by JR Cook - 8 years ago     show comments

Exploring Draenor delves into the hidden places of the world that will one day become Outland – but not this week. From the volcanic landscape of Frostfire to the gloomy dells of Shadowmoon, these articles are your guide to events that are off the beaten path – or on another world.

Today’s Exploring Draenor is totally not an excuse to write about my experiences in the World of Warcraft: Legion alpha test. Look, Demon Hunters start with an ability that lets them see treasure through walls, okay? This thing writes itself.

Let’s begin with character creation. A new feature has been added that allows players to go back to customisation before logging the character in for the first time – basically, giving you all of the creation options again. Those options have been expanded for Demon Hunters, too – my Night Elf (because #AlliancePride #HeartOfALion #ForLordaeron) had new green and dark grey (almost black) skin tones that aren’t in the live game, as well as the tattoo, veil (these are much more ornate on Blood Elves) and horn options. Names can also now be generated using the randomiser: some of the ones that were suggested to me included Kynyssaria, Be, Aqusia, Kynlea and Aqulermook (what?).

After making a Demon Hunter, you log in to the shattered worldlet of Mardum. This was a former prison world for demons that had been defeated by Sargeras, the enforcer of the Titan pantheon. When Sargeras fell to corruption, he shattered Mardum and freed the demons that had been kept there. However, he also left behind a Sargerite Keystone, which Illidan wants – and it’s up to you to get it. The keystone is literally a key to other Burning Legion worlds – recovering it would allow Illidan to open a portal to and attack any demon-infested planet that he chose. This would be a Good Thing (unless you’re a demon).

Side note: make sure that you play with the Demon Hunter’s custom emotes – mainly jokes. These include, “No, mum – it’s not a phase!”, “Fight fire with fire – unless it’s an actual fire. Then use water”, and “Spectral Sight’s not all it’s cracked up to be. Did you know that Dwarves wear no undergarments?!”

Spectral Sight is the Demon Hunter’s most interesting ability for treasure hunters. Using the power of their demonically-enhanced vision, Demon Hunters can see through walls to spy on enemies – and loot. Movement speed is reduced to 80% while doing so. This skill, combined with the Demon Hunters’ ability to double-jump and glide (using freaking awesome BAT WINGS), will make them master explorers. As an amusing aside, you can also double-jump while dead.

Spectral Sight

We won’t be going through the entire starting experience here – that has been done in detail elsewhere around the web. Instead, we’ll highlight some of the secrets hidden around Mardum. For instance, you can jump down the cliffs in front of the first questgiver, Kayn Sunfury, to reach a hidden cave with a chest inside. This contains some Legion Healthstones, which act like Warlock Healthstones without all the messy business of interacting with a Warlock (eurgh) and Fel Crystal Fragments, which provide a short-term damage proc and movement speed buff.

After summoning in the Ashtongue Deathsworn, run down to hand the quest in to Allari the Souleater. This charming elf is interrogating a demon – but you can find another chest behind it, containing more Fel Crystal Fragments.

Your next chest is located on the large island to the left of Inquisitor Baleful: the one with some sort of broken metallic wreckage and a single demon. It contains a flask replacement: Inquisitor’s Menacing Eye, which increases your Agility and Stamina by 92 for an hour.

Next up is something a bit more interesting. Jump over the small ridge behind the cage holding Mannethrel Darkstar to find your first Empowered Fel Crystal. These are scattered across Mardum – there is another on the other side of the main pathway – and remove the cooldown from your Fel Rush ability for two minutes. It’s not particularly useful in combat, but absolutely nothing will hit you while you have this buff. The path between the Seat of Command and Inferno Peak, where you have to dodge a crazy amount of missiles thrown at you by the Burning Legion’s Devastators, is child’s play with this buff.

Empowered Fel Crystal

Another chest can be found on the lower slopes of the volcano. Cross the bridge and head up the slope, then right when you reach a large, steaming, glowing purple rune on a rise. There is a cave at the end of the path here, and a chest with more Fel Crystal Fragments and Legion Healthstones.

Two more chests are found during the quest Hidden No More, which follows Sight Beyond Sight (Thundercats hollah) – teaching you, as if you need it by this point, to use Spectral Sight. The first, at the cave entrance, contains more Legion Healthstones. The second, on the cave’s topmost level, holds the Mardum Lord Signet, a crit/mastery agility ring. Another side note: following the rules set by WoD, all loot found on Mardum (and, presumably, throughout Legion questing) can receive upgrades to a higher item level and rarity. On my alpha playthrough, the Signet became an ilevel 695 epic when I looted it.

One thing that Spectral Sight doesn’t highlight is rare spawns – but with this guide, you don’t need it to! You’ll find your baby Demon Hunter’s first rare as you progress through The Doom Fortress, also known as The Argh Argh There Are Spiders In My Hair Fortress. You can find King Voras – the mate of Brood Queen Tyranna – in a large cave at the top of the cavern. He has captured the leader of the Ashtongue Deathsworn, Battlelord Gaardoun. He will cast Acid Spit, a frontal cone that should only ever hit the Battlelord, and place eggs that will hatch into Spiderlings if not destroyed. Luckily Fel Rush, Eye Beam and your newest spell, Glaive Throw, make quick work of them. Finally, Voras will literally place a spider on your face, which will leech health from you and feed it to the King. You can’t do much about this, other than being traumatised later in life, but you can kill any Leeching Spiders affecting your fellow Demon Hunters. You will receive Voras’ Silk Drape for your trouble, a crit/haste cloak.

King Voras

Swing right immediately after leaving The Doom Fortress to find another small cave and a chest.

The next big – and I mean big – demon is Overseer Brutarg, a mo’arg at The Forge of Corruption. He appears to be a smith of sorts for the Legion, wielding a massive hammer with deadly efficiency. Part-way through the fight he’ll discard the mace and take up a massive sword, gaining a buff that halves his movement speed but causes each strike to knock players back (Concussive Blow). Your reward for destroying him is Brutarg’s Sword Tip, a trinket with passive critical strike and a use effect that deals direct damage to the target.

Overseer Brutarg

Another rare spawn – although really this only denotes targets with special loot, as they’ll respawn within 30 seconds of death – is General Volroth, at the eastern edge of The Soul Engine. Think of him as a toy-sized Brutallus. Fire is Volroth’s thing. He’ll place Burn on you – a DoT that will leave a nasty fire patch behind when it fades – and Fel Breath, a cone-shaped frontal attack. Interrupt it to give yourself full Fury and unleash your attacks on his scaly keister. You’ll also occasionally get knocked into the air with Uppercut, which deals moderate damage.

General Volroth

Interlude: There is another chest in a cave to the right-hand side of the Soul Engine.

Your last rare can be found inside the Soul Engine itself. Count Nefarious is the Dreadlord voted Most Likely to Win a Clichéd Naming Contest, 27 years running. He proves an interesting challenge, with a debuff (Carrion Swarm) inflicting damage over time to you and lowering the damage you deal to Nefarious by 99%. The only way to stop the debuff, short of it running out, is to use the Well of Souls bordering the area; doing so will stun Nefarious for nine seconds. However, you can’t interact with the Wells while taking direct damage, so time activation between the demon’s attacks. Nefarious will also summon adds, which will channel a damaging spell onto you, and cast Vampiric Cleave, which will drain life from its targets.

There are no secrets to be discovered on the Fel Hammer. Congratulations, Demon Hunter! You’ve stopped the Legion – now it’s time to return triumphant to the Black Temple, and put an end to those pesky invaders from Shattrath. They won’t have given Lord Illidan any trouble – right…?