Rend Blackhand

Rend Blackhand is the Warchief of the Dark Horde and is considered to be a great threat to Thrall's leadership of the Horde. Rend is the bloodthirsty son of the former Warchief of the Horde, Blackhand the Destroyer. He believes that he is the rightful Warchief of the Horde due to lineage, and seeks to overthrow Thrall. To this end, he has allied the forces of the Dark Horde with Nefarian. The two have used their combined resources to re-create the chromatic dragonflight, which they hope to unleash upon the world once again. His mount is a massive chromatic drake named Gyth.

Background
Rend and his brother and sister had a short childhood due to Warlocks aging of children, but unlike other Orc parents Blackhand was happy to put forward his children first for artificial aging. After 'coming of age' Rend served with the other members of the First Horde in the fight to exterminate the Draenei. After the Siege of Telmor, Durotan was offered the city as reward for leading the raid on it. When Durotan turned it down, Blackhand and his family were more than happy to take Telmor as their own, even going so far as wearing the clothes and sleeping in the beds of the Draenei they had killed. This ended when the whole of the Orcish Horde was moved to Hellfire Citadel to better carry out the orders of Blackhand.

During the Second War, Rend served as lieutenant to Warchief Orgrim Doomhammer. He and his brother Maim often questioned Doomhammer's orders, as Orgrim killed Blackhand the Destroyer and took his place as Warchief. However, Orgrim allowed the insubordination because the two brothers were leaders of the powerful Black Tooth Grin clan.

During the siege of the Capital City of Lordaeron, Rend was ordered by Doomhammer to have his clan break off and chase after the traitorous Gul'dan, who had taken to the sea in search of the Eye of Sargeras.

Rend and Maim later personally fought Turalyon at the Dark Portal, only to flee when it became evident that the paladin had the upper hand.

Rend and Maim took control of the remaining Blackrock orcs and began to rebuild the Horde at Blackrock Spire. About two years later, the Dark Portal reopened and emissaries from Ner'zhul, led by Teron Gorefiend, were immediately sent to Rend and Main asking them to rejoin the Horde, and to ask to borrow the red dragons held captive by the allied Dragonmaw clan. Rend refused. Not long after, Nefarian came to Blackrock Spire and took control of the Blackhand brothers and the forces under their control. Eventually, Dark Iron dwarves from Blackrock Depths swarmed up and tried to destroy the Dark Horde. The Dark Horde fought back, and Maim was killed in savage battle. His sacrifice, plus Rend's alliance with the Black Dragonflight, allowed them to drive back the Dark Irons and maintain their hold on Blackrock Spire.

History as told by Eitrigg

 * ''At the end of the Second War, Rend and his brother, Maim, fled to find sanctuary within the mountainous stronghold of Blackrock Spire. It was there that Rend declared himself Warchief of the weakened Blackrock clan.


 * Rend and his brother Maim ruled the Spire, in constant conflict with the Dark Iron Dwarves. They managed to displace the dwarves in the upper portion of the city, but only after the dragons came and only after the death of Maim.

Quotes from Nefarius and Rend

 * Nefarius: "Excellent... it would appear as if the meddlesome insects have arrived just in time to feed my legion. Welcome, mortals!"
 * Nefarius: "Let not even a drop of their blood remain upon the arena floor, my children. Feast on their souls!"
 * Nefarius: "Foolsss... Kill the one in the dress!"
 * Rend: "Sire, let me join the fray! I shall tear their spines out with my bare hands!"
 * Nefarius: "Concentrate your attacks upon the healer!"
 * Nefarius: "Inconceivable!"
 * Nefarius: "Do not force my hand, children! I shall use your hides to line my boots."
 * Rend: "Defilers!"
 * Rend: "Impossible!"
 * Nefarius: "Your efforts will prove fruitless. None shall stand in our way!"
 * Nefarius: "THIS CANNOT BE!!! Rend, deal with these insects."
 * Rend: "With pleasure..."
 * Nefarius: "The Warchief shall make quick work of you, mortals. Prepare yourselves!"
 * Nefarius: "Taste in my power!" (upon buffing Rend's drake, Gyth)
 * Nefarius: "Your victory shall be short lived. The days of both the Alliance and Horde are coming to an end. The next time we meet shall be the last."

Strategies


This encounter is pretty simple, once several waves of enemies are taken out (Either 1 Elite chromatic dragonkin and an orc handler or 2 dragonkin; and 3 chromatic whelps) he will come through the gate to face you. It is important to note throughout this fight that a multitude of orcs spawn at the top of the arena. They will remain there until the event is completed.

This fight can be done simply: Everyone DPS Gyth (His mount) until Rend falls off, then another Tank keeps Rend busy while everyone finishes Gyth off, from there it is an easy matter of DPSing the crap out of Rend until he falls. 2 warriors, 2 Rogues, 2 mages, a Priest, a Warlock, and 2 of any other class can bring him down without even coming close to any deaths.

Note that if anyone has the Seal of Ascension (UBRS key), by equipping it and Using it he can summon a giant spectral dragon (Vaelastrasz, whom you will later fight in Blackwing Lair), who will heal everyone for five thousand as well as damage Rend. Nefarius will eventually banish him, however timely use of the UBRS key can ensure victory. Summoning Vaelastrasz when Rend falls off Gyth triggers him to attack Rend, while using it any any time beforehand only causes him to heal the raid. The ring is on a 3 minute cooldown, and this is shared with any other raid member who holds a Seal of Ascension. Equipping the ring will also randomly provide a +100 Resistance buff to any school of magic that Gyth uses.

At higher levels, it is of paramount importance that Rend be brought down slowly. If he is brought down too fast, he will not get a chance to jump off of his mount (which he does when he has about 25% of his health remaining, if you DPS him down first) and, though Rend will be lootable, the Stadium door will remain closed, and necessitate that the instance be reset. This also applies if you choose to DPS down Gyth first; Rend drops off him when Gyth has around 25% health remaining, and any attack that kills Gyth before Rend dismounts will have the same effect, except that Rend will despawn instead of leaving a corpse to be looted (Gyth can be looted as normal, however).

For mages, warlocks, hunters, and other classes with (temporary) pets, it is important that you do not put them on aggressive mode, since they might aggro the spectators on top of the ledge with ranged attacks. This is especially important to mages using Mirror Image: since there is no pet bar for the mage to control the images, they will attack the nearest hostile target in range should they still be up after Rend's and Gyth's deaths (namely, the spectators). A mage soloing this event should either DPS Rend and Gyth slowly to ensure the images despawn before the end of the fight, or not cast it at all.

Trivia

 * In the cancelled Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans, Rend and his brother would have been the two who killed Thrall`s father Durotan.
 * In Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne on Chapter 6 of the Blood elf campaign, blademasters named Maim and Rend reside in the orc camp directly south of where the Master of Pain is located. Horde Player's Guide and Warcraft II hint that they went through the Dark Portal to Outland (and eventually became part of Magtheridon's Fel Horde). However, these events seem to be retconned in World of Warcraft.
 * Rend and Maim are two words that have definitions having to do with violence.