Toque’s Guide to Instancing

As mentioned in my Beginner’s Guide to WoW, I recently came back to the game fresh with a brand new character. I’ve been doing all of the low level instances all over again with other low level characters, and a lot of them are new to the game and instancing for the first time. I was inspired to write up a guide to post in the help section of my guild forums for those new to grouping and instancing, and decided to format it as an official article for my site as well with hopes that it’ll help others.

Know Your Role
This guide is not intended to tell you how to play your class because you should already know that by now, but your role when you instance may be different than what you’re used to when you solo. There are some basic tips and tricks to keep in mind for all roles within the dungeon setting. Some of these are common sense, and some of these things are learned from experience. You’ll be loved a lot more in instances if you know the basics and help to make your group as efficient and productive as it can be. And let’s not forget the basic golden rule — treat others how you wish to be treated. Be polite within a group and you’ll quickly establish yourself as a respectful person that others will want to invite back to future grouping and instancing.

First of all, if you are the lowest level in your group or a lower level going with a group of higher levels, STAY BACK. Your aggro radius is a lot bigger than you realize, and you’ll cause a wipe simply by sticking your nose out too far. This goes for your pet, if you have one. Hug the walls, etc. Stick to the back of the group — you should never be the first or out in front — and let the main tank or other member of the party gain aggro first before attacking to avoid pulling aggro to you.

And here’s two simple words that are important in any group situation: STAY TOGETHER. Not only can your healer not save you if you run off and they can’t find you, but those that run off tend to engage additional mobs by accident, and then your group is split up between two sets of mobs. This is a nightmare for your healer and a nightmare for being successful in the instance. Stay together and no one will get lost or engage mobs by mistake and split your efforts.

Designate Roles Early
Decide at the beginning who is the main tank, who is the off-tank (if needed), who is pulling, and who the main (and secondary, if applicable) healer is. Have the Hunter mark the target. All party members should focus on this target until it’s dead. If adds pull with the marked target, send the off-tank or pets onto them to keep them busy until the whole group can focus on them, or utilize crowd control methods (explained later) to keep the additional mobs at bay until you’re all ready to deal with it. If there’s multiple Hunters, decide which one is going to mark targets. There’s nothing more confusing to the rest of the group than to look at your future pull and see three of four targets marked and not know what you’re focusing on, unless this is a strategy known ahead of time. The Hunter can put Hunter’s Mark onto the next target after the first one is down. The group leader should use the in-game marking symbols in addition if there’s multiple mobs so that everyone knows what to attack first, second, and so on, when applicable.

Once you know who the designated puller and main tank are, let them do their jobs. Stay back and let them pull the fight back to the rest of your group, and then attack. This doesn’t always apply, but it’s typically best to pull the group you’re attacking back to a safe and recently cleared area rather than everyone moving forward into a tightly packed room of mobs where runners may flee into nearby groups and pull adds, or your presence may actually aggro nearby groups. Relax, and let the puller do their thing and bring the fight back to you.

I mention designating the main (and secondary, if applicable) healer(s) for one important reason — efficiency. You typically only need one main healer, though designating a backup is not a bad idea. The secondary healer is good for watching the main healer’s back and providing assistance when the main healer’s mana is low or they are under attack. Towards the end-game, you may get into instance situations where mutliple healers are needed, but generally you will only need one main healer. It’s important to establish who this is and let them handle healing. It’s counter-productive if mutliple people are trying to heal the same target(s), not to mention that means one or more less people focusing on the mob that the group is supposed to be killing. If you are a healing class in a group with other healing classes, find out who is best suited for the job and support where needed if you are not the designated main healer. If multiple healers are “competing” with each other to heal the main tank, for example, it is wasteful of mana and inefficient, because that second healer could instead be helping to down the targeted mob faster. For the main healer, there’s nothing more frustrating than to spend several seconds getting off a heal you’ve carefully timed and planned out on your main tank only to see that a split second before your heal went off someone else did the job, thus wasting a large chunk of your mana. For all classes and all roles within a group, be sure to know where you fit in and what your designated job is in the instance to ensure your group is as efficient and productive as possible.

Agree on Loot Rules Early
There’s nothing more discouraging than to go into an instance with a group, have something amazing drop, and not know what to do about looting and getting into a fight over it. That’s why it’s good to cover your group’s loot rules before you begin. Make sure everyone is on board and understands fully before even entering the instance, to save aggravation and fights later on. While loot rules may differ depending on who you’re with, there are very basic loot rules that should always be followed when in doubt.

If you come across a chest while in the dungeon, everyone should type /roll into the party chat. The person who gets the highest roll (closest to 100) wins the chest and has the right to open and take out the items within the chest.

Also ask before you begin who in the group is a miner, skinner, or herbalist. Sometimes, depending on the dungeon you’re in, the possibility to mine or skin or gather herbs comes up. It’s considered rude to just run up and start mining a node you see, because you may not be the only miner in the group. It should either be decided in the beginning that all of the miners will /roll for each node you encounter, or that you’ll all take turns mining nodes you come across. Same thing for skinning or gathering herbs. Play fair and respect your group members. You’re not the only one with a profession to level! Find out if there are any enchanters in the group, too, because their disenchanting services may be needed later in the group. (see below.)

The basic loot model is Need Before Greed. This means that priority for an item is given to those who need them instead of those who just want them for selling or to disenchant, for example. Blizzard has made this easy. When an item drops and the loot box pops up, look at the item. If it’s an upgrade for YOU (not for your alt, who is not in this instance and/or contributing to the run) and you need it, then by all means, choose “Need.” If the item is not better than what you have and/or you just want it to sell on the Auction House or use it for disenchanting, then you should click “Greed.” We ALL need money, but priority for gear is given to those who wear the gear and who can actually use the upgrade over our desire for more money. This includes those who want the item for disenchanting purposes. It is NOT a need situation if you just want to disenchant the item. Period.

Be careful when items drop that are Bind on Pickup (BoP). This means that if you win the roll, the item will be soulbound to you. Blizzard has also made this easy by popping up a reminder box on BoP items to warn you of this when you go to roll so that you can change your mind if needed. Normally in most groups I am in, all green items are greeded unless someone in the group actually needs the item because it is an upgrade to their gear. This gives everyone a fair chance to get a few drops in the instance that they can sell or disenchant. When blue items or better drop, it’s also important to follow the Need Before Greed model… blue and purple especially tend to bring out the worst in people when they’re grouping, and greed tends to set in. If the item is truly an upgrade, choose “Need.” If it’s not, then choose “Greed.” If the item is BoP, most times groups will tell everyone to pass on the item instead of greeding it (unless they need it, in which case they choose “Need”), and if no one needs the blue or better BoP item, it’s given to someone in the group who can disenchant it down into a shard or dust, and then everyone does a /roll in order to win the result of disenchanting. This is done because typically the disenchanted items sells better on the Auction House than selling the soulbound item to a vendor later. Again, doing this is fair to everyone. The disenchanter gets a chance to level up their enchanting, and then everyone gets a fair chance with /roll to win an item that can later be sold on the Auction House.

While this is the most commonly accepted loot rule model, don’t assume. When in doubt, it’s always a good idea to go over the rules and make sure everyone is on the same page before you begin. If it’s not discussed, ask. Trust me.

Oh, and DON’T LOOT UNTIL EVERYTHING IS DEAD. I know you’re excited to see what awesome blues and purples dropped from the boss you just finished off, but his adds are killing your group and your help is needed to finish off the entire fight. THEN you can loot. It can be annoying or distracting to have a loot roll box pop up while you’re still fighting. It’s hard to make decisions on loot and compare with what you have when you’re fighting for your life. Be sure to wait until everyone is done fighting to loot. Also be sure that everyone is in range before you loot. So if someone in your group dies during the boss fight, don’t loot until they’re back with your group or they won’t get a chance at the loot… and this will make them very angry, to be sure.

Basic Plan of Attack
Let tank gain aggro first. Have your puller pull and give your tank time to gain plenty of aggro. If you do high DPS that’s great, but let the tank get the aggro first before you start pelting away, and tone your damage down a bit if necessary if you find yourself pulling aggro too much. While it’s wonderful to be “the star” that does high damage, it’s a big pain in the arse for your healer if you pull aggro a lot and have to be healed along with the tank, especially if you’re squishy and go down easily. And remember — instancing is a group effort, so help keep it balanced and play your role accordingly — it’s not like solo play where you’re required to dole out the most damage in order to survive. Sometimes it’s slow and steady that wins the race, and if you wish to complete a large dungeon run, you need to know when to do high damage and when to turn it down so that together, your whole group can succeed. There is no “i” in “team!”

Crowd Control
One method of pulling a group is to use some form of crowd control. Crowd control is also important when you’re fighting and unexpected mobs join in. Crowd control simply means that someone (or multiple people) in your group temporarily incapacitate specific adds or mobs. The Hunter marks the main mob that everyone should be focusing on. Let’s say another mob wanders by and jumps into the fight, causing chaos. Instead of panicking, a class with crowd control abilities can keep the add at bay until your group is ready to deal with it. One of the most frustrating things in an instance for crowd control classes is that they go to the trouble of incapacitating a mob or add, and someone else in the group ruins it by beating on the incapacitated mob. If you see purple swirls, hearts, shackles, or sheep — DON’T ATTACK! These mobs have been successfully incapacitated and are not a threat currently, so stick to the main mob you should be focusing on, and then you can come back and attack the add after the crowd control method wears off. This saves mana and effort for your group. Rogues sap (purple swirls), Warlocks soothe (hearts), Priests can shackle undead, and Mages can turn mobs into sheep.

Sometimes crowd control methods are used as part of the pull when you have a group of mobs in front of you. A Rogue may sneak in and sap one mob so that it’s out of the way until the other mobs are dead, or a Mage may sheep one mob and then everyone can focus on the others, for example. If an add joins in and you see it turned into a sheep or see little hearts floating above its head, DON’T BEAT ON IT. I can’t stress this enough. Any damage done towards crowd controlled mobs will break the effect and bring the mob back into the battle. If you see that a mob has been crowd controlled, help out your group with whatever they’re focusing on (which you should be doing already), and leave the incapacitated mob alone until your group is ready for it.

Healing
Let’s talk about healing. Be mindful of your healer — they draw aggro trying to save other party members, so it’s just good practice to make sure they’re not getting beat on. If your healer draws aggro, send in your pet or immediately switch targets to get the mobs off of them. It’s everyone’s role to do this, not just the tank(s). This means the tank may have to damage all of the mobs in a group or be prepared to switch targets or have an off-tank sent in immediately, because if the tank only taps one mob of three in a group and ignores the rest, the minute your healer sends in some love to keep the tank alive, those ignored other three mobs will instantly be all over the healer. Not good.

Remember, if your healer can’t get heals off, everyone dies. Keeping your healer alive means everyone wins. It’s a good idea to have a designated secondary healer to protect your main healer. I know myself, when I’m busy focused on keeping my party alive, I don’t even notice when I start to lose health. Having a backup watching this will cover your bases in the event your healer needs heals.

If you are not the main tank and you suddenly gain aggro and feel like you’re going down fast, I have two words for you. DON’T RUN! This is highly annoying to your healer, who needs you to stay within range and within line of sight in order to heal you. In a panic situation where you’re running around like a chicken with its head cut off, your healer may not be able to find you and/or get within range to help you. Stay calm and close to your healer, and they’ll take care of you.

Hunters should not assume that a healer is going to heal their pet at all times. Personally I do my best if I have the mana available to heal Hunter pets in my group, but your pet is not a priority over a real person, and heals and mana are best served to the main tank or others that need to stay alive in order to rez in the event a wipe is possible.

And since we mentioned Hunter pets, I’ll quickly go out on a tangent and mention that Hunters should ALWAYS have their pets on passive when instancing. Always. And if you plan to take a shortcut in the instance where you need to jump down or do some fancy footwork to avoid a group of mobs, dismiss your pet. Why, you ask? Because your pets aren’t smart when it comes to pathing, and instead of jumping down with you, they’ll instead take the long way and run right through a group of mobs to get to where you jumped. This could wipe your group! Take special care to watch where your pets are pathing so you don’t pull extra mobs to your group. Ok, back to healing.

Healers should be mindful of their caster friends that do area of effect damage (AoE), such as Mages or Warlocks, and quickly cover them if they see area of effect damage taking place. In some specific dungeons it is known in advance and/or part of the strategy to AoE so you’ll know, but don’t forget to protect your squishy casters! If it’s not a planned strategy to do AoE, casters planning to AoE should try to warn the main healer in advance of sending off a massive attack onto a group of mobs if at all possible so that the healer can be prepared to cover them in case they draw aggro from doing so. Priests can cast Power Word: Shield and help absorb damage until the mobs are dead or the tank can regain aggro. Squishies go down much faster than meatshields, so healers need to be on their toes in AoE situations!

Soulstones should be put on party members that can rez, preferably a Priest. If things go south mid-battle and a wipe is inevitable, make sure your Soulstoned member moves back away from as many mobs as possible and waits until it’s all clear to use the Soulstone. If you’re the lucky one to be Soulstoned, protect that privilege by dying away from mobs that will aggro the minute you rez via Soulstone and be sure that it’s all clear and any chasing mobs have returned to their normal spot. Also watch for patrols that may be standing on top of you when you use your Soulstone. And don’t accidentally rez to the graveyard instead of using your Soulstone if you have one. It’s the Warlock’s job to keep an eye on when the Soulstone runs out and to re-apply it immediately when it runs out every 30 minutes. If someone in the group that can rez can get out of the instance before dying, make a break for it! Then you can come back inside the instance, rez the Priest or another to help you, and get the group back together instead of having everyone run back from the graveyard to save time.

Other Tips in Dungeons
Don’t use area of effect damage spells or actions unless your group is in a controlled situation or in a wide open area where there’s no risk of it pulling nearby mobs and causing adds. There are definitely situations where AoE damage is part of the strategy and perfectly ok in an instance, but when in doubt, don’t use it unless you’re absolutely sure you’re safe. This may include some Shaman totems, so be careful and aware.

COME PREPARED! It is your job and responsibility to come prepared to every dungeon with the necessary potions and elixirs you may need, food and drink or bandages, out of courtesy to the rest of your group. Don’t assume that because there is a Mage in your group that you don’t need to bring any food or drink; while most Mages typically plan in advance and have some food and drink on hand, it takes time and mana to make those items, and it’s not always convenient to stop mid-dungeon to make more. Bring your own, and if your Mage supplies you, that makes you that much more prepared. Also… just because there is a Warlock in your group doesn’t mean that you can expect to be summoned to the dungeon entrance. If you’re on the other side of the world when you’re invited to the group, get moving. Don’t hang around in Ironforge checking the Auction House or playing around. If the Warlock gets there and there’s enough people available, they may be able to summon you, but you shouldn’t rely on it or expect it as their job to do so just so you have more time to play the Azeroth stock market. If the Warlock has to hoof it to get to the dungeon, so should you.

And while we’re on the subject of being prepared, I want to share a pet peeve of mine. Being prepared also means that you should know about how long x instance is going to take and being able to fulfill that need for that time period. I understand that things come up in real life, but if you commit to a group for an instance run, do your best to have enough time set aside to actually complete the run. Your group depends on you, and if there’s any uncertainty of whether or not you’ll have enough time to complete the instance, be sure to let your group know up front so there’s no surprises when you’re a few clears before the final boss and you have to split, leaving your group hanging.

Know your buffs and be mindful of their timers. Be ready to re-apply buffs as needed immediately when they run out so that everyone always is on the top of their game with the best stats they can have for a better chance at success. When I played my Warlock, I always made a second Soulstone immediately after applying one to the Priest and let it sit somewhere on my secondary action bar. This was like a little mini clock for me, and I could see its cooldown as it ran out easily. And when I saw it run out, I already had one in my inventory ready to re-apply immediately and that way I rarely forgot to re-soulstone. If you’re a Paladin, know what your various blessings do and who they are best for, and be sure to keep them on the right people regularly. You’d not want a Blessing of Might on a Priest, for example. And be sure to keep watch for any poisons, curses, or diseases that your party members may pick up on the way, if you’re able to heal those things, so you can take care of them as soon as possible.

Kill any healer and caster mobs in the group first. Caster mobs dole out a lot of damage but go down quickly, so take them out as soon as you can. Healer mobs can make it difficult to take down other mobs in the group because they’ll just heal each other, so if you take out the healers first, there’s no one left to heal the other mobs and they’ll go down faster. A good rule of thumb is that when you come upon a group of mobs to clear, look to see if there are any casters (or any that have special abilities that you know about that will be painful), and focus on killing them first before switching to the melee mobs.

That’s all I can think of right now, but I am completely open to more suggestions or ideas to make this guide better. Happy instancing, and enjoy yourself out there! :)

Articles may not be republished elsewhere in whole or in part without permission. Feel free to link directly to this post. ©2005-2008 by Lesley Karpiuk (Toque of pinktoque.com)

read comments (0)

Betray Neriak for Qeynos

There are many reasons why people betray their home cities. For some, it’s a challenge. For others, it’s part of the roleplay of their character’s struggle to break free from the bonds of a tyrant and seek fresh opportunity in the warmth of another city, which adds depth and richness to their personal storyline within the game. Some enjoy making unexpected and unusual race and class combinations which can only be achieved by betraying. For me it was a desire to get out of the dark and gloomy hole that is Neriak. Too much hatred and negativity for me! I love the look of the ratongas, but wanted a brighter future in Qeynos.

You probably noticed when you made your “evil” character that in some cases you were limited as far as which class you could be. Some classes are restricted to only evil or only good characters or races. Perhaps you are in love with the conjuror class, but absolutely have to be a ratonga. Since that combination isn’t available to you at character creation due to the good and evil class/race restrictions, you would have to betray Freeport or Neriak in order to make a ratonga conjuror possible. When you’re creating your ratonga, you’d want to choose the evil “equivalent” of conjuror, which is necromancer. You would play a necromancer until you betrayed, and once you completed your betrayal to Qeynos, you would be forced to change to conjuror, or the good equivalent of necromancer, to fit your new life. This makes a normally impossible race/class combination possible. Not all classes are restricted to just good or just evil, though. One example set of classes is wizard and warlock. Anyone, good or evil, can be either of these two classes, so when you betray, you have the option to change your class or keep it, and in such a case you would not be forced to change when you finished betraying. No matter what class you will end up when you betray, you do need to realize that you will start over at Apprentice I level spells and abilities across the board for your class even if you’re just choosing to keep the class you started out with. This is only a note of caution so that you can be prepared to re-make or re-purchase your adepts and upgrades once betrayal is complete. Thankfully, your spells and abilities are not reset until you have completely finished the betrayal quest series, so you’ll still be nice and powerful as needed to complete the quests that lead up to finalized citizenship.

Betraying happens in 3 parts — the first part is where you run some fairly simple quests for a secretive NPC within Neriak to initiate your desire to betray and prove that you’re up for the challenge. Once that is established, you are kicked out or flee Neriak and sent to the neutral city of Haven, where all exiles go. It’s a tiny camp located in a cave that houses all of the basic amenities that you will need while you are transitioning to your new home. Once you arrive in Haven you’ll start part 2, which involves you proving your worth to your new desired city by means of grinding out faction. You have to erase the negative faction you have with Qeynos and increase it to at least 10k — amiable — in order to complete the third step in the betrayal series. Faction farming is done by running a series of quests for an NPC, and each mission earns you positive faction which can slowly eat away at your negative faction and turn it around. Once you’re amiable with Qeynos you’re able to enter the city and speak with an NPC who will have you perform a few conclusion tasks for step 3 which proves your committment to your new home and ruler. Once you’ve performed all 3 parts, you’re officially a citizen. My intent with this guide is to help make betraying the evil city of Neriak as painless and efficient as possible by providing you with the information you need and tips for making the transition seamlessly simple.

PART I It’s time to betray! Head into Neriak and seek out a little boy named Matteus Gaines. You’ll find him at 79.39, 23.37, 164.30 along the left side of the housing building in the New Foreign Quarter of Neriak. As you approach the scene, you’ll see two bullies picking on him, and they’ll at first tell you to go away or mind your own business. Pause for a moment, and they’ll attack you. Don’t worry, they scale to your level and are very easy to defeat. After you defeat the big bad bullies, Matteus will thank you by giving you the quest “Taking a Different Path,” which sends you to speak to Magister De’Pater at the Innoruuk Tower.

Magister De’Pater is located inside the Spires of Innoruuk at -275.54, 29.20, 203.39. When you enter the tower, curl around to your left and he’s standing in the corner near the door. If you’re interested, De’Pater will give you the quest, “Document Retrieval.”

You are sent to steal some documents from the evil Queen herself. The documents are located on the second floor of her castle, Darklight Palace, on a desk. Destract the nearby scribe and click the documents to retrieve them. The scribe’s name is Inaste Z’Zizin, located at -581.77, 49.95, -184.34. With the documents secured in your pocket, head back to Magister De’Pater.

De’Pater is concerned about Reverend Valac, who has reported that he is being stalked by assassins. He was last seen near the inns close to Darklight Palace. De’Pater gives you the quest, “Rescue the Reverend” and sends you to look for and save valac from his attackers.

Just before the final bridge into Darklight Palace, head to your left in between the two buildings there at 1 Walk of the Dead. When you peek in the gap between the two buildings you’ll see Reverend Valac held up by an assassin. Approach the situation and be battle ready, as the assassin will turn on you. Thankfully he scales to your level, so it should be a fairly easy fight. Once you’ve eliminated the assassin, speak to Valac to continue the quest series. Valac is located at -500.71, 27.54, -31.66. Continuing at this point will initiate a cautionary warning to remind you that this decision is final, so now is the time to back out if you’re not 100% serious about betraying. Type your name in the box if you wish to be offered the next quest, “Escape the City.”

Rush back to Magister De’Pater to warn him that his life is in grave danger. Be prepared to either run or stop frequently along the way back — assassins will randomly spawn to attack you on your route back to the Magister. Let De’Pater know of the danger he is in, and he will send you the danger that he is in, and he will send you to see Reverend Valac again, who is waiting to show you the way to exile in Darklight Wood. Once again, be prepared to have various assassins spawn and attempt to thwart your escape. It shouldn’t be too difficult to get out of town. Once in Darklight Wood, you’ll need to find Valac. Thankfully he’s not far. Turn to your left just outside the entrance to Neriak and you’ll find Valac standing at -639.95, -53.53, -34.49. Simply speak to him and you’ll be transported off to Haven. You’re now officially an exile.

PART II Welcome to Haven! Speak to Scout Elrohir who is standing by you when you wake up. He’ll explain how you got to Haven and suggests you take a little time to get used to your new temporary home; while there are no housing options in Haven, you do have access to basic amenities such as a bank, broker, and mender. One note about your bank: no access to your shared bank. Never fear, you’ll soon be in the warmth of Qeynos anyways, so just store your furniture in your bank for now… I promise it won’t be for too long, because this guide will direct you to the most quick and efficient way to reverse your negative Qeynos faction and become a Qeynos citizen.

Your first job is to head out to find Gil McMartin in the Commonlands. You’ll head out of the Thundering Steppes portal from Haven and travel to Nektulos Forest, then to the Commonlands. It’s quite a hike, especially for a low level exile, but once you’re in the comfort of the Commonlands, you’ll get to stay put for a few hours. If you have a way to stealth yourself or go invisible while you travel, now is the time to utilize that skill.

Gil McMartin is located at -923, -47.93, 13.66 in the southernmost tower just outside of the West Freeport gate in the Commonlands. There are two towers there, and most exiles will want to steer clear of the northern tower because Guard Ari is standing around the corner and will be quick to attack if you get too close, even when stealthed, as apparently he can see through invisibility. Just be careful!

Speak with Gil. You’ll get several options to show your loyalty to Qeynos. The quickest and most effective way to knock out 50k negative Qeynos faction and to raise your positive faction to the necessary 10k limit is to choose Gil’s first option: “Do you have any ideas to harry them here in the Commonlands?” Running these missions will only give you 1k of faction per mission, however, one particular mission is incredibly easy to run repetitively nearby, and is worth doing instead of some of the other options, which can potentially send you very far from the Commonlands.

The quest you want to do is called “Sabotage: Towers of Stone.” — when you choose the top option to do missions in the Commonlands, you may not get that quest right away, so you’ll want to decline Gil’s offer, re-hail him and try again until you do get that mission. This is the closest possible mission you can complete to Gil McMartin, meaning very quick turn around times, which means you can rack up the faction fast. I timed 20 consecutive runs of this very same mission and the average time it takes to complete is 3.5 minutes. At 1k faction each run, attainable in 3.5 minutes and having to do 60k worth, that’s approximately 3.5 hours of missions. Considering other missions require you to zone all over the place and do lots of travel, this is much faster and a more direct way to farm the faction you need to make Qeynos accept you. 1k Qeynos faction doesn’t seem like a lot at first, especially when there are other missions you can run that gives you 5k per pop, but when you consider that you can complete the Towers of Stone mission from acceptance to turn-in in 3.5 minutes, you quickly realize this is the best mission to maximize your faction earned as long as you can handle repetition. The 5k missions can take up to 30 minutes at a time to do, and in 30 minutes you could have earned nearly twice that by doing consecutive Towers of Stone missions.

Ok, so, I keep telling you this mission is so quick and easy, but what does it entail? Good question. You are going to cause chaos by destroying piles of rocks! That’s right, you’re going to smash piles of rocks to keep the Freeporters from building up rock walls to protect the city. It’s incredibly simple and is generally combat-free depending on your level. From where you are speaking with Gil, turn around and start heading towards the West Freeport gates that are behind you. Don’t worry, you’re not going to get very close. See the crumbling wall between Gil’s tower and the Freeport gates? It actually flanks the gate and parts of the wall run north and south somewhat as a ring around the clearing just in front of the Freeport gates. You are going to walk along the outside of that crumbled wall and click on piles of rocks that you see on the ground. That’s it! Check out my little map diagram and photo of what the rock piles look like so you know what to be on the lookout for.

Map of the Quest Area
Photo of the Piles of Rocks to Smash

You can run along the northern and southern stretch of the wall, click on rocks, and then be within minimal distance of Gil McMartin to turn in your quest every 5 stacks that you smash. You’ll know it’s the right stack of rocks because when you mouse over them, they will change color and be able to be interacted with. Click on them to smash them and continue searching for stacks to smash until you’ve destroyed 5, then rinse and repeat! Luckily the stacks re-pop very quickly, and even if you have to run along the length of both the northern and southern stretch of the wall to find 5, by the time you turn in and go again, they will have respawned for you.

If you are level 10 or so when you betray, you may have a little trouble with this mission if you’re not careful, but it’s definitely the easiest of all of your mission options at that low of a level. Beware of spectral defenders along the northern most portion of the wall and the carrion hounds that roam close to the northern portion of the wall. Along the southern stretch of the wall there are giant spiders and some scorpions, but in all situations, if you hug the walls and watch your surroundings, you’ll be just fine. And those obstacles, if they do get in your way, are levels 10 – 12, so if you’ve betrayed young, you might even be able to rack up some combat experience while you farm faction. Nothing like killing 2 birds with 1 stone! And if you’re thinking of trying out some non-Commonlands missions, just keep in mind that even though all of the betrayal missions scale to your level, getting to the locations required, such as getting to Antonica and back or sneaking into various quarters of Freeport undetected, can be a huge and time consuming challenge that can make betraying a daunting task, even with a mount. And even if you’re level 50 and know your way around Norrath like the back of your hand, it’s still faster and more productive to run the Towers of Stone mission over and over versus all of the travel. And if you get bored and want a change of pace, there are always other options throughout the Commonlands to give you the option to experience some fresh scenery while you gain Qeynos faction. Just beware if you’re a low level exile, because there are lots of things lurking in the vast stretch of the Commonlands that would love to eat you if given the chance.

If you’re looking for the easiest, quickest, and most direct route to erasing negative Qeynos faction and racking up enough positive Qeynos faction to complete the betrayal process in a timely manner, this is the way to go! You’ll be to 10k positive faction in no time.

Once you have reached the magic 10k positive faction mark for Qeynos, speak with Gil again, who thinks you are ready to become a Qeynosian. He’ll offer you a new quest, and you need to let him know you are ready to take your place in Qeynos. Once you accept his final quest, “Becoming a Citizen of Qeynos”, you’re off to find Vishra in the Mage Tower of South Qeynos. Vishra isn’t actually inside the tower, but instead is standing on the little plot of land in the middle of the moat on which the tower stands, just outside. Cross the bridge towards the entrance to the tower and walk around the left side to find him. He’s standing at 729.42, -21.00, 141.93

PART III Vishra will ask you why you want to become a citizen of Qeynos, and when I did the quest, I told him it was because I wanted to give back to the community and help others. This pleased Vishra and he gave me a little task to help give back to the city — the quest called “The Fulfillment of Dreams” sends me out to pick up 30 pieces of garbage along the Antonican Highway. You’ll also need to speak to Friar Montego in Nettleville. To get the garbage, go back out of the South Qeynos gates from which you entered town and head out along the road there and start looking for spawns of harvestable garbage. The Antonican Highway is also called the Qeynos Highway, just in case you’re confused.

Photo of the Garbage Piles

I followed the main road east and just kept my eyes open for piles that I could click and interact with on the path and just along it. And just like harvesting other items in game, sometimes you can harvest more than one piece of garbage from the same pile, so make sure the spawn disappears before moving on. Once you’ve completed your community service, you’re ready to make your 1g donation to charity with Friar Montego.

That’s right, I said 1g donation! The next part of the quest wants you to donate 1g to the Queen’s favorite charity, the Nettleville Hovel Restoration Project. Since you’ve most likely headed east on the Qeynos Highway in search of trash, you’ll probably notice there’s another road that runs somewhat parallel north of you — if you head up onto that road as you go back west towards the castle, you’ll come to another gate into Qeynos that takes you into North Qeynos. This is just a scenic tour — you really want to head back into South Qeynos, but you can get there from North Qeynos, and this way you can check out some of the other parts of the city you’re about to become a citizen of. This section is important because you’ll find lots of shopping and the bank. Head on down to the entrance into South Qeynos. Head west in South Qeynos as if you were going back towards the Mage Tower, but instead take a detour south down a side street into the Nettleville Hovel.

Welcome to Nettleville! You’ll want to see Friar Montego to donate to the charity, and he is located at 644, -24, 376 in the Nettleville Market Row. He acts just like any other merchant type NPC in the game, and instead of having a quest marker over his head, you’ll just click on him to purchase a Donation Receipt. This will update your quest journal, and it’s time to go back and show Vishra in South Qeynos your loyalty.

Vishra will commend you on your generosities and give you a final task, called “Quieting Discontent.” This quest requires that you challenge and defeat Grand Inquisitor Te’Lex. There’s just one problem: He’s in Freeport. (weird, I know, since you’ve betrayed Neriak. Apparently the devs aren’t feeling creative enough to make a separate Neriak encounter and instead just reuse the Freeport encounter.) No worries, though, Vishra and his friend Shay can smuggle you into the Academy of Arcane Science in Freeport. When you accept this quest and tell Vishra that you are ready, he will start the sequence by means of zoning you into the instanced encounter, and you’ll magically be in Freeport to complete the final leg of the journey to becoming a Qeynosian citizen.

When you zone into the Grand Inquisitor’s Chambers, you are far enough back to battle ready yourself. Move carefully forward and kill the single Acolyte NPC in the doorway. Remember that all mobs in the betrayal instances scale to your level, so both the Acolyte and Te’Lex will be your level, and are single pulls. However, there are some words of caution before you start attacking Te’Lex. Notice that there are three dead magus NPCs lying on the ground behind him. After you kill the initial Te’Lex, you’ll have about 15 seconds before another one rises from the body of one of the magus NPCs. You’ll need to kill the second one, and then the sequence repeats: you’ll have about 15 seconds and then another Te’Lex will rise from the next body. This will happen again until you’ve esentially killed Te’Lex 4 times in total. Thankfully he’s not too tough. Once you’ve killed him 4 times, zone back to South Qeynos to turn in the final portion of the quest to Vishra. To truly complete the journey to becoming a citizen of Qeynos, you simply need to speak to your trainer. Vishra will tell you who your trainer is so that you may find and speak to them. Speaking to your new Qeynos trainer and accepting a start over or class change (depending on whether or not you’ve started with an evil-only class and are now switching to the good equivalent) seals the deal and you are now officially a citizen. Congratulations!

Photo of my Ratonga, Luina, as a Qeynos Citizen

Articles may not be republished elsewhere in whole or in part without permission. Feel free to link directly to this post. ©2005-2008 by Lesley Karpiuk (Toque of pinktoque.com)

read comments (0)

Betray Freeport for Qeynos

There are many reasons why people betray their home cities. For some, it’s a challenge. For others, it’s part of the roleplay of their character’s struggle to break free from the bonds of a tyrant and seek fresh opportunity in the warmth of another city, which adds depth and richness to their personal storyline within the game. Some enjoy making unexpected and unusual race and class combinations which can only be achieved by betraying. For me it was a desire to get out of the dark and gloomy hole that is Freeport. Too much hatred and negativity for me! I liked the look of the dark elf females, but wanted a brighter future in Qeynos.

You probably noticed when you made your “evil” character that in some cases you were limited as far as which class you could be. Some classes are restricted to only evil or only good characters or races. Perhaps you are in love with the conjuror class, but absolutely have to be a ratonga. Since that combination isn’t available to you at character creation due to the good and evil class/race restrictions, you would have to betray Freeport or Neriak in order to make a ratonga conjuror possible. When you’re creating your ratonga, you’d want to choose the evil “equivalent” of conjuror, which is necromancer. You would play a necromancer until you betrayed, and once you completed your betrayal to Qeynos, you would be forced to change to conjuror, or the good equivalent of necromancer, to fit your new life. This makes a normally impossible race/class combination possible. Not all classes are restricted to just good or just evil, though. One example set of classes is wizard and warlock. Anyone, good or evil, can be either of these two classes, so when you betray, you have the option to change your class or keep it, and in such a case you would not be forced to change when you finished betraying. No matter what class you will end up when you betray, you do need to realize that you will start over at Apprentice I level spells and abilities across the board for your class even if you’re just choosing to keep the class you started out with. This is only a note of caution so that you can be prepared to re-make or re-purchase your adepts and upgrades once betrayal is complete. Thankfully, your spells and abilities are not reset until you have completely finished the betrayal quest series, so you’ll still be nice and powerful as needed to complete the quests that lead up to finalized citizenship.

Betraying happens in 3 parts — the first part is where you run some fairly simple quests for a secretive NPC within Freeport to initiate your desire to betray and prove that you’re up for the challenge. Once that is established, you are kicked out of Freeport and sent to the neutral city of Haven, where all exiles go. It’s a tiny camp located in a cave that houses all of the basic amenities that you will need while you are transitioning to your new home. Once you arrive in Haven you’ll start part 2, which involves you proving your worth to your new desired city by means of grinding out faction. You have to erase the negative faction you have with Qeynos and increase it to at least 10k — amiable — in order to complete the third step in the betrayal series. Faction farming is done by running a series of quests for an NPC, and each mission earns you positive faction which can slowly eat away at your negative faction and turn it around. Once you’re amiable with Qeynos you’re able to enter the city and speak with an NPC who will have you perform a few conclusion tasks for step 3 which proves your committment to your new home and ruler. Once you’ve performed all 3 parts, you’re officially a citizen. My intent with this guide is to help make betraying the evil city of Freeport as painless and efficient as possible by providing you with the information you need and tips for making the transition seamlessly simple.

PART I So, are you ready to betray? Let’s get started! Head to the south western corner of West Freeport and look for a hooded ratonga named Izzay Meestere in the Blood Haze Inn, located at 305.16, -2.9, 90.85. Izzay wants you to help him cause chaos in Freeport by eavesdropping on specific NPCs in town to find out what the schedules are of the Militia guards with the quest “Timing the Night Shift.” He will hand you a voice modulator device to use in your ear so you can listen from far away, undetected. This quest must only be done at night, so wait until at least 8pm game time to attempt it. Once you’ve located the guard you need to eavesdrop on, try moving around in their general vicinity until you see a system message flash on your screen to indicate that you’re in the proper position for using the voice modulator device. The idea is to be close enough but not too close so that you’re caught. The system message you see will say “I should be able to use my voice modulator to overhear the guards without being caught.” Right click the modulator in your inventory to eavesdrop. You’ll rinse and repeat this procedure with each of the 5 guards on Izzay’s list.

The first guard is Commandant Dominicus outside of the Militia House, the second guard is Commandant Arkadios to the north of the Coalition of Tradesfolke, the third guard is Man-at-Arms Faustus to the south of the Commonlands gate, the fourth guard is Commandant Placida by the Thieves Way entrance, and the fifth guard is Commandant Tor’Val inside the Militia House dungeon.

Izzay is thankful for your service and sends you to Mehina, who is located at the Seafarer’s Roost in East Freeport. She is by the fireplace to your left after you enter the building at coordinates -237.85, -55.18, -26.10. By now you’ve probably noticed that Mehina is attempting to speak in code with you to keep the conversation fairly innocent in case anyone is listening in. When the options come up, ask her about scheduling a tour of famous houses in order to get the next quest in the series, “Resetting the Militia.”

Mehina’s quest comes in three parts, and it all must be done at night after 8pm game time and before 5am in order to avoid guard spawns and being detected. The first part requires you to swipe the guard’s schedule on a bulletin board in the Freeport Militia House of West Freeport. The bulletin board is on the second floor near a staircase. Click it to steal the schedule. For the second part of the quest, take the schedule to Juturna Postumus in Longshadow Alley, located at -45, -3, -36. She will create a forged copy of the schedule, and for part three you’ll need to sneak the fake schedule back into the Freeport Militia House and post it on the bulletin board in place of the real one. Go back to Mehina once you’re done and she will send you to see Izzay again.

Izzay gives you a final reminder that this is your last chance to back out of betraying Freeport in case you are having second thougts or have cold feet. Once you’re good and ready and 100% sure you’re ready to betray, Izzay gives you a final task called “Destroy the Weapons Cache.” He’ll immediately zone you into an instanced encounter within the Freeport Militia House and the real test of your committment begins. If you have the ability to stealth or go invisible, you’ll want to use it now. Work your way to the second floor and kill Commandant Bloodsole, who has a key on him that you’ll need later. Head back down to the first floor where your buddies are constructing explosives by the instance entrance and grab a magical explosive device. Now you’ll need to work your way up to the third floor and snake around and around until you can go no further — this is the supply area, and it overlooks the level below. Place the explosive device and activate it. Head back down and this time go all the way into the basement. If you’re not able to stealth your way through the instance, you’ll have to carefully work your way through the rooms. Thankfully the mobs scale to your level, so this shouldn’t be as tough as it is time consuming. Once in the basement, you’ll need to click on the various prison cell doors to release the 5 prisoners. You’ll notice that one of the cells contains a lot of armory supplies; this is the time to run back up to the main floor and grab another explosive device so you can place it here. Activate the device in the armory cell and you’re done! Don’t be surprised when you head back up to the main floor and get captured, however, because it’s all part of the storyline. You’ll get a bad beating after being caught, but when you wake up, you’ll be an exile in Haven. The first major part of the betrayal series is complete.

PART II Welcome to Haven! Speak to Scout Elrohir who is standing by you when you wake up. He’ll explain how you got to Haven and suggests you take a little time to get used to your new temporary home; while there are no housing options in Haven, you do have access to basic amenities such as a bank, broker, and mender. One note about your bank: no access to your shared bank. Never fear, you’ll soon be in the warmth of Qeynos anyways, so just store your furniture in your bank for now… I promise it won’t be for too long, because this guide will direct you to the most quick and efficient way to reverse your negative Qeynos faction and become a Qeynos citizen.

Your first job is to head out to find Gil McMartin in the Commonlands. You’ll head out of the Thundering Steppes portal from Haven and travel to Nektulos Forest, then to the Commonlands. It’s quite a hike, especially for a low level exile, but once you’re back in the comfort of the Commonlands, you’ll get to stay put for a few hours. If you have a way to stealth yourself or go invisible while you travel, now is the time to utilize that skill.

Gil McMartin is located at -923, -47.93, 13.66 in the southernmost tower just outside of the West Freeport gate in the Commonlands. There are two towers there, and most exiles will want to steer clear of the northern tower because Guard Ari is standing around the corner and will be quick to attack if you get too close, even when stealthed, as apparently he can see through invisibility. Just be careful!

Speak with Gil. You’ll get several options to show your loyalty to Qeynos. The quickest and most effective way to knock out 50k negative Qeynos faction and to raise your positive faction to the necessary 10k limit is to choose Gil’s first option: “Do you have any ideas to harry them here in the Commonlands?” Running these missions will only give you 1k of faction per mission, however, one particular mission is incredibly easy to run repetitively nearby, and is worth doing instead of some of the other options, which can potentially send you very far from the Commonlands.

The quest you want to do is called “Sabotage: Towers of Stone.” — when you choose the top option to do missions in the Commonlands, you may not get that quest right away, so you’ll want to decline Gil’s offer, re-hail him and try again until you do get that mission. This is the closest possible mission you can complete to Gil McMartin, meaning very quick turn around times, which means you can rack up the faction fast. I timed 20 consecutive runs of this very same mission and the average time it takes to complete is 3.5 minutes. At 1k faction each run, attainable in 3.5 minutes and having to do 60k worth, that’s approximately 3.5 hours of missions. Considering other missions require you to zone all over the place and do lots of travel, this is much faster and a more direct way to farm the faction you need to make Qeynos accept you. 1k Qeynos faction doesn’t seem like a lot at first, especially when there are other missions you can run that gives you 5k per pop, but when you consider that you can complete the Towers of Stone mission from acceptance to turn-in in 3.5 minutes, you quickly realize this is the best mission to maximize your faction earned as long as you can handle repetition. The 5k missions can take up to 30 minutes at a time to do, and in 30 minutes you could have earned nearly twice that by doing consecutive Towers of Stone missions.

Ok, so, I keep telling you this mission is so quick and easy, but what does it entail? Good question. You are going to cause chaos by destroying piles of rocks! That’s right, you’re going to smash piles of rocks to keep the Freeporters from building up rock walls to protect the city. It’s incredibly simple and is generally combat-free depending on your level. From where you are speaking with Gil, turn around and start heading towards the West Freeport gates that are behind you. Don’t worry, you’re not going to get very close. See the crumbling wall between Gil’s tower and the Freeport gates? It actually flanks the gate and parts of the wall run north and south somewhat as a ring around the clearing just in front of the Freeport gates. You are going to walk along the outside of that crumbled wall and click on piles of rocks that you see on the ground. That’s it! Check out my little map diagram and photo of what the rock piles look like so you know what to be on the lookout for.

Map of the Quest Area
Photo of the Piles of Rocks to Smash

You can run along the northern and southern stretch of the wall, click on rocks, and then be within minimal distance of Gil McMartin to turn in your quest every 5 stacks that you smash. You’ll know it’s the right stack of rocks because when you mouse over them, they will change color and be able to be interacted with. Click on them to smash them and continue searching for stacks to smash until you’ve destroyed 5, then rinse and repeat! Luckily the stacks re-pop very quickly, and even if you have to run along the length of both the northern and southern stretch of the wall to find 5, by the time you turn in and go again, they will have respawned for you.

If you are level 10 or so when you betray, you may have a little trouble with this mission if you’re not careful, but it’s definitely the easiest of all of your mission options at that low of a level. Beware of spectral defenders along the northern most portion of the wall and the carrion hounds that roam close to the northern portion of the wall. Along the southern stretch of the wall there are giant spiders and some scorpions, but in all situations, if you hug the walls and watch your surroundings, you’ll be just fine. And those obstacles, if they do get in your way, are levels 10 – 12, so if you’ve betrayed young, you might even be able to rack up some combat experience while you farm faction. Nothing like killing 2 birds with 1 stone! And if you’re thinking of trying out some non-Commonlands missions, just keep in mind that even though all of the betrayal missions scale to your level, getting to the locations required, such as getting to Antonica and back or sneaking into various quarters of Freeport undetected, can be a huge and time consuming challenge that can make betraying a daunting task, even with a mount. And even if you’re level 50 and know your way around Norrath like the back of your hand, it’s still faster and more productive to run the Towers of Stone mission over and over versus all of the travel. And if you get bored and want a change of pace, there are always other options throughout the Commonlands to give you the option to experience some fresh scenery while you gain Qeynos faction. Just beware if you’re a low level exile, because there are lots of things lurking in the vast stretch of the Commonlands that would love to eat you if given the chance.

If you’re looking for the easiest, quickest, and most direct route to erasing negative Qeynos faction and racking up enough positive Qeynos faction to complete the betrayal process in a timely manner, this is the way to go! You’ll be to 10k positive faction in no time.

Once you have reached the magic 10k positive faction mark for Qeynos, speak with Gil again, who thinks you are ready to become a Qeynosian. He’ll offer you a new quest, and you need to let him know you are ready to take your place in Qeynos. Once you accept his final quest, “Becoming a Citizen of Qeynos”, you’re off to find Vishra in the Mage Tower of South Qeynos. Vishra isn’t actually inside the tower, but instead is standing on the little plot of land in the middle of the moat on which the tower stands, just outside. Cross the bridge towards the entrance to the tower and walk around the left side to find him. He’s standing at 729.42, -21.00, 141.93

PART III Vishra will ask you why you want to become a citizen of Qeynos, and when I did the quest, I told him it was because I wanted to give back to the community and help others. This pleased Vishra and he gave me a little task to help give back to Qeynos — the quest called “The Fulfillment of Dreams” sends me out to pick up 30 pieces of garbage along the Antonican Highway. You’ll also need to speak to Friar Montego in Nettleville. To get the garbage, go back out of the South Qeynos gates from which you entered town and head out along the road there and start looking for spawns of harvestable garbage. The Antonican Highway is also called the Qeynos Highway, just in case you’re confused.

Photo of the Garbage Piles

I followed the main road east and just kept my eyes open for piles that I could click and interact with on the path and just along it. And just like harvesting other items in game, sometimes you can harvest more than one piece of garbage from the same pile, so make sure the spawn disappears before moving on. Once you’ve completed your community service, you’re ready to make your 1g donation to charity with Friar Montego.

That’s right, I said 1g donation! The next part of the quest wants you to donate 1g to the Queen’s favorite charity, the Nettleville Hovel Restoration Project. Since you’ve most likely headed east on the Qeynos Highway in search of trash, you’ll probably notice there’s another road that runs somewhat parallel north of you — if you head up onto that road as you go back west towards the castle, you’ll come to another gate into Qeynos that takes you into North Qeynos. This is just a scenic tour — you really want to head back into South Qeynos, but you can get there from North Qeynos, and this way you can check out some of the other parts of the city you’re about to become a citizen of. This section is important because you’ll find lots of shopping and the bank. Head on down to the entrance into South Qeynos. Head west in South Qeynos as if you were going back towards the Mage Tower, but instead take a detour south down a side street into the Nettleville Hovel.

Welcome to Nettleville! You’ll want to see Friar Montego to donate to the charity, and he is located at 644, -24, 376 in the Nettleville Market Row. He acts just like any other merchant type NPC in the game, and instead of having a quest marker over his head, you’ll just click on him to purchase a Donation Receipt. This will update your quest journal, and it’s time to go back and show Vishra in South Qeynos your loyalty.

Vishra will commend you on your generosities and give you a final task, called “Quieting Discontent.” This quest requires that you challenge and defeat Grand Inquisitor Te’Lex. There’s just one problem: He’s in Freeport. No worries, though, Vishra and his friend Shay can smuggle you into the Academy of Arcane Science in Freeport. When you accept this quest and tell Vishra that you are ready, he will start the sequence by means of zoning you into the instanced encounter, and you’ll magically be in Freeport to complete the final leg of the journey to becoming a Qeynosian citizen.

When you zone into the Grand Inquisitor’s Chambers, you are far enough back to battle ready yourself. Move carefully forward and kill the single Acolyte NPC in the doorway. Remember that all mobs in the betrayal instances scale to your level, so both the Acolyte and Te’Lex will be your level, and are single pulls. However, there are some words of caution before you start attacking Te’Lex. Notice that there are three dead magus NPCs lying on the ground behind him. After you kill the initial Te’Lex, you’ll have about 15 seconds before another one rises from the body of one of the magus NPCs. You’ll need to kill the second one, and then the sequence repeats: you’ll have about 15 seconds and then another Te’Lex will rise from the next body. This will happen again until you’ve esentially killed Te’Lex 4 times in total. Thankfully he’s not too tough. Once you’ve killed him 4 times, zone back to South Qeynos to turn in the final portion of the quest to Vishra. To truly complete the journey to becoming a citizen of Qeynos, you simply need to speak to your trainer. Vishra will tell you who your trainer is so that you may find and speak to them. Speaking to your new Qeynos trainer and accepting a start over or class change (depending on whether or not you’ve started with an evil-only class and are now switching to the good equivalent) seals the deal and you are now officially a citizen. Congratulations!

Photo of my Dark Elf, Luna, as a Qeynos Citizen

Articles may not be republished elsewhere in whole or in part without permission. Feel free to link directly to this post. ©2005-2008 by Lesley Karpiuk (Toque of pinktoque.com)

read comments (0)

Draenei Mage Level 10 Quest Guide

So you just hit level 10 as a young draenei mage. Now what? Time for your first class-specific quest, of course! Mage, just like any other class, has a special quest at 10 that usually rewards in some way with special class-only gear or important class-specific spells. For the mage, it’s a choice between a nice staff upgrade (the Ley Staff) or an off-hand item (the Ley Orb). You’re probably thinking, “Enough talking about it, Toque, how do I get started??!”, so here we go.

No doubt that by now you’ve met and trained a time or two with the mage trainer at Azure Watch, the second “town” (camp) of the draenei starting area. Just in case, you’ll find the mage trainer, Semid, on the northeast corner of Azure Watch standing alone under a little tent. The tent is the closest tent on the east side of the road that leads north out of Azure Watch. Around level 8, you probably noticed the grey exclamation point above Semid’s head, an indication that you’d soon have a quest to do. Now that you’re level 10, be sure to speak with him, as he has an important task for you to undertake and is willing to reward quite handsomely with gear upgrades. At level 10, he will give you the quest called “Control.”

Semid is concerned about a Quel’Dorei Magewraith in the area, specifically found on the beaches of the northwest coast of Azuremyst Isle amongst the murloc tribe there. He wants you to go to the murloc camps of Silting Shore and kill them with your in order to summon the magewraith. Once you’ve killed enough murlocs with your mage spells, she will appear. You are then to destroy the magewraith to prove your worth to Semid and the mage trainers of the Exodar. Once the task is complete, you’ll seek out Bati at the Vault of Lights in the Exodar for your reward.

Head out of Azure Watch on the road leading north, and once you’ve reached Stillpine Hold, you’re going to take a left off the beaten path and head towards the western shoreline. It won’t take long before you see the murloc huts. Start clearing the hut areas of murlocs one by one, but be on the lookout for the Quel’Dorei Magewraith to appear so she doesn’t interfere with your murloc mobs and cause you to have too many adds at once. You’ll know she is about to appear because you’ll see the words, “Who dares wield magic in my presence?”, appear in your chat box. Check where your last murloc died and a ghostly pale night elf will have appeared as if out of thin air. As long as you’re out of range, you can finish what you’re killing or buff up before you engage her to start the fight. The magewraith is level 10, so not too difficult for a seasoned mage such as yourself to overcome. No melee combat here – she will pelt you from a distance with spells, so focus on taking her down with your high-damage spells as quickly as possible. Don’t forget your Gift of the Naaru spell to ensure you keep the upperhand.

Once you have overcome the magewraith, it’s time to find Bati in the Vault of Lights at the Exodar. Bati is a mage trainer standing in the Hall of Mystics off to the left after you’ve entered the Vault of Lights section. This quest conveniently sends you to Bati so that you are familiar with the location of the mage trainers in the Exodar for future reference. Bati will be happy to see you, and offer you a choice between a Ley Staff and a Ley Orb as your reward. Both are mage-class specific only and are a significant upgrade for most. If you’re only using staves at this point, the Ley Staff is very nice with its 8.8DPS and +2 to both intellect and stamina stats. If you’ve decided you will be a dagger or one-handed sword wielding type mage with off-hand items instead, choose the Ley Orb to hold in your off-hand. It only has +1 spirit, but its use allows you to quickly restore 140-180 mana on the fly when needed, permitting that it’s not on its cooldown.

Welcome to the double digits, draenei mage! No doubt there’s much greatness in you to come, and now you’ve achieved the rite of passage and are geared for the levels to come. Best of luck in your adventures in Azeroth.

Articles may not be republished elsewhere in whole or in part without permission. Feel free to link directly to this post. ©2005-2008 by Lesley Karpiuk (Toque of pinktoque.com)

read comments (0)

Draenei Hunter Guide: Level 10 Taming Quest

Welcome, great Draenei hunter-to-be, to Azuremyst Isle, the starting location for misplaced Draenei that survived the crash. This guide assumes you’ve done the basic initial questing for the island, starting in Ammen Vale and working your way to Azure Watch with the help of your hunter trainer in Ammen Vale, Keilnei. You’ve most likely even gotten directions to check out The Exodar as well. These generic quests will familiarize you with the island and its inhabitants, all while providing the kind of new scenery you’d expect from an expansion. Hunter is not a new class, so if you’ve already got a hunter character, this will seem very familiar to the process you went through at level 10 to learn your taming abilities on your other character, just with different locations and NPCs. Hopefully this guide will make completing your essential level 10 class quest a little easier and give you clear direction as a new hunter. Some basic hunter class information is also introduced, for those who are new to the hunter class.

So… you hit level 10 questing from Azure Watch. Now what? Chances are you’ve met the hunter trainer at Azure Watch, Acteon, who is under a tent on the southeast corner of the camp. By now, he has probably trained you once or twice, (remember that you can visit and learn new abilities for your class every even level,) and maybe even given you a quest or two since you arrived at the camp. Azure Watch is parallel to the tiny town of Dolanaar for Night Elves. It’s the in-between questing area that connects the starting location to the race’s capitol city. You’ll notice around level 8 or 9 that Acteon has a greyed out exclamation point above his head, indicating that he will soon have a quest for you when you “come of age.” That age is level 10, so be sure to chat with him when you level to get his quest, “Seek Huntress Kella Nightbow.” This will begin the quest chain that will teach you all you need to be able to tame and handle your creature companions, one of the most important foundations to build a successful hunter’s career.

You’ll find Huntress Kella Nightbow near the docks at Valaar’s Berth, which are west of The Exodar. Just follow the north and south running road in front of The Exodar down south to the coast of Azuremyst Isle, and you can’t miss her or the docks. For future reference, the boat that arrives at the docks of Valaar’s Berth will take you to Auberdine. Chat with Kella to complete Acteon’s quest, and she will then give you the start of a three-part series of quests called “Taming the Beast.” In each part, Kella will give you a Taming Totem to use in attempting to tame three different beasts of her choosing. Each Taming Totem has 3 charges in case you make a mistake or your taming attempt fails once or twice on a creature, which is always possible. Each time you return to Kella with the beast that she has asked you to tame, you will be asked to return the Taming Totem to her. She will then re-issue it to you for each separate taming task until you have completed all three parts of the quest and tamed all three different creatures. For convenience, I dragged the Taming Totem out onto my taskbar in an empty slot. You also might find that this makes the task easier.

Part 1: Barbed CrawlerKella will hand you a Taming Totem and ask you to go in search of a Barbed Crawler to tame. Barbed Crawlers are the crabs that wander the shore along the western coast of Azuremyst Isle. You can easily find them along the water behind Kella. I found mine just under the water off the shore, and it was a level 8. Target the Barbed Crawler and either right click on the Taming Totem in your inventory or press the hotkey that you associated with where you placed it on your taskbar.

The creature will immediately run to you, and you’ll see hearts appearing over its head. Do not move or try to perform any kind of spell or action while the taming bar is counting down its progress across the bottom of your screen. The taming process takes 15 seconds, and the creature you’re attempting to tame will be attacking you during this time, but that’s ok. After 15 seconds, as long as your tame attempt does not fail, the Barbed Crawler will suddenly change from a combat target red color to blue, and its name will appear in blue above its head saying [Your Name's Pet]. A system/status message should indicate that you have successfully tamed the Barbed Crawler. Now return to Kella to complete the quest. She will take the Taming Totem from you and give you a second quest, and you’ll find a new Taming Totem with 3 more charges ready and waiting in your inventory.

Right click the portrait of your Barbed Crawler pet that’s located just under your portrait on your screen, and click the “dismiss” option. In most cases, your pet will just disappear, but there is a chance your pet will turn on you when you let it go, so be prepared to fight back if that happens. Now that you’re rid of your Barbed Crawler, head off to tame the next creature in the quest series, a Greater Timberstrider.

Part 2: Greater Timberstrider You will now rinse and repeat the same actions on a Greater Timberstrider. Greater Timberstriders can be found just north of The Exodar. I followed the north and south running road in front of The Exodar just north past the Elekk handlers and immediately ran into them amongst some Nightstalker cats off to the side of the road. Just like with the Barbed Crawler, you will target a Greater Timberstrider (mine was level 7), and right click on the Taming Totem in your inventory or press the hotkey associated with where you placed it on your taskbar. Allow the creature to “attack” you as you tame and the hearts appear over its head until the taming process is complete. When the nameplate for the Greater Timberstrider turns blue and your quest log is updated that you successfully tamed it, head back to see Kella back down by the docks.

Part 3: NightstalkerNow that you’ve got this system of using the Taming Totem on a creature that Kella directs you to, the final stage of this three-part quest series will seem very simple. The last creature you must tame is a Nightstalker. These, too, are found just north of the Exodar, in the same area where you found your Greater Timberstrider. When I dismissed my Greater Timberstrider in order to tame a Nightstalker, my Timberstrider turned on me, so I was forced to fight back and kill it before I could move on. The Nightstalker I selected to tame for the final part of the quest was level 9. It took me two charges/tries in order to sucessfully tame it. After the first 15 second taming process the Nightstalker was still attacking me, so I quickly cast Gift of the Naaru, and was able to use up a second charge and try again to tame it. The second time was the charm. Once you have tamed your Nightstalker, return to Kella.

Now that you have completed all three parts and tamed all three animals for Kella, she will take the Taming Totem from you for the last time, and grant you the Taming ability and 850 experience. You now are able to use the tame, call, and dismiss commands on tameable creatures in Azeroth. Remember that you can only tame creatures that are your same level or lower, but never creatures that are above your level. Also, not every creature of Azeroth is tameable. Later in your career you will get an ability to cast on animals to find out their stats and if they’re tameable before you attempt to tame. If you try to cast the tame ability on a non-tameable creature of Azeroth, you will get an error message that says you cannot tame that.

Before you leave Kella, she has one final little quest for you called “Beast Training”, which asks you to seek out Ganaar in The Exodar, a pet trainer. He can be found in the far southwest corner of the Traders’ Tier, inside the Hunters’ Sanctum there. When you speak with Ganaar, he will teach you four more abilities and give you a special silver crossbow useable only by the hunter class, that does 7.4 dps, a nice upgrade at this stage of your career. The four abilities that Ganaar will teach you upon speaking with him include Growl ranks 1 and 2, Beast Training, Feed Pet, and Revive Pet. He also will be the man to speak with ever so often to learn new abilities to teach your pets via the Beast Training ability, found in your spell book. You can now feed your pet to keep it happy and loyal, and ressurect your pet if it dies in battle. The Growl abilities and any other optional abilities you purchase for your pet from Ganaar (or any other pet trainer) make your pet more versatile and help it to fill specific roles in your play style. Growl, for example, works much like a taunt for your pet, which helps to keep mobs on your pet and not on you, so you’re able to stand back and shoot from a distance while your pet keeps the mob busy. Ganaar also has Great Stamina (rank 1) and Natural Armor (rank 1) available now for you to learn and possibly teach to your future pets.

As you grow, you will gain other abilities that will make taming easier and less damaging to your health, such as ice traps and other immobilization effects that keep the pet from attacking you during the full duration of taming. As a young hunter, I’d start the Tame Pet spell from as far away from the creature as allowed, which has a 30 yard range, so that it’d take awhile for the animal to reach me, thus less time spent attacking me. It’s always wise to have health potions handy to pop between tame attempts (if it takes more than one), or use your Draenei race spell, Gift of the Naaru, on yourself before or in between attempting a tough tame to ensure the creature doesn’t kill you before you’re able to complete the tame. Remember that you cannot attack back, move, or perform any other actions once you’ve started taming, or it’ll cancel the action and you’ll have to start over on a very angry animal. Some pets are more resistant to tames than others, especially named, rare, or elite creatures you may come across that you’d like to have.

So now you can go out and tame your first pet. What will it be? A boar? A bear? Perhaps a cat or bird? Maybe a crocolisk? The type of pet you choose for a companion is up to you. Each type has its own different trade offs with stats or abilities. Some pets are better tanks than others. Some do more damage than others. In the end, the “best” pet is one that fits your play style. Once you have selected and successfully tamed your very first pet with your shiny new Tame Beast ability, it’s time to learn a little more about how to take care of it. You’ll notice that your pet has a little portrait and health bar underneath your character’s portrait. You’ll also see a little icon to the right of your pet’s health bar. The little face icon is an indicator of how happy your pet is. When you first tame an animal, the icon will be a red sad face. This means that your pet is unhappy. There are three levels of pet happiness: Happy (green smiley face), Content (yellow straight face), and Unhappy (red sad face). To increase your pet’s happiness, you must feed it! But first you need to know what it eats.

If you right click your pet’s portrait, you’ll be given four options, Pet Details, Rename, Abandon, and Cancel. Pet Details will take you to your pet’s skill sheet, much like your character’s skill sheet. (keymapped ‘k’ by default, and accessible when your pet is out by looking at your own skill sheet and clicking the “pet” tab). Here you will see your pet’s stats, see what loyalty level it is, and find out what it likes to eat so you know how to keep it happy. Hover your cursor over the little green smiley face in the upper left corner of the pet skill sheet, and it will tell you your pet’s diet. These are the only kinds of food you can feed it. Feeding your pet will increase its happiness, and over time, your pet will gain loyalty. A happy pet performs at 125% damage capacity, while an unhappy pet does only 75% of its possible damage output. If you don’t tend to your unhappy pet, it will abandon you and run away, so don’t forget to keep an eye on the icon and feed your pet when necessary!

Pets gain experience and loyalty as they level with you. The more you work with your pet and spend time with it, the more loyalty it will gain. There are six levels of loyalty, and all pets start out at loyalty level 1, “Rebellious.” Your pet is more likely to run away when it’s unhappy at a lower loyalty level, another important reason to keep watch of your pets happiness at all times. You already know that you cannot tame a pet that is higher in level than you, but you may not realize that your pet gains experience when it aids you in killing mobs, too! To monitor the progress of your pet’s leveling, check Pet Details from the pet portrait menu, or click on the “pet” tab in your character’s skill sheet for more information. You’ll see its experience bar on that screen and see how far it has to go before it levels. You’ll notice that your pet gains experience a little slower than you, and will typically be just a little behind you in leveling.

With the Rename option from the pet portrait menu, you are able to give your pet a name. When you select Rename, a box will pop up asking you to type in the name you wish you give to your pet. Choose a name wisely as you can only name your pet once, and it’s not possible to rename them something else next week if you change your mind. Pet names should follow the same naming rules as your character as far as its appropriateness in Azeroth.

Note that “dismiss” and “abandon” mean two very different things now, and using the wrong one could cause you to lose your faithful companion forever. Dismiss is a command you’ve learned, and means that you temporarily “store” your pet. It disappears temporarily until you use your Call Pet command to bring it back out for battle. Abandon, found under the pet portrait menu, means that you are completely getting rid of your pet for good. Essentially, you are letting it go back into the wild, and it will no longer be your pet. Now that you have a permanent pet, be sure to use the “dismiss” pet command when you don’t need your pet instead of accidentally abandoning it. You will need to use the abandon command from the pet portrait menu if you ever decide you want to discard the current pet and go tame a new one.

By default, all hunters have one stable slot to store a pet and keep another with them, for a total of two pets. If you already have one pet, you’ll need to store it in a stable before you go out to tame another. Stable masters can be found typically in front of all inns around the mailbox area or close by its entrance. You may also purchase an additional stable slot from a stable master (allowing you to have a total of three pets) for 5g. That means you’ll have two in storage and one with you at all times. Keep this in mind! As you grow and develop your hunter, you’ll find that different types of creatures are better for different types of situations and it won’t take long to fill those stable slots. You’ll be able to tweak your pets a little bit with the different pet abilities you learn from a pet trainer, such as adding more stamina or armor to a pet that may be lacking in those areas.

What kind of professions are good for hunters? I’m glad you asked. It’s fairly traditional for hunters to take up skinning and some form of leatherworking, mostly because skinning fits in naturally with a hunter, and leatherworking allows you to craft armor for yourself. Hunters can choose whatever professions they want, though, and are not limited to just those two primary professions. Do what you think would be the most fun and most helpful to your character. There is no wrong answer here!

There is no limit to the number of secondary professions you want to train in, unlike primary professions, where you can only train in two. There are two good secondary professions for hunters that I feel I must suggest. It is wise as a hunter to undertake cooking as a profession. Since cooking is a secondary profession, it will not interfere with your two limited primary profession slots, so you are able to learn and level it alongside your main professions without consequence. Why cooking? Because your pets will need food from time to time to stay happy and loyal, and cooked food gleans more nutrients than raw food, making cooked food better for your pet. The happiness effects from cooked food last longer as well. Your pet requires food that is close to their level. You can feed your level 70 cat raw slitherskin mackerel (level 5), but you’d need to feed it several stacks to achieve the same happiness level and duration that a single bite of high level cooked food would provide. In a nutshell, it takes less cooked food to keep your pets happy longer than it does raw food, which saves you money out of pocket. The cooking profession seems natural, since you’ll be able to cook the raw food you harvest from creatures out in the wild on the fly and always have food on hand for your pets, which means less trips back and forth into town.

If you’re interested in taking up cooking, you’ll find the initial cooking trainer down at Odesyus’ Landing, just south along the road from Azure Watch. There are many quests to be picked up here as well. “Cookie” McWeaksauce can give you basic cooking training to get you started in the culinary arts. For future reference, you’ll find a higher level cooking trainer and a cooking supply vendor just inside The Exodar to the left of the Inn, at the top of the ramp leading down to the Seat of the Naaru. Mumman will teach you new recipes as you level, and Phea will have the ingredients you need to make culinary masterpieces worthy of both you and your creature companion! Cooking is not only handy for pets, but some recipes you encounter and learn on your journeys will allow you to make tasty morsels that will temporarily buff your various stats, so you’ll be a hit at parties and raids.

Along with cooking, fishing is another fun secondary profession that you can take up, regardless of what your two primary professions are. Fishing goes hand in hand with cooking and hunters because a lot of hunter pets eat fish, such as cats, bears, and birds. Having the fishing ability means you can fish for food to feed your pet while out in the wild, and then cook it for added benefit as well. As a Draenei, you’ll find the fishing trainer, Diktynna, standing under a tent at the river crossing on the path between Ammen Vale and Azure Watch, so you can’t miss her. Have her teach you the fishing skill, and then accept her simple quest… the reward is a free fishing pole and bauble to get you started in the profession. Fishing may seem a little boring, but I find it to be an incredibly relaxing way to pass the time when nothing else is going on in-game. Relax, chat, and fish. Ahh… this is the life.

Welcome aboard, new hunter! Best wishes on a successful future in Azeroth.

Articles may not be republished elsewhere in whole or in part without permission. Feel free to link directly to this post. ©2005-2008 by Lesley Karpiuk (Toque of pinktoque.com)

read comments (0)