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Exploring Draenor: Bleeding Hollow Cave

by - 9 years ago

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: Bleeding Hollow Hunting Grounds, North-East of Zeth’gol, Tanaan Jungle

Rewards: Skull of the Mad Chief, chance at Cave Keeper Wraps

Flying is returning to Draenor. Rejoice or rage as the mood takes you – but, before it returns, we still need to get around Tanaan Jungle, the massive new area introduced in patch 6.2. A particularly useful item to help us do so (or just to get between the Garrison and Shipyard faster) is the Skull of the Mad Chief.

Tanaan is a lot like the Timeless Isle, with plenty to see and do. While adventuring in the north-west of the zone, you will make your way through a misty jungle area – probably similar to what Tanaan was like before Gul’dan – called the Bleeding Hollow Hunting Grounds. Much like the rest of Tanaan, no quests send you here, but the rewards more than justify the time spent.

On your way through the Hunting Grounds, you will see a gap between two cliffs. Venturing through will take you into a shallow basin, crawling with Crimson Stingers. One of the 15 new legendary pets, the Cursed Spirit, can also be found here. At the back of the grotto is a rocky overhang, sheltering the entrance to a special area: the Bleeding Hollow Cave.

Entrance to Cave area

World of Warcraft tends to use templates for its caves: from the Eastern Kingdoms to Outland, you won’t find more than, perhaps, three unique layouts. In more than 10 years of playing, though, never has another cave like this one appeared in the game. Take the time to enjoy it as you climb downwards.

The Bleeding Hollow Cave is a long spiral, built around and under a single shaft shaft leading deep into the earth. This area is sacred to the Bleeding Hollow clan, inhabited by Enraged Blood Spirits. On aggro and death, these mobs will talk about ‘the eyes’ – but you’ll need to descend further to find out what they mean.

Bleeding Hollow Cave

At the bottom of the cave is a large, flat area, with markings carved into the stone. Usually, in WoW, I’d say that it’s the kind of place used for ritual sacrifice, probably from being thrown in from the top of the cave (see: Kharazan Crypts). There’s no evidence of that here, though – just a single skull in the middle of the floor. Remember to look up before leaving for a truly impressive view.

There are just two more rooms in the cave: the first is a simple chamber leading off from the bottom of the shaft. It is inhabited by the spirits of two Bleeding Hollow chieftains (Vargrak and Durmak) and the Guardian of the Bleeding Hollow, Braknoth. He has some interesting dialogue, but no relevance to the exploration – he and the chieftains are part of the new Garrison campaign quests unlocked in 6.2.

Looking past the orc spirits, you will see The Vault of Eyes: presumably a burial chamber for members of the Bleeding Hollow clan. The floor is covered in water, and columns support the roof. Each column is covered in orc skulls, with a single gem in their eye sockets.

Vault of Eyes

At the very back of the cave is the treasure you are here to find: the Skull of the Mad Chief. Looting it will grant you an item of the same name, which you can use to quickly return to the surface. After a short cast time, you will turn into a floating, fel-green eyeball (much like Warlocks’ Eye of Kil’rogg), which is constantly moving at more than 300% speed. While transformed, you will also have slow fall and water walking abilities. Sadly, the Skull is only usable on Draenor, but it is an incredibly useful item.

After leaving the cave, make sure to swing right and follow a ramp to the top of the overhang above the entrance. Up here you will find Gorabosh, the Keeper of the Cave. He has four abilities, but is a fairly easy fight: interrupt Bloodbolt and hit him from the rear when he casts Blood Shield. Gorabosh will also ‘steal’ some of your life force with Blood Ritual, stacking Sacrificial Pact on himself to increase his attack speed by 100% at full stacks. If you are a new level 100, kite him until the effect fades – especially if you’ve been debuffed with Blood Howl at the same time.

The Bleeding Hollow Cave was great fun to find, with a worthy reward at the end. Make its exploration a priority before tackling the rest of Tanaan Jungle. For more images, see the gallery below.


JR Cook

JR has been writing for fan sites since 2000 and has been involved with Blizzard Exclusive fansites since 2003. JR was also a co-host for 6 years on the Hearthstone podcast Well Met! He helped co-found BlizzPro in 2013.


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