Daily Quests Part Three – Ogri’la and Sha’tari in Blades’ Edge Plateau
If you followed the steps listed in Part Two, then you are now Neutral with Ogri’la, and are ready and eager to get started on some rep grinding and daily questing.
The Ogri’la camp questing begins with Chu’a’lor at (29, 57), way up high at Ogri’la in the Blades’ Edge Plateau.
Ogri’la and Skyguard Outpost combined is the second major Daily Quest hub. Ogri’la is in the south half of the camp, and the Outpost is in the north.
If this is your first time ascending to the western plateau, I advise you to begin your journey from the lower areas of Blades’ Edge around the Sylvanaar Alliance base at (37, 64).
The reason for this is that, just to the north and south of Ogri’la, are two Forge Camps, and each camp is equipped with an array of Flak Cannon that WILL shoot your ass down if you are flying a standard speed flight mount. And I honestly don’t want your first visit to Ogri’la to consist of “Oh boy this is gonna be fun, hey what the hell was that green flash, whoa! Aw, crap.”
The quests you find here will keep you in the western part of the Blades’ Edge Plateau.
Warning - Ogri’la is a hostile place.
It is bordered in the east by fields of crystals being mined by hostile Flayers. There are hostile Hellboars and neutral Aether Rays that wander about the crystal plains.
The plateau is bordered by Forge Camp: Terror to the south (mostly fire demons) and Forge Camp: Wrath to the north (mostly Shadow demons). Both Forge Camps are defended from aerial visitors by Flak Cannon emplacements.
Wandering groups of warlocks will path down from Forge Camp: Wrath, infecting the wildlife they pass with a disease. If you get too close, even airborne, they will attack you.
There is a dragon flying over the plateau, mostly over the area immediately to the east of Ogri’la. If you fly too high, you are likely to aggro it.
And there are little complexes of crystals called Apexis Relics, surrounding a single honking big crystal called an Apexis Monument. The complex is camped by hostile non-elite mobs that make you have to clear the area and work fast to use the Apexis Relics for your dailies before they respawn.
Basically, maintain your spacial awareness here. Everything except the Aether Rays wants to eat you.
The Dailies
Your first step is to speak with Chu’a’lor in Ogri’la. You will not be able to interact with the Skyguard Outpost quest givers until some Ogri’la quests are completed first.
Chu’a’lor will first assign you The Crystals – a simple gather quest to collect 5 Apexis Shards. These Apexis Shards can drop from just about any mob here, so go out and kill some Hellboars or Flayers until you get them.
A note about apexis shards; Most Daily Quests awards 15 apexis shards, each turn in. You’ll quickly increase your supply. They accumulate in stacks of 250. They get used for many things; energizing devices, summoning bosses, summoning dragons, and buying your Ogri’la faction loot. My advice? Collect them until you have two full stacks, 250 Shards per stack, and then dump the rest until you summon and/or buy everything you want. You use 35 each time you summon a boss or dragon, so you want enough on hand.
After you hand the 5 apexis shards you gathered over to Chu’a’lor, he gives you the first of what I (and everyone else) have come to refer to as the ‘Simon Says’ quests, called An Apexis Relic.
An Apexis Relic requires you to travel to any of the Apexis Relics in the area, and use an apexis shard to activate it. You must follow the progression of steps to gain the Apexis Vibrations buff (6 successful rounds completed).
You must have an apexis shard to activate an Apexis Relic. The tall central crystal is an Apexis Monument; it is used to summon a boss. The smaller, outlying crystals are the Apexis Relics.
An Apexis Relic consists of a small projecting crystal, surrounded by 4 colored buttons flush to the ground.
When you click on the upright crystal of a Relic, it asks for an apexis shard. Using a shard activates the mini-game.
How it works
The first round of the game, the center crystal will fire off a mini-lightning bolt at one of the four colored buttons, chosen at random, causing it to briefly glow. It then waits for your response for a brief time. You must click on the colored button that it struck. This ends round 1.
The second round, the center crystal will fire its’ mini-lightning bolt at first one, then a second colored button, and wait for you. You must then click on the colored buttons, IN THE ORDER THEY WERE STRUCK, to continue.
This sequence will repeat, adding another colored button each time, until either you stop clicking (in which case nothing happens, and the mini-game eventually times out) or you click on the wrong button out of sequence, and you get struck by a red lightning bolt for 4000 damage. If you chose wrong, depending on which round of the game you were on, either you will have a second chance to choose correctly, or the mini-game will simply end and you will have to use a second Apexis Shard to start over.
To complete this first quest, you must successfully complete 6 full rounds. That is a sequence of 1 color, then 2 colors, then 3 colors, then 4, then 5, and then 6.
After you have completed 6 full rounds, you will be awarded the ‘Apexis Vibrations’ buff. The game will continue, but you can choose to simply walk away, your quest completed. For a brief time after achieving the Vibrations buff, your movement rate will be slowed.
Turning in this quest does two things.
It unlocks the Daily Quest: The Relics Emanation.
It opens a new quest from quest giver Torkus, Our Boy Wants To Be A Skyguard Ranger, required to open Skyguard Outpost for questing.
Daily Quest: The Relics Emanation
Rewards: 15 Apexis Shards
11 gold 99 silver
Reputation: Ogri’la +250
The Relics Emanation is the exact same quest as An Apexis Relic, except that you must complete 8 full rounds of Simon Says instead of 6.
My comments on The Relics Emanation.
I have seen many suggestions on how to do this quest. I will give you mine. I preface this by saying that I am exalted with Sha’tari, Ogri’la and Netherwing. I have done every tip I give you, many, many times. They have worked well for me, but you may find a different way that you like better. If you do, by all means post it in the comments!
First, I don’t recommend doing this quest if you are suffering graphics-jittery lag. The lightning bolts that light up the buttons may lag, causing you to miss seeing a button light up through no fault of your own. I have personally never experienced this lag while doing this quest. I have always been able to see which button was the next in the sequence, even if the sequence went very fast. But others have reported the problem, so I’m warning you ahead of time.
Preparation:
Get a small notepad and reliable pen or pencil, and keep it beside your keyboard. You will use it when the color combos get too long to easily keep track of.
Now, pick your Apexis Relic location, and clear all the mobs from the area. Stand as close to the center crystal as you can. Rotate your view so you are looking as close to straight down as you can, so that the four colored buttons are to the upper left, upper right, lower left and lower right of your screen.
At this point I arbitrarily assign each button a number, starting at the upper left and proceeding as though reading the buttons just like reading two lines on a page; upper left = 1, upper right = 2, then second line lower left = 3 and lower right = 4. If this is not automatically comfortable to you, find a pattern that is. The choice of which color is in which position is unimportant. You need to be able to repeat the sequence.
When you activate the Simon Says sequence, follow along as well as your memory lets you. I usually make it about 5 colors before I get too lazy to bother. When a color is lit up by the lightning bolt, I actually say the number I’ve assigned to that button out loud as a mnemonic aid. So if it hits upper right, upper right, lower left, lower right, I call out verbally 2, 2, 3, 4.
Once you are no longer comfortable following along by memory, after you have clicked your last button of your current sequence, let go the mouse and grab your pen and paper. As the lightning bolts strike the buttons, quickly write down the number you associated with it. Results may vary, but I had no problem writing down the numbers without looking away from the screen to see what I was doing.
As soon as the last button has been chosen by the relic, you simply look at the numbers you wrote and slowly click through the sequence. Make sure you wait and watch for each color you select to be accepted. Move too fast and it may not see that you clicked it, and zap you.
I usually end up the week with scratch notepads, with scrawled strings of numbers 6, 7 and 8 digits long, scattered around the house annoying my wife.
One last note. There are ALWAYS non-elite mobs standing on every Apexis Relic, and two on the Apexis Monument. These areas are heavily farmed for the Daily Quest, so if you walk up to one that does not have a mob, don’t use it, either choose another and clear both the Apexis Relic you are going to use, and clear out the two mobs on the Apexis Monument as well, or wait for respawns. It truly sucks to be 7 rounds into the Simon Says game and have the mobs spawn on top of you, or aggro from the Apexis Monument.
Okay, you’ve unlocked one Daily Quest.
Now you must complete Our Boy Wants To Be A Skyguard Ranger, given by Torkus.
Torkus wants an Unstable Flask of the Beast. It takes 10 apexis shards to buy one. You should have 15 apexis shards right now, a quest reward for The Relics Emanations.
Completing this quest will immediately open up the quest to Skyguard Outpost, but I recommend completing the follow up, A Fathers Duty, as well first.
The follow up, A Fathers Duty, is going to also need a flask, The Unstable Flask of the Sorcerer, which costs 10 apexis shards from a different source. You only need to farm 5 more.
Once you have 20 apexis shards total, there are two places you need to go to buy your flasks.
First, go to either (33, 41) or (30, 81). At either location there is a green forge with small green bubbles floating out of the top. That is the ‘store’ where, by clicking on it, you can choose to trade in your 10 apexis shards for an Unstable Flask of the Beast.
Now, fly to the far northern Blades Edge Plateau, to the Bash’ir Crystalforge at (54, 10). You’ll need to clear some mobs, but you can do so easily. Clicking on that ‘store’ allows you to use 10 apexis shards to buy your Unstable Flask of the Sorcerer.
When you turn in the first flask and complete Our Boy Wants To Be A Skyguard Ranger, a quest will open up from Chu’a’lor, The Skyguard Outpost, that leads to the Skyguard Outpost quests.
When you turn in the second flask and complete ‘A Fathers Duty’, it opens up a group quest. Once of those 5 man ‘summon a boss’ things I mentioned earlier. It also provides much comic humor as you follow the antics of Torkus Jr, and his attempts to join the Skyguard Rangers.
Now, accept The Skyguard Outpost and go north a bit to talk to Sky Commander Keller. He’ll send you to talk to Sky Sergeant Vanderlip (standing just 5 paces away).
Sky Sergeant Vanderlip assigns you Bombing Run. Bombing Run (and it’s daily follow up, Bomb Them Again) are your next Daily Quest here.
Bombing Run (Bomb Them Again)
Rewards:
15 apexis shards
11 gold 99 silver
Reputation:
Ogri’la +500
Sha’tari Skguard +500
That’s right, it gives BOTH Ogri’la AND Sha’tari rep. Not bad.
The purpose of this quest is for you to take a stack of bombs, and fly over to either Forge Camp: Wrath or Forge Camp: Terror, and destroy 15 stacks of Fel Cannonballs. The stacks have huge bright targeting arrows hovering overhead, making them clear and visible targets from a distance.
You must be able to select and use your bombs quickly. I recommend moving them to a hot button on your taskbar, so you don’t need to fumble with your bags.
The bombs you use are the same concept as the ones you used for bombing runs in Hellfire Penensula –You click/activate your bombs, and a ground-following cursor appears on the ground under your mouseview. If the cursor shows red, your cursor is out of range of your thrown bombs. If a bright green targeting circle appears, then you are within range. When your green targeting circle appears, click your mouse again to fire your bomb.
As you approach the Forge Camps while in flight form or on a flying mount, the Flak Cannons will start tracking on you, and after a second, they will start to fire a barrage of green fireballs in your general direction. They are pretty smart, and they will see your current direction of travel, and ‘lead’ you a bit to bring you down. If you are manuevering in zipping motions, changing direction and altitude constantly, you avoid them a little better.
If you are struck directly by a fireball, you are dismounted and knocked back in the direction the fireball was going. Also, the fireballs explode for green fire AOE clouds, just like flak, leaving mid-air or ground bursts that are persistant for a few seconds.
If you are hit, OR if you fly through the green fire, you WILL get hit by one or even two DOTs that will do 2000 damage EACH over time. And oh yeah, the DOTS will also serve to dismount you. So even if the fireball misses, being near enough will get you DOTed and dismounted anyway.
At least the falling damage can be minimized by Soft Fall, Levitate, Druids’ Cat Form, and Engineers’ Parachute Cloaks, among others.
Most people I see do this;
Line up on your target at a fixed altitude. Then, ready your bombs so you have your targeting cursor moving within range on the ground. Then, approaching the Fel Cannonball stack that is your target, move rapidly from side to side to try to throw off the Flak Cannons’ aim. The instant the targeting cursor is over the Fel Cannonball stack, click to release your bomb and then pull up/gain altitude rapidly and move out of range, away from the area.
The problems I have with this technique is that the green fireballs leave one hell of an AOE cloud, and you can think you did everything perfectly and fall to your death anyway.
So, now I’ll give you MY method. As a Druid, this is an easy, if slow, way of doing things. However, I have told others of my technique and I know that it works with a regular flight mount as well, if not as fast.
First, you stealth or fight your way to the ground area where a bunch of Fel Cannonball stacks are to be found. My favorite hunting grounds are the Fel Cannonballs at Forge Camp: Wrath (the northern camp, around 38, 38).
Clear the whole area of Mobs. None of them are elite, they have a chance to drop loot and cloth, and the elite Flak Cannons don’t attack you when you are on the ground.
With the area cleared of mobs, walk up to the Fel Cannonball stack. Activate your instant-cast flight form (or your flight mount) and once hovering in the air activate your bomb, target the stack, and fire as fast as you can.
As soon as you are mounted, the nearby Flak Cannon will begin to fire. However, you can get your bomb off and then DISMOUNT and run like hell, and about 30% of the time only get hit with one DOT. And since you ain’t taking falling damage, and there are no demons waiting below to rip you a new one, you eat/drink/heal/bandage and move on to the next.
If you stay mounted/airborne, even if youa re running on the ground, the Flak Cannon thinks you’re flying. So you have to dismount.
I used this method until I got my epic flight mount. Once I had my epic mount, what was a truly annoying chore became the most fun repeatable quest out here. I run Bomb Them Again just for fun now, because the speed difference on the epic mount makes you damn near untrackable by the fel cannons.
Completing Bombing Run the first time unlocks the Daily Quest: Bomb Them Again, and it also unlocks the last Daily Quest available at Neutral Ogri’la reputation, Wrangle Some Aether Rays, from Skyguard Katie.
Daily Quest: Wrangle More Aether Rays!
Reward: 11 gold 99 silver
Reputation: Ogri’la +350
Sha’tari Skyguard +350
This is pretty simple. You must go out there into the Blades’ Edge Plateau and use the lasso you are given to capture 5 neutral Aether Rays.
The tricky parts are that, as this is very easy, it is heavily farmed and people can be amazingly rude about getting the first hit in on a Aether Ray you just cleared the mobs for.
The second tricky part, is that Aether Rays don’t want to be lassoed. So you have to beat them into submission first. So you have to attack an Aether Ray, and beat them down to about 5% health before they will submit. When they submit, you will see a message that says “The Aether Ray Appears Ready to be Wrangled”. At this point you can use the Wrangling Rope to subdue them.
Why is this tricky? Well, frankly, because if you have good DPS gear, it can be hard to beat them just so far to subdue them, without killing them before you deploy the damn Wrangling Rope. Whatever you do, don’t use DOTs on them.
At this point, you are Neutral with Ogri’la, and you have 3 Daily Quests available to you here. If you add the two Daily Quests you have unlocked at Blackwind Landing, you have five Daily Quests yielding 59 gold, 95 silver, and two potions.
Once you reach Honored reputation with Ogri’la, a new quest chain becomes available that leads to the fourth and final Daily Quest in this area.
As this post has already gone on way too damn long though, I’m going to address that in the next section.
Have fun!
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