Dragonflight launches on the 28th, but this Tuesday the pre-launch event proper has begun.
There are three major elements to this event:
Dracthyr Evokers Playable:
This is certainly the biggest one. After the longest gap we've ever gone without getting a new class, the Evoker is here. I'm still skeptical that all Dracthyr need to be Evokers - I think there's plenty of lore to justify other classes, like Warriors - but after we got no new class in BFA or Shadowlands, we're finally getting a new one, making this the fourth new class and third Hero Class. It is also, notably, the very first ranged DPS spec they have added to the game (Survival Hunters were kinda-melee, kinda-ranged early on, before becoming firmly ranged around BC or Wrath, and then firmly melee in Legion).
Evokers start at level 58, with a unique starting experience similar to the Death Knight (well, pre-Mists DK) and Demon Hunter. As the second neutral race, unlike the Pandaren, Dracthyr simply choose their side at character creation.
At least in this level 60 stage, the Evoker seems quite strong, though you need to get used to its unconventional rotation and its unique 25-yard range (as opposed to most ranged characters, who get a 40-yard range). Though this has been the case for Monks and Demon Hunters, once again there's a strong emphasis on mobility - the lower range on their spells is made up for by the excellent "Hover" ability, which gives you a boost forward and also lets you cast some of your spells while moving for a few seconds.
The starting experience is not super-long, and should familiarize you with the base abilities, though you will not get any talents (I sort of wish that it worked the way the Death Knight intro did back in the day, giving you one or two talent points with each quest you completed).
Primal Storms:
This is the big bread-and-butter element of the pre-launch. Ultimately, this is, I think, somewhat mid-tier. It's something to do, but basically you'll be sitting around in the Badlands, Northern Barrens, or Un'goro Crater fighting elementals and various cultists to collect a currency that can be traded for 252 gear or a toy and a (relatively small, but better than nothing) reagent bag, which essentially works like the old profession bags except that it has its own dedicated bag slot.
The invasions come with a random element, which means elementals that have different abilities. The only real annoying thing here is that only the elites appear to be open-tap, meaning you're best off just avoiding hitting anything other than them. There's a daily quest here that will get you more of that currency to buy gear with. Periodically, an extra-powerful elemental will show up that attacks after you kill enough of the other creatures near it. These bosses can drop a shard of their element where, once you collect all four, you can turn them into a new heirloom trinket.
I believe these scale with level, so you can also use this to level up alts.
A bit of a far cry from the excellent Legion invasions, but a good way to practice new rotations.
Uldaman: Legacy of Tyr:
Thankfully, Blizzard now seems to like to do revamp dungeons without getting rid of the old one. You'll be familiar with a lot of the rooms in this updated Uldaman, which has been rebuilt with high-resolution graphics and also streamlined so that it's harder to get lost.
The bosses here drop 278 gear, and you get a quest early on that will award a 278 weapon for completing the dungeon. It's easy enough that most groups will plow through it (obviously when we get to the actual dungeon at level 70, we might want to be more careful and actually learn how the bosses work.)
What was that? Learn how the bosses work? Ok, let's go through them:
The Lost Dwarves are back, and to be fair this fight I have less of a sense of all the little things, but basically they will, at certain health percentages, jump into their flying longboat and bombard the place. I think you're supposed to take them down together to avoid the later bombardment.
Next, in Ironaya's old room, we fight a Trogg chieftain. He summons adds periodically, as well as a big totem. Destroying the totem will stun all the troggs for several seconds.
Third is a sort of Titanforged Sethrak guardian. She will gain a stacking buff, and also puts down these sand traps on random players that will stun anyone who walks into them. The tank can run her through these to cause her to lose her buff stacks.
Fourth is, I want to say "Emberon," which is a stone golem. Several other golems around the room, which are not targetable, will shoot little balls of fire around the arena. Periodically (and with current gear, often he's dead before you hit this phase,) he'll go to the center of the room and create this rotating flame wall that will quickly kill people standing there. There are three golems who can now be attacked, so you want to burn them down quickly while keeping on the move to avoid the flame wall.
Finally, we have an Infinite Dragon who steals the information we went in here to find in the first place. He has a breath attack, so the tank should face him away from the party. The room fills up with weird time-pools, and periodically he "steals your time," so the party needs to run through these pools to get it back (before this phase, you'll take damage from them, I think.)
Anyway, it's relatively quick for now.
That more or less covers the event. We've got a little less than two weeks before the expansion proper launches, but for now, we can get back into the swing of things.
No comments:
Post a Comment