How To Farm Tome of Polymorph: Turtle

Tome of Polymorph Turtle is a vanity item that allows a Mage to "turtle" a mob or opponent, rather than the boring "sheep" that is the standard cast.  These bad boys sell for upper hundreds to lower thousands.  And it takes very little time to get a shot at one.  Wowhead lists the drop rate at 14%, but I am 3 for 3 in getting these to drop, so I believe the drop rate has been increased, or I am very lucky.

Anyways, the Tome drops off of the optional boss, Gahz'ranka, in the raid instance Zul'Gurub.  There is a pre-requisite chain that must be completed before you can "fish" up Gahz'ranka for your chance at this gold fetching item.

First off, to do this solo you must be at least level 58 to start the quest chain.  Although I have not tested this, I believe the old fishing skill requirements of 330 buffed no longer apply since the patch that allows fishing in pools of fish at any skill level.  And since this is a raid, you just need to invite someone, make a raid, then kick them once you are inside the raid instance.  Or better yet, this is what I do when possible.  Find an enchanter that is just in town, etc, and make a raid and stay in it for the free disenchants to save bag space and time.  Don't forget to tip the helpful enchanter.  Yup, thats right!  In case you don't already know, you can get the disenchant option int he loot box just for being grouped with an enchanter.  They need not be near you.

When in ZG, you are looking for Pagle's Point, an obvious campground with boxes and free jugs of liquor to get your quest item to strat the chain.  Pagle's Point is in the NE corner of the ring of water around Hakkar's platform.  Just enter the raid, jump in the water and make your way to Pagle's Point.  Once there look for the sparkling box or turn on low-level quests tracking.  Grab the Battered Tackle Box, open it up, and retrieve the quest chain starter item Nat's Measuring Tape.  Now make your way to Nat Pagle at Tidefury Cove, which is South of Theramore Isle in Dustwallow Marsh (on the coast).  Turn the quest in to Nat and he will now sell you Mudskunk Lures, which are used to summon Gahz'ranka inside Zul'Gurub.  Buy a stack and head back to ZG.

Make your way back to the water as before and circle around the water looking for Muddy Churning Waters, which appear and sounds like regular fish pools.  They also are identified on your mini-map, if you enable fish finding.  Each pool will only yield 2-3 Zulian Mudskunks, but there are 5 Muddy Churning Water pools, so gathering the needed 5 Mudskunks is no problem at all.  Once you have gathered 5 Zulian Mudskunks, combine them with a Mudskunk Lure and toss the created item into the waters.  You must be back at Pagle's Point for this to work.  As soon as you toss the Lure, you will get credit for the "Deadliest Catch" achievement and Gahz'ranka will begin to emerge from the waters.  Note: you don't need your fishing rod out to summon him, just toss the baited lure into the water.  Most classes can solo him at 80, and at level 70 a decent healer and tank combo is plenty to 2 man him.

Gahz'ranka is rather easy.  Fight him in the water so you take minimal damage from his geyser attack that tosses you high into the air and damages you on impact to the ground.  Kill him and loot your Tome of Polymorph Turtle.  Note:  The Mudskunk Lures from Nat Pagle are not soulbound, so you can mail these to other characters as well without them needing to do the quest chain.  The chain is super easy, its just very time consuming getting from ZG to Dustwallow and back again.  thats also why you should pick up a stack of the Mudskunk Lures while you are out there.  Just to save time for later attempts.  Gahz'ranka can only be summoned once per raid lockout.

Now either head to the auction house to make your gold or continue on to Farm the Rest of Zul'Gurub.