Category: World of Warcraft

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

In case I have not mentioned often enough, this class just keeps getting more awesome. In the 40s, Paladins get a big ranged attack that can be used only when the target is below 20% health, instant cast with a 6 second cooldown. Almost every enemy that flees does so at 20% — giant magic hammer to the back! Most of them do not even get to turn — giant magic hammer to the face!

Caster mobs remain a weakness, particularly in numbers. Curses can be annoying.

The Retribution talent line continues to add little bonuses of a few percent each. They add up nicely. I still need to get that Glyph of Exorcism to add even more damage.

In the early 50s, the Plaguelands are just a gift. Undead undead undead, and many areas have large groups with no casters. This comes just after you get the anti-undead AE nuke/stun. I walked up to a farm, saw the fields covered with zombies, and thought, “It’s… it’s so beautiful.”

: Zubon

Unlike most games, WoW lets you “earn” experience by being in a group with someone of far higher level than you, watching as he slaughters hordes of enemies at your level. Sure, you get reduced experience, but your xp-per-minute is great at 0 risk.

At least on my server, low-level characters seem to expect others to do things for them. I presume that most are alts. It is easier to ask guildmate Bob to run you through Deadmines than to find a group for it, and you need not worry about losing rolls on loot. And could you do it when I am at the minimum level to enter the dungeon, so I can get better xp and loot? And could you summon me, because I cannot get there safely on my own? I occasionally see people LFM for groups, but they are usually looking for someone to run the dungeon for them.

The cycle: you can’t find a group because everyone has level 80 friends run them through, so you have a level 80 friend run you through.

This becomes a problem when you slip and actually group for group content. A Warrior invited me to a dungeon then asked who could tank. All the enemies in the place (and everyone he invited) were higher level than him: great for him! Turns out I was one level above what the meeting stone would summon: even better for him, and not his running problem. Still, I wanted to finish some quests, so I would pick up a few other quests and meet folks there. Except that three of five stood in town and mentioned occasionally that they would like to be summoned. When I passed through Stormwind on the way there, I noticed the Warrior arguing with the religion spammers IN ALL CAPS that ALIENS pretended to be FALLEN ANGELS in the Bible and would try to DECEIVE us in COMING YEARS. The three were still standing in town when I got to the meeting stone, where the other member had gone AFK, got ganked, and was still AFK when I quit after waiting out the hope reservoir. As I left, someone mentioned that he might be a bit slow because he was painting his house.

This presents a higher level of crazy than usual, but standing around with a sense of entitlement seems to be a norm. Give me what I want; give it to me faster; if I actually have to spell out what I want, ur a griefer or noob lolsauce.

In LotRO, we sometimes become annoyed with new players for not already knowing what to do when we have run the quest line four times before. In WoW, they seem to become annoyed with new players because newbies expect party members to “show up” and “do things.”

: Zubon

Rather than hit you with another wall of text (not that one), I have a few quick notes, with some thoughts I’ll be spinning across the week.

Not much going on in The Hinterlands, is there? It’s a quick couple of stories and out. I missed Badlands, Swamp of Sorrows, and the Searing Gorge entirely. I spent the levels in Feralas and Tanaris. I suppose that gives me some repeatability if I take those zones through the Blasted Lands for this level range.

I thought the giant turtles of Dustwallow Marsh were awesome, but now I see that I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I hit the 40s, I put away childish things. For now we see the turtles of the Tanaris Desert, and they are yellow and pale blue, and they are even cooler. Who doesn’t love big, grumpy creatures in cuddly springtime colors? Also on the color beat, I cannot say that I care for painting a vulture red and calling it a roc.

As a Paladin, you hit level 50 and get Holy Wrath, an undead-/demon-only area effect nuke and stun. And then they send you to the Plaguelands, where there are level-appropriate undead in convenient clusters all over the place. They are even spread just right so that you can pick how many you want on this fight.

I have had pretty much no positive grouping experiences. This will be a post of the day later this week, but the only good groups I have had are my refer-a-friend (do everything together) and sharing kills for “kill ten rats” quests. The rare groups that arise have been various mixes of horrible and inconsiderate.

I was invited to join a PvP server. Almost all the PvP I have seen has been level skulls ganking people. I have three PvP deaths that are not from level skulls, all of which were higher-level characters, only one of which was vaguely comparable (only three levels higher, alone), and that was the fight I accidentally initiated. On a different note, I tried dueling my refer-a-friend on my Druid, and I have no idea how I could conceivably overcome the advantage of heirloom gear. I have no twink gear on any of my characters, and I don’t see how I could hope to win a fight other than springing upon a lower-level character. Even once I hit the level cap, the competition has been there for a year of farming.

Summarizing most of those points, the A game is core, the E game is still amusing as I wander around seeing new things at a good clip, the K game is just annoying, and the S game is mostly people that make me glad the classic WoW zones are largely empty.

: Zubon