Friday (18 Sep) - Old School Magic: Blackrock Depths

Friday (18 Sep) - Old School Magic: Blackrock Depths

To quote the first sentence in the Comments section of wowhead: "Blackrock Depths is the largest instance in the game."

BRD is Old School; ie, pre-expansion, vanilla WoW. The dungeon follows no linear path, providing numerous entry ways into and out of areas. Some areas require a key, the shadowforge key, obtained through quests, in order to access them. There are boss encounters that also must be unlocked via quests. There is an arena like area called The Ring of Law that has been duplicated and expanded multiple times in later releases and expansions, the latest example of which is Trial of Champions/Crusader in the Argent Coliseum. There is even a bar where you can get drunk and pick a bar fight, which unlocks yet another boss. That's assuming you've been able to find the bar (it'll take the shadowforge key) and know the secret to opening the barred door.

There are 21 - yes, twenty-one - special encounters in BRD. This is a five man dungeon - just five players in their level 50s finding their way through the deeper bowels of Blackrock Mountain.

Back in the day Wild had made a number of forays into BRD on specific quests. Wild never saw all of it, but two runs were memorable in different ways. Wild has always been an enchanter, and one of the great fire resist and armor trinkets in the game at time could be crafted only by and for enchanters: Smoking Heart of the Mountain. The crafting recipe could only be found among the loot dropped by Lord Roccor in BRD. Not only that, but the crafting of the trinket itself had to be done at the Black Forge inside BRD. Battling BRD to get that recipe and then crafting the trinket was a huge accomplishment for Wild, and helped pave his way to Molten Core. The second memorable venture into BRD was not so successful, and proved just how difficult the place can be. A group wanting to make a "quick" BRD run could not find a healer. A friend of Wild's was with that group and convinced the group leader to invite Wild, over her misgivings. Wild had healed trips into BRD before with guildie groups. They were tough runs, and players died, but we were successful. This run was a disaster, with delays and changes in players that spread over a couple of hours of mostly non-playing. When we did finally get in, the group could not handle it. After our first wipe we realized that there was no one who could resurrect players - back then druids could only rez a player when in combat, and then only once an hour - and the graveyard run was one of the longest in the game. We made little progress and finally had to give it up. Wild's hat is off to any group in their level 50s that attempts this dungeon. The loot is abundant and awesome, and very much worth the effort when level 60 was the cap, and you knew you'd paid your dues coming out of there.

DER, Red's level 68 death knight, and JB, Wild's pick for the next level 80 in the family but currently at level 73, decided to dive into BRD on Friday night. The night was already late when we made the decicion, kind of on the spur of the moment, to go.

Prior to that, DER and JB had been in game for some time, but due to special circumstances were somewhat limited in what we could do. JB graciously allowed a visiting eight year old daughter of a close friend to take JB for a spin around The Isle of Kel'danas and in Shattrath. DER, bless his heart, babysat the little girl for more than an hour, engaging her in conversation over guild chat and thoroughly entrancing her. Of course, DER also tried to goad her into killing JB, and she was definitely up for the idea, using the Aldor elevator as the means. But she thought flying was such great fun that every time she walked JB off the elevator to her expected death she'd decide to fly instead. JB seemed quite content to let the little girl lead her around. This was certainly a side of JB that Wild had never seen before.

Eventually Mom and daughter went home, and DER and JB cooked up the idea of heading over to BRD.

Just getting to the dungeon is a chore. There are two entrances to Blackrock Mountain, but the only one Wild ever used was the one from the Searing Gorge side. The outpost of Kargath in the Badlands is the jumping off point, with a short ride from there to Searing Gorge. DER and JB got their signals mixed up, with DER first flying to the Burning Steppes, which comes at the Mountain from the other direction. DER has a - ahem - distant alliance relative more familiar with the Burning Steppes entrance. We both found our way to the entrance, however.

Once inside, we had to climb up on and then walk down a long, massive chain stretched across a long fall to a deep, frothing torrent of lava. Walking that chain for the first time was one of the scariest things Wild had ever done. There are days that Wild feels very jaded toward his world at the advanced level of 80. But JB felt a little of original wonder, awe, and even fear, of this place, the first time she set her foot on that chain.

Neither one of us fell off, and we then wound our way down through a series of stairs and rooms that suddenly opened up to a raw, rail-less rock ledge that twisted and turned around blind corners, one misstep away from an equally dangerous fall to the lava below. And then there was a second chain to navigate. JB promised not to mention that DER did fall off this chain. Oops, sorry DER. :D

JB had to stop for a moment, overwhelmed by the stories Wild had told her. THIS narrow ledge, and a small alcove at it's end, served as the waiting area for raids heading into Molten Core. Imagine two, three, or more groups of both horde and alliance, each group forty raiders strong, packing this tiny area. Raiders routinely fell off into the lava. Pvp battles were frequent and magnificant, powered by bored raiders hoping for a chance at MC. Wild waited here, week after week, hoping be one of those chosen.

Molten Core was not our destination, however. I'm not sure DER or JB would even be admitted, but regardless, that place would eat us alive.

JB shook off Wild's memories. Just before reaching the end of the alcove there is an opening leading to a large cavern. Numerous minions of the mountain, all non-elite, crowd the place. DER and JB easily bypassed them or, if they were in the way, one shot them. Remember, though, that a level 50s group would have to fight and navigate their way through this cavern just to get to the entrance to BRD. Nothing is easy here.

Once outside the entrance, JB spied Pyros, an elemental elite not exactly part of BRD, but one that JB and DER couldn't resist taunting and then killing. The real adventure was about to begin.

DER and JB had only the stories of their elders to guide them, having never been inside the place. JB, who shares Wild's aversion to a sense of direction, quickly turned to DER to find their way through the place. Every mob in BRD are 50s level elite, with some of the bosses at level 60 (at least they used to be until nerfed down a bit). Back in the day dungeons served up a lot of trash mobs. Just getting to a boss required a lot of effort. For BRD, one could say that in spades. There were literally armies of mobs marching inside BRD. Entire caverns crawled with them. Every passage was lined with mobs; every corridor, every nook and cranny, held mobs.

At DER and JB's high level and small aggro radius, we could march by many of them without getting any attention, but even then the sheer number of them and their constant shifting around triggered attacks on occasion. After wandering a bit aimlessly for awhile, we began clearing some of the mobs just so we could tell where we'd already been. It's very easy to get turned around.

After a very long time we had managed to bag only two bosses. A word about combat - the mobs and bosses in BRD are no match for a level 68 and 73. Either of us could solo BRD. That said, even we could be overwhelmed by sheer numbers and bad luck against stuns, interrupts, and silences at critical moments. We weren't careless, but there is a certain thrill in seeing partners fighting back to back against group after group of aggroed mobs, one group drawing another into battle over and over until you can't even see the ground for the piles of bodies.

DER decided it was time to get the shadowforge key, which neither of us had. It took a little while to complete the quest series, which included a battle in the Ring of Law (our third boss kill).

Now we could open doors that had been denied us, and we started to encounter more and more of the richness of the dungeon, and, of course, bosses to add to our now growing list of kills.

We kept at it, relentless if not thorough, but eventually ran out of bosses to kill. If we had done and seen everything, we would have been rewarded with the BRD Achievement, but that necessary proof still eluded us. One thing we knew for certain was that we had yet to find the bar. Wild's memory and direction were not reliable, despite the fact that JB knew he'd been there more than once. JB suspected that the ale served there had also served to muddy Wild's memory even more so than usual.

After endless backtracking and retracing of steps, we narrowed the location down to a specific corridor which we could see but could not figure out how to get to. Though frustrated, there was never even a thought about giving up. Running our route again, we finally recognized a landmark we knew hadn't been encountered before, and located the entrance to an area where we could hear the murmur of a crowd of happy drinkers. The door leading to that area was ajar, but it wouldn't move and we could not pass. We retreated and fussed about some more. We played with gears and levers and poked at corners. Things moved, crashed, or refused to respond. Somewhere along the way we remembered that after all that poking about we hadn't actually gone back to see if any of that had changed the door situation. We trooped back and - the door was wide open. Success!

We found the bar. The place was crowded with yellow tagged npcs. Not hostile, but still ready for a fight. We accommodated them, starting not just one, but two bar fights. And had a blast knocking heads together and making a shambles of the place. While at the same time collecting what we needed to move on.

We'd lost count of how many bosses we had killed. We knew we were getting close to the end, though.

We came upon a huge chamber with massive columns filled to the brim with mobs. Through trial and error we learned that there were two huge braziers we had to light from torches dropped by these mobs. It was a bit nerve racking the first time we aggroed a group, as that group drew other groups. We killed them in droves as we looked for the braziers and finally had to separate as the chamber was just so vast. We found and got the braziers lit, and despite the scores of dead, left just as many still alive as we moved into the chamber of the final bosses in BRD - Emperor Thaurissan and Princess Moira Bronzebeard.

The long hall leading to the Emperor's throne was lined with mobs. A second floor, open to the hall below, was also full of yakking mobs. We had paid little attention to strategy when fighting the bosses, but we did know that in theory we should kill all of the mobs before engaging the Emperor. We had been at this for a long time, though, and we knew this had to be the end. We cleared maybe half the mobs from the first floor, and then decided to ignore the rest, figuring we could just slaughter the remainder along with the two bosses. We didn't figure on the fact that not only would this aggro the mobs still left on both floors of the hall, but also all of the mobs we'd left unkilled in the vast chamber we had come from. Even had we known that, I doubt we would have done anything differently.

We attacked Emperor Thaurissan. We didn't know that the Princess would heal the Emporer, either, or that the Emperor has an ability which makes him immune for ten seconds at a time to all forms of magic damage.

As I said, we attacked the Emperor, and a rising tide of mobs began flowing toward us.

We fought. And we fought. And we fought some more. It was a glorious battle. We focused on the Emperor at first, but he seemed frustrating difficult to kill, and the crush of a million little hits was starting to sting us.

JB cast heals hampered by the constant battering. Bodies mounted, but the ranks of mobs never seemed to diminish. They just kept coming.

JB lost track of the Emperor, but saw the Princess fall. DER was getting dangerously low in health, and JB was was not far behind. JB lost DER. JB killed many, many more mobs, but in the end even she fell.

JB had a trick up her sleeve. JB waited for the remaining mobs to retreat, and them reincarnated. She tossed a heal on herself, dropped her elemental pet, and started to rez DER. Then a couple of mobs rushed back and attacked. JB brushed them off, but the rez had been interrupted. And the brief respite was over as the Emperor attacked and another flood of mobs returned. JB was too low in health and mana to maintain the attack for long, and once her elemental went down she did, too. JB took some satisfaction in taking many more with her before she fell.

DER and JB rezzed at the graveyard and returned. We pre-cleared what was left of the mobs and then made quick work of Emperor Thaurissan. We were done.

BRD achievement

It was 2am. But we had cleared all 21 bosses, earned our Achievement, and had a gloriously bloody time doing it.