Cataclysm Daily Quests, Part 3: Tol Barad Peninsula

Welcome back to the Cataclysm daily quests series! Previously, we looked at daily quest basics and profession dailies and the daily quests in Deepholm. Today, we'll examine the world PvP hub of Cataclysm, Tol Barad, and the first half of its wealth of daily quests.
Tol Barad Basics: The zone, the quests, the battle
Much like Wintergrasp in Wrath of the Lich King, Tol Barad is a PvP area that can be held by either the Alliance or the Horde. Control of the area is contested at roughly two-hour intervals; the next battle begins exactly two hours after the previous battle ended. The winning faction is eligible to fight a raid boss, just like Vault of Archavon in Wintergrasp, but that's where the similarities end.
The Tol Barad zone is reachable through a portal in either Stormwind or Orgrimmar and contains portals back to those capital cities for members of their respective factions. The area is broken up into two zones: Tol Barad and Tol Barad Peninsula. The latter, Tol Barad Peninsula, is an uncontested zone with camps for each faction. The NPCs here give daily quests regardless of who wins the battleground, and the quests are exactly the same for both factions. Note that Tol Barad Peninsula is not a forced PvP zone the way Wintergrasp was; if you play on a normal (non-PvP) server, you will not be automatically flagged when entering the zone.
Tol Barad proper is where the battles for control take place. When your faction has control of Tol Barad, you gain the opportunity to complete extra dailies above and beyond those available on the Peninsula. This gives the controlling faction an advantage in terms of reputation and Tol Barad Commendations that they can earn each day. The mechanics of the battleground itself are beyond the scope of this article, but suffice it to say that if you are interested in Tol Barad reputation and commendations (which you should be), you will want your faction to control it at least once per day so that you are able to complete all the quests.
Tol Barad Peninsula: Permanently available dailies
The two factions vying for control in Tol Barad, Baradin's Wardens (Alliance) and Hellscream's Reach (Horde), have their own camps in Tol Barad Peninsula that are accessible regardless of which faction controls the PvP battleground area. These camps are easy to access via portals from Stormwind and Orgrimmar, respectively, and feature portals back to the capitals. This is the only way to reach Tol Barad. NPCs at the caps will offer a random selection of six daily quests out of a possible 22 quests, and these quests will send you all over the peninsula. For the sake of brevity, the links below are for the Alliance version of each quest. The Horde version is exactly the same, but given by a Horde NPC.
The Darkwood
- A Sticky Task Collect 4 Sticky Silk Glands from Darkwood Broodmothers. Watch out for the Darkwood Lurkers; it's easy to get overwhelmed when the Broodmother moves around during combat.
- Thinning the Brood Kill 12 Darkwood Lurkers. It's easiest to pull these to the edges of the area, on the path, so you don't get the Broodmothers as well.
- Cannonball! Collect 4 Stacks of Cannonballs. These are items on the ground at the top of the hill. Sometimes, but not always, you will loot two Stacks of Cannonballs from one item.
- Ghostbuster Kill 14 Largo's Overlook ghosts. The ghost horses do not count, but like any neutral mob, they will aggro if you accidentally AoE near them.
- Taking the Overlook Back Kill Commander Largo. He can be found at the top of the left-hand tower when you come up the hill into the Overlook area.
- Not the Friendliest Town Kill 14 Rustberg Village residents. Any of the residents count. Watch out for the stealthed Rustberg Bandits.
- Teach a Man to Fish... Or Steal Obtain 22 Rustberg Seabass. These can be looted from the fish racks on the docks in the rear of the village, or from the Rustberg Fishermen when they die.
- Boosting Morale Loot 6 Barrels of Southsea Rum. These are underwater in and around the wrecked ships.
- Captain P. Harris Kill Captain P. Harris, a named undead.
- Rattling Their Cages Kill 8 Shipwrecked Sailors on the beach.
- Shark Tank Kill Tank, a level 85 elite shark. Some classes can solo this, but most will prefer a group. Can easily be duoed at 85.
- Claiming the Keep Kill Keep Lord Farson.
- Leave No Weapon Behind Collect 12 Rusty Rifles around Farson Hold.
- Walk a Mile In Their Shoes Escort a Farson Prisoner to safety. Follow and protect the NPC as it makes its way out of the hold.
- Bomb's Away! Destroy 10 Wellson Supply Boats using the cannons on the dock. The distance and speed of the boat will affect where you should aim to hit them. Mobs will sometimes attack while you're shooting; just kill them and get back in a cannon to finish.
- WANTED: Foreman Wellson Kill Foreman Wellson.
- Watch Out For Splinters! Collect 15 pieces of Shipyard Lumber, either from the ground or from killing the ghosts in the area.
- Finish The Job Kill 5 Restless Infantry. These mobs are locked in combat with comparable but differently named mobs that do not count for the quest. When you kill each Restless Infantry, the mob it was fighting will regain full health and attack you; either kill it or (carefully) run away.
- Magnets, How Do They Work? Collect 7 Siege Engine Scraps. Use the quest item provided to reveal the scraps, which are predictably around the siege engines. When you complete the quest, the quest item will not disappear; you'll have to destroy it manually if you want your bag slot back.
- First Lieutenant Connor Kill First Lieutenant Connor.
- Salvaging the Remains Loot 9 Cursed Femurs from the ghouls in the area.
- The Forgotten Examine 6 Forgotten Soldier's Tombstones.
Next time, we'll look at the dailies available to the faction controlling Tol Barad proper and the very desirable rewards.
Read the entire WoW Insider Cataclysm Daily Quest Guide series!
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm has destroyed Azeroth as we know it; nothing is the same! In WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion, from leveling up a new goblin or worgen to breaking news and strategies on endgame play.Filed under: Cataclysm, Guest Posts






Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
PvtDeth Jan 11th 2011 6:16PM
I have to say, I was shocked at the difficulty of these quests when I started doing them right at 85. After gearing up a bit, they have become much, much easier, but they're still not faceroll. I'm pretty happy about that, though. I really like the idea of the Cataclysm dungeon philosophy being extended to solo play. Nice rewards, too.
(cutaia) Jan 11th 2011 6:16PM
"The latter, Tol Barad Peninsula, is an uncontested zone with camps for each faction."
...named by drunken pirates with no idea what a peninsula is.
Noyou Jan 11th 2011 6:33PM
LOL reminds me of jaws - "It's only an island if you are looking at it from the water" As Martin Brody so simply stated.
Jawbone Jan 11th 2011 6:49PM
Tol Barad Archiepelago? .... TBA, hmmm To Be Announced when Blizzard finally balances it - and I must say I am quite miffed at Blizzard for allowing all of the cheaters to keep their win-traded loot.
Kylenne Jan 11th 2011 7:13PM
Pirates aren't a terribly imaginative sort.
Arackattack Jan 11th 2011 6:25PM
On an unbalanced PvP server, the daily quests are almost beyond impossible for the lesser populated faction. Almost to the point of not being worth the frustration
Carson Jan 11th 2011 8:41PM
I'm on an unbalanced PvP server, on the less-populous faction: me & my guildmates group up to do the dailies as a team. We give as good as we get in the PvP stakes, sure, sometimes we get rolled, but we roll plenty of solo and small group enemies, too.
Bynde Jan 12th 2011 11:36AM
Kinda like Wintergrasp on the server 'thrall'. I think the Alliance held WG maybe once.
Sally Bowls Jan 12th 2011 6:16PM
YMMV
On my unbalanced server the majority side held WG about 80-90% but the minority side holds TB about 95%. TB was so poorly designed and tested that it is sort of irrelevant why that is. In a few patches, TB might (or might not) be fixed. But it will be long after people care about 359 trinkets.
Ez Jan 11th 2011 6:29PM
Definitely some better gear rewards in Tol Barad than in Wintergrasp!
VioletArrows Jan 11th 2011 6:55PM
I think this is the first time anyone's actually given me the answer I was looking for in whether or not just zoning in flags you like Wintergrasp did. Meh, I'll probably still stay the hell away from it anyway, rewards be damned.
Stza Jan 11th 2011 7:16PM
zoning into the dailies doesnt flag you BUT zoning into the pvp portion of it does
Stormsinger Jan 11th 2011 8:03PM
For clarity. Entering TB Peninsula doesn't flag you. Crossing the bridge to TB doesn't flag you. Queuing for the battle from the bridge (i.e. when the battle is going on) does flag you.
On a PvE server you can do all the quests (except Victory In Tol Barad) without flagging once.
dj.clayden Jan 11th 2011 7:09PM
Minor nitpick, but because of how the 2 out of 3 quest givers "rotate" in the Hold, you can't complete all TB dailies unless your faction wins the battle twice :)
Rob Jan 12th 2011 11:12AM
Actually, it's 3 times. 1 set of 3 for each of the "micro-dungeons". That means you can get up to 18 dailies each day.
non-pvp area: 6
static quest giver on pvp area: 3
demon dungeon: 3
prisoners: 3
archmage dungeon: 3
Kylenne Jan 11th 2011 7:15PM
I really wish they'd do something about Walk a Mile in Their Shoes, it's by far the buggiest quest I've come across yet in Cataclysm, and that's saying something. I have yet to ever actually finish the damn quest, between the NPC randomly despawning in the middle of it, standing around for no reason, etc. I've tried it four or five times in a row, I've abandoned/re-accepted it, I've tried it solo and I've tried it group but no dice. It's gotten to the point where if I see it as one of the dailies, I don't even accept it.
Rewil Jan 11th 2011 7:25PM
I've had trouble, too. Lately the NPC's been taking to running out to freedom early, standing there for a bit, and then going back to it's normal (idiotic) path before going out again.
Really starting to sympathize with the jailers, in this instance.
unpossible Jan 12th 2011 7:53AM
minor recommendation. when the quest starts, I mark 'my' prisoner with a raid marking just so I can keep track of him amongst all the other stupid pathing identical gnomes.
Stza Jan 11th 2011 7:17PM
thats weird ive had no prob with it...i do think i read they are going to be tweaking it so that YOU are the only obe who can see your prisoner not sure if this will help you
Bapo Jan 11th 2011 7:23PM
Out of that list, the ONLY quest I absolutely refuse to do, is "Walk a mile in their shoes".
Not only does the gnome bug out, but he could run all the way out of the keep, to where he gets the horse, and then run back in, cause he was flagged for combat for some odd reason. That, and the opposing faction killing either me, or the gnome : /
The others I can tolerate being ganked by the death squads of 4 - 5 people. Cause the other quests are normally go kill X or collect Y.
Bomb's Away is a fun one too