Upstairs in eldenroot has everyting execpt a cooking fire plus the undaunted only a short sprint away, just as good as bleakrock

For me, the main reason to not complete Bleakrock right away is the dye station. Until you get to Ebonheart, this is the easiest way to dye armor in EP at low level. Unlike the other Alliances, EP has dye stations everywhere except the starting city.

Since the other alliances all have full access to their starter islands, you have to wonder if Bleakrock is an oversight or something. But Bleakrock is missing stables (as are all starter islands) and the wayshrine is too distant. Now that loading screens are (mostly) fixed, Rawl'Kha is again top of the heap...has it all in a small area, including Outlaw Refuge and guild kiosks, and wayshrine is right THERE. But Wrothgar is good enough since I spend most time there anyway.

The Dhalmora Hall of Merchants in Bal Foyen has a full crafting area, bank, and dye station all in one hut. It is available right after getting off the boat from Bleakrock. I missed it my first playthrough, but someone mentioned it somewhere else on the internet.

KerinKor wrote: »

I'm necroing this rather than starting a new thread because it's a direct follow-up to what the OP' suggested.. CAN you skip this final quest and still get the follow-on in Dhalmora?

I too love Bleakrock for the reasons the OP gave and IMO it has one HUGE advantage of the other suggestions other replies mentioned such as Rawl'ka .. Bleakrock is devoid of bored VR16s spamming annoying AoEs, 'sparring' etc.

@KerinKor

That is an interesting question, as some of the NPCs from Bleakrock are the ones involved in the quests in Dahlmora. It would be easy to test, just go as far as you want in Bleakrock, then go back to Stonefalls and walk south to Dahlmora, you don't need to take the ship from Bleakrock.

Karthos wrote: »

Stormhold in Shadowfen is my go to crafting place.

The bank is there, right beside every crafting station and dye station. There is a stable right next to the Wayshrine, which itself is very close to the crafting area. And it is quiet. Mainly comprised of levelling characters. It's basically my characters home.

I used to do that, but the bank in Stormhold often caused a CTD and so I moved away from there. I don't know if that ever got fixed.

Okay, I've answered by own question .. it's 'no', sorta ...

As @Nestor noted, the NPCs you interact with right at the end of Bleakrock are those that are involved in the quest continuation in Bal Foyen, so you can't get the 'warning Vulkhel Guard' conclusion to the intro story.

However, since the pre-release nerf to the intro made the original starting quest chain entirely optional then you can start the main faction quest arc .. ie. the quest chain that starts in the place you emerge from Coldharbour, right through to the ending in the tier 5 faction zones .. then not completing Bleakrock means you'll only miss out on a few quests yielding minimal XP and which won't affect your ability to play the main faction story.

IMO that's price well worth paying for the peace and quiet one usually finds in Bleakrock!

Of course, during beta you HAD to complete all faction intro sections or you couldn't reach the mainland.