Side observations about current World Quest design that don't necessarily have to do with alts:Another major design problem of some of the current World Quests became clear to me after getting my first Alliance character to level 60. I play primarily Horde characters on a server with a serious faction imbalance (Whisperwind/Dentarg); although it's impossible to get accurate statistics, estimates range from 6:1 to 8:1 Alliance vs. Horde. This means that some of the World Quests are nearly impossible to complete as Horde without (a) finding a group (b) getting extremely lucky and/or (c) being "that player" who does underhanded things to get work done. On the other hand, my Alliance character can go in to the same area and have no problems, because everything is being tagged by Alliance characters and the quests are quick and easy to finish.
One example is the World Quest
Trashin' the Camp in Revendreth. The goal of this is to go to Stalker's Lodge north of the Banewood, fill a progress bar, and then kill a boss at the end. The boss is the easy part; filling the progress bar as the tiny minority faction can be nearly impossible at times. It's a very small area and easy to AoE pull nearly everything, which can effectively shut out anyone of the opposite faction. This kind of area domination of the opposite faction is a common problem in any World Quests requiring killing mobs in a limited area, but it's worse in places like Stalker's Lodge, where the area is very small.
Another example that encourages bad behavior is
Gateways of Horror in Bastion (also
Who Devours the Devourers? in Ardenweald), though this can come from either faction. You have to close portals, but as soon as you start the long channel to close the portal, a bunch of small mobs fly out and attack, interrupting your channel. This is nearly impossible to complete solo without resorting to screwing your fellow players. In a group, you can have one person start it and pick up the adds while another person finishes the channel. Solo, if you start to open the portal and get aggro, another player will come up and steal the portal channel while you're fighting off mobs. As a rogue, I handle this two ways solo, neither which I'm proud of: as soon as the other player starts to channel, I
Vanish so all the mobs go onto them instead and start up the channel again, or I just stand stealthed behind a portal, wait for someone to start channeling and pick up the adds, and then steal the portal while they're engaged. Since I don't like being "that rogue", I normally join a group. Still, this is exceptionally poor design, and I'm sure it's a hot mess in PvP. One possible solution would be to give closing credit to anyone who helped channel the portal closed during that time, which would not punish the first person who was brave enough to start the process.
Recommendations: Extend multitagging mobs to both factions in Shadowlands. In Shadowlands, our main goals are not faction based, but rather Covenant-based. We're even helping each other's faction leaders escape the Maw. We can already loot one another's herbs and ore, as well as released souls in the Maw. Don't encourage spawn hogging and bad behavior by enforcing this continued division, even after death.
