Guide ·
Swelling Forces Quest: Where to Start and How to Finish
Swelling Forces is an Alliance quest in World of Warcraft: Forever (WoW Forever): Arbal at the Grove of the Ancients in Darkshore sends you into the ruins to kill 12 Stormscale Myrmidons, 8 Stormscale Sorceresses and 6 Stormscale Warriors, then pays 1,550 XP and 150 Darnassus reputation. Wowhead rates it level 20, requiring level 12, sharable, added in patch 1.60.1, as of November 9, 2026.
Quick answer: Take Swelling Forces from Arbal at the Grove of the Ancients in Darkshore, travel northeast into the ruins, kill the three kinds of Stormscale naga, and hand it in to Arbal for 1,550 XP.
Key facts
- Quest: Swelling Forces, Alliance, level 20, requires level 12, sharable (Wowhead)
- Races: Dwarf, Night Elf, Gnome and High Order Skyborne (Wowhead)
- Start and end: Arbal, Grove of the Ancients, Darkshore (Wowhead)
- Objectives: 12 Stormscale Myrmidons, 8 Stormscale Sorceresses, 6 Stormscale Warriors (Wowhead)
- Rewards: 1,550 XP and 150 reputation with Darnassus; no item reward is listed (Wowhead)
Where do you start Swelling Forces?
Arbal gives it, per Wowhead, and the objective text names the Grove of the Ancients. The whole quest takes place in Darkshore. The Warcraft Wiki has no page for Arbal or the quest that I found, so Wowhead is the only source for the giver. See the Darkshore guide and the list of new Darkshore quests.
Where are the Stormscale naga?
Wowhead's quest text says the ruins are northeast of Arbal, full of cursed Highborne now known as naga, and that they may aid the Twilight's Hammer. It gives no coordinates. A Wowhead commenter (October 6) says the warriors are deeper into the area, so you need to fight your way in rather than stay outside targeting Myrmidons and Sorceresses. That is one player's account.
What else can you do while you are there?
The same commenter says to pick up Mathystra Relics from Onu to combine with this quest. The relics, they say, lie across the ruins, some like chalices and some like fallen vases. They also report that you will loot many Mathystral Amulet Fragments here, that combining 20 lets you use the amulet by the Fathom Stone at 59, 22 to unlock another new quest, and that this spawns an elite that drops Clouded Water Globe, which everyone in the group may loot. They add that a Glowing Cat Figurine currently spawns only a level 1 cat in Forever. All of this is one player's report, not something I could confirm on another page.
A second commenter (22 days before November 9) wrote "Needs Return to Onu", which can be read as the quest sending you back to Onu, but they did not explain, and Wowhead's page lists Arbal as the end. Treat it as unclear.
Is Swelling Forces a new quest?
Wowhead says it was added in patch 1.60.1, the Forever launch patch, and the wiki has no page for it, so I found no older version.
What is not confirmed yet
- Where each mob stands: no coordinates from any source
- Follow-up quests: Wowhead shows no chain for it
- The Return to Onu comment: unexplained, one player
- The amulet and globe side content: one player's account
- Horde access: Wowhead lists the quest as Alliance only
For where Darkshore fits in leveling, see Alliance leveling zones, and for how quest tracking works see the quests and quest log guide.
Can the Lore Forever add-on and Willo help with Swelling Forces?
The free Lore Forever add-on has a Lore button on the quest dialog and quest log that opens a quest's story. It is fan-made, not affiliated with Blizzard, has no internet access, and its narration uses generated voices. Ask Willo out loud ("where is Arbal in Darkshore") while you play. Willo is free to start (50 answers a day) and is a separate companion app for Windows 10 or 11 and Apple Silicon Macs (macOS 12 or later), per her page; the Lore Forever FAQ says Windows and Mac, though CurseForge still calls her a Windows app. She can be wrong and is not official, so the in-game quest text and Blizzard's pages are the source of truth.
Frequently asked questions
Who gives Swelling Forces?
Arbal at the Grove of the Ancients in Darkshore.
What do you kill for Swelling Forces?
12 Stormscale Myrmidons, 8 Stormscale Sorceresses and 6 Stormscale Warriors.
What does Swelling Forces reward?
1,550 XP and 150 Darnassus reputation, per Wowhead.
What level is Swelling Forces?
Level 20, and it requires level 12.
Can you share Swelling Forces with a party?
Wowhead lists it as sharable.
Sources
Reviewed November 9, 2026. Lore Forever and Willo are fan-made and are not affiliated with Blizzard Entertainment.