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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsDrysc weighs in on questing
by Daniel Whitcomb 
Feb 8th 2008 at 9:00AM
Player Tychlona of Kul Tiras made a fair point in a forum post when she noted that it sometimes gets a little annoying doing "collection" quests where it seems to take hours to collect what you need, Be it Gray Bear Tongues or Helboar Meat. I'd say that most of us can likely feel her pain on that measure. Drysc answered her later in the thread with some of his own insight into the process of questing and dealing with various types of quests. His point that sometimes seeing that "5/30 Windroc" notice in your quest log can make a quest feel like a bit of grind is very understandable, but I have to counter that seeing that "8/10 Monstrous Crawler Leg" in your quest log and knowing you've already killed 30 mobs without those last 2 legs appearing can feel just as grinding. He says a few more interesting things that may shine some light on Blizzard's questing philosophy, which I'll discuss after the jump.
For example, He also points out that variety in quest types is needed to keep things from getting too boring, and it's a fair point too. Most of us, after finishing up Nesingwary's quests in Stranglethorn or Nagrand, probably feel like we never want to see a quest to kill massive amounts of wildlife again, so we'd likely get to feeling a bit drained if every single quest involved killing massive amounts of the same thing over and over again. He also mentions that if they did remove random drop style quests, they'd probably have to start bumping up the required number of kills for "Kill X amount of mobs" quests, which might suggest various internal metrics at Blizzard that must decide how much a person should have to quest or kill to jump up a level, or how long a quest hub should keep a person in an area.
He ends by stating that he believes the WoW team is getting better at implementing new quests and making new mechanics to build off of for future quests. The game really does seem to hold him out on this, as we've had plenty of new and exciting things do in Outland, from stealing the souls of gronn and going on bombing runs, to jump-starting the hearts of Fel Reavers. If nothing else, the philosophy Drysc expounds bodes well for players as we head into 2.4 and the expansion, since if Blizzard continues to build quests off those ideals, it means we should get some good, quality game play out of them.
Of course, we'll probably still have to kill 30 Shovel Tusks for good old Hemet.
So what's your take? Is variety the spice of life? Or would you rather not waste time waiting for one last Forest Troll Tusk to drop?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Quests, Leveling, Forums
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 4)
WowMom Feb 8th 2008 9:43AM
Harpy talons are one of those things for me that never seemed to drop until I started using an addon called MobInfo, which keeps track of which mobs drop what. I don't remember exactly what it is, but the actual drop rate for the talon is something like: lvl 14 harpies 45%, lvl 15 12%, lvl 16 9%. Based on this information, I concentrate on just killing the lvl 14 harpies and get talons much faster. In my experience, this seems to hold true for all of these kind of quests. If the mobs dropping the item have a range of levels, then one of those levels will have a much higher drop rate than the others.
JPN Feb 8th 2008 9:43AM
Honestly, I don't mind the "Kill __ of ___" or "Get ___ tusks" because, like they said, with the random drop, sometimes it goes quicker, sometimes it goes slower. Maybe that's good for the gambler in me...
However, I was banishing demons near Ogri'la last night and I realized that really, I was doing a "Kill 15 demons" quest but it didn't FEEL like I was. They added in the simple mechanic of the banishing window and it really made it feel like something different. (Not THAT different, but it didn't feel as pedantic as just killing 15 demons.) I love these dailies, and having multiple ones in an area really helps to mix things up; I can do my Apexis Eminations for the daily and the buff, then wrangle some Aether Rays, then go banish some demons to clear out space for bombing runs. Don't know how anyone got to 5000g before these, as I still won't be there for a month or so.
Hank Feb 8th 2008 11:26AM
5000g is easy if you don't spend too much time browseing the AH, and you kill more mobs to level then completing quests. Once you hit 70, and quests start awarding 11g99s-24g60s, 5000g is cake.
And as far as quests go, I could go with ones that are less buggy, such as the Netherwing quest 'A Slow Death'. FIrst you need to collect 12 fel glands, which usually requires killing 30 mobs; then you need to 'feed' the orcs. Invariably, two or three groups of these will NOT eat the poisoned meat, so you need to fly back to the mainland, kill more mobs for more glands, rinse, repeat.
Isambaard Feb 8th 2008 11:45AM
The downside to the banishing quest is people with hardcore burst aggro can "steal" your demons and there's little you can do about it. A simple "kill x" quest relies on the tapping mechanic that won't ever screw you over.
bloodlight Feb 8th 2008 10:29AM
I think part of were blizzard misses, is that many if not most players only level because they have to, not because they want to. People want a definate goal to work for that they can actually see an end too, The "troll quests" were we have to collect 350 rare drop something or others do not provide that. They provide a 'oh well one more freaking troll to kill so that we can get our hopes smashed once again and have to fine one more to kill:
This quest also discourage team play. If my wife and i run together we now have to collect not 350 of the rare drop, but instead we need 700. Change the mechanic so that every one in the party gets a the drop and you encourge the team play that Blizzard says they want to encourage.
LostOne Feb 8th 2008 9:47AM
I don't mind the drop quests, but there needs to be some hidden mechanic to keep it from breaking. I was doing one the other day and they were dropping about 25%...until I had one to go. An HOUR later it finally dropped the last one. There needs to be a hidden mechanic that counts how many times you've killed one of the creatures that can drop it and after so many kills without a drop it forces one to drop for you (basically gives a one time +100% to the drop rate). But they wouldn't want to do that, because the longer you spend grinding on that one quest, multiplied by how much longer you grind on every quest like it, is more time you remain subscribed to the game.
David(Postal) Feb 8th 2008 9:55AM
Those drop quests are really annoying when i am planing together with friends.. We usually try and do other quests but sometimes we do the drop quests together.
Irian Feb 8th 2008 10:16AM
Oooh, the Curse of the Last Item got you.
But seriously, I'd love to see a mechanic implemented that gives you +n% (let's say, +3%) to item drop rate with each kill that doesn't drop you that item. Eventually you'd get your drop and the counter would reset back to the original value. That would save us the ever-so-annoying, half-an-hour long hunt for that last troll ear.
Naix Feb 8th 2008 9:54AM
"which I'll discuss after the jump."
I pressed my jump button and nothing happened.
Mattias Löfblad Feb 8th 2008 10:29AM
You need to adjust two things: 1) Assign your jump action to the Space button on your keyboard. 2) Select the jump link before you press the jump button.
Dave Feb 8th 2008 9:54AM
I prefer wholesale kill/collect quests over fedex or other esoteric quests, by far.
It's more XP for starters. You're getting kill XP for every single mob you have to kill on your way to finishing the quest. They're designed with a drop rate or kill amount to give you a certain average amount of XP while you kill, which is why they're usually really good quests. The stuff where you go find something lying on the ground somewhere or have to talk to a certain mob, you're getting maybe 10Kxp total. Killing 30 boars? You might be hauling in 30k for that, plus whatever drops happen. Unless you're really bad at picking a spec to level (like if you're trying to level as a healing spec or prot warrior) I can understand i suppose why you'd shy away from them...
but the game is about and primarily involves killing mobs for xp, loot and such. It's very odd to me that people who would want to play the game would actually want to avoid the part of the game that teaches you (or should...) how to play your class for the rest of the game.
-j Feb 8th 2008 10:28AM
The whole "Collect X of Y" works just fine when there is a decent drop rate, but I've run into too many recently that have a drop rate that seems like it's 1 in 10 or lower. The Bloodpetal Sprouts in Un'goro, for instance. I swear I killed 20 of those damn plants before my first one even dropped.
I seem to remember a quest in the islands to the north of Dustwallow (though I can't seem to find it on thottbot) that required a mob to drop seaweed that literally took me 3 hours of killing mobs before the damn thing appeared.
There really just needs to be some sort of logic written into the program that notes the expected percentage of drops and if a mob does not drop within that percent, overrides and makes it drop. (i.e. a mob has a 25% drop rate, but if the 4th mob killed does not drop it- override and make it drop)
Yeah, it might reduce the XP from grinding for quests, but quests will be done more effeciently, quest XP will build quicker, and there will be less complaining about mob stealing.
p-diddy Feb 8th 2008 10:57AM
Errr, J, you can pick the bloodpetal sprouts up off the ground. They're all over the crater. They look like cabbages.
-p-
Bepally Feb 8th 2008 10:14AM
Lately on a couple of my alts in the lower 40s, I've been doing the new quests in Dustwallow Marsh. It's been going great, a few of which is in the Zeppelin crash area there, where you need to collect 5 boxes and basically kill 10 oozes, but you kill them with a device. Questing there has treated me really well.
-j Feb 8th 2008 11:31AM
my bad, it's bloodpetals, not bloodpetal sprouts. different quest items. Sprouts are EZ.
mrbill Feb 8th 2008 10:17AM
I think Bliz did a great job with quest rewards in BC. My main (70 warrior) is running Kara still wearing some quest blues (and maybe even a green) that are good, solid pieces of equipment that I'm going to have to work at replacing.
Saphia Feb 8th 2008 10:22AM
Right now on one of my alts I need hearts off some shadow panthers in Swamp of Sorrows. I hate this quest. I've been doing it for two nights now. Not only do you have to run around spamming a macro for /target shadow hoping to find the stupid prowled things, which I think there are only three of them in the entire zone, but the hearts have a remarkably bad drop rate. I get a heart on about every 5th panther. That is just a ridiculously stupid waste of time.
The sad thing is, the panthers are now green to me, so it's not giving me the xp I want. Not like the Yeti's in the Helcular quest in Tarren Mill where I made two levels off them waiting for that stupid rod to drop.
Elmo Feb 8th 2008 10:22AM
every time I get 9/10 after not too long but then I have to kill like 30 mobs more to get the last one, now that's frustrating
drakegw Feb 8th 2008 10:27AM
The design of quests is improving. Look at the dailies in ogrila vs some of them in netherwing. Peon poisoning for example is very poorly designed, while the bomb/banish/simon/ray run takes less than five minutes with 3 or 4 people.
I'd like to see Blizzard go back and rework some problem quests and questing in old zones like they did with Dustwallow Marsh. Many of the quests in that zone are designed like outlands, with smaller hubs and quests very similar to the dailies.
Alchemistmerlin Feb 8th 2008 10:34AM
Personally I'm annoyed at just CERTAIN gathering quests.
For example "Troll Tempers" in Tanaris. The drop rate is extremely low, requires you to go into a dungeon, with multiple people most likely on the quest in your group (lowering the drop rate further). On my latest alt, I've been to ZF 3 times and I still need 8 more troll tempers.