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Sophina
07-30-2008, 10:16 PM
http://www.caz-world.com/nf/beta/top.png

Firstly, Im not sure how much people want to hear about it, or really how much Im supposed to give away ;] So I'll probably try to be vague in places, just incase ;] Personally, if you are after a guide to levelling, you are in the wrong place. My stand on it is, Im not levelling Sophina once, to have to level her again!

Hehe, before I start the parading around going check out my beta key then ;] I must say w00t, those that know me, know my facination with snow; i love it, Im like a kid in a sweet shop when it snows. So seeing the snowy scene of the login screen, Im suprised I got passed it hehe; but with the chains moving, the music and the blue, I was starting to feel cold hehe. Love the music of it too, and the loading screens, and enjoyed the DeathKnight Intro cinematic too :] kudos and cookies to all the graphicy people at blizz ^_^

Day 1 in the Beta Testing House

Day 1 starts with a trip to Stormwind, stories tell of a brand spanking new edition to one of the Alliance proud capital cities. Its had a bit of a refurb, ok, thats not exagurating nearly enough for the refit our city has had. Many people have already heard, and already commented on the new harbour, but I tell you, until you have seen it you have no idea.

http://www.caz-world.com/nf/beta/stormwind.png

Now, heres why somepeople confuse me for a blonde, and sorry for the stereotype, I got sooooo lost ^_^. I got down to the dock and was dismounted, thats right, huuuge expance of dock, but no using of mounts. So I went left, no sign posts to tell me different, ok people, dont go left unless you want to take the boat to auberdine! Also, this is made worse, for the fact that the boat didnt quite meet the dock, and yes, I fell in the sea, swam to shore, waited for the boat then caught it!

http://www.caz-world.com/nf/beta/harbour.png

Incidently, the boat docks in Auberdine where the one to Menethryl docked, Ill have to take a trip to see if that one still goes. However, this to be honest confuses me, means that any nightelf/dreanei wanting to hop on a boat and menethryl quest from 20+ cant, cause that boat now goes to Stormwind.

Just because I know people will laugh with me, and not at me 0.o yeah, right. I decided while at auberdine to check out if the boat went from Darn or Exodar instead; a round trip that took a while ill tell you ^_^ But I did find that the boat to Exodar is now manned, interesting bit of trivia some people may have missed while beta'ing through *knowing their way* hehe wtb satnav ^_^

Lesson learnt, head to the second from the right dock to get to Northrend ;] but boy is it a long walk.

And for everyones travelling needs: getting to northrend:
By boat from Menethil Harbor (Wetlands) to Valgarde (Howling Fjord).
By boat from Stormwind Harbor to Valiance Keep (Borean Tundra).


Okay \o/ Sophs first XP 1250 for stepping off the boat and discovering the new town of Valiance Keep. So she is on her way to 71, hehe barely, first quest is to go and see the dude in the keep, awesome thats doable, 2000xp reward, thumbs up from me ^_^

http://www.caz-world.com/nf/beta/keep.png

The first actual quest that isnt go see billy bob junior from aberdare, is to kill 6 mobs from outside the keep. I loved this mob, it was like going back into strat/scholo.

Kill 6, ok, *shields self* walks 500yrds *mind blast*, *pain*, *vamp embrace*, *mind blast*, *death*, dead...cool rince and repeat.

Now my experience with them was quite an easy one, all I could see was about 20 of them scattered along the beach, inability to even aggro 2 at once. Now, I came back later, at a very unsociable hour, and it was like a swarm.

I am imagining the scenes from the start of TBC again, and starting to rock. I was a newly dinged 60 at the launch of TBC, and went through the portal 2 days after the initial launch. I tell you this as background, because although there were some quests in the old world that got a bit eek trying to find mobs, nothing compared to TBC "kill orcs" quest. Or, as Plod refers to it, "moonfire tag lolwtfIpwn". I hated this, as one orc spawned someone had tagged it and let u get aggro :/ great when I managed it, dont get me wrong, but hated being on the other end of it!

Next, Jaded Crystal Dagger is my spell dmg dagger from a heroic MgT (Personally I put, or atleast used to before nerf, this weapon at mid kara level), reward for killing 6 mobs, is 33stam, 19int, 165spell power. Now, initial thoughts werent good hehe "OMG, we'll replace everything in 2mins of questing", but in reflection, its not as bad as I first thought. Rewards for killing 6 mobs were just under kara level weapons, and from what I saw one for each playstyle/class, think the 2handed druid mace I would put just about earthwarden level without the extra armor.

Next, go into the dock and get some cure from a boat. Again, Sophie had an easy ride in there, she went on the boat, got the cure, picked up the quest in there at a kindof voodoo shrine and walked off, got her huuuge stack of xp for it and went on her merry way. Now, as I walked past the boat later on I heard fighting, went down to have a look, now the cure is guarded by heathens! Great timing on my behalf hehe.

Thats about it for day 1, when I said I was travelling around looking for Northrend for a while, I wasnt joking!

Day 2 in the Beta Testing House

This day would happen to be today, but the reason I have been able to type up about my monday fun is because I connected, made my omage to Plods (oh, on beta, Plodders is a dreanei DeathKnight now - started as a nightelf, but couldnt customise looks so I made a blue person instead).

http://www.caz-world.com/nf/beta/plodders.png

I created my tribute to Plods, watched the awesome cinematic, did my first quest to go see bob 5yards away...SERVER WILL RESET IN 10 MINS, sorry for the inconvienece.

Long story short, I did the first couple of quests, got my first rune, killed my first mob, and...yes, that was about an hour ago and havent been able to get past the loading screen since ^_^ not complaining, love seeing that start up screen hehe and Tankers really should get that last little bit of XP ^_^

Did get back in, isnt much to tell, they arent all that and a bag of chips. Dont get me wrong, they are fun, but not "OMG MUST PLAY NOW" well, not atm anyways hehe.

Dinged 56 (was very quick, only about 4 actual quests) rest were speak to bob quests. Only noteable quest worth mentioning at this point...."grand theft palomino" well, here I am about to sound blonde again! You have to steal a horse from the town literally 2 seconds south of the quest giver. (Grand Theft Auto anyone?) You pick up a kill quest and a collect my arrows im shooting at these civilians quest at the same time, all in the same area.

OK, I stole a different horse 20+ times, returned to the quest giver and was starting to get annoyed. I knew I had to be missing something, re-read the quest, now, Dalf can tell you, I never really READ a quest, I just assume what it means. Now I read that I have to be caught, cause its aparently not stealing if u dont get caught! (DK's really working on the morales of society lol, especially when the Lich King himself /w's you telling you to kill civilians as brutally as possible) Now, OK, I get caught and die (yes, first DK death in history probably) but did see something cool, the spirit healer coming to you \o/ and just rezing you, think its the Lich King buff he gives you and it basically rezes u then and there.

Anyway off track, I finish the other quests now, horses are doing my nut, turn them in and see I get talent points as reward for quest turn ins! And the stealing of the horse is chain (1 of 2 q's) for the deathcharger mount! Now, those that know my facination with mounts/pets/etc will know my sudden...."OMG NEEEEEED" feeling, black armored horse with white glowy feet! too right, I was gonna steal that damned horse, even if it meant being late for Ramparts (sorry Silf ^_^).

10 or so horses later, a load of unsociable whispers back from people telling me to "l2play" :/ very helpful, I find a nice person, she too struggled for ages, till she found what I had missed.....yes, blonde moment incomming.... the spell bar had two buttons, we're used to seing them in chess, the you are controlling and the cancel control buttons. Where, like in chess we see the move forward button, change direction, and spell buttons here we have....and this is a major clue into what to do....1. a DELIVER THE DAMNED MOUNT, and Super Epic charge speed buttons :/ Which button, with the 30odd horses I took up the hill, do we think I hadnt tried yet? hmm?

Nice that I can laugh at myself, you cant, cause its mean, but I can laugh at myself :/ well, will be able to one day.

And so ends day 2, 56 DK Plodders, with her nice DeathCharger mount.

http://www.caz-world.com/nf/beta/mounts.png

The second picture is Plodders looking not so attractive on a disguise yourself as a courier quest ;]

Day 3 I want to explore interface changes, visit a bank, sleep with high ranking officials *cough* (maybe not that one) and other randomness :]

EEEEkk sorry about the essay :X Hope its happy reading :]

Lux
07-31-2008, 06:29 AM
That was an excellent read Soph, almost like being there myself. I'd probably just run around going ooooh - aaaah - eeeek for a while :)

Steeldawg
07-31-2008, 06:59 AM
Keep it up Soph, :)

Charmazazz
07-31-2008, 07:11 AM
Keep us informed and entertained as you always do Soph :)
Great job!

Malian
07-31-2008, 08:19 AM
Yeah, enjoyed reading that! Thanks :)

Daefaroth
07-31-2008, 08:43 AM
thanks for that soph :)

Espylacopa
07-31-2008, 08:56 AM
woot :) nice but there CAN BE ONLY ONE hehe:D plod that is

\o/ vote sophi for plod of the new era:D

X Q mano
07-31-2008, 09:16 AM
That was awesome. Thanks Soph! :)

Made me want to come back to the game again, actually. But I'm considering waiting until the initial rush has calmed down.

Edit: Argh! How many people must I give rep to in order to give it to you again??

Everhard
07-31-2008, 09:31 AM
Keep them coming.Love to read bout you adventures.

Sophina
07-31-2008, 10:12 AM
Edit: Argh! How many people must I give rep to in order to give it to you again??

Wish I knew, havent been able to give any for ages ^_^ went back to the old template too hehe

Emzi
07-31-2008, 11:04 AM
Really nice Soph hehe :P

Sophina
08-01-2008, 11:11 PM
Day 3 in the Beta Testing House

So Day 2 saw me not so w000 about Death Knights as everyone telling everyone else "OMG AWESOME!!!111eleven". Except Im sat here, having played little Plodders since lunch (about 3hrs), waiting to start invites for Kara thinking.....must plaaaayyyy DK... :/ great, awesome, Ive jumped on the "must have a death knight" band wagon and am even playing lead trombone in its marching band.

/me waves the flag of surrender

So what, tbh its a joy to play. Ok, Ok, so I litterally just finished the starting zone but listen to the quests:

Go into a mine and use a device on some miners and use their souls as ur ghoul minions! Now common, I cant be the only one thinking.....cooool

Diguise yourself as a mine car, to get dragged to the crusade's ship to fire canons at lvl 56elites on the beach. To kill....100 of them <3

Call a .. hmm how to describe, you know Ever got his shiny purple Dragon from Netherwing...you know the one, if not, im sure if you asked nicely he would show it to you ;] Well, imagine one of them, as a skelenton, and you have what I am trying to describe. You call one of them, its an elite too btw, and shoot at other elites from it ^_^ theres something really satisfying with killing 150 elites hehe.

http://www.caz-world.com/nf/beta/mount_dragon.png

Joining the battle for Lights Hope Chapel as a scourge minion, to fail in the battle and then switch sides <3 was really fun hehe. Also, check out that mount \o/ gief \o/

http://www.caz-world.com/nf/beta/lightshope.png

This is where I stop playing Plodders, mainly because you then end up questing back in the plaguelands, which is not my favourite zone hehe.

I dont follow the lore much of WoW but its hard not to get into the "fwoar the lich king himself is talking to me" hehe, and definately enjoyed the killing of a family friend in service of him.

http://www.caz-world.com/nf/beta/friend_kill.png

There is only one real chain to follow through the starting zone that leads you to the light hope quest. Plodders got to 1 bar off 58, but didnt have to kill that many mobs to get there, that means 58 is definately doable to finish the starting zone. (Obviously unless they start changing some of the XP awarded). Its like, imagine getting outland style XP from level 55, you'd level like the clappers too ;]

http://www.caz-world.com/nf/beta/plodders_57.png

So moving back to Sophina, she went to have a look at all the interface changes.

Firstly, the one that I know everyone knew Id click on first....Pets. There was a lot of uproar on wow-europe forums about giving us a pet collar, a bit like the key chain at the moment. You've probably already heard that we didnt get that ;] but got something just as nice, if not better.

All pets and mounts are now learnable like spells. They go in their very own spell book, whys this better... /castrandom baby yeah \o/ Below is the Character Screen with the Pet tab selected, showing both companions and mounts tabs open, and also what the pet icon (in this case sleepy willy) says.

http://www.caz-world.com/nf/beta/pets.png

Next was achievements, as far I had heard you earn achievement points to buy things like haircuts and dance lessons. Well, no you spend gold to have a haircut atleast. I changed my earings, you cant tell though, cause my hair covers it ^_^ I only did it to get the achievement "Shave and a Haircut" :/ if I changed Sophie's appearance I wouldnt be Nesums twin anymore, which would be wrong!

http://www.caz-world.com/nf/beta/achievements.png

Achievements is the icon that looks like a shield. PvP is now a button of its own, and as you can see Latency is no longer a bar next to the keyring its from a hover over the options icon.

http://www.caz-world.com/nf/beta/bar_change.png

Some of the wierder achievements (dont want to give too much away hehe):
Falling a certain distance without dying
Getting a haircut
Exploration
Completing 1500, 2000 quests

Some of the wierder stats:
Total gold spent on postage
Total gold spent on travel
Total talent tree respecs (;] one for plod there ;])
Total waves, cheers, LOL'ds, playings of a violin, called someone a chicken, etc

Next, the calandar....looks awesome and speaks for itself:

http://www.caz-world.com/nf/beta/calandar.png

Shows Darkmoon Fayre dates, stranglethorn fishing competitions and allows you to create your own. Tbh, it kinda takes all the good things about group calandar and expands on them. Group Calandars got 2 flaws in my opinion is having to specify an end time, well, event duration, makes posting an IronMan hard ;] and no ability to sign up for a group outside of the game, i.e. online.

This calandar fixes the first of my concerns, but does not as yet show an option into signing in online. It is my biggest hope out of all the changes in WotLK that there is an armory plugin into this. For anyone who has logged into the armory it gives a showing of what the guild bank currently holds..or..well.. is supposed to, ours hasnt been updated since I first logged in :X

I am really hoping for a link in with the armory, to be able to use that would be sweet. sweeeeeeeeet.

No more, "OHHH NOOOO I missed the fayre"'s or "When's the Orphan week start"'s, cause they are all in the calandar :]

To be continued ^_^...too many images in one post I have more for the first one too now :thumb

Steeldawg
08-02-2008, 01:16 AM
Calender looks great as do the achievments

Lavraen
08-02-2008, 09:29 AM
I love the new expansion but I have been giving some feedback..
Really the whole thing is <3 and I like it better than the Outlands so far. But The deathknight quest chain ended a bit abrupt :( It would be nicer to have at least one quest waiting when you "wake up" to lead you to your new position.

Same goes for a questline in Northrend.. That questline is awesome but while you are in the middle of it, it just stops :(.. Lol Traitors on the boat

Also Dalaran is accesible right from entry point in Northrend (in the Inn). You have to speak to a guy there and he will transport you. Sadly you have to lvl 71 or higher for that. The transport crystal underneath Dalaran doesn't work at the moment unlss you talked to the guy first.

Just a warning before you guys venture off to visit it and than find out your rode that entire way for nothing.

Hotep
08-02-2008, 10:25 AM
Nice reporting Caz, eps liking the screen shots you have added :]

Dalfryth
08-02-2008, 10:39 PM
re-read the quest, now, Dalf can tell you, I never really READ a quest, I just assume what it means.

that explains all the "what are we doing now?" moments then :)

hehe... you have to actually read the quest before you can re-read it :P

just seen another thing... /me wants mini tyrael


JK

Plodders
08-03-2008, 11:58 PM
what are new priest talents like?