(WoW) Firelands Dawning
Patch 4.2 is live. This spawns some initial impressions, of course, and some continuing questions...
New Dailies: Well, they're easy enough to get into. I took about twenty minutes this morning and knocked out the few available ones with two characters. As we get further along, more open up, and "keeping up" with them will be more of a time sink. I think I saw it takes about 36 days to have full access to everything the dailies eventually unlock. That feels like a long time, but doesn't seem abnormal to me for soloable faction grinds. We'll see how grindy it feels down the line.
Thrall Quest Chain: On the up side, you gets some lore-heavy scenes and moments mingling with some of the major NPCs of the world. As Alliance, my interaction with Thrall has been virtually nil. It's soloable, doesn't take too long, and rewards a nice cloak for most character, including one that's currently "best" for protection paladins (even if lower item level than a couple other options out there now).
On the down side, a few PVP-flagged people can make killing elementals a brutal process on a normally-PVE server. The fire section feels a little too long to me and the scenes can be easy to miss if you're intent on beating up the elementals like you're supposed to. Lore-wise (at least for someone who plays Alliance and doesn't read the books), Aggra sort of comes out of nowhere as Thrall's love interest. And at the end, there's no real conclusion for the player. You turn in your quest, get your cloak, and listen to Thrall go on about his love for Aggra, more or less proposing to her, then... that's it. Neither of them turn to you and say "thank you" and Thrall doesn't hook up with the Aspects to complete the ritual they were about to begin when he was abducted. It left me standing there saying "Uh... that's it?"
Raiding: Well, I haven't seen any of it myself yet, naturally...
A coworker and former guildmate who had been working on Cho'gall and gotten to 6% a few times said it was much easier after the nerfing. One of their tanks got impatient and pulled while some of the new people weren't fully filled in and they still were amazed when they got to phase 2 quickly and one-shotted the fight. So... yeah, the normal tier 11 content really is that much easier. I think it may even throw fights like Maloriak off where it becomes easy to get the boss down to 20% health "too" fast.
They also delved into Firelands and cleared up to one boss, accumulating enough reputation with the new Avengers of Hyjal to get roughly halfway to Friendly. He also reported 1 BOE drop and 3 recipes just from that. But trying a couple times on the boss, their group failed in coordinating and they quit for the night. So we can expect new stuff to be appropriately difficult for now.
Which raises questions of what we're going to do as a guild. I think we're probably going to tackle Cho'gall Saturday. Being our first time, it may not go so smoothly, but I'd be a little surprised if he really roadblocks us. Then... what? Do we blow through BWD? Do we ride a lockout to Al'Akir or Chimaeron/Nefarian? Do we farm some Firelands trash for rep/drops (278 cloaks at friendly)? Do we try a boss there? Inquiring tanks want to know!
I'd love more communication on such things from our raid leader, but I can understand it's slow in coming because so few of the rest of the raiders actually seem to pay attention to forum posts or calendar events. Le-sigh.
Valor Points: While I'm eager to snatch up new gear with points, I still don't have the time or drive necessary to plow through a bunch of heroic dungeons on a daily basis. Have to see if that changes, since there's no way I'm capping points by raiding for a while. Hmm.
Newbies: It probably won't impact me at all, but it's interesting to see Blizzard bundling WoW Vanilla with Burning Crusade for $20, giving free access to BC content for Vanilla owners, and allowing the free trial of the game to run indefinitely, limiting characters to level 20 instead of putting a time period on it. Probably, the are all sound business moves at this point.
New Dailies: Well, they're easy enough to get into. I took about twenty minutes this morning and knocked out the few available ones with two characters. As we get further along, more open up, and "keeping up" with them will be more of a time sink. I think I saw it takes about 36 days to have full access to everything the dailies eventually unlock. That feels like a long time, but doesn't seem abnormal to me for soloable faction grinds. We'll see how grindy it feels down the line.
Thrall Quest Chain: On the up side, you gets some lore-heavy scenes and moments mingling with some of the major NPCs of the world. As Alliance, my interaction with Thrall has been virtually nil. It's soloable, doesn't take too long, and rewards a nice cloak for most character, including one that's currently "best" for protection paladins (even if lower item level than a couple other options out there now).
On the down side, a few PVP-flagged people can make killing elementals a brutal process on a normally-PVE server. The fire section feels a little too long to me and the scenes can be easy to miss if you're intent on beating up the elementals like you're supposed to. Lore-wise (at least for someone who plays Alliance and doesn't read the books), Aggra sort of comes out of nowhere as Thrall's love interest. And at the end, there's no real conclusion for the player. You turn in your quest, get your cloak, and listen to Thrall go on about his love for Aggra, more or less proposing to her, then... that's it. Neither of them turn to you and say "thank you" and Thrall doesn't hook up with the Aspects to complete the ritual they were about to begin when he was abducted. It left me standing there saying "Uh... that's it?"
Raiding: Well, I haven't seen any of it myself yet, naturally...
A coworker and former guildmate who had been working on Cho'gall and gotten to 6% a few times said it was much easier after the nerfing. One of their tanks got impatient and pulled while some of the new people weren't fully filled in and they still were amazed when they got to phase 2 quickly and one-shotted the fight. So... yeah, the normal tier 11 content really is that much easier. I think it may even throw fights like Maloriak off where it becomes easy to get the boss down to 20% health "too" fast.
They also delved into Firelands and cleared up to one boss, accumulating enough reputation with the new Avengers of Hyjal to get roughly halfway to Friendly. He also reported 1 BOE drop and 3 recipes just from that. But trying a couple times on the boss, their group failed in coordinating and they quit for the night. So we can expect new stuff to be appropriately difficult for now.
Which raises questions of what we're going to do as a guild. I think we're probably going to tackle Cho'gall Saturday. Being our first time, it may not go so smoothly, but I'd be a little surprised if he really roadblocks us. Then... what? Do we blow through BWD? Do we ride a lockout to Al'Akir or Chimaeron/Nefarian? Do we farm some Firelands trash for rep/drops (278 cloaks at friendly)? Do we try a boss there? Inquiring tanks want to know!
I'd love more communication on such things from our raid leader, but I can understand it's slow in coming because so few of the rest of the raiders actually seem to pay attention to forum posts or calendar events. Le-sigh.
Valor Points: While I'm eager to snatch up new gear with points, I still don't have the time or drive necessary to plow through a bunch of heroic dungeons on a daily basis. Have to see if that changes, since there's no way I'm capping points by raiding for a while. Hmm.
Newbies: It probably won't impact me at all, but it's interesting to see Blizzard bundling WoW Vanilla with Burning Crusade for $20, giving free access to BC content for Vanilla owners, and allowing the free trial of the game to run indefinitely, limiting characters to level 20 instead of putting a time period on it. Probably, the are all sound business moves at this point.
New Dailies: It's Netherwing/Isle of Quel'Danas/Argent Tournament time again! :D Thrall Quest: I didn't have as much the issue with it as you seem to, I've known about Aggra since the initial quest where we had Thrall go to Nagrand in preparation to become the super shaman before Cataclysm. Having, essentially, a new character come in to be tied into one of the biggest Lore NPCs with barely a how-do-you do of her backstory feels a little weird. But I guess they had to get Thrall away from Jaina Proudmoore and back into the orc camp for romance options. Raiding: We're killing Cho'gall. Given what Zhokora has said, we'll likely be doing Nefarian and Al'akir before we set foot into Firelands. Closure on Tier 11 before we move into new stuff. Valor Points: I can't comment here. I have free time and will blow it on PUGs >.> Newbies: So, since Kit reads this, should you or I recruit-a-friend him for the free to play option? ;)
ReplyDeleteWas Aggra there? *peeks* Huh. I remember the conversation about Thrall showing up in armor, but the character of Aggra made no impression on me except as a shaman there to teach him. So, to me, there's a big leap from that to his lady love. I still seek more direction and, dare I say, leadership outside the actual Saturday night raid period. It's valuable to me to know whether I should psyche myself up for (and brush up on the mechanics of) dodging wind storms versus positioning dragons. I've studied both, but that was months ago. I want to know whether to expect to use a lockout or whether we're clearing our way to the end (particularly as this affects what drops I might have to look forward to). I, however, seem to be in a small minority in wanting that, so the providing of it fades away. I think you should send Kit an invite, if he's been trying to recruit you into Guild Wars. ;)
ReplyDeleteI saw what the F2P provides. 100 gold, Level 20. So, what happens after I hit that point, then? ;) I'm not buying the game, ever.
ReplyDeleteAnother character to see other quests? The ability to log in and talk with us there? ;) At least you'd have a better understanding of some of the things you constantly rail against. Even if it doesn't change your opinion. Hmm. The level 20 limit is the big thing, as it makes a ton of content undoable. The 100 gold limit is probably some gold-seller-related limitation, though I can't imagine what a level 20 character would do with more than that anyway. *shrugs*
ReplyDeleteEven that buying the game offers content previously only available in the first expansion? ;) $20 you were going to throw at me can become your first draenei jewelcrafter!
ReplyDeleteThere's still the point that if I want to get any further, I need to start paying monthly. Also, the entire idea behind those boss fights sounds like much more hassle than my siblings would have patience for.
ReplyDeleteWell, you don't have to worry too much about complex boss fights at low level. And I was pondering... getting to level 20... really wouldn't take long if someone was trying. Of course, the trial offer is still nice in that you don't get cut off at a certain time, could make alts and look at different factions and races... I just find it somewhat amusing (and perhaps a little disturbing) that you steadfastly refuse monthly fees, yet fork over cash for pretty much anything that shows up in the Guild Wars store... while I'm almost completely opposite of that
ReplyDeleteThe average thing in the GW store is usually $10, looks pretty, and goes on all characters. It also only shows up 2-3 times a year (the costumes), so that's not a big expenditure for me. So, I'm looking at about $20 to $40 a year if that. With WoW, it'd be $15 a month, and require me to buy gift cards each time. That's $150 a year. Tell you what, I'll consider giving it a look.
ReplyDelete