Random Screenshots / Quick Update

Sorry for the delay in updates. ^^'' I had company for a few days last week, and wasn't able to play much. Dumal is currently level 72, about halfway to 73. I keep hearing that to get the most out of leveling, you should do both starting zones (Borean Tundra and Howling Fjord). Having completed all the Howling Fjord quests (thus earning the "I've Toured the Fjord!" achievement!), I first set out to the Dragonblight. I had a couple quests leading there, so I went and did a few before heading to Borean Tundra.

A couple new Howling Fjord pics that I liked. I must say again-- this zone is BEAUTIFUL, and the music is simply amazing. =)

They DID change the graphic for Path of Frost. =P If you look closely, behind me there are little spots of frozen water in my wake. Still pretty lame, but better than snowflake blasts.

View of New Hearthglen as I ride on a giant turtle from Howling Fjord into Dragonblight.

One of the aforementioned giant turtles, as seen from Moa'ki Village, Dragonblight.

A couple pics of Moa'ki Village, the Tuskaar outpost where you first arrive in Dragonblight. It's a neutral quest hub, so there are a few stinky Alliance here.

Looking North from Moa'ki Village.

New race! The Wolvar. =)

Riplash Strand, Borean Tundra. Soon after I arrived here to do some quests, I got ganked by a Mage. =\ But then I got vengeance and camped her ass for three kills. >=)

Other than the fact that Borean Tundra is a massive gankfest, I'm enjoying the quests here. I'm thinking that the reason there's so much world PvP is because there are no battlegrounds or arenas open yet. People are interested in testing out the new skills and talents in PvP and have no outlet for it other than world PvP. It's kind of annoying sometimes, especially if I'm just focusing on quests, but it can be fun as well, because it also gives ME a chance to flex my PvP muscles. =P

Inscription and Professions

The new profession, Inscription, looks like it's going to be a lot of fun. ^^ You can make scrolls and cards, as well as enchantment scrolls for Enchanters. For anyone who doesn't know, Blizzard is making things very nice for Enchanters with this expansion. They're making it so that you can write your enchant on a scroll (provided by Scribes), and then you can sell your enchants by selling the scroll instead of spamming trade chat. These enchants can then be sold on the AH! Very, very convenient!



The highest level Inscription skills available right now are at skill level 100. Later in the game of course, Scribes' main purpose will be the creation of spell-enhancing glyphs, but one cool thing I like already is that you can create your own Darkmoon Faire card sets. The first set is Rogues. Collect the Ace through Five of Rogues, and you can turn your deck in at the Faire for a piece of level 10 loot! (Woot?) You get a green chest piece with a random enchant. Probability sucks on getting the Ace, though. =\ I got two out of about 40 cards I made. XD

Milling is a skill that comes along with Inscription. Think like Smelting comes with Mining or Prospecting comes with Jewelcrafting. Milling works a LOT like Prospecting; you mill 5 herbs, crushing them into a pomace that is used to make ink. Sometimes Milling will proc some mushrooms you can snack on, too. =P

One really awesome Inscription thing, especially since it's low level, is the ability to create a Scroll of Recall. These scrolls work like a hearthstone, but only have a fifteen-minute cooldown. ^^ They require Inscription though, so not everyone can use 'em.

Another new thing I noticed: Herbalists get a profession-specific spell called "Wild Growth!" It's basically an instant cast HoT with a three-minute cooldown. Rank 1 does 300 healing over 15 seconds. Not bad! I think you get a new rank every 75 skill points.


Oh, and on my herb gathering expedition, I ended up at old Dalaran... it's now a hole in the ground instead of a dome. =P

Hawt

Howling Fjord

My first impressions of Howling Fjord were much better than the ones I got from Borean Tundra. =) This zone is rather beautiful, for the most part. The presence of the Forsaken seems to have "bleakened" some areas, though!

After Dumal hit level 70 today, he flew from the Undercity via zeppelin and arrived in Vengeance Landing, a Forsaken outpost in the Howling Fjord. Leveling from 55 to 70 took me just under 50 hours. I'm not sure if the leveling speed increase is for beta testing or if they plan to keep in the final release... I'm hoping they keep it!

Here are photos! Dumal brought his camera. =P

Vengeance Landing from really high up.

Vengeance Landing from really close up. =P That's the zep tower where you arrive.

View looking north from Vengeance Landing.

Level 70 Dumal wearing legs, chest, shoulders, and helm that were quest rewards from Northrend so far. Pretty cool lookin'!

Road heading south, toward New Amagand, my next quest hub. I love the lanterns along the road, and ahead, the giant bones mark a HUGE bridge.

View from the aforementioned huge bridge. ^_-

My first encounter with the Tuskarr!



Those three are all views from the southern coast of Northrend. =)

So far I've LOVED the quests in Howling Fjord. If you've ever leveled an Undead, you'll see some familiarities, but the quests themselves are much more unique in design. You have the basic elements (kill 10 of X, collect 4 of Y, escort Z out of ... (ran out of letters... >.>)), but they're presented in new ways that make it fun to level. Overall, I'm highly pleased. ^^

Borean Tundra

Finally did a mild bit of exploring in the Borean Tundra when I traveled to Northrend on my 70 Elemental Shaman that I copied from Greymane. I have to say I was able to find an area there that I liked, and perhaps as I continue to explore, my mind will be changed from my initial "meh" feeling about the place. =)


And then some misty pictures taken from the wintery coastline of the Northrend continent. You can see Warsong Hold in the first one, the Horde outpost you first arrive at.

Q & A with DST

Here are some questions one of my guildmates asked, and I thought they were worth sharing the answers to. I've also updated these answers since I last answered them two days ago, so if you're in DST, and you think you've already seen this, think again!

Q! What is your spec? (Click here to see the latest DK talent calculators!)

A! I'm currently Unholy. I chose that because to me that feels like what the Death Knight should be. It is a lot of fun. There are lots of boosts to your disease damage, some cool AoE talents, defensive stuff, lots of variety. The Master of Ghouls talent allows you to treat a risen ghoul as a pet, giving you a pet bar and actually lets you control it as a Hunter or Warlock would a pet. Normally they wander rather aimlessly. =P Below are some examples of Unholy talents:

Q! Have you tried any other specs?

A! I have! They are all fun and viable in their own ways, whereas Unholy features those points I just made above, Blood really focuses on crits, big dps, and health regeneration. Heart Strike in the Blood tree applies a debuff which negates any haste effects on your target (I think this includes built in melee/spell haste, too, but that could be a bug right now. =P). There are also some good party/raid buffs like Blood Aura, Hysteria, and Abomination's Might.




Frost can be pretty fun, too. It's more oriented toward heavy burst dps and (obviously) Frost damage. It's also considered the tanking tree because there are a lot of defensive abilities here, though any tank is going to have to dip into Blood and Unholy some, I believe. I have experimented with the Frost tree, but I have not experimented with tanking. Frost Presence seems to equate to a spell-oriented version of a Warrior's Defensive Stance, increasing threat generated, armor, and spell resistances.

Those talents I pictured above highlight the defensive stuff in the Frost tree, so you might be wondering, "Well, where's this supposed burst damage coming from, then?!" Here. =P





Q! Are all specs mainly melee or is there a ranged dps spec?

A! The class as a whole is primarily a melee class. There are a few talents and skills that are ranged in nature, notably Death Coil and Icy Touch early on. But the DK also has a skill called Death Grip which will actually pull a target TO you from up to 30 yards away. It's actually kinda funny to hurl your enemies around. =P The Frost tree does offer a Howling Blast talent which would add another ranged option to your repertoire. So, in short, the class is mainly melee with a flair of ranged thrown in.

Death Knights also have a few anti-caster abilities in Mind Freeze and Strangulate. Mind Freeze is an interrupt that requires melee range (think Rogue Kick), but Strangulate is a ranged Silence for 5 seconds. Furthermore, it damages the victim when it wears off. >=) Death Grip can ALSO be used to interrupt a caster, since it hurls them toward you. Kinda hard to cast a spell when you're flying through the air. =P



Q! Have you tried any new trade skills?

A! Not yet, sadly. The only new one is Inscription, and I haven't been to Dalaran to train it. I plan for my Death Knight to go Herbalism/Inscription, so hopefully in the days to come I can provide some updates on that. But! If you look at the Links section on the right-hand side of your screen, check out Whitehand's blog. He recently posted a bunch of new screenshots regarding Inscription. I believe the cap for Inscription skill is 132? But that was last patch.

As far as other skills, DKs start with 270 in several areas. Here's a pic:



Also, Death Knights have a class-specific profession: Runeforging. This basically allows you to enchant your weapon for free. ^^ Some of the effects are pretty cool, too. Mmo-champion.com has a list of Runes here: http://www.mmo-champion.com/index.php?page=773

Q! What is your favorite part thus far?

A! There's a lot to like in Beta. They're toning up their graphics and sound options, for one. By typing /console extShadowQuality [1-6], you can seem some AMAZING lighting and shadowing upgrades if your video card can handle it. I use quality 2 and my FPS tanks from 75 to 25-30, though. XD Hopefully they can fix it to make it less demanding on graphics cards.

But when it comes to play, I'd have to say the Death Knight is really holding my interest. They kill things fast. Probably too fast, and it will probably be nerfed before it goes live, but it's fun for now. =P Dumal solo'd Araj the Summoner, the level 61 elite in Andorhal, EPL when he was level 58... without a problem! Anti-Magic Zone FTW!

I did toy around the Borean Tundra in Northrend a bit on Daejin, though, and the few quests there that I did were really fun. ^^ The zone itself though was disappointing, at least aesthetically. It felt... bleak. Well, I guess it IS the tundra, afterall. Maybe I'm expecting too much. But with the new PoM (Daej is back to his Arcane roots!), Daejin was up to almost 60% crit ALL the time. And with the extra crit from clearcasting, he was frequently hitting 90% crit rate. It actually got to the point where I'd be going, "WTF!" when I WASN'T critting. XD Here's a tooltip Arcane Potency:


Now, keep in mind that whenever Clearcasting procs, that's another 30%. =P So use PoM, get your 30%, and just don't use any spells with a cast time! Being Arcane, I just use Arcane Missiles, Arcane Barrage (new instant-cast arcane talent (51 points)), and Fire Blast. If I get in trouble, Frost Nova and Ice Lance. The only problem with keeping PoM up is that in a PvP setting, it's prone to be spellstolen, dispelled, purged, Arcane Shot... you get the picture. =P


But my favorite part is the experience in general. It feels cool to be helping Blizzard balance things, to help make sure things are working as they should be, to make suggestions regarding ANY aspect of the game, and to help make this expansion pack perfect, so that when we all go buy it in retail, everything runs smooth as butter. ^^