WoW 12.1.5 Ring of Glory Delve Guide: Drakta, Gnok, Tiers

The Ring of Glory is an outdoor Amani arena delve on the eastern Coiled Isle, entrance at /way #2512 71.20 56.54, and the WoW 12.1.5 Ring of Glory delve plays exactly like it did in 12.1: three stories, two final bosses, same loot ceiling. Run Tier 8 for 295 Champion gear and a 305 Hero vault slot, run Tier 11 for crests and the new Ascendant Venomstones, and set Valeera to tank unless you enjoy being flattened by a rhino.

Open Night and Game Day end on Drakta, Adopt-a-thon ends on Gnok. The actual killer is Crushfoot, an Open Night champion whose charge ignores pillars and stops only to crowd control. Bring a stun or bring a spare evening.

Location and How to Get There

The Ring of Glory delve location is the eastern shore of the Coiled Isle, the island off the east coast of Zul’Aman. The portal is faster than flying, assuming you unlocked it during the Coiled Isle intro instead of skipping every quest text.

1. Take the Coiled Isle portal in Astalor’s Sanctum in Silvermoon City at /way #2393 56.83 67.38, inside the room leading up to the Wayfarer’s Rest.
2. The portal drops you at Tokka’s Landing, and the return portal home sits at /way #2512 58.25 48.46.
3. Fly east to the delve entrance at /way #2512 71.20 56.54.
4. Pick the tier at the entrance stone, then queue solo or with your party.

Tier 4 and above stays locked until one character on the account has Midnight Delves: Endgame. Each higher tier unlocks after clearing the previous one with lives remaining.

What 12.1.5 Changes Here

The Promise of Tomorrow is a mid-season patch. Midnight Season 2 continues, no reset, and the delve itself received no story, boss or loot table changes. The world around it moved.

• Tier 11 Bountiful Delves are now an official source of Ascendant Venomstones, the upgrade currency that pushes Season 2 weapons, trinkets and necklaces past their normal cap.
• Blizzard lifts the crest cap the week of October 20, so the Tier 11 crest grind stops being rationed.
• The Labyrinth of Kindo’jan, a nine-chamber delve-style expedition, uses Valeera as your companion, so every level you squeeze out of her here carries over.
• The new raid, The Unbinding of Kith’ix, is a single-boss fight against Kith’ix and has nothing to do with this arena except stealing your raid night.
• Hourly Aqir Invasions run in Eversong Woods or Zul’Aman, which matters only because you will be in the delve when one starts.

The Three Stories, Start to Finish

Each run rolls one story. Completing all three awards The Ring of Glory Stories. Mislaid Curiosities spawn in every story, and floor traps hit hard everywhere.

Story	Objective	Final boss
Open Night	Clear the arena floor four times, then beat a gauntlet of champions	Drakta
Game Day	Kill mobs for skulls, kick them through obelisks, score 8 goals	Drakta
Adopt-a-thon	Kill enemies to fill the bar to 100 percent and rescue 8 animals	Gnok

Open Night

After four waves of filler, the arena feeds you champions one by one: Crushfoot the rhino, three Bluegill murlocs led by Lurgle, the sea giant Brinebeater, the voidwalker Guth’kar the Bound, and three ghostly trolls. Drakta waits at the end.

• Crushfoot uses Savage Gore as a bleed and Stampeding Charge as the run ender, covered in its own section below.
• Kill the murlocs with interrupts on the two casters, since the melee one is the least of your problems.
• Brinebeater casts Tidal Smash and Break Water, and his Tidal Rage is interruptible, so kick it.
• Guth’kar the Bound must have every Curse of Dread interrupted.
• Among the ghostly trolls, focus and interrupt Hexspitter Zit’ka first.

Game Day

Ghostly headball. Kill mobs, they drop skulls, kick the skulls through one of the four large obelisks. Floating masks and riders block the gaps, and every goal on the same obelisk adds more blockers, so spread your goals across all four. The Ancient Goalem casts Fissuring Slam, which hits like a truck, so move the moment it starts.

Adopt-a-thon

Kill arena enemies to fill the progress bar while rescuing 8 small animals that panic and run from you. Approach from their path instead of chasing their tails. Gnok shows up once the bar hits 100 percent and every pet is safe.

Trash and Traps

• Arisen Warsinger summons a War Drum that grants nearby enemies 20 percent haste and keeps playing after the Warsinger dies, so drag the pack away from it.
• Restless Spiritcaller drops Soul Impale circles and channels Soul Siphon, an interruptible heal you must kick.
• Floor traps are scattered across the arena and deal heavy damage, so do not path blindly while mounted.

Crushfoot: The Rhino That Ignores Pillars

Stampeding Charge hit for roughly 1.8 to 1.9 million at Tier 11 in player reports. The pillars are supposed to block it and in practice do not, bug threads stayed open through late September with no blue fix. Any stun, fear, disorient or incapacitate cast before the charge lands cancels it. Interrupts do not.

That is the whole answer to how to beat Crushfoot. There is also one geographic escape: the northeast and southwest towers hold teleport portals marked by glowing blue orbs. Step through one and you land at the other, out of the charge path.

Crushfoot solo with Valeera

• Set Valeera to DPS so her Cheap Shot adds a second stun, or equip Ouroboric Curse on any role for extra crowd control.
• Save your own stun or fear exclusively for the charge cast and never spend it on trash before the pull.
• Keep one tower portal within a few steps as the backup plan when every crowd control is on cooldown.
• If your class has no reliable crowd control, set Valeera to tank and stay at maximum range, since players report he stops charging when she holds him.

Crushfoot in a group of two to five

• Assign a crowd control order before the pull so two players do not burn stuns on the same cast.
• Use diminishing returns wisely by alternating stun, fear and incapacitate rather than stacking one category.
• Healers save a defensive for the tank in case the charge lands anyway.
• Everyone except the tank stands near a tower portal so a failed rotation costs one death, not a wipe.

Keys are spent when you open the Bountiful Coffer at the end, not at the entrance. A wipe on Crushfoot costs lives and time, never a Restored Coffer Key. Valeera, however, will stand in Drakta’s Soul Cleave pool as tank and refuse to leave, and pinging outside it does nothing.

Final Boss: Drakta

Drakta, Hero of the Arena, closes Open Night and Game Day. This Drakta boss guide fits on a napkin: three abilities, all punishing positioning.

Ability	What it does	Answer
Soul Cleave	Several seconds of wild swings in a large circle, then a lingering void zone	Leave the circle, then keep the boss off the pool
Death Grip	Pulls the furthest target to him	Break line of sight with a pillar
Roar of the Champion	3 second cast, Sonic damage to everyone, 50 percent more Physical damage and 80 percent slower for 15 seconds	Back off and kite, enrage dispels remove it

Drakta solo with Valeera

• Set Valeera to tank, since melee players report the fight is easy that way and brutal otherwise.
• Fight beside a pillar so every Death Grip can be broken by stepping behind it.
• Walk out of Soul Cleave and pull Drakta away from the pool so Valeera does not tank inside it.
• During Roar of the Champion, back away and let his 80 percent slow do the work, since melee uptime is not worth eating a buffed swing.
• Ranged players kite during the roar and resume damage when the buff drops.

Drakta in a group of two to five

• The tank holds Drakta next to a pillar facing away from the group and drags him off every void zone.
• Ranged players stand at medium range behind the same pillar so Death Grip has no clean target.
• The furthest player will be gripped if visible, so whoever ends up furthest must sit behind stone.
• Healers pre-shield for the Roar of the Champion burst, which hits every party member.
• Melee step out during the roar while the tank uses a defensive, since the 50 percent physical buff is aimed at whoever holds him.
• Set Valeera to healer or DPS in a group with a real tank.

Final Boss: Gnok

Gnok, a white gorilla, closes Adopt-a-thon and dies twice. The Gnok boss strategy is pillar discipline in phase one and footwork in phase two.

Phase	Ability	Answer
One	Upheaval, a leap onto a target that damages nearby players and leaves Ruptured Ground	Break line of sight with central pillars
One	Pulverize, a knockback with a 50 percent slow for 10 seconds	Do not stand near a wall or a pool
Two	Necrotic Upheaval, a frontal eruption that turns Ruptured Ground into Necrotic Ground	Sidestep the front, avoid old pools
Two	Ejecting Decay, necrotic chunks with 3 yard impact circles	Dodge the circles, he no longer casts it while moving

Gnok solo with Valeera

• Set Valeera to tank so Upheaval targets are split and you keep your damage uptime.
• Stay near the central pillars in phase one to deny Upheaval line of sight.
• Keep Ruptured Ground pools in one corner, because phase two converts them into Necrotic Ground.
• Spend crowd control in phase one if you need to reset health, since phase two is far more predictable.
• Pets are no longer valid Upheaval targets after the August hotfix, so do not count on them to soak it.

Gnok in a group of two to five

• The tank parks Gnok in one spot so Ruptured Ground stacks in a single area.
• Ranged players spread around the pillars so a single Upheaval never hits more than one person.
• Nobody stands in front of Gnok in phase two except the tank.
• Healers expect group damage from Ejecting Decay and keep everyone topped before each chest thump.
• Set Valeera to DPS or healer, since a real tank handles positioning better than she does.

Tier Ladder and Item Levels

Loot stops scaling at Tier 8. Tiers 9 through 11 only buy crests, achievements and Gilded Stashes. This is the 12.1.5 delve tier list with recommended item levels and Bountiful rewards.

Tier	Recommended ilvl	Bountiful loot	Great Vault
1 to 3	170 to 200	266 to 272	279 to 285
4 to 5	259 to 268	276 to 279	285 to 292
6 to 7	275 to 281	282 to 292	298 to 302
8	290	295 Champion	305 Hero
9	296	295 Champion	305 Hero
10	303	295 Champion	305 Hero
11	309	295 Champion	305 Hero

• The first wall is Tier 4, where the item level recommendation leaps from 200 to 259 and the endgame achievement gate kicks in.
• The second wall is Tier 8, where Crushfoot’s charge starts deleting players who forget their stun.
• The third wall is Tier 11, which asks for 309 and rewards Hero Mistcrests, a Gilded Stash and now Ascendant Venomstones.
• Tiers 4 to 6 drop Adventurer and Veteran Mistcrests, Tiers 7 to 10 drop Champion Mistcrests, and Tier 11 drops Hero Mistcrests.

Valeera: Role, Curios and Leveling

Valeera caps at 80 in Season 2 and levels mostly from Mislaid Curiosities, not kills. The Ring of Glory is the best place in the game to do it because it is an outdoor delve and you can ride a mount through it.

The Valeera leveling farm works like this: equip Dundun’s Favor at any rank, enter Tier 11 Open Night, mount up, ride over 9 or 10 curiosities, leave, reset, repeat. Roughly three hours from 60 to 80 without killing a thing. Some players reported in September that the curio stopped auto-looting on walk-over, so click them manually if it fails.

Curio	Slot	Use it when
Corrosive Bilespear	Combat	You want the default damage pick
Ouroboric Curse	Combat	You need extra crowd control for Crushfoot
Soul-Cracking Dreamcatcher	Utility	Elites take more damage after any interrupt or crowd control
Dundun’s Favor	Utility	You are farming curiosities, not killing bosses

• Curios have four ranks, and a higher rank comes from looting the same curio again at higher tiers.
• Poisons are now chosen independently of role, alongside the curios in the same menu.
• Valeera as tank falls Unconscious at zero health and takes 50 percent reduced healing until she recovers.
• Valeera cannot be trusted to leave Drakta’s Soul Cleave pool, so you must move the boss for her.
• Valeera cannot stop Crushfoot’s charge alone unless she is in DPS role with Cheap Shot ready.
• Valeera still joins group runs, and Dundun’s Favor no longer blocks other party members from looting curiosities after the August hotfix.

Bountiful Rotation and Restored Coffer Keys

Bountiful status rotates daily at reset. Coffer Key Shards convert at 100 per Restored Coffer Key, with a weekly cap of 600 shards, so six keys, plus two more from Naleidea Rivergleam once your Delver’s Journey hits rank 6. That is eight keys a week, and wasting one on the wrong run is a personal failing.

For Midnight Season 2 Bountiful Delves the rule is simple: Tier 8 is the loot breakpoint, Tier 11 is the crest and Venomstone breakpoint, everything else is a donation.

• Spend a key when the Ring of Glory is Bountiful and you can clear Tier 8 or higher, since the coffer drops 295 Champion gear.
• Spend a key at Tier 11 Bountiful in 12.1.5 for crests, the Gilded Stash and Ascendant Venomstones on top of the coffer.
• Skip the key below Tier 8 once you already wear 295 gear, because the coffer cannot upgrade you.
• Skip Open Night entirely at high tiers if your class lacks crowd control, since Crushfoot will cost more time than another delve.
• Reroll is impossible, so if today’s story is Game Day and you hate headball, pick another Bountiful delve.

Loot, Great Vault and Delver’s Journey

Completed delves feed the World row of the Great Vault. Eight Tier 8 or higher clears in a week unlock all three slots at 305 Hero 1/6. That is the main Promise of Tomorrow delve rewards loop, since 12.1.5 did not raise delve item levels.

Delver’s Journey source	Progress
Bountiful Tier 4 clear	50
Bountiful Tier 5 clear	75
Bountiful Tier 6 clear	100
Bountiful Tier 7 clear	125
Bountiful Tier 8 or higher clear	150
Opening a Bountiful Coffer	250
Weekly Primeval Arcane Remnant turn-in	1,500

• Each Journey rank costs 4,200 progress across 10 ranks.
• Rank 3 adds the Shrine of Abundance to Bountiful delves.
• Rank 4 unlocks the Gilded Stash after Tier 11 clears.
• Rank 5 unlocks the Corroded Soul Crusher mount for 10 Voidlight Marl.
• Rank 6 unlocks two purchasable Restored Coffer Keys per week.
• Rank 10 grants the Snake Eater title and boosts Coffer Key Shard income.

Achievements, Chests and Cosmetics

No mount, pet or transmog drops exclusively from this delve. Its unique rewards are two achievements and three chests. Here are the Ring of Glory sturdy chest locations, each opened once for credit.

Chest	Coordinates	Spot	Loot
North	/way 42.90 23.11	Behind the trilobite skull	100 Voidlight Marl
West	/way 26.02 73.18	Behind a tree root	Cosmic Ritual Bowl, worth about 200 gold
South	/way 48.09 93.23	At the base of the waterfall	100 Voidlight Marl

• Looting all three chests awards The Ring of Glory Discoveries.
• Finishing Open Night, Game Day and Adopt-a-thon awards The Ring of Glory Stories.
• Both achievements feed Delve Loremaster: Midnight, which feeds the Glory of the Midnight Delver meta.

Lore: Why Look Around Once

The Ring of Glory is an ancient Amani fighting pit where dead trolls never got the memo that the tournament ended. Ghosts play headball with skulls, a bound voidwalker fights on a leash, and Drakta still defends a title nobody alive remembers awarding. Watch it once with the sound on, then go back to treating it as a Valeera experience vending machine.