Classic Raids - Blackwing Lair

Classic Raids - Blackwing Lair

It all started with a fellow called Jonn-Dar. Wild was feeling nostalgic one morning and was leafing through his journal of past raids, reliving the many conquests from years of raiding. He wondered . . . Wild dragged out a large chest and rummaged around in it, brushing aside the annoying spider webs, and the even more annoying spiders he disturbed. Ah, there it is. Wild pulled out a common looking, book sized leather case. It was frayed at the edges and could have used a coat of oil to soften the dried leather. He read the simple lettering on the cover: Blackwing Lair. Wild opened the case. It was empty. Disappointed, but not surprised, he would just have to dig deeper into the mound of keepsakes and other junk that had piled up over the years.

Wild had the inkling of an idea. The missing tome was a magical rendering of one of the last Blackwing Lair (BWL) raids Wild participated in. Wild made a note to find that entry in the journal. Anyway, after the raid was finished and the other thirty-nine raiders had left, Wild stayed behind. The raid had swept the dungeon clear of hostiles, with the exception of the chamber where Nefarian, the final boss, still waited. We had not been able to take him down. As far as Wild knew, Nefarian waited there still.

BWL is a raid dungeon built for level 60 raiders - forty of them. Thinking back to that time, it was an eery place to be with all of his fellow raiders gone and the hostiles defeated and swept away. Wild shrugged off the feeling. Using the magic of the place, Wild recorded each and every chamber, naming each of the terrifying creatures we'd faced down and dispatched, and recounting special battles. Wild even sought the help of an artist friend who agreed to provide original music to further capture the sense of the place.

Wild wanted to go back there. The magic of the original tome had faded over time. He wanted to make a new one, a better one. Could he?

BWL is one raid that was not upgraded to a higher level difficulty. It has survived intact as a level sixty, forty man raid despite the coming of the many expansions that had altered other great raids. The one change made to BWL is that a "solo" option has been added so a player wanting to go into BWL did not have to be in a raid. This did not mean that the raid was easy, even for a level 90 player. Is one level 90 the equal or better of forty level 60s? In terms of pure power - yes. Those old raids bosses, though, had a lot of tricks up their sleeves, and it was designed such that multiple tasks had to accomplished, often simultaneously. It was doable. There was proof of that. But was it doable for Wild?

The first boss is Razorgore. The encounter was intended to test the coordination and team play of forty raiders, which was essential to conquering BWL. A raid that couldn't work as a team would never get past this first boss. Wild doesn't have a very good memory of the details of most of the raids he's been a part of, but with BWL, Wild still has a good sense of each of the bosses. Razorgore is also the toughest boss to solo, because part of the fight requires keeping Razorgore alive (ie, by killing the dragon's attackers) while at the same time destroying the piles of eggs that litter the floor of the chamber. That's extremely difficult for one player to accomplish.

What has this got to do with Jonn-Dar? This rare level 86 elite in the Valley of Eternal Blossoms drops i410 gloves when killed. At least that's what he drops most of the time. However, there is a 15% chance that Jonn-Dar will cough up an item called a Terracotta Fragment. This is a trinket that summons a warrior to fight for Wild. Players attempting to solo Razorgore use the warrior to keep the mobs attacking Razorgore at bay while the player is destroying eggs.

Jonn-Dar is a "rare," but he always spawns in exactly the same place and re-spawns after a kill in an hour or so. If Wild were patient, and not disturbed by others also after Jonn-Dar, he might have a chance to get that trinket.

Wild was blowing some time clearing out the turtles that congregate in the area that Jonn-Dar spawns, and as luck would have it he popped into existence right on top of Wild, who had been lazy and was only at 65% health. Scrambling, Wild tossed off some attacks and went to work of the level 86 elite. After getting over the surprise, Wild quickly figured out Jonn-Dar's pattern of attack, and after that it was a matter of wearing the guy down. He has over 1.5 million health, so it took Wild some time to bring him down. Wild eventually killed him without too much fuss, but a pair of gloves dropped, not the fragment. Well, Wild knew it might take awhile. Wild parked himself in the area and waited. I spent the afternoon watching the baseball game and killed Jonn-Dar four times. No fragment. The Dodgers won it over the Cardinals, 6-4, and lived to play another game. The Missus and I are hoping that the Los Angeles Dodgers (Judi's pick to win) and the Detroit Tigers (my pick to win) end up in the World Series facing each other. The two teams still need to get past their current opponents, the St Louis Cardinals and Boston Red Sox. Sorry, all that baseball talk just sort of slipped out.

On Wild's fifth kill of Jonn-dar, the Terracotta Fragment dropped. Wild needs to put together his plan.