I’m back from my weekend away and trying like a madman to catch up (not just in levels, you buggers have been writing a hell of a lot of posts)!  My last post turned out to be slightly wrong - about 20 minutes after I posted it, said friend texted me my Wrath code and off I went into Northrend (Rosi, when can I grabs you for paying infos? ><).  I had a good few hours to play before I left  (until 7am *ahem*) and made it to level 72 before heading off.

I didn’t get to make an obligatory first day out post, sadly, and I didn’t keep up with NaBloPoMo.  I’m rather glad about the latter as I’ve really been enjoying my game time and I admit that the only reason this post is winging its way to you now is because EU realms have down time.  Damned maintenance!

So, the following are some random ramblings about the cool things I’ve seen in Wrath so far!  Go away with yer negative stuff, do not want!

Scenery

The first thing which impresses itself upon you about Wrath is the gorgeous scenery.  Now, anyone who’s been around me long enough knows I absoloutely love my screnshots and, well, lets just say I have Sunday Screenies set for the next year… *ahem* In reality, though, I’m probably going to make a few wallpapers and utilise the rest for the making of shiny posts!

Although I was on beta there’s a lot I didn’t see - I alt-tabbed out of WoW when flying on flightpaths on my pre-made chars so that I didn’t spoil myself and I’m so glad I did!  Some zones I never even saw on beta and I’m running around them drooling and taking tonnes of pictures (Zul’Drak, for example).

New Instances

When I played Vanilla and Burning Crusade WoW I didn’t instance much whilst I levelled and even when I hit 70 I wasn’t one for instancing that much.  Now, though, I’m levelling with the curve, I have awesome guildies who want to go along and everything is so new noone is tired of it yet.  I am loving it!

The new instances come with new boss mechanics and some old, though I don’t begrudge them those as they’re presented differently.  Every single one, so far, has been utterly gorgeous - either directly looks-wise or just in the wonderful ‘flow’ to the instance - Azjol-Nerub, for instance, is pretty but not as gorgeous as other instances.  The ‘flow’ of the intance, though, and the way it uses spider-web for flooring and a drop-down pathway sorta floored me.

I’m actually looking forward to tanking most of these when I level my druid - even though tanking new instances was one of my biggest in game ‘fears’.  At the moment I’m mostly dpsing on my shammy as we have a lot of healers and only one spot per group.  I have had the chance to heal Violet Hold and Gundrak, amongst others, though and I’m looking forward to seeing more challenging heroic versions as a healer.

New Quest Types

The variation and design of the quests has been staggering.  Though a few are bugged, those that do work have just blown me out of the water - even the ‘kill 40 basilisks and bring me their non-existant brains‘ type of quests have actually been enjoyable as they’ve been sprinkled between other quests and many of them have a twist of some sort.

Every time I’ve come across a new ‘quest type’ I’ve squealed delightedly but tried not to actually say more than “omg cool” so as not to spoil the surprise for others.  I also have to admit being delighted watching people who don’t bother to read quest text doing things so horribly wrong, like the mage BBB mentions.

Reading through quest texts i something I’ve not found to be a significant drain on my time (indeed it can reduce the time you spend looking for the wrong place…) and, despite only having played for three and a half days since the expansion came out, I’m only a little off level 77.

Levelling

Now, I know a lot of people say ‘why rush’ but… I’m really not rushing that much, for me.  I’ve always been a fast leveller and I often read quest descriptions for other quests whilst I run to do the first one.  I kill everything I see and I’ve been joining many, many instance groups so the XP stacks up quickly!

I also know that, if I do miss anything first time around, I’ll see it when I level on my druid, rogue or hunter…

PewPew!

I’d occassionally specced elemental before and completed levelling to 70 as a hybrid elemental-resto spec but this time I wanted full elemental.  Thunderstorm is so incredibly fun and I really like to be able to blast throug hthings nearly as fast as my enhancement brethren (most still out-pewpew me unless I have a nice crit-proc string).

Gear

No, besides the +3 gloves of pwnage being awesome, it’s the +50 boots of oh-dear-lord-I-look-sexy!  Seriously! As Yashima and Leafy point out, the clown effect doesn’t happen quite so markedly in Wrath and the gear is way more spiffily textured.  In fact, despite loving how my Skyshatter gear looks, I’m almost ashamed at its colourful hues when the darker, subtler, sexier Wrath gear peers woefully at me.  In fact, I’ve actually gotten more color-coordinated and matching as I levelled, rather than less!

Anyways, gonna catch some rest now, enjoy levelling or chilling at 80 for those who’re already there!