Article Credit: SprawlWhat once served as the base of operations for the Horde during the First and Second Wars is now the home of a furious band of fel orcs intent on defending their new home to the last one standing. Despite efforts to exterminate the Citadel's latest inhabitants by forces from Honored Hold and Thrallmar, the orcs appear to be growing in numbers, threatening to spill over into the surrounding land side. A force of Draenei is stationed nearby at a place called the Temple of Sha'naar. It is here that the enlightened brotherhood brings freedom to their unfairly enslaved brethren, the Broken. Hellfire Peninsula is a place of constant warfare as the Burning Legion seeks admittance into Azeroth. Should the combined might of the Alliance and Horde falter, the entire World of Azeroth would be lost. Hellfire Peninsula is an area for players level 58-63.
The only arrival to Hellfire Peninsula is through the Dark Portal in the Blasted Lands. Once you pass through the portal, there is a huge battle with a Pit Lord in progress. You avoid the battle by jumping on a flight directly to your faction's first stronghold: Honor Hold for the Alliance and Thrallmar for the Horde. It is here players are presented with dozens of quests. This is where a majority of the profession trainers are located (except First Aid, which is located at the Temple of Sha'naar or Falcon Watch), but there are no class trainers in the Outland.
Cities
Honor Hold
Temple of Sha'naar
Thrallmar
Falcon Watch
Instances
Hellfire Ramparts (Level 60-62)
The Blood Furnace (Level 61-63)
The Shattered Halls (Level 70-72)
Magtheridon's Lair (Raid)
Hellfire Ramparts (Level 60-62)
Hellfire Citadel is accessible right upon arrival into the Outland. The Hellfire Ramparts is geared for the level 60 wearing "casual gear" and the rewards within are on par with stuff you would find in the old 40-man instances. There are three bosses within the Ramparts. The first is Watchkeeper Gargolmar who patrols the second corridor in the instance with two healers. He drops a few different blue items, two of which actually have sockets for the new jewelcrafting profession. He is definitely the easiest boss in the entire Outland, but a great starting point for new level 60's looking for an instance to tackle. At this time, flying mounts are currently not accessible in beta, but that hasn't stopped the second boss, Vazruden the Herald, from getting one. Vazruden is found within the upper level of the Ramparts flying around on his Nether Drake named Nazan. He also has two Shattered Hand Scouts that do his dirty work for him. Kill his Scouts, then Vazruden will come down to face you himself. The general idea is slightly similar to how the Rend encounter works in Upper Blackrock Spire. His defeat will yield an Ominous Letter, as well as some blue items, that set you off on a quest into the Blood Furnace. The final boss in the Hellfire Ramparts is Omor the Unscarred. For someone unscarred, he sure is ugly! Despite a face you loath to set eyes on and a stomach that is literally another face, Omor is a pretty simple fight. Experienced groups will have gotten this far in less than an hour, and it should be clear that this dungeon is meant to be the easiest. Both of Omar's guards can be pulled before the fight, but Omor does summon felhounds to target the precious healers. The only catch is that he starts to reflect spells at 20%, so be careful!
The Blood Furnace (Level 61-63)
Not too much of a step up in difficulty level but about one and half times bigger, this instance is the follow-up of the Hellfire Ramparts. Your first encounter takes you up against The Maker, who obviously didn't do a good job of making himself. This psychotic ugly ogre with bionic appendages is rather humorous to see in action. You only wonder what their children would be like if he married the Princess in Maradon. Despite all the ferocity, the Maker is a very simple fight as he has no real special attacks and deals little damage to an adequately equipped tank. The second boss in the Blood Furnace is also quite easy, however the event before actually fighting him requires a bit of team work. This encounter is much like the Black Rock Depth encounter where one boss at a time spawns until you face the big boss. It is a bit of an endurance match with a few elite enemies mixed among the trash. Once you face four of these encounters, Broggok appears. Fight him like any other standard tank/heal/nuke operation but be sure to stay out of his poison clouds. One of the other instances in this dungeon pits a 25-man raid group against the Pit Lord Magtheridon, but before you can face him, you must free him! That is where the third boss of this instance comes in. Keli'dan the Breaker, along with a number of Fel Orc Warlocks, is keeping Magtheridon captive with a powerful spell. His defeat yields you some wondrous loot, but you begin to wonder if it was worth it with the Pit Lord free... Keli'dan also drops the key that grants players entrance into the 3rd instance, the Shattered Halls.
Not too much of a step up in difficulty level but about one and half times bigger, this instance is the follow-up of the Hellfire Ramparts. Your first encounter takes you up against The Maker, who obviously didn't do a good job of making himself. This psychotic ugly ogre with bionic appendages is rather humorous to see in action. You only wonder what their children would be like if he married the Princess in Maradon. Despite all the ferocity, the Maker is a very simple fight as he has no real special attacks and deals little damage to an adequately equipped tank. The second boss in the Blood Furnace is also quite easy, however the event before actually fighting him requires a bit of team work. This encounter is much like the Black Rock Depth encounter where one boss at a time spawns until you face the big boss. It is a bit of an endurance match with a few elite enemies mixed among the trash. Once you face four of these encounters, Broggok appears. Fight him like any other standard tank/heal/nuke operation but be sure to stay out of his poison clouds. One of the other instances in this dungeon pits a 25-man raid group against the Pit Lord Magtheridon, but before you can face him, you must free him! That is where the third boss of this instance comes in. Keli'dan the Breaker, along with a number of Fel Orc Warlocks, is keeping Magtheridon captive with a powerful spell. His defeat yields you some wondrous loot, but you begin to wonder if it was worth it with the Pit Lord free... Keli'dan also drops the key that grants players entrance into the 3rd instance, the Shattered Halls.
The Shattered Halls (Level 70-72)
Since beta is capped at level 67, there is not a lot of information on this instance; however it appears challenging but doable even for a group of level 67's. Just to get inside, someone in your group must have beaten Keli'dan the Breaker from the Blood Furnace. Inside are three more bosses, see a pattern? Grand Warlock Nethekurse, Warbringer O'mrogg and await your visit! The Grand Warlock fights much like a Warlock, unleashing powerful shadow volleys. Warbring O'mrogg is a two-headed ogre with taunt resistance and threat reduction abilities but he is still a standard tank/heal/dps fight. Both fights are reportedly well scripted but not too hard, especially considering testers are only level 67 at this point. Kargath is the famed chieftain of the Shattered Hand clan from Warcraft II and the final boss in this trilogy of 5-man's known as the Hellfire Citadel. The Kargath fight is reportedly very entertaining but still in the tuning phase, and a new model should be out for him shortly, if not already. There are a number of non-elite "adds" to deal with in this fight and a powerful special ability called Blade Dance, which seems to be on a timer therefore moving in and out of range/line of sight is beneficial. Groups are currently tanking him near a staircase, with the the casters and healers standing below and out of his line of sight. If this "exploit" is fixed, this encounter will triple in difficulty level. An experienced group can complete this instance in under 90 minutes.
Magtheridon's Lair (Raid)
The only thing left is the raid encounter against Magtheridon, which is suppose to be a "quick raid encounter", much like Onyxia currently is for level 60's. Magtheridon was the former Lord of the Outland before he was dethroned by Illidan Stormrage. Illidan imprisoned him within Hellfire Citadel at the mercy of the fel orcs and YOU just set him free... you would think he would be grateful, but he is not. The encounter starts with four to six "trash pulls" that are quite hard, then Magtheridon himself. Again, this encounter is very similar to the Onyxia design in terms of getting to the boss quickly.
Outdoor PvP
Like almost all of the newer PvP objectives, the struggle on Hellfire Peninsula is no different. Every area in the Outland has an outdoor PvP objective that results in some sort of zone-wide buff. The one in Hellfire is the most basic of PvP encounters. The Horde and Alliance are once again against each other as they attempt to control the Stadium, the Overlook, and Broken Hill. Each of these three objectives are no more than a stones throw away, and a successful capture produces an area-wide global message that no doubt motivates the other faction to come to the rescue. Whichever faction controls all three objectives grants everyone of that faction on the map a +5% damage buff that is beneficial in both PvE and PvP. Having this bonus for your faction in the early days of the Burning Crusade could potentially give your side a fair head start on the leveling, but given how easy it is to take one of the three objectives, the buff is nothing to count on.
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Labels: burning crusade, guide, Hellfire Peninsula, instance, outlands
