Gilnid

Gilnid the Smelter is the goblin engineer who runs the foundry in The Deadmines, casting cannons and metal parts for the Defias Brotherhood's warship. He waits at the bottom of a huge circular forge room, and getting down to him is usually harder than the fight itself.

Background

In the mines below Moonbrook in Westfall, Edwin VanCleef is building a juggernaut, an armored ship meant to carry the Brotherhood's war to Stormwind City. VanCleef's stonemasons know how to build, but a warship needs guns and metalwork, so he hired goblins. Gilnid is the head of that operation, VanCleef's chief smelter, and he drives his workers without rest. He shouts at them that breaks are cancelled, that the parts have to keep moving down to the ship and that the cannons must be finished soon.

The old Warcraft roleplaying game adds more: it describes Gilnid as a brilliant builder of machines whose reckless experiments got him thrown out of Booty Bay, and who works for the Defias only because they fund his inventions.

Abilities

• Molten Metal: Gilnid hurls molten metal at a player, burning them over time and slowing both their attacks and their movement.

He is larger than the goblins around him but otherwise fights in melee.

Strategy

The Goblin Foundry is a large round room with walkways spiraling around a molten pit, crowded with Goblin Craftsmen, Goblin Engineers and Defias guards. Gilnid patrols at the bottom.

• Work down the walkways slowly. Most groups can be pulled one at a time, but a careless pull can bring goblins down from the ledges above.
• By the time the group reaches Gilnid, usually only one or two enemies remain near him. Clear them, then pull.
• The fight is short. Healers should watch for Molten Metal, which makes the target easy to catch by anything that adds.

The door out of the foundry leads on toward the shipyard and Mr. Smite.

Loot

Gilnid drops one of two items.

Lavishly Jeweled Ring is a rare ring with Agility and Intellect, a strong find at a level when most characters have no rings at all.

Quests

No quest in patch 1.12 asks for Gilnid. Groups pass through his foundry on the way to Captain Greenskin and VanCleef, whose head is the target of The Defias Brotherhood.

Later history

Later lore has Gilnid killed by James Blackridge when the pirate Jerias Bloodvein's crew raided the Deadmines. Cataclysm (patch 4.0.3a) rebuilt the dungeon with a new set of bosses. The Classic encounter returned with World of Warcraft Classic in 2019, and later Timewalking versions gave Gilnid remote-controlled golems to summon.

Sources

• Gilnid, Warcraft Wiki
• Deadmines (Classic), Warcraft Wiki
• Dark Factions (Warcraft roleplaying game), p. 142
• WoWDB NPC, loot and quest data for patch 1.12