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.

 

I need more fingers

I'm having trouble with a quest in Zul'Drak.

Betrayal is the climax of an epic quest line that starts innocently enough with a caged troll in Grizzly Hills. This is our first encounter with a chap called Drakuru.

Like many of his race, he appears a little savage at first, particularly to the refined tastes of a blood elf, but he implies he has important information about the Scourge. And so we are drawn into a blood pact which leads us on quests all over Grizzly Hills and eventually to Drak'Tharon, where Drakuru's true agenda is revealed.

We encounter him again under very different circumstances in Zul'Drak, where we are guided by the Ebon Watch on a series of quests that lead up to Betrayal.

I hope that doesn't give too much away for anyone yet to get this far. It's a lot of fun to watch the story unfold as you trundle along through the quests.

But this particular quest has been a bit of shock to the system.

You are required to take control of a pet to attack your target but the pet is almost certainly not going to survive the full encounter. You have to take control of a second pet mid-way through. The pet has several actions and spells that you need to mash at every cooldown to beat down your target. At the same time, there is a lot of heavy aoe that you need to avoid, requiring pretty constant movement. The pet has a heal spell which targets you, but it won't out-heal the aoe. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be attacking the target myself at this point. Clearly, it's the logical thing to do, but I'm finding it hard to focus on my pet specials at the same time and keep out of the aoe, not to mention timing when you take control of your replacement pet seems to be crucial. Ergo: I need more fingers.

I can't think of any other quest in the game that has given me so much trouble. It's almost as if it requires... skill! Could this be the prototype of a new World of Warcraft, where you actually need to learn to play to progress? Am I going to have to get good to move on? Are my days of questing on auto-pilot while gabbing in chat over?

Or is this another one of those quests where I'm being hideously dim and don't deserve to complete it?

A game of two halves

Tobold asked in his latest post: "is levelling in Wrath of the Lich King too fast?"

 

It's a question I've been wrestling with for a couple of weeks because, while I love instances and am looking forward to raiding in Wrath, I also like questing and solo play.

 

Less than a month since release, I am level 77. It's almost over for me — and I've been taking my time. I've even spent a good chunk of those last few weeks on alts. One guild mate complained last night that a player he pugged with recently would be seeing raid content before he would — presumably because the rest of us aren't 80 yet. Hurry up already!

 

I know quests don't stop at 80 — I'm going to have at least three entire zones to explore after I reach the cap — but your focus shifts. Quests become something to do when you're not doing anything else. I would have been very happy if the journey to 80 took twice as long and progressed more naturally through every zone.

 

It's all relative though. Even if levelling took twice as long, the speeds at which people levelled would be proportionate — you'd still have plenty of people clearing raid content before others had even seen every zone, and there would still be a lot of foot-tapping while guilds waited for players to catch up.

 

You'll always have that of course — WoW is different things to different people, and that's part of its strength. You don't have to read the quest text and soak up the storyline if you don't want to, and you don't have to get distracted from levelling by things like professions.

 

So while for me, yes, levelling in Wrath is too fast, that's not really an issue. It's more the fact that levelling and questing is such a distinct and isolated part of the game. For many players, it's a means to an end; the real game only starts when you hit the level cap.

 

What if 'end game' content wasn't something reserved for the 'end' of your levelling experience? What if raiding was something that unlocked levels and was part of the experience of progressing and improving?

 

I suppose it would be unworkable. It's hard enough to find mid-level pugs, imagine needing to raid on an alt to progress.

 

But there's nothing to stop Blizzard adding more raid-related quest chains. Remember the Nightbane quest line? A few of those steps took you into Outland. More of that would be great — with more detailed solo steps — and it might help bring the two aspects of the game a little closer.

Two columns good, three columns better

Now that I've got my shiny new column I feel liberated. It's a bit like wearing a kilt in a stiff breeze (I'll try anything once).

 

I've been able to expand my blog roll using Blogger's wonderful new blog list widget (not so new to Blogger but brand spanking new to me). I've set it to show blog name and post title, and order it by date and time of post (the most recent posts at the top). It's set to 25 blogs but you can click to see the full list at the bottom.

 

I'm worried it might be a little too long but it was either 25 or 10. Let me know if you feel strongly either way. And if you'd like to see your blog in the list please drop me a line.

 

But that's not all! (I'm on a roll here.) While researching the blog roll widget, I came across Blogger reactions, which enables you to set some simple rating buttons at the bottom of your posts. Unless I've completely screwed up, you should see mine below. I'm hoping it might spur the comment-shy among my readers into giving me some feedback. It's one thing to think you're shit but so much better to know it.

Do not adjust your sets

If you're reading this on my site (as opposed to in a reader) you'll notice the banner is all screwed up now. But look! I has a third column!

I needed a new banner anyway, so this is a perfect spur to kick me into action. I'm thinking snow and mountains...

Thanks to the Blogger Guide for the great tutorial.