Dire Maul Arena - random, fun, and profitable!Follow

Hello all, I figured I would bring this up to those who might not know. And for those who do this already (and from reading with keen eyes over the last few years I know a couple of you do), sorry if this contributes to you losing money. My subject today is the Dire Maul Arena.

What is this?

Dire Maul is an old-world instance released in a patch back in Vanilla WoW. It is located in the middle of Feralas, and has three separate-but-connected wings, affectionately called DM North, West, and East. DM North is also sometimes called "Tribute Runs," because if you follow certain conditions, you get special loot at the end when you kill the boss. The area outside was once populated by elite ogres and nonelite hyena packs. It was nerfed in 2.3, like most world elites, so the ogres are now nonelites and the hyenas are just singles, not triples. The enemies outside the arena are around level 52-57, and can all be pulled separately.

Dire Maul itself is a large square. You enter the main area from the south, and the instances are (usually through doors) to the respectively compass positions. In the very middle of the area is the Dire Maul Arena. Quite like Gurubashi, it is a Free For All location. Unlike Gurubashi, there is not a set time on events there; and it's also pretty far from anything (for Alliance, at least), and thus not nearly as popular.

Once every 8 hours (exact times differ, but the consensus seems to be 8 hours, plus or minus half an hour), a rare level 60 boss will spawn in the arena. Griniblix the Spectator, a friendly goblin, sits and watches over the arena, and announces when a rare elite spawns (you can see the shout while in the instance, apparently). Three elites can spawn; two definitely share a timer, and the rarest seems to be on a separate (and unknown) timer. You must drop into the arena to fight the monsters, and when you're finished, a door on the west side leads you through a long underground corridor to the outside again (there are some sleeping hyenas here, but they won't aggro at 70).

Who are these rares, and why do I care?

The two most common ones are Skarr the Unbreakable and The Razza. Interesting note: we had a Hispanic group at my campus called "La Raza," meaning "The Race"; but I doubt anything of this sort was the inspiration for the beastie's name. Skarr is an ogre; The Razza is a chimera. The rarer spawn is Mushgog, a nature elemental (is that the classification? It's not a treant. It looks like a swamp lurker in the Wetlands, or the dudes in the cave in WPL that drops the Greater Nature Protection Potion). It is probably on a separate timer, and has been reported to show up both with another rare and by itself.

Each of the two common spawns will drop 2 BoE blues, level 52-60. Mushgog will drop 1-2 blues, but also spawns with a bunch of herbs, including dreamfoil, golden sansam, black lotus, and mountain silversage; usually 2-3 spawns of each. My loot, to date (including median AH Alla price), includes:

Orb of Deception, 700.
Wolfrunner Shoes (x2, 45 each).
Band of the Hierophant (35).
Sword of Zeal (75).
Lapidis Tankard of Tidesippe (20).
Dreamwalker Armor (33).
Bludstone Hammer (25).
Totem of the Storm (90).
Libram of Fervor (110).
Herbs: Black Lotus x2, Mountain Silversage x2, Dreamfoil x3.

Huh. Not bad stuff. What do I need to do?

I will put forth the theory that any of these enemies can be killed solo by a decently-equipped level 70. I'm doing it as a PvP (mixture of gear, average season 1.5 :-P) geared Feral Druid... one of the masters of soloing stuff, IMO. But most classes just need to be creative. These rares are immune to slowing effects, and I believe stuns. Not positive on that.

Skarr: The Ogre has a high amount of HP, and his deadliest attacks are his stun (three seconds, I believe) and mortal strike (only does like 900 on my druid, if it hits; go go 35+% dodge).
The Razza: Chimera that attacks and casts chain lightning. Also has, I believe, a DoT or bleed effect. Really not sure. Casts cannot be slowed; not sure if interrupts work, but I don't think so.
Mushgog: Has entangling vines, and a poison DoT. Never fought it yet, so I just report what I've heard.

Every rare has a teleport ability that will port you directly to the center of the arena. This actually makes a strategy a bit easier for some classes. For example, since you can't "kite" by normal means (no slowing), you can still kite the enemy by drawing them to the side of the arena, getting ported back to the middle, and attacking while they run back to you. As a melee, drawing them to the side is good practice anyway because it will allow you to restore energy, bandage, or heal yourself uninterrupted for about 10 seconds. Note: The door to the arena closes when you engage the rare, so the only way out is death.

The bigger problem is the FFA nature of the arena. I have seen spawns in the arena 6 times. Of those I killed the bosses 5 times, and didn't get hassled. The last time a duo had just killed Mushgog and Skarr (herbs were scattered everywhere). Not seeing anyone around the corpses, I went down into the arena and started picking herbs... and not 15 seconds later, a hunter and mage (both alliance like me) tag-teamed me. SPLAT. To be fair I might have done better by fighting back; instead I tried to get away and was shot in the back by Aimed Shot and Pyroblast ;-)

The free for all nature of the game, and the random spawn times, may be a turn-off for some people. However, if you like to solo old content (and you might make a penny; Orb of Deception has a 5% drop rate off these bosses), like PvP action, and like decent and rare items, the Dire Maul Arena might be for you. There is an additional benefit that you can solo Dire Maul if you want while waiting. Not nearly as profitable (from what I have seen) as soloing Stratholme, but you'll make a little extra gold. Anyone have some strats on where to go in DM, and what to farm for? :D

Edited, Jul 22nd 2008 11:30am by LockeColeMA

I fought the chimaera once, and got 2 nice blues that made me some money. Good tip!