This past week, it appears Blizzard invited specific web sites to preview Wrath of the Lich King, meaning new footage and information is being released in abundance. I’m hesitant to say fan sites because GameSpy and Eurogamer are the epitome of all things corporate, though GameSpy has definitely professed its collective love for WoW before. In any case, I would suggest beginning with the 10-minute trailer Blizzard has released to go along with this press event. (Thanks to Boubouille from MMO Champion for posting it.)

The video shows more of Blizzard’s uncanny visual mastery. While they are indeed taking chances by including areas that aren’t either desolate or entirely covered in snow, it’s probably a good risk to take. Most MMO players have what I like to call Gamer Attention Deficit Disorder. I can’t imagine players would enjoying seeing nothing but snow, tundra and gray wastelands, even if it fits with the expected atmosphere.

Northrend is going to be larger in scale than Outland itself. That’s somewhat surprising to me, as I expected Northrend to be about the same size, considering Outland and Northrend each encompass ten levels of content. In fact, it’s so large that many of the zones include sub-zone like content, similar to that of Terokkar’s main forest and the Bone Wastes. I hope this means there will be more end-game 80 outdoor content, with a couple designed in the same grain as Quel’Danas.

The short clip of vehicle warfare was interesting. Essentially, it’s taking bombing runs to new heights, figuratively and probably literally.

As far as information goes, there is too much for me to address each and every interview and preview individually. So, instead, I will point everyone in the direction of World of Raids for a full summarization, as this is where I will be drawing quotes from in my commentary.

Story & Factions

Players will interact with Arthas for the first time at a relatively low level, around 71-74 in Dragonblight - the final encounter with him won’t be until the final patch of the Lich King cycle, some time after release.

If Blizzard can expand this concept and include more of it in WotLK, this next expansion will be more engrossing in terms of story than vanilla WoW and TBC. I definitely hunger for more Akama-style questlines with voiceovers.

They’re also advancing the Forsaken storyline, adding in uniquely Forsaken building architecture and giving the player more chances to help in their Wile E. Coyote-like quest to kill every living thing on Azeroth.

I actually dislike this story arc. Sure, they’re “secretly” sinister, but the questlines include Horde in this endeavor. So it’s very difficult to suspend disbelief when you’re a tauren helping some Forsaken agent brew a volatile cocktail of pestilence. If anything, I’d hope the primary Forsaken storyline involves their struggles with the Lich King’s control over the undead.

In Sholazar Basin, players will take part in a faction-reputation war between the Wolvar (sentient wolves) and Oracles (”the next evolution of the Murlocs”). A much lighter take on reputation gaming is promised here, with players actively encouraged to defect to the other side at will.

I’m curious to know exactly what they mean by “actively encouraged to defect to the other side at will.” As in player allegiance should be fickle and it will be easy to switch sides?

Inscription

• Every player will get a new spell book page to which they can add six glyphs - currently, four major and two minor.
• Major glyphs will be effective in combat - adding damage over time or stun to a physical attack, for example - while minor glyphs will give convenient or cosmetic improvements, removing the need for some spell reagents.

Sounds like an interesting concept. However, more proc CC sounds annoying. PvP is already somewhat of an RNG crapshoot as it is, with mace stuns, blackout, etc. So how about, when heals land, it has a chance to proc a PBAOE fear on the people surrounding the target of the heal. Wouldn’t that be awesome? Well, I guess it’s subjective, but I don’t think most people would find such mechanics too thrilling. I’d rather a priest run up and fear instead, as it is a controlled mechanic that requires skill. But if they want to make the game more about RNG mechanics, Blizzard might as well go for the gold.

The concept of minor glyphs is intriguing, because I don’t think I’ve seen a game where spell effects are customizable. Then again, I haven’t exactly paid close attention to every single MMO after 2004, since WoW has had me far too engrossed. I guess I can make my heals orange if there’s a glyph for it. Not that it’s majorly impactful. But the trivial amusement factor is one of WoW’s nice touches.

PvE, Dungeons & Raids

• During some of the boss encounters, players will actually free drakes to fly around the ring. Using the game’s new vehicle technology, players will be able to engage in free flight around the dungeon and use some of the drake’s abilities to take on some of the dungeon’s challenges.
• The new “vehicle” system will enable characters to “drive” an object around. One example Blizzard gave them: Players will fly over a human settlement being overrun with the Scourge, lowering a ladder down to pull up and rescue civilians. In one dungeon instance, players will be able to “liberate” some blue dragons that they can mount up and fly around, fighting their way up a massive tower.

Sometimes the class system gives WoW a myriad of limitations. We’ve seen the possibilities Blizzard can implement, given encounters like Vashj (orb tossing) and Teron (constructs). So more encounters that utilize mechanics outside of class restrictions will be key in designing refreshing and innovative PvE content.

Zero raid bosses have been designed at this point.

This is surprising. I thought they’d at least have one raid dungeon done by now. I think they should adjust their desired release cycle to two years, if this is truly the case.

All raid dungeons in Wrath of the Lich King will have both 25-person and 10-person versions.

Interesting. With the release of 2.4, I continually praised Magister’s Terrace for its ability to give casual players a taste of content relevant to the primary story being told through raid dungeons (namely The Eye). It was rather ironic that people would kill this second version of Kael’thas without potentially having seen the first, however. So I suppose this takes it a step further and fixes that issue at the same time.

I imagine many of my guildies are going to annoy me to no end when they start making statements about how “it’s really World of Casualcraft, now!” The 10-mans have their own separate progression path, in terms of gear and difficulty, so I don’t see what the problem is. It won’t cheapen the content in terms of the story. If anything, it makes it more accessible. And it’s amusing, because many MMO companies have considered this sort of move risky. However, I think it’s only risky if you’re trying to cater to anal MMO veteran who thinks MMO’s are only for the hardcore. And, if you do that, you simply aren’t going to make as much money as you potentially could. And I don’t see why it would diminish the overall enjoyment of the game, unless you have some sort of entitlement complex. Pardon me if you suddenly can’t enjoy the game at all when your life gets too busy that you have to quit raiding 25-mans.

25-person raiding progression is not dependent on 10-person raiding; players will not have to obtain keys or attunements in 10-person raids to participate in 25-person raids.

One of the biggest mistakes Blizzard made was in implementing attunement for Serpentshrine that required a person to kill Nightbane. It forced guilds minded on running 25-man dungeons to split their raid into two and progress through Karazhan. Or, otherwise, suffer setbacks. However, ironically, this is what caused my own guild to jump ahead in progression on our server. While we took Karazhan and attunement to SSC very seriously, a lot of guilds didn’t run two successful raids as often as we did. And they fell behind on attunement, as a result. And a server first on Hydross was the result of such efforts.

• 10- and 25-person raids both have their own, independent progression paths
• Players will receive more, higher level rewards for completing the 25-person raid dungeons over the 10-person version

Just quoting this for reiteration. I think it’s an important counter-argument to the hardcore whiners who will inevitably lament the increasing accessibility of the game.

Death Knights

Death knights will be available to all players with level 55 characters.

I’m wondering if they’ve scrapped the idea that a player could unlock the death knight class with a questline.

Players can create one death knight per realm, per account.

I wondering why it’s necessary to restrict people to one per realm.

• Death knights utilize a rune system as their resource mechanic
- Three different rune types are available: Unholy, Frost, and Blood
- These runes allow death knights to cast spells and abilities; spells can cost any combination of these runes
- Spent runes automatically refresh after a set period of time, similar to a rogue’s energy bar
- The death knight will have the ability to customize which array of six runes is currently available
• As rune abilities are used, the death knight also generates another resource called Runic Power
- The death knight will have several abilities that cost all available Runic Power, with varying levels of effectiveness based on total Runic Power spent
- Runic Power decays over time if it’s not spent, similar to a warrior’s rage bar
• The death knight has three different presences to use: Blood, Frost, and Unholy; each presence grants the death knight a unique buff that will allow him or her to fulfill different roles in combat

Given the complexity of ability cost-and-expenditure, it is going to create an intricate dance for Blizzard in terms of balance. In vanilla WoW, the sensitivity of the subject was seen in regards to rage generation, forcing Blizzard to normalize it. I can imagine similar problems will arise with this system, especially when you consider just how powerful their spells are on the surface. Take a look:

• Death Coil — Depletes all Runic Power, dealing 600 damage to a non-Undead target, or healing 900 damage on a friendly target.
• Death Grip — This is the Death Knight’s “taunt” ability. It also pulls the target to the Death Knight, forcing them to attack the Death Knight for a short amount of time. Yes, I said pulls the target; Blizzard is going to allow players to move mobs in the expansion both with Death Grip, and other knockback/pull abilities. This works on players too, so PvP balance ahoy!
• Chains of Ice — Roots the target in place. When the spell fades, it places a snare on the target that reduces in potency as the duration runs out.
• Raise Dead — Raises a nearby corpse to fight for the Death Knight for 2 minutes. If used on a player corpse, the player has the option to play as the ghoul for the duration — gaining access to the ghoul’s abilities.
- The ghoul has the ability to do the following:
– Leap to the target
– Rend for decent damage-over-time
– Stun target, and of course more
• Death Pact — Sacrifices the raised ghouls to heal the Death Knight.
• Death and Decay — Targeted, AoE Damage-over-time which pulses similar to the Paladin spell Consecration. Anyone affected by Death and Decay has a chance to be feared.
• Frost Presence — Increases Armor by 45% and allows the Death Knight to generate 25% more threat. Only one presence can be active at any time.
• Unholy Presence — Increases Attack Speed and Movement speed by 15%. Only one presence can be active at any time. This was described by Tom Chilton as the “PvP” presence.
• Anti-magic Shield — Reduces the damage of the next magical spell cast on the Death Knight by 75%. It also converts the damage reduced into Runic Power.
• Strangulate — Depletes all Runic Power, dealing minor damage and silencing the target for up to 5 seconds.
• Summon Deathcharger — Allows the Death Knight to summon a Deathcharger mount. This mount is acquired through quests, similar to the Paladin and Warlock land mounts.

It’s interesting to note that many abilities deplete all runic power. Meaning management of this power will be unique compared to other ability cost-and-expenditure systems (mana, rage and energy, presently). However, I worry because the balance over these abilities largely relies on the rate at which runic power is generated, in addition to how long it takes for each rune to refresh. Certainly, the most powerful spells will need to have a high rune cost.

The concept of Raise Dead is absolutely, positively intriguing. So much so that you can potentially design an encounter entirely around ghouls and their abilities.

Frost Presence worries me. It borrows the armor modifier concept somewhat directly from druids themselves. However, the fact that they are not receiving a hit point bonus makes me wonder if feral druids will still have their place. And it is left to be seen what sort of avoidance they will be able to stack, as well. But it is certainly going to be difficult for Blizzard to balance this, given you have three tanking classes as it is.

Game Mechanics

Blizzard is going to allow players to move mobs in the expansion both with Death Grip, and other knockback/pull abilities. This works on players too, so PvP balance ahoy!

I can imagine this creating a whole world of pain for healers, unless people are given something to counteract it. The defensive mechanics most people utilize, afterall, is movement and escaping DPS, either by range or LOS. This type of mechanic will further complicate this issue, as it deals directly with people’s abilities to outrange and LOS various types of DPS.

Then consider the issues between healer and DPS balance as it is. In season one, healers were absolutely, positively overpowered. Why? Because our naked heals far outdid naked DPS. So, on the low-end scale of gear, it was easy as hell to survive a double DPS team. However, season three has shown that a CC-oriented team like a rogue/mage can compete on at a 2200 or 2300ish level of arenas. This would have been unthinkable in season one. So my concern is what this new type of CC will do to the later seasons in WotLK, if healers or the vulnerable classes are not given a basic defense against such mechanics.

Overall Conclusion

Overall, there are some great concepts here. However, many of them are risky, given the impact they can have on balance. I think Blizzard really needs to take its time testing and considering these new abilities and game mechanics. In my opinion, it was a mistake for Blizzard to claim their intention to adhere to a yearly release cycle. Creating a new class is too sensitive an issue for them to even consider the possibility. And while they did a relatively good job balancing new abilities in TBC, there were only one to a few abilities per class that could really break the game. And we’ve seen what a single ability can do to balance in the game. Heroism/bloodlust has almost single-handedly changed the game in general.

So Blizzard has to walk a fine line with death knights, as they are doing more than introducing a whole slew of abilities with a new class. That said, I await more information on destructible buildings, “vehicle” mechanics and the game in general. It looks like things are going in the right direction, other than my anxiety over balance-breaking possibilities.

Also, I’m guessing there will be even more information coming out in the next few weeks.

I don’t know why I bother reading Jasi’s entries anymore. Here’s an excerpt from his latest entry:

I whole heartedly agree. Now before you jump on some sort of soap box or bandwagon and call me crazy for agreeing that “hybrid” classes have become overpowered, you have to take a couple steps back and look at things from a broader and slightly different perspective.

As I have written about a handful of times already, Blizzard generally gets out of control with their own PVP gear progression. The evidence is buried within the Arena and it doesn’t even take careful observation to see that certain classes have lost viability due to the fact that they are unable to defend themselves against the rate at which damage has scaled. Shadow Priests are a perfect example of this and even classes like Warlocks can be susceptible to pain-trains now while they were previously the most durable class out there. During season 1 and 2, Spriests were quite powerful, and you could easily find them in all three brackets. As damage began to scale in mid to late season 2, they slowly began to decline in overall representation and have become nothing but distractions now that season 3 is almost reaching an end. The TR has teams with Spriests simply because Armor penetration and damage hadn’t quite scaled to the point where they were no longer viable during season 2.

Here’s what baffles me. He starts by agreeing: hybrids are overpowered. Then he uses a hybrid class as an example of a class that has been outdone by hybrids. Whaaaaat?

Basically, the argument should be structured in a manner that defines a hybrid class. And then he should show how each and every (or nearly every) “hybrid” class spec is overpowered for certain brackets. You can’t generalize unless you support the need for generalization with premises. However, I’m pretty certain he wouldn’t be able to do this, because he’s going to come across specs for hybrid classes that simply aren’t optimal. And he as much admitted this indirectly by using the shadow priest as an example.

Personally, I’d also cite feral druids as an example as to why hybrids aren’t generally overpowered, despite Jasi’s unexplained statement that ferals are. It’s curious to point out how feral representation hasn’t undergone the same boost elemental shamans did in the middle of season two. So, if they are truly overpowered, they should have become a staple in cookie cutter compositions by now. Right? Feral burst and sustained DPS is certainly adequate in a 5v5 setting, so why isn’t this the case?

What it boils down to is the fact that feral druids don’t play a core role other classes can’t. And many of them do it better than feral druids. Mages, for example, bring DPS, survivability and CC capabilities, exactly what a feral is supposed to bring at a basic level. But ice block is superior to increased armor in many regards. And the mage doesn’t have to shift out or into form to polymorph or CS. I’ll further point out that mages haven’t taken a hit in representation in 5v5, despite being a pure class. If anything, they received a boost when icy veins was implemented. Just take a look at all of those pretty mage icons in the 5v5 listing on Arena Junkies.

So feral druids are only optimal in forming counter-comps, given the abilities they have that other classes do not. However, considering most teams stop playing when they hit #1 comfortably, there’s not a lot of opportunity to make use of a counter-comp against them.

In any case, this is why making generalizations is dangerous. And it’s a huge problem with many of the top blogs on Gameriot, unfortunately.

I’m honestly not a big fan of machinima. Most of it is dry and uninteresting. And for those that do stand out, it’s typically for the wrong reasons. For example, The Internet Is for Porn is considered one of the staples of WoW machinima by a lot of players. But the primary feature of the video, it’s song, was neither written nor performed by the people who made the video. And the video itself doesn’t have anything to add over the musical.

But there are diamonds in the rough. Unfortunately, however, they are few and far between. You’ll note that all of my top five are parodical or musical in nature. That’s because I dislike most of the fan-made dramatic machinima, or don’t like it enough to put in my top five. I really, really, liked the editing in Tales of the Past III. However, I disliked the story arc concerning Blazer. And while I like the Black Temple trailer, it’s not machinima, since it’s canon produced by Blizzard. Otherwise, it’d be in my top five.

5. Switcher: Deity

Consider the time when this came out. Only the alliance had paladins, and only the Horde had shamans. And, yes, troll racials actually sucked. But if you’re wondering about the origin of “FROSTSHOOOOCK!” This is it.

4. Jimmy: The World of Warcraft Story

The moral of this story, kids, is you better damn well be careful about which faction you pick when you head up to Shattrath. Level 63… 62… it doesn’t matter. You better be careful! Because Everquest sucks!

I’m sure a lot of people find the veiled criticism of WoW offensive. But criticism is a necessary part of game commentary, especially in parody.

3. Frame of Mind

Most WoW music videos simply feature a bunch of characters singing the song. This one actually tells a story that fits the song well. The editing is also some of the best I’ve seen in any machinima.

2. Big Blue Dress

The song is original. That’s all that really needs to be said. Cranius did some awesome work.

1. Billy Maclure

In order to fully realize what makes this parody so good, you have to watch the original: Michael Jackson’s Billy Jean.  Obviously, I’m a sucker for parodies. I just personally find them more amusing and interesting than most of the serious dramatic machinima out there.

Special Mentions

• World of Warcraft: Dancing
• Tales of the Past III

As predicted, the Eredar Twins died “relatively soon.” Meaning the very next day, on only our fifth attempt. I can’t say how frustrating I think the fight is. I really dislike some of the RNG mechanics involved regarding damage.

To elaborate on a simplistic level, the bosses have abilities that do a substantial amount of fire or shadow damage. This damage comes in bursts and the strategies surrounding this damage are extremely complex. What complicates the issue are the stacking debuffs that proc with this damage. Each time you take fire damage, you get a stacking fire DoT. Each stack does 300 damage every 2 seconds, and it can stack up to 20 times. A stack of over 10 typically means death. Meanwhile, shadow damage procs a debuff that reduces the healing done to a person by 5% per stack. It, too, can stack up to 20 times, meaning someone can be 100% unhealable. But taking damage opposite to the debuff you have, meaning fire if you have stacks of the shadow debuff, clears the debuff. So, in order to counter the debuff mechanics, you essentially want to take the opposite damage of whatever debuff you have. But the pure damage that is done is, in and of itself, dangerous. Two successive flame sears followed immediately by a shadow nova can kill someone easily if the healers aren’t careful. And sometimes you have to move to reset your debuff, and this creates issues for the healers who have to make sure they’re all not running to clear their shadow or fire debuffs at the same time.

Complicated? You bet! So imagine the relief I felt when they finally hit the floor!

We also worked on M’uru for the last few hours of the raid, a boss we’d attempted on the PTR before. I can’t say how surreal it is to work on a boss no one has killed before. He’s a lot more difficult than the Twins, seemingly, but much more predictable. However, that said, I haven’t seen the second phase. In any case, fun times are ahead!

First day of raiding for the week, we got Kalec, Brut and Felmyst down in about three and a half hours. It takes about 30 minutes to clear the gauntlet and trash before them, so that gave us an hour to work on the Twins.

This was the result of our second attempt: first twin dead, second to 25%. We didn’t understand how to deal with the conflag “bug,” however, so we ended up wiping on what would have been a kill had we seen the second phase more often. So they should die relatively soon.

There’s an age old debate that goes on amongst PvPers and PvEers: which is more difficult? For some reason, people think this comparison is pivotal. But, really, it’s not. However, each can affect the other. For example, Archimonde is made easier if everyone in your raid has a Medallion of the Alliance. And rogues are far more potent if they’re using warglaives over s3 weapons. So discussing each in relation to the other is an important point of contention.

However, on a general level, comparing PvP and PvE is like contrasting Zelda and TF2. They have entirely different dynamics. They are almost entirely different games, even. PvE has mechanics you simply don’t see in PvP. And it’s a simple reason why: bosses have abilities players don’t. So when you come up against a boss with an ability you’ve never seen before (which is almost always the case), you’re forced to figure out exactly what it does, when the boss uses it and how to cope with it given the context of your class and raid composition. It’s similar to the approach necessary to beat any boss in a Zelda game, except there’s only one class and one person in the “raid.”

Here’s the thing. If Blizzard wants to go the route of Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out or Battletoads, they can make Kil’jaeden nearly impossible and leave him that way. But everyone knows frustrating your PvE playerbase is likely to lose you customers. The playability value of the PvE game in an MMO comes primarily with experiencing new content, rather than its difficulty. So they don’t make them impossible. And thus the difficulty lies primarily in mustering up a force of players built for beating each specific boss, and maintaining this group of players. This is something even Ming understands.

Likewise, the difficulty in PvP is entirely different from that of PvE. Hell, difficulty in varioustypes of PvP are not entirely comparable. For example, with BG’s, you have different tools that add to the dynamic of gameplay. When these tools exist, the degree of difficulty changes based on the complexity of the systems involved. But arenas are the basis for discussing PvP these days, and its difficulty is based entirely on class composition, player skill and what each team matches up against with high frequency. But one thing is certain: you’re not going to waltz into an arena match and suddenly discover that someone on the other team has Doomfire or Flame Wreath. But that has nothing to do with PvP vs PvE. Rather, it’s an example of why they are too different compare.

The dialog should focus on how each affects the other, not whether PvP or PvE is more difficult. And it’s imperative to hold this discussion, because there are players who dislike participating in one or the other. At the same time, however, it’s important for Blizzard to maximize people’s enjoyment of one side of the game without stepping on the toes of others. And I mean this in the sense that there are players who enjoy both sides of the game, myself included. It’s not like you can just disallow warglaives in arena, because it would force these rogues to go out and get a new set of weapons. And good luck to them staying on top of the ladder using some blue or S1 maces! So some of these problems need to be fixed either with the new season or with WotLK. Design concepts need to be adjusted with the addition of new PvE content, new arena seasons, new types of PvP, etc.

That said, however, bickering over whether or not PvP is harder than PvE and vice versa is pointless. And anyone who tries to generalize a specific demographic of players is simply a douchebag. No matter what side of the fence they stand on.

This has been my source of amusement for the past several hours:

It makes a funny noise, much to the chagrin of my guildies. It also pretends to fly.

If there’s anything I think Blizzard has learned from its past experiences, it’s how to refine their games. Definitely, the production of TBC has shown steep improvements made to the leveling and 5-man side of the game. It always surprises me how they can reinvent parts of a game without fundamentally changing them. Though, not always, considering how the PvP system has progressed. But I’ve already killed that horse. So let’s focus on raid instancing and what Blizzard has done. There are some flaws in this area, but mostly positives.

Upon Karazhan’s release, it seemed Blizzard would repeat some of the same mistakes of old. Here you had a raid dungeon with myriads of encounters only mildly immersing. However, that’s not to say the potential wasn’t there. Rather, Medivh and certain bosses of Karazhan were rife with possibilities, given their backstories. Unfortunately, however, this was only exhibited with the cut-scene involving Arcanagos. But imagine taking a scrying gem from one of the mages outside and witnessing a cut-scene between Moroes and Ebonlocke. Or Aran’s death scene. It would have also been nice to know why Prince Malchezaar makes an appearance.

Luckily, however, Blizzard made improvements in these concepts with both the Black Temple and Sunwell Plateau. Akama personally relates the storyline concerning Illidan and the Black Temple, with voice acting no less! You help him rise to the occasion and rebel against Illidan’s rule. You help him defeat his shade and regain control of the Ashtongue warriors. Maiev’s presence and involvement is also made evident before you enter BT for the first time. And, concluding this story arc, Akama and Maiev are both there to assist you in defeating Illidan. It’s a truly engrossing experience, if you’re into that kind of thing. Something similar is happening with Kalecgos and Anveena in the Sunwell. And it’s heartening that Blizzard is rather cognizant of the progress they’ve made and how they want to produce storytelling in the future. As J. Allen Brack states in the “Fury of the Sunwell” interview:

We now feel that the main villains of The Burning Crusade could have been a little more visible from the moment you entered Outland. For example, players could go all the way to level 70 without catching a glimpse of their nemeses. In Wrath of the Lich King, we’re going to engage players in the conflict with the primary antagonist from the beginning.

Additionally, the game is shedding its mediocrity in style. The Black Temple is definitely the pinnacle of musical development in WoW. Sunwell Plateau is, in my opinion, the pinnacle of WoW visually. And, personally, while its not an achievement in difficulty, Karazhan was a pinnacle of enjoyable raid encounters. There’s nothing like getting turned into a gnome with a red hood and being chased by the Big Bad Wolf, or experiencing such quotable gems as Moroes and Aran.

I’ll leave it to Chris Robinson to close it out:

An important lesson for the artists was that it’s okay to take chances. The art style of The Burning Crusade was very colorful and high concept - a significant departure from the familiar geography of Azeroth - but the response we got was overwhelmingly positive. We took a chance, but ultimately it paid off. If we go far out there, people will respond. Hopefully, we’ll see another positive reaction to the quite dramatic departure in visual style that Northrend represents.

My problems with other parts of the game aside, I look forward to it!

I’ve read over the recent Insider interview “Fury of the Sunwell and Beyond” several times now. And there’s always a few quotes that stick out in my mind given what we know about Wrath of the Lich King. Let’s start with a statement made by J. Allen Brack:

Naxxramas comes to mind as an example of what we’re aiming for with the Sunwell. Despite being the pinnacle of PvE raiding before The Burning Crusade, Naxxramas didn’t actually complete that many of the story arcs presented in the original game. While Naxxramas remains one of the best designed high-end dungeons in World of Warcraft, it still felt like there was untapped potential for what high-end PvE storytelling could be. That’s what we set out to do with Sunwell Plateau and Magisters’ Terrace: create a dungeon experience that features spectacular gameplay and an awesome conclusion to the expansion’s story arc.

This quote highlights the specific line of reasoning as to why I think moving Naxxramas to Northrend and retuning it to be an entry level dungeon in WotLK is a huge mistake. I know what you’re thinking, “Woah, wait, what? Moving Naxxramas and reintroducing it is an awesome idea! It’s a great dungeon!” Is it? Hear me out.

First, consider the key points in this quote. Naxxramas was the pinnacle before TBC, and it had problems concluding the storyline of vanilla WoW. When I consider all of the bosses in Naxxramas, the only three that have any real connection to previous story lines are the Four Horsemen (specifically Mograine), Sapphiron and Kel’Thuzad. So it’s not until the last three bosses in a fifteen-encounter dungeon that you have any emotional investment in the characters of the dungeon. You have to endure twelve nearly irrelevant encounters before you get to the proverbial meat of the dungeon’s lore. And how is this going to be any different in WotLK if they simply retune it?

In contrast, Sunwell’s encounters are presented extremely well. You’re invested in Kalecgos because he introduces you to the perils of the current situation in Magister’s Terrace. So, naturally, when you see him being corrupted, much like Vael in Blackwing Lair, you become invested as a player in the story being told. Also, when you see the battle between Madrigosa and Brutallus, you become invested there. Similar concepts apply to M’uru with the blood elf corruption, and especially with Kil’jaeden, who has games worth of lore relevant to his appearance in the Sunwell. The only encounter I don’t really feel invested in is the Eredar Twins.

I see Sunwell Plateau more as an evolution of what we did with Naxxramas.

So do I. And I would rather see this evolution continued starting with the very first dungeon of WotLK. And this isn’t going to happen if they simply move and reintroduce Naxxramas. I would much rather see Kel’Thuzad reintroduced in a manner similar to Kael’thas in Magister’s Terrace, except on a 10- or 25-man level. I would rather see resources involving encounter design and testing used to create new encounters, as opposed to the retuning of old encounters. Especially because I don’t actually enjoy a lot of the encounters Naxx has to offer. Anub’rhekan? The concept of out-ranging abilities is not innovative or enjoyable. Faerlina? Another reason I hate RoF. Razuvious? I’m sure the priests loved it, but most of us were reminded of Firemaw given the LOS mechanics. Noth? Decurse, decurse, decurse! And don’t get me started about Loatheb. I don’t know anyone that didn’t hate that fight at 60.

When I sit down and actually think about the encounters, Naxxramas wasn’t actually all that great in its entirety. It’s simply fortunate for Blizzard that they also made some incredibly innovative and difficult encounters to fit into Naxx. Heigan is extremely enjoyable, and the Four Horsemen extremely difficult. Sapphiron was also well-designed, if you ignore the annoying debuff removal mechanic Blizzard professed its love for all throughout vanilla WoW. So there were some gems in the rough that often influence people’s opinions of the dungeon.

… at the same time I think its size made it difficult for some players to fully experience [Naxxramas]. Sunwell Plateau’s smaller scale will let more players access the raid and give them a reasonable chance of clearing it before the launch of Wrath of the Lich King.

No doubt. Even at level 70, one-shotting all of the bosses, the instance takes a long while to clear. Fifteen is too large a number of encounters for a single instance, especially because the last two bosses require you to clear the entire dungeon if you want to experience them. In contrast, you can easily do Hyjal or BT in a single night. Hyjal only takes a couple hours if you do it right. Comparatively, only a very small percentage of guilds cleared Naxxramas in a single night. So, if Blizzard really wants to reintroduce Naxx, they should consider removing some of the boring or annoying encounters. Let’s start with Faerlina. Maybe Loatheb. I wouldn’t mind if Grobbulus and Gluth got the boot, either. And I think only the priests would mind if Razuvious was kicked to the curb. But let’s leave Patchwerk in, because his sayings make me smile. And then let’s remove some of the most annoying trash the game has ever had to offer. That would trim the dungeon down to a manageable size.

Then I consider the atmosphere. For its time, Naxxramas was revolutionary. It definitely outdid the likes of MC, BWL and TAQ. However, I think every single 25-man dungeon in TBC outdoes it aesthetically. Why? Well, the only interesting room in the entirety of Naxx was, in my opinion, Sapphiron’s Lair. The rest was simply the Undercity 2.0, and the room leading up to Heigan was basically a brief foray into Plaguewood. It didn’t add the same amount of flair to its Undercity elements that Sunwell adds to what it borrows from Silvermoon City. Furthmore, I only enjoyed two pieces of music from the entirety of Naxx. Every other piece was simply a random mash-up of creepy orchestral sounds. The Black Temple, meanwhile, has an awesome suite of music that fits its storyline and artistic style perfectly. Compared to the two minutes of Naxx music I have on my mp3 player, I have nineteen from BT.

All of my opinions regarding the reintroduction of Naxx aside, the rest of the interview has a myriad of positive points, and I’ll get to those in the second part of addressing this interview.

My server, Proudmoore, activated the epic gem vendor last night. This means we’ve won the SSO race.

It’s a bittersweet accomplishment. While I’m glad we’ve won, after having lost the AQ race despite our initial lead, it’s ultimately insignificant. It’s not going to attract top raiders or PvPers to our server. The only thing I’m genuinely happy about is the fact that my guild will no longer have a gem supply problem. If we’re out of spinels, people can run Karazhan and buy what they need.