Mr.WoW Gold - WoW General Guides - Guide to Blackrock Caverns
Guide to Blackrock Caverns
The Blackrock Caverns are one of two instances available to you when you enter Cataclysm, the other being Throne of Tides. Blackrock Caverns is of course located in Blackrock Mountain which rests between the zones of the Burning Steppes and the Searing Gorge.
In the mountain itself you can find the entrance by going around the east side of the walkway inside and going into the passage there. This is the same passage you would use to enter Lower Blackrock Spire, but instead of continuing straight into the spire, you want to take the first right and enter the Caverns there.
The instance has a very similar look to both Lower and Upper Blackrock Spire. As such you should expect to see lots of rock and fire. Many players in beta have complained that the instance is bland in appearance, however, I don’t find that to be the case. The whole place has a coherent look to the rest of Blackrock, and looks like a dungeon or cavern should, what else would it look like? If you want colourful go visit the Throne of Tides, but if you want a no-nonsense old fashion dungeon, then visit Blackrock Caverns.
The trash creatures (enemies in an instance that are not the boss) are varied and challenging. You will find a great deal of varied Twilight Hammer minions in the zone, including fire mages and ogres. The trash can be challenging for a new group that is fresh at 80 without raid gear from Wrath of the Lich King, but is manageable. In particular the Evolved Dracanoids that players may remember from other Blackrock instances and raids, are very tough and take a while to defeat. Make sure you pull them separately and not with a group or you may be in serious trouble.
Strategy
The fight is pretty straight forward and is comprised of only a single phase. Engage Rom’ogg and as soon as he casts quake players need to move out slightly. When he casts Chains of Woe and everyone gets pulled in, simply defeat the chains while he is casting Skullcraker and then get away. This includes the tank, as while most tanks with mitigation can take the hit, you will be left with almost no health and if the healer is delayed for any reason you will die.
If your group is mainly melee the quakes can cause issues if they do not clear out, but other than that the fight is simple for most groups. He has a significant amount of health though so expect to take a while defeating him, which leaves more opportunity for someone to forget to clear out.
Corla, Herald of Twilight
Corla requires some carefull add and debuff management Corla is an interesting fight as you must deal with the main boss as well as potentially three Evolved Twilight Zealots. While Corla herself is not much in the way of a fight, dealing with the Zealots is the real issue. When the fight starts they are harmless, but don’t stay that way for long.
Corla’s Abilities
Aura of Acceleration – All friendly models near Corla increase movement speed by 50% and attack speed by 100%.
Dark Command – This spell causes the target to flee in terror for 4 seconds, while suffering shadow damage as well.
Managing the Zealot transformation is the real issue in the fight, and as long as you can, Corla herself should not give you any issues.
Karsh Steelbender
He has some pretty tough armour onThe next boss is a nice change after the previous one’s complexity. Karsh is a large Drakanoid that deals significant fire damage but does not have a very complex strategy.
Abilities
Obsidian Armor – This is a buff that reduces all incoming damage by 99%.
Superheated Obsidian Armor – This debuff is applied when the Obsidian Armor is heated. For each stack Karash takes additional damage, but gains the following benefits:
Burning Metal – Deals additional damage to his target for each stack of superheated armor that he has.
Heat Wave – Deals 1000 fire damage to everyone nearby for each stack of superheated armor that he has.
Strategy
At the start of this fight players will quickly notice that Karsh is very hard to hurt due to his 99% damage reduction. This introduces the main fight mechanic.
In the center of the room is a pillar of fire that the tank must drag Karsh into. While there the tank and Karsh will suffer damage and Karsh will stack the debuff Superheated Obsidian Armor. The tank can position Karsh in the fire while he remains out with practice.
As the stacks build on Karsh, players will be able to inflict additional damage to him. However, he will also be doing additional damage due to a granted AoE fire effect from his heater armour, and doing additional damage to the tank. Therefore the tank needs to manage the number of debuffs that Karsh gets. Most groups seem to be able to deal with 4-7 debuffs at any given time. This really depends on your healer and their gear though, so find what works for your group.
Whenever the debuffs on Karsh exipire, simply drag him back into the fire to reheat him.
Beauty
Yet another Core Hound to put downFor players that started when WoW was released they probably remember the Beast in upper Blackrock Spire. It is speculated that Beauty is the Beast’s mate, and in this instance you need to deal with her and her brood. No matter if she is related or not, she is a core hound and must die. Oh, did I mention her puppies? Yes, you have to kill puppies too… sigh.
Ascendant Lord Obsidius
He wouldn't be that bad if he would just hold still for a few minutesThe final boss in the instance is Ascendant Lord Obsidius. He is an earthen and looks very much like a dwarf formed out of rock. In addition to fighting Obsidius, you must deal with two adds that place a healing debuff on anything they hit.
Abilities
Stone Blow– This attack hits for damage and knocks the player down.
Thunderclap – Hits everyone nearby for nature damage and slows them down.
Corruption – This is a shadow based DoT that lasts for 12 seconds dealing significant damage.
Transformation – Obsidius switches position with one of the adds.
Strategy
This fight brings back a long forgotten skill called kiting. Hurray for it’s return! Basically how this fight works is that the two adds put a healing debuff on whatever they hit, reducing all incoming healing on that target. For obvious reasons then, you can not allow the tank to be hit. This means someone else needs to kite the two adds around the room while the boss fight is going on.
The adds are affected by most slowing effects, but immune to most stuns or complete stops. The best class to kite them is a Hunter although other classes do work, such as Shamans and Mages for example.
While one player is dealing with the adds, the rest of the group deals with the boss, inflicting as much damage as possible. After a short period of time Obsidius will swap places with one of the adds and reset everyone’s threat. This is the key moment in the fight, because the tank must re-grab Obsidius, and the kiting players must re-grab the adds and separate them. Learning to control these switches is the hardest part of the fight.
