In World of Warcraft there’s a lot to do. But some quests are so annoying that we sometimes have nightmares about them. Here are our top 5 most annoying WoW quests.
World of Warcraft is full of quests. In 8 expansions, many tasks have piled up, and especially for new players, there are thousands of missions to complete. While many of us have fond memories of some quests, there are also plenty of missions that cause frustration.
Here we want to introduce you to 5 of the definitely most annoying quests in the history of World of Warcraft – perhaps you’ve already suppressed the memory of them.
Note: The article originally dates back to 2020; we updated it again for Easter 2022.
Rank 5: Beachhead
Beachhead was only introduced with Battle for Azeroth but quickly secured a place on this list. Because the quest not only appears frequently, but it is also extremely annoying.
What makes the quest so annoying? The quest is simply boring because all the action plays out slowly. Sure, turtles move slowly, that’s logical. But even the attacking seagulls and crabs move in slow motion, making you feel like you’re playing chicken in the toddler edition.
Since Beachhead is one of the few world quests for the Tortollans, you encounter it again … and again … and again. But hey, at least we always get to hear the popular saying “A turtle made it to the water!”
Rank 4: City of Light
Those who reach the city of Shattrath in “The Burning Crusade” were certainly overwhelmed by the sight of the Naaru and a meeting with Khadgar the first time. However, the joy fades quickly. Because the first quest is “City of Light.” Here you have to follow an elemental that explains everything to you in Shattrath.
What makes the quest so annoying? The sheer amount of time required. The quest takes 8:30 minutes from start to finish. However, during this time, you don’t have to do anything exciting – you simply follow an NPC through the city, who explains to you at length the various factions and neighborhoods of the city. Meanwhile, the quest mob moves at a snail’s pace, which leads to quick frustration. If you do get bored and tab out of the game, that’s a big problem. Because if you stray too far from the mob, it despawns, and you have to accept the quest again.
Story passages in WoW can be interesting and engaging – but that wasn’t the case here. This is mainly because the quest is not voiced, and you have to read all the text in the chat window.
Some of the best quest lines we’ve introduced you to here:
Rank 3: The Green Hills of Stranglethorn (Classic)
Of course, the Green Hills of Stranglethorn cannot be missed in this list. This is a quest available in WoW: Classic and was located in Stranglethorn Vale. The quest required you to complete the book “The Green Hills of Stranglethorn” and find the missing pages. These can drop from almost all enemies throughout the vale.
What makes this quest so annoying? The annoyance factor of this quest lies in several points. Firstly, you have to find an extremely large number of different pages. Secondly, you are not protected from receiving duplicate pages. It is possible for pages to end up in your inventory 3 or 4 times. Additionally, each page takes up its own inventory slot. At that time in WoW: Classic, your bags were still relatively small, which became a significant problem.
At least you could sell the pages at the auction house and also buy missing pages there. However, it was usually not worth the effort. If you took the time and simply killed a dozen or two enemies, you would usually make the same progress.
Fortunately, this quest line was drastically simplified with the overhaul in Cataclysm. Now you only need to find a single page, because adventurers had already completed the book beforehand – making it much more pleasant.
Anyone wanting to experience this cursed mission again can currently do so in WoW: Classic and pursue the collecting passion for book pages.
Rank 2: The Caverns of Time
In a similar direction to “City of Light” is also “The Caverns of Time.” This is a quest you get in Tanaris in the Caverns of Time. Again, you are supposed to follow an NPC through the caverns, who explains to you the various instance entrances in order and provides some background story.
What makes the quest so annoying? The NPC you follow is extremely slow. Furthermore, the lady does not move in a straight line to her next destination but sometimes seems to lose her pathfinding. So she sometimes moves in a “zigzag” or just stops in front of trees, only to go in another direction a few seconds later. The entire mission takes nearly 11 minutes. As if that weren’t bad enough, the area is also a PvP area – if you are blown away by an enemy on the very long way, you have to start the quest all over again.
Here too, the story passages of the quests could have been spiced up with a few fights – but they weren’t. This makes this mission very monotonous and brings it almost to the top of the most annoying quests.
Rank 1: Dragonmaw Race: Captain Skyshatter
The Dragonmaw races are a special quest line that took place around the unlocking of the Netherwing. Although they are optional, they offer a huge chunk of reputation for the Netherwing. In them, you have to race on a flying mount and defeat NPCs. Captain Skyshatter is the last opponent and is considered particularly challenging.
What makes the quest so annoying? This quest had several factors that made it extremely annoying. The goal is to follow Captain Skyshatter closely on his flight. If the distance between the character and Captain Skyshatter exceeds 15 meters, the quest automatically fails. The captain fires small meteors behind him every few seconds, which push your character back and throw you off your mount. A single hit means a defeat.
Particularly annoying was that with a latency over about 100, which was still normal during “The Burning Crusade” times, the meteors could hit before you, as a player, could see them.
Lastly, the quest was annoying because only one player could accept it at a time. Often, a whole line of players formed waiting to face Captain Skyshatter.
What a correct run of the quest looked like, you can see here:
However, it must be said that the quest has been significantly easier since Patch 3.3, as “knockback” effects no longer throw your character off the mount. This also makes this quest easier than it was back in the days of “The Burning Crusade”.
Nevertheless, it has triggered smaller and larger traumas in many players. A well-deserved rank 1 for a quest that many players at that time nervously threw out of their quest log. Again and again.
Do you remember any particularly annoying quest from World of Warcraft? Which mission did you always find extremely annoying?
