When Ruby Sanctum came out near the end of June my realm was down for the Super-Extended Maintenance (24-hour variety). The following day was a regular Icecrown run, so we didn’t set foot in there until a whole 2 days after its release. We didn’t do so well. Actually, we did quite well on the trash and the mini-bosses, although I think there was at least a little bit of luck involved with Saviana Ragefire: we killed her without really knowing how we did it, which was evident the next time we went in there. Halion was a different story. The big lavender dragon ate us alive during phase 2. We took several shots at him over the night and crawled away, vowing to get him the next time.
Over the next three weeks we took several shots at Halion, but they were half-hearted attempts at best. At that time we had another dragon on our minds: Sindragosa. We were working hard with a Super-Extended Raid Lockout (2 month variety), and Sindragosa was all that stood between us and the big boss, Arthas. Our raid group was spending 2 nights a week, about 3 hours each night, working on Sindy. As much as people were excited about ‘new content’, the truth was most of us were really focused in on Sindragosa, Arthas, and claiming Icecrown Citadel as our own.
So we would go in and take our shots at Sindragosa, and we made our progress, finally conquering her on July 8th. For the rest of July (one week off for vacation) we went in and worked on Arthas: 10, 11, 12 attempts or so per night, sometimes more, once less when we just had absolutely no mojo whatsoever. Halion? Well, we would pop in once a week and get him to phase 2 and die. Four, five attempts, no real nights of bashing our heads against the wall like we were doing with Arthas. Our minds were really on killing Arthas and, on the odd week or two where we didn’t try Ruby Sanctum, no one really seemed to care at all.
On August 11 we finally vanquished Arthas along with some personal and guild-wide demons. We did it on our second attempt for the night, which left us, once all the screen shots, rehashing the fight and running up and sitting on Bolvar’s lap (well, not really. That would be kind of disrespectful, don't you think?) was finished, with about 2 hours of raiding time. What to do? Ruby Sanctum! Why not?
I think it’s no surprise that, buoyed by our conquest of Icecrown, we went in and had little trouble with Halion. On our second attempt we hit phase 3 (which I think we had done maybe once before), though all the dps for the physical realm were dead. Our third attempt was magic, and down went Halion. Two guild firsts, two big bosses in the same night. Kingslayers! Twilight Vanquishers! There’s nothing we could not do!
The confidence we gained that allowed us to roll over Arthas and Halion as easily as we did started the previous Monday when we wiped to Arthas 12 times. The progress made that night in particular fueled us. We walked into Icecrown Wednesday knowing that we could do it, feeling pretty strongly as a group that we would do it, but not being so cocky as to set us up for failure.
Confidence in yourself and your raiding team is such a key ingredient to success in WoW, yet it easily the most fragile. Over the next few posts I’m going to look at some of the elements of confidence and the effects they have on the group and the individual. I’m going to leave off here today with this gem of a commercial from a few years back. While it’s about ‘experience’, most of it applies to confidence as well. Enjoy!
Friday, August 20, 2010
Thursday, August 12, 2010
The Sounds of Silence
Back in February while traipsing through Dalaran on some important errand, I came across something new: a giant statue of Tirion Fordring. ‘What the hell is this all about?’ I wondered, before realizing that it must signify a Lich King kill. I clicked on the plaque on the statue, expecting some kind of written explanation. Instead, I was treated to the video of Arthas’ last moments on earth (included here because I’m sure you’ve seen it by now, one way or the other). I almost closed it without looking, as I wanted to be surprised for the eventuality of my guild killing Arthas, but curiosity got the better of me, and I watched it through. At the time I thought it was a good scene, well-crafted by Blizzard and, seemingly, a fitting end to the story of Arthas (and a surprise to me. I was sure that Tirion would become the new Lich King). While I never went out of my way to watch the video (i.e., I didn’t sit around in Dalaran for hours clicking on the statue), I didn’t avoid it if it happened to come up somewhere else, though I was afraid that overexposure might lessen the impact if we ever did manage to kill Arthas.
Last night my guild finally, finally, finally killed the Lich King. We’ve been extending this lockout since the end of May, when we emptied Putricide’s Laboratory of Alchemical Horrors and Fun (has there ever been a better name in this game?) of the Not-So-Good Doctor and his ‘experiments’. We spent the month of June re-clearing the Blood wing, which actually went much easier than it had the first time, and playing with Sindragosa. Sindy was vanquished on July 8th, and it was on to Arthas.
By my count we spent some 60 attempts on Arthas. We made good progress into phase 2 our first two full nights there; following a week off, we found ourselves set back to dying in phase 1 transitions. Would we never get it? On Monday of this week we actually twice ventured into the previously uncharted realm of phase 3, where we died insanely fast – nobody saw the inside of Frostmourne, nobody even got the chance to kill off or kite or soak vile spirits, that’s how bad it was. But it was a good kind of bad, because we were back to making progress.
Three days later, our first attempt ended in phase 3. We were very positive and hopeful that maybe, just maybe, this would be it, though experience tells me that we’re often very good early and decline over the course of the night. Would this be a case of ‘first, best attempt’? No! Our second attempt yielded a victory. Arthas’ health seemed poised at 11% for a ridiculously long time, and when I died I wasn’t sure if I was killed by his Uber Spell of Instant Death or the bucketload of Vile spirits that were chasing me around.
Once it was clear that we had killed him, there was a lot of chatter in vent. While all of us had read strats and watched videos, nobody was 100% sure what would follow, except that we did not want to release. While Arthas boasted to the still-frozen Tirion about how he was going to create the 'greatest fighting force the world has ever known' out of us, vent was full of chatter: ‘dps and heal’, ‘watch out for defile’, ‘did we win?’, ‘I don’t think there’s defile on this phase’, ‘we’ve won’, ‘I think there’s still defile’, etc. But Tirion broke out and smashed Frostmourne, Terenas brought us back from the dead, and we went to town, unleashing the months of pent up frustration (1650 holy paladin dps, ftw!) on the incapacitated Lich King. The achievements popped up, and there was much whooping and rejoicing, and the cinematic kicked in.
As I said, I’ve seen it before, I know how it turns out. So did everyone in my raid group. But I watched it anyway (and had to turn up the sound for my wife, who must have hit something on her keyboard and skipped the scene). As Tirion picked up the helm and pondered his future as the next Lich King, I had a sudden realization:
Vent was absolutely silent.
Our group had been extremely chattery in vent between attempts, caught up in the excitement and adrenaline no doubt of feeling so close to victory. Defeating Arthas as a guild was the pinnacle of the expansion, literally eight months of sometimes ridiculous levels of angst and frustration. This was the moment to bask in the glory, to revel, to party.
And no one said a thing.
We watched from our computers in New York, Florida, Manitoba, Texas, California as the drama played out once more. Separated by hundreds or thousands of miles, yet completely together. Despite the lust for loot that drives so many to play the game (and soon raid chat was filled with people linking their hoped-for drops from the soon to be attempted heroic fights), the moments of silence as we watched the cut scene told me a lot about my guild members, and why we were there. And it wasn’t for the loot.
The King is dead. Long live the Kingslayers!
Last night my guild finally, finally, finally killed the Lich King. We’ve been extending this lockout since the end of May, when we emptied Putricide’s Laboratory of Alchemical Horrors and Fun (has there ever been a better name in this game?) of the Not-So-Good Doctor and his ‘experiments’. We spent the month of June re-clearing the Blood wing, which actually went much easier than it had the first time, and playing with Sindragosa. Sindy was vanquished on July 8th, and it was on to Arthas.
By my count we spent some 60 attempts on Arthas. We made good progress into phase 2 our first two full nights there; following a week off, we found ourselves set back to dying in phase 1 transitions. Would we never get it? On Monday of this week we actually twice ventured into the previously uncharted realm of phase 3, where we died insanely fast – nobody saw the inside of Frostmourne, nobody even got the chance to kill off or kite or soak vile spirits, that’s how bad it was. But it was a good kind of bad, because we were back to making progress.
Three days later, our first attempt ended in phase 3. We were very positive and hopeful that maybe, just maybe, this would be it, though experience tells me that we’re often very good early and decline over the course of the night. Would this be a case of ‘first, best attempt’? No! Our second attempt yielded a victory. Arthas’ health seemed poised at 11% for a ridiculously long time, and when I died I wasn’t sure if I was killed by his Uber Spell of Instant Death or the bucketload of Vile spirits that were chasing me around.
Once it was clear that we had killed him, there was a lot of chatter in vent. While all of us had read strats and watched videos, nobody was 100% sure what would follow, except that we did not want to release. While Arthas boasted to the still-frozen Tirion about how he was going to create the 'greatest fighting force the world has ever known' out of us, vent was full of chatter: ‘dps and heal’, ‘watch out for defile’, ‘did we win?’, ‘I don’t think there’s defile on this phase’, ‘we’ve won’, ‘I think there’s still defile’, etc. But Tirion broke out and smashed Frostmourne, Terenas brought us back from the dead, and we went to town, unleashing the months of pent up frustration (1650 holy paladin dps, ftw!) on the incapacitated Lich King. The achievements popped up, and there was much whooping and rejoicing, and the cinematic kicked in.
As I said, I’ve seen it before, I know how it turns out. So did everyone in my raid group. But I watched it anyway (and had to turn up the sound for my wife, who must have hit something on her keyboard and skipped the scene). As Tirion picked up the helm and pondered his future as the next Lich King, I had a sudden realization:
Vent was absolutely silent.
Our group had been extremely chattery in vent between attempts, caught up in the excitement and adrenaline no doubt of feeling so close to victory. Defeating Arthas as a guild was the pinnacle of the expansion, literally eight months of sometimes ridiculous levels of angst and frustration. This was the moment to bask in the glory, to revel, to party.
And no one said a thing.
We watched from our computers in New York, Florida, Manitoba, Texas, California as the drama played out once more. Separated by hundreds or thousands of miles, yet completely together. Despite the lust for loot that drives so many to play the game (and soon raid chat was filled with people linking their hoped-for drops from the soon to be attempted heroic fights), the moments of silence as we watched the cut scene told me a lot about my guild members, and why we were there. And it wasn’t for the loot.
The King is dead. Long live the Kingslayers!
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Blood Elf Porn!
Note: With thanks to Gevlon for trolling, and Tobold for actually taking the challenge.
Pst! Hey, you! Come over ‘ere, I’ve got something to show you.
You heard about this little gizmo? The Super Snapper FX? Yeah, that’s the one. You – what? You’ve used one? What for?
Huh, well how about that? Well, it turns out you can take pictures of things besides turtles, too. Here, check this out.
Eh? Eh? What do you think, you like that? No? OK, OK maybe dwarfs should keep their clothes on. But wait, you look like a worldly-type man, eh? You’ve been around. Maybe you like things a little more…exotic, am I right? Eh? Eh?
Yeah, I thought so. Take a look at this! Troll women are pretty nice eh? If you get past the tusks that is. And those hands…heh heh. Wait, wait! Don’t go anywhere! I can see you are a man of the highest taste, and I have some very tasty – err, tasteful, yeah that’s it – tasteful pictures right here.
Check this out. These came direct from the pleasure palaces of Quel’Thalas itself! Eh? What do you think, you want to buy some?
Eh? What’s that?
Well, sure they’re girls.
I mean, look at that, right there! It’s clearly…
...
Well, I think they’re girls.
Ah, what the hell, you'll never know the difference, anyway. Am I right? Eh? Eh?
Wait! Come back! I've got goblins and gnomes with a worgen, I've got...damn.
...
I think they're girls....
Pst! Hey, you! Come over ‘ere, I’ve got something to show you.
You heard about this little gizmo? The Super Snapper FX? Yeah, that’s the one. You – what? You’ve used one? What for?
Huh, well how about that? Well, it turns out you can take pictures of things besides turtles, too. Here, check this out.
Eh? Eh? What do you think, you like that? No? OK, OK maybe dwarfs should keep their clothes on. But wait, you look like a worldly-type man, eh? You’ve been around. Maybe you like things a little more…exotic, am I right? Eh? Eh?
Yeah, I thought so. Take a look at this! Troll women are pretty nice eh? If you get past the tusks that is. And those hands…heh heh. Wait, wait! Don’t go anywhere! I can see you are a man of the highest taste, and I have some very tasty – err, tasteful, yeah that’s it – tasteful pictures right here.
Check this out. These came direct from the pleasure palaces of Quel’Thalas itself! Eh? What do you think, you want to buy some?
Eh? What’s that?
Well, sure they’re girls.
I mean, look at that, right there! It’s clearly…
...
Well, I think they’re girls.
Ah, what the hell, you'll never know the difference, anyway. Am I right? Eh? Eh?
Wait! Come back! I've got goblins and gnomes with a worgen, I've got...damn.
...
I think they're girls....
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
The End of an Era, Part II
Before my vacation I posited that Wrath of the Lich King was really The Golden Age of the Paladin. I pointed out in Part I how Paladins (living, dead, and somewhere in between) dominated most of the story-telling and lore of the expansion. While Horde players only see a bit of Bolvar's heroics at the Wrathgate, Tirion and Uther's presence are felt throughout the expansion (and Arthas, of course). Even the few backhand slaps at Paladins that Blizzard delivers -- Champions Isimode and Faesrol, and of course Eadric the Pure):
-- couldn't take the shine off of Paladins.
But Paladins didn't just rule the lore in this expansion. Among the playerbase, Paladins have never been more powerful or popular than they are now. Just three years ago, WoWInsider showed Paladins lagging behind all but shaman in popularity. Today, Warcraft Realms shows Paladins in a dead heat with Death Knights for most popular class, with Death Knights having a slight edge at level 80.
(Census data provided by WarcraftRealms.com)
WoW players are not that easily influenced by storylines. That is to say, having Tirion running around kicking ass is not going to cause such a large increase in Paladin representation. Instead, it's due to the fact that we now have three viable, powerful specs to choose from.
Back in the days when I started playing (around the same time those numbers were published by WoWInsider), people looked to Paladins mainly for two things: tank healing, and trash tanking. If you wanted to run heroic Shattered Halls, or needed someone to pick up Hyjal trash, you looked for a Paladin. Bosses were tanked by the warrior or the druid. Paladin healers were fine, as long as you only had one, by and large, and I don’t think anyone wanted to take one into heroic Magisters’ Terrace, at least not on release. Ret? Generally dismissed as Retardins, lolret, or Retnoob, they might find themselves parked outside the raid in case someone else D/C’d or had to leave early, and to maybe throw some buffs.
With the arrival of Wrath, however, all that changed. Ret was so strong coming out of the chute that Ghostcrawler felt compelled to make his infamous ‘to the ground, baby!’ comment within a week or so of Patch 3.0. Seems that folks were pretty upset about being absolutely destroyed by a class they used to laugh at. Despite the nerfs, Ret is pretty well-represented at this point, and can do some pretty good damage, while bringing important buffs, including secondary healing through Judgment of Light and Divine Storm; oodles of mana regeneration through replenishment and Judgment of Wisdom, and, depending on subspec, can provide damage mitigation through either Divine Sacrifice or Aura Mastery. While you won’t usually see Retadins topping the damage charts over the course of the night, they can definitely hold their own, and it shows in the numbers of Paladins raiding today.
Tankadins were concerned heading into Wrath that they might be supplanted not only by a new tanking class, but by changes to threat mechanics and buffs to warrior and druid AoE threat. It hasn’t seemed to happen that way at all. While Warriors and Druids in particular are better now at large-pack tanking, Paladins are still very strong in this department, have gotten better at single-target tanking and boss tanking, and have been given an insanely good life-saver. Palatank threat generation may have been boosted a bit by the bucketloads of undead we’ve faced throughout the expansion, but they’ve also done quite well against mechanical monsters, tentacled Old Gods, beasts and dragons. No problems here at all.
And finally we have Holy Paladins. While still ‘relegated’ largely to tank healing, it’s safe to say that Holy Paladins are the current Kings of Tank Healing. Like our damage-dealing and meat-shielding brothers-in-arms, the healers of the class were concerned coming into the expansion. Holydins quickly got their feet under them in the new landscape of Sacred Shields, Beacons and splashy glyphs. Initially powered by stacking Intellect and Crit out the wazoo, Illumination provided a nearly-limitless mana supply as early as Naxxramas and, even after it was nerfed massively, mana was still not an issue. When Beacon of Light was buffed to work off of total healing, Paladins were able to easily keep up two targets at once (which still drives meter-hounds crazy, either with delight or jealousy, depending on what class you are). While Holy Paladins are still not the best at healing on the run, or dealing with mass party/raid damage, they’re far better at it now than ever, and you’re not crippling your raid if you have to throw a Holydin on raid damage.
Will it last? Sadly, it cannot. As Terenas said to Arthas, ‘No king can rule forever’, and surely the reign of the Paladin is about to end. Cataclysm’s just around the corner, with a new paradigm for everything: tanking, healing, damage dealing; the whole world is going to change. And while another class will rise to the top of the 'most played' charts, I doubt we’ll see the kind of complete domination of any class moving forward as we've seen with Paladins. And if I'm wrong and we do? That's fine by me -- let someone else have their day in the Light. Just don't nerf me 'to the ground, baby'.
-- couldn't take the shine off of Paladins.
But Paladins didn't just rule the lore in this expansion. Among the playerbase, Paladins have never been more powerful or popular than they are now. Just three years ago, WoWInsider showed Paladins lagging behind all but shaman in popularity. Today, Warcraft Realms shows Paladins in a dead heat with Death Knights for most popular class, with Death Knights having a slight edge at level 80.
(Census data provided by WarcraftRealms.com)
WoW players are not that easily influenced by storylines. That is to say, having Tirion running around kicking ass is not going to cause such a large increase in Paladin representation. Instead, it's due to the fact that we now have three viable, powerful specs to choose from.
Back in the days when I started playing (around the same time those numbers were published by WoWInsider), people looked to Paladins mainly for two things: tank healing, and trash tanking. If you wanted to run heroic Shattered Halls, or needed someone to pick up Hyjal trash, you looked for a Paladin. Bosses were tanked by the warrior or the druid. Paladin healers were fine, as long as you only had one, by and large, and I don’t think anyone wanted to take one into heroic Magisters’ Terrace, at least not on release. Ret? Generally dismissed as Retardins, lolret, or Retnoob, they might find themselves parked outside the raid in case someone else D/C’d or had to leave early, and to maybe throw some buffs.
With the arrival of Wrath, however, all that changed. Ret was so strong coming out of the chute that Ghostcrawler felt compelled to make his infamous ‘to the ground, baby!’ comment within a week or so of Patch 3.0. Seems that folks were pretty upset about being absolutely destroyed by a class they used to laugh at. Despite the nerfs, Ret is pretty well-represented at this point, and can do some pretty good damage, while bringing important buffs, including secondary healing through Judgment of Light and Divine Storm; oodles of mana regeneration through replenishment and Judgment of Wisdom, and, depending on subspec, can provide damage mitigation through either Divine Sacrifice or Aura Mastery. While you won’t usually see Retadins topping the damage charts over the course of the night, they can definitely hold their own, and it shows in the numbers of Paladins raiding today.
Tankadins were concerned heading into Wrath that they might be supplanted not only by a new tanking class, but by changes to threat mechanics and buffs to warrior and druid AoE threat. It hasn’t seemed to happen that way at all. While Warriors and Druids in particular are better now at large-pack tanking, Paladins are still very strong in this department, have gotten better at single-target tanking and boss tanking, and have been given an insanely good life-saver. Palatank threat generation may have been boosted a bit by the bucketloads of undead we’ve faced throughout the expansion, but they’ve also done quite well against mechanical monsters, tentacled Old Gods, beasts and dragons. No problems here at all.
And finally we have Holy Paladins. While still ‘relegated’ largely to tank healing, it’s safe to say that Holy Paladins are the current Kings of Tank Healing. Like our damage-dealing and meat-shielding brothers-in-arms, the healers of the class were concerned coming into the expansion. Holydins quickly got their feet under them in the new landscape of Sacred Shields, Beacons and splashy glyphs. Initially powered by stacking Intellect and Crit out the wazoo, Illumination provided a nearly-limitless mana supply as early as Naxxramas and, even after it was nerfed massively, mana was still not an issue. When Beacon of Light was buffed to work off of total healing, Paladins were able to easily keep up two targets at once (which still drives meter-hounds crazy, either with delight or jealousy, depending on what class you are). While Holy Paladins are still not the best at healing on the run, or dealing with mass party/raid damage, they’re far better at it now than ever, and you’re not crippling your raid if you have to throw a Holydin on raid damage.
Will it last? Sadly, it cannot. As Terenas said to Arthas, ‘No king can rule forever’, and surely the reign of the Paladin is about to end. Cataclysm’s just around the corner, with a new paradigm for everything: tanking, healing, damage dealing; the whole world is going to change. And while another class will rise to the top of the 'most played' charts, I doubt we’ll see the kind of complete domination of any class moving forward as we've seen with Paladins. And if I'm wrong and we do? That's fine by me -- let someone else have their day in the Light. Just don't nerf me 'to the ground, baby'.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
AFK
Those of you who are waiting for my follow-up to End of an Era -- it's coming. Really. As I mentioned last week, it's written, but needs a bit of an editing job and formatting. Unfortunately, my blogging time has been extremely limited this week, and to top it all off I'm going AFK for a week starting tomorrow. So it was much easier to drop this off the top of my head than spend the kind of time needed for Part II. But it will be here.
A couple of other things are popping around in my brain lately too, and if I can sort out my thoughts those will hit this blog in August. I think it's always good to examine why we play the game the way we do. Some recent events (I finally got myself a new shield, woohoo!), some soon-to-be events (I may well come back from vacation and find 10 guildies sporting nice new Kingslayer titles. It's like those broken ribs all over again!), and the expected reaction of those in and out of the group to that soon-to-be event are definite fodder for thought.
And then there's the Betaclysm. As I see the end in sight for Arthas I find I can pay more attention to this. Maybe I'll jump in the beta and blog about it. Maybe I won't. Maybe I'll just speculate on the sweeping changes that are in store for all of us. I've come a long way since Whiny Post Day, that's for sure. We'll see. For now, there's a vacation to pack for. Have a nice week, see you soon. Enjoy the summer, enjoy the game!
A couple of other things are popping around in my brain lately too, and if I can sort out my thoughts those will hit this blog in August. I think it's always good to examine why we play the game the way we do. Some recent events (I finally got myself a new shield, woohoo!), some soon-to-be events (I may well come back from vacation and find 10 guildies sporting nice new Kingslayer titles. It's like those broken ribs all over again!), and the expected reaction of those in and out of the group to that soon-to-be event are definite fodder for thought.
And then there's the Betaclysm. As I see the end in sight for Arthas I find I can pay more attention to this. Maybe I'll jump in the beta and blog about it. Maybe I won't. Maybe I'll just speculate on the sweeping changes that are in store for all of us. I've come a long way since Whiny Post Day, that's for sure. We'll see. For now, there's a vacation to pack for. Have a nice week, see you soon. Enjoy the summer, enjoy the game!
Friday, July 9, 2010
The End of an Era, Part 1
Two years ago at this time the World of the World of Warcraft was abuzz with talk of the coming expansion. The beta was open, talents were previewed, many of the games systems were being consolidated, and classes were being overhauled. Much of the buzz centered on the new ‘hero’ class, the Death Knights, and everyone and his uncle was going to roll one. Wrath of the Lich King was going to be all about the Death Knights.
As Wrath winds down, we find ourselves in a very similar situation. Arthas has been killed by many (though not my guild, not yet, though we did finally kill Sindragosa and took Arthas down to 70% in our one and only half-assed attempt on him the other night. I suspect that the 70% to 10% is going to be much, much harder), the last raid of the expansion is finally open, and Bizzard has been dropping all kinds of bombshells of late. As much as we look forward to the expansion and speculate on what it will bring, we also can’t help but take a look back and reflect on what has been.
And what has it been? As much as Wrath *seemed* to be about Death Knights, the fact is, if you had to put a subtitle on it (which would be pretty silly, when you consider the fact that Wrath of the Lich King is itself a subtitle, and it wouldn’t be good form to have two subtitles for one title), I think that Wrath’s would be The Golden Age of Paladins. The closing of the GAP (see what I did there?) and the overhaul coming with Cataclysm makes me a bit sad, as it will mean the end of the dominance of Paladins, in all likelihood, but it was one hell of a run.
No class, not even Death Knights, dominated in Wrath in terms of lore and gameplay like Paladins. From a lore perspective, the four most dominant figures (in terms of screen time and game importance) were Paladins. Who are they?
Arthas. Before he was the Lich King, before he was a Death Knight, he was a Paladin. Arthas is of course the reason why we’re in Northrend in the first place, and his presence was felt throughout. While we saw him mainly in his current, evil guise, we also got to see Arthas the Paladin in Caverns of Time and in some really cool flashback quests, and even met what was likely the remnant of the innocent child that he once was. The expansion was all about Arthas.
The World’s Greatest (Dead) Paladin, Uther the Lightbringer, makes several appearances in Wrath, two that are critical to the story. Previously seen in WoW as a ghost in the Western Plaguelands (the result of a quest that will be gone come Cataclysm, go get it now if you haven’t done it yet), we get to see the living Uther at his best, and worst, moment in a pivotal scene in Old Stratholme: refusing to carry out Arthas’ order to kill every living man, woman and child in the city, and being sent home in disgrace. This is a pivotal moment in the game’s lore. We later meet up with Uther’s ghost in Halls of Reflection, where he reveals a terrible secret that is then fulfilled by – surprise, surprise -- another Paladin (see further down).
Tirion Fordring quickly took up the mantle of World’s Greatest (Living) Paladin in Wrath, which represents a big step up from where we first meet him: as a lonely hermit living hard by the Thondroril River in the Eastern Plaguelands (this is another questline that will disappear with Cataclysm; grab it now while you can. It starts off slowly, but is well-worth it in the end, and provides a glimpse of how kick-ass Tiron can be when angry). When I say ‘big step up’ I’m not just talking about his height. Evidently, getting off the diet of worm meat did him some good. Tirion has more key moments in the game than anyone, with the exception of Arthas. Not only is Tirion a great fighter, he’s also a visionary, recognizing the importance of uniting Alliance and Horde in the fight against Arthas, and welcoming the Death Knights into the fold after chasing Arthas from Light’s Hope Chapel. Like Dumbledore and Voldemort, Tirion is the only one Arthas fears, and with good reason. Tirion is so cool I can even forgive him for the mess that was the Argent Tournament – even Dumbledore made mistakes -- though that gives him one of the best-delivered voice lines in the game following the Jaraxxus encounter (sorry, can’t find the sound file or I’d link it here).
Finally, there’s the World’s Greatest (Not Quite Dead) Paladin, Bolvar Fordragon. I never did the old Onyxia questlines, so Bolvar was just a guy standing next to the Anduin all that time. Yet Bolvar was central to three of the greatest story-telling moments in an expansion that has been full of them (this is something that I think Blizzard has done exceptionally well in this expansion, and I hope they can keep it up moving forward): Showing up to rally the troops and save the day against Thel’zan in Wintergarde (which I guess Horde players do not get to see); the absolutely epic event at Wrathgate: his ultimate fate atop the Frozen Throne. While the Horde’s hero ultimately became A boss, the Alliance hero ultimately becomes THE Boss, the one who is strong enough to keep a lid on the Scourge (until two expansions or so down the road when we have The Return of the Wrath of the Lich King).
So there are three Paladins and one former Paladin who played key roles in Wrath. But it wasn’t just the NPC section that Paladins ruled. In my next post on the subject, I'll cover briefly where Paladins have excelled as player characters. This was just getting a little too long to survive as one post. The rest will go up early this week. Thanks for reading!
As Wrath winds down, we find ourselves in a very similar situation. Arthas has been killed by many (though not my guild, not yet, though we did finally kill Sindragosa and took Arthas down to 70% in our one and only half-assed attempt on him the other night. I suspect that the 70% to 10% is going to be much, much harder), the last raid of the expansion is finally open, and Bizzard has been dropping all kinds of bombshells of late. As much as we look forward to the expansion and speculate on what it will bring, we also can’t help but take a look back and reflect on what has been.
And what has it been? As much as Wrath *seemed* to be about Death Knights, the fact is, if you had to put a subtitle on it (which would be pretty silly, when you consider the fact that Wrath of the Lich King is itself a subtitle, and it wouldn’t be good form to have two subtitles for one title), I think that Wrath’s would be The Golden Age of Paladins. The closing of the GAP (see what I did there?) and the overhaul coming with Cataclysm makes me a bit sad, as it will mean the end of the dominance of Paladins, in all likelihood, but it was one hell of a run.
No class, not even Death Knights, dominated in Wrath in terms of lore and gameplay like Paladins. From a lore perspective, the four most dominant figures (in terms of screen time and game importance) were Paladins. Who are they?
Arthas. Before he was the Lich King, before he was a Death Knight, he was a Paladin. Arthas is of course the reason why we’re in Northrend in the first place, and his presence was felt throughout. While we saw him mainly in his current, evil guise, we also got to see Arthas the Paladin in Caverns of Time and in some really cool flashback quests, and even met what was likely the remnant of the innocent child that he once was. The expansion was all about Arthas.
The World’s Greatest (Dead) Paladin, Uther the Lightbringer, makes several appearances in Wrath, two that are critical to the story. Previously seen in WoW as a ghost in the Western Plaguelands (the result of a quest that will be gone come Cataclysm, go get it now if you haven’t done it yet), we get to see the living Uther at his best, and worst, moment in a pivotal scene in Old Stratholme: refusing to carry out Arthas’ order to kill every living man, woman and child in the city, and being sent home in disgrace. This is a pivotal moment in the game’s lore. We later meet up with Uther’s ghost in Halls of Reflection, where he reveals a terrible secret that is then fulfilled by – surprise, surprise -- another Paladin (see further down).
Tirion Fordring quickly took up the mantle of World’s Greatest (Living) Paladin in Wrath, which represents a big step up from where we first meet him: as a lonely hermit living hard by the Thondroril River in the Eastern Plaguelands (this is another questline that will disappear with Cataclysm; grab it now while you can. It starts off slowly, but is well-worth it in the end, and provides a glimpse of how kick-ass Tiron can be when angry). When I say ‘big step up’ I’m not just talking about his height. Evidently, getting off the diet of worm meat did him some good. Tirion has more key moments in the game than anyone, with the exception of Arthas. Not only is Tirion a great fighter, he’s also a visionary, recognizing the importance of uniting Alliance and Horde in the fight against Arthas, and welcoming the Death Knights into the fold after chasing Arthas from Light’s Hope Chapel. Like Dumbledore and Voldemort, Tirion is the only one Arthas fears, and with good reason. Tirion is so cool I can even forgive him for the mess that was the Argent Tournament – even Dumbledore made mistakes -- though that gives him one of the best-delivered voice lines in the game following the Jaraxxus encounter (sorry, can’t find the sound file or I’d link it here).
Finally, there’s the World’s Greatest (Not Quite Dead) Paladin, Bolvar Fordragon. I never did the old Onyxia questlines, so Bolvar was just a guy standing next to the Anduin all that time. Yet Bolvar was central to three of the greatest story-telling moments in an expansion that has been full of them (this is something that I think Blizzard has done exceptionally well in this expansion, and I hope they can keep it up moving forward): Showing up to rally the troops and save the day against Thel’zan in Wintergarde (which I guess Horde players do not get to see); the absolutely epic event at Wrathgate: his ultimate fate atop the Frozen Throne. While the Horde’s hero ultimately became A boss, the Alliance hero ultimately becomes THE Boss, the one who is strong enough to keep a lid on the Scourge (until two expansions or so down the road when we have The Return of the Wrath of the Lich King).
So there are three Paladins and one former Paladin who played key roles in Wrath. But it wasn’t just the NPC section that Paladins ruled. In my next post on the subject, I'll cover briefly where Paladins have excelled as player characters. This was just getting a little too long to survive as one post. The rest will go up early this week. Thanks for reading!
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Some Hopes for Cataclysm
Ruby Sanctum goes live today [Edit: not today, but 'soon'], which means we are one step closer to the great upheaval that will change the world of the World of Warcraft once more. In the past, I’ve stated that I’ve had enough of the Cataclysm talk, and it’s mostly true. However, now that my guild can actually, finally see a glimmer of light at the end of the Citadel -- I expect we’ll get Sindragosa down tomorrow and will be able to start working on Arthas himself pronto -- I can actually peek ahead just a little bit. Here are some things that I hope for from Cataclysm:
An enjoyable leveling experience. I’m not looking to race through five levels like ICC-geared groups through Drak’Tharon Keep. What I’m hoping to see is what I found in Wrath: a series of well-designed quests that really told the story. While there were a few side trips and diversions in Wrath (Hemet Nesingwary, anyone?), there were so many, interconnected quests and questlines that created a cohesive experience with a definite story. Hand-in-hand with that…
Keep the bad guy front and center. Remember doing that quest for Thoralius the Wise in Howling Fjord? You smoked some dope – err, inhaled some incense – and went into the spirit world. All of a sudden, standing in front of Utgarde Keep, was – Arthas, the Lich King himself. That was the first of many times that Arthas appeared before the players. Like the connected questlines, the frequent appearances of Arthas helped remind you of the whole point of coming to Northrend. I don’t know if we’ll see the same sort of thing with Deathwing, though I suppose we'll have plenty of reminders like the new port of Gadgetzan, North and South Barrens, and a partly-ruined Stormwind.
A Killer World Event. The Wrath lead-in was unforgettable. It was disruptive. It was in your face. It was brilliant. For me, it gave the game a shot in the arm that it desperately needed at that point in time (NOTE: I’m talking about players getting infected and turning into ghouls; the bit with the ziggurats or necropolis beaming down scourge for us to kill was not nearly as entertaining in my book). Unfortunately, too many players hated it, and I can see where they’re coming from. Still, I believe it was an incredible way to get things rolling. Let’s hope we can have a world event that is entertaining and involving, and doesn’t feel like some random holiday event.
Heroics that are relevant for longer. Back in BC days, we found that, even when we were steaming through Kara, had farmed ZA, Magtheridon’s Lair and Gruul’s Lair; when we had the best gear that Badges of Justice could buy, and were flirting around a bit with Hyjal and Tempest Keep, that places like Heroic Shadow Labryinth, Arcatraz and Shattered Halls were still a challenge, and that even the lower tier heroics required care and attention to detail to execute well. Yes, Lich King heroics were difficult; heroic Loken was deadly, for a time. But the lifespan of these heroics was very, very short. Similarly, when the ToC 5 mans came out, heroic Black Knight was very hard on this Holy Paladin. For maybe two weeks, and then it quickly became trivial. Heroics are largely so dull that I hardly ever do them anymore. If they were more challenging, I’d do them more. And that’s directly related to:
Curb Gear Inflation. This is not about being a gear snob, elitist type. Hey, I’ve benefited as much from emblems and intermediate heroics and gear resets as much as the next man. I also support Blizzard’s efforts to make raiding more accessible. AND I know that a lot of people raid for gear upgrades, and that not getting upgrades for a while can be discouraging (says the guy who lost yet another roll for the Bulwark of Smoldering Steel this weekend), and make you wonder why you’re doing this over and over again. That said, it feels as though gear sometimes just positively rains from the skies (except for shields). This is compounded by Blizzard’s decision to release slightly upgunned instances with some of the new raiding tiers. So Trial of the Crusader was released with its own five mans that had higher level gear than the ‘original’ Wrath 5 mans, as was Icecrown. While it makes it easier for folks to get geared up for the new raid content, it tends to completely eliminate the need or desire to run the immediately preceding content. I’m not sure this is a good thing.
Crowd Control, please. Just about every class has some form of CC. Let’s give them a chance to use it. And it sounds like they are heading in this direction. Good. I find AoE fests to be uninteresting.
Duskwood. The world is going to change, in some places radically. Still, there are some places that I’m quite fond of that I hope won’t change very much, if at all. That will probably be a subject of another post, but Duskwood is one of my favorites. May it always be a dank, dark, spider-infested house of horrors.
That’s it for my list, at least so far. Now I can get back to finishing off Arthas. And maybe helping Alexstraza out of a bit of a bind.
An enjoyable leveling experience. I’m not looking to race through five levels like ICC-geared groups through Drak’Tharon Keep. What I’m hoping to see is what I found in Wrath: a series of well-designed quests that really told the story. While there were a few side trips and diversions in Wrath (Hemet Nesingwary, anyone?), there were so many, interconnected quests and questlines that created a cohesive experience with a definite story. Hand-in-hand with that…
Keep the bad guy front and center. Remember doing that quest for Thoralius the Wise in Howling Fjord? You smoked some dope – err, inhaled some incense – and went into the spirit world. All of a sudden, standing in front of Utgarde Keep, was – Arthas, the Lich King himself. That was the first of many times that Arthas appeared before the players. Like the connected questlines, the frequent appearances of Arthas helped remind you of the whole point of coming to Northrend. I don’t know if we’ll see the same sort of thing with Deathwing, though I suppose we'll have plenty of reminders like the new port of Gadgetzan, North and South Barrens, and a partly-ruined Stormwind.
A Killer World Event. The Wrath lead-in was unforgettable. It was disruptive. It was in your face. It was brilliant. For me, it gave the game a shot in the arm that it desperately needed at that point in time (NOTE: I’m talking about players getting infected and turning into ghouls; the bit with the ziggurats or necropolis beaming down scourge for us to kill was not nearly as entertaining in my book). Unfortunately, too many players hated it, and I can see where they’re coming from. Still, I believe it was an incredible way to get things rolling. Let’s hope we can have a world event that is entertaining and involving, and doesn’t feel like some random holiday event.
Heroics that are relevant for longer. Back in BC days, we found that, even when we were steaming through Kara, had farmed ZA, Magtheridon’s Lair and Gruul’s Lair; when we had the best gear that Badges of Justice could buy, and were flirting around a bit with Hyjal and Tempest Keep, that places like Heroic Shadow Labryinth, Arcatraz and Shattered Halls were still a challenge, and that even the lower tier heroics required care and attention to detail to execute well. Yes, Lich King heroics were difficult; heroic Loken was deadly, for a time. But the lifespan of these heroics was very, very short. Similarly, when the ToC 5 mans came out, heroic Black Knight was very hard on this Holy Paladin. For maybe two weeks, and then it quickly became trivial. Heroics are largely so dull that I hardly ever do them anymore. If they were more challenging, I’d do them more. And that’s directly related to:
Curb Gear Inflation. This is not about being a gear snob, elitist type. Hey, I’ve benefited as much from emblems and intermediate heroics and gear resets as much as the next man. I also support Blizzard’s efforts to make raiding more accessible. AND I know that a lot of people raid for gear upgrades, and that not getting upgrades for a while can be discouraging (says the guy who lost yet another roll for the Bulwark of Smoldering Steel this weekend), and make you wonder why you’re doing this over and over again. That said, it feels as though gear sometimes just positively rains from the skies (except for shields). This is compounded by Blizzard’s decision to release slightly upgunned instances with some of the new raiding tiers. So Trial of the Crusader was released with its own five mans that had higher level gear than the ‘original’ Wrath 5 mans, as was Icecrown. While it makes it easier for folks to get geared up for the new raid content, it tends to completely eliminate the need or desire to run the immediately preceding content. I’m not sure this is a good thing.
Crowd Control, please. Just about every class has some form of CC. Let’s give them a chance to use it. And it sounds like they are heading in this direction. Good. I find AoE fests to be uninteresting.
Duskwood. The world is going to change, in some places radically. Still, there are some places that I’m quite fond of that I hope won’t change very much, if at all. That will probably be a subject of another post, but Duskwood is one of my favorites. May it always be a dank, dark, spider-infested house of horrors.
That’s it for my list, at least so far. Now I can get back to finishing off Arthas. And maybe helping Alexstraza out of a bit of a bind.
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