WoW Rookie: Loremaster, a completist's dream

For those of us who are leveling up or even digging into a fresh 80, there's never been a better time to fold in The Loremaster to the ol' to-do list. Flying your Loremaster title proves you've been around the block; it's not like The Explorer, which you can hoof your way through even at level 1. Earning your Loremaster title means grinding out literally hundreds and hundreds of quests over every step of your journey through Azeroth, Outland and Northrend, from level 1 through level 80. It's the completist player's dream, a title that shows you've paid your dues in every zone at every level of the game.
We're not bringing this up now as just one more item to chuck into your pre-Cataclysm bucket list; indeed, The Loremaster won't be going anywhere in Cataclysm. While none of the numbers of quests required for completion have been adjusted yet to accommodate Cataclysm material, Blizzard has assured players not to worry about it. The Loremaster quest count has been updated before, so we should be confident that it will be adjusted again.
Still, if you're playing through the old content anyway, it simply makes sense to run through quests that will be disappearing when the expansion cracks Azeroth apart at the seams. Sure, there'll be plenty of new quests to do -- but you'll never get the chance to run all of these particular quests again.
What's involved?
There are four parts to achieving the overall The Loremaster title:
Your reward: the Loremaster's Colors and the title Loremaster <Name>.

Before you even think about beginning, make sure you're up on the tricks of the trade when it comes to questing. Click that link right this very moment! We'll wait for you to get back.
OK, now that you're back ... If leveling up in a logical fashion is your first priority, your plan of attack will probably be different than that of players who're already at the level cap. There are many, many more quests in any given zone than you'll need to level up enough for the next area. Completing every single quest in every single zone along the way will leave you over-leveled for most zones and instances long before you reach them. Think ahead, keep an eye on your XP bar and the level ranges of upcoming zones, and make sure you don't ruin your own fun.
If you're not particularly worried about tackling every area (or certain areas) at a level-appropriate moment, then you're free to attack this achievement with zest. As you move into new zones with your pumped-up levels, you may find the XP a little less rich -- but the cash and cumulative XP will flow like wine.
Be sure to turn on low-level quest tracking on your minimap before you begin. Finish each zone before you move to the next. A questing addon (more details, below) can help you make sure you haven't missed anything. Stay organized, and don't head into any expansion material until you've completed everything from the previous portion of the game.
Sort out the details with addons
Keeping track of which quests you've done and which are available still to do used to be a nightmare. Unless you literally played with a notebook and pencil at your side, tracking every completed quest, you had no way of knowing where you stood. Today, the game keeps track of completed quests under the hood. All you need to do is install an addon that will show you what's done and what's left in an easy-to-read format.
The big name on the block these days seems to be EveryQuest; download it here, as well as this handy addition that shows all the quest givers and their available quests right on your map.
Another popular alternative worth investigating is Loremaster.
Know your lore
The entire Loremaster project will be even more entertaining if you can keep the storylines in context. Bone up! We've got a huge range of lore resources right here at WoW.com:
- Lore 101 How exactly do you find all of WoW's story elements when they are literally scattered across several different games, comics, manga and novels? How do you know what should be taken as official lore and what to throw away as mere speculation? We'll show you the ropes.
- Know Your Lore Our wildly popular series peers more deeply into the epic figures, key zones and movers and shakers of Azeroth, Outland, Northrend ... and beyond.
- WoW.com's Guide to the Lore of Warcraft Here it is: the lore of the WoW world, indexed and at your fingertips.
Happy questing – and may we see that new title over your head (relatively) soon!
Rookie tip of the week
Reader Rekoor is right -- it always pays to RTM.
With the new(er), built-in quest-helper mechanic in the game, it is easier than ever for players to just pick up quests and go without ever stopping to actually read the quests. However, there occasionally comes a time when just knowing where to go for your quest isn't enough. So before you go asking in general or guild chat, read through the quest to avoid chances of a public flogging. Not only will the quests provide you with further details you need, but each one has its own bit of story to follow along with and perhaps give you a greater sense of purpose as you progress through the world.
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Filed under: WoW Rookie, Achievements






Reader Comments (Page 3 of 4)
Honeydew Aug 5th 2010 3:54PM
I finished Loremaster about a week or two ago and wow! I didn't realize how long it would take me! But what helped me was EveryQuest. Sadly, I didn't have it when I first started the toon I got the achievement on. But even so, it did help out a lot!
The only thing I can suggest is to keep the low lvl quests up on the mini map and to fly or ride to places you wouldn't think quests would be. Make sure you search all starting areas and check your bags or bank to see if you have any items that may start quests.
Grovinofdarkhour Aug 5th 2010 4:00PM
To whoever at WoW.com finally cleaned up the Lore Index Page at http://www.wow.com/lore/ , you are an amazing human being, showing benevolence beyond what we deserve. No thanks I can give could sufficiently convey my meaning.
It is tragic that only we readers shall ever know of your deeds. There should be statues in your name.
Statues.
Cuddles Aug 5th 2010 4:12PM
I completed Loremaster a few months ago and have to say that EveryQuest was not as helpful as I had hoped it would be. By far the most helpful "assistant tool" was the WoWHead compiling addon and its intergration with the website. Using it, you are able to search by zones for uncompleted quests and from there gain all the information you need to find/start/complete it.
FYI I have heard that the Icecrown Loremaster achievement can be difficult on certain classes so you might want to find some friends/groups early on and call them up when you need to complete the group quests (there are many of them needed for the total). Enhancement shaman did not have any problems solo'ing all of them (except for the one that no class can solo - neutralizing the cauldron - due to CD on quest item).
Tsaavik Aug 5th 2010 4:57PM
I just wanted to second the wowhead app/website combo. At the basic level it shows you the zone breakdown for EK/Kalimdor similar to what you get in the achievement tracker for Outland/Northrend.
It also does SO much more!
For loremaster->everyquest integration run the command /lmignore to make everyquest auto-ignore quests that don't count towards loremaster achievement!
slyyy Aug 5th 2010 4:15PM
On top of Everyquest you want to download 2 other add-ons... Loremaster (what an appropriate name!) and Lightheaded. Loremaster will actually scan your Everyquest addon and mark the quests that don't count towards Loremaster (there's a surprising number of these and they are not all obvious) to ignore. Lightheaded will shows you in-game the wowhead.com comments related to the quests you have picked up (this can help you with the not-so-obvious quests, or by providing exact coordinates of objectives).
Currently finishing up the Kalimdor achievement after finishing EK, and I would urge anyone doing this to take the time to read the quests and enjoy the lore (you are supposed to be a Loremaster after completing the achievements after all!).
Zarabethe Aug 5th 2010 4:46PM
As for the Blade's Edge quests----this one stumped me for awhile, it turns out that after you get to Revered with the Consortium, the guy that you turn the Etherium Prison Keys in to will give you a couple new quests----which lead to Blade's edge. also if you do the Shatari Skyguard dailies you will pick up apexix shards quickly as you get them for quest rewards.
To get Consortium rep, I suggest you grind Zarraxis badges off of the ethereals in the Heap and turn them in to Area 52. They drop the Etherium Prison Keys, which you will need 5 for the quest to turn in to take you to Blade's Edge.
I am working on Loremaster right now, I just finished up Outland (had ONE quest left in blade's edge which I had to grind rep to complete) and I have two zones left in Northrend, Howling Fjord and Icecrown. I did EK and Kal first because I knew they were going to be harder, and I wanted to guarantee to have them done before Cata. I will say they were much easier than I thought, I didn't even have to drift into the epic quest chains (Rhok'delar, Scepter of the Shifting Sands) and I didn't even have to get all the opening areas and I had several left.
Philster043 Aug 5th 2010 6:46PM
Of all the zones in the game for quest completion, Blade's Edge, Nagrand, and Shadowmoon were the toughest to figure out. It took me quite a while to figure it all out, and I'm not sure I could have without wowhead. Thank goodness for resource sites.
calicojane66 Aug 5th 2010 4:47PM
I actually got the Seeker first. I dinged my loremaster title demanding free booze from a drunken ogre in DM, not too bad a way to finish out the achievement.
Maz Aug 5th 2010 4:52PM
I'm really proud of my Loremaster title and the fact that I've gotten it without any addon help whatsoever =)
Pyromelter Aug 5th 2010 5:40PM
Lisa, I know you guys keep it clean and whatnot, but if you are going to use an acronym like RTM, you really should be going all the way: RTFM
(warning: NSFW):
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/RTFM
scherbaddie Aug 5th 2010 7:39PM
The word fuck does not make something NSFW.
Neirin Aug 5th 2010 6:08PM
I completed Loremaster of EK, Kali, and Outland between 3.0 and Wrath hitting shelves. It was an awesome experience because at that point in time there really wasn't too much going on, so I could really get immersed in the lore and such. Talking to guildies that have done it more recently, they view it much more as a grind and a big time sink, whereas I actually count it among the most enjoyable experiences I've had in WoW.
Of course, back then there wasn't EveryQuest to give you an easy checklist of quests you need to do (well, ok, it was around, but you needed to be using it from lvl 1 for it to work properly), so just going back and figuring out what quests were even available was half the challenge.
That was also before any of the numerous nerfs to the quest requirement for Loremaster of Kali for alliance, so I really had to bust my hump finding new out-of-the-way quests. The last 4-5 I had to do were thoroughly ridiculous to try to find. There was one that was a quest that started off an item dropped by a rare spawn on Teladrassil and 2 short chains that were started from quest givers that didn't actually have exclamation marks over their head until you ran through some gossip text with them. One of the chains was started by a dying blue dragon whelp off in a corner away from the beaten path in UBRS. That's right, not only is the quest giver that starts the chain not even on the right continent, but it's in an instance (and in a remote corner of that instance), and it doesn't have an exclamation mark over it's head or on the mini-map until you talk to it. Most. Random. Quest. Ever.
Neirin Aug 5th 2010 6:26PM
Here's the WoWhead link to the starting NPC: http://www.wowhead.com/npc=10740
I highly recommend people go do this short chain for 2 reasons: 1) it really is pretty much the most random quest chain you're likely to run across (or unlikely to run across I suppose?). 2) In the 2nd or 3rd quest in the chain you get punted from Winterspring to the Plaguelands and it's truly hilarious.
slythwolf Aug 5th 2010 6:42PM
I think Loremaster warped my brain. Even though I've had it since, what, January, I still find myself compulsively completing every quest I find. For instance, when RS came out, someone in my raid shared the quest while we were forming up, and I declined it and went and picked up the breadcrumb quest in Dalaran to do first.
Philster043 Aug 5th 2010 6:43PM
Loremaster was always my ultimate goal from almost the time I started WoW. Even before finding out about the achievement, I had determined to "see everything" in the game, and so I was doing every quest in every zone just out of that desire. So Loremaster was a very handy "motivating goal" for me to stay on track towards that goal.
I'm happy to say I got Loremaster around the first anniversary of my main's existence. Being an altoholic slowed the progress a bit, but I got there. It's definitely one of the most satisfying achievements I've had in the whole game, after all that work. :)
Also got the Seeker title too. The minimum amount of quests required for Loremaster is actually lower than what you need for the Seeker title, though not by far. At present I'm at around 3600 quests. It's been a fun journey.
Assassin Aug 5th 2010 7:57PM
I transfered my original vanilla character from Alliance to Horde and decided to go after Loremaster.
Since the transfer reset just about everything, it was easy going for EK and the beginning of Kalimdor. Now, I'm stuck with about 30 quests left on Kalimdor and I have no clue where to look or what to do.
I've run around the zones with low level quest tracking on. I'm using Everyquest and almost all the quests are green (done). The only ones not completed are typically things like "Learn Riding" - quests I can't do because I'm too high level or because I already have the riding skill, etc.
Is it possible that there are quests on EK that I'm going to have to go back and complete to finish this out?
sclark1138 Aug 5th 2010 7:59PM
There is a module for Everyquest, that lets you know which quests count towards Loremaster and which ones don't. Very helpful, as you don't waste time with the quests that aren't gonna help you. My strategy was to begin in the more difficult areas first and get progressively easier (Kalimdor>EK>Outland>Northrend). The hardest zone was Icecrown, simply for the number of group quest needed to complete the zone.
ole Aug 5th 2010 10:51PM
loremaster on ma dk...about a year ago :) got given 1000g by a random person on server as they'd put up a bounty for first dk with loremaster they saw (yeay it was me)
those of you looking for missing quests in certain zones, it's usually a quest chain that starts in a different zone eg for blades edge there are a couple of quests that take you all around outland, you may complete the quest in a different zone but for some reason it counts in a different one (go figure..)
also there are a few quests for zones that rely on spawns & drops eg nagrand in particular
and as earlier noted, rep counts, ogrila.....(cries) has several quests regarding rep that take you from shatt to blades edge and then grinding the rep
good luck future Loremasters
jakel Aug 6th 2010 10:25PM
Hi. I am on Gnomer and I desperately need help completing Loremaster. I don't have a guild (not a people draenei) and those last 8 or so dumb ol' (awesome) Icecrown quests require groups *grump* AND I can't seem to solo those damn sons of Gruul so I can be done with Blade's Edge Mountain either! I ask for help until I am blue in the face. What is a poor Mage to do?
(is this a question for the Queue?)
Aruhgulah Aug 10th 2010 12:15PM
Note: being a Bloodsail Admiral and not having gotten your rep back with the goblins makes Loremaster one Very Very Evil & Painful Achieve.