Darkmoon Artifact Farming

The Darkmoon Faire itself is over for the month of December, but that doesn’t mean you can’t keep on farming artifacts for it.

The Darkmoon Artifacts can be found in a few different ways which we’ll get into the specifics of in a moment. In order to find them you have to have gone to the Faire and received a copy of the Darkmoon Adventurer’s Guide that you’ll carry around with you. Having the Guide allows you to loot artifacts from dungeon bosses and from enemy player corpses in battlegrounds.

Dungeon and PvP artifacts do not have a 100% drop rate from the targets who can potentially drop them, and the artifacts are not unique which means you can find dozens of the same one. You can only accept and complete the quests associated with them one time per Faire, so the desire to farm them is somewhat lessened. They do sell decently on the AH considering how easy they are to obtain, but that could change for either good or bad in upcoming patches.

At this point in time there is no level cap placed on who can farm these, so you can find even the lowest of the low in a level 15 dungeon on your level 85 character. The tooltip on the artifacts say that they drop from level appropriate content, but apparently that means anything level 15+ can drop it and they don’t take into account the level of the character that’s doing the farming. That may or may not change, but if you’re looking to farm a lot of these for pet/mount/heirloom farming in the DMF, then you might want to take advantage of farming them on high levels now just in case.

The rest of this guide is directed at showing you exactly where you need to go in order to farm any given artifact. Since you can only do one of each artifact’s quest each time the DMF rolls around, it doesn’t do you any good to have 30 of the same artifact, so you want to diversify your farming to get all of them.

DUNGEON DROPS
Imbued Crystal
“Strange threads of power swirl within this rare crystal. Someone at the Darkmoon Faire would probably be interested in acquiring it.”

This artifact seems to drop from bosses who are “unnatural”, or those whose power could be stored within a crystal. Demons and Undead are the most common, with a few elementals sprinkled in for good measure.

Known Bosses:
– Taragaman the Hungerer, Ragefire Chasm
– High Inquisitor Whitemane, Scarlet Monastery: Cathedral
– Princess Theradras, Maraudon
– Balnazzar, Stratholme
– Ras Frostwhisper, Scholomance
– Nexus-Prince Shaffar, Mana Tombs
– Kael’thas Sunstrider, Magister’s Terrace
– Ormorok the Tree-Shaper, The Nexus
– Asaad, Vortex Pinnacle
– Queen Azshara, Well of Eternity

Monstrous Egg
“Who knows what creature lurks inside this egg? It would make a great addition to the Darkmoon Faire’s collection of rare and amazing creatures.”

This is the artifact of monsters, dragons, insects and those related to them. If you find a boss that’s somewhat closely tied to animals or insects that are born from eggs then there’s a good chance they can drop this artifact.

Known Bosses:
– Mutanus the Devourer, Wailing Caverns
– Plaguemaw the Rotting, Razorfen Downs
– Nerub’enkan, Stratholme
– Princess Theradras, Maraudon
– Gahz’rilla, Zul’Farrak
– Ambassador Flamelash, Blackrock Depths
– Aeonus, The Black Morass
– Nazan, Hellfire Ramparts
– Ghaz’an, The Underbog
– Harbinger Skyriss, The Arcatraz
– Keristrasza, The Nexus
– King Dread, Drak’Tharon Keep
– Skadi the Ruthless, Utgarde Pinnacle
– Eregos, The Occulus
– Anub’arak, Azjol-Nerub
– Cyanigosa, The Violet Hold
– Lockmaw, Lost City of Tol’vir
– Murozond, End Time

Mysterious Grimoire
“The pages of this ancient book are written in a language you don’t recognize. Someone at the Darkmoon Faire would probably be interested in acquiring it.”

This artifact seems to drop from bosses who would keep a diary or record of their dealings. It’s kind of hard to nail this one to any one boss just from looking at them, so think of leaders or people who are intelligent or otherwise related to books.

Known Bosses:
– Lady Anacondra, Wailing Caverns
– Lord Godfrey, Shadowfang Keep
– Bloodmage Thalnos, Scarlet Monastery: Graveyard
– Arcanist Doan, Scarlet Monastery: Library
– Charlga Razorflank, Razorfen Kraul
– Darkmaster Gandling, Scholomance
– Jammal’an the Prophet, Sunken Temple
– Hydromancer Velratha, Zul’Farrak
– Emperor Dagran Tharissan, Blackrock Depths
– Exarch Maladaar, Auchenai Crypts
– Grandmaster Vorpil, Shadow Labyrinth
– Archbishop Benedictus, Hour of Twilight

Ornate Weapon
“This weapon seems as beautiful as it is deadly. Someone at the Darkmoon Faire would probably be interested in acquiring it.”

This is the artifact of military leaders. Look for people with military titles, or ones that you know from questing or lore who fit that profile even without a title.

Known Bosses:
– Admiral Ripsnarl, The Deadmines
– Randolph Moloch, The Stockade
– Commander Springvale, Shadowfang Keep
– Mekgineer Thermaplugg, Gnomeregan
– Herod, Scarlet Monastery: Armory
– Archaedas, Uldaman
– Lord Aurius Riendare, Stratholme
– Overlord Wyrmthalak, Blackrock Spire
– General Drakkisath, Blackrock Spire
– Talon King Ikiss, Sethekk Halls
– Maiden of Grief, Halls of Stone
– Lich King, Halls of Reflection
– General Husam, Lost City of Tol’vir
– Queen Azshara, Well of Eternity
– Asira Dawnslayer, Hour of Twilight

BATTLEGROUND DROPS
Banner of the Fallen
“Proof of your valor in combat. Someone at the Darkmoon Faire would be interested in this item.”

This artifact is looted from enemy player corpses in battlegrounds. It has not yet been confirmed which battlegrounds you can and cannot loot this from. Most people seem to think that you can get any/all of the PvP artifacts from all battlegrounds. I have looted both Insignia and Banners from the same BG, so I tend to agree with this statement.

Captured Insignia
“Claimed from a defeated opponent. Someone at the Darkmoon Faire would be interested in this item.”

This artifact is looted from enemy player corpses in battlegrounds. It has not yet been confirmed which battlegrounds you can and cannot loot this from. Most people seem to think that you can get any/all of the PvP artifacts from all battlegrounds. I have looted both Insignia and Banners from the same BG, so I tend to agree with this statement.

Adventurer’s Journal
“The jounal containing stories of a fallen enemy’s epic exploits. Someone at the Darkmoon Faire would be interested in seeing this.”

This artifact is looted from enemy player corpses in battlegrounds. It has not yet been confirmed which battlegrounds you can and cannot loot this from. Most people seem to think that you can get any/all of the PvP artifacts from all battlegrounds. I have looted both Insignia and Banners from the same BG, so I tend to agree with this statement.

CATACLYSM HEROIC DUNGEON DROPS
A Treatise on Strategy
“Anduin Lothar’s ultimate compendium of battle strategy. This tome would be of interest to someone at the Darkmoon Faire.”

This artifact is tied to polital/military leaders, or pretty much anybody who has a title in level 85 heroic dungeons. This is a unique dungeon drop because of its requirement for the dungeon to be a level 85 Heroic.

Known Bosses:
– Commander Ulthok, Throne of the Tides (Heroic)
– Commander Springvale, Shadowfang Keep (Heroic)
– Rajh, Halls of Origination (Heroic)
– Slabhide, The Stonecore (Heroic)
– Grand Vizier Ertan, The Vortex Pinnacle (Heroic)
– High Prophet Barim, Lost City of Tol’vir (Heroic)
– Asaad, The Vortex Pinnacle (Heroic)
– General Umbriss, Grim Batol (Heroic)
– Ascendant Lord Obsidius, Blackrock Caverns (Heroic)
– Jin’do the Godbreaker, Zul’Gurub
– Daakara, Zul’Aman
– General Husam, Lost City of Tol’vir (Heroic)
– Admiral Ripsnarl, The Deadmines (Heroic)
– Ascendant Lord Obsidius, Blackrock Caverns (Heroic)

CATACLYSM RAID DROPS
Soothsayer’s Runes
“An old set of ccarved fortune-telling runes. Professor Thaddeus Paleo, of the Darkmoon Faire, would be most interested in these.”

This is the only artifact that drops solely in raids. Research so far shows that the bosses who drop this have a 100% chance to drop it. Also, unlike all of the other artifacts, when this one drops everyone in the raid who has the Darkmoon Adventurer’s Guide can loot their own copy of it instead of rolling Need/Greed.

It also appears that the Looking For Raid feature does not allow this to drop. I’ve seen one report of someone finding this artifact in Dragon Soul, and several saying that the LFR version did not drop it (which I can confirm from my own experience in LFR).

Known Bosses:
– Shannox, Firelands
– Halfus Wyrmbreaker, Bastion of Twilight
– Magmaw, Bloackwing Descent
– Argaloth, Baradin Hold

POTENTIAL CHANGES IN FUTURE PATCHES
With how easy it currently is to farm these and to do so in mass quantity, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see Blizzard nerf something. Whether that’s decreasing the drop rate, putting a min/max level cap on each one, cutting back on the number of bosses that can drop each one, or removing the ability to farm them when the Faire itself is closed. Right now these are so incredibly abundant that there’s almost no reason to have them be drops in the first place.

Since the DMF is supposed to be one of those fun little vanity kind of things, it is possible that they won’t bother with a nerf and they just don’t mind having the artifacts available at every corner store for 5g per dozen. I smell a nerf coming on though, as I think they’ll quickly see that their new time sink is going to fail if they continue to make the farming so incredibly easy.

I did all of the artifact quests except for the Heroic and Raid ones on two characters, I sold 4-5 on the auction house, and I’ve still got over 30 of these sitting on a bank alt. I find a whole lot more of these in PvP than I do in dungeons, but part of that has to do with the fact that I can do more than 5 BG’s in an hour without getting locked out, and every single player that you kill in PvP can drop an artifact where only certain LFG bosses can drop them.

If you’re looking to farm these for profit on the AH, I suggest you focus a bit more on dungeons than PvP strictly because of how much easier the PvP ones are to farm than the PvE ones. I joined an EotS battleground that was going to end in less than 10 minutes, and I found six of the PvP artifacts in those 10 minutes just from killing people at one of the flags and looting all of the bodies.