World of Warcraft at Ten Ton Hammer

Hello everyone and welcome to my first official Wrath of the Lich King (WotLK) Beta journal.  Many of the in-depth topics that I want to discuss end up getting talked about in the various guides and editorials that get posted on the site. In this journal I am going to try to provide information on some of the smaller things going on and provide a feel of my overall my experiences in the beta.

In this first post I discuss a few interesting little things that have come up and about my general progress in the beta, so here it goes…

When I first started out in the beta my #1 priority was to get into the instances, so I immediately signed up in the Looking For Group (lfg) tool.  I got summoned to Utgarde Keep and ran it a few times to create a guide, then got summoned to the Nexus so I could play around there. That’s where I hit my first snag, and one that players may need to watch for unless something is changed for release. 

Coldarra is an island off the shore of the Borean Tundra, and home of the Nexus.  To get to it normally you need to complete a few quests at Amber Point, a small coastal quest hub, and then get flown across by a dragon.  However, if you get summoned to the island, you do not know the starting flight point, and can not get off the island unless you hearth or get summoned off.  I thought I was the only one, but the longer I play the more messages I see in general asking for help on how to get off.  It’s kind of funny, and I almost hope it stays this way as a right of passage for players.

After getting off the Coldarra and back to the starting city of Valiance Keep, I started making my way through quests.  In WotLK it seems like there are very few quests at first, however as you complete the initial few that are available, more and more appear.  It is almost unending.  I have gotten close to level 72 and not left the first area and still have a lot to do.  Many players have told me that with a few instance runs mixed in they have hit 74 in Borean Tundra alone!  Hurray!  This means many more options while leveling, since there are more quests than you really need.

What’s even better is all of the quests are available in nice little compact areas around small quest hubs.  It feels initially like each little area has too few quests, then you quickly realize that you have been at it for 4-6 quests in each of the quest chains from 2-3 quest providers and have gained at ton of experience. 

One such small quest hub that I really enjoyed was the D.E.H.T.A one.  It stands for Druids for the Ethical and Humane Treatment of Animals and is clearly referencing P.E.T.A.  Some of the quests are so outlandish as you chase down and hunt the hunters that I felt they were almost making fun of P.E.T.A. which antics are sometimes too outlandish to be taken seriously anyway.  The quests are cool though as they are a sort of counter to the past Hehmet Nesingwary hunting quests and are quite cute.  In one chain you first rescue baby woolly mammoths and then get to ride and fight on a bull woolly mammoth.  Very cool! 

One thing to note while completing their quests though, is if you kill any animal, you gain a debuff.  If you return to camp with the debuff, they attack you on sight!  It happened to me once, and was quite hilarious as they all turned on me yelling P.E.T.A. based slogans.

Well, I'm itching to turn 72 so excuse me as I head back into the beta to keep exploring.  I will be back soon to update you on my progress and other little things that I find in the game.