Azuarc's Leveling Guide part 12
Azuarc's leveling guide for Alliance, Act 10: Hinterlands/Feralas/Tanaris (levels 47-49)
Aerie Peak
As stated at the end of act 11, you should have quite a few quests for Hinterlands, including a few from outside the zone. Our goal is to sweep through the whole zone in two passes and get out. There isn't a ton to do here, but enough to make it worth coming.
Scene 1 - Troll Tribes (level 46/47)
Quests completed: Preying on the Predators, Troll Necklace Bounty, Witherbark Cages, A Gesture of Goodwill, Featherbeard's Endorsement, In Pursuit of Featherbeard, Reclaiming the Eggs
Leave Aerie Peak due south and maybe a pinch west to find Featherbeard's Hovel. Read the book there, and then go eastward, killing wolves. Feel free to pick up moonkin feathers you see.
You should eventually reach Zun'watha, the first troll outpost. Clear inside and you will find two witherbark cages to check for Sharpbeak. Move south to Bogan's Ledge and clear out the witch doctor inside. Northeast of there is Hiri'watha, which contains the third troll cage. Exercise a little more caution here or you could get swarmed.
Finally, go southeast to Shadra'alor. At the top of the eastern-most of the three pyramids is the remnants of Featherbeard. Check the body, and then look for five gryphon eggs throughout the area. The easiest way to get 5 quickly is to check the altar around the central pool for two, and then climb the southern pyramid and hop down to where the Atal'ai Exile is. There will be three next to him. (Do not bother getting his quest unless you intend to run Sunken Temple.)
Make sure you've killed the wolves you need, and return to Aerie Peak.
Scene 2 - Oozing Over the Cliffs (level 47)
Quests completed: The Altar of Zul (maybe), Favored of Elune, Skulk Rock Clean-up, Food For Baby, Super Snapper FX, Whiskey Slim's Lost Grog, Becoming a Parent
Be sure to collect moonkin feathers as you quest, if you haven't finished that task already.
Your first task is optional. East of Shadra'alor is the Altar of Zul. If you want to complete a quest that might not be worth the effort, ride to the top, run as best as you can past the trolls until you get the (complete) message, and try to get away. You WILL die. But hopefully you'll get far enough away that you can rez safely. This is also removed from anything else in the act, so you might just ignore it.
The first required task is to ride out to Agol'watha, to The Creeping Ruin, or to Skulk Rock and clear out the oozes. If you are an herbalist, you will want to go inside Skulk Rock for the chance at Ghost Mushrooms. Otherwise, either of the other two outdoor areas are probably easier.
If you've gotten the Hinterlands distress beacon and REALLY want to try to rescue the chicken, he's on the rock in the middle of the river source outside Agol'watha. He will bumble into two ambushes of 4 mobs each along the way, and finish at the bottom of the Overlook Cliffs, which is where you're going anyway.
There's only one way down the Overlook Cliffs without jumping, toward the south end, and right by the graveyard, incidentally. Run down and look for Gammerita, the one turtle that looks different and is aggressive. Take her picture, and then kill her if you like. (Note: Taking her picture will aggro her.) The only other thing you need to do down here is run around looking for small purple bottles. They should sparkle thanks to patch 2.3, which makes this quest a lot easier. (Even further back in time, the turtles were all aggressive. You can imagine the difficulty.)(Note: Beware the Horde Outpost at the southern edge of the Overlook Cliffs! The guards have a rather large aggro range.)
Find the ramp that leads back up the cliffs and poke along the edges of the cliffs looking for Silvermane Stalkers. Kill enough of them to get some food for baby, and then return to Aerie Peak.
Scene 3 - Revenge of Darnassus (level 47/48)
Quests completed: Rise of the Silithid, The Super Snapper FX, Favored of Elune?, Return To Troyas
Yes, it's time to return to Darnassus. It's unfortunate we can't get the follow-up to Rise of the Silithid yet, but you will be folllowing up on Super Snapper in the immediate future, and you're traveling to reach Feralas or Tanaris anyway.
After taking care of business in town, which will put you at or around level 48, head to Feralas and set your hearthstone.
Scene 4 - OPTIONAL - Zul'Farrak (level 48)
You have 5 quests for Zul'Farrak, and could have a sixth if you want to travel out to Tabetha in Dustwallow. One of them requires a special item you don't have, but the rest are finishable in one run through the zone, if you care to. I'm not advocating running Zul'Farrak, but since you're in a good situation to do this, it's there for you if you want to. We'll go to Tanaris later if you want to wait until then.
Scene 5 - OPTIONAL - Bzzut! (level 48)
Quests completed: Fuel For the Zapping, Zapped Giants
This scene is marked optional because it isn't very productive, but you're right there.
Take the boat to the mainland and talk to Zorbin Fandazzle right by the docks. He has two quests to kill the obnoxious mobs that barred the way to the missing courier's boat. There are many more elementals than giants, but the giants are a 100% drop, while the elementals are considerably lower. (Make sure you zap the giants before fighting them!)
After you finish the two quests, Zorbin will become a vendor, so you can sell to him and move right into scene 6 if you like. (Note: Zorbin also sells a BOP engineering recipe for some fireworks.)
Scene 6 - The Ruins of Ravenwind (level 48)
Quests completed: The Staff of Equinex, The Morrow Stone, Improved Quality, Pristine Yeti Hide, The Giant Guardian, Wandering Shay
The harpies in northwest Feralas are levels 48-51, but are surprisingly easy to kill, especially for non-casters. Just don't get overrun. Before we go there, though, a couple quick spots to stop off.
Get on the main road and go up the road to the northern end of the zone. Just after the wilderness starts appearing on the right side of the road, pull off to the east and look for the yeti cave. It will also appear on your map. Hunt around and kill yetis. You should eventually get a Pristine Yeti Hide as well, which starts its own quest.
After that ride north until you can get back up to the road, cross over it to the west, and into The Twin Colossals where the giants are wandering about. You should find a questgiver, Rockbiter, above the W in "twin" on the map. Take his quest, and then travel north to the ruins.
Walk around the ruins looking for four small flames. You will need to loot each, and they are in separate corners of the ruins. The one that is most tricky to find is atop the large building in the southeast. You'll need to do some climbing and jumping to reach it. Once you finally have all four, fight your way to the central monument and use the staff. This should give you The Morrow Stone.
Your final task is also in the ruins. Head to the very northwest portion of the ruins and find Shay. Talk to her, then grab the bell and lead her back to Rockbiter. Pay attention for if she wanders off. You'll need to use the bell to keep her following, which gets kinda silly after awhile. Stay to the west as long as you reasonably can, and then come a bit east after you leave the ruins as you go south to Rockbiter.
Scene 7: The Ogre, The Oasis and The Insects (level 49)
Quests completed: Noxious Lair Investigation, The Dunemaul Compound, The Thirsty Goblin, Thistleshrub Valley, Gahz'ridian
Fly back to Gadgetzan, and travel west to the Noxious Lair and farm five bug parts. Try to avoid Swarmers if you can help it. The other creatures in the area are much nicer to fight. After that, go southeast to the Dunemaul Compound and wrack up the kill count you need. The named is in the small cave. Southwest of there is Thistleshrub Valley. Two quests to complete here -- basically just kill everything until you're done.
That's a very short explanation for what will probably take a while. The only final task to deal with is collecting Gahz'ridian. You may have seen Gahz'ridian drops throughout the desert, but thirty of them?? Yes, there's a place where there's a ton of them. Head east to the southmoon and eastmoon ruins where the ogres are guarding tons of Gahz'ridian. You probably won't even need to use your detector to find them.
Scene 8: The Gaping Chasm (level 49)
Quests completed: The Scrimshank Redemption, Find OOX-17/TN (maybe), Insect Part Analysis 1-2
Stop off at Broken Pillar on your way south if you haven't completed Gahz'ridian yet, and then continue the trek to the southeast corner for more bugs.
There's only one way into the hive in the Gaping Chasm, which happens to have two entrances on opposite sides of the opening in the ground. From either entrance, Scrimshank's gear is pretty much the same distance, in the large X-shaped room off of the northwest-most arm of the room. Find it and head back outside.
If you're a chicken lover, go to the northeast edge of the Gaping Chasm to rescue the OOX in this zone if you've got the beacon. This is typically the hardest of the three.
And Moving On
You should now be level 50, and have 1 quest for Blasted Lands, 1 to Darnassus, 2 to Un'goro, and 1 to Hinterlands...plus maybe some Zul'Farrak quests if you feel you need to do those. Take care of them now or drop them. We will graduate to the next set of zones in Act 13.
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