Well, you've still got a while to wait, suckers!
But I feel for you, I really do. That's why I took it upon myself to force my way into the World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King beta and give you a sneak peek at a few tasty morsels. I give you this list of ten things in WotLK that will make the wait even harder. Spoiler free, of course.
The Deathknight Questline
Much has already been said about the Deathknight – that it uses an entirely new combat system, plays like a mixture of warrior and warlock with the weaknesses of neither, that they are general all-round bad-asses. As impressive as they are, they were somewhat of a purple elephant to the Warcraft lore. It was passable for the Horde, sure. The Horde's evil, Deathknights are evil - it's a pretty happy marriage. But for the Alliance to welcome a runesword-wielding, disease dealing maniac with open arms? Fifteen years ago, that'd be labelled as bogus. Sh'yeah!
So the Blizzard Entertainment lore-weavers set to work to legitimise the introduction of the Deathknight, while matching the epic nature of playing such a volatile and powerful hero, and they have certainly outdone themselves. Look forward to some very interesting and exciting opening hours of game-play, including more than a few familiar faces for the WoW veterans, and an absolutely stunning ending.
Landscapes
Northrend is far north of Azeroth, where your first sixty levels take place. While for Australians, the further north you get, the warmer it gets, you may be interested to know that after a certain point it starts getting cold again. I know - I didn't believe it at first either! As a result, Northrend is a pretty chilly place, so you'd think that when you get there, it would just be ice and snow and yetis as far as the eye can see. But, in fact, much of Northrend is teeming with colours other than white. The first couple of zones are actually quite temperate, with pine forests and steep, rocky cliff faces.
That's not to say there's no snow, because there is. There's actually a lot. About half the continent is snowy, but the plants and rocks jutting out from the skyline in each zone are varied enough to still make each area feel fresh.
Landmarks
Despite the graphical engine being older than most fine wines, Wrath of the Lich King has still pumped out some very impressive scenery, thanks to some fine artists who know how to squeeze blood from a rock. In particular, areas like the Crystalsong Forest, with gorgeously glowing amethyst-coloured trees and Wyrmrest Temple which rivals even Karazhan (be sure to look at the murals on the ceiling). There are also plenty of Titan relics scattered throughout the continent, including a gigantic statue to the south of the Howling Fjords.
Dalaran, The Missing City
Many players will remember the giant pink dome in the middle of the Alterac Mountains – a fluorescent nipple surrounded by ruins – from their time spent reaching level 70 (or repeatedly slaying anyone below), but that era has come to an end. Where once there was half an enormous strawberry gumball, there is now just a crater surrounded by magical pink steam. Where, then, has it gone?
It sits afloat, smack-bang in the middle of Northrend, and serves as a neutral city for anyone capable of actually getting up there. On its surface, it's a rich, lavish, magical centre for civilisation, but beneath lies a maze of sewers, some opening directly to the solid earth below.
New Talents
With the level cap increase come a whole new set of talents for every class across the board. While the specifics of these talents changes almost weekly during beta, one thing is for certain – extra options are never a bad thing. Many of the old talents are also being revamped to accommodate for new abilities, and to provide more synergy between talent trees.
Some of the new talents provide avenues for entirely different styles of play, such as the Shaman's "Spirit Link" ability, which allows for multiple players to split the damage they take, or the Warlock's "Metamorphosis", turning the Warlock into a demon and essentially changing the caster class into a melee damage dealer for a short while.
Really Big Things
Everything grows taller up north, apparently. The Burning Crusade had its Fel Reavers, and Wrath of the Lich King has its Storm Giants. Huge, hulking, leather-clad behemoths roaming the land for no other reason than to kill you just as you're about to loot a nice item. But then there's Thrym, with the apt nickname "The Hope Ender".
Jerk.
Thrym is a giant undead monstrosity whose hobbies include baking, embroidery, and walking up and down the main path of Zul'Drak, stomping to death anyone who gets near him. Actually, Zul'Drak is another really big thing. Zul'Drak is one of the nine zones that make up Northrend, but what sets Zul'Drak apart from the rest, is that the entire place is one gigantic Troll Ziggurat. Think "Altar of Zul", but about a thousand times bigger, and filled with really big, angry bear and snake gods.
New Dungeons and Raids
Many of you will be pleased to know that 5-player instances have maintained the same increase in complexity and involvement that they began in The Burning Crusade. Bosses are rarely simple affairs, usually involving several tactics that will be familiar to raiders, but new to more casual players. The enemies in-between the bosses are often just as interesting, and will require just as much planning, coordination and communication as the big, bad, loot-dropping guys.
Although no raid instances are available at the moment, one major change is the addition of 10-player modes for all 25-player instances, with different loot tables for each. How wildly different the meat of each instance is depending on the group numbers remains to be seen, but it's a change that appeases both the casual and the hardcore groups from a conflict as old as the game itself.
PVP, Baby
Player-versus-player combat has come a very long way since the early days of World of Warcraft. Once upon a time, there wasn't even a reward system for slaying your enemy faction beyond the smug sense of superiority, and the knowledge that someone, somewhere, just threw their keyboard across the room. But then there was the honour-system, and then battlegrounds, and then a whole other honour system, then arenas.
Now, in addition to an extra battleground, Wrath of the Lich King is building upon its world-PvP origins and has set aside an entire zone in Northrend for nothing more than decapitating and incinerating each other. Wintergrasp – as the zone is called – pits the two factions against each other for control of the territory, but rather than have an all-out fistfight, players can take control of siege engines and destroy enemy buildings and defences, which means that tactics will play an important part. That is, unless, your server has an awful population imbalance. Then you're screwed.
Living World
One of the most enjoyable things I found throughout my beta experience, besides being able to play it way before everyone else and mess around with Deathknights and make snowcones and stuff, was seeing how the NPCs reacted to each other. While the Horde and the Alliance are certainly the main two factions at play in World of Warcraft, they're not the only factions, and you are reminded of this throughout Wrath of the Lich King.
Icecrown Gates. Eh. I've seen bigger.
From the get-go, in the Howling Fjord, wild Shoveltusks (boar-type creatures) fight each other for dominance, birds dive for rats, and friendly and enemy NPCs do battle whether or not you're around. Blizzard Entertainment has gone to great lengths to make Northrend feel like an active, dynamic place where old rivalries still burn bright.
Other Glorious Stuff
So Blizzard must have seen that some people occasionally stop playing WoW to go to work, or to eat, or to sleep, and thought "I wonder how we can make our game more addictive, and stop people from doing other things altogether". And thus, the achievement system was born.
Ever since Xbox Live introduced Achievements to the broader public, everyone and their mother has had to put in some sort of achievement system. Achievements are the herpes of gaming, and once you get them in your system, they're there for life.
World of Warcraft achievements range from everyday game-play related activities like exploring a zone or doing a specific quest chain, to the more obsessive ones like exploring every zone and doing every quest chain, but also have a few oddball quests thrown in for fun (falling 65 yards while really drunk, and surviving). The points you earn through achievements can be used to obtain vanity prizes.
There've also been a multitude of changes and improvements to the user interface in WotLK, not the least of which is the addition of the "Pets" tab on your character sheet. Now, when equipping a mount, it will be added into the Pets tab and won't take up any bag space. The same goes for any vanity pets, like parrots and whelps. That said, flying mounts are unusable in Northrend until you complete a quest at level 77, which is probably a good thing, because you're going to want to take your time and enjoy the sights.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment