engaged.