The Race to World First Highmaul has already concluded and players now anxiously await the final wing for Raid Finder in the New Year. But Highmaul isn’t the only raid instance for Tier 17, the first Tier for World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor.
Located near the coast of Gorgrond, the Blackrock Foundry is home to the Blackrock Orcs, master smiths who smelt down the most difficult of ore. The Foundry is the center of the Iron Horde’s might and adventurers will need to journey forth and shut it down.
Blackrock Foundry will be the second raid instance for Tier 17. Blizzard Entertainment has revealed that this instance will set to open some time in February 2015. This would be close to an eight week mark of players facing off against the Ogres of Highmaul.
And Blackrock Foundry will have a gated release similar to its Tier partner Highmaul. Raid Finder will be broken into four separate sections and the first wing will release when Mythic goes live. Players will set off to finish off what was started with Warlord Blackhand at the docks of Shattrath.
Speculation is that we could see flexible Normal/Heroic mode release as early as February 3. And according to an interview on Convert to Raid with Lead Game Designer Ion Hazzikostas, the team generally wants raid content to be relivant for six months at the very least.
But will the release of the Foundry rush players out of Highmaul too soon? Or will it be similiar to Tier 14 in Mists of Pandaria where players were exhausted of returning to certain instances? Highmaul will have only been out for roughly two months and some groups might still be attempting Heroic or just starting Mythic.
Again, the Foundry will not be open for players to venture inside until some time in February 2015. This will give those who are still battling against Mor’gok and his followers time to gear up before changing gears to face the Iron Horde and the heart of the machines.
