A Better Guide to The Insane Title

[Umsalien]

Yes, I know there have been a ton of insane guides. This one, however, has many tips that I discovered as i went through the grind (that I wish someone had told me before I started), and I have also compiled useful tips from other guides.

Because apparently it's confusing to some people who do not like to read past the first paragraph, there is a large amount of helpful suggestions in this that aren't posted around. While most, if not all guides I found focused on WHAT needed to be done, few guides tackled the HOW. This guide does not have much WHAT information, such as where to turn things in, but rather HOW information, such as the best way to complete grinds that require trade savvy.

1. Starting Off:

Before beginning the Insane, you should do several things. First, ensure that you have the money for it. You should expect to burn through at least 40,000 gold. You don't want to run out halfway through. There's a good chance, depending on how much you farm and how much you buy, that you won't spend nearly as much, but having large amounts of gold will make this significantly easier.

Second, I'd recommend grinding out the Argent Gruntling and upgrading it so it has the capability to access your bank and mail. Even if you have the engineering MOLL-E, which helps a significant amount, having the gruntling is extremely helpful, as MOLL-E won't always last long enough to turn in some of the items.

Third, I'd recommend getting a Traveler's Tundra Mammoth. I realize that it's fairly expensive. That said, I presume you're doing this achievement because you're an achievement whore. The mammoth will make your life significantly easier when you're grinding Dire Maul and turning in boxes for Ravenholdt.

This guide's numbers will be different if you're a human and have a passive rep bonus.

Finally, Blizzard has said that it is not intended to be a requirement that all reputations be obtained at once. However, many players have had problems where they were not awarded the achievement despite having the reputations at their required levels at some point. For this reason, and for the sake of completion, I will assume that all reputations must be obtained at the same time.

2. The First Rep Grind:

Many guides advise you to start with Bloodsail and Goblins. I'd recommend against it. Goblins are among the easier of the reps to complete (through harder in the sense that they're one of the few that can't be bought through). Start with Darkmoon Faire to give you an idea of how significant this achievement is, but don't complete it, as you'll get more mats for decks along the way.

3. Darkmoon Faire

Your Darkmoon Faire grind will be a long one. That said, the rep grind is very doable within a month or possibly much less time depending on how much gold you can spend. Begin this reputation by maxing out the reputation available through turnins such as Glowing Scorpid Blood, etc. This part is trivial and well documented elsewhere. After getting your reputation as high as it will through turnins (somewhere around 2000 friendly), you must turn in Darkmoon decks to complete the rep grind. You have two options: low level decks and high level decks.

Each high level deck (60+) yields 350 rep per turnin. Here are the way you should go about acquiring these decks:
a. Buy cheap cards that you need. This especially pertains to level 60 decks which are hard to make from inscription (high/expensive mat cost). You may need to farm the aces yourself, as they tend to be expensive.
b. Farming level 70 decks: I farmed several of these decks by making a cycle around Shadowmoon Valley and, at the end of the cycle, stopping at Skettis to kill the wandering elite trees for some much needed Primal Lifes. Primal Lifes will generally be the limiting factor for creating these decks.
c. Farming level 80 decks: This was my primary means of reputation. I began farming the level 80 decks by flying around Storm Peaks collecting Icethorn and Lichbloom. However, due to the high population nature of my server, I found that farming in Sholazar was a more viable solution. It is extremely helpful to have an alchemist as well, as you can transmute Shadow (which goes for a few gold) to Life at relatively low cost. Again, Eternal Life will generally be the limiting factor.

Low level decks give 25 rep per turnin, meaning you need around 14 times the amount of low level decks as high level decks. Typically, you want to stick with Rogues Deck and possibly Swords Deck. Though most guides tell you to make low level decks, as they're cheaper, this fails to account for two things: first, the price of low level mats and Rogues cards/decks has risen due to an increase in the amount of people doing the achievement, and second, you will recover a large amount of the money put in to card making through selling the trinkets. Overall I gained a significant amount of money through selling the cards. That said, you should do the math and figure out what's best. Go to:
Darkmoon Faire Exalted Guide | Warcraft with an Obsessive Twist
for a great guide on low level decks and how to decide what decks you should make, as well as some good tips.

TIPS:
a. Make a post in the realm forums offering gold for each deck turned in. Incentivize people giving you more decks with more gold per deck. Typically the going rate is about 100g to 200g per deck, depending on the server and demand.
b. Save the cards until most of your turnins are done. People feel more safe trading their deck for the completed card plus gold rather than trusting you to turn it in.
c. A couple of days before Darkmoon Faire starts, advertise in trade chat that you're buying these decks.
d. Don't be afraid to advertise that you're trading Darkmoon cards. Making mutually beneficial trades can net you many more decks that otherwise would be possible (I ended up with 14 of a particular Undeath card by the end of mine - what a waste).
e. Some herbs are worth significantly more than others. Icethorn is half the price of Lichbloom, and Goldthorn is also always high in price. Use this to your advantage by trading, for example, a stack of Lichbloom for 2 stacks of Icethorn.
f. A stack of Icethorn, Lichbloom, and Adder's Tongue all have the same chance to mill in to icy pigment. Decide on a price you're willing to pay for a stack of herbs and buy anything below it, regardless of whether it's any of these 3 herbs. The other northrend herbs have about half the chance to get icy pigment. Personally, I bought all Icethorn, Lichbloom, and Adder's Tongue below 15g and all Eternal Lifes below 15g per.
g. Don't forget to factor in the resale value of the Darkmoon Cards in to your calculations. Even if you buy your herbs, you will make a significant portion of it back by selling the made cards.
h. I had good success finding cheap herbs at around 12-1 PM server when I woke up (college student). It seemed that the herb botters posted around then. Check all throughout the day, but your best bet will be before peak raid time and after it.
i. Don't mistake ban waves for a permanent increase in herb prices. When a bunch of herb botters were banned, the price of Icethorn went up from 12-14g a stack to 20-30g a stack. Assume that the prices will go back down, rather than assuming that they prices have permanently changed. The prices will drop.
j. Low level decks can be turned in even when the faire is not occurring.
k. The faire is always the first monday of a new month. It starts the morning of sunday at midnight server.

4. Bloodsail

This reputation is trivial and again has been well documented. Be sure to grab your pirate gear before starting goblins. Also, don't stop at the beginning of honored, in case you accidently turn in a quest or kill a mob that takes bloodsail rep off.

5. Goblins

Start off by getting the Crescent Key from Dire Maul east if you haven't already.

To do this reputation, you have two options. You can either grind your faction up by killing mobs that yield rep, or you can do a certain quest in Dire Maul that raises your reputation. Grinding the rep out through kills is probably faster, but if you decide to do the Dire Maul quest, you'll conveniently receive librams and possibly a few Pristine Black Diamonds (plus tons of sellable loot). For this reason, i did the Dire Maul method. There are other guides that detail grinding the rep through kills, if that's the path you choose.

Your efforts will be focused almost entirely in Dire Maul North. Nearly all the ogres in Dire Maul North have a chance to drop Gordok Shackle Key. The five mobs with the highest drop rate are the four main bosses (one in the first courtyard, one patrolling before the first locked door, one patrolling near the goblin, one just after the second locked door) at 14% drop rate each, and the Gordok Bushwacker (more on this in a bit) at 25%. All other mobs drop this at around a 3% drop rate. This key can be turned in to a goblin about halfway through the instance for 375 reputation.

When you get your key, turn it in to Knot (quest name is free Knot!) to receive your reputation. He will drop a cache as a reward. Loot this cache, as it sometimes contains a BOE epic pattern that can go for 30-80g each, as well as Ogre Tannin. Ogre Tannins can be turned in to this same goblin for 75 rep per turnin. Each turnin requires 4 bolts of runecloth, 8 rugged leather (obtainable from the cache), 2 rune thread, and an ogre tannin. The cache does not always drop a tannin, but you get at least one per run by looting the Ogre Tannin basket in the corner of the first platform above Knot Thimblejack. This will spawn the Gordok Bushwacker, which, as I said above, has the highest chance to drop the key. Convenient how things work out, eh?

As a feral druid, I separated the entire area before the first locked door in to 3-4 pulls, clearing almost all ogres. This is entirely dependent on your class and gear, as you may be able to take on more or less mobs. I then cleared the hallway between the first locked door and Knot, turned in the key if I had one, and cleared all the mobs up to the Ogre Tannin. I then looted the Tannin, took the Bushwacker to the second locked door, and cleared that platform. I did the rest of the instance in one pull.

TIPS:
a. You should try to leave Dire Maul with a key each time. That way, you can enter the next instance with a key, grind until you get a new key, turn in the key you entered with, and then pick up the newly dropped key. This will help avoid losing too much time from keys not dropping.
b. Loot everything. if you have the Traveler's Tundra Mammoth, vendoring all that trash is quick and painless, as well as very profitable.
c. I did not use my Argent Gruntling until I found a second one of any given Libram. Because they are unique, waiting until a second Libram dropped allowed me to mail off both librams before the timer expired, as well as any other loot in my inventory.
d. Stomper Kreeg (the drunk ogre) and dogs do not drop shackle keys, though they can drop librams. I'd highly recommend avoiding Stomper Kreeg, as the drunk effect he puts on you is beyond annoying.
e. Watch for a random yell about an arena. Occasionally a rare mob will spawn in the large arena in the middle of the Dire Maul instance portals (outside of the instance), and a yell will announce its arrival. As soon as this happens, drop what you're doing and go kill it ASAP. It will always drop BOE blues, but not infrequently, it will drop a valuable Orb of Deception, an easy 800-1200g.
f. If you end up getting to the last boss with no key, you might as well kill him. He has a chance to drop Ace of Warlords and Top Half of Advanced Armorsmithing: Volume 1 (which goes for around 30g on my server). However, I'd advise against looting King Gordok's BOP blue loot, as it vendors for tiny amounts compared to other items.
g. The Winter Veil quests raise goblin rep without lowering bloodsail rep.

6. Shen'dralar

Start your Shen'dralar grind off by doing the quests that give rep in the instance. You must complete Pusilin and the Elder Azj'Tordin (detailed in other guides), and I'd recommend doing the questline given by a ghost in Dire Maul West and a question given by Sage Korolusk (H) or Scholar Runethorn (A).

Also, make sure you turn in your class quest, which is obtained by a book that you should've received from Dire Maul.

From then on, you must turn in librams at 500 rep per (82 librams needed total assuming you've done the other quests). There are 3 types of librams that give Shen'dralar rep (all of which you'll get in Dire Maul North; I ended with more than enough librams).
a. Libram of Protection - This libram is the easiest to get the mats for. Each turnin requires an Abomination Stitching, a PBD, and 2 Large Brilliant Shards. Large Brilliant Shards are trivial to obtain. Abomination Stitchings are dropped by the abominations in the last room of UD Strat (though there are a couple of other areas they can be found). I'd highly recommend fully clearing Strat to try and get a few PBDs and perhaps even the Baron mount.
b. Libram of Focus - Focus requires 4 Large Brilliant Shards, also trivial, a PBD, and 2 Skin of Shadows. Skin of Shadows are obtained in Scholomance primarily from the bosses in the last room and the constructs/bonewarders under the whelp room. I did this by immediately jumping off the balcony, going up the stairs and to the left to the whelp room, immediately jumping in to the pit below, and clearing all skeletons. Then, I went back up, carefully not aggroing any whelps. I made sure to kill Ras Frostwhisper every time, as he can drop a flask recipe that goes for a few hundred gold on my server, and then I cleared the rest of the bosses. Darkwhisper, the final boss, can drop Ace of Portals. Also, the butcher can drop a rare shirt.
c. Libram of Rapidity - Rapidity is the least desirable libram, as it requires 2 Blood of Heroes for completion as well as 2 Large Brilliant Shards and a PBD. To obtain Blood of Heroes, get Gatherer and load a module that has all blood nodes. You'll have to make cycles between EPL and WPL. The island Scholomance is on is good for finding Bloods too.

TIPS:
a. Turning in all those librams is going to take a long, long time. If you hire somebody who has a MOLL-E to come to DM with you (assuming you don't have one), you should be able to turn in most of the librams, assuming, of course, you have the gruntling. This may take several trips.
b. Getting the Pristine Black Diamonds together will take a lot of time. The going rate for them seems to be around 250-300g, server dependent.
c. The Arcanums you receive from turning in Librams can be used for ZG rep.
d. It is hard to farm Pristine Black Diamonds, but not impossible. Doing an entire ZG clear will usually yield 1-2 diamonds. Doing UD Strat for the Baron mount will yield a diamond every few runs.
e. Make friends with people who are doing the Insane. A fair amount of them quit halfway through, and if you're lucky, they'll send you their unused mats (I got 40 diamonds by buying them cheap off someone who gave up).
f. Tons of guilds have PBDs laying around in their guild bank. Take advantage of this by asking around to try and get a good price on them.
g. If you know someone who is running Strat for the Baron mount, tell them to COD their PBDs to you.
h. Make an alt and get a guild bank on it. Unique items CAN coexist in guild banks, but not in inventories or banks.
i. The easiest way to get to the library where you turn in librams is by going in to Dire Maul north, going left at the bottom of the first ramp to the courtyard, and following the tunnel the locked door leads to.

7. Ravenholdt

To begin Ravenholdt, you must grind mobs that yield reputation until revered (or alternatively you can buy your way through all of this, but that would be incredibly costly). I found the best reputation was obtained by first clearing the lower tier of Stormgarde, the castle of Stromgarde, the upper tier, and finally clearing Northfold Manor (32, 27). Repeat this ad nauseam and you will end up with one point short of revered. From here on out, you must turn in around 1400 junkboxes. The turnin location is in Hillsbrad at Ravenholdt Manor.

Getting junkboxes isn't particularly hard as a rogue. if you don't have one, you'll have to find one who will farm them for you, at a cost of course, as detailed in the tips section. If you're farming it yourself, I'd highly recommend LBRS. From the beginning, pickpocketing everything on the way, hang left up the stairs, hug the left side while pickpocketing mobs all through the first hallway of UBRS. After that, make your way through LBRS as any group would. Once you reach the final boss, you can simply jump down to the ogres and jump down one more time to place yourself near the entrance to the instance. At this point, you can either run out and reset or continue pickpocketing mobs (their pockets reset after a given amount of time).

Others have suggested Tyr's Hand, and this may be more viable for a lower level rogue (my rogue was 71 at the time of farming the junkboxes).

TIPS:
a. Leveling up a rogue saves a lot of money, but it will take time. If you've always wanted one, though, here's your chance. Make sure you get the subt talents that increase stealth and reduce cooldowns, as well as some combat talents so you can kill things. Also, make sure you have glyphed pickpocket and pick lock.
b. Finding a rogue to get the Junkboxes isn't particularly hard. At the typical market rate of 13-15g per box, rogues will make 800+ gold an hour. However, you need well over 1000 boxes so this will hurt.
c. If you run LBRS, make sure you kill Bannok Grimaxe if you see him. He can drop the plans for Arcanite Reaper, which sells for easily 50-100g for a few seconds of effort. I also looted the chests. Note that you need to kill the mobs around unlocked chests, but you can simply loot locked chests immediately thanks to glyph of pick lock and vanish.
d. Unlock and check EVERY JUNKBOX. I can't stress this enough. Doing this grind, I got a Teebu's Blazing Longsword, easily worth 10,000g. There are a few other weapons, none of which are nearly as valuable. So long as you leave something in the box, whether it's money or poison, you can still turn it in opened.
e. Turning the boxes in SUCKS. I'd recommend sitting on your Traveler's Tundra Mammoth at the turnin guy and vendoring the unique thrown weapon he gives every time. Be sure to use your gruntling to help get more boxes turned in at once as well.

[Cheat'R]

So, you basically just admitted it was a repost, and said that you took it from another site/post and added your own stuff?

[If only there was -REP]

[Umsalien]

If only you bothered to read it. As you can see above, I did not detail many things that were covered in other guides. The vast majority of this is tips that are things that I found as I did this grind.

Be gone troll.

[Cheat'R]

If only you bothered to read it. As you can see above, I did not detail many things that were covered in other guides. The vast majority of this is tips that are things that I found as I did this grind.

Be gone troll.

I decided not to read past the first paragraph for three reasons:

1. Wall of text. Nothing more.
2. You said it was a repost.
3. ...and you said it was from another guide(s) with your own info added.

Am I really trolling here? I think not.

[Umsalien]

I decided not to read past the first paragraph for three reasons:

1. Wall of text. Nothing more.
2. You said it was a repost.
3. ...and you said it was from another guide(s) with your own info added.

Am I really trolling here? I think not.

On the contrary, there's a lot of useful information. You'd know that if you bothered to read it.

I did not say it was a repost, but

has many tips that I discovered as i went through the grind (that I wish someone had told me before I started)

seems to disprove your preconceptions in the first paragraph. That you decided to take the last part of the last sentence of the paragraph and argue that the post that you did not read is nothing more than a repost implies to me: troll.

Troll elsewhere, please.

And to anyone else, before bashing what someone else took the time to share, do read more than the first 2 sentence paragraph before judging the entire thing.

[I Hypnotoad I]

I don't give a flying flak if this is a repost. I took my time to read through it and I am satisfied. I probably wouldn't have found the guide out hadn't you posted it here. And think about if he didn't admit it, and he credited it as his own. Stop being such a sourpuss and realize people are trying to contribute.
+rep for SHARING.

PS: Be gone, troll.

[Umsalien]

I don't give a flying flak if this is a repost. I took my time to read through it and I am satisfied. I probably wouldn't have found the guide out hadn't you posted it here. And think about if he didn't admit it, and he credited it as his own. Stop being such a sourpuss and realize people are trying to contribute.
+rep for SHARING.

PS: Be gone, troll.

Thanks. The only real part that I got from other places was the numbers (82 turnins for Shen'dralar, etc.) and the parts such as, to get Ravenholdt rep, you have to turn in junkboxes, etc.. The rest was from my own experience, and I intentionally did not focus on the previously mentioned types of information because, as i've said before, it's already been covered.

[I Hypnotoad I]

Alright. But to help you with future flamers, you should upload a few pics. (ANYTHING. Maybe the goblin you look for, etc.)
Remember to put the images in Spoiler tags like so..

[spoiler] <!!!IMAGE!!!> [/spoiler.] < remove the . ofc.

[Vyre]

As for what i've seen there's a small amount of additional stuff which i have not seen before in this, im atm trying to get myself into starting my grind, so im just getting every pristine black diamond at the AH the past month or so :b

Thanks for the guide, i don't see this is as a repost in any way, though, pleeeaaaaase give some colors in the text, my head is killing me with your wall of text, but atleast you bolded some stuff here and there, so it's not that bad.

Thanks for the guide mate, bookmarked once i finally get started on the other rep's ^^

btw, good idea with the DMF reps, posting on the realms forum that your trading the cards, never thought of that.

Btw Cheat'R can't you just gtfo of these forums, your just flaming and trolling every single thread, you suck bad at it, and it's just annoying.

[Unholyshaman]

Define "better guide".

Is it better than mine? http://www.mmowned.com/forums/world-...hievement.html

You have ONE link and it's to the same site I linked in mine.
You have NO pictures.
You have NO color.
You have a WALL OF TEXT

The fact of the matter is that it is still a repost. We don't allow reposts on MMOwned UNLESS it actually has something NEW in it. Not just improved. For example you can easily follow the guide that I wrote and you will be able to get the insane done. Why fix it if it isn't broken?

/Closed.