Favorite Quests with Special Guests

Nick and Katie welcome you to a very special 75th episode! To celebrate this milestone, they’ve invited several friends of the show to talk about their favorite quests in game! Please enjoy!

First, Nick starts off by talking about Welcome to the Machine, a Horde Quest in Hillsbrad that starts off as a meta-joke with the player assuming the role of quest-giver. After giving out quests to three very unique personalities, including Johnny Awesome, who appears astride his beloved sparklepony, the player is tasked with following up on their assignees. After rescuing Johnny Awesome and Dumass from their assorted troubles, the players goes after the proud Orkus. In the ensuing conflict, Orkus is killed, and the quest takes a serious turn. Nick comments on the fact that the quest covers a range of emotions and makes you care for a character who just a few minutes earlier was pure comic relief.

Katie elects to talk about a moment more than a quest. In Shadowmoon Valley (Draenor version), there is a Draenai artist named Painter Mikkal. If you click on him, he will give you a small junk trinket, but if you wait a few minutes after he does so, he will talk about how the view of the valley is greater than any physical reward he could bestow, and enjoying our time in the world is our greatest gift. Katie appreciates the philosophical lesson of this encounter, and the reminder that there is more than just the obvious rewards to be obtained.

Our first guest is Medros from All Things Azeroth. He talks about the Wrathgate, and the journey there through the early Wrath of the Lich King zones. He recalls the sense of shock and awe that the community felt at the time the cinematic was released. The sense of coolness from seeing the Alliance and Horde heroes working together was so suddenly undercut by the tragedy of watching those same heroes fall to the Lich King and to the plague. Finally, the red dragons come to purge the area and leave a sense of hope.

Next up is AJ to talk about the Karazhan attunement quest. He talks about having to prepare for heroic dungeons back in vanilla and Burning Crusade times. Karazhan was so spooky back then, especially due to the lack of datamining at the time. AJ appreciated having to go through all the other dungeons and do some time traveling just to get into the place, and the journey made that time feel special. Interacting with Medivh also influenced his opinion.

Ali from Dungeon Fables and All Things Azeroth looks back fondly on the quests to open up Icecrown Citadel in Wrath of the Lich King. These quests made her feel the weight of the fight against the Lich King, and she enjoyed working with Tyrion Fordring. Manning the cannons also felt epic.

Frazley of the Frazlcast talks about Mmm Amberseeds, a Grizzly Hills poop quest. After eating some amberseeds, you need to gather them up after passing them, you put them into the same bucket you took them from, so they are there for another player to ingest. Frazley then tells a story about eating a gingerbread house as a kid.

Next is Tarley from Geeks of Azeroth, who discusses the Death Knight introduction quest.

Rho from Realm Maintainance and the Rolling Restart shares his thoughts on the Warlock Green Fire quest. He mentions that to even start the quest you needed to get lucky with a book dropping on the Isle of Thunder. You then had to chase down the Council of the Six Daggers, until finally heading into Black Temple. Facing off with the final boss at the top of the Temple was difficult, as you needed to demonstrate mastery of your class. After boss attempts, Rho looks back fondly on his accomplishment of defeating that boss.

Next, Skoll Shorties talks about his love of the legendary questline from Wrathion in Mists of Pandaria. The quest felt grounded in the current activities of the expansion, pitting you against the Mogu and Mantid early. As the game’s focus turned to the faction war, the quests had you killing faction commanders. Then you uncover secrets about Lei Shen in the Thunder King raid and learn more about the Titans. Finally, you seek out the blessings of the August Celestials. Wrathion gifts you your legendary cloak to prepare you against Garrosh and his minions. After defeating Garrosh, Wrathion is disappointed in Varian’s failure to dismantle the Horde. Wrathion’s interactions with Anduin throughout the questline shed a unique light on the ongoing conflict. Skoll shares his appreciation for the character of Wrathion.

Alisaunder is next and talks about the starting quests for the Forsaken. She appreciates starting with the focus on trying to defeat the Lich King. From the start, the character’s focus is aggression against what created them. She also enjoys the humanity that the forsaken display, as evidenced with a letter that the player finds. She compares the impact of the quests with what she felt with getting to play Death Knights later in the game.

Thank you for listening to The Tauren & the Goblin! Please send any comments or questions to taurengoblin@mashthosebuttons.com or @taurengoblin on twitter.

Hosts

Nick Zielenkievicz

Host of WoW! Talk! and The Tauren & The Goblin. Sometimes known as the Video Games Public Defender. Wants to play more Destiny and Marvel Heroes but WoW is all-consuming. Decent F2P Hearthstone player. Sad that he lost the Wii that had Wrecking Crew on it. Would be happy if the only game ever made was M.U.L.E. Gragtharr on Skywall-US. Garresque on Ravencrest-US.

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Katie Grace

Katie is a long time gamer who has fallen in love with multiple genres. She started young by playing Nintendo 64, Spyro, and Blizzard games such as Warcraft II with family, then eventually moved into playing games in both my leisure time and as a occupation. She loves being immersed in different universes and exploring the characters that live in them, as well as just playing games for a good time.

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