What Tomorrow Brings - The AQ Quests.

In an effort to try and get some stuff that is going to be removed done I went on my quest to get Recipe: Dirge's Kickin' Chimaerok Chops before it is removed.  Not only is it the only epic cooking recipe in the game but it is also part of the long quest line that opened the gates of AQ so long before I ever even started playing.

The quest line which starts with What Tomorrow Brings is being removed for various reasons.  One being it is old and it seems blizzard does not want old around any more.  It is basically outdated and there is no actual need to do it so they are just getting rid of it.  Personally I disagree with the idea of removing old quest lines.  I am loving doing this quest line.

The other reason is that many of the areas you need to go for on this quest are being changed or removed completely.  So instead of redesigning a quest line that only weirdo elves like me would do it is easier for them just to remove it as a whole.

Sure, I started it with the intention to get the cooking recipe only but I am doing the whole thing.  If you like lore or adventure of an epic nature then this is a quest you will need to do while there is time left.  Sad part is there might not really enough time left.  Rumor has it that it will be taken out before cataclysm and I happen to believe that, it will be taken out when the world changes before the cataclysm release.

As part of the quest line I was required to go to areas that just will not exist any more come the world changes that could happen as soon as 2 or 3 weeks from now.  To get the recipe alone I needed to go to The Isle of Dread which will no longer exist once the world changes.

I've done most of the quest line already and the biggest challenge of it all has been the travel.  Personally I hate wasting my time traveling when it is just going back and forth because I need to get somewhere.  It is wasted time in my opinion, time better spent playing.  But I digress.  For something like this, the first time doing it, the large world wide scale of the adventure, the travel is what makes it feel so grand.

I must admit I never realized there were so many outdoor raids.  Heck, the one on isle of dread I never even knew.  I remembered going there to kill some naga for a quest or two but never even thought of going around the side to see if there was anything there.  I doubt anyone would.  As far as outdoor raids go that one was rather tame.  I had done others myself but a friend of mine came along with me on that one.  It was stupid easy even solo.  He had never noticed the place either and he had been playing for a long time.

The Nightmare's Corruption was exciting and even gave me the chance to have my revenge against some dragons that had ripped me apart a few times.  I remember back with my first run in with these elites from outdoor raids, I did not even know there was such a thing back then. 

I was questing out of Forest Song and took the path out and over to where they where.  Out of no where my little level 30ish butt was being owned by 3 dragonkin.  It is not like it took long for them to own me.  1 second was all it took.  This time around I got to get some revenge.  They did get a shot on me this time but nothing to painful and I killed them easy enough but wow, the knockback from them is crazy.  Sent me what felt like half way across the zone.  I danced on their dead bodies, revenge from killing me when I was just a young and innocent elf hunter questing my way through the world.  Take that you S.O.B.'s.

I've done a great deal of the quest line so far, sitting and waiting now on The Nightmare Manifests.  Oh how I miss volley for something like this. 100s, could have been 1000s for all I know, shades on me.  Not a hell of a lot I could do.  MD/multi does not do enough damage to actually MD them to my pet so they were on me like white on rice.  Some poor low level druids watched in awe while the events went down.  Who even knew that there was an outdoor raid in Moonglade?  I know I didn't.

I used every trick in the book but sadly the only thing that could have saved me was gone from the game.  Volley would have been all I needed.  That, or if I had played it smart and single targeted them down and not gotten so many of them on me at once.  I fought the good fight and killed a slew of them but they wore me down in time and I was a dead elf. Well, a FDed elf.

After they left I popped back up and a level 29 druid asked me, what the hell was that?  I said, a quest I am on.  He said he was awestruck watching the events and it never even occurred to him to move.  They ate him alive, him and a few other unlucky druids that happened to be there at the time that is.  It was very funny talking to them.

Even more funny then when I did Long Forgotten Memories earlier in the quest line and closed the gates of AQ.  There were a few people heading in to raid it as I was doing the quest and locked them outside.  Oops, sorry.  The battle outside was fantastic, the confused nature of everyone around watching was even better.

So far this quest line is ranking right up there with me doing the epic bow quest.  In terms of how grand the scale of things are, this has already passed the hunters epic bow and quiver quest line.  I hope I have enough time to finish it up before the changes.  I might not but even if I do not so far it was well worth the effort put into it.

When all is said and done I will have done outdoor raids in Ashenvale, Duskwood, two different ones in Feralas, Hinterlands, Dustwallow Marsh, Blasted Lands, and Winterspring.  I will have needed to sneak into Undercity and steal a book from the book vendor.  I will have needed to raid Molten Core, Onyxia's Lair, and Blackwing Lair multiple times for various reasons. 

To start all that part I needed to get a letter from the world dragon Azurego.  At least I was able to get that from the ghostly form that roams in Azshara.  If you do nothing else at least get to that point in the quest to read the conversation you have with the dragon.  As the saying goes, that alone is worth the price of admission.

This quest line is amazing.  I wish there were more in the game like this and I am greatly upset that it is being removed.  There is nothing like to in the game to replace it.  Something needs to be added to replace this and quests like this.  They take a long time just from travel and gathering things for all corners of the world but each step offers a bit of a story that is so much bigger then anything presently in the game.  I am doing this at 80 but I could imagine how it must have been at 60.  If it still feels epic now then it surely is something that you should have been proud of doing back then.

If you are a lore whore or a quest whore or even just want to see something that you will never see again in WoW then do this now and get as much done while you can because it is gone.  With the changes to the world many of the places you need to go will be gone or changed to the point that this quest will no longer be doable.  That is the reason they are removing it as a whole.  It is a huge loss for the game in my opinion because WoW really does not make anything epic like this any more. 

Trust me, I might be new to the game and all but with the exception of the wrathgate cinematic there has never been anything as enjoyable in this game then those epic 60 quests I have went back to do.  We need some epic quests for each max level.  We need something like this again.  We will not get it, ever.  It does not fit the casual design of the game now.  So enjoy it one last time while you still can. Things like this is what I fell in love with WoW for in the first place.  Not the mindless boring doing the same raid over and over for a year crap.  I want more fantasy, more story telling, more a feeling of actually doing something.  This quest line is offering that.  I am glad I have taken the time out to do it before it is gone forever. 

Cruse you Blizzard for removing the only semblance of a great game there was left in this game, epic quests.  Maybe you should think about that before the next expansion instead of making it all about, ohhh, we can fly in the old world now. Big Whoop.  I think I would have liked an expansion full of quests like this one and had to use my ground mount to get back and forth instead.  Now an expansion full of quests just like this one?  That is worth paying for.