Sneak Peek: Twilight Highlands

Azeroth's inhabitants endure a lifetime of struggle and conflict. They're subject to violence from neighboring enemies and rampaging beasts at an early age, and must learn to take up arms to defend themselves against predators. Regularly forced to cope with the deaths of friends, family, and members of their tribes, clans, cities, and guilds, these scarred survivors become stronger by reinforcing their walls, banding together with new allies, and raising sharp, careful, resilient children. They adapt. They change.

Few places on Azeroth exemplify this ever-changing dynamic more than the Twilight Highlands of the Eastern Kingdoms.

Minions Marauders in the Ruby Sanctum

The Minions Marauders entered the Ruby Sanctum for the first time last night.  Unfortunately, we were unable to drop any of the bosses in the time we had allotted for the raid, but we did handle the trash without incident, and we had fun learning the new fights.  Next time we enter the Ruby Sanctum, we will devote a whole evening to learning these fights, and be better prepared to deal with the antics of these two villains.  We expect to clear the Ruby Sanctum before the Cataclysm.  Bring on the dark dragons!

Facing Baltharus the Warborn

Baltharus is a huge pain in the rear with a HARD HITTING whirlwind attack.  He also acquires a mirror image of himself at 50% health.  That was where we ran into problems.  I have no doubt that with some practice, we will be able to drop this guy.

Minions Marauders stare down Saviana Ragefire

As with Baltharus, Saviana proved to be a little tougher than we were expecting.  The Saviana Ragefire fight has some interesting mechanics, which will make dropping her a satisfying victory.  Our best attempt on her was a little worse than our attempts on Baltharus, but Ruby Sanctum is new to us, so we expect some improvement next time we visit..

New Dungeon: The Ruby Sanctum

The sacred Chamber of the Aspects beneath Wyrmrest Temple has seen kingdoms and armies rise and fall throughout history. For over ten millennia, the dragonflights' five sanctums have remained hallowed ground for dragonkind, undamaged by the chaos of the Demon Soul's creation and protected from the ravages of the Scourge thanks to a rare instance of cooperation between members of all five dragonflights. The red dragonflight, dedicated to the preservation of all life on Azeroth, has been at the heart of a tentative partnership between dragonflights, known as the Wyrmrest Accord, which the red dragons have guided from their sacred Ruby Sanctum. Draconic unity, at least in the face of grave danger, seems a real possibility.

And yet, suspicion has gnawed at all of the dragons of the Wyrmrest Accord from the moment of its creation. Immediately following the events that sparked the Nexus War, the leader of the red dragons, Alexstrasza the Life-Binder, instructed her children to scour the accord for any further evidence of danger from within. The red dragonflight swiftly uncovered the location of a clutch of twilight dragon eggs, the twisted creations of Deathwing the Destroyer, hidden away in the black dragonflight's Obsidian Sanctum.