Wrath of the Lich King Is Out!!!

[Vendikarr]

I've been enjoying the new interface that lets you control technology in the game. Using a tank to deliver troops and sabotage plague wagons in dragonblight was tons of fun. I wish I could have a tank for regular use.

My son is also playing, and has is death knight up to 63 already after two days of playing. The class kills so fast, and is almost unstoppable. I'm almost certain a nerf is in the classes future.

I'd heard a lot about how the gear there would blow me away, but my character is in blues and purples, so I haven't really seen much in the way of upgrades for me so far. I imagine it might take another level or two. My hunter is currently 73 in Dragonblight.

I'm trying to take it slow, and hope to have my main to 80 by Christmas. Then I can start leveling my death knight. I have a 20 Shaman I want to level up, but I can't stand the thought of going through all of those levels again. I keep putting it off.

 

[Roshi]

^^
I see what you mean, I'm back in Outlands with my DK and it has a strong sense of déjà vu. I wish there were more DK-only quests there...

 

[Rii]

^ I'd like to see more class-specific content in WoW in general. There's a reasonable amount in the old world, but it's a rather neglected field in BC and WOTLK. BC introduced the various quest chains for Blood Elf Paladins and Draenei Shaman, also the Flight Form quest chain for Druids, and WOTLK gives us more class-specific content for Death Knights than all the other classes in the game have put together, but what of the other classes? If nothing else I would've loved to have seen a 2/3-player gladiatorial Ring of Blood-esque chain for each class, no real lore involved.

I'm particularly disappointed that Blizzard didn't take the opportunity to do something special for Mages and Warlocks with regard to Dalaran. Sure, Mages can travel there earlier than other classes, so what? Rewarding Mages for browsing the libraries of the Violet Citadel and barring Warlocks from doing the same would've been great. Another possibility is that Mages could've received a familiar whilst in Dalaran like Khadgar's in Shattrath, acting as a portable bank/mailbox/auction house/vendor.

 

[Garrett]

^Now that you mention it, that is a bit disappointing. There's an opportunity there to do something more than an attunement quest to learn the new teleport spell. Death knights got an awesome quest chain to start with. I recommend everyone play through that even if they don't plan on playing one after.

The original game had some great quest for some classes. My favorite for the number of quests are probably the warlock quests. Several of them, I just managed to stumble across while out leveling. Warriors probably got my favorite single quest with the fighting tournament on that island outside of Ratchet.

So far, I've been enjoying the WOTLK quests quite a bit. There's a lot of variety. The D.E.H.T.A. quests are pretty funny. The vehicles so far have been pretty cool. And then there's the dragons. I liked most of the zones in TBC, but I have to admit I found them a bit tedious for leveling. Maybe it's just because I started out right after dinging 60 on my mage, and could see the xp bar move from 202k to 454k, or however much was needed for 61. I'm about halfway to 74 now, and the xp bar hasn't changed much from level to level. The levels seem to be coming quickly enough, and I can count the number of quests that really annoyed me on a couple of fingers, so far.

After I get my mage to 80, I'm going to work more on my death knight. I was tempted to level up my warlock, as well, but I'll leave him at 70 and just use him for professions. Going back to Hellfire Penninsula, I'm reminded again how much I disliked the place. Plus, it's become the new Barrens chat. There's been some great zingers, though. Like the other day someone was putting together a Hellfire Ramparts run and asked for a healer in general. Then he wrote "Fine. LFM death knights for Ramps".

 

[firehawk12]

What's funny is that apparently people have already beaten all the PvE content in the new game.

Now to wait for the next expansion I guess.

 

[Garrett]

I doubt that. Most of the folks leveling up quickly like that are grinding. Some might be blowing through quests while staying up practically around the clock, but they're not necessarily leveling up that much faster doing that. For the folks who head straight to 80 right off the bat, many of them are going to need to go back and quest for rep if they want the rewards. You need at least friendly to get the tabards so you can get faction specific rep from heroics.

A lot of the people I know who are rushing are going to just do it over again on their half dozen level 70s, anyway. Plus they haven't even touched on Naxx, let alone the heroics they probably don't have enough to make a group for.

 

[firehawk12]

I'm just going by this:
http://kotaku.com/5090741/lich-king-raids-already-defeated

 

[Garrett]

Wow. Didn't see that. That's troubling, if true. SK Gaming was the top raiding guild, so it's not surprising to see it completed by them first, but damn. It'll be interesting to see how soon other guilds start downing this stuff.

 

[CaptJimboJones]

Reading all of this makes me want to try WoW. And then I take a deep breath and stay away, because 1) I would probably find it very cool, and 2) I have just a few hours per week at best for videogames, given the demands of family and work, and therefore 3) it would be far more frustrating than fun, for me.

Glad everyone else is enjoying it, though.

 

[kitkat]

I love playing and all but I guess I'll never understand why people get in such an all-fired hurry to get to 80 or be the first to raid this or that. I just enjoy playing....I don't feel the need to show out for some kind of attention.

That Foxtrot comic is hilarious BTW.

 

[FordSVT]

I rolled a DK but just to reserve the name, havent touched him yet.

I'm just a couple hundred thousand k away from level 73 on my Warlock, got the 150 quest achievement for Borean Tundra, got the FPs all across the south part of Northrend over to the Fjord, got to Dalaran and set my hearth, and got a good start on the Fjord.

Let me say, I'm blown away by the zone design and music so far, top notch stuff. It's like Newfoundland with Walrus Men and Murlocs. Nexus is beautiful, UK is like something out of a norse legend. Those are the only two instances I've completed.

2200+ in queue the other night for Blackrock. :P

 

[firehawk12]

Wow. Didn't see that. That's troubling, if true. SK Gaming was the top raiding guild, so it's not surprising to see it completed by them first, but damn. It'll be interesting to see how soon other guilds start downing this stuff.

I just don't get what you do when you get to 80 and finish all the raids in the game... just grind for gear/loot and hope for some more interesting in game events to come?

I can understand finishing a single player RPG as quick as possible... but it just seems like a waste to do it in an MMO where you're paying money every month whether or not you actually do anything in the game.

 

[Garrett]

I think in their particular case, they were wanting to make an issue about raiding being tuned for more casual folks. Apparently, the early raid instances are tuned to be easier to enter than the Gruul's Lair and Magtheridon were. Besides that, they've had world firsts on all raids since Naxx, I think. Maybe even before that. Most guilds aren't going to clear those zones that quickly.

I think there's still some raid related achievements to get, and gear to farm until the next raid instances are released. And, probably go back and do all the quests and what not you skipped over rushing to get to level cap. They probably haven't even had time to work much on professions.

 

[Stone_Cold_Sisko]

the majority of players never get to that point. Remember, when you read an article about this guild or that guild finishing all the raids, like the one above, that's a tiny fraction of the player base- essentially the most hardcore of the hardcore. Something like 80% of the players never even stepped foot into the really high level raids of TBC.

 

[IDIC]

I wish that they had introduced new races to play. I do like the death Knight class but being able to play as a Tuskarr would have been fun.

 

[Rincewiend]

the majority of players never get to that point. Remember, when you read an article about this guild or that guild finishing all the raids, like the one above, that's a tiny fraction of the player base- essentially the most hardcore of the hardcore. Something like 80% of the players never even stepped foot into the really high level raids of TBC.

Or even raid at all...

I gave one of my toons Inscription...
Right now i can make scrolls of recall...
Basically a throwaway heartstone with a 20 minute cooldown...
The toon is also a shaman who will get a similair spell anyway
Ah well, i can send them to my other toons...

 

[Rii]

First reviews are coming in, 10/10 from Eurogamer:

Wrath of the Lich King ought to be stale - but it inspires wonder. It ought to feel dated - but it makes WOW's newest rivals look clumsy. It ought to seem derivative and formulaic, one step behind the curve - instead, it takes the bar WOW set for quality in MMOs and casually lifts it far out of reach.

 

[Stone_Cold_Sisko]

I agree with that. I was kind of getting tired of WoW a little bit and wondering, am I gonna get really stale feeling from Lich King? So far it's been great. I credit the quest design actually. There's a lot of cool quests and they've really eliminated the "run long distances back and forth" stuff for quests, it's all clustered and fun now. Yesterday I did the D.E.H.T.A quest-line in Borean Tundra. Very cool, and funny too. The Death Knight quests are great too.

In case anyone's curious, DEHTA is Azeroth's verson of PETA and they have a pathological hatred for Nessingwary (of Stranglethron Vale and Nagrand fame) it's pretty funny actually.

BTW if anyone is doing 70 quests in Howling Fjord, when you get the "spirit realm" quest, poke around Wyrmskull village in spirit form if you can... standing right in front of Utgarde Keep is the Lich King himself. Try and talk to him and see what happens

 

[Rii]

In case anyone's curious, DEHTA is Azeroth's verson of PETA and they have a pathological hatred for Nessingwary (of Stranglethron Vale and Nagrand fame) it's pretty funny actually.

Srsly. I've always loved the Nesingwary quests in STV and Nagrand, the anti-Nesingwary quests in Northrend just take it to the next level. That gargoyle the Druids have of him there is hilarious. It's always fun to see players get caught out by the Animal Blood debuff and ganked by the DEHTA NPCs too.

I haven't been to Sholazar Basin yet (although I can't wait to see it, I'm a sucker for forest/jungle/rainforest zones) but I've heard that Nesingwary is there too.

Addendum to previous list of awesome DK moments:
- During the Battle for Light's Hope Chapel, it actually rains blood.

 

[Garrett]

Yeah. The D.E.H.T.A. quest chain is easily one of the funniest I've seen in the game. It's a nice twist on the hunting quest chains. The Murloc quests in that same zone are funny, too. I'd have kept the costume if you could use it outside of that area. They did a really good job with the humor this time around.