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feature :: wow pt 2 2
WoW Pt 2 2
Introduction : PART 1 ( Page 1 : Page 2 : Page 3 : Page 4 ) PART 2 ( Page 1 : Page 2 : Page 3 : Page 4 )
Taking over from Yug in his tale of WoW, then, when we left him he was not yet up to 30, and was wandering around in the Wetlands.
The areas tend to be set up so the quests and monsters are around the same difficulty ( generally in a bracket of 5 or so levels) . That means that certain areas you stay in for a while.
In the late 20s and early 30s, the best place to be is Duskwood. Duskwood is... well, it's awful.
Duskwood
Duskwood is an old-school horror region. It's populated with giant spiders and flesh eating ghouls. The main area for questing is a large cemetary. Never a good sign. Still, there are some pretty cool quests in Duskwood, including some very long chains, one of which end in a nice little surprise. After you finish the chain you unleash an Elite monster on the town. Known as "Stitches" this abomination of a creature wanders down the road, killing guards as he goes, and can be taken down by a relatively large number of co-ordinating good guys (assuming they're at the right level for the area). I got pasted by him once or twice, though I've soloed him since.
Duskwood also introduces you to something you're going to have to really get used to. While the previous regions are a little more concentrated, Duskwood is a sprawling place, in particular putting the cemetary (where most of the quest monsters are) and town (where the actual quests are given) a substantial distance apart. It's a long walk. Especially if Stitches is passing through.
From there, guildies advised me to head to Stranglethorn Vale. STV, as it's affectionately known, is conveniently located just south of Duskwood.
Stranglethorn Vale
Stranglethorn Vale is a favourite area of mine. As a training skinner and leatherworker I was very happy with the number of skinnable animals hanging out there, unlike Duskwood, for example, which has almost none.
Unfortunately if you thought Duskwood had some walking in it, STV leaves it for dead.
Coming in at the very north most of the animals roaming around are about your level. But the only town is way down the SOUTH, on a point.
Called "Booty Bay" (yeah, I know, I still laugh) this town was also the first I personally encountered that was neutral.
Most towns are in areas thoroughly controlled by one faction or another (Horde or Alliance) but some towns, like Rachet and Booty Bay are held by neutral goblins, who keep the peace with an iron fist in the face of anyone who picks fights.
In truth it didn't bother me that much. Graymane is a "Normal" server, meaning that you can only be attacked by your enemy human players if you're "flagged".
A flagged player is one that has signalled (whether deliberately or accidentally by their actions) that they wish to participate in the PvP (player vs player) side of the game.
Being flagged can occur a couple of ways. First, you can just "flag up", by typing /pvp. Secondly, by attacking (including defending against if you wander into them) an enemy guard or other NPC. Thirdly, you can actually get flagged if you assist someone who is flagged, such as healing them, or even just partying up with them.
Stranglethorn Vale is one of the areas you'll find yourself spending a lot of time in. By and large the quests are based on killing animals, and collecting various parts off them. A little macabre, but still fun.
Tanaris
Leaving Stranglethorn Vale behind (though believe me, you'll come back to it often enough) the next area I ventured into was Tanaris. Tanaris is another neutral area. Ironically considering it's the area you go to just AFTER you get a mount, Tanaris is pretty compact as well. While it's relatively large, you can stay quite close into the main city of Gadgetzan for a long time. Gadgetzan is a walled desert town, filled with mostly impolite goblins, and very impolite Taurens.
There's not much to say about Tanaris except that there's a really big desert, and there's nothing in there except hyenas and scorpion things. Actually I quite liked the scorpions because I needed their scales for leatherworking. The hyenas, on the other hand, just annoy me.
One thing worth mentioning in Tanaris is that it's one of the few places with a convenient "same level" instance. Most of the time instances seem to be stuck in really out of the way places, with high level instances (like Dire Maul) in level 45-50 areas. Tanaris has Zul'Farruk. ZF as it's known is a large and sprawling instance, and one of the few that is open air. It's a bit of a maze, and has some cool scripted scenes, not least the swarms of baddies that rush you up the stairs in one section. I still have a quest for that.
Because it's open air, ZF is also one of the few instances you can actually ride your mount in. This led me, like many before me, to discover a simple truth about instances. You can't lose agro in an instance. If something gets triggered it will chase you till it kills you or you kill it. You can't get out of range and lose them.
Now THAT was fun to discover.
The areas tend to be set up so the quests and monsters are around the same difficulty ( generally in a bracket of 5 or so levels) . That means that certain areas you stay in for a while.
In the late 20s and early 30s, the best place to be is Duskwood. Duskwood is... well, it's awful.
Duskwood
Duskwood is an old-school horror region. It's populated with giant spiders and flesh eating ghouls. The main area for questing is a large cemetary. Never a good sign. Still, there are some pretty cool quests in Duskwood, including some very long chains, one of which end in a nice little surprise. After you finish the chain you unleash an Elite monster on the town. Known as "Stitches" this abomination of a creature wanders down the road, killing guards as he goes, and can be taken down by a relatively large number of co-ordinating good guys (assuming they're at the right level for the area). I got pasted by him once or twice, though I've soloed him since.
Duskwood also introduces you to something you're going to have to really get used to. While the previous regions are a little more concentrated, Duskwood is a sprawling place, in particular putting the cemetary (where most of the quest monsters are) and town (where the actual quests are given) a substantial distance apart. It's a long walk. Especially if Stitches is passing through.
From there, guildies advised me to head to Stranglethorn Vale. STV, as it's affectionately known, is conveniently located just south of Duskwood.
Stranglethorn Vale
Stranglethorn Vale is a favourite area of mine. As a training skinner and leatherworker I was very happy with the number of skinnable animals hanging out there, unlike Duskwood, for example, which has almost none.
Unfortunately if you thought Duskwood had some walking in it, STV leaves it for dead.
Coming in at the very north most of the animals roaming around are about your level. But the only town is way down the SOUTH, on a point.
Called "Booty Bay" (yeah, I know, I still laugh) this town was also the first I personally encountered that was neutral.
Most towns are in areas thoroughly controlled by one faction or another (Horde or Alliance) but some towns, like Rachet and Booty Bay are held by neutral goblins, who keep the peace with an iron fist in the face of anyone who picks fights.
In truth it didn't bother me that much. Graymane is a "Normal" server, meaning that you can only be attacked by your enemy human players if you're "flagged".
A flagged player is one that has signalled (whether deliberately or accidentally by their actions) that they wish to participate in the PvP (player vs player) side of the game.
Being flagged can occur a couple of ways. First, you can just "flag up", by typing /pvp. Secondly, by attacking (including defending against if you wander into them) an enemy guard or other NPC. Thirdly, you can actually get flagged if you assist someone who is flagged, such as healing them, or even just partying up with them.
Stranglethorn Vale is one of the areas you'll find yourself spending a lot of time in. By and large the quests are based on killing animals, and collecting various parts off them. A little macabre, but still fun.
Tanaris
Leaving Stranglethorn Vale behind (though believe me, you'll come back to it often enough) the next area I ventured into was Tanaris. Tanaris is another neutral area. Ironically considering it's the area you go to just AFTER you get a mount, Tanaris is pretty compact as well. While it's relatively large, you can stay quite close into the main city of Gadgetzan for a long time. Gadgetzan is a walled desert town, filled with mostly impolite goblins, and very impolite Taurens.
There's not much to say about Tanaris except that there's a really big desert, and there's nothing in there except hyenas and scorpion things. Actually I quite liked the scorpions because I needed their scales for leatherworking. The hyenas, on the other hand, just annoy me.
One thing worth mentioning in Tanaris is that it's one of the few places with a convenient "same level" instance. Most of the time instances seem to be stuck in really out of the way places, with high level instances (like Dire Maul) in level 45-50 areas. Tanaris has Zul'Farruk. ZF as it's known is a large and sprawling instance, and one of the few that is open air. It's a bit of a maze, and has some cool scripted scenes, not least the swarms of baddies that rush you up the stairs in one section. I still have a quest for that.
Because it's open air, ZF is also one of the few instances you can actually ride your mount in. This led me, like many before me, to discover a simple truth about instances. You can't lose agro in an instance. If something gets triggered it will chase you till it kills you or you kill it. You can't get out of range and lose them.
Now THAT was fun to discover.
