Blackwing Lair

Index

1.0 Introduction
1.1 Razorgore the Untamed
1.2 Vaelastrasz the Corrupt
1.3 Supression Room
and Broodlord Lashlayer

1.4 Firemaw
1.5 Ebonroc and Flamegor
1.6 Chromaggus
1.7 Nefarian

Scroll down for a complete list of all loot drops!

Introduction

Blackwing Lair is a heavily secured fortress residing at the top of the Blackrock Mountains. Once owned by the Dark Iron Dwarves as one their largest fortress, it now is in the hands of the evil Nefarian, the son of the black dragonflights leader, Deathwing.

Nefarian, using this fortress as his base of operations, plans to mix the various bloods of the dragons to form an ultimate dragon race which he will use to slay Ragnaros and conquer all of Azeroth.

This guide will take you through every boss in the game and the enemies guarding your path to the various bosses. All tactics are proven 100% effective through direct experience of this guides author along with the experience of other seasoned players who were consulted during the creation of this guide.

This guide will assume that your guild (or group of players, although in most cases it will be referred to as a guide) has slayed the fire lord Ragnaros and is in very good gear (lots of epics from Molten Core along with blues). This is no lie; Blackwing Lair is an extremely hard and difficult dungeon that should only be attempted by those who can confidently finish the Molten Core. The reason behind this is that World of Warcraft has an order of raid dungeons that are completed in order. Each dungeon provides not only gear, but tactics that help you conquer the next dungeon.

Raid Requirements and Attunement

Attunement

Every member of the raid must be attuned in order to enter Blackwing Lair. You need to be at least level 55 to even start the quest. To begin, go outside the Blackrock Spire entrance and head northward fighting the enemies as they come. Scarshield Quartermaster is inside of a room next to an Orb of Command. Slay him and receive “Blackhand’s Command” (this drops for everyone in the group). You now need to go to Upper Blackrock Spire and touch a “brand” behind General Drakkisath. When finished, you can now enter Blackwing Lair from the Orb of Command.

Organization

Your raid should have 5 of each available class, with atleast five Warriors for tanking and 15 total healers (Priests, Druids, Shamans, and Paladins). You need five Warriors for a boss known as Vaelastrasz the Corrupt and every boss will require tons of healing. Honestly this is something that should be discussed in detail on how to be the absolute fairest while at the same time understanding that some classes do not provide as much benefit as others.

As a general rule your Rogues will need at least 150 fire resist while your Warriors will need 200 fire resist (or more!). Everyone else should have atleast 100 fire resist (or the Valeastrasz encounter will become near impossible).

Everyone in the raid is advised to have CT_Raid, which is available in our UI Repository. It’s also well advised to have your U.I. set up in a every efficient manner so that your skills and ability, along with the raids health is within easy reach.

Terminology

Main Tank – A Warrior who has the best gear and is best suited for tanking.
Off-Tank – One or more Warriors who will tank the boss whenever certain conditions are met, such as the main tank dieing, an enemy uses Wing Buffet, or something else.
DPS – Damage Per Second or basically damage.
Melee DPS – Rogues, feral Druids, and Warriors who are not tanking or off-tanking.

Blackwing Lair Tips

Here are plenty of tips to help with progression through BWL.

  • For starters, always make sure your healers are healing as few people as possible instead of trying to heal the entire raid. Assigning several healers to each tank is a very wise idea.
  • Always have a soulstone up on someone and make sure they do not use it unless it’ll save the raid. No sense in rezing, dieing again, and then having to have everyone to walk back. However, soulstones can be used in some instance to prevent a wipe if it’s going to be close and one healer would help turn the tides of battle.
  • Make sure everyone has enough fire resistance for Vaelastrasz. Having people inside of the raid with no fire resist will make them liabilities during the Vael encounter. However, as a small night, Fire Protection Potions can help make up for anyone lacking in Fire Resistance.
  • Your melee fighters should be loaded on Fire Resist gear for many of the encounters. This is very important for encounters such as Firemaw where staying in the fight longer provides more damage then having better statistics (although in that scenario you should really only use quality Fire Resist pieces).
  • Speaking of quality, everyone should have very good gear before entering BWL. Casters and healers can get away with less, but as a general rule of thumb no one should have any Green (Uncommon Quality) items. These items can often be replaced in a few hours of running lower instances (or even Molten Core).
  • Be aware of threat generation by Rogues. Make sure that they know when to use vanish (and Hunters use feign death). A Rogue pulling aggro will often wipe a raid or take out several raid members due to the mechanics of these encounters.
  • As a general rule of thumb, always bring a Repair Bot (made by Engineers). These nifty items are costly but will make the raid very happy in not having to run to the store and repair holding the raid up.
  • Make sure before the raid heads out that everyone has every change of armor/weapons they will need and all items are repaired. Many U.I. mods offer the function to alert you of the durability of your inventory.
  • Never step ahead of your main-tank when progressing through places. Pulling unneeded enemies will result in wipe most of the time.
  • Never talk to any NPC no matter what without permission from the raid leader. Simple conversations can often begin encounters. An example will be Vael who will attack after a short conversation.
  • Always bring along any extra consumables that you have. Even the lowest of buff/heal potions can be helpful within Blackwing Lair. Bandages are also a must. While they are not often used, for encounters like Firemaw they are life savers.
  • Be sure to have your U.I. the way you want it before a raid. Fighting a giant dragon and trying to align U.I. windows can be an extremely difficult task.

Blackwing Lair Loot

What everyone is waiting for! Blackwing Lair drops what is known as “Tier 2” set pieces along with some really rare and nice loot. To check out what set pieces are for your class take a gander at our class guide sections! They include extremly detailed information about each set. All items are bind on pick up.

Razoregore the Untamed: 2x Tier 2 Bracers
Vaelastrasz the Corrupt: 2x Belt
Broodlord Lashlayer: 2x Boots
Firemaw: 1x Gloves
Ebonroc: 1x Gloves
Flamegor: 1x Gloves
Chromaggus: 2x Shoulders
Nefarian: 2x Chestpieces

Ebonroc and Flamegor do not have a 100% chance to drop set gloves, but on average you will get two set gloves a run.

The other tier 2 pieces come from outside Blackwing Lair!

Ragnaros: Legs
Onyxia: Helmet

Each boss will drop one to two additional epic items of varying quality along with the set items. So each complete run you of Blackwing Lair you will get about 12 epic quality set items and about 12 epic quality items.


Have comments or suggestions? Thought of something that has been missed? Found another tactic that can be used? Found an error? We would love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected].

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Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

About The Author

Get in the bush with David "Xerin" Piner as he leverages his spectacular insanity to ask the serious questions such as is Master Yi and Illidan the same person? What's for dinner? What are ways to elevate your gaming experience? David's column, Respawn, is updated near daily with some of the coolest things you'll read online, while David tackles ways to improve the game experience across the board with various hype guides to cool games.

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