I'm flying my rocket (thanks, Sthenia!) over Northrend at this very moment! On a live server (not beta)!
This has to be one of the least-discussed but - to me, anyway - most significant changes in Patch 4.0.1. You can now train for Cold Weather Flying, which allows you to fly in Northrend, at level 68 instead of 77 as before. Also, the price for this has been reduced from 1000 to 500 gold.
This change makes sense in a way, since when Cata hits Northrend will no longer be the endgame, but simply a collection of leveling zones as Outland has been since the release of the Lich King expansion.
I suppose for all you people with level 80's this news is just "Ho hum. We can already do that. Have been able to give our alts that ability at 68 for a long time."
But it's awesome for anyone who hasn't leveled up to 80 yet, because now you can fly anywhere you want in Northrend, and generally in a lot less time than on a taxi (the slang term for flight masters' flying beasts). Leveling in Northrend should go significantly faster now.
Now I have even more motivation to get Rakkael to level 60 and then through Outland to 68. Then she'll be able to give Horde players rides on her rocket (thanks, Dingbata!) too.
BTW, Alaurai's rocket now works in the Old World. I can ride it around a foot off the ground, and presumably give rides on it, but it won't fly until December 7.
Can't wait! Woohoo!
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Talent build suggestions
For paladins unsettled by the changes to their characters' combat mechanics, here is a page with links to several possible paladin talent builds:
http://www.wowhead.com/forums&
I would consider these as temporary, just-for-now solutions to get us going; I'm sure that as time goes on, the talent tree geeks are going to ramp up their analysis of the impact of all the various abilities and spells, and new refined tree builds will be posted.
I haven't found similar build suggestions for rogues, but you might want to keep an eye on the WoWHead forums for rogues:
http://www.wowhead.com/forums?
For warriors, here are a couple of threads with arguments/discussions about Fury warrior PVE builds:
http://www.wowhead.com/forums&
http://www.wowhead.com/forums&
Also, if anyone feels like rolling a hunter, this thread has some suggested builds:
http://www.wowhead.com/forums&
http://www.wowhead.com/forums&
I would consider these as temporary, just-for-now solutions to get us going; I'm sure that as time goes on, the talent tree geeks are going to ramp up their analysis of the impact of all the various abilities and spells, and new refined tree builds will be posted.
I haven't found similar build suggestions for rogues, but you might want to keep an eye on the WoWHead forums for rogues:
http://www.wowhead.com/forums?
For warriors, here are a couple of threads with arguments/discussions about Fury warrior PVE builds:
http://www.wowhead.com/forums&
http://www.wowhead.com/forums&
Also, if anyone feels like rolling a hunter, this thread has some suggested builds:
http://www.wowhead.com/forums&
Patch 4.0 changes: Talent builds
I just came across this discussion of the changes in Patch 4.0:
http://wow.joystiq.com/2010/
I like this article because it's got a conceptual element: think of 4.0.1 as changes to your character, and think of Cataclysm in December (4.0.3) as changes to the world around you.
It also points to articles about each class and the changes to their talent trees. Paladins might find this discussion of Retribution paladins to be helpful:
http://wow.joystiq.com/2010/
This clarified for me the impact of picking a spec: it gives you most of the passive buffs that you formerly had to choose in the 41-point tree to make your spec work. So it definitely simplifies the process of setting up your talent build.
There's also a discussion of the rogue and its new Vanish ability here:
http://wow.joystiq.com/2010/
Warriors might want to read the warrior page:
http://wow.joystiq.com/2010/
Note that these were all written in September, based on play on the Public Test Realms, but they should still be generally applicable.
As time goes on, I am sure we will see much more information about the changes to the character mechanics. I'm eagerly awaiting the inevitable posting of suggested talent builds for the new 31 point trees. If anyone sees any of these come online, please let me know!
http://wow.joystiq.com/2010/
I like this article because it's got a conceptual element: think of 4.0.1 as changes to your character, and think of Cataclysm in December (4.0.3) as changes to the world around you.
It also points to articles about each class and the changes to their talent trees. Paladins might find this discussion of Retribution paladins to be helpful:
http://wow.joystiq.com/2010/
This clarified for me the impact of picking a spec: it gives you most of the passive buffs that you formerly had to choose in the 41-point tree to make your spec work. So it definitely simplifies the process of setting up your talent build.
There's also a discussion of the rogue and its new Vanish ability here:
http://wow.joystiq.com/2010/
Warriors might want to read the warrior page:
http://wow.joystiq.com/2010/
Note that these were all written in September, based on play on the Public Test Realms, but they should still be generally applicable.
As time goes on, I am sure we will see much more information about the changes to the character mechanics. I'm eagerly awaiting the inevitable posting of suggested talent builds for the new 31 point trees. If anyone sees any of these come online, please let me know!
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
WoW patch 4.0 goes live today
The first stage of Cataclysm, patch 4.0, goes live today, October 12. The servers are down now for extended maintenance and are supposed to come back up at noon PST, 3 PM our time.
This stage involves three files totaling 4.5 GB, which hopefully will have already been downloaded into your WoW Updates folder by the automatic Background Downloader. To see if you've got them, check here:
Vista/Win7: C:\Users\Public\Games\World of Warcraft\Updates
XP: C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\Updates
Mac: Macintosh Main HD/Applications/World of Warcraft/Updates
Look for these files:
WoW-3.3.0.10958-4.0.0.12911-NA-Stage-1 (1.6 GB)
This stage involves three files totaling 4.5 GB, which hopefully will have already been downloaded into your WoW Updates folder by the automatic Background Downloader. To see if you've got them, check here:
Vista/Win7: C:\Users\Public\Games\World of Warcraft\Updates
XP: C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\Updates
Mac: Macintosh Main HD/Applications/World of Warcraft/Updates
Look for these files:
WoW-3.3.0.10958-4.0.0.12911-NA-Stage-1 (1.6 GB)
WoW-3.3.0.10958-4.0.0.12911-
WoW-3.3.0.10958-4.0.0.12911-
If you don't have these, you'll have to download them. The downloader should have automatically downloaded them over the past couple of weeks, starting whenever you exited WoW, but if you tend to shut your computer off after playing WoW, you may not have all of them. You'll need to set up WoW's downloader to do this.
If you do have them, then you can run WoW right now and it will start the install process. It will download a little more stuff and then start rolling all the changes contained in the above files into your WoW install. This will take a while; my machine has been doing it for about 20 minutes and is 25% done.
Once this is done, you should be able to run WoW and start playing whenever the servers come back up.
From what I have been able to find, the patch contains functional changes which will impact the way we play the game, including completely revamped talent trees, revisions to the hunter pet system, removal of ammo, changes in item stats, changes in levels at which classes gain abilities and spells, and new resources for hunters, paladins, warlocks, and druids.
From what I've seen, it also takes away some of the spells and abilities that I've come to rely on when playing my hunters and paladins. The addition of others will hopefully offset this, but from my experience in the Cata beta, hunter and paladin rotations are going to become more complex, more similar to the rotation necessary when playing warriors. It's definitely going to take some adjustment in the way we operate during combat.
The patch also includes changes to the launcher, fairly extensive revisions to the UI, and restructuring of the glyph and currency systems. It adds a new stat, Mastery rating, and the Reforging ability, which allows you to customize item stats. It also includes the new water and lava rendering, dynamic sunshafts, and multi-monitor support. Details here and here.
As far as I can tell, the patch does not contain Cataclysm's sweeping changes to the Old World (Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms) and I don't think we will be able to fly in these zones until the expansion arrives on December 7. However, given the size of the downloads, I could be wrong about this; I can't think of anything other than massive graphical changes that would take 4.5 GB!
Good luck! Let's hope we end up liking all these changes!
WoW-3.3.0.10958-4.0.0.12911-
If you don't have these, you'll have to download them. The downloader should have automatically downloaded them over the past couple of weeks, starting whenever you exited WoW, but if you tend to shut your computer off after playing WoW, you may not have all of them. You'll need to set up WoW's downloader to do this.
If you do have them, then you can run WoW right now and it will start the install process. It will download a little more stuff and then start rolling all the changes contained in the above files into your WoW install. This will take a while; my machine has been doing it for about 20 minutes and is 25% done.
Once this is done, you should be able to run WoW and start playing whenever the servers come back up.
From what I have been able to find, the patch contains functional changes which will impact the way we play the game, including completely revamped talent trees, revisions to the hunter pet system, removal of ammo, changes in item stats, changes in levels at which classes gain abilities and spells, and new resources for hunters, paladins, warlocks, and druids.
From what I've seen, it also takes away some of the spells and abilities that I've come to rely on when playing my hunters and paladins. The addition of others will hopefully offset this, but from my experience in the Cata beta, hunter and paladin rotations are going to become more complex, more similar to the rotation necessary when playing warriors. It's definitely going to take some adjustment in the way we operate during combat.
The patch also includes changes to the launcher, fairly extensive revisions to the UI, and restructuring of the glyph and currency systems. It adds a new stat, Mastery rating, and the Reforging ability, which allows you to customize item stats. It also includes the new water and lava rendering, dynamic sunshafts, and multi-monitor support. Details here and here.
As far as I can tell, the patch does not contain Cataclysm's sweeping changes to the Old World (Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms) and I don't think we will be able to fly in these zones until the expansion arrives on December 7. However, given the size of the downloads, I could be wrong about this; I can't think of anything other than massive graphical changes that would take 4.5 GB!
Good luck! Let's hope we end up liking all these changes!
Friday, October 1, 2010
The Cataclysm in my Bedroom
I spent all day yesterday in the Cataclysm beta!
Letting the Bartender Cheer Me Up
I got into the beta over a week ago, but I had a slow start, bogged down by the fact that I have become so accustomed to playing with assorted add-ons, most of which have not yet been ported to Cataclysm. I was totally helpless without Bartender. Where the heck did I put that spell, anyway? Click click click. Oops.
But after a few days of procrastination I finally installed Bartender, and created a new profile because apparently Bartender mostly works in Cata but only if you create new profiles. If you port existing profiles from an existing Live WoW install they will be broken.
I found the best way to replicate my old faithful Bartender profiles was to have Live WoW running on my laptop next to the keyboard and monitor for my gaming computer (running the beta), and try to visually replicate the position and size of all my usual action bars in Cata. It also helped to be able to go into the Bartender options on the laptop and see what values I'd been using for the various parameters.
Having my buttons back in all their usual places helped a lot, and now I'm starting to really get into Cataclysm.
Old World Changes
I already knew, from my first few tentative hours of exploration, how much I love being able to fly in the Old World - and how much I loathe the destruction of some of my favorite zones and towns, like the southern Barrens, Thousand Needles, and Auberdine, and the major (unpleasant) revisions to other areas, like the burned-out sections of Ashenvale and the invasion of Astranaar. I hate those stupid vortexes in the middle of Darkshire and Stranglethorn, too. Tacky. And disturbing.
But other changes are improvements. The expanded parts of Stormwind, for example, are gorgeous, and the city is absolutely stunning from the air. The beauty and realistic feel of this city is one of the most impressive accomplishments in the whole game, IMHO.
It's quite interesting, too, to see what's inside of the ruins of Lordearon, the city that the Undercity is, uh, under. Like Stormwind, Lordearon is a massive stone structure, but it's more squareish, rather Romanesque, very imposing and elegant. I think if it were renovated and populated this city would be quite appealing. I really wish they'd done this and used it instead of the dreadful stinky Undercity!
And while they were at it, why couldn't they have cleaned up the toxic green atmosphere in places like Felwood, Feralas, Eastern Plaguelands, and Un'garo Crater? They cut back on the forge smog in the Dwarven District of Stormwind, after all. <pout>
Moving on. Other areas are expanded - Brill, for example, is now a proper town, with its own flight point and trainers - and giant cemetary - and Light's Hope Chapel has been renovated, with a protective wall put up in front of the building. I rather miss the shabby old run-down previous version of the chapel, with its busted windows and rotting wood, but the new version is certainly prettier. These are just two examples; many other areas of the Old World have been built up.
Another excellent change is the new flight path between Rut'theron Village and the Exodar, making access to the wrecked space ship and its surroundings much more convenient. And by the way, it's really cool to be able to fly your own mount down the giant tree that is Teldrassil and then across the water to Darkshore!
Flying
Just a brief note on flying on your own mount in the Old World. I totally love it! Some parts of the world appear completely different when you can look down on them from above, and new stuff shows up which you had no idea was there. Even familiar things are fun to view with new, unfettered eyes.
Having the freedom to fly wherever you want, stop and look at things, then soar up and view the vast vistas and swoop down again somewhere else, is just amazing. The feeling I had when I first flew into Ashenvale, my favorite zone in terms of visual appeal, was indescribable.
And the world seems huge. Exploring it thoroughly from the air is going to take forever. I love this; for me, wandering around seeing new stuff - as well as things I haven't seen for a while - is the best part of the game.
Orgrimmar
Yesterday I poked around Orgrimmar for a while. It's really changed. The basic layout is still the same, but many (most?) of the major buildings have been replaced. The main area, the Valley of Strength, just inside the main entrance, where the bank and auction house were, is completely different. The old buildings and flight tower are gone, and they've built a new bank, new auction house and several other new buildings.
There is another bank and auction house over in the Valley of Honor, to the east, where the fishing, mining and blacksmithing trainers were. The blacksmithing trainer has been brought out of that back alley and is now next to the mining trainer's new location - and there is a jewelcrafting trainer there too, in the same building with the miners! Nice!
Also, conveniently, there is a solo banker and a solo auctioneer in a little niche up north in the Valley of Wisdom, west of the portal hub. These are great because they are close together - and right by a forge and anvil - whereas the bigger bank and auction house locations are spread out a bit and require a little bit of a hike to get from one to the other. This niche reminds me of the convenient area in Thunder Bluff where the bank, auctioneers, mining, and blacksmithing trainers are all quite close together.
The zeppelins now come to Orgrimmar at two new towers on the inside of the city, on a tall bluff between the Valley of Strength and the Valley of Wisdom. The riding/flying trainer is also on this bluff, as is the flight master. You get up and down between the bluff and the rest of the city via one of three elevators.
Other changes: the Drag has no roof and is now bright and cheery, and there is an entrance to the northeast that leads to Azshara, which is now the starting zone for the goblins, the new Horde race. The goblins' racial mount is a three-wheeled motorcycle, which I'm sure all you purists will hate. :)
I still don't like Orgrimmar that much; compared to the magnificent Stormwind, it is quite crude-looking and primitive. Stormwind is gorgeous, and I love being there. But there is a sense of energy and power at Orgrimmar that I find nowhere else.
These two cities are now going to be the central hubs even for level 85's. There are portals and NPC's in both cities that can teleport you to the new high-level zones once you have discovered those zones via quests.
Vash'jir
I explored the new 80-82 leveling zone Vash'jir with a level 85 hunter that I copied from a pre-made toon supplied by Blizzard.
I didn't like Vash'jir at first; the way you get there is, um, a little traumatic, and you end up under water, operating out of the air bubble in a (leaking) upside down sunken ship, trying to do some quests before you drown. But after doing the initial couple of quests you get a spell that lets you breathe under water (only in the Vash'jir area) and things get better.
I struggled with the 85 hunter at first because the shots and spells available are different from what I am used to. Cata takes away some stuff I relied on and adds others. Fortunately my new Bartender install and profile enabled me to create a shot/spell button configuration more or less similar to what I'm used to.
Also the pet that came with the pre-made was a bat, and its wings kept getting in the way. It's bizarre to have it flapping its wings - complete with flapping sounds - while swimming around with you under water. Plus the only thing I had for it to eat was some really nice food buff that came with the pre-made toon and I didn't want to waste it by feeding it to the bat.
Floating around dodging seaweed and flapping wings while trying to kill eels and naga and evil little goblins and whatever while also trying to learn my new rotation was, er, interesting. I didn't die but the bat did croak once before I got a reasonable handle on things.
Once I did a few more quests and got an underwater mount (a seahorse!) I discovered a flight master that allowed me to fly back to the mainland. I went to Ironforge (this was a Night Elf pre-made), which is the closest city to Vash'jir, and bought some appropriate food.
Then I flew (yay!) a little ways over to the east to North Gate Pass, where I knew, from leveling one of my lower-level toons recently, there were some snow leopards. Tried to train one but a guard came over and killed it! Gad! Fortunately there were a couple more in the hills not far away, and in short order I had myself a new brilliant white kitty. Woo hoo!
BTW, high level hunters can now have five pets with them at all times, and twenty pets in the stable, which is awesome. And all the pets have the same combat characteristics; they only differ in the buffs they offer. Which means I can go back to playing big growly kitties instead of arf arf yelp yelp doggies.
And I'm going to go tame me some raptors! You remember that giant ravasaur in Ungaro Crater? Hee hee...
Here is an entertaining video on the entry into Vash'jir (spoiler warning!):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
One of the things I liked about Vash'jir is that you can fly there from the mainland west of Ironforge. You get the fatigue bar shortly after leaving the coast but if you just keep flying you can make it with health to spare. Don't stop and hover, though, because the fatigue bar starts to move really fast when it gets below about 40%.
Paladin Changes
I did all my exploring of Orgrimmar with a premade level 85 Blood Elf paladin because my highest level Horde character, Rakaael, is only 51 and can't fly yet. I briefly played this character, trying a little combat. I must admit I am a little overwhelmed with all the new Paladin spells - and I really, really miss Taunt, which I used to use for pulling a mob out of a bunch, or just bringing one over to me so I didn't have to walk so far to kill it. LOL!
But the 85 paladin, like the 85 hunter, has so many spells that I was having to use the mouse cursor to hit some of them. I have to hit keys mainly with my left hand because it's such a long move from the mouse on the mattress to the right half of my keyboard, which dangles over me in bed (I'm disabled). This worked fine with the old hunter and paladin configurations, but the new spells and shots are so numerous that I have to play these toons like I play a warrior, using the mouse to hit butttons I can't easily reach with my left hand.
I'm not pleased with this, but hopefully I will eventually settle on a few choice shots and spells that will allow me to manage with (mostly, at least) a one-handed rotation as before.
Deepholm, Tol Barad, and Hyjal
While poking around Orgrimmar I stumbled on a quest that got me to Deepholm (which is under the Maelstrom in the middle of the ocean). I don't remember now exactly where I picked up this quest, but I'm sure we'll be able to find it. Once I had gone there, it opened up a portal in Org so I can easily go back again. Deepholm is rather strange and I didn't spend much time there, but I look forward to going back.
There is a dock outside of Orgrimmar now, home to a ship that leads to one of the new zones, but I haven't explored that yet. I did go briefly to Tol Barad, an island off of Gilneas (southeast of Silverpine Forest and the Undercity) which is the level 85 zone. This was pretty scary, given my ineptitude with the new spells, and my complete ignorance of which armor/weapons set (the 85 pre-made paladin came with four complete sets!) is appropriate for a Retribution pally.
I can't remember how I got to Tol Barad, either. I am going to have to try installing the MapNotes addon in Cata. Without it I'm hopeless. I am looking forward to when WoWWiki adds info on Cata travel and quests like this. Maybe I'll add some myself, now that I think of it.
I am also looking forward to exploring Hyjal, which is supposed to be really nice. This is also a level 77-82 leveling zone like Vash'jir, but reportedly gives somewhat less XP per quest. On the other hand, they say some of the Vash'jir quests are bugged, while the ones in Hyjal are more stable.
There's a cute video on how to get an Alliance character to Hyjal (and also to Vash'jir) here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
This links to the low rez version of this video but if you have adequate bandwidth you might want to watch a higher rez.
I still haven't rolled a toon of either of the new races, so I have yet to experience the joys of the new races' starting zones. I did fly over the Trolls' new starting islands though, and they seemed nice.
Travel
Travel in Cata is going to be quite different. As you know, a level 60 will be able to fly almost anywhere - and in Northrend the minimum level is now 68! So even if I haven't reached 80 with Alaurai, my main, when Cata hits, she'll be able to fly there.
Note that I said almost. The exceptions are the Burning Crusade areas attached to the old world. We won't be able to fly in Silvermoon, Eversong Woods, or Ghostlands! Exodar and its associated Isles are also out. I think this is because they just haven't had time to redo these zones, and they don't want to hold up Cata for that. Anyway, these areas, having been done for BC, are better quality than the original vanilla zones, so they won't benefit as much from being reworked.
Of greater significance for leveling is that lower level toons will have many more flight points to use. Numerous flight points have been added to existing zones, such as - and this one is one I've wished for many times while leveling low-level Human and Night Elf toons in Elwynn Forest - at Goldshire. Other examples include three flight points in Westfall alone, and many more in zones such as Desolace, Ashenvale, Feralas, and Stonetalon. Getting around the old world is going to be much easier now.
Offsetting this, as you have probably heard, is the removal of the portals from Shattrath and Dalaran to the major cities. These cities will no longer be portal hubs. Dalaran will mainly be used by people who are leveling through Northrend, as Shattrath is now for Outland. They've added profession trainers to Dalaran to make leveling easier - and I hope they add an auction house! Otherwise everyone will have to have a banker alt or else run around begging mages for portals.
As I mentioned, there are new portal hubs in Orgrimmar and Stormwind, but these only go to the new high-level zones. As it stands now, if you want to travel from one continent to another you are going to have to take a ship or zeppelin, or pester a mage. Even for me, someone who loves travel and rarely hearthstones or uses portals, this is going to be a bit of an adjustment. The world just got a lot bigger!
The tradeoff is that the major lag most people have suffered in Dalaran should be gone. With Horde 85's spread out among three different auction/bank areas in Orgrimmar, and Alliance 85's using two (maybe three?) separate bank/auction areas in Stormwind, the lag problem should be greatly reduced. I hope!
Bugs
I suppose I should mention problems I've come across. I've had quite a few, mainly in the form of game crashes. Usually the error is attempting to access invalid memory. These seem to happen more in some areas than others. Oddly, the worst places for these, for me anyway, seem to be Eastern Plaguelands and Tirisfal Glades; I crashed four or five times flying from the Undercity to Ghostlands. Southern Barrens is not too happy either. Flying at lower altitude may help; I'm not sure. But in many other areas I've had no problems at all.
One bug of note is in Azshara, where there is a dungeon that is misplaced above ground level in an area just north of Orgrimmar. You can't see it, but if you fly or ride into it, you can't get out. If you move, you can get blinded by what appear to be some of the textures in the dungeon but you can't see anything useful. I had to hearthstone to escape. But I'm sure this will be fixed soon.
Another issue is that you can only go through the portal between Eastern Plaguelands and Ghostlands one way, from north to south (from Ghostlands to the Plaguelands). There's a one-way invisible barrier that prevents you from going the other way on foot or in the air, unless you are riding on a flight master's mount. I don't know if this is a bug or intentional, but if it stays I believe it will prevent Alliance characters from getting to Ghostlands if they haven't already gone there and picked up the flight point in southeast Ghostlands.
Summary
I guess you could say I love it ... I hate it ... I don't know what to think.
I love love love being able to fly in the Old World, and I love some of the changes there, especially to Stormwind, my favorite city.
I very much dislike, however, the ruination of many of my most beloved areas. Mining in Thousand Needles was one of my most cherished pastimes, and I loved questing in the wide open, sunny, lush and cheerful Barrens. I also loved the sense of peaceful calm I got whenever I rode or flew into Astranaar. Sadly, all these delights and many more will be lost when the Cataclysm arrives.
Although I love the leveling of pet combat abilities and the fact that I can carry five pets with me now, the jury is still out for me on the other play changes I've encountered so far, particularly hunter and paladin combat rotations. I really enjoyed the simplicity of playing a Retribution paladin (at least up to level 29 so far) and I was quite content with playing my hunters as well. I hope I'll be able to get used to the new, more complicated rotas, but I'm not sure.
The changes to travel are a mixed bag. The removal of the portals to the major cities from Dalaran and Shattrath will force anyone who's been using them as portal hubs to change their way of thinking and of getting around the world. I suspect Dalaran is likely to become a ghost town, like Shattrath, Quel' Danas, Silvermoon, and the Exodar, and I'm sad about that.
But the new flight points scattered around the Old World will make travel while leveling much less tedious. And flying in the Old World will, of course, be a joy.
After living in the new world for a while, I'm looking forward to the Cataclysm with not quite so much dread as I was before. It's growing on me.
Letting the Bartender Cheer Me Up
I got into the beta over a week ago, but I had a slow start, bogged down by the fact that I have become so accustomed to playing with assorted add-ons, most of which have not yet been ported to Cataclysm. I was totally helpless without Bartender. Where the heck did I put that spell, anyway? Click click click. Oops.
But after a few days of procrastination I finally installed Bartender, and created a new profile because apparently Bartender mostly works in Cata but only if you create new profiles. If you port existing profiles from an existing Live WoW install they will be broken.
I found the best way to replicate my old faithful Bartender profiles was to have Live WoW running on my laptop next to the keyboard and monitor for my gaming computer (running the beta), and try to visually replicate the position and size of all my usual action bars in Cata. It also helped to be able to go into the Bartender options on the laptop and see what values I'd been using for the various parameters.
Having my buttons back in all their usual places helped a lot, and now I'm starting to really get into Cataclysm.
Old World Changes
I already knew, from my first few tentative hours of exploration, how much I love being able to fly in the Old World - and how much I loathe the destruction of some of my favorite zones and towns, like the southern Barrens, Thousand Needles, and Auberdine, and the major (unpleasant) revisions to other areas, like the burned-out sections of Ashenvale and the invasion of Astranaar. I hate those stupid vortexes in the middle of Darkshire and Stranglethorn, too. Tacky. And disturbing.
But other changes are improvements. The expanded parts of Stormwind, for example, are gorgeous, and the city is absolutely stunning from the air. The beauty and realistic feel of this city is one of the most impressive accomplishments in the whole game, IMHO.
It's quite interesting, too, to see what's inside of the ruins of Lordearon, the city that the Undercity is, uh, under. Like Stormwind, Lordearon is a massive stone structure, but it's more squareish, rather Romanesque, very imposing and elegant. I think if it were renovated and populated this city would be quite appealing. I really wish they'd done this and used it instead of the dreadful stinky Undercity!
And while they were at it, why couldn't they have cleaned up the toxic green atmosphere in places like Felwood, Feralas, Eastern Plaguelands, and Un'garo Crater? They cut back on the forge smog in the Dwarven District of Stormwind, after all. <pout>
Moving on. Other areas are expanded - Brill, for example, is now a proper town, with its own flight point and trainers - and giant cemetary - and Light's Hope Chapel has been renovated, with a protective wall put up in front of the building. I rather miss the shabby old run-down previous version of the chapel, with its busted windows and rotting wood, but the new version is certainly prettier. These are just two examples; many other areas of the Old World have been built up.
Another excellent change is the new flight path between Rut'theron Village and the Exodar, making access to the wrecked space ship and its surroundings much more convenient. And by the way, it's really cool to be able to fly your own mount down the giant tree that is Teldrassil and then across the water to Darkshore!
Flying
Just a brief note on flying on your own mount in the Old World. I totally love it! Some parts of the world appear completely different when you can look down on them from above, and new stuff shows up which you had no idea was there. Even familiar things are fun to view with new, unfettered eyes.
Having the freedom to fly wherever you want, stop and look at things, then soar up and view the vast vistas and swoop down again somewhere else, is just amazing. The feeling I had when I first flew into Ashenvale, my favorite zone in terms of visual appeal, was indescribable.
And the world seems huge. Exploring it thoroughly from the air is going to take forever. I love this; for me, wandering around seeing new stuff - as well as things I haven't seen for a while - is the best part of the game.
Orgrimmar
Yesterday I poked around Orgrimmar for a while. It's really changed. The basic layout is still the same, but many (most?) of the major buildings have been replaced. The main area, the Valley of Strength, just inside the main entrance, where the bank and auction house were, is completely different. The old buildings and flight tower are gone, and they've built a new bank, new auction house and several other new buildings.
There is another bank and auction house over in the Valley of Honor, to the east, where the fishing, mining and blacksmithing trainers were. The blacksmithing trainer has been brought out of that back alley and is now next to the mining trainer's new location - and there is a jewelcrafting trainer there too, in the same building with the miners! Nice!
Also, conveniently, there is a solo banker and a solo auctioneer in a little niche up north in the Valley of Wisdom, west of the portal hub. These are great because they are close together - and right by a forge and anvil - whereas the bigger bank and auction house locations are spread out a bit and require a little bit of a hike to get from one to the other. This niche reminds me of the convenient area in Thunder Bluff where the bank, auctioneers, mining, and blacksmithing trainers are all quite close together.
The zeppelins now come to Orgrimmar at two new towers on the inside of the city, on a tall bluff between the Valley of Strength and the Valley of Wisdom. The riding/flying trainer is also on this bluff, as is the flight master. You get up and down between the bluff and the rest of the city via one of three elevators.
Other changes: the Drag has no roof and is now bright and cheery, and there is an entrance to the northeast that leads to Azshara, which is now the starting zone for the goblins, the new Horde race. The goblins' racial mount is a three-wheeled motorcycle, which I'm sure all you purists will hate. :)
I still don't like Orgrimmar that much; compared to the magnificent Stormwind, it is quite crude-looking and primitive. Stormwind is gorgeous, and I love being there. But there is a sense of energy and power at Orgrimmar that I find nowhere else.
These two cities are now going to be the central hubs even for level 85's. There are portals and NPC's in both cities that can teleport you to the new high-level zones once you have discovered those zones via quests.
Vash'jir
I explored the new 80-82 leveling zone Vash'jir with a level 85 hunter that I copied from a pre-made toon supplied by Blizzard.
I didn't like Vash'jir at first; the way you get there is, um, a little traumatic, and you end up under water, operating out of the air bubble in a (leaking) upside down sunken ship, trying to do some quests before you drown. But after doing the initial couple of quests you get a spell that lets you breathe under water (only in the Vash'jir area) and things get better.
I struggled with the 85 hunter at first because the shots and spells available are different from what I am used to. Cata takes away some stuff I relied on and adds others. Fortunately my new Bartender install and profile enabled me to create a shot/spell button configuration more or less similar to what I'm used to.
Also the pet that came with the pre-made was a bat, and its wings kept getting in the way. It's bizarre to have it flapping its wings - complete with flapping sounds - while swimming around with you under water. Plus the only thing I had for it to eat was some really nice food buff that came with the pre-made toon and I didn't want to waste it by feeding it to the bat.
Floating around dodging seaweed and flapping wings while trying to kill eels and naga and evil little goblins and whatever while also trying to learn my new rotation was, er, interesting. I didn't die but the bat did croak once before I got a reasonable handle on things.
Once I did a few more quests and got an underwater mount (a seahorse!) I discovered a flight master that allowed me to fly back to the mainland. I went to Ironforge (this was a Night Elf pre-made), which is the closest city to Vash'jir, and bought some appropriate food.
Then I flew (yay!) a little ways over to the east to North Gate Pass, where I knew, from leveling one of my lower-level toons recently, there were some snow leopards. Tried to train one but a guard came over and killed it! Gad! Fortunately there were a couple more in the hills not far away, and in short order I had myself a new brilliant white kitty. Woo hoo!
BTW, high level hunters can now have five pets with them at all times, and twenty pets in the stable, which is awesome. And all the pets have the same combat characteristics; they only differ in the buffs they offer. Which means I can go back to playing big growly kitties instead of arf arf yelp yelp doggies.
And I'm going to go tame me some raptors! You remember that giant ravasaur in Ungaro Crater? Hee hee...
Here is an entertaining video on the entry into Vash'jir (spoiler warning!):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
One of the things I liked about Vash'jir is that you can fly there from the mainland west of Ironforge. You get the fatigue bar shortly after leaving the coast but if you just keep flying you can make it with health to spare. Don't stop and hover, though, because the fatigue bar starts to move really fast when it gets below about 40%.
Paladin Changes
I did all my exploring of Orgrimmar with a premade level 85 Blood Elf paladin because my highest level Horde character, Rakaael, is only 51 and can't fly yet. I briefly played this character, trying a little combat. I must admit I am a little overwhelmed with all the new Paladin spells - and I really, really miss Taunt, which I used to use for pulling a mob out of a bunch, or just bringing one over to me so I didn't have to walk so far to kill it. LOL!
But the 85 paladin, like the 85 hunter, has so many spells that I was having to use the mouse cursor to hit some of them. I have to hit keys mainly with my left hand because it's such a long move from the mouse on the mattress to the right half of my keyboard, which dangles over me in bed (I'm disabled). This worked fine with the old hunter and paladin configurations, but the new spells and shots are so numerous that I have to play these toons like I play a warrior, using the mouse to hit butttons I can't easily reach with my left hand.
I'm not pleased with this, but hopefully I will eventually settle on a few choice shots and spells that will allow me to manage with (mostly, at least) a one-handed rotation as before.
Deepholm, Tol Barad, and Hyjal
While poking around Orgrimmar I stumbled on a quest that got me to Deepholm (which is under the Maelstrom in the middle of the ocean). I don't remember now exactly where I picked up this quest, but I'm sure we'll be able to find it. Once I had gone there, it opened up a portal in Org so I can easily go back again. Deepholm is rather strange and I didn't spend much time there, but I look forward to going back.
There is a dock outside of Orgrimmar now, home to a ship that leads to one of the new zones, but I haven't explored that yet. I did go briefly to Tol Barad, an island off of Gilneas (southeast of Silverpine Forest and the Undercity) which is the level 85 zone. This was pretty scary, given my ineptitude with the new spells, and my complete ignorance of which armor/weapons set (the 85 pre-made paladin came with four complete sets!) is appropriate for a Retribution pally.
I can't remember how I got to Tol Barad, either. I am going to have to try installing the MapNotes addon in Cata. Without it I'm hopeless. I am looking forward to when WoWWiki adds info on Cata travel and quests like this. Maybe I'll add some myself, now that I think of it.
I am also looking forward to exploring Hyjal, which is supposed to be really nice. This is also a level 77-82 leveling zone like Vash'jir, but reportedly gives somewhat less XP per quest. On the other hand, they say some of the Vash'jir quests are bugged, while the ones in Hyjal are more stable.
There's a cute video on how to get an Alliance character to Hyjal (and also to Vash'jir) here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
This links to the low rez version of this video but if you have adequate bandwidth you might want to watch a higher rez.
I still haven't rolled a toon of either of the new races, so I have yet to experience the joys of the new races' starting zones. I did fly over the Trolls' new starting islands though, and they seemed nice.
Travel
Travel in Cata is going to be quite different. As you know, a level 60 will be able to fly almost anywhere - and in Northrend the minimum level is now 68! So even if I haven't reached 80 with Alaurai, my main, when Cata hits, she'll be able to fly there.
Note that I said almost. The exceptions are the Burning Crusade areas attached to the old world. We won't be able to fly in Silvermoon, Eversong Woods, or Ghostlands! Exodar and its associated Isles are also out. I think this is because they just haven't had time to redo these zones, and they don't want to hold up Cata for that. Anyway, these areas, having been done for BC, are better quality than the original vanilla zones, so they won't benefit as much from being reworked.
Of greater significance for leveling is that lower level toons will have many more flight points to use. Numerous flight points have been added to existing zones, such as - and this one is one I've wished for many times while leveling low-level Human and Night Elf toons in Elwynn Forest - at Goldshire. Other examples include three flight points in Westfall alone, and many more in zones such as Desolace, Ashenvale, Feralas, and Stonetalon. Getting around the old world is going to be much easier now.
Offsetting this, as you have probably heard, is the removal of the portals from Shattrath and Dalaran to the major cities. These cities will no longer be portal hubs. Dalaran will mainly be used by people who are leveling through Northrend, as Shattrath is now for Outland. They've added profession trainers to Dalaran to make leveling easier - and I hope they add an auction house! Otherwise everyone will have to have a banker alt or else run around begging mages for portals.
As I mentioned, there are new portal hubs in Orgrimmar and Stormwind, but these only go to the new high-level zones. As it stands now, if you want to travel from one continent to another you are going to have to take a ship or zeppelin, or pester a mage. Even for me, someone who loves travel and rarely hearthstones or uses portals, this is going to be a bit of an adjustment. The world just got a lot bigger!
The tradeoff is that the major lag most people have suffered in Dalaran should be gone. With Horde 85's spread out among three different auction/bank areas in Orgrimmar, and Alliance 85's using two (maybe three?) separate bank/auction areas in Stormwind, the lag problem should be greatly reduced. I hope!
Bugs
I suppose I should mention problems I've come across. I've had quite a few, mainly in the form of game crashes. Usually the error is attempting to access invalid memory. These seem to happen more in some areas than others. Oddly, the worst places for these, for me anyway, seem to be Eastern Plaguelands and Tirisfal Glades; I crashed four or five times flying from the Undercity to Ghostlands. Southern Barrens is not too happy either. Flying at lower altitude may help; I'm not sure. But in many other areas I've had no problems at all.
One bug of note is in Azshara, where there is a dungeon that is misplaced above ground level in an area just north of Orgrimmar. You can't see it, but if you fly or ride into it, you can't get out. If you move, you can get blinded by what appear to be some of the textures in the dungeon but you can't see anything useful. I had to hearthstone to escape. But I'm sure this will be fixed soon.
Another issue is that you can only go through the portal between Eastern Plaguelands and Ghostlands one way, from north to south (from Ghostlands to the Plaguelands). There's a one-way invisible barrier that prevents you from going the other way on foot or in the air, unless you are riding on a flight master's mount. I don't know if this is a bug or intentional, but if it stays I believe it will prevent Alliance characters from getting to Ghostlands if they haven't already gone there and picked up the flight point in southeast Ghostlands.
Summary
I guess you could say I love it ... I hate it ... I don't know what to think.
I love love love being able to fly in the Old World, and I love some of the changes there, especially to Stormwind, my favorite city.
I very much dislike, however, the ruination of many of my most beloved areas. Mining in Thousand Needles was one of my most cherished pastimes, and I loved questing in the wide open, sunny, lush and cheerful Barrens. I also loved the sense of peaceful calm I got whenever I rode or flew into Astranaar. Sadly, all these delights and many more will be lost when the Cataclysm arrives.
Although I love the leveling of pet combat abilities and the fact that I can carry five pets with me now, the jury is still out for me on the other play changes I've encountered so far, particularly hunter and paladin combat rotations. I really enjoyed the simplicity of playing a Retribution paladin (at least up to level 29 so far) and I was quite content with playing my hunters as well. I hope I'll be able to get used to the new, more complicated rotas, but I'm not sure.
The changes to travel are a mixed bag. The removal of the portals to the major cities from Dalaran and Shattrath will force anyone who's been using them as portal hubs to change their way of thinking and of getting around the world. I suspect Dalaran is likely to become a ghost town, like Shattrath, Quel' Danas, Silvermoon, and the Exodar, and I'm sad about that.
But the new flight points scattered around the Old World will make travel while leveling much less tedious. And flying in the Old World will, of course, be a joy.
After living in the new world for a while, I'm looking forward to the Cataclysm with not quite so much dread as I was before. It's growing on me.
The Patch vs the Beta
Cataclysm is actually two different things. First comes a giant patch, which will upgrade the Old World (Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms) to the new Cataclysm-spec configurations, with sweeping changes to some parts of the geography and major changes to play functionality as well.
I'm sure there will also be minor changes to functionality in Outland and Northrend but not much in the way of geography changes in these zones. Ditto the zones that came with Burning Crusade's new races, which includes Silvermoon, Eversong Woods, and Ghostlands, plus the Exodar and its associated Isles.
Some time (a few weeks?) after the patch is rolled out, the Cataclysm expansion will be released. This will contain new races (Goblins and Worgren) along with their starting zones and new high-level zones to get your characters from level 80 to 85.
This distinction between Cataclysm the expansion and Cataclysm the patch really sunk in for me when I realized that there are two completely different test programs currently under way, each with their own servers: the PTR (public test realms) and the Cataclysm beta realms.
I believe the PTR realms are open to anyone, regardless of whether you've been invited into the beta, so if you want to see what the newly revised Old World zones will be like, head over to your Blizzard account and see if the PTR realms are available to you.
Be prepared for a giant download, though! The Cata beta is over 22 GB on my machine, and I suspect the PTR client is about the same size.
Patch 4.0
If I understand the process correctly, many of the changes I'm encountering in the beta will be delivered with patch 4.0, which will be arriving sometime in the upcoming weeks, prior to the release of the Cataclysm expansion. As of October 1, my computer has already downloaded about 4 GB of the patch. I'm sure there will be more.
By default, patches are downloaded automatically after you exit WoW. You might want to check your computer to see if you've gotten these updates yet. If not, you might want to leave your machine running overnight to let it download them.
Here are the default locations:
The files I have on my XP PC are named:
Yours will probably be named something similar.
BTW, by default the downloader uses a BitTorrent protocol, which is great if your router is happy with having zillions of connections constantly opening and closing. Mine isn't, and I found the download to be much faster when I disabled Peer-to-Peer Transfer in Options->Downloader Preferences in the WoW launcher.
Getting into the Beta
If you are interested in getting into the beta, here is a video on how to do it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
A lot of new people seem to be coming into the beta now; I think Blizzard is expanding the population to get more testing done before the release. If you are playing regularly may increase your chances of getting in. And if you pre-order a copy, I'm sure that wouldn't hurt your chances! My invite came a few days after I made my pre-order.
Speaking of release dates, the latest rumor is that Cata will be out in January 2011. Apparently Amazon sent out an email to its preorder customers saying that it will be delivered in January. So there should be more time to adjust to the upcoming patch 4.0 changes before Cataclysm itself hits.
I'm sure there will also be minor changes to functionality in Outland and Northrend but not much in the way of geography changes in these zones. Ditto the zones that came with Burning Crusade's new races, which includes Silvermoon, Eversong Woods, and Ghostlands, plus the Exodar and its associated Isles.
Some time (a few weeks?) after the patch is rolled out, the Cataclysm expansion will be released. This will contain new races (Goblins and Worgren) along with their starting zones and new high-level zones to get your characters from level 80 to 85.
This distinction between Cataclysm the expansion and Cataclysm the patch really sunk in for me when I realized that there are two completely different test programs currently under way, each with their own servers: the PTR (public test realms) and the Cataclysm beta realms.
I believe the PTR realms are open to anyone, regardless of whether you've been invited into the beta, so if you want to see what the newly revised Old World zones will be like, head over to your Blizzard account and see if the PTR realms are available to you.
Be prepared for a giant download, though! The Cata beta is over 22 GB on my machine, and I suspect the PTR client is about the same size.
Patch 4.0
If I understand the process correctly, many of the changes I'm encountering in the beta will be delivered with patch 4.0, which will be arriving sometime in the upcoming weeks, prior to the release of the Cataclysm expansion. As of October 1, my computer has already downloaded about 4 GB of the patch. I'm sure there will be more.
By default, patches are downloaded automatically after you exit WoW. You might want to check your computer to see if you've gotten these updates yet. If not, you might want to leave your machine running overnight to let it download them.
Here are the default locations:
Mac: Macintosh HD/Applications/World of Warcraft/Updates
XP: C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\Updates
Windows 7 and Vista: C:\Users\Public\Games\World of Warcraft\Updates
The files I have on my XP PC are named:
WoW-3.3.0.10958-4.0.0.12911-NA-Stage-1
WoW-3.3.0.10958-4.0.0.12911-NA-Stage-2
WoW-3.3.0.10958-4.0.0.12911-NA-Stage-3
Yours will probably be named something similar.
BTW, by default the downloader uses a BitTorrent protocol, which is great if your router is happy with having zillions of connections constantly opening and closing. Mine isn't, and I found the download to be much faster when I disabled Peer-to-Peer Transfer in Options->Downloader Preferences in the WoW launcher.
Getting into the Beta
If you are interested in getting into the beta, here is a video on how to do it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
A lot of new people seem to be coming into the beta now; I think Blizzard is expanding the population to get more testing done before the release. If you are playing regularly may increase your chances of getting in. And if you pre-order a copy, I'm sure that wouldn't hurt your chances! My invite came a few days after I made my pre-order.
Speaking of release dates, the latest rumor is that Cata will be out in January 2011. Apparently Amazon sent out an email to its preorder customers saying that it will be delivered in January. So there should be more time to adjust to the upcoming patch 4.0 changes before Cataclysm itself hits.
Monday, September 6, 2010
Flying Machines!!
Lately my WoW experiences have just been full of flying machines. As a (frustrated) real-world pilot, I find this delightful.
It all started a few days ago, when I was exploring Northrend with Alaurai. I was wandering around the northwest of Howling Fjord, slaying a monster or two now and then, when I stumbled across a quarry. Fortunately, I didn't stumble into it, because it was very deep with very steep walls!
I wandered around a little, checking out the quests offered by the local NPC's, not sure if I should pick them up, since I was hoping to quest with my friend Sthenia in Borean Tundra when she hit level 68. (She did reach level 68 on Saturday. Congratulations, Sthenia!!!)
Suddenly I spied a couple of flying machines perched on a deck overhanging the quarry. Yowsa!! I strolled over for a closer look. Typical WoW-style autogyro-type flying machines: rickety-looking, a wobbly shaft driving a floppy rotor, fat little turbines on short outriggers, stubby tail, and plump little floats with smiling shark faces painted on their noses. I hung around for a while, wishing I could fly one.
Before I left, I noticed a little guy in a hut near the flying machines, offering a quest. Should I pick it up? Ahhh, okay, check it out at least. Maybe something worth doing. Maybe not.
YOWSA!!! The quest was to climb in one of the flying machines, FLY it down to the bottom of the quarry, and haul some bags of something or other up to a platform at the top. Would I like to try this, the guy wondered?
WOULD I??!! Yikes!! I hop in that flying machine so fast I almost get beheaded by the spinning rotor.
I launch off the platform in a cloud of sooty black smoke from the sputtering turbines and start whiffling around the quarry. Every so often the engines quit. Don't panic! After a moment it restarts itself, keeps flying. Apparently this is normal behavior for these flying machines.
The first sack of goods comes up off the floor quite easily, and I fly it up to the platform, no problem. Ditto the second. But before I latch onto the third and final bag, I decide to fly this thing around a little, do some exploring.
I mean, after I land that third sack, my flying in gorgeous Northrend will be over for weeks, until I finally make level 77, right? And no more flying machines, ever, unless I get another character leveled up and make her an engineer, then forage, beg, borrow, and steal all the mats she'll need to make one of these things. That'll take forever.
Forget it. I've got the controls, I'm flyin' solo, there's no Air Traffic Control. I'm flyin' this thing outta here. Right now.
Oops. I wander just a little ways from the quarry, trying to see what I can see over there to the west, in Grizzly Hills or something, and suddenly a big red warning comes up: YOU HAVE DEPARTED THE AUTHORIZED FLIGHT AREA!! SHUTDOWN IS IMMINENT!! Or something to that effect.
I whip the machine around and head back to the quarry. The scary alert fades away, and the machine - and I - stay airborne.
At last I succumbed to the inevitable, flew down into the quarry and got the last sack, and plopped it at its destination. Puttered around a little more before landing and dismounting, terribly sad for the ride to end.
Eek! When I hit the dismount button, some sort of ejector mechanism launched my body high in the air!. After a moment a parachute popped out, lowering me gently to earth. Awww! How cute. Well, the wonderful ride was over, but at least I had a gentle landing.
I turned in the quest, getting ready to be on my way. But...what's this?? There's a follow-on quest from the same fellow, to pilot the flying machine again and slay some flying dragons which are attacking the quarry! And...and...get this...it's a DAILY!!!
Now I have a DAILY assignment to go up to that (damned isolated, in the middle of nowhere) quarry and FLY that flying machine again! Every day!!
Furthermore, my first assignment was to do this RIGHT NOW!!!
I hopped back into my flying machine and shot off the platform, looking for dragons. Sure enough, here they come. But...all my weapons buttons are gone! In their place are just two little buttons: 1. Machine gun. 2. Missiles. And way over on the right is a third button, for turbo boost or something.
The first dragon comes at me. I hit the machine gun. Bang! Bang! Bang! Not at all what I expected, nothing like a modern machine gun. Sounds like my hunter's gun, and fires slowly, about the same rate. I hit the missile button. A bunch of missiles blast away and the dragon goes down. Yippee! My first air kill!!
I get another, and another. Suddenly a whole gaggle of dragons descend on me. Yikes!!! My health is getting low, the machine is sputtering madly...I aim for the coast, hit the Turbo Boost button, and zoom!! Whew! Outran those suckers. I wait for my health to come up a bit, circle back, pick a dragon that's off by itself, and start shooting. He's down, then another, and before I know it I've got the day's quota of ten kills. I'm a double ace already!!
LOL! I land, get the ejector seat and parachute treatment again. I'm laughing with delight. I am GOING to make an engineer! No question! ASAP!!
I get on my big white kitty and ride off into the sunset.
But my flying machine fun isn't over yet. No sir.
A day or two later, after doing my FLYING daily (!!!) I am wandering around near Valgarde, the harbor in the southeast corner of Howling Fjord, and I come across a little guy on the dock, offering a quest. Hmm. Should I? I'm still trying to conserve quest list slots for when Sthenia makes it to Northrend and we can start questing in Borean Tundra. But maybe it'll be something interesting... I pick up the quest, scan it, click the map to see where it is. Hmm. Way over in the east, beyond the fjord. Can't get there from here.
I go back to the quest text, looking for clues about how to get there. Maybe I should dump this thing...no, wait, here it is...he says I should see that guy over there, who will give me a ride on his FLYING MACHINE!!! Aaaugh! Flying machine!!! I almost dumped this quest!!
What guy?? Where??? Where is this guy!!! I'm riding all around the town, out on the dock, back and forth, clicking on everybody. You got the flying machine? No? Who? You? No? Where is he??!!!
I can't find him! He's hiding! Finally I hit WoWWiki. Nope. Their site is down! Augh! Try WoWHead. Okay. Here it is. The guy standing in the sea.
What sea? There is no sea. This is a fjord!!
Gak. Oh, wait. A little guy standing by the water. Not in it, but close. Could it be him? YES!!!!
Oh boyoboyoboyoboy!!! I'm flying! Clouds of black smoke, wobbly rotor, and all. I'm swooping over the harbor, down the fjord past the perpetually burning ship which hangs inexplicably over the passage, and out over the sea, icebergs and all. Fabulous!! Fantastic!!
All too soon it's over. The flying machine drops me at the quest site and vanishes. Awwww!
But wait. There's more. A couple of days later - yesterday - I make a decision. Okay, I'll hold off on more questing for a little while longer, but I could just go over to Borean Tundra and do that one little quest that takes me up to Fizzcrank Airstrip, right? Sthenia won't mind, surely.
I take the flying bird over to Valiance Keep in Borean Tundra and ride the big white kitty north. Soon I see some sort of flying machine overhead. And there it is, up ahead, the airstrip. I ride down the runway - no FAA here to yank my license, no stupid homeland security cops to come yelling out of the tower and throw me in jail for acting like a terrorist - and look at all the flying machines lined up on the runway. Wish I could fly one!
Wait. A big robot is towing a bigger plane down the runway. What's this? It's a bomber, getting ready to take off on a bombing run. Is there a chance I could go along? Maybe a bombing quest?
Off to WoWWiki again. WoWWiki has been resuscitated, but as for my hopes... Nope. No quest for the bombers. So I just sit and watch them take off and land, like in the old days when I was little kid, watching the airplanes take off and land from the airport near Poughkeepsie. Only now I can sit on the runway right next to them, watch them take off, chase them down the runway.
Leafing through WoWWiki, just to make sure...wait...what's this??? The flight master at Fizzcrank Airstrip uses FLYING MACHINES??!! But there was a gryphon perched next to him! You mean... I can fly on a flying machine?? To Unu'pe or Valiance Keep? <click> YESSS!!! I'm flying a flying machine again - across the countryside!
Of course, I'm not actually flying it, even though I'm at the controls, flying solo. It's on autopilot, just like all the flying beasts in the flight master system. But it's still great. Clattering away, wobbly rotor shaft, clouds of smoke...
I land at Unu'pe, take the flying beast back to Fizzcrank, take another flying machine to Valiance Keep. Woo hoo!!
But what if I want to go to Dalaran, or back to Howling Fjord? Will the Fizzcrank flight master give me a flying machine for one of those longer flights?
I don't know. And it's getting late. I decide to save that for another day.
Today.
Today is that other day. I'm at the airstrip. The flying machine is warmed up and ready.
I'm headed to Howling Fjord. I hear there is a zeppelin flying out of Westgarde Keep. And they're looking for Alliance players to go out on a bombing run...
It all started a few days ago, when I was exploring Northrend with Alaurai. I was wandering around the northwest of Howling Fjord, slaying a monster or two now and then, when I stumbled across a quarry. Fortunately, I didn't stumble into it, because it was very deep with very steep walls!
I wandered around a little, checking out the quests offered by the local NPC's, not sure if I should pick them up, since I was hoping to quest with my friend Sthenia in Borean Tundra when she hit level 68. (She did reach level 68 on Saturday. Congratulations, Sthenia!!!)
Suddenly I spied a couple of flying machines perched on a deck overhanging the quarry. Yowsa!! I strolled over for a closer look. Typical WoW-style autogyro-type flying machines: rickety-looking, a wobbly shaft driving a floppy rotor, fat little turbines on short outriggers, stubby tail, and plump little floats with smiling shark faces painted on their noses. I hung around for a while, wishing I could fly one.
Before I left, I noticed a little guy in a hut near the flying machines, offering a quest. Should I pick it up? Ahhh, okay, check it out at least. Maybe something worth doing. Maybe not.
YOWSA!!! The quest was to climb in one of the flying machines, FLY it down to the bottom of the quarry, and haul some bags of something or other up to a platform at the top. Would I like to try this, the guy wondered?
WOULD I??!! Yikes!! I hop in that flying machine so fast I almost get beheaded by the spinning rotor.
I launch off the platform in a cloud of sooty black smoke from the sputtering turbines and start whiffling around the quarry. Every so often the engines quit. Don't panic! After a moment it restarts itself, keeps flying. Apparently this is normal behavior for these flying machines.
The first sack of goods comes up off the floor quite easily, and I fly it up to the platform, no problem. Ditto the second. But before I latch onto the third and final bag, I decide to fly this thing around a little, do some exploring.
I mean, after I land that third sack, my flying in gorgeous Northrend will be over for weeks, until I finally make level 77, right? And no more flying machines, ever, unless I get another character leveled up and make her an engineer, then forage, beg, borrow, and steal all the mats she'll need to make one of these things. That'll take forever.
Forget it. I've got the controls, I'm flyin' solo, there's no Air Traffic Control. I'm flyin' this thing outta here. Right now.
Oops. I wander just a little ways from the quarry, trying to see what I can see over there to the west, in Grizzly Hills or something, and suddenly a big red warning comes up: YOU HAVE DEPARTED THE AUTHORIZED FLIGHT AREA!! SHUTDOWN IS IMMINENT!! Or something to that effect.
I whip the machine around and head back to the quarry. The scary alert fades away, and the machine - and I - stay airborne.
At last I succumbed to the inevitable, flew down into the quarry and got the last sack, and plopped it at its destination. Puttered around a little more before landing and dismounting, terribly sad for the ride to end.
Eek! When I hit the dismount button, some sort of ejector mechanism launched my body high in the air!. After a moment a parachute popped out, lowering me gently to earth. Awww! How cute. Well, the wonderful ride was over, but at least I had a gentle landing.
I turned in the quest, getting ready to be on my way. But...what's this?? There's a follow-on quest from the same fellow, to pilot the flying machine again and slay some flying dragons which are attacking the quarry! And...and...get this...it's a DAILY!!!
Now I have a DAILY assignment to go up to that (damned isolated, in the middle of nowhere) quarry and FLY that flying machine again! Every day!!
Furthermore, my first assignment was to do this RIGHT NOW!!!
I hopped back into my flying machine and shot off the platform, looking for dragons. Sure enough, here they come. But...all my weapons buttons are gone! In their place are just two little buttons: 1. Machine gun. 2. Missiles. And way over on the right is a third button, for turbo boost or something.
The first dragon comes at me. I hit the machine gun. Bang! Bang! Bang! Not at all what I expected, nothing like a modern machine gun. Sounds like my hunter's gun, and fires slowly, about the same rate. I hit the missile button. A bunch of missiles blast away and the dragon goes down. Yippee! My first air kill!!
I get another, and another. Suddenly a whole gaggle of dragons descend on me. Yikes!!! My health is getting low, the machine is sputtering madly...I aim for the coast, hit the Turbo Boost button, and zoom!! Whew! Outran those suckers. I wait for my health to come up a bit, circle back, pick a dragon that's off by itself, and start shooting. He's down, then another, and before I know it I've got the day's quota of ten kills. I'm a double ace already!!
LOL! I land, get the ejector seat and parachute treatment again. I'm laughing with delight. I am GOING to make an engineer! No question! ASAP!!
I get on my big white kitty and ride off into the sunset.
But my flying machine fun isn't over yet. No sir.
A day or two later, after doing my FLYING daily (!!!) I am wandering around near Valgarde, the harbor in the southeast corner of Howling Fjord, and I come across a little guy on the dock, offering a quest. Hmm. Should I? I'm still trying to conserve quest list slots for when Sthenia makes it to Northrend and we can start questing in Borean Tundra. But maybe it'll be something interesting... I pick up the quest, scan it, click the map to see where it is. Hmm. Way over in the east, beyond the fjord. Can't get there from here.
I go back to the quest text, looking for clues about how to get there. Maybe I should dump this thing...no, wait, here it is...he says I should see that guy over there, who will give me a ride on his FLYING MACHINE!!! Aaaugh! Flying machine!!! I almost dumped this quest!!
What guy?? Where??? Where is this guy!!! I'm riding all around the town, out on the dock, back and forth, clicking on everybody. You got the flying machine? No? Who? You? No? Where is he??!!!
I can't find him! He's hiding! Finally I hit WoWWiki. Nope. Their site is down! Augh! Try WoWHead. Okay. Here it is. The guy standing in the sea.
What sea? There is no sea. This is a fjord!!
Gak. Oh, wait. A little guy standing by the water. Not in it, but close. Could it be him? YES!!!!
Oh boyoboyoboyoboy!!! I'm flying! Clouds of black smoke, wobbly rotor, and all. I'm swooping over the harbor, down the fjord past the perpetually burning ship which hangs inexplicably over the passage, and out over the sea, icebergs and all. Fabulous!! Fantastic!!
All too soon it's over. The flying machine drops me at the quest site and vanishes. Awwww!
But wait. There's more. A couple of days later - yesterday - I make a decision. Okay, I'll hold off on more questing for a little while longer, but I could just go over to Borean Tundra and do that one little quest that takes me up to Fizzcrank Airstrip, right? Sthenia won't mind, surely.
I take the flying bird over to Valiance Keep in Borean Tundra and ride the big white kitty north. Soon I see some sort of flying machine overhead. And there it is, up ahead, the airstrip. I ride down the runway - no FAA here to yank my license, no stupid homeland security cops to come yelling out of the tower and throw me in jail for acting like a terrorist - and look at all the flying machines lined up on the runway. Wish I could fly one!
Wait. A big robot is towing a bigger plane down the runway. What's this? It's a bomber, getting ready to take off on a bombing run. Is there a chance I could go along? Maybe a bombing quest?
Off to WoWWiki again. WoWWiki has been resuscitated, but as for my hopes... Nope. No quest for the bombers. So I just sit and watch them take off and land, like in the old days when I was little kid, watching the airplanes take off and land from the airport near Poughkeepsie. Only now I can sit on the runway right next to them, watch them take off, chase them down the runway.
Leafing through WoWWiki, just to make sure...wait...what's this??? The flight master at Fizzcrank Airstrip uses FLYING MACHINES??!! But there was a gryphon perched next to him! You mean... I can fly on a flying machine?? To Unu'pe or Valiance Keep? <click> YESSS!!! I'm flying a flying machine again - across the countryside!
Of course, I'm not actually flying it, even though I'm at the controls, flying solo. It's on autopilot, just like all the flying beasts in the flight master system. But it's still great. Clattering away, wobbly rotor shaft, clouds of smoke...
I land at Unu'pe, take the flying beast back to Fizzcrank, take another flying machine to Valiance Keep. Woo hoo!!
But what if I want to go to Dalaran, or back to Howling Fjord? Will the Fizzcrank flight master give me a flying machine for one of those longer flights?
I don't know. And it's getting late. I decide to save that for another day.
Today.
Today is that other day. I'm at the airstrip. The flying machine is warmed up and ready.
I'm headed to Howling Fjord. I hear there is a zeppelin flying out of Westgarde Keep. And they're looking for Alliance players to go out on a bombing run...
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