Wrath of the Lich King

[Calax]

midnight launch circled our parking lot with about 150 buyers and more hangers on

 

and today was EXTREMLY busy of people picking up their copy

[Darth Jebus]

Wonder what's going to happen in about six months when everyone hits level 80 and discovers that they are right back where they were at the end of TBC.

 

GRIND BABY GRIND!!!

[kirottu]

Death Knight starting area is awesome. It's structured in phases where story progression actually changes the area(and does so quite often). I don

[Calax]

I loved the death knight starting area but was angered when they didn't really explain what the heck made the DK's break from the lich king. I know it had somthing to do with Tirion Fording and his cronies but by the time i hit that quest the battle had already been done.

 

I'll probably just look for it on youtube

 

I'm LOVING my DK but am annoyed that the people who couldn't get WOTLK are camping in hellfire and killing all the brand new DK's just for kicks.

[Gfted1]

I havent made a DK yet and probably wont untill my mage gets to 80, although you guys have me intrigued with the DK starting area. I was really pleasantly surprised with how smoothly the installation and updating went. No hassles, no errors, no server lag. Blizzard really had their sh*t wired tight for this launch and I find that to be a breath of fresh air. It wasnt even crowded in the new starting areas and I was able to easily complete quests.

[LadyCrimson]

Some of my friends have had an hour or more waiting before they were 'logged on'...long queue lines + crowded areas.

 

The DK starter area was very fun quest-wise and such. I had a blast with that and wish all quest lines were that fun. You can make a DK and finish that area in not much time.

 

I played the beta enough to be already burnt out on the newness of it all...even tho it's probably changed since I last played (I quit the beta before it was over) I'm going to wait before I actually buy the expansion...let the crowds die down a little. I do wonder what balance they finally struck w/the DK's power-wise.

[Aristes]

The wife and I went and bought our copies of WotLK from Frys today. We're not home, so we don't have it installed, but we're playing on computers with the xpac installed, so we could play once we upgraded our accounts. ...And the queues used to be common a couple of years ago around Christmas. Not so much lately and I think it will all be under controll soon enough.

Edited November 15, 2008 by Aristes

[Gfted1]

Chugging along and made level 75 over the weekend. Just two more levels untill I get my sweet, sweet, epic flight back. I had forgotten just how much teh suck it is running around on a mount compared to flying.

 

This expansion is head and shoulders above BC. Im having a good time on the quests and I finally got to see the cutscene in Dragonblight that Calax was talking about, which was pretty cool.

[kirottu]

78 today. Dragonblight's cutscene was indeed awsum.

[Aristes]

I have to agree with gftd, this xpac is miles ahead of BC. The content is better and the new locations aren't as irritating. The only real beef I have right now is the part with the dragon in Coldarra. If you do anything wrong, it won't work and you might have to sit through it three times. Actually I did. The first time I did it, no problem. The next time, it glitched on me.

 

We ran the Nexus a couple of days ago. We wiped the first time on the last boss, but other than that, quick and easy loot. I've started replacing some of my gear. I also think the way they did PvP was great.

 

I hadn't been playing much until recently, so I was shocked to get the Know Thy Enemy achievement while defending Darnassus. For some reason, the Horde really wanted to take out leaders in Alliance capitols this weekend. I don't know that they succeeded anywhere, but they made a good show of it.

[kirottu]

Dinged 80 yesterday with my destro warlock.

 

Summoning circle teleportation thingy sucks other than that I have no complaints. The content really seems to be much better than BC's. I can't wait to go do some quests at Lichking's area, because that place supposedly uses the new phasing thingy alot.

[Calax]

Dinged 80 yesterday with my destro warlock.

 

Summoning circle teleportation thingy sucks other than that I have no complaints. The content really seems to be much better than BC's. I can't wait to go do some quests at Lichking's area, because that place supposedly uses the new phasing thingy alot.

you mean Icecrown? the places I've encountered it are Wrathgate in dragonblight, the DK starting area (to the nth degree) and then in tiny pieces in Zul'Drak and Sholozar. One to move a quest giver after you "free" them, the other to activate the flight point.

[Gfted1]

Congrats Kiro! \o/

 

Hit 76 Wednesday and Ive only set foot in three territories (Fjord, Dragonblight, Grizzly). Whats this phasing you guys are talking about?

[kirottu]

Congrats Kiro! \o/

 

Hit 76 Wednesday and Ive only set foot in three territories (Fjord, Dragonblight, Grizzly). Whats this phasing you guys are talking about?

 

Phasing is when your actions change the game world. If some area is phased you can only interact with people that are in the same phase as you are.

 

Dragonlight has pretty good example of this when you do the quest linked to Wrathgate and the following betrayal at Undercity.

Edited December 5, 2008 by kirottu

[Aristes]

There's a lot of good ideas in regards to the phasing mechanic and at least some areas where they don't actually use phasing but the folks will react differently to people who've uncovered more of the plottline. I love it. I mean, yeah, the part in Grizzly Hills is pretty obvious, like being smacked in the head with a blunt object, but it's still cool.

I'm talking about walking into a certain village with whom you've just allied and seeing worgen standing around chatting.

They did a great job with this expansion. It's turned me back into a WoW fan.

 

I've only gotten up to 74 with my rogue. My warrior and hunter are each 73. My mage is 72.

 

We've done the Nexus and Utgarde Keep. Turns out that the levels for Utgarde Keep are lower although I think the last boss in UK is harder than the last boss for the Nexus. The Nexus is weird in that you see the final boss almost right away, but we went around the whole thing before we came back to kill her.

[Gfted1]

Ive still yet to go to Utgarde and I havent even found the Nexus. This expansion Ive really focused on clearing out a territory (getting the exploration and quest completion achievments) before I go to the next area. Usually there is a quest which "guides" you to a certain new territory like the armor you pick up at the end of the Wrathgate chain that needs to be returned to the orc father in a different territory.

 

As for instances Ive done, did both of Azjol-Nerub (super short instances) and the troll one Thor Modok or something like that.

[Aristes]

I think all the instances are pretty short in WotLK. In face, the two dungeons I've done thus far are super easy. Yeah, the final boss in Utgarde is pretty rough, but we still killed him the first time through with only two losses. ...And part of that had to do with the fact that I tanked him in the middle of all those damned pillars and we suffered some terrible line of sight issues. Next time I'll tank him on the bridge and I bet we don't even have a problem. The Nexus is just pretty straightforward, although the pulls are generally tougher.

 

I do hope for some harder instances, but for the first ones out of the gate, I think they did a much better job than they did with Ramparts, which I think was probably a little tougher on noobish parties. To be fair, though, I did my first Ramparts runs in PuGs. Maybe if I'd had a guild at the time, I would have thought they were just as easy.

[Gfted1]

Level 77 and back in the air, thank god. Even with an epic land mount, schleping all over is a pain. I also just arrived at Warsong Hold and returned the leaders sons armor and let me say, the quest that followed, wow, just wow. That was cool as hell retaking Undercity with Thrall and the gang. It was such a smooth transition into the quest for a few minutes I didnt even know I was in a sub-instance. He ports me to the gates of Org, I mount up and start entering when I see some refugee's sitting around. Thought to myself "well I haveent been here for a few days, maybe some event is going on". As I head for Thrall's chamber I notice no other human players, huh, no mail box either. I *still* didnt know anything was up untill Thrall ported me to UC to start the battle and UC was under seige! Then the ensuing battle for UC! Superb. Sometimes they really hit them out of the park.

[Calax]

Level 77 and back in the air, thank god. Even with an epic land mount, schleping all over is a pain. I also just arrived at Warsong Hold and returned the leaders sons armor and let me say, the quest that followed, wow, just wow. That was cool as hell retaking Undercity with Thrall and the gang. It was such a smooth transition into the quest for a few minutes I didnt even know I was in a sub-instance. He ports me to the gates of Org, I mount up and start entering when I see some refugee's sitting around. Thought to myself "well I haveent been here for a few days, maybe some event is going on". As I head for Thrall's chamber I notice no other human players, huh, no mail box either. I *still* didnt know anything was up untill Thrall ported me to UC to start the battle and UC was under seige! Then the ensuing battle for UC! Superb. Sometimes they really hit them out of the park.

you got the cool guy to kill. The alliance technically make an assault at the same time through the sewers, they run after the Grand Apothocary and once Putress is dead they head for the throne room where they encounter thrall and whoever else is there.

[Gfted1]

You know, that part you describe was weird. After Putress fell, mounted Alliance entered, said something, then someone cast a Frost Nova-like spell and the Alliance leader left. Probably explained in some lore that I just dont know.

[Calax]

You know, that part you describe was weird. After Putress fell, mounted Alliance entered, said something, then someone cast a Frost Nova-like spell and the Alliance leader left. Probably explained in some lore that I just dont know.

Actually what happens is that Varian runs into the throne room of the Undercity and finds Thrall there, gets angry, and starts attacking because "the horde cannot be trusted" and because thrall was defending sylvanas. Then Jaina arrives (she had stayed behind a little because she wasn't willing to help Varian take out the horde) frostnovas everyone and spirits the alliance away to Stormwind to save all the leaders lives.

[Aristes]

Yeah, Proudmore ports everyone out of the room. At that point, we were brawling like mad in the middle of the room. Thrall and his hordies are there defending themselves. I went after Sylvanas because I just don't trust the forsaken very much. Of course, I felt somewhat vindicated since Putress did give Fordragon the axe. I tell you what, I actually liked Fordragon. While I'm not much into the story, I have to admit that Blizzard does a great job with studio work. I'm not a huge fan of cut-scenes, but at least we can bypass it if we want. I've gone through it twice now, with the hunter and rogue, and I think it's quite good. I've also thought that Thrall is a pretty decent orc. I don't trust Wrynn worth a damn, but I don't know his backstory so that's mostly based on the fact that he looks and acts like an evil bastard. ...And I've never liked Sylvanas, but that's because there's something sinister about her.

[Calax]

The biggest thing that I think Blizz needs to work in is making the Alliance leaders actually feel like they do anything. Varian was created by Blizz (at least his character, not the fact he existed) primarily to give the Alliance a leader to rally behind. While the Horde got Thrall, Sylvanas, and Cairne, all with TREMENDOUS amounts of back story, the Alliance's primary personalities either were ineffectual (Tyrande, I have yet to see her interact with anything except for NE's starting), Removed from the story (either by death in the RTS's or by being held in the Emerald Dream for Mal'Furion. Kael is another matter entirely), or just had no personality or prior history (The gnomeish king and the King of Ironforge. And until a while ago Bolvar Fordragon). So blizz turned around and made Varian, who's story was told in the WoW Comic. He was amnesiac but had good muscle memory so he was made into a gladiator, he eventually was able to free himself and get back across the ocean to the Eastern Kingdoms to retake the throne. Biggest problem is that from everything I've seen, he isn't friendly. Thrall at least seems like he cares, in the WoW comic and particularly in the Undercity assault, Varian seems to not care about anything except his personal vendetta. If I were a blizz story maker I'd give Tyrande back her personality and have her take a much larger role in the affairs of the Alliance. As for the King of Ironforge, Give the players an event where he finds his (amazingly) still alive brother Muradin, and is able to bring Muradin's memory back so that Muradin can lead the Alliance Expedition. I admit I don't know how things are on the horde side, but the Alliance leaders are pretty aweful in terms of characterization and actually doing anything.

 

Probably the character most people rallied behind as the leader of the Alliance, doesn't really want to have anything to do with the alliance and is only grudgingly letting the alliance use her town, I speak of course of Jaina Proudmoore. She seems to do alot (although she has a Final Fantasy Knockoff in her tower with her which IMHO is a point against her) and she has the backround of Warcraft III and the Frozen Throne. It's just that from what the player is told, she isn't willing to take part in open warfare with the horde, nor is she willing to support any hostile action with the horde. Thus she can't really lead the Alliance dispite being the only character with a backstory that's more than a paragraph long, and doesn't have a history that makes them look like in idiot (really Gnome King guy, you had to practically nuke your capital because of some lvl 30 elites? :sigh:)

[Gfted1]

Thanks for some of the backstory you two. I really dont know any of it at all but this expansion has actually got me interested in looking into it. Do either of you recommend a good WoW lore site? The fight was insane and most of the time there was so much going on I would just sit back and AoE the squirming mass of baddies that would pile on Thrall. I was pretty sure it was impossible to die what with Sylvanas dropping a 10k heal on me every time I even got slightly dinged but then some 77 shaman in the group got smacked down.

[Maedhros]

WoWWiki

 

Really neat site.