Sunday, July 10, 2011

Mount Hyjal Daily Confusion

there's some confusion surrounding the new mount hyjal dailies. players are missing marks and while blizzard has updated parts of the process to try and compensate for this, it's still irritating.

i'm especially curious about how many TOTAL marks people are earning if they chose the shadow warden set of dailies. total as in all marks earned from all dailies available each day, starting from the sanctuary of malorne, all the way to the molten front. regardless of the sub-faction you choose, you should be earning the same number of total marks per day. i'd like some confirmation on this, though.

first things first, yes there are "side quests" that are a bit obscure and some people may have missed them, putting them slightly behind.

the first easily overlooked quest that awarded marks is the quest that is handed out if you return to the sanctuary of malorne on the FIRST DAY of entering the portal into the molten front. after completing the set of dailies at malfurion's breach for the FIRST time, if you travel back to the sanctuary of malorne outside the portal, you'll discover a continuation series of quests for hamuul runetotem.

the second easily overlooked side quest is the escort quest available only to those that choose to turn in 150 marks to the druids of the talon. it's found within the underground cave system after escorting the druid through the fires. if you follow the path all the way down to the end of the caves, you'll see a night elf lying on some rocks in the lava. completing this escort quest will unlock an extra daily worth 1 mark of the world tree.

i'm unsure if there is an easily missed side quest for the shadow wardens or if it's more linear (it seemed pretty linear to me while on the PTR).

finally, although this will not be important until players have advanced further into the storyline, once on phase 3 (the vendor specific quests where you must turn in 125 marks three times to unlock three different vendors), an extra daily that awards 3 marks will not be available if you do not complete "calling the ancients". i'm not sure if they've fixed this since the PTR testing of the dailies, but i would still recommend completing this quest BEFORE the other two 125 mark quests.

if there are any other quests that i've failed to mention, please let me know. also, i'd really love to find out how many total marks of the world tree are earned daily for those that chose the shadow wardens over the druids of the talon. if you have any info on this, please leave a comment or send me a private message through my WarcraftPets profile.

missing a few marks here and there may not be a big deal for some, but there are those who will feel cheated and misled and i don't blame them for being frustrated. it's become pretty apparent that unless players went through the motions of the entire process on the PTR, they are more prone to missing out on some potentially crucial moments and quests of the new questing hub unless they did their homework which includes extensive research of all the possible quests involved. because of this quest design flaw, i would advise blizzard to produce a detailed guide on the new storyline to avoid further confusion and frustration.

but i doubt we'll see blizzard do any of that any time soon. i've done my best to keep my overview up-to-date and include as much detail as possible without listing every single quest and daily (i don't have the time or patience to write out an entire guide listing every quest and daily), but it may not be enough to keep players 100% on track. next best thing? i recommend wowhead AND wowpedia. both sources are highly recommended for research if you want a full and complete view of how the entire process should play out.

i'm all for the "give the player the power of choice" theme that blizzard was going for, but it's made things more complicated than need be and the overall design of this new area may just prove to be underwhelming and/or frustrating for some players.

9 comments:

  1. I unlocked Shadow Wardens first... there is a small 'side' quest for us as well. It starts with an acorn that comes from a dead druid- I just saw a yellow ? over the dead bodies, so unsure if it can just be a normal drop too- once you turn that in you get 5 for the initial quest, and it unlocks the lasher dailies (1 mark for each daily- 1 daily/day (but random out of 3 possible). So both Druids of the Talon/Shadow Wardens have an extra quest people can do.

    I *think* I got 22 marks today start to finish. No idea if I missed something, but as far as I can tell on the wowhead.com write up, I've done everything I can. This was my second day doing the Shadow Warden dailies. Some people in my guild were saying you could get 25/day... unsure if that's true and what I might've missed, though.

    I love these quests and the zone, but it can be a bit confusing trying to navigate it all. Some things only open up after you finish other things, some quests only happen after you complete others, etc... bit annoying imo. But otherwise I can't complain, I've been having a lot of fun (and can't complain about 3 new pets!)

    ~Saberella

    ReplyDelete
  2. I began Hyjal quests the first day and I had 12 marks. Then 4 marks per day. When my husband began Hyjal quests 3 days later, I saw him doing quests and going to Firelands. I was surprised and he told me that one quest gave him 15 marks so he turned in the 20 marks the FIRST day. I was so angry ! I took this quests (which give 15 marks) only after turning in the 20 marks so I don't know if there was a bug or if I've missed something.

    ReplyDelete
  3. @Diana: i just received word from WarcraftPets' twitter that a fellow guild mate is reporting the total number of marks awarded if you choose the shadow wardens is 25, so i would double check to see if there's any quest you may have missed. i found this page on wowpedia especially informational, but i think it may be a bit dated. ignore "strike at the heart" daily as it won't be available until phase 3 of the storyline.

    i'm enjoying the story and dailies thus far (even though i already finished the entire process on the PTR), but part of me feels bad for those who didn't have the luxury of previewing it on the PTR. unless players do some research and double-checking or hear it from friends/guildies, it's really easy to miss some stuff, and that's just somewhat poor quest design imo. i'm not saying it should be completely linear, but at the same time... most wouldn't think to check every nook and cranny for an extra quest that may unlock another daily. to find out days later that they missed out on a chance for more marks... well i can understand the frustration that would cause.

    @Anonymous: i believe blizzard went in and changed the number of marks awarded on the first day in one of the hotfixes to either speed up the process (which was a bit slow to start) or remedy the missed mark(s) due to the obscure quest that many players missed. here's a link to the blue post regarding the change (it's under "quests & creatures"). they never mention why the change was made, though.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I noticed that change when I went back to do the quests on my alt and went straight to the Molten Front. At first I thought it was a bug, but then I saw the blue post.

    Yeah, that's what a guild mate was saying about how many marks you should get... either I fail at counting or I missed something. Time to explore!

    I agree about poor design. It doesn't have to be linear, but people (myself included) shouldn't be having this much trouble trying to make sure they're getting all the quests and not missing anything. It's frustrating because just a few marks means the difference between unlocking a phase today vs. tomorrow- and of course it's not the end of the world, but I'm excited to unlock these things as fast as possible. Other than that quibble though, I think the zone is great :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. I might have found out why I got 22 instead of 25 marks... the progression on wowpedia shows the last quest, 'Strike at the Heart', which is worth 3 marks... but that doesn't unlock until you open the Moonwell. Wowhead's write-up confirms that during the early stages you should get 22/day, so it looks like I'm on track! This is all too confusing lol.

    ReplyDelete
  6. And for my 3rd comment of the day... I just got 25 today from my dailies so I don't know what to think LOL. I give up :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. @Diana: agreed, it's pretty confusing at times but the general area is quite interesting to explore and quest through.

    ReplyDelete
  8. So far your overview is accurate, been getting 25 marks a day; Day 3 of P2.5 just ended and I'm up to 67 Mark of the World Tree. I've been using your overview and this wowhead "guide" (linked in my name). It explains the quests a little more and why one quest is available and another missing, etc.

    I'm still wondering which route gets you all three P3 quests done the fastest (aka fastest way to get to the satchel). It seems like going for the Ancients first (unlocking a 3-Mark daily), then Additional Armaments (unlocking a 2-Mark daily) would be the best way to the scorchling, however, it means you'll have to wait for the Crimson Lasher a little longer. :P

    My main is a blacksmith so I have no choice but to get the Armaments done first, but I'll definitely start with Ancients on my alts.

    ReplyDelete
  9. @UDH: yea, i think i'm definitely going to complete calling the ancients first for that 3 marks daily. after that i'm torn between unlocking all three vendors first or getting the two new pets first. i might save additional armaments for last just because if i unlock zen'vorka before the other two, i'll have to stare at the satchel for sale and lament over how i'm unable to purchase it until i unlock all three vendors lol.

    ReplyDelete

Creative Commons License
Perks N Peeves by Quintessence is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.