Level80
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Breakfast Topic: Leveling to 80
A new expansion is coming our way, and with it comes an additional ten levels of zones, quests, dungeons, and other content. Sounds like fun, doesn't it? Well, maybe... While I'm looking forward to seeing new people and places added to my favorite game, I can't say I'm terribly excited about leveling all of my characters up to 80. In fact, it sounds like a task with the potential to be extremely tedious. But for those of us still wanting to play, there's no option other than leveling up to 80 -- and if you're an alt-a-holic like me, leveling up to 80 again, and again, and again... So today I ask you: with level 80 on the horizon, do you look forward to the leveling experience, or dread it?
Bring on the horizontal changes, please
Mystic Worlds lays out exactly what is, in my humble opinion, the biggest problem with World of Warcraft right now: We need some horizontal change. As I said in my impressions of BlizzCon, Blizzard seems intent on building more and more vertical content into the game-- Zul'Aman is built to be played after Karazhan, and Wrath of the Lich King will add another 10 levels onto the top of the 70 we have now. And while Blizzard keeps building up, they're more or less ditching everything that happens from 1-58. Even worse, the only changes we're seeing there are going to be to move past that stuff faster-- not only are they ignoring it, they're working on pushing it out of the game entirely.So Mystic Worlds wants more horizontal changes. That doesn't necessarily mean midlevel content (although a lot of her suggestions mean more things to do for midlevel players). Instead it means that Blizzard should take a breath, and set their teams on making the existing game experience more fulfilling. Things like guild halls, single player dungeons, more professions (Inscription will probably provide new items 1-70, but Woodworking has been necessary for a long time), and little touches-- more live events, gambling minigames (that all players can do), and fun little additions that all players can get involved in, not just those who have made it to 70.Now, there has to be some part of Blizzard that is pushing for this stuff-- it's not quite as simple as casual vs. raiders in this case. But Blizzard seems to think that they're behind on high end content, and that they're rushing to catch up to players who are hungry for more of it. I don't think either perception is true. If anyone is hungry for new things to do, it's players who have more than three alts, and yet a main that hasn't yet reached 70. I'm more than willing to trade one of the three or four 25 man instances planned in WotLK for two or three of these "horizontal changes," and I'd guess most other players are, too.
Blizzard's Hero class implementation 101
Toeo of Dragonmaw wrote in to ask about a clarification on Hero classes (of which the Death Knight will be the first). What are they, what will they require, and what does it mean to be a Hero class? We are nothing if not helpful, so here's what we know about Hero classes (mostly from BlizzCon).There were a number of ideas floating around about how Blizzard might implement Hero classes (mostly from D&D, in which Prestige classes are the precursor), but what they landed on was an "unlockable class," that's opened up to your account via a quest with a level 80 character-- that quest hasn't been created yet, so we're not sure what it will require*. So, to play as a Death Knight, you get a character of any class to level 80, do the Death Knight quest, and once your character has completed the quest, you can log on, and create a new character (of any race, we're told) that is of the Death Knight class.That new character then starts at a higher level (anywhere from 55-70, but Blizzard hasn't decided where yet), with starter equipment of the appropriate level (again, Blizzard hasn't decided exactly which equipment yet or how it will work), and then the Death Knight character can work their way up to level 80 as well as a completely different character. Death Knights will have their own Rune resource system, and they will have their own three talent trees, just like all the other classes. It is a completely separate character, unlocked and able to be created when one of your level 80 characters finishes the quest.*Update: Commenter Avalanche makes a good point: we don't know much about the quest, but we know it will be similar to the Warlock epic mount quest, and that it will not require raiding. Thanks, A.!
