Bonus: WOD Farming Guide
1. General Information
There are 4 WOD dungeons available to level 20 characters: Iron Docks, Shadowmoon Burial Grounds, Bloodmaul Slag Mines, Auchindoun.
1.1. Optimising Drops
* Each dungeon has 4 bosses. They have 2 to 4 different slot drops in their loot table. You can increase the chances of an item for a specific slot dropping by checking (in your dungeon finder) if you can exclude one of the other slot drops by selecting a different loot specialization. For example,
Slave Watcher Crushto (the first boss in Slag Mines), has a chance to drop an
Agi Staff,
Int DPS Trinket,
Legs, or
Bracers. By selecting
Restoration loot specialization on my
druid, I can exclude both the
Agi Staff and the
Int DPS Trinket, increasing my chances for
Legs and
Bracers to 50 % (instead of 33 % if I farm in any other loot specialisation).
1.2. Item Versions
* All set pieces (
Head, Shoulders, Chest, Legs, Hands, Boots, Waist, and Wrist) have 5 predefined versions
per slot and they have both your main stats (so usable in all available specializations). This means that the same 5 leather
Legs (with both Int and Agi as a main stat), have the chance to drop from all WOD bosses with
Legs in their loot table.
*
Cloak, Neck, and
Rings have 8 predefined versions
per slot AND per main stat. So 8 different Agi cloaks, 8 different Int cloaks, etc. Make sure not to farm healing off-pieces in a tank loot specialization.
* Weapons and
Trinkets are unique to different bosses. If you like a specific weapon or trinket,
you need to farm the specific boss that drops it (which as already mentioned is different from set pieces, that are the same across all WOD dungeons).
1.3. Looting
* If you are clearing solo, you will get
1 guaranteed usable item per boss. This is
the quickest way to farm
epic-quality (ilvl 87) at the moment.
* If you are clearing in a group with other 20s by just going through the dungeon entrance or by using the Dungeon Finder (a friend with WOD Chromie Time can group with you and sign you up), the group will get
1 guaranteed usable item per boss in total. This means you will only get 1 to 2 drops per run.
* If you are clearing in a group with a high level, the
Legacy Loot rules will be triggered. If the group contains only 2 players (a 20 and a 60), they will both get
1 guaranteed item per boss, but there is no guarantee it will be usable (so a
druid can get a sword for example). If the group contains more than 2 players, the number of guaranteed item drops per boss will still be
2 for the whole group, so for each kill someone will be getting no loot.
2. Dungeons Overview
2.1.
Iron Docks - Hands down the best dungeon for WOD farming.
+ You can mount, quicker times for all classes.
+ Bosses don't have trash around which makes them easy to solo
+ Second and third bosses are skippable if you dont need anything from their loot table
+ Includes drops of all 5 slots that can proc sockets (head, waist, bracers, neck, ring)
+ The 2 slots missing from its loot table are
Cloak and
Boots, both of which you won't be using while farming because lower-level gear (< 50 ilvl) with speed enchants will be better.
+ Many available weapons:
1h Agi Axe,
Fist Weapon,
Agi Staff,
1h Int Mace,
Wand,
Gun
+ Arguably the 2 strongest WOD trinkets:
Enforcer's Stun Grenade and
Kihra's Adrenaline Injector
- No easy way to exit without grouping. There are a couple of tricks:
* Macro for easy 1 min timer that teleports you out: /run C_PartyInfo.InviteUnit("a");C_Timer.After(1,function() C_PartyInfo.LeaveParty() end)
*You need to be grouped with someone that is not in the dungeon. Once done, you log out and the group leader resets the dungeon. You then log in and find yourself at the start of the dungeon with all bosses reset. Takes around 30 sec, it's way faster than having to run back all the way for 3 minutes. Can be used in other dungeons as well.
* Dreamwalk (Druid), Death Gate (DK), Zen Pilgrimage (Monk), and Teleport: Hall of the Guardian (Mage) can be used to teleport in and out to the entrance of the dungeon. Can be used in other dungeons as well.
2.2.
Shadowmoon Burial Grounds - A decent alternative to the Docs
+ Some available weapons:
Agi Dagger,
Int Staff,
Str Polearm,
Bow
+ 1 of the 2 available off-hands -
Offhands
+ Includes drops of all 5 slots that can proc sockets (head, waist, bracers, neck, ring)
+ Easy way to exit by using the portal after the last boss
- You can't mount
- 2 of the bosses have trash around them
- No skippable bosses
- The 2 slots missing from its loot table are
Shoulders and
Legs, which are somewhere in the middle of the priority list
- Both trinkets (
Voidmender's Shadowgem and
Bonemaw's Big Toe) are not great not terrible.
- A bit tricky to get to the entrance without a Fly Mount or
Darkmoon Cannon
2.3.
Bloodmaul Slag Mines - Another decent alternative, equal value as Burial Grounds
+ Some available weapons:
1h Int Axe,
1h Agi Mace,
Agi Polearm
+ The only available shield -
Shield and 1 of the 2 available off-hands -
Offhands
+ Easy way to exit by jumping in the lava next to the third or the fourth bosses
- You can't mount
- 2 of the bosses have trash around them
- No skippable bosses
- The 2 slots missing from its loot table are
Waist and
Neck, so you will be missing double on those sweet socket roll chances
- Both trinkets (
Crushto's Runic Alarm and
Toria's Unseeing Eye) are Meh.
2.4.
Auchindoun - Hands down the worst (slowest) place to farm WF drops
+ Many available weapons:
Int Dagger,
1h Int Sword,
1h Agi Sword,
1h Str Mace,
Int Staff,
Crossbow
+ 3 available trinkets (
Mote of Corruption,
Blood Seal of Azzakel,
Crystalline Blood Drop
+ Somewhat easy way to exit after the last boss
- Multiple unskippable mini-events that you have to wait through
- You can't mount
- 2 of the bosses have trash around them
- No skippable bosses
- The 2 slots missing from its loot table are
Head and
Shoulders, so you will be missing on socket roll chances
3. Increasing the drops/minute ratio
3.1. Build a Speed Set
As already mentioned, other than the
Warforged (ivl 87) item upgrade, there is also a chance for a
Tertiary Stat (+Speed) item upgrade. Keep those equiped when farming, even if they are the
rare-quality (ilvl 61) version. You will be overpowering most of the bosses anyway but increased movement speed will result in faster clear times. You can realistically get
~160 % movement speed in a few days. Some other items that you may want to have equipped are:
*
Nitro Boosts
* Rare-quality (ilvl 47) boots (
here is a list) with
Minor Speed
*
Heirloom (ilvl 54) or other < ilvl 60 cloak with
Gift of Versatility / Mastery / Crit / Haste
*
Straddling Viridium
*
Straddling Sage Agate Unavailable for F2Ps for now due to the trainer being phased out in Nazjatar!
*
Straddling Jewel Doublet
*
Revitalizing Jewel Doublet Unavailable for F2Ps for now due to reputation lock!
* As many
Versatile Jewel Cluster / Mastery / Crit / Haste, as you can equip
3.2. Focus on bosses and skip trash mobs
If your character can use
Stealth /
Prowl, you should utilize it at all times. For everyone else, the optimal strategy would be to use a healing/tank speck (for increased survivability), run to the boss while ignoring trash mobs, use
Precious Bloodthorn Loop /
Shadowmeld /
Feign Death /
Invisibility to get the aggro off and then solo the boss.
Iron Docks provide a great opportunity for that with the ability to mount at all times.
3.3. Get *those* trinkets
A couple of months ago,
@blue09 and
Kenneth SSS from the
XPOff Discord found out that
a couple of Shadowlands trinkets are doing more work than expected. If your class has a loot specialization that can be used to get at least one of them to drop, this will decrease immensely the time of your runs, allowing you to hit the 10 resets/hour cap in 40 to 50 minutes (~ 1 drop per minute).
* Vet characters can group with a level 20 friend that has the correct specialization and then trade the trinket once it drops.
3.5. Do not burn out
Think! All of the hard-to-get items (
WF (ilvl 87) + Socket) can be looted from a first/second boss in one of the dungeons. Once you get to that point, park your toon there and just do resets on this boss. It should take you 10-12 minutes for 10 chances at your desired item, then you can AFK for the rest of the hour and chill. It's a marathon, not a sprint.
3.4. Believe in RNGesus
RNG is RNG.
Don't be the guy to make quick conclusions. Stick to the process. I have been there, done that, you can too!
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