by JR Cook - 9 years ago     show comments

Exploring Draenor delves into the hidden places of the world that will one day become Outland. From the volcanic landscape of Frostfire to the gloomy dells of Shadowmoon, these articles are your guide to events that are off the beaten path.

Location: West of Embaari Village

Tasks: Defend, kill

Rewards: Windfang Sabre, Artificer Romuul (Crystal), Killmaw’s Canine (Killmaw), Garrison Resources

Welcome to Draenor, adventurers! This week we look at one of the first mini-events, aka vignettes, that Alliance players will encounter: the Embaari Defense Crystal.

Embaari Village is a draenei settlement to the south of Lunarfall – the Alliance garrison location. It has a small wolf problem, probably the result of all those delicious elekks and talbuks kept in lightly-defended pens to the north. To deal with the wild animals, the draenei take a pragmatic, if slightly less-than-humane approach: a wolf can’t attack if it’s dead.

Artificer Romuul is setting up one of the draeneic defence crystals to protect the village on a small rise to the west, and needs your help to defend it while he’s working. The wolves, showing an unnerving level of sentience, do their best to stop the artificer’s work. Agree to help him and you will be attacked by two waves of three Windfang Runners, followed by the Windfang Matriarch. As with many WoD mobs, the Matriarch is a multi-map NPC; simply hit her once to get the rewards.

Neither the standard wolves nor their leader have any particularly concerning abilities, so once they’re cleared out you can collect your reward. Don’t forget to talk to Romuul again to gain him as a follower: a Holy Paladin. Romuul was bugged in the early days of the expansion and sometimes a relog was required before he would offer his quest.

Once Embaari is clear, move further south and west, up the slope towards the mountains. There is a small ravine nearby, surrounded by smaller wolves (Killmaw Pup). Inside the rocks is the big daddy, Killmaw. Although he only has one ability, it’s a dangerous one: a self-buff called Blood Frenzy, applied on melee attacks. Players will want to finish the fight quickly, before the buff stacks too high. Of course, for ranged players it’s actually beneficial for the buff to stack up (I saw it at a maximum of 20, but it may go higher), as Killmaw also slows down with each stack.

It’s good fun to revisit the old Burning Crusade locations and see how they looked before Gul’dan and Ner’zuhl tore the world apart. There’ll be plenty of Exploring Draenor articles in the future to document the treasures hidden around every corner.