Finally a year after I started this journey (I did take a long break in the middle to focus on raiding) it is complete!
I did 2,843 quests and all I got was this stupid T-Shirt ;P
I knew once I had Loremaster of Kalimdor completed it would be a downhill ride to finish off the meta.
I had only to complete quests in 3 zones of Icecrown-- Borean Tundra, Storm Peaks, and Icecrown Glacier.
I started in Borean and knocked out those quests and also completed the D.E.H.T.A's Little P.I.T.A. achievement. Nothing special, just save some animals, kill some bad guys, and then assassinate Harold Lane. Eco-Terrorism, for the win!
Then on to Storm Peaks. Some interesting quests there. I got to find out what happened to Muradin Bronzebeard.
Finally, Icecrown. The quests here are a pain in the ass. You only get a few at a time, and they take a while to complete. Then you have to fly back and forth across the zone a lot. This was slow going. It took me a couple really solid sessions to finish all of these quests. probably 8+ hours, and I already had 30 quests done when i started.
A very interesting quest series is in Icecrown. First, I had no idea at all you could go beneath Icecrown Citadel. That was crazy. Then, I did a quest where I ended up falling down this incredibly deep pit (you can't see the bottom from the top) and to my great surprise, fell into some ancient Nerubian city below. Wow.
I fell into a pit of water, were there was this shadowy shard. I touched it, and then I was warned that I should not have done that. I met this kid, Matthias Lehner down there, and as time went on, I realized the shard at the bottom was the frozen heart of one Arthas Menethil.
The boy's name, Matthias Lehner is an anagram of Arthas Menethil. Through the quests he offers, you learn more about the story behind the Lich King. This is one of those great quest chains where Blizzard does a great job of telling a story and rewards the player for paying attention and actually reading the quest text and thinking about what they just witnessed.
There is some speculation that this may just be an image created by Yogg Saron to do what the Old Gods do best-- manipulate the living; and this is not a projection of the last shreds of goodness left inside of The Lich King.
Anyone who has seen the Fall of the Lich King cinematic knows that Arthas is redeemed just before he dies, so the destruction of the frozen heart must not totally wipe out his humanity.
10/20/2010: Loremaster of Kalimdor completed.
10/20/2010: 3000 Quests achievement completed, rewarding a new title: the Seeker.
I am now Loremaster of Eastern Kingdoms, Kalimdor, and Outland.
Remaining are: Nothing Boring About Borean, The Summit of Storm Peaks, and Icecrown: The Final Goal.
Storm Peaks and Icecrown have some quests already completed, but I have done a whopping five quests in Borean Tundra.
Getting Kalimdor done wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. When I finished Eastern Kingdoms, I had something like 400/700 done for Kalimdor. It looks like a tough climb at the time but I did some research.
First, if you are going after Loremaster, you MUST use the EveryQuest addon. It is an invaluable resource. Combined with the LightHeaded add-on it can show you data from wowhead inside the game client for tips and clues on the location of certain mobs/NPCs/items you need.
My first steps were to clean up unfinished quests around Kalimdor. I started in Teldrassil / Darnassus then moved into Darkshore, through Ashenvale, then into Felwood and Winterspring. Then I swung down through Tanaris, Un'Goro (Linkin's boomerang chain completion), Thousand Needles and Feralas.
Then I hit up quest hubs I knew that I had never touched when I initially leveled up way back in the dark ages of 2004/2005.
The big untouched quest hubs for me were in:
Ashenvale: Forest Song
Azuremist Isle: Azure Watch
Boodmist Isle: Blood Watch
Desolace: Nijel's Point
Dustwallow Marsh: Theramore, Mudsprocket, etc.
I finished off in Dustwallow. Once I got to about 650 quests, I knew it would be a fairly smooth home-stretch, and it was. I nailed 700/700 on my 3,000th quest which was totally unplanned but awesome.
I became "that blogger." The one that starts a blog then drops it a month later.
My guild folded up the tent on raiding a couple weeks before Patch 4.0.1 dropped, and since I have been catching up on my progress toward Loremaster.
I am now Loremaster of Eastern Kingdoms, and about 630/700 for Loremaster of Kalimdor.
I completed all of the quests in Azure/Bloodmist isles, and the new quest hub in Forest Song, Ashenvale.
Now, I'm in the process of going around to each zone and cleaning up quests I missed. It looks like Swamp Of Sorrows will be the zone where I'll complete my 700 quests, as I have never quested there.
In 3.2, I think-- Blizzard added an API whereby add-ons can query the server for your character's quest history. An add-on called Everyquest has a database of every quest in the game, and when you query the server it hides all the quests you have completed.
This has proved invaluable for picking up those little quests I missed before and for those pesky quests that start from item drops.
I fell into a pit of water, were there was this shadowy shard. I touched it, and then I was warned that I should not have done that. I met this kid, Matthias Lehner down there, and as time went on, I realized the shard at the bottom was the frozen heart of one Arthas Menethil.