Author: Zubon

One merit the Burning Crusade has over classic WoW is being compact. I understand that a quest chain sending you to five zones across both coasts of both continents is supposed to feel epic, but it is just a lot of travel. BC also benefits from contrast with “things to keep you busy at 60” versus content you are supposed to move through. For much of the level 60 classic content, I stopped considering it before even calculating how much grind there was. As a latecomer, I get to skip that. Sorry, veterans.

There is far more content in BC than you need for 10 levels. I went through 4 zones with 0 instances, which was about 9 levels. I entered at 60.5 (from playing around at 60 in classic zones) and dipped into a fifth zone to hit 70. I stepped into one of the other zones for a “talk to this guy” quest, and I have yet to see the seventh. Wasn’t the experience curve re-adjusted? Even considering that, content is profuse.

During level 69, I began to notice the “things to do at 70” more as I looked through the neat things I wanted to do before leaving Outland. I have these bombing run achievements: not available until 70. What about those daily quests I heard so much about? Not until 70. Can I start — not until 70. Guys, you can lower the minimum level for level 70 content now. People are leaving for Northrend at 68 as it is. (When I finally got to do my first daily bombing run, I was disappointed with Fires over Skettis. I was hoping for something like the Hellfire Peninsula bombing run.)

I presume BC has all these factions to give you something to grind. I like making imaginary friends, but not when it starts to feel like an absurd grind. It is like the LotRO legendary items: at first, it is really neat to have extra numbers appearing every time you do anything. Capping out the first one is awesome! Then you hit seven of them that are 500/10,000 and why am I doing this?

Being able to fly trivializes some of the content by letting you bypass defenders. I don’t care. It is a great way to experience the content, and it lets you bypass trash mobs to get to the point. If you want to slaughter hordes of the enemy, land, do so.

See previously on why the rather high item levels make much absurd. I will address the experience for each zone throughout the week. And to warn you, I do not expect to post “at 80” for a while, as I have a lot of offline time coming up.

: Zubon

This has an interesting, ethereal vibe. The layout will take some getting used to, but so did Stormwind, and it’s not as though I have any reason to come here often. The crystals are kind of neat and — why is there a laser light show in the big chamber? Not, like, mystic images, these are holograms of demonic foes. And there is some kind of giant light being in the basement.

Part of me thinks that this is perfectly proper. The Burning Legion is a bunch of demons, the forces of darkness, and they are opposed by the forces of light. Going literal is actually pretty creative, rather than taking the traditional Western path of having angels in opposition. (Does that make Aion creative for taking the standard Western path in a Korean game?) All this time people were talking about being blessed by the Light, and here it is. Part of me wonders why aliens on spaceships with lasers are in a fantasy setting.

Part of me thinks of Robert Asprin and “demon” as basically another word for “alien from another dimension.”

: Zubon

I like their towns in Outland more.

I noticed that my cooking and fishing had fallen behind during my leveling binge in Outland (to say nothing of my lowly Blacksmithing). Catching fish in an area that would feed my cooking score was giving me more trash catches than I would like, even with the Nightcrawlers the nice ghouls had given me. I decided that a good way to raise skill would be to catch Old Ironjaw. If I was going to want the achievement sometime anyway, I might as well get points for working on it. I had made a few tentative casts into the pond before, but I had never really set out to catch him. I announced in guild chat that I was staying there until I had Old Ironjaw or 375 skill.

Just 772 fish and 3 lesser healing potions later, I had 375 skill. I guess I’ll try again sometime.

: Zubon

Having reached 60, with alts at various points, I became able to give my refer-a-friend an instant level 60. Well, instant would be pointless: might as well create another alt myself and run through the newbie town, because that gets you to level 9 (with triple-xp) in less than an hour. Might as well save those granted levels for when they’re worth more.

So we made alts and quested our way to Goldshire. The next time we got together, he thought it would be fun to play those characters again, so we did most of the Goldshire quests. That, plus running to Westfall for the gryphon (plus some minor violence along the way), left us at level 14. Turning in any quest yielded multiple bars of xp.

That almost caught up to the first alt from whom I was going to start granting levels. That is the Mage, painfully leveled solo with the pitiful mana regen. His Mage reached about the same point in a coupe nights of easy grouping. He hasn’t even twinked this one, because it has not mattered: it goes too quickly, and who needs to farm more heirloom gear when level 60 is right around the corner?

I like my shiny new level 14 Rogue. Woo! But it makes playing solo kind of pointless. I would be better off dual-boxing, putting a character of his on /follow, and getting more rewards for everything I do. Which I have done, when there was a level-relevant character available. If nothing else, summoning a friend to a quest hub for an effectively free level at quest turn-in is nice. But it does make playing without him seem like a waste of (2/3 of my) time.

: Zubon

The expansion packs have non-linear increases in power. This goes beyond the tyranny of levels: the numbers become so large that it is only the same game because of overlapping mechanics. It is not so much an expansion pack as a sequel that imports your achievements and some trophies.

I tagged along as 3 level 80 guildmates took out the 1.1 million hit point Ragnaros. A difficult raid for 40 level 60s becomes somewhat difficult content for 3 level 80s. I don’t think the Priest had any heals smaller than my hit point total. Current endgame characters are literally orders of magnitude above the original endgame. It makes everything that came before superfluous, like having an artillery squad plus one guy throwing rocks as hard as he can.

Mixing the two is silly in the other direction as well. If it were possible to hit an “aggro everything in the dungeon” button, level 80s could hit it and solo most of the original dungeons all at once. If a level skull attacks you, there is no point in even resisting someone who does 10 times your damage with 10 times your hit points. I am on a PvP server, so anyone capped and bored can cut off a [patrol * sight distance] chunk of a contested zone at will. (Relatedly, although in WoW you also get a giant hammer while the kids get sticks.)

As I ponder being done and having won, the feeling that it is no longer the same game is very relevant. If it is some whole other game, there are lots of new games that are new, rather than the same thing with bigger numbers.

: Zubon

There seem to be two stories:

1. Nature is being corrupted/despoiled. Go fix a bit of it.
2. Show your respect for nature by killing animals.

: Zubon

Sometime during level 57, I got the feeling that I had beaten the game. I won. The rest is just that stuff you do in any CRPG after beating the big boss: wander around, clean up quests, finish storylines you want to see through, maybe see about improving your equipment. Having poked my head into Outland, there are boars again, so that feels like some other game entirely. Like an expansion pack, entirely optional, not really part of the core game. But it might create a new drive to play.

I spent less time in the Plaguelands than I should have. I hit it in the early 50s and never went back. I spent much time in the Un’Goro Crater, with the dinosaurs. One night I did all the Felwood quests, which was where I felt like I had won. You finish there, make friends with the firbolgs, run through the tunnel, to find more firbolgs in a snowy area. Oh, I guess this is the point at which the game just gives you an infinite survival mode, with higher numbers but mostly just something to do with your time. I missed Silithus almost entirely. Stopping at the Cenarion fortress, I was unclear on how many of those exclamation points were really quests, as opposed to “grind, collect, and redeem” trade-ins.

It’s all neat, and I’m interested in the Burning Crusade, but I am not sure how much I want to disturb this feeling of completion. I could exit on an up note, rather than going until it feels like work.

: Zubon