Blood Furnace Strategy Guide
With that being said, below we'll break down tips and tricks to help trivialize this dungeon for TBC Anniversary players!
Group Composition for The Blood Furnace
The Blood Furnace requires a bit more of a strict group composition to make your time here much smoother. You will want at least TWO classes with hard crowd control abilities, mainly for the gauntlet before the second boss, Broggok, because the Nascent Fel Orcs that are in groups of three and four in this gauntlet are immune to slows, but not CC abilities and stuns.
Use hard CC against Nascent Fel Orcs
Having one Mage along with one Warlock is perfect for this dungeon, as the former can Polymorph, and the latter can use Fear along with Seduction. Fear should only be used for the aforementioned gauntlet, as there is no worry of pulling another pack of trash mobs here. The Warlock can also Banish the hard-hitting demons in the latter half of the dungeon. A Shadow Priest can also Mind Control Nascent Fel Orcs, which is extremely helpful!
Although the Nascent Fel Orcs are immune to slows, the other trash mobs here are not. The third DPS class to bring is great for a Hunter, for being able to slow targets with Frost Trap, as almost everything in this dungeon hits particularly hard, and tanks will not want to face tank usually more than two mobs at a time here. A mage's blizzard is helpful, but there are mobs throughout who can silence and interrupt, causing a disruption with this slow.
We do not want to discourage bringing any other classes aside from the above, as melee are still plenty useful here. As mentioned before, Rogues, along with having a CC ability with Sap, can also stunlock the harder-hitting targets, which can significantly reduce the amount of kiting a tank has to do, while also having an interupt for casters with Kick. If your CC is under control, you can bring other melee classes as well; it will just be very challenging if you do not have strong crowd control for this.
The weakest tank of this dungeon in terms of survivability will be the Paladin, as they'll find themselves getting hit the hardest compared to the other two, and the mobs can silence them for a considerable amount of time. However, it is not impossible by any means with a protection paladin; they will just find it a bit harder compared to the other two, and kiting will be a hard requirement to survive most of the trash mobs here.
Protection Paladin Tank Talents & Builds Guide
Their Hammer of Justice can be helpful and should be used very liberally. Warriors, although often seen incorrectly as bad tanks in TBC, will shine particularly bright in this heroic, due to their health pool, personal defensive cooldowns, damage reduction abilities with Demoralizing Shout and Thunder Clap. Additionally, their large toolkit of abilities like Shield Bash, Concussion Blow, Hamstring, and Spell Reflection can help mitigate damage and control enemies.
For healers, Priests shine particularly bright for their strong tank healing and AoE healing, although there is mostly only the former. The final boss, Keli'dan the Breaker, deals heavy shadow damage and casts a dispellable Corruption debuff. They, along with Paladins, will also shine for their ability to dispel both magic and disease debuffs that are throughout this dungeon. It's always good to have a Shaman of any kind solely for their incredibly powerful totem buffs, and Bloodlust / Heroism to be able to significantly speed up any encounter in a heroic dungeon.
Trash Tips for The Blood Furnace
All of the Hellfire Citadel Dungeons have a recurring theme of one particular trash mob that cannot be slowed, but can be stunned. For Blood Furnace, it is the Nascent Fel Orc. These are also the mobs in the gauntlet prior to Broggok, and the reason why group compositions are more strict compared to other dungeons. These mobs hit incredibly hard, and tanks will find themselves struggling to survive with more than two at a time.
Having two of these mobs hard crowd-controlled with Polymorph and Fear negates a lot of that damage, and then having stuns for the 1-2 that are active will completely trivialize this encounter. Along with that, a Shadow Priest can also Mind Control these mobs, which not only can be considered a CC ability, but also grants your party access to one of these hard hitters!
Outside of the gauntlet, everything in this dungeon will hit your tanks hard. Having coordinated stuns and CCing at least one mob in a trash pack will make this much easier. Should you be running with a paladin tank and be with trash packs that are melee only, you can opt into aoeing them down and kiting in a slow instead, to speed up the process.
Watch out for bombs!
The second hardest area outside of the gauntlet will be the trash before the first boss, The Maker, primarily due to the Shadowmoon Technician mobs. These mobs, like the Blackwing Lair technicians, will throw and plant powerful explosives, dealing gnarly AoE damage should you trigger them. On top of that, they also Silence players. All casters, especially healers, should look to max range this to avoid getting silenced, as one of these can be fatal to your tank.
And post Broggok, this is where the Warlock shines. Warlocks should ALWAYS Banish the Felguard Annihilator before the final boss. These mobs not only hit incredibly hard, but have frequent threat resets, making it a big challenge for your tanks to deal with them along with other mobs.
Boss Tips for The Blood Furnace
The bosses in the Blood Furnace are very much loot pinatas, as they're almost just a celebration of getting to them after clearing the challenging trash mobs before them. None of them has any additional mechanics, but their abilities now deal significantly more damage. Healers should follow the rule of ABC (Always Be Casting).
The Makers only scary mechanic will be his 10-second Domination. The player can break this with their PvP trinket, but if not available, simply CC or stun the mind-controlled target. Typically, this boss falls over before even casting that ability.
For Broggok, move him out of his poison pools and dispel his Poison Bolt. The only challenge outside of this is making sure your mana-users have enough mana after the gauntlet, as you never drop combat once it's started until the boss is defeated. Save all mana restoration abilities or potions until the waves are cleared. Collect free loot and congrats on beating the gauntlet!
The final boss will provide some challenge due to his unavoidable AoE damage from Shadow Bolt Volley and Corruption DoT that is cast on the party. The latter is a dispellable magic debuff, so it should be dispelled asap!
