Warcrafting: Gilneas, 1
I was pretty excited about the worgen as I read Cataclysm previews. Victorian gothic horror? Yes, please! Executive summary: they're everything I'd hoped for, and then some.
This is the opening cinematic you see when bringing a new worgen into play:
By Blizzard's official timeline, the Second War happened 6-8 years after the initial opening of the Dark Portal, and the Third War in +20-21. So we open with Gilneas having been walled off for more than a decade, and with the launching point of WoW half a decade or so in the future. Throw in time covered by the expansions, this cinematic is probably set about 8-10 years before game present.
I started off with a druid, and I did so for a slightly silly reason. All PCs learn to ride at level 20, and there's a kind of mount distinctive to each race - horses in various colors for humans, big riding tiger-like cats in various colors and stripes for the night elves, and so on. Well, worgen get something a bit different. Their "mounting up" ability is called Running Wild, and it does this:
Yes, you run as fast as a stock mount - it's a 60% boost to ground speed at level 20, and 100% at level 40, exactly like everyone else's mounts.
Now see here's the thing about druids. They change shape. They can become bears and use warrior-like abilities and play a tanking role, or predator cats and use rogue-like abilities and play a melee dps role, or (if they spec into the balance talent tree) moonkin and use mage-like abilities and play a caster dps role (Youtube video showing the moonkin form for all four druid races), or (if they spec into the restoration tree) the tree of life and play a healing role (more Youtube). Furthermore, they have an aquatic form for travel (but not fighting) underwater...and they can fly, and their flight forms match the speed of other people's flying mounts (more more Youtube).
Which means that a worgen druid might never, ever need to actually buy a mount.
If you're a regular reader, you are presumably not surprised that I thought "I should give that a try".
One of the fun things about being a long-time WoW player is watching Blizzard learn from its players as well as vice versa. The draenei and blood elf starting areas, introduced in Burning Crusade, were a really significant step up in quality from the original races's starting areas. It's been a while since then. I've already raved some about the revamped starting areas. But Blizzard's cumulative experience really shines with the new races's starting zones this time. For one thing, the quest text and flow of events are so clear that I genuinely don't have a lot to see that isn't already in the pictures. So here goes.
Be it noted that although the character selection screen shows Kensie in worgen form, she starts off like all citizens of Gilneas, just human. Becoming worgen is part of the starting zone process.
Gilneas City: Merchant Square
Level 1-2
(New paintings!)
There's a third quest here I forgot to get a shot of, to get citizens trapped in their homes to safety at the local hall. This next one may not seem like much, but that pounding-on-the-door animation is a new one:
Gilneas City: Military District (part 1)
Level 3-4
The witch business is druid-specific; I'll presumably find out what she says about other classes in due season.
This was a fascinating bit of lore. I was genuinely not expecting a whole new druidic tradition for Azeroth, but it certainly fits.
Oh, a note about something I may not have mentioned before. Whenever you see a name in red, like in the shots right below, that means "this is an enemy who is a target of one of your quests". Grayed-out names are for dead things. So in the first shot below, Kensie sees one live worgen up the street and several dead ones at hand; in the second one, a bunch of worgen.
At this point it finally occurred to me to get a shot of the city map, so you can see where things are. I'll be including zone maps too, once Kelsie is forced to flee the city.
Oh, I live for this kind of moment. There I was, looking around for worgen charging across the prison rooftops or something, and I turned, and there was this horde of them, leaping into the air and crossing the street's width effortlessly:
And that's all for this time. Next time we'll begin with the answer to this question: Just how serious about preparing for rebellion were Crowley and his followers, anyway?
This is the opening cinematic you see when bringing a new worgen into play:
Click to viewBy Blizzard's official timeline, the Second War happened 6-8 years after the initial opening of the Dark Portal, and the Third War in +20-21. So we open with Gilneas having been walled off for more than a decade, and with the launching point of WoW half a decade or so in the future. Throw in time covered by the expansions, this cinematic is probably set about 8-10 years before game present.
I started off with a druid, and I did so for a slightly silly reason. All PCs learn to ride at level 20, and there's a kind of mount distinctive to each race - horses in various colors for humans, big riding tiger-like cats in various colors and stripes for the night elves, and so on. Well, worgen get something a bit different. Their "mounting up" ability is called Running Wild, and it does this:
Yes, you run as fast as a stock mount - it's a 60% boost to ground speed at level 20, and 100% at level 40, exactly like everyone else's mounts.
Now see here's the thing about druids. They change shape. They can become bears and use warrior-like abilities and play a tanking role, or predator cats and use rogue-like abilities and play a melee dps role, or (if they spec into the balance talent tree) moonkin and use mage-like abilities and play a caster dps role (Youtube video showing the moonkin form for all four druid races), or (if they spec into the restoration tree) the tree of life and play a healing role (more Youtube). Furthermore, they have an aquatic form for travel (but not fighting) underwater...and they can fly, and their flight forms match the speed of other people's flying mounts (more more Youtube).
Which means that a worgen druid might never, ever need to actually buy a mount.
If you're a regular reader, you are presumably not surprised that I thought "I should give that a try".
One of the fun things about being a long-time WoW player is watching Blizzard learn from its players as well as vice versa. The draenei and blood elf starting areas, introduced in Burning Crusade, were a really significant step up in quality from the original races's starting areas. It's been a while since then. I've already raved some about the revamped starting areas. But Blizzard's cumulative experience really shines with the new races's starting zones this time. For one thing, the quest text and flow of events are so clear that I genuinely don't have a lot to see that isn't already in the pictures. So here goes.
Be it noted that although the character selection screen shows Kensie in worgen form, she starts off like all citizens of Gilneas, just human. Becoming worgen is part of the starting zone process.
Gilneas City: Merchant Square
Level 1-2
(New paintings!)
There's a third quest here I forgot to get a shot of, to get citizens trapped in their homes to safety at the local hall. This next one may not seem like much, but that pounding-on-the-door animation is a new one:
Gilneas City: Military District (part 1)
Level 3-4
The witch business is druid-specific; I'll presumably find out what she says about other classes in due season.
This was a fascinating bit of lore. I was genuinely not expecting a whole new druidic tradition for Azeroth, but it certainly fits.
Oh, a note about something I may not have mentioned before. Whenever you see a name in red, like in the shots right below, that means "this is an enemy who is a target of one of your quests". Grayed-out names are for dead things. So in the first shot below, Kensie sees one live worgen up the street and several dead ones at hand; in the second one, a bunch of worgen.
At this point it finally occurred to me to get a shot of the city map, so you can see where things are. I'll be including zone maps too, once Kelsie is forced to flee the city.
Oh, I live for this kind of moment. There I was, looking around for worgen charging across the prison rooftops or something, and I turned, and there was this horde of them, leaping into the air and crossing the street's width effortlessly:
And that's all for this time. Next time we'll begin with the answer to this question: Just how serious about preparing for rebellion were Crowley and his followers, anyway?