"Remain calm...deep breath.." The Expansion, Part 2

So my Epic Fail comment might have been a bit harsh. In my defense, I think I was just very anxious and excited to start playing the expansion, but kept hitting road blocks. Besides, I did not know how passionate Hudson is about WoW, again.

Now, to actually do a first impression about the game.

I have to say that I've been very surprised with the amount of creativity brought to this expansion especially with the different quest lines. This time I feel pulled into them more than the last expansion. Rather than just running around, gathering quests, completeting them only for the experience and loot on my run to 80, I'm actually reading them and following the story arc developed for each chain. I'm sure that considering I saw a 78 level Death Knight online last night, I'm probably a very select group of people. But still, I'm glad that they didn't just throw some stuff together and really worked to develope all the quest lines.

As an example of the creativity used there is a chain of quests that introduce you to the D.E.H.T.A (Druids for the Ethical and Humane Treatment of Animals) group. They are very much against Hunter, Hemel Nesingwary, who everyone has met in both Stranglethorn Vale and Nagrand. The chain of quest require you to stop the hunters from killing or trapping animals in Northrend, which is a change. However, If you kill any animal in Northrend, including hostile ones, you will be given the debuff Animal Blood, causing members of D.E.H.T.A to become very hostile with you untill the taint is washed off in very deep waters.

The new creatures are very well done, especially the race of walrus people. They even brought back all those annoying robots from Gnomergon. Not sure why, but they felt the need. The story line involving them is pretty interesting. Lets not forget that we finally get to see a fully working airport without having to climb up a mountain to secret location. This time around there are more flight paths from the start. Which is nice. I think the developers are learning, more access is better.

I'm on a PvP server and so far both sides are behaving themselves as before when TBC was released. I think people want to quest and level without causing too much of a stir. I've been leveling up my mage first, so I have to be very careful with AoE's and watch my water elemental so he doesn't get out of hand. I've actually damaged a few horde by accident, but they haven't retailiated, which is nice. Not sure how long the peace will last but its nice to do quests without having to watch your back all the time. Don't get me wrong, I love ganking, I just want to do it on my terms. lol

One small item I must have missed with the last major content patch. They changed the way spell power is displayed. Before, I had the crafted Frozen Shadowweave set, which gave me bonus spell damage to frost spells only, now its displayed as just a bonus to spell power. What does this mean? Well, I DON'T have to be a frost mage. I'm not stuck with a set of gear that's only designed for one spec, openning up lots of possibilities. This is fantastic! Now I have to do some research and find out what spec might be more fun. I love damage so I'm thinking something with arcane. lol

Other than starting a Death Knight and getting him up one level, I've not done much with him. I found some of the quests in that area a bit buggy, but it could have been one of my many mods that I didn't update till I started running my mage up, so it could be a operator error instead of a Blizzard problem. They did increase the amount of experience gained from quests between 60 and 70, so it will be a lot faster for people to get theirs characters leveled to cap. Several guild members have a few in the late 60's right now. Course, I could do that, but I have a life and love to watch my Panther's play on Sundays. lol

Well, that's about it for now. I've only managed to get my mage up one level as well, but I'm thinking I might start working on my warrior a bit. Try to work them up at the same time so I don't over do my time with just one character to prevent burn out. If you don't have the expansion, my recommendation is to pick it up. The scenery is very nice and the quests are fun. Getting in at peak times is still a pain, but it can be overcome if you just take Hudson's advice and "Remain calm...deep breath..".