Skadi the Ruthless

Skadi the Ruthless is a frost vrykul and the third boss of Utgarde Pinnacle, a wing of Utgarde Keep. Skadi is the guardian of a long gauntlet type hallway in an outside portion of the higher Utgarde where he awaits to defeat any intruders with the help of his faithful proto-drake Grauf. Note that he drops the Reins of the Blue Proto-Drake with a drop rate around 1% in heroic mode only.

During the Scourge resurgence, Skadi was one of the undead forces reanimated by Mawsworn kyrian in Ymirheim in Icecrown.

Adventure Guide
''The vrykul assign nicknames based on accomplishments. Cleansing a Drakkari bloodline or decapitating taunka might garner the appellation of dutiful but it takes a true act of depravity to be called "ruthless". Skadi earned his title long ago for relentlessly hunting down vrykul who sheltered the malformed infants predecessors of humanity condemned by Ymiron.''

Stage 1: Grauf
Skadi the Ruthless starts the fight by mounting his drake, Grauf. While mounted, Skadi will fly overhead and order Grauf to breathe freezing clouds onto players below.Skadi remains mounted until players fire three harpoons at Grauf by using the Harpoon Launcher.


 * Ymirjar Harpooner
 * Ymirjar Warrior
 * Ymirjar Witch Doctor
 * Ymirjar Warrior
 * Ymirjar Witch Doctor
 * Ymirjar Warrior
 * Ymirjar Witch Doctor
 * Ymirjar Witch Doctor
 * Ymirjar Witch Doctor
 * Ymirjar Witch Doctor

Strategies
Skadi is one of a very small group of Heroic bosses who are still (as of patch 3.3) able to cause noteworthy problems for a well-geared player group, and he is to be respected on that basis.

This fight is relatively complicated but not difficult once learned. The single most important thing is to keep moving around; Grauf's frost breath, and then Skadi's whirlwind, mean that characters who remain in one place, focused too purely on their rotation at the expense of all else, will likely end up dead fairly quickly.

When the fight begins, Skadi the Ruthless will mount his proto-drake and fly up into the air, beginning a gauntlet style event. Your party must work their way about 150 yards up a hallway fighting 4-5 waves of 5-6 Frost Vrykul each.

While you are fighting through the gauntlet, Skadi will fly over on his drake and cast a frostfog breath ability on the ground in long strips. Standing in the fog does ~3k a second. It is useful to have a member of the party aware of Skadi's movement so that you can predict and call which side of the hall his breath will be cast on. Grauf's breath will kill party members quickly if they are caught in it, so mobility and situational awareness are very important here.

Ymirjar Harpooners will drop harpoons that stick in the ground. Party members need to loot the harpoons along the way.

When you reach the end of the gauntlet, there are three harpoon guns mounted on the edge of the keep. Occasionally you will see the emote that "bossemote" and a party member who has a harpoon needs to use the harpoon gun. An effective strategy is to assign a single player to collect the harpoons and fire them at Skadi. Several harpoons can be fired in one pass if the player is fast. The harpoons are labeled as "Utgarde Pinnacle" similar to the Tempest Keep label on the legendary weapons in the Kael'thas Sunstrider raid fight. This label causes any harpoons still in your inventory to disappear once you leave the instance, meaning if you wipe, you must recollect harpoons.

After 3 hits with harpoons on both normal and Heroic, Skadi's drake will die and he will dismount. When he lands the tank must quickly establish aggro otherwise Skadi may immediately kill vulnerable group members. It is handy if hunters use misdirection (and rogues use tricks of the trade) on the tank in anticipation of this and begin DPSing immediately. From this point on the adds stop spawning and it is essentially a tank and spank, although the group will need to stay reasonably mobile, as his whirlwind attack can kill characters in its path. He has an ability that does ~6k damage to the tank and stuns him for 2 seconds. Skadi will also occasionally cast whirlwind, which hits for ~2k, and target a random party member (Warriors use disarm even on Heroic). The targeted party member must kite the boss away from the rest of party to reduce overall damage taken (Warriors can and should taunt while kiting backwards, this will pull the boss towards them during his whirlwind). Skadi will also occasionally throw a poisoned spear which will hit for around 6k and then DoT for around 2k every 3 seconds, healers must be fast to react to this as an already weakened player will die quickly from it.

Easiest way to do it
The gauntlet resets if everyone runs into the previous room so to make it easier, have four people stand in the previous room and let one person go in and start the event. Stay inside the doorway and kill the Ymirjar Harpooners (usually 2 adds at a time come into the doorway) until you gather the harpoons. When you have gathered the harpoons, go back into the previous room and the boss will despawn. Once he despawns, the group runs to the end of the hallway. One person will head back to the boss and start the event. Kill the mobs, paying especially close attention to the "Witch Doctors"—who cast mostly at healers—preferably killing these mobs as they spawn. Once you have downed the majority of the mobs, during the next boss pass have the person carrying the harpoons shoot the boss down. Then begin to clear remaining adds, and finally the boss. Beware: rushing to the Harpoon end and gathering in the doorway despawns the boss mid-combat.

Related Achievements

 * Utgarde Pinnacle (achievement)
 * Heroic: Utgarde Pinnacle
 * Lodi Dodi We Loves the Skadi
 * My Girl Loves to Skadi All the Time

Quotes

 * "The Storm Peaks! There we will find the beast strong enough to bear me into battle."


 * Aggro
 * yell


 * Within range of harpoons
 * bossemote


 * Drake breath
 * bossemote


 * Grauf dies
 * yell


 * Killing a player
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell


 * Death
 * yell


 * Unused quotes
 * Sear them to the bone!
 * Go now! Leave nothing but ash in your wake!
 * Cleanse our sacred halls with flame!
 * I ask for Vrykul to kill them yet all I get are feeble whelps. By Yibalon, slaughter them.
 * If one more harpoon touches my drake, I'll flay your miserable hides!

Trivia

 * Skaði or Skadi is the goddess of the hunt and winter in Norse mythology. She is actually a frost giantess who allies with the Aesir.

Speculation
Due to his appearance and the fact he is surrounded by Ymirjar, he is probably one of them.