09/10 Abandoning will destroy quest item(s)

There was new functionality for quest abandoning added in 1.12.1 that will destroy any items related to the quest as soon as it is abandoned. The note for this didn’t make it in time for the patch, and we’re currently in the process of approving the final revision for the web notes.

This was mainly done to curb some of the experience hording for this expansion, and any future expansions to come. We want to ensure people are leveling at an appropriate pace and not using quests which were not initially designed with an expansion in mind to move past 61-70 levels as quickly as possible. This is one of a few steps to attempt to limit the benefit players will receive from planning level progression through pre-expansion quests and turn-ins.

Although not the main purpose of the implementation, this will also help with cases of items remaining from quests taking up inventory space, which we’ve probably all experienced to some annoying degree. It’s not certain at this time if removing collected items that are dependant upon a time-limited item is intended. Fortunately there are not too many quests that would be affected by that.

As a side note: Repeat turn-ins will be “nerfed” a little bit on their xp so there’s no reason to change people’s ability to turn in quests that they have gathered prior to Expansion release. The devs feel, though, that most players are going to realise that it’s better for them to just venture into Outland than do the old quests they’ve stockpiled ;)