World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King

[Boyish-Tigerlilly]

I would like to get on and try it, but it's a 1hr wait line.

[Minischoles]

Brought it at Midnight here in the Uk, been playing pretty much non-stop (had a very brief 5 hour nap) and i'm level 72, 30% of my way to level 73 already.

Pretty much done as I planned on doing, i'm resto, i've got a fury warrior to level with and we just charge around gathering quests and smashing them to bits as he just chain pulls until my mana runs out (druids in T6 gear run out of mana roughly every 25-35minutes unless the warrior pulls an elite) and we've also grabbed one of our guildie warriors leveling as prot and we've been running about with him in Dragonblight (love that place absolutely sitting in lore of every kind, looks amazing and the quests are awesome) and doing the dungeons.

So far only Azjol'Nerub and The Nexus have impressed me, Utgarde Keep is a hole that i'll be avoiding now i've done the quests there. Pretty easy as well, but that my simply be biased by the fact that i'm running instances with full T6 geared tanks and DPS with me a T6 healer healing.

[Ayrix]

well I'm not even 71 yet and Arthas has all ready wiped the floor with me.

"running around with the incense in the spirit world and I see the Lich King.
He's attackable. Hmm...yeah lets go for it."


I'll get you one of these days....hippie.

[Lord Revan]

One thing I dislike is the abscence of Cairne. Maybe they thought making all the OG Defender Snipers as Tauren females would compensate?

well Horde internal politics are wierd (and Blizz is rather consistent with them too) to say the least, in that while technically Thrall is the absolute leader of the Horde, the Forsaken and the Sin'Dorei have a greater degree of indepence then the Tauren or the Trolls (hence why Sylvanas is there(in addition of being former member of the scourge that is) and Cairn and Vo'jin aren't), though for honesty's I must admit that less you say about Alliance internal politics the better (now there's a true moster).

[CaptainChewbacca]

Imagine how surprised I was to find out there's still old-school HIGH ELVES living in the middle of the dragonblight.

Oh, and Crystalsong is so beautiful you'll actually be speechless.

[Crown]

Imagine how surprised I was to find out there's still old-school HIGH ELVES living in the middle of the dragonblight.

Oh, and Crystalsong is so beautiful you'll actually be speechless.

Same kind as the ones you find in Dire Maul?

[Minischoles]

Ok someone hit 80 on my server a while ago, took an SS so if no-one believes me you can see it. He got first level 80 on server, first level 80 warrior and first level 80 gnome, goddamn he must have been playing his arse off.

[Darmalus]

Imagine how surprised I was to find out there's still old-school HIGH ELVES living in the middle of the dragonblight.

Oh, and Crystalsong is so beautiful you'll actually be speechless.

Same kind as the ones you find in Dire Maul?

Those aren't high elves. Those are old school night elves, from before the sundering of the world.

I am just cruising around the Howling Fjord right now, enjoying the music and the scenery. Just made it to 71, taking my time. I will admit, as soon as I hit 71, my mage was racing for Dalaran. That city is sweet! After being there, the fact that Shattrath is a combination slum, shanty town, and military camp really seems more evident. Not that I go there for any reason beyond the fishing quest.

Now that I know It'll take 3 days per new cooking recipe, I think I'm going to be fishing a lot, the best buff food all seem to be fish based right now.

[Broomstick]

My very very very very early Christmas present this year from friends and family was a Collector's Edition of WotLK. Cool! Some nice items and I enjoyed getting the wyrmling.

I have been playing a lot, but still haven't gotten to 71. I don't care. I enjoy wandering around (corpse-dragging not so much) and exploring as much as advancing like a maniac. I've split my time between Borean Tundra and Howling Fjord and have to say I like them both. Last night we actually had queues to get on the server, which I haven't seen before for my main server, but clearly it's because everyone is signing on. Things are much calmer today.

Haven't rolled a Death Knight yet. Probably won't for awhile because, frankly, the place is currently lousy with DK's and I don't like to be crowded while leveling, Meanwhile, maybe I'll use all the DK's frothing to do 60-70 Outland instances to help level up by 63 Druid so she can go to Northrend, too.

Anyone else notice no one is paying attention the AH lately? Well, sales will pick up shortly.

Last night we had our first guild member get into Dalaran and we got everyone else in the guild into the city by queuing for BG's then leaving, to be dumped in the BG area of Dalaran. Love having a transport hub city, and now the portals I'm using most are much closer to the inn than they were in Shattrath.

[CaptainChewbacca]

We had our first 80, a Tauren Druid. One of my guildmates actually got 'First to 450' for First Aid, so good for him.

On another note, I got some really awesome gear, and I'm probably going to respec my rogue away from Sub/Hemo into a straight combat death machine. Should be fun.

[GuppyShark]

If anybody starts talking to you about Wrathgate?

TELL THEM TO SHUT UP AND DO NOT SPOIL ANYTHING.

The Wrathgate chain is the most awesome thing I have ever seen in this game.

[Minischoles]

If anybody starts talking to you about Wrathgate?

TELL THEM TO SHUT UP AND DO NOT SPOIL ANYTHING.

The Wrathgate chain is the most awesome thing I have ever seen in this game.

Yep is really awesome, I finally completed the quest chain last night at about 6am in the morning (and hit level 73 incidentally) and it was epic from start to finish. About 6 huge quest chains just all linking into another huge epic quest chain. Truly one of the best quests they've ever implemented.

[Broomstick]

Help! I fucked up!

I was adjusting the video settings to try to get a better frame rate (which has been appalling of late) and NOW all I get is a black screen. I can hear the game running, I just can't see anything.

How do I reset the video? Apparently I will need to do so from outside the game.

And of course technical support is only Monday-Friday!

Agh!

[D.Turtle]

First try deleting only the "config.wtf" file in the "WTF" Folder.

If that doesn't work, delete the entire WTF folder (this will however screw up all the settings of addons, etc.).

And yes, the different zones are awesome.

[Broomstick]

Actually, when the Other Half got up he suggested going to "WoW Repair", which has an option to reset your setting to default from outside the game. Worked beautifully. Nothing wrong with having more than one approach, though - thanks.

One of my guildies said "Holy crap! You leveled to 71 in one day? You're just goofing around!"

Well, um... yeah, just goofing around, exploring, fishing in a few spots, taking screenshots of awesome. Proof I spent way too much time on line the last two days I guess.

[Ghost Rider]

I'm enjoying just leveling things up slowly. Alchemy will take a while as herbs are being sold at amounts that are near unspeakable, and I just don't want to take my herber around. Same with JCing and Mining.

Enchanting isn't so bad since I have an alt tailor.

On a side note it is both sad and awesome to hear that the world's best beat all the raid content already. Meaning it is that much damn easier and no longer some glass grinding cock blocking. Sad to hear people burn through shit that quickly.

Overall, it's not bad. Not addicting, but enjoyable with friends again.

[Lord Revan]

well I've been leveling my Death Knight (she's lvl 66 atm IIRC) as Borean Tundra and Howling Frjord are packed to the brim with people atm so there's no chance for a Holy Pally to do anything really (and I'm sure as hell not gonna respec just that I can level up).

[Minischoles]

I'm enjoying just leveling things up slowly. Alchemy will take a while as herbs are being sold at amounts that are near unspeakable, and I just don't want to take my herber around. Same with JCing and Mining.

Enchanting isn't so bad since I have an alt tailor.

On a side note it is both sad and awesome to hear that the world's best beat all the raid content already. Meaning it is that much damn easier and no longer some glass grinding cock blocking. Sad to hear people burn through shit that quickly.

Overall, it's not bad. Not addicting, but enjoyable with friends again.

Yeah, the sad thing is its the equivalent of people clearing Karazhan with 8 people at level 68 in T3 (as they only went in with 21 people, and a few of those were not level 80 yet). Theres tuning the raid content down, and then there's dumbing it down to a point where its basically supremely easy for any mouthbreather to go through it inside 2 resets.

Which means for any guild that was in Sunwell pre patch, or had farmed MH and BT, you can basically have cleared all of the raid content within a month at the outside, then you're left with farming it over and over again until the next big content patch brings another raid instance. So you will be forced into pvping, whether you like it or not, as there will be bugger all else to do once you've cleared the content.

[Ghost Rider]

I'm enjoying just leveling things up slowly. Alchemy will take a while as herbs are being sold at amounts that are near unspeakable, and I just don't want to take my herber around. Same with JCing and Mining.

Enchanting isn't so bad since I have an alt tailor.

On a side note it is both sad and awesome to hear that the world's best beat all the raid content already. Meaning it is that much damn easier and no longer some glass grinding cock blocking. Sad to hear people burn through shit that quickly.

Overall, it's not bad. Not addicting, but enjoyable with friends again.

Yeah, the sad thing is its the equivalent of people clearing Karazhan with 8 people at level 68 in T3 (as they only went in with 21 people, and a few of those were not level 80 yet). Theres tuning the raid content down, and then there's dumbing it down to a point where its basically supremely easy for any mouthbreather to go through it inside 2 resets.

Which means for any guild that was in Sunwell pre patch, or had farmed MH and BT, you can basically have cleared all of the raid content within a month at the outside, then you're left with farming it over and over again until the next big content patch brings another raid instance. So you will be forced into pvping, whether you like it or not, as there will be bugger all else to do once you've cleared the content.

Which is a good thing. I'm even happier that they changes they did to buffing and potting because of this easier raiding.

Raiding was way too fucking hard and grinding in Vanilla WoW. Naxx is held up as some paragon, when it's nothing more then a dick measuring contest. In TBC, pre nerf M'Uru is held up as some dick banner. Both were cock-blocks that required you to alter your guild and raid just to get by something that could still get fucked by one person or a group doing a single wrong thing. This is supposed to be game, to have fun. Not preparing how to do a twenty minute damce rountine.

And as for going PvP, enough guildies I know do it, and ask me to come along sometimes. This time, I am probably going to decline because the Arena grind along with the absolute need for rating is piss poor on Blizzard's part. We'll see at 80 how bad it really is, but Arena was either punishment or gifts all depending on Class AND partner(s). BG are nothing more then make a premade to crush a PuG.

[Minischoles]

I'm enjoying just leveling things up slowly. Alchemy will take a while as herbs are being sold at amounts that are near unspeakable, and I just don't want to take my herber around. Same with JCing and Mining.

Enchanting isn't so bad since I have an alt tailor.

On a side note it is both sad and awesome to hear that the world's best beat all the raid content already. Meaning it is that much damn easier and no longer some glass grinding cock blocking. Sad to hear people burn through shit that quickly.

Overall, it's not bad. Not addicting, but enjoyable with friends again.

Yeah, the sad thing is its the equivalent of people clearing Karazhan with 8 people at level 68 in T3 (as they only went in with 21 people, and a few of those were not level 80 yet). Theres tuning the raid content down, and then there's dumbing it down to a point where its basically supremely easy for any mouthbreather to go through it inside 2 resets.

Which means for any guild that was in Sunwell pre patch, or had farmed MH and BT, you can basically have cleared all of the raid content within a month at the outside, then you're left with farming it over and over again until the next big content patch brings another raid instance. So you will be forced into pvping, whether you like it or not, as there will be bugger all else to do once you've cleared the content.

Which is a good thing. I'm even happier that they changes they did to buffing and potting because of this easier raiding.

Raiding was way too fucking hard and grinding in Vanilla WoW. Naxx is held up as some paragon, when it's nothing more then a dick measuring contest. In TBC, pre nerf M'Uru is held up as some dick banner. Both were cock-blocks that required you to alter your guild and raid just to get by something that could still get fucked by one person or a group doing a single wrong thing. This is supposed to be game, to have fun. Not preparing how to do a twenty minute damce rountine.

And as for going PvP, enough guildies I know do it, and ask me to come along sometimes. This time, I am probably going to decline because the Arena grind along with the absolute need for rating is piss poor on Blizzard's part. We'll see at 80 how bad it really is, but Arena was either punishment or gifts all depending on Class AND partner(s). BG are nothing more then make a premade to crush a PuG.

I disagree, raiding was not too hard. Vanilla raiding was hard, I was one of the very few people who managed to get into Naxx and it was a horrific grind i'll admit that, the only reason I even managed to get in was because I had health problems at the time and was off school a lot, so I had the free time to do the kind of intensive grind pre-tbc raiding required.

TBC raiding was far easier, when it first came out the T4 bosses were massively overtuned, Gruul and Maggy before nerfs were practically impossible because of the way they were designed, the same for Vashj and Kael, just poorly designed and implemented and it took Blizzard a while to sort it.

BT/MH were freaking cake walks. Seriously MH was a huge disappointment after getting the attunement done, none of the bosses were hard at all, even Archimonde was more of a retard test and a bit of luck than any skill.
BT the early bosses were ridiculous, you had to get to BB and RoS before they were even slightly hard, Mother was a cakewalk once you had the Shadow Resistance gear and Illidari Council and Illidan were simple as well.

Sunwell was perfect IMO, finely tuned to require the absolute best from 25 raiders. Yes it was ludicrously hard, but like with all things, put a bit of effort in and you get there. And it was fun, you might not find it so, but I find that kind of thing intensely fun, requiring me to play to my absolute best, to have 24 other people playing to their absolute best as well, requiring you to not slack off, to not mess around. You need skill and gear and to me that kind of fight is perfect.

Content being this easy is just going to be boring. I've already cleared pretty much every dungeon but the level 80 instances and i'm only level 74, with a guild tank at 76 now and DPS ranging from 74-76. And we've had absolutely no problem. Literally, every boss and instance has been a complete cakewalk from start to finish, no hard boss. A couple of fun boss abilities, but thats about it.

And I can't say enough how much I despise Arena, and I got to top rating in most seasons except the last, its just a retarded sandbox based on what class is currently Kalgans favourite and isn't nerfed, while we wait for that class to get nerfed and the next one to get buffed up to a pvp god. I'm declining this time as well, just because i really cannot be bothered. About the only pvp i might do is Lake Wintergrasp since it gives a raid instance to do.

[Ayrix]

I'm another of what could be called "hardcore-ish" raiders, we raided twice a week usually and during my prime I would put in maybe 8 hours of WoW in 7 days so nothing too great. My guild and I have done hyjal and BT before WoTLK came out. I can't really say that I'm disappointed in WoTLK end game for two reasons:
A) These no-lives who get paid to play WoW beat the WoTLK versions of Karazahn and Gruuls and complained about it being too easy. Fact check guys, they weren't supposed to be hard.
B) More accessibility to the 95% of the population base is bad? I'm sorry, I do feel good about having epics and all that, but I don't wave my dick around because of it. If other people can get that content done as well, thats fine by me.

Oh and if anyones been to Dalaran yet and checked out the new Badge/Medallion vendor, you can buy T7 tokens with badges. Wonder if people are going to whine about that as well.

[Minischoles]

A) These no-lives who get paid to play WoW beat the WoTLK versions of Karazahn and Gruuls and complained about it being too easy. Fact check guys, they weren't supposed to be hard.

Did you even follow the pve race in TBC? it took a few weeks to clear Karazhan, and about a month and a half to 2 months to clear Gruuls and Maggy, even longer for T5. WOTLK content (all thats there, at 25man supposedly the hardest) was cleared in 3 days of the patch going live. 3 freaking days, and the pve content has been exhausted. Admittedly its a super hardcore guild, but for any semi-serious/serious raiding guild, thats maybe a month or 2 at best of raiding before you're done.

B) More accessibility to the 95% of the population base is bad? I'm sorry, I do feel good about having epics and all that, but I don't wave my dick around because of it. If other people can get that content done as well, thats fine by me.

BS, this 'make things more accessible' thing is just pure BS all the way along, any content is accessible with a tiny bit of effort. I've seen people who can barely play during raid times killing KJ pre nerf, and people who play all day every day who have never even seen T5.
Theres making it accessible, and theres making it retardedly facerolling mouthbreather easy, this is ridiculous. The fun in raiding is because its hard, because its harder than arsing around in heroics all day. Now? you've got pvp and farming T7 content for gearing up alts until the next raid instance comes out and you clear that.

[Crown]

well I've been leveling my Death Knight (she's lvl 66 atm IIRC) as Borean Tundra and Howling Frjord are packed to the brim with people atm so there's no chance for a Holy Pally to do anything really (and I'm sure as hell not gonna respec just that I can level up).

Funny. On BB the starting zones in Northrend are deserted ... however if you do a /who in HP you'll see 1E80 Death Knights and the odd vanilla class.

Personally; I can't level my Warlock, it brings me to tears to know that all my epics are going to end up in the bin soon. Kinda love the way I made him, and frankly Shadowflame and Demoic Circle just aren't doing it for me ... Now my Death Knight on the other hand ..

I'm sure though that I'll get my Warlock to 80 before any of the other alts, but still. Also, 2 things; THANK YOU Blizzard and FUCK YOU Blizzard for the same thing; guess who spent TWO HOURS on Tuesday grinding Serpent Flesh in Thousand Needles in BE Mountains to level my Cooking from 363 to 375 only to find out that the opening starting recipes in Northrend require cooking of 350?

Yeah, the change to leveling your professions from TBC to WotLK are MUCH appreciated, but I would have LOVED a heads up Blizz.

[Broomstick]

I disagree, raiding was not too hard. Vanilla raiding was hard, I was one of the very few people who managed to get into Naxx and it was a horrific grind i'll admit that, the only reason I even managed to get in was because I had health problems at the time and was off school a lot, so I had the free time to do the kind of intensive grind pre-tbc raiding required.

Wonderful. You see, 90% of the player base is, presumably, NOT having "health problems" and is not off school (or, more typically, work, or even both) a lot of the time which is precisely why the grind had to be reduced.

Sunwell was perfect IMO, finely tuned to require the absolute best from 25 raiders.

That's great - IF you can get 25 people together. Remember 40 man raids? I remember people planning them, I don't remember being in one because it was too fucking hard to get 40 people together in one place at one time for long enough to do them. 25 man raids are hard for normal, must-work-for-a-living people to organize. Hence 5 and 10 man.

Yes it was ludicrously hard, but like with all things, put a bit of effort in and you get there.

Excuse me, while I would like to have a life where I could indulge in "ludicrously hard" games I don't have that life. Neither do most other people between the ages of 18 and 65.

And it was fun, you might not find it so, but I find that kind of thing intensely fun, requiring me to play to my absolute best, to have 24 other people playing to their absolute best as well, requiring you to not slack off, to not mess around. You need skill and gear and to me that kind of fight is perfect.

I play a game, I didn't join the fucking military. I'm happy that makes you happy. You're right, when it's done well a 25 man raid is a symphony. Problem is, they're fucking hard to organize with most peoples' schedules and even harder to do often enough for them to be done well. Hence... Blizzard is focusing on smaller groups, with a "heroic" option for those who want the same thing only harder. They're still fine-tuning the concept, but I think it's a workable solution to the problem

Content being this easy is just going to be boring. I've already cleared pretty much every dungeon but the level 80 instances and i'm only level 74, with a guild tank at 76 now and DPS ranging from 74-76. And we've had absolutely no problem. Literally, every boss and instance has been a complete cakewalk from start to finish, no hard boss. A couple of fun boss abilities, but thats about it.

OK, you DO understand that your experience is not typical, right? Most people just never seen that content you're raving about because they don't have the time to put in.

And I can't say enough how much I despise Arena

If you don't like it, don't play it.

I know it might blow your mind, but some people actually play for more than battles - they like to explore, socialize, and do other things besides dick-wave over how they leveled up 4 levels in as many days and how the hardest content was too easy. Raid if that's what you like, but don't get pissy because they made content more accessible to the MAJORITY of the player base. You know, the people who pay the bills.

Did you even follow the pve race in TBC?

No. Because I don't fucking care about it. I play for MY amusement, not as a competition against others.

WOTLK content (all thats there, at 25man supposedly the hardest) was cleared in 3 days of the patch going live. 3 freaking days, and the pve content has been exhausted. Admittedly its a super hardcore guild, but for any semi-serious/serious raiding guild, thats maybe a month or 2 at best of raiding before you're done.

I suppose it escaped you that there will be more WotLK content released, just as there were releases for Classic and TBC.

You're bitching because a "super hardcore" guild blasted through everything. Boo fucking hoo. I'm a guild officer and a raider and it's likely I'll never see the top-end of WotLK until the next expansion (because that's how it happened with Classic and TBC for me). I suspect what you consider "semi-serious" a lot of the rest of us consider "prohibitive time sink". I can NOT support my family and do everything else I need to in my life AND be a hard core raider. Can't be done. Unless you have a shill supplying you with gold and buffs. Nor do I want to do the grinding required - I already have a job, I don't need a second one.

Are you going to bitch about the guy who leveled to 80 in 27 hours? Nevermind he had another player out-of-group helping him AND he played 27 hours straight (if it was him and not a team switching off at the keyboard). That's insane AND stupid! Who the fuck has that kind of time to devote to a game? A high school kid? A professional gold-farmer? Who? Seriously, that's not normal.

Me, I've leveled to 72 and it's just a fact of life that with the work week starting likely I'll not see 73 until next week. I don't care. I'm enjoying the ride. Meanwhile, I'll have saved up a nice resting bonus.

BS, this 'make things more accessible' thing is just pure BS all the way along, any content is accessible with a tiny bit of effort. I've seen people who can barely play during raid times killing KJ pre nerf, and people who play all day every day who have never even seen T5.

So what?

Seriously, why the fuck do you care? My Other Half has played WoW three years and his highest character is 63 and has NEVER raided and still wears greens. So fucking what? He has a good time. He's made some friends. Fact is, he will NEVER raid because he is disabled and can't hit the controls fast enough. On the other hand, he's explored all of Azeroth and Outland, which I haven't even now.

Which brings up another point - not everyone plays to raid. Not everyone plays to PvP. We got 12 year olds who haven't the maturity to be in a 25 man organized group. There are disabled folks who have trouble manipulating the keyboard and mouse enough for raiding or PvP but who still like to play. They pay the same price a month you do, and Blizzard is also trying to make them happy, too. Why do you think they instituted the barber shop and the achievements? What do you think there is a toy store in Dalaran or funny foods or all that other stuff? It's for the people who don't or can't raid/PvP, or who enjoy that part of the game in addition to what you enjoy.

The fun in raiding is because its hard, because its harder than arsing around in heroics all day.

The fun in playing a game is that it's FUN and not a fucking JOB.

[Crown]

Sunwell was perfect IMO, finely tuned to require the absolute best from 25 raiders.

Sunwell was only perfect if you had 6 0/21/40 Warlocks and 4 Resto Shamans, otherwise don't even bother stepping in (pre nerf).

Although I agree. Current end game being cleared in 3 days after patch (which also includes time to level to 80) is just wrong. Unless 3.0.4 (or 3.1) is like a week away or something, which it isn't.