It was time to return once more to Blackrock Depths and to continue our adventures there.
Blackrock Depths map
Last time we successfully finished the Franclorn Forgewright quest which gave us the Shadowforged Key. That gave us some options going into this week. Our group was:
- Viniki – level 55 gnome warrior
- Skronk – level 55 dwarf priest
- Moronae – level 55 night elf druid
- Ula – level 54 gnome mage
We assembled at Thorium Point and ran over to the mountain, down the chains, through the mine, and into the instance.
Into the mountain
With the Shadowforged key, we were able to head off to the left and through the locked door.
New paths available
We decided to make Marshal Windsor’s quest our goal for the run, which meant defeating General Angerforge and Golem Lord Arglemach, who are at points 13 and 14 on the map above. As to how to get to them… well, it was a good thing Skronk remembered or had done some research, because the map is pretty bad at showing the various elevations in the instance.
We headed through the gate, to the right, and up into a side door that put us behind the Ring of Law. There we had to get around to a large gear assembly which would deploy a bridge across the Dark Iron Highway and give us access to our targets.
The bridging gear
We managed to clear that area and deploy the bridge. We then started working our way towards our targets. We moved pretty quickly and even managed to bypass one group, and successfully avoided bumping into them by accident later, which was what happened to us last time.
And this was kind of key as we would walk past that group a few times.
Our first bit of trouble was a group of four, two fire elementals and two Dark Iron Dwarves, one of which was a healer. We decided to kill the healer first, but the elementals hit very hard and I went down suddenly on a crit and we ended up wiping.
We released and ran back and finished them off, but things got out of control again with the next group and another wipe happened.
Viniki and Ula down as the wipe progresses
The fire elementals hit hard, but this also did not bode well for the upcoming fights.
General Angerforge was just down the steps from the elementals, so we made sure to clear them all as well as the groups that were off to either side of the general. We then got ourselves ready to go.
Ready for Angerforge
Angerforge has a group of non-elites with him that are fairly easy to kill. Then, when he is down to low health, he summons another group. Our plan was to freeze and burn the initial non-elites, which went well. We then burned down Angerforge until he called for help. At that point, as his team ran in, I lit off my AOE taunt, which has a 10 minute cool down, so I use it only at need. The plan was to get them all on me, do more freeze and burn, and finish off Angerforge.
My taunt worked. All the mobs ran to me… and beat the crap out of me, killing me.
Viniki down again
This ended up as a wipe, but we managed to bring down General Angerforge before the last of us died. We released and ran back to the instance and kept going straight back to the scene of the fight. I had some unlooted mobs disappear after a previous wipe, so wanted to get back just in case.
We were in luck. His helpers had disappeared, so we were able to loot the first item for Marshal Windsor. Then it was across the way to the Manufactory and Golem Lord Arglemach.
Into the Manufactory
Golem Lord Arglemach was straight ahead, but we went about and cleared out the whole area before heading to him. He will call any left for help. So we proceeded with care, pulling individuals and groups. They are mostly non-elite, but there were some elites mixed in. And once that was done we turned to face Arglemach.
Arglemach waits
He has two golem helpers with him. A quick check of the fight suggested that we kill the golems as quickly as possible, then finish off Arglemach. Our first run was fast. I pulled Arglemach and he and the golems came at me, and beat me down with a 1,500 burst of damage. It was a quick wipe.
Viniki down in seconds
But we did learn a few things. The first was that Arglemach unleashes some lightning attacks that are nature based. We all had two nature resist potions on us. So the next run we took the potions to reduce damage from Arglemach, and set to slay the golems first again. And we did fairly well, we managed to get both golems down, but didn’t have enough left in the tank to finish the boss.
Helpers down, Arglemach still up
That didn’t further our cause though, as the golems just loaded back again after the fight. You have to kill Arglemach or you get nothing. So we looked at the combat log again and decided we needed to kill the golem tossing fire balls at us first. He was doing the most damage. So we took out potions again, focused on the fire golem, and then I shot him to start the fight. And he just stood there launching fire balls while Arglemach and the other one ran at us. I panicked and ran to the target golem and got out of healing range of Skronk and died quickly.
Barely scratched them this time
The fight happened so fast that Moronae didn’t even get a hit in, so was able to stealth and hide without dying. He popped his combat ress on Skronk, who in turn was able to ress Ula and I, saving us the run back.
At this point we had blown our nature resist potions. Skronk still had one extra for me, and Moronae still had his up, since he didn’t die. So we lined up for our fourth run. It was starting to feel like we were not going to be able to get past this boss. But we had another go in us. We planned to all bring it to the fire ball golem this time, to get him down fast. Then the second golem, and then Arglemach. So in we went.
And this time it worked. We got the first golem down fast, then the second, and had plenty of gas left in the tank for Arglemach. He went down and we were able to collect the other piece for Marshal Windsor.
Golem Lord Arglemach down at last
That done, we went back out the way we had come and set about clearing the big open area between the detention block and the instance exit in anticipation of having to having to finally escort Marshal Windsor out of the dungeon.
We did that and started down the detention block, clearing as we went. We got in over our heads at one point when, working on a group of four, Ula mis-targeted and brought the next group down on us as well. And then a group of dogs patrolling the detention block walked into range and joined the fight.
Things looked bad. But somehow we managed to pull it off. Skonk and I used every skill that had a long cool down to keep going, and Moronae died at the end of the fight, but in the end the bad guys were all down.
We survive the brawl in the hall
We got Moronae ressed up and carried on, clearing to Marshal Windsor’s cell. We even cleared the group just past the cell, just to be sure we didn’t get a proximity pull by mistake. Skronk opened up the cell door and we went in to talk to him. We turned in the quest, for which he gave us 90 silver, then immediately wanted to get out of there. But first he wanted to go get his stuff.
I cannot leave without my stuff!
I always wonder who writes the scripts for escort mobs and thinks that somebody locked in a dungeon’s first thought on seeing rescuers is, “I’m saved, but I cannot leave without my random and likely replaceable stuff.” Of course, Windsor didn’t even suggest leaving on our first two visits.
And then I remembered where the storage area was. It was on the other half of the detention block loop. We had cleared the most direct route to Marshal Windsor, but not the path he was about to take. To illustrate:
The Detention Block
The blue arrow is the path we cleared as we came in. The orange arrow is where Marshal Windsor was going to go. We had not cleared that. So it was on our bicycles to keep up with Windsor and keep him safe despite himself.
I will say, for a guy in just his shorts… where was he keeping that silver he gave us… he got right into the spirit of battle.
Windsor bringing the pain
Unfortunately, he could be kind of random as to who he would attack. He had a propensity to start beating on whichever mob Ula managed to sheep during these fights. He seemed to delight in it, changing to beat on the sheep when he had a mind.
We got a break part way through as he stops at Dughal Stormwing’s cell so we can free him as well.
Dughal gets free
He doesn’t join the fun, just runs off into the instance and disappears.
Once he was free and we rested up a bit, Marshal Windsor went on towards his stuff. We ended up outside the storeroom with only two more mobs between us and the exit of the instance. Windsor just stood there for a bit, then suddenly announced he was going into the room.
He’s going in!
Of course, there was a group of mobs in that room and, in our attempt to keep Windsor alive and grab aggro and kill them we managed to wipe.
Dead in the storeroom
Windsor fought on, but died not too long after. We released and ran back, but our expectations were low. In Classic, losing an escort mob in an instance generally means resetting the instance and starting over. And such was the case here. But at least we would be read for next run.
At that point, we called it and headed out. Skronk and I both managed to finish the fanny packs quest, so we got to turn that in. Next time around we’ll finish up Marshal Windsor and then move on to the next item in the instance. There is still a lot of that map we haven’t seen yet.
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