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Comment by taohu

I just finished this achievement today and here's what i have to share:

Unlike the horde counterpart, Warspear Prison keys appear to only drop from Warspear Blood Guards and Warspear Centurions at a low drop rate (about 10%).

Warspear blood guards are found in pairs along with a raptor rider along path of glory in areas controlled by the horde. For instance, if the stage of battle is at Crossroads, these npcs will be found along volrath's advance, emberfall tower. They and raptor riders are susceptible to any cc effects, but have a short leash range. They do not reset hp back to full when they leash, to a solo-er's advantage.

Warspear Centurions are almost impossible to solo and the only means to effectively farm them is only when your faction is dominating and is at the stage of High Warlrod Volrath battle. The npc is located right at the entrance across the bridge and will be pulled and usually killed so that your faction can advance towards the boss. Just tag, help to kill it and hope it drops the key.

To access the prison building without going through the front entrance and likely to get killed by horde, there is an alternative entrance into warspear stronghold north of Ampitheater leading into the stronghold, this is the same route which horde enters ashran from their capital city, you will exit ashran briefly but not long enough that you lose your reserve spot. Using this route ensures that you are less likely to be seen but you want to use stealth/invisbility effects to stay out of sight of nearby horde.

For the npcs you have to rescue, only Marshal Andrea DeSousa is in somewhat plain sight, but opening the cage from the other side will not cause the nearby npcs to aggro onto you. The cast time to open cage is 5s - haste %. The other 2 npcs are in secluded underground of the building where a prison guard guards them. She has 585k hp and spams a range attack that hits for 20k which can be somewhat challenging for a class to kill solo, after she is dealt with you can safetly free the other 2 prisoners.

Comment by lastbornnobody

If you have a paladin friend with The Jailer's Libram you can duel him in Ashran and he can send you to the opposing faction's jail. This is much safer than trying to sneak in yourself.

Comment by MindHunter

Worth noting you get credit for this even if someones else releases them from their cages. So you don't have to have the keys yourself in order to complete this achievement. Hope this helps. :)

Comment by Schadow

Update: finally, the Warspear Prison Key also drops from the Prison Guard in the Horde Base. It's an undocumented patch note, but I can confirm it drops now.

The Prison Guard has 600k health and doesn't hit as hard as the Blood Guards or the Centurions, so it's much easier farmed. It is also in a secluded area where no Horde comes and no NPC's come apart from the Prison Guard, making it an ideal farm spot. Respawn time is between 5 and 10 minutes, so make sure you don't go auto AFK.

Comment by neverfake

I was farming prison guard and as they have 5min respawn timer i went to the kitchen, came back 2-3min later, kaboom someone in that time went into jail and freed Commander Jobby Shortsight, i know that because i somehow got this part for my achievement.
I wasn't in any raid or group, just standing there.

Comment by Burnide

It seems like this patch may have broken this achievement, because the NPCs are not in any cages to free them from.

Comment by 1522927

i.imgur.com/rfU5FBk.jpg For some reason they aren't in a clickable cage anymore as of 6.2.2. Reported it as a bug. Hopefully fixed soon. Does anyone else experience this?

Comment by vanessawow

If you are a priest, you can use Codex of Ascension and fly to the jail of the prisoners easily.

Comment by DeathMaster

Can once again be completed after today's hotfix.

Comment by Doloria

The Ally prisoners are back in their cages with patch 6.2.2.20490.

Getting in

The backdoor has been dismantled so Ally can't run up the rocks from the stream into the horde base. A fallen log used to point to this route but it's been moved. A stealthed class can get by the horde Gladiators on the bridge by passing behind their mounts. Turn left as soon as you get inside the base since the low rock can be climbed. This route will take you behind the jail and you can enter as usual by jumping over the lowest part of the metal fence. If you're lucky a horde Pally will port you to jail with Jailer's Judgment.

Prison Guard

The horde Prison Guard now drops the Warspear Prison Key every time but has more health - around 800K. Once you have keys you can free Commander Jobby Shortsight and Field Marshal Kerwin. I can't say for sure how many cages one key will open because I had a stack of them.

Marshal Andrea DeSousa is now harder to solo. A mage seems to be a safe distance away and has her back to the cage but her water elemental will attack you as soon as you get halfway through unlocking. The elemental will be joined by a Sister of Temptation with around 1300K health. Smoke Bomb doesn't help a rogue. My rogue used Vanish to stay alive, then approached the left rear of the cage at an angle - standing as far back as possible. The water elemental didn't notice.

I was able to pick up keys along the road dropped by npcs with 750+ hp. I thought I even got one from ogre bodyguard Muk'Mar Raz. I haven't bothered with Warspear Centurions this patch.

Comment by rm2k3guy14

Alliance can still open the cages as a Horde mercenary which, if you have the keys makes the achievement extremely easy.

Comment by Fimbu

As a Horde Combat Rogue, did this achievement in 20 minutes or less. Went in from the water/hill side on the left side of the keep (right under the bridge, up on a ledge, hug the wall, in through the side behind some bushes like a true rogue).

At the entrance of the actual keep building, there's a guard on the right side, immune to sap/blind. Just hug the doorway on the left, tread between the NPCs, careful with the guard on the back right side. Go down the stairs, the Jail Guard spawns every 5-6 minutes. Killed him 3 times, as a rogue you can pick the cell door and get the Scroll that teleports you back to the Horde base, use it after you've released all 3 prisoners to avoid running out of there and dying. I chose a very empty Ashran group to do this, Alliance was too busy doing the events and whatnot.

Good luck!

Comment by Feliciamarie

To get to two out of the three guys you need to free, run to 43.5, 27.7. There are stairs that you go down. There is a Prison Guard guarding the with about a million health. They are underneath the building.

Andrea is easier to spot. She is out in the open at 44.8, 27.0.

Comment by kurtlar1971

Today, we can do Rescue Operation so easily. But First you need Warspear Prison Key x3, dropped from Warspear Blood Guard.

When you have Keys, go Valmaun and speak him for Mercenary Contract. When you join a group, go prison and Rescue them.

If you wont find one of they, leave currently group and find another group.

Good luck :)

Comment by blueeffalumpz

How long do they take to respawn? I've been waiting awhile, 2 guards have respawned but cages are still empty and open. :(

Comment by skyline33

Took roughly 20 minutes to respawn. At least that's how long I waited until they respawned

Comment by eKatherine

Took about 10 minutes for the guards to respawn for me. The prisoners were not in their cages until sometime after that. But since it's easy for stealthies to come and go in Warspear Outpost, that's not an issue.

While I was waiting for guards to respawn, a hunter and a rogue came through to look for the prisoners.

In fact I got the idea for doing this while seeing an alliance doing a poor job of hiding while waiting for the guards to respawn. Two of us killed him, then I came back as an Alliance rogue to release the guys in the cellar. I had credit for releasing the third one from when I did it as a merc in Stormshield Hold.

Comment by Nander

Easy way to obtain this achievement:

Step 1:
Obtain three keys from the Elite Horde npcs around Ashran.

Step 2:
Talk to the Mercenary Mode npc at Stormshield to queue for Ashran as Horde.

Step 3:
Free the Alliance npcs from the Horde prison while disguised as a Horde player.

Comment by byyzeroh

Decent video for those looking to solo this achievement https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BWKHLSQc-4 . I found it easy to do on a Druid with the Book of Flight Form

Comment by Evenuel

The prisoners respawn in about 30 minutes... (took me 30 mins once, 32 mins next time, 30 mins two more times..). Oh my, too much time to wait lurking....
They give quite a nice sum of conquest (75 cp each) when freed and I wanted to use all the keys that I've accumulated but... so much waiting... and not helping your team.. While waiting, I got even more keys from the Prison guard there than I was able to use. Damn respawn timer! o_O

Comment by 1300441

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3daY1FoOcQ

Comment by tale

Where there's a will, there's a way. I'd been waiting a long time to cheese this with mercenary mode, but it never seemed to be available on my server.

I found that I was able to go from AoA across the water and up the path, then around the main building. As a mage I then used invisibility to get past the Warspear Headhunter and the shamans who tend to Kronus, and then up on the rocks behind Frizzo Sparkrocket. Note that anyone without stealth or invisibility can buy Phantom Potion for a mere 10 Artifact Fragment, and in a way the potions are better. If you need them, get a minimum of two, preferably a few more as insurance.

I waited out Invisibility cooldown and then made my way over to the rocks behind Marshal Andrea DeSousa. Creeping up slowly, at maximum activation range I was able to spring DeSousa without aggroing the water elemental or anyone else. Then I went and hid behind the building.

Next I got on the rocks right next to the stairs down to the prison and from there was able to jump on the wall and head down. The Prison Guard was easy to take, and did indeed drop a Warspear Prison Key. Unfortunately the two other prisoners were absent so I awaited respawn for a while. I didn't time it, but did manage to get a full five stack of Scroll of Town Portal from the western-most cell. Contrary to what Wowhead says, they are definitely still obtainable in the game, on a mere one minute respawn timer -- raising the question as to why Helda Thunderbraids doesn't hand one through the bars to Mya Springbloom to free her, then wait a minute and use one to free herself.

Eventually the other two popped in their cages, I got the achievement, and used one of the scrolls to teleport back to Stormshield, where I gleefully deleted my remaining Warspear Prison Key to free up a bag slot.

Comment by rObOu

It is currently impossible to open the cages. I think this might be because Ashran is now considered a BG and most items are restricted to use, including the keys to open the cages.

Don't hesitate to fill a bug report so this can get fixed in a future update!

Comment by Gorthm

It is currently still impossible to open the cages. This can get fixed in a future update!

Comment by Lilyoptra

I got the keys but it took me awhile to figure out where the cages were and in the meantime someone else must have freed them so I decided to take a break as I did not know the respawn time and was afraid of being kicked by just hanging out in one spot. Not a good idea; the keys disappear when you leave the Brawl so stick around till you can get a chance to complete it.

Comment by Acivien

Was in the Ashran Classic Brawl today and the Commander and Field Marshal weren't in their cages. I waited about 30 minutes and they respawned. So just to confirm they DO respawn after a while.

Comment by Atuwow

I completed it by asking someone in the group who got a key if he could came with me and open the cage. He did and I got the achivemente completed. So it looks you don't need to get the key, just be there when the prisoners are released. Do it in the brawl (Classic Ashran) so you have more time.

Links

Rescue Operation

Release the following captured prisoners from the Horde Prison:

Criteria

	Commander Jobby Shortsight (1)
	Field Marshal Kerwin (1)

	Marshal Andrea DeSousa (1)

Rescue Operation

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