The ! and the ?

One thing I absolutely love about World of Warcraft is the sheer number of quests available to do. I admit I'm a lore and history nerd, so I read if not skim all the text of the quest descriptions. It's amazing how Blizzard can come up with all the story for this game.

There's nothing like the excitement of seeing a new ! on top of an NPC's head and the ? for completing the quest. It's free experience and XP too (provided you can complete them)! I'm pretty sure I did 99% of the quests from Teldrassil, Darkshore, and Ashenvale, and by the time I was moving on to Eastern Kingdoms, I was 1/3 through Revered for Darnassus and Honored for all other Alliance factions.

Quest chains are especially my favorites. These are probably my favorite and most of the major quest chains there is for 40 and under:

• Raene's Cleansing. Picked up from Raene Wolfrunner in Astranaar, this is the one of the first major quest chains available for Night Elves and Draenei. The story revolves around an attempt to recreate a legendary rod that had been used by the wizard Dartol to infiltrate furbolg tribes. The rod was split into three pieces when Dartol's true identity was discovered. This chain provides a wealth of background information about the furbolgs, especially the mystery surrounding their corruption. You actually have the option of not turning in the last stage of the quest and keeping Dartol's Rod of Transformation, which does a pretty cool transformation effect. I've actually seen people use this instead of completing the chain.
  
• The Legend of Stalvan. Stalvan Mistmantle is the mystery character behind this quest chain. Legend has it that he was responsible for a massacre of a family of nobles, but no one has ever been able to link him to the event as the killer. What's interesting is that one can find a younger Stalvan in the Old Hillsbrad Foothills event of the Caverns of Time. You can watch an excellent movie about Stalvan made by Silet that provides Stalvan's history.
  
• The Defias Brotherhood. Probably one of the most mysterious groups on Azeroth, the Defias Brotherhood is known for its thievery and underground activities. This quest chain takes you through the history of the brotherhood, showing that the group was not always an evil band of mercenaries. Residing in the Deadmines, the leader of the group, Edwin VanCleef was once a stonemason for Stormwind before he went into hiding. Killing him drops a pretty good sword that I still use.
  
• The Missing Diplomat. Perhaps the most intricate of Alliance quest chains, this one takes you through many parts of the Eastern Kingdoms and to Theramore Isle in Kalimdor. Although the king of Stormwind since the end of the Second War had been Varian Wrynn, citizens of kingdom had been told that his son Anduin Wrynn (named in honor of Sir Anduin Lothar?) had recently risen to the throne without any explanation. The actual reason is the secret that Varian Wrynn had gone missing during his journey to Theramore to speak with Jaina Proudmoore, the ruler of a separate human Alliance faction in Kalimdor and one of the heroes of the Third War. Even through the 17 stages of this quest, the chain's storyline has yet to end. Blizzard has expressed its intention to continue the storyline sometime in the future.
  
• Tiger Mastery, Panther Mastery, Raptor Mastery, Big Game Hunter. As a hunter, this is a quest chain that should definitely not be skipped (even if it's in the despised Stranglethorn Vale). The rewards of this chain include decent gloves, leggings, chestpiece, and bow/gun. While this can be considered a "grinding" quest chain, it can test your skills as a true hunter while killing the beasts and their elites on your own.

Let me know if you have any other quests/chains that you find very interesting and I'll definitely check them out if I haven't already (even if it's a gray quest!).