Ebonroc

Ebonroc is the second of the three black drakes in Blackwing Lair, found in the upper room of the Crimson Laboratories between Firemaw and Flamegor. His Shadow of Ebonroc curse makes the tank's own hits heal him, so the fight is a drill in tank swapping: every time the curse lands, another tank has to taunt him away at once. He's best known for dropping the [Drake Fang Talisman], one of the strongest melee trinkets of its time.

Background

Ebonroc is one of Nefarian's three adult black drakes, the guardians of the laboratories where Nefarian's servants work on breeding the chromatic dragonflight. He patrols the upper room, around a staircase that leads on toward Flamegor and the lair of Chromaggus. Like his brothers, he's a creature of the black flight, the brood of Deathwing; see Dragonflights.

Abilities

Ebonroc shares the drakes' common abilities:

• Shadow Flame: a cone of shadow fire for about 4,000 to 5,000 damage. Tanks wear the [Onyxia Scale Cloak] for it.
• Wing Buffet: knocks back players in front of him and reduces their threat.
• Thrash: extra attacks on the tank.
• Summon Player: pulls a player in front of him.

His own ability is Shadow of Ebonroc, a curse on his target. While a player has it, any melee damage Ebonroc deals to that player heals him. A tank with Shadow of Ebonroc turns every hit he takes into healing for the boss.

Strategy

Raids tank Ebonroc in a corner, often in the angle between his staircase and the wall, so that Wing Buffet doesn't throw tanks across the room. The raid stands at his side or behind him. He has no other area attack besides Shadow Flame, so the rest of the raid can stay in his line of sight safely.

A common plan used three tanks: a main tank, a "buffet eater" who taunts just before each Wing Buffet so the main tank keeps his threat, and a third tank whose job is to taunt whenever the main tank gets Shadow of Ebonroc. Boss mods such as CT_RaidAssist and Big Wigs announced who had the curse. Taunts can be resisted, so tanks kept Mocking Blow and Challenging Shout ready as backups. Mortal Strike on Ebonroc cuts the healing he gets from any hits that slip through. A little shadow resistance on the tanks also lowers the chance of the curse landing, since it's a low-level spell.

Priests shield the main tank after each Shadow Flame. The fight is hard on tanks but easy on healers, and raids push damage to keep it short.

Loot

Drop chances are from our database (patch 1.12).

The [Drake Fang Talisman] was coveted by rogues, warriors and hunters. The [Ebony Flame Gloves], cloth gloves for warlocks, and the [Dragonbreath Hand Cannon], a gun, are two more Ebonroc exclusives, along with the priest trinket [Aegis of Preservation] and the [Malfurion's Blessed Bulwark], a leather chest for feral druid tanks. The Tier 2 gloves are shared with the other drakes, such as the hunter's [Dragonstalker's Gauntlets] and the warlock's [Nemesis Gloves].

Trivia

• A 2014 hotfix reduced the self-healing from Shadow of Ebonroc after the stat squish.
• In the Season of Mastery version of the raid, Ebonroc and Flamegor were fought together and had to die at about the same time.

Sources

• Ebonroc - Warcraft Wiki
• Blackwing Lair (Classic) - Warcraft Wiki