By now, the Argent Tournament has probably become a fairly substantial part of your WoW life, whether you're after the "Crusader" title, the Champion's Seal rewards, or just some extra gold. And, being the achievement whore that I am, I know how time-consuming the dailies can be. So I thought I'd make a quick guide (better late than never...) to share the little tips and methods I've picked up along the way. If you're new to the Tournament, or even if you're not, you might find something here that you hadn't thought of.
My quest circuit, now that I've freed up my quest log a bit, is this:
- HS to my faction's pavilion ([76.2, 19.6] for the Alliance, [76.2, 24.3] for the Horde) / Fly there / Log in there. Having the Tournament Grounds as my home location's prudent for me; you know how frequently you'll travel there, you know where else you have to go - your call. In patch 3.2.0 though, an Argent Crusader tabard will be available that teleports you there.
- Pick up all the Valiant daily quests inside. The Grand Melee, A Valiant's Field Training, At The Enemy's Gates, and either A Blade Fit For A Champion, The Edge of Winter, or A Worthy Weapon. The last three quests (the ones you receive from the Grand Champions, to fetch a sword) require quite a lot of travelling, and since there's currently no rush to champion every race (I'll explain why later), do them at your discretion.
- Go outside, complete The Grand Melee, turn it in. Equip your lance, hop on one of the stabled mounts outside, and head to your faction's Valiant's Ring ([75.3, 18.4] for the Alliance, [75.3, 26.1] for the Horde). Before you start the fights, stack three layers of defend and wait for its cooldown to end. The fight themselves essentially consist of two "phases"; in the first, the Valiant will stay close to you using thrust; and in the second, they'll retreat to a distance, use Shield-Breaker, then Charge (they actually start the fights with this phase, but it still seems kinda secondary).
During the first phase keep thrust on cooldown, while continuously moving backwards - this occasionally creates enough distance between you and the valiant to use a Shield-Breaker (which doesn't share a cooldown with thrust), and allows you to reposition yourself, preventing disqualification for straying too far from the ring (which happens sometimes; the second phase can drag you about a bit).
Victory here basically equates to having more layers of defend than the Valiant, for longer. So in phase two, for a safe win, use Shield-Breaker as soon as you can and immediately close the distance. That way the Valiant won't have a chance to remove any of your defend, so if you keep this up, you can't lose. This is quite slow though, so play about with it and see how much defend you can remove in phase two while maintaining more than your opponent. After a bit of practice you probably won't get hit by Shield-Breaker/Charge anymore, but be ready to restore it if you do. And keep an eye on the buff's timer, having to restack three layers of defend can be a little problematic, especially if you haven't refreshed your mount for a while.
The method I use is to charge as soon as possible during phase two, double back around (tightly enough to avoid making yourself vulnerable to Shield-Breaker/Charge, but not so tight that the window to use Shield-Breaker's too small, for your latency, etc) during the charge so that I can use Shield-Breaker, and end up facing the Valiant, ready for phase one. This, coupled with the odd Shield-Breaker I get in phase one, allows me to maintain a defend ratio of 3 - 0 for the whole fight. But like I said, play about and find a method that works for you. For a measure of how well you're doing, you should be able to easily complete this and Among the Champions without healing your mount.
- Head over to the Argent Pavilion [69.9, 23.4] and pick up all the Champion daily quests inside. Among the Champions, Taking Battle To The Enemy, Battle Before The Citadel, and Threat From Above. When you hand in these quests, you can choose either a Champion's Writ (which awards you 250 rep with any faction you're the champion of) or a Champion's Purse (which contains 10g, and sometimes a Champion's Seal; maybe once a week if you don't miss quests and are lucky. So if you're aiming to acquire the mount/pet/tabard rewards, I recommend choosing these).
- Go outside, complete Among the Champions, turn it in. Head over to the stable next to The Ring of Champions [71.6, 23.9], mount up, and fight the Champions. These fights are identical to those against the Valiants, except the Champions' reaction times are much quicker. But if you're careful, they shouldn't pose much of a threat.
This guide so far can be done in reverse (i.e. Argent Pavilion - Among the Champions - Your faction's pavilion - The Grand Melee) if, for example, you logged out in the Argent Pavilion. If this is the case and you do Among the Champions first, don't fight more than two of your faction's Champions. If you do, you won't be able to complete The Grand Melee until the debuff wears off.
- Complete your remaining quests, except the one to retrieve a weapon. A Valiant's Field Training and Taking Battle To The Enemy can be done simultaneously, as can At The Enemy's Gates and Battle Before The Citadel. So you could do Threat From Above then At The Enemy's Gates and Battle Before The Citadel (or the other way around), killing fifteen scourge between the two locations (usually at The Conflagration), and returning to the Tournament Grounds.
First I look for a group for Threat From Above (as a rogue I haven't tried to solo it) then complete the other quests with that group. With a few of you, they require almost no strategy. This is easier if you have regular group to do these dailies with. If you don't, and your group (if you needed one) just needs Threat From Above, then the other quests will take a little longer, but are all still easily doable.
For Threat From Above, fly west to the large snowy area south of The Shadow Vault where you'll see a large dragon, Chillmaw, circling in the sky. If there's a few groups waiting for him to respawn (which only takes about a minute), wait at [40.0, 33.2]. It respawns there, at the northwestern point of its circular path. The fight itself is fairly pedestrian, the only thing worth noting is that the three adds can drop "Time Bombs" that detonate, causing 4-5k damage, just move away from them.
After that, fly south to the small camp in The Court of Bones [49.1, 71.6] and mount up (after killing fifteen scourge (Converted Heroes are a good idea, they come in groups that can be AoE'd down quickly) at The Conflagration at roughly [43.8, 56.4], its huge though, so you can't really miss it. However if you only need those two quests, you can kill your scourge at Sindragosa's Fall [73.7, 37.5], just below the Tournament Grounds). To complete both both At The Enemy's Gates and Battle Before The Citadel you'll need to kill:
- 15 Boneguard Footmen - These can just be trampled to death, and you'll probably take out fifteen while you kill the other types of enemy.
- 10 Boneguard Scouts - These are the gargoyles flying to the sides of the main path. Their Necrocution attack chews through your defend, so if they're low enough, use a Shield-Breaker as you run in to Thrust. If not, use two Shield-Breakers and reapply defend.
- 5 Boneguard Lieutenants - You'll encounter these further down the main path (they're the ones with red shields, not green. Pulling an unwanted Commander could cause problems). You can pull them with Shield Breaker or Charge if you won't pull a Commander by using it. They remove your defend but die in a few attacks, so they don't pose any real threat, just make sure not to pull any unwanted adds (keep an eye out for Scouts). Also they come with a few Footmen, who are easily disposed of.
- 1 Boneguard Commander - These are a little tougher, they're the horsemen with the green shields and 250k health. My way of fighting these involves clearing parallel to the main path until I reach the stairs. Then pulling them way up the stairs, because their phase two takes them quite far, and if you pull anything else, you'll probably die. They feel like a step-up from the Champions but if you're careful, their pretty easily doable.
Since you can no longer accept Valiant quests after acquiring the "Crusader" title, you should wait until 3.2.0 hits (at which time Crusader dailies will be introduced) to get it. Since two Valiant quests are completed in the course of doing their Champion equivalents, you'd incur a pretty hefty loss of gold otherwise.
The buffs you get from the Bone Witch [32.5, 42.9] in the cave at Njorndar Village can help speed these quests up, so hold on to your Vrykul Bones.
- Complete the quest to retrieve the weapon. If you're on A Worthy Weapon, fly east to the south side of the Ironwall Dam (still in Icecrown), around [70.2, 75.1], and pick four Winter Hyacinths. Then head to Crusader's Pinnacle [79.4, 72.3], fly to Ebon Watch [14.7, 73.1] in Zul'Drak, and head south to the lake between Dragonblight, Grizzly Hills, and Zul'Drak. Talk to the Maiden of Drak'Mar [93.0, 25.0] there and loot the sword that appears (anyone can loot it so be careful).
If you got The Edge Of Winter, again head over to Crusader's Pinnacle, and fly to your faction's hub in Crystalsong Forest. From there, go and kill Lord Everblaze [55.5, 75.0] and loot the Everburning Ember, he's high up, at the northeastern end of the Path of the Titans. Then fly to Winter's Breath Lake in northern Howling Fjord, and use the Ember on the Maiden of Winter's Breath Lake's [42.0, 20.0] icy encasement.
And if you have A Blade Fit For A Champion, fly to either the Westfall Brigade Encampment or Camp Oneqwah, and head south to Ashwood Lake [61.0, 48.0] (the one on the right). Start kissing frogs until the Maiden of Ashwood Lake appears (it also works if someone else found her) and talk to her to receive the blade (she despawns quite quickly).
These quests may take you close to where Jack Me Some Lumber is completed, so do that if you want to. And it's also worth noting that these three quests are independent, so if you don't complete or hand it in, and a different one of the three is offered the next day, both can be in your quest log at once.
Head back to the Argent Tournament Grounds and hand everything in. And repeat.
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