WoW: Blackrock Caverns Instance Guide

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Blackrock Caverns is the first of two new wings in Blackrock Spire introduced in World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. It is designed as a 5-man instance for players level 80 to 81. It is a series of tunnels created by Deathwing from the Twilight Highlands to Blackrock Mountain. Here the twisted Twilight’s Hammer clan is transporting their supplies back and forth from the highlands and practicing the mysterious dark arts that transform the zealots into dragonspawn. The forces here are led by the Ascendant Lord Obsidius.

Players will need to be level 80 and find the entrance to Blackrock Caverns in order to use the Dungeon Finder for the instance. The entrance is just off of the main ring in Blackrock Mountain on the non-jumping path to Blackrock Spire. Head to the eastern side of the ring to see the summoning stone for Blackrock Spire and follow the path. As it turns north there is a blockade blocking the way. Look right to see the instance line.

Contents:

ENTRANCE LOCATION

BOSS GUIDE

Rom’ogg Bonecrusher

Abilities:

 

  • Call for Help – Rom’ogg calls for nearby minions to assist him.
  • Quake – Inflicts 3,000 Physical damage every second to all players within 40 yards of Rom’ogg. Lasts 3 seconds.
  • Wounding Strike – Inflicts 125% weapon damage to the current target and reduces healing done by 25% for 10 seconds.
  • Chains of Woe – Summons Chains of Woe around all players, rendering them unable to move for 20 seconds or until the Chains are destroyed. Starts casting The Skullcracker immediately after.
  • The Skullcracker – Inflicts ~100,000 Shadow damage to all players within 10-15 yards of Rom’ogg. Begins casting immediately after Chains of Woe. Has 8 seconds cast time.

Notes:

  1. It is recommended you clear all of the adds near Rom’ogg before you engage him, this should avoid unnecessary deaths to adds.
  2. Number One DPS priority in this fight is the Chains of Woe. The Boss will pull the entire group in next to him, and shackle them with Chains of Woe. Like bosses such as Blood princes, the chains have a shared health pool, so DPS whichever is closest (or furthest, Hunters).
  3. As soon as Chains of Woe is cast, the boss will begin to cast The Skullcracker, which at lower tiers of gear, and even at higher ones, is a guaranteed, immediate, group wipe.
  4. Kill the Chains, and then move at least 20 yards from the boss. This includes the Tank. The boss will not move while casting The Skullcracker, so make use of your boot enchants or talents, and get a running.
  5. The boss will periodically summon a number of adds, these should be picked up by the Tank, and DPSed down. Lower kill order priority than Chains of Woe. DPS, watch your cleaves, the Tank’s job is hard enough as is.
  6. Note, it is also possible to kill the adds using the boss’ Skullcracker. Doing so will require a well timed Frost Nova or other such effect, or some skilled positioning from the Tank.
  7. A Cooldown, either from the healer or the Tank, is recommended, for Wounding Strike, as when combined with adds, this can and will cause issues.
  8. Unless you have some extreme range, you’re going to be hit by Quake. Defensive cooldowns from the DPS are never a bad thing, especially in lower levels of gear. Save a wipe, save Healer mana.
  9. The really really big mobs here have an attack which -must- be interrupted.
  10. They are patrols to careful not to aggro one when dealing with another pack.

Corla, Herald of Twilight

Abilities:

  • Aura of Acceleration – Increases the movement speed by 50% and attack speed by 100% of all Twilight Cultists within 50 yards of Corla.
  • Dark Command – Inflicts 7,500 Shadow damage every second to a random player, and causes them to flee in terror. Lasts 4 seconds.
  • Death Grip – Draws a random player to Corla.
  • Drain Essence – Corla channels nether energies in a beam from the nether dragon’s corpse by the ceiling to the three Twilight Zealots. The beams stack Evolution on their target every second.
  • Evolution – The target of the nether beams gains a stack of Evolution every second they stay in the beam. When Evolution reaches 100 stacks, players are affected by Twilight Evolution, and Zealots become Evolved Twilight Zealots.
  • Twilight Evolution – Brings a player under Corla’s control, increasing their health by 600%. Lasts 5 minutes.
  • Evolved Twilight Zealot – Twilight Zealots with 100 stacks of Evolution become Evolved. Evolved Zealots have Force Blast, Gravity Strike, Grievous Whirl, and Shadow Strike.

Notes:

  1. The first thing you may notice is the Boss, accompanied by a trio of kneeling Zealots.
  2. The aim with this fight is relatively simplistic, kill the boss and don’t let any of the adds evolve.
  3. The Zealots are passive until they are evolved, and do not need to be Tanked.
  4. It is recommended you eliminate the patrol that moves in front of the boss, down on the floor from the ramp before pulling the boss. If a fear gets off, you don’t want more mobs pulled.
  5. For this fight you will need 3 volunteers, one for each Zealot.
  6. What each person must do, is position themselves between the Zealots and the incoming purple beams. The beams will stack Evolution on the target closest to the origin. The aim here is to stop Evolution from reaching 100 stacks, on either the Zealots or players. Do this by moving in and out of the beam, resetting your stacks in between. The recommended number of stacks to look for is 75. Get to 75, and move out of the beam, let the Zealot take the stacks until yours reset, then re-enter the beam. Continue this until the boss is dead.
  7. You will need to assign at least one person to watch for Dark Command. A 2 second cast, if this is not interrupted, it can spell almost instant disaster. Don’t let her complete the cast.
  8. The Tank should attempt to hold the boss in front of the central Zealot, as this will allow any melee DPS who are controlling Evolution stacks, to also DPS the boss.
  9. It is possible for a Healer to control stacks on a Zealot, and is recommended in situations where your group is heavy on Melee. It is also possible for the Tank to control the stacks on a Zealot; however this will take a lot of awareness and coordination and is only recommended as a last resort.
  10. As a come all, end all; Iceblock and equivalents can be used to clear any Evolution stacks.
  11. If an add transforms, or worse a team mate, it is almost a guaranteed wipe. Gravity Strike deals 60% of the target’s current HP as damage. It will never outright kill you, as with 1k HP it would do 600 damage, but combined with Shadow Strike, which deals 70,000 Shadow damage *from behind* the target… I think you get the picture.
  12. If you get Death Gripped out of a beam you were interrupting, use this as a chance to reset your stacks. Do not immediately return to the add, as the timers on the Evolution stacks will differ, and you or the Zealot may well end up transforming.
  13. You will notice here, a pair of roaming fire elementals and a vast number of silver ‘blobs’ all around the room.The two elementals must be killed, they are the ‘trash’. The blobs are Quicksilver.When an elemental is near a Quicksilver, the quicksilver will heat up, and form an NPC which acts as any other mobs and must be tanked.Pull the elementals back into the doorway, away from the majority of the Quicksilver. The the NPC, ignore the Quicksilver, as after a few seconds of the elemental being killed, the Quicksilver will re-harden back into a ‘blob’.

Karsh Steelbender

Abilities:

  • Quicksilver Armor – Reduces all damage taken by 99%.
  • Superheated Quicksilver Armor – Increases damage taken by 5% per stack. Melee attacks inflict 2,000 Fire damage per stack to everyone in the room. Lasts 12 seconds, refreshed with new applications. Stacks every second Karsh remains in the central pillar of molten metal.
  • Cleave – Inflicts 110% weapon damage to players in front of Karsh.

Notes:

  1. When looking at the boss before the pull, he will have Quicksilver Armor activated at all times.
  2. Begin the pull with the boss on the far side of the room from the group, as this will cause him to run through the central pillar of Lava to reach the group, and spend very little time in the beam itself.
  3. The boss needs to be pulled through the lava beam in order for the Quicksilver Armor to become Superheated, and allow DPS to commence.
  4. Once heated, the boss’ armour remains heated for 12 seconds, before he will need to be re-dunked in fire.
  5. The longer the boss is kept in the Lava, the more damage he will deal and receive. It is best to aim for something about 5 stacks. Too high and it becomes unhealable.
  6. The boss cleaves. This is a responsibility of the DPS just as much as the Tank to make sure they’re not taking damage. Work with your Tank, not against them.
  7. Whenever Superheated Quicksilver Armor drops off the boss, a wall of flame will erupt around the central circle of the encounter area. Be sure you’re not standing in it.
  8. Pools of Lava will spawn beneath the feet of players. Much like Firefighter in Ulduar, simply stack the group up on one spot, and move in one direction whenever the lava spawns. This will stop it getting out of control. The Pools of Lava also have the same effect as the Lava Pillar in the centre of the room. The longer the boss stands in one, the more damage he takes and gives. This can either be a blessing or a curse, either way; don’t let him stand in a puddle or a pillar too long.
  9. During the fight, a number of Flame adds will spawn, Unless you’re a Hunter or a Rogue, I’d recommend leaving these be until the Tank has them under control, then burn them.
  10. Directly after the previous boss, there are a pair of trash groups on either side of the path onwards into the instance. It is recommended you pull these back into the area where you fought the previous boss, as a pair of fire elementals patrol next to the trash groups, and will agro on sight.
  11. These groups contain casters, so either have a Hunter MD with the Tank standing a good distance back, or simply silence, Death Grip, etc to get them all within a workable area.

Beauty

Abilities:

  • Berserker Charge – Charges a random player, inflicting ~17,000 Physical damage and knocking them back.
  • Flamebreak – Inflicts ~12,000 Fire damage to all players within 10 yards, knocking them back.
  • Magma Spit – Inflicts ~4,000 Fire damage to a random target, as well as another 4,000 every 3 seconds for 9 seconds. Explodes when removed.
  • Terrifying Roar – Causes all players to flee in fear for 5 sec.

Notes:

  1. Boss + 3 ‘Puppies’
  2. CC Puppy on the left, and Puppy on the right. Preferably by first pulling them to near the entrance to Beauty’s chamber so they’re out of the way.
  3. Kill the central Pup’. Then Kill the boss, remembering to reapply CC to the other Puppies.
  4. Spread out to avoid Magma Spit hitting multiple targets.
  5. You may wish to Tank the boss against a wall, so Flamebreak will not cause unnecessary boss movement.
  6. Pretty basic “Tank ‘n’ Spank” with some CC thrown in to boot.

Ascendant Lord Obsidius

Abilities:

  • Stone Blow – Inflicts 150% melee damage and knocks the target down.
  • Thunderclap – Inflicts ~12,000 Physical damage to all players around Obsidius. Also reduces movement speed of the affected targets by 50% for 8 seconds.
  • Twilight Corruption – Inflicts 8,000 Shadow damage every 2 seconds for 12 seconds.

Notes:

  1. The Boss comes with bonus adds that are required to be kited.
  2. There are 3 adds in total, which, when in melee range of their target, reduce the healing received by that target.
  3. These adds are unusual, as they posses a buff labelled only as ‘Twitchy’. In short, rather than attack the target with the highest threat, like most other NPCs, they will attack the *latest* target to generate threat.
  4. A DoT is highly recommended here, or a multi target ability like Multi-Shot. The Adds can be Slowed, Rooted, Stunned, etc. Use this to your advantage.
  5. Periodically the boss will switch places and posses one of the adds being kited. The Tank must immediately retrieve the boss, while simultaneously avoid adding threat to the ex-boss, turned add, that must be pulled away from the group and kited.
  6. Be careful when kiting too close to the boss,  Thunderclap will land you in trouble very quickly. Have a Hand of Freedom or equivalent ready just in case.
  7. Twilight Corruption can be dispelled, and it is recommended to do so.

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