Duskwood is THE zone of the 20s, and I slightly put off starting it before now to do some other stuff in our secondary zone. You will never truly be able to just walk into a zone and do all the quests and walk back out, if you start on the zone the split second you could accomplish anything there. So either you will have to leave and come back, as we are going to do with Ashenvale, or you will need to hold off in going there immediately, which is what we've done with Duskwood.

Before heading for Duskwood, you will need to hit up the auction house for a bronze tube, assuming you aren't an engineer. I would not pay more than 20 silver for one, although costs have been on the rise. Regard that bronze tube as a quest item. And on the note of quest items, you've got a few you're toting from Ashenvale, like Teronis' Journal. Bank them. They aren't going to help you right now, and you'll want the empty space.

The only real downside to Duskwood is that the town is on one end of the zone, and a large set of the quests are on the other end of it, and you will need to go back and forth quite a bit. Our goal is generally to minimize the amount of back-and-forth running that you do.

Head for Darkshire, probably from the northeast, although any approach is fine. Just make sure you set your hearthstone to Darkshire's inn.


Scene 1: Quest Collecting (level 22)

Our first goal is to grab quests, and they are all over the zone, even though most of them are in town. Pick up whatever quests you can find in town. The town hall, the inn, Madame Eva's house, the Carevin House, and the last house up the hill toward the griffin master all have quests you will care about in the near future.

Then head down the road to the south that quickly bends to the west. Just stay on the road. When you get to the crossroads that leads to Stranglethorn Vale, there will be a night watch camp that should have a questgiver there. (Note: there is a creature called Stitches that you will sometimes need to watch out for on the road, and there's a possibility that this creature has killed your questgiver. If this is the case, wait it out. Do not try to find or fight Stitches.) Head further still down the road, and you will find a ghost town to the right side called Raven Hill. In the front area of the town, there should be a chap named Jitters pacing around the well. Have a chat with him, and then go back to the road and follow it to the river bank.

We will actually do a couple quests along this trip out of town, and that means killing the creatures along the river bank. Keep a special eye out for Pygmy spiders for Eight-Legged Menaces. The other spiders are unimportant and you'll get the wolf quest real soon. You won't see many Pygmies in this area, but go out of your way to snag them when you do.

Follow the river north. When you reach the corner of the zone, come in-land a bit and look for Sven and his partner at a small encampment. Sven's quest series is rather significant for the zone, but we care about the other questgiver at the moment, who has Wolves at Our Heels.

Head east now. Stay within sight of the cemetery to your south, but don't actually go near it. After you pass the end of the cemetery, you should see a small shack with an old hermit named Abercrombie. (This is as far away from the river as the cemetery fence, which is why we're keeping an eye on the fence.)

After you get Abercrombie's quest, go back to the river bank and just hack and slash your way across the zone. Stay with the river all the way east to Redridge, or until you finish Wolves at Our Heels and Eight-Legged Menaces. The pygmies you need will mostly be found in the northeast corner, so don't get impatient. Most of these targets will be "green" to you, being level 18-20, but they are the place to start the zone, and the exp should still be decent. Make sure you save your Gooey Spider Legs, as they will be needed in a quest shortly.

Walk back to town once you finish. Make sure you turn in ALL quests that require you to talk to someone in town. (Madame Eva, the inn's cook, etc.)

Quests completed: a few things you haven't turned in yet and a few minor "go say hi" quests.


Scene 2: Tranquil Gardens (level 23)

If you haven't picked up a bronze tube by now, go to Stormwind and buy one now. There's a gentleman up the eastern road in the last house in Darkshire that has the quest Look to the Stars. The first part takes a bronze tube, and we want to go do the second part now.

Start out of town southward, but as the road bends west, there is a small path into a minor graveyard we will follow, and then break off immediately to go east from here. Our goal is a house north of the Tranquil Gardens Cemetery that can be seen on the map, the home of Blind Mary. We have two quests to talk to Blind Mary, so carefully approach her house to get some ghost hair and to find out about her mirror.

That's our first stop. Our other target is the Tranquil Gardens Cemetery just to the south. The Night Watch finds us killing the random trash in the area, and you should continually check inside the chapel for the Insane Ghoul. He is not a super easy fight, so don't bum rush him, but he is on a long respawn timer, so you should start checking on him immediately.

Either way, once you finish your body count quest and you have recovered the mirror from the Insane Ghoul, walk back to Darkshire. (Walk, don't hearth. It isn't far.)

Quests completed: Look to the Stars 1-3, Ghost Hair Thread, Return the Comb, The Night Watch 1


Scene 3: The Legend of Stalvan (level 24)

It's time to take a trip back to the west. Run down the road to the watcher camp and complete Eight-Legged Menaces. Then continue west to Raven Hill, give Jitters his grub, and follow the edge of the cemetery north to talk to the hermit and to Sven.  Refer back to scene 1 for where those two are if you've forgotten. I recommend not going around the west edge of the cemetery since the black widow hatchlings to the east can get pretty nasty.

This completes the turn-in portion of this trip. Go west, and swim across the river into Westfall. As you pass by Sentinel Hill, grab the flight point. Who knows; you might need it some day. Then head to the southwest part of the zone, where the two roads meet at a deserted town filled with Defias bandits known as Moonbrook.

Moonbrook is a very nasty place at level 15. Fortunately you aren't level 15. You want to enter the building that is in the northwest corner of the town and looks a bit like a ruined town hall. There should be no mobs inside the building, and a small chest near the rear of the back room, in front of the stage. Click on that chest to finish the first real leg of The Legend of Stalvan, and be attacked by a banshee that gives you a stinky curse. Kill off the banshee or run away, and then hearth back to Darkshire. Make sure you talk to the tavern keep for the Hermit's quest.

Quests completed: Eight-Legged Menaces, Wolves at Our Heels, Deliver the Thread, The Legend of Stalvan 2, Zombie Juice.


Scene 4: Raven Hill, part 1 (level 24)

Just like in scenes 1 and 3, you are going to head down the road, and stop at the watcher camp along the road to Stranglethorn. This time, take the road south, and turn left (east) at the zone wall. This will have you moving behind a couple buildings in the Yorgen Farmstead. Between the stable and the actual house is a loose mound of dirt. There's also a bunch of Defias bandits here. You are going to do something that might end up proving very painful…you are going to try to single pull these Defias and kill them off so you can search the clump of dirt. This is generally my recommended direction to approach this area, but be VERY CAREFUL. The aggro range on these bandits is fairly large.

Once you've finally gotten the journal out of the dirt, return to the road, and head for Raven Hill. We will actually enter the cemetery this time, so walk right past Jitters and through the gates. The entire southern half of the graveyard should be filled with mostly nothing but Skeletal Horrors and Fiends. By the time you get all the kills you need for The Night Watch, you should be finished Gather Rot Blossoms as well. Finish them both before moving on. While you're doing this, keep an eye out for the large green spiders and a big skeleton wearing golden armor. You want to avoid both of those if you can, and you want to RUN LIKE HECK if you get the golden skeleton. Mor'Ladim does not take kindly to strangers.

Leave the cemetery to the west once you've finished, and head north up to Sven. After you've talked to him, go NORTH into Elwynn Forest and run to Goldshire. The inn at Goldshire holds the key to the remainder of the Legend of Stalvan. The innkeeper will suggest you check a chest in a room on the second floor of the inn.

Once you finish your business in Goldshire, head to Stormwind.

Quests completed: Sven's Camp, The Legend of Stalvan 3, Gather Rot Blossoms, The Night Watch 2.


Scene 5 – optional: The Stockades (level 25)

The Stockades is hands-down the shortest instance in the game. And whether you have them all now or not, there are a bunch of quests you could be doing there that you should *hopefully* finish on one trip there. It's probably worth the hour that it takes to run through it with a bunch of newbies. This is the one of the few times in the guide I will specifically recommend going to an instance.

Quests that you could have for the Stoackes include:

• Quell the Uprising – from right outside the Stockades
• The Color of Blood – from Nikova Raskol in the streets of Old Town in Stormwind
• What Comes Around? – from a guard in LAKEshire in Redridge Mountains
• Crime and Punishment – from the Darkshire town hall

  
  There are two other quests for the Stockades you are less likely to have. One requires running the Deadmines first and looting a letter from Van Cleef's body. The other is a follow-up to quests at Dun Modr in the Wetlands. If your groupmates have these quests, don't get confused or ask them to share it.

   

  Another optional activity: you may have picked up An Old History Book. If not by now, you will later on. The place to take that is the library in the keep of Stormwind, in an offshoot room to the left of the hallway the leads up to the boy king.

  
  

  OK, well, Stockades aside, there is one other thing you do actually need to do on this trip – finish The Legend of Stalvan. In Stormwind, in the northwest end of the canals between the Mage District and the Garden is a man standing in front of a large pile of crates. Talk to him, and then check the boxes. One will be searchable. You'll be attacked by another banshee, and the quest trail won't specifically say where to go. But I will.

  
  

  Go back out into Elwynn and go to the east end of the zone. You might even consider flying to Lakeshire for that. (If you don't have that flight point, get it afterwards.) At the southeast corner of the Eastvale Lumber Co. is a house with a gentleman in front of it. He'll tell you to check a chest upstairs. (Getting used to this theme yet?) And after you search it…you guessed it…another banshee attacks you. Return to the guy in the front yard, and he'll send you to Darkshire. So go to Darkshire...possible stopping at Lakeshire along the way to finish the Stockade quest there.

   

  Quests completed: Stockades stuff (maybe), The Legend of Stalvan 4-6

  
  
  

  Scene 6: Raven Hill, part 2 (level 26)

  
  

  This is where we hit the harder stuff in the zone. While up until now, the suggested level for each section was low-balling it a bit, you're going to be in trouble if you aren't *at least* 26 here, and even that might be a bit low.

  
  

  You should have talked to the townsfolk about who Sven's shadowy figure is, which sends you to three different people in Darkshire. Once you're finally ready to confront this individual, leave town to the southwest and go all the way to Raven Hill. Talk to Jitters, head up to Sven, and then over to the hermit.

  
  

  Our next focus is to kill ghouls. You have three quests for ghouls now – Ghoulish Effigy is the new one from the hermit, along with the Totem of Affliction and the third Night Watch quest. The last of those three is going to be the troublesome one. Ghoulish Effigy and Totem of Affliction allow you to kill any ghoul, but The Night Watch requires the nasty ones – Plague Spreaders.

  
  

  Ghouls, on the whole, are in the northeast section of Raven Hill. Stick to the fence and pull to safe spots, since this area will gang up on you quickly. As soon as you start fighting two mobs at once here, your odds of survival will go to pot, especially if one is a Carrion Recluse. (Fortunately the graveyard isn't far away.) Plague Spreaders, in particular, only come from the hole in the center that leads down into a crypt. Avoid entering the crypt unless you have to, as there are even worse ghouls in there assuming you aren't a rogue or warrior. Remember, The Night Watch is a kill quest, so once you have your other pieces mostly collected, you might consider grouping with somebody to get the Plague Spreader kills.

  
  

  Oh, but we're not done yet. Once you finish, and turn in to Abercrombie (the hermit,) loop back around to the western part of Raven Hill and look for another crypt, guarded by Skeletal Raiders and Skeletal Healers. Again, move slowly, move carefully, and move inside the crypt since it's the only place you can find the Skeletal Warders for Proving Your Worth. Focus on raiders, and once you have your three warders, you might consider doing the rest of your work outdoors. But be careful outside the crypt – Mor'Ladim patrols through here and will be a sharp swift death to you if you're caught unaware.

  
  

  Talk to Sven and then return to town.

  
  

  Quests completed: Finding the Shadowy Figure, Juice Delivery, Ghoulish Effigy, The Night Watch 3, The Totem of Affliction, Return to Sven, Proving Your Worth
  
  
  Throwing in the Towel (level 26/27)

  
  

  That last section should have probably frustrated you, and the rest of the zone's stuff isn't much easier. So rather than bang your head on a wall, let's leave Duskwood for a while. We'll come back for the rest later, but we've got some stuff in Ashenvale to tidy up as well, including a quest that will bring us back to Duskwood.

  
  

  Sven will ask you to speak to a bishop in Stormwind, who will then send you to a dwarven priest in Menethil Harbor. (Note the quest the altar boy has as well, that will be a goal of our's later.) For now, let's just go to Menethil, talk to the priest at the inn there – and you do not want to do the follow-up unless you're a hunter, since they make quick work of otherwise very-annoying murlocs – and hop the boat back to Auberdine. The three or four levels you gained here will make a world of difference in Ashenvale, and likewise two more there will help you immensely when you return to Duskwood.