Our last run into Blackrock Depths got us as far as the detention block and the Ring of Law. For our second run we were once again headed to the detention block and the Ring of Law. The detention block to catch Moronae up on the Mangi Bronzebeard quest line and to speak again with Marshal Windsor, and the Ring of Law because pretty much everything else we might want lay on the far side of it for now.
Blackrock Depths map – Most of the instance is past the Ring of Law
Our lineup for the run was:
- Viniki – level 55 gnome warrior
- Skronk – level 54 dwarf priest
- Ula – level 54 gnome mage
- Moronae – level 54 night elf druid
I did make one gear change on Viniki before the run. My pally had gotten Uther’s Strength, a trinket that has a 2% chance to cast Holy Shield on the wearer when struck, so I sent that to Viniki and traded it out for the Diamond Flask to see if prevention would be better than a little healing. Yes, the Diamond Flask is on the “best in slot” list for warrior tank trinkets, but the 6 minute cool down means I always hold back on using it, which means I never use it.
In a bit or warm up before hand with Moronae the new trinket seemed to proc all the time. Once we got into the instance it didn’t proc for ages, leading me to wonder if there was some “do not proc in dungeons” flag set. As time went on it did begin to proc though. But I was worried for a bit.
In the instance we once again cleared a wide path through the main open area at the start, just in case Mashal Windsor wanted to get out of the place.
Open spaces
We had to get to him because one of the first drops we got was a crumpled note, which is the continuation of the quest line for him.
A crumpled note
That represents the optimism or daring or carelessness of the WoW devs back in the day. The quest chain just drops, and you have to go in and get a drop to carry on. I am sure the drop rate it cranked up to make sure people get it, but there is still the possibility people will miss it, or won’t click on the note to actually re-start the quest chain.
We fought our way up the short path on the east side of the detention block loop to Windsor. He bade us carry on, but seemed content to hang around in a cell. I would have left on the first rescue attempt. Though, he might be sparing us the part of the standard escort quest where your target suddenly decides they cannot leave until they collect all their belongings from deep within the instance.
Marshal Windsor in his cell
That done, we turned towards the cave branch that led to the ring of law, where we quickly got ourselves in over our head. We were taking one group when a pack of dogs that wanders up and down the cave showed up and joined the fight. We basically got et’ by the dogs.
The dogs got us
First wipe, which meant a ghostly run back from Thorium Point. On this run we figured we might as well try just jumping down into the lava rather than threading all the chains down to the platform that leads to the instance. That seemed a slightly quicker route.
Once back and in the right cave again, we got back to business and finished off the remains of the groups that did us in. At least we had thinned them out before wiping.
We reached the Ring of Law, but I wanted to carry on as there was another boss, Lord Roccor, down the cave a ways. So we cleared our way towards him. However, he nicely wanders up and down the cave, so he met us half way, meaning we didn’t have to clear everything.
Here he comes
His was a short sharp fight. He dropped a shield, which I was hoping for, only to discover that my first glance assumption that it would be an upgrade was wrong. He also dropped some Rockshard Pellets, ammunition for guns, which I claimed, being the only one who has a gun in the group. Also, I was running low on ammo for pulls, so it was a timely drop.
We then turned back and made out way into the Ring of Law again. Skronk had prepared us some nature resist potions in case we met up with Hedrum the spider, who wiped the floor with us last week. We got in there and our first fights were not with spiders but with worms. And they nearly did us in. But we made it through and had a moment to eat and drink to be ready for the boss.
The worms down, the boss is coming
This time around we got the Eviscerator, a wild worgen.
His name is what he does
He wasn’t a walk over… he kept stunning me… but a single target boss is almost always an easier fight for us than a pack of non-elite mobs where aggro can get out of control.
With him down the out gate opened up and we were able to move deeper into the instance. You go through the gallery of spectators and wind up at a T-intersection.
New areas to stalk
Once we cleared the group at the bottom, the patrol that goes through, and the groups on either side, we had a choice of directions. But we could see Pyromancer Loregrain off to the left, so figured getting in another boss kill would be good. Despite having to helpers, we managed to take his group down pretty quickly, which left us standing before the monument to Franclorn Forgewright.
There we were
The statue has a cog wheel, so you can click on it which puts up a quest completion dialog. But in order to complete the quest you need Ironfel, and item that drops from Fineous Darkview, who is further on in the instance. (Location 9 on the map above.) Otherwise this was a dead end, so we turned around and went the other way, only wandering straight into trouble a few times.
I did not see those fire elementals until I wandered into aggro range
This is where trying to follow the map gets a bit sketchy. Blackrock Depths is very much a three dimensional dungeon with ramps up and down. So we pushed on as best we could. Clearing our way through an areas calle The Domicile we ended up getting what I predicted would be the best drop of the run, a Traveler’s Backpack.
16 slots, does not bind
Even with Ula able to make use 14 slot bags now, I was pretty happy to see this guy. Bag space always was an issue for me in vanilla WoW and remains so in WoW Classic. I know I still have a few of these still on alts because you could pass them along. I was glad to win the roll for this item.
We carried on from there and came out in an area that was identified as Shadowforge City, which is above the boss Lord Incendius and in the vicinity of The Vault.
Gonna go down to Shadowforge City, where the dwarves are iron and the loot is pretty
The Vault was right there on our path, so we set about clearing mobs away, until we were left with just the boss and his dog, Warder Stilgiss and Verek.
A dwarf and his dog
We managed to take them pretty handily, at which point we were left with some options for the vault. It seemed like we had collected enough relic coffer keys to unlock all the lock boxes and spawn the boss in there. Or we could look at that covered portrait on the wall next to the entry into the room with the lock boxes.
We looked at the portrait.
The picture revealed
That spawned Dark Keeper Bethek and four elite guards behind us who walked up and beat the crap out of us. We wiped without taking even one of them down.
Note to self: Do not look at the portrait
That meant another ghost run back from Thorium Point.
Once back in and up we decided to just give The Vault a wide berth and carry on past it. We slipped past the vault door when Bethek and his crew were at the far end… they just march back and forth inside the vault… and skirted another group off the corner and through a passage into some more caves.
There we ran into Fineous Darkvire, just the dwarf we were looking for. We had at him once we got him in the clear.
Fineous walked right into us
We managed to take him down without too much trouble… no adds or any mishaps. He dropped the Senior Designer’s Pantaloons… so to speak, which Skronk took just based on the name. He also dropped Ironfel, the item we needed for the Franclorn Forgewright quest.
At that point we had been at it for a while and my wife was cooking something that was making me very hungry just from the smell, so we decided this might be a good place to wrap things up. We could just run back to the Franclorn Forgewright monument, finish that quest, and be done.
So we started running back, ran through the passage and straight into the group we had previously skirted. Then, recoiling from them, we managed to setup too close to the door to the vault where Bethek and his crew came running out to give us another pounding. Another wipe.
We ran back again, only this time we had to clear some respawns that had shown up back in the main area. But there were not too many. We were able to get past those, through the Ring of Law again, and down the path to Franclorn Forgewright’s statue to turn in the quest.
Quest done, key obtained
That gave us the Shadowforge Key, which gives us access to other paths through the instance. That mission accomplished, we recalled back to Ironforge. We will return again, as there is much left to do.
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