New Writing:

Another of my articles has been posted on WhatMMORPG: The Dark Side of WoW’s 10 Classes. Enjoy.

I Killed a Dragon:

I’ve been doing an awful lot of World of Warcraft posts lately for what’s supposed to be a general sci-fi/fantasy blog, but what the hell, here’s one more.

Yesterday, I did the second half of Dragon Soul via the Raid Finder, and I have to say, it was one of the most fun times I’ve had in WoW — maybe in any game.

As much as I enjoyed the first four bosses, they weren’t the most spectacular fights. I blamed this on the extreme dumbing down they got for the Raid Finder. But the final four encounters were great — thrilling and epic. The storyline of this raid wasn’t as impressive as that of ICC or Ulduar, but these definitely rank among the most fun raid fights I’ve ever done.

Just going through them quickly:

Ultraxion: The one unimpressive one. Visually spectacular, but all you do is stand there and occasionally press the JOLLY, CANDY-LIKE BUTTON.

Blackhorn: Very chaotic and intense. An obvious homage to my favourite raid encounter of all time. Not for the first time, I wonder if Blizzard was reading my wishlist when they designed this patch.

Spine of Deathwing: Riding a giant, cyborg Dragon over the ocean while fighting off his malevolent molten blood and using said blood to blow off giant chunks of his armor so Thrall can rip him in half with the Dragon Soul. What part of this is not awesome?

Madness of Deathwing: Flying from island to island, ripping Deathwing apart one half-melted limb at a time. Insanely epic and awesome fight. Loved every minute of it. If I had one complaint, it’s that it was too visually cluttered. I caught enough glimpses of Deathwing’s ruined hulk to know the encounter could be a feast for the eyes, but most of the time, my screen was just filled by one of his toes.

We had a few wipes, a couple douchebags and asshats, and at least one ninja, but even so, we completed it all in less time and with less aggravation than it would have taken a Trade PUG to fail and disband on the second boss.

And I was able to kill the end boss of an expansion in that expansion for the first time ever. I never even got close to Arthas back in Wrath.

The Raid Finder has exceeded every one of my expectations. This is such a wonderful improvement to the game. There are a lot of decisions Blizzard has made lately that have angered me (I’m looking at you, Guardian Cub), and there was a period when I was feeling very disaffected with Cataclysm, but Blizzard has once again won my devotion for some years to come. Bring on Mists of DrunkenPandaLand!

As for the Dragon Soul’s plot…

Spoilers:

The end cinematic did lack a certain oomph, and it certainly can’t compare to Wrath of the Lich King’s spectacular finale, but it wasn’t a bad ending. What mortal Aspects will mean is up for speculation, but most fans seem to think they will still be exceedingly long-lived and powerful — they simply won’t be borderline god-like anymore. Kalecgos would now theoretically be on par with Jaina Proudmoore in the magic department, for example.

I can understand why they took this road. The Dragons were sort of painting them into a story-telling corner. They either have to have the Dragons rush in and save the day any time anything goes wrong, or they have to cope with the glaring plot hole of why the Dragons aren’t saving the day.

For my part, I just can’t help but thinking we’ve played into the Old Gods’ hands. After all, wasn’t Deathwing’s goal to remove the Aspects as a threat? Well, he did.

Perhaps this was the plan all along: send Deathwing out as a decoy and force the Aspects to blow all their power on him so the greatest defenders of Azeroth are removed as a threat when the Old Gods’ real plan is enacted.

* * *

What do you think, dear reader? Have you killed Deathwing yet? Did you do so via the Raid Finder? What do you make of the dawn of the Age of Mortals?

World of Warcraft’s latest patch, 4.3: Hour of Twilight, is such a big patch with such sweeping changes that I felt the need to do another post following up on its release. There have been a lot of interesting developments, so let’s get to it!

Fashion trends:

Surprisingly, not many people seem to be making use of the much-hyped new transmogrification feature. I’d say maybe a quarter of the people I’ve seen are mogged, at best. But still, I really enjoy seeing the sets people have come up with, and what looks win out as most popular. I’ve noticed a few trends.

Priests: Pretty much every priest I meet seems to be using the “Avatar” set. Can hardly blame them; it’s a great set.

Mages: Mages seem to be favoring Tempest Regalia, with a few Tirisfal Regalias running around.

Warlocks: Most locks seem to be using the Malefic set or its recolours. I know it’s a popular set, so this doesn’t much surprised me, but locks have so many awesome tier sets that I find it disappointing there isn’t more variety.

Death knights: Most mogged death knights appear to prefer the sets from their starting zone, with a fairly even mix of the blue set they get while questing and the uncommon quality set they start with. I’m also seeing a lot of Scourgelord. Death knights always have the coolest gear, so they have no shortage of choices.

It’ll be interesting to see if these trends persist, or if new ones will arise.

The Raid Finder:

As I’m writing this, I’ve just finished my first Raid Finder run. I was able to complete the first wing with only one wipe. If what I just experienced is going to be the norm, it is the Best Thing Ever.

Not to say that it doesn’t have problems. The group I got into was already 2/4, and I’m told this is a common problem, so it might be hard to ever do the first boss(es). There’s also a serious case of herding cats syndrome, with a lot of premature bloodlusting (sounds dirty) and similar shenanigans.

But that doesn’t change the fact that I was able to kill relevant raid bosses within days of their release. Me.

This is ground-breaking. This is revolutionary. This is what I’ve hoped for since I started playing this game.

Dragon Soul is a really impressive raid, and I had a lot of fun. The fights are very easy compared to normal raiding, but not so easy that you don’t have to try at all. Wiping is still possible if you botch the mechanics. It’s just more forgiving of minor mistakes.

The new dungeons:

I’ve completed all three of the new 4.3 dungeons now, and I have to say, I’ve been blown away. Well of Eternity was nothing short of a masterpiece, perhaps even better than my previous favourite dungeon, Halls of Reflection.

The place is just a giant nerdgasm for any lore fan. It’s amazingly true to the novel, down to the finest details. It’s also epic and thrilling in a way few dungeons are, and the boss fights are very fun. There’s no part of it I didn’t love.

The last dungeon, Hour of Twilight, was a bit less impressive, though still enjoyable. As much as I like the easier dungeons, this one could have used a little more challenge. It’s the last dungeon of the expansion; one or two wipes wouldn’t have been unreasonable.

Operation: Payoff update:

You may remember from a previous post my plan to bribe a raiding guild into letting me pickpocket Hagara in normal Dragon Soul so my rogue can complete the first half of the new legendary chain.

I thought I was very clever for thinking of this, but it turns out every rogue on the server had the same idea. Last night, Trade chat was nothing but rogues spamming about it.

But I managed to muster some further cleverness from my battered brain cells. I grouped up with a guildie and went into Dragon Soul myself to spam its general channel. I got trolled back to the stone age, but eventually, I got a serious answer, and I now have an appointment to theoretically get my decoder ring Tuesday night.

Don’t worry; be happy:

I’m noticing something with 4.3 I haven’t often seen in World of Warcraft: happiness. Normally, WoW fans, at least the ones that speak up, are nothing but fountains of tears.

But yet people seem to be really enjoying this patch. That’s not to say that there isn’t still the usual QQ, but there’s now positivity to balance the whining. People love the fun, shorter dungeons; they love the Raid Finder; they love transmog.

Even one of my guildmates, normally very reserved, has spent all the last few days positively gushing about how much loves the new dungeons. “Dude, Azshara was totally flirting with me!”

I’m enjoying the new patch for its effect on the fans as much as anything else.

One final note:

Yet another of my articles has been published online, 10 Most Pointless MMO Abilities. Enjoy.