Two zones down now that I finished the story quests in Maldraxxus! Spoilers in this post by the way. (I posted previously about Bastion.)
I was expecting just Naxxramas as a zone and a lot of evil and undead… and I guess it kind of was, but at the same time, it was more than that. It had such a cool, desert wasteland vibe to it. The houses were not all pure evil even if they were quite brutal.
The area around the House of Plagues was a bit different even if still distinctly necromantic. Here I am with Mooglegem and our slimes! My transmog is quite different than what it normally is. During Death Rising, I changed to heroic sanctified tier 10 since it felt proper to be back in ICC gear. It matched Bastion so well that I decided to put something on that fit Maldraxxus.
There were some cool characters in the zone. We knew Draka would be here from the video, but I especially enjoyed meeting her and her declaring that she was once part of the Frostwolf clan. It contrasted well with the Kyrians in Bastion being forced to forget who they were. It did feel weird that we didn’t have a conversation with Draka about the mortal world. “Hey, you know that baby you had, Go’el? Well he became Warchief of the Horde and leads the orcs. And by the way, he might be stuck in the Maw.”
Running into Lady Baroness Vashj was also neat. I didn’t actually kill her in Serpentshrine Cavern until Wrath and didn’t play WC3, so there wasn’t much nostalgia for me in that sense. However, I still enjoyed her being present.
Ooo my runeblade!
Finding that the missing Baron was Alexandros Mograine was definitely awesome. His story regarding life, death, and family is pretty interesting. In addition, I think he has a cool role in the history of the game thanks to the Corrupted Ashbringer and the various retcons. I’m looking forward to his interactions with Darion in the future.
The dungeon, Plaguefall, was challenging to heal. It might be a real “fun” time for mythic+. I had to drink quite a bit, and it’s hard to keep up with dispels. We had a couple wipes.
I didn’t think I’d like the Necrolords of Maldraxxus much at all, but I could see a few of my characters fitting here – at least RP-wise. I’ll figure out who goes here later. For now, it’s off to Ardenweald!
Today’s Mooglegem’s last day with an active account. In fact, by this time the subscription has already lapsed. She just doesn’t have the time to play. She raided during Highmaul, but never even had a chance to finish questing let alone enter Blackrock Foundry. Last night she wanted to make the final push toward the Nagrand finale.
There were a few quest lines she hadn’t completed in Nagrand, but most importantly, Thrall was offering her “And Justice for Thrall.” She was so close this whole time. I was happy I got to witness her witnessing such an amazing moment.
I made her do this emote, heh.
She also went through her bags a little. There were a lot of old memories. One included a letter from my bank alt.
Dear Mooglegem,
Thank you for the stuff. How are you? I heard you were far away, south of here. How is it there? I’ve never left Mulgore. I live at Thunder Bluff.
I guess I liked RPing in letters.
Or how about this one I sent to her hunter?
The fight against the Lich King is slow but progresses well! I look forward to the day when we put him down for good!
Congratulations on reaching Outland! I hope you’re enjoying Nagrand; it really is quite beautiful. I’m surprised [Nesingwary] remembered me! Someday you’ll surpass him as a hunter, I’m sure.
Chompsky and Sumo are both very cute. Give them my love! Mooglegem says hello too.
Hope to see you in Northrend soon!
It’s been a while since we’ve really played together, but it’s weird to have her account inactive. On the plus side, she got to see the Nagrand finale. Afterward, I summarized the events of Highmaul, Blackrock Foundry, and the legendary quest, and then I showed her the finale of the Garrison Campaign and the 6.1 legendary cutscene. At least she’s caught up on the lore!
Hurry and come back, Mooglegem, so I can take you on a tour through Ashran and we can slay Alliance like old times.
This post contains spoilers for Nagrand in Warlords of Draenor. I know most people have likely finished it, but I know not everybody has. My guildmates should specifically take note that Mooglegem has not finished Nagrand. Please don’t spoil it for her.
I really enjoyed that the leveling experience felt like it’s own complete story arc. Obviously, Blizzard has been getting better and better at storytelling, but I was particularly impressed with how it went in Warlords of Draenor. Even if you don’t raid at all, you still get a exhilarating conclusion to the story by questing through the zones (and later the Garrison Campaign, but that’s a post for later).
The video embedded above is the end of the final quest chain. I didn’t include the cutscene that plays after that part because it’s easy to find (and you can replay it in your own garrison). Now I know that if you’re avoiding spoilers, you shouldn’t be reading this far, but I’ll still avoid saying exactly what happens. What I will say is that I’m happy that it happened in the quests and not in a raid. Leave the rest of the threats for raiding; close this chapter through quests, allowing us to move on as well as giving non-raiders the closure they deserve with this plot. Plus, that frickin’ cutscene. Wow.
Happy 10th anniversary, World of Warcraft! Happy 20th anniversary Warcraft!
Today seems like a good day to reflect a little. That’s Petros in the screenshot, my Night Elf warrior of S A D on Uther. He was my very first character. You can see that the guild is pretty dead; that’s fine, because I don’t know who anyone is. I think I joined because my high level friend was in it. I started playing WoW as soon as it was released and made this character to play with my roommate at the time, Antonio. Everyone out leveled me very quickly because I took things slow. I always ended up switching characters quite a bit. Before hitting 20 or so I switched to a tauren hunter to try it. I ended up liking Horde more. I then switched to a PVP server and made an orc hunter. Along the way, there were a few mages and priests that never hit 10. Eventually I tried my original character again, getting him to 23, before switching to my current server, Kil’jaeden. I started with a tauren shaman who got to his 30s and then made my current priest. My plan was to heal with Mooglegem until she caught up to my level and then switch back to my shaman. That switch back never happened.
Warcraft itself always reminds me of my friend Lloyd from elementary school because we used to talk about it a lot. Honestly, I’m not sure I ever actually finished one of the games. I mostly screwed around in multiplayer, but I was terrible anyways. Regardless, I knew the general plot. I don’t think the first two are really playable anymore, but the third one holds up. I should go back and play it.
World of Warcraft gave me a lot of great memories. It seems like such a different game now – not just because of the mechanical changes but because of the mindset. Once you see the game through to max level, it changes your perspective.
I remember being so amazed at the size of the game. When I finally got my Night Elf all the way to Ironforge, I had a dilemma. Do I set my hearth there, giving up the quest lines I was doing, or do I hearth back home and give up the long trek to reach the city that was so full of people I had to use my roommate’s computer so I wouldn’t crash? I wrote an article for WoW Insider on this subject.
I ran dungeons with a group of friends I knew in real life. I remember Antonio yelling at me not to attack things that weren’t aggressive. I wanted their skin.
When one of my characters first reached the Barrens, one of the quests said something about the Horde soldiers needing me to help them. It felt so cool. “I’m one of them now!”
I finally hit the level cap for the first time in Wrath of the Lich King. I made sure to plan it so I could ding by turning in a quest to Thrall.
I joined a terrible guild to raid because they did a lot of old raids just for fun. They didn’t raid the current tier at all, but there was no stress of an application process. I got over that quickly.
Joining Carpe Flux Capacitor was a big deal. Who knew I was making such a great friends? I’ve met a pretty good chunk of the guild despite not living near most of them. It helps that I live in Irvine so some of them come to me for BlizzCon. It did feel a little odd at my guildmate’s wedding to say, “How do I know him? Oh, we play WoW together.”
Once there was a bug and the flag despawned completely from Warsong Gulch. I played in this one match, with breaks for dinner, for over eight hours.
Moogle made delicious cookies for everyone participating in our guild’s Secret Santa.
I was so excited when we finally killed Arthas after weeks of failing.
The quest line to get Quel’delar was one of my absolute favorite memories. I did it with Mooglegem, and we had a blast. I can’t use swords, so I received the Hammer of Purified Flame. I still have it, and it’s a popular transmog choice.
I’ve had a ton of wonderful memories in World of Warcraft, and I’m sure there are many more to come.
Patch 6.0.2, The Iron Tide, brought a number of changes and a bit of new content.
Iron Horde Invasion
The Dark Portal turns red, and the Iron Horde begins to attack. The Horde and Alliance settlements in the Blasted Lands fall, and we’re tasked with cleaning up. It was interesting, but it seemed to lack zest. It was just a bit anti-climatic. I never really got the feeling that we were in much danger. The questline did more to introduce mechanic changes than anything else. For example, quest objectives are clearly marked on the map and are outlined differently in the world. This includes locations that are targets for items; instead of going to where you think you need to plant a flag and clicking it, you right-click the outline of a flag. I like it. Still, I would have liked the event to feel more important. I think what I liked most was Thrall’s new model. He’s finally integrating the aspects of being a shaman and a warrior. Awesome.
Updated character models
I didn’t care previously, and I still don’t think this is a big deal. I’m looking at numbers. I’m watching health and mana, looking at buffs and debuffs, and tracking adds. I’m not looking at my cloak. At first, I certainly did. My troll runs stupidly. Honestly it seems normal now though.
Upper Blackrock Spire
It’s much more straight-forward, but it didn’t seem like it was anything special either. I suppose that could make sense because it’s only the first half, but why show us the first half if the first half isn’t awesome?
Mechanics
Flexible raids are great. Losing Renew and Void Shift sucks. Having to choose between Spirit Shell and Power Infusion sucks. Losing Heal wasn’t a big deal.
Stat Squish
Now we’re even more OP in earlier content. That’s cool.
Void Storage and Toy Box
Oh, goodness. This was awesome. With a whole new Void Storage tab and the nifty Toy Box, I actually have free bag space again, allowing me to go do past raids for transmog. It’s wonderful. I don’t understand why they didn’t try to patch this in a couple months ago so we could actually do something in WoW. I can’t say enough good about this, although I know I’m going to fill it up soon. Mmmm old tier sets.
My progress
What have I done in the patch? I did the questline and UBRS of course. Besides that, I’ve mainly been going after old tier sets. That’s what I was doing months and months ago before I filled up all my bags, so it’s nice to be able to continue it again. I also got my heroic Siege of Orgrimmar heirloom – the staff. Unfortunately, I was hoping for the mace or offhand. The mace is shaped like a Horde symbol, and the offhand is a book with the Horde symbol on the cover. Maybe I’ll get one of them in normal mode!
Warlords of Draenor sounds very cool and seems to be bringing a lot of great things. I don’t intend for this post to rehash all the news released at BlizzCon, but I still want to talk about my reaction.
The story
I love the direction of the story; Garrosh escapes and, with the help of the Timewalker Kairoz, travels back in time to Draenor. He stops the orcs from becoming corrupted by the Burning Legion and forms the Iron Horde. He then builds his own Dark Portal connecting that Draenor to our Azeroth. I know that anything relating to time travel can be confusing to people, but I kind of like that Blizzard basically told us not to worry about it and that there wouldn’t be any time paradoxes or consequences. I like it. It’s just an excuse for us to visit Draenor and interact with all the old orcs. Of course, this gives us a lot of potential. Seeing ruthless, old-fashioned orcs should be fun, and of course, experiencing Draenor will be great.
It could also be a vehicle for some interesting character development. What if Garrosh finds his father’s not what he expected? What if Grom thinks Garrosh is a failure? It’ll be fascinating. I also think Blizzard has a chance to do something great with Thrall. Thrall never had the chance to know his parents. We know Durotan is going to side with our Horde, but what if he’s different than Thrall imagined? Even if he’s a good guy, what if he’s still ruthless? What if he thinks the Horde is too soft? In addition, some characters could stick around after the end of the expansion. For example, Durotan could come through the Dark Portal to live on Azeroth.
I’m also fascinated by the idea of circumstance shaping a person, and I hope Warlords of Draenor examines this. I’d like to see some characters act very differently than they did in the original timeline due to the changed events in their lives.
Stats and itemization
Hit was always a boring stat to me. There was no strategy or choice. You just had to get hit-capped. I’m glad to see it and its fellow not-fun stats removed. Movement speed could be a fun stat on gear as well. Plus, being able to move quickly and get back to DPSing or healing means a DPS/HPS boost.
Having gear change to match the wearer’s current spec is very interesting. It means you can use more gear but that there’s more competition. Ultimately, I think it’ll make the game much more offspec-friendly.
Reforging seemed more needless than useful. On the other hand, it is nice to be able to change from a haste build to a crit build without changing gear. I almost feel like it would work better like changing specs. When you’re out of combat, you can could change builds. Oh well. We’ll have to see what it’s like for gems and enchants to be less common as well.
Garrisons
Garrisons are effectively the Sunsong Ranch farm crossed with the companion mission system of TOR (or other games) with a dash of Warcraft RTS. Sounds intriguing. I liked the farm even though it felt like a grind at times, so I’m optimistic about this. Honestly, it’s more of an evolution of the idea of keeps and followers from Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. It could be pretty fun.
Updated character models
Honestly, I don’t really care about this. I don’t understand it. My character is a pretty portion of my screen. When I play D&D, my representation is, at most, a small metal figure that isn’t even using an accurate weapon half the time. However, a lot of people do care, so I’m glad Blizzard’s doing it.
Boost to 90
I completely understand how some people are bothered by this, but I’m not at all. I’ve never had two characters at the level cap. With the character boost, I’m more likely to get a second to level 100. It’d be nice to check out some other styles of play, because I’ve only ever had my priest at endgame. In addition, being able to boost to 90 combined with updated character models mean that people who haven’t played WoW before can immediately begin playing what is effectively a new, modern game. That’s great.
Collections and quest items
These might be my favorite changes. Currently, mounts and pets are in collections rather than items. In Warlords of Draenor, toys, heirlooms, and possibly tabards will be in collections as well. That’s so much bag space I’ll be regaining. In addition, quest items won’t take up bag space. Finally. I’m pretty excited. The only downside is that I lost all those toys I earned previously. Maybe Blizzard could check that I did those quests and award me the toys. Please, Blizzard?
Raid changes
LFR is still LFR. Flex will be called Normal. Normal will be called Heroic. Heroic will be called Mythic. LFR, Normal, and Heroic will all be flexible (1o to 25 people) and cross-realm. Mythic will not be cross-realm and will be 20 people. As a normal-mode raider currently (so a heroic-mode raider next expansion) in a guild that struggles with attendance, this is great news. We recruit so we have 15-20 people, and then we take everyone every week. Awesome! I do feel bad for current 10-man heroic guilds, but it won’t be my problem at least.
Dailies and dynamic events
Dailies will not be widely used. Great. Dynamic events like those from the Timeless Isle will exist in the world. Also great if not overdone. In addition, they talked about wanting to combine the ideas behind the Isle of Thunder and the Timeless Isle. I think Blizzard is on to something, and I like to see them iterating on the way content is delivered. A combination of these two is exactly what I want.
Story quests
The map will tell you where the next story quest is, and it also indicates how many story chapters you’ve completed. This is awesome news. In Mists of Pandaria, I finished all the zones before I started raiding, and I only did a dungeon once I got to it in the story. It made for a nice, cohesive experience, but it also meant I took longer to get raid-ready. In Warlords of Draenor, I’ll skip all the non-story quests and come back to them. This should speed up the process significantly.
PVP interface updates
I don’t know how anyone could have a problem with being able to see capping progress on the map and on the flags themselves. This is a welcome change.
Warlords of Draenor
I’m pretty excited about all the aspects of the expansion. I’ll admit, things could go wrong. The quests could be boring, or the new content delivery mechanisms could be boring. I won’t know until I see the content. But I’m feeling hyped to experience it. Of course, I’d like to defeat Garrosh in normal-mode first!
The Darkspear Rebellion was very exciting. Yes, it was pretty short, but I like that. You can see all the content in the day, but you can grind some more if you’d like. You can watch me experience it in the video below. Of course, the video and this post contain huge spoilers. I’ve also cut a lot of the repetition from the video. Below I first explain the lore and story involved before giving my opinion and feedback. Click here to jump straight to my feedback.
After witnessing events elsewhere on Azeroth with Lorewalker Cho and his dream brew, I was sent to Sen’jin Village. Vol’jin is there planning a rebellion against the Warchief, Garrosh Hellscream. With him are Thrall and Chen Stormstout. You’re tasked with collecting some supplies from the new Kor’kron camps in the Northern Barrens.
After completing this task, I returned to talk with Vol’jin, Thrall, and Chen. The Warchief, or at least his Kor’kron, figured out what was happening and led an attack on Sen’jin Village. Unfortunately for them, we were able to defeat them. As they fled, Vol’jin suggested we let them run because they’d be executed by Hellscream for doing so.
Vol’jin’s next move was to plan on attack on Razor Hill, using it as a staging ground before laying siege to Orgrimmar. Thrall parted ways with the rest of the rebellion at this point, believing that some of his previous advisers, such as Eitrigg and Saurfang, must not support Hellscream. Vol’jin told him that he’d be killed upon setting foot in Orgrimmar, but Thrall felt he had to try anyways. He told Vol’jin to watch over Aggra and his boy if he’s killed. gem watches from her direhorn, propped up cutely on the stairs.
After taking Razor Hill, the rebellion sets up camp at a watchtower just north of the city. Baine Bloodhoof arrives, happy to see Vol’jin alive. He offers to join the rebellion. I was tasked with two new objectives – to steal many more supplies from the Kor’kron and to speak with the Old Seer currently climbing Mount Neverest in the footsteps of the last emperor.
First, I went to the Northern Barrens to collect materials from the Kor’kron and to kill the Kor’kron commanders. Once that was done, I headed to Kun’Lai Summit.
I helped the Old Seer, Seer Hao Pham Roo, climb the mountain, during which he explained how when he was young he would have had trouble performing the climb. For example, he says, “My, you are strong! When I was young, I might have doubted that we could do this. But now, I have no doubts at all.” In fact, he mentions overcoming anger, violence, doubt, despair, hate, and fear.
Upon reaching the summit, he explains. “You see, when I was young… when I was young… when I was young… I was EMPEROR.” He transforms in the spirit of the last emperor, describing his remaining vice – his pride. He explains that his pride cloaked Pandaria in the mists. He thought they could solve their problems without outside help. Now he believes that old enemies must work together, and that proud races must admit that they need help. He then disappears.
Upon completing all the tasks of the Darkspear Rebellion, I became Darkspear Revolutionary Devee. (If I was a member of the Alliance, I would gained “Hordebreaker!”)
My opinion and reaction
I’m incredibly happy with the Battlefield Barrens event. The lore was fantastic, and experiencing it was a ton of fun. The only grind is collecting supplies for the weekly, but that really only took an hour or so. Of course, if I choose not to do it again, it wouldn’t even be that big of a deal. The conflict rose at a great pacing as well. First, we attacked the Kor’kron haphazardly. Next, they attacked Sen’jin Village, and we defended. Finally, we led a full assault with a marching army upon Razor Hill. Very cool!
All three leaders of the primary Western Horde were there – Vol’jin, Thrall, and Baine. They even mentioned that Lor’themar agreed with the rebellion but was still busy and that Sylvanas agreed but was too far away. It was nice to see Baine show up despite there still being tauren within Orgrimmar. The dialogue between Thrall and Vol’jin was also touching. I know I’m a sap for lore and story, but I really enjoyed it. I hope Blizzard wasn’t foreshadowing Thrall’s death, but in all honesty, I was expecting his death at the end of Cataclysm already. Many people love Thrall, and many people are sick of seeing him. Killing him could be a fitting solution. The people who are sick of him won’t need to see him anymore. The people who love him will have him go out at a high point in his life and can remember him as a great hero.
The quest with the Old Seer was simply amazing. I didn’t even realize he was talking about defeating the sha as we climbed until I went back to watch my own video. And when he transformed into the Emperor, I was at a loss of words. I know that sounds silly, but I have a low tolerance for “awesome,” and this was super awesome. A lot of people were expecting a final Sha of Pride, but it’s nice to see it confirmed. And it’s definitely true that Garrosh has been acting more prideful and much less honorable than previously. When did the mists part, anyways? Could the Sha of Pride have left Pandaria, parting the mists, near the end of Cataclysm – right around the time Garrosh Hellscream began planning the destruction of Theramore? It could explain his change of behavior!
Devee here! There’s a lot happening lately, mon, and I wish I could be more places at once. (Yes, I’m a troll who can speak correctly!) First, Nana Mudclaw asked Farmer Yoon to take over her spot in the Tiller’s Union. Not having time for both, Farmer Yoon gifted his farm to me! As I had just harvested enough pink turnips to make Jogu the Drunk his Mad Brewer’s Breakfast, I wondered what to plant next. However, I began to receive work orders! I wonder why organizations never did this before I owned the farm? Regardless, I accepted work orders from the Shado-pan and the August Celestials because I’m still trying to prove myself to them.
Having proved myself valorous, dominating in Krasarang Wilds, and victorious in the Silvershard Mines and Temple of Kotmogu to Wrathion the previous week, I followed his next direction by slaying High Marshal Twinbraid in Lion’s Landing. With the help of my fellow champions of Carpe Flux Capacitor, I managed to slay him. Meeting with Wrathion again, he reminded Mooglegem and me that he had previously asked us what the soul of the Horde was. He wondered if it was an instrument of vengeance, showing us Garrosh, a refuge for those who need shelter, showing us Thrall, or an alliance of convenience, showing us Sylvanas. Well, it appears he has his answer. He told Mooglegem and me that it was us! Maybe he meant all heroes, but I’d like to believe he meant us specifically. You can see Mooglegem above with visions of the Horde leaders (exclusing Ji Firepaw, Master of Houjin). Some other Horde hero decided to get in the picture with Mooglegem, but oh well. He then gave each of us what we’re calling an Eye of the Black Prince, which allows us to fashion an additional gem to our sha-touched weapons or Armaments of the Thunder King, whatever those are.
We went upstairs to talk with Wrathion and his guest, Prince Anduin Wrynn of Stormwind. I was excited to see Sunwalker Dezco as well. Wrathion seems to be putting together quite the exclusive group, as I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Prince Anduin and Sunwalker Dezco before and am quite fond of them. I’m happy to learn that Prince Anduin is recovering after the tragedy at the hands of Warchief Hellscream. Wrathion feels he might be too soft to lead the Alliance, but I disagree. Prince Anduin would do what needs to be done.
Of course, almost every time I meet with Wrathion, he seems to have a task for us. He wants Mooglegem and me to travel to the Isle of Thunder and prove ourselves by fighting the mogu, Zandalari, saurok, and Alliance there. I found it very disrespectful that Wrathion would ask me to slay Alliance in the company of Prince Anduin, but Prince Anduin held his tongue. Wrathion also asked us to collect tablets with the history of the mogu from the Throne of Thunder.
We then spoke with Lorewalker Cho who told us a story called A Little Patience. Apparently it happened when war first broke in Krasarang Wilds. The Lorewalker told the story from the perspective of the Alliance, and it seemed so real that it felt like we were experiencing it. Varian and Tyrande disagreed about how to fight the Horde occupying the Temple of the Red Crane. Tyrande wanted to assault it directly, but Varian wanted to think more strategically and set traps, avoiding a direct fight. He sent heroes to help set up camps filled with traps. With that complete. he taunted the Horde forces, causing them to rush to fight. Most died in the traps. This allowed the heroes to kill the Kor’kron bodyguards and fight Commander Scargash, leader of the Horde forces at the Temple of the Red Crane. The Commander fell, and Varian proved to Tyrande that a little patience can indeed be valuable. It was interesting to hear things from the Alliance perspective, but I also found it odd that as a hero of the Horde, I didn’t know about our occupation of the Temple of the Red Crane. Sometimes I think that true Horde heroes have seen too much and that our Warchief likes to use lesser soldiers for tasks that heroes would question.
Mooglegem and I learned that the Shado-pan are leading an attack as the Shado-pan Assault on the mogu forces on the Isle of Thunder. Lor’themar is also on the Isle of Thunder leading the Sunreaver Onslaught. He informed me that Jaina Proudmoore and her forces, the Kirin Tor Offensive, are also on the island. Lor’themar said that Mooglegem and I “have served the Horde nobly across many campaigns,” and that he feels he “can take [us] into confidence.” I believe I can take you, readers, into confidence as well. Please don’t repeat this. He said, “Our Warchief’s campaign across Kalimdor and Pandaria is pulling the Horde apart at the seams. We are here to fight the Thunder King. Justice demands it, and Hellscream is too preoccupied at Domination Point to pay attention here. Bun, in defeating him, we must seek out the source of his great power. We must claim it for ourselves, as leverage against our ‘Warchief.’ In the event of an uprising, we must be prepared.” He took a break from his speech here to shoot down an approaching flying dinosaur of some sort. It was an impressive show of archery skills considering he has only one eye.
We ventured to the island itself and found three bases of sorts. There are a multitude of dangerous enemies here – the mogu, the Zandalari, the saurok, and the Alliance. The Alliance seems to be the most dangerous of the four. It’s too bad we can’t work together. There’s much more work to be done. I want to continue securing the Isle of Thunder, assault the Throne of Thunder, and explore the mysterious Isle of Giants. There’s only so much two heroes like Mooglegem and me can do, but I look forward to a future in which we can eliminate the threats to our life and happiness. I just worry that one of those threats is our own Warchief.
Wrathion is an interesting character, and I’ve been dying to see more of his legendary quest line. Unfortunately, I’ve been stuck for a few weeks now. Sure, I have a ton of Sigils of Power, but that last Sigil of Wisdom just didn’t want to drop.
This weekend my final Sigil of Wisdom dropped for me at the end of Terrace of Endless Spring. Wrathion sent me right back into the raid again to defeat the Sha of Fear for a second time in a row, but it was worth it. While I had already seen Wrathion’s actions and dialogue when he creates the gem, it was great seeing him do it for me. I think it felt powerful, and I love the line, “Make no mistake: the Black Dragonflight lives on!”
Wrathion proceeded with a dialogue about what it means to be in the Horde. “Is it an instrument of vengeance, hellbent to carve out a future for its people? Is it a refuge for those who need shelter, a commonwealth of the downtroddon, built for mutual support? Or is it an alliance of convenience, a confederacy of unlikely partners free to pursue their own agendas?” He brings up great questions. Of course, the answer is simple. Yes. Yes, it is all those things. He then spoke of valor before tasking me to grind reputation with him off Alliance forces in Krasarang Wilds and to earn 6000 valor points. Well, the end of February should be fun!
This wasn’t the original topic I was planning on discussing today, but then I noticed something. I had 99 published articles on Kor’kron 501st. I think the 100th post should be a little more reflective.
World of Warcraft is a great game, and I love it and the universe in which it takes place. Of course, it’s not without its flaws, but I keep coming back to it. I’m also a Star Wars fan. I’ve played a lot of the games, I’ve read a lot of the novels, and The Old Republic seems fantastic; but TOR just doesn’t suck me in like WoW does.
It might the idea of becoming a powerful, heroic character. I want to overcome great evil, wield the legendary weapon such-and-such (I suppose it would be Val’anyr.) When I first started, I wanted to imagine myself jumping into a group of enemies, swinging my two blades. Now, I want to imagine myself a guiding light, helping my friends and faction overcome adversary.
I love the number of interesting characters. I love Thrall, and I love that they removed him from his position as War Chief when he became too loved. I love Garorsh Hellscream’s rise to power and am excited to see his story unfold in Mists of Pandaria. I might not love noble Cairne’s tragic death, but it does give me an emotional investment in the story seeing his death and Baine’s rise as the young High Chieftain of the Tauren. The interaction between him and Anduin Wrynn is a happy bit of piece in a story of turmoil. Anduin (as well as Jaina) also make excellent juxtapositions to Varian.
The world feels large and alive, at least at first. Over time one learns that the world isn’t really quite so large (especially with the more linear zones introduced in Cataclysm), but I still love the overwhelming feeling I had when I first began to play. When I first saw Ironforge on my Alliance character, my jaw dropped. When my Horde character first left Durotar for the Barrens, it felt like I was actually helping the Horde army. (I had no idea how bad life was going to get once I had to play through the Barrens.) How about the Wrathgate cinematic and the Battle for the Undercity? It felt so epic, and I watched that video over and over the few days after first reaching it (and I still do sometimes).
This doesn’t even discuss the major gameplay aspects. Seeing dungeons for the first time is always an amazing feeling for me, which is why I avoid doing it in a rush. I loved first exploring the Frozen Halls dungeons introduced in 3.3 with Icecrown Citadel. The feeling of improving and overcoming new raid bosses in a team feels wonderful. Clean kills? Those are boring. The first kills during which I feel like I did everything in my power and skill set to succeed, the ones in which only a handful of raid members are left standing, are the good ones. Likewise, battlegrounds can be so much fun. Nothing in gaming (uh, besides Portal) can compete with Moogle and me surviving and winning an outnumbered fight in a battleground! Of course, raiding (and sometimes battlegrounds) add another part – socializing. I’ve met a lot of really amazing people in WoW.
I suppose it all comes down to investment. There’s time and money, but mostly it’s the emotional investment. I’ve learned so much about the universe. I love many of the characters and factions in Warcraft. I’m excited by the dramatic tension between individuals and groups, even if one I like comes out worse. I understand how my character thinks. He’s an extension of myself. Most of all, I just love exploring and experiencing this wonderful universe with Mooglegem. It would take a lot to break the emotional attachment. In fact, I doubt it could break. Sometimes I begin to play less. Yes, I’m sure I’ll quit someday. But even when I step back, I still care about what’s happening. Just like how I’ve always had a soft spot for Mario and Sonic, I don’t think my attachment to Warcraft will ever fully go away. And hopefully my investment continues to pay off for a long time.
earthwormgem
Peter (Devee)
Kor'kron 501st 