Rhahk'Zor

Rhahk'Zor is the ogre foreman of The Deadmines, the hidden mine under Westfall where the Defias Brotherhood builds its warship. He is the first boss of the dungeon, standing guard at the first heavy door, and his greeting is a promise that Edwin VanCleef pays well for intruders' heads.

Background

After the Second War, the stonemasons who rebuilt Stormwind City were cheated of their pay by the House of Nobles. Their leader, Edwin VanCleef, turned them into the Defias Brotherhood, a gang of thieves and saboteurs bent on revenge. They took over the old gold mines under the ruined town of Moonbrook and set to work there on a juggernaut, an armored warship meant to sail on Stormwind.

That work needs a lot of labor, and Rhahk'Zor keeps the laborers moving. Later Blizzard material describes him as the Brotherhood's head foreman, in charge of VanCleef's building projects, with "motivating" methods that are crude but effective. He is the first sign to a new group that the Defias have hired muscle well beyond the bandits they met in Westfall.

Abilities

• Rhahk'Zor Slam: a heavy blow that damages his target and stuns it for a few seconds.

Rhahk'Zor has no other trick. He is a big ogre who hits hard and has a lot of health for a level 19 creature.

Strategy

Groups reach the dungeon through the Moonbrook mine, a cave full of non-elite Defias. Inside the instance, Rhahk'Zor waits by the first locked door with a pair of Defias guards. He walks back and forth in front of the door.

• Wait until he wanders away from his two guards, then pull him alone. A decent group can also simply pull all three together.
• The tank will be stunned by his slam now and then, so the healer should keep the tank's health high rather than healing at the last moment.
• His health pool makes this one of the longer early fights. In our data he has more health than any other boss in the Deadmines, VanCleef included.
• Frost spells can't slow him, so mages should not count on Frostbolt to kite him.

Killing him opens the way into the deeper tunnels, where Miner Johnson and then Sneed's Shredder wait.

Loot

Rhahk'Zor almost always drops his own hammer, a common-quality two-handed mace, and sometimes a better weapon.

Rockslicer is an uncommon two-handed axe with a large Strength bonus, a rare find for warriors and paladins at this level because it drops so seldom.

Quests

No quest asks for Rhahk'Zor, but every quest target inside the instance lies beyond his door, including Sneed's Shredder for Underground Assault and VanCleef himself for The Defias Brotherhood.

Later history

Later lore has Rhahk'Zor killed when pirates under Jerias Bloodvein raided the Deadmines. In Cataclysm's redesign of the dungeon he was replaced as first boss. Timewalking versions of the Deadmines gave him a Whirlwind ability. The 1.12 encounter returned with World of Warcraft Classic in 2019.

Sources

• Rhahk'Zor, Warcraft Wiki
• Deadmines (Classic), Warcraft Wiki
• WoWDB NPC, loot and quest data for patch 1.12