So... I got an interesting little email last evening...
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| Uh.... |
I guess they're letting every Tom, Dick, and Harry into the Wrath Classic Beta if they let me in. Especially since I didn't try to get a beta key either.
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| "Unforgiving cold of Northrend"? Haven't you ever heard of Hoth? |
Anyway, my questing buddy was already knee deep in the Beta, so she actually squealed with delight when I shared the screencap with her on Discord.
"Want to play on the Beta tonight??"
I couldn't say no to that, so I downloaded the Wrath Beta and started it up:
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| This was what I saw when I started playing WoW, so I got all the feels. I have no idea if that was what some of my friends who started in BC or Vanilla felt when they saw their loading screen, but I now finally feel like I'm home. |
And that Wrath intro soundtrack piece...
Instead of porting a toon over, I created yet another Cardwyn.
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| I swear those shoulders look like they're made of metal. But I like the look of her robes. |
Yes, I've kind of gotten used to doing that.
I logged in, putzed around in Stormwind while I waited for my questing buddy, and realized that Beta Card was missing the Portal/Teleport spell for The Exodar.
"Oh, that won't do at all!" And away to Azuremist I went.
On the way up there, by questing buddy logged in, and I told her that I was getting the Portal for Exodar.
"You didn't import your original Card???"
"Yeah, I figured it's not a big deal. And one bonus is that Blizz gave me more gold than what Card 1.0 actually has!"*
"LOL!"
I got to the Exodar and grabbed the spells, then I headed for Alterac.
"Where are you going now?"
"Alterac."
"Why?"
"Because I've always wanted to do this:"
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| ...and have it be relevant, too. |
Once I was finished, the next couple of hours were spent putzing around and questing around Northred with my questing buddy. I thought I got more screenshots in than I actually did, but when I got off the ship to Valiance Keep, it felt like I was coming home. I can't wait to take the zeppelin from Orgrimmar to Warsong Hold, because when the zeppelin flies into the hold.... Wow. Just wow.
But even though Card 1.0 took TBC Classic off, and (story wise) she spent her time at the farm dealing with her PTSD, it actually hit home when the early quests were happy to see you because you're considered a known entity. This first time, in Wrath, it feels good. Card defeated Onyxia and Nefarian. She was there when C'thun was defeated.
And she's back to finish the job with Kel'Thuzad.
This acknowledgement by NPCs that you're pretty damn good at what you do doesn't feel so old like it does by the time you reach Mists.
I'll be poking around a bit more with my questing buddy, but I wanted to leave you with this screenshot:
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| Ah... My old friend. |
Remember this? The beginning seed quest for the entire Coldarra questline, which also leads into The Nexus, The Oculus, the Malygos raid, and Dalaran.
I wonder what Haleh would have thought of this?
*1.0 has about 150 gold, while Blizz gave Beta Card about 950-ish gold.
EtA: Corrected a grammar error.
Red, that's so awesome! I'm glad you're enjoying this opportunity! I started in BC, so Wrath was my first new expansion experience -- and yeah, the souped up zeppelin pulling into Warsong Hold for the first time was a WOW moment.
ReplyDeleteI think I'd do the same thing -- make a copy of Kamalia, or Kerisa, or Kaelinda, as a new toon, not as a port of a current maxed out character.
LOL about having more gold on the beta than on live! Nice of them to give you some spending money so you can do some things without worrying about having to grind cash for them :P
There was a bigger gap on Neve when I created her: there were no ports available in her spell lists! So, I went around Azeroth collecting them before I even set foot in Northrend. But that's for another post.
DeleteAs a person who started in (late) Vanilla, the Wrath login screen is nostalgic. The music, having Sindragosa roar at you, etc., all of that helped create an excitement for that game that still stays with me, even now with all the things that have happened. While I likely won't play Wrath Classic as I did so much original Wrath, it is still good to see people getting excited for it.
ReplyDeleteI always wondered who the dragon was until I got to Northrend and found out about Sindragosa via the ICC 5-person instances. (Well, there was the ICC raid, but I didn't even really look into it at the time since I had no time actually to raid back then.
DeleteCongrats! Atheren
ReplyDeleteThanks!
DeleteWell, shit. I opted in to the Beta, but they sent you my invite by mistake.
ReplyDeleteWeenies.
Bill
I have no idea why I got picked, but I did. It's not like I'm some sort of influencer or anything.
DeleteSo how do you feel about Wrath Classic now? I thought you were more cynical about it like me, but you do sound quite excited in this post... 🙂
ReplyDeleteWell, I think there's a big difference between enjoying this part of the expac and dealing with the meta. I'm going to follow up on that in a later post, but I still enjoy the questing part of Northrend a lot. I suppose the TL;DR is that I enjoyed the fact that I could have fun in Northrend without being overwhelmed by the "GOGOGO YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG YOU HAVE TO GET IT DONE SO YOU CAN RAID ASAP!!!!" mentality.
DeleteMy big feel is the ship from Menethil to Howling Fjord as you sail into the verdant green zone with the burning ship. I hope you ahve a good time . ^_^
ReplyDeleteThe irony is that my initial trip to Northrend back in the day was on my BE Pally, and there I came up to Vengeance Landing. But since I was yanked along on a chain to get through quests as quickly as possible, I really don't have much of a connection to that place. Not like when I took the zeppelin from Org a couple of weeks later.
DeleteI get it, at least Horde-side, because Warsong Hold is much more impressive, towering over so much. And Vengeance Hold, while it's a very cool evolution for Forsaken architecture, is stuck down in this open area, but still cut off from seeing Utgarde Keep towering over everything. THe Fjord is just better for alliance.
DeleteI'd argue it's better in general, since the quests lead to Utgarde Keep, but I still prefer the drama of that opening sequence on both factions in Borean Tundra. It's not called Boring Tundra because of the first views...
Delete