As most of you already know, we are the gods of aoe and kiting, which is why we are the perfect class to aoe grind. In this guide, my objective is to cover the specifics of AoE grinding in the instance Dire Maul East.
Disclaimer: I am by no means claiming that I invented anything on this subject, this post is merely a combination of all the information I gathered on the subject.
Structure of the guide:
1) Why this guide?
2) Who is this guide for?
3) Tell me the basics
4) Gear
5) Talents
6) Dps Rotation
7) Grinding route
8) Tips and tricks
9) Final Words
10) Acknowledgments
1) Why this guide?
I am a retail player who recently decided to start fresh on Nostalrius as I have never had the opportunity to truly experience Vanilla WoW. As the PvP server is hugely overcrowded for the moment, questing has become a huge pain in the ass. This is why I have opted for AoE grinding in Dire Maul East for the final 8 levels of my progression to level 60! I have found that most guides on the subject are either incomplete or not targeted enough so I am now aiming to gather all information in a single post.
2) Who is this guide for?
This guide is for anyone who plays mage, is between the level 52 and 60, and wants to either gain experience, or gold (or both).
3) Tell me the basics
The basic idea is that you are going to run Dire Maul East (DM:E) repeatedly. Why DM:E? Because it has 5 (6) packs of 7 non-elite elementals which have low hp and give good xp.
The mobs are called "Whip Lasher" and have only ~1800 hp. You can entirely avoid all elite packs and patrols in the instance and target only the packs. An entire clear of DM:E usually lasts between 6 to 8 minutes. These mobs also drop plants, worlddrops and grey items. These can be sold at the auction house for gold.
Generally speaking, the most efficient way to organise runs is to run DM:E until you are instance capped (5 instances per hour) and then go do something else while you wait for the instance cap to reset.
This technique is, to me, the best way to level from level 52 to 60 as you gain a lot of gold, cannot get ganked, and level quickly.
4) Gear
In terms of gear, there are no 20 ways to go. You are going to use fire, arcane and frost AoE spells to kill the mobs so +spell damage gear is pretty much useless. You want both a big Hp pool (buffer to not die) and Mana pool (if you run oom before the mobs die, you die).
While i'm entirely sure that Chuck Norris could AoE farm from level 52 and on while having no gear on, you're not Chuck Norris. Having a minimum of 2000 hp and 3500 mana will greatly improve your survival chance.
As I said, we are looking for mana pool and hp only, "... of the Eagle" (+int + sta) gear is thus what you want to buy. I'm not saying you should invest 500g into getting the best possible gear, just to farm DM:E but if you invest ~30-50 gold at the start (level 52), you're going to be fine for the rest of the levelling, and avoid a lot of frustration (I get pretty salty when I get R3KT by normal mobs).
You could technically get away with having +sta gear only, as mages can rely on Mana Citrines to artificially enlarge their mana pool. I do not recommend going for this technique as the Mana Citrine is a very useful survival tool which you should keep for when you fuck up and not as a part of your rotation. (Also it’s annoying as fuck to remake that between every single pack and you also have to wait between packs because of the 2 minutes cooldown).
5)Talents
The Talents section is dedicated to low levels (not 60) only. If you're level 60, you should stick to your regular PvE/PvP spec as you will destroy the mobs anyways.
I have tested several specs (and playstyles) before coming to the conclusion that this is the best build to safely AoE grind, while maximizing your clear speed.
The talents:
Level 52 Talents
Level 52 Talents (Image)
Some explanation about the build:
First of all, you want to reduce the chance of the mobs resisting your spells, this is why we take Arcane Subtlety 2/2 and Elemental Precision 3/3.
Secondly, we want to survive, which is why we take Frost Warding 2/2 (more armor), Cold Snap 1/1 (double nova, double Ice Barrier, double Ice Block), Ice Block 1/1 (last resort), and Ice Barrier 1/1 (basically an increase of your total hp pool).
Thirdly, we want to group the mobs and destroy them with big crits, which is why we take all talents that improve Frost Nova, Cone of Cold and Flamestrike and crit chances / crit damage on frozen mobs. Talents that buff arcane explosion are too far down the arcane tree so we don't take those. We take the fire crit talents because our flamestrike crits a lot of the time and 40% extra damage is always a nice boost.
The final build (level 55) looks like this, after that you can put points into pretty much anything.
Level 55 Talents
Level 55 Talents (Image)
This build takes everything you need, from survival to dps. The main disadvantage is that it is made for AoE grinding only, not for leveling on the side.
I'm aware that there are hybrid specs that allow for both AoE grinding and Quest leveling but I won't go into much detail on those (you could, for example, drop Permafrost and Frost Warding for Improved Frostbolt 5/5). As I have decided to level in DM:E Only, I have taken this build.
I’m also aware that you can use a blizzard spec for the aoe grinding (This is the real hybrid between levelling and AoE grinding as you don’t have to put any points into fire). In my opinion, blizzard is slower (less overall dps on the mobs) and more annoying (you have to blink, to kite the mobs with the slow), so it’s not worth it. Besides, who wants to quest outdoors when you can safely AoE grind without ever having to face level 60 Horde Neckbeards who are after your poor level 52 ass.
6) Dps Rotation
For every pack you kill, you are going to use the same technique:
a) You make sure that you have the following buffs active:
The only explanation needed here is that the mobs hit you with a shadow attack, which is reduced by Dampen Magic, so keep it up at all times.
b) You make sure that you have a Mana Citrine conjured in your bags, ready to be used in case of an emergency.
c) You make sure that you are full Health and Mana.
d) Go up to the pack and use Frost Nova when the mobs are grouped up.
e) Take a few steps back (not too many, you want to be out of melee range, but still in range of Cone of Cold).
f) Cast Flamestrike on the whole pack
g) As you are casting Flamestrike, queue up a Cone of Cold, which should hit the mobs at the same time as your Flamestrike.
h) Finish off the mobs by spamming Arcane Explosion.
i) Find a safe spot, regen, rinse and repeat !
If this explanation is not clear to you, this video should clear things up.
7) Grinding route
This is where the real learning is. There are two possible routes, depending on which entrance you take. The first route includes 4 packs (the packs downstairs) whereas the second route does 5 (6) of them but can be tricky to pull off when you’re low level (52/53).
Whatever route you choose, to be efficient, you have to understand the patrolling routes of the 2 (4) patrols. I highly suggest you take some time on your first few runs to watch the actual routes the mobs are taking.
Route 1:
The first route pretty roughly looks like this:
Start: A
Red: Route
Green: Fighting Spots
Black: Patrolling Routes
This video shows the entire route from start to finish. The double pack pull that he does in the end can be done as soon as you are high level enough (55 / 56+) before that, you have risk aggroing one of the patrols.
Route 2:
The second route pretty much looks like this:
Start: B
Red: Route
Green: Fighting Spots
Black: Patrolling Routes
This video shows the second route, including the way to the entrance. It also covers the way to pull the sixth pack, I wouldn’t try to do the sixth pack (second one he does in the video) before level 60 as you will almost always pull the Warpwood Crusher on the right.
The Satyr
During the first and second route, you will always pass close to the door in the south east of the lower court. There is an invisible satyr patrolling there which has a 10% chance to drop one Felcloth (which is worth 7/8g at the Auction House). The following picture shows where he walks, and where you should wait for him.
Don't try to kill him if you're not level 55 and have some frost spellpower gear. You will need Mana citrine to kill him as he has quite a big hp pool. The technique to kill him is pretty straightforward: just nuke him down with Frostbolts, use Frost Nova and Blink when he comes close and repeat. He gives 672 xp which is quite low so I would not recommend doing this mob before level 60 as he is more of a gold source rather than xp source.
Route 3:
This final route is only feasible if you are high level (I've only tested it at level 60). This is the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeiFlNlelsE
The idea of this route is that it is ultra optimized in terms of speed. I clear the 6 packs + the satyr in under 10 minutes (including the run back and the regen and everything). If you attempt this route, you will notice that the downstairs pull is only possible if you follow the same path and clearing speed as I do in the video.
Because the newly reset dungeon always has the same layout (patrol position etc..), your run will always look the same.
1) You enter the dungeon, rebuff and regen to full (or almost full). Once that is done, the group of three treants has just passed the first lasher pack and you can pull it.
2) You regen and wait for the big treant to pass, next you have about 15 seconds to pull the second pack (with blizzard) and bring them back at the entrance.
3) You regen and wait for both the pack of three mobs and the single big mob to pass. Afterwards you immediately jump downstairs and position yourself to pull the four packs at the same time.
4) You run to the satyr area and regen. Once you're full health and mana, you know the satyr is about to arrive and you kill him.
5) You unequip your gear and die so you can start fresh again.
This route leaves you with a 10 minutes break in between farming sessions, which is perfect to hearthstone, sell and mail plant stacks to your bank alt.
The Book
During your run, you can choose to pass behind the tree to check whether the book shown in the picture has spawned. If it did, you should definitely grab it as it gives items worth gold (up to several hundreds for Foror's Compendium of Dragon Slaying).
It's easy, quick and gives gold, just check it every time you run the dungeon.
Resetting the Dungeon
No matter what route you decide to take, when you’re finished, you need to get out of the dungeon to start all over again. The most straightforward way to do this is to use this macro:
/script ResetInstances()
And to log out. You’ll be outside of the dungeon, at the other side of the Dire Maul Courtyard, which you only have to cross to get back into the dungeon. No matter what faction you are in, you can use this technique. I will cover another technique for Alliance (and sometimes Horde) in the Tips & Tricks section.
8) Tips and tricks
Panic Buttons
Sometimes when you pull, things will go wrong. Don’t panic, you have panic buttons. You can choose between
1) Using ice block to wait out a few seconds.
2) Using cold snap to nova again
3) Popping your mana citrine to go for another round of Mana shield and Ice Barrier
Organising your farming sessions
Regarding efficient farming sessions, the Alliance players will very soon realize that they are the target of the Horde Baboons who literally camp the zone 24/7. You will get ganked on your way to the dungeon and they will gank you in between two dungeons, no matter what time of the day you do this grind. The Alliance never defends this spot so don’t expect any help.
At this point you have two options. You either run / die / rez / run / die until the entrance (can be tedious). Or you have option 2. Option 2 is on average shorter and also way less of a pain in the ass. Instead of using the reset macro and logging of, you unequip all gear that has Durability (that is everything except jewelry), and you die on any pack that are still present. Once that’s done you just reset the dungeon while dead outside and corpse run back into a fresh dungeon. Use an Add-on (Itemrack) to quickly swap gear. Just don’t forget to equip your gear once you're in again!
If you run out of bag space, you should do the following. Because it will generally take you less than 1 hour to be instance capped, you should always end your fifth clear by using your hearthstone to the closest location (Feathermoon Stronghold for Alliance or Camp Mojache for Horde). From there on you just sell all items you can’t sell at the Auction House and send the rest to an alt which stays in a Capital City. You then simply run back to Dire Maul and start the farming again. If you need to buy spells, you can do the same except you first use a teleportation spell to buy and then only hearth back to Feralas.
Multiple pack farming
Once you start to get comfortable with the AoE rotation, you can actually start to clear packs together. Because this technique requires Ice Block (5min CD), it's best to use it once during your run, on the packs at the spots 1 and 2 on the next image.
This video shows how exactly you proceed to killing two packs at the same time. I greatly recommend doing this as it will improve your clear speed by a lot (you skip one whole drinking / eating phase). The only downside to this technique is that you will not have ice block as a panic button anymore.
9) Final Words
That's about it, thank you for reading this guide, I hope this can help some of you improve your AoE grinding abilities and get to that precious level 60 where will be able to take revenge for all the Horde Goons who ganked us during the levelling !
Namnah
10) Acknowledgments
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-OOAXz ... e=youtu.be: For the spec and the route.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nS5zrT60tEw: For the explanations and the second route.
StanRogers for the satyr and book parts of the guide.
