User:Ballistae

Hall of Blackhand
When you enter Blackrock Spire, you will be in the Hall of Blackhand from which you can enter the upper part to the North or the lower part to the South. Access to the upper part requires the Seal of Ascension, which opens the door to the North just up the short stairs. The Lower Spire is entered thru one of the doorways to the South. If you plan on leaving the instance thru the entrance, especially if you have the handicap of being poisoned with Mother's Milk, you should clear the group under the bridge and choose the ground level doorway. If not, you can skip this group and jumping off a ledge through the doorway in extension of the bridge.

The orcs in Hall of Blackhand should pose no difficulty, but watch out for the patrols. Note that both in here and in subsequent sections of the dungeon, many groups of mobs can be skipped as long as you pay attention to your aggro radius.

The Scarshield/Blackrock?? Orcs
This section consists of a series of platforms with groups of orcs and wolves. At the end of this section you will be at a fork where you can choose to enter a doorway for the Spirestone Ogre area (for Omokk) or to descend down a ramp into the Smolderthorn Troll area (for Vosh'gajin and Voone).

The groups of orcs and wolves are fairly straight forward, though the size of the groups (usually 4 elites with 2 non-elite wolves) requires skilled team work. The orc warlocks are particularly dangerous, because they will open a portal and summon demons continuously until the warlock is killed. (Rarely, a Burning Felguard, who may drop a Phase Blade or a pair of Demonskinned Gloves, is summoned in this manner.) Warlocks should therefore be killed first, unless your party is able to polymorph or seduce the Warlock, and kill it last. Sapping isn't recommended, as the warlock will most likely awake before you are done with the rest.

The friendly but pathetic trogg, Warosh the Cursed, waddles through out this section. Before the curse, he was an ogre, and he begs of you to get his mojo back from Urok Doomhowl in the. The quest requires a

After this group, go through the archway to the next room, which has another group of 4 orcs and 2 wolves. This group can often be split if you pull the left-hand wolf first. Warlock control rules apply again, as for all encounters in this area. You can then hug the left-hand wall to skip the orcs, as well as the next group of orcs as you descend the ramp down into the room.


 * Note: This room has a shortcut to "orc alley", the first part of Wyrmthalak's area.  If you jump off the right edge of the first platfrom, nearest the wall, you will reach a ledge from which you can jump down to an area full of orcs, close to the Spider lair.  This is useful only if you want to skip ahead to the spider/Wyrmthalak part of the dungeon.


 * Note: If you hang tight to the left wall and go up the slope, you will reach a platform where a Scarshield Infiltrator stands alone. Do not fear; this mob is actually Vaelan, a friendly NPC in disguise.  When you approach him, he will turn into a friendly NPC that will give you the quest for the Upper Blackrock Spire key.  This probably will not interest you until you get your Unadorned Seal of ascension and the Gems.

By hugging the left you wall you can reach the bottom of the ramp and handle another four orcs and two wolves. Cross the wooden bridge to the left and start pulling the groups of four orcs. This is where the pulls get tricky because you have to fight in a very small perimeter, while dealing with a warlock, and other casters that you must somehow pull to your group (using counterspell, earth shock, shield bash) to avoid runners.

Clear the next platform, unless the whole group is 60, in which case the left-most group can be skipped. Take the next wooden bridge to the right, clear the mobs after the 2nd bridge, and move up. Along the left wall you should see clickable "Roughshod Pikes". Pull the sleeping orcs next to them, and then loot the pike. It is needed for the quest Urok Doomhowl later on. By now, you should already have met Warosh, that ugly Trogg looking npc roaming around, and you should have the quest from him.

Pull to the right, then move up around a large crack in the floor. Be careful near this crack, characters below 60 or a misplaced totem near the edge will aggro many, many trolls from the area below the crack. Doing so will cause an almost certain wipe. You will now be facing an arch guarded by 3 ogres. This is the first fork. You may proceed through the arch to the ogre area, or go right and down the slope to the troll area. We'll be doing the ogre area first!

The Ogre Area
Pull the ogres down the hallway, avoiding the bridges. The Ogre reavers have a knockback attack that will tend to toss people in the air and off the bridge if you're not careful. After you pass the bridge, you will enter a big room.

Several rare mobs spawn around this area. On the left is a small rock "hill" with ogres on it. It can be ignored as long as everyone stands close to the right wall, but sometimes you'll find a Spirestone Battle Lord or a Spirestone Lord Magus. Also a Spirestone Butcher may appear on the bridge leading into the room. All drop decent rare quality items.

Clear a few more ogres, and you'll see Highlord Omokk and his two guards.

Highlord Omokk is possibly the easiest boss fight in Lower Blackrock Spire. Sheep, sap, freeze, or seduce one of the guards, or both if you can. If you can only control one, have your warrior tank the boss while the rest of the group focuses on killing the other ogre. He has one annoying ability, which is an aggro-clearing knockback. The main tank should stand with his or her back to a wall so the knockback doesn't lead to an accidental pull on the hill, and should be ready to re-establish aggro with taunt or mocking blow.

He can drop a Gemstone of Spirestone needed for the Seal of Ascension, and several blues, including the warrior set belt. The "Important Documents" required for the Horde quest is on the  floor next to where you fought Omokk.

Go back to the fork, and this time go down the ramp toward the troll area.

The Troll Area
Descend the slope, clearing the few trolls there. Then start pulling the next room back to the slope. Pulling to the ramp is strongly recommended since the trolls are ranged and casters and all run when they get hurt.

The Witch Doctors cast Hex Frog, so have a priest or paladin ready to dispel if possible.

Once you feel you have pulled enough of the next room, move in. Straight ahead in the middle of opposite wall, a ramp leads up to Shadow Hunter Vosh'gajin, an optional boss who drops the rogue set gloves and is the target of the Axecrafting quest.


 * How to fight Vosh'gajin: Pulling each of the groups of guards down to the bottom of the ramp leading to their room is recommended, since they run and can easily add Vosh'gajin. Once the far guards are down, you'll take on Vosh and his two guards simultaneously.  The difficult part of this fight is that Vosh casts an AoE Frog Hex, so you need to tank him far away from the priest. A bear druid is, of course, immune to polymorph and preferable as a tank to other classes in this encounter. If possible, control the two guards and focus on Vosh; if not, control a guard and kill the other first, then the first guard, then Vosh.


 * It is useful to keep an emergency tank (e.g. hunter's pet, voidwalker or off tank) with the caster group to instantly grab aggro if the main tank gets polymorphed. Especially if there is no option to quickly dispell the Hex on the main tank.


 * In the back of the room is one of the two missing tablets from the quest "The Final Tablets."

Go back to the big room and start clearing down the slope to the middle platform.

To Bijou
The large troll room has witchdoctors, seers, headhunters, and berserkers. There are multiple patrols that criss-cross the center of the room and go up and down the ramps, so be careful and take your time. The witch doctors have a "Flame Buffet totem" that does AoE fire damage, and should be killed quickly.

When you reach the platform in the middle of the three slopes, go up the opposite slope, and clear a few more patrols to reach the NPC goblin Bijou. Whether or not you have the quest to find her, she will grant you the follow-up quest "Bijou's Belongings."

Go back down to the middle platform, and take the slope leading down, then pull to the right. Clear yourself a way to the door in front of you down the last slope. You'll pull through the archway into the small room, clear the small room after that, and will then be facing Voone.

Warmaster Voone
Voone is a straight-forward boss. He hits like a truck, especially by the end of the fight, so make sure your healers are ready and your tank has solid aggro.

When he dies, Horde should check for "Important Documents" for the Warlord's Command quest.

You should also look for "Bijou's Belongings" which look like a brown trunk. If it's not there, it will be further, in the Orc alley. Also, Warmaster Voone has a ~15% chance to drop the second Gem you need for the Upper Spire key, the Gem of Smolderthorn. Make sure everyone checks the corpse, as it may appear for any character. In his room you can also find the last tablet for the "The Final Tablets."

Voone drops the Hunter set gloves as well as a number of other unremarkable items.


 * Alliance: As soon as you get Bijou's Belongings, I recommend you go back to Bijou immediately and get the followup quest, which will have you take a message to Marshall Maxwell at the outpost in Burning Steppes. Maxwell will give you the main quest for BRS, "Maxwell's Mission," so it's even worth it to warp and run back.  But you can wait to fight Mother Smolderweb before doing that, because you will need to warp back to the outpost if you want to complete the quest Mother's Milk as well.

Now is the time to take your first big shortcut! Go back up all the way to the start of the troll area, past the big room full of trolls, until you are back at the first ramp, where you encountered the first trolls. The exact spot where you must jump down is located right next to the door connected to the big room. Be very careful before you jump: you must aim so you fall as close as possible to the corner right under you. If you jump too far or too much to the right, you will immediatly aggro mobs. If you do though, keep your cool, deal with them, and be very careful to not let them run and aggro more.

The Orc Alley
After jumping down, ignore the Orcs on your right behind the rock. Start pulling from straight ahead of you. Your first two pulls should be patrols, a one-orc and a two-orc patrol.

Pulls are very tricky here, so do it with caution, as you can quickly get two camps at the same time. To avoid pulling two groups, it's advised you do long Line-of-Sight pulls to get all the casters to chase your puller to the end of the hallway to the area where you first jumped down. Firebrand Grunts are heavy-hitting melee types and the others are casters; fortunately there are no more warlocks. The Evokers do some mean damage, so typically you should kill them first. Watch out for a rare spawn, Bannok Grimaxe who can sometimes be found in Orc Alley. He is a melee type who hits harder than other orcs.

Bijou's Belongings can sometimes be found somewhere on the sides, all along the Orc Alley, so keep your eyes open for it a small brown trunk. Keep pulling and working your way through those orcs, until you reach the spider area.


 * Note: The Orc Alley is where you land if you take the first shortcut described above in section two.

The Spiders
This is the place everyone dreads, where many groups stop and give up. But with a bit of organization, the spiders aren't that hard.

The deal: The first pull of spiders will consist of two Elite Spire Spiders (don't even try to split them) and a bunch of mini-spiders, which are tough normal mobs. They hit really fast, which is bad when they start beating on casters.

The big spiders cast a long stun (about eight seconds), which can hit several targets at a time, so it's best to make sure not too many characters stand close to them at a time. And when you kill one of the big spiders, a bunch of other little spiders spawn.

The drill:


 * Make sure everyone is full mana before pulling.
 * Assign targets before pulling. Decide which of the two spiders the mage/druid will be controlling. If you haven't got either, assign who will be offtanking the 2nd spider. No matter who it is, this person must keep the second spider away from the rest of the fight.
 * The warrior will be tanking the first spider and as much of the little spiders as he can. (Spam some demoralizing shout; have Thorns or Imp Fire Shield on before you start)
 * Kill the little spiders first in the fashion you prefer, AoE them or use good Assist technique to kill them one by one.
 * Kill the first Spire Spider. When she dies, more little spiders will appear; kill them, just like you killed the other ones before.
 * Depending on the general mana situation of your healer, keep sheeping/sleeping the second big spider until enough mana is regenerated.
 * Go for the second spider; from now on it should be easy. The main difficulty is to control the pull and the first spiders.

Note: Try to pull those spiders way down the ramp, on flat ground, to avoid evade bugs. Also note that the stun can be dispelled.

If you manage to be victorious, this means your group can probably go until the end of the instance. Congratulations. But don't cheer too fast though, there are many more spiders to kill. (I hear you cry) Loot the immature venom sacs and put them on a hotkey, you can right click them to remove the poison from Mother Smolderweb.

Mother Smolderweb
After the first pull of two spiders, you should be able to pull the spider named Mother Smolderweb. She acts much like a slightly tougher Spire Spider. She also splits into more little spiders when she dies. She can drop the Druid set boots.

She also casts the poison you need to keep on yourself if you want to finish the quest "Mother's Milk". If you do, after the spider dies, warp back to Kargath/Lakeshore and go to Flame Crest as fast as you can. (It's kinda annoying because the venom of the spider is actually casting net on you and immobilizing you every now and then). Then just run back to the Spire, take the first shortcut (as described above), run down Orc Alley, and you're back in action.

Continue up the ramp, and pull the solo roaming spider. You can usually skip the two spiders in the "pit" on the left. Just run as close as you can on the right, at the edge of those ledges. Stop at the point where they cross, and pull the next two spiders there. Deal with them exactly as I described the first pull.

The last (and third) double-spider pull might have a rare spawn, "Crystal Fang," in it. Fang spawns twice the number of little spiders when killed. If Fang spawns, you have a chance at some interesting rare items, including half of the Spider's Kiss set.

If you go through all the spider pulls sucessfully, you will reach a platform, with ogres all over it. Oh, and if you feel up to killing a few extra spiders, you can click the eggs and try to finish "En-Ay-Es-Tee-Why". Open one egg at a time, as it can spawn spiders.

Urok Doomhowl's pad
Once you have that pad full of ogres clear, you will find a pile of skulls in a corner. If you plant the Roughshod Pike and The Head of Highlord Omokk on it, a script will start.

Don't do that now though, there is a very high chance you will wipe on this script. It is the hardest battle in the whole dungeon, and it is optional. You can come back after you have killed the other "easy" bosses and do this script as last thing you do before leaving the instance. I will describe in the last paragraph how to deal with this script.

To Halycon
From the ogre pad, move on and pull a large group of non-elite scorpids. Tank them, and AoE them down. Another pull of those and wait for an orc patrol.

Go up the stairs and wait for another patrol coming down from the other stairs. Turn right and pull the three orcs standing there against the wall. Left of those three orcs is the entrance to Halycon's Nest, so don't get too close until you are ready.


 * Halycon's room contains a lot of Worg Pups. If you want to complete "Kibler's Exotic Pets", you should target one of the pups and right-click the cage.  If pulled carefully, you can probably get the bunch of pups without agroing Halycon herself.

In any case, pull Halycon and defeat her. The only hard thing in the fight is that when she dies, her mate comes to avenge her. Gizrul the Slavener is a bit tougher than Halycon, but it shouldn't be much of a problem. He comes immediately after the fight from the hallway ramp upon which you entered, so the casters at the back of your group should be ready to move.

Gizrul can drop several blue items, including the Druid set shoulders.

By killing Halycon, you complete "The Pack Mistress"/"Put Her Down".

To Wyrmthalak
When coming out of Halycon's nest, you have two options. You can go right and up the wide stairs to clear an optional NPC, Quartermaster Zigris, who has some extra loot. Zigris always drops 5 Major Healing Potions and 5 Major Mana Potions, he sometimes has the plans for Annihilator, and in his room there is sometimes a chest. On the other hand, sometimes he has the potions, a few coins, and no other loot. So while optional, he's worth the time. Otherwise start pulling from the other door, up the stairs.

Pull a good chunk of the next room (a large room with cracks in the floor and wooden planks to cross them) before going up. Runners are the main killer here. Also, beware of the Evokers, which deal massive damage plus an AoE Knockback and stun. Control them first, and pull back to the hallway if you can. Also, there is usually a chest in this room, so keep an eye open for it.

Keep pulling a path through this big room, until you can reach the opposite side and go through the door that leads you to the last area, and the last boss.

Overlord Wyrmthalak
Keep going right and up until you face Overlord Wyrmthalak.


 * Wyrmthalak hits fairly hard, has quite a lot of health, and an aggro-clearing knockback. The main tank must be ready to tank to re-acquire aggro.  A good tactic is to pull him down from his high point to the area just below it.  The warrior can get his back to the wall easily there, and traps and totems can be preset as well.
 * At some point in the fight, he will call for help. Two adds will come running to his aid from behind; you should be ready to sheep or seduce them if you can, or have a freezing trap down already.  If you can't, kill them while your warrior tanks Wyrmthalak.

When Wyrmthalak dies, don't forget to make everyone check the corpse for a possible Gem, and also check the floor for possible "Important Documents".

That's the end of the three mainbosses of Lower Blackrock Spire! That means you can farm them at will (they drop nice items), and also work on getting all three Gems for the key to Upper Blackrock Spire. Also, you may need to come back to complete pieces of your main quest.

Overlord Wyrmthalak's loot list consists of six blue items, including the Hunter set shoulders, and, if you are lucky, a purple item.

But - there is one last thing you must face before going out of the instance, you have to save that stupid Trogg, Warosh, and get his mojo back! In short, you have to defeat a very hard script, and Urok Doomhowl.

Face Urok Doomhowl
Go back to the pad with the pile of skulls. You can take a shortcut by jumping down the first crack in the big room with the planks before Wyrmthalak. Move your group to the pad and brief them.

When Omokk's head is placed on the pike in the pile of bones:


 * A bunch of Ogres starts to spawn, in waves of up to three. They are Elite, they hit hard, and they spawn fast. No five-man group could normally withstand so many elite mobs, but there is a trick to this encounter.


 * The pike you just planted in the skulls has a magical ability: it can nuke one ogre dead every 30 seconds. So you must have someone on duty, next to the pike, ready to click it everytime it's possible.


 * Organize your group well. Use sheep, succubus, and freeze traps to control them, assist one person, and take the ogres down as fast as you can. You should have previously cleared the whole area, so that means using fear in this encounter can be a lifesaver, rather than pulling in adds. Try to bring a full HP ogre next to the pike every 30 seconds and nuke it dead.


 * Also, the Urok Enforcers really hurt. They are easy to recognize because they use two-hand spiked maces, and hit really hard. Try to get those nuked down and killed fast, because they are the main threat.

If you stay alive long enough through those waves of ogres, Urok Doomhowl will appear. He will most likely appear as you already are overwhelmed by ogres. But do not panic! He can be sheeped, succubus seduced, or even kited, as he walks very slowly.

So, don't fight him until you've deal with the remaining other ogres. The nuke-pike disappears when Urok spawns too, to spice things up a little more.

Once only Urok is alive, fight him. He isn't that hard when he is alone. He hits reasonably hard and fears, but isn't that bad otherwise.

Upon killing him, Warosh will appear next to you. Loot the Mojo from Urok, and complete the quest!

Urok Doomhowl's loot table consists of three blue items, including the Shaman set boots.