Update

Apologies for not posting in a while, there are topics I want to discuss but just haven't felt like writing them down yet. I'll be traveling home for a couple of weeks starting tomorrow, maybe being in a different routine will make me write more. A lot of big announcements though!

* I rejoined my old former guild 2-3 weeks ago. It's good to be back!
* My healing skills have improved dramatically. My ten-man group has cleared Naxx two weeks in a row now, and is learning Malygos. The most fun was two-healing the four main wings our first time in there, my paladin partner and I have a good grip on things. However, I don't think we'll be able to two-heal Sapph or KT for a while.
* My new druid heal, Wild Growth, was integral to our first Kel'thuzad kill. Our dps was only one-ranged, the rest melee, plus the lich tank, so 5 people in danger of chain ice-blocks. We arranged the melee in a tight triangle around the boss, and I would periodically cast Wild Growth on them, and with its 15 yard range and multiple target affect I was able to heal all of them at once most of the time. That and swiftmend for ranged ice blocks helped a ton. While the kill was a total team effort, it was nice to see how the bosses were (re)designed around the new spells (or vice versa).
* My mage is 74, and inching closer to The Loremaster achievement, first two zones down, working on Dragonblight.
* I need to decide on the blog's overall focus. If I'm going to spend more time talking about non-WoW things, I should probably change the name. But if those non-WoW posts aren't going to be regular, than I should just focus more on WoW and not really write on other things. Decisions, decisions.

Leveling Speed a lot faster than first impressions

as I'm sure most people have discovered by now, leveling in Wrath of the Lich King "feels" like it speeds up dramatically after level 70-72. Right now I can't call it anything but an impression since I haven't looked at any XP numbers or rates to confirm (I will when leveling my second character), but the feeling is definitely there. Originally it seemed like it took 8 hours or so for every level (so 80 hours to level 80!), but after hitting 72 my pace has quickened. There are some possible explanations for this, some may explain why it's faster, and some may explain why it just feels faster:

1) I've built up more rest experience lately due to the Thanksgiving holiday, my fiancee's family visiting, and a few days where I lost my Internet access.

2) I only did roughly one instance run from 70-72, but since then I've run Nexus 3 times (cry), and the first two Nerubian instances (AK and AN) once each. Instances give sizeable more experience than soloing (about 2-3x as much). However I haven't run an instance in a level or so and it still feels fast.

3) Quest completion bonus points increase past the starter zones, perhaps to make people leveling in BT/HF pre-70 take longer to catch up.

4) Gear changes. While I haven't replaced all my gear, I have replaced a few pieces (my TBC gear on the druid was mostly badge/ZA/late-KZ with some T5), which may help. More importantly, all my "balance" gear going into Wrath was former healing items, so most of my upgrades are really sidegrades, like trading regen for crit. I keep some healing-slanted items in my bags for 5-mans but my character is more like a boomkin now than when I started.

5) While most of my new talent points have gone into boosting the resto tree rather than the balance tree (I'm doing balance to boomkin and the rest in resto basically), I have received new spell ranks, which might be increasing my damage output.

One Great Quest Chain

Everyone leveling Alliance in Wrath should definitely ensure they complete a particular quest chain. I've linked the whole quest listing start-to-finish here in case you need it, and this is the very first quest if you're brand new to the zone and don't want to read the later quest-names.

I'll do my very best to pitch the quest without spoiling the content. It entails...

1) An extremely long (but cohesive) chain in both Dragonblight and Azeroth, there are a total of 20 quests to do.
2) It's also an example of how dramatically Blizzard has improved the quest system, it is an extremely accessible chain that is fun, varied, and doesn't involve tremendous travel.
3) You get to interact with some notable NPCs through the chain, including Bolvar Fordragon, King Varian Wrynn, Jaina Proudmoore, Alexstraza of the Red Dragonflight, and even Thrall and Sylvanas as well.
4) You get a lot of experience with the new vehicle system, you get to pilot gryphons, drive a steam tank, and assault the scourge on the back of a dragon.
5) It includes the first ever "in-game" cutscene. While it is not an FMV it is much more sophisticated than the typical "stand there and read two characters spamming /yell at each other" in the past.

While the famous (and now removed) "Great Masquerade" Onyxia quest will long live in people's hearts, this chain (which I'll refer to as The Wrath Gate chain until/unless the internet settles on a superior one) is an amazing (both in gameplay, lore, and technique) creation in WotLK.

Early Impressions

I've played through the DK "campaign," got to 71 on my druid on Howling Fjord, and about halfway to 71 on my mage on the Borean Tundra. Some quick impressions, because I'm tired:

The Good:

1) Artwork. Man, these two starter zones blow the art in all of TBC right out of the water. Northrend looks and feels positively epic.

2) Quest clumping. So far, I like how they've centralized their quest hubs. I feel like in each area there are like 10 quests to do, but not too much long-distance travel yet. There are a ton of quest hubs though (see the bad).

3) The Deathkight sendoff. Anyone who reads this blog (haha) who hasn't started WotLK yet, DO the Deathknight area first. It definitely sets up the overall plot for this expansion, reintroduces you to Arthas, and the overall quest design and progression is marvelous. The whole innovation of having the locations change in activity and appearance as you complete quests seems so simple on the surface, and it is superbly executed and implemented. Furthermore, this change may very well sow the seeds of the "next big thing" in MMOs ... finally implementing genuine change in locations as players progress through it.


The Bad:

1) The grind. It definitely is taking a lot longer to level in Northrend than in the previous expansion. 70-71 took me a lot longer than 60-61, and I bet my main characters are better-geared than their pre-TBC counterparts. While this is fine for my first character, by my third or fourth leveling is going to be a tremendous disincentive.

2) The zones are massive, almost too big. While the zones are well-designed so far, there is so much real estate, so many spread-out quest hubs, and quite a number of long traveling "cutscenes," I almost wish these zones were subdivided a little bit.

3) The DK questline was so great, I have no idea where I'm supposed to go now since there are no further orders, and it would've been great to have a "Cakeordeath, go here!" quest to direct my efforts.

The Ugly:

1) Server queues. I'm on a fairly high-pop server, and it has taken me as long as 30-40 minutes to get in during peak times. I wish they'd add Aerie Peak to the free transfer list so some of the detritus would leave my realm!

2) Our server's first level 80 just capped this evening, only about 2 days after the expansion was released. Even if you're account-sharing, that's sick.

3) The whole falconer questline in HF is stupidly designed. On first read it sounds like it's going to be great, who wouldn't want to be a falconer? But between foraging for reagents to do the early quests, to the horribly time-consuming second part of the chain, to the poor quest description for the third part (it took me ten minutes and finally going to wowhead to figure out that you had to stand next to an object to start the third part of the chain, even though I was *literally* standing on the eagle eggs needed), it's just sloppy. Plus the final quest in the chain is written in a way that makes people try to navigate some dangerous cliffs, where you can fall and have an irritating ghost-walk back; I know this because I saw another guy beginning to make the same mistakes I did before I figured it out (I saved him the frustration by sending a whisper). Here's the first part of the questline, to see what I'm referring to.


more to come!