Last week, Blizzard released Wrath of the Lich King, the second expansion to World of Warcraft. And I have to say, it’s good. Damn good.
I’ve decided to make my mage my main this time around, rather than my warlock. There are a few reasons behind this, not the least of which being the rather heavy-handed nerfing of warlocks in 3.x. But, it’s not all about nerfs, at least not directly. For me, it’s about fun. Affliction is now so cumbersome with timers and pet management that it’s simply not fun. To do comparable DPS with my mage is *much* less stressful.
Northrend is gorgeous. Between the attention to detail, the higher view distance, and Blizzard’s outstanding art direction, it’s a huge step in the right direction for an engine that’s starting to show its age.
Quests are fun, and varied, although most are still your generic combination of fetch, kill, or collection. There seem to be a few more party-friendly quests this time around, but there are still an annoyingly high number of rare-drop quests.
Breaking things up into two starting zones has helped the lag factor tremendously. Finishing quests that require specific mobs to be killed is still a pain, though. There are a LOT of folks in each zone, and you’re all competing for those same mobs. It’s annoyingly frustrating to wait 10 minutes for a spawn, only to have it taken fom you by someone who just ran in a few seconds ago. But, as always, leveling beings out the absolute worst in people, so I suppose it’s to be expected.
The two instances I’ve done thusfar – Utgarde Keep and The Nexus – are both outstanding. Although the difficulty of these starter dungeons isn’t much higher than the level 70 instances in Outland, they seem to be a lot more fun.
My mage is a little over halfway to 72 – I’m not pushing all that hard right now for the levels (there are several 80s already), although I’d have liked to have made 72 by the end of the weekend. The ride is enjoyable, and I’ve no doubt that it’ll continue to be so. Replacing hard-won epics with blues/greens is rather painful, but I’ll get used to it.
A word on Death Knights: There’s a *lot* of them, as expected. Their starting zone is fantastic, and leads them directly to level 58 and being Outland-ready. They’re also pretty much the only class you’ll find in Outland right now. A few people in my guild were having fun running Ramparts with 5 DKs, no healer, so it’s certainly possible. Should be fun to see how long that lasts.