World Of Warcraft Discussion Thread

[Ithekro]

Another epic set of goggles I see. More tinkers (opefully thel will boost them up as those are the specs I got now for tinkers mostly) And is this an engineering special jem? Interesting. (+132?)

I still want an engineered two (or more) an flying mount and a yellow submarine.

[Last Sinner]

Okay, finally had the time to upload some stuff and do a quick rundown. It's freaking late at the moment, so I'll only do Vashj'ir tonight. I'll spoiler tag it all since some people may want to wait to Cataclysm comes live.

Spoiler:

Okay. You're off to a newly discovered island that both factions are desperate to control. Budd - whom you may remember from Zul'Aman and Grizzly Hills - takes a foolhardy jump into the ocean. Moments later, your ship is attacked by massive tentacles and destroyed. You're about to drown to death as you sink to the bottom of the ocean, but you're in luck. The shaman on the ship wasn't knocked out and revives you just in time.



That's some massive seaweed for sure. But seriously - you're not equipped to survive. The shaman gives you a starter mission to learn the ability to breathe underwater in Vashj'ir. Once you learn that, things get better gradually. Inside the upside down wreckage with just enough space and air for the survivors, you dart back and forth in the nearby ocean floor to gather food and weapons that were lost in the attack, as well as provide underwater breathing for sailors in danger of drowning. Problem is, the naga in this region notice your attempts to regroup and organise an attack to mess you up.



Beating them back is easy enough, but the set fight leads to you being captured. When it looks like you won't make it this time, other crewman appear and rescue you. Assisting them in getting materials and the like so they can survive becomes your next priority. There's predators aplenty around, as well as naga, so taking them out happens regularly.



This is one of the things you kill. There's also sea snakes, sharks, turtles, etc. that need to be utilised/disposed of to survive. Other people onboard the ship need to be rescued and their belongings need to be returned. May seem a bit pedantic, but it builds up to better things and they prove useful. The second round of people you save allow you access to a small cave where you can finally eat and drink. Yeah - MAJOR problem in Vashj'ir. There's only 2 caves and the wrecked boat as places to get health and mana back. Other major problem is you're restriced in movement speed. You do get a buff of sorts to make you swim a bit faster than normal - at the same speed the Sea Turtle from Northrend swims (kinda sad this little beauty never became useful here >< ) - so it's a slow zone. I can't emphasise it. In Hyjal, it was 310% flying all the way. Here, you're stuck at 60% and there's a lot of mobs to avoid. Most notably, THIS shark....



*gasp*

About this point came one of my favourite experiences of Vashj'ir...



Yep, it's Harrison Jones! ^^ And there's no one-off quick quest this time. He ends up being very useful. Turns out something you salvaged for someone else belonged to him - and he isn't going to let you go without helping him in return. After running some quick errands, you learn there's a certain artifact he's after. Once he finds it, there's a bit of an 'accident'....



Yeah....he's cursed to be Undead and will die if he goes to the surface....Clearly, the only thing to do is get the guy back to normal. Turns out the one guy who can help him is the King of the Gillgoblins.



The King is under threat of being overthrown. To earn his trust, you need to dispose of his brother's henchmen and get back some cannonballs, after which you nuke the little bastard brother. The King rewards you with the cure and Harrison Jones returns to normal. There was definitely a blue or two as rewards in this chain. Stats on those blues were just about on par with ICC25 gear...scary.

After that, one of the crewmen from earlier provides a vision of another crewmen called Pollard, who needs help in a cave he's being held captive in. After you find him, you learn that the Naga have an underwater setup of an armory and the like. I.e. Take it out. This elads to another quest I loved - riding a shark and using it to snap naga with ease.



Once you take out these guys, you unlock what is a MAJOR REWARD. The shaman from earlier realises it is time to plumb the depths of Vashj'ir more, but that it is too much to ask to rely on swimming alone. He gives you a quest to do a challenge run with piloting a wild Manta Ray. Complete it and you get a free underwater mount with proper movement speed. Definitely makes things a lot easier. And you need it - the space between quest hubs from now on becomes MUCH bigger.



Speaking with a bunch of Neutral Troll and Tauren Shamans, you fend off another attack from Nagas. Yep, more caves...and there will be more. Not exactly anywhere else for people to stay. After you win the short battle, you are sent to pick off some of the stragglers.



As I moved into the second third of Vashj'ir, I had a moment where I was pretty blown away by the visuals of this zone. It really is the most stunning zone Blizzard have come up with to date.



I was strained on time during this last stretch and in a race to get to 82, so I didn't have that much more screenshot wise. In a nutshell, you get sent to help a Goblin who's using a fitler and balloon setup that the shamans need to get materials from. After helping him fend off the local wildlife he's agitated and retrieving some lost property, he hands over what you need. The shamans then send you to a Naga temple which is threatening their safety. Using an item that allows you to summon underwater vortexes, you take out the smaller threats then nuke the head honcho.



After this you learn about something very important about this zone. Mainly - why you were attacked on the boat. The Naga have gained control of a VERY dangerous force - a tentacle monster called Nespirah. But unfortunately, this is where I hit a major bug. The quest lines here are bugging for most players, including myself. Clearly this monster and those controlling it have to be disposed of, but the proper infrastructure to do it hasn't been set up yet. Kind of annoying that just like in Hyjal, one of the really big, climactic missions is still not working. (The Ysera vs Ragnaros final fight is STILL not working at present)

I did a quick run of Throne of the Tides to get to 82. Bosses were fairly simple. One had a curse that reduced haste and some stats by 50% that needs to be cleansed and a periodic Enrage that has to be healed through. Another one was the shaman guiding you through the zone - he gets captured and coerced into fighting you, turning into the beat to nearly dead and save style of fight Blizzard has come to like lately. He has a very nasty regular Mind Control - he usually does it on the tank. -_- With decent heals this fight isn't a problem though. There was also a naga witch that had a periodic water shield making her immune until her adds were dead. As for the final boss, Neptulon - the water elemental Deathwing is desperate to slay and get a powerful artifact from that controls the oceans - he wasn't working yet. Hopefully he is soon.

One more thing to note - Archaeology wasn'y available on the Beta servers YET. But that appropriately, Harrison Jones is one of the Trainers. ^^ His regular 'scene' in Stormwind replays that classic scene from Indiana Joens and the Last Crusade when he returns to university after barely escaping with the Cross of Coronado and giving that amusing lecture to his pupils - this time altered with the appropriate locations for WoW, hehe. I thought that was a nice touch.

That's my rundown of Vashj'ir. Next time I get the chance, I'll post a rundown of my experiences of the Goblins in Kezan, The Lost Isles and Azshara. Worgen I may leave until more material comes out - it was nowhere near complete when I did it, while the Goblin line seems finished.

Hope that was helpful/entertaining. Peace.

[Ithekro]

Question: After you first arrive in Vashj'ir, and say you hearth back to Dalaran or somewhere. How do you get back to Vashj'ir? Is there a permanent boat to the zone? A portal? A submarine that phases in after you've done the starter quest? (Can you get there without doing the starter quest?)

[Mafuyu]

Thank you Last Sinner once again for the screen for screen journal of your experiances in Cataclysm.

Spoiler for Sylvanas' behaviour in Cataclysm:

I am so happy to hear that Sylvanas is being nasty like in the old days. I have always liked her as the "revenge" character that has her own path and desires. It has always been said that the Forsaken had joined the Horde only because it is convenient. The in-fighting to the Forsaken, in my opinion is no longer convenient for them. I think Sylvanas keeps the war interesting since alliances form and she tears them down (Assuming she is behind Putress). The fact that she has valkyr now makes me so happy too. The prospects of a new faction have always crept up in talks about WoW. I wonder if it's closer to a reality with all that has been said.

[Last Sinner]

Originally Posted by Ithekro

Question: After you first arrive in Vashj'ir, and say you hearth back to Dalaran or somewhere. How do you get back to Vashj'ir? Is there a permanent boat to the zone? A portal? A submarine that phases in after you've done the starter quest? (Can you get there without doing the starter quest?)

The only thing available at present was to take a boat from the same pier as the one that goes to Northrend. For Alliance, it was in Stormwind. No idea which place it is for Horde. That will have to change in someway by the time Cata goes live, but for now there's a lot of things around that are makeshift. Goblins and Worgen don't have their own race mounts yet - they have to get ported to Dalaran and buy a Felsteed from the Blacksmithing trainer....*shrug*

[Xacual]

It might be from Org, I thought there was something about a dock or shipyard being built there now. Have you by chance tried out the gnome or troll new starting areas?

[Last Sinner]

I guess that's something else to look at...sure, why not.

[Xacual]

I was just curious because I was waiting for Cata to make a troll shaman. I don't have a gnome yet either so I might make a gnome priest or something.

[Last Sinner]

I might as well. There wasn't any mention of a new patch on the Beta overnight, but I'll have to check after work in case anything has change. If there isn't anything majorly new or a raise in the level cap, I'll check them out.

PS. 2nd wave of Beta invites are being sent out this week.

[Ak3mi]

Originally Posted by Last Sinner

I can say that Gileans is very much like....England?! The women have awesome, heavy British accents but the men still have the generic voices.

The accents are really awful imo. I think most people will agree who are either British or have lived in the England for a bit. Its a very fake way of thinking of England with dodgy cockney accents

I'm really liking the looks of wotlk beta, I do feel rather annoyed that it doesn't look like many new zones for the veteran players.Who have most of there alt's at 80. it looks like blizzard want us to start fresh so we can experience places we already played.

which has changed a bit or a lot which I don't really care for it. As we have already paid for what they are changing when the game came out. I am however looking forward to rated bg's cant wait going to nicer then doing arena's hopefully.

Sorry if this seems like a grumpy post I'm just stating what I think

[Last Sinner]

*shrug* I've never heard one American/British thing replicate an Australian accent remotely close to the real thing. Mainly because they use British or New Zealanders to do it. I like that accent. That chick was my equal favourite part of the Worgen experience.

Come to think of it, is there an insinuation that Worgen are British and Goblins are American?

[Ithekro]

Depends...who are the Australians.

[Last Sinner]

There aren't any Australins in WoW yet. I was referring to general Western media that didn't contain Paul Hogan. And even then, Paul Hogan was playing a heavily stereotyped character.

Very glaring bad examples that come to mind are Monkey Island 4, The Simpsons, Point Blank. The list goes on.

[Xacual]

The first look at the 31 point talent trees are out and seriously I know blizzard said paladins aren't done yet but the protection tree is a little crazy. 41 points total, about 9 of which are mandatory for stuff, like crit protection and sanctuary effect and keeping divine plea up because they took out the talent that let it be refreshed by hits....

And by 41 points I mean that's all we'll have at 85 so it's really hard to get into the ret tree now especially since crusader strike looks to be a nice prot attack now and righteous vengeance is in the second tier of ret which would give prot pallies a deep wounds equivalent...

[Last Sinner]

Yep, there was a patch for beta servers. 31 point talents are up. I do like the changes - Frost feels a lot more compact, Arcane has more survivability built into it, but the three non-Arcane talents people will want are in tier 1 of Fire and Frost, so it works out well.

Levelling cap has also been raised, so I will be checking out Deepholm, Uldum and Twilight Highlands ASAP. Deepholm first, since it's the only 80-83 zone. (hyjal and Vashj'ir are 78-82 and Uldum + Twilight Highlands are 83-85) Professtion levelling still isnt available, neither is Archaeology.

I'll have more soon.

Edit - Or not....Beta servers have been awful tonight. I did try out revamped Troll and Gnome stuff since Xacual was interested. The Troll's revamped zone looks great, but the amount of movement you have to do...it's damn slow. Gnome one hasn't has had quests changed considerably but starts at the same place it did before. Definitely a lot faster and there were several times phased in vehicles were used to save time otherwise lost on moving to a different point.

[Alaya]

@Priest Talent tree; here it comes, Power Word: Barrier!!!

[Ithekro]

Looks like Destruction Warlocks get another Bane deep in the revamped tree (bonus damage on Bane target...I wonder if it works on itself...15% damage done to Bane target would be nice so you could bust up to 115% damage in boss fights, but also 15% of damage done to adds during the fight (well the two minutes the Bane is up anyway.) With it replace Bane of Doom/Agony for Destrolocks?

I'm not sure I like the Tier 2 talent distribution...there is no way to get to Tier 3 without either putting a point into Improved Shadow Bolt or Improved Searing Pain.

On the new world maps...What is the zone under Silithis and the zone northwest of the Eastern Plaguelands? Those seem to not be known yet...and Deadwind Pass seems to be missing or part of Duskwood now.

[Last Sinner]

The zone south of Silithus is Uldum. 83-85 levelling zone.
Twilight Highlands is east of the Wetlands. 83-85.
Deepholm is 80-83. I don't know where it is...and my Mage is bugged and can't even log on Cata beta now....*sigh*
I tried to go to that other zone you're asking about, Ithekro, but it's completely shut off by mountains you're barred from flying over. *shrug*

Edit - You get ported to Deepholm from Stormwind/Orgrimmar. Stormwind one is on an island in the lake.

[Xacual]

I thought Uldum was south of tanaris and basically all that area in southern kalimdor?

[Last Sinner]

Originally Posted by Xacual

I thought Uldum was south of tanaris and basically all that area in southern kalimdor?

The whole thing, I believe. I haven't been there yet - waiting for my Mage to stop crashing at the loading screen. -_-