Why Blackrock Depths is the Greatest MMORPG Dungeon of all time

A look at why Blackrock Depths (BRD) is the greatest dungeon of all time.
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Nobbel video: • The Story of Blackrock...

[@TipsOutBaby]

More BRD facts: 1. Librams and other materials used for Arcanum enchants are looted within BRD (leg/head enchants) 2. All Dark Iron based BS recipes had to be forged at the Black forge in BRD 3. There is a portrait in front of the coffer room that reveals which Dark Keeper is up so you can loot the Dark Keeper key 4. The dungeon is awesome.

[@LoLBluepaint]

@@ericblack2252 ???????????????????

[@TipsOutBaby]

Eric Black 1. You are wrong. I have shown my account history several times on stream. Started playing in early Vanilla. 2. 4 million xp to hit lvl 60. Halfway mark is around level 47. Thats why I said “VIRTUALLY” half the game. 3. People ran BRD all the time; yore experience was either isolated or just blatantly wrong. 4. Making money off KZbin? Is that a joke? I left a career as a PM to grow this channel. I was making sooooo much more before, but this is my passion and I have loved every minute of this. You need to chill dude.

[@cvkpaper]

@@TipsOutBaby theres alot alot of fire res gear you can get in brd, its dps tryharding on firemaw

[@1MoreTurn]

Eric Black Found the grinch boys. Tag and bag him.

[@dirk6503]

@@ericblack2252 a classic wow account seller telling a passionated classic content creator he is only doing it for the money? Should we take you serious?

[@trorisk]

-Are you ok for going to BRD? -Sorry i just have 2 hours

[@antoineguerrier2965]

An Emperor run is just 30 minutes with a group that knows how to do it.

[@Ingeb91]

He's not talking about an emp run dude xD The attunement and key runs can take fucking all day.

[@antoineguerrier2965]

@@Ingeb91 Eh, it depends on wether your party knows their stuff or not, doing the escort and a lava run to MC isn't that long. ^^

[@seiurkarl2433]

lol you could easily spend 4 hours+ in there doing quest runs in late 50s

[@Solmangrundy]

The epic drop rate on 5man Dungeons was retarded low. For all the years i farmed BRD I never had the epic mace drop off the emperor. Same with Scholomance's epic Staff. Never had that drop and we'd farm it 5 times a day.

[@tinywarfare9109]

When dungeons were dungeons, instead of you and a bunch of randoms doing a linear speed-run to the loot pinata.

[@firsh]

Too bad some classic players still think it's retail and act like that.

[@Battleatchivamaugs]

Perfectly expressed

[@AP-hv9ll]

If you aren’t seriously guilded and do a full BRD run and pull your weight, you WILL have a guild by the end. Those 4 players are probably your new best friends

[@tortor1251]

No doubt!, I only ever made it to the emperor's throne room, but couldn't kill the emperor..... but epic as hell the whole way through!

[@ntma]

This, and at the very least, four new people on your friends list :3

[@DRourk]

Too true!!!

[@RestoSexual]

Who does full brd runs?

[@newerfor]

Until Ironfoe drop and all melee starts going crazy

[@gorila_albino]

"what are we doing this afternoon?" "BRD!" "ok and what else?" "that's it, and let's hope we can do it whole"

[@MrMousiee]

Takes like 2hrs to run the whole thing.

[@8jaytee]

@@MrMousiee maybe if youre all 60 and or pros at doing brd. but my first full run took me 5 hours.

[@MrMousiee]

@@8jaytee yeah first run will you just need to know the mobs, how to pull them and also the layout of the dungeon and which order to do it in. Once you get that down you can run every boss in a couple hours even if you aren't 60. Wipes obviously slow it down but efficiency comes with time.

[@Davivd2]

Not just the dungeon, but Black Rock Mountain itself. You walk in and there are dragons flying around inside. You walk across a massive chain to get to the dungeon entrance. Who built these chains? Who mounted them? Before you even enter one of the instances inside the mountain you feel like you are in a Tolkien novel.

[@RedDynamite]

Yes! I remember taking the time to look at all the detail and at how huge the place was and how amazing it would be if something like this really existed. The man power it would take to build something like that.

[@kernfel]

I think you misspelled dwarfpower, mate! ;)

[@DraphEnjoyer]

"Dwarves are cool as shit" -J.R.R Tolkien

[@fredriksvard2603]

Davivd2 yup nothing in tbc or later came close to this

[@FatelDarkAssassins]

It is surprisingly atmospheric despite the lack of available high res textures. The sheer size makes you feel insignificant during your first time through but finally conquering it by doing BWL makes you feel amazing

[@callisto1234]

I remember my first full clear with my warrior. Had an oddly cooperative group that reeaallly needed a tank in my guild, i asked what was brd and they gave me a vague answer along with an invite and a teleport. They walked me through EVERYTHING we killed all the bosses, got all the phat loot, no full wipes. Thaurissan hit reaaalllly hard but we beat him. After that, i saw the throne and sat on it. Without being asked, my friends went close to the throne and kneeled. It felt sooo rewarding. The dungeon was such a massive long grind! We took turns on the throne sitting and kneeling to take pictures. When it was time to disband, i felt like those guys had become battle brothers to me.

[@stingrae789]

I'm still friends with someone I grouped with to do some of BRD lol. It was a dungeon I wish I'd done more of but also one where a good tank was absolutely necessary. Heh.

[@KnotsOfWonders]

Its that special feeling thats missing from most mmo's, imgur.com/LGU20FR good times.

[@jakubsabosz2933]

And that is spirit of vanilla damn it man. Cool story :) I love listening to human wc3 campaign soundtrack while healing vanilla dungeons on my pala clad in cloth armor for int and +healing. Kinda fun that every bit of stat is useful, that every food buff is useful, that bandages are fucking useful as compared to legion when they were trash...

[@contentlocked99]

BRD was the only dungeon that immersed me into thinking our party was plunging into the unknown, with only ourselves to rely on. Too deep to even hope for help from the outside world, but still not knowing what lies ahead. It truly was an experience of legends and tales of the past.

[@PeanutButterGamer]

Never got to do this dungeon since I was getting to 60 around when TBC was coming out. One of the many things I’m looking forward to experiencing for the first time in Classic.

[@interstellartravel]

PeanutButterGamer Oh Hi PBG :)

[@gund2281]

I'm almost in the same boat. I started Vanilla about 8 months after launch. I went through a couple different classes before I found the one that "fit" at the time. So I didn't get to do things like BRD much before TBC. I think I got to do BRD like 2 or 3 times before TBC. And I'm still not sure I ever did the entire dungeon. However, in those few attempts, it easily became my favorite dungeon which it still is to this day.

[@xTheWolfman1991]

Huh.

[@ZuLLeT]

I remember I was level 56 when TBC came out. I was pretty bummed I didn't get to experience the end game! especially since leveling a rogue back then was slow AF.

[@Cendoria]

CachewMargarinePlayer is gonna play classic? Didn't even know you played at all

[@Caligulove]

Being a healing priest in vanilla, there were so many times I had to go to that place for guildies. A handful of those people I went with, I'm still friends with to this day. Best dungeon ever.

[@DoctorJohnSmith9]

100% agree without even watching it all. So many memories of doing this is classic as a full run and stealth runs on my rogue for the Barman's Shanker.

[@cullyn]

was a right of passage in early wow

[@Mike-om4tv]

Oh man brought me back to age 16 lol

[@nawzir13]

Barman's Shanker...oh man the memories

[@Donz01]

Haha yeah soloing the barman shanker as a rogue was great fun. The dagger was very good for a new lvl 60 and he was pretty tough to solo, I think I remember needing potions and being on top of my game for it. Very rewarding experience though, don't think I replaced that dagger until much later.

[@RogueAmarice]

It was an awesome MH before the attack speed normalization - until they caught you taking up a debuff slot with the proc, then it was back to Julie's or a Monkey knife. *sigh*

[@Tankify1]

Reaching an acceptable level for BRD is a similar feeling to reaching max level.

[@Williaem00]

Tanner Davis hit level 52 and go hard ! It’s like a raid haha

[@FatelDarkAssassins]

The beauty of vanilla WoW levels 50+ really feel like endgame as you are working towards gearing for just that.

[@MrBlancify]

You're wrong. Reaching acceptable level for BRD and the two adjacent levelling zones was a way better feeling than hitting max level in any expansion.

[@1337penguinman]

@@MrBlancify Yeah. Those zones were so epic in feel and scope. Even the plaguelands couldn't compare. Plus the 40ish zones were...less than stellar from a frustration perspective.

[@twsartadventures3660]

the fact you say 'reach an acceptable level' rather then 'beat it' tells you all you need to know.

[@Ellthom]

BRD was one of those dungeons I used to always dedicate a night to. It was the only time of day I knew I wasnt going to be interrupted, and considering the dungeon took over 4 hours you needed that time alone with this dungeon. Especially if you wanted to do all the quests you had as well as other party members quests who were most likely not doing the same quests as you at the time. First there was the grouping, you needed a good group who was going to stick the whole thing with you. Multiple times people used to pull out during the run due to it being so long. Then there was additionally finding new people in case others pulled out. One of the reasons this is my favourite dungeon is because this is what a dungeon should be, including multiple paths and rooms things to unlock secret bosses, and the less said about the Prison Break quest line the better. It felt like something out of Dungeons & Dragons. There was so much there and it felt like an actual city due to its really large scope and what you don;t see over what you do.

[@dumac6557]

The heart of the mountain quest sucked, just bcs of the damn keys you needed. I think otherwise than that BRD was really an awesome dungeon and i often went there. At max level i went to BRD, UBRS or stratholme most of the times either scarlet or sometimes the undead side.

[@DKarkarov]

@@dumac6557 since you mention Strat I wonder how it will go over these days. We may see a resurgence in base related memes hahaha

[@Thedeadjoker666]

I loved the feeling that you could find 4 other people and try to beat this instance together, you never knew if you were going to complete it or even find the way to all bosses, but you had the time of your life anyway and made many new friends.

[@iquerohde]

brd in a 10min video. thats an achievment

[@Brocuzgodlocdunfamdogson]

John’s resume of great dungeons is crazy. I remember spending literal days as a lvl 80 exploring every corner of BRD and Karazhan in particular. But every single one of the dungeons is a model of how a MMO dungeon should be made.

[@morpheoss]

you sir have put a tear in my eyes i have so many fond memory's of brd i did it at least 5 times a day. your video even made me go look up some old screen shots of me and my guild sitting on the throne after our first time clearing it well over 10 years ago. the hours and hours i put into brd even when i didn't need the items. memory's came flooding back and reminded me of the good times the times that i had fun chilling with friends and just playing a fun game. it has been and always will be my favored dungeon of any game. thank you for making this video.

[@CaptmagiKono]

The dark iron dwarf squad packs I always found awesome, you were basically going against their version of a dungeon party, they were always fairly tough as well.

[@JadeDude1973]

...and there were so many packs of them, it really gave you the sense that there truly was a Dark Iron Army!

[@outdoorsvoyage6993]

Blizzard: How big should we make BRD? Dungeon developer: Yes.

[@Harkness78]

I remember when playing the beta for wow, when they moved the level cap from 50 to 55, they also released BRD, and it was basically the new endgame. Was so epic, clearly so much more layered and complex compared to Sunken temple or Zulfarrak and other previous dungeons. Definitely my favorite dungeon of all time.

[@Conorp77]

Know what gave birth to the seemingly ubiquitous concept of dudes in a party of different classes going into a "dungeon"? Tolkien's Moria. Know what Moria was? Ancient Dwarf City, boom BRD wins.

[@jackreacher4297]

It’s so iconic that the only DnD dungeon I’ve ever created was based off of BRD and Moria yet it was mostly a subconscious thing lol

[@JeffDeWitt]

Of course you are right. At it's heart WoW is really a variation on Dungeons and Dragons, and D&D (the real D&D, using the classic kitchen table platform, not a computer game) came out of LOTR.

[@jackrinaldi5579]

Moria...Moira.. coincidence that she's at the end of BRD?

[@Tensooni]

And they call it a MINE!

[@Seeric85]

I have a correction for you here: There is something in the game that tells you to break the kegs in the Grim Guzzler: There is a quest that requires you to do that.

[@markusengfelt9128]

BRD is a masterpiece ! its so awsome !

[@geneabrego9759]

BRD is really a 5 player raid. one of the greatest experiences i've ever had. I don't believe blizzard will achieve something this good in wow ever again. i think i'll try to get into one tonight. playing on a private server until classic drops. level 57 warlock. p.s. thanks for the recent warlock guide :D

[@Benzinilinguine]

>5 player raid

[@Agarwaen]

What the "I played vanilla and I'm so hardcore" posers here miss (people who either didn't actually play it, or only barely or not at all got to 60 during it), is that going to places like this in a raid was very much a common thing in vanilla, you were locked out of most quests sure, but loot would still drop and people would "arrange" to be the only one after the bits they wanted (for this reason doing class runs, ie one of each class, for t0 runs was extremely common). As far as good.. imo the best dungeons and raids were from tbc/wolk after blizz learned how to itemise and how to add more diverse and less tank and spank bosses (pretty much every BRD boss is just that).

[@DKarkarov]

A lot of people forget, or maybe didn't even know, but in original WoW BRD was a 10 man dungeon. As was UBRS and LBRS. In other words, it really was a small raid in vanilla terms, at least until they patched it.

[@DKarkarov]

@InoshiKenshi To be honest the main thing almost all of the comments, and the video sort of glosses, is that you were never meant to "run BRD". Like the video says, it has content starting in the mid 40's but gear that was best in slot pre raiding. Point being, you are meant to come back, multiple times, for different reasons. The content you wanted to do at your first run, was not the content you went there for at 60. Long story short, the people doing 4-5 hour BRD runs were either doing it wrong (trying to run the whole dungeon instead of going for a specific goal), or were just crappy groups. Most of my emperor runs took an hour-hour and a half tops. Hell I ran more molten core entrance attunement runs than I want to recall, they took 30-40 minutes at most if you knew what you were doing.

[@FatelDarkAssassins]

@@DKarkarov the beauty of BRD is that really the only manditory boss (if you do what is called a lava run where you jump into the lava and jump till the atunement for MC) would be the molten giant before the final boss. and if you did it the regular way through the grim guzzler you would only need to fight the ambassador giant then the final boss which doesn't really take that long if you where just looking to do emperor runs

[@kenllacer]

I still get lost in BRD to this day. A real dungeon that I've come to love and hate throughout the years.

[@JosueTheBigot]

I've absolutely loved BRD since the moment I stepped into it. I always have to shake my head when modern WoW players complain that it's too long.

[@Rohirrim009]

Thats becuase most modern day WOW players want everything handed to them on a plate without ANY work. They even complain it takes too long to lvl. And want endgame content without any sort of grind LOL.

[@antoineguerrier2965]

​@@Rohirrim009 That's not true. People want meaningful and challenging content. The grind to 120 is "too long" because it's unsatisfying. The mobs present no challenge whatsoever (which is part of why people opt for making huge pulls, to get some kind of challenge back) and you hardly get any reward. The only levels where you get anything are 10, 15, 20, 30, 40, 45, 60, 70, 75, 80, 90, 100, 110 and 120. Otherwise it's just a fancy animation and your character getting weaker because the mobs scale up with your level while your gear doesn't (unless you have heirlooms), with the occasional new ability. You have meaningful grind and frustrating grind. Farming a Lionheart Help is meaningful because each Thorium vein you mine gets you one step closer to your item, you make measurable progress. Farming consummables is just a chore because you have no end in sight, you make no tangible progress, and it's incredibly mundane and dull. People didn't mind grinding for AP back in Legion because each new trait gave them something and the trait after it was something to look forward to. You also had attainable "caps" with your first 30 traits, then Concordance, then the 75th trait. On the other hand, the AP grind in BfA is horrendous because you grind to unlock traits you already had previously, but your new piece of gear requires a higher neck level to unlock the traits that you've been playing with for months.

[@Rohirrim009]

Ive come across loads of players from loads of different MMO's over the last 13 years. Which complain and expect everything handed to them on a plate"self entitled". They dont like to level or grind. And like to skip to endgame. Thats why RETAIL WOW has an option to skip to end level"for the moaners and people which dont have time". Most are proparly kids. But some are adults. I myself dont mind spending time grinding and dont mind if it takes a few months to get max level. But some people hate that. Classic WOW max level is 60 but it takes a long time to get there WITHOUT the option to skip it. Some people will hate that, so they will stick to Retail WOW instead.Same goes for raids and dungeons.Some people hate the time it times to complete them. Some people want the endgame gear without any sort of grind. Thats why some MMO's are P2W, which benefits the company in the end becuase some people dont like to wait for stuff lol.

[@Benzinilinguine]

Every single dung can be completed in less than an hour except the part of BRD that's still 9 fucking bosses. Takes at least an hour.

[@BCWasbrough]

To be fair, most players complained about BRD's length as too long in 2005 as well.

[@Random49558]

Awesome video man. I remember running BRD a handful of times back in 2004, but this gave me a whole other level of appreciation for it.

[@r4ndomh3ro]

Goosebumps, awesome video bro. EVEN more hyped to have it back soon again!

[@AzkrielGaming]

BRD was amazing. Little things like your rogue stealing a key or stealth running solo for ore to build fire resist gear. Almost every time you went back you would discover something new. It was the gate keeper to raiding who, no matter how many times you returned you never minded paying the toll. Can't wait to return in classic!

[@Indubidably0]

A great one indeed. Maraudon is its best peer. I LOVED that place and would drag anyone I could into it or BRD. Thanks for the nostalgic reminiscing!

[@Levik702]

Thank you! Good to see someone else appreciate this epic dungeon. Anytime any of my friends or guildies wanted to run through that, I would volunteer. Without a doubt it is my favorite dungeon ever.

[@GScotJohnson]

This video is so well put together Tips! Great job!

[@Mangs1337]

Really good video, but I'm a bit perplexed by your choice to put Barrens music in the background. Wouldn’t the soundtrack of the actual Blackrock Depths dungeon be much more fitting??

[@Schniiiiiiiiiiiiif]

Yes

[@JonathonTheAsshole]

Are you suggesting you actually play MMO's with the music on?

[@Mangs1337]

Yes

[@grekain1]

Damnit Mangs you are on every video

[@loganstark5557]

@@JonathonTheAsshole Why wouldn't you?

[@rogantu]

I loved this dungeon as a 14 year old and never knew quite why. I guess because it felt lived-in, vast and like it made sense. It felt just great and epic to journey through. I also never knew how so many people could get lost in dungeons back then. Like wtf wailing caverns is just a straight line with a single turn at the rock that is shaped like a penis.

[@OvisGaming]

Love these videos, so much useful and interesting knowledge backed up with genuine passion - keep up the great work :)

[@knudmller9149]

Damn, I still remember my first 100% clear of that dungeon.. Even got that delicious trinket from Emperor on my reckadin. So many memories....

[@virlomientreri6970]

It was always enjoyable entering the dungeon at the level of the earlier bosses, and then powering on through the entire thing in a couple of hours with a group that stuck together, even with mobs and bosses getting to be in the level range that you miss attacks/spells against them more than you hit. It was an epic dungeon to do.

[@whoopdeedoodude]

BRD and BRS to this day are the most beautiful dungeons for me. There is so much fantasy and aesthetics in there and yet it never feels out of place or "too much".

[@valaroma]

MAn I love your videos! You should start doing guides preparing people for what is coming and what to keep an eye for while leveling. What quests chains to unlock and follow for each zone. Bis quests items and rewards. What instances to run while leveling. What attunment chain quests to search while approaching lvl 60 like the onyxia or MC ones. What to do AFTER reaching 60. Keep it up!

[@dylanruby6687]

Its true. Im 27 and havent played WoW since high school but I will always remember running BRD with my friends when we hit lv 50.

[@brieucferaud1037]

My favorite is dire maul with the ogre the fact that you can skip all bosses in some way, and they reward you for it in the end is so good

[@derbigpr500]

Not surprised that the same guy designed BRD and Karazhan, two of my all time favorite dungeons.

[@natecw4164]

Great video, thanks for putting this together

[@AnnihilationXable]

Thanks for shouting out John. Now i know who to thank for creating my favorite Bg map.

[@Dameoz]

This video is just amazing!

[@DKarkarov]

Blackrock Depths, the most underrated dungeon of all time. Have always said it is the best dungeon in WoW, it was in Vanilla, and it still is today. One thing you forgot to mention, is BRD is also the dungeon that teaches you for real how to play. It was the first dungeon that really needed great CC, the first dungeon to really be challenging to tank, one of the first to start punishing dps'er who didn't know how to position. It really was the dungeon that prepped you for the real endgame.

[@vaevictus4637]

This video does an excellent job of detailing and explaining one of my favorite dungeons in any video game ever.

[@bentonnissen]

FINALLY A NEW VIDEO! I'm dying for classic content, Tips!

[@Rohirrim009]

Same here its just a filler until classic wow comes out in the summer next year. Going to be a long 6 or 7 months

[@Yggdra666]

Hands down my favorite dungeon and probably the best gaming experience I've ever had and very likely will have. Thanks for the nostalgia.

[@DoctorJohnSmith9]

Scholomance, WSG, Karazhan, BRS...all legendary places that had updates that dropped them to average. At least Kara is intact.

[@erkiness]

what happened to wsg?

[@XFrozenAshX]

Don't forget Sunken Temple. I remember getting lost in there for ages, wondering how to activate the Avatar of Hakkar, what the gongs were for etc. That place still bounces around in my mind for old dungeon design.

[@TommyDaGreatest]

Agree with FrozenAsh. Sunken Temple was my favorite dungeon in WoW Classic. Epic in size and had some puzzle solving to progress. The version we have today is laughable...

[@mistercharlie1776]

Thanks for the feels. I quit WoW right after MoP, but I am still drawn to videos with old content. This instance was my my favorite. I never said no when our guild needed a healer for a run. I know it was long but some great relationships were formed running this, but that was when guilds had meaning. Keep up the good content.

[@victorwilliams357]

Brd was an amazing run , this really felt like you were diving into a true dungeon with danger around every corner. I cannot describe how good it felt to finally complete it after I dont know how many hours of wondering around!

[@oleg274]

Now in perspective of newer WOW expansions you might start thinking what was the reason to spend so many hours, if reward was not so big? Might be you will not get any reward at all! And this is the biggest difference between modern wow and classic, and probably not wow, but players attitude, they don’t want to spend even 15 minutes if they won’t be rewarded. Back then, you did such a dungeons not for reward, but for gameplay and excitement!

[@mongobongo1147]

Might have something to do with Blizzard's focus on loot and continuous power creep - always gotta be chasing more stuff.

[@Catjamfan]

It's entitled idiots fault. Look at any forum page or Facebook group and you will see: "I pay to play so give me everything in game without effort" attitude. People say they don't even want to attempt get good at the game, and in the same sentence say they deserve top tier ilvl of gear... It's disgusting and what's worse is that they are so brainless they don't understand how idiotic their thinking is at all or how damaging it is to the game.

[@Agarwaen]

Sorry, that's.. just not true. People would slam their heads at vanilla dungeons well past them being fun to repeat. Gearing up paths were ridiculous, and those who didn't have access to raiding were doing the 5mans (often in a class raid) over and over and over with the only reason being to get drops as they had little other paths to it, and those of us in full raid gear had to do them, and lesser raids ad nauseam to help recruits gear up (which could take months of 5mans, MC and BWL). Rose coloured glasses etc..

[@veritasabsoluta4285]

@@Agarwaen False

[@Agarwaen]

@@veritasabsoluta4285 Instead of just a braindead "false" comment, you might try to actually say a little about why you think it's false. All you make yourself look like is yet another "I was vanilla wow" poser. Are you suggesting you took green geared recruits to naxx40? That 5mans and raids dropped so much gear (and predictably so) that you could quickly fill out most gear slots on a fresh recruit? Because guess what, 2 (3 for end bosses) epics per raid boss, including the consideration that most MC gear only works as filler for the bwl/aq40 gear that char didn't have, means you have to run those outdated raids over and over and over (enough for many of us to have multiple alts fully epiced in t1-t2 equivalent gear). And people who wanted to get into such raid groups.. guess what they were doing? Yes.. running 5 mans until bored out of their skull so they'd have at least t0 (even in the ignorant belief we'd not just consider them people who didn't research what gear they should have been getting, ie properly itemised gear like that from DM, or better yet ZG) before applying.

[@undii]

Clearing the whole dungeon took around 5 hours. Man, I miss the days I had that much time for gaming.

[@ChrirTFM]

I can't remember how many times I had to tank this for the guild to get to the Black Anvil. Never boring, always fun!

[@MrShoopezino]

man that "The Barrens" soundtrack you played in the early parts always brings back memories. This game was a giant.

[@Asrudin]

I still remember wiping a lot and playing until 4am with a group of level 50/51 players until we finally managed to kill magnus. Epic doesn't fully explain my experience of that time. We went from hopeful into despair all the way back to being happier than I ever felt by the end. We didn't know each other when we started the dungeon and felt like we were each others best friends by the end. Vanilla WoW might not have been a great game by certain standards, but despite its flaws, the exprience of it has been unmatched since.

[@zihenghe7462]

really really love BRD. Wonderful layer design, great quest chains and great great boss fights. Only minor cons are the loots are too heavily lean toward physical classes and not enough for magic glasses.

[@antoninboulard8626]

Yeah but in terms of lore that adds up. The dark iron dwarves, allthough they are slaves to ragnaros, don't have much magic ability themselves. The loot fits in the lore of the area

[@clerpington_the_fifth]

Was fortunate enough to have a friend who shares your perspective and walked me through this place and mc several times. Couldnt agree more they are both masterpieces of level design.

[@empire0]

Great video. I played in Vanilla and am playing on Kronos III right now, and i'm excited to get into the later dungeons like BRD.

[@nemoletov8214]

Hey Tips, any plans for making Scarlet Monastery series? One of my favorite adventures as well and one of well-designed zones with amazing ambience and lore of this palce and how it related and intertwined in Glades history is abnormal .

[@Sebdes23]

Nemo Letov got to agree. SM is a solid second place for me. Great level range. Great lore.

[@gsc8383]

I agree that would be a great video

[@FatelDarkAssassins]

SM is right up there with BRD on level design. I think those instances are some of the reason why current dungeons are so short their success and love from the player base made them very popular.

[@abstractdaddy1384]

@@FatelDarkAssassins How does SM have good level design? The bulk of it is just a series of corridors and rooms in linear fashion.

[@fhjfhdgh]

What sucks is that alot of people will just skip brd because there is much better loot available in dire maul. Thats the biggest problem with DM at release for me

[@R3ggz]

As tips said, there are more reasons to go brd then just loot 🙂

[@DainnGreywall]

Urgh... Dire Maul... hated that place and still do, such a garbage set of dungeons

[@youtubesuresuckscock]

One of the awesome things about the original game is that there was at least one awesome unique piece of loot in every dungeon. There was a reason to do everything.

[@Quitarstudent]

lol, just gonna farm shit with hunter with engineering and solo DM

[@morningbetterlast]

DM hasn't been shipped at the release so people had some time to do the initial pack of dungeons. Problem with BRD loot was that alot of the best stuff came from the Emperor and the majority of the playerbase never got to see the guy, place was too complicated and took too long to finish.

[@Dirkei]

My favorite kinda videos from you, Tip!

[@sethraelthebard5459]

Absolutely loved this video! I was never a real instance runner in Vanilla WoW, mostly getting into it after BC and then going back to the older dungeons for the sense of adventure. This was before the loot system had become so homogenized that gear wasn't even worth carrying. Yes, any loot you found in vanilla was arguably rendered obsolete with the first quest rewards in BC. However, the final bit of the vid touched on the very thing that made instance running special: the sense of accomplishment. BRD was more than massive, it was GARGANTUAN! I recall several groups spending four hours traipsing through the halls and only making it half-way before the bags filled up, or a member of the party had to depart. But after all the traps, the fights, the bosses, and the stories, when you finally conquered Emperor Thaurissan, at the ultimate end of the Blackrock Depths, I felt like I had truly accomplished something grand. It was truly the end of an epic, world-altering adventure. Blackrock Depths truly is the greatest MMO dungeon of all time.

[@GitGudFox]

The greatest dungeon is Darkness Falls in Dark Age of Camelot, ranging from about level 20 - 50 with 3 titanic leading to each PvP faction, and the portal only allowed entry to the side that was winning the PvP war. There were grand purges of Darkness Falls when it changed hands to prevent the other sides from obtaining the premium loot and EXP the dungeon had.

[@JohnSmith-pn2ts]

BRD runs on private servers are really hard to find cause no grp can manage to agree on which bosses your going to kill and usually wipes on the gunman room

[@Williaem00]

John Smith and a lot of people don’t wanna give time for the place . Like you can spend hours and hours in there

[@Ingeb91]

Really depends. I usually bring guildies in there, and then we decide when we go in what we're doing, usually go snag the arena just for the fun of it, then its off to do either a quick incendius magnus emperor run, or a full clear with jailbreak and the whole deal. people just have to know beforehand what needs to be done, and they'll stick with you if they have time for it.

[@Williaem00]

InoshiKenshi wait who ? Lol me ?

[@historydossier]

BRD was always my favorite dungeon and I've spent countless hours clearing it over the years as it was always my favorite. Glad to find out there is an objective reason for this. Thank you. Subbed and liked!

[@n5r15]

Jesus, the HOURS I spent stealth running this for fire resist gear mats for guildies... I had this place memorized. I should log on and give it a visit. Great video, I didn't realize others appreciated this place as much as I did.

[@berke4566]

4:14. And I wonder why I get the same feeling from scholomance as I got in brd. Designed by same guy lol

[@SeriousZerious]

Scarlet Monastery all the way.

[@Fjuron]

Thank you for recommending the WoW diary. Seems very interesting! Exactly the kind of book I want to read.

[@thegood9]

My days here are remembered fondly. Such expanse. Such art. Amazingly long, and thankfully divided into parts. It was incredible.

[@ir0n2541]

Also; it was not forgiving, if the tank made a bad pull it's a wipe. mobs at low health used to run away from you to get help and because the instance was dense with mobs in most locations this often meant paying attention and CC'ing mobs at low health.

[@viciouswindstalkers]

Oh, those patrols! You either had to move the fight to an adjacent hallway or be really pro and down every mob before a pat joined the fight, potentially pulling another, nearby group. Not to mention the low-health mobs fleeing to find assistance. You really had to keep a tight fight, total lockdown. BRD was so good.

[@alexmelik4030]

Frankly speaking, 9 times of 10 in vanilla a bad pull = wipe.

[@evkarjalanpiirakka]

Always waited for dwarf oriented expansion mines of moria style etc. Brd stuff. Guess it is too late now....

[@FatelDarkAssassins]

I do wish that the classic WoW would expand on many of the ideas that didn't make into classic they had many ideas that where cut due to time or TBC's release

[@evkarjalanpiirakka]

@@LucasIndrusiak you pleb that is not "expansion" learn to read.

[@MrFilske]

Since the first time I visited this dungeon it was always my favorite, all the way through the early days of vanilla to my departure in the end of the Lich king. And now you gave me a perspective to why... truly a masterpiece!

[@LeporidaeLadyHunter]

My book arrived the other day and I can't wait to dig into it.

[@Addelbarco]

tips out baby

[@gtastuntcrew302]

Was scrolling down and literally read this RIGHT when he said it at the end ROFL..

[@BlitzedNostradamus]

"LFG Jailbreak. Need tank."

[@graphixkillzzz]

/who . how I put groups together since about the 4th month after release.

[@tylerdurden1207]

@@graphixkillzzz Lol, that's what I would do.

[@OlduTubes]

This video takes me right back to that epic vanilla time! Love this!

[@limitlessbeast3867]

I did not even know about the keg breaking! Thanks!

[@TommyDaGreatest]

I honestly think BRD is a bit boring. Epic in size and content, true, but one can only survive so much red and brown/black rocks before one goes crazy. :P My favorite dungeon in any game ever has to be the Estate of Unrest in EverQuest II. You enter the zone and have to solve riddles to progress in the dungeon. It has some really nice psyche-effects, the game plays the player, it's creepy and the ending after killing the end boss after so much hard work and seeing all souls floating through the air to a remix of the EQ theme is epic. No dungeon in any other game ever has come close to that one and it's still my favorite dungeon of all time.

[@kurdtcoben]

Funny thing to remember is that BRD was even somewhat relevant in the later expansions. My first time going in there was midway through Burning Crusade since I started pretty late and I was terribly slow at leveling. But BRD was still such an amazing adventure, even though it was pretty irrelevant from a leveling standpoint by then. And coming back there as a fresh DK in WotLK, nothing had changed. It was still a challenging dungeon crawl that was rewarding by the group-experience alone.

[@malloott]

Yeah I remember doing brd with 5 fresh 58 DK's at release, of course we were all blood so it was quite easy. But it took ages and was allot of fun

[@kurdtcoben]

@@malloott Back when Frost-Tank was still a very viable thing...

[@MrGM]

This is the best video you've ever made! damn man. what an experience

[@oguzhan2104]

dude i like your videos pls keep up to good work with classic content.

[@Stealthsuit07]

Dungeons in WoW used to be like adventures, but then became more like chores as the expansions rolled in.

[@TwiggehTV]

honestly the entirety of wow used to be an adventure in vanilla, but then they formalized, streamlined and optimized all the fun out of it and the only thing left was chores and anonymous people you cared nothing for.

[@kiister8126]

Yeah but unfortunately nowadays we just clean the dungeon in 5 minutes by skipping 95% of the monsters/ bosses and don't even care about the loot because we are all full heirloom geared and just want to level up as fast as possible.

[@kkatraouras]

Seriously very nice vid dude.

[@enlightenedterrestrial]

I'd love to listen to you analyze each section of this dungeon for an hour :D

[@v-7815]

I hope new people get to experience the greatness of classic WoW. Me personally, I will skip just because Blizzard is not a company I support anymore. Also, there are some promising MMORPGS coming like Pantheon and Camelot Unchained. Although I'm sure they will never compare to classic WoW.

[@gg5115]

I was hyped, but now I'm bummed. You see, I leveled 4 druids through Wrath and into Cata. It was glorious. I was a God. Well, a minor demi-god perhaps, but still awesome. Then I tried playing a druid on a Vanilla server, caught up in the recent hysteria. They don't just suck, they're not even finished. A tank that can't take a heal potion? Really? (No hands? Apparently a bear can hold a skinning knife just fine.) A healer with no resurrection. Why would you take the chance of resto heals on any challenging 5 man run? If any DPS die, they'll have to run back on their own. It happens. (Don't talk to me about once every 30 minutes, which is a little used niche clutch ability in select raids.) No auto dismount. Shapeshifting is mounted in Vanilla. Play a shapeshifter and let me know how you like that (non)mechanic. I could go on. Druid was 'finished' in patch 3.0.2. By that I mean the abilities are rounded out to where all druid specs can be played well. Pretty much any role could be filled with the corresponding druid spec. Not as well as some other specs maybe, like, you're never going to heal as strong as a priest. Warrior and paladin tanks have their strengths a bear won't match. So playing tree or bear might be somewhat more challenging on the same content, but it could be done. The buttons were there. The buttons ain't even there in Vanilla. A bear without mangle. I can't even... Hell, a bear doesn't have a primary attack in Vanilla. White damage auto attack, that's your primary attack. Oh, and speaking of white damage, suck it on weapon damage stat too, just because. And you nochanges people, so selfish. So jaded. Blizzard can't be trusted to make the least little change in Classic. Of course they can't, why do you think we are here? That ship sailed a decade ago. Let it go, or hate Blizzard forever. It seems like you're trying to have it both ways. There hasn't been a Blizzard in a long time anyway. It's a really big corporation now, and Blizzard is a pseudo-team within it. It's the Activision top management that is giving you Classic by the way, not the Blizz dev team. Most of the human population just want the best WoW there can be. The closest we got was the original WoW, finished. That was around patch 3.0.2. But that wasn't the best WoW there could have been, because the Vanilla content had already been devalued by then. Mid TBC was Vanilla finished, and Wrath of the Lich King dropping was World of Warcraft, finished. The scaling of levels with the two expansion packs made the original game filler content. Big mistake already. If you really do get a whole second chance, (which no one else gets by the way), why not 'Don't make the huge mistakes you made before?' I want Activision to make tons of money, selling me great content I can't wait to pay for. I'm no business expert, but I'd shoot for the 12.1 million subscribers X $15 a month mark. That was the peak. Take it back to the day before that day, undo the mistakes you made up to that point, and don't screw it up going forward. Easy plan to understand, hard to follow. It would take vision, and a team leader who gets the 'Spirit of Vanilla'. I want all you nochanges people to be satisfied, I get it. Even though I was new to the game in Wrath, obvious damage was already obvious. But only having half of your class/specs as viable players was never helping Vanilla be great, quite the opposite. It would be in our interest for Activision/Blizzard to release a WoW based on the original, but one that could last a decade or three. As good as Vanilla, just a whole lot more of it. Surely they would like to have more than 12 million subs, all at $15 a month, until the end of time. And they could still sell extra things down the road, like battle pets and vanity mounts, as long as it's in the Spirit of Vanilla. That's got to beat a museum version in revenue and growth. Big corps like revenue and growth. Someone should try to convince them.

[@alexmelik4030]

I've seen and tried quite a bunch of those "promising MMORPGs" through years. None of them made it, each and every died pathetically.

[@CollectiveDefence]

You think "new people" will get through vanilla? They quit before level 20 lol.

[@alexmelik4030]

@InoshiKenshi I've been hearing this same sh*t every single WoW expansion, starting Cataclysm. "Expansion X is a falure, WoW is doomed and will die tomorrow, everyone is going to play Y". In a year or two, WoW is still thriving (more or less), and game Y is either almost dead or already nowhere to be seen. So don't make me laugh please.

[@Sofie424]

@@gg5115 I played a feral Druid from RPPvP servers were released into BC; all I can say is... wrath baby. Tank dungeons? Spam swipe for the best aoe threat in-game. Heal? Equip the int set, np. Bring a dps priest / shaman / pally if you miss rez, but the time spent running back is probably gonna be less than you'd spend waiting for a different healer anyway. Dps? Yep, and completely OP when shit hits the fan. Throw some heals, tranq, then go bear and tank the aggro you got. I don't mind if they make a Classic+ later, but people have very different ideas of what that should be, so someone is going to get disappointed.

[@therealloose]

So real quick: I first watched this video when it came out, and I thought Tips was praising this dungeon too much. He throws the word "genius" around like a beach ball at a prince concert. I couldn't help but feel he was really stroking vanilla content with his rose colored glasses. BUT After just running BRD for the first time in 10+ years tonight on a private server as a 53 warrior (dpsing), I have to agree with every word he says in this video. I forgot just how epic this dungeon really was. We called it in the torch room after a nice clear up until that point. This is truly the pinnacle of dungeon design for MMORPGs.

[@evilsdemise1287]

Dude awesome video. You got a thumbs up just for not spoiling the story! I thought I was the only one who thought that place MADE WoW. I still like going in there and clearing it just for the atmosphere, wishing it was still current content the whole time. Or I did I should say, before I quit the game a couple months ago. Thnx again for the great video. P.S. I would've liked it if it was longer though, I was just getting into it when it ended!

[@lylearoyii]

So many hours dedicated to this. I explored the he'll outta that place! And the time I spent researching it too! ...And Maraudon... And wailing caverns and blackfathom deeps, scarlet monastery and dire maul! They were all epic! That's what made me fall in love with this game!

[@drdorenton1060]

I'd like to see you make a video that's actually critical in any way about anything regarding Vanilla WoW

[@drdorenton1060]

@Derek aka Derek Vanilla clearly does

[@TBoNAtl]

Why would you want to see a video like that?

[@JonathonTheAsshole]

"Classic WoW" = Casualized derivitive of other MMO's. "Post TBC WoW" = Even more casualized derivitive of itself.

[@holy0damn]

in a world where nothing is perfect it's about what you make of it

[@JonathonTheAsshole]

I don't respond to "well what do you...?" and "source?" trolls but WoW is basically just a copy of everything that was in DAoC. Nothing Blizzard has made has really been original. Diablo = Nethack ripoff Warcraft = Warhammer plagiarism Starcraft = Warhammer 40k plagiarism Overwatch = Team Fortress WoW = EQ/DAoC mostly Dark Age of Camelot instead of Everquest contrary to popular belief. Blackthorne = Prince of Persia/Flashback

[@QuellAle]

I agree with pretty much all the points in the video except for one subjective thing. I think that all that fiery themed environment is boring after a while. I mean, all the first year of Vanilla was pretty much fire themed.

[@iuliananitulesei9444]

Everything is boring after a while. Even your wife.

[@antoineguerrier2965]

Haha, I guess that's true. It's like people experiencing "fel fatigue" at the end of Legion.

[@chrishubbard64]

like project says it doesnt help that all the content was in the same freaking place. I mean you had the first two raid dungeons in blackrock mountain. Want to gear up for raiding? Better farm lbrs and ubrs! Sure its nice to know that no matter what the guild is doing today its all in the same zone but yeah, it got boring pretty quick.

[@reds8787]

It felt amazing to sit in that throne and take a screen shot back in the day.

[@fernandofreak1206]

Great video man, keep it up

[@Shikaschima]

*remembers how universally hated Black Rock Depths generally was during Vanilla times* uhhhhhh...

[@katatonikbliss]

you never know how good you have it until its gone

[@elmokaartinen3854]

I played in Vanilla and I actually have no idea what you mean. Everyone I knew loved the dungeon.

[@Shikaschima]

@@elmokaartinen3854 Well looks like we made very different experiences. I had contact with many other guilds and BRD was universally the least liked dungeon among them. It was long, it had several mechanics that weren't too fun and the amount of grumbling from not having the right things drop ever still haunt me. Again, experiences vary, but BRD is ... not a fan favorite.

[@sumotode]

@@Shikaschima I would say I found a similar feeling with the people I played with. It was generally one of least liked dungeons, only topped by Gnomeragon.

[@peterhiggs9755]

​@@Shikaschima Guilds had to run it over and over again to get keys and attune people for Onyxia and MC. It was the most must-do dungeon in the whole game and it was massive and tricky so a lot of people came to dread it. It was awesome as a group of friends just going to BRD for play session though. Truly awesome place to take apart when you wanted to be there, not just forced to be there.

[@ebolachan8198]

Problem nowdays is that people dont have 5 hours time for one single dungeon,TIMES CHANGE

[@martinbrankov8504]

Mechagon is a joke! No contest.

[@fremeek7221]

Awesome video! Don't know how many hours i spent in BRD, im sure it's days in numbers, and there was something new too see allmost every time.

[@Luxumbra69]

Loved the video. I experienced nostalgia so bad my eyes started to water. I'd give anything to be able to experience it for a first time, again...