Free Candy For Everyone

After an epic length download, install, patch download, patch install, repeat ad infinitum, I finally got my Wrath of the Lich King beta installed and playable tonight. There are really two options - copy over a character, or roll a death knight. I decided to start with the death knight because I figured everyone and their pet mouse would be doing that when the expansion actually hits so I’ll hold off for a bit and experience the 70-80 content at launch, not the death knight stuff.

I am Horde through and through (well, ok, I might have played Alliance at some point, but shhhh) so I decided to make a gnome Death Knight, of course. Well, I did! I figured I’d never ever roll a gnome once it goes live (well, mostly because I play on a PvP server and so I can’t) and this way I’ll get to see things from the other side. Plus gnomes are super cute. I’m going to share some screenshots and thoughts, but don’t worry, I’ll keep it spoiler free. Unless you want spoilers! Let me know, I took some quest text screenshots that are pretty funny.

I’m the little gal all the way on the right. I kinda look like a Jawa, don’t I? Deep hood, glowing eyes, yup. It was pretty funny to see all these newbie DKs of different races all in exactly the same matching armor. Mostly little folks in that screenshot, but I saw Draenei and others running around too.

The quests are really quite different and inventive. Like I said, I won’t go into details but there are lots of new mechanics and it’s quite cool. And there’s fun dialog. I don’t think this is a spoiler…

Even the mobs give me no respect. I’m just too darn cute, clearly. And the other players think so too!

(I’m Pandella)

Well, I’m not all cute and cuddly! I’m a fearsome Death Knight, beware. Here’s a better mood shot to help you get the hint.

Overall I was having a great time playing the new area. I only stopped because of a server shutdown, otherwise I’d probably still be playing, trying to finish out the DK starting quest chain!

I got an exciting email today from Blizzard, telling me that I’d been selected to participate in the Wrath of the Lich King beta. Yes, I get to take my precious spare time and test their pre-release software and like it. So I got home from work, all excited to give it a try and started the process to install the Beta client.

Five hours later, it’s still downloading. Hopefully it’ll finish up soon and I’ll be able to take a look. It’s funny, because I was so super excited about the idea of getting into the beta and seeing everything that’s going on with the game. Now that it comes down to it, I don’t know how much I’ll actually play the beta. You don’t get to keep any progress you make - everything is subject to change as well. I think I’ll take a little tour of the new world, maybe post some pictures, but try not to get too caught up in it.

So Blizzard announced their next World of Warcraft expansion today, Wrath of the Lich King. Everyone’s buzzing about it on the internet, talking about the new Hero class, the Death Knight, the increased level cap, the new profession. But come on, watch the trailer! The real excitement is the ability to CHANGE YOUR HAIRSTYLE! Oooh! And new dances! Ohhhh!

I’m a tiny bit addicted to World of Warcraft. Just a tiny bit, really, I swear. I was playing tonight (just because I haven’t been talking about non-stop here on my blog doesn’t mean I’ve stopped playing, I was just sparing folks further paeans to the unstoppable time sucker) as one of the expansion races, the Blood Elves. I’d noticed an herb in their starting zone called Bloodthistle.

I’d gathered up a bunch and it was just sitting in my bag. I took a look at it and thought it sounded pretty good.

A bit more damage, a bit more healing? Sounded lovely for my Paladin. I munched a bit down and continued on my way. Ten minutes later, the buff ticked down and I got this awful debuff on me.

I ate up another leaf of Bloodthistle and the debuff went away. Yay! But wait… That’s terrible! You just have to keep eating more and more to maintain your “high”, and if you stop you suffer adverse affects for longer than the original buff lasted.

The backstory of the Blood Elves is that they’re addicted to magic, so this makes a lot of sense and goes well with that high concept. But it was not quite expected. Usually items in game tell you what they’re going to do to you without you having to consume them to figure out what’s going on. Not that I’m complaining, it just seems like they tackled the expansion with a different tone than the original game. My friends and I have all noticed that BC content seems to be much more pun-filled - the original WoW has a lot of puns, but the expansion is even more so. It contains quests that make you do silly things like sift through shit (I’m not kidding, it’s an actual quest).

There’s a vendor somewhere who sells you items for vast sums of money that don’t actually do anything. I can’t remember his name though, so I can’t find the link! But he’s basically a con man, selling you junk that does stuff like “enable you to regain health when you eat” which you do anyways.

Back to this addictive Bloodthistle stuff. I suggest you stay away! A small amount of +dmg/healing isn’t worth -5 spirit for 20 minutes. Nope. Drugs are bad, m-kay?

The same night I ran my Draenei to level 7, I also started up a Blood Elf Warlock, Elyra.

I really enjoyed the Blood Elf starting zone. It was small and well put together. I never had any trouble finding where to go next, and I liked that they gave you a quest to introduce you to using your racial ability.

I took some pictures at the second little town I came to.

And, of course, I wouldn’t be me without some snarky commentary: