World of Warcraft/Instances/Dire Maul

Dire Maul
Dire Maul is an Ogre compound, divided into three Dungeons: East, West and North. South side is actually the entrance. Also, there is an open PvP arena right in the middle.

Dire Maul West is open to any group, up to 5 players of high-level, and is where you can get the Crescent Key, which will let you get inside East, North and at The Library.

Dire Maul East needs the Crescent Key to open its door, but the player with the key don't need to actually be in your party, since the door to be opened is outside the Dungeon Instance.

Dire Maul North also needs the Crescent Key much like Dire Maul East, and again, the door is outside, and nobody in your party actually needs to have the key. North also has two different types of runs:


 * the regular run where you kill all the bosses you want for regular loot;
 * the Tribute run, where you need to avoid killing as many bosses as possible, getting some quests done to avoid kill some particular bosses, and at the last fight with the Ogre king and his advisor, kill the king first and spare the advisor. The advisor will make you king of Dire Maul, and the remaining monsters will become friendly until you leave or the king buff expire. Also, he gives you the Tribute Chest. The rewards at the Chest are better or worse according to how many bosses you killed, and that's why you have to kill as few bosses as possible.

Also, there is a Library that can be acessed once inside some of the Instance Dungeons. For that, you will also need the Crescent Key. This Library is know for being where you get some Librams quest done.

The open PvP arena has a boss that spaws from time to time. Those who kill it get the chance to loot it, but you have an announcer that warns everyone nearby about the spawn, so you usually have to fight the boss and other players as well. During Christmas, an Elder Spirit can be found in the arena as well.

Dire Maul is a very good source of Rare Items a little better than other endgame party dungeons, and also some Epic Items that are typical class icons until one has the chance to get to the endgame raid dungeons, like the item that starts the Quel'serrah quest, an Epic sword very good for Warriors and Paladins that job usually is to "tank".

While no set items come from Dire Maul, its Rare Items usually are better than set ones, and a player with enough good items from the other endgame party dungeons should consider come to Dire Maul a few times for better items. However, this dungeon is very hard for players who just reached the 60th level and still have lots of mid-level items as main equipaments.