This item had to gather dust in your inventory for 18 years, now it has a use again. A reward only for the oldest veterans of World of Warcraft.
Zaralek Caverns is the newest zone in World of Warcraft and the location for Patch 10.1 Embers of Neltharion. However, the topics in this area are not entirely new, but build on what was started almost 19 years ago with Onyxia and Blackwing Lair (BWL).
As a little nod to this, Blizzard has included a treasure that you can only open if you have an ancient item made from “Vanilla”.
What is this sweetheart? The “Blazing Shadowflame Chest” can be found in the Zaralek Caverns at coordinates 28 / 48. It is right next to a small lava flow and is surrounded by a dark shadowflame. Exactly this shadow flame also prevents you from opening the chest, because if you try, you will get the message that the shadow flame is simply too strong.
Alarm bells may be ringing for some veterans, as Shadowflame is an issue that existed in vanilla.
If you have an Onyxia Scale Cloak, you can equip it and open the chest. This grants you the Blazing Shadowflame Ember toy – it allows you to envelop yourself in Shadowflame for a while.
What is that cloak? The “Onyxia Scale Cloak” was an important item in Vanilla WoW’s days. With some bosses in “Blackwing Lair” all tanks had to wear the cloak, in later fights even the whole raid – because several bosses could use the dark “shadow flame”, which made short work of all heroes who didn’t have such a cloak carried.
Since the materials were very limited – after all, Onyxia only dropped a few scales and 40 players needed the cloak – this slowed down the progress of guilds significantly at the time. It was one of the first indirect Attunement requirements in World of Warcraft.
Many veterans from back then might still have the cloak in their bank somewhere.
Can you still get the cloak? That’s fine. You can still craft the Onyxia Scale Cloak for leatherworkers. Since patch 10.1, however, the materials for this cloak have skyrocketed and the cloak itself is also fetching top prices on the auction house. The market will definitely calm down again – so if you’re not in a hurry, maybe wait a few more days or just farm the materials yourself.
What do you think of those moments when very old things become relevant again? Cool and interesting or just annoying to farm old materials again?
On the other hand, you can currently get really useful loot from super easy dungeons.