This awesome bow remains as one of my most treasured possessions. It was about the highest accolade you could get at the time since it really tested your skills as a hunter. I was in a raiding guild with four other hunters and the only Ancient Petrified Leaf I ever saw went to the class lead back then. It was quite some time before I saw another one as a few of us went in to farm one for my toon. Having a 50% chance to drop from Majordomo’s chest in MC, it only took a couple of runs to get. You also needed to go to Onyxia’s Lair to kill her for the Mature Black Dragon sinew but could also drop from any of the black dragonkin in Burning Steppes.
From there, you could head to Felwood to speak with the ancients in Irontree Grove and obtain their quests. Here’s where the real challenge began. You had to fight four demons located around Azeroth without the help of anyone – including your pet. Any interaction from other players (including heals) would cause you to fail and the demon despawning. It would also take some time before they would appear again.
You really had to use all your skills as a hunter to defeat each one. The closest I probably came to this was kiting Drekk in UBRS back when it was a raid. I didn’t follow any guide back then but I found this on Wowhead and I’m sure it would have been a huge help if I had this information back then.
Winterspring – Artorius the Doombringer
1. Buffs – Intellect Buff is nice
2. Potions – Health/Mana and a potion for removing a magic debuff.
3. Group – At least 1 other to run in front of you and train the mobs.
4. Go to near Wintersaber Rock in Winterspring and look for a Tauren named Artorius the Amiable. Approach him when you are ready to begin the fight.
5. Begin Kiting Artorius towards Everlook, Serpent Sting is his weakness and so, run and use Rank 1 Arcane shot to keep him tapped and use highest rank Serpent Sting to bring him down. WATCH OUT FOR HIS DEMON DEBUFF.
Burning Steppes – Klinfran the Crazed
1. Buffs – Mark of the Wild, Intellect
2. Potions – Health/Mana
3. Group – Not required
4. Approach Franklin the Friendly south of Blackrock Mountain to begin the fight.
5. The fight starts and he will periodically enrage. If he hits you while enraged, he can do upwards of 2000 damage. The Solution: Scorpid Sting. It unenrages him and makes him hit you for a measly 1 damage. Run in and melee for 2-3 hits, wing clip rank 1, and run out, he will enrage. Rinse and repeat.
Un’Goro Crater – Simone the Seductress
1. Buffs – Fortitude, Mark of the Wild, Intellect
2. Potions – Health/Mana, Greater Nature Protection.
3. Group – Not required.
4. Approach Simone the Inconspicuous and her pet, Precious, wandering around the Hot Springs of Un’Goro.
5. As soon as the fight starts, run in and Freeze Trap her pet Precious. Proceed to Viper Sting her, it is her weakness, it will Silence her. Run in and melee until she begins casting. At this point run out and Viper Sting again, her lightning bolt HURTS. If you don’t make it away in time, the Nature Protection Potion will help. Keep Precious Freeze Trapped until the fight is over, then you can kill him separately.
Silithus – Solenor the Slayer
1. Buffs – Everything you can get.
2. Potions – Health/Mana AT LEAST 2 GREATER SHADOW PROTECTION
3. Group – WARLOCK
4. Approach Nelson the Nice as he wanders around Southern Silithus.
5. BEFORE THE FIGHT: Duel the Warlock and have them Curse of Recklessness you. DO NOT END THIS DUEL. Have the lock keep using the curse every time it wears off.
6. Begin the fight and run in and Wing Clip Rank 3. It will immobilize him. Run out and shoot him, but keep moving in circles so his Creeping Doom Bugs don’t touch you. They deal 150+ damage if they touch you. Every time he is un-immobilized run in and Wing Clip again. Repeat this tactic and keep using shadow protection potions.
I actually did these really late at night since I was on a US server so most people were asleep. This meant that I didn’t have the advantage of buffs or people clearing the path ahead of me so defeating each one gave me a real sense of accomplishment.
Once you had collected all their heads, you could return to Felwood to obtain your reward – Rhok’delar, Longbow of the Ancient Keepers.
You could also loot a Mature Blue Dragon Sinew from Azuregos (or the elites in Winterspring) for an 18-slot quiver. I managed to farm mine from Azuregos when he was able to be soloed. The quiver has since been converted to an epic 24-slot bag which I still use. However, since the Sundering this epic chain is no longer available to players.
Awww, you’re getting me all nostalgic! :D
This is still one of my favorite possessions as well. And one of my favorite quests. It really put you to the test as a hunter and you got to use things you’d never needed in PvE before. I remember perfecting my strafing and kiting skills on frostsabers while waiting for Artorius the Doombringer to spawn.
And the quiver as a bag is just awesome these days. :)
I agree. 24 slots is still a good size these days!
That does sound like a very challenging questline! I’m glad you got the opportunity to experience it. :)
I miss quivers. For a little while during Wrath, a Hunter’s quiver would appear on their back, at least on the loading screen, and I think perhaps just to themselves in the game world. I wish that quivers, even in their converted-to-regular-bag state, still did that. If they did, I think I’d use a quiver as one of my Hunter’s bags even if it ridiculously gimped her available inventory space — though the Quiver of a Thousand Feathers is a 20 slot bag, which is not too shabby! It’s an LW crafted item and the pattern is not available anymore — but Kam has it.
It really was. I think I have that recipe on my hunter. I’m one of those people who likes to collect every recipe for a profession.
I did this quest line on my hunter before they took it out and it was a lot of fun! The bow is pretty too and I adore it :D
I wouldn’t say it was fun but I was excited to start it and felt like I had really achieved something when it was completed. :)
Hey Cymre,
I was lucky enough to be the first horde hunter on Khaz’Goroth to get the leaf and complete this. I remember being so nervous, and practising the days before an MC run in case the leaf dropped.
For those that never did this, something that made his immensely more difficult was that if any other player engaged a demon they despawned. So although you would often have some helpers clearing mobs and the like if they engaged it was a reset. Respawn timer was 8 hours I think.
Other points on the individual demons.
1. Winter spring, when kiting, he couldn’t get too far or too close else wipe, reset.
2. Burning steppes, all about having a faultless rotation of raptor strike x2, wing clip, strafe, Scorpid sting for 8 minutes. I think you could use scatter shot in emergencies. One of the easy two.
3. Unngoro. Super easy. Have a hunter friend in ur party with aspect of the wild on. Most people killed this one on their first try.
4. Silithus
When I did this the warlock exploit was not widely known. Made it way tougher. Also, this was back in the day when you didn’t shoot whilst moving, and we had min range. So you had to shoot,take a couple of steps,then shoot again when moving in the circle. You also used volley when the bugs built up.
If you play a hunter and never got to do this, look up epic hunter quest in YouTube. And if you did do it, it’s worth a trip down memory lane.
Thanks for reminding me of this Cym. See ya!
Oh wow, that would have been a lot more exciting and nerve-racking to do it Xyn. Thanks for the input and I’m glad you remember it that well to be able to share it :)