AddOn Spotlight: EveryQuest
by Adam Holisky 
Jan 12th 2010 at 1:00PM
There are a few addons now that let you see exactly what quests you have left to do on your way to Loremaster, and in this AddOn Spotlight we'll take a look at my personal favorite, EveryQuest. EveryQuest is a well integrated addon that existed prior to patch 3.3, where it would track all the quests you did since you installed EveryQuest. However now the functionality has been extended and serves as my preferred method in advancing my questing achievements.
Installation
Install EveryQuest just like every other addon, drag the EveryQuest folder into the addons folder and run the game. Once you get in however, you're going to need to click a few buttons to get EveryQuest to populate itself with your previously completed quests. To do this go type "/everyquest" in the chat box and then click on the "Options" button. You can get to the options screen a few different ways, but that's the easiest.
Once in the options window go down to "Server Query" and click the "Auto Populate" check box, just as pictured above. Then click the "Query Server" button. This will have EveryQuest automatically query the server for every completed quest and use the results of that query to fill in its own database. The game will appear to hang for a few moments, but that's normal as the server and your client work together. Don't Alt-F4 or get jittery, relax and let things happen.
Once all your quests have been populated into EveryQuest's database, you'll see some information spit out in your chat box, including the number of quests that were added. My neglected warrior had done 2,226 quests, for instance.
Using the AddOn
Through the command line you can access EveryQuest by typing "/everyquest". But the preferred way, at least for me, is to access it through the quest log window by clicking the "EQ" button, as shown above. You'll then be presented with the EveryQuest window that lets you browse quests by zones. Completed quests are shown in green, incomplete quests are shown in white.
With this information you can easily see what quests you have left to do, and discover more information about the quests by typing the quest name into Wowhead. However, EveryQuest integrates amazingly well with the in-game Wowhead addon LightHeaded, and if you have both installed, clicking on the quest in EveryQuest's list will open up the LightHeaded information in your Quest Log window. From there you see if the quest is part of a chain, find what you have to do in order to get the quest, and read the various Wowhead comments about the quest.
Additional Options
There are a bunch of great additional options that you can use to configure EveryQuest's behavior to meet your own exacting needs. If you're using EveryQuest to help you level, you can setup filters to only show quests that are level appropriate. If you're using it to help you complete the questing achievements, like Loremaster, you can have it only display uncompleted quests.
It's worth it to take a few minutes and poke around at the various selections and filters in the options window, especially if you'll be using EveryQuest often.
Complementary AddOns
Kandarz, the EveryQuest author recommends that you install a few other addons with EveryQuest, and I fully agree with him. The recommended complimentary addons are:
Download
You can grab EveryQuest from the usual sources:
Filed under: AddOn Spotlight, Quests
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
deluded spider Jan 12th 2010 1:08PM
I downloaded this a while ago, and while I love the concept and it's easy to use, I guess, I can't seem to get it to read my quest information right. It can see some quests I've completed, but the vast majority of quests it just doesn't seem to be sure about. The addon gives me a message saying to email my information to the addon author because EveryQuest can't seem to make heads or tails of it.
I feel weird bothering the author about it, though. :\
Brandon Tilley Jan 12th 2010 1:15PM
Most addon authors really want feedback, especially if they hard-coded their addon to ask you to tell them! It is likely they will be most appreciative of your bug report.
Hendrata Jan 12th 2010 1:39PM
I have had a lot of weirdness in using it too, especially with regard to race-specific quests and repeatable quests. But when you're just trying to finish that last 10 quests for Loremaster, this is very helpful.
Sleutel Jan 12th 2010 1:10PM
Unless you're trying to say that they speak well of you, I'm pretty sure you meant "ComplEmentary AddOns."
Chris Anthony Jan 12th 2010 1:53PM
They're provided free of charge, so strictly speaking they ARE complimentary.
Sleutel Jan 12th 2010 2:01PM
Well, if he were just talking about free addons, he might as well just link to Curse. :D
Nazgûl Jan 12th 2010 3:35PM
Free addons is redundant now. Blizzard made it illegal to charge for them, hence any legal addon is free.
Sleutel Jan 12th 2010 3:46PM
@Nazgûl:
Sigh. We know. It's a complimentary/complementary joke.
slish2512007 Jan 12th 2010 1:13PM
not another one...
Ebdain Jan 12th 2010 1:13PM
I've been playing with this AddOn since 3.3, and found it's a little goofy. It doesn't always label completed quests as completed. Lately, it's been giving me database errors every time I get or finish a quest. Haven't figured out the cause of either one yet.
Richard Jan 12th 2010 1:16PM
QuestHelper does something similar, but the query tells you *all* the quests you haven't completed - including class-specific and profession-specific quests you can't obtain.
Does EQ have the ability to filter out incomplete quests that you actually *can't* complete?
If so, bye-bye QH and no looking back.
Swarfy Jan 12th 2010 1:21PM
Sadly no, I've ran this for the past couple of weeks, and the race/class/profession specific quests will still show up in the log.
I just hit my Loremaster achivement last night, and the Linken line isn't even in the Database for this addon. It is a good add-on for finding quests (There was one in desolace that I had no clue about until yesterday and I've played since Vanilla WoW) It just doesn't have a complete listing of all the quests.
Verit Jan 12th 2010 1:50PM
I doubt the raw data it returns is all that specific to allow that kind of filtering.
Richard Jan 12th 2010 2:00PM
@Verit:
No, I'm sure it doesn't - but you'd think the authors of QH and EQ would be interested in coding their apps to know the difference.
Maybe they can tweak something in their addons allowing us to flag quests that show up as potentially unobtainable?
For example - every war effort quest (if you didn't participate in the effort) is now gone. There are numerous old world PvP quests that you can no longer obtain.
Those should be easy filters for both addons.
For the rest, yes, it's certainly possible you can't "see" a quest because you're missing a pre-req or breadcrumb somewhere... but I ask how sites like Thottbot and WoWhead know those quests are series in a chain? There must be some method to determine that.
I'd really love to be able to finish every quest in the game before Cat launches... I'm currently at 4800 and change completed (I imagine about 1000 of those are daily quests). I imagine I'm not the only one. :)
danawhitaker Jan 12th 2010 2:34PM
@ Swarfy:
"I just hit my Loremaster achivement last night, and the Linken line isn't even in the Database for this addon. It is a good add-on for finding quests (There was one in desolace that I had no clue about until yesterday and I've played since Vanilla WoW) It just doesn't have a complete listing of all the quests."
I just checked EveryQuest on my alts (which I'm Loremastering as they level up, meaning I clear each zone as I go up in order by level range). All three Linken quests are listed in there. They're also listed as completed for my main. I'm not saying that some quests might not be missing, but when you said that, I got curious and went to look. They're there. So either you have some display option set strangely, or there's a glitch with the addon for you.
I love this addon so much I actually have a button to open it on my toolbar. Combined with Lightheaded, and tomtom, you almost never have to leave the game to look stuff up. I used to keep a manual spreadsheet in Excel and this is so much better.
Lornicide Jan 12th 2010 1:19PM
I've been using this recently and found some of the information it found to be puzzling....
For example: Some quests come up as white which, if I remember correctly, means something like "no information/data found". I'm not sure what this means. Some quests are marked as completed, some as "have, but not completed", and some as "not on / not completed."
Why is no data found for some?
Tirrimas Jan 12th 2010 1:22PM
This is really a nifty addon. There are a couple of caveats, though.
It doesn't differentiate between repeatable quests and normal ones. It gets confused about whether the quest has been completed when it's technically not ABLE to be completed; repeatable quests don't have the same "on/off switch" regular quests do. However, the addon allows you to "Ignore" quests like this.
Sometimes it isn't able to figure out if a regular quest has been completed or not. I had a few in The Barrens like this - I ended up chasing down the quest giver only to find he had nothing to offer me. I don't really blame the addon. Given the complexity of Blizzard's database, hiccups are expected.
I'll add that using QuestHelper and Cartographer along with EveryQuest/TomTom/LightHeaded makes for a very efficient Loremaster-chasing experience. I prefer Cart's terrain textures over the hand-drawn default maps, and QH adds turn-in points and mob locations over it. Be aware that all those loaded up consume a lot of memory...
Arashikou Jan 29th 2010 2:45AM
While I haven't tried EveryQuest yet, it occurs to me that one possible explanation is that sometimes quests are not available if you've completed quests further on. Consider, for example, breadcrumb quests. There may be three or four different breadcrumb quests pointing you at a particular questing hub, but once you start questing there, even if you never did ANY of the breadcrumb quests, all those breadcrumb quests become unavailable to you. (Usually these quests don't count for Loremaster anyway, so it's no big loss to not have them.)
Mixx Jan 12th 2010 3:47PM
Why do people feel the need to post this "first" nonsense?
Do people get some sort of personal satisfaction from being "first" or are they just idiots?
Me, I'm voting idiot........
Kragragh Jan 12th 2010 1:36PM
I haven't integrated this into the recommended add-ons (Lightheaded etc.) but I wish someone would make a Loremaster-specific add-on to help you figure out where half these guys are. It would be nice to have a visual representation on the map of where to go to get quests you haven't done - but, I guess that's also the whole point of Loremaster. I just started it and I have a feeling it's gonna take forever...