"Legacy of the Ancients" quest

I like to try to do quests without having to google them first. To that end, I need there to be an in game lead in, or an NPC that has a clue about what you need and can give you a hint, regardless of how vague... that leads you in the right direction.

So. I wanted to upgrade my Lumber Mill in World of Warcraft to level 3. Easy, right? You just get the blueprint, have the required resources, and viola, your crew of master craftsmen (Who apparently don't own a level or a plumb line between them.) build it in just one hour.

Hmm. Can't buy it. I need to get an achievement first. Ok. Fine. Let's see... 75 lumber work orders. Got that! Two quests. "Legacy of the Ancients" and "Reduction in force." Ok, I have already done the second one, just by finding the fallen tree and freeing the CEO of Barov Industries. He then goes to work at the Lumber Mill and gives you the quest.

But the other one. What? Ok, the guys at the Lumber Mill might know something. After all, I'm trying to upgrade that building. It makes sense that they would have a clue how to do that. I go click on all of them... they apparently know nothing at all.

So I google it.

Apparently, there is a rare mob called a "Petrified Ancient" that you're supposed to harvest for lumber. It spawns in many locations, the vast majority are off in the weeds somewhere you would not normally go. And of course, you won't see it unless you have a Lumber Mill... so you might have seen one while questing and have never known.

So apparently, Blizzard's quest team expects you to just randomly come across a rare mob while just wandering around in the far reaches of the world. Of course you would pretty much have to be looking for lumber to cut down, too.

What the hell! What quest guy at Blizzard thought this was a good idea? Ok. So how do you find this tree? First, get the tom tom addon. Then make 4 macros, one for each of the zones you may have to search.

The first macro, all the points in Nagrand.

/way Nagrand 41 59.4 Petrified Ancient

/way Nagrand 40.6 30 Petrified Ancient

/way Nagrand 42.2 26 Petrified Ancient

/way Nagrand 65 19.2 Petrified Ancient

/way Nagrand 85.8 30.2 Petrified Ancient

/way Nagrand 73 62 Petrified Ancient

The second, all the points in talador:

/way Talador 51.2, 31 Petrified Ancient

/way Talador 52, 48.8 Petrified Ancient

/way Talador 36.6, 69.6 Petrified Ancient

/way Talador 46.8, 85 Petrified Ancient

/way Talador 57, 79.6 Petrified Ancient

The third, all the points in Spires ar Arak:

/way Spires 37.4, 30.6 Petrified Ancient

/way Spires 35.8, 47.8 Petrified Ancient

/way Spires 65.6, 46.4 Petrified Ancient

/way Spires 64.2, 59.2 Petrified Ancient

/way Spires 56.2, 76 Petrified Ancient

And lastly, the fourth, all the points in Gorgrond.

/way Gorgrond 70.6, 25.6 Petrified Ancient

/way Gorgrond 61.8, 32.2 Petrified Ancient

/way Gorgrond 57.6, 43.2 Petrified Ancient

/way Gorgrond 50.4, 42.2 Petrified Ancient

/way Gorgrond 41.6, 37.6 Petrified Ancient

/way Gorgrond 49, 50 Petrified Ancient

/way Gorgrond 73.4, 39.4 Petrified Ancient

/way Gorgrond 53, 65.4 Petrified Ancient

/way Gorgrond 41.4, 76.6 Petrified Ancient

/way Gorgrond 43.6, 92.6 Petrified Ancient

After you search a zone, the command to cleat tom tom's waypoints is:

/way reset all

I suggest just focusing on Talador, it seems to be the most running around on the ground friendly.

What's the moral of the story? Some developer probably thought he was making the quest “hard” by forcing you to explore the world to find a quest you only know exists through ancillary means (It's listed in the Achievement you need.) because, in his mind, that's what you are supposed to do. Well he is wrong. All he really did was frustrate people to the point that they posted lists of all possible spawn points on the internet for others to use.

Developers! DO NOT make shit with unnecessary difficulty for people that can just search the internet for the information to thwart you. It annoys them because they have to “break the fourth wall” to do your quest, and It makes you look lazy, incompetent, or sadistic.

Here's how it should have been done. Seed a couple of Petrified Ancients in Nagrand and remove the dead lumberjacks, they have no part in the lore. you're basically told to go there by the Foreman of the Lumber Mill, because that's “The Frontier of Lumber.” Put one near the fort, one near the Circle of Blood. Have an unrelated Rangari quest to find a strange flower that happens to grow by the one near the fort. Now you've found the Petrified Ancient without being able to interact with it just through normal questing.

Then when it's time to update the Lumber Mill. and you've done the 75 work orders, the Foreman mentions something about a “Weird petrified tree” in Nagrand. Oh! You've seen that weird looking tree! You make the connection and know what to do. Why do they need this tree? Because they're going to build the pinnacle of Lumber Mills, and need to test it out. If you STILL can't figure it out, Ok. You might have to google, but at least there were in game clues you could have caught up on.