WoW Forever: How to Complete Mercy Falls on Deaf Ears

Mercy Falls on Deaf Ears is one of those early Zephras Isle quests that looks like a five-minute errand and turns into a grind. The objective is a flat collection count, the mobs are easy, and the only real obstacle is a stingy drop rate on the quest item. Knowing where to kill and what to loot cuts the time down considerably.

Quick answer: Pick up the quest from Vayn Moongaze in Nightclaw Cavern, kill Al’Aketh Footsoldiers and Stormchasers around the Shrine of Akir until you loot 10 Al’Aketh Cultist’s Ear, then run back to him.

Mercy Falls on Deaf Ears quest facts

Detail	Value
Quest giver and turn-in	Vayn Moongaze
Location	Nightclaw Cavern, Shadowgale Forest
Quest level	13 (requires level 8)
Objective	Al’Aketh Cultist’s Ear ×10
Sharable	Yes
Added in	Patch 1.60.1

The whole thing takes place on Zephras Isle, and it is a neutral quest with no faction requirement. Because it is sharable, anyone in your group who has not picked it up can grab it off you before you start pulling.

Where Al’Aketh cultists spawn

Three areas count for the objective: Shadowgale Forest itself, the Shrine of Akir, and the Gustberry Lowlands. They are not equal, though. Player reports from the shrine point to a noticeably better drop chance on the mobs clustered there, which is why it is the spot worth committing to rather than wandering the forest at large.

Map Overview — The world map showing the Shrine of Akir and the surrounding Shadowgale Forest area. Shown at 00:04 in Game Guides Channel’s video. Image: Blizzard Entertainment

Nightclaw Cavern sits on the same map as Falaath Village and Shen’dar Village, so the run out to the cultist camps is short. Once the quest is in your log, the objective zone shows up shaded blue on the map, and the camps sit inside that shading.

Which enemies drop Al’Aketh Cultist’s Ear

Enemy	Type	Priority
Al’Aketh Footsoldier	Melee	Most common spawn
Al’Aketh Stormchaser	Caster	Pull first in mixed groups

Both types count, so there is no reason to filter your targets. The ear is a standard loot drop rather than an automatic counter tick, which means you have to open every corpse. Expect roughly a one-in-four drop rate, so ten ears can mean something closer to 40 kills depending on luck.

Quest item loot is distributed across a party, so grouping up generally slows everyone down here. Farm solo if you can.

How to farm the 10 ears

Head into Nightclaw Cavern and speak to Vayn Moongaze to accept the quest. Your tracker will immediately show Al’Aketh Cultist’s Ear at 0/10.

Leave the cavern and step out into Shadowgale Forest. The cultist camps are a short run from the entrance, so there is no travel detour to plan.

Leaving Cavern — Stepping out of Nightclaw Cavern into Shadowgale Forest to start hunting. Shown at 00:17 in FocustaGuides’s video. Image: Blizzard Entertainment

Bring up the world map and find the area shaded blue. The marked zone surrounds the Shrine of Akir, and all of the required targets are within its boundaries.

Map overview and drop rate details — The Shadowgale Forest map with the quest objective area shaded in blue. Shown at 00:09 in PazarGamingGuides’s video. Image: Blizzard Entertainment

Pull one or two cultists at a time along the edges of the highlighted area. When Stormchasers and Footsoldiers are stacked, take the casters first and drag them behind a rock or tree line so the melee packs do not pile on.

Combat and grouping advice — Fighting an Al'Aketh Stormchaser, with Linen Cloth and copper picked up along the way. Shown at 01:09 in PazarGamingGuides’s video. Image: Blizzard Entertainment

Loot every single body. Plenty of kills drop nothing toward the quest, and skipping corpses is the fastest way to double your kill count for no reason. Linen Cloth and copper show up along the way, so the trip is not a total loss on the misses.

Hunting Cultists — An Al'Aketh Cultist's Ear looted from a downed Al'Aketh Footsoldier. Shown at 00:40 in Game Guides Channel’s video. Image: Blizzard Entertainment

Keep working the camps until the counter reaches 10/10. Respawns come back behind you, so circling the shrine area works better than chasing stragglers into the wider forest.

Collecting 3rd Cultist Ear — The tracker updating as the third Al'Aketh Cultist's Ear is looted. Shown at 02:44 in FocustaGuides’s video. Image: Blizzard Entertainment

There is no pressure to finish this the moment you take it. More Al’Aketh kill quests follow in the area, so you can bank ears while working through other objectives.

How to confirm the objective is complete

When the tenth ear drops, an on-screen message reads “Objective Complete: Al’Aketh Cultist’s Ear: 10/10” and the tracker entry stops counting. That is your cue to stop killing and head back to the cavern.

If you are not sure whether you already finished the quest on a character, you can check the completion flag directly with a chat command.

/run print(C_QuestLog.IsQuestFlaggedCompleted(93165))

Turning in the quest and choosing a reward

Run back into Nightclaw Cavern and talk to Vayn Moongaze again. Handing over the ten ears closes the quest out and gives you a choice of one gear piece:

Nightclaw Gloves
Shadowgale Pants
Cult Hunter’s Boots

You also pick up 910 experience, some silver, and 1,000 reputation with the Nightclaw Druids. Quest rewards were reworked across the old world in WoW Forever, so read the stat lines on all three options rather than grabbing whichever has the biggest armor number.

The quest clears from your log the moment the dialogue closes. If you are planning to keep farming the area for the follow-up cultist quests, stay near the shrine instead of hearthing out.