Fog of war

[LochnarITB]

I think of myself as an explorer. I can't stand to have fog of war on a map that I have been to. I find that I often find out of the way quests by doing so as well. My /played reflects this exploration also. However, I have recently been playing some of my alts and I am tending to take some of Bolty's power leveling tips with them. I find that I am having to leave some unexplored areas on maps doing this. My question for those of you that have power leveled all the way - Do you find that quests are laid out in a manner to eventually clear all fog of war or do parts of your maps remain clouded? Of course, the areas can always be cleared by setting out to do so but I doubt I would still have the motivation knowing many areas would be way below the characters level.

[Bolty]

I think of myself as an explorer.  I can't stand to have fog of war on a map that I have been to.  I find that I often find out of the way quests by doing so as well.  My /played reflects this exploration also.  However, I have recently been playing some of my alts and I am tending to take some of Bolty's power leveling tips with them.  I find that I am having to leave some unexplored areas on maps doing this.  My question for those of you that have power leveled all the way - Do you find that quests are laid out in a manner to eventually clear all fog of war or do parts of your maps remain clouded?  Of course, the areas can always be cleared by setting out to do so but I doubt I would still have the motivation knowing many areas would be way below the characters level.
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Maps will remain clouded in parts. Well, it's not like you're ever really going to fully explore the opposite faction's areas with your chars, especially on the PvP server. But even in contested turf, you will have to go out of your way to explore places. I think that's a good thing. The Achiever type will only go where there are quests or loot. Explorers can have fun as well, going places the Achievers won't. :)

I can never find an Elwynn Forest quest to send you down to that dock to killed the named guy. So I usually never have that little part filled in on the map (middle of the map, southern section).

-Bolty

[MongoJerry]

You know, I've never been sent to the Searing Gorge either as Alliance or Horde. This is despite the fact that it's in the heart of Alliance territory and the Horde town of Kargath is right near the pass into the Searing Gorge. I finally went in there with my mid-50's undead priestess and found one quest series given by an obscure NPC along the northern edge of the Gorge. It's strange to have such a big well thought-out area in terms of design and artwork and yet have so little to do there.

Back to Lochnar's question, though, no if one is an "Achiever" type, it's likely that there will be vast stretches of the map that will remain covered. But like Bolty, I think this is a good thing. There are parts of the game that are designed specifically for Achievers, Explorers, Social (pets, for example), and Player Killers. If, like me, you're primarily an Explorer personality, then there are lots of stuff off the beaten paths to discover -- and some of them are pretty darned neat.

[Swiss Mercenary]

I can never find an Elwynn Forest quest to send you down to that dock to killed the named guy.  So I usually never have that little part filled in on the map (middle of the map, southern section).

-Bolty
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I do believe that that is the low level rogue quest.

[Lissa]

I do believe that that is the low level rogue quest.
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That is it, it teachs you how to use pick pockets.

[Cryptic]

I print out the completely filled-in Allakhazam / worldofwar cartography maps, in full color, and put them in a binder. I can't stand having my entire screen covered by that non-interactive map anyway - so the binder is always open. Some of my "screen" maps are half blank but I know exactly where everything is, and since I never use the screen maps anymore, there is no fog of war. The map functionality in the game is currently poor - a little better than paper but blocking up the view. It's better to print the paper and never worry about it. When you're bored, you can hit some of the more interesting-looking "lost places" for views and xp.

[Sword_of_Doom]

Since this is my first attempt at Wow ( was not in open or closed beta), i have spent a lot of time clearing "the Fog of War" as well. At times it can be very dangerous and i have died many times venturing into areas that i was not ready for. In answer to your question about quests leading you to explore every nook and cranny, "no", much of it you have to do yourself. This has led me to find quests i probably would never have discovered. My exploring life has changed dramatically upon reaching 40+ (mount is great explorer) and my general strategy now is i explore entire zone before doing the quests. This has led to much misadventure as today i was in Azshara (pardon the spelling) and i went to the edge of the fog of war which ended up being cliff dive to the ocean. I was literally stuck in the ocean but was fortunate to have a Warlock port me out.

[stabby]

I'm terribly bipolar about getting that fog of war cleared out. In some zones, I'll wander until I hit all the points of interest and get my map filled in, but on others (Hi, Ashenvale!) I don't see enough of it to bother -- it's flyover country, and even only that thanks to the utter stupidity of the Alliance's Kalimdor flightpaths (especially the Auberdine to Talonbranch Glade (Northern Felwood) flight, which inexplicably hairpins through Ashenvale, adding a good 15 minutes to what should be a quick five minute hop over the mountains).

[Raziel]

There are at least two fairly obscure questgivers in EP. Would never have found them if I wasn't being a whackjob and exploring far off the beaten path.

[WarLocke]

There are at least two fairly obscure questgivers in EP.  Would never have found them if I wasn't being a whackjob and exploring far off the beaten path.
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EP?

[Kevin]

EP?
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Exactly. I've said it a couple of times. We need a stickied thread or a static web page with all the common abbreviations and acronyms for this game. At the very least for place names. I admit my lesser experience with the game all the time in guild chat with things like "SM?, huh" or "RFK?" I still have to keep spinning the wheels with SM for Scarlet Monestary because I have never been there so it just doesn't stick with me. :)

Of course I could also say that it's only polite on a message board to spell out any short form that you are going to use at least once before you use it or have it spelled out somewhere in the thread. The pressures to get the message out quickly are not as great as in game (where you could be fighting or navigate a bit while walking, etc) or on another more fluid media where flow of conversation can be important as well. But I'm only pointing it out in passing because I don't really care that much (but I do care). I don't know what EP means either, and I don't feel like looking at maps to try and figure it our right now so I too would like an answer. :)

[Bun-Bun]

EP?
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I'm betting either Eastern Plaguelands or Extended Play. Given nobody uses VCR's anymore, I'd say the former. :)

[Jarulf]

You know, I've never been sent to the Searing Gorge either as Alliance or Horde.  This is despite the fact that it's in the heart of Alliance territory and the Horde town of Kargath is right near the pass into the Searing Gorge.  I finally went in there with my mid-50's undead priestess and found one quest series given by an obscure NPC along the northern edge of the Gorge.  It's strange to have such a big well thought-out area in terms of design and artwork and yet have so little to do there.

Back to Lochnar's question, though, no if one is an "Achiever" type, it's likely that there will be vast stretches of the map that will remain covered.  But like Bolty, I think this is a good thing.  There are parts of the game that are designed specifically for Achievers, Explorers, Social (pets, for example), and Player Killers.  If, like me, you're primarily an Explorer personality, then there are lots of stuff off the beaten paths to discover -- and some of them are pretty darned neat.
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I guess I am an extreme explorer :) It would be boring if there is no place of the world were you aren't sent through quests and so on. There should be many off areas were you go on your own to explore. That is part of the fun, at least to me an others. I love travelling arround, even when I don't have the level for. I love going to remote areas, just to get the flight paths filled in, even if I have to die several times in the process to advance a bit on the map. I explore, get a feeling for and look through areas before starting on quests. That is perhaps why I find tew quest log limit so annoying, since I travell arround a lot, I get tons of quests to pick up.

I am the type of person who want to finnish every single quest with my character. That includes doing all newbie areas, even if the last one will be donw when I am level 25. I like to go everywere and so on. I would probably have two characters only, one of each faction to experience as much of the game as possible. With the current profession system I might have to make a few characters for specific tasks, item creation and such though. Oh well. Since I don't mind also playing solo, and thus like being self managing, that might be needed. Perhaps it is also why this type of game is perhaps not really for me, but then, there is so much in it I *do* like as well.

Two questions:

1. Were is Bolty's power level guide (one can always combine leveling with exploring :) ).

2. Did Bolty finally give in and buy the game allready?

[Treesh]

Two questions:

1. Were is Bolty's power level guide (one can always combine leveling with exploring :) ).

2. Did Bolty finally give in and buy the game allready?
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1. http://www.lurkerlounge.com/forums/index...topic=5058 :)
2. Yes.

[Raziel]

Did some more exploring last night on the way to that final, glorious ding sound. Ended up wandering into a place called Mazthoril in Winterspring, guarded by level 55+ elite dragonkin. Being an underpowered group of 4 (hunter, hunter, paladin, sorc) we immediately decided to try it. So we ventured into a cave at the bottom of the gorge.

Inside we found mostly single pulls of dragonkin, and packs of 3 whelps that can be kinda fun. The occasional patroller. The funnest part was that the cave must have been on a 5 minute repop timer. No soon had we cleared the ones ahead and moved forward than the ones behind spawned. My wife had to take a call so we held our ground and killed the same mob for 4 successive respawns from a small, secluded corner.

Eventually we killed our way downwards to the bottom of the cave. Found a big open area with two huge patrolling dragons.. level 58 gold elite and 60 gold elite. Both immune to hunter's mark, which is always a bad sign.

Suddenly, a gnome mage goes barreling past, cuts a line along the wall, runs between the dragons, pauses for breath at a far side of the chamber, dodges some whelps and.. dissapears.

I send him a tell: "What the heck are you doing down here?!"

He responds: "Seeing Haleh."

The obvious question: "What does she give?"

Answer: "The key to Onyxia."

Wooohoo!! So we repeated the move, dodging between dragons, and after crowding up against the wall of a dead end with a level 60 dragon staring at us (that eventually turned away).. we found a blue arcane sigil on the floor that if you stand on, teleports you...

... somewhere! A high wintery peak overlooking winterspring, and there is Haleh. But since we haven't rescued the guy from BRD yet, she wouldn't talk to us. (It turns out you need to see somebody in BRS first, after Windsor's March, THEN come to Haleh.)

I went back through the sigil. The cave is otherwise a dead end, but I discovered that while standing against the very back wall in a corner, I was able to "phase" slightly into the cave wall.. into Hyjal. Minimap changed slightly. I couldn't bring up a map of the area though. I screenshotted it and ran back to the sigil.

Gosh I love exploring. Now we know where to go. Before busting up for the night, we did all the prerequisites for Windsor's rescue from BRD.