Wrath of the Lich King Review

December 4th, 2008 at 01:59am Under Wrath

On November 13, Blizzard released its much-awaited World of Warcraft expansion, Wrath of the Lich King. As stores all over the U.S. opened their doors at midnight, longer than anticipated lines of gamers formed to get their hands on it, some say eclipsing the lines at both the iPhone and PS3 midnight sales.

It’s been a couple of weeks since then, and so far seven new servers have been added to handle the influx of new players and returnees. Most of the end-game enthusiasts have already reached the new max level by now and are on their way to conquering the WotLK raiding instances. We hope than in the process of speeding ahead of the pack, they did not miss too much of the new content because as with all Blizzard offerings, this one is chockfull of that.

When WoW was first released in 2004, the sheer volume of engaging original content captivated not just the regular MMORPG gamer crowd, but their spouses and offspring and non-gamer friends as well, blowing the MMO market wide open in a totally unexpected way. In the succeeding years, as everyone else struggled to find new and meaningful ways to entertain these gamers, the Blizzard devs have apparently been going quietly about their business, actually creating those things. The stomping grounds being introduced in WotLK recapture much of that old WoW feeling of wonder at seeing new places and discovering things, and serve to prove that unique content – and plenty of it - is king.

One thing worth mentioning up front is that WotLK is an expansion aimed at those who have been playing the game for a while now. Whereas Burning Crusade, the first expansion released early last year, offered new starting races for beginning players or those who were willing to start over, this one offers WoW’s first hero class, the Death Knight, which can only be unlocked by players who have reached at least level 55.

This new expansion also raises the level cap to 80, allowing end-game players to enjoy ten more levels of questing in the new area, Northrend.

From Outland to Northrend

Unlike Burning Crusade’s Outland which was in another dimension totally off the map, Northrend is physically located north and center of the Azeroth map.

Players can get to it by taking the boat out of Menethil Harbor or Stormwind, or a zeppelin from Undercity or Orgrimmar. Anyone, regardless of level, can do this provided that they have WotLK installed and their accounts upgraded. But take heed - the mobs in the area are all in the high 60s and upwards, and quests are only available to level 68 characters and above. Players are given a choice to start adventuring from the westernmost zone (Borean Tundra) or the easternmost one (Howling Fjord).

Much of Northrend is icy and cold but both starting areas are thawed out hives of activity. Valgarde Keep in particular, is a scenic spot and the boat ride into the harbor is very reminiscent of a theme park ride. The fact that your initial encounter with the new world is a pleasant visual experience definitely helps make a good first impression. And it doesn’t end there either. The rest of the continent is a wintry mix of snow and ice with pockets of autumnal forests that make you wonder why everyone else scoffs at this game’s graphics. A pretty picture, no matter what brush or style it’s drawn in, is still a pretty picture.

Scenic ride into Valgarde Keep.
As any continent deserves a capital city, so does Northrend. In the lore, the domed city of Dalaran, previously resting impregnable except by the most desperate (or bored) exploiters in Alterac, has now been transported by the Kirin Tor mages dome and all, and is floating high above the Crystalsong Forest. Unlike the Outland capital of Shattrath, Dalaran is not so easily accessible. Players will need to complete an attunement quest to get in through the front door, available only at level 74 (71 if you’re a mage). Of course, others have found backdoor entrances and got in way before they were eligible for attunement.

The city itself is a sight to behold - purple and blue domes and minarets jutting out into the sky with snow-capped mountains in the background. It’s like a page out of A Thousand and One Nights. Up close it’s more like Disneyland’s main street, with cobblestone-paved streets and vendors plying their merchandise.

Travel within Northrend has been spiced up with the introduction of new modes of transportation. It’s still pretty much travel by air and sea but you get to ride on an airplane, on a dragon’s back, and on a boat that’s powered by a turtle going after a bunch of carrots on a stick. Do turtles even eat carrots? Well they do in Azeroth.

Death Knight: The Lich King’s Minion Redeemed

The Death Knight starts his journey as a level 55 soldier in the lich king’s army. It’s pretty amazing how the developers managed to accomplish several things through his starting experience – introducing him to the rune system that governs his abilities, helping him allocate his talent points and acquire his fast steed, all the while weaving the story of how he came to be in that position and what it meant.

The story progression is quite seamless, too. As he starts out, the lich king is calling the shots from his floating fortress Ebon Hold, high above the town of Havenshire in Eastern Plaguelands. The town is controlled by the Scarlet Crusade and there are citizens fleeing in panic. After completing several quests, the scene changes and we find Havenshire in flames, the battleground having shifted to the next town, New Avalon. Finally, Arthas himself descends from his fortress and the Death Knight takes to the skies to mount an overhead attack on the crusaders. Eventually, he breaks free from the lich king’s command and joins the Alliance/Horde in their fight against Arthas. The switch from one scenario to the next is so smooth that it takes you by surprise the first time you experience it.

The Lich King commands his armies from Ebon Hold.
Although the story is conveyed rather well through this starting experience, I always felt that the Death Knight’s role in this is more of an observer than a participant, watching himself do all those evil things without really having a choice. While this is somewhat fitting since his mind is being controlled by the lich king throughout the scenario, his redemption in the end also comes as a result of someone else’s choice and not his own.

As a class, Death Knights are meant to fill a damage-dealing or tanking role. Playing one effectively can take a bit of strategic thinking. Some of his abilities consume specific types of runes that have a cooldown period, while others consume runic power that’s built up as the rune-consuming abilities are used. This means that the Death Knight has to constantly balance his moves to make them more effective.

He also has very interesting abilities, some of which are dependent on talent point allocation. All Death Knights can summon ghouls to fight alongside them, but some can actually command these ghouls much like a hunter commands a pet. Others can freeze the water they tread on so their whole party can virtually walk on water – and even ride their mounts. It might be an understatement to say that the Death Knight is all-in-all, a rather interesting new class.

Kill Quests With A Twist

Perhaps the best feature being offered in WotLK – more than the pretty new areas to explore and the exciting new hero class – is the twist on most quests that makes them a tad more interesting to do than the mundane kill, collect or deliver quests.

For example, instead of telling you to kill 5 magmoth crushers, you are asked to test a special gun on them. Using the gun can have…well… sometimes unexpected results. In the end it’s still the same old kill quest, but the twist livens it up.

Other than the usual, several quests require you to use items or perform other actions to complete them. You get to control a robot construct, wear various disguises, dive for fish, set buildings on fire, surf on a flaming harpoon and much more.

Of course not all innovations are created equal. There are some, like the painstakingly slow bombardment from a zeppelin quest, that only those who like to suffer would ever want to do twice. And then there are the ubiquitous excrement collection quests. Yes it’s funny in a brown kind of way, but why must we collect so much dung in this game?

For the most part though, the new quests are fun and quite different from the same old formulas. Because of this, the story behind the quests become more meaningful as the player gets more involved in the plot, like actually collapsing a mine shaft to close down operations instead of just killing some baddies inside for example.

Quests are fun and innovative.
Another amazing thing that I can’t quite get over is how they made use of seamless instancing (or phasing) to change the environment. After the player completes certain major quests, a whole area changes for him. While this sort of multi-person instancing isn’t really new – I’ve seen it in both Guild Wars and Lord of the Rings Online – the way it’s implemented in WotLK is smoother. There are no loading screens and no warps – nothing to indicate that you have moved from the multi-person instance to the rest of the world or vice versa so the immersion factor is much higher.

Flexible Raids For the Win

For those who enjoy beating down bosses in group and raid dungeons, WotLK introduces a number of these. What’s unique about them is that all raiding instances will be playable with either a 10-man or 25-man group. The encounters will play out similarly for both, but 25-man groups will get loot that’s one tier above that of the 10-man group. This allows those who do not have the time or means to join a large raiding guild to experience the content with a smaller group while at the same time rewarding the larger raiding group with better loot because of the greater difficulty.

While this has drawn the usual gripes about unfairness from both sides, we think it’s a step in the right direction towards making raiding content more accessible to the majority of players.

So What’s The Score?

When Burning Crusade came out last year, I was quite honestly disappointed by the high level content because it seemed to be more of the same stuff that WoW players had already been doing for two years. Sure there were new zones and new races, but the whole package tasted much like the same candy in a different wrapper, so to speak.

Wrath of the Lich King is different. Hard as it may seem, I think that in this second expansion, the WoW developers have managed to surpass themselves in creating MMO content that’s unique, innovative and very addictive.

My score: 9.5

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Wotlk: Paladin changes are coming

July 10th, 2008 at 10:38am Under Wrath

The Paladin class hasn’t gotten much love from Blizzard from what we’ve seen so far in the development of the Wrath of the Lich King. Of all the class updates delivered during the recently concluded Worldwide Invitational in Paris, France, the Paladin was one of two classes (the other was the Mage) that didn’t receive much by way of news. On the other hand, leaked information from the Alpha revealed some new whopper spells for Mages, including cool and explosive (literally) 51-point talents. Hunters don’t have new talents yet, either, but the exciting news is that in WotLK, their pets will.

From out of the blue.
But good things come to those who wait. Tipster Delsin helped shed some Light on the slow development pace by linking to what is purportedly a forum discussion with Ghostcrawler, a developer of the new expansion. The responses from the blue were supposedly sprinkled over a couple of weeks, with the first and oldest post revealing little we didn’t already know. It detailed the design directive the developers were taking, noting four important points:

Retribution Paladins need to have better utility in raids
Holy Paladins shouldn’t feel so punished during encounters which require lots of movement
Protection Paladins need to be great tanks not only for 5-person content but also for raids; at the same time, all four tanking classes should maintain their niche
Paladins, more than any other class, need diverse sets of gear depending on their spec and role. Itemization is being fixed across the board to make it easier for healers and tanks to do damage without needing a whole new set of gear
These key points illustrate that Blizzard has a good grasp of what plagues the class, and is moving in the right direction. In two more responses in the same thread, the developers explain why the Paladin developments are taking so long and the issues they’re looking at. Read more after the break.

Why not do Paladin changes first so they can be tested more?
The developers acceded to the fairness of the question, but explained in the same breath that there were three sweeping changes that they were making to the class that applied to other classes, as well. The developers felt that applying those changes to what they called “comparatively easy” classes such as Warriors and Priests first would give them enough insight on how to change the Paladin class. These three important changes were:

A change in the way damage and healing stats work
A change in the way party vs. raid buffs work (as can be seen with the raid-wide totem mechanic)
A change in how much damage a tank is expected to deliver as well as a reworking of itemization theories in general
The developers pointed out the delay of Hunter talents as a result of Blizzard wanting to nail the pet mechanics and talents first before moving forward with new abilities. They also note that they’ve gained significant experience with The Burning Crusade that allows them more confidence with their development cycle. In other words, there’s no need to panic.

Saving the best for last?
Ghostcrawler further explains that the reason Paladins were being changed last was because there was a lot that Blizzard wanted to change with the class. In fact, Paladins are changing more than any other class, and that the tiny bits of information revealed at the WWI and elsewhere are only the tip of the iceberg. The Hand of Purity healing spell was dropped in the panel discussion merely to acknowledge that Blizzard knows Paladins need another healing mechanic. They also want Paladin tanks to tank more actively and Retadins to have better control over their admittedly bursty damage. The blue quickly adds that “no, that’s not all we’re looking at.”

The verdict
Personally, I think these small tidbits of information are worth a lot. They may not be as concrete (well, as concrete as Alpha spells get, anyway) as Titan Grip for Warriors or Fan of Knives for Rogues, but the points that Ghostcrawler outlined are dead on. It’s as close to understanding the arguably misunderstood Paladin class as Blizzard has ever gotten. I have great faith in them to do it right, too. The Retribution changes that Blizzard implemented in Patch 2.3 illustrated that they understood the class’ shortcomings and were willing to address them. Dropping spell damage for Retribution and updating a ton of items was a gutsy move then.

Naturally, even those changes in Patch 2.3 didn’t solve all the class’ problems. I don’t think it will ever be solved, either. Class balance and development is an ongoing process, adapting to the pace of the game and the millions of players who play it. But it seems like Blizzard is serious about doing the class some justice — pardon the pun. It looks like they know Paladins suffer from the two-button syndrome and the nightmare of having to stand still during fights (or worse, in PvP). They also know that there has to be more reasons for raid leaders to bring Retribution Paladins, and not merely for the extra Blessing. They also feel that auto-attacking and blocking shouldn’t be all that a Paladin tank does (it’s not, but you know what I mean).

The few Alpha spells we’ve seen so far have been pretty exciting. We’re sure to see the full plethora of changes when the Beta finally opens to the lucky few, but personally, I’m stoked. I don’t think Blizzard will drop the ball on this one, particularly with the directions they’ve set. As much ridicule as the class has received from Kalgan, I’m fairly confident that Blizzard is moving in the right direction.

They’ve been pretty bold so far, from the consolidation of weaker spells into a more useful one, to exploring new mechanics such as knockbacks and physical pulls. They answered the long-standing gripe of Shamans about not having any crowd control with Hex. They recognized the need for Shadow Priests (already so useful in raids) to be viable for Arenas, and gave them Dispersion. Blizzard has never been braver and more creative in their development. If they say that they need time to get the Paladin class right, then I say take the time. Blizzard, take all the time you need. I have faith in you.

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Wowhead releases Wrath talent calculators

July 10th, 2008 at 10:30am Under Wrath

For some of you, it may strike you as a little early to be thinking about your level 80 talent builds - especially given that Wrath is still in alpha and everything we think we know about it may change - but I say, it’s never too early to theorycraft. That is why I’m pleased to report that Wowhead, having gotten a chance to play some Wrath at WWI, made talent calculators for the Wrath alpha talents, including Death Knights. Now we can play with our shiny new builds to our hearts’ content. Paladins and Hunters have not had their talents implemented in the beta yet, so you won’t find them there, but I’m sure it’s only a matter of time.
Inveterate priest fan that I am, the first thing I did when I got my hands on this was make a build for my holy priest, and this is what I came up with: 14/57/0. Yes, I’m finally excited enough about Holy to spec away from Improved Divine Spirit; Guardian Spirit just looks too good to pass up, at least in its current form. As far as my Rogue goes, it depends on how Murder Spree ends up working, but I’m thinking either 21/50/0 (Cold Blood combat, yay!) or 20/51/0. Death Knights I still can’t quite get my head around, but it sure is fun to play with their talents.

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