The Burning Crusade Progression Checklist
From AJS.COM
- This whole thing started on the WoW forums. Note that the document referenced there was incomplete at the time, and is now terribly out of date.
This is The Burning Crusade Progression Checklist. If you do every quest, get every faction and follow every step below, you will progress through all of the Burning Crusade content from solo to group to heroic to 10-man raid to 25-man raids in everything up to the final quests that lead to the fight with Illidan Stormrage. As of 2007-06-19, notes have been added below to indicate the progression changes that removed SSC and The Eye attunements.
See also:
- The Burning Crusade Boss Infoz for writeups, strategies and videos for every TBC raid boss.
- World of Warcraft: Raiding the Metagame for more Warcraft theory and practice.
- Blizzard's The Burning Crusade Attunement Chart
- A graphical version of the progression
Also: If you find this page useful, please support us by clicking on the ads at the top of the page. I use only textual ads because I hate huge flashing annoying banners. I hope my readers appreciate this.
Contents |
Choosing a side: Scryers or Aldor
You must choose a faction in Shattrath city in order to eventually gain access to the Black Temple, the ultimate raid instance of the Burning Crusade expansion. For help, see the comparison of Aldor and Scryer rewards
on WoWWiki.
Karazhan
At this point, Karazhan is all about gear progression. You don't need to kill Nightbane anymore, though it doesn't hurt. The gear in Kara will get you to the point that you can do SSC (Kara + Gruul's lair + Magtheridon = full tier 4 gear drops), and if you haven't done 25-man raids, 10-man raids are a good stepping-stone for the coordination required. Minimum stats required for Karazhan can be acquired by running 5-man instances until you're full-up on blues and maybe even have a couple of rewards from heroics. After that, you should be able to drop the Huntsman, Moroes and the Maiden... you might even be able to do the opera house event, which is the roadblock between the low-end part of Kara and the higher-end. If you can't do opera house, then clear the basement (which most guilds skip over if they can progress beyond opera house). Once you have the opera events on farm status, the way is pretty much clear (other than learning the events) up to Shade of Aran, Netherspite and Prince (the three hardest events in Karazhan). Once you can do Netherspite and Aran with ease, you should be working Gruul's lair and getting your dps and coordination in line for SSC.
- The Master's Key (Wowhead)
- Arcane Disturbances (Wowhead)
- Contact from Dalaran
- Khadgar
- (Group) Entry Into Karazhan (Wowhead)
- (Group) The Second and Third Fragments (Wowhead)
- 2nd Fragment: Steamvaults
- 3rd Fragment: Arcatraz
- Caverns of Time quests (this is essentially all group instancing in CoT, but involves many non-group turn-ins)
- Return to Khadagar
Shadowmoon solo quests
- The Hand of Gul'Dan (alliance) (Wowhead) / The Hand of Gul'Dan (horde) (Wowhead)
- Enraged Spirits of Fire and Earth
- Enraged Spirits of Water
- Enraged Spirits of Air
- Oronok Torn-Heart (Wowhead)
- I Was A Lot Of Things...
- A Lesson Learned
- The Cipher of Damnation -Truth and History
- Grom'tor, Son of Oronok (Wowhead)
- The Cipher of Damnation - Grom'tor's Charge
- The Cipher of Damnation - The First Fragment Recovered
- Ar'tor, Son of Oronok (Wowhead)
- Demonic Crystal Prisons
- Lohn'goron, Bow of the Torn-heart
- The Cipher of Damnation - Ar'tor's Charge
- The Cipher of Damnation - The Second Fragment Recovered
- Borak, Son of Oronok (Wowhead)
- Of Thistleheads and Eggs...
- The Bundle of Bloodthistle (Wowhead)
- To Catch a Thistlehead
- The Shadowmoon Shuffle
- What Illidan Wants, Illidan Gets...
- The Cipher of Damnation - Borak's Charge
- The Cipher of Damnation - The Third Fragment Recovered
And finally:
- (Group) The Cipher of Damnation (Wowhead)
Various dungeon keys
Shadow Labyrinth Key
- (Group) Run Sethekk Halls, kill Talon King Ikiss
Shattered Halls Key
- Primed Key Mold (Wowhead) dropped by Smith Gorlunk
- Entry Into the Citadel (Wowhead)
- Grand Master Dumphry
- Dumphry's Request
- (Group) Hotter than Hell (can be soloed)
Key to the Arcatraz
- Assisting the Consortium (Wowhead)
- Consortium Crystal Collection
- A Heap of Ethereals
- Warp-Raider Nesaad (Wowhead)
- Request for Assistance
- Rightful Repossession
- An Audience with the Prince
- Triangulation Point One
- Triangulation Point Two
- (Group) Full Triangle
- Special Delivery to Shattrath City (Wowhead)
- (Group) How to Break Into the Arcatraz
Heroic Keys and Serpentshrine
Note: Because of the removal of the SSC and The Eye attunements, there's no longer a need to get heroic keys. This vastly reduces the overhead of TBC progression, but there are still large rewards for those who do get keyed for heroics, including resist gear which may be essential for some classes in later raiding.
Flamewrought Key (Hellfire Citadel)
- Neutral with Honor Hold (Wowhead) / Thrallmar (Wowhead)
- Friendly with Honor Hold / Thrallmar
- Honored with Honor Hold / Thrallmar
- Revered with Honor Hold / Thrallmar
Reservoir Key (Coilfang)
- Neutral with Cenarion Expedition (Wowhead)
- Friendly with Cenarion Expedition
- Honored with Cenarion Expedition
- Revered with Cenarion Expedition
Serpentshrine: The Mark of Vashj
This is no longer required for access to SSC as of 2006-06-19, though a later quest will add a reward for those who have done the quest, or decide to do it in the future.
- Heroic Slave Pens (quest giver is deep in this instance)
- (10 and 25-man raid) The Cudgel of Kar'desh (Wowhead)
- (10-man raid) Blazing Signet from Karazan / Nightbane
- (25-man raid) Earthen Signet from Gruul's Lair / Gruul
Auchenai Key
- Neutral with Lower City (Wowhead)
- Friendly with Lower City
- Honored with Lower City
- Revered with Lower City
Warpforged Key (Tempest Keep 5-mans)
- Neutral with Sha'tar (Wowhead)
- Friendly with Sha'tar
- Honored with Sha'tar
- Revered with Sha'tar
Key of Time (Caverns of Time)
- Neutral with Keepers of Time (Wowhead)
- Friendly with Keepers of Time
- Honored with Keepers of Time
- Revered with Keepers of Time
Tempest Key (The Eye / Tempest Keep)
This attunement requirement was removed (see above for SSC attunement removal).
- The Tempest Key (Wowhead) from Khadgar
- (Group) Trial of the Naaru: Mercy (Wowhead) (Shattered Halls: Heroic)
- (Group) Trial of the Naaru: Strength (Wowhead) (Steamvault: Heroic, Shadow Labyrinth: Heroic)
- (Group) Trial of the Naaru: Tenacity (Wowhead) (Arcatraz: Heroic)
- (25-man raid) Trial of the Naaru: Magtheridon (Wowhead) (Magtheridon's Lair)
Hyjal and The Black Temple
Almost all of this quest chain takes place in Shadowmoon Valley, and has a unique path for Scryers and Aldor factions.
- Part 1:
- Part 2:
- Seer Udalo (Wowhead) (Arcatraz)
- A Mysterious Portent
- The Ata'mal Terrace
- Part 3:
- Akama's Promise (Wowhead)
- Part 4:
- Kill Fathom-Lord Karathress
in Serpentshrine Cavern and speak to the NPC behind him.
- The Secret Compromised (Wowhead)
- Ruse of the Ashtongue (Wowhead) - "Travel into Tempest Keep and slay Al'ar"
- An Artifact From the Past
- Kill Fathom-Lord Karathress
Which, in turn, requires:
Hyjal Attunement
- The Vials of Eternity (Wowhead)
- Serpentshrine: kill Vashj for Kael's Vial Remnant
- Tempest Keep: kill Kael'thas for Kael's Vial Remnant
- Neutral with Scales of the Sand (Wowhead)
- Friendly with Scales of the Sand
And then, you return to:
Entry Into the Black Temple
- The Hostage Soul (Wowhead)
- Entry Into the Black Temple
End-game: Kill Illidan
- A Distraction for Akama (Wowhead)
- Seek Out the Ashtongue
- Redemption of the Ashtongue
- The Fall of the Betrayer
