Friday, July 23
Friday, July 9
WoW: My First Impressions
What I think after 3 days and 1 level 11 night elf druid.
Okay, so far, I have been able to get to level 11 without even leaving the night elf island, and only grouping once for a dungeon. So my knowledge of the world itself is limited to the island so far.
Soloing/Grouping: So far, I've been able to solo to my hearts content. If you want to group, you can select the "I would like to join a group" option in the /who window, which is similar to EQ's LFG window, but shows everyone in your area, lfg or not, and indicates if they are wanting to group or not.
Resting/Experience: The more you play, the more tired your character gets. Your character rests when you log off. If you log off at an inn, your character rests much more efficiently than if you just log off any where. A fully rested character, when killing mob, gets 200% experience. For example, if you kill a mob worth 100 experience points, you also get 100 more points for being fully rested. The more tired your character is, the less rested points you get. This means that people that only play for a couple hours a night still have the opportunity to get good experience, while someone that plays their character for hours, still gets good experience, but not as much rested experience. Also, if you log out just anywhere, it takes 30 seconds to camp, but if you log out at an inn, you can do so immediately.
Bind Points/Gating: In short, there are no bind points. When you die, you find your ghost in the graveyard nearest to your location of death. More on dying in a minute. At inns, if you talk to an innkeeper, you get a hearthstone. This stone, when activated, takes several seconds to cast, so is not an emergency item, ports you to the inn that you got it at. You can't use the hearthstone again for an hour. Anytime you get a new hearthstone, it overwrites your old one, so you can't port to every inn you've ever gotten a hearthstone at.
CRs/Death/Resurrection: This is one of my favourite aspects so far. No horrendous CRs and dying again to get to your corpse! There are three options. You can run back to your corpse as a ghost, if you have a cleric, paladin or shaman, you can get resurrected, or you can talk to someone in the graveyard who resurrects you. When you choose to run back to your corpse as a ghost, the ghost runs faster than a regular character to make running to your corpse a bit faster. Ghosts cannot interract with mobs or other players, except through private tells and group chat. Your corpse is indicated on your minimap and your world map for easy location. When you get within a certain range of your corpse, a window pops up that allows you to put your ghost back in your body fully clothed at 50% health/mana with no experience loss. When you get resurrected by a player, you experience resurrection effects for a time, and no experience loss. If you use the npc in the graveyard to get resurrected, you do sacrifice experience to do so. This option is ideally only used for when your corpse is in a place very difficult for you to out of once you're back in your body.
Maps: There is a small area map in the top corner that shows you your immediate area. The world map does not show you details to an area that you have not been to yet, so you just see the continent unless you've been in that area.
Zoning: So far, keeping in mind that I haven't left my island, there has been no zoning. When you enter a new area, the name of the area flashes across the screen, and that's it. As a bonus, when you "discover" an area you haven't been to, you get experience. Mobs will only chase you for a limited distance before giving up and returning to whence they came.
Quests: Quests are by far the best way to gain experience. Quest NPCs have bright yellow explanation points over their head to indicate they have a quest that is available to you. When you talk to them, you get to read what the quest is, and then accept or decline it until a later time. When you accept a quest, the exclamation point turns into a question mark to indicate that they are waiting for you to finish your quest. If you accept the quest, it is then added to your log to keep easy track of. When you complete the quest, it disappears from your log. I've had quests that involve collecting items off mobs, killing a certain amount of mobs, killing a certain named mob, collecting ground spawns, taking word or a package to another NPC, collecting items in chests to bring back to npcs, and filling a vial from different pools to return to an npc. You get experience from the mobs your killing, and than experience, and sometimes an item and/or money when you complete the quest. If a mob drops quest items, it will only drop quest items if you have accepted the quest. So there's no quest items cluttering up your inventory that you have no idea what they are for.
Druids: So far I've only played a druid. They're very versatile from what I've seen so far. They can heal, nuke, dot, and melee. They have regen, thorns, and root. Several spells, like thorns and dot, are insta-cast. Druids also get to shapeshift. So far I just have bear form, which is a melee form. You can't cast spells, but you can tank and taunt.
Pets: There are pet classes, hunters and mages I think, but as I have played neither, I can't give feedback on that. Anyone can buy non-combative pets that they can summon and have follow them around. They serve no purpose but are really adorable. They cost 20 silver I think, or 40. I know that doesn't sound like a lot, but keep in mind that mounts cost 100 gold. And currency conversion isn't the same as EQ. In EQ its 10:1. In WoW its 100:1. So it takes 100 copper to make 1 silver. In three days I've only collected 50ish silver. Most of which I spent on my spells. Currently the pets available are cats, rabbits, owls, parrots, and the rare dragon whelp. Roaches, rats and snakes are slated to be added soon. Also, ferrets, dogs, and monkeys have been added to the to do list, but at a low priority.
Meditation: There isn't any. You can however, consume food or drink that restore a certain amount of mana over a certain number of seconds. Same for health.
Okay, so far, I have been able to get to level 11 without even leaving the night elf island, and only grouping once for a dungeon. So my knowledge of the world itself is limited to the island so far.
Soloing/Grouping: So far, I've been able to solo to my hearts content. If you want to group, you can select the "I would like to join a group" option in the /who window, which is similar to EQ's LFG window, but shows everyone in your area, lfg or not, and indicates if they are wanting to group or not.
Resting/Experience: The more you play, the more tired your character gets. Your character rests when you log off. If you log off at an inn, your character rests much more efficiently than if you just log off any where. A fully rested character, when killing mob, gets 200% experience. For example, if you kill a mob worth 100 experience points, you also get 100 more points for being fully rested. The more tired your character is, the less rested points you get. This means that people that only play for a couple hours a night still have the opportunity to get good experience, while someone that plays their character for hours, still gets good experience, but not as much rested experience. Also, if you log out just anywhere, it takes 30 seconds to camp, but if you log out at an inn, you can do so immediately.
Bind Points/Gating: In short, there are no bind points. When you die, you find your ghost in the graveyard nearest to your location of death. More on dying in a minute. At inns, if you talk to an innkeeper, you get a hearthstone. This stone, when activated, takes several seconds to cast, so is not an emergency item, ports you to the inn that you got it at. You can't use the hearthstone again for an hour. Anytime you get a new hearthstone, it overwrites your old one, so you can't port to every inn you've ever gotten a hearthstone at.
CRs/Death/Resurrection: This is one of my favourite aspects so far. No horrendous CRs and dying again to get to your corpse! There are three options. You can run back to your corpse as a ghost, if you have a cleric, paladin or shaman, you can get resurrected, or you can talk to someone in the graveyard who resurrects you. When you choose to run back to your corpse as a ghost, the ghost runs faster than a regular character to make running to your corpse a bit faster. Ghosts cannot interract with mobs or other players, except through private tells and group chat. Your corpse is indicated on your minimap and your world map for easy location. When you get within a certain range of your corpse, a window pops up that allows you to put your ghost back in your body fully clothed at 50% health/mana with no experience loss. When you get resurrected by a player, you experience resurrection effects for a time, and no experience loss. If you use the npc in the graveyard to get resurrected, you do sacrifice experience to do so. This option is ideally only used for when your corpse is in a place very difficult for you to out of once you're back in your body.
Maps: There is a small area map in the top corner that shows you your immediate area. The world map does not show you details to an area that you have not been to yet, so you just see the continent unless you've been in that area.
Zoning: So far, keeping in mind that I haven't left my island, there has been no zoning. When you enter a new area, the name of the area flashes across the screen, and that's it. As a bonus, when you "discover" an area you haven't been to, you get experience. Mobs will only chase you for a limited distance before giving up and returning to whence they came.
Quests: Quests are by far the best way to gain experience. Quest NPCs have bright yellow explanation points over their head to indicate they have a quest that is available to you. When you talk to them, you get to read what the quest is, and then accept or decline it until a later time. When you accept a quest, the exclamation point turns into a question mark to indicate that they are waiting for you to finish your quest. If you accept the quest, it is then added to your log to keep easy track of. When you complete the quest, it disappears from your log. I've had quests that involve collecting items off mobs, killing a certain amount of mobs, killing a certain named mob, collecting ground spawns, taking word or a package to another NPC, collecting items in chests to bring back to npcs, and filling a vial from different pools to return to an npc. You get experience from the mobs your killing, and than experience, and sometimes an item and/or money when you complete the quest. If a mob drops quest items, it will only drop quest items if you have accepted the quest. So there's no quest items cluttering up your inventory that you have no idea what they are for.
Druids: So far I've only played a druid. They're very versatile from what I've seen so far. They can heal, nuke, dot, and melee. They have regen, thorns, and root. Several spells, like thorns and dot, are insta-cast. Druids also get to shapeshift. So far I just have bear form, which is a melee form. You can't cast spells, but you can tank and taunt.
Pets: There are pet classes, hunters and mages I think, but as I have played neither, I can't give feedback on that. Anyone can buy non-combative pets that they can summon and have follow them around. They serve no purpose but are really adorable. They cost 20 silver I think, or 40. I know that doesn't sound like a lot, but keep in mind that mounts cost 100 gold. And currency conversion isn't the same as EQ. In EQ its 10:1. In WoW its 100:1. So it takes 100 copper to make 1 silver. In three days I've only collected 50ish silver. Most of which I spent on my spells. Currently the pets available are cats, rabbits, owls, parrots, and the rare dragon whelp. Roaches, rats and snakes are slated to be added soon. Also, ferrets, dogs, and monkeys have been added to the to do list, but at a low priority.
Meditation: There isn't any. You can however, consume food or drink that restore a certain amount of mana over a certain number of seconds. Same for health.
Thursday, July 1
Fortunes!
I got the best fortune cookie today, ever. It simply said, "Behind every able man, there are always." Words to live by my friends, words to live by.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)