Well... BRD?

[Herald of Doom]

Hii everyone. My lvl 57 mage is getting ready to do BRD. I have done all instances up to Sunken Temple, and I'm confident about playing my mage. However, there are a few questions that remain.

1) I have 2 quests in category BRD, one blackrock mountain. That can't be it right? I've only gotten quests in Burning Steppes though. Can't think of another place to get quests for BRD
2) People tell me it's hard. What would be the minimum party be? I keep getting mixed answers (52+, 55+,57+ ... what is it? :p)
3)I have 2650hp,5600 mana, 521 armor (<-- ^_^) and about +30spell dmg and +26frost dmg. Am I good enough?
4) Any special tips I need to know about? :laugh:

Reason I ask like this is I have very few occasions where I can play 2-3 hours straight and I dont want to ruin one of my very few chances to complete a instance ;)

PS: Feel free to mock me for being :silly:

HoD

[Xaero]

I have never finnished BRD. Not once. So if you fail, don't worry.

At lvl 57, you should be OK. The mob levels start out at 54 elite (IIRC).

Your quests will differ between Alliance and Horde, but the one that you'll want to make sure you get is the Shadowforge quest. When you wipe, as your running back to the door, there will be an NPC standing on pedistal that you can only see while dead. He gives you the quest.

http://pc.gamespy.com/guides/wowat60/ has some great write-ups to help get you prepared.

BRD is inside Blackrock Mountain. Same as LBRS, UBRS, Molten Core, and BWL. You'll become quite familiar with the place.

[Herald of Doom]

Wow, that's an extremely useful site! I'm getting help from a 60 mage friend of mine, so we got dps+aoe covered. He might get his guildmate (warrior in tier1) to tag along if we're lucky so I guess that party should have no problems. I'll be getting all those quests now described in the guide (hurray for teleport!!!)

HoD

[DarkManxXx]

Its the hardest of the five mans if people arent knowledgable, there are several different areas doable by a mid 50's party one area can be done by a lowish 50's party but to do an emp run you need a 57-60 party and someone that can tell ya how it goes.
There are quests for there in Kharanos(badlands),Ironforge from King(chain from chick near him) and both morgans vigil,Flamecrest and a Dragon in the northeast corner of BS.
A few are chain quest like The princess/ony chain and flame guys.
Btw i believe the princess quest is broken.

[Herald of Doom]

I just got the one from badlands, am on the boat to theramore as I post. I think I pretty much have all the quests now, thanks for the tips. So far our party consists of:

57mage (me)
60 mage (blues from 5man, 2 arcanist pieces)
60 warrior possibly (full tier1)
58 druid possibly (blues from 5man)
random dude willing to join us

fingers crossed

HoD

[Twoflower]

if you want to quest in there, take someone who knows the instance well. otherwise you will spend 10 hours and more in it and still wont see everything.

DONT go in there to quest if you dont have the quests for the onyxia key quest chain. while you are at it, get the MC prequest aswell.

lvl 57 should be more than enugh, i d start strat and scholo whit 57, dire maul whit 58, LBRS andUBRS around that level too.

[Morollan]

Oh, and have lots of AOE fun in The Lyceum. :grin:

[Herald of Doom]

Turns out I won't be doing BRD today, my dad is staying home to do his finances... :: cry :: But, positive thing is I have all the quests now, except those I get in blackrock itself (like, the ghost thingie, and MC attunement). Let's hope my highlvl experienced friends have time tonight or tomorrow, I can't wait. Last few levels have been a breeze, ZF and SK were pathetically easy so I'm looking for a challenge (well a challenge other than WSG/AB that is, I need a somewhat fair challenge. Curse those premade 59 horde teams!! :p)

HoD

[Oatmealsmurf]

BRD is a lot of fun it's just very big and there are two sides to it. I've never made it to the emp personally not due to lack of ability but usually someone is ready to go by the time we get that far. You pretty much need to get a group who's goal is to do an emp run to pull it off. If you've got people who want quests done on the otherside or in the prison ring and/or Commander Gorshak then you might as well forget the emp.

Gotta believe it's the biggest 5 man instance out there... I can count 18 boss fights off the top of my head. Good luck when you go... if you maintain those party levels though it should be pretty easy. It's a challenge mid 50s but when you are the lowest level at 57 it should pretty much be cake as long as you aren't all new to it.

Mid 50's groups and lower will have trouble with the Archmagel (he hits insanely hard), probably the coffer room, and probably won't have enough DPS for the room of seven dwarves (which you have to get past to get to the emp)... and even if you did make it past them I'm betting you don't make it out of the hall where you light the torches prior to the emp. Need a strong AOE group for that and you have to move fast due to quick respawns.

[Aerath]

You'll see the instance a lot of times from the inside I fear.

Have done a 4 or 5 hour run in there and we -still- hadn't done all of it, so forget about finishing everything you've got in your quest book.

It's not that hard an instance as long as you pay attention. Runners can seriously ruin your day. You might wish to bring a Paladin/Shaman as resser.
If none is available, a Warlock will help you with all the Elementals there.

[Morollan]

Both of my lvl 60's have still got quests to complete in there. I dread to think how long you'd be in there if you were attempting to complete all available quests.

[Herald of Doom]

I went there just now. Finished two quests, pyron outside brd and the fanny packs inside, i had to leave just before we got to kharan (we did left side first) and windsor :(

On the plus side, we found a Krol Blade from a golem and I won the roll ::grin::

HoD

[bhroam]

I was highly annoyed at the fanny pack quest myself... took me 3 runs to get all 20 of them (many ppl on the quest), and all I get was 85s. So not worth the bagspot it took.

[Hamburglar]

BRD really stunk up until 1.9 or 1.10 I think. They have really buffed the drops off of the bosses. Doing a full run of BRD with the quests (especially alliance with the ony quest chain) will get you an amazing amount of experience. I got from 1/4 way through 58 to 60 by doing two full runs of BRD with all of the quests (alliance side). We had to do the emperor a 2nd time because the princess quest bugged out.

Someone mentioned that it was bugged, but it worked the 2nd time we tried it. I've also gone back to help people out recently and it wasn't bugged. It gives a great ring for the level so I encourage people to do it.

Warlocks are great to group with in this instance because of banish. Hellfire is a great AoE when used properly.

[Herald of Doom]

Well it was good fun the first time, but I tried a second and third time, and sheeeeesh people suck. Must've been bad luck with pugs, but those runs were hell. Maybe a 56 warrior isnt good enough as tank? :s But aaanyway, 4th try today hopefully. But, after BRD, which instance is next? Diremaul, strat,scholo,lbrs?

HoD

[Oatmealsmurf]

Depends on what level you are. I'd say probably Dire Maul East if you're about 56-57 when you're done with BRD. I'd put LBRS, scholo, DM North and Strat all around the same level. You can get away with being lvl 58. DM West and UBRS I'd say be 60s.

[hulla-hop]

Well it was good fun the first time, but I tried a second and third time, and sheeeeesh people suck. Must've been bad luck with pugs, but those runs were hell. Maybe a 56 warrior isnt good enough as tank? :s But aaanyway, 4th try today hopefully. But, after BRD, which instance is next? Diremaul, strat,scholo,lbrs?

HoD

seriously, pugs suck. when people dont have anything at stake by leaving or ninjaing or just plain being an idiot, they tend to do just that. every time you find some decent people, be sure to chat a bit with them and put them on your friendlist. if you get a bunch of people around the same lvl and with the same intentions as you to do these instances with you are much better off. doesnt hav to be the same 4 others everytime, but having 2 or3 people you know a bit and that can play well gives you a much better successrate than having new clowns every time.

[Herald of Doom]

Depends on what level you are. I'd say probably Dire Maul East if you're about 56-57 when you're done with BRD. I'd put LBRS, scholo, DM North and Strat all around the same level. You can get away with being lvl 58. DM West and UBRS I'd say be 60s.
59 now, having some fun in wsg and ab before I hit 60 and have to face premade tier2 teams :)

I have some friends but they're either running mc/bwl/aq40 or below 50,somehow i havent made any friends my level :s

HoD

[Oatmealsmurf]

I advise gearing yourself up by running Strat/Scholo/BRS/DM then you can start joining your friends in MC. BWL is a ways off for you in terms of gear. Plus you'll need to get attuned first.

Did you happen to get MC attuned while you were in BRD? If not you have at least one more run you have to do, unless you don't plan on raiding.

[bhroam]

AT 59, you can try any of the lot... but strat/scholo are a bit harder than DM-E or lbrs... lbrs as a 10man raid is remarkabily easy. Depending on which class you are, a number of set pieces drop in there.

UBRS is quite a bit harder... especally the higher you go. The first couple of rooms aren't that bad, but once you get up near the beast, just the trash mobs are quite hard. There is one pull of 5 mobs in the room outside the beast which will wipe a full 10man raid of 60s.

I find scholo easier than strat-ud, but of course most of strat-ud is pretty easy... the baron's tough though.

One last thing before I stop babbling... in a end game 5 man instance, choosing the correct 5 people is incredibly important. There is no tagging along for the ride... Each person needs to pull their own weight.

[Oatmealsmurf]

Yeah party make up means a lot. The Baron becomes unnecessarily hard if you don't have a mage to deal with the skeletons but I think all and all Scholo is a bit harder than Strat dead... except for the final boss and the first pull which can be an adventure especially if not everyone gets under the gate right away. But the butcher and the dude with the death aura in Scholo who I always forget his name can be quite the challenge. I don' tthink I've ever wiped in a boss fight in Strat though (except for the Baron).

I've actually never 10 manned LBRS so I would imagine it is quite easy if you can find people that actually want to 10 man it... but I tend to avoid LBRS and the only reason I'd go in there is for set pieces, Onyxia key quest and key to UBRS.

[bhroam]

Yeah my guild generally runs all of brs (lower then upper) to get as many ppl their set pieces as possible. Since we pretty much spec for upper, lower is just plain boring. I'm there in my healbot gear... but you don't need 2 healers for lower, so I'm the moonfire bug guy... moonfire + insect swarm... and if they're not dead, maybe a fearie fire =]

As for strat vs scholo, I do have to agree that most other than the baron, strat ud is pretty easy. The 2nd to the end boss in scholo (Some Barov, i always forget his name) is actually harder than Gandling himself. You need to pull his skeleton guards off correctly to the right place to be able to have the priest heal both you and the tank on the boss. Then the anti-healing curse he throws about, it gets scary.

So I donno why I always think scholo is easier than strat... for some reason I do... must be the first time I was up against teh baron... scared my poor druid for life =]

[Oatmealsmurf]

Yeah that's it Alexei Barov... oh he can be such a pain ... especially for an inexperienced group... There is also Jandice who is just annoying as all get out when she splits into a million ghost forms... The butcher hits like a tank... and so does Rattlegore (though he's not as hard)... and you're really in for some fun if someone is on the quest that turns Ras Frostwhisperer into human form.

You're right though Gandling is really not too hard. It's just a matter of people making sure they get out of the side rooms quickly if they've been teleported.

[Herald of Doom]

You've scared me all so much I don't wanna go anymore ::pout::

Well I have at least one more brd run to do, Incendius needs to die and I haven't been attuned to MC either. I am looking for a guild that could help me, my current guild is kinda inactive after two people left. I think I'll try brd again and then read about strat/scholo, if they're pretty much equally hard I'll take the one with the most chance of "phat l00t" for a mage ;)

HoD

[Morollan]

Personally I find Strat SS more tricky than the Undead side. I've only reached the end a couple of times and still not managed to beat that bugger.

[Oatmealsmurf]

I've actually never done strat live side... just because none of my set pieces drop in there and everyone seems to like taking down the Baron. rather than the Baroness.

[Hayek]

Don't forget to get working on the Onyxia key questline if you're alliance. It takes you through BRD a couple of times, and if you can combine one of those with a regular run that helps loads.

For example: once you talk to windsor the frist time, he's a pretty depressing guy. Head out of the instance to bring the bad news, then get back in. One of the mobs (and basically every 20th mob till you accept the quest) drops a crumpled note. Speak to windsor again, he'll have you kill 2 guys. As luck would have it, those 2 are on the route to the bar if you have the shadowforge key (and MC attunement, which is well past the bar), so if you have a nice - and capable - group you can kill those on the same run. That saves you a very broing extra BRD trip. You''l later have to go again to escort windsor out, but thats another story and shouldnt be combined with a full run.

[DrOsmius]

BRD, imo, is the first instance where you REALLY have to work well as a team, and use actual tactics. Many of the fights, you simply have to have a gameplan, and it has to have some crowd control

Also, levels 53-57 are fine for doing hours and hours in BRD. And I'd been there a dozen or more times before I knew about a Coffer Run and Burning Essence (i.e. something for getting +20 fire resist enchants...so try to get them now).

The Lyceum, or Wipe City. Little to no margin for groups that won't/can't work together....very fun if you do!

[Oatmealsmurf]

freaking burning essence... that damn dark keeper refuses to leave any in his vault for me. I'm seriously about to give up on that libram because I'm getting a little tired of BRD and I don't want to be one of those guys who joins a group and then leaves in the middle when I know people want to do more.

[bhroam]

The one time I did a coffer run I got the Blood of the Tormented (or whatever it is)... It's for the libram for the +spell damage.

As for Jail Break, do not forget your chores... do not forget to clean the cobwebs out of the storage closet before starting the quest.

In this case the cobwebs happen to be like 3-4 mobs in there. If you don't clean out the storage closet, the quest will add a couple guys and you'll wipe.

Guess what happens when you wipe on Jail Break? You need to reset the instance... of Windsor dies, you're screwed and have to start again.

[Oatmealsmurf]

I got black blood of the tormented for my mana libram and then I also have some eye that I haven't looked up yet to see which libram it's for. But I've done a bunce of Dark Keeper runs and only seen Burning Essence drop once (and I didn't know what it was for then so I passed on it since someone said they needed it)... Wouldn't you know the Libram of Resilience drops for me the next day. WoW has a wicked sense of humor sometimes.

[Xaero]

Since someone brought up Jandice, I'd like to throw out a trick my guild is now using in that room. Before the pull, make the following macro:

/target Jandice Barov

This will target her when she reappears and not all the clones.

[Oatmealsmurf]

This failed last time I tried it. It would work until she split... but when she split it wouldn't target anything.

[Xaero]

When she splits, she disappears and becomes untargetable for a short time. (like 5-10 seconds) After that she will reappear and can be picked out of the crowd with that macro.

[bhroam]

From what I have read (I've not done jandice myself), is that if you hit 'V', the only one who has a health bar is the real Jandice.

As for the libram... you're probably right about the mana bonus.... I was looking at two librams close togehter and musta mixed them up. I believe the libram of focus is the +dam/heal and libram of rumunation (sp?) is the +mana... and the black blood of the tormented is definietly for the latter.

[DrOsmius]

From what I have read (I've not done jandice myself), is that if you hit 'V', the only one who has a health bar is the real Jandice.

Doesn't work for me...I always have 'V' on. You just have to deal with the 5-10sec...

[Arkane Dark]

BRD is inside Blackrock Mountain. Same as LBRS, UBRS, Molten Core, and BWL. You'll become quite familiar with the place.

And prepare to get the **** ganked out of you while walking through the Molten Span.

[swaldman]

Depends on what level you are. I'd say probably Dire Maul East if you're about 56-57 when you're done with BRD. I'd put LBRS, scholo, DM North and Strat all around the same level. You can get away with being lvl 58. DM West and UBRS I'd say be 60s.

IMHO Scholo is harder than the others you listed. And I'd probably put LBRS at slightly easier than the others too (possibly joined by DiM North).

[bhroam]

LBRS is really easy because you can 10man raid it. You can't do any of the quests, but you can farm it for gear.

I've never run DM-N, but DM-E and DM-W aren't too too bad. My first DM-E run was after many LBRS/UBRS/Strat/Scholo runs and found it to be incredibly easy. For the most part west is easy enough.... the prince hits HARD and has a annoying aggro-wipe knock back. He drops some nice stuff if he isn't being greedy. Most of the time I kill him, he's being greedy and takes the phat lewt I want to the grave with him.

[Oatmealsmurf]

In my experience one inexperienced player will get you wiped faster in LBRS because you pull a lot of big groups (up to 5 mobs at a time) and most of em run when you get em low on health.

An experienced group I would agree that scholo is tougher when it comes to the boss fights because none of the boss fights in LBRS are anything special... but other than pulling that first room it really isn't all that hard to progress through the instance... and one weak player can be compensated for as long as the rest of the group is strong. I also think that inexperience players will have a tougher time with strat dead than they would scholo because of the limited crowd control available on most mobs. If they don't have a priest it can be pretty tough just to get past the first pull if you haven't done it many times. Also the event before Ramstein and then having to fight those 5 skeletal gaurds right Ramstein and the super weak AOE skeles will stop a lot of first time groups cold and the run will be called before they even have a chance to get a glimpse of the Baron.

Definitely the boss fights in Strat and Scholo are tougher than the Boss fights in DM North and LBRS though. I think overall they can be done at the same levels. Part of it may be though that I simply like Strat and Scholo a lot and hate LBRS...

If I was to really split hairs I'd say that Strat Dead was the hardest of those instances... because ultimately the only reason I've ever had to call a scholo run was due to a lack of time. But I've been on Strat Dead runs where we've had to call it simply because the group wasn't suited to tackling the Baron. Not having a mage along makes it very hard to stop him from getting his dark pact off with the skeletons. And if you miss a heal and your tank dies it's simply over. I've been a group that killed Gandling with me (a warlock) tanking the final minute or so of the fight.

[Calli]

I've seen a Lock tank Gandling too, while I was the only healer as a nub 60 Feral Druid. Dunno if that says more about how imba Warlocks are or how imba a healer I was, probably the former. :wink:

[Morollan]

Had a nightmare in BRD at the weekend. Spent 3 hours in there and just about managed to kill Incendius and Darkvine (so at least I managed to get the Shadowforge Key finally). Group was okay except for the fact that the party leader had invited a guildie along, a 60 Pal. Now this guy was a good player and he was only there to help out his guildie, who hadn't had any luck finding a tank. But the Pally was at work! Every few minutes he'd have to stop playing so he could serve a customer. He'd be away without any notice, often in the middle of a fight and for anywhere up to 20 minutes! Now if that were me, I'd say to the guildie "Look, I'd love to help but I'd be no good to you in an instance as I am at work right now". By 'helping' out his buddy he actually caused the group to take twice as long and achieve almost nothing.

[Oatmealsmurf]

LOL... that's classic. I would have just left. BRD is one of the easiest instances to get a group for.

[Morollan]

On my server it seems to be quite hard to get a group for BRD. I've got 2 lvl 60's and both have 3 or 4 quests still to do in there as they just haven't managed to get a group going. I think it's because the place is so damn big!

[Oatmealsmurf]

That's weird... I think a combination of a lot of factors keeps that place busy on my server. There are always people looking to get MC Attuned... I also see a lot of people who I ran with in my mid 50's constantly there. (I think they are scared to move up to the harder instances). And BRD represents Endgame... plus people are always going because it's so big... or for thorium brotherhood stuff, and libram enchants.

[Morollan]

I think the problem is the size of the place. You get people who want to do specific things and they don't want to spend an extra hour doing something different. So you'll get groups who just want to do an Emperor run and won't go near the jail (and vice versa). Or those who want to do attunement and want to miss out as much other stuff as possible.

[FodderCannoned]

Just did a 2 man 3 1/2 hour run through brd, myself(lock) and a priest, both in tier 1 gear, Did 7 bosses in there during that time, i wish i knew their names. But started out doing the one that drops the druid libram. Then went back through the bar. Then did the fire snake, then 7 dwarfs, then backtracked, and did incidous, and then dark finous, and then the coffers.

[swaldman]

I think the problem is the size of the place. You get people who want to do specific things and they don't want to spend an extra hour doing something different. So you'll get groups who just want to do an Emperor run and won't go near the jail (and vice versa). Or those who want to do attunement and want to miss out as much other stuff as possible.

BRD seems to be the instance that gets the most stupid wipes, IME. Maybe this is because it's only the second "non-easy" instance (ST being the first, IMHO), and the first one where you can't really level far enough that you can just out-dps your mistakes[1]. For this reason, combined with the length, I'm very rarely willing to go along in a PuG to BRD, even though I'll quite happily PuG most other places. If others feel the same, this would contribute to the difficulty of finding groups... (and it is hard on my server as well).


[1] Unless you count getting raid epics as "levelling". But people wearing these aren't usually PuGing anyway.

[bhroam]

So I _FINALLY_ made it down to the end of BRD somewhat recently. This is after tons and tons of runs. The main problem with the place is the size. You have to stay on target. It was always... on this person has to talk to windsor... well since we've cleared that out, we might as well do the ring of law... and after the ring you need to go check for the rare at the statue... then since you're there you might as well do incendious.... and the list goes on and on.

I hit 60 months ago and it was just last week that I finally made it down to the black forge to smelt up the 9 bars worth if Dark Iron I was holding onto. I was already attuned... I paid some money grubbing capitalistic scum of warlock 10g to summon me to the core fragment.

For those new to BRD I suggest the following
1st trip) talk to windsor and get your shadowforge key (do incendious since you're there)
2nd trip) get the note and talk to windsor (and do the ring of law since you've cleared). Kill the general and the golem lord... make it to the bar and get the love potion quest
3rd trip) until you wanna do jail break, don't waste your time getting anywhere near the dungeon. This was my problem... always getting side tracked. Dont' take down the golem lord or the general again... more time wasted. Go to the bar, talk to the succubus, kill flamelash, the dwarves, get attuned.

this is about as far as Ive gotten... I've not made it though the lycem (sp?). We've never had a rogue with us, and a druid just doesn't cut it... we dont' have vanish.

But my point of this post is stay on target... set goals for what your BRD run is for and don't stray... it might seem like quick trip to do X or Y, but those little quick trips add up, ppl get tired and you don't make it to your goal.

In any case, there's a good BRD guide at gamespot. It talks about the 3 trips into BRD and what todo on each.

Oh and when you are doing jailbreak, don't forget your chores. There are cobwebs in the storage closet which need to be cleaned out before you start.

Those cobwebs being 5 mobs.... if you don't kill them first, the quest adds like 5 more and you wipe. If you wipe at jailbreak you need to reset the instance and start over (1hr+ of clearing).

[swaldman]

this is about as far as Ive gotten... I've not made it though the lycem (sp?). We've never had a rogue with us, and a druid just doesn't cut it... we dont' have vanish.

I don't know how hard this would be... but don't feel you have to stick to the "standard" way of doing it... I've only done Lyceum onwards once, for much the same reasons as you describe... but I did it in a group with no mage, which everybody says is near-impossible. It wasn't, just required a little thought.

Oh and when you are doing jailbreak, don't forget your chores. There are cobwebs in the storage closet which need to be cleaned out before you start.

Those cobwebs being 5 mobs.... if you don't kill them first, the quest adds like 5 more and you wipe.

Heh. TBH, I find jailbreak much more fun to do without clearing...! Just so long as your group isn't going to be too upset if they do wipe. It's good fun, and if the group is mostly 58-60 (and moderately competent) you have a good chance.

[Oatmealsmurf]

A Mage makes it infinitely easier but I went all the way to the emp for the first time last weekend (more out of boredom than anything, but I did get a nice off hand fire resist item out of it for MC). We had a a mage but honestly I did most of the heavy lifting with my AOE as the wasn't on his toes (Lock). You just have to keep moving. I was also thinking you had to get 4 torches lit... not just two. So it was easier than I expected and I don't think we "needed" the mage to get through it.

[yavvy]

Had a nightmare in BRD at the weekend. Spent 3 hours in there and just about managed to kill Incendius and Darkvine (so at least I managed to get the Shadowforge Key finally). Group was okay except for the fact that the party leader had invited a guildie along, a 60 Pal. Now this guy was a good player and he was only there to help out his guildie, who hadn't had any luck finding a tank. But the Pally was at work! Every few minutes he'd have to stop playing so he could serve a customer. He'd be away without any notice, often in the middle of a fight and for anywhere up to 20 minutes! Now if that were me, I'd say to the guildie "Look, I'd love to help but I'd be no good to you in an instance as I am at work right now". By 'helping' out his buddy he actually caused the group to take twice as long and achieve almost nothing.Happened to me too once, only it was a Rogue. In the end he was kicked and replaced with a Warlock.

[bhroam]

I did finally make it through earlier this week.... and there was a wipe in the middle. The first attemp we got one torch lit and almost got the second but respawns got us. We had a suicidal lock doing his thing keeping us all alive. He did die at one point, but I battlerez'd him. It was his first time getting a battlerez, so he was stoked =]

After the lyciem, the emporer himself wasn't too bad... he does hit hard though. I think he killed me in the end, but our dps took him down.

It was all about offtanking the princess where she is and separating the two.

I was really excited back when I got this quest about the quest rewards.... That was months ago and my gear is pretty good now. The rings aren't all that.

Now of course if I could get that kickass ring the horde get from this quest, I'd be stoked.

As oatmealsmurf says... just keep moving in the lyciem and have some aoe nuking the dwarves.

I did find it useful to sneak in and put raid symbols on the guys who drop the torches. The two mobs look different up close, but when you're moving quickly, it's VERY helpful to have a "come kill me" symbol over their head.

[Loriel]

I was under the impression that Horde and Alliance both get a +dmg ring from their respective Emperor quests. Different name but identical stats - Eye of Orgrimmar vs. Songstone of Ironforge

[yavvy]

Thrall's Resolve (http://wwndata.worldofwar.net/item.php?id=12544), great Druid tanking ring.