Okay so after playing WoW for a month I decided last Friday night to get the WoTLK edition, I have not even caught up to burning crusade yet, but figured I would check out the death knight class.

This without a doubt has to be the best series of starter quests I have ever seen for a new character. Granted starting out at level 55 was kinda cool too. The quests really built up the character bit by bit and the story rocked, especially since you get to play a part in it.

You start out in one of those cool floating scourge cities, reminded me of an goaol command ship.

Once you get your character set up and meet your trainer, you start off right away proving your worth. Part of this is choosing a weapon and learning how to use the runeforge to put a rune on your weapon. This goes on to meeting the lich king himself and going right into war.

The battle field you find yourself in is full of attacking scarlet crusaders, scourge and whiny scarlet townsfolk.

The scourge archers were cool to see, and a quest was just to gather the arrows, which were easy to find on the battlefield, you just had to watch for a panicking crusader townsfolk running and get spiked to the ground by one of those arrows.

There is a quest to get your mount, no spending 500G for it either. It was pretty cool to have to steal a horse from the scarlet crusade and then get it transformed into a death charger.

Many quests are simple, just slaughter the crusaders and earn new blue armor. Oh, if you die, no long boring corpse run either, a Valkyrie warrior comes along and resurrects you.

One quest you had to sneak down to a ship and man its powerful cannon to slaughter 100 elite level crusaders, very easy and so much fun I am sure I blew up a 1000 or so before moving on to my next quest.

A few more quests kept you busy with the battle progressing beyond the initial scarlet town into there fortified area. The crybaby crusader townsfolk would cower whenever you got to close to them. I really enjoyed just going around killing them over and over.

Once the final plans for the crusaders counter attacks were figured out, you go back to the lich king where he goes, great, bring it on. He puts you in control of a large scourge dragon. You fly this around and use the dragon breath to take out attacking crusaders by the bucket full. You need to destroy ballista's as well. If they dragon gets a little hungry you just swoop in and chow down on a few crusaders. Like the cannon quest, I spent a lot of extra time just enjoying the quest, flying around and laying waste to the crusader armys.

Once done, you report back to the lich king who is pleased the scarlet crusade has been crushed and now its time to go after the argent dawn at lights hope chapel.

A portal is opened up and down you go. Now at this point the story starts to take a new angle, here the death knights break away from the control of the lich king. The head argent dawn paladin challenges and drives off the lich king.

The death knights need to retake the floating sky city, as the lich king has left some bad scourge types in control of it. The following battle is epic, you are healed non stop as you take on elites by yourself and some help from a few other death knights. Here like the other quests, I spent extra time killing off the scourge, patchwerk twice.

Once these battles are done and everything is secured you are just a few points shy of level 58. You need to go pledge allegiance to the horde so a visit to Thrall is in order. At this time, you are still considered scourge, so expect lots of rotten fruit tossed at you as you make your way through orgrimmar.

Once you talk to Thrall, you make level 58, and all your gear is set up so you can go right on questing/raiding or whatever.

It took me about 4 and half hours from start to finish, but I am sure if you pushed it could be cut back to 1-2 hours. I took my time mainly due to having so much fun with this. The $42 bucks for the game was well worth it if all I ever did was just that part of the game. I most likely will make a second death knight just to play the storyline one more time.

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Jake Rivers - Senex Legio
Get off my Lawn alliance

The quests in the new WOTLK areas are well-done too. They hide the "Kill x ____" or "Retrieve y ____" in some fairly compelling story. And the well-spoken genteel walrusmen are an effing TRIP. Love 'em.

"Let us trade, for prosperity!"

*cackle*

My stock was hard to come by!

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

Yah, WotLK is easily the best content ever released for WoW, or any MMO that I've seen, period.

Edit-post-thing: Although, and I know I'll get flamed for this, I still really enjoyed Planes of Power in EQ. =P

ditto

Despite a few of the criticisms I've made in the other forums, it is truly an incredible expansion in terms of content and artistry. The quests are incredibly well done. The one thing you see in most MMOs where WoW has succeeded is there in droves: Not an INCH of land in the new expansion is untouched or unpolished. Aesthetically it's incredibly fleshed out. Entering a new zone is a joy just to soak it all in.

So you're saying no stone has been left unturned?

Sadly I have renewed my WoW subscription due to the epic failure that is the latest EQ2 expansion and the smash hit that WOTLK appears to be.

There is one thing that is still bugging me though....nerdy lore chat incoming. You've been warned.

Am I the only one finding Arthas to be far less than epic? I mean, how are we supposed to take this guy seriously? Are we supposed to be intimidated by the threat he poses to the rest of Azeroth when it seems like he's still struggling just to survive on Northrend? All he seems to control is a tiny little chunk, a chunk that is already infested with Horde, Alliance, Argent Crusade and Ebon Blade troops and base camps.

Crashed necropoli sit on areas that he's tried to attack, other vast expanses of Northrend seem entirely untouched by him, despite an absence of any apparent resistance.

And then there's the oft-referenced ass-kickings he takes at Light's Hope and the Wrath Gate.

Other factions (Malygos and his crusade, the Drakkari and their animal gods, Putress/Varimathras, etc) seem to pose more of a threat and/or have more engaging quest lines.

Should we be expecting some sort of great trap or surprise from Arthas come the release of Icecrown Citadel? Or is he really going to pass by as one of the most anti-climactic arch-villians ever as pugs flood unhindered into his already-beseiged citadel to farm Frostmournes?

I'm enjoying the death knight, those early quests were tight. I flew from 55 to 68 in just about a week. Now I'm seeing all the Northrend shit for the first time.

It's good shit.

The expansion is too easy and Arthas is a pussy. Duh.

Time will tell. Personally I think they've done a good job putting in all the little things from Warcraft 3 that show his downfall. I expect something big will come from him, but we won't know that until we see Icecrown Citadel. But holy crap it's about time Wrynn got his ass moving, that Fordragon/Wrynn series in Dragonblight was sweet.

Oh yes, like I said, WotLK is easily the best content I've ever seen. I was just expressing surprise that Arthas seems to be such a small and largely puny part of the whole. Even the Wrathgate chain/video really isn't about him at all, it's more about Putress, the Forsaken and Undercity.

Quest chains like the Zul'drak animal gods and such vastly eclipse Arthas' contributions to my overall experience...the scourge almost seems to be an ancient empire in ruins from most of what you see and do.

I think they're doing Arthas and the threat he poses well.

Ever since The Frozen Throne, Arthas has been that threat that's always over the horizon. Remember, Illidan hurt him pretty bad, and now with Kil'Jaedan "dead" he's going to be weaker.

However, I think the real threat in Northrend is the Old God. We will see.

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

I'm inclined to believe there's still a puppet master behind Arthas pulling his strings.

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Kuwen Furyblades
Hunter of Memento Reejeryn
Champion of Faydark

Speaking of the little touches...

There is a quest line in Borean Tundra where you have to help this DEHTA guy disguised as a Murloc....one of the quests is to help release some caged baby Murlocs.

Anways, when you have all the baby Murlocs in tow.....they make baby Murloc sounds. I laughed when I first heard it, it's a really nice touch.

Actually, one of the best things in this expansion has been the sound effects. I never really noticed it much before, but it really is making an impression on me with WOTLK. I already mentioned this elsewhere, but like in the opening DK sequence, having Arthas whispering stuff to you before you kill stuff (like you're about to kill a peasant, and suddenly you here Arthas whisper "End it").....nice touch.

If you haven't already, I would recommend playing WOTLK with headphones on.

The music in this expansion is also worth having turned on.

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

I almost... ALMOST... lost my fanatical hatred of all that is Murloc doing that DEHTA quest. They're just (wince) kawaii...

Wait till you get to Storm Peaks and do the Loki / Thor quest lines and see where they stole all the Norse myth from. I knew it was the backdrop for the creation of Azeroth but we're talking straight Norse mythos.

Google the Drakkensryd and watch the video's. Best quest ever.

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"I'm the best there is at what i do, bub, and what i do isn't very pretty"

Phasing is an awesome mechanic, and I am so glad it went in well without much hassle.

Agreed. I'm not sure what's more impressive...the mechanic itself or the fact that it seems to have worked pretty flawlessly right out of the box.

I noticed some of this during the first few quests around Valgarde.

That quest should have let you keep the murloc suit. heh.

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I agree, but since they gave it out as swag at a convention...it simply won't happen.

I am really glad that the bear mounts they gave out this time, while 'special', are repeated with a similar bear mount (different color, sans murloc). The goggled bear is just too cool.

As to the expansion, I don't think a day has gone by that I haven't said how amazing it is.

Dalaran is very very similar to Disneyland for those who've been there. It's really clear that whomever designed it either worked a summer job there (pretty common for those of us in Southern CA) or is a huuuuge fan. I had an open pass when I was in college as well as dated cast members, so I'm WAY too familar with that park myself.

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That's funny. The first thing I thought walking through the streets was that it reminded me of a combination of main street Disneyland and Downtown Disney.

Cool city!

Where does one get the ring that teleports you to Dalaran without a bind?

Best storyline?

Easily the best is how they have expanded, and more importantly repaired the whole reason the franchise exists in the first place.

Horde vs Alliance. The Wrath Gate and Battle for Undercity were epic. There are also some pretty epic quests up here in Icecrown now. Awesome use of phasing. Decent PVP quests also which make me forget that any meaningful pvp that happened takes place is some stupid arena. No shortage of flaggots to gank now.

I can't wait for Icecrown raids to see how all this shit ties together. Titans, old gods, dragons. This expansion has it all.

And fuck Pandarens. Tuskarr are way better and should be brewmasters.

This phasing mechanic, I don't recall ever reading about it but a couple friends have talked about it, anyone care to elaborate on it?

My limited understanding is that for certain areas, you and any party members get a pseudo instance for quest mobs and cut scenes. If you're engaged in combat with an ally and they enter the area reserved for the pseudo instance, can you still pursue?

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Kuwen Furyblades
Hunter of Memento Reejeryn
Champion of Faydark

It was most noticable for me with the DK quests. You'd fly back and forth through the same zone, no loading screen, but the layouts would change. I'd be nuking ballista-firing soldiers and be in the same 'zone' as the ones just starting.

I don't fully understand the mechanics of the phasing yet, but as long as you and your group member are on the same part of the quest there shouldn't really be a situation of "I can't see you" or being unable to pursue a mob so long as you stay on the same parts of the quest.

As an example, I did the Undercity event a few nights ago. You can't see people that are in the "normal" Undercity, only those on the quest - whether they're in your group or not. If someone zones in on the same part of the quest you're on, you see them. You'll see NPCs and other things going on that you don't see in normal Orgrimmar/Undercity.

After that quest is complete you still have phasing going on, in a different respect. You can no longer talk to Varimathras(from my understanding). So basically you see things and differences that other people don't see if they haven't done certain quests.

I haven't quite gotten to Icecrown yet, but a friend of mine was doing it and was pretty stoked the other night. To quote him, "I'm changing Icecrown".

The first real glimpse I got of it was with the Wrathgate event in Dragonblight. Everyone that plays WoW MUST do that quest =)

After about 30 minutes into death knight quests I turned my TV off, I never turn that thing off when I am at home.

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Jake Rivers - Senex Legio
Get off my Lawn alliance

That's basically all there is to it. The DK starting area is the first place you'll see it, Storm Peaks has area's of it when you've completed the Thorim quest line, and Icecrown is nothing but a phased area, it works really well.

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"I'm the best there is at what i do, bub, and what i do isn't very pretty"

Phasing:

When you go to a zone similar to Un'Goro, where Nesingwary is now, there's no flight path, even though the carbonite map shows there should be one. It's a phased area.

As you quest and progress the storyline, the area changes. Other people can see the flight path...just not you. Until you 'unlock' it essentially (or build it, literally).

In this specific case, the quest involves rebuilding a plane. Once you've done so, they put together the airship which then becomes your flight path. Now you have a flight path here.

It's actually a dynamic I've questioned since EARLY gaming why it wasn't in the game (like EQ, etc). Most MMORPGs have evolving story lines and we want the world to change to reflect that. That hasn't really been possible previously without specific instancing though, which besides being expensive to do, cuts you off from other people. So it wouldn't be good. So MMO worlds were an all or nothing progression. Story goes forward and we ALL experience it. And it was generally done with expansions so people didn't feel too screwed out of content.

Now with 'phasing' it's possible for players to personally experience a storyline advancement, and see the actual changes. So, when some NPC asks you to find his dog, and you do...with phasing he'll then show the dog (if they phase that quest). If you have a quest to kill someone...with phasing you'll see them gone in the future on that character, if they phase it.

I think it's really one of the most important things an MMO can do at this point. It furthers immersion and makes the game a hell of a lot more entertaining than 'keel seex mooses'

At the moment not everything is phased. However with WoW previously they constantly went back and updated little things in patches, tweaked graphics, did a shitload of little things to continually improve the game. I expect they'll go back and put in a lot more phasing as time goes on.

Oh and as far as the DK start area, there are so many dramatic changes that as it advances, it's a different area completely, though you don't realize you've traveled to a different area. But I realized I was actually in a completely different area without the people still in the 'old' area because people asked where one of the main NPCs had 'moved' to (the character goes to a different location as the story unfolds. No one said they still saw this NPC at the old location...so we all had to be seeing the same thing.

But I'd imagine with smaller changes (like seeing a flight path NPC) it could easily just be something you unlock. So if I have it and you don't, we would still be in the same zone...just I can see it and you can't until you unlock it with a quest. Small things like that should be pretty easy.

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That's really impressive. One of my problems with immersion and MMOs has always been the "Groundhog Day" effect. If Hogger is dead, he should stay dead (for you).

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Hope is the new black.

Finally, I won't get killed by DVinn while holding his heart anymore!!!!

Speaking of storylines, the CoT: Stratholme is AMAZING. Did it on heroic last night (first time in the zone) and I was totally impressed.

I am channeling my inner Skycrasher...

Shouldn't this be in viewforum.php?f=23



But on a serious note, glad to hear the new expansion is excellent. I have a friend who plays about 60 hours a week (yes he has zero life, we all know) and raves constantly about Lich King expansion.

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All this sounds really great but then again, it's Blizzard so i'm not surprised by the level of quality. However, to add to an earlier comment, Planes of Power was pretty awesome for me. I haven't played WoW beyond Burning Crusade and I pretty well disliked every EQ expansion with the exception of Kunark and Velious. I enjoyed going through the Planes of Power but, I do wish EQ would implement questing bubbles or whatever on their 10th anniversey and add quest symbols over NPC's. I would love to see how many quests people have missed though, that makes it somewhat fun.

I'm glad to hear WoW is doing so well and they continue to deliver quality material. The MMO bar needs to be held to a high standard in hopes that other companies will realize they can't deliver crap to the consumers and that's the only alternative.

Exactly. So now you two holdouts need to re-subscribe =p

I'd give a nod to Planes of Power for both best overall story, and biggest letdown at the end.

I heard a lot of people say that about POP. While ya - something other than "nevermind, let's reset" woudl have been nice, I just don't know what they could have done.

Maybe I'll give WOTLK a run. It's almost scary to hear gamers have something positive to say about a game

Also, I didn't read (or don't remember) all of the epic quests I did or assisted with in EQ but those were a load of fun. The cleric epic was almost like a movie script in the way it played out. I had worked my butt off for my epic attempting to keep up with people and finally with the help of friends and family I made it to the last step.

When I made it to the last step it just seemed no one could or had the time to help on the final raid. For whatever reason it was always something and I was also hesitant to bother some of the same people that had helped me already.

I remember sitting at the Lavastorm druid ring and speaking with Riam (half-elf warrior right?) and telling him that I just can't catch a break in getting my epic finished. He had recalled some previous time where I helped him or healed for them in group, whatever, and I remember him sending a few tells and having people ooc/shout in zones to help Muligan finish his epic. Within seconds people just started popping in the druid ring, Leolan, Phalladar, Grimmier, etc. etc.

It was stuff like that which made EQ so incredible and made some of the most frustrating tasks so rewarding. Fun times... That just don't make quests like they use to (maybe for good reason, i'm not sure)

You mean the part where you sat in Skyfire for a week so no one would come by and solo ragefire?

Can you believe that we did that kind of shit? I think back to some of the things I did in EQ and I am amazed that I spent that much time. I got 3 Vex Thal keys, for example. I would never spend that much time in WoW on anything. Crazy.

EQ had something of a slower pace to it, at least it felt that way to me. I didn't feel so rushed all the time to get to max level, to finish this quest, to finish this dungeon, to get this rep to exalted, etc etc.

Maybe it was just me, but EQ always just felt more laid back and "do whatever" to me, even when I was in a server-first style raiding guild. In WoW, for some reason, I always feel rushed.

"something of a slower pace to it"

That's one way to describe it.

Yes, I know. =P

I'm not just referring to 72-hour spawns and all-night raids though. When I play WoW, I feel so rushed for some reason. Like if I'm leveling or doing a quest or grinding a rep or looking for a particular drop or something similar I gotta get it done NOW, fast, fast, fast, gogogo.

That doesn't mean I'm impatient with other people, it's just a personal thing.

I didn't feel that way in EQ for some reason. If I didn't get X level or X drop today, it was ok. It'd be there tomorrow, no biggie.

I think this is the best expansion of any MMO I've played. Every day for me has held at least one surprise.

It is also amazing to me how they continue to upgrade the game without bringing most systems to their knees, unlike EQ.