Thursday (15 Jul 2011) - The Dailies Grind in Mind Numbing Detail

Thursday (15 Jul 2011) - The Dailies Grind in Mind Numbing Detail

Things are getting complicated and time consuming for the Firelands Dailies. It started with Stage 1, which is a set of dailies that take place around the Sanctuary of Malorne in Mount Hyjal. Wild was able to collect the 20 Marks of the World Tree to complete Calling For Reinforcements, which gave Wild access to Stage 2.

In Stage 2 most of the quests take Wild through a portal north of the Sanctuary and into the forward base called Molten Front. Here there is another set of dailies to do. So now, Wild must do Stage 1 dailies to open up and do the Stage 2 dailies. The next stage after these is to pick one of two choices of special forces. To get to that Wild had to collect 150 Marks for the quest Druids of the Talon, which is the force that he chose to go with. He got that done, finally, early this week. That opened up yet another set of dailies that Wild is still getting familiar with. So far each of the new quests have been fun and challenging to do. As with all dailies, though, having to do them every day sort of kills the pleasure, particularly if they are a pain to do, as a couple of them are.

To recap so far, Wild must complete Stage 1 dailies to unlock the Stage 2 dailies. Wild sometimes skips one of the Stage 2 dailies because it's one of those "protect the idiot npc trying to do something non-sensical and don't let him die" quests that I'd rather forego the 1 Mark than complete. However, Wild has to do ALL the stage two dailies in order to unlock the Druid of the Talon ones. Sigh. These dailies, which I'll just call Stage 3, are something of a pain. The first one requires Wild to protect a druid npc who clears the fire away from the entrance to the Molten Flow, which is where all of the Stage 3 quests are. Several mobs attack while doing this, but if Wild strays too far from the constantly moving npc, the flames will sweep back with deadly results. When Wild tried to solo this he died - either stay to kill the adds and let the fire get him, or stay with the npc and let the mobs kill him, seemed to be his only choices. Wild has only done this twice so far, but it appears that the quest may have a built in way to complete it. When Wild died, he was able to rez close to the npc druid and was then able to get into the Molten Flow. So, dying seems to be the quickest way to complete that quest unless there are several players around helping to kill the adds.

Another silly quest requires players to jump across a series of flat rocks that cross a deep, deep, molten crevasse to get to Fireplume Ridge, where most of the quests have to be completed. Those rocks tend to break apart, too, so it's an interesting challenge, at least at first. If you fall, a druid flyer will sweep in and save you, depositing you on Fireplume Ridge. I can tell you Wild will soon be just jumping into the crevasse and letting the flyer take him where he wants to go anyway and just forget the rock hopping.

Finally, there's the thing that really bugs Wild. On Fireplume Ridge and in Molten Flow, if you die, there is no way to get back to your corpse. There seems to be a phasing problem. Note that to get this deep Wild has to first go through the portal in Mount Hyjal into the phased Molten Front. Then there is a second phase inside the first to get to Molten Flow. Then go from Molten Flow to Fireplume Ridge and die, and well, the game wasn't able to figure out where Wild's corpse was laying. Wild only got out of it when a player inside Molten Flow resurrected Wild. What a nice guy! Wild made sure to thank him profusely, and something Wild will remember to do for others.

Finally, Wild has to do the rock jumping thing to get back to the quest givers once he completes the quests. The flyer won't save you if you fall on the way back. Wild fell to his death and his corpse was deposited back on Fireplume Ridge. You have to make it across those rocks safely or you can't turn in the quests.

On Thursday it took Wild an hour to complete all of the daily quests in the three stages. It's going to get really old.

Even then, it's not over. There are three more quests that Wild can unlock if he does an escort quest. Wild tried it once, failed, and since it was my first time inside Molten Flow I didn't get a chance to finish it. That will take up more time, once Wild unlocks those three quests.

Now, here is where things start to really annoy me. Even though Wild went with the Druids instead of the Wardens, Wild can't progress into later stages until he recruits that other group, the Shadow Wardens. So, Wild has to collect another 150 Marks to recruit these bozos so that he can get to what he's really after. This is what Wild is doing now.

When does it get to the good stuff? As best as I can determine, Wild will need to unlock three more quests after doing the above. Each of those quests costs 125 Marks. Yes, EACH of them - that's 375 more Marks. Each quest opens access to a vendor, but it seems there is a boss kill quest Wild will still have to complete before he can actually BUY anything from that vendor.

At minimum, Wild needs to collect 275 more Marks and complete a boss kill quest in order to get access to the first and most important of the vendors (for Wild). Assuming Wild ever gets that far in his lifetime, here are the things he intends to buy:

From Ava Shadowstorm: These are all ilevel 365 gear:
[Moonwell Chalice] - the #1 item on Wild's list, it's a +340 int trinket
[Relic of Elune's Light] - the #2 item, a fancy new relic
[Globe of Moonlight] - off-hand should Wild be using a one-hand, Meh
A companion pet called Crimson Lasher and a mushroom chair just for fun (2kg)
Pattern: Luxurious Silk Gem Bag - Gem bags have never been upgraded, the largest of which is a 24 slot bag. All other professions have bags with up to 36 slots. The Silk Gem bag is a 36 slot gem bag, which Wild will be able to make as he's a tailor.

The second vendor Wild will unlock is Varlan Highbough (after collecting another 125 Marks):
[Spirit Fragment Band] - ring
Hyjal bear cub companion and a Mylune's Call for fun (about 1200g)

The third and final vendor Wild will unlock is Damek Bloombeard (after collecting another 125 Marks):
[Fireplume Girdle] - leather healing belt; it's possible Wild may have the BoE i378 belt from Firelands before Wild gets this far. If Wild still needs the belt after buying out Ava he'll come here next.

There you have it. The whole chain is worth it just for the trinket and the relic. The rest is nice to have, but we'll see how up to it Wild is at that point.