8 December 2008

The joy of questing in Wrath

I hope I didn't give the wrong impression in my last post. It's a tough quest, and a little frustrating to not be able to master it easily — but that doesn't mean I don't appreciate the design, or even the challenge of a solo quest that can't be completed with one hand while I'm eating. I think it's a wonderful quest, and my sense of accomplishment when I complete it will be all the sweeter for the struggle.
 
In general, I really feel Wrath is a huge advance on Burning Crusade. As an example, consider Netherstorm as a quest hub. I remember advancing as far as could on solo quests and stalling as my quest logged filled up with three and five-man quests. Anything a little out-of-the-ordinary needed a group to complete.
 
Not so in Wrath, where Blizzard has worked tirelessly to invent lots of different ways for us to tackle elites and complex scenarios without needing to find four friends to help.
 
On top of the quest I talked about last time, where you take control of a pet, there are a few of the 'here's something special to weaken the elite' quests. We even had the odd one of them in vanilla. Then there are a couple of quests where you summon friendly elites to help out. Makes me feel special to be so well connected. And we've also been given extra powerful weapons, invited to ride machines, control elite creatures, even go back in time and masquerade as a dead hero of lore.
 
If I found one them a little annoying, it's because I'm not used to having to learn new strategies, adapt my play style, or even think about what I'm doing.
But it's a good thing that Blizzard is challenging me. It can't be a coincidence that these quests are usually at the end of long chains full of delivering stuff, collecting stuff and killing stuff. They're our reward for persevering with the grind.
 
There are still plenty of group quests, so the social aspect of questing isn't totally dead. But let's face it, to most of us just trying to level or grind rep, elite quests used to be a pain. Now, much more than ever before, they're a joy.
 

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree with you,

but I think some of the quests were a miss.

One of my favorite quests is when you take control of a giant in Zul'Drak, You go into a Phase of your own (instance), so your mobs are never being spawn camped and everything is set up perfectly, The quest was easy but still took a bit of skill from gathering storms to healing yourself and learning new attacks.

on the flip side, the quest you talked about in your last post was horrible. You would zone on top of the necropolis, and the mob could be dieing and you would get credit!, or what happen to me, I would start the event then alliance would come up take the other trolls and kill my troll.

Why didn't blizzard phase that quest? Its confusing...

Oh well, quesing in wotlk has been a ton of fun.

Freyal said...

I completely agree. I love your blog BTW. I'm a former shadow priest, who went holy a long time ago .. whenever I sneak off and get to play shadow again I feel like a kid playing hookie from school. And I have such a blast. I started reading your blog as a means of keeping up on Shadow Trends, but I really just like what I read.

My favorite part of wrath, besides just the random unexpected 'wow that was kinda cool' feeling you get from some of the quests. Is the way everything looks. No disrespect to BC .. but so many of the zones were just UGLY. They felt cold, unfriendly and desolate.

Maybe it's because I rolled a Night Elf -- who was born into a beautiful and lush tree, whose beauty is a myth as the corruption was hidden just below the surface. But I get that feeling a lot in Wrath.

When I first rode into Grizzly Hills, I was like wow .. this place is beautiful. I wanna go run barefoot through the grass .. oh wait, there are things in the forest who will EAT ME.

It was great.

Phil Ullrich said...

I do like the improved lore integration and graphics, but I'll chime in with a "thumbs down" for the quests involving pet riding etc.

I've found pets to be glitchy and awkward, and I didnt really get a kick out of it even when things worked well.

I'm still trying to get the hang out of new spells and changes from the patch, so I'd welcome more quests along the lines of "kill 25 _____ " to get back in the swing of things. I like the spirit of these new quests in the way of helping out the non-DPS classes.

Anonymous said...

Im having a good time questing too it has to be said, each level is not taking as long as i thought it would either which is good.