old-azeroth
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Breakfast Topic: Leveling then and now
Last night my new gnome monk hit level 60 and I can't help but think about how different the leveling experience is since I last played a new character up through the levels. The last time I played a lowbie, you couldn't get mounts until higher levels (and they were darned expensive), flight paths had to be collected, and you had to visit major cities every couple of levels to train class skills. But the most notable change is definitely how fast it is to reach what used to be WoW's end game. Even without a collection of heirlooms, I've hit level 60 in a scant two weeks (or three and a half days /played). All I can think is: didn't this used to be harder? A level 60 character used to mean a significant expenditure of both time and effort, but these days the biggest difficulty seems to be outleveling zones before you've finished quest chains. And though I remember the days of original WoW with fond nostalgia -- there was certainly an epic feel to 40-man raiding and the massive world event to open the gates of Ahn'Qiraj -- I can say with certainty that I'm not interested in turning back the clock. The game may be easier, but it's still a heck of a lot of fun, and with level 90 to reach, the grind to level 60 that we had in old Azeroth would be tedious at best. But since this is a Breakfast Topic, the point is to discuss -- how many of you remember the good (or not so good) old days of WoW? And, if you could, would you go back to relive them?
Breakfast Topic: 101 things to do before the world dies
On the EU forums, a character named Redbranch from Thunderhorn came up with what I thought was a pretty nifty idea -- getting his/her fellow players to chime in on a list of 101 things to do in old Azeroth before Cataclysm hits. It's sort of the WoW equivalent of The Bucket List, and the responses range from the violent ("Slaying as many people as possible") to the nostalgic ("Go base jumping again in Feralas") to the practical ("Prepare plentiful supplies of gold"). Then Slorkuz chimed in with the following: Slorkuz Quote: The old world is changing forever. Let's compile a list of things to do before the end. 1) Play through all the starter zones, to give some idea if each race's lore. Visit the Shimmering Flats! source We already know that Thousand Needles is going to be mostly underwater in Cataclysm, but it was another nudge to the realization that the world we know is going bye-bye forever. Right now, my personal "bucket list" includes doing the dungeon set 2 quest line, but I'd love to hear from other players on how they're approaching the "end of the world."
Staying out of Outland
If you listen to me (or anyone else around here, it seems), the major consensus seems to be to head to Outlands right at 58, period. The leveling is faster, the quests are more interesting, and the money is plentiful, as are the drops. But cyanrose over on WoW LJ makes an amazing case for exactly the opposite: staying in old Azeroth from levels 58-60.She's been rolling around Hearthglen picking up items and XP, and from the way she tells it, things are almost as good there as they are in Outland. A dropped Orb of Deception (which was sold for a whopping 700g) didn't hurt, and there's lots of Rich Thorium around as well. Since old Azeroth is so empty, she hasn't had any problems with PvP, and apparently there's some good AoE grinding to do around there as well.Great example of going against convention and finding your own way to play through the game. Outlands is there if you want it at 58 -- you can replace your gear in just a few quests, and get started on the new reputation grinds early. But don't let the popular opinion stop you from exploring the old world if you want -- there's lots of loot and fun to be had there, too.
Death Knights and legacy content
Merdrah had an intriguing question on the forums a few days ago: will Death Knights get a callout for Nefarian? During the Nefarian fight in Blackwing Lair, each class gets called out by the boss, and the raid has to deal with abilities that define that class (ie for Warlocks, each Warlock "accidentally" summons two Infernals that the raid has to AoE down). Bornakk, kind of surprisingly, says that yes, Blizzard will "probably" add in callouts for Death Knights.And that's interesting, because it means that, at least right now, Blizzard is committed to implementing Death Knights throughout the entire game. Though they're only a Hero Class, Death Knights are the first "new class" that WoW has ever seen, and so we'll definitely see some interesting changes throughout Azeroth. Every class has their moment to shine in each instance, and so if Blizzard wants to give Death Knights their chance to step up in even the "old" instances like Blackwing Lair, lots of changes are probably coming.Of course, one factor of this, however, is that Death Knights won't start at level one-- they'll be starting at a higher level when first rolled. From what we know, Blizzard hasn't actually chosen that level yet (remember as well that when Death Knights appear ingame, the highest level will be 80), but if they're planning on changing around a level 60 instance to include Death Knights, odds are that you'll have at least twenty levels to go on your Death Knight before you can reach level 80.
Revisiting old Azeroth
Old world content continues to be a hot topic with certain sections of the population -- namely anyone who's prone to leveling alts through Azeroth after spending some time in Outland. So what will you find in the new zones that you won't see in the old? Streamlined quests means that when you're first sent to a zone, you've got a good assortment of quests you can work on. You're rarely sent all over the world to complete a quest. (Flying all over the world isn't really fun -- though it's a good time to go AFK and grab a soda.) And when you're finishing up the quests in a zone, you're conveniently directed to the next appropriate zone. Every zone has an inn and a flightpath for convenient travel -- and most of them have multiples of both. Almost all quests have rewards you want! Looking at Outland quest rewards, even if you don't have a reward that works for you, you can see how it would be useful for certain classes or builds. There are quest rewards in Azeroth that it's hard to tell who might ever want to use them. But what about Azeroth? There's a lot more levels that need to be done there than there are to be done in Outland. Says CM Vaneras on the EU forms:Many players have posted ideas and suggestions for ways to revamp Azeroth after the release of the Burning Crusade. But many of those ideas and suggestions posted by some players have been radically different than ideas and suggestions from other players, so at times it can be quite hard to get a good overview of which things in Azeroth people would like to see changed or improved more than other things... He goes on to ask what change you would make if you could make one change to Azeroth. Now, I sort of think Azeroth needs more than just one change, but if you play on the EU side of things and want to give them your two cents, this thread is the place. Otherwise, you're welcome to let us know what you think in our comments![via Judgement of Wisdom and Altitis]
