I archive here an on-going guide I’m writing about the quests related to the instanced dungeons in World of Warcraft. Alliance side only. The guide will be updated as I gather more informations and can be found in the “Repository” page linked on the sidebar (below the “Recent Comments” section). The guide is as spoiler-free as possible and it mostly list how to obtain the quests.

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Updated: 28-May-2005

I’ll group here all the guides about the *group* instances. Probably in the future I’ll open another topic about the *raid* instances. The difference is that a group instance will be done with a single group of five characters, while a raid instances will require more groups working together. In the game you can know the type of an instance by looking at the color of the portal:

A blue portal means that it’s a group instance
A red portal means that it’s a raid instance

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Deadmines and Van Cleef – Levels: 20+

Just a small guide about the quests involved. The “Deadmines” is an instanced dungeon in “Westfall” you can do around level 20. to complete it you need up to 1-2 hours or more if you keep dying. Bringing in healers is required and it will be the same for every instance at the latter levels. Building the group with the right classes is already achieving half the victory, remember this.

These are the four quests I’ve tracked down till now:

1- Gryan Stoutmantle – Westfall – Silent Hill – In the tower
“The Defias Brotherhood” – multipart

2- Gnoarn – Ironforge – Tinker Town
“Speak with Shoni” -> “Underground Assault”

3/4- Wilder Thistlenettle – Stormwind – Dwarven District – Inside the inn
“Oh Brother…”
“Collecting Memories”

The first is a multipart quest that will take some time. You need to repeat a few kill quests, then fly to Redridge, Stormwind and back to Westfall for another couple of tasks. Easy to solo if you are already around level 20. The last part will be the only one inside the instanced dungeon and it will require to kill Van Cleef and get his head (read the books you’ll gain during the various steps to understand the story).

The second quest will send you to Stormwind to speak with a gnome in the Dwarven district. Then you’ll have to enter the Deadmines and retrieve an object from the first “boss” you’ll meet (so make sure you got the second step from Stormwind before joining the group for the dungeon).

The third and fourth quests are given by the same NPC. You can find it in the Dwarven district, inside an inn. I didn’t finish these two quests but I believe they can be completed *outside* the instance itself. The “Oh Brother” quest is about collecting badges you’ll find on some sort of ghost miners in a section of the caves.

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The Stockade – Stormwind – Levels: 23+

1- Letter dropped by Van Cleef – triggered quest
“The Unsent Letter” -> “Bazil Thredd” -> “The Stockade Riots”
The city architect is inside one of the building in Cathedral Square, on the right side

2- Warden Thelwater (41.57) – Stormwind – The brown tower on map between the trade district and the mage quarter
“Quell The Uprising”

3- Guard Berton – Redridge Mountains – Lakeshire – out the entrance of the inn
“What Comes Around…”

4- Councilman Millstipe – Duskwood – Darkshire – Town Hall (71,47)
“Crime and Punishment”

5- Nikova Raskov – Stormwind – Old Town – outside the barracks (73,50)
The Color of Blood”

6- Motley Garmason – Wetlands – Dun Modr – The dwarfs shooting up the north
“The Fury Runs Deep” (You need to do a previous quest before getting this one)

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Blackfathom Deeps – Levels: 23+

This is one of the best instances even if it’s always overlooked by the players. The entrance is in Ashenvale, north of the shore.

1- Gershala Nightwhisper – Darkshore – Auberdine
“Researching the Corruption”

2- Gerrig Bonegrip – Ironforge – Furlon Cavern – The building on the right of the one marked as “traveling fisherman” (50,5)
“Knowledge in the Deeps”

3- Argent Guard Thaelrid – Inside the instance – South-West from the isle with the big turtle
“Blackfathom Villany”
(To return the head follow the direction of the quest 4#)

4- Argent Guard Manados – Darnassus – Craftmen’s Terrace – The Argent Dawn building, on the map on the right of the round building (55,23)
“Twilight Falls”

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Gnomeragon – Levels: 28+

This instance is one of the most fun, inside the Gnome city, west from Ironforge. After defeating the mid-boss for the first time you’ll receive a key that can be used on other occasions to bypass completely the first zone and go directly to the last. The other entrance is near the room with Techbot, at the end of the long corridor you can see on your minimap.

1- Brother Sarno – Cathedral in Stormwind
“Tinkmaster Overspark” -> “Save Techbot’s Brain!”

2- Shoni The Shilent – Stormwind – Dwarven district – Near the well
“Gyrodrillmatic Excavationators”

3- Gnoarn – Ironforge – Tinker Town
“The Day After” -> “Gnogaine”

4- Klockmort Spannerspan – Ironforge – Tinker Town
“Essential Artificials”

5- High Tinker Mekkatorque – Ironforge – Tinker Town
“The Grand Betrayal”

6- Master Mechanic Castpipe – Ironforge – Tinker Town
“Data Rescue”

7- Dropped ring in the last section of the instance

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Scarlet Monastery – Levels: 35-40

This instance is divided in four different sections that can be completed separately. I tracked only two quests, both rather straightforward.

1- Brother Anton – Desolace – Nijel’s point – the outpost on the northern border of the zone
“Down the Scarlet Path” – > “In the Name of the Light”
(this quest may require a previous one that can be obtained from an NPC in the basement of the cathedral in Stormwind)

2- Librarian Mae Paledust – Ironforge – Hall of Explorers
“Mythology of the Titans”

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Uldaman – Levels: 42+

Adding more data and details as I have time. Many quests are part of long cycles. The instance can be found in the Badlands.

1- Rigglefuzz – Badlands – Camp near the center of the map
“Power Stones”

2- Fizzle Brassbolts – Thousand Needles – The Shimmering Flats
“Martek the Exlied” -> “Indurium” -> “News for Fizzle” -> probably broken at this point

3- Krom Stoutarm – Ironforge – Hall of Explorers
“Reclaimed Treasures”

4- Prospector Stormpike – Ironforge – Hall of Explorers
“The Lost Dwarves” -> “The Hidden Chamber”

5- Prospector Stormpike – Ironforge – Hall of Explorers
“Ironband Wants You!” -> “Find Agmond” -> Murdaloc” -> “Agmond’s Fate”

6- Theldurin the Lost – Badlands – Center-bottom of the map
“Solution to Doom” -> “To Ironforge for Yagyin’s Digest” -> etc…

7- (dropped necklace) – Badlands – Uldaman excavation site – dropped by dwarfs NPCs
“The Shattered Necklace” ->”Lore for a Price” -> “Back to Uldaman” -> “Remains of a Paladin” -> “Find the Gems” -> “Restoring the Necklace”
(TdK is in Ironforge, around the Mystic Ward)

8- (crumpled map) – Badlands – Hammertoe’s Digsite (54,34)
(crumpled map) -> “A sign of hope” -> “Amulet of Secrets” -> “Prospect of Faith” -> “Passing Word of a Threat” -> “An Ambassador of Evil” -> “The Lost Tablets of Will”
The map is not that easy to find, it’s aside a table, on the ground
Prospector Ryedol is south of the same mountain where you found the map

9- (chamber behind the last encounter) Within the Uldaman instance
“The platinum Discs” (this quest triggers a serie that stops abruptly. Probably tied to “Uldum” an instanced dungeon still not ready)

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Maraudon – Levels: 45+

A good instance with three different accesses. Located on Desolace withing the mountains in the SW, North of the zone with the centaurs. Good loot and quests.

1- Archmage Tevrosh – Dustwallow Marsh – Theramore (at the top of the main tower)
“Shadowshard Fragments”

2- Telendria – Desolace – Nijel’s Point (68,9)
“Vyletongue Corruption”

3- Keeper Marandis – Desolace – Nijel’s Point
“Corruption of Earth ands Seed”

4- Willow – Desolace – NE from the center of the map, inside an house also marked on the map (62,39)
“Twisted Evils”

5- Centaur Pariah – Desolace
“The Pariah’s Instructions”
(the centaur Pariah wanders in the southern part of the map, between Mannoroc Coven and the Gelkis centaurs)

6- Cavindra – Within Maraudon but outside the instance – Orange crystal cavern
“Legends of Maraudon”

Zul’Farrak – Levels: 46+

This instance has a few hard (but really cool) parts if the groups aren’t well-built. In particular the presence of at least a mage is encouraged.

1- Trenton Lighthammer – Tanaris – Gadgetzan – Right on the left as you enter
“Troll Temper”

2- Tran’rek – Tanaris – Gatgetzan – Near the back (north)
“Scarab Shells”

3- Bink – Ironforge – Mystic Ward – Hall of Mysteries – On the right as you enter
“Tabetha’s Task” -> “Tiara of The Deep”
(Tabetha can be found in Dustwallow Marsh (46.57) in a small house north of Stonemaul Ruins)

4- Yeh’kinya – Tanaris – Steamwheedle Port – North-east corner of the map
“Screecher Spirits” -> “The Prophecy of Mosh’aru” -> continues on Sunken Temple section

5- Wizzle Brassbolts – Thousand Needles – Shimmering Flats (somewhere near the outpost)
“Gahz’Rilla”
(to summon it you’ll have to follow the instruction written on a tablet dropping during the instance. You need only one of these tools in the group but if you want to go get it you’ll need to move to The Hinterlands and fight your way through a zone filled with elite mobs – Jintha’Alor)

6- Chief Engineer Bilgewhizzle – Tanaris – Gadgetzan – On the right side of the city
“Divino-matic Rod”

7- Gryphon Master Talonaxe – The Hinterlands – Aerie Peak – Inside the bigger building, near the other gryphon master
“Witherbark Cages” -> “The Altar of Zul” -> “Thadius Grimshade” -> “Nekrum’s Medallion” -> “The Divination” -> “Return To The Hinterlands” -> “Saving Sharpbeak”
(the only part that really involves the instanced dungeon is “Nekrum’s Medallion”)

Sunken Temple (Temple of Atal’Hakkar) – Levels: 52+

Yeh’kinya – Tanaris – Steamwheedle Port – North-east corner of the map
“The Ancient Egg” -> “The God Hakkar”
(see Zul Farrak’s fourth quest line)

done- Brohann Caskbelly – Stormwind – The Dwarven District (64.20) – In the right building as you enter from the Stormwind Keep zone
“In Search of The Temple” -> “To The Hinterlands” -> “Gryphon Master Talonaxe” -> “Rhapsody Shindigger” -> “Rhapsody’s Kalimdor Kocktail” -> “Rhapsody’s Tale” -> “Into The Temple of Atal’Hakkar”

Muigin – Un’Goro Crater (42.9) – In the camp west of Mashal’s Refuge, in the north between the mountains
“Muigin and Larion” -> “A Visit to Gregan” -> “Haze of Evil”
Gregan Brewspewer – Feralas (45.25) – a camp on the west of the road south of Twin Colossals

Angelas Moonbreeze – Feralas (31.45) – Feathermoon – South-reastern building in the town
“The Sunken Temple” -> “The Stone Circle” -> “Into the Depths” -> “Secret of the Circle”
Marvon Rivetseeker – Tanaris (52.45) – Broken Pillar – A goblin in the ruins near the center of the map, also marked with a symbol

Atal’ai Exile – The Hinterlands (33.75)
“Jammal’an the Prophet”
(Atal’ai is in the southern part of Shadra’Alor, the zone SE of Aerie Peak)

Starts within the Sunken Temple
“The Essence of Eranikus”

“Bloodpetal Zapper” ? Broken quest

Blackrock Depths – Levels: 55+

Work in progress.

(level 56) “Dragonkin Menace” -> “The True Masters” -> “Marshal Windsor” -> “Abandoned Hope” – > “A Crumpled Up Note” -> “A Shred of Hope”

Franclorn Forgewright – as a ghost in the central room near the entrance
“Dark Iron Legacy”

Enohar Thunderbrew – Blasted Lands
“Ragnar Thunderbrew” -> “Hurley Blackbreath”

Kalaran Windblade – Searing Gorge – NW from the Cauldron, still around the center (39,39)
“Divine Retribution” -> “The Flawless Flame” -> “Forging the Shaft” -> “The Flame’s Casing” -> “The Torch of Retribution” -> “Squire Maltrake” -> “Set Them Ablaze!” -> “Trinkets…” -> “A Taste of Flame”
When you reach the “Trinkets…” part you have to open the chest and get its content: “Black Dragonflight Molt”. The next step is a bit obscure because you won’t get a new quest directly. You’ll have to move to the Burning Steppes zone and go find an NPC named “Cyrus Therepentous” living in a cavern marked on the map on the NE border. That NPC will offer the following quest.

Oralius – Burning Steppes – Morgan’s Vigil – South-Eastern corner of the map
“The Good Stuff”

Jalinda Sprig – Burning Steppes – Morgan’s Vigil
“Overmaster Pyron” -> “Incendius!”

Yorba Screwspigot – Tanaris – Steamwheedle Port – NE corner of the map (67,23)
“Yuka Screwspigot” -> “Ribbly Screwspigot”
Yuka Screwspigot is north of the Ruins of Thaurissan – (65,22)

Royal Historian Archesonus – Ironforge – Throne room
“The Smoldering Ruins of Thaurissan” -> “Kharan Mighthammer”

(to get inside) Mistress Nagmara
“The Love Potion”

…of a fun ride.

> IMO, Blizzard needs to do two things. First, more servers.

I wrote this on many message boards but it’s a recurring topic: adding more servers INCREASES the problem, it doesn’t reduce it.

There are two problems here (three actually). The first is what everyone sees and it’s about servers too crowded. The second is less considered right now because it will become serious with the time. It’s about servers too empty to be playable.

The problem is that the PvP servers are BOTH those too overcrowded and those completely empty of players. They are at the top of the list with an 800 player queue (when things are good) and at the bottom with 300 or so players logged in.

The point is that there are servers completely packed up and there are servers completely empty. It’s obvious that the problem isn’t *capacity*. The problem is the *balance*. Or better: how you spread uniformly the players on all the servers.

It’s not a case that the PvP servers are or overcrowded or desolated. The players are more intelligent than Blizzard and they know that without a very active servers there’s no fun. So they search where they can be sure that they’ll find players in the long run. New players continue to pick the servers more popular becauser they are sure that they can find a valid community.

With the time the overcrowding problems will decrease and the balance will lean toward the second problems. There will be a 70% of the PvP servers completely obsolete and unplayable because there aren’t enough players to group with and get involved in the PvP.

So, again, this is a *design* problem that Blizzard completely overlooked (because they are MMORPG-noobs). I suggested my personal solution but it’s obvious that now it’s too late.

The more time will pass and the more these problems will increase.

I won’t discuss the third problem I hinted because it requires me to write more than I’d like to but I’ll paste here a comment from Darniaq that starts to define it:

Now, the Eastern Continent doesn’t crash for population quantity reasons, because it crashes most often on less populated servers.

What I’m seeing is that the EC crashes happen on servers with the highest percentage of Alliance players. The server has less people, but more of them are on one side of the world.

The server wasn’t designed for that. These games aren’t just about a single server population cap. Anyone who’s played EQlive knows that three thousand people online is a nice number, but it’s three hundred that is the magic number. At that point, old world zones start crashing.

Just like EC.

I don’t know how much of the tech is solid state. They may not be able to fix this problem. They’ve hinted at that by admitting they’re considering letting people move characters off server.

Unfortunately, there are more Alliance than Horde on all servers, so moving characters won’t solve the underlying problem.

Have fun.

(Posted on Terra Nova)

Blizzard released the second part of their preview about the battleground system that will be added to the game somewhere in the future with the aim to give some depth (and fun) to the PvP and also mantain the high-level players interested in the long run.

These are various highlights with my comments:

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Rest assured we do not plan to restrict Battlegrounds to the highest-levels of players, so there will be more accessible Battlegrounds for lower levels.

This means that they plan to add new battlegrounds for the lower levels once the system works and they have more time to develop new ones (aeons in the future).

We do have a cap on the number of people on each side that can enter a Battleground. Rest assured we want the two sides to be fairly matched. However, if you have to wait for your turn to enter the Battleground, you can still adventure in the rest of the game world before you are summoned to fight.

So they are instanced, capped by level and capped by total number. Plus they are capped/balanced to have mostly ‘even’ faction numbers.

In this case is the horde to have the advantage. Since they are outnumbered they’ll quickly get the access to the battleground, while the alliance will have to wait in a queue (but with the possibility to play somewhere else while waiting) before having the opportunity to play.

This works but we’ll hear a lot of complaints from alliance players on the most unbalanced servers. If the alliance outnumbers 2 to 1 the horde you simply won’t be able to play.

As the buildings are consumed by fire, you will finally gain control of the base, and control of the Battleground as well. At this point, your faction will have recorded a victory in the Alterac Valley Battleground, with a huge number of subsequent honor points being added to the honor pool that will then be distributed to all PvP combatants for the day.

So here I see something good. The honor is a “pool” of point common to the whole faction. Your aim is to conquer the opposite faction base.

For the PvP servers this “seems” good because it seems that the honor system doesn’t reward player-killing directly, nor it rewards player-killing out of this battleground, instead it seems to reward just the conquest of the opposite HQ. I wonder: the honor will then be something “flat rate” where basically all the players finish with the same amount of points? (at least between those that played in the same battleground session)

For the next few hours after your side scores a victory, the opposition will have no NPC troops to help them.

Few hours? How this works if there are multiple instanced sessions of the BG? So the BG doesn’t reset when the goal is accomplished? This may reveal that the BG aren’t instanced, they are capped. Basically there may be just ONE battleground. When you are done with the queue you will be summoned into that one battleground that exists on the server. This means that the server won’t create multiple battleground sessions and this also means that for the first week (and more) accessing the battleground may be a *miracle*.

From what I’m reading they have no way to boot the players out, no way to “refresh” the queue, so once you are in you may be able to play till you are bored. If each of those BGs can hold a maximum (and here I’m keeping the number high) of 100 players per faction you can imagine what could happen when the battleground will launch and everyone will try to access it.

The whining we are having now for the log in issues will be *nothing*. We’ll see.

The initial and repeatable quest you can acquire is to gain improved reputation with the main base fighting for your side. Horde players will be told to kill Alliance players, and vice versa.

The rest of the article continues to explain how the various quest work and their effect on the dynamics of the BG. All extremely interesting and way beyond all the current PvP models we have on the various mmorpgs (finally some goddamn interaction!). So all good and wonderful but they still don’t reveal how this reputation will work.

I believe that these quests aren’t a “one time only”. They are supposed to be repeatable. But at the same time I’ve never seen the reputation in the game change. You can increase it but it doesn’t go back.

So, maybe, they will have a system to let this reputation also decay with the time since it seems it will lead directly to a lot of power in the hands of the players. Catassing this system seems too easy and at this point Blizzard absolutely needs a major hook. If these battlegrounds are felt “completed” after a few days they’ll loose the replay value.

And this leads to:

In several weeks time, we’ll turn our gaze away from Battlegrounds and focus more on the new PvP Honor System, gaining ranks, and the bevy of rewards that awaits for those who engage in the honorable defense of their lifestyle against the encroachment of the enemy faction.

So no honor system, ranks and rewards for “several weeks”.

How they expect to retain players?

From my point of view this article holds both good hype and a dubious taste.

Blizzard’s servers go nuts and the whole world whines in a concert. All over the mmorpg-communities and blogs everyone just talks about this. Nothing else. Obviously I’ll follow here but at least I’ll say something different.

It’s fun because Penny Arcade (no permalinks for a change…) called for Lum in a quote that you’ll find everywhere:

If this happened in Galaxies, or Dark Age, or AO, of course it’d be everybody everywhere piling on. But it’s Blizzard, and since they made a few good games years ago now they can do whatever the fuck they want to. Great policy, and it totally serves consumers. Good job. Where’s Lum The Mad when you need him.

I’m the only one considering this simply ridiculous? Cosmik comments:

My bet is on him being stored away behind the speech proof walls of a competitor. Rest assured though, there is a chance he is at least having a smile. Unless he plays World of Warcraft, that is.

Of course, not everyone believes Blizzard has been skipping down the garden path and giving everyone roses.

But hey, these people are no Lum. So why take any notice of them?

But Lum is alive and it’s not a case that he agrees with me:

HRose:
Calling Lum the Mad because the server is down? Haha.

His point of view was actually here, by the way.

Lum:
And the article HRose linked to is still my view. For many of WoW’s players, this is their first MMO. If they learn that MMOs are unstable beasts that aren’t worth the effort thanks to technical difficulties, the ramifications of that will go beyond Blizzard. Believe me, no one in the MMO industry is dancing a jig over this.

And his direct opinion of what is happening today is exactly the main point that everyone is missing:

Believe me, if there was a knob they could turn, or even a giant vat they could throw money into to make things Better, I’m sure they would. Popularity can be a very sharp double-edged sword. Thus, the irony.

This is the answer, even if it’s not the type of taste you’d expect. This is why what is written on Penny Arcade is understandable from the players’ perspective but simply pointless to make things improve in some way. The truth is that Blizzard isn’t laughing and swimming in the money because “they can do whatever the fuck they want to”. The truth is that Blizzard is CLUELESS. That type of thing that YOU CANNOT BUY WITH MONEY.

It’s something that I wrote on this site too many times to count: Blizzard is able to do wonderful games and WoW is exactly a wonderful game. But they are clueless about the specific genre of a mmorpg and all the problems it brings along.

There are 88 servers. The hardware of all these servers is identic. There isn’t a server with a bigger capacity than another. Building an infrastructure like this one takes a lot of time and planning. They cannot “buy more powerful server”. It’s again NOT about the money. The only way to solve radically this problem is plan ahead. Not a case that I was anticipating all this when it was the time to underline this problem. Now? It’s too late. Blizzard cannot take down the servers for six months to replan the whole server structure.

The heart of the issue isn’t Blizzard or the servers now. It’s the community. This is fluff. Yeah, everyone is pissed off right now. Once the problems will be solved, instead, everyone will forget completely what is happening now.

So the point is: WoW is a good game, once the technical problems will be solved we will have the good game. In other examples both these aspects were bad and when the technical problems went away we still had bad games. If you don’t have patience you can jump to the other faction. SOE is the opposite of Blizzard, they know the genre but they don’t have a clue about building good games. You choose.

The fact is that “memory” isn’t a common quality. Aside a small group of jaded players noone remembers what happens. These topics are like some politics fluff, it is good to make peoples chat together for a day or a week but the actual effect is zero.

Nothing changes at all. We just need something for the chit chat, no matter what it is.

I found one of those rare interviews that are really interesting to read. It’s with Blizzard’s creative director Chris Metzen and Senior VP of Business Operations, Paul Sams. I’d paste here excerpts but it’s really worth reading from the first till the last word.

Focus On: Blizzard Entertainment

We’re used to these nice, finite, closed-ended games that we can power through, put on a shelf, go home and sleep for a month. This is just a completely different kind of monster – it will not end.

So there was a downtime on most of World of Warcraft servers that lasted almost a day. When these servers came back the players started to notice that something changed but the “blues” kept confirming that nothing was changed during the “maintenance downtime”.

You can try to fool the players for some time but then it’s obvious if something is just a rumor or a proven fact. The nerf was this second case, a proven fact. Some time later the moderators are finally able to confirm that the downtime was used to stealth-nerf a pair of skills to fix radically an exploit that was reported during the past week:

Soothe Animal
– Casting time was increased to 1.5 seconds.
– Monsters would not agro players when they resisted the spell. This has been fixed.

Mind Soothe
– Casting time was increased to 1.5 seconds.
– Monsters would not agro players when they resisted the spell. This has been fixed.
– Can only be cast on Humanoids

In addition, the following monsters are no longer susceptible to charm: Hederine Initiate, Hederine Manastalker, and Hederine Slayers.

We apologize for the lack of forewarning with these changes. This was in no way deliberate, and we will work hard to make sure you have this type of information ahead of time in the future.

This is indeed a nerf, as I commented on the related article written by Foton. They changed the skill on three elements:

– It was an instant -> now itâ