After the three run struggle to get past Hellfire Ramparts, I have to admit that I was a bit pessimistic about our chance for the Blood Furnace, the next instance on our four person instance tour of WoW Classic.
Yes, we had leveled up and geared up some, but even so we barely squeaked out that last fight on our third run in ramparts. That was not a promising sign.
Still, what else were we going to do? We can only go back to visit Blackrock Depths so often.
So we got together… this was back on the 12th… and our group was:
- Ula – level 63 gnome mage
- Beanpole – level 63 gnome warlock
- Wilhelm – level 63 human paladin (protection)
- Fergorin – level 63 human paladin (holy)
The first thing was to get everybody to the instance. I scouted it out early, which wasn’t too hard because I had found it when I was looking for the Hellfire Ramparts instance previously. But then I had to explain to everybody else where I was as they logged on, which I did poorly, so I ended up running out to the end of the wall to where the siege engine with the ramp is that lets you get up onto the wall so they could come to my marker on the map. Eventually we got to the instance.
Up on the wall and around a bend and there we are
Once inside we looked around and steeled ourselves for a hard slog. None of us could remember in any detail any of our past runs, though as we moved through we had flashes of wipes and bad turns. I try not to go re-read the old instance group posts from back in the day before we do a run as not to spoil things, but I had a feeling there were stories. So we moved forward to see how it would play out.
Inside and ready to move
We made our way in and up the passage, taking out groups, then up the stairs, where somebody mentioned stealthed rogues in a comment on the last instance group post, so we were warned and managed to handle them well enough.
We seemed to be doing okay, though I suspect our being level 63 help us avoid an accidental proximity pull here and there. There were a few close runs, but it wasn’t until we got to the room outside of the first boss’s chamber that we had any real problems. There are three groups close together and a walker that moves between them. In an attempt to pick off the walker I managed to pull everybody in the room.
Things went badly soon thereafter. I fell, then Fergorin, then Beanpole. Ula ran for the instance line, blinking to keep ahead of all the mobs chasing here, which just allowed her to make it out. That was all that kept it from being a full wipe.
The chorus line running back past our corpses after chasing Ula out of the instance
We had a soul stone handy, so Fergorin was able to revive then ress Beanpole and myself.
With that out of our system, we went in a bit more carefully and managed to pull a group, then the walker, then the other groups, clearing the room and letting us into the room of The Maker, the first boss in the instance.
You have to clear his room too, and there are groups standing around and in motion, but they are spread out enough that we were able to clear the room, which left us the prize.
Facing The Maker
The Maker did not end up being all that tough. After a short sharp fight he was down. He dropped the Diamond-Core Sledgemace, which is not only a very healer focused weapon, but a very dwarven one as well, which made it a perfect fit for Fergorin.
Sledgemace in hand
From there it was into the tunnel that runs to the second boss, where there are mobs in close proximity and wandering mobs and at one point Fergorin had to use Divine Intervention on me to avoid a wipe when we got in over our heads, so I was able to ress everybody so we could carry on.
In the tunnel
We managed to get through that and into the room where the next boss fight would take place. We had to clear it out, of course, but once done there was a big level to pull that would set the event in motion.
The level awaits
We looked this one up in advance just to prepare. You pull the level and you have to face four groups of four elites, one at a time, then Broggok, the boss comes for you. Mana management was recommended, with the suggestion that you crowd control the final elite from the last group and let your mana regen before killing him and facing the boss. Seemed easy enough.
This went a bit rough with the groups. We had some trouble focusing on a single target and mobs would break away to chase the casters and then I’d have to go chase the mobs and it was a bit of a circus. My taunt, which pulls multiple mobs, has a 15 second cool-down and inevitably I use it for one caster seconds before the other unloads with some huge windup and then I am off chasing a mob while swearing at the cool down timer on my taunt.
Anyway, we somehow managed to keep it together through the first three groups all the same, then Beanpole died on the fourth group and it seemed like we might be done for. We managed to finish off all but the last elite in that group, then kept him crowd controlled while we regenerated mana and considered our options. We were in combat and didn’t have a combat ress, so we were just going to have to fight the boss without Beanpole. So we offed the last elite and went to dance with Broggok.
You can just see Beanpole’s corpse on the floor a bit to the left
And dance is the right word. One thing I did remember through the years was that he drops a poison stink that you need to avoid, so you have to keep moving through the fight. So I unloaded everything I could on him, there being no point in holding back. Fergorin kept me healed, I held aggro, and Ula burned him down. And we won. With just three of us.
It seemed kind of amazing. We got Beanpole ressed and checked the loot.
Broggok Slain
He dropped the Arcing Bracers, which went to a roll-off between Beanpole and Ula, though I cannot remember who won them in the end, but they were another upgrade for somebody.
That left us clearing our way to the final boss, Keli’dan the Breaker, which we managed to do without too much additional drama. There are still some stealthed rogues that far into the instance, but we managed to spot them before they surprised us.
For Keli’dan you have to slay five elites who are holding him in place, and for once we managed some very good target discipline and chopped them all down one after another, before launching into the boss. All we really knew is that he has an AOE fire blast and that when he says “Come closer” you run away like he’s promising you there is candy in his white panel van, and you don’t stop until you know the blast is over because you’re probably not far enough away when you think you are.
And with that bit of knowledge we managed to best him. He died with some parting advice.
Says the dead guy
He dropped the Raiments of Divine Authority, which went to Ula, another upgrade on the run.
We took our end of instance screen shot.
The group made it to the end
Then we headed out the back door and called it a day.
Happy fun ramp exit
A rather successful run. No full wipes, no runs back to the instance, upgrades dropping from each boss. Hard to argue with that.
It will probably boost our confidence slightly until we get to the next instance, which is The Slave Pens in Zangarmarsh. That probably means we’ll have to do some overland content to get quests lined up and all of that. I have been avoiding that content for a few months now. Maybe it is time.
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