There are two things I'd like to get done around Arathi Highlands and the Hillsbrad foothills. One is a quest series to get a pair of Lightstep Leggings - they're a quest reward I noticed look pretty good for my level 38ish hunter. I've done this area once before with my mage, this time I want to be a little more efficient and I thought writing it up could help other players with their quests. Level 38 is kind of high for this area but I had her down in Stranglethorn Vale for the last few levels.

Lead up to an Escort Quest

The first part of Hints of a New Plague? just requires you to go find a couple NPCs. It starts in Southshore (map), which is in the south of Hillsbrad. There's a gryphon point in Southshore and a Gryphon point in Arathi Basin. After picking up your quests in Southshore you can fly to Arathi Basin then keep heading east to find the Go'Shek farm. Go around the farm to the ridge above the northeast side and you'll find Quae and Kinelory standing up there. Quae will then send you off to get a folder from a courier, that's the second part. Oh, you have to kill the courier to get it. It looks tough because he's got four bodyguards, but there's a good tip on Thottbot. Just focus on the courier. As long as you kill the courier, you can die and run back to your corpse - it's not far to the graveyard. Then you loot the courier and get the folder. Return to Kinelory in Southshore and then he sends you back to Quae at the farm. Quae reads what you've brought then sends you back to Kinelory. At this point you have to be ready to escort Quae down into the farm and fight your way through - she helps a lot though. I did it with my mage without really getting ready for it and I didn't have a hard time, so my hunter should have no problem as long as the pet doesn't go aggro any new friends for us. The last part of the quest is just to head down to Southshore. Here are all five parts of the quest at Thottbot:

• Hints of a New Plague? - Part 1
• Hints of a New Plague? - Part 2
• Hints of a New Plague? - Part 3
• Hints of a New Plague? - Part 4
• Hints of a New Plague? - Part 5

There's a lot of back and forth between the area around Arathi Highlands and Southshore in this quest. Set your hearthstone to the inn in Southshore to help minimize travel time. You should also (of course) fly between the gryphon points in Southshore and Arathi. Regardless, you'll be doing a lot of travel. To get the most out of your time in both Arathi Highlands and Southshore, do what I'm planning here. I've got a nice stack of quests that all happen around those two areas so you can travel, complete parts of a quest, go back to Southshore for a break, rest and to empty your bags then head back to Arathi Highlands to do some more questing.

Some Questing, Some Grinding in Arathi Highlands

So here's the best quest stack I could put together to work on around Arathi Highlands: Northfold Manor is a little out of the way but not hard to accomplish. You have to go way up north west in the Arathi Highlands, almost to Hillsbrad, to find the Syndicate Highwayman (map) and Syndicate Mercenaries (map) that you have to kill for this quest. If you haven't been to Hillsbrad then try to pick this one up from Captain Nials at Refuge Point on your way. The Highwaymen stealth so put on your Catseye Ultra Goggles or use that perception if your character's human. Worth Its Weight in Gold requires you to get Witherbark Tusks and Witherbark Medicine Pouches from an area south of the Go'Shek farm. Find Quae first (from Hints of a New Plague), then go off killing the Witherbark Axe Throwers (map), Headhunters (map) and Witch Doctors (map) to get Witherbark Tusks and Medicine Pouchs for Worth Its Weight in Gold. The Foresaken Courier wanders so I can look for him then kill some stuff then go check for him again. The other part of Worth Its Weight in Gold needs one Witherbark Shadow Hunter Knife. The Witherbark Shadow Hunters that drop these are in a cave west of where the other Witherbark crowd hangs out. Here's a map to the cave on Thott. The Shadow Hunters are a little tougher (around level 35) than all the outdoor ones, but you only need one knife. If you have trouble surviving in the cave then there are a couple that spawn near the entrance and you can just work on them until you get the drop you need. After returning to Refuge Point to turn in this quest, you can get Wand over Fist from Skuerto, an NPC in the same area. The point of this quest is to get a wand dropped by Kor'gresh Coldrage, an ogre in a cave southeast of Refuge Point. The ogres in the area are level 36-39 as far as I recall. I spent most of my mage's time at level 39 grinding on these ogres (I was really anxious to hit level 40 and get my first mount in Southshore). The casters among them do frost damage, so a frost ward or frost protection gear helps. One of them dropped an Ogremind Ring for me as well. These last three quests all require killing some mobs and the levels are spread from 32 all the way to 39. If you're anxious for that mount at 40 like I was then pick an area where the enemies are 2-3 levels below you and keep fighting until you run out of rest XP or your bags are full. I don't like non-stop grinding but it can be a fun way to spend an hour or two if you've got the time. Remember that humanoids drop cloth and more money than beasts. Spiders drop some kinds of spider silk. It seemed to me that the ogres were spread out pretty well for grinding and dropped good amounts of silver, but that was with my mage and she has a handy frost ward. Also, with all the running around, you'll probably run in to the courier that you need for Hints of a New Plague somewhere in there. Then you can carry on with that quest line next time you head back to Southshore. I'll go on with the quests around Southshore next time. They mix really well with these ones but it's just too much to fit in all at once.