October 3rd, 2008
Wrath of the Lich King
Blizzard announced that the next World of Warcraft expansion pack, Wrath of the Lich King, will be out on the 13th of November. Just a few days before a certain lady’s birthday, wonder what she’ll be getting as a present.
We’ve both decided we wanted to get the Collectors Edition this expansion pack, Jen wanted the little frost dragon pet it gives and I was interested in the soundtrack and book of WoW artwork.
I started playing WoW back in 2005 I believe it was, Uru Live was no more and I had heard a lot of buzz about WoW so being a fan of Warcraft I tried it out. Three years later (and I finally hit the level cap before it was raised again) I’m still playing.
However after those 3 years I have been finding that my level 70 Night Elf Hunter is not as an enjoyable experience as it used to be. I now find myself mulling over the concept of retiring him for something new. I sat down the other day and thought about it, what would my Night Elf do? Three years ago he left the relative safety of Shadowglen and ventured out into the world, growing stronger, fighting in wars and venturing through the Dark Portal to take on the Legion itself. What horrors would he have seen and how would they effect him? I think perhaps he would return to Teldrassil perhaps hang out at the lake down in Dolanaar and spend his days fishing.
I had thought about perhaps replacing him with my Gnome Mage, or perhaps my Blood Elf Rogue, but then Wrath of the Lich King presented another option, the Death Knight.
I had said a fair while ago to Jen that WoW needed a Necromancer class, I had dabbled with Necromancers when I played Guild Wars and enjoyed the class. When news came about the Death Knights and their skills of raising ghouls (a long with other things) I knew that would be something I would want to check out. I decided to give Death Knights a whirl in the WotLK beta.
For the Death Knight starting area Blizzard had introduced “Phasing”. This phasing causes the environment to change depending on what you have done in the game. If you had completed the quest to kill Bob then Bob would no longer appear before you, but he would appear to the people who had yet to do the kill Bob quest. This move allows WoW to have some more fluidity to story telling, it allows for the world to not be so static and rigid, to change with the story. Something that was, in my opinion, a big issue for the game.
The one thing I always liked about Uru was how the storyline was passing in real time, if a wall collapsed it did so only once and would never do it again for the next person who came along. This phasing combined with the kick ass storyline of the Death Knights starting area coupled up with the Death Knights themselves equaled in a thoroughly enjoyable game play (to the point where I had long past the point I should have gone to bed to continue playing).
There is a down side to all of this, Death Knights are going to be everywhere when WotLK is released which could be a pain. But I think I may have found a replacement for my hunter.
Perhaps at some point Blizzard will introduce the ability for the Hunter class to become Demon Hunters would definitely bring some interest back to Hunters I think, even if it does mean becoming slightly demonic in appearance.
October 3rd, 2008 at 4:56 pm
Woah. Woah. Phasing? I might have to start playing WoW again now that they’re working on my number 2 complaint about it. Very exciting to hear!
October 3rd, 2008 at 7:48 pm
Yes indeed, it isn’t implemented everywhere as it would cause problems if you are trying to help a friend, they wouldn’t be able to see you nor you them. But they are using it more for some of the Northrend quests.