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: Southern Spires of Arak

Rewards: Garrison Resources, ~210g, Sailor Zazzuk’s 180-Proof Rum, Elixir of Shadow Sight, Mutafen’s Mighty Maul, Fungus-Infected Hydra Lung, Betsi’s Boomstick, one random ilvl 585/595 weapon.

The southern tip of the Spires of Arak is home to the continent’s sole goblin town. Some might consider this a shame, considering the lack of tiny, explosive green maniacs an oversight in any expansion. Others – those who care about the environment, native population and not having their own feet blown off, for instance – probably feel slightly differently. We don’t judge.

Regardless, the goblins have set up shop in the Pinchwhistle Gearworks, after their first town – Pinchwhistle Point – was lost to the creeping fungus that infests Draenor’s oceans. Part of the questing in Spires involves clearing the area out in traditional goblin fashion (i.e. with a flamethrower). Whilst burning your way through, take some time to explore – there’s treasures in those ruins.

The first item you’ll find will be the Spray-O-Matic 5000 XT, inside the nose of the goblin’s crashed airship, the Motherlode, at (59,81). Look inside the nose of the airship, which has come down amongst the ravager wasp nests in the north-east area of the peninsula.

Moving south along the beach, you will across a small cart surrounded by basilisks – look in the crate on the very top to uncover some Shredder Parts (60,84). After this, head out to sea, due east, until you run into a line of buoys. Follow them south to uncover Coinbender’s Payment.

The trail to Coinbender’s actually starts to the north, at a ship in the Sporemist Shallows, but there’s no need to visit  it first. The buoys lead you out to fatigue waters, but the final one is safe to rest at. After that, it’s a long swim to the bottom of the ocean, which Nuggle Coinbender didn’t quite have the lung capacity to reach. Be sure to read the friendly note at the last buoy for an insight into the mind of goblinkind.

Like my grandmother taught me, you can always trust a goblin…to lie, cheat and steal.

Swim or water-walk your way back to dry land. You’ll hit the shore near the goblin’s oil pipeline, which efficiently empties directly out into the sea. That doesn’t hurt anyone (on two legs)!

Follow the pipe inland, fighting past the Volatile Sludges, until you reach the spherical yellow storage containers. You will find Sailor Zazzuk’s 180-Proof Rum on the console in a corrugated iron shack between two of them.

From here, run west and up the hill in front of you. Make your way past the Infected Bruisers and Infected Bar Patrons and into the fungus-covered inn. Head upstairs and into the Room of Goblin Fantasies, i.e. zebra print pillows and big piles of gold.

This treasure, the Campaign Contributions, is easy to miss, as it’s on a high shelf directly above the door. To reach it, swallow your distaste and climb onto the bed. Jump onto the headboard, and from here onto the shelves lining the wall. Run along and loot the chest.

Consider yourself lucky, because you can finally leave the goblin area and deal with some good, honest slimy fungal creatures. First, though, wade through the swampy marshland to the north of the goblin’s inn. Just after entering the forest, you will see some ruins in the water to the left. Dive in and swim to the bottom to loot a Spires-specific item called the Elixir of Shadow Sight. There are six of these hidden around the zone (the others are at (43,15), (43,24), (55,22), (69,43) and (48,62)), and six shrines to Anzu: the closest is on the Pinchwhistle Peninsula, at (57,79) (the others are at (61,55), (48,44), (46,40), (42,26) and (51,19)). Do you see where I’m going with this? We’ll revisit the shrines later.

Head back to the swamp to the south and tackle Mutafen, a fungal giant. It will attack you with Trample and Sporesplosion, but it’s an easy kill. Defeat it to loot Mutafen’s Mighty Maul.

Mount up or water-walk again and head south, around the headland, to the next swampy area. Here you will find a lot of Spore Shamblers and Jiasska the Sporegorger, an infected hydra. I’d feel worse for the beast if a. she wasn’t trying to kill you, and b. she hadn’t obviously brought the fungal spread upon herself. The clue is in the name.

Like other Draenor hydras, Jiasska has the passive Vile Blood, and unlike Mutafen, accompanies this with a bevy of nasty attacks. Chomp is a standard ability for most beasts, while Ball Lightning and Rolling Thunder provide incentive to keep moving.

The infection might have rotted Jiasska’s brain, but it’s had other benefits – namely, two new attacks boasted by no other hydra on Draenor. Bouncing Slime is a corrupted version of Ball Lightning, which also leaves damaging areas where it lands, while Rolling Thunder has an analogue in Spewing Breath. Lovely. You can take advantage of the infection for yourself when you loot the Fungus-Infected Hydra Lung.

After washing off the slime, it’s time to wrap up with one final rare spawn – another goblin by the name of Betsi Boombasket. Return north one final time, to (58,84) – near to where you entered Pinchwhistle Point. The camp is hard to miss; although small, it’s full to the brim with explosives.

As a demolitions expert (even more so than a normal goblin), Betsi will throw dynamite at you with Personal Explosives and fire a Massive Rocket. It’s easy to avoid this four-second cast, but if you get hit you’ll take heavy fire damage and be knocked back. Give Betsi the gift of mercy and and loot Betsi’s Boomstick from her corpse.

We’re not done yet, though – there’s one final thing to do on the peninsula. Follow the mountain at Betsi’s back around to the east; at its northern-most point you will come across a Shrine to Terrok, which will show up on your minimap while carrying the Elixir of Shadow Sight. You can only use the Elixir in one of these shrines, and doing so will give you the Shadow Sight buff, revealing a lootable object called the Gift of Anzu. This Gift can hold one of six random weapons: Anzu’s Reach, Anzu’s Malice, Anzu’s Scything Talon, Anzu’s Piercing Talon, Anzu’s Stoicism or Anzu’s Scorn. These are normally ilvl 585, but can get an epic upgrade to ilvl 595 randomly.

That polishes off Pinchwhistle. Did you help the goblins? Well, not really – mainly you stole their treasure; killing the infected goblins and other creatures around the place was more a sort of happy accident – but hey, that sums up most of goblin ingenuity.