# Episode 12 - Blackrock Buffoonery
# Main
Last episode we covered The Blasted Lands, The Wetlands, and The Sunken Temple. This episode we are headed into the Burning Steppes and Blackrock Mountain. As a side note before we get started I'd like to point out our new format. We decided to switch things around a bit and make it a little bit more of a narrative instead of listing. Please let us know how you like the new format or if we should go back to the old format.
## Zone: Burning Steppes
### Lore Bite:
Make sure that you stop by Black Tooth Hovel and see the statue of Anduin Lothar whose sword points at Blackrock Mountain. This statue is theorized to be where he fell in battle after being ambushed by the Horde.
### Achievements:
* [Burning Steppes Quests](https://www.wowhead.com/achievement=4901/burning-steppes-quests)
* Preparation
* Anticipation
* Infiltration
* Annihilation
* [Explore Burning Steppes](https://www.wowhead.com/achievement=775/explore-burning-steppes#)
```
/way 65.92 72.56 Blackrock Pass
/way 72.64 66.55 Morgan's Vigil
/way 77.42 52.32 Terror Wing Path
/way 69.73 43.28 Dreadmaul Rock
/way 58.18 38.04 Ruins of Thaurissan
/way 39.83 55.24 Black Tooth Hovel
/way 18.87 62.99 The Whelping Downs
/way 10.04 29.71 Altar of Storms
/way 21.22 43.38 Blackrock Mountain
/way 32.66 35.10 Blackrock Stronghold
```
### Pets
#### Catchable
These pets can be found throughout the zone.
* Ash Viper
* Cockroach
* Fire Beetle
* Lava Beetle
* Lava Crab
* Scorpid
#### Rewards
Tiny Flamefly - Alliance can get the quest "SEVEN! YUP!" by talking with Oralius `/way 71.8 68.0 Oralius`. Where as the Horde can get the quest "Not Fireflies, Flameflies" from Kibler `/way 55.0 22.4 Kibler`
## Sub-Zone: Blackrock Mountain
This sub-zone is between Burning Steppes and the Searing Gorge. (We will be discussing the Searing Gorge in a later episode.)
Blackrock Mountain is home to seven instances: Lower Blackrock Spire, Upper Blackrock Spire, Blackwing Lair, Blackrock Depths, Blackrock Caverns, Molten Core, and Blackwing Descent.
### Lore Bite:
Blackrock Mountain is battled over by Ragnaros the Firelord and his Dark Iron minions and the Black Dragon Flight, including Nefarian and his orc minions. This mountain is actually a volcano created during the War of the Three Hammers when Thaurissan summoned Ragnaros from his prison. His rebirth shattered the northern part of Redridge Mountains and created the Searing Gorge and Burning Steppes. Blackrock Spire is the part of the mountain that is above ground and Blackrock Depths is underneath the mountain.
### Noteable Rare Drops
* Overmaster Pyron drops the pattern Cloak of Fire (Tailoring)
* The Behemoth drops a fist weapon called Vilerend Slicer
* Chrome Hound patrols the outer circle of the zone
## Dungeon: Lower Blackrock Spire:
Enter the gates of Blackrock Mountain at the southern face of the mountain, turn east at the center, and fly into the open window and head up the ramp. As you come into this area you follow it down and there is a portal into LBRS on the right.
Originally this dungeon was a part of the same instance as Upper Blackrock Spire, but was separated in Cataclysm. With 9 bosses in just the lower half, it's a good thing they split them up. This dungeon is a mess and it's easy to get lost in. Blizzard has completely overhauled dungeon design since Vanilla.
Lastly, before we go into the dungeon, I want to point out that Lower Blackrock Spire is the place you want to be if you're trying to loot Junkboxes for Ravenholt reputation. So if you plan to go for the Insane title you'll want to take your rogue to pickpocket the boxes. If you pickpocket around 250 mobs, the average number of boxes per run is in the low 20s. If your bags are clear before you start, assuming you have decent bags, you will be able to make 5 or so runs before you need to send the junkboxes to the character that is grinding the rep. You'll need to loot 1400+ junkboxes. You can also purchase these on the Auction House but that can get expensive quickly assuming stock is even available. I recommend you use the addon RepHelper, which can really help you gauge how much more you need to do before you complete the grind. I only need 1385 junkboxes myself...
### Lore Bite:
Lower Blackrock Spire was once home to the Dark Iron Clan. However, Nefarian and his flight took over the Spire with the help of Warchief Rend Blackhand and his horde.
Check out Dungeon Fables episode 19 to get more lore on Lower Blackrock Spire.
### Achievements:
* [Lower Blackrock Spire](https://www.wowhead.com/achievement=643/lower-blackrock-spire#) - Defeat Overlord Wyrmthalak in Blackrock Spire
### Pets
#### Drops
* Worg Carrier - Drops off of Quartermaster Zigris awarding you with the Worg Pup, a beast-type pet.
* Smolderweb Egg - Drops from Mother Smolderweb giving you the Smolderweb Hatchling, a beast-type pet.
### Noteable Rare Drops
* The Blackrock Slicer - Drops off the Spirestone Battle Lord and looks like a really big old school razor blade on a stick.
### Walkthrough:
Go down the ramp and take the corridor to the left. Follow the next room around in a U shape across the wooden bridges. Stay to the left and go into the ogre area. You have a chance at running into the Spirestone Butcher, Spirestone Lord Magus, and Spirestone Battle Lord. Continue on to kill Highlord Omokk.
Make a u-turn and go out of this ogre area and head left. Follow the path down into an area inhabited by trolls. Go into the room straight across to kill Shadow Hunter Vosh'gajin. Once she is dead head back out of the room and head down the ramp to your right. If you go all the way across you'll run into a goblin named Bijou who has a quest chain. Head back in and continue all the way down the ramp this time.
The room to the west has our next boss, War Master Voone. Once you've defeated him, head back out into the main area and go through the door in the northeast corner. Follow this area around. You'll have to traverse through some rocks and stones on your way. If you follow the path down toward the lava you'll see some adventurers that didn't survive. Head back up and continue around the path again.
You'll know you're on the right track when you get to some spiders and their eggs. Follow the ramp up and kill Mother Smolderweb for a chance at a pet before crossing the beams. On the other side of the beams, there is Crystal Fang, another spider. Sadly, this boss doesn't have a pet. Keep following this path and you'll get to a doorway; follow the path up to the ogres. Take a hairpin left and continue on to the next doorway.
Inside the doorway turn left and follow the hallway to Quartermaster Zigris. He has a group of orcs around him but they're an easy kill. When you head back down, go to the opposite end of the hallway to get to Halycon to the left. I encountered Gizul the Slavener after I defeated Halycon, but I'm not sure if it's a patrolling boss. Come out of the room and head across the hall and up the ramp. Make sure not to fall in the holes, and cross the boards at the end of the room. In the northwest corner I ran into Ghock Bashguud sleeping on the job and killed him with no problems.
Turn around again and go into the doorway to the left side. Follow the ramp around and you'll run into our final boss, Overlord Wyrmthalak. Now you have to find your way out so we can get to Upper Blackrock Spire. Good luck with following the directions backwards. Or you can take a chance and jump off some cliffs to shorten your trip, but it gets confusing quickly. Either that or run on your mage and teleport back to Ironforge and fly back as close as you can get.
## Dungeon: Upper Blackrock Spire
Our next dungeon is way more straightforward. Make sure your dungeon difficulty is set to Heroic before you step into the instance. The entrance is up both sets of ramps to the north. This dungeon was redone during Warlords of Draenor.
### Lore Bite:
Garrosh's Iron Horde took over Upper Blackrock Spire in an attempt to stage an invasion of Azeroth and create a doomsday weapon to use against Stormwind City.
### Pets:
* Lanticore Spawnling - Beside the second boss Kyrak, there is an rare boss named the Lanticore. He has a small chance of showing up. The only loot he has is this dragonkin pet.
### Achievements:
This dungeon is way more straightforward. As you enter the dungeon, make sure you enter each room with a glowing sigil and kill all of the enemies in that room. Once you get all five, a door will open to our first boss, Orebender Gor'ashan. To start this encounter, kill all of the adds and open the traps around the room.
* [Magnets, How Do They Work?](https://www.wowhead.com/achievement=9045/magnets-how-do-they-work) - Defeat Orebender Gor'ashan without allowing him to cast Thundering Cacophany 4 times in Upper Blackrock Spire on Heroic difficulty.
* At max level just burst him down as quick as you can and boom, you've got this achievement.
* If you're doing this at level, his traps open at 75%, 50%, and 25%. The first time he opens 2 traps, then 4, and lastly 6. Each time you need to close the traps before he can cast Thundering Cacophany. Out of a possibility of 7 traps total, it's best to split your dps up to cover 2 traps each. Close them quickly and you'll get this, no problem. If you miss this achievement, try dpsing the boss slowly so that you can get in place at 76, 51, and 26 percent to be next to your traps.
Exit out of the door to the east and continue on. In this room you've got some Dragonkin as well as our next boss, Kyrak. Kyrak doesn't have an achievement, but once she despawns you will find our beloved hero, Leeroy Jenkins!
* [Leeeeeeeeeeeeeroy...?](https://www.wowhead.com/achievement=9058/leeeeeeeeeeeeeroy) - Assist Leeroy Jenkins in recovering his Devout shoulders in Upper Blackrock Spire on Heroic difficulty.
You'll need to bring a healer with you to resurrect him. After he is up, there's some funny dialogue and you're off to the races. Kill all of the bosses up to and including Son of the Beast before his timer runs out. There aren't any achievements in between here and there so if you're doing this at max level, it won't be a problem.
Follow the ramp up and around. Make sure to kill all the mobs in every room on your way. You don't want poor Leeroy to die on his way. When you get to the east end of the room it dead-ends into a balcony. Go ahead and jump off and the encounter for Commander Tharbek will start. You'll need to defeat waves of enemies to complete this encounter. Eventually Tharbek's mount comes out. He will mount it. Just burn him and the mount down.
You only have one exit and that's to the south, and then you're going to turn right. Kill the mobs in this room, turn to the left and head into the room with Son of the Beast. I've been hunting the fist weapon he drops since WoD off and on; it's not even particularly good looking but I've just always wanted it. Kill the Son of the Beast, a slobbering Corehound, and you've successfully finished the Leeroy gauntlet in time. Wait until he shows up, though, before you leave the room just to be safe.
Once you get this achievement, you'll receive both the title "Jenkins" as a last name and Leeroy Jenkins as a follower in your WoD garrison to send on missions.
(insert Leeroy Sounder Here)
Exit back through the door and you'll come to a bridge with Ragewing the Untamed.
* [Bridge Over Troubled Fire](https://www.wowhead.com/achievement=9056/bridge-over-troubled-fire) - Kill 20 Ragewing Whelps in 10 seconds while fighting Ragewing the Untamed in Upper Blackrock Spire on Heroic difficulty.
* Ragewing takes flight at 70 and 30 percent. Don't kill the adds that she spawns the first time she takes off. After the second time another wave of whelps will show up. Gather them all together and aoe them down.
* I actually hit her too hard and it stopped my dps at 2 hp left. Both sets of adds spawned but I had to wait a bit. I killed them all and was able to get the achievement when she landed.
Continue across the bridge after Ragewing is down and you'll head into a room. Kill the adds in here and head to our final boss of this dungeon, Warlord Zaela. If you already have Pepe from the WoD garrison make sure you put him on your head before you kill her.
* [Heroic: Upper Blackrock Spire](https://www.wowhead.com/achievement=9055/heroic-upper-blackrock-spire) - Defeat Warlord Zaela in Upper Blackrock Spire on Heroic difficulty.
* [Dragonmaw? More Like Dragonfall!](https://www.wowhead.com/achievement=9057/dragonmaw-more-like-dragonfall) - Kill 5 Emberscale Ironflight before defeating Warlord Zaela in Upper Blackrock Spire on Heroic difficulty.
* You might want to use a weaker spell or hit to get her down to 55-60% and drakes will spawn. Kill 5 of them to get this achievement. I got her down to about 5% on one hit so be careful, or use a Whole Body Shrinka to reduce damage.
* [Mythic: Upper Blackrock Spire](https://www.wowhead.com/achievement=10085/mythic-upper-blackrock-spire) - Defeat Warlor Zaela in Upper Blackrock Spier on Mythic difficulty.
* Same dungeon, just do it again on mythic. Or take a day off and do it later. We're not judging. But if you wanted to you can do it back to back.
You can return to the entrance and head to our first ever Raid! If you haven't already stopped to clear out your bags, now would be a good time to do that. You can summon a vendor mount on the balcony that you flew to and landed on at the Spires. Once you're done clearing your bags turn back around, but this time, instead of going up the ramp take a right down the hallway. At the end of the hallway you'll see a winged orb; touch it and it'll take you into Blackwing Lair.
## Raid: Blackwing Lair
Our first Raid! Sadly it's one without many achievements. But, it's a Vanilla raid.
### Lore Bite:
This dungeon is named after Deathwing's eldest son Nefarian, who is also known as Blackwing. Nefarian uses Blackwing Lair to experiment on dragons, trying to combine them to creat a chromatic dragonflight to have unstoppable warriors.
Check out Dungeon Fables episode 25 for more lore behind this dungeon.
### Achievements:
* [Blackwing Lair](https://www.wowhead.com/achievement=685/blackwing-lair) - Defeat Nefarian
* [Dress in Lairs](https://www.wowhead.com/achievement=11742/dress-in-lairs#) - Collect any class armor sets from Blackwing Lair
* The bosses of Blackwing Lair have a chance to drop Tier 2 pieces. You can get all of them from Blackwing Lair except the pants which drop off of Ragnaros, who we will cover next episode.
### Pets
#### Drops (3)
* Untamed Hatchling - Drops from Razorgore the Untamed in an unscathed egg.
* Death Talon Whelpguard - Drops from Broodlord Lashlayer, the Blackwing Banner containing this dragonnkin pet.
* Chrominius - Drops off of Chromaggus as the Whistle of Chromatic Bone. This is a key pet for any pet battle team. If you don't have one, I would run this raid on multiple characters until I get it if you're interested in pet battles at all.
### Noteable Rare Drops
* Dragon's Touch - A wand that drops off of Flamegor is a unique design that I haven't seen elsewhere in game.
* Ashkandi - This 2H sword drops off of Nefarion
### Extras
This raid drops items from the Tier 2 set. These iconic sets are Stormrage for Druids, the Warrior Wrath set, Judgment for Paladins, and sets for all the other Vanilla classes as well.
### Walkthrough:
As you enter the first room, you can see Razorgore the Untamed being controlled by an orc using the orb of command. Use the orb to control Razorgore the Untamed. Use his abilities to destroy the eggs in the room. After you destroy all of them you'll lose control, then you kill the boss. While running this raid for our show notes as a 60 mage I was not interrupted by any of the adds while controlling the boss. This used to be a pain but I'm glad they've fixed it.
Once the boss is down, exit from the door opposite from where you entered. You'll come across Vaelastraz the Corrupt who is in the process of being corrupted by Nefarian. Once Nefarian leaves the room you'll be able to attack this boss.
Once she is down you can go up the stairs on either side of the room, walk around the hall and exit into a room with black dragon kin. Kill them and follow the ramps around and you'll come into a room with a bunch of pylons and dragonkin. These pylons used to slow you down but now they don't seem to have any effect. At the end of this gauntlet is Broodlord Lashlayer.
In the next room there is a patrolling boss called Firemaw. You'll make quick work of him, then keep following the route to Ebonroc. Before you move on from killing Ebonroc, make sure you take time to kill Master Elemental Shaper Krixix if you're a miner. He can drop a book called "Goblin's Guide to Elementium".
Our next ramp takes us up to a room with a bunch of dead dragons and our next boss Flamegor. It's a straight forward fight. Kill him and move into the next room. You'll have to switch a lever to get our next boss and our way out. After you kill Chromaggus the door oposite takes us to our final boss Nefarian.
Walk across the open area and talk to Nefarian in order to start the fight. There's some lore there if you're interested. Walk to his shadow twice; then he will come and fly down onto the edge of the balcony. Once you take him out make sure you take time to sit on his throne.
You can get a quest item to take Nefarian's head back to your capital city. String that scaley boy up.
# This fortnight in WoW
## Calendar
* World Quest Bonus Event: 2021/06/08 - 2021/06/15:
* PvP Brawl: Warsong Scramble: 2021/06/08 - 2021/06/15:
* Mists of Pandaria Timewalking Dungeon Event: 2021/06/15 - 2021/06/22:
* Yu'lei, Daughter of Jade Mount can be purchased for 5000 timewalking badges; it is a gorgeous mount
* Infinite Hatchling is a Serpent Dragonling Pet that can be bought for 2200 timewarped badges
* Paradox Spirit is a black pandaria elemental spirit that sells for 2200 timewarped badges
* Adopted Puppy Crate Toy sells for 1000 timewarped badges
* Portable Yak Wash Toy sells for 500 time warped badges
# Outro
Next episode we are going to be covering the rest of the Blackrock Mountain instances: Blackrock Depths, Blackrock Caverns, Molten Core, and Blackrock Descent.
## Reviews
Review on Twitter: Krucifixx ArgentDawn - @KrucifixxA
@WowGrats cant leave review on spotify so using this format. Quick listen weekly podcast that gives you a recap of World Of Warcraft zones and achievements/collectibles you may encounter as you level throughout Azeroth. Great job keep up the good work 5/5
Thank you so much, Krucifixx. We really appreciate it!
## Shout outs
This episode we'd like to give a shoutout to Co-Optimally. Polly and I recorded an episode of Achievements Against Azeroth a little bit ago, and we had a great time. If you'd like to check out his work you can follow him on Twitter @CoOptimally and twitch.tv/CoOptimally. I'll also include a link for his youtube channel in the shownotes and on the website. Be sure especially to check out the episode with Deme from Third Faction and Sil from Whispers of War which was hilarious. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwaKWgMSh-iIxCsKdmbwUXg
## Contact information
As always please feel free to reach out to us on Twitter @wowgrats, email us at [email protected], and visit us on our website, wowgrats.com. You can join us on our discord server at [discord.io/grats](https://discord.io/grats); we look forward to chatting with you there.
Our next episode will be half a year that we have been doing this podcast. So to celebrate we have a pet, Sand Scarab, from the WoW trading card game that we will be giving away. To enter join our discord server and post your favorite marine animal in our contest channel. The contest closes June 25th. Our winner will be selected from members of the server and announced next episode.
Thanks for joining us today, I'm Mud, and I'm Polly.
Remember to celebrate your achievements no matter how large or small.
