We were back to finish off Zul’Farrak. We had made our mistakes, explored the mechanics, and run through most of the challenges, and now we just wanted to punch that “final boss” ticket and get the last two quests out of the way. It was back to Tanaris for the run.
The general vicinity in Tanaris
Last time Moronae rolled over to level 50. I was close, so went out and got there as well. And Skronk and Ula got on during the week to put in some work on leveling, so when we met up our group was:
- Moronae – level 50 night elf druid
- Viniki – level 50 gnome warrior
- Skronk – level 50 dwarf priest
- Ula – level 49 gnome mage
Level 50 was an expensive one for us. Moronae and Skronk spent a bunch on new spells, while Viniki upgraded a bit of his gear, including grabbing Julie’s Dagger from the auction house. It is fast, so my sharpening stones will be all the more effective.
Once we met up, we rode on over to the instance and started moving through it fairly quickly.
Back in ZF again
Being on a mission, we bypassed even more mobs that usual, slipping by the fountain area where the two routes through branch without bothering to clear it out.
The fountain stands unscathed
We did end up getting a patrol while we were on that little hill, but otherwise killed as few trolls as possible as we worked our way around to the stairs once again.
Once again, we cleared out everybody in the area, then ascended the stairs and took down the executioner. Then we did a round of buffs, got full mana up, then unlocked Sergeant Bly and his companions and started off the event one more time.
Here they come… again!
We followed the same plan as before, concentrating on elites when they came up. The non-elites threatened to get out of hand for a bit as heals and AOE drew some onto Skronk and Ula, but we managed to keep that under control.
When Bly began the march down the stairs, we followed, and at the base killed off Shadowpriest Sezz’ziz and Nekrum Gutchewer and the few remaining non-elites without much issue.
That done, I immediately went to Weegli Blastfuse and spoke to him, so he would blast open the doors to the final boss. Skronk and Ula looted Nekrum for his necklace. And then I spoke to Sergeant Bly, aggroing him for the fight over the Divino-matic Rod.
We slew him and his companions, looted the rod, and were successfully done with the event… on the third try.
Event done, all hostiles down
From there it was over to the big gate, which now lay open for us.
The gates are open
The fight beyond was something I could recall almost nothing about, save a sense that it was a bit of a let down after all the energy of the stairs event. And that sense was about right.
There are three groups of mobs you need to pull first, then it is time for Chief Ukorz Sandscalp and Ruuzlu. They actually summon some non-elites during the fight, but we killed them so quickly that the two non-elites they called only managed to get to use after both bosses were dead. We lined up for a screen shot.
Where the chief once stood
The chief did drop the Ripsaw axe, which would have been a great weapon for Viniki… except that he had already upgraded to Julie’s Dagger, which I mentioned earlier. Still, a could gold it a couple gold.
The best bit from the final boss was that, on our way out, a couple of stealthed trolls had spawned and attacked us. An actual post fight surprise mechanic! I love those!
After that though, we were pretty much done. We went over to the one area we had bypassed the last three runs, just to see if there was anything to be found… a rare spawn… some loot… whatever. But there wasn’t much to be had.
The only time we made it to this area
After that we fought our way out, killing a few extra mobs on the way as Ula was closing in on level 50. Once out we rode back to Gadgetzan to turn in one quest. Then we recalled and flew on down to the Blasted Lands for another quest turn in. That, in turn with another quest, sent us up to the Hinterlands again where we needed to go into Jintha’alor once more.
Blue X, Us – Red X, Destination again
We rode on out to finish up The Ancient Egg and Saving Sharpbeak.
The in-game map is still a reasonable guide to getting there. When we got to the foot of Jintha’alor Moronae was only about 30 minutes from a hard stop deadline he had. But we felt we could get through in time. We had just done ZF so quickly, why not?
Well, as we had forgotten, Jintha’alor actually ramps up to level 50 elites pretty quickly, which is higher level than most of ZF. Still, we were level 44 or so when we last went up, so it was still easier than before. We were able to bypass a lot of mobs and got to the top pretty quickly, all things considered.
Up at the altar again
We managed to clear around the altar and then knocked out Vile Priestess Hexx and got her key. That unlocks Sharpbeak’s cage. We went into the cave to get Sharpbeak and the ancient egg.
Fortunately, the layout for the cave at the top of Jintha’alor is the same as the kobold cave in Arathi Highlands, which I had just been questing in with an alt, so I knew which route was a dead end. We fought our way quickly into the cave, spotting the egg about where I expected it.
The Ancient Egg!
We managed to collect that… slowly, because when one person takes it the egg has to respawn… but Sharpbeak was nowhere to be seen. I had to go look up the quest and realized that we needed to get back out and go somewhere else for Sharpbeak. That was another cave. Time was ticking down for Moronae.
Unfortunately, things were fast to respawn, so we had to fight our way out again. Ula hit level 50 along the way in the cave, which was good. Skronk dying in one battle as we tried to rush was less so, though Moronae’s combat ress came in handy there.
We managed to get out of the cave, away from the altar, and back down the path to the other cave. Through that and a couple of guards and we were on a plateau where Sharpbeak’s cage was located.
We let him out… everybody gets the update from the same action… and we were able to see him off.
Sharpbeak rescued!
At that point Moronae recalled and logged off, a couple minutes over time.
The rest of us decided to run down the quest turn ins. From Sharpbeaks plateau you can safely jump off… if you’re careful… and use the terrain to basically climb down the back of Jintha’alor. That would have been handy to remember previously.
We rode off back to Aerie Peak to turn in Saving Sharpbeak. The we took the flight path to Menethil Harbor to get back over to Theremore. It was apparently rush hour on the dock.
Quite the boat crowd on a Sunday afternoon
From there it was back down to Gadgetzen then over to Steamwheedle and Yeh’kinya, where we turned in the quest. Yeh’kinya then gave us our first quest for Sunken Temple, The God Hakkar.
I think Maraudon is actually next on our list, but we’ll get to Sunken Temple eventually. Some of us get class quests at level 50 and they seem to all require you to get something from there.
That done, we recalled home once again.
Leaving Steamwheedle
Zul’Farrak is done at last. Now the four of us are off to Desolace and Maraudon.
Our past adventures in Zul’Farrak listed out:
- Questing in Tanaris and the Hinterlands – Mar 2007 – Ready for ZF just before Earl has to move
- Return of the Azerothian Combo – Sep 2007 – Earl gets set back up, we start on ZF
- The Mallet of Zul’Farrak – Sep 2007 – We realize we need the mallet
- Finishing Zul’Farrack – Oct 2007 – We finished in two tried I guess
- Return to Zul’Farrak – Feb 2010 – Our Horde group goes to ZF
- Preparing for Sunken Temple – Mar 2010 – We have quests to finish
- The Altar of Zul and Jintha’alor – Apr 2020 – ZF prep
- Screecher Spirits and Feralas – Apr 2020 – More ZF prep
- The Three-Percent-Solution – May 2020 – Our first run in WoW Classic
- Death on the Stairs with Sergeant Bly – Jun 2020 – We mess up on the stairs
- Sergeant Bly Leaves Us at the Altar – Jun 2020 – Bly recalls while we dither
