Through The Mist: The Mogu’Shan Vaults – Looking for Raid style

The Mogu’Shan Vaults

Through the Mist is a regular column from Luke Le Page covering everything World of Warcraft. If you’d like something covered in a future column, drop us a line!

This piece has taken a lot longer to write than I had originally hoped. This is mainly due to the fact that I could not f find a fresh run using the Looking For Raid (LFR) system for most of the first week. It finally happened on Tuesday morning and I decided to push the piece back to preview all six bosses as three more would come out that night. Unfortunately I could only find a group with two bosses down, so the second part of the raid will have to wait until after the weekend.

My initial impression upon zoning in was positive. The environment felt epic and I immediately felt like this was a zone where something big was about to go down. Whether it did or not doesn’t really factor into this column – I just wanted to get across that Blizzard have recaptured some of the epic grandeur of raid zones that we have seen in the past.

I will refrain from describing the boss mechanics; there are dozens of sites out there that can do that for you. This is an opinion column so I will stick to giving you my impressions of the fights.

The first boss, The Stone Guard consists of four stone Quillen, three of which are active each week. The fight on normal 10 and 25 man modes looks to feature some interesting mechanics. Unfortunately as with the LFR bosses we saw in Cataclysm, many of these impressive mechanics can be ignored. The LFR strategy consisted of stacking all 3 mobs together and ignoring everything but dps. I can see this being an excellent test of raid coordination in 10 and 25 man.

The second boss, Feng the Accursed is a fairly intimidating looking Mogu. Unlike the first boss, this required some concentration from players; particularly in the final phase where players had the Arcane Resonance debuff. This caused a wipe in my group due to a player not paying attention and I have to say it is nice to see some consequences for ignoring mechanics in LFR. The rest of the fight was relatively straightforward from a melee perspective – dodge bad things on the ground and stay behind the boss.

The final boss of this portion of the zone was quite a surprise. As some of you know I skipped a lot of the Townlong Steppes zone as I chased a quest chain while levelling and apparently I missed some interesting happenings with the Zandalari Trolls. I was quite surprised and excited to see Gara’jal the Spiritbinder in the zone. The fight lived up to many of my memories of previous troll bosses from the ZG and ZA raid days. Gara’jal reminded me of the original Jindo the Hexxer encounter in the Zul Gurub raid zone. DPS primarily focused on the boss – whilst this was occurring invisible spirits would attack and neutralise players. Players are required to enter the spirit world (through the use of a totem dropped by the boss) and kill these spirits before they take out the raid. This was a relatively simple encounter on this difficulty level but I can see the spirits becoming quite a handful in 10 and 25 man versions as well as in less skilled LFR teams.

Overall I quite enjoyed the zone. The fights, whilst straightforward required players for the most part to pay attention to what was going on around them. It’s a nice start to an expansion and I hope that as LFR progresses through the tiers the encounters continue to build on this foundation and increase in difficulty.

Finally, I just wanted to vent about the Elder Charm of Good Fortune. I have now used seven of these charms, one on each boss in the LFR raids as well as on Sha of Anger and received no items. I understand that they offer players a ‘chance’ at extra loot, however given the time put into getting them (a minimum of 45 dailies, if you do the ones that give two of the lower ones) per three Elder Charms, it is not beyond the realms of expectation that players would receive something out of 7 uses.

What’s your take?

Through The Mist: Pandaria Daily Quests

Through the Mist is a regular column from Luke Le Page covering everything World of Warcraft. If you’d like something covered in a future column, drop us a line!

I was hoping to do a review of the Looking For Raid difficulty level of Mogu’shan Vaults in this piece. Unfortunately, with uni work due and the reluctance of a fresh raid to pop up (so far I have had the option to join raids with at least 2 bosses down) I have been unable to get a decent feel for the raid. So more on that in a later column.

I have elected to go with a look at the various dailies we have access to in Mists of Pandaria. Ever since the release of Wrath of the Lich King, players have been accustomed to fast, efficient reputation grinds. We hit max level, or even smiley equipped a tabard as we levelled and our reputation levels increased as mob kills in dungeons accumulated. Those days are well and truly over – whether you liked the speed with which you maxed out reputation and acquired items or hated it, Blizzard have returned to the grind method of reputation gain.

Daily quests have superseded Tabards and dungeons as the way in which reputation is gained. While not all of the dailies unlock at level 90, a huge portion of them do. Daily quests have been a part of the game for several years now and in this expansion they have truly stepped into the WoW spotlight.

Prior to the launch of Mists of Pandaria the vast majority of dailies included killing x amount of mobs or collecting x amount of an item. Whilst this style of daily quest is still present, the sheer amount of variety in daily quests has greatly increased. We now have access to quests such as the Tillers dailies which range from planting, watering and harvesting crops to stomping on marmots and Virmen.

Pandaria Daily Quests

The quests for the Order of the Cloud Serpent include quests to play catch with a future companion and we also have access to archaeology and pet battle dailies (provided certain achievements have been met).

Love them or hate them, daily quests are here to stay in Pandaria and I am of the opinion that it is a good thing. By tying reputation to daily quests Blizzard have put a hard cap on just how much reputation we can gain per day. This enables them to control the rate at which people can gear up and progress through content.

What’s your take?

Mists of Pandaria Help Guide: Assorted Bits

Below are some simple solutions to issues I encountered on my journey from Level 85 to Level 90. Hope some of it helps you!

Where is the First Aid Trainer in Pandaria? – it’s Mishka the SI:7 agent standing near the fountain in the middle of Paw’don Village.

The Fall of Ga’trul – how do I hand in the quest? – after killing Ga’trul you need to read the red book on the altar then Rell Nightwind will appear at the door to hand it in. It took me two goes i.e. the first time Rell didn’t appear so had to try again by abandoning the quest.

Where is the Inscription Trainer in Pandaria? It’s Inkmaster Wei at the Arboretum on the east coast about half-way up on the map.

Jaded Heart Quest – where are the celestial jade chunks? They’re lying on the groun in amongst the Sha Echoes – just collect them and right click on one to weaken the Remnant.

Where is Jogu The Drunk? He’s sitting by the pond at the southern end of Halfhill

Where is the Flight Trainer in Pandaria? If you’re Alliance, it’s Cloudrunner Leng at the Shrine of Seven Stars in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms. He’s right next to the Flight Master there, sitting on a cloud serpent. If Horde, you’re after Skydancer Shun in the Shrine of Two Moons.

Find Han Stormstout quest – how do I get past the streams? If you’re a windwalker then you can go over them, otherwise just go to the left or right down the ramp far enough you can get under the stream then walk back up the ramp – do that a second time and you’ll find Han encased in amber just opposite Chen Stormstout.

Where is the Motherseed Pit in Rikkitun Village? This one drove me mad for a few minutes – it’s actually just down the hill from where you pick up the quest. Head downhill toward the water and you’ll see a bunch of the seeds where you drop it off.

Archmage Xylem’s Trials: How To Get The Achievements

Look for the achievements for Glutton for Icy Punishment, Glutton for Fiery Punishment and Glutton for Shadowy Punishment?

Here’s how to get there:

1. Go to Azshara (if you’re Alliance, fly to Forest Song in Ashenvale then go east into Azshara)

2. Go to the Arcane Pinnacle as shown here:

3. Click on each of the crystals, entering the portal each time and doing the Trials – simple as that!

4. If you want to know how to complete the trials:

a. Fiery Punishment: /dance in ten circles that don’t have the blue fire crystal in them. It counts each one you do without damage so you don’t have to do 10 without damage in a row to get the achievement.

b. Shadowy Punishment: click on the crystal then lead the apparitions to any of the portals. Like the fiery one, it counts each successful one, so it’s not hard to get.

c. Icy Punishment: this is the most challenging – the easy way out is to get on a flying mount, get airborne, skew your camera angle to look down, and drop in and out to grab the small orbs until you get 20 without taking damage.

World of Warcraft – ‘Well Read’ Achievement

As a long-term World of Warcraft player, I’m still regularly astounded at the complexity and depth of the ‘game’. For the past couple of years, the Achievements system has helped to encapsulate the scope of WoW. At time of writing, there are more than 1400 achievements that range from pulling off 100 victories in a battleground to kissing a range of WoW fauna.

One of these achievements is titled Well Read and requires the reading of 42 books spread around different parts of Azeroth. It’s a time-consuming quest but one that gives you the opportunity to read a lot of WoW lore if that’s what takes your fancy. If not, then it’s just another grind for an achievement 😉

Any Level 70+ character is likely to be able to pick up the quest solo, with the biggest challenge being Scholomance.

I recorded the location of each book as I did it, for your benefit – I tried to do it in the most time-efficient way as far as flight time etc. Of course, the list below applies to Alliance characters, Horde characters may want to check here for an alternate approach.

Onto the list:

Ref Name Where Specifics
1 The Alliance of Lordaeron Stormwind Keep – Royal Library On Table
2 Aftermath of the Second War Stormwind Keep – Royal Library On Table
3 The Guardians of Tirisfal Stormwind Keep – Royal Library On Table
4 Aegwynn and the Dragon Hunt Stormwind Keep – Royal Library On Floor
5 Beyond the Dark Portal Stormwind Keep – Royal Library 2nd Table
6 Civil War in the Plaguelands Stormwind Keep – Royal Library On Floor
7 The Kaldorei & the Well of Eternity Stormwind Keep – Royal Library On Pillar
8 The New Horde Stormwind Keep – Royal Library On 2nd Pillar
9 The Dark Portal and the Fall of Stormwind Stormwind Keep – War Room On Table
10 The Battle of Grim Batol Stormwind Keep – War Room 2nd Table
11 War of the Spider Stormwind Keep – War Room 3rd Table
12 Archimonde’s Return Stormwind – Library – The Canals On Table
  and the Flight to Kalimdor    
13 Mount Hyjal and Illidan’s Gift Stormwind – Library – The Canals On Table
14 Lethargy of the Orcs Elwynn Forest – Eastvale Logging 2nd Floor House
15 Kil’Jaeden and the Shadow Pact Duskwood – Darkshire Inn Upstairs
16 The Founding of Quel’Thalas Duskwood – Darkshire Inn Upstairs
17 The Birth of the Lich King Duskwood – Town Hall On Table (Mayor)
18 The Last Guardian Westfall – Sentinel Hill – Inn On Table
19 The Scourge of Lordaeron Booty Bay – ‘Sea Wolf’ McKinley Bottom Floor
20 The Twin Empires Booty Bay – ‘Sea Wolf’ McKinley Bottom Floor
21 Empires’ Fall Booty Bay – ‘Sea Wolf’ McKinley Bottom Floor
22 Wrath of Soulflayer Booty Bay – ‘Sea Wolf’ McKinley Bottom Floor
23 The Sentinels and the Long Vigil Booty Bay – ‘Sea Wolf’ McKinley Top Floor
24 Sunwell – The Fall of Quel’Thalas Booty Bay – Salty Sailor Tavern 2nd Floor
25 Ironforge – The Awakening of the Dwarves Ironforge – Hall of Explorers Library Table
26 War of the Three Hammers Ironforge – Hall of Explorers Library Table
27 Arathor and the Troll Wars Ironforge – Hall of Explorers Library Table
28 The Old Gods and the Ordering of Azeroth Ironforge – Hall of Explorers Library Table
29 Charge of the Dragonflights Ironforge – Hall of Explorers Library Table
30 The Rise of the Horde Ironforge – Hall of Explorers  
31 The Invasion of Draenor Western Plagulands -Scholomance First room (down)
32 Exile of the High Elves Western Plagulands -Scholomance First room (down)
33 The Seven Kingdoms Western Plagulands -Scholomance The Reliquary
34 Icecrown and Frozen Throne Western Plagulands -Scholomance The Reliquary
35 Sargeras and The Betrayal Western Plagulands -Scholomance The Reliquary
36 Kel’Thuzad and the Forming of the Scourge Western Plagulands -Scholomance The Reliquary
37 The Lich King Triumphant Western Plagulands -Scholomance The Reliquary
38 Rise of the Blood Elves Darnassus – Craftsmen’s Terrace B/W Cooking & First Aid
39 The War of the Ancients Darnassus – Craftsmen’s Terrace B/W Cooking & First Aid
40 The World Tree and the Emerald Dream Darnassus – Craftsmen’s Terrace North most building
41 The Betrayer Ascendant Darnassus – Tradesman’s Terrace Back row, behind Cloth
42 Old Hatreds – The Colonization of Kalimdor Gadgetzan At Flightmaster