Hans’gar and Franzok
Above: Hans’gar and Franzok just want to pump — *clap* — you up.
The first bosses in the second wing of the new Blackrock Foundry dungeon are Hans and Franz — and no, that’s not a coincidence. It’s one of WoW’s many pop culture references, and you’ll hear plenty during this fight.
In the Siege of Orgrimmar dungeon from the last expansion, players fought a boss where some characters had to hop up on a conveyor belt to destroy machinery. In this fight, the whole raid is on the conveyor, and you are the ones that must avoid being destroyed.
Every so often throughout the fight, Hans’gar or Franzok will pop out to turn on the machinery. Hans’gar turns on the conveyor and puts superheated plates under characters’ feet. Franzok turns on giant overhead stompers that smoosh player characters caught underneath. In addition, Hans body-slams players (both bosses do when returning to the conveyor), shattering the other characters near the targeted one; and Franz interrupts spells and hits random players with damage from Skullcracker.
When one boss or the other leaves the area, the one left behind smashes the two characters tanking them together. And as their health declines, both Hans and Franz use their damaging abilities more and more frequently, making for a hectic, fun fight.
Flamebender Ka’graz
Above: Flamebender Ka’graz is (surprise!) an orc.
The next boss in Blackrock Foundry is Flamebender Ka’graz, an orc shaman with a slightly doofy expression and a really, really big sword. (Players everywhere whose shamans can’t wield swords at all may commence grinding your teeth now.) Her assistant, Aknor Steelbringer, joins her, and he will be the first boss that players kill. He has a smash that damages characters in front of him, and every so often he’ll randomly jump to a faraway player and cause massive damage to everyone standing around that character.
After you dispose of him, you’ll focus on Ka’graz, who gradually builds more energy as the fight goes on.
To start, she sends lines of fire running along the floor from herself to random people in the raid. Anyone who touches them starts a new line, doing extra damage. After a while, those will poof, but they’re fun to avoid in the meantime. She’ll also throw weapons at characters, where they’ll land and spin, doing fire damage for the rest of the fight.
Once she has 25 energy, she’ll start casting meteors at characters once every 15 seconds or so, which must hit multiple players so the damage is split and they survive. At 50 energy, she calls two molten wolves to join the fight, one of which chases a random character around, and the other must be kept facing away from the group in case it belches fire on the raid force. A chain of fire connects the wolves, and this damages anyone it touches. Once one stops fixating on players, the other one starts, and vice versa. Both must die at the same time.
At 75 energy, Ka’graz casts Blazing Radiance on a random player every 10-12 seconds, making them damage anyone close to them for as long as the debuff lasts. And at 100, she casts Firestorm, which damages everyone in the raid. If any wolves are still up, they channel Firestorm also — no bueno.
When that giant area of effect damage is over, the fight starts fresh, but Ka’graz will throw splashes of lava at players and give the tanks a damage debuff that forces them to switch every few stacks.
Kromog
Above: We’re pretty sure Kromog has feet. Maybe.
The final boss of the second wing is Kromog, another cyclops-like beast called a magnaron. His backstory is slightly odd — the Iron Horde stumbled across him, horrified, as they built out the Foundry, but then he started working for them. He reminds me a little of Kologarn in the Ulduar raid dungeon from Wrath of the Lich King, only because his massive size means you see nothing of him above ground but the waist up. The abilities he uses are quite different, though, and a lot of fun.
He hits tanks and melee players (and the rest of the raid, but with less damage) with Slam; sends a shockwave of damage running along the ground to a random player with Rippling Smash; hurls little yellow sonic rings flying in lines out from him that must be avoided; hits four random players with a debuff that does damage; breathes on everyone in the raid if no one is in range for him to physically hit; and smooshes players with stone hands that rise from the floor and clap together. It’s a hoot to see; YouTuber Fatboss did a really nice video on him early in the Warlords beta.
Later in the fight, Kromog casts a pile of runes on the floor. Each rune will, after a few seconds, spawn a hand that grabs the player standing on it. Only one player can use a rune, so every player must find their own to stand on. After the hands grab the characters, Kromog casts a room-wide ability that bounces players way up into the air, damaging them on the way up and killing them with fall damage on the way down.
When he hits 30 percent health, Kromog starts doing things faster and hitting harder, so players then race to kill him.