Stranglethorn Vale and Desolace
Started at level 33
Finished at level 37
Stranglethorn Vale is a massive zone that covers about 10 level's of quests. Filled by both Alliance and Horde, you tend to find a lot of people complain about this zone, especially if you leave general chat on. At 33 though, I wanted to go and at least get the starting ones out the way, but much like The Barrens, I try to keep my trips here short and sweet...
You get quests from three places here, Booty Bay which caters to both Alliance and Horde and you get can here via a boat from Ratchet. Grom'Gol base which is a Horde sanctuary and accessible via a Zepplin from either Orgrimmar or The Undercity, and finally, Nesingwary's Expedition aka "The Hunter's Camp", accessible only via foot.
To start with, most of your quests will come from the last two, but there are a couple of lower level ones in Ratchet to grab, and since Horde are blessed with a flight path at both Grom'Gol and Ratchet, travelling between the two is easy. Deep breath, let's get started.
[31] Tiger Mastery
Objectives : Kill 10 Young Stranglethorn Tigers
Rewards : XP!
[31] Panther Mastery
Objectives : Kill 10 Young Panthers
Rewards : XP!
[31] Supply and Demand
Objectives : Collect 2 Large River Crocolisk Skins
Rewards : XP!
[32] Investigate the Camp
Objectives : Find the hunters' camp and report its location
Rewards : XP!
[40] The Green Hills of Stranglethorn
Objectives : Collect the missing pages from The Green Hills of Stranglethorn manuscript
Rewards : Plate boots, Thick Armor Kit and Healing Potion.
Investigate the camp comes from Booty Bay, so since I knew I was heading there anyway, I grabbed that one first. While you are there, find the Leather shop and grab Supply and Demand, you will find it up the top level not far from the Alliance flight path.
From there I located the Nesingwary's camp and grabbed the Mastery quests. I cheated with the green hills quest and actually bought the pages form the Auction House before heading here. They do drop in the zone, but you can spend your entire time just trying to get the right pages, and they sell for an average of 5s - 20s at the Auction House... and I'm lazy.
For those wanting to go the easy route, the pages you need are:
- Chapter I : Pages 1, 4, 6 and 8
- Chapter II : Pages 10, 11, 14 and 16
- Chapter III : Pages 18, 20, 21 and 24
- Chapter IV : Pages 25, 26 and 27
I handed those in first for a nice bump in the XP bar, and then headed out for the proper questing. I started by killing my way east of the camp, you will find the Young Stranglethorn Tigers right around the camp, but if you go to the opposite side of the road, you will also find the Young Panthers. The Large River Crocolisks are along the river banks, funnily enough and I got my two skins out of three kills.
[33] Tiger Mastery (Part 2)
Objectives : Kill 10 Stranglethorn Tigers
Rewards : XP!
[33] Panther Mastery (Part 2)
Objectives : Kill 10 Panthers
Rewards : XP!
[33] Raptor Mastery
Objectives : Kill 10 Stranglethorn Raptors
Rewards : XP!
If you head west out of Nesingwary's camp, you will see that you can get up onto a higher section, that is where you will find everything you need for the above three quests. The area closest to Nesingwary's will have Panther's and Stranglethorn Tigers, and if you head further west to the water, you will find the Raptors. If you didn't get enough Stranglethorn Tigers, there are a few more around the same area but on the lower level.
[24] Hunt for Yenniku
Objectives : Collect 9 Bloodscalp Tusks
Rewards : XP!
[35] Bloodscalp Ears
Objectives : Collect 15 Bloodscalp Ears
Rewards : XP!
[37] Bloody Bone Necklaces
Objectives : Collect 25 Bloody Bone Necklaces
Rewards : +7 Stamina, +2 Spirit Ring
The above three can be done together as all the items drop off the same mobs, and if you're lucky, all at once! Running back towards Nesingwary's, there is a Bloodscalp ruins on the way, you will usually find some Bloodscalps wandering outside, and there are 10 or so inside the ruins. The only thing though is a lot of people come to the very same ruins for the very same thing, so you might have some competition. Another area to check is straight west from there, along the beach, there is another ruins.
You can pull either camp fairly easily and I had no problems doing it solo. The necklaces will take the longest as you need 25, so I just hung around until I got them all. Then made my way back to Nesingwary's to hand in.
[33] Tiger Mastery (Part 3)
Objectives : Kill 10 Elder Stranglethorn Tigers
Rewards : XP!
[33] Raptor Mastery (Part 2)
Objectives : Kill 10 Lashtail Raptors
Rewards : XP!
[36] The Defence of Grom'gol
Objectives : Kill 15 Lashtail Raptors
Rewards : XP!
Running from Nesingwary's back towards Grom'gol, I cut a straight line across as you will pass both Elder Stranglethorn Tigers and Lashtail Raptors on the way. The good thing with Raptor Mastery and Defence of Grom'gol, is they are the same raptors, so that's two quests you can do at once.
[36] Some Assembly Required
Objectives : Collect 5 Snapjaw Crocolisks Skins
Rewards : XP!
[36] Hostile Takeover
Objectives : Retrieve 8 Tumbled Crystals
Rewards : +6 Intellect, +5 Spirit, +5 Agility Cloth Gloves
[37] Goblin Sponsorship
Objectives : Find the Fuel Regulator Blueprints
Rewards : XP!
When I went to Booty Bay, I ended up with the above three which area all in the same area, Lake Nazferiti. The Geologists are all around the east side of the lake, and if you are look on the shore, you will find 3 Snapjaws as well. I basically kept fighting around the shore line, checking back every now and then to see if the croc's had respawned.
For the Sponsorship quest, you need to kill Foreman Cozzle first, and he is located at the top of the planked structure. Although he was level 38, I took him down with little trouble. He drops a key which you need to open the locked box that containers the blueprints. You will find this box in the little house / hut beside the saw mill on the ground.
Once I had completed those three, I returned to Booty Bay to hand in. By now I had mostly high 30 quests left, and was a little tired of Strangethorn Vale, time to see what else is around!
Wanting a bit of a break from Stranglethorn Vale, I decided to clean up the remainder of some of the zones I had started, so headed to Desolace. When you land at Shadowprey Village though, there's actually a step you can do that you will need later on for the following quest;
[35] Catch of the Day
Objectives : Bring Nataka Longhorn 2 Bloodbelly fish
Rewards : Mithril Ore, Thick Leather or Mageweave Cloth
This quest actually comes from Ghost Walker Post, but you can do it before heading out there, saving you a trip. Jump into the water at Shadowprey and look for Shellfish Traps, they look like bamboo cages in the water and you can loot them. When you do loot them, you have a chance to get Shellfish out of them, either singularly or multiples. If you don't get any Shellfish, be on guard as a Drysnap Crawler will usually spawn and attack you.
Five Shelfish handed into Jinar'Zillen who walks along the docks there will return you one Bloodbelly Fish, and you will need two of these for the quest. Once you have collected 10 Shellfish, see Jinar and then start making your way to Ghost Walker Pass.
[35] Stealing Supplies
Objectives : Gather 6 bags of Crudely Dried Meat
Rewards : Silver Star, Feathered Arrow or Exploding Shot. (200 Ammo)
Heading out of Ghost Walker Post, the first place I head to was the Magram Village, I did a quick round to collect the Crudely Dried Meat. You are looking for little cloth sacks that are lootable, and be sure to look front, back and to the sides of the tents as there can be multiple ones around the same area. I actually managed to get 4 of the 6 off of the first island.
[35] Khan Dez'haph
Objectives : Retrieve Khan Dez'hepah's Head
Rewards : XP!
After I got my Dried Meat from the Magram, I continued my way up where you will find the Kolkar camp, it's right next to the Magram Camp. You will find Khan in roughly the middle of the huts, located in a single on of his own. This was a really simple quest as he comes solo if you clear around and really isn't that hard.
[33] Sceptre of Light
Objectives : Get the Sceptre of Light
Rewards : XP!
[38] Hand of Iruxos
Objectives : Retrieve the Demon Box
Rewards : XP!
If you head to Ethel Rethor before Thunder Axe Fortress, you can pick up the Sceptre of Light from Azore, who can be found just to the right of the tower there. The Sceptre drops from the Seer at the top of the tower to the left of the entrance just after you enter, he will have one friend with him.
Once you have obtained than, head into the main building, and inside the big round room you should see a large red crystal. Be sure to clear all the surrounding mobs, and when ready right click the crystal. Doing this will cause a Demon to spawn, who will drop the Demon Box. There is a Night Elf inside, but as she is for an Alliance quest, will ignore you. Once you are done, make your way back to Ethel Rethor.
[36] Claim Rackmore's Treasure
Objectives : Find the Silver and Gold key then open the Rackmore's Chest
Rewards : 31 - 58 Frost Wand and a Shield.
[35] Clam Meat
Objectives : Find 10 pieces of Soft-shelled Clam Meat
Rewards : +5 Stamina, +8 Spirit Cloth Gloves or Leather Girdle or Mail Belt
[35] The Corrupter
Objectives : Find an Oracle Crystal
Rewards : XP!
[38] Book of the Ancients
Objectives : Get the Book of the Ancients
Rewards : +4 Stamina, +5 Intellect, +4 Spirit Cloth Wrist or Mail Shoulders
[36] Other Fish to Fry
Objectives : Slay 7 Slitherblade Myrmidon, 7 Naga, and 5 Sorceresses
Rewards : XP!
From Rethel Ethor, make your way down to the shore, following the cliff wall around to the left. Not far up, on the shore you should see a wrecked boat and there will be a book there you can loot. That will give you the Treasure quest.
Just near there under the water will be a sunken ship, and in the waters surrounding it, Drysnaps (aka big lobsters). Along the ocean floor you should also see Soft-Shelled Clams that you can loot, those will drop the clams, that when opened will give you Soft-Shelled Clam Meat. If you are having trouble finding enough of these, kill some of the Enraged Reef Crawlers as they occasionally like to eat the clams, and they may drop them for you.
If you are killing the Drysnaps to clear, one of them will eventually drop the Silver Key you need for the treasure chest. After I got my key and clam meat, I started swimming out towards the island you can see on the map, being sure to kill any Slitherblade I crossed paths with. You will pass all three of the ones you need for Other Fish to Fry and one of them should drop your Golden Key for the Treasure quest. If you see any Oracles, be sure to kill them for 'The Corrupter', I managed to get mine on the first kill...
When you reach the island, you should come up somewhere on the east side, and if you can find the wall area, to the right of that and behind some tree's you will see a chest you can loot. This is the chest for the Treasure quest, and you will complete it there. From the chest, I killed my way North till I found the Serpent Statue.
Placing the gem in the statue (right clicking), will cause Lord Kragu to spawn, and when killed you will loot the Book. If you still need to kill some Naga for 'Other Fish to Fry', you can get them on the way back, and then, just hand in all your quests!
[31] Centaur Bounty
Objectives : Collect 15 Centaur Ears
Rewards : +9 Intellect, +3 Spirit Cloth Waist or Leather Gloves
For some reason, I got this one after handing in Khan Dez'haph, when really, it's meant to be before it. Either way, I figured a quest was a quest, so I quickly made my way up to where the Kolkar are and collected my ears.
[31] Portals of the Legion
Objectives : Banish 6 Portals at Manoroc Coven
Rewards : Mail Wrist or Leather Gloves
After stopping past Ghost Walker Post to hand in Centaur Bounty, I continued my way towards Shadowprey Village, first stopping off at Manoroc Coven for the above. The Portals you need are fairly easy to spot, large round purple-edges things in amongst the mobs. Right click to summon a Demon Portal Guardian, and once he has been killed, you get a message saying you have Banished it.
You can make some nice XP here clearing to the Portals, not to mention getting to play around with Enslave Demon. Once I banished my portals, I continued onto Shadowprey to hand in, and that is Desolace pretty much done!
==>Continue Onto Part 10!
