Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Hanging with the Big Dogs


So, yes, this is on live; the beta is over. Yes, I'm still playing, a lot actually. Things is, when the expansion went live I took Hell and Tynaqua out to Northrend and got them rolling on their expanded professions and questing. I got them both up to level 72 and decided to go back and roll the DK, now that the initial crowd would be through the start zones on that. Or so i thought. LOL. Nope, crowded but doable. I rolled a blood elf DK, named her Fortknight (I'd grown attached to the name), and got so crazy into the death knight that I moved her right along to level 74, just like that.

The first shot, up top, Fort is hanging with the big dogs, Lady Sylvannas and Thrall, as they are about to retake the UC from that bastige, Varimathras. OMG I love this quest chain. I love the cut scene with Arthas, the UC battle, the Alliance meet up, and the whole nine yards. That's me, next to Lady Sylvannas. No, I am not a gnome. They downsized me! Waaaah. This shot is from the opening fight in the UC courtyard. Go Horde!!

The worst part about the DK was starting at lvl 55 with NO PROFESSIONS! Curse you, Blizzard. But Fort has fishing, cooking, mining, and skinning up to Northrend standards now. Well, fishing still requires a bobble, but at least it can be done.

Hell went forward with inscription, dumping tailoring, and at first that paid off big. Now, not so much, as everyone seems to have his / her inscrption needs taken care of. Unlike gems and enchants, your inscriptions don't get recycled with gear changes. Hmm, bad planning there Blizzard (and me). Tynaqua's doing a brisk gem business so that sort of compensates, and with three miners (Hell, Tyn, and Fort), I"m good.

Game play is fun, but the interesting part has also been to watch the guild deal with the expansion. First they tried to set caps, then the very cap-setters themselves blasted on through to level 80. I asked the first one to 80 how he liked Wintergrasp (the pvp area that requires lvl 77), commenting that I couldn't wait to do that. He said he hadn't seen much of the world on his whirlwind trip to level 80. I think this might be true of several of the "gotta hit 80 first or close to first" people in guild. For them, it's about the achievement. For some of us, it's about the world. Anyhow... I will try to put more info and screenshots in here.