Well, maybe not so fun after your third hour of killing the same mobs over and over again. But you’ll certainly profit.

I’ve had a number of folks ask me recently about farming Sunwell trash, particularly after my rather proud post announcing my luck in getting the Shivering Felspine on my first trip in. So with that in mind, I thought I’d post a brief introduction to how you too can start farming Sunwell trash to get yourself some shiny new epics.

Why Would I Want To?

You may be asking yourself, “But Lass, aside from the Shivering Felspine, why would I want to farm Sunwell trash?”

Epic Gems

Epic gems have about a 6% drop rate from trash in Sunwell, and with the availability of epic gem cut patterns from the vendor on the Isle of Quel’Danas, there’s no reason not to be using epic gems in your gear. (You can, of course, purchase epic gems for 15 badges, but I should think getting them for free would be preferable, no?)

Crafting Patterns

Some of the best crafting patterns currently in the game call Sunwell home, and many of them drop from trash. Unfortunately, many of the results of these patterns are BoP, and for those that aren’t, guilds currently clearing Sunwell likely charge rather exorbitant prices for crafting them. Why not just make them yourself?

Jewelcrafting:
Design: Hard Khorium Band

Leatherworking:
Pattern: Carapace of Sun and Shadow
Pattern: Embrace of the Phoenix
Pattern: Fletcher’s Gloves of the Phoenix
Pattern: Gloves of Immortal Dusk

Engineering:
Schematic: Quad Deathblow X44 Goggles
Schematic: Surestrike Goggles v3.0

Gear Drops

You’ve already seen the Shivering Felspine. This polearm is currently the best two-handed weapon in the game for hunters. There is absolutely no reason for you not to have it. (To put this in perspective, it took me months of farming Kara to get Legacy. I got Shivering Felspine my first time in Sunwell–in less than three hours.)

How Do I Do It?

Farming Sunwell trash is reasonably easy. The key is making sure that your group stays focused throughout each round of farming. The trash in Sunwell means business, and you could easily wipe any number of times, even on the first three pulls (which is typically all my group farms), if you’re not paying attention.

Despite the fact that the group make-up for Sunwell trash farming is much more lax than your formal raids, you should still be taking it seriously and plan accordingly. If your group is in all T4 gear, you may want to consider bringing consumables (especially the tanks and healers).

Group Make-Up

At least four mages is an absolute must. If you don’t have four mages, forget about it, don’t bother zoning in. Five mages is preferable, but four is required.

• 2 Tanks
• 1 Druid
• 4 Mages
• 6 Healers

You do not necessarily need to bring a full 25-man group to clear Sunwell trash. Depending on how well your group is geared, you can get away with a group of 18.

The Pulls

As you walk into Sunwell, you’ll find a rather large foyer where your group can buff, brief, etc. (The entirety of the first room you enter as you zone in is clear of mobs, so feel free to stretch your legs a bit and look around.) Once your group is buffed and ready to go, move up to the entryway to the next room.

First Pull:
The first mob you’ll be pulling is a mech that hits like a freight train. Have the entire raid group up and cuddle with your MT just to the right of the door to the next room (right on the tiny flight of stairs, in the corner). The mech you’re going to pull will be patting in a circle around the second room in the zone (which is where you’ll be doing your farming). When the mech gets right in front (or to the right–not the left) of the doorway, have a hunter Misdirect pull the mech to your MT. Once the pull is clear, the hunter should run over and join the rest of the raid stacked on the tank. The mech has a damage ability that will chain through the raid. The group I go with has found that this is much, much easier to manage if we all stack on the tank. Healers will need to be on their toes. MT healers should be spamming heals on the MT, raid healers should be doing much the same for the rest of the group.

Once the mech is down, you can move (carefully) into the next room. Your next pull will be to the right of the door.

Second Pull:
The next pull is exactly like the pull you’re going to be farming for the rest of the night. It consists of seven mobs, at least five of which will need to be crowd controlled. Mark and assign CC targets (four mages to sheep, 1 druid to sleep). You’ll want to mark targets thus:

• Sunblade Vindicator – MT target
• Sunblade Slayer – OT target
• Sunblade Dragonhawk – Hibernate
• Sumblade Cabalist – Polymorph
• Sunblade Dawn Priest – Polymorph
• Sunblade Dusk Priest – Polymorph

Important: The only job mages have for the entire night is to spam Polymorph. That’s it. No DPS will be expected of them. They need to constantly be spamming Polymorph, otherwise there’s a high risk that a loose mob will wipe the group.

The kill order should be (roughly):

1. Sunblade Vindicator (Abilities: Mortal Strike, Cleave; Can be disarmed)
2. Sunblade Slayer (Abilities: Slaying Shot, Scatter Shot)
3. Sunblade Dragonhawk (Abilities: Flame Breath)
4. Sunblade Dawn Priest (Abilities: Holy Form, Holy Nova, Heal)
5. Sunblade Cabalist (Abilities: Summon Imp, Ignite Mana, Shadow Bolt)
6. Sunblade Cabalist (Yes, there are two of these.)
7. Sunbalde Dusk Priest (Abilities: Fear, Mind Flay, Shadow Word: Pain)

It is important, at least, to kill the first three in order. The rest are largely negotiable. Just make sure, however, that your raid does not have split dps. Once the MT and OT targets are down, you should only ever be dealing with one mob at a time. (In other words, make sure your dps is following a main assist target.)

Third Pull:
The third pull is identical to the second pull. The only difference here is that each time, you’ll be leaving at least one mob from the pull Polymorphed so that the rest of the mobs will respawn for you to continue farming them.

When you get to the third pull, kill six of the mobs. When the sixth mob is dead, have everyone except one mage run out of the instance. The one mage that stays behind should preferably not be the same mage that was originally assigned to sheep the remaining mob (so that their next Polymorph is not effected by the diminishing returns of the spell). Have the last mage toss up one last sheep for good measure, and run out of the instance.

Once everyone is out of the instance, wait a moment, and then zone back in. Once you’re back in the instance, you’ll find that the mobs of the third pull have all respawned. Farm away!