TenTonHammer's Guide to Upper Blackrock Spire
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Upper Blackrock Spire (commonly referred to as UBRS) is a sprawling 10-man instance locked away within the Blackrock Mountains. Similar to Blackwing Lair (BWL), Blackrock Spire was once one of the strongest strongholds for the Dark Iron Dwarves. However, it has a new owner. The nefarious Nefarian now controls it and is using it as a staging ground to amass his army. The upper level is designed for ten players inside of a raid that are all above level fifty-seven. The upper level contains a wealth of gear that is needed for Molten Core along with the ability to complete quests related to the attunement for Onyxia’s Lair and BWL.
In total, UBRS will take about two hours to complete. With better equipment and a knowledgeable group you can get through it much faster. Like the 40-man raids, UBRS concentrates mostly on boss fights having a sparse amount of trash (compared to other instances) between bosses. Unlike other instances, many of the boss fights are very interactive keeping people on their toes and training them for even greater threats down the road (like Molten Core).
It’s recommended in preparing a guild for Molten Core to do several runs through UBRS to not only gain equipment but learn important boss fighting tactics. Many of the bosses require everyone to follow certain tactics, such as avoiding area of effect damage spells or keeping adds busy. Truly, UBRS is a stepping stone into greater things.
Getting to Upper Blackrock Spire
The entrance to UBRS is located on the southern side of the Blackrock Mountain (located in the Burning Steppes). It’s located up the hall from Blackwing Lair and has a shortcut. There is a long chain that heads to the center platform that leads upward to a large rock. From that rock you can jump onto the balcony where UBRS and BWL are located. Otherwise you will have to fight some easy orcs to wind your way up to the balcony.
Raid Formation
Making a group for UBRS is easy. You need atleast two Warriors, one Priest, two additional healers (Priests/Druids/Shamans/Paladins), two DPS (Rogues/Hunters), and two Warlocks/Mages. The last spot can be whatever. Without at least two healers and two tanks you will have an extremely hard time progressing through UBRS. Everyone should be above level fifty seven.
Progression
UBRS is for players who have already obtained a decent amount of gear. A good starting point would be to run Dire Maul and Blackrock Depths a few times to get a few superior quality items so that you will have a much greater survivability as compared to using uncommon (green) quality items. LBRS can also be ran (the lower portion of Blackrock Spire) to obtain some fairly decent gear.
Seal of Ascension
The raid will need at least one person who has obtained a Seal of Ascension a quest in the lower portion of Blackrock Spire. Just one person needs to have the key and he only needs to use it to open the door at the entrance of Blackrock Spire. He can leave afterwards. You can pay someone with a key to open the door for you or find someone else. Just have one person stand outside while the person unlocks the door then let them leave. Have the other person come inside.
Quests
Click here to find all of the quests available in Blackrock Spire!
Blackwing Lair Attunement: Horde/Alliance Simply slay Drakkisath and touch the orb behind him. The quest is from the Quartermaster down the hallway from the entrance to UBRS.
Onyxia's Lair Attunement: Horde | Alliance You will eventually come to a point in these quest chains where you need the blood off of Drakkisath.
Tactics
For the most part all enemies will simply require you to sheep/crowd control as many as possible then have the tanks (Warriors) pick up the rest. Follow one person lead (commonly referred to as the main assist) and take each one out one by one without breaking crowd control. Miniature dragons in the Rookery may require AoE if too many are aggro’d.
There is only one path through this instance. This guide will assume you are following the main path throughout the instance. There is only one place that doesn’t lead you to a UBRS boss and that’s the entrance to BWL past the boss Rend Blackhand. You can simply ignore that path though and continue on your journey!
Pyroguard Emberseer
Important Drops: Tier 0 Shaman Gloves
When you first enter UBRS you will be facing a few dragonkin and a lot of orcs. This entire area has to be cleared for you to head upstairs and fight Pyroguard Emberseer. There are a bunch of rooms with various orcs in them. You need to take each room out one by one paying attention to the orc Summoners which should be taken out first. Veterans and Dreaweavers aren’t as scary (Veterans can charge and stun you which isn’t very fun). Once the room has been cleared out you can head upstairs to a room with one fire elemental and a bunch of orcs.
The orcs in the next room will completely ignore you so you can take a rest now and rebuff the raid. The next boss if Pyroguard Emberseer but he’s currently trapped by the non-elite orcs casting some kind of spell! There is an altar that will turn those orcs aggressive when enough people have right clicked on it. When that happens slay the orcs really fast and get ready for Pyroguard Emberseer.
Pyroguard Emberseer only needs a Warrior with some decent fire resist to tank him while the rest of the raid concentrates on killing him. He’s not very tough and you should have no problem with him. Once finished rest up and get ready for the rookery.
Rookery (Solakar Flamewrath)
Important Drops: Tier 0 Priest Shoulders
This is a room many veterans of World of Warcraft get the shivers from. This section is entirely optional and you can walk up the stairs near the entrance and forget this place even exists. You can also do the encounter here for the Devout Shoulders.
Warning! All of the eggs on the floor of the Rookery can be “openedâ€
return list: Hellgate:London
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