We'll start with the last part: the Grand Commendations, which grant a 100% bonus to all reputation gains with their respective factions, will actually prove far more useful for those of you who have waited to level up your alts.
The majority of quests in Townlong Steppes grant Shado-Pan reputation, and nearly all the quests in Dread Wastes provide Klaxxi Rep, such that if you do everything in both zones, you'll hit 90 at nearly honored with Shado-Pan and quite a way into honored with Klaxxi. Because the Grand Commendations work with all rep gains, and not just dailies, you will arrive with a very big lead on those reputations simply by doing the level-up quests. Sadly for me, I've already done most of these quests on seven different characters, so I will certainly still have to spend much of my time doing dailies on all of them if I wish to take advantage of their rewards. Anyway, if you're deciding between leveling another alt or getting those Commendations first, I definitely recommend the Commendations.
The double rewards are extremely welcome, but I still think they do not solve the overall problem caused by unifying reputation and VP rewards. I've written tons about this subject, so I'll just leave it with a "well, this is certainly better, at the least."
Today I had the opportunity to try out two of the new scenarios - specifically the Alliance ones. Doing a random scenario will net you a Cache like they have always done, but apparently there is a chance for 476 epic rewards, making scenario-running a more attractive option.
I still would have liked to see these new scenarios contain quests that could reward compelling items - perhaps 463 blues. Scenarios are a great idea, but I think the real challenge for Blizzard will be to come up with a reward structure that encourages doing them, but also does not detract from 5-man dungeons. Had heroics been as difficult as Cataclysm heroics, I'm sure I'd find these a whole lot more compelling, but given how easy it is to clear the new dungeons, the relative time investment favors dungeons far better.
Anyway, the specifics:
Lion's Landing:
Your new base is under assault by the Horde (I assume there's a mirror one for Domination Point, but I have not yet done the Horde side of things.) Lion's Landing has many discreet phases, but each goes by very quickly. You simply work your way through the fortress, fending off Horde attacks while you link up with various characters like Admiral Taylor and the Jade Forest survivors (hooray! Amber's still alive!) as well as the Dwarf Marshal from Southern Barrens whose name escapes me. The final portion of the scenario has you hold the line against waves of Horde forces, culminating in the enemy commander (in our case it was a Sunwalker, though there may be different commanders to face.) This part can be tough, but there are a few items that you bring along that will make things easier, such as bombs or rockets, which will deal heavy damage and interrupt whatever they hit.
A Little Patience:
This one's a bit more complex and interesting. Tyrande has pursued a group of Kor'kron who are now holed up in the Temple of the Red Crane. Tyrande wants to attack, but Varian, heeding his son's advice, not to mention Chi-ji's, wants to avoid desecrating the temple with violence.
You therefore get twelve minutes to set up defenses at a Night Elf and a Jinyu position. You find various resources out in the world or on enemies that can be used to speed up the process of building the fortifications. These will stack, so you can get the bases built before the Horde masses for a charge. It's not terribly difficult to do so, and if you have both bases set up before the time is up, the Horde forces will charge in to a total slaughter (seriously, it's a little disturbing how many Orcs we saw explode into meaty bits from Glaive Throwers.) When the charge is over (if the bases are set up, you can pretty much just watch) all that's left to do is take out two groups of three Kor'kron guards and then attack the commander, who's not a pushover but not terribly difficult either.
With the commander dead, Chi-ji reclaims his temple and Tyrande recognizes that Varian's leadership abilities are developing nicely. This may, in fact, be the first of the Trials of the High King, and Varian has come a long way from the belligerent racist we were introduced to in Wrath.
I would have liked to see a quest for these scenarios, or get some follow-up on what's going on with the Alliance. I know that one of the Horde-specific ones involves Vol'jin's arrival on the continent and his betrayal at the hands of Garrosh's men, and thus begins the resistance movement against Garrosh. The Alliance, of course, does not have the same sort of upheaval in store for it, which is fine, but also means that we don't have quite the shocking plot developments we might enjoy.
I do know that there is going to be some stuff revolving around Jaina and Dalaran - specifically that after the Horde's attack on Theramore killed the leader of the Kirin Tor (that's right, Rhonin is dead,) Jaina takes over and attempts to purge the Sunreavers from the city, believing that they were behind the breach in her city's defenses. I don't know quite how dark they're going to take Jaina (is she just kicking them out or killing them all?) but it does signal a bit of ambiguity to the Alliance side (and an actual reason for the Horde to get angry with the Alliance other than just the fact that they continue to exist.) Yet I do not know when we get to see this occur (though it stands to reason it may be a reputation threshold quest chain related to Operation Shieldwall.)
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
5.1 Live
In many ways, 5.1 feels less like a patch than a two-part release to the expansion. We've spent the last two months exploring this new land, but other than small expeditions in Krasarang and the disastrous efforts by Taylor and Nazgrim in Jade Forest (and their somewhat less disastrous efforts in Kun Lai - when they aren't aiming for each other) the place has been essentially been devoid of the familiar factions until now. We are truly the intrepid explorers here, and the land is, in a way, more alien then Outland.
Now, however, we've got the big guns showing up on both sides, and at the very least the beaches of Krasarang are looking very much like the Southern Barrens - Alliance versus Horde in a huge, ongoing battle.
The new daily quests are interesting in that they seem to really get you right up into each others' grills. I took Jarsus through a round of them, and I found myself assaulting the Horde base, literally going into the walls and killing Horde forces. Some Horde players flagged themselves for PvP and tried to get me to accidentally flag myself, but I played very carefully there (I know there are those who want more world PvP, but I rolled on a PvE server back in the day because I wanted to have complete control over when I was pitting myself against players or robots.) I would assume that the action switches around to different areas each day, but today was a "take it to the Horde" day. The rewards for Operation Shieldwall (and Dominance Offensive) appear to be higher-quality than the four 5.0 factions, but of course you will also need to get your rep up to a solid place to purchase them for significant quantities of valor points.
Killing Horde (or Alliance, if you are Horde) NPCs will grant you commendation items as a drop. These are interesting in that they can be turned in to a special vendor who will allow you to purchase various things to spruce up the base - such as mercenary Mages or Paladins or a handful of other classes, or getting guards for various installations on the battlefield. You can also get items the begin quests. I bought one of these (a Tiger trap) that required me to get a huge amount of Yak meat (with a sadly low drop rate) and capture a tiger for a sort of arena thing near Lion's Landing. I actually have no idea what this accomplished, but it seems that you can use these arenas to... test yourself against the animals you catch? I don't know if this quest is repeatable (though unless its rewards become clear and are also compelling, I'm not inclined to try again - they don't even give rep) but I believe I'm only scratching the surface of this area. It is, in some ways, a PvP zone, yet you are not required to do any PvP to participate in the faction grind.
Along with the new hubs come a couple of scenarios - two for each faction as well as a neutral one. I have yet to do these, so I can't comment much on them, but I imagine we'll see plots unfold through them as well as through hitting various reputation levels. There isn't one big, quick quest chain to go through from the start, other than the brief one that gets your base built. However, knowing that there are some big plot points to be seen, I imagine doing the scenarios will be an important part in progressing the story, particularly the Horde one surrounding Vol'jin's betrayal at the hands of Garrosh's Kor'kron.
Warlocks, sadly, are going to have to wait until 5.2 for their big quest chain, which is quite sad, though I think it's best to let us do the whole thing in one go and not spread it out like the Wrathion quests.
Now, the infamous Brawler's Guild. Thankfully, the place is open to the public as a place to just go and chill out. You only need a membership to queue for the fights. I'm still very skeptical about how well this feature is going to work out as something that is not instanced, but Bizmo's Brawlpub at least is a very cool area, though it could use more booze vendors. Definitely a cool RP hang-out spot.
Of course, new features are not the only thing that you'll be thinking about when you log on (if you haven't already.) The first thing I did, before doing by Shieldwall dailies, was to pick up a Grand Commendation for each of the Pandaria factions (minus Anglers, which I am still not revered with.) They run 37g50s at revered or 35g at exalted (this may include the guild perk, actually) so while it's not a huge investment, you will find yourself down a chunk of change after picking them up. Of course, it's super worth it.
As there does not seem to be a Black Prince quartermaster, I don't think there is a commendation for him, but both the gear-based factions and the minor factions like Tillers have them. I do not know, though I assume that the rep bonus applies to both daily and one-shot quests, meaning you probably want to delay leveling alts through Townlong and Dread Wastes until you have Shado-Pan or Klaxxi at revered on your main (too late for my Rogue, Death Knight, Warrior, Shaman, Warlock and Mage. Oh well.)
These Grand Commendations are certainly welcome, though I think they are ultimately a kind of band-aid for the problem. Unless I start running all my toons through their dailies each day, I'm still going to be working on these factions for a very long time, and though these things do cut that time in half, it's still going to be quite a while. On the other hand, the new Alliance/Horde factions offer some overlapping rewards with other factions (rings, boots, belts, and trinkets I believe) so you might be able to squeeze by without getting all the original factions.
For a major content patch, Landfall may seem a little underwhelming, and perhaps that's fair, if you compare it to some of the amazingly huge patches like 3.3 and 4.3. But of course, this is only two months into the expansion, and much of the stuff we're dealing with is still quite new (I still haven't done Heart of Fear on LFR, though that's more out of frustration with the length of tank queue times than a feeling of being overwhelmed.) 5.1 is really more 5.0 part two, and when you consider that, it's actually really damned impressive.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go chill out in the Brawlpub and get drunk.
Now, however, we've got the big guns showing up on both sides, and at the very least the beaches of Krasarang are looking very much like the Southern Barrens - Alliance versus Horde in a huge, ongoing battle.
The new daily quests are interesting in that they seem to really get you right up into each others' grills. I took Jarsus through a round of them, and I found myself assaulting the Horde base, literally going into the walls and killing Horde forces. Some Horde players flagged themselves for PvP and tried to get me to accidentally flag myself, but I played very carefully there (I know there are those who want more world PvP, but I rolled on a PvE server back in the day because I wanted to have complete control over when I was pitting myself against players or robots.) I would assume that the action switches around to different areas each day, but today was a "take it to the Horde" day. The rewards for Operation Shieldwall (and Dominance Offensive) appear to be higher-quality than the four 5.0 factions, but of course you will also need to get your rep up to a solid place to purchase them for significant quantities of valor points.
Killing Horde (or Alliance, if you are Horde) NPCs will grant you commendation items as a drop. These are interesting in that they can be turned in to a special vendor who will allow you to purchase various things to spruce up the base - such as mercenary Mages or Paladins or a handful of other classes, or getting guards for various installations on the battlefield. You can also get items the begin quests. I bought one of these (a Tiger trap) that required me to get a huge amount of Yak meat (with a sadly low drop rate) and capture a tiger for a sort of arena thing near Lion's Landing. I actually have no idea what this accomplished, but it seems that you can use these arenas to... test yourself against the animals you catch? I don't know if this quest is repeatable (though unless its rewards become clear and are also compelling, I'm not inclined to try again - they don't even give rep) but I believe I'm only scratching the surface of this area. It is, in some ways, a PvP zone, yet you are not required to do any PvP to participate in the faction grind.
Along with the new hubs come a couple of scenarios - two for each faction as well as a neutral one. I have yet to do these, so I can't comment much on them, but I imagine we'll see plots unfold through them as well as through hitting various reputation levels. There isn't one big, quick quest chain to go through from the start, other than the brief one that gets your base built. However, knowing that there are some big plot points to be seen, I imagine doing the scenarios will be an important part in progressing the story, particularly the Horde one surrounding Vol'jin's betrayal at the hands of Garrosh's Kor'kron.
Warlocks, sadly, are going to have to wait until 5.2 for their big quest chain, which is quite sad, though I think it's best to let us do the whole thing in one go and not spread it out like the Wrathion quests.
Now, the infamous Brawler's Guild. Thankfully, the place is open to the public as a place to just go and chill out. You only need a membership to queue for the fights. I'm still very skeptical about how well this feature is going to work out as something that is not instanced, but Bizmo's Brawlpub at least is a very cool area, though it could use more booze vendors. Definitely a cool RP hang-out spot.
Of course, new features are not the only thing that you'll be thinking about when you log on (if you haven't already.) The first thing I did, before doing by Shieldwall dailies, was to pick up a Grand Commendation for each of the Pandaria factions (minus Anglers, which I am still not revered with.) They run 37g50s at revered or 35g at exalted (this may include the guild perk, actually) so while it's not a huge investment, you will find yourself down a chunk of change after picking them up. Of course, it's super worth it.
As there does not seem to be a Black Prince quartermaster, I don't think there is a commendation for him, but both the gear-based factions and the minor factions like Tillers have them. I do not know, though I assume that the rep bonus applies to both daily and one-shot quests, meaning you probably want to delay leveling alts through Townlong and Dread Wastes until you have Shado-Pan or Klaxxi at revered on your main (too late for my Rogue, Death Knight, Warrior, Shaman, Warlock and Mage. Oh well.)
These Grand Commendations are certainly welcome, though I think they are ultimately a kind of band-aid for the problem. Unless I start running all my toons through their dailies each day, I'm still going to be working on these factions for a very long time, and though these things do cut that time in half, it's still going to be quite a while. On the other hand, the new Alliance/Horde factions offer some overlapping rewards with other factions (rings, boots, belts, and trinkets I believe) so you might be able to squeeze by without getting all the original factions.
For a major content patch, Landfall may seem a little underwhelming, and perhaps that's fair, if you compare it to some of the amazingly huge patches like 3.3 and 4.3. But of course, this is only two months into the expansion, and much of the stuff we're dealing with is still quite new (I still haven't done Heart of Fear on LFR, though that's more out of frustration with the length of tank queue times than a feeling of being overwhelmed.) 5.1 is really more 5.0 part two, and when you consider that, it's actually really damned impressive.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go chill out in the Brawlpub and get drunk.
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Changing the Way I Play
We're just two months into Mists and I find myself very conflicted about the expansion. I love that they are putting so much effort into story, and Pandaria feels like a much more cohesive setting than the five scattered zones of Cataclysm. I also like that heroics are tuned on the easier side (though they are probably a bit too easy - HoT heroics were probably in the sweet spot.)
However, there are a few things that I don't really care for. One is probably obvious: the fact that Valor rewards are gated behind reputations. I would have far preferred that reputation gear was considered something distinct from VP gear. Now, granted, I never hit exalted with Baradin's Warders, and by the time I considered it, the gear available from it was way below what I would want. Still, I think that additional questing content at level 90 is a good idea, and I'd be happy to do it - it's just that I'd also like the option to just gear up via VP the old fashioned way.
One of the problems that arises with this system is that I always seem to either have too much VP and nothing to spend it on, or I've got plenty of rep but not enough VP to buy anything with because I spend all my time on daily quests with their relatively insubstantial 5 VP per quest (yes, I know it adds up, but very slowly.) My main and vice-main demonstrate this: Jarsus has hit revered with everyone, but has a tiny amount of VP, while Oterro is sitting on 1700 or so, but is only honored with Klaxxi and Golden Lotus.
Now, Blizzard has said time and again that we don't have to do the Rep grind. If we want, we can just run instances over and over to get our drops the old old fashioned way. The progression path they point to is that you run heroics, then step into Raid Finder (unless you've got a raiding guild, which, I fear, mine no longer is.)
This, then, introduces a new problem: Raid Finder makes tanking nearly impossible. If you are a tank, you will spend an hour or more in the Raid Finder queue. When only two people in every twenty-five is a tank, there's very little demand. Now, I'm not saying you won't get to run, but you need to set aside not only the hour or however long it takes to actually do the raid (and these are complex fights that can be relatively unforgiving: I'm looking at you, Will of the Emperor,) but also your queue time. To put it mildly, I'm disinclined to run LFR on my Tank.
I've taken my DK and made him go DPS, and he'll now be my "first run" guy, to scope out the instance before I see it on my main (5-mans, on the other hand, I think I will still see first on Jarsus.) As someone who ran all four kinds of tanks in Wrath, this is a sad day for me.
The other issue I have is that the daily gating is especially hard on alts. I resolved to wait until the double-rep bonus with 5.1 to start on those dailies with my other characters (though I'm cheating with Oterro, given his aforementioned new status.) Still, even at twice the rate, these grinds take a long time. On a plate-clad melee character, it's not a huge burden (especially the kind of self-healing killing machine that is a Death Knight) but for, say, my Mage, hitting the level cap and getting to a point where there will always be a tank to keep enemies at range is a huge boost to being an enjoyable class to play. And when you have as many toons as I do (at this point I have a Paladin, Rogue, Death Knight, Warrior, Shaman, Warlock, and Mage at 90) this kind of thing is a real pain. (Now, if each subsequent player could get another Commendation to either triple-quadruple etc or to exponentially double rep gains again, then we might be in business! If you'd done the grind on everyone but the Mage, a single Golden Lotus daily would yield 6,400 rep for him. At that rate, you'd hit exalted on the first day!)
My hope is that these issues are "early expansion issues." After all, remember how hard heroic Loken was back in 3.0? Assuming Blizzard listens really, really well to the feedback they're getting (and they should) it will hopefully be easier to catch up, gear-wise, when the next raid tier comes out. Will the current factions (and the 5.1 ones) lose relevance? Sure, it's possible. What I hope is that a few months from now, we'll be able to level up a new character, hit 90, and after a few days of dedicated dungeon running, get to a point where we don't embarrass ourselves. (100k dps? Ugh, weak!)
However, there are a few things that I don't really care for. One is probably obvious: the fact that Valor rewards are gated behind reputations. I would have far preferred that reputation gear was considered something distinct from VP gear. Now, granted, I never hit exalted with Baradin's Warders, and by the time I considered it, the gear available from it was way below what I would want. Still, I think that additional questing content at level 90 is a good idea, and I'd be happy to do it - it's just that I'd also like the option to just gear up via VP the old fashioned way.
One of the problems that arises with this system is that I always seem to either have too much VP and nothing to spend it on, or I've got plenty of rep but not enough VP to buy anything with because I spend all my time on daily quests with their relatively insubstantial 5 VP per quest (yes, I know it adds up, but very slowly.) My main and vice-main demonstrate this: Jarsus has hit revered with everyone, but has a tiny amount of VP, while Oterro is sitting on 1700 or so, but is only honored with Klaxxi and Golden Lotus.
Now, Blizzard has said time and again that we don't have to do the Rep grind. If we want, we can just run instances over and over to get our drops the old old fashioned way. The progression path they point to is that you run heroics, then step into Raid Finder (unless you've got a raiding guild, which, I fear, mine no longer is.)
This, then, introduces a new problem: Raid Finder makes tanking nearly impossible. If you are a tank, you will spend an hour or more in the Raid Finder queue. When only two people in every twenty-five is a tank, there's very little demand. Now, I'm not saying you won't get to run, but you need to set aside not only the hour or however long it takes to actually do the raid (and these are complex fights that can be relatively unforgiving: I'm looking at you, Will of the Emperor,) but also your queue time. To put it mildly, I'm disinclined to run LFR on my Tank.
I've taken my DK and made him go DPS, and he'll now be my "first run" guy, to scope out the instance before I see it on my main (5-mans, on the other hand, I think I will still see first on Jarsus.) As someone who ran all four kinds of tanks in Wrath, this is a sad day for me.
The other issue I have is that the daily gating is especially hard on alts. I resolved to wait until the double-rep bonus with 5.1 to start on those dailies with my other characters (though I'm cheating with Oterro, given his aforementioned new status.) Still, even at twice the rate, these grinds take a long time. On a plate-clad melee character, it's not a huge burden (especially the kind of self-healing killing machine that is a Death Knight) but for, say, my Mage, hitting the level cap and getting to a point where there will always be a tank to keep enemies at range is a huge boost to being an enjoyable class to play. And when you have as many toons as I do (at this point I have a Paladin, Rogue, Death Knight, Warrior, Shaman, Warlock, and Mage at 90) this kind of thing is a real pain. (Now, if each subsequent player could get another Commendation to either triple-quadruple etc or to exponentially double rep gains again, then we might be in business! If you'd done the grind on everyone but the Mage, a single Golden Lotus daily would yield 6,400 rep for him. At that rate, you'd hit exalted on the first day!)
My hope is that these issues are "early expansion issues." After all, remember how hard heroic Loken was back in 3.0? Assuming Blizzard listens really, really well to the feedback they're getting (and they should) it will hopefully be easier to catch up, gear-wise, when the next raid tier comes out. Will the current factions (and the 5.1 ones) lose relevance? Sure, it's possible. What I hope is that a few months from now, we'll be able to level up a new character, hit 90, and after a few days of dedicated dungeon running, get to a point where we don't embarrass ourselves. (100k dps? Ugh, weak!)
A Different Perspective on The Powers That Be
First off, this post contains some kind of big spoilers regarding the Klaxxi, the Sha, and the Mantid in general. It might be stuff you've figured out on your own, but if you want to stay totally spoiler-free, wait until you've hit exalted with the Klaxxi to read this analysis.
Saturday, November 24, 2012
Villains: Where are they now?
We've spent eight years and three expansions stomping bad guys across Azeroth and even beyond. The mighty foes we've had arrayed against us have fallen to our might, and in fact a large part of the plot of the current expansion is about how, in the absence of a greater, cosmological threat, our power has been turned on each other.
The thing is, while we've had some huge victories, our foes do not just disappear. Just as much of Europe figured the German threat had finally been dealt with after the First World War, just because you beat someone does not mean you'll never have to fight them again.
So what is the status of our former major foes, and how worried should we be about them?
Ragnaros: Dead. Elementals, interestingly, are a bit like demons. The ones we see in Azeroth are kind of avatars or projections. The real being exists in its home realm (the Twisting Nether for demons, the appropriate Elemental Plane for Elementals,) and so killing it just means they wake up at home, saying "ow! Dammit!" However, given certain circumstances (such as Illidan killing Tichondrius in Felwood) or if you actually go into their home realm and kill them there, they really do, truly die for good. Ragnaros (and Al'akir, for that matter) are dead dead. Does that mean we're never going to have to fight Fire Elementals again? Certainly not. But the old Firelord ain't coming back.
The Black Dragonflight: There is, in all of Azeroth, one black dragon still around (there's actually another in Outland, though his status is a little murky.) And that dragon is Wrathion, the super-shady but not inherently evil son of Deathwing. Wrathion has none of the Old-God corruption his family does, and one of the first things he does when he hatches is get a daring rogue to literally kill off every last member of the flight. Seriously - they're gone. Any new Black Dragons are going to be Wrathion's brood (again, barring some activity by Sablemane in Outland.) So while it's not unthinkable that we could fine ourselves at odds with the Black Prince, it's certainly not going to be anything like we've dealt with in the past.
The Old Gods: Like the Burning Legion, these guys are one of the core threats in the game, and it's unlikely we'll ever have them totally dealt with in a permanent way. Hell, the Titans have been trying that for eons!
C'thun: In a way, we've killed C'thun twice. The first time, it was in Ahn'qiraj, the second when he had possessed Cho'gall (who some called Cho'thun.) Now, here's the thing. Old Gods are Lovecraft-style. Death to them is like sleep for us. In fact, if we were actually to kill an Old God in a permanent way, the result would be arguably worse, as we've seen with Y'shaarj's remains in the form of the Sha. As for C'thun's Qiraji worshippers? I don't think we've wiped them off the face of the map, but it remains to be seen if they'll cause any more serious trouble for us.
Yogg-Saron: Like C'Thun, it's unlikely that Yogg-Saron is truly dead (though it would be interesting if his "death" helped bring forth the Cataclysm... doubt that's something we'll see addressed.) There's actually a lot of questions to be raised regarding his forces, the Iron Dwarves, but I think that with Loken dead they are also not much of a threat anymore.
The Illidari: Illidan's forces, to be perfectly honest, were never a huge threat to begin with, mainly because they were already fending off the Burning Legion. After Illidan's failed attempt to destroy the Lich King, he limped back to Outland and changed his game plan, setting himself up as Lord of Outland and pretending like that had been the goal all along. Of course, seeing as Kil'jaeden had explicitly told him he'd be dead meat if he didn't take out Ner'zhul and Arthas, it was no surprise to find that the Legion proper was blasting the hell out of Outland even as we stormed the Black Temple.
Now, they have said fairly explicitly that they want to bring Illidan back to life (I believe it was Chris Metzen who said it at Blizzcon 2011,) but his organization is all but dismantled, and I also believe they want to find a way for him to find redemption (seeing what he did in the War of the Ancients, plus the quest chain in Felwood that tells you about his motivations, really paints him in a more sympathetic light.) But his chief lieutenants are dead, other than Akama, who was undermining him anyway, so it's certainly not a threat for us to worry about.
The Burning Legion: Oh boy, though. The Legion's definitely still out there, and definitely still a threat. The whole victory at Sunwell Plateau was like having the slasher-movie villain banging on the door, getting it open a crack, and then our just barely managing to slam it shut again and put the bolt back. There's still a billion demons just screaming to get into Azeroth, and you can bet your ass we're going to have to deal with them again big-time, and likely multiple times. The Burning Legion could very well be a larger threat than the Old Gods, so don't expect them to go away any time soon.
The Naga: The storyline of Vashj'ir ends with most of the major Naga players dealt with, but Neptulon is stolen away by Ozumat nonetheless (I ran that dungeon a million times before I realized this was the case - I'd always assumed Neptulon just left the room after we fought off the Faceless Ones so we could enjoy our treasure.) In-Game, we've only seen Azshara (in Naga form) once, during a quest in Darkshore. A confrontation seems inevitable, but the Naga seem mostly content to do their work in secret, so it'll be a while before we see just what they have in mind.
The Blue Dragonflight: With crazy Malygos dead and Kalecgos having taken over the flight, the Blue Dragons are once again allies of the mortal races. While some bitterness might linger, for the most part, they seem to want to put the Nexus War behind them. This is for the best. It always felt wrong to be fighting against them.
The Scarlet Crusade: Well, before Mists I would have said they were goner than gone. After the remains of the organization after the Death Knight starting experience head to Northrend as the Scarlet Onslaught, only to be stopped once again by us, we find that the guy who manipulated them into doing so was actually Mal'ganis (Holy Crap! That guy just refuses to die. Also makes Arthas' fall that much more tragic, as he didn't even accomplish what he sold his soul for.) Yet it would seem that the Crusade has been reborn. Still, this was mainly an excuse to revamp Scarlet Monastery, so I doubt we're going to be seeing them as a major player any time soon. Still, it shows that just like Mal'ganis, the Crusade is a resilient motherfucker.
The Scourge: The Scourge are a real coin-flip here. Arthas is dead (like... super dead) and Bolvar Fordragon is the Jailor of the Damned - not the Lich King. Assuming he doesn't get corrupted (so far so good,) Bolvar's job is going to be to keep the Scourge quarantined up in Northrend. It's even conceivable that Bolvar could turn the Scourge toward something good, though this seems unlikely. We do know that small pockets of Scourge remain a problem, and indeed there are now many pretenders to the throne (some far less legitimate-looking than others.) While Bolvar is keeping most of the Scourge rounded up, the new splinter groups may be harder to keep track of. Not to mention that the Forsaken are starting to act a lot more like the Scourge...
So there you have it: Quite a few of these guys could still pose a big threat to us. Even if the leading personalities are gone, the forces remain, and, such as the case of the Scourge, might be even more of a threat now that the Big Bad is gone.
Expect it to be a while before we see any real sequels to entire expansions though. As much as I adored Wrath of the Lich King, I don't think it would be good for the game for us to have a whole other expansion of fighting the Undead across a snowy landscape. If we go to space to battle the Legion again, expect the battlefield to be somewhat different from Outland (though honestly, the concept of "alien world" is probably more open than "the Grim up North.") Also, we certainly won't be doing "Azeroth's China" again, as cool as Pandaria is.
I find it more likely (and would prefer it) if there was a way to do a real twist on these old villains, rather than just have us fight them again. The concept of a benevolent Illidan intrigues me (somehow I feel he and Wrathion would get along just fine.) We will, of course, also need new villains to fight. (The Sha are a pretty good one, especially in the way that they are obviously related to the Old Gods, yet separate.) But while new villains are a necessity to keep the game fresh, we will also need to avoid the Giant Space Flea from Nowhere effect, and considering the immense cosmic threats (and the powerful terrestrial threats) that have been established, you can expect we're going to have our hands full either way.
The thing is, while we've had some huge victories, our foes do not just disappear. Just as much of Europe figured the German threat had finally been dealt with after the First World War, just because you beat someone does not mean you'll never have to fight them again.
So what is the status of our former major foes, and how worried should we be about them?
Ragnaros: Dead. Elementals, interestingly, are a bit like demons. The ones we see in Azeroth are kind of avatars or projections. The real being exists in its home realm (the Twisting Nether for demons, the appropriate Elemental Plane for Elementals,) and so killing it just means they wake up at home, saying "ow! Dammit!" However, given certain circumstances (such as Illidan killing Tichondrius in Felwood) or if you actually go into their home realm and kill them there, they really do, truly die for good. Ragnaros (and Al'akir, for that matter) are dead dead. Does that mean we're never going to have to fight Fire Elementals again? Certainly not. But the old Firelord ain't coming back.
The Black Dragonflight: There is, in all of Azeroth, one black dragon still around (there's actually another in Outland, though his status is a little murky.) And that dragon is Wrathion, the super-shady but not inherently evil son of Deathwing. Wrathion has none of the Old-God corruption his family does, and one of the first things he does when he hatches is get a daring rogue to literally kill off every last member of the flight. Seriously - they're gone. Any new Black Dragons are going to be Wrathion's brood (again, barring some activity by Sablemane in Outland.) So while it's not unthinkable that we could fine ourselves at odds with the Black Prince, it's certainly not going to be anything like we've dealt with in the past.
The Old Gods: Like the Burning Legion, these guys are one of the core threats in the game, and it's unlikely we'll ever have them totally dealt with in a permanent way. Hell, the Titans have been trying that for eons!
C'thun: In a way, we've killed C'thun twice. The first time, it was in Ahn'qiraj, the second when he had possessed Cho'gall (who some called Cho'thun.) Now, here's the thing. Old Gods are Lovecraft-style. Death to them is like sleep for us. In fact, if we were actually to kill an Old God in a permanent way, the result would be arguably worse, as we've seen with Y'shaarj's remains in the form of the Sha. As for C'thun's Qiraji worshippers? I don't think we've wiped them off the face of the map, but it remains to be seen if they'll cause any more serious trouble for us.
Yogg-Saron: Like C'Thun, it's unlikely that Yogg-Saron is truly dead (though it would be interesting if his "death" helped bring forth the Cataclysm... doubt that's something we'll see addressed.) There's actually a lot of questions to be raised regarding his forces, the Iron Dwarves, but I think that with Loken dead they are also not much of a threat anymore.
The Illidari: Illidan's forces, to be perfectly honest, were never a huge threat to begin with, mainly because they were already fending off the Burning Legion. After Illidan's failed attempt to destroy the Lich King, he limped back to Outland and changed his game plan, setting himself up as Lord of Outland and pretending like that had been the goal all along. Of course, seeing as Kil'jaeden had explicitly told him he'd be dead meat if he didn't take out Ner'zhul and Arthas, it was no surprise to find that the Legion proper was blasting the hell out of Outland even as we stormed the Black Temple.
Now, they have said fairly explicitly that they want to bring Illidan back to life (I believe it was Chris Metzen who said it at Blizzcon 2011,) but his organization is all but dismantled, and I also believe they want to find a way for him to find redemption (seeing what he did in the War of the Ancients, plus the quest chain in Felwood that tells you about his motivations, really paints him in a more sympathetic light.) But his chief lieutenants are dead, other than Akama, who was undermining him anyway, so it's certainly not a threat for us to worry about.
The Burning Legion: Oh boy, though. The Legion's definitely still out there, and definitely still a threat. The whole victory at Sunwell Plateau was like having the slasher-movie villain banging on the door, getting it open a crack, and then our just barely managing to slam it shut again and put the bolt back. There's still a billion demons just screaming to get into Azeroth, and you can bet your ass we're going to have to deal with them again big-time, and likely multiple times. The Burning Legion could very well be a larger threat than the Old Gods, so don't expect them to go away any time soon.
The Naga: The storyline of Vashj'ir ends with most of the major Naga players dealt with, but Neptulon is stolen away by Ozumat nonetheless (I ran that dungeon a million times before I realized this was the case - I'd always assumed Neptulon just left the room after we fought off the Faceless Ones so we could enjoy our treasure.) In-Game, we've only seen Azshara (in Naga form) once, during a quest in Darkshore. A confrontation seems inevitable, but the Naga seem mostly content to do their work in secret, so it'll be a while before we see just what they have in mind.
The Blue Dragonflight: With crazy Malygos dead and Kalecgos having taken over the flight, the Blue Dragons are once again allies of the mortal races. While some bitterness might linger, for the most part, they seem to want to put the Nexus War behind them. This is for the best. It always felt wrong to be fighting against them.
The Scarlet Crusade: Well, before Mists I would have said they were goner than gone. After the remains of the organization after the Death Knight starting experience head to Northrend as the Scarlet Onslaught, only to be stopped once again by us, we find that the guy who manipulated them into doing so was actually Mal'ganis (Holy Crap! That guy just refuses to die. Also makes Arthas' fall that much more tragic, as he didn't even accomplish what he sold his soul for.) Yet it would seem that the Crusade has been reborn. Still, this was mainly an excuse to revamp Scarlet Monastery, so I doubt we're going to be seeing them as a major player any time soon. Still, it shows that just like Mal'ganis, the Crusade is a resilient motherfucker.
The Scourge: The Scourge are a real coin-flip here. Arthas is dead (like... super dead) and Bolvar Fordragon is the Jailor of the Damned - not the Lich King. Assuming he doesn't get corrupted (so far so good,) Bolvar's job is going to be to keep the Scourge quarantined up in Northrend. It's even conceivable that Bolvar could turn the Scourge toward something good, though this seems unlikely. We do know that small pockets of Scourge remain a problem, and indeed there are now many pretenders to the throne (some far less legitimate-looking than others.) While Bolvar is keeping most of the Scourge rounded up, the new splinter groups may be harder to keep track of. Not to mention that the Forsaken are starting to act a lot more like the Scourge...
So there you have it: Quite a few of these guys could still pose a big threat to us. Even if the leading personalities are gone, the forces remain, and, such as the case of the Scourge, might be even more of a threat now that the Big Bad is gone.
Expect it to be a while before we see any real sequels to entire expansions though. As much as I adored Wrath of the Lich King, I don't think it would be good for the game for us to have a whole other expansion of fighting the Undead across a snowy landscape. If we go to space to battle the Legion again, expect the battlefield to be somewhat different from Outland (though honestly, the concept of "alien world" is probably more open than "the Grim up North.") Also, we certainly won't be doing "Azeroth's China" again, as cool as Pandaria is.
I find it more likely (and would prefer it) if there was a way to do a real twist on these old villains, rather than just have us fight them again. The concept of a benevolent Illidan intrigues me (somehow I feel he and Wrathion would get along just fine.) We will, of course, also need new villains to fight. (The Sha are a pretty good one, especially in the way that they are obviously related to the Old Gods, yet separate.) But while new villains are a necessity to keep the game fresh, we will also need to avoid the Giant Space Flea from Nowhere effect, and considering the immense cosmic threats (and the powerful terrestrial threats) that have been established, you can expect we're going to have our hands full either way.
Monday, November 19, 2012
Lingering Questions: Burning Crusade
World of Warcraft has a huge amount of lore, so it's inevitable that some of the mysteries and storylines are going to fall in between the cracks. I thought I would address some of the remaining questions from the various expansions that I wouldn't mind seeing answered. While Vanilla obviously came first, one could argue that the huge scope of it is exactly what we're exploring in every expansion. Instead, I'm going to try to focus on those things that I think may not, in time, be answered.
Murmur: Elemental Lord of Sound:
A few centuries before the current era in Azeroth, the Redridge Mountains exploded in a fiery cataclysm, leaving only a small part of the original chain untouched. The resultant Searing Gorge and Burning Steppes are, to this day, a lava-filled, smoldering ruin. The thing that caused all of this was, of course, the summoning of Ragnaros into the Molten Core.
It would seem that something similar occurred in the enormous draenei burial temple of Auchindoun in the south of the Terrokar Forest. Surrounding the ruins is a vast wasteland where nothing seems to grow. The cause of this devastation appears to be similar: Shadow Council members, deep within the temple (which of course had been devastated by the Horde along with most Draenei sites) summoned Murmur, who appears to be the elemental lord of sound.
This raises an interesting question: the elemental lords, Ragnaros (RIP), Al'Akir (RIP), Neptulon (MIA), and Therazane (fine and dandy,) are all, we assume, tied specifically to Azeroth. While the official word is pretty hazy, it's always been my understanding that they were there before both the Titans and the Old Gods. They sided with the Old Gods because they did not like the restrictions placed on them by the Titans, though given Neptulon and Therazane's positions during Cataclysm, they certainly did not seem to be particularly loyal to them.
Anyway, the point is: there seems to be an entirely different type of element, with its own elemental lord (or important elemental, at least,) and it's associated, or at least connected, to Outland.
Old Gods and Outland: We Span the Universe!
The more you learn about the Arrakoa bird people in Outland, the more you come to realize that they've got some Old God stuff going on. There's a Raven-god (not sure if the one in Sethekk Halls is the real deal or just an avatar, but you can get him as a mount!) that has similar somewhat creepy prophecies as the kinds of things we hear from the Puzzlebox of Yogg-Saron.
And if that wasn't convincing enough for you, there is a quest chain in Shadowmoon Valley in which you prevent the Arrakoa from summoning something that looks exactly like phase 2 C'thun.
Things get even weirder when you discover that the most highly-guarded cell in the Arcatraz - Tempest Keep's prison ship - holds what appears to be a Qiraji prophet named Harbinger Skyriss. Now, admittedly, the Arcatraz also contains a gnome mage by the name of Milhouse Manastorm (who seems to be a member of Twilight's Hammer, despite the fact that he helps you kill Skyriss. Frankly, I have my own little theory that he was a mole - listen to him in that cutscene in Deepholme - he sounds like he's trying to get information out of his boss.) So it's certainly possible that the Skyriss was captured on Azeroth, and that the Naaru have been there before the Exodar crash-landed.
But, given what Skyriss says, it would seem that the Old Gods, and indeed, his race, exist throughout the universe. Might it be that the Qiraji, Nerubians, and Mantid are only the local branches of what could be a far, far larger race?
So much attention is focused on Azeroth (and admittedly, it appears to be a cosmically important location, given Sargeras' obsession with it,) that it is easy to forget that it is not by any means the only world to be visited by the Titans or the Old Gods. We've encountered people from Argus, Draenor (what did the Orcs call the place before the Draenei arrived?) and K'aresh (homeworld of the Ethereals) in addition to Azeroth. Did the Titans have a hand in those places? We certainly don't come across any obvious Titan facilities in Outland, but given the state of the planet, there's no reason to be sure there weren't any.
Turalyon and Alleria:
Yes, ever since BC came out and we found that Khadgar, Kurdran Wildhammer, and Danath Trollbane were still very much alive, the lingering question has been where the other two people immortalized by statues in Stormwind's Valley of Heroes have gone. Turalyon and Alleria left their son behind in Honor Hold, but Arator doesn't know any better than the rest of us where his parents have gone.
I don't have a clue.
The Infinites:
The Caverns of Time dungeons, along with the Infinite Dragonflight, were introduced in Burning Crusade. While much of the mystery surrounding them has been solved, there are some questions yet to be answered. We know that the Infinites are former Bronze dragons, corrupted after Nozdormu became Murozond. The official story is that the Old Gods drove him crazy as part of their attempt to get Deathwing's Hour of Twilight to succeed, but obviously there are some issues:
Nozdormu knew it was going to happen. Ok, that's fine. He doesn't believe in free will, he knows what's coming, and is using his remaining years of sanity to prepare the world. He even knows it will work, because he orchestrated is own death by helping us through End Time.
But that future no longer exists. We stopped the Hour of Twilight, and Deathwing's too busy being exploded all over the Maelstrom to slump over Wyrmrest Temple. If that future has been prevented, has Murozond's death been prevented? Did our killing of him prevent... us killing him?
Also, we're talking about Time Travelers here. Just because we've defeated them does not mean that they're gone for good. For all we know, the Murozond we killed was tens of thousands of years older than Nozdormu is now, and he might have-is-going-to already wreaked havoc. In fact, there's no reason why we shouldn't see both Nozdormu and Murozond battling it out any number of times in the future.
While the official story has him corrupted by the Old Gods, the Infinites' actions seem to align much more with the Burning Legion in both BC and Wrath. First, they attempt to prevent Thrall from going free and reforming the Horde - a faction that played an important role in the defeat of the Burning Legion at Hyjal. Next, they try to prevent the Horde from ever getting to Azeroth in the first place (which would of course also put a kibosh on their involvement in the Third War - though admittedly, at least at the time this would be in defiance of Sargeras' wishes. Then again, the Infinites know that the First War does not lead to the destruction of Azeroth as Sargeras hopes.) Finally, the Mount Hyjal raid does not explicitly feature the Infinites, though the Bronze Dragonflight seems to think they're involved, and it does appear that we are needed to hold the demons off. In Wrath, the Infinites attempt to kill Arthas while he's purging Stratholme. While Arthas' fall to evil is tragic, it ultimately weakened the position of the Burning Legion, as the Lich King was able to use his champion to subvert their goals under their noses.
So there's a few questions to be raised regarding events in Burning Crusade. In the future, we'll talk about Wrath.
Murmur: Elemental Lord of Sound:
A few centuries before the current era in Azeroth, the Redridge Mountains exploded in a fiery cataclysm, leaving only a small part of the original chain untouched. The resultant Searing Gorge and Burning Steppes are, to this day, a lava-filled, smoldering ruin. The thing that caused all of this was, of course, the summoning of Ragnaros into the Molten Core.
It would seem that something similar occurred in the enormous draenei burial temple of Auchindoun in the south of the Terrokar Forest. Surrounding the ruins is a vast wasteland where nothing seems to grow. The cause of this devastation appears to be similar: Shadow Council members, deep within the temple (which of course had been devastated by the Horde along with most Draenei sites) summoned Murmur, who appears to be the elemental lord of sound.
This raises an interesting question: the elemental lords, Ragnaros (RIP), Al'Akir (RIP), Neptulon (MIA), and Therazane (fine and dandy,) are all, we assume, tied specifically to Azeroth. While the official word is pretty hazy, it's always been my understanding that they were there before both the Titans and the Old Gods. They sided with the Old Gods because they did not like the restrictions placed on them by the Titans, though given Neptulon and Therazane's positions during Cataclysm, they certainly did not seem to be particularly loyal to them.
Anyway, the point is: there seems to be an entirely different type of element, with its own elemental lord (or important elemental, at least,) and it's associated, or at least connected, to Outland.
Old Gods and Outland: We Span the Universe!
The more you learn about the Arrakoa bird people in Outland, the more you come to realize that they've got some Old God stuff going on. There's a Raven-god (not sure if the one in Sethekk Halls is the real deal or just an avatar, but you can get him as a mount!) that has similar somewhat creepy prophecies as the kinds of things we hear from the Puzzlebox of Yogg-Saron.
And if that wasn't convincing enough for you, there is a quest chain in Shadowmoon Valley in which you prevent the Arrakoa from summoning something that looks exactly like phase 2 C'thun.
Things get even weirder when you discover that the most highly-guarded cell in the Arcatraz - Tempest Keep's prison ship - holds what appears to be a Qiraji prophet named Harbinger Skyriss. Now, admittedly, the Arcatraz also contains a gnome mage by the name of Milhouse Manastorm (who seems to be a member of Twilight's Hammer, despite the fact that he helps you kill Skyriss. Frankly, I have my own little theory that he was a mole - listen to him in that cutscene in Deepholme - he sounds like he's trying to get information out of his boss.) So it's certainly possible that the Skyriss was captured on Azeroth, and that the Naaru have been there before the Exodar crash-landed.
But, given what Skyriss says, it would seem that the Old Gods, and indeed, his race, exist throughout the universe. Might it be that the Qiraji, Nerubians, and Mantid are only the local branches of what could be a far, far larger race?
So much attention is focused on Azeroth (and admittedly, it appears to be a cosmically important location, given Sargeras' obsession with it,) that it is easy to forget that it is not by any means the only world to be visited by the Titans or the Old Gods. We've encountered people from Argus, Draenor (what did the Orcs call the place before the Draenei arrived?) and K'aresh (homeworld of the Ethereals) in addition to Azeroth. Did the Titans have a hand in those places? We certainly don't come across any obvious Titan facilities in Outland, but given the state of the planet, there's no reason to be sure there weren't any.
Turalyon and Alleria:
Yes, ever since BC came out and we found that Khadgar, Kurdran Wildhammer, and Danath Trollbane were still very much alive, the lingering question has been where the other two people immortalized by statues in Stormwind's Valley of Heroes have gone. Turalyon and Alleria left their son behind in Honor Hold, but Arator doesn't know any better than the rest of us where his parents have gone.
I don't have a clue.
The Infinites:
The Caverns of Time dungeons, along with the Infinite Dragonflight, were introduced in Burning Crusade. While much of the mystery surrounding them has been solved, there are some questions yet to be answered. We know that the Infinites are former Bronze dragons, corrupted after Nozdormu became Murozond. The official story is that the Old Gods drove him crazy as part of their attempt to get Deathwing's Hour of Twilight to succeed, but obviously there are some issues:
Nozdormu knew it was going to happen. Ok, that's fine. He doesn't believe in free will, he knows what's coming, and is using his remaining years of sanity to prepare the world. He even knows it will work, because he orchestrated is own death by helping us through End Time.
But that future no longer exists. We stopped the Hour of Twilight, and Deathwing's too busy being exploded all over the Maelstrom to slump over Wyrmrest Temple. If that future has been prevented, has Murozond's death been prevented? Did our killing of him prevent... us killing him?
Also, we're talking about Time Travelers here. Just because we've defeated them does not mean that they're gone for good. For all we know, the Murozond we killed was tens of thousands of years older than Nozdormu is now, and he might have-is-going-to already wreaked havoc. In fact, there's no reason why we shouldn't see both Nozdormu and Murozond battling it out any number of times in the future.
While the official story has him corrupted by the Old Gods, the Infinites' actions seem to align much more with the Burning Legion in both BC and Wrath. First, they attempt to prevent Thrall from going free and reforming the Horde - a faction that played an important role in the defeat of the Burning Legion at Hyjal. Next, they try to prevent the Horde from ever getting to Azeroth in the first place (which would of course also put a kibosh on their involvement in the Third War - though admittedly, at least at the time this would be in defiance of Sargeras' wishes. Then again, the Infinites know that the First War does not lead to the destruction of Azeroth as Sargeras hopes.) Finally, the Mount Hyjal raid does not explicitly feature the Infinites, though the Bronze Dragonflight seems to think they're involved, and it does appear that we are needed to hold the demons off. In Wrath, the Infinites attempt to kill Arthas while he's purging Stratholme. While Arthas' fall to evil is tragic, it ultimately weakened the position of the Burning Legion, as the Lich King was able to use his champion to subvert their goals under their noses.
So there's a few questions to be raised regarding events in Burning Crusade. In the future, we'll talk about Wrath.
Sunday, November 18, 2012
Scenarios: Huge Potential, As Yet Unrealized
The introduction of scenarios is actually quite a revolutionary thing for WoW: for the first time ever, there is a new size and "stakes" for instances, not to mention the fact that it breaks the need for the dungeoneering trifecta of the tank/healer/dps.
Scenarios were created for the most part to replace the old concept of group quests. Cataclysm famously de-groupified old group quests (the Battle of Darrowshire was actually a "raid" quest back in the day!) and introduced only a single group quest chain in the Crucible of Carnage (as part of the once-an-expansion Ring of Blood quests.)
While it's arguable that the removal of group quests from the game is symptomatic of the oft-bemoaned death of server communities, I would say that they've really just allowed for natural gameplay to occur. We tend to solo through the leveling content. The very nature of leveling up makes playing with a friend at all times unrealistic, unless you have a scheduled time to play together. While I think it could be a lot of fun to have a core group to always quest with (it would make leveling up squishier classes a bit easier, I bet) it just isn't very realistic.
The other major issue of group quests was that they were not repeatable. While you might still be able to help, there was no reward for doing it a second time. If it involved phasing, you would literally be unable to complete it (that said, I don't know if there are a huge number of group quests that did.)
So Scenarios solve a lot of problems. They provide incentives to repeat them - thus vastly increasing the pool of players so that those who have not yet done them do not have a hard time getting a group. They also, obviously, use the same mechanism that the Dungeon and Raid Finder use in order to find your group, and with no role requirements, the queue is nearly always instant.
Not only that, but the objectives of the scenarios are usually a bit more varied than, say, a dungeon. The goal of every dungeon is simply to get to the end - fight your way through trash and defeat the bosses. Scenarios can involve things like searching an island for lost booze (I get Unga Ingoo vastly more often than any other scenarios - I still have never done Greenstone Village) or putting out fires while fighting off saurok.
At the moment, scenarios are all 3-person affairs, but Blizzard has stated that they could be for any number of players from one to forty.
And yet, I don't run a huge number of scenarios. I love them, conceptually, and I think they're good fun. The problem, of course, is that the rewards are quite underwhelming. A random run of a Scenario (which takes about ten to fifteen mintues) will net you a handful of Justice Points (which there are very few compelling things to spend on, especially if you've been running dungeons a lot) and forty Valor Points (which, of course, you'll need to grind rep to spend, and forty isn't a huge amount, considering we're paying 2250 for some of our pieces.) You also do have a chance to get a piece of gear in your little treasure box, but I have only seen such a piece once, and it was a Holy piece - the spec of Paladin I have never, and probably will never play.
Of course, there are some compounding issues: You don't want the rewards to be so compelling that no one ever waits in a dungeon queue again. Scenarios have the potential to be very attractive to DPS players, because their 10-15 minute wait is replaced with at most 30 seconds. Of course, the other issue is that dungeons right now are so quick and easy that it's not really a burden to complete them, and given the far better chance at compelling rewards, it's not really significantly more effort (aside from queue times.)
Now, as I said in my last post, I think there is room for a third progression path - the heroic quester. Scenarios could play a part in that, but of course the problem when you introduce group play as a major thing is that the same group dynamics that appear in dungeons would take hold, and one would be left wondering what the difference was. The heroic quester would have to be a solo affair (or at most, three people, though even there you could have the trifecta.) Granted, Scenarios can handle this, but I don't know that this is where Blizzard would want to take them.
The one scenario that I am always sure to run on each character, practically the moment they hit 90, is Arena of Annihilation. This scenario has a quest inside that, like all the Ring of Blood variants, gets you a very decent weapon with which to start heroic dungeons. As far as I know, this is the only scenario that has a quest inside. Given that scenarios were conceived as an evolution of the concept of group quests, it strikes me as strange that other scenarios do not have quests. While quests would not inspire repeat scenario-ing, they would give us a compelling reason to hit each of them up. If you could get a nice selection of 450-quality gear from these, it would be an excellent stepping stone into heroics and raid finder (admittedly, we don't need much of a stepping stone to get into heroics at this point - heroic dungeons now play much like they did in mid-to-late Wrath of the Lich King, making these the easiest heroic dungeons the game's ever seen.)
Essentially what this all boils down to is that we need to ask ourselves what role Scenarios serve. If they are meant to be something to do quickly and easily instead of heroics, then heroics should probably be tuned a little tighter (too late for that.)
I think what it ties into is the overall question of time budget. Whenever we play the game - whether we have hours and hours to spend on it or just a quick break between work and other things - we try to be efficient in our expenditure of time. For the time we're online, we like to see significant progress made on whichever character we're playing. Scenarios are fun, certainly, but so are dungeons and raids (ok, Raid Finder, at least as a tank, tests that theory.) When you have a choice between two things that are both fun, it's a no-brainer to go with the thing that rewards you better.
Perhaps Scenarios are merely a victim of the fact that dungeons are so easy right now. If they had been introduced with 4.0 or 4.1, for example, we might have been relieved for the opportunity to do something that wasn't Heroic Grim Batol.
Scenarios are still extraordinarily new. I would guess they are still finding their identity. They may remain roughly where they are for the rest of the expansion, but when the next one comes out, I would not be surprised at all to find that Blizzard comes up with something to make them a more compelling gameplay option. Until then, enjoy your tiny trickle of VP.
Scenarios were created for the most part to replace the old concept of group quests. Cataclysm famously de-groupified old group quests (the Battle of Darrowshire was actually a "raid" quest back in the day!) and introduced only a single group quest chain in the Crucible of Carnage (as part of the once-an-expansion Ring of Blood quests.)
While it's arguable that the removal of group quests from the game is symptomatic of the oft-bemoaned death of server communities, I would say that they've really just allowed for natural gameplay to occur. We tend to solo through the leveling content. The very nature of leveling up makes playing with a friend at all times unrealistic, unless you have a scheduled time to play together. While I think it could be a lot of fun to have a core group to always quest with (it would make leveling up squishier classes a bit easier, I bet) it just isn't very realistic.
The other major issue of group quests was that they were not repeatable. While you might still be able to help, there was no reward for doing it a second time. If it involved phasing, you would literally be unable to complete it (that said, I don't know if there are a huge number of group quests that did.)
So Scenarios solve a lot of problems. They provide incentives to repeat them - thus vastly increasing the pool of players so that those who have not yet done them do not have a hard time getting a group. They also, obviously, use the same mechanism that the Dungeon and Raid Finder use in order to find your group, and with no role requirements, the queue is nearly always instant.
Not only that, but the objectives of the scenarios are usually a bit more varied than, say, a dungeon. The goal of every dungeon is simply to get to the end - fight your way through trash and defeat the bosses. Scenarios can involve things like searching an island for lost booze (I get Unga Ingoo vastly more often than any other scenarios - I still have never done Greenstone Village) or putting out fires while fighting off saurok.
At the moment, scenarios are all 3-person affairs, but Blizzard has stated that they could be for any number of players from one to forty.
And yet, I don't run a huge number of scenarios. I love them, conceptually, and I think they're good fun. The problem, of course, is that the rewards are quite underwhelming. A random run of a Scenario (which takes about ten to fifteen mintues) will net you a handful of Justice Points (which there are very few compelling things to spend on, especially if you've been running dungeons a lot) and forty Valor Points (which, of course, you'll need to grind rep to spend, and forty isn't a huge amount, considering we're paying 2250 for some of our pieces.) You also do have a chance to get a piece of gear in your little treasure box, but I have only seen such a piece once, and it was a Holy piece - the spec of Paladin I have never, and probably will never play.
Of course, there are some compounding issues: You don't want the rewards to be so compelling that no one ever waits in a dungeon queue again. Scenarios have the potential to be very attractive to DPS players, because their 10-15 minute wait is replaced with at most 30 seconds. Of course, the other issue is that dungeons right now are so quick and easy that it's not really a burden to complete them, and given the far better chance at compelling rewards, it's not really significantly more effort (aside from queue times.)
Now, as I said in my last post, I think there is room for a third progression path - the heroic quester. Scenarios could play a part in that, but of course the problem when you introduce group play as a major thing is that the same group dynamics that appear in dungeons would take hold, and one would be left wondering what the difference was. The heroic quester would have to be a solo affair (or at most, three people, though even there you could have the trifecta.) Granted, Scenarios can handle this, but I don't know that this is where Blizzard would want to take them.
The one scenario that I am always sure to run on each character, practically the moment they hit 90, is Arena of Annihilation. This scenario has a quest inside that, like all the Ring of Blood variants, gets you a very decent weapon with which to start heroic dungeons. As far as I know, this is the only scenario that has a quest inside. Given that scenarios were conceived as an evolution of the concept of group quests, it strikes me as strange that other scenarios do not have quests. While quests would not inspire repeat scenario-ing, they would give us a compelling reason to hit each of them up. If you could get a nice selection of 450-quality gear from these, it would be an excellent stepping stone into heroics and raid finder (admittedly, we don't need much of a stepping stone to get into heroics at this point - heroic dungeons now play much like they did in mid-to-late Wrath of the Lich King, making these the easiest heroic dungeons the game's ever seen.)
Essentially what this all boils down to is that we need to ask ourselves what role Scenarios serve. If they are meant to be something to do quickly and easily instead of heroics, then heroics should probably be tuned a little tighter (too late for that.)
I think what it ties into is the overall question of time budget. Whenever we play the game - whether we have hours and hours to spend on it or just a quick break between work and other things - we try to be efficient in our expenditure of time. For the time we're online, we like to see significant progress made on whichever character we're playing. Scenarios are fun, certainly, but so are dungeons and raids (ok, Raid Finder, at least as a tank, tests that theory.) When you have a choice between two things that are both fun, it's a no-brainer to go with the thing that rewards you better.
Perhaps Scenarios are merely a victim of the fact that dungeons are so easy right now. If they had been introduced with 4.0 or 4.1, for example, we might have been relieved for the opportunity to do something that wasn't Heroic Grim Batol.
Scenarios are still extraordinarily new. I would guess they are still finding their identity. They may remain roughly where they are for the rest of the expansion, but when the next one comes out, I would not be surprised at all to find that Blizzard comes up with something to make them a more compelling gameplay option. Until then, enjoy your tiny trickle of VP.
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