The Dormitory: One mailbox does not make a city.

… a menace rose up from the bowels of the earth and invaded Gnomergan… The surviving Gnomes fled to the safety of the Dwarven stronghold, Ironforge. There they remained devising strategies to retake their city.

If you’ve ever started a Gnome and listened to the voice over, you’ve probably wondered why a few of the elites in Ironforge just walk down the road and retake the goddamn city?

There must be some other reason why the Gnomes still choose to hang out in Tinker Town in Ironforge. I believe the reason is simple: They don’t really want it back. And why would they? The Domitory must be the most uninhabitable living quarters I’ve ever seen.

The Guide

For level 20 somethings, you’ll be dropped using the Dungeon Finder right inside the portal. I’m going to assume that’s your starting point. There’s actually a back entrance you could use on subsequent runs and some quest stuff located just outside the instance portal.

I’ll leave those out of my basic Map, which is intended for players who get handed Gnomeregan when they queue for a classic dungeon. I’ll do my best to help you out with the quests later on in the guide.

The Map

The only way I could map the travel path through the instance was by breaking it down into 4 layers/levels. Which makes for a very long map. It’s like Oculus in reverse – starts at the top and works down level by level.

Map of Gnomeregan - with bosses and travel path marked.

View/download the full size map here:

http://www.hotsdots.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/GNOmap.jpg

The bosses are:

1. Grubbis When you arrive, talk to the friendly litte Gnome to start an event that ends with killing Grubbis. Some groups will demand that everyone jumps at the very beginning of the instance, thus skipping this guy. Jumping that distance is dangerous and a waste of loot in my opinion.
2. Viscous Fallout A corrupted water elemental. He patrols along a wide circle around the room.
3. Electrocutioner 6000 Drops the workshop key as well as loot.
4. Crowd Pummeler 9-60 There are a few different ways to reach Pummeler. I’ve marked my preferred path because even though it looks complicated (you down to the lowest level only to take a lift back up to reach the boss) it’s less mobs because you’re clearing towards the last boss then taking a brief detour. If the group is getting a bit tired you can just skip him at the last moment.
5. Mekgineer Thermaplugg If you killed Pummeler you’ll need to back track to that main south-west leading wide corridor. Once you’re on that stretch he’s easy to find. Congratulations!

The Graveyard Run

Spirit Running to Gnomeregan as Horde

Your group wiped. I’m so sorry. Here’s how to find your way back to the instant portal from the closest graveyard. As far as I can tell it’s pretty much the same run for Horde and Alliance:

1. Run directly west over the lake. Take the main path down the tunnel into Gnomeregan.
2. Follow the tunnel down and down until you reach a circular room with no other way out. Stand on the lift in the center of the room, alternatively wait for 30 seconds or so until the lift arrives, and you’ll drop down one level further.
3. Once you reach the Train Depot you can either turn north or west. Take the upper path heading west and continue along the curve until you reach the instance portal.

Preparation and Quests for Alliance

Normally I wouldn’t bother doing all the Gnomeregan quests. However, if you’re using the Dungeon Finder tool almost exclusively to level up (it’s becoming a popular method of earning XP) then it might be worth spending some time preparing for your first Gnomeregan run.

There are a heck of a lot of Gnomeregan quests. I’ll make some suggestions on the tricky ones here that might stump members of your group.

In addition to all the quests given out in Tinker Town:

• a Gnome in Kharnos will give you a quest (he also has a Gnomeregan follow up for your 2nd run) and
• Shoni in the Dwarven District of Stormwind has a quest too.
• There’s also an escort quest you can start from inside Gnomeregan. I’d skip this one, but if you want to do it look for Kernobee when you’re in the Domitory in one of the south or east rooms before you reach Viscous Fallout. You’ll have to escort him all the way back to the start – the opposite direction to where you’re going.

Pre-queue Quest 1, Solo: Save Techbot’s Brain!

You’ll need to head down to Gnomeregan to start this one before using the Dungeon Finder. Pick up Data Rescue aswell because you start that in the same place.

Head to Gnomeregan in Dun Morogh and once you’ve taken the lift down head keep heading north (ignoring the west corridor which leads to the instance portal) into the Train Depot.

In a small room to the west of the central platform you’ll find Techbot. He’s not an elite and is definitely solo-able.

By the way, the northern corridor from the Train Depot leads to a back door into the instance if you have the Workshop Key and means you could, if not with a cross-realm party, shortcut to the last 2 bosses in the instance.

Pre-queue Quest 2, Solo first part: Data Rescue AKA The Punch Cards One

As above, head into the Train Depot inside Gnomeregan. Make sure you loot each kill until you loot a White Punch Card from one of the Lepers.

Before leaving the Train Depot find one of the little machines around the place, they’re called Matrix Punchographs, and click it to turn your White Punch Card into a Yellow Punch Card.

Now that you have an Yellow Punch Card you’re ready to join a Dungeon Finder run for Gnomeregan. If you follow the path mapped out above and kill all bosses, click on a Matrix Punchograph found near each boss to upgrade it. The Matrix Punchographs near Pummeller/Thermaplugg on the lowest floor should spit out a Prismatic Punch Card and complete the quest for you.

Electromagnetic Gigaflux Reactivator: more Epic than actual Epics

The last couple of weeks have been lazy summer holidays for me. During this time I probably should have been PUGing ICC 25 and 10s on Lathere and making sure I logged in to complete the daily heroic each day. I instead decided to be a bad little tree and not worry about my Emblems of Frost and did what I felt like doing: unwinding with some solo game play and leveling.

I finally leveled my Mage to 80. I paid to move her over from Horde to Alliance at level 70 the day faction transfers came out. And yet since then I’ve given her very little of my attention. So I’m happy that I reached max level.

And now Cass and I have started a pew pew Gnome duo. Cass is playing a little Mage and seeing I already had a Mage and a Priest figured I better give a Warlock a go. Plus this way I get even more use out of my cloth and spellpower heirloom items!

Pixii and Caesandra were born, or as Cass and I refer to them, ”The Littlies”. Our littlies aren’t being powered leveled or boosted, we’ve instead been slowly questing about the place whenever we were both bored and had some spare time to play. We’ve had a few hair-raising adventures, one particular standout memory involved me learning when Fear is not a good option, and I couldn’t forget the multiple arguments over whether I was to blame for putting Corruption on that mob before Cass marked it for sheeping or after (I promise you it was always before!).

And when our little Gnomes reached their 20s we decided to take the plunge into the world of PUG dungeons.

Pixii and Caesandra’s Tank Tour Of The Bloodlust Battlegroup

Because we normally queue with a couple of friends who have DPS toons around the same level, we’re having great fun meeting the young, upcoming tanks of Bloodlust and, dare I say, the future of tanking.

Overall I have to say I’m quite impressed. Let’s just forget about the Warrior who need rolled and then wore a cloak with intellect, or the tank who thought it was quite ok to pull half of SM – Graveyard in one pull. I believe these guys have been the exceptions.

Worst Thing I’ve Discovered

The one part of the new dungeon finder that I’m a bit sad about is that if you find a good group and you want to all stay together and farm instances, requeuing as a group never seems to work. I’m not sure if this is Blizzards way of ensuring the “good” players aren’t being hogged or if it’s something to do with being on different servers. Whatever it is, it’s quite sucky.

Best New Discovery

An item that inspired the title of this article. Its  also the reason I have now decided Gnomeregan isn’t half bad. I remembered Gnomeregan being long, painful and a waste of time. Not only does this dungeon seem fairly easy now, I’ve discovered that the final boss drops what has to be the best item I have ever won since I started playing World of Warcraft.

Pixii is the proud owner and wearer of Electromagnetic Gigaflux Reactivator. This has to be the craziest looking head piece in the game. It makes the Druid Tier 10 briarthorn headpiece look boring in comparison. The Electromagnetic Gigaflux Reactivator not only looks cool, it also shoots lightning out of it every 30 minutes!

I can’t believe I have been playing this game for over 3 years and have never been introduced to this marvelous item. It’s so cool it ought to be an Epic, not a Rare.

And yes, Cass is jealous.

Are there any items in the game that you personally think of as Epic? I’m sure there have to be other wonderful items lurking about out there!