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: Shadowmoon Valley; Nagrand; Gorgrond; Spires of Arak

Task: Tree Assassination

Rewards: Treessassin’s Guise, contribution towards Upgrading the Mill

The level 3 Garrison buildings, unlike their lower-level counterparts, are not rewarded through questing. Each level 3 blueprint can only be purchased after completing an achievement – usually one that requires that particular building in place. For example, the Gnomish Gearworks requires you to complete Terrific Technology, the Inn needs Stay Awhile and Listen and the Lumber Mill asks for Upgrading the Mill, which is a three-parter.

Legacy of the Ancients is a quest that can only be completed once you have access to the level 2 Lumber Mill. In your travels through Draenor, you’ll eventually come across a Petrified Ancient – they can spawn in any zone except Shadowmoon Valley and Frostfire Ridge. I found mine next to the Shattrath City flight point in Talador, and my next (after the first bugged and didn’t drop a quest item) near Auchindon. The Ancients are surrounded by corpses, which should really be a clear sign as to what will happen next, but of course, you’ll try to chop it down anyway. The worker who appears questions the sanity of this move, but like a good little peasant, follows his commander’s orders. More fool him.

After crushing the hapless lumberjack, the no-longer-petrified plant will come at you like a living battering ram – although level 100 players should have no problem dropping its 400k health. Once the tree is felled, you can loot an item to start the quest: Barkskin Tome. You are asked to kill four Ancients in Shadowmoon Valley, Nagrand, Talador and Gorgrond. You can find these from chopping down MEDIUM-size timber for your Lumber Mill – small timber is no good.

Medium timber spawns all over Nagrand and Talador, but only in two places in Shadowmoon Valley. The first, and one with the most plentiful spawns, is Socrethar’s Rise, a level-100 daily quest area to the south. The second is The Nightmarsh, in the western area of the zone. Gorgrond is the zone that will likely take the longest, despite also being the region where one would expect timber spawns to be plentiful. Medium timber only seems to appear in two areas: uncommonly in the Everbloom Wilds (zone centre) and more often near Broken Horn Village, to the extreme north-east. It is in an out-of-the-way area near the Blackrock Shipyard (also accessible from the coast, but that will require running through the Village itself – no problem for the Horde, but dangerous for the Alliance).

Logging medium timber will spawn a different Ancient, depending on the zone: Kuruk in Shadowmoon, Autuk in Nagrand, Loruk in Gorgrond and Hanuk in the Spires of Arak. Be aware that simply spawning the Ancient doesn’t tag it to you; you must get the first hit. This can be difficult in some zones, especially as the Ancients appear on the minimap as rare spawns, which encourages other players to hunt them down as well. You should avoid trying to spawn Kuruk on a day when players are sent to Socrethar’s Rise, for example.

Once you kill all the Ancients, you can hand the quest in at your Lumber Mill to receive your reward, the Treessassin’s Guise; a fun item, with an actual use for players who can’t drop combat.

Draenor, we’ve been told, is a savage world – but we didn’t really appreciate how that applied to its plant life, too! What divides the Ancients so much that they seek to kill one another? Or is it not that they’re out for revenge or to protect themselves, just that struggle is their ground state of being? And who sent the original Ancient? Questions and more questions.

Ok, I’ll come clean – I forgot to get a shot of the Petrified Ancient. This is a rooted Moonbark Ancient from Shadowmoon, but they look identical (minus smashed peasant corpses).