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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast Topic: Do Cataclysm's explosive quests light your fire?
by Stephanie Drury 
Feb 28th 2011 at 8:00AM
I'm a fire mage, and the explosion-riddled Mythbusters show is on my DVR, so it shouldn't be any surprise that the two quests that top my nonexistent Favorite Cataclysm Quest chart are explosive and fiery. I have no idea if this is some subconscious RP coming to the surface or if I just like big booms. I'll ponder more on that later.
In Uldum, there's a quest where you turn into a fabulous, fiery gnome-killer ball
My second favorite fiery quest is in the goblin starting zone. You put on a pair of rocket boots and fly over goblin zombies, roasting them into oblivion. Hey, they're evil, okay? It's all right to giggle maniacally as you fly over 50 of them ... or more ... for hours.
What are some other fiery and explosive quests you've come across? Do you enjoy the mass slaughter of evil pixels, or do you or your character feel remorse? Do your favorite quests tend to complement your character's motif?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 3)
shammowh Feb 28th 2011 10:15PM
you gotta love the pun in that quest name :)
exogenesis. Feb 28th 2011 8:24AM
I did Gnomebliteration for the first time on an alt the other day. I'd resisted doing it until my main reached Uldum on her Loremaster list, but it popped up as the next quest on my death knight and I ended up relenting. I was so glad that I did. It was the most fun I think I've had in the game.
My other favourite mass-slaughter quest, while not exactly fiery, is the quest in Desolace where you control a huge cyclone of wind and lightning, and take it to wreak havoc on the Alliance town. Watching humans zoom around and around in the cyclone, and various others collapse as you zap them with lightning, all while listening to a symphony of terrified yells and horrified screams, is pure brilliance.
VioletArrows Feb 28th 2011 3:48PM
It's difficult, but it's possible to leave that ONE quest off your Loremaster list and still get the achievement for the zone. But you have to get *every other quest* you can find, including the hidden animal ones. It popped for me when I finished the end of the Harrison Jones questline and those fools opened the Ark of the Titans.
And I could still go and pick up/drop Gnomebliteration as much as I wanted.
pfl.guy Feb 28th 2011 8:28AM
gnome-killer daily...i am *so* in.
razion Feb 28th 2011 8:35AM
Spoiler warning for the final quest in Stonetalon Mountains. Now, with that out of the way, I give you this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXy3S0kuPEE
TheBearMonk Feb 28th 2011 8:36AM
I love that quest in Uldum where you're supposed to disarm the 4 bombs that are surrounded by gnomes. But the disarming isn't what I love...it's the getting to the bombs that's awesome. Throw down a projector and distract the gnomes with a LASER SHARK!!
cloudhopper013 Feb 28th 2011 6:17PM
Epicus Maximus, to be precise (and his friends "and a Dinosaur" and "Rock On." He reached near meme-status when he first originated during the beta for Cataclsym.
This is done by memory, mind you. I could be wrong about many things. Perhaps the post was more eloquent and constructive than I remember. 'Could be wrong, could be right.
Somebody on the beta forums posted a rather non-constructive post complaining that for such an important land mark, the INCREDIBLY designed Maelstrom just "[wasn't] epic enough." After a lot of people responding and bashing him for thinking so and a tiny bit of others agreeing with him, a blue poster eventually humored him, saying that they had "reviewed [his] suggestion and have come to agree with [his] opinion. We can guarantee you that upon logging in in the next build released later today, you will find a newer, significantly more epic Maelstrom."
Upon logging in, one found a FLYING shark, being ridden by a dinosaur firing a laser cannon that sprouted from the shark's head, being ridden AGAIN by a heavy metal, guitar-shredding undead. From bottom to top, the names were "Epicus Maximus," "And a Dinosaur," and "Rock On."
Of course, it could never make it to launch. However it has since been immortalized in the bomb-disarming quest.
Thus concludes your lesson. You are dismissed. Now wouldn't it be funny if you actually knew all this... How embarrassing would THAT be, huh?
cloudhopper013 Feb 28th 2011 6:19PM
Ugh... incomplete parentheses in the first sentence... *twitch* ... that unresolved feeling of anxiety...
It should read "(and his friends "and a Dinosaur" and "Rock On")"
My kingdom for an edit button!
...
... *flail*
cloudhopper013 Feb 28th 2011 6:20PM
Ugh... incomplete parentheses in the first sentence... *twitch* ... that unresolved feeling of anxiety... http://xkcd.com/859/
It should read "(and his friends "and a Dinosaur" and "Rock On")"
My kingdom for an edit button!
...
... *flail*
cloudhopper013 Feb 28th 2011 6:21PM
AAAANNNND a double post. Dammit all, comment system. Just... dammit all. *twitch* *flail*
Siodar Feb 28th 2011 8:41AM
those 2 in the article are my fav firey quests. roll around in that ball til it kicks me, then get a sad feeling when its over. (wish it was a daily quest).
those rocket boots need to be a epic item to wear for fun sometimes.
Hugo C Feb 28th 2011 8:45AM
And no one liked to miss the baby bears in hyjal, right?
Pam Feb 28th 2011 10:17AM
Funny story...I was out with a friend of mine, leveling alts (we were 80), when we got to this quest. An 85 Horde started coming towards me (healy druid), and I hopped in the tree. He tried to attack me, but since I was in the tree, he couldn't.
I sat there and chucked bears at him till he finally got bored and went away.
zeorangr Feb 28th 2011 9:19AM
Daily Gnomebliteration would be awesome, but I'd like the "JOUST" themed quest(s) from Hyjal as dailies too. Blizz really created an awesome 'update' of an 80's arcade staple, and I had lots of fun with that one!
Kurash Feb 28th 2011 12:08PM
Joust, in 2D, is awesome and fun. The WoW version, though, in 3D is just a pain in my arse. :(
Tabasa Feb 28th 2011 5:42PM
I actually loved the Joust quests, to the point where my roommate, who can't stand them, gladly gives up his computer whenever his characters reach that point to let me do them for him.
And yet the Gnome-ball one irritates me. Not sure what that means.
Gordal Mar 1st 2011 7:26AM
I liked 'em, but the jousting quests aren't something I'd like to do as a daily. I just found it odd that the whole line seemed to be building towards a single, complex final quest and it turned out to be... Destroy a bunch of eggs by running over them. Without any further obstructions.
But yes, more Gnomebliteration quests please. Possibly with additional zeroes tacked on the end of the requirement. If Blizzard did this and implemented an Achievement for several million gnome kills I can guarantee that most of the playerbase would have it on at least one of their characters within the first week of that patch going live.
Norrel Feb 28th 2011 9:07AM
At risk of being downrated, I will say that I did not enjoy the gnomebliteration quest. To me it just seemed like a cheap handout to all the gnome haters. Clearly people enjoyed this quest so I don't blame Blizzard for putting it in. But I prefer quests that bring me in deeper into the world of Azeroth rather than ones that remind me that I am just sitting at my table playing a video game. However, I was amused by the quest text which referred to feelings of guilt that the player may experience at slaughtering so many gnomes.
vocenoctum Feb 28th 2011 9:34AM
I didn't enjoy it either, really. It was okay at first, but like a lot of gimmick quests for me it quickly grew boring. Not just that quest either, but all of Uldum was sort of "meh" in the overuse of gimmick/silly for me.
And yeah, if it had been orcs or kobolds or whatever, it still would have been "meh" for me, and I wonder how many folks are just there for their anti-gnomite tendencies.
Distracting the gnomes with the laser shark was fun, but as much due to the brevity of it as anything else. "ha ha, cool, on to the next" rather than "ha ha,... ha... okay, when is this over?"
Brozarius Feb 28th 2011 9:16AM
"The day I punched Deathwing in the face" ... aka "The day that Deathwing came"
I certainly had the most of LOL's doing this quest, most humorous one ever!