The Night Elf Mages are the Shen'dralar
Highborne that formally rejoined the Night Elves. Dispite them being accepted, and I use the term very VERY lightly, they are treated the same way as Warlocks are in other races.
Just dinged 70. Went from 65 to 70 largely through Alterac Valley experience, now that battlegrounds give XP. The problem with this is that battlegrounds don't give you gold or much stuff. I have almost the complete PVP-Epic armor set (Warlord's Pursuit), but there's not much else that can be got, as far as I can see.
The only thing that bugs me about the expansion is that the Alliance/Horde conflict is being artificially prolonged and deepened, and yes, largely by giving the Horde the Idiot Ball.
A brighter future for a darker age.I guess it's to compensate for giving the Villain Ball to the Alliance ever since WCIII
Sorry, I can't hear you from my FLYING METAL BOX!True. In the end, it's a difficult plot line to walk, to keep up the divide between Horde and Alliance that is essential, Blizzard feels, to the in-game experience while letting players on both sides feel that their side are the good guys, more or less.
Especially when the real bad guys are neither faction, and logically they should both be concentrating on those.
A brighter future for a darker age.More news from MMO Champion
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Looks like Icecrown Citadel is going to be as epic as Blizzard promised!
And for once, no one's complaining!
I play the War of Worldcrafts. Pretty much exclusively on Steamwheedle Cartel (EU). Gots me two L80s (both Alliance), and two other chars in Northrend (both Horde). Gnomes are awesome.
My main is a Mage, whom some call... Tím. Not an Enchanter, mind you (dropped that one in favour of Engineering :P).
edited 8th Sep '09 10:44:25 AM by Kitchingham
Piencake - The Flagship of TechnologyAll of my solo characters are on Staghelm. I have a lvl 50 Night Elf hunter, a lvl 6 Gnome mage, and a lvl 1 Draenei warrior. I suppose I should play the other two sometime, but I'm so invested in my hunter that I hate to divide my attention. My wife and I started characters together on Quel'dorei; mine is a Night Elf druid (lvl 9, I believe) and hers is a rogue.
I think it's safe to say that the Horde vs. Alliance conflict is never going to go away. It can't; fully half the game is built around it. And let's be honest: as much as we may lament over the Conflict Ball being handed to the faction leaders, this sort of thing is not exactly unknown in Real Life.
If the development direction of the Warcraft universe eventually leads into some sort of Warcraft 4 or World Of Warcraft 2 scenario, then it's entirely plausible that the factions could shift. I just don't see that happening during World Of Warcraft's run.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"Leading to me, for one, hoping for a Reset Button ending World Of Warcraft (we've got a living one by the name of Nozdormu), or a full-on end of the world, so that Warcraft 4/World Of Warcraft 2 can start with a fresh go.
Main's an 80 tauren druid, but also have an 80 dwarf death knight, 77 human paladin, and 56 orc warlock.
I look at the news page of MMOC every day, and I didn't see anything epically new show up. I suppose I should click that link when I get home tonight and take a look.
I've been waiting to get into Icecrown Citadel since Wrath of the Lich King was first announced, and I guarantee you my guild will be beating down the door once it opens.
We've completed Trial of the Crusader on 10-man mode, and gotten through the Twin Valkyrs on 25-man (Anub'arak is much harder in 25-man). We have yet to down Yogg-Saron, but we're working on Ulduar hard modes in 10-man and have beaten IC, Kologarn, Hodir, and Thorim. So it looks like we'll be well prepared to face Arthas.
I suspect there are a lot more World Of Warcraft players among tropers than this thread would indicate, judging by the number of people who edit the work page. It's interesting, though, that a lot of the people who do post are disaffected. I've known a lot of players that have quit, and for some reason the majority of them are very grumpy where the game is concerned. It seems that World Of Warcraft is one of those games that's an easy target for criticism due to its size.
What's strange about this is that the game is so much more sophisticated than when it launched that it's not even comparable. Every patch has brought more things for casual players to do, more challenges for raiders, more options for Pv P, better balance, greater flexibility in the UI, greater transparency in the systems, etc... And yet, people still complain.
I suppose it's inevitable when you have 11 million people playing your game.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"I'll probably go to Icecrown. Not too excited about it though. Just another dungeon, and Wrath has done a pretty good job of making me not take Arthas seriously.
Edit: Beaten To C 10 & 25 normal, up to Anub'arak on 10 heroic (who is absurdly difficult, relatively).
edited 9th Sep '09 11:29:21 AM by Clarste
I'm impressed that you're doing heroic modes. For some reason my guild has a hard time with those. It seems like every guild reaches some kind of plateau of capability within its members, where you'll get maybe a dozen really good people who carry the rest, and that starts to show up when you hit difficult content.
With regards to Arthas, this is one of those complaints that bug me a little bit. Arthas is the most visible Big Bad in World Of Warcraft's history, making appearances all across Northrend and generally showing off his absolute power and arrogance. While it's true that he's been handed the Villain Ball on several occasions, one could reasonably assert that this is due to the simple fact that he feels that he has absolutely no need to fear anything the Horde or Alliance can bring to bear on him.
Yet, somehow all this publicity diminishes him in the eyes of many players. This despite rampant complaints that the Final Bosses of classic WoW and Burning Crusade did practically nothing other than sit there and wait for players to come kill them.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"He's constantly handed the Villain Ball every single time you see him, and frankly wasn't really portrayed as particularly powerful in Warcraft3 anyway. Yeah, he's got his undead army and that's certainly dangerous, but we've been stomping through that with almost no attempt made to stop us. As an individual, I've never thought of him as super-dangerous (not significantly moreso than Thrall for example), and as a leader of an unstoppable army he seems to be failing in this expansion.
Edit: Personally, I like villains that have huge physical effects rather than personal effects on my player character (possibly because I don't identify with him very much). Ragnaros blew up several zones. Kael destroyed the Netherstorm. Vashj was draining the lakes, heck even Murmur awed me when I was leveling back in BC. Arthas doesn't seem to have much effect on his zones, with the possible exception of Zul'Drak. Unfortunately, the plot of that zone involved him being an idiot.
On the topic of guild progression, yeah we only have about a dozen or so good players. Which is exactly why we can progress on 10 man.
edited 9th Sep '09 11:54:10 AM by Clarste
Unfortunately, here you have to deal with the issue of Gameplay and Story Segregation. If Arthas stomped all over our attempts to retake Northrend, there'd be no content for players to experience. It would look like: sail to Northrend, get stomped on by a horde of level 83 boss-level monsters, rez, quit, go play another game.
I mean, count the Big Bads of Warcraft lore that have been beaten by players so far. Ragnaros*, Nefarian, Onyxia*, C'thun, Kel'thuzad*, Kael'thas, Vashj, Illidan, Kil'jaeden, Malygos, Yogg-Saron, and now Arthas. We know that Azshara and Deathwing are next. So really, there are no villains in Warcraft that are so strong that a group of 10, 25, or 40 players can't stomp their faces in.
\* Noting that these came back or are coming back in more powerful versions.
Edit: Ugh, ninja edit forum wars. One thing I will note is that the use of phasing technology in Wrath allowed players to get a sense of participating in the conquest of Northrend rather than being presented with a static world where everything had already been accomplished.
edited 9th Sep '09 11:57:15 AM by Fighteer
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"Yeah, I do like the phasing. Sorry about the edit, I just thought of more things to say afterwards and didn't want to double post. Anyway, I agree that the players need things to do, but I just don't like the way he was written. They made things with him really personal when they should've been well, er... epic I guess. Each of our players is a worthless non-entity. We beat things by ganging up on them and with coordination. I'm not the hero and that's the way it's set up. Honestly, we're closer to the grunts and knights in WC 3 than we are to Thrall or Jaina.
Arthas' storyline in Wrath contradicts that logic by inserting him into our personal story. I'd rather his presence be felt indirectly than to have him constantly show up and not kill us for whatever nonsensical reason. The only time we've seen anything like an impersonal military action is Wrathgate, which ironically emphasized his mortality more than anything else. Oh, so all we have to do is throw lots of plague barrels at him? Good job apothecary!
edited 9th Sep '09 12:06:14 PM by Clarste
Interesting point. However, one of the key plotting changes that was made in Wrath was to give the player a more personal involvement in the story. The thing you're concerned with was actually intentional. I guess it falls under Unpleasable Fanbase and They Changed It, Now It Sucks!, but many players were clamoring that they ought to feel more like heroes and less like grunts and footmen.
Consider: I've personally participated in the deaths of every single major villain in the World Of Warcraft story line, doing far, far more to bring peace to the world than storied heroes like Thrall or Jaina. Shouldn't I get a hero's welcome when I march up to Arthas' doorstep?
And if you're sore about the Wrathgate event, I thought that was one of the most awesome things ever in the history of WoW. It changed my experience of the game completely. And Arthas was not defeated, merely driven off — compare that to the loss of Saurfang the Younger, Bolvar Fordragon, and a huge portion of the Horde and Alliance forces. Plus, I (who had not really paid attention to the comics and tie-in novels) got to see just how much of a Jerkass Varian Wrynn really is.
Edit: One other thing — there is a quest line in Howling Fjord where you enter the spirit world and have the opportunity to see Arthas in person. If you walk too close to him, he squashes you like a bug, while bragging to his cohorts. If anything, Arthas is being Genre Savvy in realizing that killed players simply respawn a few seconds later.
edited 9th Sep '09 12:23:19 PM by Fighteer
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"I loved Wrathgate for the political implication (and phasing, yar) but it certainly didn't do a good job of making Arthas look unbeatable. Heck, as a Horde player, I created that plague at level 74 and apparently it can hurt Arthas. All we need are a few hundred barrels of that and an army of peons with catapults. And an epic battle where we hold the line at the front of the army against endless waves of the undead.
The problem mostly comes up while fighting an undead army. Emphasis on army. That's the thing about the undead, there are a lot of them and there will be more for every soldier we lose. It's the hopeless battle against an unstoppable force of nature. It's grim and dark, but ultimately heroic as we overcome it, possibly being led by heroes like Tirion Fordring. Inserting personal into this setting seems misguided, or at best bad timing.
Well, I have seen people clamor about being heroes, but I've attributed that to Fan Dumb. I mean, have you noticed that town guards are leveling up with us? We are grunts, and start out pre-grunt. All the armies of the Horde were outfitted with Arcanite weapons back in WC 3 and guess what, that's epic! Grunts have epic quality gear. I see nothing wrong about being a member of an army. Our deeds are heroic, as a group.
edited 9th Sep '09 12:28:03 PM by Clarste
I remember thinking pre-release that WOW was something like WC 3 from the viewpoint of an individual unit.
This view hasn't really changed, especially after one of the very first quests a (now-deleted) character had to do involved getting some NPC quest-giver a beer. Incidentally, I see that my level 32 character has been tasked to make some soup...
I'm Confused about some of the Class/race pairings. How are they going to justify the Arcanophobic Nelfs using arcane magic? they got PISSED when the High elves used it, after they found out what it could do.
"Coffee! Coffeecoffeecoffee! Coffee! Not as strong as Meth-amphetamine, but it lets you keep your teeth!"

You get that trinity in almost every game-someone to deal damage, someone to take damage, and someone to work against enemy damage, via powerful buffs, debuffs, or healing.
I'm not thrilled with the lore, either (night elf mages-what the hell, Blizzard?!), but I'll probably continue to play-definitely going to give a goblin a spin.