New First Impressions

As promised, here goes again.

First of all, the transition from the Old World to Outlands is immense. I could say that it's the Same game, but it's not the same Game. This comes down to the much discussed (earlier at least) problem of Outlands greens outgearing the Old World raid gear.

The first thing I did as a new lv58 was to get the two quests for better gear, namely for a new shield and new sword. The rest would come as the defences and damage dealing would be up. But still I was killing two, three, even four levels higher demons and demonic creatures with more ease than the Furbolgs or Owlbeasts in Winterspring! And the greens quickly replaced my blues which had been sufficient for levelling in the Old World.

One thing I have to complain about, and that is the fact that the quest rewards and majority of the loot -for a plate wearer- are for a certain flavour of the month class of TBC. That is paladin. The plates seem to have, almost all of them, some intelligence and +spell power, with the cost on +STR or +STA. So far I have been able to find only one quest reward helm which has been devised for a tanking plate wearer, and that's been after doing all quests available till lv61. And my chest and legs are with +INT... stupid, I know.

The other issue I'm having with Outlands is the incredible design of the mobs. Like I stated earlier, I could easily tackle higher level mobs with less downtime than in Old World in similar levels. But the real problem I have with them is the ease of downing versus their experience value! They seem to give much more experience than the similar level opponents in the Old World, making the levelling even faster, leaving more content unattended!

Negatives, negatives. At least in my book. 

But there are positives. Shocking news in my blog: something to give applauds to!

It seems that the Outlands is a lot more populated now than when I visited there last with my horde toon: there were lv58-62 toons running around, killing mobs and even grouping randomly to tackle some harder opponents. Grouping in the fly for one opponent and breaking up after downing it! I posted earlier a question whether the games you play change the way you play other games, and I think this is in the similar lines: reminds me of the Public Quests of WAR, the way people are just forming for one opponent only to fly in their different ways after achieving the 'quest finished' sign.

Nice. I love it!

I'm not sure whether it's because of the high population in Hellfire Peninsula or has it always been this way (my memory fails me), but the respawn rate is very, VERY high: it's like you cannot clear your way to a quest objective before the first ones have respawned, twice, as they have been camped by the second wave of quest doers! This is both good and not so good in the sense of helping more people to complete the 'gathering quests' and making the experience gains even higher (as you have to fight your way back to the quest giver).

Outlands change the way you play for sure. Too bad most of the quests are kill ten foozles and collect four dingles (by killing foozles till you get enough) types. The few exceptions to the rule are very refreshing (like bombing the demonic portals).

I know I shouldn't say this, but it feels so hard to return to Old Azeroth and help guildies. 

Do I really have to? 

Yes I do. The members of the Order deserve it and some more.

Why is it so hard?

I'm still a bit crossed and angry over last nights WoW session. First of all, I cancelled the guild run, as no-one was interested in going to ST. That's ok, people have real life, too.

However, I joined a PUG when I was begged to. Pupunen, being the Holy Priest, is pretty comfortable in healing role, and I know from my BG experience by now that I can heal pretty decently, even in hard and fast situations. Granted, my gear isn't up to the healing profession, as I haven't been able to gain any replacements for my shadow-era gear.

So, into the SM we went. Hunter, Paladin, Warrior and Pupunen. Piece of cake, I thought, all being over 31. Even with a total f**k up group the Graveyards and Library should have been manageable.

And then they went directly for the Library. All was well when the warrior was tanking, but at the same instance the hunter started his combo the whole hell broke loose. The warrior and the paladin couldn't keep the aggro which that hunter created. Never the less, we cleared the corridor to the Huntsman's Cloister, the first yard in there. I should have been warned at the point when the hunter started to ask for shield... because he started to play melee-hunter.

After the yard and the beast tamer we got a new member, and the hunter and the warrior took off to summon. Thankfully, we cleared two encounters with that paladin, without a hitch, until the hunter came back and started pulling extras. Pupunen went out of mana in no time, and this caused a wipe. And I did something I have never done before.

I quit in the middle of an instance.

I was furious. I was in 'holy rage'. My mana burn was flaring. You get the drift.

I logged out and back in, this time with my Tauren druid. Quick run to Thunderbluff, respec for free (?! WHAT?!) and Copra is an asparagus. Cool. The whole action bar setup went anew, as Copra had been in deep feral thus far, and honestly speaking, the gear... well, it's feral to the blue.

Hearthstone to Shattrath and off we went with my brother's newly specced lv63 Fury Warrior. Killing machine to the top. Like Copra was hitting 1700 - 2200 points with Starfire, when the warrior Executed with about 3500.

I felt gimped.

Add to that the fact that the Zangramarsh quests are killing, killing and killing again. I resent the whole place because of that. Because of the fact that 5/0/46 Druid isn't suited for killing, per se. I'm a healer, for crying out loud.

The only thing I liked about the Outlands this time -compared to the experience about 8 months ago- was the fact that it was ALIVE! There were more players around than ever I have seen. The negative side of this was the fact that mostly they were in groups lead by a 70+ toon and choo-chooing through the mob infested areas and killing the quests away.

I was angry. I was mad. I was tired after I logged out.

First of all, how the heck it is always hunters in the lower levels you have the most complaints about? In my case this guy represented the total neglect of other players in the group by taking the aggro time and again. He didn't even notice my OOMs and direct telling that I need mana to be able to heal and that the tank is my priority. I hate to say it, but it's people like these that are the real burden to MMO's, with their total lack of understanding that they ruin the fun for the others by the way they are acting.

Learn to play your class, noob. Thanks.

Secondly, I'll be damned to return to Zangramarsh. I hate the visuals, I hate the killing, I hate the mobs. It's awfull. Disgusting. And the speeded levelling doesn't lessen the impact at all.

Whence I login with my beloved asparagus, I'll be beaming out distress signals to be saved to Hellfire Citadel or somewhere else. But no Zangramarsh. I do anything to avoid that cesspool.

Oh, yes. I have a guild on ally side. Well, I'll play with my brothers as the priority, guild on the second place and ally on the third.

HORDE FTW!

PS. Made 160g overnight again, with Pupunen, lv33. More to come today, I bet.