Dread Wastes

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Not to be confused with Bone Wastes.

Dread Wastes
Level 89 - 90

Capital	Heart of Fear
Races	Mantid Sha Pandaren Saurok Sprite
Government	Feudalism
Rulers	Grand Empress Shek'zeer
Major settlements	Klaxxi'vess
Affiliation	Mantid Empire
Location	Southwestern Pandaria

The Dread Wastes are a subzone of Pandaria, located west of the Valley of the Four Winds. It is ruled by the Sha of Fear, and is a combination of desert and swamplands.^[1]

History

The Dread Wastes are the mantid homeland. From here, Grand Empress Shek'zeer commands a seemingly endless swarm of mantid. They hurl themselves against the Serpent's Spine wall, nearly overwhelming the Shado-Pan defenders. Historically, the mantid have swarmed in regular and predictable intervals, but this swarm is about ten years too soon, and the pandaren are caught off-guard. It's not that the Empress is getting more strategic; in fact, her whole society is in the middle of an upheaval. Shek'zeer has been overwhelmed and possessed by the Sha of Fear, and she's running her empire into the ground. At her command, the mantid are embracing the sha, willfully corrupting themselves, their sacred trees, and the entire ecology of their land. Blind fear has driven the empress onto a warpath and it's tearing her civilization apart. The Klaxxi however recognize that the empress has lost her mind, and that swarming Pandaria will mean little if their entire civilization is given over to the sha in the process. Most of the zone focuses around this conflict between the mantid swarm and the Klaxxi, showcasing both the terrible scope of a full-on swarm and the fallout of unchecked sha corruption.

The Stormstout family has come to bring the fight directly to the mantid, and have fallen in with the brewmasters of the Sunset Brewgarden who specialize in brewing with sap from the native kypari trees. Meanwhile, the crew of a wrecked fishing boat has built Soggy's Gamble, a ramshackle collection of huts on the southern coast, and is reaping the benefits of being the only Anglers beyond the wall.^[2]

Getting there

Dread Wastes is accessed on foot from either the Dusklight Bridge or the Shallowstep Pass in Townlong Steppes. It is possible to fly over the Serpent's Spine from points eastward and to swim around the wall's southern end from Krasarang Wilds as well.

Players who progress far enough in the Townlong Steppes zone will be offered a free flight to a Flight Point on top of the Serpent's Spine with quest-givers who start the Dread Wastes quest chain. Ground-bound players who do not want to wait for that quest to become available can travel to the Terrace of Gurthan and find a coil of rope on the ground. Click on the rope to climb to the top and find the flight point and quest-givers.

Geography

The Dread Wastes are the southern portion of Townlong region separated from the rest of Pandaria mainland by the great wall, Serpent's Spine. It is very similiar to its northern counterpart, except that it apparently became twisted by sinister energies and a dark gloom blankets over the land along with a swath of sha-corrupted soil that has even managed to break through the wall into the Valley of the Four Winds and set the path of war towards the Gate of the Setting Sun, with mantid's relentless armies pouring through to conquer and devour everything that stands in their way. In the center of the twisted path stands the imperial palace of the mantid race, known as the Heart of Fear, a paragon to the Sha of Fear which took the entire race into its sway through their empress, Shek'zeer. The mantid Kyparis along the path have also been corrupted by the unstable energies. There is one Vess of the mantid in the heart of the Wastes, held by ones that openly rebel against their corrupted empress' madness, the Klaxxi - keepers of the mantid culture.

Dungeons

Instance name	Level range	Group size	Approximate run time
Heart of Fear	90+	10/25 man	Unknown

Maps and subregions

Zone map

Travel hubs

The Horrid March.

The Sunset Brewgarden

Klaxxi'vess

The Sunset Brewgarden
Soggy's Gamble
Briny Muck
Shrine of Seven Stars, Vale of Eternal Blossoms
Shrine of Two Moons, Vale of Eternal Blossoms
Serpent's Spine, Vale of Eternal Blossoms

Soggy's Gamble

Klaxxi'vess
Briny Muck
Serpent's Spine, Vale of Eternal Blossoms

Briny Muck

Klaxxi'vess
Soggy's Gamble

Regions adjacent to Dread Wastes

Zone name	Level range	Direction	Access
Valley of the Four Winds	86-88	East	Flight
Krasarang Wilds	86-88	Southeast	Flight
Townlong Steppes	89-90	North	By foot
Vale of Eternal Blossoms	90	East	Flight

Notable Characters

Please add any available information to this section.

Main article: Dread Wastes NPCs

Quests

Main article: Dread Wastes storyline

Although the Klaxxi are wise and powerful, there aren't very many of them. Although they don't have a standing army, they do have access to the paragons: mantid champions from past eras who were preserved in amber at the height of their strength and buried all over the Dread Wastes. Some of them are war masters, others are ingenious alchemists or master assassins. When you first arrive in Dread Wastes, you stumble upon Kil'ruk the Wind-Reaver - one of these paragons and wake him up – he then introduces you to the council, and they allow you to continue waking up paragons to help build their forces. These paragons become your daily questgivers, so as you're waking them up you're also unlocking more dailies. They also provide you with buffs that let you do things like mind control enemies or double-jump while in the Dread Wastes. The quest flow is meant to blend "level-up" quest progression with a daily reputation grind, so you begin working with the Klaxxi and earning rep almost immediately after setting foot in the zone. Your progression through the one-shot quests yields direct benefits to the eventual daily experience, and your progression into the higher rep levels through dailies will in turn open up more one-shot story quests.^[2]