Worst. Quests. Ever. - Blue Tracker

#0 - March 2, 2010, 3:44 a.m.

So a few days ago, I started leveling a Gnome Warlock. I took em to Elwynn and leveled in the human zones with my buddy, who made a priest.

We get to 25, and I still haven't done my succubus quest, so I figure I should do it while my friend wasn't around. I head to Stormwind to grab my quest. The one I get says go to the Barrens, near camp Tarajo, screw that I think. I'll go to Ironforge too see if there's a different quest.

A quick trip to Ironforge, and I get the new quest. Go to the Stormwind warlock trainer to start the quest. Oh goody. Back to Stormwind, grab the quest, and I start thinking how I can get to the Barrens. I can walk from Ironforge to the wetlands, take the boat to dustwallow, get killed by high level mobs, and finally get there. Or I can fly to Duskwood, walk to Booty bay, get killed by high level mobs, boat, and walk. Or I can take the Boat to Darnassus and super walk.

I fly to duskwood, and start walking. A 25 in a 30+ zone doesn't stand much of a chance but it was the best option. On the way, I aggroed tons of mobs from miles away, got killed, and got ganked by high levels. Whatever, I make it. Boat to Ratchet.

When I arrive in ratchet, theres an 80 dk standing waiting for the boat. I figure whatever, he's getting on the boat, and I go my merry way. Nope, that dk chases me all halfway there, killing me like 10 times, then he leaves me alone. I finally get to the quest guy, near camp T.

This dude is like, Ok I need this tree up in Ashenvale, it's right by BFD. Oh goody, I dont have any flightpaths in Ashenvale, so I guess I gotta walk. On the way I have to go through that horde gate with all those guards right where ashenvale starts. They kill me. Whatever. I finally get the tree after traversing all the Barrens and Ashenvale. I go to Astraanar, fly back to Ratchet, get tailed by that death knight again, and walk back to the quest guy.

Why isn't he accepting my quest? Guess I'll read it in more detail. Go back to stormwind. Ugh. Hearth. Hooray Im done.

5 levels later, Fel hunter. It can't be nearly as bad. I quickly read the quest, go back to the Barrens. Whatever. This guy says, Ok, I need you to get me some things. One thing is in Southshore, one is in Thousand Needles. FFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

I have 6 80s, I leveled 1 of them in vanilla, 2 in BC, and these were the worst quests I've ever done.

End rant

TL;DR: WARLOCK PET QUESTS @#$%%$@ SUCK

Also to those warlocks who did this before mount levels were reduced, and quests were made easier, I salute you

Eyonix

#50 - March 2, 2010, 7:37 p.m.

Q u o t e:
So a few days ago, I started leveling a Gnome Warlock. I took em to Elwynn and leveled in the human zones with my buddy, who made a priest.

We get to 25, and I still haven't done my succubus quest, so I figure I should do it while my friend wasn't around. I head to Stormwind to grab my quest. The one I get says go to the Barrens, near camp Tarajo, screw that I think. I'll go to Ironforge too see if there's a different quest.

A quick trip to Ironforge, and I get the new quest. Go to the Stormwind warlock trainer to start the quest. Oh goody. Back to Stormwind, grab the quest, and I start thinking how I can get to the Barrens. I can walk from Ironforge to the wetlands, take the boat to dustwallow, get killed by high level mobs, and finally get there. Or I can fly to Duskwood, walk to Booty bay, get killed by high level mobs, boat, and walk. Or I can take the Boat to Darnassus and super walk.

I fly to duskwood, and start walking. A 25 in a 30+ zone doesn't stand much of a chance but it was the best option. On the way, I aggroed tons of mobs from miles away, got killed, and got ganked by high levels. Whatever, I make it. Boat to Ratchet.

When I arrive in ratchet, theres an 80 dk standing waiting for the boat. I figure whatever, he's getting on the boat, and I go my merry way. Nope, that dk chases me all halfway there, killing me like 10 times, then he leaves me alone. I finally get to the quest guy, near camp T.

This dude is like, Ok I need this tree up in Ashenvale, it's right by BFD. Oh goody, I dont have any flightpaths in Ashenvale, so I guess I gotta walk. On the way I have to go through that horde gate with all those guards right where ashenvale starts. They kill me. Whatever. I finally get the tree after traversing all the Barrens and Ashenvale. I go to Astraanar, fly back to Ratchet, get tailed by that death knight again, and walk back to the quest guy.

Why isn't he accepting my quest? Guess I'll read it in more detail. Go back to stormwind. Ugh. Hearth. Hooray Im done.

5 levels later, Fel hunter. It can't be nearly as bad. I quickly read the quest, go back to the Barrens. Whatever. This guy says, Ok, I need you to get me some things. One thing is in Southshore, one is in Thousand Needles. FFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

I have 6 80s, I leveled 1 of them in vanilla, 2 in BC, and these were the worst quests I've ever done.

End rant

TL;DR: WARLOCK PET QUESTS @#$%%$@ SUCK

Also to those warlocks who did this before mount levels were reduced, and quests were made easier, I salute you

When Cataclysm hits, the questing experience from 1-60 will be greatly improved. How we viewed questing when initially developing the game has changed drastically in numerous ways. A couple things to remember, the original design had only 100 horde quests, 100 alliance quests and 100 neutral quests planned for the whole game.

We started seeing people report being out of quests as a bug during the earliest phases of internal alpha testing, and revaluated how questing would fit into World of Warcraft. Also, we started questing early when only a few zones existed, so that's why some areas seem to send players from zone to zone more than others.

Eyonix

#80 - March 2, 2010, 8:20 p.m.

Q u o t e:

I don't usually respond to the boys in blue but this intrigued me greatly because this means all these years I have been wrong.

I have been playing on and off since May 2005. I remember questing back in Vanilla and how hard it could be at times. I remember doing the druid aquatic form quest and having to go to two sides of the world.

I enjoyed this though, because it felt very epic. I always figured Blizzard did this because they wanted to give the player a sense of a journey of epic proportions kind of thing. I mean, imagine your toons life as a novelized narrative. You've done some epic things.

Traveled to far, high mountains with fire breathing dragons. Explored the deepest caverns and tunnels slaying the fire lord. Led the onslaught into Outlands and onward to the Black Citadel itself, etc, etc.

I figured this design plan of, "epic journey" was also utilized in questing to make every aspect of the game epic.

But what you are saying is, "It was just a flaw with questing because we only had a few zones open so we got excited and wanted people to see everything."

Wow, I was wrong all along.

Excited for Cataclysm though. It's going to be like playing a new MMO with the quality of the game you love.

Actually you weren't wrong. Ironically I was going to throw in a comment supporting what you have just stated, though I decided against it. I was really just trying to give everyone a basic idea of how things have changed, not only since the game launched, or even beta -- but from my earliest memories of the game eight years ago.

Moving onto your point though, you're right -- the class specific quests and such were designed with the intentions of having a more epic feel. That involved having players do many different things in a quest chain, and given that back then, our quest tech was limited -- there were only a few quest "types" available, e.g travel/delivery quests, kill quests, etc...

Edit for Additional Comment: And I'm with you on the Cataclysm comment. I really can't wait to begin sharing more and more information with you all. I know there are some changes that at this point in time aren't fully understood -- such as the stat/system change post I made yesterday morning. And that's to be understood, as we've not released other details (such as class specific information) that will help players make more sense of things.

I was excited about Burning Crusade, and even more excited about WoTLK. I'm significantly more excited about what we have in-store for Cataclysm.

Eyonix

#92 - March 2, 2010, 8:37 p.m.

Q u o t e:

If the class quests were designed to have an epic feel, why have the quests been nerfed so hard? Why make them optional? That doesn't really leave them to have the epic feel when people can just be lazy and skip them..

I think you're misunderstanding. Our idea of what makes a quest "epic" has changed considerably. Those quests ended up feeling like a burden to most players. We made them optional for those who do love them. I also think it's a little unfair for you to refer to players being "lazy" by skipping them. The game is designed to be fun, and for many players -- those quests aren't fun -- especially for players who are on there fifth, sixth, and seventh alt (etc...).