Post by SilBob on Feb 1, 2006 15:18:41 GMT -5
While Lower Blackrock Spire is designed to be 5-manned, Upper Blackrock allows no such luxury. Common raids are 15 players, and all of the known quests for Upper Blackrock can be completed in a raid. To get into Upper Blackrock, you'll need the completed Seal of Ascension from LBRS -- make sure someone has the key before you spend the time rounding up 15 people for this raid.
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1. Like LBRS, you start at the instance entrance and clear a few mobs. Instead of going down and to the right, however, you'll be going up and to the left to UBRS. Go up the ramp and use the Seal of Ascension on the door. You'll come to a room with bigger groups of elite mobs, which you'll clear one group at a time before continuing up to the left.
2. After all the mobs are cleared, a door will automagically open, leading up to Pyroguard Emberseer. He's being held prisoner by several guards, who will attack you when you activate the Altar of Flame. (They're non-elites and easy to AoE.) Once they're dead, the Emberseer will wait a few seconds and then attack you... before dying a quick death with 15 people beating on him. If you have the quest "Agent of Hydraxis" from Duke Hydraxis' Molten Core quest line, you'll complete it here.
3. Next up is The Rookery, site of the now-famous "Leeroy Jenkins" video. This room is loaded with unhatched Rookery Whelp eggs that you want to steer clear of. Way off to the far left is a crystal that acts as the trigger for the "Father Flame" event, in which waves of Rookery Hatchers come out and open eggs, causing general chaos. The object is to survive several waves of Hatchers and Whelps until the boss Solakar Flamewreath comes out, who can drop the Devout Mantle for priests.
4. The Rookery is the site of three quests: "Egg Freezing," "Egg Collection," and "Doomrigger's Clasp." The first two can usually be done after the Rookery event; Doomrigger's Clasp can also be done after defeating General Drakkisath at the end of the run, as there's a shortcut from his lair back a ledge in Rookery that leads to the quest item.
5. In the rear right of the Rookery is a ramp leading further into the instance. You'll have to do a few pulls before moving into the next room, where Goraluk Anvilcrack resides. You can actually skip him, but high-level blacksmiths may need to clear him for special profession items.
6. After Anvilcrack's room, you'll approach Blackrock Stadium. You may hear the raid discuss "jump or clear?" It's possible to go up the ramp and jump down into the stadium, skipping a few pulls, but it's an easy way to wipe the raid if people aren't paying attention and drop down too soon or too late. If you're in a pickup raid, it's usually best not to jump and just clear all the way down instead of jumping down into the stadium.
7. Eventually, everyone moves into Blackrock Stadium as a group, which triggers a fun event with Warchief Rend Blackhand. The gate behind you shuts, and the gate at the far end opens, letting in mixed waves of whelps, dragonspawn and orcs. If you're doing any of the epic armor quests that require Chromatic Scales, this is where they'll drop. (You'll often see people linking their quests in chat to prove that they have the quest; in a pickup group, you can risk greatly upsetting people if you roll on a scale without having any of the armor quests.)
8. After a few waves in the Stadium, Rend flies in on his elite dragon, Gyth, who you need to defeat. Partway through the battle, Rend drops off Gyth to fight as well. Both Rend and Gyth are capable of dropping some outstanding loot -- Gyth can drop the Chromatic Carapace needed for some of the epic armor quests, and Rend can drop both of the Dal'Rend swords, the Eye of Rend, the 2H Blackhand Doomsaw, and Spaulders of Valor.
9. Just outside the stadium, you'll find an NPC named Awbee. She gives a quest called "The Matron Protectorate," which is the start of the chain that eventually leads to the two epic armor quests "Legplates of the Chromatic Defiler" and "Breastplate of the Chromatic Flight."
10. Leaving Blackrock Stadium, there are a few ramps you'll need to go up and down before approaching the next boss. This is a slow process, as there are a number of tough groups along the way and your raid will probably have to stay back while pulls are brought back to the group. Along the way is a hallway that leads to Blackwing Lair, although there's no point to heading that way.
11. Once you've cleared up and down the various ramps, your raid will arrive at the large room that's the lair of ... The Beast. He's aptly named, as he's huge, he's tough, he knocks people around, and runs around like crazy. He also takes the first attacker and punts him flying across the room, which is fairly comical in itself. I've yet to see a group wipe on him, but it's still a tough fight that usually results in a few deaths.
12. There are several interesting things that can happen once The Beast is defeated. The first is the potential drop of "Finkle's Skinner," a dagger that gives skinners an extra +10 skinning. This is fairly useful, since a skinner of level 310 is required to skin The Beast. Generally, only skinners of level 300 are permitted to roll on the dagger, so they can skin The Beast right then and there. If there are no 300 skinners, other skinners are allowed to roll. Finkle's Skinner is a rare, bind-on-pickup drop, so it's greatly frowned upon for non-skinners to roll on it.
13. Having a level 310 skinner in your group is handy, because skinning the Beast can do two things. First, it reveals Finkle Einhorn, a gnome in scuba gear (!) who's been trapped inside The Beast. He'll offer the quest, "Finkel Einhorn, At Your Service," which is the start of the other epic armor quests -- "Breastplate of Bloodthirst" (leather), "Cap of the Scarlet Savant" (cloth) and "Leggings of Arcana" (leather). Second, skinning The Beast may produce the Pristine Hide of The Beast, the rarest of drops needed for these three epic armor quests.
14. With The Beast out of the way, you've got a number of long, tough pulls before you finally reach the end boss. A lot of these involve a mix of dragonspawn and orcs, and you'll commonly see raids pull these groups back over the bridge to fight near the Beast's lair.
15. Eventually, you'll clear all these groups and reach the final boss of the instance: General Drakkisath. This fairly tough boss has two elite guards, and there are a variety of strategies raids use to defeat Drakk. Some will have a warrior (with healers) tank Drakk in a corner while the rest of the raid drops the first two guards; a warlock or druid may chain-fear or chain-sleep one of the guards to keep it occupied; a hunter may kite Drakk completely out of the room, which should give the raid more than enough time to kill the guards before Drakk returns.
16. General Drakkisath has the ability to drop some major loot: including chest pieces for nearly every rare class set, the Painweaver Band (a +1% crit ring) as well as the "Draconian Deflector," the most commonly-used shield among WoW's level 60 warriors. Killing Drakk is also involved in three quests: General Drakkisath's Demise (which starts by killing Overlord Wyrmthalak at the LBRS), "Drakefire Amulet" which he drops Blood of the Black Dragon Champion for, and "Blackhand's Command," which is the attunement quest for Blackwing Lair
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1. Like LBRS, you start at the instance entrance and clear a few mobs. Instead of going down and to the right, however, you'll be going up and to the left to UBRS. Go up the ramp and use the Seal of Ascension on the door. You'll come to a room with bigger groups of elite mobs, which you'll clear one group at a time before continuing up to the left.
2. After all the mobs are cleared, a door will automagically open, leading up to Pyroguard Emberseer. He's being held prisoner by several guards, who will attack you when you activate the Altar of Flame. (They're non-elites and easy to AoE.) Once they're dead, the Emberseer will wait a few seconds and then attack you... before dying a quick death with 15 people beating on him. If you have the quest "Agent of Hydraxis" from Duke Hydraxis' Molten Core quest line, you'll complete it here.
3. Next up is The Rookery, site of the now-famous "Leeroy Jenkins" video. This room is loaded with unhatched Rookery Whelp eggs that you want to steer clear of. Way off to the far left is a crystal that acts as the trigger for the "Father Flame" event, in which waves of Rookery Hatchers come out and open eggs, causing general chaos. The object is to survive several waves of Hatchers and Whelps until the boss Solakar Flamewreath comes out, who can drop the Devout Mantle for priests.
4. The Rookery is the site of three quests: "Egg Freezing," "Egg Collection," and "Doomrigger's Clasp." The first two can usually be done after the Rookery event; Doomrigger's Clasp can also be done after defeating General Drakkisath at the end of the run, as there's a shortcut from his lair back a ledge in Rookery that leads to the quest item.
5. In the rear right of the Rookery is a ramp leading further into the instance. You'll have to do a few pulls before moving into the next room, where Goraluk Anvilcrack resides. You can actually skip him, but high-level blacksmiths may need to clear him for special profession items.
6. After Anvilcrack's room, you'll approach Blackrock Stadium. You may hear the raid discuss "jump or clear?" It's possible to go up the ramp and jump down into the stadium, skipping a few pulls, but it's an easy way to wipe the raid if people aren't paying attention and drop down too soon or too late. If you're in a pickup raid, it's usually best not to jump and just clear all the way down instead of jumping down into the stadium.
7. Eventually, everyone moves into Blackrock Stadium as a group, which triggers a fun event with Warchief Rend Blackhand. The gate behind you shuts, and the gate at the far end opens, letting in mixed waves of whelps, dragonspawn and orcs. If you're doing any of the epic armor quests that require Chromatic Scales, this is where they'll drop. (You'll often see people linking their quests in chat to prove that they have the quest; in a pickup group, you can risk greatly upsetting people if you roll on a scale without having any of the armor quests.)
8. After a few waves in the Stadium, Rend flies in on his elite dragon, Gyth, who you need to defeat. Partway through the battle, Rend drops off Gyth to fight as well. Both Rend and Gyth are capable of dropping some outstanding loot -- Gyth can drop the Chromatic Carapace needed for some of the epic armor quests, and Rend can drop both of the Dal'Rend swords, the Eye of Rend, the 2H Blackhand Doomsaw, and Spaulders of Valor.
9. Just outside the stadium, you'll find an NPC named Awbee. She gives a quest called "The Matron Protectorate," which is the start of the chain that eventually leads to the two epic armor quests "Legplates of the Chromatic Defiler" and "Breastplate of the Chromatic Flight."
10. Leaving Blackrock Stadium, there are a few ramps you'll need to go up and down before approaching the next boss. This is a slow process, as there are a number of tough groups along the way and your raid will probably have to stay back while pulls are brought back to the group. Along the way is a hallway that leads to Blackwing Lair, although there's no point to heading that way.
11. Once you've cleared up and down the various ramps, your raid will arrive at the large room that's the lair of ... The Beast. He's aptly named, as he's huge, he's tough, he knocks people around, and runs around like crazy. He also takes the first attacker and punts him flying across the room, which is fairly comical in itself. I've yet to see a group wipe on him, but it's still a tough fight that usually results in a few deaths.
12. There are several interesting things that can happen once The Beast is defeated. The first is the potential drop of "Finkle's Skinner," a dagger that gives skinners an extra +10 skinning. This is fairly useful, since a skinner of level 310 is required to skin The Beast. Generally, only skinners of level 300 are permitted to roll on the dagger, so they can skin The Beast right then and there. If there are no 300 skinners, other skinners are allowed to roll. Finkle's Skinner is a rare, bind-on-pickup drop, so it's greatly frowned upon for non-skinners to roll on it.
13. Having a level 310 skinner in your group is handy, because skinning the Beast can do two things. First, it reveals Finkle Einhorn, a gnome in scuba gear (!) who's been trapped inside The Beast. He'll offer the quest, "Finkel Einhorn, At Your Service," which is the start of the other epic armor quests -- "Breastplate of Bloodthirst" (leather), "Cap of the Scarlet Savant" (cloth) and "Leggings of Arcana" (leather). Second, skinning The Beast may produce the Pristine Hide of The Beast, the rarest of drops needed for these three epic armor quests.
14. With The Beast out of the way, you've got a number of long, tough pulls before you finally reach the end boss. A lot of these involve a mix of dragonspawn and orcs, and you'll commonly see raids pull these groups back over the bridge to fight near the Beast's lair.
15. Eventually, you'll clear all these groups and reach the final boss of the instance: General Drakkisath. This fairly tough boss has two elite guards, and there are a variety of strategies raids use to defeat Drakk. Some will have a warrior (with healers) tank Drakk in a corner while the rest of the raid drops the first two guards; a warlock or druid may chain-fear or chain-sleep one of the guards to keep it occupied; a hunter may kite Drakk completely out of the room, which should give the raid more than enough time to kill the guards before Drakk returns.
16. General Drakkisath has the ability to drop some major loot: including chest pieces for nearly every rare class set, the Painweaver Band (a +1% crit ring) as well as the "Draconian Deflector," the most commonly-used shield among WoW's level 60 warriors. Killing Drakk is also involved in three quests: General Drakkisath's Demise (which starts by killing Overlord Wyrmthalak at the LBRS), "Drakefire Amulet" which he drops Blood of the Black Dragon Champion for, and "Blackhand's Command," which is the attunement quest for Blackwing Lair
