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Comment by Speratic

Best and easiest way to farm this, easily within 10 minutes in a 5 man group is go to South East Zereth Mortis where Helmix spawns. Farm Annelid Mudborer Coordinates 55.67 76.33, keep going down the road after killing them all, kill all the Native Cervids, rewind, until you have your 150 Protoplasmic Thread, boom done, not even a 10 minute grind!

Comment by sanzil

A better farm in my opinion than the Annelid Mudborers are the Vespoid Workers south of Pilgrim's Grace

Comment by Sulan

Another good spot to farm this is at Provis Terra/Fauna killing Dreadsworn mobs, slightly north west of the forge of afterlives text
Very fast respawn and packed with mobs

Comment by Zard

By completing this quest, you can unlock the option of teleporting to Zereth Mortis on Wormhole Generator: Shadowlands, the engineering teleport toy. This does not require being exalted with The Enlightened or looting Enlightened Portal Research from the paragon cache.

The teleport option does not show as a reward from this quest. The option may not immediately show up after you complete the quest.

After I finished the quest, the teleport option showed up for me on the second time activating the wormhole generator. I tested it twice, respectively in Haven and in Dalaran, and the option remained.

As of Mar. 8, this trick does not work anymore. It seems Blizzard has hotfixed it. Thought Blizzard was once again forcing players to PvP. It turned out they just hadn't tested it out in PTR.

Comment by vimmie07

This quest needs to be completed with Warmode ON

Comment by Tziva

Just as a head's up, as of this afternoon, my engineering port LOST the option for ZM, so Blizzard may have hotfixed to take this away.

Comment by nantesfran

it appears that malediction got removed from the rewards. i don't see it anymore ingame on the reward list of this quest. it is still buyable for 700 conquest.

Comment by alsulf

i cant find the quest at all in my alt can someone tell me why i have the quest on my main tho

Comment by Weezull

Devouring Malediction and Eternal Aegis seem to have been removed as potential rewards to this quest as of March 8.

Comment by Ithenell

just ran it. literally on one bothered me or even seemed to notice i was in WM.

Comment by Araitik

I got all 5 trinket options, turn-in failed with message "A New Deal failed", then I had only 3 options, turn-in failed again, reloaded interface and now I got 0 option for trinkets and just Honor reward.
What the hell is going on ?

Comment by Vences

Now with flying, just fly and open all chest. Easy, peasy.

Comment by Goliath2k

As of today(with flying) I flew around and looted chests etc. and got the fiber out of those. Took me 5 mins. A lot faster than previous

Comment by Helpersson

Handing this in gives you a whopping 35% towards Patterns within Patterns

So, for maximum effect hand it in when you have 65% on the Patterns within Patterns bar.

Comment by Phasha

Actually I find killing rares and elites with your cross-realm strangers might be a better way to farm Protoplasmic Thread. Each rare elite drops 30~37 of these, helping you complete the quest without too much effort.

Keep in mind that this only works if your faction has an advantage in the cross-realm zone. Else you will have to solo wild mobs like Speratic said.

Comment by Kitariel

Very situational and strange trinkets as a reward from this quest. Most of the rewardes are USE only, expcept for one that is Equip. I really dont think this quest is worth the trouble. The trinkets are confusing and seem pointless. But I could be wrong.

Comment by Jaheesh

After completing this weekly many times and exhausting all of the trinket options, this quest began to award my characters 2.5k honor + 500 honor for a total of 3k honor per character per week!

Comment by hotcore

No one has mentioned this but if you do the quest every week and get every trinket. The next week you will get 2.5k honor, every week after. This is the BEST way to gain fast honor!

Comment by mistadabolina

Genesis Fields 42,74 by portals. Insta spawn and help by NPC's killing them. Takes a few mins.

Comment by hotcore

As of 9.2.5, this quest is no longer shareable. No idea why they changed it. I guess they want people to waste time going to orbios to pick it up.

Comment by Esploratore

Since this quest is particularly useful to farm honor levels, does anyone know if it's gonna be still up in s4, is it there on ptr for example? Cause if it's removed in s4, it makes no sense for someone to start now, because it takes 5 weeks to get to the point where it gives 3k honor.

Comment by Harroway

Key points/TL;DR that is still too long:
- Get Handynotes. To avoid doing so will increase the time it takes to progress through Zereth Mortis by tens and tens of hours, per character.
- Because of the trinket bonus, this quest should be your first priority after hitting 60 if you wish to PVP and/or play with WM on.
- Fresh level 60s should focus on opening chests to complete the quest the first time. The chest will likely grant you a few gear upgrades and allow you to get your trinket set complete without getting beat up by the later-season mobs in Zereth Mortis.
- Do it alongside Patterns Within Patterns to maximize efficiency.
- Join in on rare farming whenever possible. These rares drop ~33 Protoplasmic Thread in addition to Cosmic Flux, Reservoir Anima, Sandworn Relic and various ~240 gear, toys, xmog items, and more. Each kill also grants a substantial chunk of progress towards Patterns Within Patterns. Killing 10 of these rares is also a prerequisite to unlock flying: Adventures in Zereth Mortis.
- Treasure chests in ZM provide Protoplasmic Thread and are the fastest and easiest way to complete the quest, so only open them when you're working on A New Deal. Save the rest for later repeats. Cypher-Bound Chest also provide Protoplasmic Thread, and since much of the cypher progression is timelocked, you should save those chests for A New Deal as well.
- While rare farming takes slightly longer than opening chests for Protoplasmic Thread, the additional rewards make it the most ideal method if you have a bit of extra time and can find a group, and allow you to save the chests for times that you're unable to find groups.
- Those that have collected all the trinkets from the quest rewards will instead get 2.5k honor per turn-in, providing you with easy honor to buy/upgrade aspirant and gladiator gear with.
- My solo mob farming guide is at the bottom of this post. IMO solo mob farming should be your last option to complete the quest unless you have no need for Cosmic Flux or Reservoir Anima and simply want to get the quest over with for 2.5k honor and Patterns Within Patterns progress.
- Unlock flying ASAP (very easy in ZM) to make all of the above a billion times easier: Unlocking the Secrets.

More details:
For fresh level 60s, completing A New Deal is currently the best way to very easily obtain your PVP trinkets via the quest's rewards. One of the rewards will be your PVP emblem (1/2 of the set bonus). The other reward will be 500 honor. Your PVP medallion costs 525, which means that completing the quest will put you just 25 short (one battleground, even if you lose) of buying your PVP medallion and completing the trinket set bonus. If you're not sure what I'm referring to, check out the set bonus on the trinkets in the quest reward as well as the Cosmic Aspirant's Medallion. This trinket bonus should be your very first goal as a level 60 PVP character. The boost provided is necessary to be viable in any form of PVP and will immensely boost your character's proficiency in the world with WM on as well. Not to mention that the trinkets provided by the quest are BIS and would otherwise require a whopping 700 Conquest. Even if you're NOT aiming for PVP, the trinket bonus is still immensely useful, as you will inevitably spend time in Zereth Mortis, where you'll have the trinket set bonus so long as you're in war mode. While a lot of PVE-centric players detest this, the reality is that avoiding WM in Zereth Mortis means sacrificing 175 primary stat (strength, agility, intellect) and 500 stamina. Up to you, but in my opinion a ridiculous sacrifice just to avoid a PVP situation every X hours.

Ideally, you'll want to combine four methods to quickly and efficiently complete A New Deal. Be positive you picked up Patterns Within Patterns before you start!
In order of priority:
1. Rare farming
2. (Solo) Opening chests
3. (Solo) Mob farming

1. Rare farming:
Farming rares is *by far* the best method, as you will blaze through A New Deal in under twenty minutes (assuming your group is going from rare to rare). These rares drop ~33 Protoplasmic Thread each, in addition to Cosmic Flux, Reservoir Anima, Sandworn Relic and various ~240 gear, toys, xmog items, and more. Each kill also grants a substantial chunk of progress towards Patterns Within Patterns. Killing 10 of these rares is also a prerequisite to unlock flying: Adventures in Zereth Mortis.
You should take advantage of farming groups as much as possible, as the rewards are invaluable, and you can save your chests and solo farming for times that you can't find rare groups.

2. Solo Treasure/Cypher Chest Farming:
As a quick note, this is my recommended method for fresh and ungeared level 60s, as the mobs in ZM are from later seasons and will beat you up if you're in standard Shadowlands leveling gear.
Each one of the chests will give you ~15 Protoplasmic Thread, making them the easiest and fastest way to grind out this quest, with each opened chest giving you a small bit of credit towards Patterns Within Patterns. This includes not only treasure chests, but Cypher-Bound Chest as well. Much of the Cypher progression is timelocked, so try not to loot more Cyphers of the First Ones than you can use, instead saving the chests for the following week's A New Deal.
This method is easy to do solo and faster than rare farming, while providing similar rewards. However, IMO, chests should be reserved for when you're unable to find rare-farming groups. That said, it's worth mentioning that the chests provide a substantial amount of Cosmic Flux, which is important in the gearing process. If you're in dire need of Cosmic Flux, don't fret too much about opening chests without currently working on A New Deal, but don't open more than you need to.

3A. Solo Mob Farming:
Once geared enough, this is probably the 2nd fastest method to collect Protoplasmic Thread, following ZM treasure/cypher chests. However, the rewards are nonexistent. You will get grey trash items along with Protoplasmic Thread and that's about it. For those that just want to get the quest over with and/or don't need the rewards provided by rares and chests, mob farming is an effective way to get it over with and collect your 2.5k honor and Patterns Within Patterns progress.

3B. My Solo Mob Farming Guide:
(Roughly 20 minutes on ilvl 250 WW monk with good AoE damage. Experience may vary.)
1. Head to the Catalyst Gardens (/way 47 82)
2. Gather Sentient Overgrowth (saplings) and anything else you can comfortably pull into groups and AOE them all down.
3. Loot.
4. Repeat.
*Beware of roaming Overgrown Colossus (giant elites, very bad) and empowered Nascent Servitor (in center under catalyst empowered by beams, less bad but can make a big pull tense at low ilvl).

Comment by Qoko

This quest did not reset or change in season 4, at all. It still grants a season 3 PvP trinket at ilvl 249 (not upgradable, for what it's worth) each week per character, trinkets obtained through this quest are not offered again (including those obtained in season 3) and characters that obtained all five will be granted 3k honor. This means that throughout season 4 (and perhaps after, but likely not) this quest will be a good source of honor.

Good pointers have been given on whether to include this relatively simple quest in your ZM farming:

Gives 35% credit to Patterns Within Patterns.
Rares give 30+ and chests give 15+ Threads, so just flying around to finish the weekly is enough to finish this relatively quickly.
For new 60s, Cosmic Gladiator's Resonator at 249 is a reasonable PvE reward until you get the trinkets from Sand, Sand Everywhere!.
Despite some player toxicity reported in the comments below, I rarely have been ganked in ZM war mode on low ilvl Alliance, on a realm often shared with Kazzak.

Comment by kyfzsrjytdjtrsdk

I had the best luck going after chests rather than mobs - threads in every chest, as many as 18 threads per chest.

Comment by krilvyn

In the 10.0 prepatch, this quest is now only available to characters that haven't gotten all 5 of the trinkets yet. No more easy honor farming.

Comment by SargerasWasRight

Despite what the previous comment says this quest is NOT available at all for all 3 of my characters who never got all 5 trinkets. I checked with every alt and only my shaman could get the quest and she got 3k renown as the reward. I have no idea what's going on with this quest...

Comment by Hornhide

Not sure why this was removed?

It was a steady path towards a better ilevel without needing to play raids. It made Patterns within Patterns a lot easier to complete in a single session.

I am in mourning at its loss since the pre-patch. Now I await some other reliable source of honor grind. PVP battles are still too unreliable for me.

Comment by hotcore

This is for Patterns within Patterns quest, now A New Deal quest has been removed.

The easiest way to do this quest on alts in Patch 10.0:

20% World Boss
Do the cache puzzle quest everyday for 6-7 days
Loot every treasure along the way to the cache puzzle quest
Kill any rare along the way to the cache puzzle quest

I did this on 30 alts daily. Took around an hour. Maybe 90 minutes. daily.

You should be 100% around day 5-7.

Hope this helps

Comment by Esploratore

The situation is even worse than "quest is now only available for toons that haven't got all 5 trinkets yet": I checked on 2 toons that had got respectively 4 and 2 trinkets, they can't take it, but toons that haven't got a trinket yet (just got them to 60) can take it, so maybe it's a 1-time only quest per toon now.

Edit: confirmed today, one of the new toons I had got to 60 who did a new deal last week can no longer take the quest this week, it's 1-time only.

Comment by Turowai

I had a few new level 60's (from doing lots of prepatch invasions), that I had picked up this quest on after doing quick shadowlands intro stuff... but deliberately left it alone to do later on when I had a moment... knowing that now it seemed to be a 1 time only per character thing (which sucks...)

I've now just gone to go do that... and the quest has been removed from my logs, and the quest giver no longer gives the quest either.
They've just flat out removed it entirely :(
Wish I had made time sooner to do this on those new alts, even though it was only 500 honor per character (it all adds up...)

(Also note, yes, these alts had used the skip for korthia and for zerith mortis, before anyone asks. They were able to pickup the quest before after all).

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A New Deal

This quest was marked obsolete by Blizzard and cannot be obtained or completed.

Collect 150 Protoplasmic Thread in Zereth Mortis, while in War Mode.

	Protoplasmic Thread (150)

Description

Ah, Maw Walker! Opportunities abound now that you have found a way into Zereth Mortis. Let us discuss further business, yes? We have an interest in observing the potential this new pathway has provided. I trust you will procure what we require. Do not let anyone get in your way. If this is not agreeable, I am certain I can find someone else to solve both of our problems.

Progress

Completion

Rewards

You will be able to choose one of these rewards:

	Patched Leather Pants		Cosmic Gladiator's Fastidious Resolve
	Cosmic Gladiator's Echoing Resolve		Cosmic Gladiator's Resonator
	Cosmic Gladiator's Eternal Aegis		Cosmic Gladiator's Devouring Malediction

You will also receive:

	Honor

Gains

Upon completion of this quest you will gain:

See if you've already completed this by typing:

/run print(C_QuestLog.IsQuestFlaggedCompleted(65649))

A New Deal

Description

Progress

Completion

Rewards

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