Undercover in Warlords: A Few of my Favourite Things

Some spoilers included so look away now if you’re trying to avoid!

I’ve been spending a lot of time recently pottering around Draenor looking for bugs, exploring and generally getting a feel for the expansion. I had been feeling jaded with the game and had actually contemplated not purchasing Warlords at all. There is a lot going on in my personal life at the moment which has left me feeling extremely ill 90 percent of the time, plus I finish work in 4 days to start another University degree with the prospect of juggling that as well as personal stuff going forward into the autumn however it hasn’t taken me long to realise that this expansion hits my buttons like WoW hasn’t since Wrath.

I know a lot of people have been critical of various aspects of the game but I’m struggling to find negatives. Is Garrison player housing? No but it’s still nice to have your own slice of Draenor. Do I mind Ashran being my capital? No, it’s across between Dalaran and Theramore at least for the Alliance with a side order of PvP and personally I like that.

My new favourite toy has to be this:

The Ancient’s Bloom is a drop from a rather nasty rare spawn in Shadowmoon Valley called Yggdrel which turns you into a miniature version of said tree for 5 minutes. Naturally you are rooted in place whilst transformed and so far at least, nothing happens when you /sleep, /cower or /dance but every so often you do a sort of roar animation to express your general grumpiness.

Needless to say this will be one of the first rare spawns I attempt to slaughter on release but given that it was a rather messy kill with level 100s, it might prove tricky. It also goes into your Toybox meaning that acquire it once and you should have it on every character without having to lose a bag space.

My first new Draenor Pet:

 

is a Teroclaw hatchling stolen from a random nest just north of Auchindoun. There is definitely a dinosaur feel to this little chap.

Finding Old Friends in the strangest of places:

One of the aspects of WoW I like the most is the linking of content. We move from one expansion to another in search of adventure and having the NPCs do the same is a wonderful touch that makes the virtual world feel more concrete.

First thoughts on the Warlords of Draenor

Where are all the women!

This I suspect is the biggest issue with returning to the past. We, the player base are already aware of major players, already are aware of at least part of their stories and in many cases already have loot with their names on it. That said, I suspect I and many others are running out of patience with Blizzard in this regard. Women do make up a large percentage of the player base and whilst yes, we’re capable of being pulled in to stories where the main protagonists are male (Supernatural springs to mind), it would be nice to have females doing something other than playing bit parts and having babies once in a while. Although I do have fairly high hopes for this female Draenei as well as Warlord Zaela, she of the Dragonmaw clan.

Image from MMO Champion

Lore and Zones

At first I was unimpressed by the fact that we would for all intents and purposes be revisiting perhaps the ugliest of expansions but then I saw pictures. Shadowmoon Valley might always be shaded in darkness but it’s far less desolate and Hellfire Peninsula as a jungle not an arid red hell hole…. yes please. The idea of Shattrah being coastal and Zangarmarsh as a sea also appeals.

I’m hoping the evolution we see here will be constant across this brave old world albeit in reverse. Plus this picture alone made me want to go diving into the seas of Zangarmarsh to see if there are baby mushrooms on the sea bed.

I think exploring zones we have visited before albeit in a different time line will be interesting, what landmarks are familiar and what has changed completely. It seems like a much younger landscape, one bursting with life.

It will also be interesting to see how many of the fauna and flora of Outlands existed back then. For example we know the Arakkoa should have been around:

Veil Rhaze was a particularly wicked colony of Skettis.

Despite the village’s eradication by the Auchindoun disaster, Terokk’s influence remained in the maligned spirits there. Travel west to Veil Rhaze and slay those murderous wretches. You’ll find them to the west of the Shadow Tomb, on the border of Bone Wastes and Terokkar Forest.

This will be our first blow against Terokk and the guardians of Skettis.

It was with interest that I noted one of the new zones is named “Spires of Arak”, I wonder if we’ll encounter more of our favourite bird people within.

New creatures, mounts and pets

This gnomish plant thing has to be a battle pet and if it’s not it really should be!

Plus I really would like a clefthoof as a mount.

Garrisons

I have high hopes for this and hope it’s customizable at least to race as I don’t see my Night Elf choosing to build a typical Human base unless of course she can have an Inn like those in Northrend preferably with the balcony facing a waterfall.

• Followers have quality or rarity and can be customized and named.

The customized and named aspect appeals too. It will be interesting to visit other people’s garrisons and see what sort of names they’ve picked for what are essentially their minions. I’d like to see lots of options like being able to decorate your base for festivals like Hallows End and Winter Veil not to mention perhaps being able to “persuade” the opposite faction into helping you out. Also having certain mounts visible in your stables or having some of your battle pets running around or sleeping by the fire would be an awesome touch.

Leveling a character straight to 90

I have mixed feelings about this but now with the new Dwarf female models, I suspect mine might go on a new Warlock.

The new character models

Slightly concerned here because well at the moment Sprout is a serious Gnome as shown by the existing model on the right and and the new model appears to be anything but. I also don’t like the elasticity of new mouth. In some of those emoting screenshots it looks down right disturbing.

Everything Else

Everything else sounds pretty positive, especially the way that they want to take questing and of course the removal of daily quest hubs has to be massive step in the correct direction. Also the changes to bag space will be amazing and are about three expansions too late already. I’m also hoping that their description of the new PvP zone as being something like the original AV holds up.

The trailer left me with a sneaking desire to roll an Orc female of some sort.

All in all, I’m feeling fairly positive about the new expansion so far. Although I’m pretty sure when Sprout signed up to bring Garrosh to justice for Theramore, she didn’t know it was going to involve “time travel”.