Blackwing Lair

Blackwing Lair is a 40-player raid at the top of Blackrock Spire, the private sanctum of Nefarian, eldest son of Deathwing. It opened in patch 1.6 in July 2005 as the first new raid after launch. Its eight bosses drop the Tier 2 armor sets, and it was the first raid built as a step up from Molten Core. The Elementium needed for Thunderfury also comes from here.

Background

Nefarian rules the upper half of Blackrock Mountain as Lord Victor Nefarius, at the head of the orcs of the Blackrock Clan and the black dragonflight. He has long been at war with Ragnaros, whose elementals hold the mountain's depths. To win it, Nefarian is trying to finish his father's work: breeding a new chromatic dragonflight from the blood of all five flights.

The lair is his laboratory. Its halls hold orc and goblin workers, dragonspawn guards, broken eggs, and failed experiments such as the two-headed hound Chromaggus. He also holds a prisoner: the red dragon Vaelastrasz, once Alexstrasza's consort, whom Nefarian has corrupted to guard the lair. Nefarian's sister Onyxia plays a parallel game in Stormwind, and the two raids were designed to be read together.

Getting in

The lair is entered through the Orb of Command, at the end of a hallway in Blackrock Spire near the entrance to the upper Spire. Touching the orb requires the Mark of Drakkisath. To earn it, a player loots [Blackhand's Command] from Scarshield Quartermaster in Blackrock Mountain, which starts Blackhand's Command. The letter explains that the brand is guarded by General Drakkisath, so the attunement means killing Drakkisath in Upper Blackrock Spire and touching his brand. After that, the orb teleports you directly into the lair.

Because Drakkisath's blood is also the last step of the Onyxia attunement, many guilds attuned their members to both raids on the same Upper Blackrock Spire runs.

Bosses

The trash is as famous as the bosses. The Death Talon packs between Vaelastrasz and Broodlord, led by Death Talon Captains, and the laboratory packs of Blackwing Technicians and dragonkin before Chromaggus stopped many guilds. Some Death Talon Wyrmguards are vulnerable to only one school of magic, which the raid has to work out on every pull.

Strategy notes

Razorgore the Untamed. One player uses the orb in the first room to control Razorgore while orc and dragonkin adds rush in. Once all 30 eggs are destroyed, the controller is released and the raid kills Razorgore himself. If he dies before then, the raid wipes.

Vaelastrasz. He begins badly wounded, and his Essence of the Red keeps the raid at near-full resources, so the fight is a pure damage race. Burning Adrenaline goes on a random caster every so often and on the main tank, killing them after a short time while boosting their damage. Guilds lined up several tanks to take over as each one died. It's often called the first real "gear check" in the game.

The drakes. Firemaw, Ebonroc and Flamegor each cast Shadow Flame and Wing Buffet. Shadow Flame is a frontal cone that does very heavy shadow damage to anyone not wearing an [Onyxia Scale Cloak], a cloak crafted from Onyxia's hide. Tanks therefore needed Onyxia kills first, a nice link between the two raids.

Chromaggus. Each week he uses two breaths from a pool of five (Time Lapse, Corrosive Acid, Ignite Flesh, Incinerate, Frost Burn) and stacks Brood Afflictions on the raid. Players who collect all five colors turn into chromatic drakonids. The Bronze affliction can only be cured by [Hourglass Sand], dropped by the lab trash. He frenzies often and grows more resistant to whichever schools are hitting him.

Nefarian. In phase one, Lord Victor Nefarius sits on his throne and sends waves of drakonids in two colors that change each week. Once the raid has killed 42 drakonids, Nefarian lands. He casts Shadow Flame and a fear, and every half minute or so he makes a "class call" that hits one class: priests' heals damage their targets, warriors are forced into Berserker Stance, mages turn their allies into sheep, hunters' bows break, and so on. At 20% health the dead drakonids rise again as bone constructs.

Preparation and consumables

Blackwing Lair asked more of a raid's consumables than Molten Core did. Fire resistance mattered less here, though the drake fights and Vaelastrasz still burned tanks, and shadow damage from Nefarian and the drakes made the [Onyxia Scale Cloak] mandatory for tanks. Raiders brought flasks such as the [Flask of the Titans], [Flask of Supreme Power] and [Flask of Distilled Wisdom], plus elixirs like the [Elixir of the Mongoose]. Patch 1.8 added alchemy labs inside the lair, which alchemists need to brew flasks. A single flask lasted two hours, and keeping 40 players flasked for a night of progression attempts cost guilds a great deal of gold and Black Lotus.

The lair also asked more of individual players. Suppression room traps, Burning Adrenaline and the Nefarian class calls all punished one player's mistake with a raid wipe, which pushed guilds toward stricter attendance and recruitment.

Loot

Tier 2 sets

Blackwing Lair is the main source of Tier 2: bracers from Razorgore, belts from Vaelastrasz, boots from Broodlord, gloves from the three drakes, shoulders from Chromaggus and chests from Nefarian. Onyxia drops the helmets and Ragnaros the legs. The class sets are Judgement (paladin), Wrath (warrior), Ten Storms (shaman), Dragonstalker (hunter), Bloodfang (rogue), Stormrage (druid), Transcendence (priest), Netherwind (mage) and Nemesis (warlock). See Tier Sets.

Famous drops

• [Ashkandi, Greatsword of the Brotherhood], [Crul'shorukh, Edge of Chaos] and [Staff of the Shadow Flame] from Nefarian were among the best weapons before Ahn'Qiraj.
• [Chromatically Tempered Sword] and [Ashjre'thul, Crossbow of Smiting] from Chromaggus, and [Maladath, Runed Blade of the Black Flight] from Broodlord.
• [Neltharion's Tear] and [Mish'undare, Circlet of the Mind Flayer] for casters, and [Drake Fang Talisman] for melee.
• [Elementium Ore], a rare drop from Blackwing Technicians, is smelted into the [Elementium Bar] needed for Thunderfury.

The head

Like Onyxia, Nefarian always drops his head, [Head of Nefarian] for the Alliance and [Head of Nefarian] for the Horde. The Lord of Blackrock and The Lord of Blackrock reward a choice of ring, neck or off-hand, and the follow-ups mount the head in Stormwind and Orgrimmar, where it grants the same Rallying Cry of the Dragonslayer as Onyxia's.

History

Patch 1.6, "Assault on Blackwing Lair", released on July 12, 2005. The opening weeks were rough. A hotfix on July 14 closed bugs that let raids beat the first two encounters "with very little effort" and fixed a door after Vaelastrasz that wouldn't open. Another hotfix on July 19 cut the heavy lag in the lair. Patch 1.6.1 made several encounters close the front gate so players couldn't leave or join mid-fight, and stopped the drakes from leaving the lab.

Patch 1.8 added an alchemy lab inside the lair, needed to brew flasks. Patch 1.9 made the lair part of the Scepter of the Shifting Sands quest chain, the long chain that opened Ahn'Qiraj. The dying Vaelastrasz offers [[forever:quest:8730]], which gives the raid five hours to kill Nefarian and carry the Red Scepter Shard to Anachronos in the Caverns of Time. A second quest, [[forever:quest:8288]], asks for Broodlord Lashlayer's head.

Blackwing Lair was the raid that sorted guilds into tiers. Many groups that farmed Molten Core every week got stuck on Vaelastrasz or Chromaggus for months. Others called Razorgore and Broodlord the real test.

Later history

Nefarian was raised from the dead in Cataclysm and fought again in Blackwing Descent, a new raid deeper in the mountain. Patch 6.0.2 removed the attunement. The original lair came back in World of Warcraft Classic in 2020 as the third content phase, and again in Season of Discovery with new mechanics.

Sources

• Blackwing Lair, Warcraft Wiki
• Patch 1.6.0, Warcraft Wiki
• Blackhand's Command, Warcraft Wiki