The pre-wrath events continue…

For a slightly shinier version download from here.

Stormwind Harbor Invasion

Thrall duelling Garrosh Hellscream

The Orgrimmar Invasion

Are you excited yet?

I am… *grin*

It seems worse than ah first thought.  It’s no just some madness, some remnant come back tae get us.. it’s an organised bloody invasion!  Ah’m doin’ mah but but it just seems that sometimes ye cut one doon only tae huv three come back at ye…

The Good

Change

For a ’static world’, wow manages to be pretty dynamic and this event is a great example of this.  People are really feeling the ‘pain’ of the event - it’s not just a simple event which happens ‘outside’ of the normal stream of things, but is actively getting in the way of doing the usual day-to-day things people do in WoW.  The fact it’s changing day-to-day quite rapidly, too, is pretty nice.  You’re not waiting an interminable time for the ‘next step’.

Memories

This is a personal one but this event brings a lot back for me.  I first started WoW around the time Naxxramas was released and when I hit around level 15-20 I was outside the towns killing scourge invadors!  I thought this must be normal for wow, at the time, and was a really nice introduction to the lore and feel of the game.

Level Range

As I mentioned above, I took part in a previous incarnation at a very low level and this event allows for everyone to participate - low level invasions near cities, new bosses in instances from Scarlet Monastery to Stratholme and scourge events for the level-capped.

Paladin Madness

“For the Light!“  “You will die, undead scum!” and “By the Light be cleansed!“. The paladin madness has taken over many on my server - it’s limited solely to Paladins and involves running around with a big sword, waving it about, making shiny lights around people and shouting various things like the examples above.  Still, I file it under ‘good’ as it’s not doing anybody harm except zombies and, well, they want to eat my brains…

Tabard

I was always a little sad that I managed to miss The Burning Crusade starting event - especially the cool tabard.  I had always just liked how the AD tabard looked and wanted to snag one, though I had given up hope of it but now I’ve taken the opportunity to get one on most of my characters!

Reputation

I had, oddly enough, just started to grind Argent Dawn rep when the event began.  Now I’m halfway through revered without trying too hard.  I’ve grabbed some shiny new faction recipes and once exalted I’ll be halfway through [The Argent Champion].  Remember to equip your [Argent Dawn Commission] whilst fighting the scourge invasions as most will drop [Invaders Scourge Stones].  The Shadow’s of Doom even drop [Corruptor's Scourgestones].

Trinket

The [Argent War Horn] just deserves a spot all to itself for how awesome it is.  For those not yet in the know, this trinket summons an Argent Dawn paladin to help you.  When the trinket effect runs out the paladin does not fade but… bubblehearths! The laughter on teamspeak when we found this out was somewhat earshattering.

The Bad

Recycling is Bad?

Recycled content - the scourge invasion event is a repeat from both the Naxx opening event.  I’m not sure if this is a terribly bad thing, especially as the ‘details’ and rewards have been updated as well as the surrounding flavour quests but some people have been complaining, on my server, that it’s ‘all just that stuff again’.  Can’t please everyone, I guess.

Dead NPC’s

Doing ‘the usual’ isn’t always possible.  Flight masters, auctioneers, bankers - all can fall prey to the scourge and hat’s certainly pissing people off at the moment.  Having to wait for a respawn to be able to access the bank can be irritating, especially since just about everyone who gets zombified runs in to try and give it to the bankers and those standing nearby - knowing they’ll likely not notice whilst sorting things in the bank.

Dead Players

People are being ganked by zombies.  With the plague lasting only 50 seconds near the end before transformation it was very hard to get to  a healer before you succumbed.  Most found the whole “camp the portal spawns in Stormwind” funny for a few hours but those same people are complaining now when it happens to them.  Personally I’ve managed to avoid being munched on more than a few times but others are not so lucky.

Durability

One of the main reason people are being irked at the above is that it causes durability damage to die as a ghoul. They really should remove it - it’s pvp in a basic sense and should not cause gear damage - especially when you can even be ganked in Shattrath, which is supposed to be a sanctuary.  Personally, if I portal, I switch out my gear for my [Brewfest Regalia] if  I have the bag space - meaning that the only inconvenience I have is a walk back from the graveyard if I get zombified.

The Ugly

Scourge Invasion Spawn Points

Limited mobs + limited time event + spawned rares = ? Yeah, chaos and ninja-tagging etc.  I’m quite sickened by the number of players who’ve been standing in the centre of the spawn points, AoEing and trying to take the Shadow’s of Doom - without using their own scourge stones.   I’ve even had people kite a mob away which I had ‘paid for’ and pulled it so far that it reset… and then they tagged it.  That really irked me as I could do nothing against it (resto shaman cannot out aggro a t6 hunter…) and wasted some of my shards so that someone else could reap the reward.

I’ve been running with some guildies, though, (on my druid) and we managed to grab two to three per spawn point most times (using our own stones) and blasted them down despite whole groups of paladins, warlocks and mages trying to AoE tag them.

Complaints

The never-ending stream of wailing which is happening slightly irritates me, to be honest. Particularly the ones who claim that Blizzard is ripping off all of its customers? (I for one do not wish said people speaking in my name, tyvm)  I can understand being a bit upset at being ganked whilst levelling or being irked at the fact you can’t get to the raid on time because the flight master is looking a bit thin and gristley but going on and on for hours that you hate Blizz and how dare they make a world event?

Sorry, not listening, out having fun at said event!

It was only for a few days and, in my opinion it’s too much fun to worry about overly much.  A world event which will only happen once? Count me in!

Nagaluiz in this thread on the mmo-champion forums put it nicely:

It’s a wonderful transition to the events of the opening of the next expansion, and should be enjoyed. It seems that the only people who are whining are those who are still taking the next two weeks seriously and don’t realize the futility of most of what they do at the present time. Have fun with it, and think of the bigger picture. Would you rather a huge, once in your WoW career experience leading up to the invasion of the major cities by Arthas’ minions, or just one day randomly being able to enter Northrend?

I think most would agree that this, like the previous world event for TBC (which wasn’t nearly as thought out/good), adds quite some flavor to the wait for Wrath. The zombies are supposed to be annoying. They’re supposed to decimate the cities. They are supposed to serve as a juxtaposition to what you would actually be feeling if you were a resident of Azeroth, the frustration of the endless battle against the undead Scourge who just keep coming back up after you kill them, not unlike that of Arthas during the time of his descent… As Lionne said, it’s probably the best event they’ve ever done, because they’re forcing people to get involved, to want to kill the undead.

I know there are a lot of you who do not agree with this post who aren’t just whinging, for instance, BigBearButt has written an interesting tirade against the zombie event that I couldn’t help but link (though I still, respectfully, disagree) as has Lume but I do rather wish that more people would be open to the fact that one could like this event and not be a ganking asshat.

I personally spent my time as a zombie for one evening killing any player who came nearby and since then have neither looked for infection nor avoided it.  Oddly, though, I was only infected once and corpse exploded myself so as not to take durability damage (I was on my way to a raid or I mght have gone to eat some tasty Shattered Sun elfses.  I spent most of my gametime these last few days out purging the scourge and didn’t really have any issues with people griefing me.  If I was worried I might get killed at an Auction House or Bank I’d just go to a quieter city (Exodar or Darnassus).

5 days of madness, with, as Cynra points out, an insane amount of emotional involvement.  Love of loathe it, anyone who was around will not forget this event.

This was meant to be a short roundup of my thoughts. Bugger!

Just when ah’ wis gettin’ rid o’ the hangover fae Brewfest Hallow’s End arrives.  Ah dinnae ken why we celebrate the Forsaken’s holiday but, well, ah’m no gonna gie up a chance fer a wee celebration!

Hallow’s End is here again and I’m enjoying it immensely! This is the holiday of silly amounts of sweeties, copious costumes and er… bountiful bats?

Last year, Hallow’s End was the first of the revamped holidays.  It had a new boss, new shiny loot and quests in the starting towns.  It was the beginning of the truly interactive world events - ones which lured even those who had never thought to do a world event before.

It did this by giving away shinies - rings equivalents to the badge loot ones, as well as brooms, a non-combat pet and a plate helm with some funny on-use effects.  I had wondered how they would deal with this holiday, the first of the revamped, when it came to this year - many people are well geared and we’re close to the new expansion. Would it be more or less challenging? Would they keep the same format?

Well, it seems that for the most part the event for this year is very much the same but with the addition of some new loot - [The Horseman's Blade] and [The Horseman's Reins]!

Phat Lewts

For a lot of people, the event is simply a nice way to get the loot mentioned above, a chance to deck out a new alt in some purples or to get a hold of some items which are a just a little bit different or funky.  [The Horseman's Helm] amused me when I first saw it and the one-use effect of his blade is rather neat.  The [Sinister Squashling] and [Hallowed Helm] alongside the [Magic Broom] and perhaps even the Horseman’s Reins make up what has become the ‘usual fare’ for events - mounts, flavour items and pets.

Unusual or Unfair Holiday Drops ?

The story of the Headless Horseman - a vengeful spirit gone mad - is a nice addition to the Halloween theme (ghost stories!) and I can see why they give items pertaining to the actual ‘boss’ but it does seem a tad unfair that two of the high quality items he drops are only for a limited subset of classes - neither my druid nor shaman can use either item.  It would have been nice if they had added some fun on-use to the hallowed helm or something.  He drops the rings, of course, but it’s more the fun effect which I feel many classes miss out on - the laughing helm is wonderfully iconic.  I’d say the [Frostscythe of the Lord Ahune] somewhat made up for that but it excludes rogues and paladins.  It’s not a major issue but perhaps a nice mace or dagger for the next big holiday boss drop?  The scythe, helm and sword are very noticeable and different and are the sort of thing you keep even when they are no longer ‘useful’.  I’m not advocating giving everyone free and easy items of this sort (as making them more common would, I guess, take a little of their ’specialness’ away) but it would be nice to see a greater variation.

Trick or Treat?

Trick or Treating is a little less tedious than the Ancestors quests from the Lunar Festival or the Midsummer Fires - there are a lot fewer of them (as they’re restricted to places with inns) and each is very close to a flight point.  The quests also give a decent amount of experience (around 890 for my level 22 paladin) and a little gold (3g 75s at 70).

Holiday Achievements

The other addition to the holiday is, of course, achievements associated with it.  I have a post centred around those in the works so I won’t go into too much detail on them here but I do think the achievements system has really boosted the attendance of the event - those who do not care about the ‘epix loot’ are still struggling to get themselves a pet or a pumpkin helm for the event.

Of course, given it’s a limited time event the trouble has already started concerning achievements - people want them to be realistically available within the timeframe but others complain that it’s not really an ‘achievement if it’s easy.  I won’t step into the argument now but it does seem that the complaints about this have made some items easier to get -  the squashling and helm drop in trick or treat bags since the last maintenance  and some of the sub-achievements will even be excluded from the ‘title’ achievement - the one to get 20 of the masks.

In total there are around 160 achievement points available for Hallow’s End.

Random Decoration

Hallow’s End has my favourite decorations - the pumpkins and candles etc. are so very ‘wow’ in theme and give the whole place a creepy feeling.

Other fun things which come alongside the Hallow’s End festival, which makes it somewhat unque, are the critters running around - Black Cats roam the streets and bats fly overhead.  Killing a black cat will even give you bad luck!

Holiday Overload

I’m in two minds over Hallow’s End time-wise.  Obviously they can’t move ‘Halloween’ but having another of the ‘big’ yearly events happen so close to the last has actually made me want a little break from the festivities.  I think, though, this may be a consequence of not just the events being close together but also the addition of the new patch and the pre-Wrath event.

Of course, having zombies running around and plagues spreading whilst everyone is running around in skeleton or ghost costumes is a stroke of genius and very nicely timed on Blizz’s part.

Enjoy the rest of the festivities, though  I fear they may be a little overshadowed by all of the real undead walking around…

All hell’s broken loose in Azeroth! The scourge, they’re everywhere again. Run, hide or fight, but don’t fall to them, whatever you do!

I have to admit, the first thing I did when I heard there was infected plague running around from Nibuca was…. run to Booty Bay and go get myself infected. Then spread the love to the Ironforge Auction House. There were of course a few people complaining about it, which was a shame, because all I wanted to do was spread the event…

Oh well, we had some fun before people had to go to bed.  I can imagine this would be a blast on RP severs.

Quick Tips:

• If you want to get infected and noone is about to eat your brains then head down to Booty Bay - there are boxes scattered all over with a green glow.  Click one and you’ll start craving fresh brains.
• If you have the debuff and don’t want to have it, talk to an Argent Healer - usually near Inns or in banks or talk to any classes who can cleanse disease - shammies, paladins or priests.
• The Argent Healers will cleanse you if you get too close, so if you wish to keep your debuff steer clear of them.
• If you are a mage, Ice Block seems to instantly make you a zombie if you’re infected.
• Guards will attack you when you turn, be careful to either be close to your target when you’re going to zombie up or to be away in a quiet corner if you want to get some unsuspecting passers-by.
• Most guards and NPCs (and even flight masters) can be infected but faction leaders, quest givers and the like seem to be ‘protected’.  Good thing as otherwise that might get annoying… Apparently I was wrong - a lot of them can be infected…
  
• Whilst a zombie, you can use the other faction’s portals in Shattrath.

Have fun with the event!

Tonight I went to Mount Hyjal on my shaman (more about that in another post) but when I came out I decided to go chill on my druid and grind some more Kurenai rep.  I bumped into some goblin commoners which, at first,  I assumed were for the Darkmoon Faire (which on the EU servers is in Terrokkar at the moment).  However, they looked a bit different…

I stopped, conversed and found out that something new was afoot!  Spirit of competition you say?  Tabard, you say!? Aha! I couldn’t find anything about it after a quick search but the instructions were simple:

Go compete and we’ll send you a tabard, win or lose.  If you win, though, we might send you a shiny medallion…

Cool, thinks I, I need honor on the druid anyways.  One fast, successful AV later and I visits my mailbox to find:

So what’s this spirit of competition?  Why, a Chinese dragon!  Nice one,  Blizz! What a pleasant and random surprise.

Well, so far the Midsummer Fire Festival has been a great hit this year and everyones bin havin’ fun!  Wi’ all that’s been goin’ on it’s nice tae see adventurers oot enjoyin’ themself.  If ye huvnae been oot tae try any o’ the events yet make sure ye have a go!

Like I mentioned in my last post - replayability is one of the things I particularly like to examine.  There has been much hoo-haa on the wow blogo-sphere recently about what makes you come back, what makes you stay, what makes you addicted even and I guess replayability somewhat ties into that - if nothing ever changes then why come back?

I was very glad to see Blizz had not dropped the ball on this event like I felt they somewhat had on the Lunar Festival.  Events like the fire festival seem well attended - a good proportion of my guild has done the bonfire runs - unlike collecting for Noblegarden and the Lunar Festival (which were mostly skipped, especially by those who had participated before).

The Midsummer Fire Festival is another ’step up’ in events, in my opinion.  It has greater levels of interactivity and reward than any other in-game events to date.  What makes me think this?

Lunar Festival

• Quests
• Outfits
• Consumables
• Rep

Love is in the Air

• Quests
• Outfits
• Consumables
• Special Boss Drop ([Bouqet of Red Roses])

Noblegarden

• Outfits
• Consumables

Children’s Week

• Quests
• Non-Combat Pet

Midsummer Fire Festival

• Quests
• High Level Items
• Daily Quests
• Dungeon Boss
• Non-Combat Pet
• Consumables
• Outfits
• Buffs
• ‘Fun’ Items*

Harvest Festival

• Quests
• Consumables

Brewfest

• Quests
• Daily Quests
• Non-Combat Pet
• Consumables
• Outfits
• ‘Fun’ Items*

Hallow’s End

• Quests
• High Level Items
• Non-Combat Pet
• Consumables
• Outfits
• ‘Fun’ Items*
• Repeatable (non-daily) Quests (Trick or Treating)

Winter Veil / New Years

• Quests
• Non-Combat Pet
• Consumables
• Outfits
• ‘Fun’ Items*
• Repeatable (non-daily) Quests (Revelers)
• Special Boss Drop ([Red Winter Hat], [Green Winter Hat])
• Holiday Recipes

*(Things such as the Brazier, Pony Keg or Eyesight ‘Enhancing’ Goggles)

We can see from this list that, currently, the Midsummer Fire Festival outstrips most others by quite a lot.  Winter’s Veil comes close, though, as does Hallow’s End and Brewfest which have all been added to or updated in the last year or so.

Some, such as the upcoming Brewfest, will have the new ideas from previous events added - it will be gaining a dungeon boss, for example - with some new fun items and loot.  It is obvious to see that some events have far more planning but this is not a definitive marker of success - Children’s Week, for example, offers only a couple of quests and two non-combat pets per person but seems quite popular.

Now, it’s obvious that Blizzard can’t give us something akin to the Midsummer Fire Festival every month - it’d be too much work for them and us! You need some downtime, in my opinion, to enjoy the ‘up’ time more.  Having the small holidays give those who need a little vacation from the serious side of WoW time to relax and kick about doing something silly is nice - there’s nothing much lost if you don’t do them, though, so people don’t feel the need to drop everything and do the associated events.

Replayability

In terms of replayability, though, the updated events are gaining strongly.  Children’s Week’s popularity is, in my mind, high because there is a TBC-level quest which incorporates and enhances the general TBC level things.  That and people love new non-combat pets. *ahem*

The Midsummer Fire Festival took the success that was Brewfest and added what they had also learned from the Hallow’s End event.  Combining all of their ideas from both events has made for one rather huge festival which is extensive and even a little daunting at times.  It gives new ‘phat lewt’ for those who care about it, has a fun new boss encounter, gets you jaunting around the world and maybe enjoying a little world pvp while you’re at it.  You can grab an item to enjoy with your friends and an outfit which will look spiffy in those first-kill screenshots or when you’re idling at the bank / AH.

They’re not, however, just adding replayability to the festival itself, though, and this is where I start to get gleeful.  Like the Headless Horseman event they’re pushing people back into instances that are otherwise quiet - Slave Pens is an Outlands instance but I know I hadn’t been in it for a few months at least on my rogue as I need nothing from it and no guildies have asked about running it either.  The event is deemed quite hard at the moment but I wonder if they’ll keep it next year as it’ll, then, be a fun way to boost a few alts through an event and get them some nice gear before they hit Northrend.

With the Brewfest event they’ll be adding a boss in BRD, if I remember rightly.  Now, I go visit BRD every once in a while just for some fun - stealthing about and getting enchanting patterns and the like - but I bet a lot of people haven’t been there for quite some time or even at all!

Group Items

I mentioned fun items above and I want to look a little more closely at these and why I like the idea of them.  A few of these items I deem as ‘group’ items.  That is, they are more fun if used in a social situation - namely the pony keg and the brazier of dancing flames.  Adding items which encourage interaction is a way of getting people excited over holidays - some people who were never bothered about getting themselves something will go out of their way to get an item which allows for fun in a social situation - for example, people buying braziers because it’d make a fun item for raid downtime.

Adding new group quests which do not take as long to do as, say, a whole instance or daily dungeon / heroic is also a nice touch.  Some groups are finding it hard to complete them, though, which Siha at Banana Shoulders touches on here.  This is something I really think they should look at - I feel the event is supposed to be challenging (requires tactics knowledge) but shouldn’t be overwhelming (i.e. need really good gear / particular class specs).

So, What Now?

Now, I’m not going to sit here and cry about wanting all events to have the same masses of items / quests / etc. that the newly re-done ones have - I appreciate the effort which has gone into those which have been updated and the continual renewal of older events to make them more fun to re-do year by year, alt by alt.  However, there are some small suggestions I’d make for the events which have not been re-done - with an eye to the fact that these will likely be staying as small events (though it would be nice to get a boost around April/May when there’s little else happening and the weather can be quite miserable!)

• New Items - This one is simple.  Add eggs in Outlands for Noblegarden, for example, with different things in them - a new elegant type of dress and a new pant-suit for Love is in the Air which doesn’t look like pyjamas for example.  Perhaps patterns for them? Matching hat / shoes / belt?  I’m not much into making outfits for my characters but I know some people who are.  The Lunar Festival dresses / suits are some of my favourite for bank alts - perhaps new colours or cloaks to match?  Adding more random drops to current bosses (like the hats and roses) would also be fun.
• New Quests - I really do love the ‘honouring’ quests from the Harvest and Lunar festivals but it would be nice if they refreshed these - perhaps incorporating themes from the expansion - Honoring the  Shattered Sun memorial, for instance.
• Adding Outlands (and eventually Northrend) - A lot of the events happen only in the ‘Old World’  - it would be nice to see it spread through Outlands.  Where people go, so do their customs!  This has been done, a little, but it would be nice to see it continue so that, when Northrend is out and we’re bored of all the cool colours, we can come back and get some warmth in Outlands.

Ok, so I’m not terribly imaginitive but even simple small additions like this would, in my eyes, add to replayability.  I want more ways to play, more fun things to collect, more ways to interact with friends old and new.  I’ve actually met quite a few people this week due to running around doing the Fire Festival quests through either explaining to them how to do certain aspects or, in one instance, being helped through a capital city to get my flame (A big thanks to the warlock who ran ahead of me to aggro the guards in Thunder Bluff to and from the flame! Hehehe). This is the sort of stuff that I love looking at and one of the reasons I enjoy playing WoW - they’re not just throwing up superficial festivity items around the place but they go quite some way to integrate it into the world and make it appeal across all levels.

Ah, time fer the Fire Festival!  Lookin’ forward tae celebratin’ it this year as always.  But, ken, ah wis in oan the plans and ah wrote aboot them a while back.  Maybe go take a gander?

When the Midsummer Fire Festival was on the PTR I did a quick write up about the events.  I haven’t checked yet if they’re still identical but maybe my post will still have some relevance - you can find it here.  I should get a chance to check it out later this evening and will update with any changes I find.  Last tiny spam post for the moment, I promise.

Edit:  Ok, I was going to do an update but now I’ma be lazy and point you to the awesome writeup by one of my favourote bloggers.  Check out this guide over at A Dwarf Priest for all your festival needs!

This is, personally speakin’, the first time ah’v bin’ asked tae take a wee wean oot tae see the sites and teach them aboot what the Alliance stands fer. Ach it brought a tear tae mah eye, so it did, tae see yon we lassie so brave and wantin’ tae grow up ‘just like me’.

One of my favourite times of the year in WoW - pet Children’s Week! I logged into the BA chatroom yesterday evening and was informed it had started - I had thought it would be another month until the event, so I was pleasantly surprised (learn to read calenders, Aurik-nub!). I giggled gleefully - “I’m on backup for the raid tonight, time to get all of my new alliance characters a pet or two!”. Of course, sod’s law kicked in and five minutes later “Ehm Aurik, we’re short a rogue, get ready for incoming summon”. Bugger. Ah well, it was a good night anyway (more about that later!).

Last year I managed to get myself Whiskers and Peanut for Mharai, and Mr. Wiggles for my young Orc rogue. This year I have a few characters who need petified up - though I might spread getting them over a few days so as not to out-holiday-quest myself.

I’ll also need to update my list!