Standing in front of the Staff of Prehistoria (used to summon Ironaya) in Uldaman

One of the nicest surprises the Dungeon Finder has given me has been Uldaman. Not the Uldaman of my past, but Uldaman without all the crap. Uldaman for fun and XP. Uldaman has a bad reputation, but most of it doesn’t really apply anymore:

1. Home of the only Artisan Enchanting Trainer in the world
Can you believe that once you reached a certain level of enchanting (225, I believe) the only way to visit the Enchanting Trainer was to trek into Uldaman. Even on your own at level 60 this sucked.

2. Getting to the instance portal is half the work
This is also true of Blackfathom Deeps and the Deadmines in my opinion. If you travel there, old school style, you actually need about 20 minutes to clear and find your way through a maze of tunnels to reach the instance portal. And there’s no flight path nearby either. Definitely a mood, and group, killer.

3. It’s ugly
The scenery is pretty bad – lots of dust and lots of dwarves.

Ok, the last one is still a problem.

Like others I have gotten lost in Uldaman many times in the past. However, when I came to put this map together, I realised that once you take your eyes off the wonky, half-mined out tunnels and winding caverns and look at your mini-map the way through isn’t as obscured as you think.

The great things about Uldaman:

1. Lots of bosses in a short distance
2. Lots of mass AoE, no caster, pulls
3. XP, XP, XP!

Having run Scarlet Monastery for the good part of a decade – if you can call 10 levels a decade – it’s nice to queue a dungeon and translate that 20 minutes waiting time into an instance which returns more than 20 minutes of experience gains.

And the tanks that I’ve been grouped with have all been keen to clear the entire zone for experience. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

The Map

Uldaman, colour coded, with bosses and travel path marked

View/download the full size map here:

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

The bosses are:

1. Revelosh In preparation for summoning Ironaya take note of which party member has looted the Staff of Tsol from the body of Revelosh. If you want to summon Ironaya this person needs to loot the next time otherwise: no boss! Cross-server groups mean you cannot trade these items so be careful.
2. Baelog (Horde only boss) and/or Baelog’s Chest You’ll find some Alliance quest-givers in this room – which Horde can kill for loot. Alliance and Horde players should send the player holding the Staff of Tsol up to open and loot Baelog’s Chest which you’ll find in this room.
3. Ironaya If one player has both the Staff and the Medallion (from the chest) they can combine these two items in their inventory and click on a marker in the center of the room to open a door and bring out Ironaya – an optional, summoned boss.
4. Obsidian Sentinel He’s not much of a boss, but he does drop an item for a Mage class quest as I discovered.
5. Ancient Stone Keeper
6. Galgann Firehammer
7. Grimlok
8. Archaedas You’ll complete an event (unlocking 4 stone sentinel statue things) towards the end of the instance. Go through the gate and head west, down the ramp and double back til you end up in a circular room directly underneath where Archaedas waits.

The Run(s)

What can I say? I’ve actually only gone back into Uldaman twice and I’m level 44 now – it’s green difficulty for me – and I doubt I’ll get queued for Uldaman much more often. Once you reach level 41 the Dungeon Finder likes to group you with other level 41 players and send you to Mauradon (Orange) where the bosses are level 46. Enjoy those misses!

The two Uldaman runs that I’ve been part of have been absolutely excellent – definitely some of the best I’ve experienced on any of my characters, level 80 or otherwise. Perhaps it’s just at this level that tanks can really seem to keep up with my AoE damage, threat wise.

Is there anything more fun than Blizzard-ing scores of troggs and dwarves into oblivion, raking in the experience and playing with some genuinely nice players? I’ve been having a blast!