Welcome to Northrend

So I logged into the WoW:WotLK beta last night and started a Death Knight (horde side). I honestly have to say it’s probably the best 2 levels of any MMO I have played. It shows almost every trick that Blizzard has learned over the last few years and has an amazing epic feel. Everything from the location to the story line to the actual class\talent\spell introduction is so polished.
First thing they have done is given the expansion a graphical tweak. There is a little more detail in environment and the draw distance has been really extended. This makes the opening starting location for a DK look amazing. You are standing on a balcony in a Scourge floating city looking out over the lands (way) below. Amazing how much more Epic this makes things feel (it’s something LOTRO had from the start).
Second thing that hits you is the Death Knight storyline. It’s brilliant. It’s a super introduction to Arthus\ the Lich King. Giving loads of background on how you have come to be. It’s full of great set pieces from getting your scouting the local village to stealing your mount. It’s almost worth the price of entry alone in my view.
The DK itself seems to be a great class. A hybrid of magic and melee with a rather interesting Rune stone and Rune Power mechanic. It’s so good in fact I’m afraid you will be seeing a ton of DK running around for a some time to come. They are just too much fun! Although I have to say I’m not looking forward to dropping out into the old world after finishing in the DK starting area…

So far I’m pretty impressed but not sure how it will keep my interest in the longer term. I will say when you start WotLK it might be a good idea to check out the DK first give as great deal of background….

Anyway I’m gonna copy my toons across to the server (if the server ever lets me log in) so I can muck arounh with what other specs might be link since they are really cheap to change on the server!

Barring unforeseen taverns…

…I’m hoping to be in tonight and re-learning where all the keys are.

I take it by the tumbleweed blowing through the site there isn’t a plan to go prise Ashbringer from the Cold Dead Fingers of Kaeldusomeoneorother?

(I’d go and look it up but I’m not allowed to in here…)

I’ve not respecced yet, so could be talked into tanking…

I’m respeccing…

…once Wrath hits…

http://www.wowinsider.com/2008/08/21/warriors-gain-super-buffed-titans-grip-and-passive-mortal-strik/

Someone else can roll a Death Knight tank

It does lead to some interesting possibilities though.  For levelling I probably will respec then spec back to tank for instances.  Unless being a tank while having two handed epic in each hand somehow becomes viable…

NEXT Monday and Tuesday

Alright, so we didn’t really get a run in this week, although Mike, Jono, Ant and I all learned that we’ve a lot of Arena learnin’ to do.

So, what about next week.  Currently, needing to do the Tempest Keep part of the Kara Key Chain we have:

• Spakee
• Zejiel
• Lorac

And needing to do the SL part of the keychain we have:

• Armful
• Stormeagle

(I’m assuming that all Ant’s toons are fully key’d up, sing out if I’m wrong.)

So, it would appear to make sense to do SL one day next week and TK the other.  What works best for availibility?  The obvious answer is, IMO, to do SL on Monday and TK on Tuesday so that everyone’s primed and ready for TK by Tuesday.  How does that work for folk?

Monday and Tuesday

I’m not 100% certain of my availability on Tuesday but I can help out if we’re doing another SL run or the next part of the Kara chain.

If SL is on and I CAN do Tuesday then can we push Kara back to then?

Btw… Typed this on the WordPress iPod app. Seems to work ok.

Kara attunement and you

After our splendid take downs of all those so-called bosses this week, I thought I’d better remind myself where in the Kara chain I actually was…

Rather surprisingly, I’ve done the Netherstorm quests to take me up to Breaking into the Arcatraz, so I’m further on than I’d expected.

This means I’m up for Tempest Keep next (or so I believe) but before we go blasting into the middle of it… are we all pretty far down the path of attunement or is there catch up required?  I realise Neil will at least have to do SV, which could be a plan for next Monday for instance…

So how we all set on the grand plan?  I’m fairly sure I’m ready kit wise now (*cough* 499 defence *cough*) so am even keener than I was…

Murmur nothing but a quiet utterance

An amazingly successful run last night. Had a few wipes but they were mainly on Bosses. Overall it was a very well balanced group. With a good covering of ranged and melee damage, a great tank and off tank and a top healer.

Make me want to go and get my Kara Key even if we dont get into the place till we have hit 80…

Old Content – Onyxia’s Lair

Tonight, 3 of us started the quest chain to get attuned for Onyxia’s Lair:

http://www.wowwiki.com/Onyxia%27s_Lair_Attunement

It required a trip to LBRS which was quite fun (even if I did die once!!!). We noticed half way through that we needed the UBRS seal, since a trip to UBRS is required in the next few steps of the chain. Luckily we only need the first LBRS boss again and we are sorted.

So if you are interested in getting in on some Onxyia action nows the time to start a LBRS run (2 people will do to) once you pick up the starting quest.

Old Content

I notice that Naxx is being retired completely in it’s current form, it’s not a dungeon I’ve seen but it does look like it’s the first major 40 man instance to vanish.

I was thinking, since we are soon looking at being able to field more than 5 level 70s at a time, it might be good to go and hit some of the older content since I don’t think any of us (except possibly Ant?) have seen it.

If attunement isn’t an issue any more, then I’d be up for a whirl round Naxx or similar before it goes and we could use it for practice.  We could even pug a few more folk at the time if handling a 40 man is beyond us (there’s not much “if” there is there)?

I do also realise that this may perhaps, on balance, given proper consideration, sound silly given we can’t seem to get 5 people in one place to do SL at the minute, but it has the advantage of getting all the level 60-69 folk out and we can use it for practice.

Feel free to scoff below…

And yes I am typing this at 3.30 in the morning and yes I do appear to have insomnia.

Shadowlaboratory Roster

Monday 11th: instance at 8.30