(We're hijacking this little spot here to let you know that Never Stay Tuned 3 is out. Olibith informed us the other day that it's a little too naughty for this blog.)
Shepiwot is so close to Episode 30 of his How to Paladin series! Episode 29, or XXIX, finds him in Quel'danas and killing Kael'thas. At what point do you think that he'll get a lifetime achievement award? With 71 machinimas under his belt, of which none of them have been sabotaged by me, and one WCM recommendation, we definitely think that he qualifies!
While Blizzard has made some steps to homogenize the playstyle of the Horde and Alliance a bit with the whole Paladin/Shaman swap, they've also done a bit of experimenting in the Burning Crusade with allowing people to make choices about certain paths, namely the Aldor and Scryer factions.
While patch 2.4 has bought as an "end" to the Aldor/Scryer rivalry lore-wise, the mechanics remain the same: You cannot enter the other side's tier without being attacked, you can't use the other side's bank, and the item and shoulder enchant vendors will still only sell to those with proper faction. In addition, there's a new twist to the sides from this patch: At exalted reputation with the Shattered Sun Offensive, you can purchase 4 different neckpieces that have seperate bonus that depending on whether you're Scryer or Aldor.
Patch 2.4, much like most other things in WoW, has managed to bring the worst out of some people. The mask of anonymity strikes again!
No, I don't mean the node-stealing, ninja-tapping, mob-training stupidery(which is a word as of right now) you see all over the Isle of Quel'Danas. I refer to the standing-on-NPCs-while-PvP-flagged griefing. If you're lucky and haven't seen this happen on your server, what most servers are seeing is a bunch of Blood Elf and Draenei players standing directly on top of Shattered Sun Offensive NPCs, so players accidentally, unknowingly, right click on them instead of the quest NPC. This results in inadvertently hitting the player, and then getting destroyed by the SSO guards.
Phase 3 is now in full swing on many servers, including mine, and this time, we're working on taking the Sun's Reach Harbor as well as opening up the long awaited badge loot vendor. How do the quests stack up this time around? Does the near flawless run for great dailies from Quel'danas continue? I've had a few days to try out the runs, and I have to say that there's a few rough spots, but you can continue to grow your list of dailies with confidence as the new phases come on.
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!
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.
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!
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!
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.
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!
Prancing around Quel'Danas for my daily quests day in and day out has reminded me of something I've very dearly missed. Weather! It rains very frequently in Quel'Danas, and combined with all of the action going on around the island, it has a very strong feel of being alive.
Zangarmarsh has rain as well, but I can't think of any other zone in Outland that has weather effects that come and go. Sure, some zones have Infernal rains and such inside and outside of them, but that isn't really the same. It's a constant, it's static. When you go to that zone, it will be there 100% of the time. Azeroth's weather wasn't like that. After it was added, of course. It might be raining in Stranglethorn, it might be sunshine from horizon to horizon. When it was raining, the zone had an entirely different feel. You were doing the same things, but it just felt different.
I brought this up with some friends of mine a few times before, and we tried to think it through with logic at first. You know, the atmosphere is different, so maybe other zones in Outland can't rain. It's an alien world, so who knows? Even if you play the 'alien world = no rain' card, I think there are some awesome weather-related things you can do. Read on for my thoughts on the matter!
Mana Thistle grows in Outland. Some of the mines of Outland contain Adamantite Ore. So how do plants and ore that are native to a completely different planet occur on the Isle of Quel'Danas?
I understand that it is a level 70 zone and therefore they put level 70 gathering nodes there. But story-wise it makes no sense. The Lore of WoW is rich and entertaining and is one of the best parts of playing this game. Inconsistencies like this mar the immersion of what is otherwise a very fun new zone.
Lasica responded to Battery's question about this on the forums with a suggestion that they fell out of the Exodar as it passed overhead. This could easily explain the Mana Thistle, if it took to the fertile soil on the Isle, but metals don't grow like plants, so this explanation can't really be stretched to the Adamantite.
Do you have an explanation to satisfy the lore-nerds like me? Or are you just happy to have another place to farm?
We've been talking about Magisters' Terrace a lot. I have been talking about Magisters' Terrace a lot. Lucky you, we're going to talk about it some more!
Magisters' Terrace is the brand new 5-man that came with Patch 2.4, so it comes across as much harder than it actually is. It is hard, sure, but not the soul-rending pain we're all feeling right now. All new dungeons require a period of adjustment. I remember when Dire Maul first came out, way back in the day. Everyone thought it was utterly horrifying.
During this period of adjustment, you're going to run into groups being far more strict about group composition. Once the community has become accustomed to the difficulty level of Magisters' Terrace, things will ease up. Currently, a lot of damage specced hybrids are having a rough time finding a group consistently due to one pretty large factor: A lack of crowd control. There are a lot of things you can(and should) do to make up for that, and knowing those things will do a lot to contribute to speeding up the adjustment period.
A brief glance at the Dungeons and Raids official forum last night was a bit of a surprise. The third boss in Magisters' Terrace has inspired a lot of hatred and arguing. Why is that a surprise to me? Well, it's becoming one of my favorite 5 man boss encounters in WoW! Either the QQ is going strong on the official forums, or I'm a complete and utter masochist. I'm leaning towards that second one, considering Blackheart the Inciter is my former favorite.
If you have never seen this encounter before, or don't know how it works, Eliah touches on it a bit in his Magisters' Terrace guide. Basically, it's a 5v5 arena match. You can't tank it, there are no threat tables. It's a game of control and survival. Priestess Delrissa, who is a Holy Priest, can spawn with four random friends, chosen from a pool of eight.
This quest begins on the Isle of Quel'Danas from Vindicator Kaalan. You'll find him inside of the newly acquired Sun's Reach Armory. He sends you back over to Ayren Cloudbreaker for a Dragonhawk to use. If you remember, he's the same Blood Elf you spoke to for the quest Distraction at the Dead Scar.
Yes, this is another 'bombing run' quest, though slightly different. Your goal is to bomb the three Elven Destroyers just off of the coast and kill six Dawnblade Reservists to... well, intercept reinforcements. When your dragonhawk takes off, it'll fly past each of the three boats(Dawnchaser, Blood Oath, and Sin'loren). You'll use the Flaming Oil provided to you by the NPCs, and throw it at the sails of the ships. Big, easy targets. You should have more than enough time to hit them all. Eventually your dragonhawk will land on the Sin'loren, where you begin slaughtering Blood Elves again. You can migrate over to the other two ships, but your ride back is on that particular boat. You chat with the dragonhawk when you're done because he was kind enough to wait for you, and you're taken back to the mainland.
You should have no difficulty hitting all three ships with the Oil on one pass, and while the Dawnblade Reservists aren't especially numerous, they respawn very quickly. This quest should only take you a few minutes assuming there aren't dozens and dozens of people trying to do the quest at one time.
Once Phase 3 of retaking Quel'Danas is complete, this quest will be renamed "Keeping the Enemy at Bay," but the objectives and road to completion remain the same. For more information on this quest and others, you can check out Wowwiki or Wowhead.
While Blizzard has made some steps to homogenize the playstyle of the 
Phase 3
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