Black Rook Hold Dungeon Guide: Location, Boss Strategies, Trash, and Loot

This guide will focus on an extensive overview of the dungeon, providing vital information to increase your chance of completing the key. We will cover all 4 boss fights supported by the most notable trash enemies in the dungeon and their important abilities. If you would like to learn about the rest of the dungeons in Mythic+, please see our overviews linked below.

Black Rook Hold is a max-level dungeon in Val'Sharah, Broken Isles. The dungeon is available in both Mythic and Mythic+ mode.

Right at the start of the dungeon, you will be presented with 2 choices, going left or right. While the difference between the non-boss-enemies is none, it is important to state that at the end of each corridor stands a different "mini-boss". To the left, you have Lord Etheldrin Ravencrest, and to the right - Lady Velandras Ravencrest. Pro tip: going left has a slightly more % trash count, so if you are planning to skip any other mobs later in the dungeon, be aware of that!

• Interrupt Ghostly Councilor's Soul Blast.
• Upon fighting Ghostly Retainer, make sure to Dispel Soul Blade on cooldown, as they will apply it occasionally on a random party member. Prot tip: if you have Priest, hold your Mass Dispel until there are multiple Soul Blade debuffs out.
• Make sure to focus Ghostly Protector especially when they cast Sacrifice Soul, since they take 200% more damage but gives any existing Ghostly Protector a 75% damage reduction.

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• When fighting Lady Velandras Ravencrest, the most important thing detail here is to stay spread to avoid being simultaneously cleave by Glaive Toss. In addition, your tank must pay attention to Strike Down front-load ability.
• If you decide to take the left path, be ready to face - Lord Etheldrin Ravencrest. Ensure to interrupt his Spirit Blast and manage well Soul Echoes debuff, which the mini-boss will occasionally cast on a non-tank player. If you get targeted by the debuff, be within a safe space and leave the trace of echo behind you; avoid them at all costs , as they will have a follow-up detonation.

Amalgam of Souls consists of two phases - Phase one: The Amalgam of Souls and Phase two: The Call of Souls. During Phase 1 you need to avoid Swirling Scythe (the more range you have between the boss, the easier to dodge) skill shot frontal and deal with Soul Echoes follow-up ground effect (targeting a random player). In addition to that, occasionally, the boss will cast Reap Soul 180 degrees frontal; it is essential for your tank to position the boss to the corner to avoid any necessary deaths. Once the boss reaches 50% HP, Phase Two will begin , and with your priority shifts from boss damage to killing the 7 Restless Souls coming from the Call Souls cast. Make sure to defeat all of them before they reach Amalgam of Souls, as each of them will grant the boss with Soulgorge stack, increasing the damage of Soul Burst (happens once you defeat all 7 Restless Souls). After that, Phase 1 will re-appear until the boss is defeated. More details down below:

• Avoid the Swirling Scythe frontal skill shot. The further you are from the boss, the easier it is to dodge due to the long travel time.
• Beware of your positioning at all times to avoid being hit by the Reap Soul 180 degrees frontal.
• If you have the Soul Echoes debuff, walk slowly in a line to place the ground puddles in a way that doesn't interfere, nor affect the rest of your team members (they will trigger after a few seconds so you can stack multiple circles together to save space).
• During Phase Two, you can use any form of crowd-control to help you kill the 7 incoming Restless Souls.
• Use defensive cooldown when Amalgam of Souls is about to cast Soul Burst, regardless if he has Soulgorge stacks or not.

• Beware of your positioning before the Reap Soul 180-degree frontal cast. Being positioned at the corner will help your teammates dodge it easier.

• If you have any external damage-reduction cooldown, use it before the Soul Burst cast to help your team survive.

• While climbing up the stairs you will face Rook Spiderlings and Rook Spinner, both creatures applying Soul Venom debuff with their auto-attacks. Make sure to group them up and use mass AoE stuns to prevent excess amount of stacks of Soul Venom. Alternatively, you can always Dispel them once they reach a high number.
• Side-step the Arrow Barrage (they usually jump near a random party member) and be aware of their continued Shoot ability.
• Interrupt Risen Arcanist's Arcane Blitz cast.
• Avoid Arcane Minion's Phased Explosion ground effect.
• Important mob: Use disturb effects on Risen Scout's Knife Dance before the cast has finished, avoiding taking massive AoE group-wide damage.
• Avoid Soul-Torn Champion's Bonebreaking Strike frontal damage. The frontal goes where the tank faces it.
• When engaging Risen Companion, be sure to have between 10-12 yards range between each other to avoid having Bloodthirsty Leap on multiple people. This Bleed effect stacks.
• Commander Shemdah'sohn is just a patchwork (dummy) mob that does Bonebreaking Strike frontal and has a large amount of health.

Illysanna Ravencrest is another 2-phase boss encounter, with much more punishing mechanics if you are not paying attention. Phase one: Vengeance will last until the boss reaches maximum energy, after which it will trigger Phase two: Fury. During Phase 1, the whole party must pay attention to Brutal Glaive, your tank to be aware of Vengeful Shear frontal attack, and everyone needs to communicate during Dark Rush dash. Once the boss reaches maximum energy, Phase 2 will begin, and with it, you have to deal with Soul-torn Vanguard and Risen Arcanist while simultaneously managing Eye Beams fixates and boss damage. After a short period, the boss will resume Phase 1. More information, down below:

• When you get targeted by Brutal Glaive, get to a position where there are no nearby allies next to you to avoid the extra bounce back of the Bleed effect.
• If you are fixated by Dark Rush, make sure there are no people in between the dashes to avoid excess damage taken. Preferably be near the corner to place the follow-up - Blazing Trail ground effect and save space.
• If you get targeted by the Eye Beams in Phase 2, try to "kite" the beam efficiently and minimize the excess amount of movement. Be aware that the beam will leave a Felblazed Ground trail that you must avoid staying in.
• Dodge Soul-torn Vanguard's Bonecrushing Strike frontal ability and interrupt Risen Arcanist's Arcane Blitz cast.

• Consider using active mitigation during Vengeful Shear tank ability.
• Make sure to taunt Soul-torn Vanguard and Risen Arcanist adds when Illysanna Ravencrest enters Phase 2.

• Be mindful of people with Brutal Glaive Bleed effect.

Upon defeating Illysanna Ravencrest, you must climb up the stairs where you will face the second to last boss - Smashspite the Hateful. Please beware of the incoming Boulder Crush rocks; they will stun you and do near-lethal damage (depending on the key level). The first player to reach the top of the stairs will automatically cancel the Boulder Crush rocks. Pro Tip: There are in total of 2 Boulder Crush events.

• Wrathguard Bladelord will exclusively do damage to your tank damage with Brutal Assault. If you do have Enrage Dispel, you can use it once the mob has Enrage buff. Pro tip: If you are quick enough, you can stun the Brutal Assault channel cast.
• Although harmless mob that only does auto-attacks, beware of Wyrmtongue Scavenger's "Drink" Ancient Potion. The spell can trigger one of the following abilities - Indigestion (frontal-fire damage cone) or Dizzy (Wyrmtongue Scavenger will initially receive Hyperactive, spinning uncontrollably and doing damage to any player that gets in contact with, after awhile the mob will get stunned for 3 sec). In addition, beware of Throw Priceless Artifact ground puddles.
• Wyrmtongue Trickster is only auto-attacking the highest threat target (your tank).
• Bloodscent Felhound is only auto-attacking the highest threat target (your tank).
• Pay attention to Felspite Dominator's Fel Frenzy as it must be interrupted at all times. The buff can also go on any other non-boss and boss enemies, so if you have multiple Felspite Dominators, set a kick rotation. In addition, the mob will be surrounded by Fel Bat Pups and will occasionally cast Sic Bats!, here is a good place to use stun and disturb effects to help the targeted target survive. Pro tip: If you go on top of the stairs, you will stop the random Fel Bat Pup from spawning (otherwise handful of them will come every ~10 sec).

Smashspite the Hateful is a relatively easy boss fight, if you manage Hateful Gaze and its follow-up effect - Hateful Charge properly. The boss will have a Rage bar that will slowly fill thanks to Brutality; once he reaches 100 Rage, he will cast Brutal Haymaker to your tank. In addition to this, your Healer must constantly pay attention to Earthshaking Stomp AoE group-wide damage and knockback effect. At last, throughout the whole fight, a player will randomly be selected by a Fel Bat casting Fel Vomit on them with a follow-up ground effect - Fel Vomitus (hence why positioning matters); as the fight progresses, the frequency of the Fel Vomitus casts will increase. More information down below:

• Pay attention to your positioning at all times to avoid overlapping damage taken from Earthshaking Stomp + Fel Vomitus. This is a good place to use your defensive cooldowns if you are in low health.
• Avoid staying in Fel Vomitus.
• Don't take more than 1 stack of Hateful Charge. The best way to handle the Hateful Gaze and its follow-up effect - Hateful Charge is to rotate people that do not have stacks or let your tank soak multiple debuffs.

• Be a backup soak of Hateful Charge in case the rotation of the soakers gets disrupted.
• Use major defensive cooldowns during Brutal Haymaker cast.

• Help your tank during Brutal Haymaker cast.
• Top-up people before the Earthshaking Stomp cast.

• Risen Swordsman will exclusively deal tank damage with its Coup de Grace special attack. Use defensive cooldowns when appropriate.
• Avoid getting hit by Risen Lancer's Raven's Dive ground effect.

Lord Kur'talos Ravencrest is a two-phase boss encounter consisting of Stage One: Lord of the Keep and Stage Two: Vengeance of the Ancients. During Phase 1, you will be facing Latosius; avoid its Whirling Blade frontal skill shot while your tank is dealing with Unerring Shear tank-buster spell. In addition to that, throughout this phase, Latosius will hit a random enemy with Shadow Bolt (every ~25 sec) and cast Dark Blast ground animation, up until the boss reaches 20% HP, which will end Phase 1 and trigger Phase 2. The second phase is the hardest one, as you will be dealing with Dantalionax while having the Legacy of the Ravencrest. During this phase, Dantalionax will occasionally cast Shadow Bolt Volley, doing AoE damage to the whole party, and focus one random party member with Stinging Swarm (this is the priority to kill during this phase). At last, they will cast Dreadlord's Guile entering a minor inter-phase, during which you must avoid getting hit by Dark Obliteration and Cloud of Hypnosis. More information down below:

• Avoid the Whirling Blade frontal skill shot.
• Avoid being hit by the Dark Blast.
• During the Dreadlord's Guile inter-phase, use any movement-speed bonus effect to avoid dying to Dark Obliteration.
• Avoid any Cloud of Hypnosis ground puddles.
• Pro tip: During the very first Shadow Bolt Volley cast, use your personal defensive as you will not be having Legacy of the Ravencrest buff.

• Watch out for the Unerring Shear cast.

• Top-up your party to avoid lethal damage coming from Shadow Bolt.
• Spot-heal the target that gets Stinging Swarm.
• Make sure people are close to being max health during Shadow Bolt Volley AoE cast.

Type	Item	Stats
Polearm	Howling Echoes	Crit/Haste
Mail Shoulder	Shadow Archer's Spaulders	Mastery/Vers
Back	Shadowfeather Shawl	Haste/Vers
Plate Chest	Etheldrin's Breastplate	Mastery/Haste
Cloth Chest	Ravencourt Formal Robes	Mastery/Crit
Leather Hands	Raven's Veil Gloves	Mastery/Crit
Trinket	Amalgam's Seventh Spine	Int

Type	Item	Stats
Leather Head	Soulstarve Hood	Haste/Crit
Plate Hands	Ravencrest Bonecrush Gauntlets	Crit/Mastery
Mail Waist	Soul-Torn Fury Cinch	Mastery/Crit
Cloth Boots	Slippers of Heedless Sacrifice	Crit/Haste
Finger	Ring of Contempt	Haste/Vers
Trinket	Ember of Nullification	Agi

Type	Item	Stats
Cloth Head	Collar of Raking Claws	Haste/Mastery
Mail Legs	Fel-Hammered Greaves	Mastery/Crit
Ring	Band of Callous Dominance	Crit/Haste
Trinket	Spiked Counterweight	Haste

Type	Item	Stats
2H Sword	Ravencrest's Wrath	Haste/Vers
Mail Head	Shadow Archer's Helm	Crit/Haste
Neck	Raven Filigree Pendant	Vers/Mastery
Cloth Hands	Latosius's Blasting Gloves	Mastery/Crit
Leather Legs	Legguards of Endless Horrors	Haste/Vers
Plate Legs	Rook Footman's Legplates	Mastery/Crit
Trinket	Caged Horror	Mastery

There are 7 total achievements to obtain in Black Rook Hold:

Achievement	Criteria
Black Rook Hold	Defeat Lord Kur'talos Ravencrest in Black Rook Hold.
Heroic: Black Rook Hold	Defeat Lord Kur'talos Ravencrest in Black Rook Hold on Heroic difficulty or higher.
Mythic: Black Rook Hold	Defeat Lord Kur'talos Ravencrest in Black Rook Hold on Mythic difficulty.
Keystone Hero: Black Rook Hold	Complete Black Rook Hold at Mythic Level 20 or higher, within the time limit.
Adds? More Like Bads	Defeat Illysanna Ravencrest without killing any of her allies in Black Rook Hold on Mythic difficulty.
Black Rook Moan	Defeat Amalgam of Souls after killing a Frustrated Soul in Black Rook Hold on Mythic difficulty.
You Used to Scrawl Me In Your Fel Tome	Find all entries of Illysanna Ravencrest's diary in Black Rook Hold.