WoW: First Run Through Ragefire Chasm

I managed to find a party for my first trip through Ragefire Chasm last night. Ragefire Chasm is an instance dungeon in the caves beneath the Horde capital city of Orgrimmar; you reach it through the part of town known as the Cleft of Shadows, where Warlocks go for training. The Chasm is designed for characters of level 13-18; my group had...

• Gondul (me), a level 13 priest
• Sheiza, a level 17 warrior
• Zulazzi, a level 14 priest
• Nobakim, a level 12 warlock
• Ironbroly, a level 11 hunter

The first monsters you encounter in the dungeon are the little serpent things you see at right. Don't be fooled by their size; they're elites, so try to only fight one at a time. They're also poisonous, as you can tell by the green cast of Sheiza (pronounced SHEE-zah, btw) and me. There's a pack of these little beasties waiting for your group just inside the entrance to the dungeon, and you could easily have all of them on you if you're not careful.

A little way past the serpents you'll encounter your first molten elemental. I daresay that fire-based damage isn't going to do them much harm, nor will nature-based damage. I had to work very hard to keep Sheiza healthy if we drew the attention of more than one of these things at a time, so engage them carefully.

Past the first elemental, you'll across a natural bridge through a large chasm and reach a sort of platform at the end. This platform is full of troggs, which are humanoids that anyone who has adventured in Dun Morogh (Dwarf lands) will recognize. Sorry I didn't get a screen capture of them on this trip. Like most dungeon monsters, these are elites, so try not to engage too many at a time. You should be able to draw one or two out of a clump with a ranged attack; any more than that and you could be in trouble. Furthermore, some of them are spellcasters. We got wiped out a couple of times by these guys by drawing too many.

You have a choice of directions after you clear the platform. We went upward toward the Slayer Cavern. This goes up and reverses your course, so you climb parallel to the bridge you crossed earlier. At the end, you'll reverse course again. Along the way, you'll fight a series of molten elementals and some more serpents.

The Slayer Cavern is basically a huge lake of lava with rock platforms connected by bridges. In the center, at the "hub" of the "wheel" of rock, is Taragaman the Hungerer (seen at right). He's a boss monster and the object of a quest. Where each of the "spokes" meets the "rim" of the wheel, there's a platform full of Burning Blade orcs: Warlocks and Cultists. On Sheiza's advice, we worked through most of the orcs first so we wouldn't have them unexpectedly joining the fight after we engaged Taragaman. We had a couple of wipeouts just on them. Taragaman alone seemed like a pushover by comparison.

Lessons learned:

Lecture your group in advance whether you think they need it or not. Ironbroly had apparently never been in an instance dungeon before, and he kept trying to fight like he was going solo against monsters in the wilderness. That just won't work in a dungeon, where any given monster is probably three times tougher than a monster of the same level that you'd find in the wilderness.

The worst incident was in a fight with some of the warlocks and cultists around Taragaman. I could see from the beginning that we'd attracted too many monsters, but I hadn't healed or done anything else to become involved in the fight yet. I therefore told everyone that I was hanging out so I could resurrect the party after the monsters beat them and returned to their stations. Ironbroly either didn't notice or didn't understand, and he ran from the fight hoping to save himself. Stupid idea: dungeon monsters will chase you down and they will catch you. Worse, he led them straight by me, which made them notice me. Consequently, they jumped on me as soon as they finished him, and the entire party was wiped out.

Oh well, we got ourselves back together and killed Taragaman, anyway. Gondul gained a level, some nice gloves, a good cloak, and a knife to disenchant for magical essence out of the experience, too. Things could have been worse.