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Comment by 4634

This is not an easy escort quest to solo at the stated level due to the fast Thistlefur respawn rate. It is suggested to get a group together to do this quest. If everyone is level appropriate you should pre-clear to the cave entrance just prior to starting the quest.

The two other quests in this area are:
Between a Rock and a Thistlefur - https://www.wowhead.com/classic/quest=216
Troll Charm - https://www.wowhead.com/classic/quest=6462
(These two should be done prior to "Freedom to Ruul" to speed your questing.)

Comment by 31075

I agree with both mootwo and Ormriss: pre-clearing is very wise. In addition, two quest-related spawns of three mobs each will attack, one inside the caves as you exit the smaller passage into the main hallway, and another as you leave the caves. Ruul will take the path to the left as you descend the hill outside the cave entrance. Taking out mobs that seem likely to intersect his path seems wise, as there are a couple of camps where, if you are unlucky, five or six mobs will draw aggro.

By the time I had escorted Ruul outside, the mobs there had already begun to respawn.

Comment by HighFive

There are two scripted ambushes, consisting of a Shaman, Pathfinder and Avenger(or Ursa, or Den Watcher). One is inside the cave when you reach the fork, the other one - outside, near the place where Dal Bloodclaw roams.

I soloed it as a level 26 frost specced mage.

Comment by Thottbot

You meet Ruul inside the Thistlefur Village. Go into the underground entrance at 38,30, then keep to the left when the path forks. Ruul is the big polar bear in the wooden cage right where the path empties into the first big room.

You'll escort him out. Be careful - as soon as you get back to the fork in the path, you'll be ambushed by three mixed Thistlefurs. He'll head out the way you came in, go left from the entrance, down the hill, and then again to the left toward the gate.

As soon as you get to the gate, expect another ambush (again, three mixed Thistlefurs.) Be careful - a named level 25 sometimes appears in the gate area as well. Once you're out the gate, he'll turn right and head a few yards down the hill before thanking you and sending you on to Splintertree for your reward.

I soloed this with a hunter at 25, but it was tough (I had to restart once). I'd suggest clearing out all the thistles between the entrance and Ruul before you talk to him, otherwise you may find yourself fighting four or five when the ambush hits.

His sister is in the inn at the Splintertree Post. I turned it in at level 26 for 2,400 XP, 17 silver, and 150 faction with Thunder Bluff.

If you combine this with another Thistlefur quest (Troll Charm and Between a Rock for me), it is worth the extra time.

Comment by Thottbot

FYI this is a horde only quest.

Comment by Thottbot

If a quest can go wrong, it will go wrong for me. And boy did this one go wrong for my 25 warrior. I didn't even know it existed, but had to go deep into the Thistlefur cave to find troll charms. Normally they spawn in one area and I can get them there, but this time I ended up going all the way in and found Ruul caged.

Ran out with Ruul, and we were doing fine, even when an idiot shaman trained two adds onto us. Things got a little hairy at the entrance to the cave, as a Pathfinder was patrolling into the area just as we started fighting the two Ursas that stand on either side of the entrance. This of course aggroed the Pathfinder and the nearby Totemic. We got through that fight ok, and I thought we were done.

But no, had to walk him out of the village. He very nearly aggroed an entire camp of furbolgs by walking too close. Right before the village entrance, we fought an Avenger and Shaman. Not a hard fight but left me at about 70% health.

I didn't have a chance to do any healing before he aggroed the village gate guards, two Pathfinders. For whatever reasons, my warrior had a lot of trouble just landing hits on the Pathfinders. We managed to kill one, but then a nearby Shaman joined in, along with what appeared to be a two Avenger/single Shaman three-man patrol, a wandering spider and the patrolling furbolg leader. For those keeping score, it was 25 warrior and 26 Ruul against seven enemies. Suffice to say I died quickly and Ruul died about five seconds later. It was about to get even worse, as one of the furbolgs started to run off, straight towards the nearest camp.

You have no control over Ruul, so be aware that he will walk into situations above if the time is right. To be safe, bring a couple of friends.

Comment by Thottbot

lvl 24 shammy and 26 bear vs 2 pathfinders, 1 totemic, 1 avenger, the named one AND a frikkin 25 rare spawn!

just when i thought we were done :(

Comment by Thottbot

I finished the quest, and Ruul shifted to Taren form then back to bear. But his sister is still not saying the quest is complete!

Any ideas?

Comment by Thottbot

Aband your Q and try again?

Comment by Thottbot

After i got out the village I had to try and take on so many i couldnt count. Probably 6-7 at once. So basically it went from 1 mob at a time to 7. hmmmmm......

Comment by Thottbot

Ok i mananged to do this with my 27 rogue.After 2 attempts,because it bugged.

As stated there is an ambush of 3 mobs when you get to the intersection in the cave.

Best thing to do is clear the mobs at the intersection so you only have to fight the 3 of them.Fighting 3 is not so hard because ruul can easily take one down by himself,and aslong as you only attack one at a time the other will attack ruul.remember to kill the healer mob first aswell :)

The rest of the cave is easy,you should only get 1 mob at a time,maybe 2 if you walk into a pat,but you should have no problem with that.

When you get to the cave exit there are 2 mobs at the door,so again you will have to fight 2 mobs,but again not hard.

When i was walking down the path from the cave to the main camp a pathfinder spawned for me,and it was underground so i couldn't attack it,but ruul could.Luckily,as i say,ruul can easily kill one of them by himself so luckily he killed it and we carried on.
The secound time i did this part no mob spawned but at the same point ruul started freaking out like there was a mob there,growling and running around in circles and i though it was gonna bug out again buit luckily after about a minute he stopped freaking out and carried on.

You then walk through the main camp.
Strangely ruul has a very low aggro range for the mobs in the camp,so mostly you should only get one mob at a time,maybe 2 if you walk into a pat.You should only get more normally if YOU actually aggro the mobs yourself so try to stay out of aggro range of the mobs around you.

The only problem comes if you are unlucky enough to walk into the named mob or the rare spawn then it will get tough.
I actually encountered the named on my first try,while fighting 1 mob he pat'd into me and called 2 other's over.The annoying thing was that i managed to kill all but 1 of the mobs and was fighting it when ruul decided to die for some reason,even though there was only one mob and it had only been hitting me? So another bug,and hence why i had to do it twice.

Comment by Allakhazam

Yama Snowhoof is here for you guys and gals who cant find her or to lazy to use search for her name

Comment by Allakhazam

It seems when you get all the way through the hall right where his cage is, about 6 of them spawn, i havent finished the quest, im a 29 shaman and have failed twice trying it solo.

Comment by Allakhazam

this quest is so retarded. i did it with troll charms and luckily, got all the troll charms. i thought the path was clear but while we're walking into the center of the camp, 7 furblogs come out of nowhere. im a lvl 30 shaman and i even rez and that just aggroed MORE furblogs. i saw this one low level do it and make it out only because she had a lvl 53 with her. lucky person. i think you should team up with someone for this quest. a real pain.

Comment by Allakhazam

i did the quest, he transformed and told me to go to talk to yama but when i go to talk to her, i cant complete why?

Comment by Allakhazam

he likes to just walk off, like there is nothing to fear.. just walks straigh into like 7 of them.. if you die and can make it back there before he dies.. then you can still complete the quest.

Edited, Sat Feb 26 21:50:15 2005

Comment by Allakhazam

I remember doing this on my first char, months ago. It seemed so hard then... but I just solo'd it on a level 26 rogue easily. Used evasion twice and a healing potion once, that's all - even when the stupid bear managed to pull 4 furbolgs and a bear, neither of us died :)

Comment by Allakhazam

To put it bluntly, Ruul is a friggin' moron. He *will* walk through the *middle* of the furbolg camps, so expect aggro and links from 5 to 10 mobs at a time.

Comment by Allakhazam

Escort quest with no rewards or follow-ups? Blizzard can just stick it up somewhere.

Edited, Fri Nov 25 08:53:35 2005

Comment by Allakhazam

Location of Ruul is 41, 34.

Comment by Allakhazam

Where the heck is Yama Snowhoof? Been scouting the entire camp and can't find her.

Comment by Allakhazam

Just soloed this on my level 27 priest. It took two attempts - the first time I got pounded at the junction where the three furbolgs spawn on top of you.

Second time around, I made sure it was clear from the entrance of the cave right down to the npc .. When we got to the bit where the three spawn on you, I let Ruul deal with one himself and killed the other two. The shaman needs to be killed first or he'll heal. I had to psychic scream to get them off me so I had enough time for a heal - they chew through pw:s in a couple of seconds.

Once your out of the cave it's all fairly smooth ... there's another place where you have furbolgs spawn on top of you, but they're a lower level so it's not so bad.

Comment by nisx

White bear inside the cage, 5+ mins respawn timer

Comment by virtueavatar

Don't even know where to begin with this. I'm a 30 warlock. 3 hostile quest furbolgs will spawn to attack him, and the bear will continue to walk right through them and 10 yards up another 3 hostile furbolgs will spawn. Bring a party if you're doing this one.

Comment by Gadget254

Managed to solo this as a lvl 25 hunter. Did the Troll Charms quest first in the cave then recleared the entrance.

Note that he is on the lower level in the back of the cave, no need to go up the ramp and over the bridge. Like others said, even in Classic (2019), he will usually (60% of the time) walk past a mob your attacking and pull more, not stopping to help like most escort characters.

He summons 3 mobs in the middle of the cave, and then again 3 more right after he makes it through the eastern gate at the end of his route. It was this second pull where I died, but amazing despite having 2 mobs on him I ran back up the eastern path around Astranaar and made it back in time to save him (he still had 40% of his health left, he's pretty tanky). Saved him from those 2 mobs and then he walked like 10 more feet down the hill past the gate and I completed the quest. I then turned around and finished up the last of the killing for Between a Rock and a Thistlefur and then ran back to Zoram turned in, and flew to Splintertree.

So moral of the story is that if you die, don't give up, run back to body and you might be able to save him and still complete the quest!

Comment by SkyLynx4

I leveled half a level trying to to this quest as 26 rogue solo. Getting to level 27 seemed to help. Mobs respawn too quickly, run away when low aggoing everything, and overall it's a very luck based quest.

The best you can do as a rogue, is to have crippling poison on so that they run away. The NPC is tanky enough, so you can let him grab the aggro himself and then reveal yourself. Otherwise all 3-4 mobs will be on you.

Comment by Sazisam

Alli can kill him and it doesn't flag them for pvp >.>

Links

Freedom to Ruul

Escort Ruul, then speak with Yama Snowhoof in Spintertree Post.

	Escort Ruul from the Thistlefurs. (1)

Description

Eh? Who are you?

<name>? You're no furbolg. They are cursed! They thought I was a bear and captured me, and now they starve me! My strength is failing...

Help me escape, then speak with my sister Yama at the Splintertree Post to the east.

<name>! I must escape!

Completion

Rewards

You will receive:

Gains

Upon completion of this quest you will gain:

150 reputation with Thunder Bluff

See if you've already completed this by typing:

/run print(C_QuestLog.IsQuestFlaggedCompleted(6482))

Freedom to Ruul

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