Tag: World of Warcraft

Back to WoW again!

Posted on by Nimgimli

Someday I should count how many blog posts I have that are titled “Back to WoW.”

But here I go again! But c’mon, how could I resist? My history of WoW is long and at times intimate. I have a friend who works at Blizzard who got me into the Friends and Family Alpha long, long ago, and I played the heck out of WoW for the first couple years it was out. That was before it was hugely mainstream and everyone was expected to have exactly the right gear and play their classes exactly the right way — back then we played to have fun. Crazy, huh?

But the world of Azeroth became more or less real to me in some ways. I mean the locations. There are (or were) places in that world that invoked specific memories. So how could I not go back to see what’s changed?

The last time I went back was just a few months ago when, for reasons I no longer recall, I ran out and purchased the Wrath of the Lich King expansion and rolled a death knight. In 2 months of subscribing I played enough to get that death knight to level 58. That’s what? 2-3 hours of play? So that was a good investment of cash, eh? About $70 between the expansion and 2 months of sub.

So today I renewed and rolled a Night Elf Druid. Yup, starting from scratch (for now anyway). I dunno how many of the differences I’m seeing are from the Cataclysm patch, but they’re interesting to me (even if I’m not sure I agree with all of them). The Level 1-5 area for the Night Elves has been super-streamlined and you get through it in about 6-7 quests, some of which take seconds to do. Vast swaths of that area now go untouched. That’s great for vets but I’m not sure if it won’t be a bit overwhelming for newcomers, if any exist.

Owners of the WoW Collector’s Edition now get all three pets instead of having to pick one. 🙂

Here’s a really odd change (and I’m sure you can turn this off). Mobs only have names floating over their head if you have a quest to kill them. That’s really bizarre, but I have to admit it makes it super-easy to find the things you need to kill. Just look for anything with a neon sign over its noggin.

I do have Cataclysm pre-ordered but I almost wonder why. My highest level character is 60 (the cap when I last played with any kind of regularity) so the extra levels aren’t of much interest. I guess I’ll get access to the two new races but beyond that…it seems like most of the changes that come with Cataclysm, at least the ones that pertain to lower level characters, are included with the freebie patch.

We’ll see, I guess. I imagine I could have fun playing a Worgen for a little while..

Back to WoW?

Posted on by Nimgimli

I found my receipt for Wrath of the Lich King. I bought it on July 23rd. Before this weekend I’d logged into WoW once since installing it. And had stayed logged in for all of 10 minutes.

Last night I finally got around to going back, trying to run my level 60 hunter. The last time I played him, Burning Crusades was brand new. The last time I played him at all seriously was months before that. Trying to pick up where I left off, with a default UI, was…challenging.

Today I canceled the account again, but it doesn’t run out until the 26th. Since I’d spent $40 or $50 on WotLK (and $30 on two months subscribing) I figured, what the hell, time to roll a Death Knight just to see what that’s all about. So I did.

There’ve been some neat convenience features added to WoW since I last played, like the quest info on the maps and the neat little details on what stats will go up or down if you change gear. But otherwise, WoW feels like WoW.

If feels old to me in a way that, for example, EQ2 does not. Early in the Death Knight campaign you have to go into a mine, and it easily could’ve been the exact same mine I went into to kill Kobolds at the North Abbey back in 2003 or so…whenever they added the human race to the alpha/betas. The buildings are the same buildings, the peasants the same peasants.

Now, that’s fine for the old content but this was the newest, coolest content Blizzard could deliver? The one real improvement I noticed was audio; there were some really first rate screams.

Hopefully Cataclysm includes a graphics update along with all the other goodies. (Does it?)

In fairness, I should say that WoW still has the best ‘feeling’ melee combat of any MMO I can think of. There’s just something impactful (I may have just made up that word) about hitting an enemy with a sword that makes it feel like you’re really letting them have it.

Ah well, I always said you can’t go home again. I did get my last evening sitting at the dock in Westfall, watching the lighthouse. And y’know what? It really just wasn’t the same. For me, WoW no longer holds any magic, I guess. Sad, really. I hope Cataclysm can bring some of that magic back.