I got an email from Eskil Steenberg today, answering a few of my questions. His answers of course prompted me to ask a few more questions, so that should be up within the next day or so. Rawr for my epic video game journalism.(Ok not really.) Moving on..
I finally got World of Warcraft + The Burning Crusade installed and patched(again). Then to save some time I passed my WoW folder over to my wife's computer to save her the horror I just experienced. However I finally got to load up the ancient addiction that is slaying people left and right.(Mentally at least.) So what did I decide to play?
His name is VharaunA Blood Elf Priest. There were a few reasons behind my choice. For one, I've not played a healer since the days of yore of EverQuest in it's prime. It's an entirely different playstyle than what I've been doing in recent years.(Rogue, Hunter, Fury Warrior....yeah..) While there was an excellent suggestion to do a melee hunter for laughs(Thank you, Tesh.), I decided to help out all those PuGs by being a healer. I expect to keep my evil attitude by enforcing the " You want healed/resurrected? Pay me =) ".
Maybe not.
So after being bitter with World of Warcraft so many times for reasons mentioned in previous posts, what was some of the first things I noticed upon returning? Well one, the latency icon is utterly gone. As if Blizzard no longer wants me to know how bad the server is lagging on a particular day...hmmm
Conspiracy theory! Dun dun dunnnn!
I noticed other things as well. The addition of the Xbox 360 Achievement tab..urr..I mean the World of Warcraft Achievement tab! Though probably the most pleasant change was the new Arcane Torrent. The fact that now I never have to constantly check on my Mana Tap charges was a nice little addition, as was making the mana return a % instead of a base amount. Smart move there Blizzard, I'll give you that grudgingly.
My wife and I. She's an evil Warlock..and I'm a holy priest..We ....uhh..compromise.I quickly rediscovered how much I hate the low levels in World of Warcraft. By low level I mean anything prior to level 20. The game just seems so boring and tedious during this point. However I was thankfully too busy talking to old friends to really care about that particular issue. It's interesting to me how the camaraderie of just talking to people(Either through typing or voice chat) makes you not care how utterly boring the game is that you're playing. Then I got level 4 and with it...
I finally had one of the staples of a priest. The spell didn't "WoW" me,(See what I did there? Sorry..on going joke with Tipa from Westkarana. hehe.) but I enjoyed having an instant cast clickie to destroy all those fluffy rabbits that could at any moment massacre everyone in sight. Aside from that, only two interesting events occurred in my initial return to World of Warcraft.
The first was my wife and I doing the "final" quest in the initial quest area. You have to go up a tall spire and fight some decrypted Blood Elf having withdrawals.(Who eerily enough looks like someone that plays World of Warcraft for far too long...) After we slain him with a few quick SWP and Immolates followed by a mace to the groin...My wife backs up...and keeps backing up...
My wife is that small speck of gore that you can barely see from up here. If that helps.
I couldn't help but chuckle at her brief little mistake as she said behind me " Oh crap..." and then went splat. I then, in my moment of infinite wisdom, said she should have aimed for the water. That way she would have lived instead of ...well...not living. In retrospect, this was probably when the great powers of Karma looked upon me and cackled with glee. Which is never good.
To demonstrate my serious "jumping from high places into a pool of water" skill, I decided to take the plunge...
I get a brief moment of vertigo which I've always found strange. In any other game where I plummet several hundred feet I'm fine, but with any MMO I get a strong sense of vertigo as if I was actually jumping. I can't explain it. Anyway sorry for going off on a tangent there. This is the result of my bravado.
I probably deserved this.
The first was my wife and I doing the "final" quest in the initial quest area. You have to go up a tall spire and fight some decrypted Blood Elf having withdrawals.(Who eerily enough looks like someone that plays World of Warcraft for far too long...) After we slain him with a few quick SWP and Immolates followed by a mace to the groin...My wife backs up...and keeps backing up...
My wife is that small speck of gore that you can barely see from up here. If that helps.I couldn't help but chuckle at her brief little mistake as she said behind me " Oh crap..." and then went splat. I then, in my moment of infinite wisdom, said she should have aimed for the water. That way she would have lived instead of ...well...not living. In retrospect, this was probably when the great powers of Karma looked upon me and cackled with glee. Which is never good.
To demonstrate my serious "jumping from high places into a pool of water" skill, I decided to take the plunge...
All that yellow text is the Alliance attacking the Blood Elf Starting Area...Jerks.
I get a brief moment of vertigo which I've always found strange. In any other game where I plummet several hundred feet I'm fine, but with any MMO I get a strong sense of vertigo as if I was actually jumping. I can't explain it. Anyway sorry for going off on a tangent there. This is the result of my bravado.
I probably deserved this.So that was my World of Warcraft experience as a Priest. If you were very observant you would have noticed that I had very quickly got the addon QuestHelper. I'm "on the fence" with this addon because the majority of WoW players seem like they're having withdrawal systems if QuestHelper isn't working. The biggest example of this was the chat in the DeathKnight zone when it was first released and people were trying to figure out the very easy initial quests.
Oh well. I promised myself I wouldn't rant too much tonight.
Something I want to make note on, just to assure both old readers and new. This site will NOT suddenly become a shrine to WoW. I still plan on playing other MMOs. (Especially Wizard 101.) I also will insist upon writing things that may put WoW in a negative light when it deserves it, which is most of the time. I'll also try to act like I'm some hotshot journalist and get interviews with people that really have better things to do than talk to me.
Like getting teeth pulled.
I just wanted to reassure that The MMO Experience will be what it's always been. It will simply incorporate the WoW aspect as I share my experiences there, which I hope are as wild, varied, and hilarious as they were when I played a hunter and a rogue. So give this priest your warmest regards and wishes as I boldly try not to show how inept I truly am.
Oh well. I promised myself I wouldn't rant too much tonight.
Something I want to make note on, just to assure both old readers and new. This site will NOT suddenly become a shrine to WoW. I still plan on playing other MMOs. (Especially Wizard 101.) I also will insist upon writing things that may put WoW in a negative light when it deserves it, which is most of the time. I'll also try to act like I'm some hotshot journalist and get interviews with people that really have better things to do than talk to me.
Like getting teeth pulled.
I just wanted to reassure that The MMO Experience will be what it's always been. It will simply incorporate the WoW aspect as I share my experiences there, which I hope are as wild, varied, and hilarious as they were when I played a hunter and a rogue. So give this priest your warmest regards and wishes as I boldly try not to show how inept I truly am.
Hey...most everyone plays it...why should you not?
ReplyDeleteI still think 11.5 million people are not wrong.
But, I did it already, and may even go back again someday..
Just not right now.
Write all you want, and this was very amusing start (always fun to go back to an old game)
Cheers
My husband and I used Tour Guide when we played WoW and leveling alts for the sixteenth time. It uses much, much, much less memory than Quest Helper, though it's a bit more linear -- it tells you what quests to get and where to go for the most efficient questing, instead of looking at what you have and telling you what to do from that. You can find it on WoWinterface.com if you're inclined to check it out.
ReplyDeleteCarbonite works better than Tour Guide imo. Even in the free form I would suggest it although it does still have some minor bugs, nothing too big though. Anyhow, Danshir you wuss! You need to come back to Norrath, it gets bored getting pwned in PoI by myself. I need your beastie there with me lol
ReplyDeleteYeah, I tried out Carbonite but I really hated the interface and maps and whatnot, so that was a no go for me personally.
ReplyDeleteThe latency bar hasn't been fully removed. The screen on the small computer icon shows your latency from green to red and everywhere in between. Just letting you know!
ReplyDeleteI offered the Melee Hunter idea only partially in jest. I wish that sort of functionality were possible in WoW. The relatively strict combat roles that the class-based design imposes can get a bit... boring at times. Mixing things up by making a Melee Hunter or Tank Priest possible and supported by spec variations could extend the life of the game. (So would "respeccing" to a different class entirely, but that's a bridge too far for the WoW system.)
ReplyDeleteNice writeup! It's good to see how other people have fun with the game. It's especially interesting to me that the early levels are boring to you; I've heard the flipside of that complaint that the early areas are the most interesting to some, and the midrange levels are the most boring, since it's largely the same content for every character (per faction, I suppose), and the grind hits harder out of the starting areas.
Well as far as the map and such in Carbonite, you can change the settings and such so that you will use the default ones.
ReplyDelete:) Moot point anyway, as I don't play WoW anymore, but thanks.
ReplyDelete