Warlords of Draenor (Beta) – The Quest to Draenor

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Well, it was time to log-in to the game for a second time. I was planning on getting a second Beta toon using the 90 Templates available. Unfortunately, the Beta Server was undergoing a new build and was down. Arrgh! I only have limited time here people!


 

A few days later, and what seemed like ages, I was finally able to log-in to the mythical Warlords of Draenor. Upon logging in, I was somewhat surprised to find that my first toon, the now level 5 Tauren Paladin was gone. In its place, I was pleased to see a “Warlords of Draenor: Level 90 Template” available to me on the character creation screen. I enjoyed leveling a toon to level five when I first logged in, but it was time to see the meat of WoD and jump into the new content.

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While I was creating my new level 90, I realized that there were several realms to choose from on the Beta so I decided to check it out:

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Turns out there are several realms to test, which helps to explain why the first time I logged in, I only had a level one toon to choose from. After playing around a bit, I jumped straight into the game.

Warning: read on for spoilers. Lots of screenshots and a few additional tips will await you! (click on the photos to get the full resolution images)

I did just a couple of things after logging in: checking out Org and clearing all of the annoying “Achievements” and Mail that I received for in game purchases and account wide rewards. This is actually one of my biggest pet-peeves: every time you create a new toon, you have your chat flooded with “Achievement” notifications for things that you could not have done on your new toon… annoying. I also cleared the “What is new” box:

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Anyway, I picked up a couple of quests from the “Board” in the Valley and took off to through the portal next to the “Quest Board.”

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Things in WoD are not fully up to speed yet, as the term Beta states, and I hope that they deal with a few of the things that I am encountering (you will hear more of my gripes to come). So where does that portal take you? To the Blasted Lands, where legions of the Iron Horde are storming the portal:

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Your first few quests are guided by Thrall (if you are Horde anyway – go somewhere else for Alliance spoilers). The first task: helping to rid the area of the invaders!

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These guys tend to land in a flurry of explosions that seem to not damage you at all (at this point, destroying the cannons does no damage either), or even knock you from your mount…

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So for the first few minutes, you simply follow Thralls commands and kill the invaders. Of all of the quests, I found this one to be the hardest to locate my prey. In this instance, I was looking for scouts, which when you get into the game, you can find here:

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After you have killed almost everything that seems to be around, and in sufficient quantity (ranging from 5-8), you will venture into Nethergarde and Okril’lon to kill the intruders and gain tokens of the fallen. Here is an example questline:

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When you have bloodied up the Iron Horde, Thrall gives you a quest to end all quests: destroy the Iron Horde leader – a quest which he will accompany you on.

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Thrall looks pretty good in battle, but it takes your efforts to overcome the Iron Horde:

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Now, this is where things get crazy in the Beta as it stands. After you turn in the quest to Thrall, nothing happens (well nothing except the following line from Thrall).

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You do not get another quest, or any cinematic. As most of us were confused in the game, we learned that you had to travel back to Org to get the next quest line. And you get it from the Giant Archmage at the city gate:

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The Archmage proposes to travel through the Dark Portal and kill the invasion at the source. Jumping at the chance for some action, you are transported to the other side of the portal. Your first quest there: Kill one of the Iron Horde and get a missal. Once you have it, you are tasked with shutting down the Portal from this end. You do that by entering the two towers and breaking the relics there:

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Once the two towers are destroyed, you are asked to enter the Soul Engine and disable the Portal for good. This is a bit tricky to find as the doors are on the side of the stage that the portal is on, not down the stairs:

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Now you have to kill a few more artifacts and release this guy from his captivity (which is a great cinematic when you enter the room):

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Then, when you have defeated the Iron Horde and disabled their portal, the Superfriends ask you to follow them (by that I mean the heads of all of the factions).

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You run down behind the portal and are greeted with your first quest in Draenor!

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All of this was about an hour of gameplay and a few rough times trying to make it through. As always, it is easier to make it with a group and brings down the time on all of the “Kill” missions in Blasted Lands. The ultimate reward is a single map of Draenor:

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And who could forget the wonderful WoD Loading screen (which is way better then the low res vanilla load screen they are using on the beta builds):

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Happy questing and stay tuned to this blog as I update my status in WoD. If you have any questions, drop me a line and I will try to answer them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

One Comment

  1. Lorraine says:

    Іch wusste nicht viel darueber, aƅer momentan bin ich mehr informiеrt.