whaaaat, you're in dark legacy too? best wow comics. evar. graz to whoever does them, i find them spot-on. great stuff.
i wasn't expecting to replace my wraith blade soon either, comparing it to lvl70 pvp gear.
your mt being t3? most mains in my guild are in aq40 and naxx gear by now and i presume we won't be changing gear until the late 60iest. except for the occasional t2 we still wear.
i'm pretty certain on the pala, but it's not amazing she hasn't replaced t2 robe by 62.
Az's BC Journal, day 6
After taking the weekend off, I've resumed my travels...
I was originally going to write about Shattrath City today, but due to technical issues (beta server being down) preventing me from getting the pics and research I needed, and by popular demand, I've elected to write about something else today....an instance run.
The particular instance I will be looking at is called the Blood Furnace, one of the four wings of Hellfire Citadel. It is intended for levels 60-62, and is scarcely harder than Stratholme...making it the least difficult instance in the expansion. I ran it on day two, at level 62, with a well-geared 62 tank, a couple shadow priests, and a rogue without any difficulties. The run I have screenshots of is not that run, and I seriously out-leveled the dungeon at 68. Fortunately, if I were to get enough faction with Honor Hold (or Thrallmar,) there is a purchaseable key that unlocks a more difficult mode on the dungeon that is more in-line with level 70 characters. Too bad I don't have that faction, but if I were a dedicated instance runner, I very well might.
Hellfire Citadel's four wings are not located right next to each other. In that regard it isn't like SM or even Dire Maul. However, if you know where they are, they're all readily accessible. Hellfire Citadel is dug out of a valley, and The Ramparts (the second wing) is reached simply from riding up along the front wall. The Blood Furnace is just above that, requiring players to run up a scaffold that puts them on the upper wall of the fortress, which leads right into the Furnace.
For a place called The Blood Furnace, I expected it to be a bit more fiery, but this is the zone-in:
The lore behind the overall dungeon is that this is where the pit lord Magtheridon is being held in stasis by the orcs. Magtheridon was originally in control of much of Outland, before Illidan defeated and imprisoned him. While I'm not 100% sure exactly what the orcs are doing in The Blood Furnace, there's clearly some experimentation on their own going on here, as well as an upper forcefield helping hold Magtheridon in place.
What you don't know at this early stage of the dungeon, although might very well guess, is that you're looking at the final boss fight.
Here's what the very first room looks like, if you walk 50 feet past the zone-in. Note the blocked hallway in the back. That's the quick exit after you win. As you can see, the mobs here are around level 61, the one pack in the back has an imp pet, and what you can't see is that there are a few patrols of rogues stealthing about that catch you at inopportune moments. So it pays not to rush.
After turning the corner, you come to a long stairway...
that leads you into the room with the window where you saw the earlier screenshot.
Overall, the instance feels very much like any other 5-man dungeon you're used to...which felt very weird to me, because it's been ages since I've really done any 5-mans. I had to remember how to be useful in a group again!
The path turned left into a hallway that ramped upward and led into this room, where we met our Maker:
The Maker was nothing remarkable. Pretty basic warm-up boss, which, unfortunately I missed getting a pic of the item loot, but I believe it was this piece of shaman mail.
Defeating him opened up the door behind him, which entered into a series of laboratories along a hallway.
At the end of the hall was a room similiar in size to the one we fought The Maker in, however it had two cells on opposite walls, and just what the heck is that thing behind the gate?
The level in the back of the room initiated an event where one of the four cages would open and several orcs would come out of the cell to attack us. As soon as one cage was cleared, the next was opened, with slightly elevating difficulty, and at the end of the fourth one...oh God, here it comes! It's hideous!
Broggok has a frontal AE that does nature damage, and other than that, and isn't very difficult himself, so long as you aren't already low on mana when the fight begins.
Two bosses down, one to go. The next room was a large open area with a number of warlocks with felguard pets. Through that room and down the hallway right after that...
...we were staring at this familiar sight:
This encounter begins with the five channelers forming the pentagram, who are nothing special. After they are defeated, the orc in the center, Keli'dan the Breaker, is not terribly amused. The only advice I was given going into this fight was "move away from the boss when he says 'Come closer...and BURN!'" So basically he's Arcanist Doan. And at the end of the first wing...how appropriate. Will we fight Whitemane and Mograine at the end of the third wing?
When he's defeated, he wishes you luck against Magtheridon, who you have just brought one step closer to release. (Magtheridon's Lair is the final raid wing of this instance.) In fact, if you look down through the floor, this is what you'll see.
The pic isn't very clear at showing it, but that's Magtheridon down there, held in place by a few other channelers.
And out the back tunnel to the exit we went.
The wing was clearly designed to be short, sweet, and to the point. There's trash between the bosses, but this is not an epic dungeon. It's completely linear and altogether probably could have been run in 40 minutes if the group had been a little more speed-oriented. That's not to say it couldn't be done faster, (could maybe be done in 20,) but that's a moderate group keeping a reasonably good pace. Each boss dropped a single item, however you don't see a ton of blue gear outside the instances, and virtually none of it is socketed. Two of our three items had sockets, and the third was a trinket.
So ask and ye shall receive. Depending on what the servers are doing tonight, I might be forced into writing about another instance run I did last night.
And special thanks to Navaca, Morganoth, Tempele and Tylmara for letting me take the screenshots of the group.
I was originally going to write about Shattrath City today, but due to technical issues (beta server being down) preventing me from getting the pics and research I needed, and by popular demand, I've elected to write about something else today....an instance run.
The particular instance I will be looking at is called the Blood Furnace, one of the four wings of Hellfire Citadel. It is intended for levels 60-62, and is scarcely harder than Stratholme...making it the least difficult instance in the expansion. I ran it on day two, at level 62, with a well-geared 62 tank, a couple shadow priests, and a rogue without any difficulties. The run I have screenshots of is not that run, and I seriously out-leveled the dungeon at 68. Fortunately, if I were to get enough faction with Honor Hold (or Thrallmar,) there is a purchaseable key that unlocks a more difficult mode on the dungeon that is more in-line with level 70 characters. Too bad I don't have that faction, but if I were a dedicated instance runner, I very well might.
Hellfire Citadel's four wings are not located right next to each other. In that regard it isn't like SM or even Dire Maul. However, if you know where they are, they're all readily accessible. Hellfire Citadel is dug out of a valley, and The Ramparts (the second wing) is reached simply from riding up along the front wall. The Blood Furnace is just above that, requiring players to run up a scaffold that puts them on the upper wall of the fortress, which leads right into the Furnace.
For a place called The Blood Furnace, I expected it to be a bit more fiery, but this is the zone-in:
The lore behind the overall dungeon is that this is where the pit lord Magtheridon is being held in stasis by the orcs. Magtheridon was originally in control of much of Outland, before Illidan defeated and imprisoned him. While I'm not 100% sure exactly what the orcs are doing in The Blood Furnace, there's clearly some experimentation on their own going on here, as well as an upper forcefield helping hold Magtheridon in place.
What you don't know at this early stage of the dungeon, although might very well guess, is that you're looking at the final boss fight.
Here's what the very first room looks like, if you walk 50 feet past the zone-in. Note the blocked hallway in the back. That's the quick exit after you win. As you can see, the mobs here are around level 61, the one pack in the back has an imp pet, and what you can't see is that there are a few patrols of rogues stealthing about that catch you at inopportune moments. So it pays not to rush.
After turning the corner, you come to a long stairway...
that leads you into the room with the window where you saw the earlier screenshot.
Overall, the instance feels very much like any other 5-man dungeon you're used to...which felt very weird to me, because it's been ages since I've really done any 5-mans. I had to remember how to be useful in a group again!
The path turned left into a hallway that ramped upward and led into this room, where we met our Maker:
The Maker was nothing remarkable. Pretty basic warm-up boss, which, unfortunately I missed getting a pic of the item loot, but I believe it was this piece of shaman mail.
Defeating him opened up the door behind him, which entered into a series of laboratories along a hallway.
At the end of the hall was a room similiar in size to the one we fought The Maker in, however it had two cells on opposite walls, and just what the heck is that thing behind the gate?
The level in the back of the room initiated an event where one of the four cages would open and several orcs would come out of the cell to attack us. As soon as one cage was cleared, the next was opened, with slightly elevating difficulty, and at the end of the fourth one...oh God, here it comes! It's hideous!
Broggok has a frontal AE that does nature damage, and other than that, and isn't very difficult himself, so long as you aren't already low on mana when the fight begins.
Two bosses down, one to go. The next room was a large open area with a number of warlocks with felguard pets. Through that room and down the hallway right after that...
...we were staring at this familiar sight:
This encounter begins with the five channelers forming the pentagram, who are nothing special. After they are defeated, the orc in the center, Keli'dan the Breaker, is not terribly amused. The only advice I was given going into this fight was "move away from the boss when he says 'Come closer...and BURN!'" So basically he's Arcanist Doan. And at the end of the first wing...how appropriate. Will we fight Whitemane and Mograine at the end of the third wing?
When he's defeated, he wishes you luck against Magtheridon, who you have just brought one step closer to release. (Magtheridon's Lair is the final raid wing of this instance.) In fact, if you look down through the floor, this is what you'll see.
The pic isn't very clear at showing it, but that's Magtheridon down there, held in place by a few other channelers.
And out the back tunnel to the exit we went.
The wing was clearly designed to be short, sweet, and to the point. There's trash between the bosses, but this is not an epic dungeon. It's completely linear and altogether probably could have been run in 40 minutes if the group had been a little more speed-oriented. That's not to say it couldn't be done faster, (could maybe be done in 20,) but that's a moderate group keeping a reasonably good pace. Each boss dropped a single item, however you don't see a ton of blue gear outside the instances, and virtually none of it is socketed. Two of our three items had sockets, and the third was a trinket.
So ask and ye shall receive. Depending on what the servers are doing tonight, I might be forced into writing about another instance run I did last night.
And special thanks to Navaca, Morganoth, Tempele and Tylmara for letting me take the screenshots of the group.
Tags: Updates, WorldofWarcraft