Must-have keys and quest items for WoW Classic dungeon running

In WoW Classic, to get a random group together, you’re going to have to rely on your salesmanship because you’re probably going to need to stand in a capital city and spam General Chat while you accumulate your party. If you want to be certain you’ll get invited to some groups, spend time and get one — or all — of these five items to make yourself stand out.

Mallet of Zul’Farrak

We talked about this when we discussed Classic trinkets. In order to make the Carrot on a Stick which increases mount speed, you’re going to need the electrified scale that drops off Gahz’rilla. You have to summon him — just as you do now — but you needed a mallet in your bags to hit the gong. In Classic, the mallet is just an item with no stats. Remember, it won’t work if it’s in your bank. Groups get angry if you make them wait 10 minutes while you go to Gadgetzen to get the mallet out of your bank.

Go to the Hinterlands to the Altar of Zul. Kill the two elite casters on either side of the altar. Qiaga will drop the sacred mallet. Take this mallet to the altar on the top of Jintha’alor. There will be a lot of mobs between you and the altar. On the altar will be Elder Torntusk. He helps form the final mallet.

While you can get the quest at level 35, the mobs in Jintha’alor will be from level 40-50. Bring friends.

Scepter of Celebras

If you’ve ever done Maraudon, you know how long it is, even if you only do one side. During Classic, there was a way to bypass both the purple and orange sides to get directly to the good loot from Princess Theradras — the Scepter of Celebras. When you got to the location of the first khan, you could use the scepter to create a portal which took you to Earth Song Falls, one of the prettiest locations in all of Azeroth. As with the Mallet of Zul’Farrak, the scepter was bag fodder without stats.

This is not difficult to get. You’ll just have to run all of Maraudon at least once to get it.

Start with Cavindra. She’s going to ask you to find her brother, Celebras. You’ll need need to pick up two items to create the staff. Noxxion on the orange side drops Celebrian Root and Lord Vyletongue on the purple side drops the Celebrian Diamond. Of course Celebras is possessed so you’ll need to defeat him before you complete Cavindra’s quest and pick up the quest to form the staff. Words of warning.

Back in the day, you had to let Celebras do the whole ritual to form the staff — any interruption stopped the ritual. There’s a lot of talking but let him do the whole thing or you have to start the ritual all over again. Plan for a full evening to do this in one go.

Key to the City of Stratholme

Commonly referred to as the “servant’s entrance to Stratholme”, it’s also known as the East Gate. If all you want to do is the run for Baron Rivendare and possibly get the rumored mount, you’ll want this key. It also opens the Eastwall Gate and the Gate between Festival Lane and King’s Square which will make running the whole of Stratholme much easier. It wasn’t two dungeons originally. It was one large dungeon and originally started as a raid. Stratholme has a long history in World of Warcraft.

This one is easy to get. You simply need to kill Magistrate Barthilas. He’s located just outside the area with Baron Rivendare’s necropolis. To get there, however, you’re going to have to run through most of the west side of the dungeon, because gates are closed without the key. Start in King’s Square and run to Market Row. From Market Row run to Festival Lane. Once you get to Festival Lane, proceed on to Elder Square. There is a gate in Elder Square behind which is the Magistrate. You can see him behind this gate in current Stratholme, but the gate can’t be opened. Along the way, you will find plagued rats and ghosts to fight as gates trap you between them. The key was not a guaranteed drop back in the day.

If you’re lucky, you might run into the rare mob, Hearthsinger Forresten. He drops the Piccolo of Flaming Fire. If you get that toy, be a dear and ask whether people would like you to play it. I loathe that toy so much.

Shadowforge Key

You can be forgiven for not knowing about this one. You have to die to see Franclorn Forgewright who is standing on his tomb in the center rock of Blackrock Mountain. The easiest way to die is to run to the bottom where you’d go to Molten Core or Blackrock Depths and slide into the lava. You’ll be back that way anyway.

He gives you the Dark Iron Legacy quest. When you obtain this key, you are going to cut about 45 minutes of run time off a BRD run which will be a godsend when you’re attuning people for Onyxia. You have to get to the Hall of Crafting and kill Fineous Darkvire. He drops Ironfel which you take to the Shrine of Thaurissan. It’s a hallway with a statue at the end. In the base of the statue to Forgewright, you’ll find a drawer and in the drawer is the key.

It sounds simple but if you don’t have someone with the key, you’ll find yourself running through the Ring of Law, the East Garrison, The Domicile, and part of Shadowforge City. Blackrock Depths is huge and it’s easy to get lost. With this key, you’ll be able to open the Shadowforge Gate and the East Garrison gate and you can skip a huge amount of the dungeon.

Upper Blackrock Spire key

Much of Classic endgame will go through this dungeon, and groups need this key to access it at all. Called the Seal of Ascension, it’s a ring and — like the mallet and scepter — you have to have it with you when you go to UBRS. Originally, everyone in the group had to have it, but that was removed, mercifully. When Classic returns, you’ll just need one person with the ring to open the door.

Getting this is going to require a great deal of time spent in Lower Blackrock Spire (LBRS). You’re going to need to pick up an unadorned Seal of Ascension. These drop off anything in LBRS. They were tradable and — once we got guild banks — we had extras in the bank. Once you get a seal, go to the beginning of LBRS. On a ledge above the entry doorway, overlooking the whole of the dungeon, you’ll find Vaelan. He will have a quest for you to get gems to add to your seal.

There are three gems. The Gemstone of Spirestone drops off Highlord Omokk, an ogre. The Gemstone of Smolderthorn drops off War Master Voone, a troll. The Gemstone of Bloodaxe drops off the final boss, Overlord Wyrmthalak, a dragonkin. Make sure you have loot rules in place as you’re doing this — I saw a lot of drama over who got stones for their seal. Also note, 100% drop rate on the stones didn’t come until Patch 2.2.0. Expect runs where you get none at all.

Once you have a seal and three gems, go back to Vaelan and he will give you a box containing an Unforged Seal of Ascension and an Orb of Draconic Energy. Now, go find Emberstrife. His den is located south of Onyxia’s in the Wyrmbog of Duskwallow Marsh. He’s the only occupant of the den. There will be adds to kill to get to the den but none inside.

This is the tricky part. Put your seal in the water at the base of the entry ramp. Engage Emberstrife and lower his health to 10%. You will get a notice on your screen that you can now use the Orb. It’s a mind control device. You will get a pet bar with new attacks. You have to use Emberstrife’s breath to forge the seal. Be aware. Back during Classic, some add-ons covered this bar so make sure that’s not the case or turn add-ons off before you begin. The attack has a cooldown and you are kind of racing against time. Too many dots on him and he’ll die before this gets done. You are also taking fire damage while in control of him so bring a healer. However, do not do this in a raid group. You won’t get credit for forging the seal. If the mind control breaks, just pick him up again. The orb has five charges.

Once you get the notice that the seal is forged, you can drop the mind control and kill Emberstrife. If you happen to die between the time the seal is forged and Emberstrife dying, don’t worry — the seal lingers in the water for a couple minutes after it’s forged. You can also do several seals at once. Just stack them on top of each other. You have to make sure you’re pointing Emberstrife at the seals in the water to aim his breath properly.

When you’ve managed to do this, go back to Vaelan. There was an issue handing in the quest. Sometimes he didn’t have the ? over his head even though you have the seal in your bags. People reported just standing around waiting and running out, resetting LBRS, and coming back in. Maybe little irritations like this will be fixed with the reissue.

I still have my Seal. I worked hard to get it. I’m not getting rid of it.

As you work towards the level cap, you’ll find yourself in these dungeons frequently. If you have one — or all of these — you’re practically guaranteed a spot in a dungeon run.