DireMaul
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First major ‘World of Warcraft Classic’ update adds Dire Maul dungeon
World of Warcraft Classic was (re)released just a short time ago, but there's already more stuff to do. Blizzard has added the three-part Dire Maul dungeon, jammed with elves, ogres and other bad things, marking the first major content release for the vintage 2005 game.
Things left undone
I've been farming a lot of ghost mushrooms and gromsblood lately in order to make Demonslaying Elixirs. My guild's farming trash in Sunwell Plateau at the moment and has taken a few half-hearted swings at Kalecgos, all of which ended in much hollering and arguing and waving of hands in the air. But despite the fact that Big Blue is likely to ride our collective ass for weeks, I like to think of myself as a long-term planner with a gimlet eye on Brutallus. So, a-farming I go. The materials for the elixir are fairly irritating to farm in quantity, and I find myself in a lot of areas I never even leveled extensively in when I was raising my Druid main. Desolace? Paid it a visit to get some fishing done. Blasted Lands? Uh...passed through it on my way to Outland. Maraudon? Did I do that? I want to say I did, but was brought up short at learning of the existence of a scepter that allows you to bypass two-thirds of the instance. I know for sure I've never set foot in Dire Maul North, much less a Tribute Run, I'd never seen the live side of Stratholme, and I hadn't so much as clapped eyes on the Emperor in Blackrock Depths.
Around Azeroth: It's a... bird?
What sort of monstrous skeleton is this, you ask? Well, your guess is as good as mine. However, I do know that this stunning specimen can be found hanging above the library of Dire Maul, and that this particular example was sent in by reader Millarun of Ysondre.Do you have a unique shot of Azeroth that you'd like to show off to the rest of the world? Tell us about it by e-mailing aroundazeroth@gmail.com! You can attach a picture file or send us a link to one -- and don't worry about formatting, we'll take care of that part.See more of your pics from Around Azeroth.
Phat Loot Phriday: Quel'Serrar, the High Blade
Big swords are cool, and this one is no exception. Plus, it gives you a reason to run an often overlooked endgame instance. A lot. Like, over and over again.Name: Quel'Serrar a.k.a. "The High Blade"Type: Epic Main Hand SwordDamage / Speed: 84-126, 2.00 (52.5 DPS)Abilities: Only obtainable by Warriors and Paladins, sorry Rogues Chance on Hit: Grants the user 20 defense and 300 armor for 10 seconds (an ability like that just screams Main Tank Weapon) Looks pretty, like an Epic Elven Blade should. How to Get It: This one actually has a quest behind it-- before you start, you'll need to be in or with a guild that is running Onyxia. Nowadays, that's actually hard to find, so make sure you've got that before you start the quest off.What you'll need is actually another item, called "Foror's Compendium of Dragon Slaying." It's a book (about dragon slaying, natch) that drops in Dire Maul-- reports say it's about 1% random drop from all the bosses, but in reality, it's probably less than that. As in, this is a really, really rare drop. However, it is not BOP, so you can sometimes find it in the AH-- usually it'll run you about 300 gold, but it's been known to sell for thousands before.Once you've got the book, you want to go to Lorekeeper Lydros in the Dire Maul Library-- it's inside DM North, and he's the same guy you get the Dire Maul enchants and the Mage water quest from. He'll give you something called an Unfired Ancient Blade, and that's where Ony comes in-- you've got to get her to breathe on the blade to forge it for you. In combat, you drop the blade in front of her, and then when she's dead, you use the blade on the corpse, and then boom, you've got... the Treated Ancient Blade. One more FedEx quest back to the librarian, and you've got the shiny sword. Now hit stuff with it!Oh, and I forgot-- all the quests involved give some pretty good XP. So you might make a note now, and then look this one up on your way to 70.Bonus Useless Trivia: If the name of that book looks familiar to you more veteran players, it's because yes, the name comes from Blizzard's Furor: he's a former Everquest player who now works as a WoW Quest Designer. He must know a lot about slaying dragons.Getting Rid of It: The quest item itself is BOP, of course. Sells to vendors for 7g 59s 70c.
Hacking Dire Maul
On my server, aces for the Darkmoon Faire decks tend to sell on the auction house for between 150 and 200 gold. That is, except for the ace of warlords, which seems to have bottomed out at 4 gold or so - and there tend to be ten of them on the auction house at any given time. The drop rate of the ace isn't high enough to make getting these quantities easily, which does make one wonder where they're coming from. The usual answer - farmers with teleport hacks, which allow them to jump directly to King Gordok in Dire Maul, kill him, and collect their loot. This video, which recently showed up on Google Video, shows us what might actually be happening here.
