So I finally took Jarsus into the first of Mists' dungeon, Temple of the Jade Serpent, which is a very beautiful area in the Jade Forest (the only zone currently available on Pandaria.)
I was able to solo the first wing, with a Jinyu (fish-man, but more humanoid than a murloc) guy who's been corrupted by the energy in the water there. So doing that in a group was very easy. After that, things got harder. The second wing (technically I think you can do this first if you want) is a kind of library with Sha possessing various books. The trash here does't have much going on ability-wise, but I like the concept of the Sha animating old stories to fight you. The boss here I believe is a choice between two, but we got Strife and Anger.
This was where things started to really cause pain. Attacking one of them gives them a very quickly-stacking damage buff, making them pour out insane amounts of damage. So it's imperative that you only attack one at a time. Ignoring a boss will cause its damage to decrease, to the point where a healer could, over a long enough time frame, solo the boss, letting the friendly npc finish them off. The mechanics here are problematic. For one, it's a lot easier to just stick to one of them, let the buff build up, at which point the boss goes immune, and then just wait for the immunity to fall off and keep going. It seems like they should encourage target switching, but at this point if you do so the damage gets way too high.
The trash before the third boss is pretty easy, but my experience with boss 3, Liu Flameheart, was pure pain. Liu does a weird sort of debuff that hits for a huge amount of damage and then does an AoE move that again, does an enormous amount of damage. I believe that you can dodge the second one if you move right after the first - or at least take less damage from it, but without any sort of announcement, it's very difficult to see when it's going to happen.
There's no trash after that boss, you just go to the Sha of Doubt, which is a decent, if a bit simple fight. Essentially you fight the boss while it puts debuffs on random people, causing them to damage those around them, and then after a while it summons clones of each part member, which fixate on them (meaning you should probably save the tank one for last, if you have time to focus.) If these are not killed before they go off, they explode for huge damage, killing the whole party. Each of these waves increases Sha of Doubt's damage, so it gets tougher as the fight goes on.
Overall, the Temple is very pretty, if a little on the small side. However, seeing as they seem to want to go back to the Wrath style of quick instances, this seems about right (no more Grim Batol slogs through a million trash pulls.)
This was also my first time in the Beta actually grouped up, so I'll talk about how I feel about the new Paladin tanking kit. Threat-wise, I felt fine, though it was weird seeing Shield of the Righteous almost never critting. While I know that they want tanks to focus on more defensive stuff, it would be nice to give us a few of the Cataclysm-era passive damage buffs to keep things interesting. I've talked about Active Mitigation a whole lot here, and while I guess I don't mind being able to Word of Glory myself when I need to or get some extra block out of my Shield of the Righteous, it would be nice if they hadn't totally eviscerated all the fun damage and threat mechanics. Even if threat is supposed to be a given now, having the occasional big number pop up is just good fun (and makes soloing in your spec that much less tedious.)
What I find fun about tanking is being able to control the conditions of the fight. A huge part of this is threat and positioning. My biggest fear with Active Mitigation is that we're going to be focused more on our resources and cooldowns than the battlefield.
Still, constant Consecration is nice to have back.
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Beta: Third Impressions:
Ok, today brought us a new build of the Mists beta, and already I'm feeling a lot better about Brewmasters - even though I know there's some serious tweaking that is needed.
Brewmasters got a new ability: a 1-Chi cleave called Keg Smash. This, I think, is the hero of the latest build. Keg Smash is a cleave that causes targets hit by it to guarantee a misfire, hitting themselves instead for a set amount of damage (no, you can't make a boss do 150k damage to themselves - at least not yet,) thus making it both a nice aggro move and a nice survival move. Tiger Palm is also made free by Brewmaster Training at higher levels, which is probably overpowered (according to Ghostcrawler.) Tiger Palm improves your next Guard, which has a very cool new graphic. Guard, it seems, is actually on a fairly hefty cooldown, though the tooltip does not show it. Keg Smash has an 8-second cooldown, which puts it more in line with something like Shield of the Righteous (which doesn't have a cooldown, but is limited by Holy Power, which is kind of like a cooldown.)
Anyway, something of a tanking rotation is actually starting to take hold. Dizzying Haze and Breath of Fire are really more AoE moves akin to Cataclysm-era Consecration. So we Jab (or Clobber, or whatever) to gain Chi, then we probably hit Keg Smash to get a little mitigation/aggro off the bat (groups larger than three will probably need Dizzying Haze - assuming it causes sufficient aggro, otherwise there's still a problem.) Then you probably want to Tiger Palm three times, hit Guard, and then you've probably got Keg Smash off cooldown. From there, you probably need to Jab some more, Tiger Palm a bit, and survive until Guard is off cooldown using Expel Harm and keeping up with Keg Smashes.
Still needs some work, but holy crap does this feel better.
I still haven't used it in a group (I'm probably going to have my first Monk tanking experience in Deadmines on the low-level Brewmaster to learn the spec in a more forgiving environment) but I was able to clear the first trash pack in Temple of the Jade Serpent on my own (though it took a few tries, getting all my abilities in order.) I think Guard could stand to use a shorter cooldown if we're expected to use it rotationally, though if they want us to save that for the big hits, I suppose I understand it (though we're dangerously close to the current implementation of Holy Shield that I loathe and will be glad to see gone.) If Keg Smash is the kind of rotational damage reducer and Guard is the "every time the boss does his big hit" ability, then I guess it works. Still not crazy about Shuffle requiring you to channel.
Now, moving on to Protection Paladins. I took Jarsus into the same dungeon and cleared every trash pack and the first boss on my own. Using the Eternal Flame talent, I kept the EF HoT up, used Shield of the Righteous whenever I could, and Word of Glory whenever my health dipped low. Honestly, if you can clear the trash solo, you can probably clear the first boss solo. Essentially, you just fight four of those trash pulls in a row, then dps the boss while he turns in a circle. As long as you have a HoT up and don't stand in the water too long, and of course avoid his water jet, you can kill him. Admittedly, this is normal mode, so perhaps it doesn't have to be that complex, but it just seemed that I'm either way to overpowered in the self-healing department or that boss needs something a bit more dangerous.
Noblegarden begins tonight. Guess I'll have to take some time off the Beta to get Mage #2 (who's actually better geared at this point) his Rabbit-polymorph.
Brewmasters got a new ability: a 1-Chi cleave called Keg Smash. This, I think, is the hero of the latest build. Keg Smash is a cleave that causes targets hit by it to guarantee a misfire, hitting themselves instead for a set amount of damage (no, you can't make a boss do 150k damage to themselves - at least not yet,) thus making it both a nice aggro move and a nice survival move. Tiger Palm is also made free by Brewmaster Training at higher levels, which is probably overpowered (according to Ghostcrawler.) Tiger Palm improves your next Guard, which has a very cool new graphic. Guard, it seems, is actually on a fairly hefty cooldown, though the tooltip does not show it. Keg Smash has an 8-second cooldown, which puts it more in line with something like Shield of the Righteous (which doesn't have a cooldown, but is limited by Holy Power, which is kind of like a cooldown.)
Anyway, something of a tanking rotation is actually starting to take hold. Dizzying Haze and Breath of Fire are really more AoE moves akin to Cataclysm-era Consecration. So we Jab (or Clobber, or whatever) to gain Chi, then we probably hit Keg Smash to get a little mitigation/aggro off the bat (groups larger than three will probably need Dizzying Haze - assuming it causes sufficient aggro, otherwise there's still a problem.) Then you probably want to Tiger Palm three times, hit Guard, and then you've probably got Keg Smash off cooldown. From there, you probably need to Jab some more, Tiger Palm a bit, and survive until Guard is off cooldown using Expel Harm and keeping up with Keg Smashes.
Still needs some work, but holy crap does this feel better.
I still haven't used it in a group (I'm probably going to have my first Monk tanking experience in Deadmines on the low-level Brewmaster to learn the spec in a more forgiving environment) but I was able to clear the first trash pack in Temple of the Jade Serpent on my own (though it took a few tries, getting all my abilities in order.) I think Guard could stand to use a shorter cooldown if we're expected to use it rotationally, though if they want us to save that for the big hits, I suppose I understand it (though we're dangerously close to the current implementation of Holy Shield that I loathe and will be glad to see gone.) If Keg Smash is the kind of rotational damage reducer and Guard is the "every time the boss does his big hit" ability, then I guess it works. Still not crazy about Shuffle requiring you to channel.
Now, moving on to Protection Paladins. I took Jarsus into the same dungeon and cleared every trash pack and the first boss on my own. Using the Eternal Flame talent, I kept the EF HoT up, used Shield of the Righteous whenever I could, and Word of Glory whenever my health dipped low. Honestly, if you can clear the trash solo, you can probably clear the first boss solo. Essentially, you just fight four of those trash pulls in a row, then dps the boss while he turns in a circle. As long as you have a HoT up and don't stand in the water too long, and of course avoid his water jet, you can kill him. Admittedly, this is normal mode, so perhaps it doesn't have to be that complex, but it just seemed that I'm either way to overpowered in the self-healing department or that boss needs something a bit more dangerous.
Noblegarden begins tonight. Guess I'll have to take some time off the Beta to get Mage #2 (who's actually better geared at this point) his Rabbit-polymorph.
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Mists of Pandaria Beta: Second Impressions
Well, I've had another day to play with the beta, and here's what I've done:
Got the "core 5" transferred over and did a once-over on their main specs. I forgot how dependent I was on addons and macros. If you look at my UI on live, it's not super different, but without Power Auras I'm at a bit of a loss. I also made character copies of an 85 monk, warlock and mage. Here's the impression I've gotten from each:
At 85, Windwalkers still seem to have a much better design than Brewmasters. While there are certainly some issues (having your one healing spell require you to target a place on the ground, for example) overall Windwalkers are starting to make sense. I also adore the little animation and sound that happens when you cast either of your Legacy-buffs (Legacy of the Emperor is Blessing of Kings, Legacy of the White Tiger is Blessing of Might, but you can cast both if you're a monk.) Also, Flying Serpent Kick is really fun, if a bit tough to time right, give how insanely fast you're going. Might be more useful as a "get out of there now" ability than an attack.
I don't really know what the plan is in terms of how Brewmasters are going to shape up. Really, what they need is an AoE Jab. If Dizzying Haze A: didn't have to target a place on the ground, B: did reasonable damage and C: Generated Chi, they'd be in much better shape. As it is now, you need to spend a ton of energy to get the DH debuff up, then Jab a bunch to get Chi, and then spend that Chi on Breath of Fire - and that's just for soloing! God knows how these guys are going to play when you actually need to keep up Guard. Frankly, I think they need to go back to the drawing board and really cull some abilities and redesign others (keeping the cool names - like Drunken Haze.) I think it would be best if the Tiger Palm/Blackout Kick was kept to just the Windwalkers and 1-9 Monks, and Brewmasters (as well as Mistweavers) were given a different suite of Chi spenders that made more sense for what they needed to do.
Ok, moving on from Monks:
Playing a Paladin without Power Auras takes some getting used to. I actually think they should make good on what they said about making some resource bars (as an option) available at the bottom of the screen, rather than making you look up to check on it. This goes for Monks (who are already required to keep an eye on the target's health,) Death Knights, Rogues, Arcane Mages (with Arcane Charges being so clearly significant now) and now Warlocks.
I tried out two specs on the Warlock, Demonology (my lock's main spec) and Destruction. First off: Demonology is really cool, but I have no idea what I'm doing. My guess is the idea is you're supposed to maintain Demonic Fury at as high a level as possible. You can then hit Metamorphosis when you need to really bring the pain, but then I'm not sure where to go from there - either you're supposed to try to keep things balanced to stay in Demon Form, letting your veritable army of Wild Imps (and I mean it - you will have a freaking army of Wild Imps at basically all times) keep up your DF, or burning through it and returning to your less demonic form.
Destruction confuses the hell out of me. I was out killing random things (I'm avoiding quests to stay unspoiled - for the most part) and I was running out of mana like crazy. The "enhanced mana regen" you're supposed to get that replaces Life Tap might be bugged, because it didn't look like it was regenerating any faster than otherwise. I'm also not entirely clear on what you do to build up burning embers, and what's spending them. Really, I should probably just read about the abilities.
Still, altogether, Warlocks are getting some very interesting work done on them.
The last pre-made one I made was a Mage - specced Arcane. I don't know if there's really much to say about it - other than the face that there's an Arcane Living Bomb equivalent (and without the damage bonuses like in Cata, you're free to choose whichever you want in the talent tree) it plays very similarly. The only really big thing is that Arcane Missiles build Arcane Charges, rather than resetting them. They're still free, though, so you basically want to hit them any time they're up. Arcane Barrage is now a spell you need to use to reset your stacks, and lets you get in a decent amount of trash-pack AoE/Cleave, as it hits an additional target based on your AC stacks.
The characters I actually have (oh yeah, them!) I actually haven't done much with. Blood and Frost DKs seem almost entirely unchanged, as does Enhancement (with a few "under-the-hood" differences you might not notice.) Arms is a bit different, with forbidden fruit like Whirlwind now available to us, but an ancient staple like Rend gone completely. Also, I remember how weird Slam was when I first got it - a Melee attack with a cast time? But now that it's instant, I realize how much I kind of liked that. Oh well. Assassination is not all that different - the main thing is that Backstab got replaced with Dispatch, and there's an honest-to-God proc that lets you use it regardless of the enemy's health (very much like the pre-Cataclysm Sudden Death for Arms.) And I've already talked about Paladins.
So back to Monks real quick: Admittedly, tank specs always feel weird until you start tanking on them, but I really think we need to see a significant straightening-up of the Brewmaster spec. Actually, Monks all have a bit of a weird "which ability am I supposed to use with this limited resource" issue. Obviously, even with the tons of abilities that everyone has, you eventually figure out what the important ones are, but for instance, when am I supposed to use Rising Sun Kick instead of Tiger Palm? Also, there is only one Windwalker ability I can think of that spends the 3 Chi necessary to summon a Tiger spirit from the statue (like the old Buff-totems back before you could summon them all at once, I expect you'll only be putting your statue down on boss fights or tough trash.)
The other huge thing is that the abilities need to be better staggered. Getting Jab, Roll, Tiger Palm and Blackout Kick all by level 3, and then absolutely nothing until 10 (and then still nothing for many levels after that) is really, really weird. While I understand the reasoning behind the changes to the talent trees, the big thing they're losing is that sense of constant progress. We used to get a talent point every single level, so even if you went for a few levels without getting a new ability, you might put points into something that made you feel like you were that much more powerful - that much more in synch with your spec. Cataclysm balanced things decently well - usually if you weren't getting a talent point you were getting a new ability. Now, however, you'll spend most of your time in your starting zone using just three abilities in combat.
Oh, and Roll is great, but give it to us later. Much like Blink, this is one of those abilities that you feel you need to hit on every cooldown before you get a mount. Make it a level 18 ability, or something, so that you can play with it for two levels and then ride around like a grown-up. Here's what I'd recommend instead:
Level 1: Jab
Level 3: Tiger Palm
Level 5: Blackout Kick
Level 7: Healing Sphere, or some equivalent "heal up between fights" kind of spell for leveling monks
Level 9: Something vaguely Brewmaster-y
and with a couple other abilities thrown in there as they see fit.
Also, for the love of God, give Monks their resurrection spell before level 15. Remember when Druids couldn't rez except with Rebirth, with its long cooldown and reagent cost? Remember how much it sucked when you had a Druid healer, a Warrior tank, and let's say a Mage, Hunter, and Rogue, and someone died? Just as all tanks should get their taunt and tank-stance before heading into a dungeon, all healers need to have like two healing spells and a resurrection spell.
Got the "core 5" transferred over and did a once-over on their main specs. I forgot how dependent I was on addons and macros. If you look at my UI on live, it's not super different, but without Power Auras I'm at a bit of a loss. I also made character copies of an 85 monk, warlock and mage. Here's the impression I've gotten from each:
At 85, Windwalkers still seem to have a much better design than Brewmasters. While there are certainly some issues (having your one healing spell require you to target a place on the ground, for example) overall Windwalkers are starting to make sense. I also adore the little animation and sound that happens when you cast either of your Legacy-buffs (Legacy of the Emperor is Blessing of Kings, Legacy of the White Tiger is Blessing of Might, but you can cast both if you're a monk.) Also, Flying Serpent Kick is really fun, if a bit tough to time right, give how insanely fast you're going. Might be more useful as a "get out of there now" ability than an attack.
I don't really know what the plan is in terms of how Brewmasters are going to shape up. Really, what they need is an AoE Jab. If Dizzying Haze A: didn't have to target a place on the ground, B: did reasonable damage and C: Generated Chi, they'd be in much better shape. As it is now, you need to spend a ton of energy to get the DH debuff up, then Jab a bunch to get Chi, and then spend that Chi on Breath of Fire - and that's just for soloing! God knows how these guys are going to play when you actually need to keep up Guard. Frankly, I think they need to go back to the drawing board and really cull some abilities and redesign others (keeping the cool names - like Drunken Haze.) I think it would be best if the Tiger Palm/Blackout Kick was kept to just the Windwalkers and 1-9 Monks, and Brewmasters (as well as Mistweavers) were given a different suite of Chi spenders that made more sense for what they needed to do.
Ok, moving on from Monks:
Playing a Paladin without Power Auras takes some getting used to. I actually think they should make good on what they said about making some resource bars (as an option) available at the bottom of the screen, rather than making you look up to check on it. This goes for Monks (who are already required to keep an eye on the target's health,) Death Knights, Rogues, Arcane Mages (with Arcane Charges being so clearly significant now) and now Warlocks.
I tried out two specs on the Warlock, Demonology (my lock's main spec) and Destruction. First off: Demonology is really cool, but I have no idea what I'm doing. My guess is the idea is you're supposed to maintain Demonic Fury at as high a level as possible. You can then hit Metamorphosis when you need to really bring the pain, but then I'm not sure where to go from there - either you're supposed to try to keep things balanced to stay in Demon Form, letting your veritable army of Wild Imps (and I mean it - you will have a freaking army of Wild Imps at basically all times) keep up your DF, or burning through it and returning to your less demonic form.
Destruction confuses the hell out of me. I was out killing random things (I'm avoiding quests to stay unspoiled - for the most part) and I was running out of mana like crazy. The "enhanced mana regen" you're supposed to get that replaces Life Tap might be bugged, because it didn't look like it was regenerating any faster than otherwise. I'm also not entirely clear on what you do to build up burning embers, and what's spending them. Really, I should probably just read about the abilities.
Still, altogether, Warlocks are getting some very interesting work done on them.
The last pre-made one I made was a Mage - specced Arcane. I don't know if there's really much to say about it - other than the face that there's an Arcane Living Bomb equivalent (and without the damage bonuses like in Cata, you're free to choose whichever you want in the talent tree) it plays very similarly. The only really big thing is that Arcane Missiles build Arcane Charges, rather than resetting them. They're still free, though, so you basically want to hit them any time they're up. Arcane Barrage is now a spell you need to use to reset your stacks, and lets you get in a decent amount of trash-pack AoE/Cleave, as it hits an additional target based on your AC stacks.
The characters I actually have (oh yeah, them!) I actually haven't done much with. Blood and Frost DKs seem almost entirely unchanged, as does Enhancement (with a few "under-the-hood" differences you might not notice.) Arms is a bit different, with forbidden fruit like Whirlwind now available to us, but an ancient staple like Rend gone completely. Also, I remember how weird Slam was when I first got it - a Melee attack with a cast time? But now that it's instant, I realize how much I kind of liked that. Oh well. Assassination is not all that different - the main thing is that Backstab got replaced with Dispatch, and there's an honest-to-God proc that lets you use it regardless of the enemy's health (very much like the pre-Cataclysm Sudden Death for Arms.) And I've already talked about Paladins.
So back to Monks real quick: Admittedly, tank specs always feel weird until you start tanking on them, but I really think we need to see a significant straightening-up of the Brewmaster spec. Actually, Monks all have a bit of a weird "which ability am I supposed to use with this limited resource" issue. Obviously, even with the tons of abilities that everyone has, you eventually figure out what the important ones are, but for instance, when am I supposed to use Rising Sun Kick instead of Tiger Palm? Also, there is only one Windwalker ability I can think of that spends the 3 Chi necessary to summon a Tiger spirit from the statue (like the old Buff-totems back before you could summon them all at once, I expect you'll only be putting your statue down on boss fights or tough trash.)
The other huge thing is that the abilities need to be better staggered. Getting Jab, Roll, Tiger Palm and Blackout Kick all by level 3, and then absolutely nothing until 10 (and then still nothing for many levels after that) is really, really weird. While I understand the reasoning behind the changes to the talent trees, the big thing they're losing is that sense of constant progress. We used to get a talent point every single level, so even if you went for a few levels without getting a new ability, you might put points into something that made you feel like you were that much more powerful - that much more in synch with your spec. Cataclysm balanced things decently well - usually if you weren't getting a talent point you were getting a new ability. Now, however, you'll spend most of your time in your starting zone using just three abilities in combat.
Oh, and Roll is great, but give it to us later. Much like Blink, this is one of those abilities that you feel you need to hit on every cooldown before you get a mount. Make it a level 18 ability, or something, so that you can play with it for two levels and then ride around like a grown-up. Here's what I'd recommend instead:
Level 1: Jab
Level 3: Tiger Palm
Level 5: Blackout Kick
Level 7: Healing Sphere, or some equivalent "heal up between fights" kind of spell for leveling monks
Level 9: Something vaguely Brewmaster-y
and with a couple other abilities thrown in there as they see fit.
Also, for the love of God, give Monks their resurrection spell before level 15. Remember when Druids couldn't rez except with Rebirth, with its long cooldown and reagent cost? Remember how much it sucked when you had a Druid healer, a Warrior tank, and let's say a Mage, Hunter, and Rogue, and someone died? Just as all tanks should get their taunt and tank-stance before heading into a dungeon, all healers need to have like two healing spells and a resurrection spell.
Mists of Pandaria Beta: First Impressions
Well, I got into the Beta on this last wave of a whopping 250k invites.
The only transferred character I've even logged onto is Jarsus, where I was mainly just looking to rearrange my bars a bit. This is probably a bug, but I can't find Guardian of Ancient Kings in my spellbook. Holy Wrath is still there, and Consecration is going back to a real rotational ability, rather than a "gather those adds now!" one. The weirdest thing to get used to so far (on a target dummy) is the 4.5 second cooldown on Crusader Strike/Hammer of the Righteous. When dps'ing, I'm not too worried about a second or two of inaction - you know it's designed that way, and as long as recount's high and you're still alive, you're doing fine. When tanking, though, every moment you aren't doing something, you're panicking that your dps is about to overtake you, or your healer's going to get squashed.
Getting power auras up will help a lot. Because Paladins now have two extra Holy Power to make sure procs and such go unwasted, and a lot of other abilities grant Holy Power, you're actually probably using finishers more - it's just that it's not all coming from CS.
The majority of my time spent in the Beta this evening was leveling two monks up to 10. I leveled a human first, and I've got to be honest, it was hell. But in retrospect, this was much more because a bunch of quests seem to be missing, and perhaps a lot of quest rewards, and I was using the starting handwrap fist weapons until level 9, wearing a bunch of cloth pieces. I went Windwalker (dps) with this one, but basically stopped at level 10.
Then I took a Pandaren through the starting zone, eventually making him a Brewmaster.
First thing: currently, and I'm almost certain this is a bug, you get Jab (which transforms into various other abilities depending on your weapons equipped) at level 1, Roll at level 2, and Tiger Palm as well as Blackout Kick at level 3. Then it's absolutely nothing until you pick your spec at level 10. While this is a decent host of abilities, it would be nice to get them a bit more staggered - perhaps getting Tiger Palm as your most basic Chi-spender, and then Blackout Kick once you get used to the system. Another ability there wouldn't be so bad, like a heal (those murlocs north of Eastvale are just as brutal as I remember them back in Vanilla.)
The Wandering Isle - the Pandaren starting zone - is pretty good. Obviously, it's inundated with players at the moment, though as you go through, it seems enough people give up that by the end you're only competing for kills with a few other people, rather than like a million. The zone is beautiful, and presumably a nice indication of what's to come with the new continent (haven't gone there yet.) Story-wise, though, I find it a bit on the bland side. It's not terrible, and there are some cool enemies you fight (I like the rabbit-like Vermen) but overall it's very much a "kill so many of these guys," "collect so many of these things off those guys," and "pick this stuff off the ground" kind of questing experience. Compared to the intensity of the Worgen starting area or the ridiculousness of the Goblin one, it leaves me a little indifferent. The only really significant thing it sets up is the way that the two competing philosophies and their representatives will divide these Pandaren between Alliance and Horde.
Again, it's not terrible, and there are some moments (such as a baloon-ride near the end) that are really breath-taking, but compared to Catalcysm's new races starting zones, this is a bit of a step back. Interestingly, my favorite piece of the whole Pandaren starting experience was the arrival in Stormwind (yeah, two alliance monks - but I figured I'd have an easier time getting my friend to group with me that way.) Slightly similar to the Death Knight entrance, but much friendlier, Pandaren walk through the city and encounter several citizens of the Alliance - with representatives of each race - who comment on these newcomers. I would assume, of course, that Horde Pandaren have a similar kind of procession.
Regarding Monks, really I think I need to level up a bit more before I can comment intelligently. After all, every class is supposed to be simple at level 12. I am a little concerned about the slow drip-drip of abilities in the early levels, though, and I know this is an issue Blizzard is working on.
Tomorrow I expect I'll be venturing into Pandaria itself, which should let me comment a bit more on stuff like Active Mitigation.
The only transferred character I've even logged onto is Jarsus, where I was mainly just looking to rearrange my bars a bit. This is probably a bug, but I can't find Guardian of Ancient Kings in my spellbook. Holy Wrath is still there, and Consecration is going back to a real rotational ability, rather than a "gather those adds now!" one. The weirdest thing to get used to so far (on a target dummy) is the 4.5 second cooldown on Crusader Strike/Hammer of the Righteous. When dps'ing, I'm not too worried about a second or two of inaction - you know it's designed that way, and as long as recount's high and you're still alive, you're doing fine. When tanking, though, every moment you aren't doing something, you're panicking that your dps is about to overtake you, or your healer's going to get squashed.
Getting power auras up will help a lot. Because Paladins now have two extra Holy Power to make sure procs and such go unwasted, and a lot of other abilities grant Holy Power, you're actually probably using finishers more - it's just that it's not all coming from CS.
The majority of my time spent in the Beta this evening was leveling two monks up to 10. I leveled a human first, and I've got to be honest, it was hell. But in retrospect, this was much more because a bunch of quests seem to be missing, and perhaps a lot of quest rewards, and I was using the starting handwrap fist weapons until level 9, wearing a bunch of cloth pieces. I went Windwalker (dps) with this one, but basically stopped at level 10.
Then I took a Pandaren through the starting zone, eventually making him a Brewmaster.
First thing: currently, and I'm almost certain this is a bug, you get Jab (which transforms into various other abilities depending on your weapons equipped) at level 1, Roll at level 2, and Tiger Palm as well as Blackout Kick at level 3. Then it's absolutely nothing until you pick your spec at level 10. While this is a decent host of abilities, it would be nice to get them a bit more staggered - perhaps getting Tiger Palm as your most basic Chi-spender, and then Blackout Kick once you get used to the system. Another ability there wouldn't be so bad, like a heal (those murlocs north of Eastvale are just as brutal as I remember them back in Vanilla.)
The Wandering Isle - the Pandaren starting zone - is pretty good. Obviously, it's inundated with players at the moment, though as you go through, it seems enough people give up that by the end you're only competing for kills with a few other people, rather than like a million. The zone is beautiful, and presumably a nice indication of what's to come with the new continent (haven't gone there yet.) Story-wise, though, I find it a bit on the bland side. It's not terrible, and there are some cool enemies you fight (I like the rabbit-like Vermen) but overall it's very much a "kill so many of these guys," "collect so many of these things off those guys," and "pick this stuff off the ground" kind of questing experience. Compared to the intensity of the Worgen starting area or the ridiculousness of the Goblin one, it leaves me a little indifferent. The only really significant thing it sets up is the way that the two competing philosophies and their representatives will divide these Pandaren between Alliance and Horde.
Again, it's not terrible, and there are some moments (such as a baloon-ride near the end) that are really breath-taking, but compared to Catalcysm's new races starting zones, this is a bit of a step back. Interestingly, my favorite piece of the whole Pandaren starting experience was the arrival in Stormwind (yeah, two alliance monks - but I figured I'd have an easier time getting my friend to group with me that way.) Slightly similar to the Death Knight entrance, but much friendlier, Pandaren walk through the city and encounter several citizens of the Alliance - with representatives of each race - who comment on these newcomers. I would assume, of course, that Horde Pandaren have a similar kind of procession.
Regarding Monks, really I think I need to level up a bit more before I can comment intelligently. After all, every class is supposed to be simple at level 12. I am a little concerned about the slow drip-drip of abilities in the early levels, though, and I know this is an issue Blizzard is working on.
Tomorrow I expect I'll be venturing into Pandaria itself, which should let me comment a bit more on stuff like Active Mitigation.
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
The Fate of the Horde: When Hellscream's Reach Exceeds His Grasp
I imagine I probably come off as being a little Alliance-biased, and I won't say it's entirely inaccurate. When I first started playing, I actually thought the Horde was profoundly unusual, and I actually think I liked it better than the Alliance then. There was one quest that really turned things around for me, though. In Icecrown, Horde players are sent to find out what happened to the army sent to invade the Lich King's domain. You discover that the Horde soldiers ambushed the Alliance while the humans were fighting the Scourge. As a result, both attacks on the much more important threat ultimately failed. This arrogance and idiocy is not called out by the general on Orgrim's Hammer, rather he seems proud. This rang false to me: the Horde was all about honor. How is attacking your enemy from behind while they are fighting your greater enemy remotely honorable? That was really the moment that swung my loyalty meter onto the blue side.
Under Thrall, the Orcs were far more interested in stability than conquest. One always got the impression that disputes with the Alliance were more of a Cold War style. Small skirmishes would erupt in key places (the Battlegrounds, actually,) but open war was not really going on. Even more surprising than the Orcs, the Undead were surprisingly sympathetic. Before Cataclysm, there were two primary threats you faced in the Undead starting zones: the Scourge and the Scarlet Crusade. It set up an interesting dynamic where the goal of most Forsaken was to return to some semblance of their lives as humans (their presence in Thunder Bluff is actually explicitly for that purpose - the Tauren are trying to help the Forsaken become living humans again.) Yet, beside their obvious horror at being transformed into such twisted forms, they have major obstacles on either side: the Scarlet Crusade had no interest in rehabilitating the Forsaken - they just wanted them wiped out. The Scourge was still the Scourge, as it had always been, and wanted to kill everyone and raise them to serve the Lich King.
Two very major things happened over the course of Wrath and Cataclysm to change the nature of the Horde.
The Wrathgate Incident in Northrend raised a lot of very difficult questions regarding the Forsaken. We always knew that the Forsaken were developing a new plague, but it was thought that the intended targets for said plague were the Scarlet Crusade and the Scourge. Sylvanas has plausible deniability on the whole Wrathgate situation - Varimathras' coup does seem to have been quite a shock to her, and yet at some point, Sylvanas and the Forsaken in general started acting a lot more like the apothecaries that Varimathras had turned. When he witnesses the raising of Gilnean resistance fighters as Forsaken, Garrosh does actually ask Sylvanas what difference there is between the Forsaken and the Scourge. After all, the whole point of the Forsaken (as I see it,) is that there is a place to go to be both undead and retain your freedom. There's no way in hell all the people raised by the Val'kyr in Silverpine and Western Plaguelands have decided - on their own accord - to join up with the Forsaken the moment they're raised. Lillian Voss is the only new Forsaken we see that doesn't seem to immediately sign up to serve the Banshee Queen, but I can't imagine she's the only one that exists. Sylvanas has kind of sold out in a way, and there needs to be a reckoning. I don't think we need to kill her, but we need her to hit rock bottom and see how badly she's screwed everything up. (You'd think getting shot in the head would be that moment, but for now it seems to have only strengthened her resolve.)
Actually, Garrosh's admonishment of Sylvanas was one of the more admirable things he's done (sexist epithet notwithstanding.) Predicting Garrosh's fate here would be redundant, though we do not know for a fact that he is going to die - he might be imprisoned, exiled, or if they really want to just give him a slap on the wrist, demoted. Still, his Warchiefdom (it's a word now) is going to end with a bang, and while I don't think it's necessarily going to be a total "Rah-rah, go Alliance!" moment that would make Horde players feel duped, I think the beginning of the end for Garrosh Hellscream involves a key Alliance figure.
We know that the centerpiece to the Mists of Pandaria pre-expansion event is going to be the siege, and ultimately the destruction of Theramore. Despite its Alliance affiliation, Theramore has historically enjoyed at the very least a mutual tolerance with Orgrimmar. Yet, at the same time, it is a definite strategic stronghold for the Alliance forces pushing into the heart of Horde territory.
Garrosh has a problem, which is that his entire philosophy is based on victory. Victory or death is a common thing for Orcs to say, but Garrosh has made the Horde embody that notion in a really fundamental way. Defeat is not tolerated. Now, on one hand, that can motivate people to perform better, and Garrosh, with his near-insane acts of battlefield chutzpah (like when he suggests that a twilight dragon removes itself from his airship) provides Horde warriors with an ideal to live up to, but on the other, it's not a very flexible philosophy that can adapt to less ideal situations.
Two big problems arise from this: One, his more pragmatic, tactically-minded allies (Tauren and Trolls, and Thrallist Orcs) are alienated in this "Might makes Right" society of his. The other, and this is the really big one, is that as soon as he loses a battle, everything is going to go to hell.
Garrosh is going to attack Theramore - a city-state that has tolerated the Horde just as much as the Horde has tolerated it - a country ruled by perhaps the most powerful mage in Azeroth. And he's going to fail to kill her. I expect that Theramore is going to be a really costly battle on both sides. Garrosh will have certainly weakened the Alliance's hold on southern Kalimdor in the short term, but if they write the story well, it's going to lose him his best troops.
With the formerly almost-neutral Jaina now on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge, the Horde's going to start losing a battle here and there - they might not lose every battle, but the unstoppability seen throughout Cataclysm is going to be over. With their invincibility in doubt, Garrosh's biggest supporters are going to start questioning his rule. Most importantly, Garrosh is going to start questioning his rule.
And now we bring the Forsaken back into the picture. The central Horde really only has a significant presence in Kalimdor - the biggest area of Horde territory in Eastern Kingdoms is under the Forsaken. If Sylvanas ever wanted an opportunity to seize power, this would be it. Let's say she kicks the Kor'kron out - making a new deal, where the Warchief no longer gets to tell her what to do and has to deal with her as an equal - and just as Garrosh finally realizes he needs support from the Forsaken, Sylvanas is in the best position to just say "no."
So with his armies getting slaughtered, his own people beginning to rebel against him (Horde players would be included here - and the rebels are winning, so don't worry, Hordies still get to be winners,) his most powerful allies abandoning him, and one supremely pissed off woman who can shoot fire from her hands who wants him, personally, dead, what does he do? Garrosh does what his dad did. He grabs the biggest weapon he can get his hands on (for Grom, it was demon blood. For Garrosh? We don't know exactly yet, but if it isn't demon blood, it's something equally volatile and dangerous) and gives up everything the Horde stands for to try to save his own skin.
Ultimately, it won't be enough. Because we, the heroes of Azeroth, are going to take him down.
So what does a post-Garrosh Horde have to look forward to? That's a really good question. While some might think that we're going to see a combined Alliance-Horde force to unseat him, and that that might lead to some level of reconciliation, it could just as easily fan the flames of war higher. Sylvanas is still going to be a wild card, and unless she gets a wake-up call or dies, the Forsaken are going to continue to grow more Scourge-like as time goes on.
I don't think that there needs to be a "Alliance expansion, Horde expansion" kind of alternation, and I actually don't want to just see the Alliance winning all the time in Mists the way the Horde did in Cataclysm. Garrosh has undone a huge amount of progress made by Thrall. There's an interesting question to be raised: is the Horde destined to fall into bloodlust? Was a Warchief like Garrosh inevitable? But also, can the Horde find a cause to fight for that they can be proud of again?
We'll see how it goes.
Under Thrall, the Orcs were far more interested in stability than conquest. One always got the impression that disputes with the Alliance were more of a Cold War style. Small skirmishes would erupt in key places (the Battlegrounds, actually,) but open war was not really going on. Even more surprising than the Orcs, the Undead were surprisingly sympathetic. Before Cataclysm, there were two primary threats you faced in the Undead starting zones: the Scourge and the Scarlet Crusade. It set up an interesting dynamic where the goal of most Forsaken was to return to some semblance of their lives as humans (their presence in Thunder Bluff is actually explicitly for that purpose - the Tauren are trying to help the Forsaken become living humans again.) Yet, beside their obvious horror at being transformed into such twisted forms, they have major obstacles on either side: the Scarlet Crusade had no interest in rehabilitating the Forsaken - they just wanted them wiped out. The Scourge was still the Scourge, as it had always been, and wanted to kill everyone and raise them to serve the Lich King.
Two very major things happened over the course of Wrath and Cataclysm to change the nature of the Horde.
The Wrathgate Incident in Northrend raised a lot of very difficult questions regarding the Forsaken. We always knew that the Forsaken were developing a new plague, but it was thought that the intended targets for said plague were the Scarlet Crusade and the Scourge. Sylvanas has plausible deniability on the whole Wrathgate situation - Varimathras' coup does seem to have been quite a shock to her, and yet at some point, Sylvanas and the Forsaken in general started acting a lot more like the apothecaries that Varimathras had turned. When he witnesses the raising of Gilnean resistance fighters as Forsaken, Garrosh does actually ask Sylvanas what difference there is between the Forsaken and the Scourge. After all, the whole point of the Forsaken (as I see it,) is that there is a place to go to be both undead and retain your freedom. There's no way in hell all the people raised by the Val'kyr in Silverpine and Western Plaguelands have decided - on their own accord - to join up with the Forsaken the moment they're raised. Lillian Voss is the only new Forsaken we see that doesn't seem to immediately sign up to serve the Banshee Queen, but I can't imagine she's the only one that exists. Sylvanas has kind of sold out in a way, and there needs to be a reckoning. I don't think we need to kill her, but we need her to hit rock bottom and see how badly she's screwed everything up. (You'd think getting shot in the head would be that moment, but for now it seems to have only strengthened her resolve.)
Actually, Garrosh's admonishment of Sylvanas was one of the more admirable things he's done (sexist epithet notwithstanding.) Predicting Garrosh's fate here would be redundant, though we do not know for a fact that he is going to die - he might be imprisoned, exiled, or if they really want to just give him a slap on the wrist, demoted. Still, his Warchiefdom (it's a word now) is going to end with a bang, and while I don't think it's necessarily going to be a total "Rah-rah, go Alliance!" moment that would make Horde players feel duped, I think the beginning of the end for Garrosh Hellscream involves a key Alliance figure.
We know that the centerpiece to the Mists of Pandaria pre-expansion event is going to be the siege, and ultimately the destruction of Theramore. Despite its Alliance affiliation, Theramore has historically enjoyed at the very least a mutual tolerance with Orgrimmar. Yet, at the same time, it is a definite strategic stronghold for the Alliance forces pushing into the heart of Horde territory.
Garrosh has a problem, which is that his entire philosophy is based on victory. Victory or death is a common thing for Orcs to say, but Garrosh has made the Horde embody that notion in a really fundamental way. Defeat is not tolerated. Now, on one hand, that can motivate people to perform better, and Garrosh, with his near-insane acts of battlefield chutzpah (like when he suggests that a twilight dragon removes itself from his airship) provides Horde warriors with an ideal to live up to, but on the other, it's not a very flexible philosophy that can adapt to less ideal situations.
Two big problems arise from this: One, his more pragmatic, tactically-minded allies (Tauren and Trolls, and Thrallist Orcs) are alienated in this "Might makes Right" society of his. The other, and this is the really big one, is that as soon as he loses a battle, everything is going to go to hell.
Garrosh is going to attack Theramore - a city-state that has tolerated the Horde just as much as the Horde has tolerated it - a country ruled by perhaps the most powerful mage in Azeroth. And he's going to fail to kill her. I expect that Theramore is going to be a really costly battle on both sides. Garrosh will have certainly weakened the Alliance's hold on southern Kalimdor in the short term, but if they write the story well, it's going to lose him his best troops.
With the formerly almost-neutral Jaina now on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge, the Horde's going to start losing a battle here and there - they might not lose every battle, but the unstoppability seen throughout Cataclysm is going to be over. With their invincibility in doubt, Garrosh's biggest supporters are going to start questioning his rule. Most importantly, Garrosh is going to start questioning his rule.
And now we bring the Forsaken back into the picture. The central Horde really only has a significant presence in Kalimdor - the biggest area of Horde territory in Eastern Kingdoms is under the Forsaken. If Sylvanas ever wanted an opportunity to seize power, this would be it. Let's say she kicks the Kor'kron out - making a new deal, where the Warchief no longer gets to tell her what to do and has to deal with her as an equal - and just as Garrosh finally realizes he needs support from the Forsaken, Sylvanas is in the best position to just say "no."
So with his armies getting slaughtered, his own people beginning to rebel against him (Horde players would be included here - and the rebels are winning, so don't worry, Hordies still get to be winners,) his most powerful allies abandoning him, and one supremely pissed off woman who can shoot fire from her hands who wants him, personally, dead, what does he do? Garrosh does what his dad did. He grabs the biggest weapon he can get his hands on (for Grom, it was demon blood. For Garrosh? We don't know exactly yet, but if it isn't demon blood, it's something equally volatile and dangerous) and gives up everything the Horde stands for to try to save his own skin.
Ultimately, it won't be enough. Because we, the heroes of Azeroth, are going to take him down.
So what does a post-Garrosh Horde have to look forward to? That's a really good question. While some might think that we're going to see a combined Alliance-Horde force to unseat him, and that that might lead to some level of reconciliation, it could just as easily fan the flames of war higher. Sylvanas is still going to be a wild card, and unless she gets a wake-up call or dies, the Forsaken are going to continue to grow more Scourge-like as time goes on.
I don't think that there needs to be a "Alliance expansion, Horde expansion" kind of alternation, and I actually don't want to just see the Alliance winning all the time in Mists the way the Horde did in Cataclysm. Garrosh has undone a huge amount of progress made by Thrall. There's an interesting question to be raised: is the Horde destined to fall into bloodlust? Was a Warchief like Garrosh inevitable? But also, can the Horde find a cause to fight for that they can be proud of again?
We'll see how it goes.
Urban Life in WoW, part 2
So, we've talked about half of the home cities for the two player factions. While Shattrath and Dalaran are both important locations, I think that, given their relative isolation, it makes sense for them to remain unchanged. Don't get me wrong, Dalaran is probably the best-designed city in all of WoW, with everything relatively organized and a gorgeous design in a remarkably small space. And Shattrath is all right, I guess. But unless we see an Outland or Northrend revamp like Cataclysm did to the old world (and that would really just set us up for an ever-repeating treadmill of revamps - which granted, one could argue for) I think that both of these neutral cities will not likely change much.
So, to continue:
Silvermoon City:
While we're probably not going to see much change in the BC territories, the truth is that Blood Elf society has been going through drastic changes. We've actually seen a bit of change in Silvermoon already - when BC came out, the Blood Elf capital actually reflected total ignorance of Kael'thas' deal with the Legion. Hell, as a BE you headed into Outland basically on Illidan's side (the story for BC was a bit of a mess - Wrath was where they started getting better about making things clear in-game.) While Silvermoon is clearly a pleasant city (the part that wasn't destroyed by the Scourge,) there's some creepy totalitarian vibes going on as well. Though the propaganda-spewing Arcane Guardians are no longer preaching about Kael'thas and the promised land, they're still there, just with a new, Lor'themar-friendly message. There's clearly a bit of a rift between the Magisters and the Farstriders - the latter seem happy to team up with the High Elf exiles while the former are more interested in remaining loyal to the Horde. The Blood Elves have always had a bit of an identity crisis, and Garrosh's leadership has really tipped things in favor of reconciliation with, if not the Alliance, then those countrymen still loyal to the Alliance.
Ironforge:
The Dwarves are another group of people with serious fractures forming. Actually, arguably they are not so much fractured as they are being inundated with new people who are officially welcome in their city, but not really gelling. The Wildhammers have always been a bit easier to get along with among the Bronzebeards than the Dark Irons, but I'd like to see a bit more of their influence on the society. Clearly, it is the Dark Irons who are going to cause the most trouble, especially given Moira's involvement with them and her son who actually has a pretty legit claim to the throne. There is a Dark Iron embassy in Ironforge, though it only really comes up in one quest. I'd like to see some serious clashes between the clans - perhaps even creating a neighborhood for each clan. We need to know more about Moira's actual intentions, and that needs to be reflected in changes to good old IF (which was totally the real Alliance capital back in the day, and I say this as a guy whose main is a human.) Oh, and also, what's the deal with Tinkertown? I know Mekkatorque is down by Gnomeregan, continuing the fight against the Troggs and the Leper Gnomes, but surely the gnomes would have something to say about all this dwarven intrigue.
Orgrimmar:
Ok, here we come to the big ones. Orgrimmar saw the biggest changes of any city in Cataclysm - the Goblins took over the old Troll area, the Tauren now hang out in the ruins of Thrall's old keep, and Garrosh has set himself up where the old, glorious flight tower used to be (for you newbies, that's the thing you see collapsing in the Cataclysm cinematic along with the zeppelin crashing into the canyon wall - that zeppelin used to hover stationary over the city.) Garrosh has so totally remade Orgrimmar that I actually think it's the city that needs the least alteration. And yet, with Garrosh being removed, we're clearly going to need a bit of change. I don't know how that will work, exactly, as so much of the Horde leveling experience involves Garrosh. Will we phase him out for those who have completed the Siege of Orgrimmar, replaced by Thrall (or Saurfang, or Vol'jin, or a Basic Campfire?) I actually hope they keep the Drag the way it is, to preserve a bit of the Old Orgrimmar, but at the same time it would be nice to see the renovations on the front gates and some of the other parts of the city completed.
Stormwind:
Stormwind was not rebuilt as much as Orgrimmar, but there were some huge changes. For one, the old "Night Elf district," the Park, was totally obliterated and is now literally a giant smoking crater, where the land has fallen into the sea. We do have some cool little farmland to the north - a kind of safe, protected area to get away from all the urban stuff. However, with the Cataclysm over, it seems like Stormwind should have finished rebuilding. If we have to keep Deathwing's claw-marks, so be it, but I would love to see something rebuilt in the area once known as the Park. It strikes me that, while Blizzard shuffled most of the Worgen over to Darnassus (giving them the Howling Oak, which, while cool, was just tossing a model used elsewhere in the world in an unused corner,) it would make far more sense for them to want to cling to their human allies. Additionally, the whole Gilnean architectural style is fantastic. Give the Worgen and the Night Elves a kind of shared district within this area: the Druids of both races grow a tree, stretching out from cliff wall, providing a little natural balcony where the Night Elves could just chill out and enjoy it being a tree and the Worgen could set up their little caravans. Actually, to match the way that Orgrimmar has areas for four of the six Horde races, you could also make a little Draenei area in Cathedral Square (which was expanded quite a bit in Cataclysm.) For some reason, Blizzard has a very hard time incorporating the non-vanilla Alliance races into the world (which is a shame, because they're probably my two favorite playable races.) Giving them some face time in the capital would at least remind us that they're still there.
So, to continue:
Silvermoon City:
While we're probably not going to see much change in the BC territories, the truth is that Blood Elf society has been going through drastic changes. We've actually seen a bit of change in Silvermoon already - when BC came out, the Blood Elf capital actually reflected total ignorance of Kael'thas' deal with the Legion. Hell, as a BE you headed into Outland basically on Illidan's side (the story for BC was a bit of a mess - Wrath was where they started getting better about making things clear in-game.) While Silvermoon is clearly a pleasant city (the part that wasn't destroyed by the Scourge,) there's some creepy totalitarian vibes going on as well. Though the propaganda-spewing Arcane Guardians are no longer preaching about Kael'thas and the promised land, they're still there, just with a new, Lor'themar-friendly message. There's clearly a bit of a rift between the Magisters and the Farstriders - the latter seem happy to team up with the High Elf exiles while the former are more interested in remaining loyal to the Horde. The Blood Elves have always had a bit of an identity crisis, and Garrosh's leadership has really tipped things in favor of reconciliation with, if not the Alliance, then those countrymen still loyal to the Alliance.
Ironforge:
The Dwarves are another group of people with serious fractures forming. Actually, arguably they are not so much fractured as they are being inundated with new people who are officially welcome in their city, but not really gelling. The Wildhammers have always been a bit easier to get along with among the Bronzebeards than the Dark Irons, but I'd like to see a bit more of their influence on the society. Clearly, it is the Dark Irons who are going to cause the most trouble, especially given Moira's involvement with them and her son who actually has a pretty legit claim to the throne. There is a Dark Iron embassy in Ironforge, though it only really comes up in one quest. I'd like to see some serious clashes between the clans - perhaps even creating a neighborhood for each clan. We need to know more about Moira's actual intentions, and that needs to be reflected in changes to good old IF (which was totally the real Alliance capital back in the day, and I say this as a guy whose main is a human.) Oh, and also, what's the deal with Tinkertown? I know Mekkatorque is down by Gnomeregan, continuing the fight against the Troggs and the Leper Gnomes, but surely the gnomes would have something to say about all this dwarven intrigue.
Orgrimmar:
Ok, here we come to the big ones. Orgrimmar saw the biggest changes of any city in Cataclysm - the Goblins took over the old Troll area, the Tauren now hang out in the ruins of Thrall's old keep, and Garrosh has set himself up where the old, glorious flight tower used to be (for you newbies, that's the thing you see collapsing in the Cataclysm cinematic along with the zeppelin crashing into the canyon wall - that zeppelin used to hover stationary over the city.) Garrosh has so totally remade Orgrimmar that I actually think it's the city that needs the least alteration. And yet, with Garrosh being removed, we're clearly going to need a bit of change. I don't know how that will work, exactly, as so much of the Horde leveling experience involves Garrosh. Will we phase him out for those who have completed the Siege of Orgrimmar, replaced by Thrall (or Saurfang, or Vol'jin, or a Basic Campfire?) I actually hope they keep the Drag the way it is, to preserve a bit of the Old Orgrimmar, but at the same time it would be nice to see the renovations on the front gates and some of the other parts of the city completed.
Stormwind:
Stormwind was not rebuilt as much as Orgrimmar, but there were some huge changes. For one, the old "Night Elf district," the Park, was totally obliterated and is now literally a giant smoking crater, where the land has fallen into the sea. We do have some cool little farmland to the north - a kind of safe, protected area to get away from all the urban stuff. However, with the Cataclysm over, it seems like Stormwind should have finished rebuilding. If we have to keep Deathwing's claw-marks, so be it, but I would love to see something rebuilt in the area once known as the Park. It strikes me that, while Blizzard shuffled most of the Worgen over to Darnassus (giving them the Howling Oak, which, while cool, was just tossing a model used elsewhere in the world in an unused corner,) it would make far more sense for them to want to cling to their human allies. Additionally, the whole Gilnean architectural style is fantastic. Give the Worgen and the Night Elves a kind of shared district within this area: the Druids of both races grow a tree, stretching out from cliff wall, providing a little natural balcony where the Night Elves could just chill out and enjoy it being a tree and the Worgen could set up their little caravans. Actually, to match the way that Orgrimmar has areas for four of the six Horde races, you could also make a little Draenei area in Cathedral Square (which was expanded quite a bit in Cataclysm.) For some reason, Blizzard has a very hard time incorporating the non-vanilla Alliance races into the world (which is a shame, because they're probably my two favorite playable races.) Giving them some face time in the capital would at least remind us that they're still there.
Monday, April 2, 2012
Urban Life in WoW part 1:
I remember one of my first experiences seeing WoW was when my college roommate was playing around on his level 6 or so Orc Warlock. I was amazed at how huge Durotar looked, and that such an expanse could incorporate such a tiny portion of the greater map. One of the coolest things I saw was Orgrimmar, with its big, off-kilter spiky wooden structures - a desert city with cacti and surprisingly friendly orcs (not being familiar with Warcraft, I had always filed orcs away with the "always evil" monsters, in the Tolkien style.)
Watching him play inspired me to try it out, and so I made my Tauren. Thunder Bluff blew me away - the city up high above the plains. And then I made Jarsus and saw Stormwind and Ironforge. The cities in WoW are pretty darned cool.
While Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King took us to new continents, each with a new, neutral city, we still returned to the old ones for our auction house and class training needs (Engineers and Mages got around those, respectively, during Wrath.) Cataclysm took us back to the Old World, and along with the questing revamp, Stormwind, and to a far greater extent, Orgrimmar, were rebuilt.
Actually, one could argue that the state of the two major capital cities give you a good sense of where each faction is at. Stormwind had an entire neighborhood obliterated, and is still scarred by Deathwing's assault. Orgrimmar, on the other hand, is having the last vestiges of Thrall's kinder, softer Horde wiped away in favor of Warsong Hold-style iron and stone.
One of my beefs with Cataclysm was the way that, ironically, by putting so much effort into these two cities, the other three cities for each faction have become greater ghost towns. I used to do my auctioneering and such in Undercity, Ironforge, and Thunder Bluff back when we were on an entirely different planet, but nowadays, regardless of the character, I stick to Stormwind and Orgrimmar.
I'm not entirely sure what the design goal will be for Mists of Pandaria. My understanding is that there will not exactly be a new neutral city, but there will be large towns for each side in the central Vale of Eternal Blossoms (which I understand to be kind of the Crystalsong Forest of Mists) and hopefully motivation to venture into the rest of the continent as well.
That said, I think there's a lot to be said for those original (and BC-era) cities, and I wouldn't mind an opportunity to see some development going on inside the various important cities of either faction. With the Cataclysm revamp done, and Blizzard in a state where I think they (rightly, for the most part) don't want to do much more redesign on currently existing stuff, I still hold out hope that some dynamic change can occur in the cities of WoW.
So here's what I'd like to see, city-by-city, along with quests and mechanics that would encourage us to go revisit them.
Darnassus:
Honestly, Night Elf lore has never really drawn me in, with a few exceptions (even though I think he's a little too emo - with all of his darkness basically born out of a girl not liking him as much as his brother - Illidan and the demon-hunters on whole are a pretty cool concept.) I actually thought it was most interesting when Fandral was still there, and you had him vying for the position of leader while Tyrande - who back then was an ass-kicker who was willing to slaughter her own people to do what she felt had to be done - kept his radicalism in check. This may not have been the best place to start, because honestly Darnassus was always a little weird. The Night Elves are supposed to be these ancient people with ruins all over the world, and yet their capital city and starting zone are more recent than the foundation of Orgrimmar. Perhaps if we could see more apparently the flaws of Teldrassil in Darnassus, and show us the effect of the corruption from this failed world tree (which I'm assuming was Fandral's idea,) it would be better. For a source of natural corruption, Teldrassil and Darnassus are way to nice-looking.
Undercity:
After the Wrathgate incident, the abomination guards in Undercity were replaced with Kor'kron guards. As an undead character, the guards your ask directions from in your own city treat you like dirt. Here's the thing: since Wrath, the Horde has been portrayed as this industrializing juggernaut. Garrosh's influence has been that the Horde is constantly militarizing and constantly enforcing its will on an ever-expanding empire. Indeed, Cataclysm's old-world revamp watched the Horde expand its grasp on the world. Yet at the same time, Sylvanas is more aggressive than ever. Sure, officially she's Horde, but the Forsaken have always been a somewhat more independent entity than the rest of the Horde. I don't know if this is still the case, but Undead and Blood Elf characters used to actually start out only neutral with the Kalimdor Horde, but with a bonus to their Undercity and Silvermoon reps (the opposite was true for Orcs, Trolls, Tauren, and if this is still the case, Goblins.) I'm probably going to write a whole article about this, but what I see is that the Horde's grasp on the Forsaken is slipping. Theoretically the Kor'kron are there to prevent another Wrathgate from happening, but I think Sylvanas is doing a whole lot of stuff right under their noses. I think Garrosh has overextended the Horde, and eventually, they're going to have to sacrifice the control they have over their undead allies. I think the Undercity should get its abominations (or new creepy guardians) back, to reinforce the notion that the Forsaken are a wildcard that even the Horde can't necessarily trust. Throw in some more mad scientists and plague works and you'll have a very interesting development in Undercity. One last thing: I always thought it was a bit of a missed opportunity that Sylvanas isn't hunting down any remaining members of Varimathras' conspiracy. Even if Varimathras was more evil than Sylvanas, a witch-hunt going on among the undead would add a level of volatility and even more potential for stories.
Exodar:
Exodar is tough, because it's never really felt like a city. I've always liked to call it the Exodar Convention Center, because rather than shops or buildings, the areas within always felt more like booths. The only thing I could imagine doing to make Exodar cooler would be a very radical idea: repairing it. Imagine if when you got to your home city as a Draenei, you came not to a giant wreck, but an awe-inspiring, floating ship hovering above Azuremyst. The Draenei haven't had much to do since BC. I think it would be a great justification if they had been preparing for an assault on the Legion. The Scourge? Deathwing? Just speed bumps on the way to the real war. The Draenei are ready to go, and their ship is fueled up, armed, and ready to kick some demonic ass.
Thunder Bluff:
I adore Thunder Bluff. For one thing, it's probably the best city to fly around with a flying mount. Sadly, with the removal of Magatha Grimtotem (sort of like the removal of Fandral Staghelm) the internal conflict is not really present. Honestly, I'm not sure what to think of where the Tauren are nowadays. The new classes didn't really incur any cultural change. I think the best direction to go with the Tauren is their ambivalence about their future with the Horde. It would be interesting to see scenes throughout the city where Tauren are protesting Cairne's death and the massacres against Tauren by their own allies (Stonetalon Mountains - play that zone if you haven't.) Having a faction of Tauren who want nothing to do with the Horde anymore would be a very interesting development.
This is getting fairly long, so I'll finish with the other four cities next time.
Watching him play inspired me to try it out, and so I made my Tauren. Thunder Bluff blew me away - the city up high above the plains. And then I made Jarsus and saw Stormwind and Ironforge. The cities in WoW are pretty darned cool.
While Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King took us to new continents, each with a new, neutral city, we still returned to the old ones for our auction house and class training needs (Engineers and Mages got around those, respectively, during Wrath.) Cataclysm took us back to the Old World, and along with the questing revamp, Stormwind, and to a far greater extent, Orgrimmar, were rebuilt.
Actually, one could argue that the state of the two major capital cities give you a good sense of where each faction is at. Stormwind had an entire neighborhood obliterated, and is still scarred by Deathwing's assault. Orgrimmar, on the other hand, is having the last vestiges of Thrall's kinder, softer Horde wiped away in favor of Warsong Hold-style iron and stone.
One of my beefs with Cataclysm was the way that, ironically, by putting so much effort into these two cities, the other three cities for each faction have become greater ghost towns. I used to do my auctioneering and such in Undercity, Ironforge, and Thunder Bluff back when we were on an entirely different planet, but nowadays, regardless of the character, I stick to Stormwind and Orgrimmar.
I'm not entirely sure what the design goal will be for Mists of Pandaria. My understanding is that there will not exactly be a new neutral city, but there will be large towns for each side in the central Vale of Eternal Blossoms (which I understand to be kind of the Crystalsong Forest of Mists) and hopefully motivation to venture into the rest of the continent as well.
That said, I think there's a lot to be said for those original (and BC-era) cities, and I wouldn't mind an opportunity to see some development going on inside the various important cities of either faction. With the Cataclysm revamp done, and Blizzard in a state where I think they (rightly, for the most part) don't want to do much more redesign on currently existing stuff, I still hold out hope that some dynamic change can occur in the cities of WoW.
So here's what I'd like to see, city-by-city, along with quests and mechanics that would encourage us to go revisit them.
Darnassus:
Honestly, Night Elf lore has never really drawn me in, with a few exceptions (even though I think he's a little too emo - with all of his darkness basically born out of a girl not liking him as much as his brother - Illidan and the demon-hunters on whole are a pretty cool concept.) I actually thought it was most interesting when Fandral was still there, and you had him vying for the position of leader while Tyrande - who back then was an ass-kicker who was willing to slaughter her own people to do what she felt had to be done - kept his radicalism in check. This may not have been the best place to start, because honestly Darnassus was always a little weird. The Night Elves are supposed to be these ancient people with ruins all over the world, and yet their capital city and starting zone are more recent than the foundation of Orgrimmar. Perhaps if we could see more apparently the flaws of Teldrassil in Darnassus, and show us the effect of the corruption from this failed world tree (which I'm assuming was Fandral's idea,) it would be better. For a source of natural corruption, Teldrassil and Darnassus are way to nice-looking.
Undercity:
After the Wrathgate incident, the abomination guards in Undercity were replaced with Kor'kron guards. As an undead character, the guards your ask directions from in your own city treat you like dirt. Here's the thing: since Wrath, the Horde has been portrayed as this industrializing juggernaut. Garrosh's influence has been that the Horde is constantly militarizing and constantly enforcing its will on an ever-expanding empire. Indeed, Cataclysm's old-world revamp watched the Horde expand its grasp on the world. Yet at the same time, Sylvanas is more aggressive than ever. Sure, officially she's Horde, but the Forsaken have always been a somewhat more independent entity than the rest of the Horde. I don't know if this is still the case, but Undead and Blood Elf characters used to actually start out only neutral with the Kalimdor Horde, but with a bonus to their Undercity and Silvermoon reps (the opposite was true for Orcs, Trolls, Tauren, and if this is still the case, Goblins.) I'm probably going to write a whole article about this, but what I see is that the Horde's grasp on the Forsaken is slipping. Theoretically the Kor'kron are there to prevent another Wrathgate from happening, but I think Sylvanas is doing a whole lot of stuff right under their noses. I think Garrosh has overextended the Horde, and eventually, they're going to have to sacrifice the control they have over their undead allies. I think the Undercity should get its abominations (or new creepy guardians) back, to reinforce the notion that the Forsaken are a wildcard that even the Horde can't necessarily trust. Throw in some more mad scientists and plague works and you'll have a very interesting development in Undercity. One last thing: I always thought it was a bit of a missed opportunity that Sylvanas isn't hunting down any remaining members of Varimathras' conspiracy. Even if Varimathras was more evil than Sylvanas, a witch-hunt going on among the undead would add a level of volatility and even more potential for stories.
Exodar:
Exodar is tough, because it's never really felt like a city. I've always liked to call it the Exodar Convention Center, because rather than shops or buildings, the areas within always felt more like booths. The only thing I could imagine doing to make Exodar cooler would be a very radical idea: repairing it. Imagine if when you got to your home city as a Draenei, you came not to a giant wreck, but an awe-inspiring, floating ship hovering above Azuremyst. The Draenei haven't had much to do since BC. I think it would be a great justification if they had been preparing for an assault on the Legion. The Scourge? Deathwing? Just speed bumps on the way to the real war. The Draenei are ready to go, and their ship is fueled up, armed, and ready to kick some demonic ass.
Thunder Bluff:
I adore Thunder Bluff. For one thing, it's probably the best city to fly around with a flying mount. Sadly, with the removal of Magatha Grimtotem (sort of like the removal of Fandral Staghelm) the internal conflict is not really present. Honestly, I'm not sure what to think of where the Tauren are nowadays. The new classes didn't really incur any cultural change. I think the best direction to go with the Tauren is their ambivalence about their future with the Horde. It would be interesting to see scenes throughout the city where Tauren are protesting Cairne's death and the massacres against Tauren by their own allies (Stonetalon Mountains - play that zone if you haven't.) Having a faction of Tauren who want nothing to do with the Horde anymore would be a very interesting development.
This is getting fairly long, so I'll finish with the other four cities next time.
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