The Darkspear Revolution and the Quasi-Dailies plus Questions about 5.4

5.3 is still in its evolutionary stages, probably about halfway or maybe even earlier in its turn at the PTR. The point is, there could be a serious thing we're missing or something else that will be a huge part of the patch, but for the most part, it looks like the centerpiece is the struggle against the Kor'kron throughout Durotar and Northern Barrens. Presumably Horde players will still be able to make use of Orgrimmar, but it's clear that it's not a safe place to be, especially for the Trolls, whose Valley of Spirits has been pretty much shut down. Darkspear dissidents are getting gunned down in the streets and there's an open conflict between Darkspear and Kor'kron forces between Razor Hill and Sen'jin Village.

The Alliance is also there in force, sending a large SI:7 Operations contingent to undermine Garrosh's forces, and the Alliance has even begrudgingly made a deal with Vol'jin to cooperate so that at the end of the day, both of them can remain standing.

So you'll be able to go around killing Kor'kron forces and escorting caravans across the territory to gain resources that can be traded in for gear and vanity rewards. There will probably be plenty to do, but one thing that has yet to be mentioned is daily quests.

Mists has of course been all about the daily-quest-fueled reputation factions. While it's been the number-one complaint of many, it's also given each faction a fairly distinct personality. Earning rep with a faction does truly feel like you're doing it for them, and while it's not so great for tanks and healers, I actually don't mind questing as a thing.

Will there be factions associated with this campaign? Or daily quests?

Here's the thing: The Isle of Thunder has plenty of daily quests, but also a fair number of non-daily stuff, such as the many rare spawns that function as impromptu raid bosses and the summonable 5-man bosses.

Those are fine, but honestly, I actually haven't really done any of the summoned bosses. The rares are good, but you don't really get a story out of these random enemies to hunt down and kill.

I honestly don't know how the attack on the Kor'kron is going to play out, and how popular it will be. Without a robust system of objectives and rewards, it might get old very quickly. Compare that with the Isle of Thunder, where even though I'm exalted with the Kirin Tor Offensive, I still do a round of dailies if a new phase opens up, just to check out the new area (I think my server has probably opened up the last phase in the past few hours, actually.)

So 5.3 is obviously about what Pandaria has done to the Alliance and Horde (well, really more the Horde. Not a ton of Alliance stuff going on that I can see, though once we find out more about Blood in the Snow that might change,) as a prelude to 5.4's Siege of Orgrimmar.

A few things occurred to me about that final patch (presumed final patch.) One is: where is the instance portal? They've been able to pull some strange things with where an instance actually is before - remember that Dragon Soul, which is set in then-present-day Northrend mostly, has its entrance in the Caverns of Time?

It would be pretty weird to have the portal right in Orgrimmar, and would of course also make it super-convenient for the Horde while making it very inconvenient for the Alliance. But then if you gave the Alliance a way to get the portal easily, wouldn't that just make it too easy for Alliance players to get to and raid Orgrimmar without warning?

Admittedly, I haven't seen city-wide raids since Wrath of the Lich King.

The other thing I wonder about is World Bosses. Mists of Pandaria brought back World Bosses in a big way, using the easier bosses to create effectively non-instanced versions of the Vault of Archavon/Baradin Hold pick-up raids, and the more challenging bosses to echo the older Vanilla and BC-era bosses (though Galleon at least seems relatively easy, for all the hype. I have yet to try Oondasta.)

So two questions: who would the World Bosses be and where would they go? Having a World Boss hanging around Durotar would be a little crazy, though I suppose if people are phased with the Kor'kron Assault you could hide it from lowbies. Then again, if a high-level player wanted to help their low-level friend, how would they switch phases?

For that matter, would this battle in Durotar and the Barrens be something that was available for a limited time only?

Then again, while 5.4 is certainly bringing the Orgrimmar raid, perhaps there will be other outdoor areas that appear. With the Thunder King's fall, the focus seems to be shifting away from Pandaria itself, but could there be parts of the land we have yet to explore?

Or maybe we'll finally see Kul Tiras?