Newbie Guide 8 - Quests, parties, and instances (WoW)  

To Group, or not to Group

Yes, quest content gets boring after a while. We all know that there are only three types of quests - kill, collect, and deliver. When you get down to it though, there isn't much else that can be done that will actually work. Suggest all you want, there's probably a reason your idea hasn't been tried, and not because nobody thought of it. At least every quest has a unique storyline. (Or someone asks you to collect something stupid for a stupid reason, usually a cook. Cooks seem to put anything imaginable and then some into their food...I really couldn't stomach Azeroth cuisine.)

Nevertheless, the quests in the game are what make the game interesting and keep the player feeling like they have a purpose beyond just whack this killer rabbit here, that single-celled organism there.

Many people at lower levels (pre-20) complain that the game is World of Solocraft. Ironically people at the higher-end often have issue with finding things they can do on their own besides just kill random mobs. The questing content in this game progressively switches from almost exclusively solo to largely group-based as you level.

Quests are sometimes marked "group", which means that the creatures involved in the quest are elites -- much more difficult mobs than their level would indicate. (They don't just raise the level because that level would make them harder to hit.) Group quests are basically specially marked as group content. Does this mean you shouldn't group for non-group quests?

Not at all. However, unless it's your playstyle, you shouldn't *always* group either. There are times when it's efficient and times when it's not. For example, most kill X whatevers is done more quickly in a group. You kill individual whatevers faster and everyone gets credit. Win-win situation. However, quests to collect Y thingies tend to go much slower, because the amount of time you spend in combat is about the same...divided by the number of party members per fight, but the total number of fights is multiplied for each party member with the quest...but you spend more time between creatures looking for the next one. Don't use this as a hard-and-fast rule though. In general, it's easier to work with someone than against them, but at the same time you will get less experience from fighting in a huge group.

I don't recommend you go through your first zone in a party, except for the quests you need it for. People that group their first zone learn their class more slowly, and also finish all the quests levels below where they should be. Later on, when traveling between areas is easy and this isn't an issue, grouping is often more fun.

Questing as a Group

If you do have a decent group, and finish one quest, you might consider asking if any of them have some of the same quests you still need to finish in the area. Very often, at least one other person will agree to work on it. You can usually tell how many people in your party have a quest by looking at your quest log - a number in bracket will show up beside any quest that other party member are also on.

The one annoying thing about grouping for quests is trying to move on to another quest and finding not everyone has the quest. Fortunately, there is a solution. Unfortunately, it doesn't always work. That solution is quest sharing -- if a person could have a quest but simply doesn't, you can go into your quest log and press "share quest" to transmit it to them, as though they were talking to the quest NPC for the first time. But if the other person is too low to get the quest, or your quest is one of the later legs in a chain, they won't be able to get it.

Still, this can be used to your advantage. People going to an instance together can share the quests for it before starting, which are often from all different corners of the earth. If you are agreeing to meet a friend in a new zone, and one of you gets there first, they can hunt for the questgivers until the other person arrives.

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