World of Warcraft Wednesday: Zul’Drak
Places of Interest
Drak’Tharon Keep
Gundrak
Light’s Breach
Ebon Watch
The Argent Stand
Zim’Torga
I don’t even know quite how to feel about Zul’Drak. On one hand, it’s a simple zone, with an daily that’s easy money (if you have a flying mount), two interesting instances, and pretty streamlined quests that should help you with that final sprint to 80.
On the other had, I’m sick of Trolls. Every time they run out of ideas for instances, Blizzard just throws out a bunch of Trolls and washes their hands of the matter. Part of the problem with that though, is that Troll lore in the game is so fractured, that it’s hard to piece the stories all together into one cohesive unit, and this zone, though it takes some nice pieces from the Grizzly Hills (Alliance anyway) quests, seems like a throwaway. Something to distract you between the dragons and Arthas until you’ve got the gear/level to do the top end instances.
Mining: Cobalt, Saronite, Titanium. Cobalt in the south, especially around the areas south of the Argent Stand, where the dailies take place, and Saronite to the north. In the mountains near the Storm Peaks, you can find a lonely Titanium node or two, every once in a great while.
Herbalism: Goldclover, Talandra’s Rose, Deathnettle, Tiger Lily. Honestly, one of the best herb farming zones in Northrend. The Goldclover and Talandra’s Rose crops are especially good, and they grow right along the flight lines you’ll be using for quests, so there’s no point in not grabbing them.
Cloth: Frostweave. As you might imagine, there are a ton of trolls in the area, and they all drop high quantities of Frostweave. It’s worth standing around killing undead trolls if you’ve got nothing better to do and have a need for a couple stacks worth of cloth.
Leather: Borean Leather, Arctic Fur. For whatever reason, people seem not to farm leather much in Zul’Drak, but there are pleanty of bats, raptors, and mammoths to farm, and you probably won’t have much competition, because many of the mobs are away from regular questing areas.
I’ll admit that Zul’Drak is kind of a neat zone, taken by itself. The ruins are cool and feel “lived in,” the daily is easy and great cash, and the whole zone has that sickly palor that no other zone save Icecrown (and even then, only half of it) seems to have. It feels like a WotLK zone. I’m just turned off by Troll lore and Troll instances. Good place to rush up to 80, though.
Special Note: Zul’Drak has a small flaw that causes some people to become frustrated with the zone. See, you can’t get the “Emporer of Zul’Drak” Achievement (part of the Lore Master meta achievement) by normal questing. While most zones have enough quests from the quest hubs to finish the achievement, Zul’Drak only has around 95 of the 100 you need.
The solution to this is to either do the Amphitheater of Anguish sub-quest (which has an achievement of its own). It’s a group quest (which sucks), it’s constantly busy on larger servers (which sucks), and it starts in Dalaran, so you might miss it through normal questing (which sucks). But it will give you that last 5-6 credits you need for filling out the achievement.
Alternately, I believe there may be just enough dungeon quests for Drak’Theron Keep and Gundrak, to eek it out. Obviously, that’s not an ideal situation, but Zul’Drak is not known for its accomidations for players.