Blackfathom Deeps Introduction

Blackfathom Deeps is a former 5-man dungeon turned 10-player raid in the Season of Discovery version of World of Warcraft Classic. With this size change, it has also undertaken some major changes that will not only make the dungeon more difficult, but vastly expand the amount of content there is to be conquered inside of this Void worshiping temple which can be found submerged beneath the Zoram Strand in northwestern Ashenvale. This raid requires you to be level 25 to enter.

Blackfathom Deeps now features seven unique boss encounters all of which include new and powerful items optimized for your level 25 character.

Baron Aquanis is the first boss you will encounter in the Blackfathom Deeps raid instance this encounter takes place atop a jumping puzzle where the boss will constantly place Torrential Downpour throughput the platform you must move from beneath or you will take massive damage. The boss will also apply Depth Charge to a random player in the raid, when it expires it deals Frost damage to any players nearby and knocks them back, try to position to avoid hitting other plays and getting knocked into the water, the easiest way to do this is jumping into the water if you are the one with the Depth Charge debuff. Baron will also occasionally do a channeled Bubble Beam which knocks back anyone within five yards of the front of the boss. He will slowly rotate while doing this ability, so make sure to avoid the front of the boss. Otherwise just focus on staying out of the Torrential Downpour and heal your tank and you will easily be able to vanquish Baron Aquanis.

• Greater Frostbolt: inflicts frost damage and slows the target by 40%.
• Bubble Beam: channels a beam for ten seconds knocking back anyone hit by it.
• Depth Charge: a debuff applied to a random player, when expiring it deals Frost damage and knocks back the player and anyone nearby.
• Torrential Downpour: Summons a cloud that deals nature damage every two seconds to anyone standing beneath it.

Ghamoo-Ra is the second encounter in the Blackfathom Deeps Raid instance. The main mechanic of this encounter is Ghamoo-Ra's Aqua Shell which is a stacking buff that reduces the damage Ghamoo-Ra takes. Each attack while the Aqua Shell is active will spawn a bubble at a random location throughout the room, make sure to move away from these before they pop or you will take considerable damage. After all of the stacks have been removed the Aqua Shell will explode dealing massive frost damage to everyone in the raid so make sure everyone is healthy before bursting his bubble. Ghamoo-Ra will now take full damage, rinse and repeat and make sure to heal your tank and you will easily be able to vanquish Ghamoo-Ra. If you are struggling with the tank damage due to the Crunch Armor debuff Ghamoo-Ra applies consider having a second tank taunt after a few stacks or even a Beast Mastery hunters pet.

• Aqua Shell: a powerful barrier that reduces the damage Ghamoo-Ra takes until he has taken one hundred instances of damage, once the he has taken his 100th instance of damage the shell will pop dealing massive frost damage to everyone in the raid and knocking back those close to the boss.
• Crunch Armor: removes 25% of the targets armor per stack.
• Triple Chomp: attacks the current aggro target three times instantly.

Lady Sarevess is the third boss in the Blackfathom Deeps raid instance. This powerful Naga Stormwitch will constantly spawn adds which need to be tanked, the major mechanic in this fight is her Forked Lightning, Forked Lightning will target a random player and deal damage to anyone that is positioned between Lady Sarevess and her target. This includes her own minions so make sure to position in a way that you are using this ability to kill her own ads. She will also drop a patch of frost using her Freezing Arrow ability, anyone in this patch for longer than 5 seconds will be stunned, this debuff can be removed by movement impairing clearing effects like Blessing of Freedom or Free Action Potions. If someone does get stunned this can and should be dispelled ASAP. Random members of the raid will be targeted by Saravess and shot with Frost Arrow which deals a small amount of Physical damage and slows, try to interrupt this if you can. Focus on healing your tanks and keeping the ads under control and this will be an easy encounter!

• Freezing Arrow: places a patch of frost on the ground, standing inside of it will apply a stacking debuff that will eventually freeze you.
• Frost Arrow: targets a random player in the raid and deals a small amount of Physical damage and slows.
• Forked Lightning: targets a random player in the raid and after a short duration deals Nature damage to the person afflicted with the debuff and anyone between the target and Saravess.

Gelihast is the fourth boss in the Blackfathom Deeps raid instance, this encounter will test your ability to avoid ground mechanics and actively position your character. Gelihast has three phases, the first phase being a simple tank-and-spank where you will just have to decurse Curse of Blackfathom off of random members of your raid and dispel Fear as best as you can but upon reaching 15% Gelihast will enter an Intermission phase where he will heal to 100% health again, during this healing phase Shadowy Murlocs will spawn from the eggs surrounding the room. These are uninterractable and you need to focus avoiding them as being hit by one will deal massive Shadow damage to you. Gelihast will also shoot out random Shadow Crashs throughout the room, try to avoid them as best you can.

Gelihast will continue casting these Shadow Crashs now during his active phase. Drop him down to 15% one more time where he will enter his final intermission. repeat the steps of the first Intermission. Following the second Intermission Gelihast will start to spawn Tentacles throughout the room, stay away from these or you will be attacked and take massive damage, otherwise rinse and repeat. Avoid the circles on the ground and you win.

• Curse of Blackfathom: deals Shadow damage to the target, increasing over its duration.
• Shadowstrike: applies a stacking Shadow damage taken debuff to the priamry aggro target.
• Shadow Crash: targets a random player dealing Shadow damage to anyone at the impact location as well as creating a shadowy pool that continues to deal damage to anyone standing inside of it.
• Ground Rupture: Gelihast will summon a tentacle that will attempt to melee nearby players or cast a channeled Shadow damage beam at them.

Lorgus Jett is an extremely simple fight that focuses on one thing: Killing the ads If you see a target other than Lorgus alive, you need to kill it ASAP. This encounter begins with a set of elite Naga guarding a wall of water. When you Defeat the Naga the wall will disappear allowing you into the next chamber, there are two walls between you and Lorgus so you must kill two different sets of Elite Naga to get to the boss himself make sure to take full advantage of stuns and interrupts to mitigate the resources your group has to spend to defeat them, once the second set is defeated the last wall of water will vanish and the encounter with Lorgus immediately starts.

Throughout the fight Lorgus will constantly spawn Totems which must be killed as quickly as possible, he will summon three different Totems; a Corrupted Windfury Totem which grants him a massive attack bonus, A Corrupted Molten Fury Totem which spawns fiery meteors which will follow players, leaving a trail of fire and dealing massive damage if it reaches its target, and a Corrupted Lightning Shield Totem which will cause the boss to reflect massive damage to anyone hitting him while this totem is active.

• Corrupted Windfury Totem: causes Lorgus Jett to swing multiple times instantly.
• Corrupted Lightning Shield Totem: deals massive nature damage to anyone attacking Lorgus Jett while it is active.
• Corrupted Molten Fury Totem: summons a slow moving fiery boulder that chases a random player and deals massive damage if reaching its target.

Twilight Lord Kelris is a true challenge that will demand your group to optimize its healing output and DPS to beat what are both insanely tight checks. Three healers are highly recommended for this encounter and a Magic dispel is required. Kelris deals massive tank damage with his Mind Blast ability so ensure you have at least one healer dedicated to keeping your tank alive. His Mind Blast ability also hits players nearby its primary target so make sure to stay away from the current aggro target. Kelris will constantly be casting Shadow Crash at ranged members of the raid which must be avoided, these crashes will turn into a void zone which will constantly expand so it is crucial that these are placed as far from the boss as possible, the ranged and healers should start in a corner of the room to help optimize the amount of space available as this is an incredibly relevant mechanic due to his massive health pool. The two players closest to the boss that are not the current aggro target will be sent into a Shadowy realm filled with neutral NPCs the same two players cannot be chosen again, one of the NPCs in the Shadowy realm will spawn a portal upon being killed which will return you to the corporeal realm. Kelris will also afflict random members of the raid with Shadowy Chains which is a massive Shadow damage over time effect that needs to be dispelled as quickly as possible, try to stay spread as the chains debuff splashes to anyone near its initial target. This ability is also interruptable during the first phase, so make sure someone is always trying to do so. Shadowy Chains can also be removed or prevented completely by abilities that remove movement impairing effects like Blessing of Freedom or Free Action Potions.

At 35% Kelris will enter the second phase of this encounter where he will clear all of the previous void zones but will continue to cause them with his Shadow Crash ability. This phase is very much a DPS Race as these void zones will quickly expand and your group will be overwhelmed. Kelris will continue to grow as the phase continues dealing more damage each time he grows.

• Mind Blast: a short cast that deals massive Shadow damage to the target and anyone nearby.
• Shadowy Chains: a short cast that applies a massive Shadow DoT effect to a target and anyone near the target.
• Shadow Crash: sends a shadowy bolt towards a random member of the raid outside of melee range, spawning a shadowy pool that continues to grow over time and deals damage to anyone inside of it.
• Sleep: sends two players down into a shadowy realm where they will have to kill neutral NPCs until a portal spawns returning them to the corporeal realm.

Aku'mai is the final boss of the Blackfathom Deeps raid instance. This encounter will require your raid to constantly adjust their positioning and your tanks to be ready to handle numerous ad spawns. Two tanks are recommended for this encounter due to the amount of adds and the Hateful Bite mechanic. Aku'mai will apply a stacking tank debuff, Corrosive Bite that can only be cleansed by moving to one of the Cleansing Elementals throughout the room. Doing so will corrupt this Elemental, causing it to spawn corrosive droplets which need to be tanked and killed ASAP. clear your debuff only when this damage starts to feel unnecessary. the amount of cleanses your group will need to complete depends entirely on your groups damage and ability to get to the second phase.

The persistent Hateful Bite mechanic will cause the boss to turn and attack the highest HP Non-threat target currently within his melee range, so try to keep your tank within melee range of Aku'mai, or at least a beefy melee dps. Aku'mai will target a random player in the raid and channel a Corrosive Blast. He channels this ability in a direction towards where that player was located when he chose them, so this is easily avoidable by moving from that direction. It is crucial to clear your tank's Corrosion stacks before the transition, which happens at 50%. During this transition Aku'mai will take 99% less damage thanks to Dark Protection so focus on dealing with adds while this is active.

Aku'mai will become infused by the Void during this phase. He retains all his previous abilities though they now deals Shadow damage. Aku'mai will occasionally corrupt the Cleansing Elementals causing them to spawn Void Elementals which must be tanked while you focus on burning down the boss. One of Aku'mai's heads will shoot Shadow Bolts at a random member of the raid so just make sure to heal them as needed. Focus on keeping your tanks alive, keeping ads maintained and this encounter should be no issue as Kelris is a much tighter check.

• Hateful Bite: attacks the second highest threat target.
• Corrosive Bite: every five seconds Aku'mai will apply a stacking Nature damage over time effect the primary aggro target.
• Corrosive Blast: targets a random player and channels Nature damage to their original location, applying Corrosion stacks to anyone hit.
• Dark Protection: Aku'mai will take 99% less damage while empowering itself with the void.
• Void Fang: every five seconds Aku'mai will apply a stacking debuff to the main aggro target that reduces their max HP by 10% and increase Shadow damage taken by 25%.
• Void Blast: targets a random player and channels Shadow damage to their original location, applying Shadow Seep stacks to anyone hit.

The Blackfathom Deeps raid is located in the northwestern-most corner of Ashenvale hidden amongst the ruins of the Zoram Strand. Both Alliance and Horde have relatively easy access to the dungeon thanks to flight paths located in both the Zoram Strand for Horde and in Astranar for the Alliance. Due to these very convenient flight paths, if you are playing on a PvP server make sure to wait for some members of your party or you face a very real risk of encountering the opposite faction on the way.

Ontop of new boss encounters and great loot there are some major changes to the Blackfathom Deeps in the form of Discoveries and Mysteries.

• Brand new Discoverable recipes for Blackfathom Sharpening Stone and Blackfathom Wizard Oil
• Brand new Solvable mystery to unlock the Twilight Artisan gear which is a uniquely powerful set of craftable epics for level 25 such as the Shifting Silver Breastplate or the Extraplanar Spidersilk Boots.
• Brand new World Buff in the form of Boon of Blackfathom which grants massive attack power, movement speed and critical strike rating.