I've now hit 100 on my main, the Protection Paladin, after a focused effort to complete all the major quests in each zone and make sure that I read every bit of quest text or the text on item descriptions. Having done it all on the Beta (multiple times) has really sped the process up. So yes, I have every quest achievement on day three (and I hit 100 in the middle of the solo scenario in the final climactic quest in Nagrand (I say final, though you don't have to have done everything else first.)
But the dungeons! you cry. Well, let's talk about dungeons.
Bloodmaul Slag Mines:
The dungeon that I'm going to avoid calling by its acronym for fear of getting the wrong kind of internet traffic for a blog where I even try to avoid swearing (which is an effort sometimes) is pretty short and sweet. It's also a little on the dull side. I think every single enemy inside is either an ogre or a fire elemental. Oh, wait, no, there are some Ogrons. It's your standard "fiery cave" dungeon, which are not my favorites. Mechanically, I can't really say too much, because as the first dungeon tuned for people who just finished Dread Wastes (or maybe picked up their pieces in the Tanaan intro,) most groups these days, composed entirely of peoples' mains, wildly outgear it. The coolest mechanic, I felt, was the boss that would roll boulders at you on the bridge (boss three.) I also think it's reasonably cool that you get to choose which of the first two bosses to hit first.
Iron Docks:
The over-gearing issue was less pronounced here, but still prevented the Iron Docks from begin much of a challenge. I like the design of circling the final boss before heading in to fight them, though the docks themselves were sort of a whole bunch of the same until you get onto that ship. I do like some of the livening up of the trash, like where you can send some Iron Stars forward to flatten big packs of trash or an area where you need to run between cover to avoid getting blasted by the ship's cannons, which foreshadows one of the final boss' mechanics.
Auchindoun:
Now here's where we start to get really cool-looking stuff. Auchindoun's design is gorgeous - it truly feels like a holy temple with great vaulted ceilings. I also suspect that the third boss is going to be quite difficult on heroic, depending on the tuning. One oddity is that after defeating the first boss, an NPC creates a portal to Talador, which everyone in my party clicked on, assuming it was part of the dungeon. Now, I understand why it's there - the main entrance to the dungeon gets blocked off by the new groups of trash there, and of course the second boss. But I'd put the portal a little out of the way. There are also some long, long cutscenes in that dungeon. Granted, they're probably skippable (as it was my first time in there, I watched them all the way through, but everyone in my group seemed to be doing the same anyway.) Definitely the prettiest dungeon in Draenor so far.
Skyreach:
This I had actually done on the Beta, but this time I was going in as a tank. I will say that the over-gearing ceased to be an issue by level 98. There were some fights there where I was worried we could wipe. Boss one is relatively simple - just requires you to move a bit. Boss two was the toughest, though it's possible that that was only because no one other than me was actually intercepting the light beams that empower him (which I think everyone except the tank is supposed to do.) Boss three was interesting in that it forces you to time your active mitigation as a tank - you need to make sure it is up when he does his Pierce Armor. Succeeding will prevent the debuff being applied. And the final boss is really cool, mainly in that he takes a page out of the Lich King fight with adds that try to carry off and insta-kill people by dropping them off a ledge.
After doing these dungeons and hitting 100, I went straight to the proving grounds to get silver for tanking and DPS. Bronze on each is trivial, but silver was actually pretty tough on the tank - my recommendation is to get the Yaungol's attention with some quick damage and then just let the Mistweaver kill them while you focus on the other guys (particularly the Mantid ones.) The DPS one is much easier - you just need to focus down the Jinyu and make sure that the Mantid amber hits whatever add you're currently attacking (I think it increases the damage they take.)
I have yet to do the level 100 dungeons (except the half-version of UBRS we got in the pre-expansion patch,) but I'll hopefully have some quick impressions about those soon
No comments:
Post a Comment