sunwell-daily-quests
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WoW Archivist: Patch 2.4 -- Fury of the Sunwell
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? On March 4, 2008, Gary Gygax, the creator of Dungeons & Dungeons, passed away. A few weeks later, Blizzard dedicated the final and meatiest patch of the Burning Crusade expansion to Gary's memory. Unlike the raid- and druid-centric patch 2.1, the big nothing of 2.2, or the old world revamp (and another raid) of patch 2.3, Fury of the Sunwell had boatloads of new endgame content for everyone. Blizzard also provided a trailer for the patch that showed the history of the Sunwell and revealed Kael'thas' diabolical plan. Redefining realm-wide events Kael'thas had to be stopped. The naaru convinced the Scryers and the Aldor to work together, forming a new faction to retake the Sunwell at the Isle of Que'Danas. The Shattered Sun Offensive represented a massive evolution of the realm-wide event concept after the very popular Gates of Ahn'qiraj event ushered in the idea. Daily quests, introduced in The Burning Crusade, were the key. The Gates event required players to gather and turn in crafting supplies. Though you certainly felt like a contributor by forking over dozens of stacks of cloth, the gameplay aspect was lacking. Only one guild per realm could participate in the complete quest line. On Quel'Danas, everyone could experience the story as it played out. Instead of turning in items, your realm earned credit toward the next phase of the event when players completed dailies. Rather than a one-time event, the phases changed and unlocked different parts of the island to show the Offensive's progress. Eventually the united Scryers and Aldor built a town, complete with a blacksmith for repairs, alchemy lab, portal, and statues to honor the fallen. Each new phase also brought new dailies and new rewards that could be purchased with gold and "badges" (TBC's equivalent of valor points). All of these changes were permanent, so you didn't have to log in on a specific day in order to enjoy them.
WoW China gets all-access pass in Quel'danas
According to our tipster Gwwfps of the blog Potato Skin, World of Warcraft distributor The9 has manually set all the quests in the Isle of Quel'danas to be fully completed -- that is, all quests on the Isle are now open to all players as though Phase 4 had been opened. With the help of Babelfish, as far as I can make it out, this decision was arrived at to "make up several weeks the partial servers to appear returns to the files question for generally to play the loss which the family brings". If my Engrish serves me right, this means that the move was a drastic resolution to having massive downtime for numerous servers which resulted in realms-wide progression rollbacks. Some servers reportedly had their Isle of Quel'danas progress rolled back several times over the course of one day.Gwwfps explains it better in his blog, noting that Patch 2.4 resulted in poor server performance across the board. Apparently, WoW China has been suffering from performance issues for quite some time and some have suggested that the servers upon which the game runs aren't quite up to par with Blizzard's standards. Others argue -- with good reason -- that the forced unlocking of the phases makes the game "less immersive." The sweeping measure also demonstrates an apparent lack of industriousness on the part of The9, who in theory could simply roll back individual servers to specific progress levels. On the other hand, players can probably get all ecstatic about getting their hands on epic gems so early (blast my slacker server!).
Report Card: Phase 4 daily quests
Phase 4 is now well underway, with about 50 servers having it unlocked according to us.gorgonnash.info at the time of this writing. There's still a few more things to unlock, but for the most part, the Sunwell Isle is complete, and what you see is what you get as far as resources and places to fight. So, once again, it is time to ask the question: How do these quests fit into your busy up-to-25-daily-quests-to-do lifestyle? They fit pretty well, actually!
Proudmoore server hits Phase 4 first
Scant hours after the false alarms from the Burning Legion and Area 52 servers, it looks like we have a true winner in the race to Phase 4 of the Shattered Sun Offensive on the Isle of Queldanas. Continuing their streak, the Proudmoore Server activated phase 4 early this morning. Currently, it looks like they're the only ones legitimately at Phase 4, with Cenarius 2nd with 86% accord to us.gorgonnash.info. Congratulations to Proudmoore on continuing your streak. Be sure to check out our Phase 4 daily guides for all the information you'll need to finish strong. The rest of you, check out our Phase 2 and Phase 3 daily guides to get the edge you need to power up to Phase 4 yourself. %Gallery-19980%
WoW, Casually: It's great to be level 70 and casual
Each week or so, Robin Torres writes WoW, Casually for the player who has 2 hours or less to play at a time.Let the raiders have fun with their world firsts, Blizzard also kept those of us with limited playtime in mind when designing the Sunwell activities. If you are level 70 and haven't gone over to the Isle of Quel'Danas, get thee to a Flightmaster in Ironforge or Silvermoon and get in on the fun.You may think with all the hubbub about the new bosses like Brutallus that the new Sunwell zone is raider-only territory, but you would be wrong. The daily quests there are fun and easily doable solo. You earn a lot of money, a lot of rep with people who will give you cool stuff, and you help your server progress through the new content. There has never been a better time to be level 70 and casual.
US server Proudmoore is the first to hit Phase 3 of the Shattered Sun Offensive
Phase 3 is now upon us! According to us.gorgonnash.info, Proudmoore has now just barely hit the Armory phase of the Shattered Sun Offensive. As of 9:07pm PDT, April 2nd, Cenarius is behind them at 95%, with Zul'jin behind them at 90%. Congratulations, Proudmoore.Of course, the biggest thing this means is that they've unlocked the quest Making Ready, which will allow them to eventually unlock the new Badge of Justice loot. Good luck to them, and may the unlocking go fast! For everyone who needs to catch up to Proudmoore, be sure to check out our phase 1 and phase 2 quest walkthroughs. For all you Proudmoore inhabitants, and all the rest of you raring to go, be sure to check out our phase 3 walkthroughs for all the information you'll need to forge ahead with the offensive, and look out for the Phase 4 walkthroughs coming soon from Alex.
Drop rates surface on 2.4 items and substances
Patch 2.4 has been upon as for almost a week now, and that's long enough for Wowhead to have collected reliable data on some of the interesting new things in the patch. Here's what I've noticed, leading off with what is (to my mind) the most interesting piece of information: Shattered Sun Supplies have a 10% chance to contain a Badge of Justice Wretched Fiends and Wretched Devourers each have a 30% chance to drop Mana Remnants for "Arm the Wards." Though this is probably reduced a bit by players who kill the Wretched without having the quest, I think 30% is close to the true drop rate (based on my own observation). I guess that's it, really; the numbers on Bash'ir Phasing Device, Nether Residue, and Sunfury Attack Plans are hopelessly diluted by old and non-quest data, so we may never know true drop rates for those. Still, I'm glad to know about that 10% chance for a Badge. It's lower than I'd thought it would be, but I can understand why they would want to make it take a while for solo-only players to earn awesome epics.For comparison, I checked WOWDB and Thottbot. WOWDB gave 9.2% for the Badge, which is similar, and 98% (!) on the Mana Remnants, which is clearly wrong. Thottbot says 9% on the Badge, and 27% on the Remnants.
Report Card: Phase 2 daily quests
So, now that phase 1 of the Shattered Sun Offensive is over on many servers, phase 2 is in full swing. Phase 2 is a little bit smaller than phase 1, but you can still do all the phase 1 quests just fine, so it's more of a question of deciding how many you want to fit into your daily rotation. So what about the phase 2 quests? Progression needs aside, are they worth doing?
Phase 3 Dailies: Taking the Harbor
This quest is likely as straightforward as the Shattered Sun Offensive dailies could possibly get. What is it? A kill quest. You get it from Magister Ilistar within the Sun's Reach Armory, which has become friendly at the conclusion of phase 2.Magister Ilistar wants you to thin the ranks of the Dawnblade on the island itself. Specifically, he wants you to kill six Dawnblade Summoners, six Dawnblade Blood Knights, and three Dawnblade Marksmen. Their names are good indicators of what they can do. Summoners are warlocks, Blood Knights are... Blood Knights, and Marksmen are hunters. In my experience, these mobs are a little more difficult than the Wretched and Robots of the earlier dailies, but alone they still shouldn't be too hard. The only threat they truly pose is the fact that they are fairly tightly packed, so single pulls might be hard if you're the only one doing this quest. However, Quel'Danas probably won't be underpopulated at any point while trying to complete phase 3, so you'll be just fine.Once you finish that up, head on back to Ilistar and turn it in! Easy! You'll be rewarded with 11 gold, 99 silver, and 250 Shattered Sun Offensive Reputation. When phase 3 is completed, his quest is replaced with Crush the Dawnblade. The name of the quest is the only thing that changes. Same objectives, same reward. For further information on this quest, you can also check Wowwiki and Wowhead.
Sunwell Isle Realm progression list
Are you interested in which phase each Realm is on in the race to complete the Shattered Sun Offensive? Well then Masterdragon has the list you need. He has compiled a list of all of the servers and which phase is currently being worked on. Drysc has blessed the thread with a blue post congratulating him on his endeavors -- and presumably to make the list easier to find.Masterdragon will be updating the list two or three times a day and requests that you check the list before posting your server's phase status.I'm impressed that Masterdragon is putting in all this effort to update this tracking list. It's too bad that Blizzard can't provide one for us so that he doesn't have to. An official list could indicate the percentage completed for each phase as well. But I suppose they have enough work putting a spin on the undocumented changes that have popped up in Patch 2.4.Do you think Blizzard should have an official list? Or are you just happy that a fellow player took the initiative to make one himself?
Phase 2 Dailies: Intercepting the Mana Cells
This Daily is located back in Shattrath, and given by a Draenei called Exarch Nasuun. He will be located in A'dal's chambers, in the northwestern Alcove where G'eras, the Badge of Justice vendor, used to be (G'eras himself is now on the walkway above the Alcove). He'll send you to the Bash'ir Landing, on the northern plateau of Blade's Edge Mountains. This means that this daily will require you to have a flying mount. Once you receive the the quest, you can fly to Evergrove in Ruann Weald via flightmaster, then fly northwest from there on your mount to reach Bash'ir landing. Once you're there, you'll want to kill any of the Ethereals until you receive the Bash'ir Phasing Device. The device is a very common drop, so you shouldn't have to kill more than one or two ethereals until you get one. This Device will put you, your pets, and your group members into a state not unlike the Mage spell Invisibility. You will not be able to see any non-phased players or mobs, nor will they be able to see you. This device, however, only works with Bash'ir landing, and any pets or groups members must stay within 100 yards of the person who used the device to get the benefit. As long as you stay within Bash'ir landing, the effect is permanent, although you can right-click it off. Once you're phased, you will need to start looking for your quest objective, the Smuggled Mana Cells, which will appear on the ground as translucent hot pink boxes. The boxes will appear mostly near the machinery and other stacked boxes around the camp. They will be guarded by Phase Wyrms, which should be relatively easy for a level 70 take out, and drop Motes of Mana for a nice little bonus. Once you have your 10 cells, you can drop the phased buff (Be careful for any ethereal aggro when you do. You can't see them while phased, but they'll be there when you come out of phased mode), mount up, and head back to Shattrath. Upon turning this quest in to Nasuun, you'll get 10 gold, 10 silver, a cache of Shattered Sun Supplies, and some credit toward the opening of a portal to Quel'danas on your server. All in all a very worthwhile quest, especially if your cache has a Badge of Justice. Once the portal is opened, this quest will be renamed "Maintaining the Sunwell Portal," but the objectives and rewards will remain the same. For more information, you can also read the pages for this quest on Wowwiki and Wowhead.
Phase 2 Dailies: The Battle for the Sun's Reach Armory
The main quest to unlock the 3rd phase of the Shattered Sun Offensive is quick and easy. You'll report to Harbinger Inuuro at the new building. He will ask you to go to the Dawning Square and kill 6 Burning Legion Demons, and drive the provided Shattered Sun Banner through the corpse of the Emissary of Hate, who will come after enough demons are killed. To do the quest, you'll want to head south of the Sanctum to the Dawning Square. If you'll recall, you came to this same square for The Missing Magistrix quest (47,44 for those of you with location mods). Kill any six of the demons walking around here or in the nearby buildings, be they Shivan, Infernal, or Hellion, and you'll get your kill credit. Once the Emissary of Hate spawns, kill him and use your banner while targeting him. You'll drive your banner through his corpse and receive your quest credit. It should be noted that, as of this writing, you don't have to get angry if someone else grabs the Emissary before you do. Once he is dead, anyone can drive the banner through his corpse and get quest credit, and multiple banners can be used on his corpse, so feel free to plant your banner even if someone else did the killing. Once you've done this, you can head back to the sanctum and turn in the quest. You'll get 10 gold and 10 silver, and will help your server unlock the next step of the Offensive. Once this phase of the offensive is over, this quest will be renamed "The Battle Must Go On," but the objectives and the method of completing them will remain the same. For more information on this quest, you can also check out Wowwiki or Wowhead.
Sunwell Phase 2 daily quest walkthroughs
Starting early yesterday afternoon and into the night, quite a few servers have unlocked the 2nd phase of the Shattered Sun Offensive at the Isle of Quel'danas, known as the Sun's Reach Sanctum (We can't confirm for sure who was first, although rumor has it that Cenarius was a strong contender, and I'm sure accounts will differ unless Blizzard decides to establish a tracking page like they did for the Ahn'Qiraj event). This means a new building under control of the offensive , a tradeskill vendor (no ability to repair just yet, alas), and a handful of new daily quests dedicated to unlocking the 3rd phase, the Sun's Reach Armory. %Gallery-19191% Look after the break for links to walkthroughs for every Phase 2 daily quest!
Phase 2 Dailies: Distraction at the Dead Scar
One of the two dailies to unlock the Armory portion of the Shattered Sun Offensive on the Isle of Quel'danas, this quest will send you on a bombing mission down the Dead Scar, the giant strip of dead land that marked the Scourge's march to the Sunwell. There's still scourge there, but your target will be the Demons fighting them, in hopes that your attacks will disrupt their efforts to keep the Armory by drawing more and more of them away and to the Scar itself. You'll get the quest from Battlemage Arynna in the new sanctum building. She'll order you to kill 2 Pit Overlords, 3 Eredar Sorcerers, and 12 Wrath Enforcers, provide you with some Arcane Charges to drop on them, and send you to Ayren Cloudbreaker, who is located back by the docks where you first land when coming in by gryphon or bat. From there, talk to him to get your Dragonhawk. The Dragonhawk will fly on a predetermined course. You'll first pass some of Kaelthas' archers and fly over the Naga and Murloc villages before you hit the Dead Scar. Once there, you'll need to be on your toes, especially if there's other people trying to kill the demons. You'll see the demons both on the ground and on the balconies and ramparts and bridges to the sides of the Dead Scar. The Wrath Enforcers often come in packs, and will generally die in one hit, but the Eredar Sorcerers and the Pit Overlords may take 2 hits, so you'll have to watch for them to show and quickly hit them before you fly back out of sight. Once you hit the end of the Scar, you'll get a brief glimpse of Brutallus fighting Madrigosa before you turn around and fly back over the scar, giving you one more chance to hit a few demons. If you don't have your demons killed after the first run, you don't have to abandon the quest to try again. Instead, you can simply talk to Ayren to be sent on another pass. Luckily, after the first 2 or 3 tries, you should probably get the hang of it enough that you'll do it in one pass, assuming there's enough demons to go around. If nothing else, it's sort of nice not to have to dodge Kaliri or Fel Cannons. Once you have your demons, return to Arynna. You'll get 9 gold 10 silver for your troubles, and credit for your server towards the next step of the offensive. Plus, the fun of having totally ridden a Dragonhawk. Once this phase of the offensive is unlocked, this quest will be renamed "The Air Strikes Must Continue." For further information, you can also check this quest on Wowwiki and Wowhead.
Phase 2 Dailies: Know Your Ley Lines
This quest, while technically part of the 2nd phase of the Shattered Sun Offensive, does not appear immediately at the beginning of the Offensive. Instead, your server must complete the portal from Quel'danas to Shattrath by doing the Intercepting the Mana Cells quest. Once you've unlocked the portal, a new NPC, Astromancer Darnarian, will be found inside the Sanctum building alongside the other daily quest givers. When you talk to him, he will complain that no-one appreciates the effort that it takes to do Translocations, and demands that you educate yourself by taking an Astromancer's Crystal and attuning it to 3 different places: The Bloodcrystal to the west, the Dawning Square portal to the south, and the naga shrine at Greengill Coast to the southeast. Be sure to use the crystal at each area to get your credit.
