Here we go now, one more time…

Love it or hate it, we're making our last pass at Stranglethorn. The simple truth is that the number of available quests in the 40s is lacking, so it becomes necessary to make use of what's there. Blizzard has even added quests to this level range, especially in Searing Gorge, but those don't start until at least 46, and until then we have the dribs and drabs of TFH, (as you recall, that stands for Tanaris-Feralas-Hinterlands,) and finishing up what was left from before…i.e., Stranglethorn Vale.
The quests out of Stranglethorn we have not dealt with up to this point (and care about) are:

In case you dropped any to make room, all of those except Raptor Mastery and Mai'Zoth are from somewhere in Booty Bay. There is also one quest that was previously ignored you will want to grab before you leave the zone, Whiskey Slim's Lost Grog.

The nice thing about these quests is that they are mostly packed away in two or three tidy little areas, none of which is especially far from town.


Scene 1: More Pirates (level 43)

From the Southsea Pirates to the Bloodsail Buccaneers…exit Booty Bay and hang an immediate right. There should be some bucs right in front of you, and a pass leading to the eastern beaches. Kill every pirate you encounter that you can reasonably get to. In the course of killing pirates, you will periodically pick up Snuff and eventually maybe Dizzy's Lost Eye. The main focus here is to find Swashbucklers, and the charts and orders. As you move down the beach, there is a small camp, a rowboat with crates, and then a large camp. The charts and the orders are both groundspawns that will appear in one of these three areas, probably on a crate. Clearing out these areas – especially the large camp – is not terribly pleasant, which is why this quest has been put off until level 43. Since some of these spots force you to deal with two or more targets at once, you at least have a fighting chance to deal with them.

Once you have finished the Bloodsail Buccaneers quest, make your way back to Booty Bay. You will have time yet to finish Up to Snuff and Keep an Eye Out if you haven't already.

Quests completed: The Bloodsail Buccaneers 3, Up to Snuff (maybe), Keep an Eye Out (maybe)


Scene 2: Dirty Little Secrets (level 43)

Go to the arena and turn right. You know those zombies that like to throw spears at you every time you run by? Start chopping them to little itty pieces. In particular, be sure to kill Maury "Club Foot" Wilkins and Jon-Jon the Crow. Once those two are dead, you can leave the Ruins of Jubuwal and head to nearby Ruins of Aboraz. The path for that is just south of Jubuwal, but before the large outer walls around the arena.

Continue with your zombie-slaying as you work your way through Aboraz toward Chucky "Ten Thumbs" on the northeast side of the ruins. Hang out here killing other Zanzil minions until you have the Zanzil mixtures for Zanzil's secret, but stay away from Zanzil himself in the center of the large Zanzil room in the Zanzil ruins with the Zanzil witch doctors and the Zanzil…ok, I'm done….no, wait. Zanzilzanzilzanzil.

Go back to Booty Bay. Wait for McKinley to give you another quest.

Quests completed: Voodoo Dues, Zanzil's Secret


Scene 3: Nagas, Raptors, and the Curse of the Tides (level 43/44)

Go out of town, turn left immediately, and run past all the Bloodsails. Further up the shore, there is an island covered in level 44 nagas for Akiris By the Bundle that you will want to focus on. While you are doing this, you want to start advertising for group members, beginning with Raptor Mastery and Curse of the Tides, but you will need group members for all of scene 4 as well.

From there, move north, and come inland after you pass the Bloodsail Compound. There should be Jungle Stalkers all around here, and your goal is to sift through them for Tethis. Tethis is 43 elite, so you will likely want to have enlisted your first partner before engaging him, but he is soloable.

With Tethis dead, return to the shoreline and go all the way north to the Vile Reef. Where you initially picked up the second troll legend, (just east of the haunted isle,) are the ruins where you will need to use Catelyn's dagger to summon Gazban. Kill him, but try not to drown! He isn't hard at all to kill, just surrounded by elite murlocs.

At this point, head over to the hunter camp to end the scene.

Quests completed: Akiris By the Bundle, Raptor Mastery 3, Curse of the Tides


Scene 4a: Pirates and Giants (level 44)

There are two halves of scene 4. Do them in either order, depending on what your group members are willing to work on. You will need a group for both.

On the assumption you are back in Booty Bay, go south. Yeah, go around whatever way you want, but get out to those boats off the Wild Shore. There are three in all. Each one has a captain. You need to kill each captain. Be careful pulling the ships, as it is very easy to get a bunch of pirates either initially, or after one of them runs away. Also, if you don't finish Up to Snuff / Keep an Eye Out now, you will need to come back later; don't hold your group up or they might not finish the other quests you need. (There is also a groundspawn quest starting item called Cortello's Riddle. While it's a neat quest, it isn't a requirement that you get it since it disappears once someone grabs it and randomly respawns elsewhere on one of the three boats.) We aren't going to worry about Cortello's Riddle.

After your bout with the boats is done, swim back to shore and kill the giant for The Captain's Chest. He is simply north up the shore past the Bloodsails.

Quests completed: The Bloodsail Buccaneers 4, The Captain's Chest


Scene 4b: Ogres and Tigers and Lairs, Oh My! (level 44)

Go north past the arena and the Skullsplitter trolls. Where the road bends east, then north, and then back west across the river on your map, the area it goes around is a hill. And you need to play King of the Mountain. The reigning king, Bangalash, is a white tiger that tends to come with help if you don't watch carefully for stealthed panthers. Scour around the hilltop before engaging.

The other goal for this excursion is going to probably require a full group, complete with tank, healer, and crowd control. Go due east from King B's hill into the Mosh'ogg Ogre Mound. These elite ogres aren't too bad for a team of two or three, but in the back is a cave that houses the magi Mai'Zoth. Mai'Zoth isn't too bad a fight on his own, but he's flanked by two friends that are pretty much unavoidable. Sheep, seduce, trap and sap FTW. If you can kill Mai'Zoth, congratulations. You're finally done with this jungle.

Turn-ins for those quests are at the hunter and rebel camps. The key you should pick up off a random ogre goes back to Booty Bay, along with the quests in 4a.

Quests completed: Big Game Hunter, Cracking Maury's Foot, Mai'Zoth


With Stranglethorn complete… (level 45)

We are now in the heart of doing the TFH zones. Each zone has 1 or 2 quests for the low 40s, for the mid 40s, and the upper 40s. Tanaris is a bit more generous. But we haven't even been to the Hinterlands yet, and some of our work is hinging on it. We will continue to be bounced between the three zones and a few other spots like Booty Bay, Nethergarde Keep, and Darnassus, until we eventually get sick of it and move on.

Before going to Hinterlands, however, visit Stormwind's Dwarven District. In an unmarked tavern near the entrance next to the Keep, you'll find Brohann Caskbelly, who wants you to locate the sunken Temple of Atal'Hakkar. Conveniently, the last thing you did in Act 10 was pick up a quest that wanted you to locate it as well. So fly to Nethergarde Keep and head up into Swamp of Sorrows. The Sunken Temple is in the center of the Pool of Tears. For one quest, you'll just need to get near it. For the other, you'll actually need to go inside the ruins a bit. You do NOT need to actually enter the instance, nor would I even advise it. (Especially at level 45.)

Return to Stormwind to complete that quest, and you will be sent to the Hinterlands. (The quest is even called To The Hinterlands!) You should also have The Super Snapper FX, and Whiskey Slim's Lost Grog. All signs point toward going…


Scene 5: …to the Hinterlands! (level 44/45)

Aerie Peak is the Alliance quest center. There are a few quests from the Draenei ambassador out front, from the dwarf just inside the main building, and from the top of the Aerie. After collecting quests, you should have:

Travel due south out of Aerie peak to Featherbeard's Hovel, and read the journal on the mantle.

Go due east to Zul'watha. Kill any wolves along the way, and pick up any feathers you see. At Zul'watha, fight into the ruins and open the first and second Witherbark cages.

Follow the zone wall as it turns south to Bogen's Ledge. The cave there houses Witch Doctor Mai'jin and his spider. Kill the two guards, then fight the duo.

From there, go northeast to Hiri'watha. The third Witherbark cage will be on the opposite side of the ruins. Loop back around and return to Aerie Peak.

Quests completed: Featherbeard's Endorsement, Preying on the Predators, A Gesture of Goodwill, Troll Necklace Bounty, Witherbark Cages


Scene 6: There is no Featherbeard, There is only Zul (level 45)

Leave Aerie Peak east along the north wall, and look for the path to Shindigger's Camp. (This can actually be done any time, but why not now?)

Afterwards, head southeast to Shadra'Alor. Shadra'Alor is a spider-infested area with a central pond overlooked by three ziggurats. On the altar at the top of the eastern of these is Featherbeard's corpse. Clear your way to it and check his body.

At this point, you will need to hunt for gryphon eggs amongst the temples. Start with the altar on the southern edge of the pond (which has 2 if they haven't been claimed,) and then climb the southern temple and jump down to where the Atal'ai Exile is. There ought to be 3 near him. If you need other sources of eggs, read Featherbeard's note and look around, or wait for those to respawn.

Leave Shadra'alor and go due east to the Altar of Zul. Climb the steps and then get ready to die. You need to set foot at the top center of the Altar. You may very well not survive this. But run in and run back out. All you need to do is explore.

Return to the main road and follow it all the way to the east and the Everlook Cliffs. Creatures will be higher level than you, so be careful. Along the shoreline, you are looking for little purple bottles (that blend in very easily) and an elite turtle named Gammerita. Pick up the bottles. Shoot Gammerita with your camera and run away.

Hearth back to Aerie Peak.

Quests completed: In Pursuit of Featherbeard, Reclaiming the Eggs, The Altar of Zul, Super Snapper FX, Whiskey Slim's Lost Grog


Scene 7: Shalzaru (level 45)

It's time to go back to Feralas. There's really only one other Hinterlands quest for the time being, which requires fighting level 47-49 oozes. It could be done, but it's not too fun at this level.

So instead, start the long flight south. Grab a sandwich as you head for Nethergarde Keep. Talk to Thaddius in the tower there, and then move on to Booty Bay. If by some chance you haven't finished any Stranglethorn quests, this is your last chance to do so. We are condemning the zone after this point.

Take the boat to Ratchet and finish traveling to Feathermoon. Head back to the south end of the island, and swim across to the other shore. While most of this island is highly dangerous, the northern edge of it just has more naga. And in one niche, you will find a cave that hides Lord Shalzaru. Be very wary in this cave. It's dense and the respawn is high. Don't fool around or do anything risky.

Lord Shalzaru is in the back, guarded by a few friends that you can sometimes get away with pulling first. Kill Shalzaru, loot, and scoot back to Feathermoon.

Quests completed: Against Lord Shalzaru


Scene 8: The High Wilderness (level 45)

You should have picked up a quest from Steamwheedle Port called Screecher Spirits. As soon as you cross over into land, there will be Rogue Vale Screechers up and down the coastline. Kill 3 and use Yeh'kimba's Bramble on them. (Be sure to talk to the ghost that appears afterwards.) You'll also note that the goblin by the dock has quests you can now pick up. Pick them up if you like, but don't attempt them yet.

From there, get on the road and follow it to the east end of the High Wilderness. Kill any bears and apes you encounter. You need drops for Rhapsody's Kalimdor Cocktail. However, our first focus in this area is the ogres. Kill your way carefully through the throngs of ogres, looking for Brutes and Warlocks. You will likely only find shamans in the southern areas of the ruins there, so be patient and understand you may have to clear out many other targets to spawn shamans. Brutes are only in the northern section of the ruins, but there usually isn't trouble with finding any of these up.

After finishing with the ogres, circle around it to the west and head for the south wall. Do your best to find places to scale the wall – there are a few select spots that lead up to hippogryph nests, which is what you are searching for. Find an egg and loot it. You can give these to a gnome in Gadgetzan.

Finally head northwest toward Feral Scar Vale to kill yetis. The yetis mostly live in the cave in the area, so feel free to head inside. This is the area to start the Feralas beacon quest if you've gotten that, but do NOT attempt it alone at level 45.

At this point, your trip should have been plenty long. Return to Feathermoon if you need to, but we have one last task to perform. Get back on the road and head east to the Lower Wilds. We left the missing courier high and dry in the Writhing Deep. Head down to the bug lair and enter the western of the two entrances. This is a downward spiral with a tunnel halfway down. Take it and immediately turn right. Follow that path to its end and you will see a pod. Inspect the pod to free Raschal. By all means, hearth out of here.

Quests completed: Screecher Spirits, The High Wilderness, The Mark of Quality, The Writhing Deep, Freed From the Hive, A Hero's Welcome


Visiting Darnassus…again (level 46)

This is as much as we will do in Feralas right now, and will instead move onto Tanaris. But first, travel to Darnassus. You should now have four quests to complete there. Also make sure you have 2 Elixirs of Fortitude while you're near an auction house.

After that, travel to Theramore. If you haven't already, complete Akiris by the Bundle. Then run out into the marsh. We have a long run to get to our target…the mage Tabetha lives in a house in the middle of nowhere in southwest Dustwallow. The "island" she is on looks like a backwards C, and she is at coordinates (46,57). She has a quest for Zul'Farrak. To that effect, once you have her quest, travel to Gadgetzan and pick up every quest you can find there and from the racetrack (except the Sprite Darter egg quest.)

• Curse of the Tides
• Up to Snuff
• Keep an Eye Out
• Akiris by the Bundle
• Raptor Mastery
• The Bloodsail Buccaneers
• Voodoo Dues
• Zanzil's Secret
• Mai'Zoth
• The Captain's Chest

   

• Rhapsody Shindigger
• Preying on the Predators
• Troll Neckalce Bounty
• Witherbark Cages
• A Gesture of Goodwill
• Featherbeard's Endorsement
• Skulk Rock Clean-up
• Favored of Elune
• Super Snapper FX
• Whiskey Slim's Lost Grog