This quest can be difficult to complete depending on your group and how good they are, but before you consider passing it up, the rewards are most definately worth the work.

A few general tips to keep in mind during a Gnomeregan run:

You might consider making a macro like

/target Mobile Alert System
/cast Earth Shock(Rank 4)

or whatever rank of whatever instant-cast damage spell you might have. Moonfire, Arcane Shot, Fire Blast, you get the idea. If you're not all about macros, just keep your eyes peeled and make sure your sound is on so you can catch them, otherwise they spawn a pair of elites. Alone, this isn't that bad, but when they come in the middle of a fight already in progress, you're probably going to wipe unless you're slightly overleveled or have a really good and organized group.

A major chokepoint for many Gnomeregan groups is the tunnel with all the Dark Iron Agents. The first pull with 4 Dark Irons is just really tough, make sure you kill mines before they're armed. A little further along, there's a group of 3 Dark Irons and one Arcane Nullifier who seem like they're a linked pull. If you wait for the Arcane Nullifier to path over near you, you can pull it and one of the Dark Irons, splitting it up into two pulls of two instead of another group of 4 that can now reflect spells. As for Thermaplugg himself, just keep DPSing, have someone run around and push the buttons of the statues with open mouths to prevent being nuked with tons of bombs, and if you have a good mage, Thermaplugg can be kited with Blink and some clever maneuvering.

Confirmed 17-may-09 it DOES count toward Loremaster of Eastern Kiingdoms