by JR Cook - 9 years ago     show comments

Exploring Draenor delves into the hidden places of the world that will one day become Outland. From the volcanic landscape of Frostfire to the gloomy dells of Shadowmoon, these articles are your guide to events that are off the beaten path.

Welcome back to another episode of Exploring Draenor! This week, we venture into the barren lands of western Gorgrond, where the magnaron – and their descendants, the gronn, ogron and ogres – hold sway.

Location: Fissure of Fury, in the west wall of Gronn Canyon

Task: Kill

Rewards: Smoldering Cerulean Stone

The ogron, until WoD was launched, were the ‘missing link’ in the evolutionary chain. Technically you could argue that High King Maulgar was one, with a different model – he was certainly distinct from most of the other ogres in Outland, and had the ogron’s single eye. However, it’s more likely that Maulgar and those like him are yet another part of the ogres’ evolution.

You’ll find Gelgor at the bottom of a deep cave in a canyon wall, which makes sense: like all of their kind, the ogron have an affinity for the earth and stone. The big difference is that those living in this cave, the Ogron Spinecrushers, have also developed a fondness for heat. Gorgrond is strewn with volcanic calderas, and it looks like this particular area is located right on top of one. Steam and smoke billows from cracks and vents throughout the main cavern.

Ogron are not particularly bright; they appear to be worshipping the wooshy-fire-air. However, at their heart they remain true to their nature, having captured several Iron Horde soldiers (Grom’kar Captive). For what purpose? Well, it’s not unrealistic to suppose that the orcs will be a. eaten, or b. sacrificed to the volcano.

A long path spirals down towards the bottom of the cave. You’ll need to fight through or sneak past several ogron to reach Gelgor, who waits in a grotto at the rear. Casters, be aware of their Interrupting Shout ability – and melee, they also have a frontal smash. Classes with a slow fall mechanic, or Engineers, will have a much easier time; simply hike up the side of the cave outside and drop through the conveniently-located hole in the roof, which will send you plummeting to the bottom. Of course, you’ll be surrounded by angry ogron, but hey – if everyone did it, it wouldn’t be a shortcut.

Before leaving this area, be sure to check behind the large smoke vent in the middle for a Treasure, in the form of the Horned Skull; this contains Garrison Resources.

Once you reach Gelgor, the other ogron’s worship of smoke and fire makes sense, as he – presumably their leader – is literally bathing in blue flame.

Unusually for an ogron, Gelgor is a spell-caster, although he uses his abilities to augment his melee attacks. He has two spells: Flaming Fists, causing fire damage on hit, and Azure Storm, calling down blue meteorites (Yes, at the bottom of a cave. What, it doesn’t make sense? Hold on, I’ll talk to you after I pull this fully-laden banquet table out of my backpack and safely store a dragon’s head in my pocket) to marked locations after a short delay. Fists is almost always shortly followed by Storm, so he’ll actually waste roughly a quarter of the buff’s time with the cast.

The blue flame is presumably responsible for Gelgor’s magic, and it doesn’t disappear after he’s defeated. Where did it come from? It could be a direct connection to Draenor’s version of the Firelands, or perhaps is caused by something inside the specific volcano that the Fissure sits on top of. Perhaps something of Titan origin?