Blackmaw Hold: a furbolg city behind a sealed gate, and a way farther down

Behind a gate in Azshara that has stayed shut for a very long time, there is a city. Blizzard’s dungeon preview of 20 October lists Blackmaw Hold for levels 55 to 60.

A furbolg city, not a camp

Furbolgs in the original game mostly appear as camps, villages and the Timbermaw tunnels. Blackmaw Hold is described differently: a great furbolg city beyond a long-sealed gate.

The Blackmaw clan is struggling against a corruption spreading through its groves and winding mountain tunnels. The preview does not say what the corruption is or where it comes from. The clan is presented as under threat, not simply as the enemy.

Blizzard calls it a substantial max-level adventure with multiple routes and bosses, which makes it one of the larger new dungeons by description, though no boss count is given.

Planning

At 55 to 60, Blackmaw Hold overlaps with Shaper’s Terrace at 58 to 60, the other new end-of-leveling dungeon. The preview gives no faction access note.

The way down

The preview ends with a hint: venture into the hold’s deepest reaches, and you may discover a path leading even farther below Azeroth.

Blizzard’s separate raid overview of the same day is more specific. The 10-player raid Barrow Deeps has multiple entrances, connected through Mount Hyjal, Winterspring and Blackmaw Hold. So the hold is officially one of the places connected to the raid’s entrances.

Neither article explains how that connection works: whether the path is open from the start, whether a group has to clear the dungeon first, or whether it is simply a different way in. That is worth finding out before December, when the raid opens.