The old gate in Azshara

Blackmaw Hold is behind a long-sealed gate in Azshara. It is a five-player dungeon for levels 55 to 60, inside a great furbolg city.

If you played the original game, you may have stood at that gate. On the 8 October official podcast, designer Rowan Ryder said the dungeon is where the Timbermaw Hold entrance was: a big stone gate in Azshara that showed the name Timbermaw Hold when you came close, and never opened. In Forever the place is Blackmaw Hold. Ryder said the name was one of the stickiest arguments in development, and the alpha's old name confused testers who also met the Timbermaw faction and its tunnels.

A cutaway of a mountainside in Azshara: Dee stands at an opened stone gate, and behind it furbolg halls drop away in tiers to a lowest tunnel with an arrow pointing further down to Barrow Deeps.
Blackmaw Hold goes down a long way, and its deepest reaches connect to one of Barrow Deeps' entrances.

How big Blackmaw Hold is

Big. Ryder said its footprint is probably bigger than Blackrock Depths, and that he would be shocked if it was not. There is a lot of verticality, which he expects to catch players out.

It is still not a mega dungeon in the team's sense. A mega dungeon is interconnected, can take several runs and spans a wide level range. Blackmaw Hold has a tight level range, and a group is meant to finish it from beginning to end in one session, though a long one. Blizzard's overview adds that it has multiple routes and bosses.

You will be comfortable inside at 60, Ryder said, but you can go in a little earlier.

What is inside

The Blackmaw clan is struggling against a corruption spreading through its groves and winding mountain tunnels. Ryder described a corrupted furbolg tribe, with a lot of furbolgs, a lot of demons and "a ton of cool secrets".

The way down to Barrow Deeps

Blizzard's dungeon overview ends its Blackmaw Hold entry with a hint: venture into the hold's deepest reaches and you may find a path leading even farther below Azeroth.

The raid overview published the same day says what is down there. Barrow Deeps, the 10-player raid that opens on 9 December, has entrances connected through Mount Hyjal, Winterspring and Blackmaw Hold. Blizzard has not said whether you have to clear part of the dungeon to use that way in.

Wowdee's dungeon guide will map Blackmaw Hold's routes and bosses once they can be checked, and show where the path to Barrow Deeps begins.

Still to come

Not yet settled by our sources or tested in game:

  • Boss names, boss count and the routes between them.
  • Exactly how the path to Barrow Deeps works, and whether part of the dungeon must be cleared first.
  • The lowest level that can enter, and the dungeon's quests.

Sources

Beta notes are dated because Forever is still changing.