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November 24, 2007

Adversarial Arakkoa

Let's talk Terokk.

I'm exalted with the Shat'ari Skyguard, but up until a week ago I, like Tobold, had never bothered with the Terokk quest line because it's rather poorly designed.

However, I now think the Skettis prerequisite quests, Adversarial Blood, and Terokk's Downfall should be on every new 70's short list of quests to complete ASAP. Not only are they a great source of gold and Skyguard rep, they also yield some really excellent pre-Karazhan blues and a shot at two great epic capes.

The Bad News
Each member of your party looking to complete the quest needs 40 Time-Lost Scrolls. You get these by killing invisible arakkoa which can only be seen with an elixir of shadows, which you get from turning in shadow dust dropped by the visible arakkoa. (You see how this could get annoying.)

Ten scrolls let you summon one of four mini-bosses at the skull piles scattered around Skettis. Once you've killed and looted all four, you get the quest Terokk's Downfall.

As if getting 40 x 5 scrolls wasn't bad enough, you actually have to summon each mini-boss not once, but multiple times so that everyone in your party can get the quest drop. Again, non-ideal, but stick with me here.

The Good News
Gezzarak, Karrog, Akkarai and Vakkiz are the four mini-bosses for Adversarial Blood, and they're all relatively easy kills. You probably don't even need a full five man for them, but be sure you have a tank and healer with you.

Each of them will drop a random BOP blue item from a shared loot table. The Boy's mage alt picked up two Skettis Bands of the Mind, which boast 11 int, 14 spell crit, and 29 dmg. They can also drop gloves, bracers, or belts along with the rings.

If you have five people summoning all four mini-bosses, that's a guaranteed 20 BOP blue drops, plus 2k Sha'tari Skyguard rep just for the kills (you'll get another 350 rep for turning in Adversarial Blood itself).

Terokk Himself
Once you turn in Adversarial Blood, you'll receive a Time Lost Offering to use with the quest Terokk's Downfall. He's a tank and spank until 25%, at which point you'll need to drag him over the blue flares dropped (intermittently) by Skyguard bombardiers in order to remove his shield of immunity.

In keeping with the spirit of this quest line, each player who wants to complete the quest will have to summon Terokk individually, which means that our hypothetical 5-man would have to kill him five separate times.

Much like the mini-bosses, though, this has both pros and cons. The annoying part is that to re-summon him, you'll have to wait 10-15 minutes for his summoning stone to respawn. On the other hand, killing him five times means 500 rep per kill plus five shots at his loot table, which includes these coveted items:

In Conclusion
I've said it several times already, but I'll say it again: the quests leading up to Terokk are stupidly designed. You shouldn't have to kill things multiple times for everyone in your party to get credit.

But don't let Blizzard's poor quest design cause you to skip a really excellent source of gear and rep for new 70s. In spite of the flaws, I'll be doing Adversarial Blood and Terokk's Downfall on all my alts from now on, and encouraging my guildmates to do the same.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

You forget to mention that EVERYONE who participates in downing the minibosses and boss gets to loot the drop and first come first served, so it's a bit open to ruthless people wanting to exploit that by saving themselves the grind for the 40 scrolls... THAT, IMHO, is where the MAJOR design flaw in those quests is and the main reason I don't wont to bother with it only to have some smart guy ninja the quest drop...

Anonymous said...

Perfect timing! There was some question in our guild whether we needed 40 scrolls, or 200 (for 5 people).

I've just started these quests with my 70s (slow starter here), so your article couldn't be more timely.

@someone: I agree; otoh, that's why I'll be doing it with a guild group. ;)

Anonymous said...

I have two char exalted with Skyguard, but didn't kill Terokk until just recently. The only reason I bothered is because that trinket is sharp for a tank. I'm working on the dailies with my warrior now, so I might try the summons. Might not, though.

Girl Meets WoW said...

Someone, you're right on the money again. That's another ugly element for sure, and one good reason not to PUG it.

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