Feralas Alliance Supplement

Similar to Desolace, Feralas is basically a mirror on the Alliance side with pretty much identical quests, however the questing flow and actual story on the alliance side is just much more engaging, the zone starts off identically until we get to Feathermoon Stronghold as opposed to Stonemaul Hold. Here you are given a briefing from Shandris Feathermoon to 3 worgen sentinels, this not only gives you a sense of progression through the zone it also just makes the zone far more engaging on the alliance side.

Firstly you fly over to the ruins of Feathermoon and find it to be under brutal assault from the naga, you fight your way through the naga to kill the named npc and get to fly back, pretty short but also very engaging and immersive. I also love how feathermoon stronghold looks in comparison to the Stonemaul Hold, it's just so.. lovely.

Moving on from here we get sent to the Highborne encampment where our second worgen is located, basically we get complete mirrors to Stonemaul hold quests, but instead of the Muisek quest we get a quest which apparently is rallying the troops. However, these are in a 20,000,000x better order than the muisek quests and flow perfectly with the other quests in the area, I also like how rallying the mobs here sometimes spawns horde poachers you need to take down, so you still have to kill as much as the horde people do.

When taking on Cho'gall in the Dire maul arena, which had sound when I did this, which is so awesome.. this event was pretty damn epic anyway but the sound just makes it great, instead of the orc leader you get Shandris Feathermoon helping you out, which just feels so much better and makes more sense. I presume it's somewhat of a bug that she basically 2-shots cho'gall compared to the orc leader, but regardless ^^.

The final worgen leader is located at a new alliance encampment, which basically all the quests here have not been implemented on the quest map however they are purely identical to the horde versions, apart from the lack of alliance involvement with the Grimtotem encampment, regardless to say that I presume this is NYI, since the alliance npcs are still located in the grimtotem and presumably will be used once these quests are implemented.

Ysondre is still bugged, so can't bring any feedback on that quest here, and well here are some pictures, the alliance side is definitely much better than the horde version of this zone, it flows better but still suffers from some lack of quests by being a level short of where I should be finishing this zone.

Desolace Alliance Supplement

This is going to be a pretty short post since basically this zone is practically identical for both the horde and the alliance, there are a couple of unique quests but they are basically mirrors of the horde versions, firstly there is a quest, which is actually probably available for the horde aswell you are just never directed there, it involves killing lots and lots of the local wildlife, I feel that 15/15/25 are way too high numbers even if its a 100% drop-rate, they feel like nagrand v2 and that is never going to be a good thing, perhaps reducing these to 25/10/10 would be good, since the vultures drop more than 1 item per kill. Otherwise it's a pretty simple kill quest.

The other quests are the reclaimer's incorperate want you to collect a chest and then kill naga to get the satchel to drop. This quest seems to be a vanilla remnant and if this quest is to remain in the game it definitely needs to have some auto-questing here to stop the painful travelling to and from Nijel's point.

Finally the Explorer's league hub has a quest to kill a named apothecary in the south, pretty standard quest really and It's pretty much there instead of killing the named orca in the bay, nothing particularly amazing and so you can see the questing experience is very much shared. The quest where you destroy nijel's point is obviously not in the alliance version and no alternative quest is given either, instead you just go round Satyrnaar and do the 3 quests at each of the areas of interest and nothing else comes of them.

Overall though there isn't much to talk about for this zone so just a few screenies ^^.

Farwatcher's Glen

Finally we reach the conclusion of this zone, which is actually somewhat incomplete seemingly, we arrive in Farwatcher's glen after taking vengeance on the horde and get given a series of quests to complete up the exploded volcano in the south west of the zone. One of these quests is meant to take you via rocket-pack to the questing area, however obviously this isn't implemented and you have to run around the long way, not exactly an issue since this is beta but obviously something that should be fixed for live.

The quests on the mountain are pretty standard and I would like some sort of interaction with the elite black dragon on top of the volcano, I mean she is just sitting there and you end up killing her eggs and whelps and she does nothing and you don't fight her which is somewhat disappointing, like I said the conclusion to this zone is weird in a sense that it doesn't feel like a conclusion, it's not like the Horde area where it really felt like you could conclude with the bomb exploding and the truly epic lore with garrosh and Krom'gar, the alliance version just isn't a great ending point, personally I would have liked to see some form of attack on the horde with Garrosh having to choose whether to apologise to the alliance or still be made out to be an awe-inspiring warchief, would have had some good dialogue.

If that isn't possible then definitely this last questing hub needs to be expanded somewhat to include a fight with the dragon here, that could easily fit for a nice conclusion to the zone and showing where the true threat should be lying rather than the on-going battle with the horde in this zone.

My overall thoughts on this zone are really good, this zone isn't as good as the horde version, and well it was never going to be, you can't compete with the insanely epic questline of the horde version, but this zone still manages to deliver a pretty good questing experience and some epic moments within it, which is great. The conclusion of this zone needs some work along with decisions about the south east of the zone and the Northwatch area, but other than that I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of this zone for alliance.

Mirkfallon Post & Thal'darah Overlook

Heading back to the main story with the bomb we are told to make haste to Mirkfallon post where the bomb has been spotted, cool story really immersing you in a common theme through the entire zone, whereas in the horde that was advancing through the horde ranks on the alliance side it's about saving lives and stopping the bomb, both of these ideas however give you a great sense of progression throughout a zone and a sense of purpose, which I personally really love.

The actual questing here is also really interesting, we get a standard kill quest and another quest which is like, blow up some oil-pumps, which basically involve killing a controller next to it and then using the item dropped by them. Firstly, the controllers call down an orbital shredder, which is pretty damn cool I might add, but it's marked as an elite which is pretty scary and completely and utterly wrong since they haven't got the health nor damage to be classed as elites so I presume this is a bug. What makes this quest note-worthy though is how using the item basically causes a nuclear holocaust from what I can tell, you use it and about 5 seconds later there is a massive explosion!! I think it even pushes your character away when the wave hits you, that's just so awesome.. really I cannot put into words how good that interaction is.

We were also given a quest to meet minx inside, I really love this "Goblin" Pump controller as a gnome wearing a goblin male mask.. classic :D. Basically you are told to grab this log book, nothing too special about that but.. the mobs on the platform are incredibly annoying mainly because of the Orbital shredders they call down, because these come from above if you pull the goblin controller at the top of the ramp they call down the orbital shredder and it lands on the above platform and basically pulls the entire area. Luckily I have shadowmeld and was able to kill the controller regardless though this needs to be somewhat fixed.

Handing in these quests though we have to rush to Thal'darah Overlook because the bomb is headed for the grove, upon hand-in you are swept immediately onto a hippogryph. Fortunately as an experienced wow player, *cough* by luck *cough* I handed in the other quests before the quest to head to the overlook so wasn't left with quests to hand-in here. Needless to say this needs to be an "activate on talking to" type quest rather than it immediately transitioning you to the next quest hub, although that's good for story purposes it really is annoying if you didn't hand in the other quests here first.

Upon landing it seems like it's a race against time before the bomb hits and you are dispatched franticly on a vehicle pick-up quest, similar to the dragonblight quest for alliance. I feel like the gryphon needs to go faster speed whilst sped up, this quest is good for the first 2-3 fly-outs then it just seems like a total chore, really fun quest though and great for the immersion factor here, which I definitely appreciated. The follow-up quest really surprised me though, and god is it awesome, you go out for one last effort to save druids and you basically are just watching a cut-scene of the bomb falling on the grove, but my god is it epic having a massive explosion in front of you crushing your hope of rescuing druids.

There was a slight bug with these quests where I was "stuck" in a parachute whilst on the hippogryph watching the bomb, I actually didn't notice this until reviewing the screenshots I had made because this scene is epic but obviously this is bug and needs to be fixed ^^. The follow-up to this is to exact revenge on the horde and take a glaive-thrower and reap havoc on the horde in what is a mirror of the horde quest with the catapult, I don't do this quest until after but I will just comment on it now, obviously the "bug" id is still on the glaive thrower as it was on the demolisher. The quest was good other than the fact that the number 2 button seemed totally redundant, why would I use it when I can just spam glaives every second using number 1 button. I also liked how this area neatly transitions you to the final area, but I will cover that after this last bit.

The other quests you can pick up after the somewhat epic cut-scene involve trying to cleanse stonetalon peak, which has seemingly been taken over by old god corruption and, tentacles!!! Oh, how I love you tentacle missions. What is better is the fact that these tentacles grab night elf sentinels and dryads, oh hentai references perhaps :). Regardless the quests here have perfect synergy and are really lovely, I always love tentacles and they really have a great aesthetic with Stonetalon peak. Nothing much is explained as to who the old-god corrupting this place is, but regardless it's nice to see tentacle missions :D.

A pretty epic conclusion to the main storyline of this zone I thought, I mean it's no "you are dismissed", because my god that is seriously awesome, but it does a pretty good job of itself on the alliance side.

Northwatch Expedition Camp

Right, so this is one of the breadcrumbs you are given from Windshear Hold, I chose to do this for a few reasons: The breadcrumb only really works taking it from windshear hold, the "vehicle" needed to get to the place is located near here and it is in the opposite direction of the story meaning I know you will not get directed back here, whereas you are more likely to get directed back to the main story.

Continuing on from my point in my previous post, I wholly disagree with giving a breadcrumb against the flow of the story, the quest text about the bomb is really urgent like you need to follow it asap, but its not logical for questing xp to do this, which really goes against the story flow of the zone.

Lets crack on with the area though, firstly I don't know if I agree with the positioning of this vehicle, it's pretty far away from Windshear hold and is the second set of crossroads you come across, which isn't exactly the most logical of areas to look. However the vehicle cut-scene I suppose you should call it is pretty damn awesome and a lovely way to transition to this area.

Firstly we get, what I think anyway, is a great answer to the question of why the cave is so damn big on the horde side, turns out that its a double-ended cave with somewhat mirror quests on the alliance side who "accidentally" opened up a back-door to the horde stronghold. So this time we get a different set of quests, the alliance want to shut off the cave so they can't be attacked by the horde, but before doing so you need to plant explosives save some miners and kill horde assassins.

The actual place for the explosives was really confusing, I feel like some sort of direction was needed for this objective because the sparkles weren't all that helpful and although the pillars were in somewhat logical places I don't think it is really clear enough, especially how inaccurate map objectives look in caves.

The miners quest is basically a pure mirror of the orc peon quest so I won't go into too much detail on that, the other quest is to kill assassins utilising the infra red goggles stolen from the goblins ^^, in a similar quest to the start of the horde version of Stonetalon putting on these goggles marks the assassins on your mini-map and killing them is rather elementary, once killing them however you get a cool auto-quest from the gnomecorder, not sure how he got a hold of it but regardless, to kill their leader.

I really, really think that the leader needs to be shown-up on your mini-map I was running around looking for her, then realising she was right in front of me because I thought she would be marked on the map like the assassins, so yeh.. was rather confused :<. After doing these quests and handing them in you get a nice phase where the roof comes down and the mine collapses :). Pretty nice effects tbh, the only bug was that the infra-red goggles effect kept on until you left the cave, I presume this is a bug and they should be removed once you hand in the quest, but it's a pretty minor qualm.

Now, I particularly liked this next quest since it sort of brings a paradox in the questing world, the alliance want to ally with the grimtotems because the horde have fallen out of love with them, which is true if you go through the mulgore zone, however as the horde you are told to fight the grimtotems because they allied with the alliance, so it seems rather paradoxical and which came first, which I actually like and gives the player whos played as both races an extra immersion of the zone.

The quest though basically gives you a "collect lots of items quest", I like the npc name of Mcweaksauce and seemingly he has been promoted from azuremyst isle to the best chef in all the alliance and has ended up in Stonetalon, pretty nice evolution of characters.

This quest sort of mirrors the horde version, with the exception of killing Kobolds... the drop rate on the Boulderside Cheese is extremely poor, it definitely needs to be 100% like I've argued in previous articles, I would like to add how lonely this quest is, it could use a companion to do whilst out here. The hand-ins though require some cool interaction with the grimtotems, who are like we need big weapons!

So what do you do? you go into the horde mine and collect some alliance crates and kill horde there, great synergy with these 2 quests really, having looked at the area though you can see why there isn't a horde mirror quest here.. I mean what would they do here, theres even a Zeppelin tower here which is un-climbable, so I'm not sure if this area if fully implemented or not. Regardless though, after collecting the weapons you get to go and interact with the grimtotem chieftain, perhaps this is why there is no horde quest to kill him ^^.

He basically asks you to do the alliance version of "buff up the troops", however this version is 20x better, one because it's not a humongous cast time and two, because when using the weapons the grimtotem weapons turn into alliance level 60 pvp weapons, which are just so iconic and awe inspiring. I also like how there are plenty of grimtotem just standing around the chieftain you can just use the item on really quickly.

The follow-up to this is also really awesome, you basically have to kill a series of horde generals, 4 in total, all big named mobs. This quest was really challenging and I don't know if it was too challenging and perhaps there should be slightly longer between the waves but I really loved the feel of this quest, perhaps it could have been enhanced by having a grimtotem strike force with you, which would have been even more immersive, but this quest was a pretty lovely conclusion to this area.

Now from the end of this zone you get a quest that leads you into the southern barrens naturally, obviously I've already stated my opinion on this but yes this does make sense but if this is to make sense this area should be mutually exclusive xp wise with farwatcher's glen or share experience pool with the southern barrens.

That's the end of this post though, obviously I flew back to Windshear hold and cracked on with the main storyline of the zone, "the bomb".

Windshear Hold

Urgh, huge internet problems at home meaning I wasn't able to get these out yesterday and am having to cope with near dial-up speeds most of the day, seriously annoying T_T. Regardless, lets try and crack on with the rest of this zone.

After the epic conclusion of the previous area we find ourselves in windshear hold, which is kinda a mirror version of Krom'gar fortress, we get similar quests so I won't go into too much detail of those (other than the fact that its so cool that the large daddy was replaced by big papa on the alliance side, lovely name twisting for mirror quests.

The difference here is that instead of incinerating the northwatch tents, instead we have to release huntress'. Pretty standard key quest with a pretty decent drop rate. I particularly like how you get a big army of sentinels to help you, what is particularly awesome about that though is they help you kill the elite fish, so the alliance have a much easier time of killing cragjaw than the horde. Now, Cragjaw's interaction with the sentinels did seem buggy, since he decided to grab one of them instead of grab me which may or may not be a bug, regardless I really did appreciate that awesome synergy and would hope for some sort of equivalent on the horde side.

Following-on from this the Big Papa quest seems to have mostly been fixed, or at least it works out for the alliance version, and the sucking up goblins and launching them grants you credit, which is nice :D. Now this particular area is much better constructed as alliance, obviously we don't have a mine to go to so you get told to go to some highborne ruins unearthed in the cataclysm and do the horrible spider quests.

Since I've commented on the spider quest (and how horribly terrifying it is) I only want to make a comment on how I love the debuff effect Queen Silith, I don't think I mentioned it in my previous write-up because I was in total shock and horror about the event, but the fact she launches like mini-spiders and they attach to you and try and nibble and kill you, becoming a debuff, is seriously awesome and a great way to implement debuffs like this.

Moving on to the Highborne area though you have these quests where you have to launch a box at them and they either turn good or evil and you get your credit on the good ones. They seemed to work like every other was good, maybe it was just luck that made it occur that way for me but yeh a pretty nice touch. Now what I particularly liked in this area was the abundance of Relics in the lake itself, whilst I was disappointed with the lack of relics on the surface there were plenty in the lake, which is always a good tactic if quests just can't work in synergy. I.E theres an area free of mobs where you can collect relics.

I would say however there definitely needs to be more relics on the surface, I ended up with like 3 once I had the spirit bound quest completed, which is obviously not enough really, I appreciate there is an area with little to no mobs to complete this quest but I would rather have close synergy and then that synergy being perfect wholly dependent on rng.

Now, in this area there are a lot of named highborne and you aren't ever told to come back to this area, I presume they are linked with a horde version of this area quest that hasn't been implemented yet, they have some interesting lore quotes here and it would have been nice to have been given a reason to listen to all of these, either through a "disguise" type quest or just through having to listen to all of their conversations, maybe it's a horde version of the quest but still.. highborne are probably more associated with the alliance than the horde and it would be nice to have a quest to take in the lore surrounding this area.

From here we get given 2 breadcrumb quests, I'm going to take a time to discuss this because I feel like I'm very torn between them, firstly I like the fact that say the breadcrumb to southern barrens involves you doing a certain questing area in Stonetalon, thats nice because it means you can offer the breadcrumb earlier and it still be relevant later when you want to leave the zone, however I feel like because this is an area you want to actually quest in, in the actual zone, you should be directed to this area first then told to move on or at the place after the bomb events you should get the choice to either go south-east to Northwatch or south to Farwatcher's glen and have them as basically mutually exclusive areas for experience allocation of the area.

Regardless the rest of the area is to follow :)