Video of the Delegation and Volcanus the Firelord
Spoiler alert! If you do not want to read or watch anything about the quest for the legendary staff Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa's Rest, read and watch no further. Also, the video contains some strong language, but nothing you wouldn't expect from a raid group on Vent.
Guilds are finally getting their 25 Eternal Embers from the Firelands and continuing to forge the great legendary staff Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa's Rest. The next big hurdle in the quest for the staff is the Delegation quest line, requiring raiders to complete a set of four charged fragments from Shannox, Beth'tilac, Rhyolith, and Alysrazor. Each fragment requires the player on the Dragonwrath quest to complete a task during these encounters in order to charge the boss-specific fragment. Once all of the fragments are complete, the raid gains access to The Anvil of Conflagration, where the Branch of Nordrassil is being held.
Upon reaching The Anvil of Conflagration, the raid must defeat the Volcanus boss encounter, a three-stage fight that you can watch above. The first phase has players facing off against the Harbingers of Flame, which are basically the same as the trash during Alysrazor, so interrupts are required. There are a lot of Harbingers, so make sure you've got your targets. The second phase spawns the Tormented Protector, an ancient that appears out of the branch and has a nasty knockback, root, and treants that pulse a fire AOE. The third phase is Volcanus the Firelord himself, summoning fire columns and also pulsing AOE fire, so hit your Bloodlust/Heroism and go to town. The lucky raider on the quest is rewarded with the Branch of Nordrassil and can continue to progress through the quest for patch 4.2's legendary staff.
This is the first time since Thunderfury (if I am not mistaken) that players are given an entire new raid-level encounter to deal with in pursuit of their legendary item. Back in vanilla, players attempting to forge Thunderfury were tasked with killing Thunderaan, prince of the air elementals, who was trapped away in the bindings held by Baron Geddon and Garr. The Volcanus encounter looks hectic and fun, and this entire quest line has been so well done and is so epic that I think it might be the best legendary experience to date. Firelands is really shaping up to be one of my favorite raid instances in WoW's history.
The news is already rolling out for the upcoming WoW Patch 4.2! Preview the new Firelands raid, marvel at the new legendary staff, and get the inside scoop on new quest hubs -- plus new tier 12 armor!
