Soul Shard QOL Tricks

I've been addicted to playing my warlock (Ingurgitate) for years and the only thing that I truly hate about the class is time spent farming soul shards and the inconvenience they bring. I believe this may be why some people avoid the class. Below are some tricks I've created/learned to help ease the pain. I hope they help.


........Soul Shard Creation........

1. Using target dummies to farm shards (will not work if dummy is more than 8 levels lower than you).
By far the easiest and most effective way to do this is to install keyboard button auto pressing software. You tell the software which key to press, and how often to press it, then leave it to farm shards while you're afk. Come back 3 mins later to max shards.

2. Using the Blue Crashin' Thrashin' Racer Controller in a duel to farm shards. Have a friend deploy the racer, then use rank 1 drain soul to prevent the racer from dying due to damage. Racer lasts 5 minutes. Farm as much as you need. Sold by Jeppetto Joybuzz in the Dalaran toy shop.

3. Using a shadow priests shadowfiend in a duel to farm shards. Use rank 1 drain soul to prevent its death. Shadowfiend lasts 15 seconds.

4. Using the faction specific hostile NPCs in the Dalaran sewers to farm shards. Use fear + rank 1 drain soul to farm as many as needed.

5. Using Dalarans Violet Hold instance to farm shards. It must be set to heroic for the scripted NPCs to award shards. Enter the dungeon and set a portal near the friendly NPCs. Run across the room to a safe corner and begin farming as enemies spawn. They will do a ton of damage so this method only works effectively as affliction. Spam fear to prevent being hit. Since they spawn so quickly, it's faster to gain shards from the kill than from the random chance during drain soul ticks. Use the warlock portal to save yourself if you're about to die.


........Soul Shard Refunds........

These tricks are useful if you want to switch pets but you don't want to waste any shards.

1. Dying. If you're killed, your pet will despawn and the soul shard will be refunded. This can be accomplished by using Lifetap to near death, then the Hellfire spell to commit suicide. Make sure Fel Armor is removed to make the process faster.

2. Dual spec talent swap. If you have dual spec and you swap specs, your pet will despawn and refund the shard.

3. Distance-forced despawn. If you and your pet get separated by 120 yards, your pet will despawn and refund the shard. Soul Link has a 100 yard range so when it is removed, you will know you're close to the required 120 yard range......There are 2 ways to accomplish this listed below....

a. Set your pet on STAY and run 120 yards away from it. This is my method of choice in the Dalaran Underbelly to swap pets for duels. The room is just big enough for it to work.

b. Command your pet to attack an enemy that is far away. I use low level NPCs in Elwynn and Durotar to make my pet run away from me. It will work even faster if you run the opposite direction of your pet.


Additional info:
1. These tricks work at every level, with every rank of drain soul.

2. Make sure you're using Glyph of Drain Soul for better shard farming.

3. If you want the maximum number of shards from a single hostile NPC, use fear + rank 1 drain soul. Rank 1 is used because it prevents the enemies death, and the low damage also prevents fear from breaking.

4. Haste will greatly increase your shard farming rate.

This guide may receive future edits to include additional tricks or tips. Please comment with any suggestions or corrections.

Happy farming,
- Ingurgitate
Icecrown