What are Special Assignments in The War Within — and how do I get them?

Special Assignments are a type of World Quest being offered in The War Within, and to unlock them, they’ll typically require you to complete three basic World Quests in that zone. The tooltip will count down the number of quests remaining that you need to complete. Special Assignments are offered on a staggered basis, and they will expire. The expiry does not always align with the weekly reset or other regular cycle — you will need to check the expiry of each quest individually to prioritize which ones you want to unlock first.

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You should see one Special Assignment per zone per week, but some may be locked behind completing a storyline in that area. If you aren’t seeing one in a zone you may need to look for unfinished quest lines. If you have unlocked Special Assignments, you can complete these events before reaching Level 80, but you won’t be able to open the reward cache until you hit level 80. That reward is a Seasoned Adventurer’s Cache, so you’ll definitely want to be doing these Assignments as you find them.

The first two weekly caches you earn each week contain a piece of Adventurer’s Gear. The first four caches you earn each week contain a Restored Coffer Key. These are calculated on a ‘per character’ basis.

Some people have been encountering a bug where once you complete the required number of World Quests to unlock the Special Assignment. It will show the number of quests required as “0” but will still appear locked. If you encounter this bug, exit game and log in again, which should clear the lock and allow you to access the Special Assignment.

Isle of Dorn Special Assignments

Special Assignment: Titanic Resurgence

Kill the Eroded Titan Construct you need to ride the Stormrider Mount and trigger the sparks that are circling the boss mob using the charge on the Stormrider Mount. Quest is located over a small island at the South East corner of the Isle of Dorn.

/way #2248 70, 72

Special Assignment: Cinderbee Surge 

A fill-the-bar quest located near the Cinderbrew Meadery. Note that many of the mobs that give credit are elites, and they are frequently in large social packs. If not playing a tank or pet class you may need to group up with other players to complete this with minimal deaths.

/way #2248 73.2, 36.2

The Ringing Deeps Special Assignments

Special Assignment: Shadows Below

Kill mobs to collect items, deposit to fuel the drills, kill the elite mob that is summoned when all the drills are fueled. There are likely to be groups doing this quest to speed things up but it can be soloed. Quest is near Taelloch.

/way #2214 68, 50

Special Assignment: When the Deeps Stir

Defeat four Awakened Elementals located in the Earthenworks. You can kill the same elemental more than once and it will count towards the total. The mobs may patrol within their general area — locations given below are approximate. Mobs are flagged as elite mobs, but were easier to kill than many open world elites.

• Awakened Sulfuric Devastator — /way #2214 56.9, 10.23
• Awakened Flamecoil Serpent — /way #2214 49.66, 11.28
• Awakened Volcanic Fury — /way #2214 49.30, 8.61
• Awakened Colossus — /way #2214 53.26, 15.86

Hallowfall Special Assignments

Special Assignment: Rise of the Colossals

Kill mobs with a name that starts with “Bleak” to get three drops of Bleak Chum to summon the Colossal mobs. The Mobs are mostly elites with fairly serious health pools and the drop isn’t guaranteed – so it’s strongly recommended to group up to complete this quest.

You will get credit if you tag a Colossal pulled by someone else. The quest is located in the top right corner of the map at the end of the small island closest to the sea.

/way #2215 62, 7

Here’s a useful macro for completing this quest:

#showtooltip
/tar [nodead] colossal
/tar [nodead] bleak
/script SetRaidTarget(“target”, 8);

Special Assignment: Lynx Rescue 

Kill mobs that cast a vanish type ability. This can only be interrupted using an extra action button associated with the helper NPC you have during this quest — note the interrupt has a cooldown. 

/way #2215 64.8, 64.5

Azj-Kahet Special Assignments

Special Assignment: Bombs from Behind

A vehicle based bombing run – quick and easy. The quest starts at the Weavers Lair very close to Widow Arak’nai.

/way #2255 56.66, 47.29 – Stolen Skiff 

Special Assignment: A Pound of Cure

A multi-stage quest with a number of objectives, free prisoners, kill mobs, destroy Nerubian infrastructure and then kill an elite name mob. Probably easier while grouped if not a tank.

/way #2255 65, 18