Documenting my return to World of Warcraft: Day Three

Day Two ended on a bit of a sour note, with me unsure if there'd be a Day Three. I started my session not wanting to go through Highmountain, so went to Argus, found little of interest and tried to do a dungeon, before realising that doing the dungeon was locked behind Argus quest progression. An annoying day.

So on Day Three, I thought I'd knuckle down and try to push through Highmountain. I had a bit of a hangover, and wanted something lightweight to do. I had my pot of tea, old CSI on the TV, and it didn't seem like such a terrible idea. I thought I'd just fly to Thunder Totem and look for quests, and check that the ones I was doing are part of the achievements on Wowhead. Solid plan!

On my arrival, I immediately found the Hulm series of quests, and in the process of doing the "go get these three things we need" part, happened upon Moozy's grandmother, Ethel. Ethel is not my favourite NPC - the way she leashes and moves with you on the escort quest is really annoying, but I guess that's the point. I then entered into a quest where I am playing as Hulm, I think? I've never really been a fan of things where I don't play my character. I don't mind playing my character in a vehicle--I love that raid boss where one of the tanks steers the metal golem--but I'm not a huge fan of my character being replaced by another one.

Of course, I'm highly unlikely to enjoy any of these quests, they're a means to an end, and that end is flying. So the very best thing a quest can be for me is short and easy to complete. This Huln quest was easy, but confusing--after my first objective was complete, I assumed I should un-tauren myself and talk to the guy in Thunder Totem again. I was wrong, but there was no obvious way to re-tauren. I figured it out eventually, as you can see. The Huln chain was mercifully short, and I was one set of quests closer to flying.

The next steps were harder. I started looking for the Skyhorn Tribe quests, and according to Wowhead, I needed a guy in Thunder Totem. I couldn't find him. I really wish that, if WoW is going to continue revisiting this path of locking things behind questing, the devs would add some way to see if quests are required or optional for the various objectives. It's highly frustrating that that's not clear anywhere in the game. Another example of this sort of issue is that one of the parts of the Highmountain Loremaster achievement, 'Secrets of Highmountain', you have to find 40 treasures. This in itself is no big deal, but there's no tracker, no count at all. So I have no idea how near or far I am from that number.

But, happily, as I went through the quests, checking each new one I found on Wowhead, I happened upon enough things to get that one done. The best part of the Highmountain chain was seeing good old ghostly Deathwing. I loved that guy, and it was nice to see him again. 

All in all, Highmountain wasn't so bad. The actual storyline quests were fairly minimal, although finding them can be a little tiresome. I was definitely very grateful to the good folks in the Wowhead comments for providing guidance at one particularly confusing point - the Bloodtotem achievement appears when Navarogg is about to move to the underground cave place, so you think you're done with him, but then you get stuck. Mayla Hightotem won't give you a quest. What you have to do is go get Navarogg, then you'll unlock the final Snowblind Mesa step. This is horribly unclear, so thanks, Wowhead, again. 

Then, off I went to Broken Shore, emboldened by my success. Thanks to an old Ownedcore script, I was able to find that I was indeed done with the initial Assault on Broken Shore quest, so again, according to Wowhead, what I needed to do was firstly explore the island, and secondly get to revered with the Legionfall guys. Apparently, there are Legionfall World Quests, but I have no idea how to get to them. Additionally, I keep being disconnected on the Broken Shore, which is highly irritating. I fly to Deliverance Point, then to Vengeance Point, where I apparently have a hand-in or three, and then to the other FP, still none the wiser. Maybe I just need to go back to Dalaran? It also seems from Wowhead that I may or may not need to have a Legionfall follower in my Order Hall, so I decide to check that out. 

Arriving in my Order Hall, I learn that it's a Moonfang guy I need. I have no idea how to get him, though, so again it's off to Wowhead. My Wowhead usage is very high indeed here, and I wonder to myself how anyone who isn't at least fairly familiar with Wowhead would ever be able to do half this stuff. It's crazy, really, how little help the game gives you to achieve these things. It should be obvious that the number of users who read and consume Blizzard's WoW marketing is far smaller than the number playing the game, and it seems horribly broken that Legion's later gameplay is so dependent on a great but external website. 

I realise, suddenly, that I hadn't actually explored all of Highmountain, and did so, thereby earning the Pathfinder, Part One achievement, and unlocking the Pathfinder, Part Two achievement. So now, I can see that I probably don't need the Follower, but honestly, I'm not sure if I trust the game more than Wowhead on this. And I still don't know how to do a Broken Shore world quest... so back to Vengeance Point I go...

I realise Deliverance Point is probably where I want to be, and start looking for an NPC or a table or something--a way to get the World Quests. I find an Artificer, who sells a bunch of things for a currency I'm not sure about. I don't know what it is, or where to get it. She's not very useful. I find a building guy, who helpfully says that we need buildings. 

I can't find any other clues as to how to do the World Quests. I suspect I am being stupid. I fly back to Dalaran again. Is it just that Broken Shore quests are one of the Emissary options? Is it that there's no start point and I just go and farm mobs? Do I need to get a follower before I can do them? Let's try Wowhead again. I find a really great returning player guide, that I wish I'd had earlier, but I'm still not sure how to do Broken Shore World Quests. I go back to Deliverance Point again. I go kill a guy who has a skull marker on my map. It has no impact on my reputation. I remain confused. I log off.