Tales of the Aggronaut

Back to Tanking

September 6, 2016 by Belghast

It always feels strange sitting back down at the keyboard to blog after an absence. This weekend was of course the Labor Day holiday weekend here in the United States, and our plans caused me to miss Saturday. Since I was taking a single day off, I decided to go ahead and take the entire weekend off to just chill out and enjoy the goodness that is Legion. When we last spoke I was sitting at level 105 and knee deep in Azsuna. Since then I have dinged 110, which for some reason took me starting the final leveling zone High Mountain to accomplish. Most of my friends hit the new level cap without touching that fourth leveling zone, but I am thinking some of it might be coming from harvest experience. Additionally I seemed to get all log jammed up in my Class Hall quests, because it seems the order in which they would love you to level for Warriors is Stormheim and then High Mountain. However I did Stormheim, Azsuna, Val’sharah, and finally High Mountain… and even then the Warrior quest was buried deep inside of the content so much so that I finally said screw it and went out trying to find the location only to wind up terrain hacking my way onto the appropriate path with Heroic Leap. Have I mentioned how bad I am at following the path? This is my downfall in many games… that I see that a path exists, but the first thing I want to do is go running off into the wilderness on either side of said path. As a result I miss so many quests because quest givers tend to be… on paths. Also as a result my first time through a zone takes me easily twice as long as literally any other player because I keep ending up backtracking trying to find that quest I missed. On the positive however this expansion seems to FINALLY reward folks getting way the hell off the path.

This screenshot… is the result of getting way the hell off of the path. This is quite possibly the most enjoyable quest I have done in a really long time… and I didn’t understand a damn word of it. That is right, you end up doing a quest for a Murloc… who only speaks Nerglish which I had to google to find out what the hell their language is called. The result is a bunch of quest objectives that are “0/1 ?????” that you have to sort of figure out on your own what the little guy is wanting you to do. This quest is something that none of my friends seemed to know about, and I only managed to find because I was completely off the path and wandering aimlessly along the coastline of Suramar. This expansion more than any to date seems to be the expansion that Blizzard finally learned a lot of lessons, or at least reflected those lessons in their design process. In the past there was always a problem of folks ONLY doing the boss that was required for a quest in a dungeon run, and then pugs often times dropped immediately after that kill. So there was a high likelihood that you would get randomed into an instance with the boss you needed already dead. Now anytime there is a collect X item or kill X boss from an instance quest, it also requires you to kill the final boss in order to get credit. Similarly they seem to have learned the lessons of what made Garrisons feel horrible, because the Class Order Hall while deeply related in design… feels nothing like the Garrison did in the daily requirement of logging in and doing wizard chores. To make this even better it was announced over the weekend at Pax West that there was a mobile companion app on the way that lets you handle the Class Hall bits without ever needing to play the character swap game.

Another thing that I spent a significant amount of time doing this week is exploring the various dungeons. Yup you guessed it that also means that I have once again shifted focus to tanking, and have for the most part put my two-handers away for the moment. Both protection and fury artifact weapons are at rank 13… which means any further progress is going to be completely silly as far as the artifact power cost goes. I am however largely focusing now on the sword and shield, and am even considering doing some pvp to unlock that specific appearance. The above screenshot is extremely special because Belghast and Finni were started at exactly the same time back in Vanilla. Both my friend and I really wanted to level a Warrior and a Priest, but had minimal luck getting traction in leveling them solo. So we made a leveling pact and we quested our way through the old world content as a Holy Priest and a Protection Warrior… and it was a blast. All of my bad tanking habits probably started here, because she enabled my horrible instincts. I would roll up into a Gnoll camp and pull the entire thing… knowing that she would keep me alive while I whittled them down slowly. Once I hit the level cap I started tanking the alt raid nights for the Late Night Raiders, and with the release of Burning Crusade I shifted focus to tanking as my primary gig. However due to motherly responsibilities, Finni just doesn’t get the amount of playtime that she used to so it is always awesome when we can run relevant content together. The way this expansion levels content so that it is perfectly viable for a 100, 105, and a 110 to be in the same instance is really nice. While other games have done this well for quite some time, I am happy to see Warcraft catching up here.

New Expansion Buzz

September 2, 2016 by Belghast

I have been having more fun in World of Warcraft than I have had in years. That at least feels like a true statement, but also one that makes me question it. Sure it seems like I am having a blast, but it got me thinking… don’t I always have a lot of fun at the launch of a new expansion? One of the interesting things about having a blog that has been active since 2009 is that in theory I should have evidence of how I felt at the launch of Cataclysm, Pandaria and Warlords. Around the launch of Cataclysm I seemed to be mostly focused on grouping and gearing… and grinding dungeons to get to the magical number needed for raiding. I think I was still very much in my “games are serious business” mode, so there really isn’t any talk about the expansion being fun or not. In truth remembering that time period I was very much not having fun, and I think in the grand scheme of things that is ultimately why Cataclysm was the expansion that caused me to “quit” World of Warcraft. The quit is of course a lie, considering that I am still playing the game… and never really went longer than six months without reactivating my account. The launch of Pandaria unfortunately happened during a serious lapse in my posting, and by the time I start back up… I was on the daily posting kick and talking about casually playing the game. With the launch of Warlords… I talk a lot about how nostalgic the game makes me feel, but in reality not much actually talking about how I am enjoying it. This was after all the expansion I had originally said I was going to take a pass on… so this quote makes sense.

I still stand by my original statement that if you have no interest in World of Warcraft, this expansion will do little to change that.

So if I set out to prove that I am always pumped about the launch of a new game expansion… I guess I disproved that theory? I guess at least on some level, any infusion of new content is something that I ultimately enjoy. There are new zones to explore, new quests to figure out… and lots and lots of tasty loot. However this time around something feels different, and I am having trouble quantifying exactly what that is. For the first time since the launch of Wrath of the Lich King… I have hope that the best days of the Warcraft franchise are not behind us. With all of the previous expansions… I felt like they did a decent job of stirring up nostalgia, but not really doing a great job of making me feel like the game has a new purpose. This time around so much feels fresh, from the class designs and reworks to the fact that they all seem to be focused on a clear vision of what that class does. I attempted to talk about this yesterday, but the fact that my airflow was pretty low ended up with the post being a jumbled mess. To be truthful I am still sick right now, so for all I know this post is also going to be a jumbled mess. However I love the feel of my Warrior for the first time since I really came into my own as a tanking main during Burning Crusade. The irony here is the fact that I am not really tanking at all, but instead dpsing my way through the content as Fury.

The only problem here is that we have just barely scratched the surface, and myself even more so than that. The game launched Monday night, and we already have four level 110 characters in House Stalwart. I am very much not one of them… but instead hanging back in the middle of the pack at level 105, having completely finished Stormheim and just started Azsuna. I have no idea what the “feel” of the expansion is going to be once we all kick off the training wheels and move into that sometimes glorious time known as the end game. Even Warlords had some really fun moments while leveling, and including some really amazing cinematic experiences. However once we arrived at the end there was a very hollow game waiting for us. I guess the difference this time is that with the launch of Warlords I absolutely expected to have bounced off of the game by about the three month mark. In truth it was a little closer to the six month mark, but the bounce did in fact happen at least mentally even though I don’t think I ever actually cancelled my account this time around. This time however… I have a blazing pyre of hope that maybe just maybe that won’t happen. Ultimately I really like what is going on… with the class design, with the storyline, with the zone creation, and heaven forbid with the lore itself. The bigger story of Khadgar being Khadgar and Jaina being Angry… well it can screw off. However the intricate intra-zone stories are awesome, and I totally want to have reasons to hang out with Havi during later content. World of Warcraft and Blizzard… please don’t break my heart this time.

Artifact Collector

September 1, 2016 by Belghast

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Today is of course the beginning of September which draws to a close the month of August… and with it Blaugust. I really should be making a post about the initiative and such, but I am not quite ready to do so. Expect to see this post within the next few days. However I will say that I am really pleased at how well the more low key version of the event seemed to go. What I want to talk about instead however is my Warrior, Skyhold and how freaking awesome it has been to go through this Norse infused Titan journey. One of my favorite sections of the World of Warcraft lore is that of the Titans and Old Gods, but even more so than that… Ulduar. For those not familiar, Ulduar is this romp through largely Norse themed mythology as you are introduced to the “Gods” that we are used to hearing in a slightly different light. So instead of Thor we have Thorim or instead of Hoder we have Hodir. On one level I am sure folks think it is a bit cheesy, but I ate up every bit of it… and was constantly interested on which Titans we would see in the next expansion… and even more so which Old Gods we might encounter. I remember being completely enthralled with tinfoil hat theories about Old Gods being buried beneath various sections of Azeroth, and even cool maps that tried to guess where the next one might be located. All of this will come into play later, but mostly I have to gush on how thoroughly happy I have been with both the Warrior Class Hall and related content, and choosing Stormheim as a starting location.

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Everything about both the zone and the Warrior class seems to be steeped in the lore of the Titans… more specifically the lore of the Norse themed Titans. Up until this point Wrath of the Lich King was hands down my favorite of the World of Warcraft expansions, and I didn’t really understand why. Thanks to this expansion I am starting to, because apparently I love all things Nordic and more importantly Vrykul. In Stormheim, you are introduced to a “good” faction of Vrykul called the Valarjar. As a Warrior you end up as a champion of the Valarjar, and find out that they are all the chosen folk of Odyn. Storyline wise you are diametrically opposed to Helya and the Vyrkul that follow her… that are a blast from the past the Kvaldir. Now you would be forgiven if you don’t recognize the name, but the Kvaldir were a very specific type of Vrykul that you encountered several times in Borean Tundra and Howling Fjord the starter zones in Wrath of the Lich King. They also made a similar appearance in Vashj’ir because they were ultimately the force waging war with the Naga during the Battlemaiden sequence of quests. This expansion wraps things up neatly and while we already knew that they were essentially the dead lost at sea… we find out that “Helheim” is where the dead of the sea goes to serve Helya. There is this awesome quests sequence where you have to go into Helheim itself, and in many ways it reminds me of Coldharbor from Elder Scrolls Online. I dinged 102 last night and I feel like I just barely scratched the surface of all that Stormheim has to offer.

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With 102 thought opened up the quest chain to allow me to collect the other artifact weapons. So I ventured forth and set about to collect the protection and arms artifacts. The protection quest was cool enough, but nothing to write home about. The arms quest however… was pretty great. This is a call back to the first paragraph of this post, and the speculation of where the old gods might be hiding in Azeroth. Up until this point we have only really encountered three Old Gods… C’Thun, Yogg-Saron, and Y’Shaarj. There are rumors and speculations as to where the others night show up, and one of those locations has long be Tirisfal Glade due to a bit of flavor text. During the Arms quest you venture into the Tomb of Tyr, which you find is located deep inside a lake within a previously unknown area of the Glade. Inside you learn the story of Thoradin the King of Arathor who gave his life in battle with something buried underneath the Glade. Much like the giant glaive embedded inside the skull in Darkshore, when you get into the tomb you see a sword embedded in something that was chained up Yogg-Saron style in a tomb. In the process of retrieving the blade you wake Zakajz which appears to be Faceless One. After doing battle you take up the sword and “execute” it in true warrior style, but more than that… it seems to lead credence to the theory that there is in fact an Old One somewhere beneath the Glade. Why else would the Titans have chained something down there, and it also makes me wonder if Tyr’s tomb is going to eventually be the entrance once Bran Bronzebeard does some digging with dynamite and such. I’ve barely scratched the surface of this expansion and I am already more excited about it than I have been since Wrath. I really hope they finally make good on some of these plot threads and give us serious payoff in the process.

Expansion Retail Forgot

August 31, 2016 by Belghast

Yesterday was of course the launch of Legion, or more so the first full day of the expansion. I have a lot of memories of acquiring copies of World of Warcraft throughout the years. When it launched in 2004, I was firstly in the “never pre-order anything” camp, and while there was a line out the door and down the sidewalk at Gamestop… I was able to stroll into Walmart at midnight and pick up my copy. I remember Walmart having this huge display in electronics, the size you would have expected for a major movie release. With Burning Crusade, getting a copy was significantly more difficult, but I still managed to roll into Walmart at midnight and snag one. I did however spent the next few weeks going out at lunch trying to find copies for folks who could not for whatever reason seem to get it in their area. When Wrath was released, once again I did the Walmart at midnight thing… and this time there was actually a line. I had an awesome conversation with another warrior tank while standing in line waiting on our boxes. However by the time Cataclysm came around… I believe that was the first expansion you could purchase a digital collectors edition and I did so happily because I was getting “too old” to be doing this midnight madness. I had reached that point in my life when I just wanted to be able to log in and play, and didn’t care too much about how that happened.

With Pandaria I somehow ended up with another physical collectors edition, and at this point I don’t even remember how or why. Now traditionally speaking around here… World of Warcraft Collectors Editions rot on the shelf. Not in a large quantity, but up until recently there have been a couple of physical copies of Warlords of Draenor available at various stores. I have a second account, and could use a second key… so yesterday I checked a few places to see if there happened to be one available. The idea was that I would ultimately trade that CE key with a friend who just got the normal copy, given that I already have the digital entitlement on my battle.net account. That plan however backfired in the most spectacular of ways because no one seems to have Legion in any form, let alone Collectors Editions. Throughout the day yesterday I heard tales of Amazon switching orders to arrive on September 29th, and listened as several friends had to dodge and weave to get around this delay. Throughout the day I checked Walmart, Target, Best Buy, and Gamestop… none of which had so much as a single copy. When I looked up Legion on the Best Buy website, it stated that there were no copies available in a 250 mile radius. 250 miles includes the Dallas Metro, Kansas City Metro, Fayetteville/Bentonville Arkansas area, Wichita Kansas, and Oklahoma City.

I refuse to believe that every single copy sold out, because that just seems impossible. What seems far more likely is that there has been some massive shipping mishap, that involved delays to the central southwest. The result however is that it feels like Legion was the expansion that retail somehow forgot. While Warlords of Draenor was supposed to be this expansion to invite people back that had been gone a long time… it feels like Legion is actually delivering on that promise. It is going to be sad if it somehow misses its opportunity simply because the copies of the game are not available. The truth is… my only interest in a physical Collectors Edition is the fact that it includes the soundtrack. I wish that they would add that to the list of digital entitlements that you get when you buy the collectors that way. I can also always use a new mouse pad at work, so there is always that bonus as well. I however more than anything wanted to walk into Walmart and see a big display of pretty new copies of the game, in the hope that it might entice players to return. It has been great seeing players coming out of the woodwork for the first time in years, and I guess part of me wants to see that continue. Pretty boxes sitting on a shelf taunting you when you go to get groceries… seems to be an awesome way to guilt players into coming back.

As far as the expansion itself… so far I am enjoying myself. It is a much slower paced expansion, but that is precisely what I had wanted. I spent all night playing the game, from the time I got home around 5ish until when I finally went to bed around 10:30. During that time I managed to make it to level 101 and about 15-20% into level 102. As I had originally planned I went Fury this time around… which is quite honestly the first time since the launch of the game that I will not be leveling my Warrior as Protection. I am sure somewhere something is turning over in its grave… but more than likely it is just the old me that used to take pride in saying “Real Warriors Level Prot”. Fury is fun as hell, but there was a period when I started on the artifact quest… that I questioned my decision. I am guessing that maybe these quests are just a little “overtuned”… because I remember in beta thinking they were rough. I died probably no less than a dozen times when I tried to do this as a Deathknight, and I probably took a half dozen deaths as a Fury Warrior. Towards the end I was super carefully picking my way through the zone a single mob at a time, and kicking myself for not bringing any food into the quest. That was ultimately the hardest part was that I had no real way other than bloodthirst to get back my health. I finished it however and once I started Stormheim… everything leveled out and I have had no problem taking down any of the starred mobs solo. So far I am enjoying the hell out of myself, but I don’t feel like I have spent enough time in game yet to give it much more than a thumbs up.