Cataclysm Beta First Impressions...
So I guess if you don't want to know anything about Cataclysm until it hits the shelves, ignore this post :) Otherwise, I'm just going to ramble about things that I liked/hated because omg Zach is super sweet and let me play on his beta for hours last night :D
I did the goblin starter quests last night first and foremost. They were SO much fun, and I'm still in awe at how cool Kezan looks. I don't know how I feel about the timing in regards to the storyline, though. You start out as an apprentice to Trade Prince Gallywix (who is a total doucher, fact). You're trying to move up in the ranks, so you have to do a lot of little quests like putting on your best bling and entertaining guests at a party, etc. etc. etc. You end up playing some kind of bomb-flinging sport against the Steamwheedle Cartel, when all of a sudden, Deathwing flies overhead, threatening doom and gloom. It's pretty epic.
After that, most of the rest of the quests are meant to be sort of a "get your shit together we've gotta get the F outta Dodge" style. Since T.P. Gallywix is such a boner, he tells you that you can get a ride to Azshara with him on his fancy yacht if you bring him some ridiculous amount of "macaroons," which is apparently goblin currency (adorable!). So you have to run around in all the chaos Deathwing is causing (fire raining from the sky, shit blowing up, etc etc.) gathering your assets. Then, you hop in your hot rod with your accountant (? maybe, it was like 3 am and I kind of stopped trying to figure out exactly what was going on) and hitch a ride on Gallywix's yacht.
All this epicness brings you to a whopping level 6. Right this second, phasing is apparently broken and you can't actually give Gallywix your macaroons, but you do hop on the ship to discover your boyfriend Chip Endale has run away with your friend Candy Cane (or vice versa if you're a gobbro). All in all, the goblin starting quests are pretty fun, with an appropriate amount of epicness. The only issue I had was the fact that it kind of feels like you're given too much time to finish the zone after Deathwing comes. Everyone's running around in a panic, but you still have to finish like 17 quests or else you're doomed to explode with the rest of Kezan, but whatever, it's still fun :D
Next, I rolled a male worgen (females are still broken ohmygahd). I let the random name generator give me a silly name (Garfortius, yesssssss) so Greymane and Crowley and all the others are calling me Garfortius and I'm just laughing my ass off the whole time, but whatevs. I still kind of hate the way male worgen run, but I guess I'll get over it.
Gilneas is a very cool-looking city. However, it pales in comparison with Kezan, which is unfortunate. Also, a lot of the stuff is still broken, so you don't get a super immersive experience. For instance, once you get "bitten" by one of the worgen you're fighting off, you go back to turn in a quest, and the questgiver yells something like "NOW WE'RE GOING TO PLAY A MOVIE OF YOU TURNING INTO A WORGEN" then you just kind of...are a worgen from then on lol.
I think that choosing a hunter as my test worgen was a mistake. I wanted a class I was familiar with so that I could just breeze through the starting area, enjoying it rather than stumbling because I've never played a rogue before >_> Anyway, it was rough playing a hunter because a lot of the quests put you in a position where you CAN'T be at range, so you kind of just have to stand there and melee until your pet pulls aggro or, more often, until things die. I definitely think this needs to be fixed, because after running all weekend with mages who think that standing in melee is just the bee's knees, I don't want an entire generation of worgen ranged dps thinking that you're supposed to stand there and get beaten up. I don't think I should write Blizz a note about this from Zach's account, though, so maybe someone else will notice and agree with me :P
Other random things I liked:
I saw an 85 worgen hunter running around with an adorable blue fox pet. Do want.
Primal Strike seems cool for enh shamans. Too bad I have zero interest in being an enh shaman.
Mastiffs, tophats, adorable accents, architecture! Eeeeee go team Gilneas!
I watched Zach run the first two new level 80 dungeons. I think we're going to have a lot of cases of "this was really cool the first time, but now I just want to finish the stupid heroic for my badges/gear." The dungeons seem epic in scale (read: LOOOOONG) and the difficulty level is ramped up. You can't just run in and pull a whole room and expect to AoE them down. You will die. I can tell you one thing right now if you have multiple characters: Discovering instance portals in order to run the dungeons (or get them in the LFD) is going to get old. Quick. He tried swimming his rogue down to the entrance to the Vash'jir dungeon (whatever it's called) without having done the prerequisite quests to get permanent underwater breathing/swim speed buffs, and died a few yards before he would have made it to the safe zone. So when Cataclysm comes out, don't try that unless you have some water breathing potions or like, Nagrand cherries or something. Or unless you're undead. Or a shaman. You know what? Just don't do it.
I can't wait for the premades to become available. I made Zach promise me a paladin and shaman spot :3 Also, wtf tauren paladins aren't available as premades >:\
I did the goblin starter quests last night first and foremost. They were SO much fun, and I'm still in awe at how cool Kezan looks. I don't know how I feel about the timing in regards to the storyline, though. You start out as an apprentice to Trade Prince Gallywix (who is a total doucher, fact). You're trying to move up in the ranks, so you have to do a lot of little quests like putting on your best bling and entertaining guests at a party, etc. etc. etc. You end up playing some kind of bomb-flinging sport against the Steamwheedle Cartel, when all of a sudden, Deathwing flies overhead, threatening doom and gloom. It's pretty epic.
After that, most of the rest of the quests are meant to be sort of a "get your shit together we've gotta get the F outta Dodge" style. Since T.P. Gallywix is such a boner, he tells you that you can get a ride to Azshara with him on his fancy yacht if you bring him some ridiculous amount of "macaroons," which is apparently goblin currency (adorable!). So you have to run around in all the chaos Deathwing is causing (fire raining from the sky, shit blowing up, etc etc.) gathering your assets. Then, you hop in your hot rod with your accountant (? maybe, it was like 3 am and I kind of stopped trying to figure out exactly what was going on) and hitch a ride on Gallywix's yacht.
All this epicness brings you to a whopping level 6. Right this second, phasing is apparently broken and you can't actually give Gallywix your macaroons, but you do hop on the ship to discover your boyfriend Chip Endale has run away with your friend Candy Cane (or vice versa if you're a gobbro). All in all, the goblin starting quests are pretty fun, with an appropriate amount of epicness. The only issue I had was the fact that it kind of feels like you're given too much time to finish the zone after Deathwing comes. Everyone's running around in a panic, but you still have to finish like 17 quests or else you're doomed to explode with the rest of Kezan, but whatever, it's still fun :D
Next, I rolled a male worgen (females are still broken ohmygahd). I let the random name generator give me a silly name (Garfortius, yesssssss) so Greymane and Crowley and all the others are calling me Garfortius and I'm just laughing my ass off the whole time, but whatevs. I still kind of hate the way male worgen run, but I guess I'll get over it.
Gilneas is a very cool-looking city. However, it pales in comparison with Kezan, which is unfortunate. Also, a lot of the stuff is still broken, so you don't get a super immersive experience. For instance, once you get "bitten" by one of the worgen you're fighting off, you go back to turn in a quest, and the questgiver yells something like "NOW WE'RE GOING TO PLAY A MOVIE OF YOU TURNING INTO A WORGEN" then you just kind of...are a worgen from then on lol.
I think that choosing a hunter as my test worgen was a mistake. I wanted a class I was familiar with so that I could just breeze through the starting area, enjoying it rather than stumbling because I've never played a rogue before >_> Anyway, it was rough playing a hunter because a lot of the quests put you in a position where you CAN'T be at range, so you kind of just have to stand there and melee until your pet pulls aggro or, more often, until things die. I definitely think this needs to be fixed, because after running all weekend with mages who think that standing in melee is just the bee's knees, I don't want an entire generation of worgen ranged dps thinking that you're supposed to stand there and get beaten up. I don't think I should write Blizz a note about this from Zach's account, though, so maybe someone else will notice and agree with me :P
Other random things I liked:
I saw an 85 worgen hunter running around with an adorable blue fox pet. Do want.
Primal Strike seems cool for enh shamans. Too bad I have zero interest in being an enh shaman.
Mastiffs, tophats, adorable accents, architecture! Eeeeee go team Gilneas!
I watched Zach run the first two new level 80 dungeons. I think we're going to have a lot of cases of "this was really cool the first time, but now I just want to finish the stupid heroic for my badges/gear." The dungeons seem epic in scale (read: LOOOOONG) and the difficulty level is ramped up. You can't just run in and pull a whole room and expect to AoE them down. You will die. I can tell you one thing right now if you have multiple characters: Discovering instance portals in order to run the dungeons (or get them in the LFD) is going to get old. Quick. He tried swimming his rogue down to the entrance to the Vash'jir dungeon (whatever it's called) without having done the prerequisite quests to get permanent underwater breathing/swim speed buffs, and died a few yards before he would have made it to the safe zone. So when Cataclysm comes out, don't try that unless you have some water breathing potions or like, Nagrand cherries or something. Or unless you're undead. Or a shaman. You know what? Just don't do it.
I can't wait for the premades to become available. I made Zach promise me a paladin and shaman spot :3 Also, wtf tauren paladins aren't available as premades >:\