The Argent Tournament: Part 1

.

GUYS.

The Argent Tournament!!!

I went into it not really knowing what to expect. Jousting? Horses? General carousing and mayhem! Wenches serving alcohol for my imbibing pleasure! Daily quests abound! Horde ganking, spectators spectating, vehicle mechanics being slightly annoying, crowds cheering!!!

Right?

Well, yeah, pretty much! There's an inn, and a little Tuskarr dude making a living there by selling refreshments, and spectators on bleachers, and there are shirts you can buy to represent your home town (DARNASSUS RULES!!!), except they're 25g each and really have no use other than to just wear them. Excerpt from guild chat:

[Guild] [Averna]: so I just bought a darnassus shirt for 25g
[Guild] [Averna]: am I an idiot?
[Guild] [Norda]: yes

Well then.

How do I get there?

There's a guy in Dalaran on the right side of Krassus' Landing sitting on a gryphon. He'll give you a free flight up to northern Icecrown (it's a one-time thing). Once you get there, grab the flight path.

There are also two daily quests right in front of you that you can pick up. One requires you to go to Crystal Song forest, and the other sends you to the Stormpeaks.

Ok, sure, dailies, but I wanna joust!

Well, before you can actually start the tournament, you have to demonstrate your worth to the Argent Crusade. As Illidan once said, you are not prepared. So! To prepare yourself, you have to go and do some quests that will prove your awesomeness.

The first set of quests teach you how to joust. Check out these abilities (taken from MMO-Champion):


1. Thrust: Melee attack, does some damage, but damages you as well. Ouch. (See 4)
2. Shield Breaker: Ranged attack, some damage, AND takes down one layer of defense.
3. Charge: Ranged attack, does a LOT of damage, and takes down one layer of defense.
4. Defend: Adds one layer of defense (can stack up to 3). Use this before Thrust!
5. Refresh Mount: Heals your mount, but has a 1 minute cooldown.
6. Duel: Challenge someone to jousting match!

There are three quests to do: One makes you practice a ranged attack, the second, a melee attack, and the third, a charge. You also have to speak with the respective masters of these attacks which are right near the target dummies on which you practice. I'd recommend you speaking to them first, as they give you advice on how to do each attack.

After you learn how to joust, then you're onto the second step of proving yourself, so go ahead and pick up the next three quests!

They send you all over the place - Howling Fjord, Crystalsong Forest, Icecrown, even Westfall. Oddly enough, it's not that annoying. Turning in these quests will give you Aspirant Seals (one or two for each quest turn-in - you get 5 total if you do all three quests), of which you need 15 to advance to actual joustage. Therefore you need to do 3 days worth of dailies to get all 15 Aspirant Seals and complete the quest [Up to the Challenge].

Hey, the new music in this zone is pretty neat.

I KNOW!

But isn't this just like an achievement/time-sink? What really is the point?

In my humble opinion, the Argent Crusade is trying to strengthen the morale of the people with a rallying tournament, and also, by having them compete, identify those that are most courageous and brave of heart, and would be best suited to join them in defeating the scourge. It also helps strengthen the loyalties that people feel towards their home city, or their city of choice.

Lorestuffs aside, Blizzard is trying something new here. It's part daily quest hub (people are calling it the new Quel'Danas), part PvP, part lolvehicle. Yes, it's for people who want more achievements or mini pets or mounts or titles or dailies. If you're someone who doesn't care about achievements, or collecting pets, then should you skip this over? I'd say no! It's new, and it's fun, and it's worth at least a once over. A beautifully conceived, unexpected gem from Blizzard.


Tune in for part 2 of the Argent Tournament - I'll be posting more soon!

.