Daily Quests have been around since the Burning Crusade launched. Initially, we were offered only a few of them, such as the Hellfire Peninsula PvP daily quest, as it seemed to be a mechanic Blizzard was still refining throughout the initial BC launch.

As of Patch 2.1, that brought us the Black Temple and its grand opening, Blizzard finally implemented their daily quest system, first helping players get to exalted with Ogri'la, the Sha'tari Skyguard and more importantly the Netherwing quests. Players scrambled to get them done as fast as possible, and it was a way for Blizzard to limit the amount of gold and/or reputation someone earned per day.

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A Netherwing Mount, available for those exalted with Netherwing

As the Patches have kept on coming, more and more Daily Quests arrived and are now a staple of the level 70 life. Many players do "dailies" before doing any dungeons or PvP, as they need gold and reputation to buy better items or item enhancements from others. It's made obtaining gold simple, and has been widely discussed, both pro's and cons, by many players throughout the months.

Now, Wrath of the Lich King is near, and Blizzard has announced a new slew of Daily Quests to help ease out the grind and net players some faction and coin as they get to level 80. There's a few things to keep in mind, though...

Variety

The main problem many people have nowadays with their Daily Quests is the lack of variety these quests have. Most of them are killtasks, with only a few of them being able to be completed by a healer or tank-specced class, especially if under time constraints or in a PvP environment. Blizzard's latest offering, the Isle of Quel'danas, was heavy on the killing, and only 4 whole quests out of the 14 or more that were added were able to be completed without direct monster encounters en-masse, such as the Dead Scar bombing, Plant Gathering, Rifts in Nagrand, and Ley-line measuring. The rest are all a pain for the solo player, and let's face it, if you're leveling up, chances are you will have to solo some, even as a healer.

Rewards

The secondary problem would be the rewards, while reputation is nice and gold is always welcome, players found little to no reward from doing most of the Isle of Quel'danas's Daily Quests thanks to the fact you only got 8-10 gold per turn-in after your reputation peaked. Items such as potions, bandages, and nice food to help with the leveling, or even achievements (as announced) to aid you in your leveling (or just show off) would be a cool perk to add to doing Daily Quests during your Wrath of the Lich King leveling, and maybe even in the endgame.

Time

As we know, World of Warcraft is a MMORPG, and they are designed from the ground-up to consume as much time as possible by immersing you into its world. Still, some quests should be shortened and kept simple, instead of overdoing it so that players don't feel like completing certain quests due to drop rarity. Common examples would be the Netherwing Line, and killing transports for very rare relics while competing with other players who also want them, or the elusive ravagers inside the mines, requiring you to find atleast 4 before finishing the quest.

Keeping the time low on Daily Quests encourages players to keep on doing them and then going off to do their own thing - while it is true that variety in quest types is nice, time required should also be a big factor. All of the above 3 points stand on their own and come together as essential when seeing if a Daily Quest is worth it or not.

All in all, here's hoping for a great variety of Daily Quests for all classes and specs to be able to choose from, and the ability to complete them while working seamlessly with your leveling, and maybe even helping you with a buff or something similar. Blizzard has had enough time to revisit and tweak their Daily Quest mechanics so that they are a great part of your leveling and income in Wrath of the Lich King.

 

 

Now it's your turn, what do you like the best in Daily Quests, or what makes you hate a Daily Quest or avoid it more than others? Let us know and post your opinions on our forums!

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