quests
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Quest rewards in the Burning Crusade
This lone screenshot has spawned a lot of excitement, by presenting us with a glance of what sort of itemization we can expect to see in the mid-60s. If you're already decked out in epic gear, these items might make you cry, but if you aren't, they might make you jump for joy. (My thought is that they never should have allowed Goblins to name these things.) The items in the screenshot, for those who can't bother to click on, include the following...QR 9977 2H AxeTwo-Hand Axe221 - 333 Damage Speed 3.40(81.5 damage per second)+31 Strength+30 Agility+45 StaminaQR 9977 Caster StaffTwo-Hand Staff92 - 162 Damage Speed 2.10(60.4 damage per second)+45 Stamina+31 IntellectEquip: Improves spell critical strike rating by 30.Equip: Increases damage and healing done by magical spells and effects by up to 85.QR 9977 DPS DaggerOne-Hand Dagger74 - 139 Damage Speed 1.70(62.6 damage per second)+13 Agility+19 StaminaEquip: +26 Attack PowerQR 9977 Feral StaffTwo-Hand Staff144 - 253 Damage Speed 3.30(60.2 damage per second)+31 Strength+30 Agility+45 StaminaEquip: +298 Attack Power in Cat, Bear, Dire Bear, and Moonkin forms only.QR 9977 Fist WeaponOne-Hand Fist Weapon109-204 Damage Speed 2.50(62.6 damage per second)+13 Agility+19 StaminaEquip: +26 Attack Power.QR 9977 Healer MaceThe screenshot, for some reason, does not include a mouseover of this mace. However, later in the thread, someone comments that the mace has "160ish +healing and some other stats I dont recall."
How do we level? Let us count the ways
From reader Luclan comes a very important question: what, in our experience, is the best or fastest way of levelling up quickly?First off, I believe levelling quickly in the "power-levelling" sense, and levelling well, are two different things. Getting a level 60 friend to run you through all the lower dungeons for loot won't help you learn how to play your class in groups; spending five levels grinding in one spot doesn't equip you to deal with a wide variety of situations. The journey through each level should, in my opinion, be savoured and learnt from -- after all, when you end up at level 60, knowing as much as possible about your class is a great start.
Breakfast Topic: Easy to Miss Quests
There's been a thread making the rounds on the forums about the game's easy to miss quests, which started me thinking about the game's questing system. For the most part, quests are difficult to miss - NPCs in need of help stand around with large yellow exclamation points over their heads that are hard to ignore. In a game that's so intentionally user-friendly, what indeed is the point of hard to find quests, that few may ever see? Having played the game through to level 60 on both Alliance and Horde sides, I'm always amused to find some bit of game content that's previously escaped me. But as to the point of these hidden quests - is their benefit in adding replayability to the game? In rewarding the persistent explorers who may find them? And how do you like your quests - straight up and in the open or a hidden gem in an obscure place?
New tabards are all the rage
I play on a number of servers, and a fashion is spreading through them -- players are donning new tabards everywhere from Ahn'Qiraj to Zul'Gurub. The two items, Tabard of the Argent Dawn (left) and Tabard of the Scarlet Crusade, surfaced in the last patch.The Argent Dawn tabard is obtainable as a result of the invasion event. Initially, you have to take ten Necrotic Runes to the Argent Quartermaster at Light's Hope Chapel. Finishing this quest will activate an Argent Quartermaster, and you can then trade more Necrotic Runes for items like mana potions and Consecrated Sharpening Stones (+AP against undead). For ten runes, the tabard is yours. I found this tedious to solo, but when grouped with a mage and a couple of others the runes flow heavily.
Breakfast Topic: The last few levels
Benig in the late 50s is a tricky position. Depending on your guild, you might start ramping up to the endgame, or you may be trundling with your head down towards 60. If your guild isn't going all-out to get you levelled, then it can get depressing logging in, spending hours mindlessly killing, and not getting a level out of it.A few tricks to break up the tedium of that final stretch include: explore new areas and quests; pick a faction (such as the Timbermaw or Argent Dawn) and grind reputation, focusing on that rather than your level; spend some time in PvP, which has a small experience reward; try farming for money or drops instead of xp; and do some instances. You could also concentrate on your tradeskills if you've been neglecting them.Of course, nothing really changes the fact that it does take a while to level, and if you haven't the stomach for grinding, you may get bored. I've found breaking up grinding with some PvP works well, and I also used the WoWVid player for a while to entertain me through the killing. Have you any tips to make the home stretch go by quicker?
Breakfast Topic: Cash for Questing
Making money in the endgame isn't as tiresome as it used to be. With the addition in patch 1.10 of an xp-to-gold conversion -- any level 60 players undertaking quests get gold for them instead of xp -- my guild chat is full of boasts about cash rather than complaints about grinding.Farming for specific drops is still an excellent way to ensure lifelong riches, but now you can do some off-the-beaten-track quests and still get rewarded. Have you found yourself seeking out quests more, now there's cash involved? Or are you annoyed because you earned your epic mount "the hard way"? What's your favourite money-spinner?
Breakfast Topic: Quest Questions
Love 'em or hate 'em, quests are an integral part of life in Azeroth. However, they come in many different types -- from the "mindless quota killing" sort to the "cross your fingers and hope for a drop" variety. When I'm levelling, I always try to incorporate quests -- travelling from place to place to turn them in might reduce my XP per hour, but it ultimately makes the game more interesting for me and drives me to seek out new places.What's your preferred play style? Do you try to stack up as many quests as possible for efficiency? Sprinkle collection quests in with some errand-running and challenging higher level quests? Or do you grind the night away, staking out rare mobs and good drop areas?I tend to think the different characters I play drive my questing behaviour. My druid always seeks out new adventures and gets bored when in the same area for too long, my rogue tries to do quests that are way above her level by stealthing past most of the mobs, and my warrior just charges in and kills things for fun. It's interesting to push the limits of the different classes, and quests are one way to measure yourself against the game's idea of your skill -- having an addon that shows the quest levels is invaluable for this
Favorite RPG Quests
Some players (myself among them) make a run for every floating yellow exclamation point they find, while others avoid them, claiming that grinding is a more efficient way to level. Today Slashdot presents its readers with the question of what their favorite RPG quests are, and while it's not specifically touching on WoW, it started me thinking about some of my favorite WoW quests. One of the comments on Slashdot mentions the Zul'Ferrak temple quest event, but I have to say my favorite had to be the Onyxia quest chain. While difficult and time consuming, at the end of the quest you really feel like you've accomplished something. Or at least until everything respawns.So, does anyone here have any favorite Warcraft quest moments? Or are you the type to avoid those exclamation points like the plague?
Breakfast Topic: Abort, Retry, Fail?
Sometimes, despite our best intentions, we can't complete a particular quest on the first try. Maybe it's a difficult escort quest, or we're trying to kill mobs with some particularly nasty attacks, but there are plenty of moments when we want to just give up--or at least come back later.Aborting quests has the unhappy side-effect of filling up your inventory with quest items--half-collected drops and special items given to you by NPCs. Retrying again and again often leads to death and armour at 0%; but failing isn't a nice thought. On the occasions when I give up on a quest, I try to destroy the quest items straight away (so I won't start chucking out the wrong thing in the middle of an instance) and I like to think of it as "moving on" rather than "failure".What's your attitude to the inevitable quest abandonment? Do you try to complete every single quest you pick up, or are you happy to drop them at a whim?
Hidden Quests
Tobold has posted a few lesser known quests for both Alliance and Horde. I tried the Thandol Span quests on my warrior, and sure enough I needed a swiftness potion to reach the column. For all the cookie-cutter "Kill 37 rabid kittens" or "collect 42 centaur kidney stones" quests there are in WoW, every once in a while you come across a quest that is especially innovative and fun. What other quests have you come across that might have escaped the notice of most casual players?
