Elemental Rune Dungeons Guide (Protocol Inferno/Protocol Twilight Heroic++)

The Elemental Rune Dungeons are a new difficulty added to the 5-man Heroic Dungeons in Cataclysm Classic, functioning similarly to the Titan Rune Dungeons introduced during WotLK Classic! This new difficulty functions as a catch-up mechanic, offering players the opportunity to either gear up alts or acquire powerful equipment for their main characters as well as many rewards related to the previous raids.

How to Access the Elemental Rune Difficulty Dungeons

The Elemental Rune Difficulty is accessed in two separate ways: You can go directly to a Heroic Dungeon and interact with the “Mysterious Elemental Device” and select the desired difficulty or queue up from the Dungeon Finder. If you plan on queueing directly from the Dungeon Finder, you will need the following item levels:

• Protocol Interno Dungeons: 346 Ilvl or higher
• Protocol Twilight Dungeons: 353 Ilvl or higher

The Mysterious Elemental Device will always be found right at the entrance of a Heroic Dungeon! To activate the Mysterious Elemental Device, players will need to click on it and select the specific Protocol they intend to play, in this case, Protocol Inferno. Once players select the option, a floating shard-like structure will appear. Players will have to interact with the structure, channeling it similarly to a summoning stone. All 5 players that join the dungeon will need to channel it for either the Protocol Inferno or Protocol Twilight difficulties to be activated. Currently, on the PTR, only one player is required to channel the structure, but the live version will always require 5 players!

Elemental Rune Dungeons Difficulty Levels

Unlike WotLK Classic, Cataclysm Classic only showcases two different versions of “Heroic Plus” dungeons! Phase 3 brought forward the Protocol Inferno Dungeons, with Phase 4 continuing the tradition and bringing forth the new Protocol Twilight Dungeons, adding a new layer of difficulty and more mechanics!

• Protocol Inferno (Heroic +)
• Protocol Twilight (Heroic ++)

Protocol Inferno Difficulty Dungeons

Protocol Inferno Dungeons function similarly to the Heroic Dungeons in the sense that they offer Valor Points upon completion along with a small sum of Gold and a similar loot table, but the similarities end there. Protocol Inferno Dungeons are harder than Heroic Dungeons, with both the Trash Mobs and the Bosses receiving the Fury of the Firelord buff.

The Fury of the Firelord buff increases a mob/boss’s Health by 100% and all Damage by 25%! There are no specific affixes similar to Mythic Retail Dungeons or particular buffs that players can receive such as the ones from Titan Rune Defense Protocol Gamma from back in WotLK Classic. However, as the expansion progresses, we can expect the new variants of Heroic++ to feature possible affixes or particular buffs, depending on how hard the Devs decide to make them.

Besides the Fury of the Firelord buff, the Protocol Inferno Dungeons offer the same loot table, with one exception, the new Fissure Stone Fragments currency! This currency functions similarly to the previously available Sidereal Essence or Defiler’s Scourgestone currencies, offering a plethora of rewards that players can access by visiting a new NPC. The NPC is named Kyanite Stonetender and can be visited in both Stormwind and Orgrimmar, depending on whether you are Alliance or Horde.

Each boss will grant a player 2 x Fissure Stone Fragments, guaranteeing that every single player out of the 5 players who do the dungeon will gain 2 x Fissure Stone Fragments per boss. The final boss of a Protocol Inferno Dungeon will drop 5 x Fissure Stone Fragments in case every other boss from the instance has been slain. This specific setting has been placed in a way to incentivize players to do full clears instead of skipping to the last boss. In case players skip even a single boss, the last boss of the instance will no longer grant 5 x Fissure Stone Fragments, offering 2 x Fissure Stone Fragments instead.

Protocol Twilight Dungeons

Protocol Twilight Dungeons add a new layer of difficulty to the Elemental Rune Dungeons, enhancing bosses and mobs even further while also adding an affix to the dungeons that adds a new mechanic, the Twilight’s Madness buff. No matter in which dungeon you choose to activate the Protocol Twilight difficulty, the affix remains the same.

The Twilight’s Madness buff increases a mob’s Health by 150% and Damage by 50%! While all mobs share the effect, bosses have an additional effect on top of the added Damage & Health. The effect (Affix) triggers every 65 seconds whenever a boss attacks, giving it a chance to summon Blood Globules of Shu’ma! The globules are spawned in pairs of 3 and path toward the boss that summoned them. Whenever one globule dies, the other surviving globules become briefly immune to damage.

If one of the globules reaches the boss, one of the following effects can trigger, ensuring that each boss fight gains additional mechanics:

• Minor Glowing Blood of Shu’ma (Glowing Globule) – Increases attack speed by 25%
• Mana Voids (Cobalt Globule) – Summons a Mana Void that leeches all Mana from Casters and Healers. Upon defeat, it evenly redistributes the stolen mana.
• Minor Searing Blood (Crimson Globule) – Deals Fire Damage to 3 random players, dealing increased damage against targets the further away they are from the boss.
• Forgotten Ones (Dark Globule) – Summons Forgotten Ones adds that fixate on players and attack them until killed.
• Digestive Acid (Acidic Globule) – Mechanic that targets random players and deals Nature Damage, inflicting the effect on any other player within 4 yards of the target.
• Deep Corruption (Shadowed Globule) – Debuff that triggers after every fifth Healing/Absorb Spell and triggers Shadow Damage to the entire party. Lasts 25 seconds.

Just like with the Inferno Protocol Dungeons, the Protocol Twilight bosses drop a special currency, named Obsidian Fragments. Each boss drops 2 x Obsidian Fragments and the last boss drops 5 x Obsidian Fragments. In addition, each final boss will drop 1 x Raid Finder Jewelry Piece or 1 x Raid Finder Weapon and 1 x Raid Finder Token.

Twilight Protocol Buffs

However, unlike the Protocol Inferno, the Protocol Twilight brings buffs to all players attending the challenge, similar to the Titan Rune Dungeons from WotLK Classic. Players will be able to choose one of four buffs while they are inside the dungeon after activating the Mysterious Elemental Device. This can be done by using the Signet of the Wyrmrest Accord which summons a Wyrmrest Defender that can be talked with to choose one of the four buffs.

List of Protocol Twilight Buffs:

• Gift of the Red Dragonflight – Upon successfully parrying, dodging, or blocking an attack, the player unleashes a frontal cone of Fire Damage. The effect can’t trigger more than once per second.
• Gift of the Bronze Dragonflight – Offers a stacking buff that grants 10% Haste per stack. The buff can stack up to 10 times, losing 1 stack upon each instance of damage received.
• Gift of the Green Dragonflight – A player’s Direct Healing Spells grant a 10% Damage Increase buff that stacks up to 10 times while Direct Damage abilities grant a 10% Healing Increase buff that stacks up to 10 times. Upon casting either a Healing Spell or Direct Damage ability, 1 stack is lost. Both effects can be stacked at the same time.
• Gift of the Blue Dragonflight – Upon not moving for 10 seconds, gain a stacking buff that increases all damage dealt by 10% The buff can stack up to 10 times, losing 1 stack rapidly with each movement.

Rewards

Elemental Rune Dungeons function differently from their WotLK Titan Rune counterpart, offering no special loot from the bosses themselves. Instead, the new Protocol Inferno and Protocol Twilight Dungeons offer Fissure Stone Fragments & Obsidian Fragments that can be exchanged for a plethora of items related to the previous raids.

Fissure Stone Fragments

Fissure Stone Fragments can be exchanged for items by interacting with Kyanite Stonetender in the Command Center (Stormwind) for Alliance players and Grommash Hold (Orgrimmar) for Horde players. Keep in mind that Fissure Stone Fragments cap at 160, so you won’t be able to stockpile more than that. With Fissure Stone Fragments you will be able to gain some of the Heroic-version items from the Throne of the Four Winds, Blackwing Descent, and The Bastion of Twilight, along with the T11 Normal Helm & Shoulders Tokens, and 3 separate mounts!

List of items that can be bought with Fissure Stone Fragments:

Obsidian Fragments

Meanwhile, the Obsidian Fragments will allow players to acquire Dragon Soul LFR Gear, T12 Helm & Shoulders Tokens, Firelands 378/384, Normal Ragnaros Loot, a variety of trinkets, and random BoP items from Firelands that can be bought from satchels. The satchels also have a chance to drop the Flametalon of Alysrazor Mount!

Obsidian Fragments can be exchanged for items by interacting with Zarstrasza in the Command Center (Stormwind) for Alliance players and Sylstrasza in Grommash Hold (Orgrimmar) for Horde players.

List of items that can be bought with Obsidian Fragments:

Achievements

Similar to how the Titan Rune Dungeons offered a list of individual achievements and a single overall achievement for completing all of the Titan Rune Dungeons, so do Elemental Rune Dungeons have their list of achievements! The general meta-achievement of Protocol Inferno Dungeons, Protocol Inferno: Terminated, doesn’t offer a special reward like the Defense Protocol Gamma: Terminated does.

Furthermore, it seems that the current PTR version indicates no new achievements for the Protocol Twilight Dungeons. However, we’re sure that it will show up on the PTR in the upcoming days, at which point, we will update this section.

Below are all of the achievements that are available for the Protocol Inferno Difficulty:

• Protocol Inferno: Blackrock Caverns
• Protocol Inferno: Throne of the Tides
• Protocol Inferno: Lost City of the Tol’vir
• Protocol Inferno: The Stonecore
• Protocol Inferno: The Deadmines
• Protocol Inferno: Halls of Origination
• Protocol Inferno: The Vortex Pinnacle
• Protocol Inferno: Shadowfang Keep
• Protocol Inferno: Grim Batol

Elemental Rune Heroic Dungeons List

Blackrock Caverns

Throne of the Tides

Lost City of the Tol’vir

The Stonecore

The Deadmines

Halls of Origination

The Vortex Pinnacle

Shadowfang Keep

Grim Batol