Games - Dire Maul

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	Games - Dire Maul

Dire Maul is a location set in Blizzard Entertainments video game and book series, Warcraft. In the MMORPG World of Warcraft it acts as an instance dungeon in the virtual world.

Background

Dire Maul is located at the center of Feralas in Southern Kalimdor.

Nomenclature

While geographical short forms are highly varied in any MMORPG, the most common shortforms referring to Dire Maul is "DM". It should be noted that this can often be confused with a shortform for The Deadmines. DM is usually followed by North, East, or West, to designate the instance being attempted. For example: DM East refers to the Eastern Dire Maul entrance.

Of special note is the North instance which features a mechanic known as a "Tribute." DM North contains King Gordok, the ruler of the Ogres as a final boss. The way to the King is blocked by several Guards who can either be killed, or bypassed using various tricks including an Ogre disguise. When the King is defeated, a tribute chest appears with various rewards inside. If you have left the Guards alive, each one will contribute an item to the chest, thus making Tribute runs extremely profitable.

This type of run is generally known as a Tribute Run or DM Tribute.

Instance zone

Dire Maul is divided into three parts:

The East Side - populated by a mix of crazed plants and demons. This is the easiest part of Dire Maul. The Crescent Key is attained here, which allows access to the North Side and the West Side.
The North Side - populated by ogres, both warriors and spell casters.
The West Side - populated by undead, invisible ghosts, elementals and crazed plants. Note: This is where warlocks complete their epic mount quest.

The maximum number of people allowed in a single instance is only five. No other instance allows so few players and this contributes to the difficulty of the dungeon.

Enemies

Each part of Dire Maul has its own monsters, ogres to the north, demons and plants to the east, elementals and crazed plants to the west. Nearly all the monsters are elite and they range from Level 57 to Level 61.

Dire Maul was one of the first of the post-launch dungeons and as such it represents the designers latest ideas about how to create dungeons based on real experience with how the players interfaced with the game. The three areas have interesting features and encounters which demand some thought. Unlike other high-end dungeons (like Upper Blackrock Spire or Stratholme) where it can take a fair bit of time to assemble the necessary 10 or 15 players needed to complete the dungeon, with Dire Maul, all you need is 5 players.

Perhaps the most interesting part of Dire Maul is the north side because there you are rewarded if don't kill all but one of the named ogres (referred to as "Tribute runs"). One ogre you simply have to run past, one ogre you need to trap, and one ogre you can fool using an ogre disguise. At the end, if you are successful, you are proclaimed the new King of the Ogres and all the surviving ogres treat you as a friend (as long as you stay in the zone, once you leave, you are no longer king).

Dire Maul West is a challenging instance if you are not prepared to face the assortment of monsters within. Bringing a Warlock along is almost a necessity (and many Warlocks will want to go, it is part of their Epic mount quest) because they can cast Detect Invisibility to find the many invisible ghost patrols. Also, they can banish elementals as a form of crowd control. Alternatively you can use a Hunter to flare around your group. The final boss, the Prince, is in the library but cannot be attacked until you defeat Immol'thar the demon dog. Immol'thar is contained in an energy field which must be disabled before you can approach him. That is accomplished by destroying the elementals surrounding all of the 5 crystal pylons in the instance. Once you do that, the Elves guarding Immol'thar will rush in and be killed by the demon. After they are all dead, you may approach and destroy Immol'thar. At this point, the Prince will become attackable.

The Maul

In the center of Dire Maul, outside of any instance, is an Arena. Inside this Arena the rules of PvP become Free-For-All. Only members of your own group will appear friendly. Every so often, a random monster spawns within the Maul. This is announced by an observer NPC to the entire zone. Players from any faction can compete to see who kills the monster first and gets the loots; usually some kind of rare world drop of Blue (superior) quality or two. Prepare to be backstabbed by your own faction if you enter the Maul to conquer the monster!

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Dire Maul ]

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