World of Warcraft Wednesday: Shadowmoon Valley, The Moon Doesn’t Really Cast a Shadow…as Such….
Places of Interest
The Black Temple
Wildhammer Stronghold
Shadowmoon Village
Altar of the Sha’tar
Sanctum of the Stars
The last official zone in Outlands is the one that you’re least likely to visit. Even before Wrath of the Lich King hit stores, it was pretty easy to skip doing any quests in Shadowmoon. It is certainly one of the most storied and interesting locations in the WoW Universe, with Illidan and The Black Temple looming over the eastern half of the zone, but there’s just not enough there to spurn players to visit it instead of Northrend, anymore.
There are, of course, a few things to check out here if you’re so inclined. There are Aldor/Scryer outposts, which are two of the only minor faction flight paths/quest hubs in the game. At the Alliance/Horde towns are the first Flight trainers in the game. Also, for those chasing achievements, there is the Black Temple instance, which is now much easier to get through.
Mining: Fel Iron, Adamantite, Khorium, Eternium. It’s not really worth visiting just to gather mats, but you can find the standard grab bag of metals to mine here.
Herbalism: Dreaming Glory, Nightmare Vine, Mana Thistle, Terocone, Felweed. The herbs aren’t as plentiful here as they are in some other zones, but you can still build up a nice cache of them if you’re out on the run. It’s the only place to pick up Nightmare Vine, so if you’re trying to fill the quota for some obscure potions, there you go.
Cloth: Netherweave. Just like every other zone, you’ll be up to your damn ears in Netherweave if you try to gather it in Shadowmoon. You won’t need most of it, but it’s there if you want to horde it.
Leather: Knothide Leather, Fel Scales, Crystal Infused Leather. The leather levels of Burning Crusade kind of topped out in Netherstorm. But there’s still leather here if you’re already in the area. But you can’t get anything new, so it’s more of a pain to kill beats here than in other zones.
Shadowmoon is a zone that was destined for obsolescence. It’s end game content for something that is no longer at the end of the game. You’ll still have to visit there to train up your flight skill or to get a couple of achievements, but overall there’s nothing there for the average player any more. An unfortunate, but natural occurrence in the WoW universe.