Questing in Darkshore Contd.

This morning I continued to work on the Darkshore zones on my Void Elf warlock. The quests I focused on are taking me to the north to investigate the activity of the Shatterspear trolls who have been increasingly antagonistic to the local night elves.



After meeting up with the Sentinels who were already in that area, there seems to be just some laboring trolls digging away at the highborne ruins for artifacts. Upon killing a patrolling Overseer, I Ickes up a latter that suggests some cooperation between the Shatterspear Trolls and the Horde. I’m then sent to dispatch the horde camp off the northern coast. While there I come across a prisoner who has information about the leader of the Shatterspear that will help us ensure his defeat. The mission then shifts toward gathering the amulets from the troll shamans to craft an arrow that can break the trill leaders defenses. After gathering the material and taking out some lieutenants the attack on the troll camp commenced. Once in the heart of their territory I got to pilot an ancient to dispatch a large number of the trolls which set the stage for the final encounter.

The leader of the sentinels were there, and together we took down the leader and lifted a missive from the horde warcheif outlining their coordination to assault the night elves.


All in all this part of the story was interesting to see how the horde is reaching out to new allies to go on the offensive against the Alliance. The later part of the zone did have a nice ramp up and feeling of epicness as we sought to take out the troll leader, especially piloting the ancient to take out masses of trolls. I'll be interested to see what happens in the southern part of the zone.

Classic WoW vs. Retail WoW

As a frequent purveyor of the World of Warcraft community through the respective subreddits, twitch streams, youtube videos, and related podcasts, I've been reading and hearing a lot of opinions about what people are excited and not so excited about with regards to the release of Classic WoW later this summer. Some people are thrilled to be able to run around with their gray armor, and no mount until level 40, while others have enjoyed the quality of life improvements that retail wow has brought. From these preferences there has been a natural discussion about which version of the game is better. With all of this discussion, I've come down on the side that both games are great, they're just different and serving different audiences.

Classic WoW is a more social game with systems that facilitate grouping up and cooperating with your faction to take the upper hand against the enemy. Your character starts off very weak. The majority of the armor available for almost 20 levels has no bonus stats, and the creatures in the world are often grouped and difficult to take down. Because mobs could be tagged by other players, it was advantageous to group together. Interacting with one another and grouping with new people meant meeting new people. Maybe you liked playing together, and wanted to do more group content. Maybe you had a quest that led to a difficult dungeon. You'd need to find more people to fill out your group. Dungeons were places where you would assemble your group to take down a syndicate boss, or a powerful warlock. You needed to discuss strategy and coordinate your efforts to use crowd control, snare mobs that ran away, or interrupt spell casters. The pace was dictated by the mana of the group, and it felt rewarding to complete because of the trials and tribulations along the way. All of these interactions were side effects of the game's design. It was all a product of making content difficult enough to make grouping more rewarding.

Retail WoW is more of a single player RPG with group content for more prestigious rewards. Currently, I can level for over two hours in a zone and not see another player. The quests are not as difficult because the player is stronger. With the advent of heirloom items, I never have to worry about upgrading my armor because the armor levels with me. The quests have leave markers on your maps to make it easier to find where you're going, and often times you don't even have to read the quest to know what to do. If you feel like doing a dungeon, the main mechanics involve pulling a group, and AoEing them down. Rarely needing to wait for mana to regenerate, and rarely saying a word to each other because the content is pretty easy to complete. With my heirloom items, I can just about solo dungeons at my level, so with a group of four other people of similar power, the danger of defeat isn't really present. If you want harder content that needs to be strategized for it's available through mythic dungeons and raids, and that's the key. While much of the game has become easier to complete, there is still plenty of opportunities for challenging content for players who want to play at the highest levels.

Both games have plenty to do outside of the PVE content, whether it be PVP in the world or in a battleground. In classic you could duel people outside of major cities, or someone could organize dueling tournaments for that 1v1 show of skill. In retail there are rated battlegounds, and arena matches that players can compete in. The rating is based on your skill so you're always matched with comparable opponents.

Both games have professions and secondary skills that can be leveled. They have their grinds and rewards. In classic you can farm mats and sell them for a profit on the auction house, you can hoard patterns and be the go to person on your server to craft a powerful item, or you could level your fishing and cooking to help your group get all the buffs they need for the raid night. In retail you can craft items for low level characters or for transmogrification, you can farm for mats to craft gear at the highest levels of end game content, or you can run through old raids for unique appearances and achievements, there are pet battles, and the Brawler's Guild, World Quests, Island Expeditions, Warfronts, and just so many options of how to spend your time in the game to advance your character.

Both versions of the game will serve the audience that prefers the kinds of features they offer. If you like getting online and doing quick bit sized pieces of content, maybe you'll like retail more. If you like content at a little slower pace with people you may not have met before, maybe classic appeals to you. There are preferences and differences, and I can't say that one is objectively better because I can find so much fun to be had in both.

I hope both games continue to be successful and serve the audiences that want them. I don't want either to fail because World of Warcraft can be for anyone, and with the release of classic it can bring back the old school people who left while maintaining the retail serves that millions continue to enjoy.