Taking It Like A Clothie
iTZKooPA on Tuesday, December 23, 2008 - 13 Comments Tags: Rogue, clothies, escort quests, grinding, helper quests, nass, qq, questing, stealthing problems, wrath
If you look at him hard enough, he will die. |
If you do a quick Google search of Escort Quests and filter through all the links to guides, the next group of articles you are sure to find is people complaining. Gamers have been QQing about escort quests since they were introduced into the video game industry so many years ago. There is not a single factor that makes them annoying, rather it is a cavalcade. Pointless backstory and ridiculous requests for the escort, random mob spawns, atrocious pathing (scripted or unscripted), and let us not forget, how incredibly slow they can be. This is all compounded a few times if you happen to be on a PvP server, as getting ganked at any point in time will cause you to fail the quest. But PvP does come with the territory.
As I have progressed through Wrath's various quests, I have not come across too many escorts. Not nearly as many as vanilla WoW and less than The Burning Crusade. So I decided to give them another try. To be completely honest, they weren't annoying on the usual scale. There was a reason for the escort - lost, stranded in Scourge infested areas, dieing, tagged along with you to help – and most pathing issues were resolved by having the NPC use the /follow command. Most importantly, they moved at your pace, and waited for you if you stopped to gather something.
I found a new annoyance though, NPCs that follow you that possess little to no health. Generally speaking, only Rogues and Druids are likely to come across this with much frequency. Initially I just thought it was the one NPC, but I later ran into another and another. Nass the deaf, blind and dumb NPC, was the latest NPC inflicted with the inability to take a hit. He is sent with you to collect Hair samples from Trolls in the colorfully named Kickin' Nass and Takin' Manes quest.
Being a Rogue, I stealth around as I wait for the opportune moment to attack, often opening with a Pick Pocket before I Garrote, if I can. The problem I have with Wrath's new fangled helper/escort quests is that these mobs pull aggro and then die in a few hits. If I fail to open my assault quickly then back to Stefan Vadu I go because I “lost” Nass.
Sorry for the additional QQ, but I am here to point out the good quests along with the annoying ones. Despite Nass' frail nature, the quest text is more than hilarious, referencing a few different cultural lines. Seriously Nass, everyone knows that Stamina is the most important stat to stack!
Reader Comments (13)
If an escort quest I'm on fails, I'll abandon it. Yea, it may mean blowing off an interesting quest chain, but so what? Plenty of other non-aggravating quests to do.
i h8 chain quests, annoying and pointless
I acually like these quests, there fun.
i know the quest you are talking about in Zul'Durak. And I had to go back and get him about 6 times. Being a rogue as well, i saved him once with a bandage, but his agro range sucks and you are correct. If you don't kill or get the other abominations on you he is toast. I don't know of any other follow quest that was this bad. There is my QQ.
I'm a prot spec paladin, so escorts aren't usually a problem for me. I can take the aggro and tank them out for as long as they want without the guy I'm escorting getting hit, then heal myself for the next one if really needed.
Well, there's actually one Indiana Jones-themed escort quest where HE escorts YOU out.
Also, the escorts can usually take a fair amount of damage before dying, usually in the situation where you let them aggro 2-4 mobs and can't take the aggro.
Escort quests need you to protect someone, and proctecting people is not easy.
Also, chain quests are the best ones in WoW, having a story. This is why I prefer series rather than individual episodes in TV.
Wrath seems to have a number of REVERSE Escort missions. Instead of you escorting the npcs around, the npc escorts you through the mission.
I like that a lot better. Haven't had the problem of them pulling aggro and dying.. but I can get how that'd be annoying.
I actually used one of the NPC's to heal me through the Ursoc quest to solo it. So some of them are not as annoying as others. Nothing like soloing a 3 person group quest.
is it that hard to not stealth when escorting?yes you'll lose your opener,but that shouldn't be such a problem
Nothing better in the world than kicking a zombie minion into doing your evil bidding.
Ya you don't escort him, he escorts you lol
harrison jones escort ftw!
I didn't have any problems doing the quest with Nass other than having to kick him every time.
well tanking like a clothie is well kind of understaeing it i have a afftion lock who does nothing but take damge and with ex talents in demonlgy any damge i do take 20% is taken by my pet so when you think adout it its more like a imp tanking
(makes me sad the no one will read this)