Blackhand

A ruthless tyrant and fierce warrior, Blackhand is Warlord of the Blackrock Clan, second only to Grommash in stature within the Iron Horde. Bathed in sweltering heat that few other mortals could withstand, Blackhand oversees the operations of his Foundry from atop its Crucible, wielding his smoldering slag hammer to forge weapons of peerless quality.

Map

List of Abilities

Stage One: The Blackrock Forge

Blackhand pours Molten Slag into the moulding of the room, the slag slowly encroaches on players as the phase progresses.

Molten Slag
The Molten Slag will destroy any Slag Bombs or Debris Piles it comes in contact with. Inflicts 7,143 Fire damage every 0.50 sec while standing in the Molten Slag. Damage from Molten Slag increases by 50% every 0.50 sec. Stacks.

Demolition (Important!)
Blackhand throws his hammer at the ceiling, causing Demolition and Massive Demolition to occur. Demolition inflicts 17,500 Physical damage to all enemies within 12 yards. The damage is inflicted decreases the farther away an enemy is from the impact point.

Massive Demolition (Deadly)
Massive Demolition inflicts 220,000 Physical damage to all enemies and creates a Debris Pile at the location. The damage decreases the farther away an enemy is from the impact point.

Debris Pile
Debris Piles are created from the Massive Demolition. Debris Piles will be destroyed by Molten Slag or when an Impaling Throw impacts with it.

Marked for Death (Important!)
Blackhand marks a target for death. After 5 sec Blackhand will cast Impaling Throw at the target. Impaling Throw impacts the first object it hits. Marked targets movement speed is increased by 30%.

Impaling Throw (Deadly)
Inflicts 80,000 Physical damage, ignoring armor and knocking the target back and causing Impaled, inflicting 30,000 Physical damage every 3 sec for 45 sec. Impaling Throw impacts the first object it hits.

Throw Slag Bombs
Blackhand throws Slag Bombs at several nearby location. Slag Bombs arm after 3 sec, a triggered Slag Bomb inflicts 107,143 Fire damage to enemies within 10 yards of the bomb, applying Slagged. Slag Bombs will detonate on contact with Molten Slag.

Slagged
Increases damage taken by 100% for 10 sec.

Shattering Smash (Tank Alert)
The Shattering Smash inflicts 430,000 Physical damage split among all enemies within 5 yards, knocking the targets back clearing all threat and stunning them for 3 sec.

Stage Two: Storage Warehouse

Blackhand has stored deadly siege weaponry and calls in reinforcements on the balcony above.

Siegemaker (Important!)

Siegemakers are called in periodically by Blackhand and Fixate on the nearest target and go into an Overdrive after casting Mortar.

Mortar (Important!)
Fires a Mortar that creates a Blaze that spreads.

Blaze
Inflicts 30,750 Fire damage while standing in Blaze.

Overdrive
Increases Energy regeneration.

Blackiron Plating
The Siegemaker’s Blackiron Plating decreases damage taken by 90% per stack. Piercing the armor with an Impaling Throw or a Slag Bomb will destroy the armor.

Battering Ram
Inflicts 80,000 Physical damage to enemies in a cone in front of the Tank, knocking enemies back.

Iron Soldier

Iron Soldiers reinforce the balcony at an increasing rate.

Explosive Round
Fires an Explosive Round at the target, inflicting 13,392 Fire damage to enemies within 6 yards.

Incendiary Shot
Inflicts 7000 Fire damage, increasing damage taken from the Incendiary Shot by 10%. Stacks.

Marked for Death (Important!)
Blackhand marks a target for death. After 5 sec Blackhand will cast Impaling Throw at the target. Impaling Throw impacts the first object it hits. Marked targets movement speed is increased by 30%.

Impaling Throw (Deadly)
Inflicts 80,000 Physical damage, ignoring armor and knocking the target back and causing Impaled, inflicting 30,000 Physical damage every 3 sec for 45 sec. Impaling Throw impacts the first object it hits.

Throw Slag Bombs
Blackhand throws Slag Bombs at several nearby location. Slag Bombs arm after 3 sec, a triggered Slag Bomb inflicts 107,143 Fire damage to enemies within 10 yards of the bomb, applying Slagged. Slag Bombs will detonate on contact with a Siegemaker.

Slagged
Increases damage taken by 100% for 10 sec.

Shattering Smash (Tank Alert)
The Shattering Smash inflicts 430,000 Physical damage split among all enemies within 6 yards, knocking the targets back clearing all threat and stunning them for 3 sec.

Stage Three: Iron Crucible

The Iron Crucible has hardened over after the Black Furnace was destroyed.

Overheated
Inflicts increasing Fire damage.

Slag Eruption
Causes all slag craters to erupt!

Marked for Death (Important!)
Blackhand marks a target for death. After 5 sec Blackhand will cast Impaling Throw at the target. Impaling Throw impacts the first object it hits. Marked targets movement speed is increased by 30%.

Impaling Throw (Deadly)
Inflicts 90,000 Physical damage, ignoring armor and knocking the target back and causing Impaled, inflicting 22,000 Physical damage every 3 sec for 30 sec. While on the Iron Crucible Blackhand is empowered and Impaling Throw impacts all targets in a line.

Attach Slag Bombs
Blackhand throws Slag Bombs at several nearby enemies, attaching the bomb to the target. Slag Bombs arm after 3 sec, a triggered Slag Bomb inflict 107,143 Fire damage to enemies within 10 yards of the bomb, applying Slagged and creating a Slag Hole.

Massive Shattering Smash (Deadly)
The Massive Shattering Smash inflicts 378,900 Fire damage instantly and an additional 60,750 Fire damage every 1 sec, split evenly among all targets within 6 yards, knocking the targets back and creating a Slag Crater.

This fight consists of three phases that you transition through in a rapid pace. You start by engaging Blackhand on the upper floor in phase one. When he hits 70% he breaks the floor and you descend to the lower level and enter phase two. At 30% health he does the same manoeuvre and you go down to the lowest level to the Crucible for the third phase. You will be able to see the two lower floors when you take the elevator up to Blackhand.

Phase One; The Blackrock Forge
In the first phase you engage Blackhand in the upper floor. From all the sides of the room you will have encroaching Molten Slag that will damage anyone standing in it. This lava will be of significance when later mechanics are in play.

The first ability Blackhand does is called Throw Slag Bombs. These look like small mines with a red circle around them. When they first are thrown out they have a very short timer until they arm. Players have a couple of seconds to get out their range. If someone steps in them, it’ll likely mean the death of all players that are nearby, otherwise they get the debuff Slagged (making them vulnerable to more damage). The mines will persist the whole phase so the raid should rotate around the room to avoid cluttering the entire space with bombs. If the Molten Slag reaches the bombs, they will explode.

Blackhand’s key ability is Shattering Smash, which he will do in all phases but should be handled a little differently depending on the phase. In the first phase only the tanks should stand in Shattering Smash, which is indicated by a red circle. When hit, the tank will take very high physical damage and gets knocked back to the other side of the room. Healers should rotate tank cooldowns with every smash. Priests can also Leap of Faith the flying tank back to safe ground, instead of having him land in the Molten Slag at the other side of the room.

Exclusive to the first phase, Blackhand will throw his hammer up in the roof and cause Demolition and Massive Demolition. Debris will fall down on the floor, marked by brown indicators (demolition) and orange indicators (massive demolition). The closer players are to these markers the more damage they will take. When Blackhand activates Demolition you will have several smaller ones and the big ones will come in a wave of three. The whole raid should spread out and constantly try to move out of the Massive Demolitions. There will still be high damage on the raid, so healers should rotate raid cooldowns for each Demolition and hunters should use Aspect of the Fox to facilitate healing.

Another ability that is consistent through the entire fight is Marked for Death. Blackhand will mark two players with the debuff Mark for Death and then do Impaling Throw towards the affected target. Impaling Throw will do heavy damage to the first target it hits (the direction of the throw will be indicated by orange arrows from Blackhand), which also leaves a debuff that does high ticking damage. In the first phase, players who get Marked for Death should run and hide behind Debris piles that were left behind from the Demolition. The Impaling Throw will hit the debris instead of players, as long as no one is standing in the way of the debris. Players have to note where the throw will be going and move out of the way!

Once Blackhand hit 70% health, you descend to the second floor and the second phase.

Phase Two; Storage Warehouse
In the second phase Blackhand will still do Shattering Smash, Marked for Death and Throw Slag Bombs. But this time, you will handle them slightly different.

On the second level’s room you will have a surrounding balcony. On this balcony there will spawn adds that will throw Explosive Rounds on random players. The damage is unavoidable and won’t amount to much until you have a lot of adds that throw many Explosive Rounds. The raid should spread out and have at least 6 yards between each other to avoid multiplying the damage.

To lower the raid damage, you must kill the adds. But the only way to get up to the balcony is to get launched by Shattering Smash. Designate a team of five DPS that will position themselves in the smash every time. When they get launched up to the balcony, their goal is to kill as many adds as possible during a short time. People on the balcony will take increasing damage from the stacking debuff Incendiary Shots, which limits their time. Use damage dealers that have very high burst and at least moderate survivability, to increase your chances of clearing as many adds as possible.

This phase is one of the longer phases, which means you will have a lot of mines from Throw Slag Bombs lying around. Fortunately, you can clear this with the Siegemaker that enters the fight at a steady interval. When the Siegemaker enters the room it will fixate on the closest player. You should assign a damage-dealer, preferably a hunter, that always stands closest to the Siegemaker when it enters the room. That person will have to kite it around and should make sure that it runs over all mines! The mines will explode and cause damage to the Siegemaker.

But you don’t want this tank up and running forever. There will be more tanks that enters the fight and if they are up for too long, they will throw Mortar at 100 energy which causes Blaze. a large puddle of fire, to consume much of your space for movement. They will also go into Overdrive and launch more Mortar at a rapid pace. You have to take down the Siegemaker before that happens! The tank has a Blackiron Plating that has to be removed to enable you to kill it. It can be removed with either a Slag Bomb or an Impaling Throw!

Since Blackhand still do Marked for Death in this phase, but you don’t have any debris to hide behind, the marked players should instead hide behind the moving Siegemaker. This will break the Blackiron Plating and soak up the damage from Impaling Throw. There can be times however when you don’t have a Siegemaker active and Impaling Throw incoming. It’ll be the tanks job then to soak Impaling Throw instead of the Siegemaker.

During the entire phase all players must know where the Siegemaker and the players with Marked for Death are located. If people fail to notice the Siegemaker’s position, they are running a great risk of getting Impaled Throw in their faces. That must never happen!

Of all Blackhand’s phases, this is the trickiest one to get the mechanics right. Just make sure that you don’t stand on the bombs, never in front of the Siegemaker (since it does Battering Ram to all players directly in front of it) and always have an eye on where the Marked for Death players are so you can avoid Impaling Throw. It’s also important that the designated DPS gets launched properly on the balcony and deal with the adds.

If you can manage all this, then you are up for phase three down at the Crucible.

Phase Three; Iron Crucible
There will be extremely high damage in this phase so make sure you have Revival ready (if you used it in the first phase this shouldn’t be a problem).

There will be bombs in this phase as well, but this time they will be attached to players who have to place them properly to avoid cluttering too much of your precious space.

You will also have Marked for Death and Impaling Throw which will be empowered in this phase and hit all players in its path. This time you can’t avoid the damage in any way, the affected players simply have to soak it.

You should have a prearranged strategy for this phase. If you move clockwise, have people with Attached Slag Bombs move to the left and players with Marked for Death move to the right. No one should stand close to the players affected by Slag bombs, or in the path of Impaling Throw. Stay as stacked as possible and avoid these abilities.

When Blackhand does Massive Shattering Smash, tanks and damage dealers should position themselves to soak the smash but not get launched off the very small platform you are standing on. Do this by having the targeted tank standing with the back against the middle of the room and the raid behind the tank. Healers can choose not to stand in the smash to be able to heal at all times.

The smash will leave a Slag Crater (and the Attached Slag Bombs), which Blackhand will cause to erupt with Slag Eruption. When it does, you will see a very large lava field that you should not stand in. Standing in the erupted area will cause very high ticking damage.

Since both Slag Craters and the Attached Slag Bombs will take up space, you have a very short time to kill Blackhand before the whole platform is covered. Be very meticulous where you place the bombs and where you position Blackhand for Massive Shattering Smash. You could easily wipe because you have nowhere to move.

Another thing that can easily wipe the raid is if players get launched off the small platform because of Impaling Throw or Massive Shattering Smash. Always position yourself so that you have enough space behind you for the launch.

If you are meticulous and deliberate with the mechanics, you will kill Blackhand.

Since ranged players will stay spread pretty much the whole fight, you will mostly depend on Uplift as a major healing output. The tier 6 talents, Xuen, Chi Torpedo and Rushing Jade Wind will have minimal impact in comparison.

Chi Torpedo is very dangerous since you could easily torpedo into a mine. Unless you are very good at handling the torpedo, you should stay away from this ability. Use Xuen for some free healing and extra DPS, or use Rushing Jade Wind if you need the extra burst healing in the third phase.

As for Revival, you should use it in the first phase after Massive Demolition have impacted. You can use it again in phase three when the damage from Massive Shattering Smash is high.

If you use Crane stance, you should have 100% focus on not standing on the orange arrows that indicate the direction of Impaling Throw. Also make sure not to stand in bombs!

There will also be many times when you need to use defensives. Dampen Harm is gold in this fight since A) it mitigates both physical and fire damage and B) it has three charges that are active for 45 seconds (as opposed to Diffuse Magic’s 6 seconds duration). The demolition in the first phase happens in several outbursts during a longer period of time, the Explosive Rounds in phase two do the same over the whole phase and in phase three there will be damage from many sources. Dampen Harm is just perfect in every way for this fight.

The highest peak damages in the entire fight is demolition in the first phase, use Dampen Harm and Xuen in the first (if you have it) and Fortifying Brew and Revival in the second. Get Blackhand down to 70% before a third happens. If you use Rushing Jade Wind, be conservative with it until phase three where you need to burst heal a lot.

Phase One; The Blackrock Forge

• Tanks will take high damage when hit by Shattering Smash. Use Life Cocoon to mitigate some of the damage.
• Keep a track of players with Marked for Death and avoid getting hit by Impaling Thow.
• The raid will take high damage when Massive Demolition hits. Use Xuen healing and Dampen Harm during the first demolition and then Fortifying Brew and Revival on the second (unless Revival is designated for other purposes).
• Don’t stand in Molten Slag.
• Don’t walk on a Slag Bomb.

Phase Two; Storage Warehouse

• Keep a track of players with Marked for Death and avoid getting hit by Impaling Thow.
• Players branded with Marked for Death should hide behind the Siegemaker. If there are no Siegemakers active, the off-tank has to soak the Impaling Thow and will need external cooldowns.
• You will need a designated team of 5 players that will go up on the balcony to clear all the adds. They can do so by getting launched by Shattering Smash.
  • Pre-hot the balcony players with Renewing Mist before they jump up.
  • When the balcony players get too many stacks of Incendiary Shot they have to jump down before it kills them.
• Use Dampen Harm when the Explosive Shard damage becomes massive.
• Don’t stand in front of the Siegemaker. The Battering Ram does high damage.
• Don’t stand in Blaze.
• Don’t walk on a Slag Bomb.

Phase Three; Iron Crucible

• The raid will take constant but moderate damage from Overheated. The damage will increase over time.
• All players have to help soak the Massive Shattering Smash. Healers could opt out on it to be able to heal continuously.
• Prearrange where the people with Attached Slag Bombs should go and where the people who are Marked for Death should stand.
• Never stand between Blackhand and a player Marked for Death.
• Massive Shattering Smash and Attached Slag Bombs leave Slag Craters which Blackhand will erupt with Slag Eruption. Never stand in the orange areas where the eruption has been.
• You will have limited time to kill Blackhand before the whole Crucible is covered in erupted slag craters. Use Bloodlust, Time Warp or Ancient Hysteria to shorten the phase.
• If you have the talent, this is the time to use Rushing Jade Wind.

• Take extra care to not stand in a Slag Bomb. They always land on melee and it takes only three seconds until they arm and become active. Watch out!
• Be careful not to stand in Shattering Smash unless you are designated to go up on the balconies in phase two.
  • If you are designated to go up on the balconies, use Touch of Death liberally.
• When ranged players get  Marked for Death, notice where the orange arrows point from Blackhand to avoid the Impaling Thow.

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