Aurael's Beta Journal #2

Questing and Sightseeing

by Amber "Aurael" Weldon


I've decided that the thing I've missed most while being level 60 is questing. Don't get me wrong, it's nice to do
instances and all, but there's just something about going out and meeting specific requirements to gain a reward that
causes me to have the most fun.

Needless to say, the expansion is doing a great job of filling that empty hole in my playtime where questing used to fit. I did a great deal of questing in Zangarmarsh. There are some great quests there. The thing that interested me
the most however, was the reputation possibilities. There are two factions that you can gain reputation with in Zangarmarsh. The first is Cenarion Expedition. The quartermaster has recipes, plans and patterns for every crafting profession
(those that make items). My main character is a hunter so I was more interested in the arrows that the quartermaster would sell for those who gained reputation with that faction. He sells Scout's Arrows, which deal 26 damage per second and require
Honored reputation. Revered reputation allows you to buy Warden's Arrows which deal 37 damage per second. The easiest way (other than questing) that I could see to gain reputation with Cenarion Expedition was by turning in unidentified plant parts to be identified. Each stack of 10 was causing me to gain 250 reputation with that faction. Of course, that amount probably goes down with the more turn-ins you do...I'm not sure though.

Another thing that really made me happy while questing in this area was the quality of the green items I picked up. I was geared in mostly blues before-hand, but these greens were consistently better or equal to my blues. Here are a few of the items I found:



Mail Belt


align="center">Fist Weapon


Cloth Boots



Nagrand Map

After having quested for a while in Zangarmarsh, I decided that I had better take some time to go enjoy the sights of Outland. So I went exploring. I made my way down to Nagrand. This is a zone full of creatures that are level 64 and up. Quite obviously, I was in over my level-60 head. It has the same creatures you might find near Thunder Bluff in Kalimdor: rocs and kodo-type animals. There are also some you would see in the Barrens: antelope and such. Actually Nagrand itself is almost a mixture of Mulgore and the Barrens in atmosphere. The difference is that Nagrand, in addition to many animals, is filled-to-the-brink with elementals.




Nesingwary's Safari

Regardless of the danger of the higher-level creatures, Nagrand is quite beautiful. Of course, it may have only seemed that way to me because I had just spent quite a bit of time in a swamp, but nevertheless, I actually enjoyed my little
sight-seeing trip around there. The towns and villages I came across all seemed to be predominately horde (especially the village of Telaar, which seemed
to be the main town in that area). I did find one neutral village called Aeris Landing. It was full of quite interesting-looking gemcutters who belonged to a faction called "The Consortium". I also came across an old friend - Hemet Nesingwary. It seems he had plane problems and crashed there. I did wonder if those snakes I saw on the crashed plane had anything to do with that...




Yes, those are snakes on that plane

A few other areas of interest in this area is the Throne of Elements and the Ring of Trials. I'm not sure what the Throne of Elements is used for, but it's a beautiful area that is home to the four elemental furies: Kalandrios (Fury of Air), Incineratus (Fury of Fire), Gordawg (Fury of Earth) and Aborius (Fury of Water). The Ring of Trials is an arena and looked quite intimidating. I hope to try out the arenas during my time in beta, but I've never been much of a pvp'er, so I'll have to work up the gumption to do so. The last thing I noticed in this area was something I have seen in every zone in Outland so far and that is a pvp objective. I couldn't quite figure out how this one worked, but when the message at the top of the screen read "15/15 Guards Remaining" with an Alliance symbol next to it, I received a nice buff called Strength of the Halaani.




New Hunter's Mark

I headed back to Zangarmarsh after getting my fill of exploring Nagrand. There were a few things I noticed during my adventures that I thought were nice. For instance, the hunter's mark has been changed. It's not longer the plain arrow that it was. No, this new and improved arrow has a nice pinkish-red color and looks a bit like it was fashioned after a fleur-de-lis. I love that my weapon automatically switches from my bow to my melee weapon when my target gets within melee distance. That saves so much hassle during a fight! It's very nice. Another thing that I love is that Aimed Shot and Arcane Shot are on separate timers. Arcane shot has become my new favorite shot. I can critical strike fairly often with it for over 950 points - this is with my Ancient Bone Bow from Scholomance. Last but not least item of note: the innkeeper at the Temple of Telhamat (a good flight path to have in the Hellfire Peninsula) is a draenei named Ophera Windfury.

See all of the screenshots from my adventures in our gallery!

That's all for now. Stay tuned to for future beta journals and check out all of our Burning Crusade Coverage!
Or join us in the forums for daily discussions about the upcoming Buring Crusade expansion!

Aurael's Previous Beta Journal
#1 First Impressions


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Last Updated: Mar 29, 2016

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