I thought I would bring you all a few of my thoughts of the current state of the Wrath beta as of build 8905, which launched Friday, September 5th, 2008. Please remember that this is still beta level content and there is a lot more than can, and will be done in the beta before all is said and done.
Mount on, Mount off - Mounting in cities like Ironforge and Stormwind, currently fine to do on live realms, is back off on the beta realms. I am not sure the cause of this, but I did notice after leaving Dalaran that there is a debuff about flying in Dalaran that did remain, and this could well be the cause of this mounting issues in other cities. I am not sure how many, or which Horde cities currently allow riding, though I do recall an time when many Horde complained about a difference of classifications. If this is still limited in most Horde cities, this could also have an effect on city mounting.
Return to the end - So my little DK, Isen, who is just a testing, screenshot, and exploration toon, not the DK I plan to make on the beta realms for actual play testing, has been advised to return to the Ebon Hold by this post,
virtual ! and all, to 'complete' the Death Knight starting experience. What happened when I did was interesting, even if all it truly showed me was that the Starting Experience will be a mess on launch and that the experience should bring most players to 58 when they complete the experience as it is in this build.
To the right you will see a sample of the treatment my Death Knight got in Stormwind upon being sent there at the end of the current experience. I did not, sadly, have the foresight to check in on the cities before hitting a Death Gate back to the hold. What I found when I got there, though, was quite an interesting site. First the lag issues. Holy crap! It was taking about 30-90 seconds for any action to be registered in the game. There was Death Grips going off all over the place, with mobs sometimes being lassoed around from one end of the area to the next. I saw mobs which did not show the tag for them until just before they got their killing blow.
The idea by what I understood was that all of this occurs after the now legendary fight at Light's Hope Chapel. This is the former end of the experience where Tirion Fordring not only kicks the ass of the entire scourge forces, but redeems Darion Morgraine and wounds the Lich King enough to send his tail between his legs. Well, there was always one issue that could never be accounted for. While Darion and all the Player Death Knights are redeemed and brought to the realization of their horrific actions, there was a lot of Lich King loyalists back on Acherus. This step, where you get to fight Patchwerk, the boss from Naxx, and take out the last remnants of the Lich King's forces on Acherus, is the second to last step for your Death Knight.
The last is the utter humiliation of your Death Knight. You are sent through a portal with a letter for your respective faction's leader, Thrall if you are Horde or King Variann Wrynn if you are Alliance. Thrall makes mention of Tirion and his actions written about in 'Of Blood and Honor, where he saves Eitrigg from the hands of the Alliance. Wrynn... well, I guess he's still out of it a bit, cause he just hollers about the salvation of the Death Knights and your banana, spit, and apple attacks, not to mention the verbal abuse cease. The funniest part? The boy, Anduinn Wrynn <King of Stormwind> also spits on you. Yes, there are two kings of Stormwind.
Of Core Hounds and exotic pets - Corehounds, as found in Molton core, Shadowmoon Valley, and other places, look awesome, intimidating, and deadly in their own surroundings, but not so much in the service of a hunter. Also, I am pretty sure the Devilsaur look noticeably smaller this patch. Not having done much with Ameland on beta realms, though, and with the talent reset throwing me for a ride, I am not sure for myself. Anyone with photographic evidence, please email it in!
Unholy Blight Crash: Rank 2 - It seems that not only is Storm Peaks still causing the servers to be as stable as beta patch notes, Icecrown, opened in this patch, is also causing crashing issues. In addition, though, the Death Knight spell Unholy Blight Rank 2 is also said to be causing issues with the servers crashing and has been hotfixed out until the next patch right alongside the Storm Peaks and Icecrown. This makes for interesting flying into or out of Dalaran, as the flight path from any connected point traverses either Storm Peaks or Icecrown, giving you the No Man's Land debuff and sending you back to a Northrend starting area. Fun!
Ch-ch-changes! - Blizzard feels like they are still doing major class balancing with the last patch addressing long lists of changes for Rogues and Warriors, and Ret Paladins and Death Knights both getting a lot of tweaking. As
Ghostcrawler put it, they are trying hard to get all of the classes right in their spreadsheets and in game, but it takes time. They are working on it, and this is beta, and in no way is this final.
Is that ice on the mailbox? - Medros was one of my alts lucky enough to receive a Penguin Egg in their mail, which is used to learn the spell to summon this cute little guy you see at left. He is absolutely adorable, and I am sure would look even more so with some of the pet tweaks seen from Breani in Dalaran, like the new pet grooming kit that WoW Insider mentioned over the weekend. I will definitely be heading into the beta realms to see how cute my Chilly looks waddling after the ball chase item from Breani.
Moving on up - Lastly, but related to the Death Knight stuff, I wanted to note how awesome the Stormwind Keep is looking.
We now have the return of Variann Wrynn, who is the long lost, and forgetful King of Stormwind, though I am sure his son will one day get his own tag of King removed, perhaps replaced with Prince. I would also love to see Anduinn get a new model, maybe of a slightly older boy. Would be nice world progression. I am curious of what part the Argent Healer NPCs I see all over the place will play in patch 3.0.2 and beyond, but I can assume they have a role in the pre Wrath world events we saw, similar to the pre Burning Crusade events. I can't wait!
There you go, some of my thoughts of the current state of the Wrath of the Lich King beta test. Have something different? Something you want me to check out? Let me know in the comments and I will do my best for the mid week screenshot gallery!
