Expression of Gratitude

Quest Giver: Ricket — K3, The Storm Peaks [41, 86]

Turn In: Ricket — K3

Objective: Kill Gnarlhide, leader of the Savage Hill gnolls, at his camp in the Snowblind Hills [30.4, 85.7].

Walkthrough

Head west from K3 into the Snowblind Hills gnoll camps. Gnarlhide is at the westernmost camp [30.4, 85.7], past the gnoll camps you may have already cleared for Reclaimed Rations. He’s a level 77-78 gnoll mystic surrounded by other Savage Hill gnolls, so pull carefully or clear the nearby adds first.

Gnarlhide is a caster with four fire-based abilities:

• Dragon’s Breath — Frontal cone fire damage that disorients for 3 seconds. Stay behind or to the side of him to avoid this. Any direct damage breaks the disorient, so it’s more annoying than dangerous, but it does interrupt your casts.
• Blast Wave — AoE fire damage that slows movement speed for 6 seconds. Melee will eat this regularly.
• Fire Blast — Instant direct fire damage.
• Scorch — Cast-time fire damage. Interruptible.

For most level-appropriate characters, Gnarlhide is a quick kill. He’s a caster, not a tank, so he drops fast under pressure. Interrupt Scorch when you can, avoid standing in front of him (Dragon’s Breath), and clear the 2-3 gnolls near his camp before engaging.

Efficiency Tips

• Do Alongside: Reclaimed Rations (16 Dried Gnoll Rations from the same gnoll camps between K3 and Gnarlhide) and Clean Up (salvage parts from Ricket’s Folly, just south of the gnoll area). All three overlap in the same westward path from K3. Pick up all available quests before heading out.
• Gnarlhide has a fast respawn, so don’t linger at his camp after the kill.

Lore Notes

The Savage Hill tribe has been raiding K3 for engineering parts, and the goblins have been stealing the gnolls’ food rations in return. This tit-for-tat escalation is the backdrop for both this quest and Reclaimed Rations. Ricket frames the kill order and tells you to “pay Gnarlhide a visit,” then clarifies that’s a euphemism for “kill him painfully.”

Gnarlhide is notable as a gnoll mystic wielding mage-type fire spells (Dragon’s Breath, Blast Wave, Fire Blast, Scorch), abilities typically associated with Mage NPCs rather than gnolls.

Most gnoll leaders in WoW are brute-force melee fighters. The Savage Hill gnolls having fire magic practitioners is unusual for the species.

Explore the Storm Peaks’ hidden easter eggs, lore mysteries, and connections across Warcraft history in Vikstone’s Storm Peaks Chronicles, along with the complete quest storyline.