Time is Money: Farming in Storm Peaks

Today we'll be discussing some of the choice farming locations in the province of Storm Peaks. There are three areas in particular that I will point out, as well as some good gathering tips and information on where you can locate rare mobs.
Don't forget to check the comments section, as I'm sure it will be full of sweet spots and mob-hunting information!
Mission One: Valkyrion
Targets: Nascent Val'kyr and Valkyrion Aspirants.
These two mobs award very different loot, but respawn quickly. The Nascent Val'kyr fly around, and have a habit of descending on you from seemingly nowhere. They have a 100% drop rate for Dissolved Soul Essence, which sells to a vendor for 13.50g per stack! They also drop grays and miscellaneous greens, just like any other humanoid.
This mob is also the only mob in the game that will drop [Design: Fractured Scarlet Ruby], and patch 3.1 will be buffing Armor Penetration, so it may come into fashion. You have to be a Jewelcrafter to see this drop, and it is bind on pick-up, so the only profit to be had from it is through its use.
The Aspirants drop Frostweave Cloth 29% of the time (according to Wowhead), and Relics of Ulduar 41% of the time. The Relics can be sold for a high profit, usually in large stacks like 100, as they are turned in to the Sons of Hodir for reputation in stacks of 10. You will also end up picking up greens, grays, potions and scrolls.
Daily Tip: Once you've played through Brunnhildar Village, you can go there each day for a daily quest or two. Often, Gretta the Arbiter will give you the quest, The Aberrations Must Die, which will take you into Valkyrion to complete. You will get an extra 13g23s at level 80, plus a chance at the White Polar Bear Mount.
Mission Two: Fjorn's Anvil
Target: Seething Revenants.
These elementals will also drop Relics of Ulduar, although the drop rate is lower, set at around 33-34%. Their main draw is the Crystallized Fire, with about a 26% drop rate. Both of these items sell well on the Auction House, and you'll want to check your server to see if you should be selling the Crystallized Fire itself, or combining ten to form Eternal Fire and selling that.
Their most common junk drop is Hoary Crystals at 81% of the time, and a stack of 20 will sell to a vendor for 3g91s.
Daily Tip: Once you've unlocked the Sons of Hodir daily quests, you can go to Dun Niffelem to pick up the quest Hot and Cold from Fjorn's Anvil. Upon completion, you will get an extra 13g23s at level 80.
Mission Three: Frostfield Lake and Mission Two
Targets: Brittle Revenants, and the above Seething Revenants.
Because the daily quest, Hot and Cold, has you going to both locations, and because the area can be highly farmed at certain parts of the day, you might do better to do a circuit through the two adjacent areas.
Brittle Revenants are icy, and will drop everything that their fiery cousins drop, with the substitution of Crystallized Earth for Crystallized Fire. Earth is not in high demand, because it drops readily for miners, but depending on your profession, you could use them to make money. For example, Tailors can use it to craft blue PvP cloth gear, certain high-end, profitable epic jewelry take six Eternal Earths, and Enchant Gloves - Armsman and Enchant Shield - Defense use up an awful lot, and sell well.
Quick Gathering Tips:
Skinning
The Plain of Echoes is filled with Rhinos (that romp!) and Mammoths, and so does The Foot Steppes.
Mote Throttling
The clouds in the area will drop Crystallized Air and Water.
Herbing
Herbs are all over, and they aren't just along mountain bases. Once you have Cold Weather Flying, don't forget to search all the way up mountains. Both Icethorn and Lichbloom grow next to rocks and trees near rocks, so although there are some that can be found out in the open spaces, they are on rock outcrops.
If the province is crowded, take a trip across the southern slopes that fade into Zul'Drak. Nothing is there, except for herbs! I never find competition in that area.
Mining
Cobalt: There isn't much, and what the province does have is really on the border into Zul'Drak.
Saronite: This can be found all over the map, much like the herbs.
Click on either of the links to view maps. I strongly recommend getting an addon such as Gatherer to help you plot your farming excursions!
Rare Mobs:
Dirkee can be found to the west of the Terrace of the Makers, facing Ulduar, or near the Engine of the Makers, or finally, between Camp Taunka'lo and Thunderfall.
Vyragosa is found just outside the Grommash Crash Site, on the side leading down into the Snowdrift Plains. She will drop a blue leather helm with a random enchantment.
Time-Lost Proto-Drake will drop a mount, Reins of the Time-Lost Prot-Drake! One commenter on Wowhead posted an excellent map showing where he spawns and how he paths.
Filed under: Herbalism, Mining, Skinning, Tailoring, Enchanting, Items, Analysis / Opinion, Tips, How-tos, Economy, Jewelcrafting, Features, Guides, Making money, Time Is Money
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Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)
Agravaine Mar 16th 2009 9:20PM
It could've been worse. Storm peaks is home to the mobs that have the best drop rates of certain commodities. She either doesn't know about them, or doesn't think they bear mentioning. And no, I'm not talking about the Scions.
Oops.
Ed Cote Mar 16th 2009 10:42PM
A good spot for skinning is Hibernal Cavern. The daily quest Polishing the Helm sends you there anyway. The worms in and around the cave yield Worm Meat when you kill them as well as Borean Leather, Jormungar Scales, and Artic Fur when you skin them. Often you can skin the kills of other players as well.
I can get a couple stacks of leather and some meat without going very far out of my way at all.
Bronwyn Mar 17th 2009 11:46AM
ZOMG! Since this was posted its impossible to get quests done in Sons of Hodir! Omg!! How could u!!!
...
Just kidding.
Superthrust Mar 16th 2009 11:52PM
I have the mount. Winterhoof server. I also help farm it for 1000g too. Which, since i can track the spawn times and know the path by heart, can help immensely with...even though i got mine on accident, i did farm it for awhile..
Itanius Mar 16th 2009 11:55PM
As if the spawn areas for the Hodir dailies weren't crowded enough as it is... *sigh*
Greth Mar 17th 2009 12:42AM
I'm going to get the crap flamed out of me for this, but...
Worg cave north of blue proto-drake field. Skinning. Worg respawn rate in mouth of cave is such that they will respawn about as fast as you can kill and skin them.
Joe Mar 17th 2009 2:11AM
Agreed. To think someone at WI was paid to post this.
Just delete the article and save WI a little dignity.
Moy Mar 17th 2009 4:09AM
First rule of elite farming club is Don't talk about elite farming club.
Second rule of elite farming club is..........waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah you taaaaaaalked!
T_T_T_T_T_T_T_T!
Sinthar Mar 17th 2009 5:22AM
Im sort of assuming this guide is for 'less experienced' players. Anyone whos been through Wrath once will know most of this, if not all. The farming locations stated, are SO heavily over farmed already on my server, that your usually competing 3 players to 1 mob.
SaintStryfe Mar 17th 2009 4:55AM
don't forget: Eternal Earth can be used by Alchemists as very cheap transmutation fodder, for learning new skills or turning the EE into something useful like Eternal Fire or Eternal Air.
Gunhilda Mar 17th 2009 5:51AM
I thought that farming "quest mobs" was generally frowned upon?
Admittedly, as Northrend is thick with quests, it can be hard to find mobs that aren't.
But I don't think it's good policy to condone and even encourage such behaviour.
Angus Mar 17th 2009 8:58AM
Considering the quest mobs were farmed in TBC to the point where GMs would ask you how the farming was going, I don't think it is frowned on.
They purposely made those mobs have a high spawn rate to handle a large influx of players showing up all at once and trying to compete for quests. If you went outside of warsong hold the day wrath released and tried to do the kill quest on the nerubians you remember what it was like. Something like 50-60 people all on the same quest within visual range, the moment a mob spawned it was tagged, and people skinning like crazy.
With less people doing the quests the respawn rate just means it is easier to farm these same mobs. Peoople just starting the quest won't notice you doing it. It isn't like the server economy is being tanked by this. If anything it is helping keep people supplied with stuff as more crafting professions get leveled on alts.
Aries Mar 17th 2009 7:53AM
The cave with the storm elementals is terrible and annoyingly overrated. It's definitely NOT the best place to farm relics of ulduar. I gave it a try today and after an hour only had about 12 relics. There are much, much better places to farm in Storm Peaks if relics are what you crave.
Also, the spot by Freya to farm frostweave is also NOT the best place to farm frostweave in Northrend. There are much better places (ie, Icecrown) to do so, but without giving away my spot that's all I'm gonna say. I have all my bank tabs on a bank alt filled with stacks of frostweave and the rest I just turn into bandages for my main. I have more frostweave than I know what to do with just by farming a single area for 15 min a day. It doesn't sell for much on my server these days so I'll be using my stash when my tailoring alt gets to the appropriate level.
The areas around the Son of Hodir dailies are definitely one of the best spot to farm borean leather with little or no effort. Just follow people around and skin their kills while they do their dailies as normal and you'll have stacks upon stacks in no time (not to mention tons of Jormungar scales - which vendor for 1g each in the worst case scenario). Also, a great place to collect worm meat and mammoth meat for your cooking.
Angus Mar 17th 2009 9:00AM
Everyone knows to go to the spot where the "yellow" risen heroes run and get close to where they despawn at the choke point in the valley.
;)
Jon W Mar 17th 2009 8:43AM
I really can't believe that folks are actually complaining about WI posting this. Some WoW players really make me SMH.
Mutak Mar 17th 2009 11:14AM
Even after you hit exalted with the Sons, their dailies are good money for the time spent. Here's the route i use:
1) Fly in from the west, pick up quests from anvil, horn, Arngrim, spear, helmet, wolf, then fly out to the wolf corpse.
2) Summon the wolf and start killing worms for Arngrim. The wolf aggros on what you attack, so this is a good way to avoid having to chase him all over the place. Keep killing worms after you get your 5 just to keep the wolf near the entrance to the cave.
3) Head into the cave and kill some ooze.
4) Head out to the mouth of the cave and spear the next dragon that flies overhead. When he dies he should drop you on or near the lake.
5) Kill elementals until you have your 5 drops then go use them.
6) Go kill ghost giants and dwarves.
General advice: Don't gank or run around fighting for spawn tags. It's a dick move and will only slow you down in the long run. If there's a lot of competition, go camp the least crowded spawn locations and take what you can get. Kill other mobs while waiting for the spawn you need. Worms, mammoths, fire elementals, extra dwarves - whatever - they all drop decent vendor trash or eternals, cloth, or meat. Just don't get so caught up that you miss the spawn you need.
peralas Mar 17th 2009 11:15AM
Nice article Amanda and thanks. Just ignore the whiners.
I, for one, did not know about Storm Peaks yet as I was 80 long before I ever got to their quests and have been concentrating on other things more important than the Sons of Hodir. Since I'm a scribe, I can do my own shoulder incriptions and don't need that from them. I am beginning to add to my dailies in Northrend now, and this article was helpful. So WI is doing right by having Amanda as part of the team - IMNSHO!