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Know Your Lore: The others of Draenor
The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft. Draenor, like Azeroth, is populated by more than just one sapient people. We've talked at length about the orcs who were born on Draenor, and the draenei who landed there and named the world as their refuge. But there were others. Some have vanished entirely since the creation of Outland, while others escaped to Azeroth or continued to exist on the remnant continent itself, floating in the Twisting Nether. Thus, our trip to this new Draenor will allow us to come face to face with beings we barely know, as they were before the destruction Ner'zhul unleashed, and with beings we've never met or seen, entities of legend. While we still don't know exactly what we'll find on Draenor (I'm sure it will be savage) we have enough clues to start talking about the denizens of that unknown (to us) world. So, who were these others?
Mists of Pandaria: 48 daily quests available on any given day
We all know that Mists of Pandaria is removing the daily quest limit, meaning that you can do as many dailies as you want. And now we have numbers, courtesy of Vaneras, explaining why that is -- specifically, because if you limit yourself purely to the new dailies coming in Mists of Pandaria, you still could barely do half of the ones available per day with the old limit. Vaneras - Quests As things are right now, it looks like there will be approximately 1300 quests in Mists of Pandaria. This is a very rough number though, and this is of course still subject to change. There is some overlap between Alliance and Horde, but the majority of these quests are neutral and because of this we do not expect there to be more than 200 or so faction-specific quests. Of these 1300 quests, roughly 300 of them are dailies. Right this moment we don't have the numbers off-hand to show how that that compares exactly to the previous expansions, but the quest count seems to more closely mirror Wrath of the Lich King, however with a much greater emphasis on dailies. Mists of Pandaria is actually the expansion where we have emphasized dailies the most... ever! The dailies are of course randomized, which means that you will never log in and find that you have 300 daily quests to do. We expect that if a player has progressed sufficiently with the neutral factions, and thus advanced to their maximum possible quest availability, you would have around 48 quests available on any given day. source While risking sounding like Matthew Broderick in Godzilla, that is a lot of quests. When you combine those 48 available dailies a day with older rep grinds some players are going to want to complete such as those at the Argent Tournament, the Molten Front and even Ogri'la or the Isle of Quel'danas, it seems that it was a very good call to remove that cap. It also sounds like I'm going to have a lot of questing to do. It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!
WoW Archivist: 5 years of daily quests
WoW Archivist explores the secrets of World of Warcraft's past. What did the game look like years ago? Who is etched into WoW's history? What secrets does the game still hold? Just like Officers' Quarters, another WoW staple has recently celebrated its fifth anniversary. Daily quests were added to the game a little over five years ago, on May 22, 2007, in patch 2.1. One of Blizzard's big selling points for Mists seems to be its huge amount of daily quest content. Dailies are undoubtedly going to be a big deal at level 90. Blizzard has even lifted the daily quest cap that has stood at 25 for several years, so players will be free to do whatever dailies they like across the entire history of the game. Dailies seem like such an obvious and critical element of WoW, but they weren't part of the vanilla game. In this week's Archivist, we'll explore how daily quests began, how they have changed over the years, and how Blizzard is trying to recreate the glory days of daily quests in Mists. WTH is this blue exclamation point? Has a single piece of designed punctuation ever been as famous as WoW's chubby yellow exclamation point? It even has its own merchandise. Believe it or not, the exclamation point was one of Blizzard's biggest innovations when they created the game. No longer did you have to chat with every single NPC in town to figure out which one of them needed a favor -- a staple of RPG games for decades. Now you could tell at a glance which NPCs were willing to pay for a bit of random mercenary work. I remember how odd that first blue exclamation point looked. They had been yellow, after all, for two and a half years. Changing its color seemed like sacrilege. After accepting the quest, it had the word "(Daily)" next to it in my log -- it felt like both a promise and a warning. Daily quests were an exciting new element, but they were not without their critics.
Transmogrify your character into a dark ranger, take 1
Sylvanas' dark rangers first popped up in WoW during Wrath of the Lich King. These ladies aren't quite hunter, and they aren't quite rogue -- they're a mix somewhere in between. The first models we were shown were over in Howling Fjord, where a group of dark rangers handed out quests to leveling Horde members. These rangers are in leather gear suitable for a rogue -- and it's easy enough to obtain their look. Since rogues are losing their ranged slot in Mists, this is a limited time opportunity to snag the look of a dark ranger, bow and all. Of course as with most NPCs, there will be bits and pieces of the look that you simply cannot obtain. Obviously the dead, pale skin and glowing red eyes are right out, and unfortunately, the boots are out as well; the one look-alike that existed for those boots was available in the original 40-man version of Naxxramas, and it was removed from the game when Naxxramas was moved. The hood is also an NPC-only model, but fear not! There's another hood that is just as suitable, in a place most players have long forgotten about.
How I learned to stop worrying and love level 70
It all started on a lark. Some friends wanted to run BWL, but for whatever reason I said, "Hey, why not do Black Temple instead?" In my opinion, BT is one of the best instances in the game, with some fantastic architecture and art and really excellent boss design, both visually and in terms of what the designers did mechanically at the time. The Reliquary of Souls encounter is still fascinating to watch, and I'm kind of a fanboy for Teron Gorefiend. To be honest, I still find myself wondering if Illidan was being controlled by Gul'dan, considering that Gorefiend, Gul'dan's first death knight, ended up gravitating to the Temple. On our way to the Black Temple, as a lark, I asked if I could bring my level 70 warrior I'd started the week before Cataclysm dropped in order to test the new talent spec and leveling changes. Oh, and because I have a problem. I figured what the heck, I could maybe snag a couple of pieces of gear that would last into the mid-70s if I ever played her again. Six drops later, I'd locked her XP gain and run Hyjal, Karazhan, ZA and Sunwell on her, and I am probably going to do so again.
Break the Blockade by grouping
One of the semi-new concepts in Wrath of the Lich King is the idea of PVE leveling dailies that are available long before max level. One of the first ones that Alliance humans will see is Break the Blockade in Howling Fjord. Honestly, I feel pretty safe in saying that this isn't one of the most well-designed quests. It's a basic bombing quest, except they seem to have forgotten all the lessons they might have learned from previous bombing quests in Ogri'la and Quel'danas. First, Instead of a personal flying mount, you have to bomb the ships from a zeppelin that makes its rounds every few minutes, so you have to wait for it dock before beginning the quest. Secondly, the pirates and ships you have to bomb are scattered very far apart, often hidden by icebergs until the last moment, and don't seem to respawn very fast. All of this adds up to making the quest somewhat of an exercise in frustration solo. However, there is hope.
Exalted means goodbye
There are a lot of reputations to grind in World of Warcraft. In fact, one of the ways the game has become more accessible to players with time constraints is by the introduction of daily quests as means to gain reputation, and eventually gear and other rewards (flying mounts, various recipes, other items) from faction vendors. As an example, last night I finally reached exalted with Shattered Sun Offensive on my third character to do so, my tauren warrior. I saw the green flash of light as I turned in Blood for Blood, headed back to the Isle of Quel'Danas and stocked up on the various exalted goodies I'd been slavering for, the tanking and melee DPS necks, the shield, and the Alchemist Stone patterns in both tank and DPS flavors. And then, as has been the case for my previous two characters to hit exalted (my human warrior and draenei shaman) I got the heck off of that island with my shiny new tabard and ran around in battlegrounds shuddering with relief. All these factions are very useful for gearing up my growing army of alts, and I am aware that it helps cut down the time I would otherwise have to spend hoping for a random drop from an instance. So why the feeling of glorious freedom and the heated flight to the hills the second I hit exalted?
The Outland daily circle
With Phase 4 upon us, The options for dailies are pretty much long and endless. Of course, with a daily limit of 25 dailies, you can end up doing most of them anyways, and while certainly don't try to spring for 25 dailies every day, I still do my fair share of dailies. About once or twice a week, I do what I have come to call my Outland Circle. All three of my characters have all the daily hubs unlocked, so between Ogri'la, the Skyguard, the Netherwing, and the Shattered Sun Offensive, I can get a lot done.
Killing ogres and feeling like a jerk
I wrote about dropping Mining to take up Enchanting, and I'd like everyone to know it's going fine. I'm now at 357, being patient with the last few points to 360, opting to sell enchantments and save what little money I have after blowing quite a bit on all the materials up to 300+. Of course, now I feel somewhat compelled to acquire Enchanting formulas just so I have more options to use as I level up. The tips are a nice bonus.Anyway, one of the formulas I wanted to go after was the Formula: Enchant Bracer - Spellpower, which drop off the Bloodmaul Geomancers in Blade's Edge Mountains. So off I go to kill these ogres, I figure it'll take maybe an hour of so of farming. Easy, right? Well, what I didn't expect was that these ogres still paid fealty to me after I completed the chain of quests to unlock the quests in Ogri'la. I didn't make much of all the yelling those fatties did when they made me king, but since I didn't bother going around Blade's Edge much after that, I didn't notice that the Bloodmaul had turned yellow, or neutral, towards me. So it took me by surprise that upon killing these ogres, they say mortifying things like, "Me honored, King kill me," or "King <name>, me die now."Thanks a lot, Blizzard. Now I feel like a total jerk. These ogres consider me (and I'm sure millions of other players... but anyway...) their king and now I'm cutting them down like some maniacal despot. They also reference Ogri'la, which is kind of like paradise to them and a Blizzard reference to the Utopian haven of Shangri-La. It's heart-wrenching when they keel over saying, "King really think... there is... an Ogri'la?" or "Me go to... Ogri'la." It's like having some distant friend with Down Syndrome die in your arms with dreams of shiny, happy places. It's tragic. I know, it's a silly video game, and I'm not even on an RP server. But still, you have to wonder how you can keep killing those who consider you their king. After a while of killing and not getting the formula to drop, I called it a night and took a break. I probably shouldn't feel so bad. After all, if I'm truly their king, why don't they just hand over the stupid formula?
Reigniting the flame and rediscovering the joy of Warcraft
I think my favorite part about a new patch is that it always seems to inject new life into WoW. Don't get me wrong, I love WoW all the time. I think it's a great game. But there's something about a new patch that always seems to invigorate me. There's new stuff to do, maybe a new twist or two to one of the classes I play, or at least to one of the classes I play against. What's even more interesting to me is that it sometimes makes even the old stuff feel brand new.
Soloing can be epic, too
Though everyone talks about it a lot, raiding or even grouping isn't the only way to achieve something in the World of Warcraft. There's something for everyone.While I do raid, there's a lot of solo content that I really feel proud of completing. At the top of my list is mastering the Shartuul's Transporter event. For quite awhile it would just stomp me into the ground, until one day I found my groove and was able to get through to the end. It took a handful of the Charged Crystal Focuses(foci?) for the 'special' abilities, but I did it. From there, I did the event as often as I could, until I could get through it without using any Foci. Now? Easy as pie. The event is basically free potions and potential epics for me now. Assuming it doesn't bug out. Spawn, you stupid eyeball! Spawn!I've also been working on rep for a Wintersaber, but even after the buffs to reputation gains on that grind, I have a hard time staying interested. I've been doing it in little bit and pieces, and I really look forward to when I finally get a pink kitty.So I'm curious, what are your solo accomplishments? That little(or big) thing you met head on and mastered on your own?
Don't underestimate the Isle of Quel'Danas
Patch 2.4 supplies a great amount of solo content along with the new 5-man dungeon and raid zone, but there is one thing that you should remember stepping onto the Isle of Quel'Danas: This content is not the same difficulty level as everything else we've done so far.The dungeon and raid aren't the only things that have progressed the difficulty of the game, the solo content is more challenging as well. While the respawn rates on mobs may be turned down on the Live servers compared to what they are on the PTR, the fact remains that some of these baddies are not to be underestimated. Even the new bombing run is more difficult, though less likely to kill you than the others. When Ogri'la and Skettis were first released, they were a bit of a death trap. Most people went into them in a daze, expecting to nap through the little battles like the zones we had done before. The reality was, though, that it was quite a bit harder than that. Until we adjusted to the difficulty and played a little smarter, it was death city.Quel'Danas is about the same. It isn't incredibly difficult, but it is a step up from what we've seen so far. Tread lightly, bring lots of bandages. If you're brand new to level 70 and your gear is... well, junk, then you might want to group with some friends for the new daily quests. And uh, don't be like me and go AFK in the middle of enemy territory and expect to come back 10 minutes later unharmed. That probably isn't going to go well for you.
Monstrous Kaliri, how I hate thee
Some days this quest is easy, and some days I am wearing six giant birds before I get to the first patch of eggs. Much wisdom flows from my wife, she who tames transparent wolves and gets multiple instance runs the second I log off to use the bathroom. (In my defense, I really had to go.) I myself have also noticed that on some days, especially when the cooking quest calls for Giant Kaliri Wings, the run to complete Fires over Skettis is quite tolerable. On other days, I am convinced that my character must have bathed in barbeque sauce before coming out to drop bombs, because he's intensely popular with gigantic, screeching birds that live and breathe for just the chance to dismount him. Have I mentioned how often they actually manage to knock me off my mount so that I fall with six health left right in front of a wandering Talonsworn Forest-Rager? Because I love that. That sound? That's not weeping. I don't know why you would say that. My keyboard's plenty dry.
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Your guide to dailies: Cooking
Congratulations! You've hit level 70 and you're peering around Outland with hungry eyes. A multitude of new things have opened up for you, from soaring to new heights, to searching the world over for keys and epics. One of the most common activities that you'll want to begin are the daily quests, available mainly to level 70s, and often requiring certain prerequisite quests or even a certain riding skill. While the cooking quests do not award as much money as other dailies (only 7g 59s), and therefore may not be high on your list of priorities, there are several non-monetary benefits to completing them. First of all, they are fun. Currently, there are four separate quests, and they rotate, so you are not completing the same monotonous tasks day after day. Secondly, they award your choice of fish or meat, which not only helps if you're an avid cook, but also gives you a daily crate of food for your pet, if you are a hunter. In addition, you can acquire random recipes, some of which are quite nice, including the hunter pet food buff [Recipe: Kibler's Bits]. Many of the reward meats and fish can be cooked up and/or sold for a tidy profit as well. All quests are given by, and handed in to, The Rokk in Lower City. While several of the quests will require the use of a flying mount, this can easily be avoided by doing the quests in a party with a warlock willing to summon you. In addition, although the dailies often require a very high cooking skill level, this can be circumvented by purchasing the cooked meats on the Auction House, or by having your companion cook your meats for you. You will, however, require 275 cooking skill to gain access to the quests. Should you be in need of leveling your cooking skill, Lisa Poisso's got the inside scoop on the most effective ways to grind it up.
Around Azeroth: Sneaking back onto the battlefield
Reader Muqtadh sends in a view that I am quite familiar with -- up in forge camps of Ogri'la, having been just knocked off a mount by one of those pesky flak cannons and retreated for a moment to re-group. The Fel Reaver just in front of us is ominous, but fortunately just scenery, making behind its legs an ideal place to hide to bandage, mount up, and try again. Haven't been here? Ogri'la's forge camp bombing runs are great for fun and profit, even though I wind up standing where Muqtadh is standing far too often.Do you have a unique shot of Azeroth or Outland that you'd like to show off to the rest of the world? Tell us about it by e-mailing a copy to aroundazeroth@wow.com, with as much or as little detail as you'd like to share with the world! %Gallery-1816%
Guide to the Shartuul event in Blade's Edge
Amanna posted a link to this extremely in-depth guide to the Eye of Shartuul event in Blade's Edge. If you've never done it (or heard of it-- seems like a majority of players might not actually know it exists), it's pretty cool. With the Ogri'la reputation chain, Blizzard introduced a solo quest series in Blade's Edge that can actually grant Epic gear.First things first, you've got to get Honored with Ogri'la, and then do the Banish the Demons quest, which allows you to get the items necessary to start the event itself. After that, you can pretty much follow Sadiki's guide-- he walks you through setting up the event, and all the different phases. The event itself is fun, too-- you abandon your own body, and instead fight through the even by controlling the demons. The final demon (which is actually pretty close in mechanics to C'thun in AQ) will actually drop Epic gear... kind of.What he'll drop is "Depleted" gear, which you then have to activate with Apexis Shards. The Epic gear created isn't completely great, but there is one amazing piece-- the Depleted Badge drop turns into the Badge of Tenacity, which is so phat for tanking druids we'll have to feature it in an upcoming Phat Loot Phriday.So yes, the event is some good solo fun, and though there's quite a bit of questing you have to do to set it up, getting Epic loot from a solo quest is always awesome, and following the great guide should make it easy.
Blizzard tips on Ogri'la faction
Blizzard has posted a new faction guide on their official site. The Ogri'la faction, introduced in Patch 2.1, resides on the western part of the Blade's Edge Mountains. Gaining exalted with these enlightened ogres doesn't get you a fancy epic flying mount (directly) or the key to Karazhan, but attaining Exalted will net you a good deal of gold and access to epic faction rewards. I won't go into the details of all the quest chains. Blizzard's guide plus WoW Wiki's Ogri'la page do a great job of that. But I'm in the middle of this quest series myself and have a few tips of my own to share: You don't have to be grouped to finish the Mog'dorg quest chain. Just tag along with another group doing it and you'll be able to get the quest turn ins after each kill. The Ogri'la quest line will open up additional Shatari Skyguard faction quests (and get you closer to riding that nether ray) OgriLazy is a great AddOn for remembering the color sequence combinations of the Relic's Emanation daily quest. Druid flight form is NOT immune to the dismount debuff of the Fel Cannons during the bombing run missions. The Badge of Tenacity is one of the best non-raid tanking trinkets in the game, especially for feral druids. Do any of you fine readers have any additional tips to share about Ogri'la quests?
What you need to know about daily quests
I'm a man of many distractions. Between a full time career, a growing family and a new writing gig at WoWInsider, I don't have as much time as I used to when it comes to my video games. When I do log on to WoW, I often look for objectives I can complete in a short amount of time, but still give me some sense of progress. Enter my new obsession: daily quests.New factions were introduced with the The Black Temple 2.1 Patch and with it came the specter of the dreaded rep grind. But this time Blizzard has added quests that reward players with hefty reputation gains in exchange for limiting their completion to once a day. Since these appeal to me greatly, I did some digging around and found a few helpful facts that may aid you in your Outland adventures. Daily quests count against your total quest count in your quest log You can have a maximum of 10 daily quests in your log at any given time The timer on redoing a daily quest is not reset every 24 hours from when you complete it, but at 2am PST Many daily quests that work in one reputation level (i.e. Neutral) continue to work in when you've achieved higher rep levels Currently you must be L70 to get these quests so they give no experience The biggest change here from previous rep grinds is being able to do lower level rep grinds while at a higher rep level. Other than that, dive in. You can try out daily quests with the Sha'tari Skyguards, Ogri'la and Netherwing factions. For a starter guide on these quest chains, check out our "Where to start with 2.1 content."
PTR notes: Welcome to Ogri'la
Along with the Skettis Skyguard, there's another new faction to grind for in 2.1: Ogri'la. In my search for the elusive ogres, I was sent down to the Lower City by a quest giver in Shattrath's Terrace of Light; from there, the next step is to zip up to the Ring of Blood in Blade's Edge and talk to an ogre there. (Side note: the journey was hilarious, as epic flying mounts on the PTR are currently bugged to flutter their wings insanely fast when you fly forward.) I didn't follow through after that, because all the "real" quests to gain reputation with the Ogri'la ogres appear to be 5-man, and the thought of pugging with four other random PTRers was a little daunting.Never fear, though, I did go over to Ogri'la to snap the above shot and check out the rewards, which you can see in the picture after the cut (not composited by me; my pic was much worse). The prices of all the gear are in Apexis Crystals and Apexis Shards, which I assume drop from whatever it is you have to kill to get Ogri'la rep. If it's anything like the Sporeggar, getting the required reputation level is much more difficult than getting the turn-in tokens. Oh, and there's a repair vendor there, which is always pleasant. Ogri'la is located in the west of Blade's Edge, between Forge Camp Terror and Forge Camp Wrath.
Will the new 2.1 content be instance-based?
Blizzard's recent announcement of additional content for the upcoming 2.1 patch left a lot to be desired where details were concerned. While it's quite clear that there will be three new areas in the game -- the Ethereum Prison, Skettis, and Ogri'la -- Blizzard's phrasing never specifically states that these will be 5-player instances, or instances at all. Instead of "instance," Blizzard talks about "solo and small-group" content, "tons of new quests," and (for Skettis and Ogri'la) "5-person bosses." So what should we expect to see in patch 2.1? Only Blizzard knows, but that doesn't stop us from speculating! Over on The Many Realms of Relmstein, Relmstein presents us with three possibilities on what these zones might be like: Quest Hubs with new chain quests which eventually result in having to fight a 5-man boss. Quest Hubs which require you to go to a non instanced area filled with elite mobs. Each area has a single small instance which has group content inside but single person quest objectives outside. I think that sums up the possibilities quite well -- but we're just going to have to wait to find out which one it will be.
