quests
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Phat Loot Phriday: Helmets of Second Sight
Today's Phat Loot isn't just one helmet-- it's actually your choice of six available from a neat questline in Outlands. So stick with me here. Things may get a little complicated.Name: (Overlord's, Shamanistic, Druidic, Stealther's, Evoker's, Stalker's) Helmet of Second SightType: Rare (Cloth, Leather, Mail, Plate) HeadArmor: VariesAbilities: They all have different abilities, of course, according to their title. You can see a list of all the available helmets here (the Scintillating Headdress is not one of the quest rewards, actually). Altogether, if you run this quest, you'll get a pretty nice pre-Epic helmet out of it. Also: All the helmets "allow the bearer to see into the ghost world while in Shadowmoon Valley." It's a lore thing, stick with me. And if you haven't noticed yet, all the helmets are reskins of the Tier 2 helmets (and in some cases, Tier 1-- see Warrior Helm above) that originally dropped from Onyxia and Molten Core. So if you never got to get your Dragonstalker's Helm or your Helmet of Ten Storms, here's your chance to get a lookalike. With better stats, if you ask me. How to Get It: You've got to do the Teron Gorefiend quest chain in Shadowmoon Valley. It's quite fun, will net you a lot of XP (if you're not 70 yet), a little bit of gold, and your choice of these helmets.For Alliance, it starts with a quest called "Ghost in the Machine" from Zoram the Judicator (geez, what did his mom have against him?) at Wildhammer Stronghold. Horde go to Chief Apothecary Hildagard in Shadowmoon Village for a quest called "A Haunted History." That chain will take you through about seven quests, most of which are soloable (one of them asks for two players, and one of them requires a full 5man group to do). At the end of the quest chain, you'll meet up with the man himself (and make a "mistake" that really wasn't your problem in the first place.As for Gorefiend himself, I don't want to spoil anything, but you'll meet up with him later in the Black Temple (I'm not sure if you actually need the helmet to face him, as the questgiver hints, but you might want to keep it anyway). Meanwhile, you'll get a spiffy helmet that will get you ready to start up the level 70 instances at endgame. Grats!Getting Rid of It: They all sell for different values, from about 2g for the cloth helmet, up to 4g for the plate version. Disenchanting any of them will hook you up with a Large Prismatic Shard.
Shifting Perspectives: Awesome tanking gear and how to get it easily
Bears make some of the awesomest tanks around. There are advantages and disadvantages to having a druid tank as opposed to a warrior, or maybe even a paladin, and we can leave the discussion of which is best for another day. You are probably aware, though, that one of a druid's main advantages in tanking is the extremely high armor he or she can achieve in bear form. Shifting to bear form increases the armor of a druid by 400%, and there are a number of leather items out there which have a higher-than-average armor that can send our physical damage mitigation through the roof.Let's just assume that you're leveling up your feral druid, thinking about when you reach 70 and wondering what kind of gear you're going to need going into the high-end 5-person instances and raiding. The thing you might not know is, as you're leveling up towards 70, some of the best of these high-armor items are easily available through quests. These may be "just green" in some cases, but that armor rating makes them extremely valuable for a druid for a long time. They often outshine their bluer or purpler counterparts in their bearish tanking power. Continue reading for a short guide to these what these items are how to get them.
Best RP quest chains pre-Outlands
So you leveled your main into the late 50s and are ready to jump into the time-sucking goodness that is the Outlands. But before you head in, you want to experience any good pre-BC quest chains you may have missed. One player on the official forums is in this exact situation and wants to know: what quest chain should she do that has good XP and an interesting storyline before heading into the Burning Crusade content?Many players have chimed in so far with their fondly remembered misadventures. Tirion Fordring's Redemption chain out of the Eastern Plaguelands gets many recommendations. As does the Marauders of Darrowshire chain in which you have to find a little girl ghost's missing dolly and along the way relive a critical moment in the history of the lands.You can also summon a helicopter out of Azshara, get killed on purpose out of Un'goro and learn the history of the Moonkin which takes you to the same area where you can quest for a mechanical yeti. But there is one quest that is getting the most enthusiastic recommendations.
Druid epic flight form is live with patch 2.1
Patch 2.1 brought many treats to the adventurers of Azeroth, but one of the sweetest is the Epic Druid Flight Form quest. Unlike its predecessor, Flight Form, this ability isn't handed out to every high level shape shifter with the appropriate riding skill. The quest to fly at epic speed is long and complex. Revered reputation grinding, Heroic instance running, escort quests, exploding foliage and much more await the intrepid druid. Oh, and they have to pay the 5000g riding skill upgrade before they can even start the quest. When they finish, druids not only get the Swift Flight Form ability, but also a relic that works for any druid spec: Idol of the Raven Goddess - Increases the healing granted by the Tree of Life form aura by 20, adds 9 critical strike rating to the Leader of the Pack aura, and adds 9 spell critical strike rating to the Moonkin form aura.An excellent walkthrough, Wiki style, can be found here at the Servants of Seagis guild site.EDIT: Another reward received in the quest chain: Charm of Swift Flight, Trinket, Equip: Increases speed in Flight Form and Swift Flight Form by 10%. Thanks to Felixia from the Uldum Server for the heads up!
Continuing quest chains (and a new [fake] Quel'serrar!)
A few weeks ago on Phat Loot Phriday, I wrote about the Essence of Eranikus, a cool little trinket from the dragon in Sunken Temple. It's actually part of an unfinished questline-- a few steps after you get the gem from Eranikus, the questline ends in Winterspring with no explanation as to what happened with the rest of the story. Like many players (including myself), Falandan wants to know if Blizzard has any plans to finish up this series of quests.Tseric answers on the forums, and says that while Blizz is leaving their option open, the main problem with returning to unfinished quests (The Missing Diplomat/King of Stormwind is another) is that they'd have players of a high level doing low level quests. Either that, or they'd have to interrupt the normal leveling game, and you'd be doing quests in the same line with ten (or more) levels between them.But while that's an obstacle Blizzard is considering, apparently it's not going to stop them from revisiting some old questlines: reader anobolic (thanks!) sends a link to this flickr account, with what looks like an extension of the Quel'serrar questline!If you've got Quel'serrar now (not sure yet if Blizzard will give it back to you if you've sold or destroyed it for some reason), you'll be able to do another set of quests (rumored to involve another dragon, and maybe even an Undead Onyxia-- she's back?!?) that will either get you the Daughter of Quel'serrar (more purple for paladins), the Son of Quel'serrar (for warriors), or, if you're the first person on the server to complete the quest, Quel'serrar Reborn (and apparently you get a "dragonslayer" title with that as well). Oh, and there's also a rumor of a Quel'serrar shield to come. Very cool! Of course, all this is rumor so far-- it's not even certain that this is coming in patch 2.1 is real at all (see Update) -- but if Blizzard is rewarding those who worked for the High Blade with another questline to work through, it's a good sign that we might see updates to the old unfinished ones as well.Update: Commenters are casting doubt on the authenticity of the pictures. Stuff like this could be easily photoshopped, and we have no other source for it, so take the info about Quel'serrar with a grain of salt.Update2: Commenter Leggend (thanks!) says this is proof the images were just adjusted in Photoshop. Oh well. Maybe someday Blizzard will actually finish off some of these old questlines.
WoW Moviewatch: Why I hate escort quests.
Those mechanical chickens always look so helpless -- whenever I run across them I can't help but try to help them out. This inevitably leads to a scene much like the one Areallysmartcookie shows in the video above. And, yes, for many escort quests, that particular music selection would fit just perfectly. And in case once isn't enough, there's also a sequel. Previously on Moviewatch...
Forum Post of the Day: Your "I never want to do this again" quest
You know what forum poster Timat is talking about. Those quests that you died a half dozen times attempting to complete. The quests that took hours of travel or multiple dungeon runs to complete. The quest that you completed after it went grey in your quest log simply because you refused to let the quest beat you. Posters in the thread already have some suggestions: the druid sea form quest, the Onyxia key chain (both horde and alliance versions are a nuisance), and, of course, "Vast Ocean, Deep Sea." See more player opinions in previous forum posts of the day.
Five must-see quests at 70
When I finally hit 70 on my main, the last thing I wanted to do was more quests. But lately, after a lot of prodding from guildies and a lot of drooling over the thought of a quest reward Netherwing mount, I've gotten back into questing with my main. And after going at it for a week or so now, I've discovered there are some pretty awesome quests to do even after you hit that final ding in Outland. If you're just getting ready to start questing for gold instead of XP, here's five terrific quest chains you can seek out and work through.(And yes, I do realize that most hardcore players will have already found and completed these chains-- if you know of more fun, rewarding, or cool quests to do post-70, feel free to add them in the comments below.)1. The Cipher of Damnation. This is a loooong, long questline that will get you ready to do The Eye, the 25-man raid in Tempest Keep. It starts off with some solo quests in Shadowmoon, and then takes you through all the Heroic instances in TK. Along the way, you'll use boars to dig for tubers, and puke your guts out going through rotten Arrakoa eggs. Lots of fun. It starts in Shadowmoon Valley's Wildhammer Stronghold if you're Alliance, or Shadowmoon Village if you're Horde.2. Entry Into the Citadel. This questline and the next one are key quests-- they'll finish with key rewards that will let you into endgame dungeons. This questline is the making of the Shattered Halls key, necessary to enter the toughest 5 man in Hellfire Citadel (not every group member needs these keys to enter these instances, just one-- unlike the raid instances). So lots of guildies will love you if you finish these quests, and for this questline, you get to kill a Fel Reaver in the process. The Shattered Halls key questline starts from a drop from Smith Gorlunk, on the Northern Terraces outside of the Black Temple in Shadowmoon Valley.
PTR notes: Exalted with Netherwing
Wondering what exactly happens when you get exalted with the Netherwing faction to get that neat flying drake? Joni of Malygos has done the grind on the test realm and has some information for all would-be dragonriders. After pretending to work for (and sabotaging) the Fel Orcs, she had to race six netherdrakes at honored reputation. On the way to exalted, she could complete 9 daily quests for reputation with the Netherwing. Finally, she hit exalted and got her "reward" from the Fel Orcs ... a personal audience with Illidan. Oops. Looks like those magical eyes can see through your disguise, and you'd be pretty much boned if the Netherwings didn't come down and save you. Joni ended up being flown to Shattrath and getting to pick a free netherdrake from a number of available colors. The questline also gave her a nice trinket that summons a netherwhelp as a combat pet! She says the grind will take a non-human about two weeks if you do all the daily quests each day, and she plans on writing up a Netherwing guide to help those of us who are a little less motivated to do the whole thing on the PTR. Congratulations, Joni, and may you fly your dragon proudly through the skies of the test realm.
The facts behind quests and their XP
While the "rumor" that starts this thread is really stupid and completely untrue (that red quests will give you negative XP), later on, the thread actually clarifies a few things, even for me, about quests and the XP they grant at different levels.Any quest you get has a level associated with it-- that's Blizzard's method of determining which quests you should do at which levels. As listed in the thread:Grey - TrivialGreen - EasyYellow - Somewhat Difficult (Blizzard says "Normal," but some yellow quests are more frustrating than others)Orange - HardRed - Very Hard(There are addons, also, that will do away with the whole color thing and simply tell you what level your quests are-- I use MonkeyQuest.)But here's the thing, and this is something I had wrong: every quest you do gives exactly the same amount of XP, unless it's gray. If a quest gives 4000xp, it'll give 4000xp whether you do it at red, orange, yellow, or green. I had previously thought that a red quest would give more XP (because that's how it works with monsters-- higher level kills mean more XP), but that's not the case with quests.And here's the other thing I learned: while killing a gray mob grants no XP at all, gray quests do give XP, but it drops for every level the quest is gray to you. That number is determined by this formula-- gray quests are 5 or more levels below you, and the XP you receive drops as your level rises.Finally, while the same XP is given for a quest no matter when you do it, it still might not be worth it to only do green quests-- 1100xp is great at level 17, but not as helpful at 22. While doing red quests won't actually give more XP, they will push that experience bar farther (because the bar is relative to the XP you need for next level). As with mobs, you generally want to be doing yellow quests, while doing orange or red when you can (when you have a group willing to help out) and green when you have to.
Hunter Wiki is collecting hunter know-how
Eldariel on the EU forums has posted something cool for Hunters-- he's created a Hunter Wiki. Originally, it was created to just hold the lost stickied threads from when Blizzard cleaned out the forums a while back, but even though the wiki is still small, a little more loving care will set it on its way to becoming a one stop shop for everything you ever wanted to know about being a hunter.Right now there's only a few pages, but already there's lots of theorycraft, guides to hunter loot and quests, and even a round of hunter-oriented comics (well, some of those are better than others, but it's still a work in progress). They don't have nearly as much pet info as Petopia yet, but being a wiki gives them lots of room to improve.In fact, the wiki format lends itself very well to WoW info, just because this is a social game consisting of a lot of shared knowledge-- WoWWiki has been proving that theory for a while (and they've got lots of hunter info there as well, along with plenty of other necessary information). But it's definitely awesome to see a wiki dedicated to the ins and out of a particular class, and hopefully what Eldariel has built will bring lots more editors and contributors so more hunters can share what they know with at least a little privacy from the prying eyes of others. In fact, where's my Shaman wiki?
Phat Loot Phriday: Mirren's Drinking Hat
Unfortunately for us Hordies, this snazzy hat is Alliance-only. But if you're the right faction, the MDH is the perfect headgear for drinks on the go!Name: Mirren's Drinking HatType: Rare Cloth HeadArmor: 92Abilities: +18 Intellect Increases spell damage and healing by 35, which makes it a nice quest reward for any caster around level 62 or so Restores 5 mana per 5 sec, which makes it even better And here's the fun part: Use: Reach into the hat for a drink. That's right, once every 60 minutes, you can use this hat and get a free drink in your inventory. The drink changes all the time, but it's usually some type of alcohol (naturally-- you get it from a dwarf). And some of the drinks that come out actually work as mana drinks, too, although at one every hour, it's not quite enough to live off of. How to Get It: It's cake if you're already in Outland. Down in the southwest of Hellfire Peninsula, just south of Falcon Watch (the Blood Elf tower), there's a little dwarf camp where you'll find Mirren Longbeard. He's got a short chain of two quests-- the first one will be a quick run back to Honor Hold to fetch the guy some beer (but wait, if he's got this hat, why does he need beer?), and the second one will send you just south to the Arrakoa camp to kill their pet birds and collect the feathers.Bring back the feathers and he'll give you this pimp hat, obviously named after 2007 Best Actress Oscar Winner Helen Mirren.Now, Horde, like I said, this quest isn't for you-- this is, unfortunately, an Alliance-only item. But don't worry-- you still get free booze! Down in Stonebreaker Hold, there's a barrel to the left of the inn that you can click to get some free Stonebreaker Brew! (the barrel despawns when too many players use it at one time, so if it's not there, check back later) Free booze!Apparently there's also a clickable barrel for Alliance at Allerian Point. But since they get this hat, we just won't tell them about that one.Getting Rid of It: Sells to a vendor for 1g 85s 22c, or disenchants (req 225) into either Arcane Dust, Lesser Planar Essence, or a very small chance of a Small Prismatic Shard.
Breakfast Topic: Favorite quests
Yesterday we talked about the most annoying quests you'd found in Azeroth and Outland -- so today we're talking about the opposite. Let's hear about the most interesting, most rewarding, and most out and out fun quests you've found in the game since the expansion's come out. My own personal favorite remains a fairly early quest in Terokkar Forest. Exploring the Cenarion Thicket for other quests, you're likely to run into the half-crazed Warden Treelos, who requests that you slaughter a beast he calls Naphthal'ar. Of Naphthal'ar, Treelos tells you:If you can, convince it to come down for tea. But, by all means, get it to stop staring at me!And once you have slain the beast, Treelos mourns:It's for the best, really. If it cannot civilly accept an invitation then it has no business attending.That little interaction makes me giggle every time I recall it, and -- for me at least -- makes an otherwise simple "go here, kill this" quest a memorable favorite.
More the merrier on quest kills
I have to admit that the spawn camping has slowed down a lot since the expansion's release (mostly because I'm still hanging out around 66 when all the crazy people have made their way up to 70), but if I could send one message to all my fellow Hordies out there, it's this: if you're after a named kill (like Grillok 'Darkeye' here), and you see me or someone else sitting on the spawn point waiting with you, please, please, please invite us to group up and get the kill together.There's no reason we should fight on this one. On a collecting quest, where there are so many boar's jaws to go around, I understand it's every Orc for himself-- in that case, I'll usually move on to greener pastures. But if we're both here for just the kill, why would you refuse a member of your own faction? This one's in Mystic Worlds' helpful Outland tips, too: if you're both camping the same named, group up.Of course, this only goes for factions. I'll steal a kill from any Alliance I see out there, and I just expect those smarmy Night Elves to do the same to me (and I'll take them out when they're halfway down for doing it, too). But if members of the same faction are going after the same kill (or kills) for a quest reward, people, let's just all get along.
Blizzard: no player-created quests for you!
I noticed this post with a good discussion thread about the idea of player-created quests, and it reminded me to mention a blurb I read recently in issue #2 of MASSIVE Magazine (which, if you haven't picked up yet, I highly recommend if you have a general interest in MMOs). In an article on DIY MMOs, there's a sidebar with quotes from Frank Pierce, Blizzard's SVP of product development, in which he states point blank that the company isn't looking into the idea of player-created content for World of Warcraft. "The game is built pretty tightly around the look and feel of the WarCraft universe as well as its lore... and it's important to us and to our players to maintain the integrity of those elements." He does go on to mention that, in general, player-created content could be very successful if the game were "designed from the ground up" to incorporate it. So, while Blizzard may someday put out a game involving user-generated quests, World of Warcraft likely won't be it. What's your take -- do you have dreams of writing your own quest lines? Do you think WoW could benefit from player-created content? Or do you prefer the Warcraft lore to be managed exclusively by Blizzard?
Faience's adventures in Outland: Elites? What elites?
I'm sure we're all familiar with the elite quests scattered throughout Azeroth. Or if not familiar with the particulars of each and every one of them, at least aware that there exists such a thing as quests that are flagged "elite" that involve killing more powerful "elite" monsters. Well, in the Burning Crusade you won't be seeing any of those. And, no it's not because Blizzard has decided to remove elites from the game. Instead, Blizzard has dropped the "elite" flag from quests and replaced it with a "group" flag, which I first noticed when questing on my new level 12 Blood Elf. Curious about the above Anok'suten quest, I located a partner and headed out to complete it immediately -- in the end it involved killing a single level 11 elite, surrounded by non-elites of around the same level. I might have been able to solo it -- but the suggested players hint is appreciated.And this trend continues into Outland -- only the elites are a bit bigger.
The Burning Crusade: Preparing for the Expansion
With exactly two weeks to go, I'm left feeling a little blah about what to do in the World of Warcraft. Not quite enough time to get another character to 60 (well, maybe my shammy), not really in the mood for raiding when my gear is soon to be replaced anyway, and the PvP grind is wearing me out a bit. Fortunately for me (and for you!), I came across a posting on TenTonHammer from about a month ago. So while it may be "old news" to you, I think that it's well worth the read, given that we're so close to launch. The article covers the following topics with some good hints and tips:
