FARMING AND EASY KILLS

Bael'dun: The Dig That Never Ends

The Barrens, Bael'dun Keep / level 21 to 26 / cloth and coin / alone

The dwarves at Bael'dun have been digging for years, and as far as I can tell they're digging for treasure, which makes us colleagues. I put on my good shirt and walked over to offer them a partnership. They answered with shovels. I've been back many times since, for their cloth, and I'm still sure the partnership will come once they get to know me.

Why it pays

The Bael'dun Excavator and the Bael'dun Foreman are humanoids, so they carry money and cloth. The loot tables give a Wool Cloth in one kill out of four, Linen Cloth in one out of eight and Silk Cloth in one out of twenty. They belong to a quest, and on Forever a quest's mobs come back as fast as people kill them, so the dig fills up again while you work. They don't fear you, they don't net you and they don't fetch their friends from the next camp. I've worked harder for less.

What you need

Level 21 to fight them. At 23 they stop being a fight and become work, which is what you want. Empty bags, no profession, no group. A tailor or a first aider can use the cloth. Everyone else sells it.

Where

Southern Barrens, the dig in front of Bael'dun Keep. The Horde flies to Camp Taurajo and rides south. The Alliance has no flight point close by and walks a long way. Stay on the dig. The Soldiers, Riflemen and Officers up at the keep are level 23 to 26, they hit harder and they carry the same loot. I found that out on my first visit, lying on the floor.

How

1. Start at the west end of the dig and work east, then come back along the other side. By the time you're round, the first ones are standing again.
2. Take one or two at a time. Excavators and Foremen carry the same things.
3. Open any chest you pass. The travellers say a chest here holds a green or a blue now and then. I haven't found one yet.
4. When your bags are full, put the cloth on the auction house and sell the grey junk to any vendor.
5. If you're levelling, come back every few levels and grind one level here. Most people level faster on the dig than at the next quest hub, and they leave with a bag of cloth.

What can go wrong

Silk drops in one kill out of twenty, so plan around Wool. Five people can share the dig as long as all five kill quickly, because the respawn follows the killing. The keep is the other problem. I walked up there once to see what the riflemen were guarding and spent the next ten minutes as a ghost.

BASTIAN'S VERDICT Steady money for a lazy man. I've made more here than anywhere else in the Barrens, and two silver of it went into the statue fund.