Alliance, Step166 Icecrown (78-80) - I'm stumped!

[kreelor]

Alliance, Step166 Icecrown (78-80) - I'm stumped!

After having my char die a few times, I gave up and came here for advice. I hate to complain, and I know you don't like my complaints either, but this quest seems impossible. I must be overlooking something, or else it's bugged.

Upon starting the quest, where Nergeld (the thing I'm "supposed to be controlling") begins the battle, I have never once seen "The Doctor" that I'm supposed to kill. Since I can't see him, I can't select him according to Zygor's suggested text. The only thing I can do, since Nergeld doesn't move/walk, is to use the #2 option ("Roar") to knock-back the enemies. But, I can only do that until they finally drain me of all life, and I'm dead again.

I tried bypassing this quest and to turn in the 5 completed quests I have, but because Blizzard has gone "linear" in its quest chains, life has become very frustrating.

Where's the Doctor? How is this quest supposed to be completed if he's not there before I'm dead? Ha ha.

Note: I also pointed out a typo in Zygor's text. Maybe someday it can be fixed, even though it's a minor issue. See picture: (Sorry, but this forum won't display the full-size capture, so the Zygor text is impossible to read!).
Nergeld against the Doctor.jpg

[cabby]

Use all of the abilities to kill those non-elite trash there in your screen shot. You have to some of them before the doctor shows up. Just keep one of them targeted to use the punch ability, then use the roar to knock them back when you start to get too many close to you, and then chain to pull the one you have targeted right back to you quickly. Do that to work on killing them one at a time. Once the doctor shows up use the suggestion in the step and remember that even if Nergeld gets destroyed you can supposedly still kill him and get credit for the quest.

[kreelor]

If I understand you correctly, I have to use whatever option I have on that bar to kill them one-at-a-time, even though there's a dozen of them whacking on me. "Roaring" at them does send them away (for a second or two), but the re-spawn rate is way too fast to allow me to kill them one-at-a-time without dying repeatedly! Two or three at a time I could handle, but a dozen? Approximately when does the doctor show up? Do you remember?

Blizzard has totally lost their minds. Next to the quest called "It's Abominable," this is the worst quest since that one. It is a convoluted mess and is absurdly obscure. It's a puzzle... not a quest. The puzzle is trying to figure out the gimmicky procedure and Zygor helped only a little. It does not make leveling quicker! Maybe if I do it 200 times, I might get faster at it. For a game of this magnitude, I don't understand why they made questing "linear" unless it makes it easier for them to code it!! It's NOT good gaming philosophy, imo. It has become rote and less enjoyable.

Thanks for your advice, Cabby. I'll try it --- since I have no other choice if I want to continue leveling with the guide with this char.

As far as Zygor knows, how can I abandon this quest, turn in my current completed quests, and continue? How far ahead will I have to advance to find a quest which is outside this 'chain' of linked quests? Do you or anyone else know? I'd appreciate that advice.

I'm stuck behind this big fat guy who can't stay alive and kill!

[Cartman]

The best suggestion I can give is to get to level 80 before Icecrown.
Icecrown is a very nasty zone that you better leave out and do with a higher level character if you want to get the loremaster title.
So if you skipped Storm Peaks just go back to that zone. Or even do Sholazar, though the Nesingwary quests there are quite a grind.

The mentioned quest works as Cabby suggests, just use punch and roar on the waves of normal mobs until the Doctor arrives.
Remember that the punch is an AOE strike so you need to let the enemies come close and not roar immediately if 2 or 3 are close but several others are further away.
The Doctor will cast some spells. When he starts casting roar and pull him back towards you.

I remember dying there the first one or two attempts back in the old days. But once you get the timing right you should not have anymore problems.

[kreelor]

Thank you, Cartman for replying. BTW, I'm level 81 with my Mage. I don't care about titles; I just want to continue leveling in an orderly fashion, and having the Zygor Guide let me bypass quests which are either too time-consuming or yield nothing to be gained by doing them. I wish this quest was one of those, but it seems to be required. I can't continue without completing this one first.

"Punch" works on only one enemy at a time. There are too many enemies surrounding me simultaneously. "Roaring" at them pushes them back, but they return to attacking me in force BEFORE the cooldown on "Roar" has finished. The result has been that I'm dead before the Doctor ever shows upon my screen. It's absurd. There is no "Heal" nor is there any way to move toward finding the Doctor to end the madness more quickly. An extremely frustrating (nonsense) quest!

Thanks for your advice; I will keep trying with the info you and Cabby suggested. I've spent more time on this quest and on the other stupid quest "It's Abominable" than I have spent leveling from 1 to 80! ha ha. Hell, I should be level 85 by now, at least!

[kreelor]

As far as Zygor knows, how can I abandon this quest, turn in my current completed quests, and continue? How far ahead will I have to advance to find a quest which is outside this 'chain' of linked quests? Do you or anyone else know? I'd appreciate that advice.

This wasn't answered. I'd still like to know how I can bypass the 'required chained quests' so that I can then continue questing.

[cabby]

If you're already level 81 then you should leave Northrend completely and go hit the Cata zones. Start off with Mount Hyjal.


For the abandon aspect, just open your log and abandon the quest. The guides should know what's going on and try to get you there. Worst case you might have to just go turn in the quests on your own. I'm guessing you still use Carbonite so it should be easy to do that, just look at your quest watch window and click the little round dot next to the name of the completed quest and the Carbonite arrow should direct you to that turn in NPC. You can also do this when changing the guides. After it suggests that you load the next guide and you do that go turn in quests using the Carbonite arrow then click the ! in a box on the guide viewer window to abandon all quests that are no longer needed. Be careful using this because it will abandon completed quests too if you haven't turned them in.

[kreelor]

Can't turn in quests independently of Zygor because "it" follows a rigid path requiring me to follow its steps. Zygor is no different than Blizzard in that respect. If I turn in a completed quest it then requires me to accept the next quest it suggests. If I don't accept it, then I can't turn in any of the other completed quests I have because Zygor wanted me to do some other quest prior to that. We are trapped into a linear string of quests. It is not a fluid process with user alternatives to questing.

[kreelor]

BTW... I finally completed the quest I was having so much difficulty with. My friend (an advanced lvl 90 Mage) came in to help me. She wiped out all the minions in one stroke. Then, the "Doctor" showed up and I snagged him and killed him. Quest completed in less than one minute compared to the two days I spent trying.

[Cartman]

Reminds me of the time the quest below Utgarde Keep was bugged so you did not get the buff that prevents the undead from attacking you. I took my level 85 mage and just bombed all undead so a friend was able to get through.

The problem with being linear is not only a Zygor problem, it's a Blizzard problem.
In most zones you cannot skip quests and advance in the zone. You need to do nearly all quests to progress further.
I don't know if it is possible to skip anything other than the group quests in Icecrown. Normally you get a breadcrumb quest that leads to the next quest hub.
If you get stuck and want to try to move on you can abandon that quest and try to rightclick the next step button in the guide. This will at least skip steps for quests you don't have in your log anymore.

In some lower level zone guides are split into two ore more sections. But this has been done to prevent outleveling the guide. So at least in these zones there are quest hubs later on that work without prequests. But at least Icecrown with all it's phasing is extremely linear.