Project Lore

We were one of the first to bring our readers an extensive, even exhausting (for me at least), look at everything the Argent Tournament had to offer upon its release.  The solo content of Patch 3.1 brought players a large collection of new quests, an original mode of play (jousting), the opportunity to make obtuse amounts of gold in a short time frame, an easy way to level up the old city factions and the Argent Crusade, mounts, pets and even the ability to gain reputation with the Silver Covenant/Sunreaver faction for the first time.  Save Threat From Above, it was an entirely soloable experience. In sticking with my plan, Solidsamm spent a good amount of time in Icecrown getting a feel for the new quests, flying around the updated tournament grounds, and taking in the sights.  If you've just decided to tackle the Argent Tournament for the first time then be sure to check out the original guide.  The following only pertains to the newest quests additions.  These quests are only accessible if you are Exalted with the associated factions.  You can check your standing with any of the factions by checking your Reputation pane (default 'U') or by viewing your Argent Tournament Achievements (default 'Y' then select World Events and scroll to Argent Tournament). Most of these tasks are located very close to the Argent Tournament.  However, there are a few exceptions were Blizzard saw fit to send us out on our flying mounts, such as Breakfast of Champions' Storm Peaks run.  Assuming you still want to do the four dailies from Patch 3.1 (still offer the most money), you'll now have the opportunity to gain a guaranteed 10 Champion's Seals a day to put towards the new loot.  I'm already working towards my new squire. Overall, it appears that the quests are designed better than before thanks to the everyone being randomly assigned five of the jobs below.  No more Battle Before The Citadel-type lag sessions. <Crusader> Quests: You'll randomly be assigned two of these.  Generally, they send you off to kill a non-elite named target that respawns very quickly.

• Deathspeaker Kharos - Kharos is camped out with his underlings directly west of the tournament grounds.  You can take him out as you are hunting for Black Cage Keys for You've Really Done It This Time, Kul.
• Drottinn Hrothgar - Drottinn is the leader of the Kvaldir that exterminated the Tuskarr settlement, which was recently discovered directly north of the grounds.  He's located by the three heads (Tuskarr impressions of Easter Island statues) on the eastern part of the Hrothgar's Landing island.  The heads are viable on the map of the island.
• Get Kraken! - We're off to support the Sunreaver and Silver Covenant naval forces in this one.  On your way towards Hrothgar's Landing you'll see the boats under assault by Kvaldir raiding parties, and even Kraken that they have found a way to control.  Fear not, you're tasked with raining fire upon the wicked from the seat of an Argent Hippogryph, so the quest is as easy as the rest.  Just don't forget to get on said mount!
• Mistcaller Yngvar - Found in a cave located on the west side of Hrothgar's Landing.  You must use the provided trinket to reveal him before he can be easily dispatched.
• Ornolf The Scarred - Ornolf isn't anymore challenging than the rest of the named mobs, but you'll want to clear the boat a bit before you challenge him.  His ship, Bor's Fury, is located in the southeast area of the island you're sure to become so found of.
• The Fate Of The Fallen - This quest sends you the farthest away from the grounds of any of the <Crusader> unlocks.  It's also the most difficult to figure out exactly where to go, as theIronwall Rampart is not labeled on the interactive map.  Just head directly east of Aldur'thar (it's labeled on your map, and is southeast of The Shadow Vault) and you'll see the needed crystals and mobs on the ground.  There is no need to even fight anything.

<A Silver Confidant>/<The Sunreaver> Quests:  You'll be randomly assigned three of these, bringing your total up to five new dailies a day, nine overall.  Unlike the <Crusader> unlocks, these quests are more involved and tend to send your farther away from the grounds.

• A Leg Up - Apparently the Kvaldir were hungry, so they stole some of the food en route to the grounds.  Thanks to the chilly weather up in Icecrown the food stays fresh even though its strewn across Hrothgar's Landing.  If floor pie meat isn't to your liking, then you can always thin the Kvaldir ranks for some untainted meat.  Snob.
• Breakfast Of Champions - Mmm Wheaties.  Wait, the Jormungar eat their own larval young?  What are they sharks?  To keep the Dune-inspired creatures healthy, so we can kill them in the Coliseum, we have to feed them their own species' eggs.  Eggs which are located dead center of Storm Peaks - as in outside of Icecrown.  Enjoy the lengthiest trip the patch has to offer.
• Gormok Wants His Snobolds - You're off to Storm Peaks once again.  This time you'll be slightly closer to home.  Head over to Garm's Bane, just northeast of K3, and capture some Snobolds to put the blubbering baby to bed.  I guess even giant monsters can have "binkies."
• Rescue At Sea - You'll come across the besieged The Wavecrest as you head up the east side of the strait to Hrothgar's Run.  Board the ship and drop the seaweed filled creatures.  Beware of the Krakens though.  They have a knockback that can put you in the drink, and thus, in their reach.  Perhaps the riskiest of the quests.
• Stop The Aggressors - Kill 10 Kvaldir; the new school Training in the Field + two.
• The Light's Mercy - This follows The Fate Of The Fallen, only now you are praying over the fallen Tuskarr on the island to the north.  Again, no need to even fight.
• What Do You Feed A Yeti, Anyway? - In celebration of Shark Week Blizzard has us tossing fresh chum, located on the boats, into the North Sea to attract sharks, or even a Kvaldir.  The drop rate on the shark meat (and seemingly all other quest drops) is 100%.
• You've Really Done It This Time, Kul - Head directly west to Deathspeaker's Watch, run by Deathspeaker Kharos, and kill mobs until you have saved four Aspirants.  You'll need a fifth key to free Kul, whom is located on the right side of a raised platform.  If you spot the body of The Black Knight, then you've found the correct platform.  Like the Isle of Quel'Danas key daily, the keys are not 100% drop rate.

There you have it, a breakdown and easy-to-navigate guide for the Argent Tournament's new daily quests.  I guess all the jousting ideas went into the instances, as none of the dailies have you mount a stead. Once more, if you aren't Exalted with the factions you will not be able to partake in these quests! And yes, The Black Knight has returned, and he's even more powerful than ever.  You can start his new questline by picking up The Black Knight's Curse from the main tent.

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Normally when Blizzard starts releasing this much information on a patch in such a short time frame it means that the patch is on the horizon.  I'd be pretty shocked if Call of the Crusade came out so soon after Ulduar, but Blizzard has to battle with Summer somehow.  After all most guilds are still working on their first clear of the Titan and Old God happy fun zone.  Getting behind on our raiding won't stop us from absorbing all the new information though! As we already knew, the coliseum will be completed when Patch 3.2, an update that basically revolves around the Argent Crusade, is launched.  The additional details that Bornakk gave us yesterday are the interesting morsels.

• A new "epic 10- and 25-player raid dungeon with five encounters".  The new raid will also contain an interesting property, the raid will sport four difficulty levels, 10- and 25-man normal and 10- and 25-man heroic.  Did I read that right, we get one boss per week?  Or are my reading comprehension skills shot from lack of sleep?
• Crusader's Tribute - The tribute system is an attempt to reward the best players for their consistency.  The setup "will limit players on the number of attempts they get in the Coliseum each week."  The less attempts you need to clear, the more rewards you can reap.  Utterly fail and you get nothing.  Better be sure to have well-oiled, well-geared, alert and sober members in the runs.
• New 5-man dungeon with three encounters.  Each encounter will reward a Champion's Seal.
• New tier of armor and weapons.  The phat loot will be modeled with Alliance- and Horde-specific themes.

The added difficulties are nice, but I fear having to farm four different raids for gear.  Hopefully Blizzard realizes how annoying that will be, and distributes the gear accordingly.  At first I thought that the lockout mechanic was rather annoying, but if they do plan on releasing Call of the Crusade soon, then the small amount of content combined with the lockout period would allow players to keep Ulduar as their main target, and head over to the Coliseum for a quick fix of loot and change of scenery.  I would equate it to a lengthier Malygos, better loot, but not the focus. I like the Crusader's Tribute idea, but I am sure I will get annoyed with the mechanic once a healer disconnects on the pull.  But in theory, rewarding for skill and dedication is a good way to go.  All things considered, the Coliseum definitely follows the same design philosophy as Argent Tournament, solo gameplay.  Allow me to finish.  Although you need buddies to help you through the raids and dungeons, I'd wager that it'll all be over quickly which means it should be PUG friendly.  Also, I haven't read anything on the raid's difficulty. I can't help but wonder what is going to be the lore behind the area.  I mean are these encounters just to challenge our skills for the upcoming conflict with Arthas, or did some nefarious organization infiltrate the Coliseum and set up shop?  I'm sure many of you don't care about the storyline aspect, but I need more than just loot. Do you raid leaders already have A and B groups in mind for the Coliseum Tribute runs?  Think the new content will be ezmode, or another small step up in difficulty? Let's not forget the other, more Argent Tournament-based, Patch 3.2 details that Amatera detailed earlier this week, and Heartbourne's profession changes.

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Yes, I Know My Achievement Score Sucks & No, I Do Not Care It's been just over a month since the Secrets of Ulduar stopped being secretive and brought us the Argent Tournament.  The new Icecrown area was designed to raise the level of solo content for those players who wouldn't be entering Ulduar any time soon, or ever.  And we enjoyed it for awhile. I've only missed 3 days worth of dailies since the tournament went live and would consider myself a bit of an expert on the subject.  Don't believe me?  Well then how about this dose of arrogance; I can down all four Champions for Among the Champions without healing my stead.  That really should be an Achievement in my humble opinion.  Doing anything that many days in a row leads to a bit of burnout and I am no exception.  I can't wait until either new Argent Tournament content is added - how long does a coliseum take to build anyways? - or I can stop grinding those Champion's Seals.  Only 70 more to go till I grab the five-some of pets, then it's back to grinding for the Hippogryph. Enough background and qualifying information.  The major fault of the tournament isn't that the content gets stale quickly, or even that it's more financially rewarding to not Champion every faction, it is the design of the Citadel quests.  Actually, not the quests themselves, but the area of Corp'rethar itself.  I'm lucky enough to have time in the morning to tackle my dailies when most people aren't online.  Over the course of the month+ I have had to delay those tasks till peak hours, a time when the Court of Bones turns into a mini Wintergrasp.  If I had to deal with the lag and lack of mobs on a daily basis I think I would have quit the Argent Tournament a long time ago. At first I wrote off the problem as being due to the allure of new content, and wholeheartedly expected the area to become a wasteland in the near future.  Last week's afternoon Citadel run told me otherwise.  How did Blizzard not see this coming?  They basically took the crowds of Dalaran, tossed them into a single confined area and have them fight over a limited resource (although quickly respawning).  Who approved that design document? With the reduction of the Hippogrpyh's price, the bird has been re-added to list of things to purchase.  This means I only have...44 days left.  Those added quests and chance to score a Seal from the purses can't come soon enough.  Solidsamm deserves a break after the pets. Do you experience this kind of lag, or is it limited to my aging and crowded server?  Still plugging away at those Seals?

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Better Get Used To This View... The Argent Tournament has become a big part of my daily routine.  Thanks to the clusters of quests and little downtime between them, it's a perfect place to begin my day collecting coin.  Then there's the added bonus of the "new hotness" content, helping me finish up my Exodar reputation, new Achievements (yes, I said Achievements), and most important, non-combat pets!  It's these little useless critters that have kept me returning to the Argent Tournament grounds day after day. It didn't hit me until recently that I would be a staple at the tent for the foreseeable future.  Originally, I was striving for the pets and the Argent Hippogryph, but that all changed when I calculated the amount of badges, therefore days, I would need to hand over to the quartermasters.  450 Champion's Seals for everything.  At a maximum of 5 seals per day, Solidsamm would become less of a staple and more of an Argent Tournament member!  We are talking 90 days, three months for all of this stuff.  Deep breath.  At least we receive 50 Seals from Championing all the factions, dropping that number to 400 and only 80 days.  God forbid I wanted to get some of the mounts... The aforementioned benefits help ease the pain, but they will only last for so long.  I've been picking up Champion's Writ instead of the sack of coin to move Exodar's rep along faster.  Around the same time I finish Exodar's rep grind, I will be completing the last Valiant challenge for my final faction (Ironforge).  At that point, I will lose the additional income of 50+ gold a day from those quests.  Sure, I may have 10,000 gold already, but the easy income offsets the monotony.  With the vanity pets soon to become the only driving force for my participation in the tournament, I doubt they'll all be by my side quickly.  Hmm, perhaps I should just sell them to the horde for thousands of gold... I'm lucky enough to have Naxxramas and solid crafted gear, so I did not waste Seals on other things.  How has the Argent Tournament been treating you?  Anyone crazy enough to try to collect all of the mounts?  What's an additional 2700 gold, 225 Seals and another 45 days in the grand scheme of things, right? Oh, and this should be the first Achievement section - outside of Northrend's exploration - that I finish in its entirety.

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