sunwell-daily-quest
Latest
Arcane Brilliance: The best and worst of 2008
Each year, Arcane Brilliance cooks up 52 columns about Mages, each one roasted at precisely the right temperature for precisely the right amount of time (usually a couple hours on Saturday morning over a soggy bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, to be honest). As we arrive at the 52nd week of 2008, Arcane Brilliance would like to thank each and every one of the Mages who come here every weekend to celebrate our wonderful class by reading a giant, well-cooked wall of text. Arcane Brilliance would also like to say to the Warlocks who come here to mock us and drink our delicious tears, "We hope your felhound eats you."Wow, so 2008, huh?A lot of things happened this year, right? Crazy.We here at Arcane Brilliance thought that since next week's column will be posted in 2009, we should take a moment this week to remember the year that was, and what it meant to all of us who walk the path of magic. There were some pretty high highs, and some exceptionally low lows, so we figured it would be fun to throw the highs into a ring with the lows and let them fight to the death. Join us after the break to see who wins!
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!
Insider Trader: Getting your mote on
Once you hit Outland and begin to surf through the materials required to not only reach 375 in your given profession, but then to proceed through making your epic sets, you might start feeling a tad dizzy. One of the main reasons for this across all crafting professions is primals. As an example, let's consider the Ebon Netherscale pieces from Dragonscale leatherworking. In order to make the breastplate, bracers and belt, you will need, among other things: 36 [Primal Fire], 36 [Primal Shadow] and 3 [Primal Nether]. In other words, 360 [Mote of Fire] and 360 [Mote of Shadow], and this only once you've reached 375.This week, Insider Trader explores the best places to farm for the motes you'll be needing, along with the benefits provided by engineering, alchemy, mining and herbalism. We also take a look at how to benefit from trades, with a list of further reading. Each week, Insider Trader takes you behind the scenes of the bustling sub-culture of professional craftsmen, examining the profitable, the tragically lacking, and the methods behind the madness. For more farming guides, check out our cloth farming guide. For a complete list of profession guides, feel free to peruse our directory.
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.
Rolling Restarts this morning, April 8th, 2008
It's Tuesday, and you know what that means - Maintenance. Luckily, it's a a relatively pain free maintenance day today, as there's nothing but rolling restarts on the menu starting at 5am PDT. Each realm is expected to be down for no more than 15 minutes. Of course, that still leaves you with 15 minutes of no World of Warcraft if this is your usual play time. And what's the easiest way to pass those 15 minutes than with a bit of WoW Insider? Make some quick plans for what to do on server up by checking out our Sunwell daily quest guides. Whether you're on Phase 2 or Phase 3, we have all the guides you need to get started when your server comes back up, plus Phase 4 guides for when you get those last few percentage points worth of dead elves turned in to get it unlocked. Speaking of dead elves, we have guides for the new PvP dailies as well. If you're a little tired of Sunwell stuff, how about a trip back to Zul'aman? Jennie Lees has written an in-depth guide to speed running Zul'aman that'll help you get one of the rarest and coolest looking mounts in game, the Amani War Bear -- if you can convince, cajole, or beat the other 9 people in your raid into giving it up to you, of course. Been a little off your game since 2.4? Check Hortus' list to see if it's just a nasty little bug that's getting you down. Hopefully, the rolling restarts go smoothly and we'll see you on the flipside. Either way, thanks for reading, and keep your browser here for all the latest news!
Sunwell Phase 4 daily quest walkthroughs
As many servers approach Phase 3, we're going to be one step ahead as always and make sure you're all prepared the day Phase 4 hits. It'll be some time before anyone reaches it I'm sure, but if you're anything like me, you always want to know what is on the horizon.Phase 4 concludes the taking of Quel'Danas and the progressive content, thus some of the quests are simple things like putting the finishing touches on the new Shattered Sun Stronghold. However, there are still a few things that need some work. This phase will focus on an Alchemy Lab and a super cool statue to plant in the middle of the freshly taken town.Read on for more information on Phase 4, as well as links to guides for each of the new quests you'll encounter!%Gallery-19191%
Phase 4 Dailies: Open for Business
Once you've opened up the Alchemy Lab through many turn-ins of Discovering Your Roots, the quest Open for Business becomes available.If you've been looking at those sparkling bushes scattered through Quel'Danas funny since patch 2.4 hit, be confused no longer! Those bushes are for this quest. Dear Mar'nah has discovered a new elixir here on the Isle! Bloodberries are a naturally growing plant in the wilds of Azeroth, but it seems being exposed to the Sunwell has made the ones in Quel'Danas special.Mar'nah needs five Bloodberry samples to show you what it is that she found. This quest is hit or miss. Sometimes you can get strong circuit around the island and get the five you need in under a minute, sometimes you go batty competing with others for bushes. If there's one quest on Quel'Danas you want to do in hours other than peak time, this is it.My recommendation is that you shouldn't pick just this one quest up and set out to do it. When you have access to this quest, progression on the island is just about over, so no need to stop and do just this quest. If you're going to do it, do it with some of the other quests. The frustration of the bushes being camped melts away if you have other things to occupy your time. Since these grow on the entire island, you can be sure you'll end up with five before you're done.Unfortunately for you, the elixir is not as unique and she leads you to believe. The elixir, the Bloodberry Elixir, is identical to the Elixir of Mastery, adding a flat 15 to every stat. The Bloodberry Elixir can also only be used on Quel'Danas. I suppose it is good to use in Magisters' Terrace, or perhaps save for the following day's round of daily quests. Even if the potion is lackluster, the other rewards are about equal to the others. 11 gold, 99 silver, and 250 Shattered Sun Offensive reputation.As always, if you need further information you should take a look at Wowwiki or Wowhead!
Phase 4 Dailies: Discovering Your Roots
The first daily quest of Phase 4 of the reclaiming of Quel'Danas is Discovering Your Roots. This quest begins at the newly unlocked Alchemy Vendor, Mar'nah. Of course, she has been unlocked, but not her stock. She claims to need a special reagents for that: Razorthorn Root. She says it's fairly difficult to harvest, but this quest shouldn't give anybody too much trouble.After accepting this quest, fly out to Razorthorn Rise. This region is directly on the border between Terokkar Forest and Hellfire Peninsula, up in the mountains. If you cant find it, just look at the picture above.This is similar to the quest I Was A Lot Of Things... from Shadowmoon Valley, in that you need to use some local beasts to dig up your plants for you. Luckily, you don't need to rely on the intelligence of some dumb pig that gets massacred by all of the nearby monsters and turns on you if you accidentally hit an AOE. You get to control the Ravager you'll use to dig up your five required Razorthorn Roots.
Phase 4 Dailies: Disrupt the Greengill Coast
Disrupt the Greengill Coast opens up as soon as Phase 4 begins, and is given by Captain Valindria. She can be found on board the ship(known as Silvermoon's Pride) parked in the Harbor which you took in Phase 3.Captain Valindria is apparently the SSO operative in charge of dealing with the Naga infestation on the southeastern section of Quel'Danas. Like most people in Azeroth, she needs our help. This isn't just another kill quest, but it is a kill quest in disguise. I recommend doing it alongside Don't Stop Now... because you'll be killing the required mobs simultaneously.It turns out the Darkspine Sirens are mind controlling the Murloc slaves you see throughout their camps, and they're doing it using some fancy orbs. An Orb of Murloc Control is what you want, and they drop off of the aforementioned Sirens. You want to throw and smash them into a camp of murlocs to release them from their control, and turn them on their Naga masters.What these means is the Orbs work like grenades, targeted AOE spells, et cetera. When you right click the item, you'll get a targeting circle that the previous bombing quests have trained you to use, and throw them at a pack of murlocs. You need to free a total of 10 murlocs, so try to get as many of them in the ring as possible to cut down on Orb hunting.Simple quest, and fantastic to do alongside Don't Stop Now... as I mentioned before. Doing them together will net you some easy money. Even if you don't do the other quest with this one, you'll still get a pretty decent reward. 11 gold, 99 silver, and 250 Shattered Sun Offensive reputation. Note that this quest doesn't help to progress anything on the island, and will not change once the Alchemy Lab is acquired and the Monument to the Fallen is completed.If you need more information on this quest, please head on over to Wowwiki or Wowhead!
Phase 4 Conclusion: A Magnanimous Benefactor
Unfortunately for Anchorite Ayuri, it seems that not so many people were willing to donate 10 gold to her thoughtful cause. Luckily, Anchorite Kairthos is here to tempt those of us with overflowing wallets to donate a little more.A Magnanimous Benefactor is a one time only quest found at the top of the Sun's Reach Harbor inn that can only be acquired at Exalted reputation. If A Charitable Donation was a money sink, A Magnanimous Benefactor is a money black hole. The reward is very, very cool, though. For the low, low price(donation!) of 1,000 gold, you will be awarded a title, 'of the Shattered Sun.' For example, I would become Alex of the Shattered Sun. Sweet.Now, a thousand gold is a steep price, but in my opinion this is one of the cooler titles in the game. My main has Hand of A'dal, but Of the Shattered Sun sounds way, way cooler, even if Hand of A'dal has more prestige. This title is also unique in that you can acquire it purely through solo play. Justicar/Conqueror can be gotten through semi-solo play, but you need to join groups and raids in Battlegrounds. Plus, it takes way longer to get.If you're Exalted with the Shattered Sun Offensive, you probably have far more than 1,000 gold. All of those daily quests(and/or Magisters' Terrace runs) up to Exalted? Go ahead, spend 1,000 gold. Have something to show for that work.
Phase 4 Dailies: A Charitable Donation
Acquired from Anchorite Ayuri just outside of Sun's Reach Sanctum, A Charitable Donation marks the final step on the reclaiming of Quel'Danas and the construction of the Shattered Sun Stronghold. It isn't a daily quest so much as it is a daily reputation vendor.It's easy to look at the quest and get angry, because it's a fairly obvious money sink. Give 10 gold, get 150 reputation. Keep in mind that it's completely optional, and the only thing it unlocks is a little flavor for the world. If you don't want to do it, don't do it, don't feel bad avoiding it. It won't hurt anybody.If you do want to contribute, though, donating that 10 gold moves the server toward earning a pretty neat thing. After enough donations, a statue will be built commemorating those that died in the battle for the Sunwell Plateau, and the friends and family they left behind. It is also a sign of unity between the Aldor and the Scryers; the monument has two sides, one with a Draenei and one with a Blood Elf. It has no real effect on the world, but it's pretty cool to look at.As I mentioned, this quest is basically a reputation vendor. You buy reputation, and this can only be done once a day. You pay 10 gold and get 150 SSO rep, so if you run one of the easy dailies(such as Distraction at the Dead Scar) for roughly 10 gold and 250 rep, you can turn that into a total of 400 rep. That sure beats buying Coilfang Armaments for 25 gold each, to turn in for 75 reputation. If you do this quest regularly, you can shave a few Magisters' Terrace runs off of your grind to Exalted.As always, if you need to know more about this quest, take a look at Wowwiki or Wowhead!
Bombing run nerfed
Yesterday, after the realms finally came back from the small 2.4.1 patch, I logged on for my usual round of dailies. The first thing I did was to group up with another player for Distraction at the Dead Scar, hoping to get it done in one try. And we succeded -- in fact, we got it done by about halfway through the first run! I've never finished that quest that soon, even in a full group of five. So I grew suspicious that perhaps the difficulty of this daily was reduced in the patch.And indeed, MMO-Champion is reporting that the following changes were made to the quest: Eredar Sorcerers now die in one hit instead of two Pit Overlords now die in two hits instead of three Welcome modifications indeed. The number of times I finished the run one Sorcerer short was starting to get annoying, and the flight time to and from the Dead Scar is irritatingly high if you have to go for repeat runs. This should be much more easily soloable now. Has it been made too easy? Maybe a bit, but bombing is fun regardless, and most of the dailies are of a similar level of difficulty.
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?
PvP all day, everyday: In Defense of Halaa (A) or Enemies, Old and New (H)
Patch 2.4 breathes new life into World PvP with a pair of new daily quests in Terokkar Forest and Nagrand. The Nagrand quest involves killing enemy players in Halaa and has made control of the center island, at least on PvP servers, more volatile. There are two versions of the Halaa PvP daily quest, one for the Alliance which can be obtained from Lakoor in Telaar; and the other for the Horde which can be obtained from Karrtog in Garadar. The quest objective is simple: kill 10 enemy players in Halaa. Unless I'm mistaken, it is the first and only player kill quest in World of Warcraft, making it something of a milestone and -- I hope -- a sneak peek into Lake Wintergrasp.The Alliance quest In Defense of Halaa enlists the aid of players to defend or recapture Halaa, which appears to be a Draenei outpost due to its architecture. The Horde equivalent, Enemies, Old and New, asks players to aid in the fight against the Draenei and their new allies. The quest becomes available to players at Level 66 and rewards 179 Honor points, 12,650 experience, 4 Gold 50 Silver, and 500 Reputation with the respective factions of Kurenai or the Mag'har. At Level 70, the quest awards 209 Honor, 11 Gold 99 Silver, and 500 Reputation every time the quest is completed. The reputation gain is substantial and is a nice bonus.The quest can be completed while in a Raid group, and it's highly recommended to do it as one big group because the quest objective of slaying ten enemy players will only count if a member of your group made the killing blow. Unlike normal kill quests, tagging targets isn't important, only the killing blow. Being part of a big group increases the chances that the kill will count. Like normal kill quests, however, you have to be in the general vicinity of the Honorable Kill in order for it to count. As with all Honorable Kills within the vicinity of Halaa, players receive a Halaa Battle Token. This quest makes it easier to accumulate the 100 tokens required for one of the best Resilience gems in the game, the Sublime Mystic Dawnstone. It is also shareable, so players don't need to run back to Garadar or Telaar if there's already an ongoing battle. Note that the quest isn't to capture Halaa, so players can simply engage in battle, get kills and leave. For more information about the PvP daily quest in Halaa, be sure to check out the guide I wrote up. The same benefits apply to capturing the island, such as the availability of vendors and the zone-wide buff so players may consider staying at the island long enough to convert it, anyway. Remember that the controlling faction also controls the adjacent Graveyard, giving them an advantage during battles on the island. Assaulting players will typically have to run from the Graveyard directly North of Halaa, so players who die should prepared to run a long way.
PvP all day, everyday: Concerted Efforts (A) or For Great Honor (H)
It's back! Perhaps of all the new daily quests that have arrived with the goodness-filled Patch 2.4, arguably the most confusing and mysterious one is the repeatable quest called For Great Honor for the Horde and Concerted Efforts for the Alliance. It is a dinosaur quest from the days of the old Honor system but made its stealthy return last Tuesday with a few tweaks. It was so stealthy that it didn't even make it into the official patch notes. It is also not searchable in wowhead through filters (e.g. added in Patch 2.4, PvP, etc.) or by name (e.g. "For Great Honor"). The references to the quest in thottbot or allakhazam both refer to the old repeatable quest albeit the quest description themselves have been updated to include the new requirement -- an additional Mark of Honor from Eye of the Storm. Unlike the old quest, the new and improved For Great Honor -- which probably has the same ID tag (confusing poor old wowhead) as the original quest -- does not give any reputation for old world Battlegrounds. Players grinding Battlegrounds rep for the Conqueror or Justicar titles are flat of luck and must do it the hard way aside from being crazy for trying (yeah, okay, I'm one of those people). The very first time players complete the quest, it awards 11g 99s and 314 Honor points at Level 70. Subsequent turn-ins will only award the 314 Honor. Because of the removal of diminishing returns to Honorable Kills, Honor points are available for use immediately, making this quest the most efficient way to earn additional Honor. Because it is repeatable and not a daily quest, players with stacks of 100 Marks of Honor from all Battlegrounds can accrue 31,400 Honor points right away. Of course, it is possible to earn more Honor from more turn-ins. Winning in all four Battlegrounds, for example, can give an additional 942 Honor from Mark of Honor turn-ins. For the many players who have full unusable stacks of these items, it's an excellent way to free up space and gain Honor points at the same time. Needless to say... make sure to save some Marks for those welfare epics! On a final note, try to complete this quest in the less populated cities such as the Exodar or Thunder Bluff, specially if you're turning in a whopping 100 times. Less populated cities will have less lag and less chances of players zoning in from Arenas or Battlegrounds to get in the clickable way of your turn-ins.
PvP all day, everyday! A roundup of repeatable PvP quests
As exciting as Patch 2.4 has been so far, most of the attention has been on the all-new content on the Isle of Quel'danas. WoW Insider has put together a comprehensive walkthrough of all the daily and Shattered Sun Offensive-related quests to help guide you so you can coast your way to Shattered Sun rep and earn more than a few Gold along the way. Among the few additions that didn't get as much of the spotlight but deserve mention are the new PvP daily quests, so players can spice up their PvP routine beyond the usual daily Battleground quest. Now even hardcore PvP enthusiasts can earn some Gold on the side while killing enemies. How cool is that? Click on the links after the jump to find out more about the new PvP dailies that exploded with Patch 2.4.
PvP all day, everyday: Spirits of Auchindoun
One of the two World PvP daily quests that was added in Patch 2.4 was The Spirits of Auchindoun, which is arguably the easiest of all daily PvP quests because it actually doesn't necessitate combat. The quest becomes available at Level 63, giving players leveling in Terokkar Forest a chance to help their faction take control of the Bone Wastes. Alliance players can obtain the quest from Exorcist Sullivan in Allerian Stronghold while Horde players can talk to Exorcist Vaisha in Stonebreaker Hold. At Level 63, the quest awards 186 Honor points, 3 Gold 70 Silver, and 11,650 experience. At Level 70, players are awarded 209 Honor points and 11 Gold 99 Silver.Interestingly enough, just like the Halaa quest, The Spirits of Auchindoun do not require the factions to take control of the Bone Wastes, merely for players to assist in the capture of one tower. For most Level 70s, this is extremely easy, particularly with a flying mount. It takes about 1-2 minutes to capture one tower, so it's possible to complete the quest immediately and turn it in at the nearby camp. It's arguably the easiest 12 Gold to earn in the game, the only caveat being the timing of the quest, which can only be completed every 6 hours. The quest can be completed in a raid and can be shared, making it easy to PUG the quest with nearby allies in the zone. Note that in order for the objective to count, you must see the tower's slider move from uncontrolled to your faction. If you are on a flying mount, make sure that you've landed. As detailed in one of my earlier articles, control of the Bone Wastes grants a zone-wide buff, the Blessing of Auchindoun, which grants +5% to all damage dealt and +5% experience gain. The buff also allows the capture of Spirit Shards within the Auchindoun instances of Mana-Tombs, Auchenai Crypts, Sethekk Halls, and Shadow Labyrinth. Once captured, the Bone Wastes remain under the winning faction's control for six hours and cannot be captured again, making The Spirits of Auchindoun one of the few time-sensitive quests in the World of Warcraft.
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.
