Originally posted here on 9/21/08.
Welcome, WOW Insider readers!
Blizzard’s changed the way Brewfest works this year. Like Hallow’s End and the Festival of the Summer Flame, Brewfest now has its very own boss: Coren Direbrew. Last year, he just completed a Brewfest quest for you; now you have to defeat him in combat in order to claim your prize.
We had the most success yesterday with a group composed of a tank, two healers, and two DPS. This is a DPS-heavy fight, and the more DPS you have without sacrificing healing, the better off you’ll be. We tried with three healers, one DPS, and one tank, and had no success at all; we didn’t try with one healer and three DPS, and I’m not sure it would have worked well, since the DPS are also taking damage from the adds in the fight. However, a sufficiently skilled healer might be able to keep everyone up, and three DPS would mean that the fight would be over that much more quickly. (With our group, I think it took us about 5 minutes to down Direbrew – a little faster once we got the rhythm of the fight down.)
Direbrew is located in the Grim Guzzler, the tavern in the middle of Blackrock Depths, which seems like it ought to be a deterrent for groups headed to take him out… but Blizzard has thoughtfully provided us with a teleport to the Guzzler in the form of Mole Machine Consoles, which summon a Dark Iron Mole Machine – of the sort you see in the Brewfest hourly attacks – to take you directly to Direbrew’s room in the Grim Guzzler. The Mole Machine Consoles are guarded by Dark Iron Antagonists, three level 70 non-elite mobs. They should pose no threat to a group prepared to take on Direbrew.
Once you’ve arrived in the Guzzler, the first step to this battle is actually to start other fights. Specifically, you want to clear out as much of the next room of the tavern as you can. These are all 48-51 non-elites, and can be cleared quickly and effectively via AOE. You shouldn’t need to clear Ribby’s Cronies, who are 48-49 elites and who can only be aggroed by talking to them. Likewise, the two gnolls guarding the Arena vendor in the corner won’t aggro at all. You may want to activate the Thunderbrew Lager Kegs in Direbrew’s room, as doing so will summon a group of angry patrons to attack the group. It’s best to do this before the battle with Direbrew, to avoid stray clicks generating adds during the fight.
The reason you’re clearing this room is because the Guzzler’s patrons, non-aggressive though they are at first, will cheerfully join in the fight alongside Direbrew if he or any of his agents get too close to them. Clearing the patrons means that you have more room to run Direbrew and his Dark Iron Antagonists around, and to use fear spells if you need to.
Next is Direbrew himself. He starts out green (friendly); to start the fight, you must pick up the daily quest Insult Coren Direbrew from the Brewfest Spy in the next Room. If this is your first time doing this fight, there are a few prerequisites; you must complete Welcome to Brewfest! from Ipfelkofer Ironkeg (Alliance) or Tapper Swindlekeg (Horde), right smack in the middle of the Brewfest celebration, and then pick up Save Brewfest! from Darna Honeybock (Alliance) or Slurpo Fizzykeg (Horde). If you’ve completed Welcome to Brewfest! and Save Brewfest!, you don’t have to (and can’t) pick them up again; just go to Blackrock Depths and pick up the daily quest from the Spy. Edit: A couple of commenters from WOW Insider has pointed out that you don’t need to pick up Welcome to Brewfest! and Save Brewfest! in order to get the daily quest; I’d been under a misapprehension. Thanks for clearing that up!
An aside: a given player can start the fight only once per day. However, a given party has no upper limit, since Direbrew respawns very quickly after he’s defeated. It’s possible for a party to continually cycle through members, theoretically giving anyone who wants to go a chance at the loot and the quest completion. However, a party must have at least one member who hasn’t done the quest, since the only way to get Direbrew to aggro is to complete the daily quest to insult him.
Once you start the fight, Direbrew and his three non-elite Antagonists will begin attacking the player who started the fight. The tank should be prepared to immediately pick up all four mobs, but also to focus on Direbrew. Once the tank has established threat on Direbrew, the DPS should lay into the Antagonists. Once all Antagonists are clear, the DPS should focus on Direbrew; new Antagonists will spawn throughout the fight, and the DPS should immediately switch to killing them. In this way, the fight is like Curator in Karazhan and Vexallus in Magister’s Terrace: don’t DPS the boss unless all of the adds are down.
Direbrew himself has several special abilities. (WoWWiki lists only one, but I’m pretty sure I’ve seen at least two more.) He will Disarm the person he’s attacking (this is the one WoWWiki knows about). He will also periodically enrage, dealing slightly more damage for a few seconds, and he appears to have a Whirlwind attack. The tank can generally continue to keep his attention through all of these.
The Dark Iron Antagonists have only one special ability: they spawn through more Mole Machines, and if a Mole Machine spawns under a player, it will launch that player a few yards in a random direction. You can tell when a Mole Machine is about to spawn because the ground will start crumbling; stepping back a few paces will avoid the knockback effect (and the spell interruption it generates!). Other than this, they are basic level-70 non-elite mobs, and can be easily handled by whichever DPS picks them up.
Direbrew also spawns two elite adds, Ilsa and Ursula Direbrew. Both Ilsa and Ursula will periodically respawn if they’re killed; as long as Ilsa’s stuns are dealt with (see below), she can be safely left alive, but Ursula should be killed when she spawns (also see below).
Ilsa’s special attack is a stun. She throws mugs of ale at random players; if the player doesn’t drink the ale within a certain amount of time (I believe it’s 15 seconds), she throws another mug which stuns the player for 8-10 seconds. The best way to deal with Ilsa that I’ve found is to make a macro:
/use Dark Brewmaiden’s Brew
Place this macro on your hotbar, and when it lights up, click it; this will drink the mug of ale and prevent the stun effect.
Ursula’s special attack effectively removes a player from combat. She throws an ale barrel at the player who’s highest on her threat list; this inflicts the debuff “Barreled”, which causes the player to run around uncontrollably (similar to a Blind effect) and drop all threat. If Ursula does this to the tank, Direbrew himself will go loose and attack whoever’s second on the threat list. I can’t tell whether this is an threat dump (like Feign Death) or a temporary threat reduction (like Fade), but it seems to be easy enough to re-establish aggro on Direbrew. However, Ursula only has 20,000 health, and doesn’t start throwing barrels until 16 seconds after she spawns, so the best way to deal with her is simply to take her down as soon as she spawns.
When Direbrew is reduced to 5% or below, all DPS should stop what they’re doing and focus fire on Direbrew. When he’s killed, all of the other hostile mobs will immediately despawn.
Direbrew drops loot that is identical to the 41-badge trinkets. Since these are different items, they can be used alongside the 41-badge trinkets. (For example, Direbrew Hops and Essence of the Martyr have identical effects, and both are Unique, but since they are technically different items, a player can have one of each equipped.) Direbrew also has a chance to drop unique trinkets, the Brightbrew Charm and Balebrew Charm. Each of these has +45 Stamina and summons a Brewmaiden on use; the effect of the Brewmaiden depends on which Charm you get.
Direbrew also has a low chance to drop the Brewfest mounts, the Swift Brewfest Ram and the Great Brewfest Kodo. Which mount drops is not determined by faction, just by luck, so it is possible for Alliance players to get the Kodo and for Horde to get the Ram. The chance of his dropping the mounts appears to be 1-15%; in seven attempts yesterday, we didn’t see a single mount drop, but it’s known that they do drop.
Finally, Direbrew will, the first time you kill him, drop Direbrew’s Dire Brew, which starts a quest to return the cask to the Brewfest organizer outside Ironforge or Orgrimmar. The quest awards 40 Brewfest tokens, so I recommend that you pick it up.
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