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New AD quests/Scourge invasion thread - oldmandennis - 05-25-2006
Well you get 25 rep for going from a city to LHC, which is nothing to sneeze at as you go revered->exaulted.
Once there you find the guards are totally inadequate. They need a net and a longer leash.
The new quests I noticed are Nax attunement, two dealing with the invasion, and a bunch of quests for the doodads you turn in for the "casual" blue and purple items. One of the quest givers tells the story of how she was the guardian of Medivah's staff.
Doodads - There are 4-5 sources of these. Most of them are available inside and outside of a dungeon, with the dungeon ones providing a better drop rate. Completly inadequate sample size, but one skeleton splinter dropped in 4 kills. This was outside. The main thing I was testing was if you had to be on the quest to get them. You don't (Whew - 5 quests permantly in my log? No thank you). I was moving too fast (see weaksauce guards) to notice a difference between Argent Dawn doodads and Scarlet Crusade ones. I did notice some flavor dialog between NPC's of them arguing back and forth.
Invasion - A purple skill appears on your map for any zone that has an invasion going on. As far as I know, every zone can be invaded. I picked up 2 quests, retrieve 10 crystal thingamabobs and kill a dark shade. The reward for the crystal quest was your choice of 2 sharpening stones (though they didn't mention only edged weapons) with 100 to AP vs undead for an hour, or two pots with 50 to spell power for 1/2 hour. I don't know if that quest is repeatable, but it seems imbalanced and overpowered if it is. Unbalanced as in the stones seem way better then the pots (twice the effect, twice the duration, persist thorough death) and overpowered as in these would be required I think by all DPS classes for every Nax run. Also, not to start a ginormous controversy, but these are less useful for the horde (they preclude using WF) then the alliance. On the other hand, I haven't seen a lot of other good reasons to engage the invasion. The other quest is to kill a dark shade. I don't think there was a reward specified. Any how, you ride out to the necropolis floating in the area under attack. On the ground is a runed area, with a chained floating crystal and 4 technicians. The technicians are not attackable. Surrounding them are ~30 normal undead monsters. In EPL they were 58-60, I don't know about other areas. They aren't difficult, and are easy to solo pull. ~1/3 to 1/4 drop the crystals. I didn't get any scourge stones or other items for the AD gear off of them in about 30 kills (enough for 9 crystals). 8 crystals allow you to interact with a technician, turning him into a shade and reducing the life of the otherwise invulnerable teathered crystal by 1/4. The shade is a fairly powerful 60 elite. The only power I saw that he had was mindflay. About every 30 seconds or so a shadowy bolt flys from the necropolis to the crystal, and I'm pretty sure that spawns another normal mob. I would be suprised if killing 4 shades did not end that particular invasion.
The gist of the staff story is that the mages of the Kin Tor in Dalaran acquired the staff in WC1 during the raid on Medivahs tower. Unfortunatly, the staff is sapient, having acquired the evil will of Sergasas. This chick was appointed the guardian of the staff, but Arthas came to town in WC3 and tried to acquire it for his demonic masters. Protective spells shattered the staff, and now Kel'Thuzud is trying to reassemble it. The mage is also trying to get it, and has joined the AD to further her goal.
Edit: I noodled around on the server early in the morning, and wasn't fully awake. All of the sudden it seems to me that you might have to repel 10 invasions and pay 30g for your choice of 10 frost or nature resist head/leg enchant. I can't remember for sure though. If that's true, then the 10 crystals for shapening stones is probably a one time deal, and we don't have to worry a whole bunch about the balance and power of it.
New AD quests/Scourge invasion thread - redinter - 05-26-2006
The necrotic crystals you get from the undeads around the the invasion place are used not only to transform the technicians, but can be brought back to the AD for a lot of repeatable quest rewards, one of them is 8 necrotic crystals for 2 sharpening stones/blessed wizard oil (+100AP/50spelldmg on undead). So, yes it is repeatable.
New AD quests/Scourge invasion thread - MongoJerry - 05-26-2006
Quote:The necrotic crystals you get from the undeads around the the invasion place are used not only to transform the technicians, but can be brought back to the AD for a lot of repeatable quest rewards, one of them is 8 necrotic crystals for 2 sharpening stones/blessed wizard oil (+100AP/50spelldmg on undead). So, yes it is repeatable.
Like oldmandennis, I'm wary of bringing up the whole Alliance vs Horde thing, but it's just stupid that one can't use shapening stones or poison and Windfury at the same time. That whole issue should have been fixed as a part of the shaman review.
New AD quests/Scourge invasion thread - Kevin - 05-26-2006
Quote:Like oldmandennis, I'm wary of bringing up the whole Alliance vs Horde thing, but it's just stupid that one can't use shapening stones or poison and Windfury at the same time. That whole issue should have been fixed as a part of the shaman review.
I have to agree with you there.
New AD quests/Scourge invasion thread - MongoJerry - 05-26-2006
I just posted the following on the official Shaman forum:
Quote:One of the new repeatable Argent Dawn quests in 1.11 highlights one of the major structural problems with the shaman. This quest gives you sharpening stones that add +100 attack power to weapons versus undead. That sounds great and these stones should be really useful in Naxxramas.
The problem? You still can't stack Windfury with sharpening stones or rogue poisons. As a part of the shaman review, this limitation should be removed. Simply make windfury a character buff rather than a temporary weapon enchant. This problem has been around a long time, and since it's clear that dungeons are being designed with the idea that people will be using expendables on a regular basis, it seems like now would be a good time to finally address this problem.
Any attempt to bump the thread would be most appreciated.
New AD quests/Scourge invasion thread - Concillian - 05-26-2006
Quote:I just posted the following on the official Shaman forum:
Any attempt to bump the thread would be most appreciated.
You will probably have more luck discussing this sort of thing in either the test realm forum or in the suggestions forum
The shaman forum seems to have relatively little visibility from CMs.
New AD quests/Scourge invasion thread - oldmandennis - 05-26-2006
Played an hour and a half last night after the raid, and have a couple more notes for those curious about it.
The Scalet Crusade has sent a delegation to LHC. They are obviously very concerned (What with Nax being right on top of them and all) and very pessimistic. The main thing they are after is Ashbringer. The AD are not their bestest of friends and threaten to send Forndring after them if they can't be nice to the "orcs and cow men". Forndring is a pally questgiver on the border of EPL and WPL who was screwed by the SC, IIRC.
The up shot of this is for any of the purple/blue items, you need 1/2 AD tokens and 1/2 SC tokens. The doodad quests described earlier are 30 doodads each, not 10. So spider parts and bone chips are SC only, plants are either, elementals and dark iron scraps are AD only. Also, you can get either token by getting one of the old valor tokens (from scourge stones) and instead of burning it, turning it into a NPC. He then gives you a trade skill quest. The ones I got are:
3 radiant circlets
20 greater healing pots
8 runecloth bags
8 runecloth robes
10 wicked leather headbands
Needless to say, this is a very expensive way to obtain some pretty sub par (for the most part) gear. I don't know if obtaining the tokens gets you any rep, but my gut tells me 50.
There is an NPC counting out how many invasions have been defeated. So the invasions are a limited time thing. I think it would be a very good idea to stockpile several hundred of these on raiding warriors and rogues for Nax. There are also gloves to be had for 40 runes from the invasion, but the quality of them is unknown right now.
The boss elites from the invasions are pretty tough, tougher then I thought. They have a fear as well as a mindflay. They have a short leash, which means you can't take them away from their minions. The minions respawn so fast that 2 people can't clear more then a narrow path to the center. The kicker is, I think it was 75%, he summons all minions within a certain range (we got 3 when I was trying it). Basically I'm saying its atleast a 3 epic person job. Maybe 2 very high damage classes could clear enough of the camp before the fight to not allow any calls, in which case I think it is 2 mannable. The quest line for doing it supposedly breaks before any rewards are revealed.
Some of the invasion mobs are "silver dragon" mobs. I saw an abomination and a witch. The abo dropped 2 runes for me, but the witch despawned before I could clear to him.
The invasion mobs also drop little bits of flavor text. Most of them are Ken Burns style letters home from the fighting durning WC3. Returning them to LHC gets you almost 2g. Supposedly there is more to this, but it seems to be broken atm.
New AD quests/Scourge invasion thread - Xanthix - 06-24-2006
Something I was wondering about the invasion... Has anyone heard when the various aspects will stop, and if any of the turnin quests will be removed?
I would imagine that in a few weeks or so, the necropolis attacks will cease. So no more necrotic rune turnins or getting your "undead slaying" set. But it would make sense if the quests to get insignias, and to turn in the insignias for the rare and epic armaments of the dawn, remained. They seem to be a "kill a zillion of these guys for rep" and a "suck a zillion of this supply out of the economy for rep" series of quests, which is typical for Blizzard's faction system.
Plus, it looks like it will take a long time to get enough insignias for an epic reward, so if these quests only lasted 2-3 weeks, I could see a lot of people being disappointed.
But has anyone heard one way or thes other on these quests?
New AD quests/Scourge invasion thread - Concillian - 06-24-2006
You are correct.
Necrotic quests are limited time (actual time unknown)
Insignia quests are unlimited time (like Silithus Badges)
New AD quests/Scourge invasion thread - Zarathustra - 06-25-2006
Quote:I just posted the following on the official Shaman forum:
Any attempt to bump the thread would be most appreciated.
Perhaps the same thing as Omen of Clarity. Prepare to have Windfury dispelled a lot.
New AD quests/Scourge invasion thread - Arnulf - 06-25-2006
The areas that are 'eligible' for scourge invasions are Azshara, Winterspring (2 necropolises), Tanaris (2), Burning Steppes (2), Blasted Lands, Eastern Plaguelands (2).
New AD quests/Scourge invasion thread - Threnody - 06-25-2006
Here are the rewards for collecting the various doodads:
30 Bone Fragments - 1 Insignia of the Crusade
30 Crypt Fiend Parts - 1 Insignia of the Crusade
30 Dark Iron Scraps - 1 Insignia of the Dawn
30 Elemental Cores - 1 Insignia of the Dawn
30 Savage Fronds - 1 Insignia of the Dawn or 1 Insignia of the Crusade
Completing a Writ - 1 Insignia of the Dawn or 1 Insignia of the Crusade
The first turn in gives 200 AD rep. Subsequent turn ins give 10 AD rep.
I had the most luck collecting elemental cores by solo farming the first pylon in DM West. The elementals had a high drop rate and normally dropped 3 or 4 cores at a time. Bone Fragments are extremely easy to collect. Just grind the first farm in WPL. You can also collect minion scourgestones and destroy cauldrons while doing this, so it's a good way to farm AD rep. Crypt Fiend Parts can be obtained in Terrorweb Tunnel, but watch out for the 60+ Crypt Fiend Overseer that wanders in the cave and town. BRD seems to have the best drop rate for dark iron scraps, but I haven't been there yet.
New AD quests/Scourge invasion thread - Sir_Die_alot - 06-25-2006
Quote:Here are the rewards for collecting the various doodads:
30 Bone Fragments - 1 Insignia of the Crusade
30 Crypt Fiend Parts - 1 Insignia of the Crusade
30 Dark Iron Scraps - 1 Insignia of the Dawn
30 Elemental Cores - 1 Insignia of the Dawn
30 Savage Fronds - 1 Insignia of the Dawn or 1 Insignia of the Crusade
Completing a Writ - 1 Insignia of the Dawn or 1 Insignia of the Crusade
The first turn in gives 200 AD rep. Subsequent turn ins give 10 AD rep.
I had the most luck collecting elemental cores by solo farming the first pylon in DM West. The elementals had a high drop rate and normally dropped 3 or 4 cores at a time. Bone Fragments are extremely easy to collect. Just grind the first farm in WPL. You can also collect minion scourgestones and destroy cauldrons while doing this, so it's a good way to farm AD rep. Crypt Fiend Parts can be obtained in Terrorweb Tunnel, but watch out for the 60+ Crypt Fiend Overseer that wanders in the cave and town. BRD seems to have the best drop rate for dark iron scraps, but I haven't been there yet.
The best place I found for farming these is BRD lava. If you know the shortcut to the anvil and forge you can knockout a run in less than 45 minutes and the elementals can drop BOTH elemental cores and dark iron scraps, the most seeming to be 4x of each. I did 2 runs with a hunter friend and his priest wife. I didn't take a tally of how many we collected but after we did a little trading so we could all have the most turnins, I had enough for 2 dark iron and 1 elemental. Downside? You can only get insignia of the dawn for these items. :(
Edit: After doing this a little bit I think the best sources of crusade insignias are bone fragments. Farm felstone field for these and they build up fast. On a side note you can also build up a lot of mats for the cauldron there for 15 rep turnins.
The best source of dawn insignias is as I stated above. With good gear you can burn through this very fast.
New AD quests/Scourge invasion thread - Xanthix - 06-26-2006
Quote:I had the most luck collecting elemental cores by solo farming the first pylon in DM West. The elementals had a high drop rate and normally dropped 3 or 4 cores at a time. Bone Fragments are extremely easy to collect. Just grind the first farm in WPL. You can also collect minion scourgestones and destroy cauldrons while doing this, so it's a good way to farm AD rep. Crypt Fiend Parts can be obtained in Terrorweb Tunnel, but watch out for the 60+ Crypt Fiend Overseer that wanders in the cave and town. BRD seems to have the best drop rate for dark iron scraps, but I haven't been there yet.
Okay, I'll bite. What class can solo farm the pylon elementals in DM West? I have always seen the 6 guys come on 1 1-pull, 1 2-pull, and 1 3-pull. I have heard of warlocks using banish and fear to get them but that seems really dicey.
On a related note, is there any class that can solo the big tree guys in DM West? They drop 2-4 savage fronds each. Maybe they can be 2-manned?
New AD quests/Scourge invasion thread - Threnody - 06-26-2006
Quote:Okay, I'll bite. What class can solo farm the pylon elementals in DM West?
Warlocks can do it with ease. The mana elementals can be banished and feared, so juggling two at a time is simple. You always get three elementals on the first pull, but even that gets to be easy with practice. Search google video for the words "dire maul" and you'll find examples of it being done.
New AD quests/Scourge invasion thread - TheWesson - 06-26-2006
Each floating necropolis can spawn multiple invasion points (= chained crystal + lots of UD mobs.) I know they can spawn two but I do not know if it can be more or less.
You can find an invasion point by looking up at the floating necropolis and running after the blue-black bolts coming out of its underside (these bolts are heading to a crystal.)
One necropolis in Tanaris is just south of Gadgetzan and one is south of Broken Pillar. In EPL, one necropolis is just southwest of LHC and one necropolis is pretty near the road coming on from WPL. This is slightly useful to know because the necropolis near the flight point is more likely to have its invasion points camped.
The shard in the middle of the invasion point is weakened somewhat every time an UD is killed. It's replaced by a damaged shard when its health goes to zero. At this point killing normal UD doesn't seem to weaken the shard any more. 4 technicians come which can be turned into Shadows of Doom. I suppose they could eventually repair the shard and make an undamaged shard out of it but of course this doesn't happen if players are about.
Ater all the technicians are killed sometimes (always?) the mobs continue spawning and eventually four more technicians are spawned. After these four are killed, the central crystal/shard goes away and the invasion stops at that point for at least a little while. I haven't seen 3 waves of technicians yet.
The Shadows of Doom can be slowed in a variety of ways - Crippling Poison, Curse of Exhaustion, chilled by frost. They can be stopped for a little while by Frost Nova and other means as well I think. Thus, they can be kited by an appropriate 2-man crew in non-epics. Their melee is fairly harsh (700 dam or so?) but their ranged attack, which looks like Mind Flay, doesn't hurt that badly.
None of the normal undead spawns around the invasion point are ranged attackers. This means that massive farming is possible with a mage and a priest, additional aoe being helpful. Since each normal UD is worth 5 AD rep (Shadows are 50 and drop a Corruptor's Scourgestone as well) this is the fastest way to get to Revered AD rep that I know. The normal UD at the invasion points stop giving AD rep at Revered but still drop Invader's Scourgestones.
I don't know the mechanics of all this if the party is in raid form. I imagine it would be just the same except that the two main Invasion quests (kill a Shadow and gather 8 Necrotic Runes) would not be doable. I suppose a decently equipped 40-man raid could clean out an invasion point in a few minutes.
New AD quests/Scourge invasion thread - MongoJerry - 06-26-2006
Quote:I don't know the mechanics of all this if the party is in raid form. I imagine it would be just the same except that the two main Invasion quests (kill a Shadow and gather 8 Necrotic Runes) would not be doable. I suppose a decently equipped 40-man raid could clean out an invasion point in a few minutes.
Nice writeup, TheWesson! The Necrotic Runes drop in raids as well, because they're not technically quest items, so yes you can do that quest. You just can't do the Shadow quest in a raid. But, you can just leave the raid (maybe grouping up with a few people), tap the mob and then have the raid kill it for you. For the most part, farming the invasion points involves bringing a mage with you, having them kill everything, and then looting the bodies. As a priest, I occasionally heal or toss in a Holy Nova to feel like I'm doing something. Wowee.
I thought the invasion points were supposed to pop rare spawns sometimes. Anyone seen any of those?
New AD quests/Scourge invasion thread - Lissa - 06-26-2006
Quote:Nice writeup, TheWesson! The Necrotic Runes drop in raids as well, because they're not technically quest items, so yes you can do that quest. You just can't do the Shadow quest in a raid. But, you can just leave the raid (maybe grouping up with a few people), tap the mob and then have the raid kill it for you. For the most part, farming the invasion points involves bringing a mage with you, having them kill everything, and then looting the bodies. As a priest, I occasionally heal or toss in a Holy Nova to feel like I'm doing something. Wowee.
I thought the invasion points were supposed to pop rare spawns sometimes. Anyone seen any of those?
We saw two last Wednesday in Azshara at two different invasion sites. One dropped the plate chest piece and the other was a pair of bracers IIRC (Plate Chest for sure though).
New AD quests/Scourge invasion thread - Xanthix - 06-26-2006
Quote:We saw two last Wednesday in Azshara at two different invasion sites. One dropped the plate chest piece and the other was a pair of bracers IIRC (Plate Chest for sure though).
I have seen only 1 after clearing maybe 8 crystals total.
In my opinion, it is best to get your chestplate from the shadows of doom, the gloves from the AD quest, and the bracers from the auction house. The rare spawns seem too unreliable.
New AD quests/Scourge invasion thread - oldmandennis - 06-26-2006
Quote:At this point killing normal UD doesn't seem to weaken the shard any more. 4 technicians come which can be turned into Shadows of Doom.
Ater all the technicians are killed sometimes (always?) the mobs continue spawning and eventually four more technicians are spawned. After these four are killed, the central crystal/shard goes away and the invasion stops at that point for at least a little while.
Killing the regular mobs after the shard is damaged does nothing. I think each shade does 25%. But unless you are quick, the other engineers will heal the crystal, meaning it will live through the first 4. If you can kill the crystal (usually the first engineer of the second wave) the mobs will stop spawning. You can cleanup the rest of them, then take down your remaining shadows in peace.
Quote: Thus, they can be kited by an appropriate 2-man crew in non-epics.
I would hesitate to do this. The shades definatly seem to "call" nonelites sometimes, even if you don't get feared into them.
Quote: This means that massive farming is possible with a mage and a priest, additional aoe being helpful. in raid form. I imagine it would be just the same except that the two main Invasion quests (kill a Shadow and gather 8 Necrotic Runes) would not be doable. I suppose a decently equipped 40-man raid could clean out an invasion point in a few minutes.
The rep from AOE farming these is pretty insane. It is the same if you form a raid, you are just missing the shade quest (you can still gather 8 runes). 40 man wouldn't really go any faster then 6 (4AOE 2 healers). It will take about 20 min I would guess to get the crystal down because you would be waiting on repops.
I've seen pleanty of rare spawns. It's still probably a good idea to get your bracers from the AH once you have the other parts. There is still a lot of luck about getting the right armortype, and winning a roll. I'm pretty sure the chests only drop on the shades, and not on the rares.