Posts with tag adventures in outland

...and after my dozenth death, I'm not so sure that I feel fine. Sure, it started out all fun and games with Tyren's announcement on the forums that there might be some "cool events" on the beta realms this evening. But cool, I wonder, for whom? Certainly not for the poor denizens of the now ravaged Shattrath City -- the Outland's only major city. On the beta realm Hellfire, CMs Ordinn and Tseric orchestrated the destruction of this fine city, throwing wave after wave of bosses at the city's populace.

Want to see what happens when the game's most dangerous monsters converge on a single city center? Well, read on to find out.

I'm sure we're all familiar with the elite quests scattered throughout Azeroth. Or if not familiar with the particulars of each and every one of them, at least aware that there exists such a thing as quests that are flagged "elite" that involve killing more powerful "elite" monsters. Well, in the Burning Crusade you won't be seeing any of those. And, no it's not because Blizzard has decided to remove elites from the game. Instead, Blizzard has dropped the "elite" flag from quests and replaced it with a "group" flag, which I first noticed when questing on my new level 12 Blood Elf. Curious about the above Anok'suten quest, I located a partner and headed out to complete it immediately -- in the end it involved killing a single level 11 elite, surrounded by non-elites of around the same level. I might have been able to solo it -- but the suggested players hint is appreciated.

And this trend continues into Outland -- only the elites are a bit bigger.

I've come through the Dark Portal and fought my way past legions of demons and inward through Hellfire Peninsula... all to get tired of the crowds and almost immediately relocate to the next zone over. That zone, Zangarmarsh, is everything Hellfire Peninsula is not, starting with the color palette. Immediately upon entering the zone, I found myself in Cenarion Refuge, a neutral faction that, no, does not care about that Cenarion Circle reputation you spent so long trying to gain.

Lucky for all of us, then, that reputation is more easily gained these days...

I admit -- I've been playing this game long enough to be a little bored. And not just this-is-my-three-hundred-and-fifty-second-Ragnaros-kill kind of bored, but that the standard quest types have started to loose interest. So many of these quests read like mad libs: kill <number> of <monster type> because of <very convincing reason> and return to me with their <personal item of some sort> as proof of your heroic deed. You will receive <amount> of gold and your choice of <really nifty items>. It doesn't encourage me to do more than skim the quest text. (Though if you do this, you occasionally miss some downright hilarious comments in the quest text.) If you could picture my typical encounter with a quest giver, I think it would go something like this...

Quest giver: The Naga have been...
Me: You want me to kill Naga?
Quest giver: Yes, they're...
Me: How many?
Quest giver: If you'd thin their numbers by 30, then...
Me: Great! Where are they?
Quest giver: Around Umbrafen Lake, to the south.
Me: What'll you give me for it?
Quest giver: Well, I suppose two gold coins and some experience points.
Me: Sounds perfect! I'll be right back.
Quest giver: Wait! Don't you want to know why?
Me (riding away): I'm sure they're all bad. But really, those experience points are all I need to know about!

So I must admit that I'm a bit excited to encounter a few new types of quests, which are, to me, at least, tremendous amounts of fun. Want to know what I'm talking about? Keep reading!

Ah, Faience. A pink-haired Gnome warlock, Faience was my very first level 60 character. (And in full Nemesis, even a pink-haired Gnome can look a little intimidating.) I raided with her through Ahn'Qiraj before deciding I was exhausted of the raiding grind and re-rolled a Horde priest on another realm with the intent of playing more casually. Of course, with all of the recent warlock changes, I've got to wonder what I was thinking... Fortunately, in the Burning Crusade beta, where soling matters more to me than group utility, I've been able to dust off Faience -- renamed, uncreatively, Faiences on the beta realm -- and travel through the Outland. And, if you read on, you get to come along for the ride!