Dal ' rend Blackhand Rend Blackhand is the ruler of the Dark Horde and is considered to be a great threat to Thrall ' s mastery of the Horde . Rend is the bloodthirsty son of the former Warchief of the Horde , Blackhand the Destroyer . He believes that he is the rightful Warchief of the Horde due to lineage , and seeks to overthrow Thrall . To this end , he has allied the forces of the Dark Horde with Nefarian . The two have used their combined resources to re - create the chromatic dragonflight , which they hope to unleash upon the world once again . His mount is a massive chromatic drake named Gyth . Background . Rend and his brother and sister had a short childhood due to Warlocks aging of children , but unlike other Orc parents Blackhand was happy to put forward his children first for artificial aging . After ' coming of age ' Rend served with the other members of the First Horde in the fight to exterminate the Draenei . After the Siege of Telmor , Durotan was offered the city as reward for leading the raid on it . When Durotan turned it down , Blackhand and his family were more than happy to take Telmor as their own , even going so far as wearing the clothes and sleeping in the beds of the Draenei they had killed . This ended when the whole of the Orcish Horde was moved to Hellfire Citadel to better carry out the orders of Blackhand . During the Second War , Rend served as lieutenant to Warchief Orgrim Doomhammer . He and his brother Maim often questioned Doomhammer ' s orders , as Orgrim killed Blackhand the Destroyer and took his place as Warchief . However , Orgrim allowed the insubordination because the two brothers were leaders of the powerful Black Tooth Grin clan . During the siege of the Capital City of Lordaeron , Rend was ordered by Doomhammer to have his clan break off and chase after the traitorous Gul ' dan , who had taken to the sea in search of the Eye of Sargeras . Rend and Maim later personally fought Turalyon at the Dark Portal , only to flee when it became evident that the paladin had the upper hand . Rend and Maim took control of the remaining Blackrock orcs and began to rebuild the Horde at Blackrock Spire . About two years later , the Dark Portal reopened and emissaries from Ner ' zhul were immediately sent to Rend and Main asking them to rejoin the Horde , and to ask to borrow the red dragons held captive by the allied Dragonmaw clan . Rend refused . Not long after , Nefarian came to Blackrock Spire and took control of the Blackhand brothers and the forces under their control . Eventually , Dark Iron dwarves from Blackrock Depths swarmed up and tried to destroy the Dark Horde . The Dark Horde fought back , and Maim was killed in savage battle . His sacrifice , plus Rend ' s alliance with the Black Dragonflight , allowed them to drive back the Dark Irons and maintain their hold on Blackrock Spire . Strategies . This encounter is pretty simple , once several waves of enemies are taken out ( Either 1 Elite chromatic dragonkin and an orc handler or 2 dragonkin ; and 3 chromatic whelps ) he will come through the gate to face you . It is important to note throughout this fight that a multitude of orcs spawn at the top of the arena . They will remain there until the event is completed . This fight can be done simply : Everyone DPS Gyth ( His mount ) until Rend falls off , then another Tank keeps Rend busy while everyone finishes Gyth off , from there it is an easy matter of DPSing the crap out of Rend until he falls . 2 warriors , 2 Rogues , 2 mages , a Priest , a Warlock , and 2 of any other class can bring him down without even coming close to any deaths . Note that if anyone has the ( UBRS key ) , by equipping it and Using it he can summon a giant spectral dragon ( Vaelastrasz , whom you will later fight in Blackwing Lair ) , who will heal everyone for five thousand as well as damage Rend . Nefarius will eventually banish him , however timely use of the UBRS key can ensure victory . Summoning Vaelastrasz when Rend falls off Gyth triggers him to attack Rend , while using it any any time beforehand only causes him to heal the raid . The ring is on a 3 minute cooldown , and this is shared with any other raid member who holds a Seal of Ascension . Equipping the ring will also randomly provide a + 100 Resistance buff to any school of magic that Gyth uses . At higher levels , it is of paramount importance that Rend be brought down slowly . If he is brought down too fast , he will not get a chance to jump off of his mount ( which he does when he has about 25 % of his health remaining , if you DPS him down first ) and , though Rend will be lootable , the Stadium door will remain closed , and necessitate that the instance be reset . This also applies if you choose to DPS down Gyth first ; Rend drops off him when Gyth has around 25 % health remaining , and any attack that kills Gyth before Rend dismounts will have the same effect , except that Rend will despawn instead of leaving a corpse to be looted ( Gyth can be looted as normal , however ) . For mages , warlocks , hunters , and other classes with ( temporary ) pets , it is important that you do not put them on aggressive mode , since they might aggro the spectators on top of the ledge with ranged attacks . This is especially important to mages using Mirror Image : since there is no pet bar for the mage to control the images , they will attack the nearest hostile target in range should they still be up after Rend ' s and Gyth ' s deaths ( namely , the spectators ) . A mage soloing this event should either DPS Rend and Gyth slowly to ensure the images despawn before the end of the fight , or not cast it at all . Notes . See also :