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feature :: wow pt 2 4
WoW Pt 2 4
Introduction : PART 1 ( Page 1 : Page 2 : Page 3 : Page 4 ) PART 2 ( Page 1 : Page 2 : Page 3 : Page 4 )
Plaguelands
The Plaguelands are pretty much the next place you're going to be spending a lot of time. There are two areas called Plaguelands: Western Plaguelands, and Eastern Plaguelands. More conveniently known as EPL and WPL, these are places of much badness and pain. The Plague referred to is "The Scourge", the nastiness of Undeadness. Almost everything is an Undead here, except for various nasty bats and beasts. Everything in Western Plaguelands is 50+. Eastern Plaguelands is 55+, and along with Winterspring, which is a long way from it, is pretty much the end of the road for quests.
Western Plaguelands contains a large number of quests, some soloable, some horrendously difficult. There is also the start of an exceptionally long chain quest which nets you some very nice gear, from a man named Tyrion Foddring.
Both Eastern and Western Plaguelands have an instance in them. In the west is Scholomere. "Scholo" is an school, twisted and deformed my years of hatred and viciousness. So yeah, pretty much just like any other school. It's full of demented undead monsters, bent on your utter destruction. Just like any other school.
Eastern Plaguelands contains the town of Stratholme. Strat is a city destroyed by war with the Scourge. Or something. I don't really pay too much attention to the storylines. It's enough for me to know that there are monsters in there that have my stuff. Strat is interesting in that there are two "sides" to it. One side is populated exclusively by the various undead nasties. The other side you can cut through the undead to enter the fortress of the Scarlet Crusade, the last holdouts against the undead menace. Then, of course, you can kill them, and take their stuff.
Above level 50, and particularly over 55 or so, gear starts to change. Rather than being random equipment, gained as possible to get the best combination of stats, your gear becomes very "set" based. A big factor in this is aesthetics. The sets are matched in look, and meant to go together. Walking around with a full set of blue ('rare', not just blue in colour) armour has a certain cool factor to it. Most particularly, though, the armour has "set bonuses". As well as the stats and improvements you get just from having decent armour, there are additional bonuses that apply as you get more pieces of a set. It might be +armour boost, or improvements to element resists, strength, agility. There are lots of different ones, and they all stack up as you get more and more pieces.
In general, the "lesser" pieces of armour, such as bracers and belt, are relatively easy to get, dropping off random monsters in instances. These are also "BoE", bind on equip, meaning if you get one that's not suited to your class you can actually sell it, or give it to someone else. Higher stuff is Bind on Pickup. The instant you touch it, you cannot sell it, or even give it away. These only drop from specific bosses, so it usually takes a number of attempts to get them.
Blackrock Mountain
The final, and last area that needs to be mentioned here is Blackrock Mountain. Situated half in Burning Steppes and half in Searing Gorge, Blackrock Mountain is a hub of endgame and near-endgame goodness. In the middle is a huge pit of lava. Or possibly magma. I'm iffy on the definition there. Around the edges, and through various doors are the starts of other instances. Blackrock Depths (BRD) is a pre-endgame, 55+ raid instance (meaning 10 people, not a small group of 5). It contains the standard things. Smallish monsters in large groups. Largish monsters in small groups. Then largish monsters in very large groups. Then giant bosses of death. Blackrock Spire is much the same, at least in "Lower" Blackrock Spire. "Upper" Blackrock Spire (UBRS) is a different beast. It's getting close to 60, and requires a special key, which in itself is a challenge to get.
The third instance there is Molten Core. Molten Core is basically a sub-instance of the BRD instance. A quest in BRD to be "attuned" to the instance lets you skip BRD and go straight to MC.
Molten Core, though, is a different level altogether to BRD. It is a 60+ 40 man endgame instance, featuring a whole new world of hurt and fire and pain and death.
That pretty much puts it out of the range of this particular segment of the review, and into the next: World of Warcraft Endgame - Life at 60. Coming soon!
The Plaguelands are pretty much the next place you're going to be spending a lot of time. There are two areas called Plaguelands: Western Plaguelands, and Eastern Plaguelands. More conveniently known as EPL and WPL, these are places of much badness and pain. The Plague referred to is "The Scourge", the nastiness of Undeadness. Almost everything is an Undead here, except for various nasty bats and beasts. Everything in Western Plaguelands is 50+. Eastern Plaguelands is 55+, and along with Winterspring, which is a long way from it, is pretty much the end of the road for quests.
Western Plaguelands contains a large number of quests, some soloable, some horrendously difficult. There is also the start of an exceptionally long chain quest which nets you some very nice gear, from a man named Tyrion Foddring.
Both Eastern and Western Plaguelands have an instance in them. In the west is Scholomere. "Scholo" is an school, twisted and deformed my years of hatred and viciousness. So yeah, pretty much just like any other school. It's full of demented undead monsters, bent on your utter destruction. Just like any other school.
Eastern Plaguelands contains the town of Stratholme. Strat is a city destroyed by war with the Scourge. Or something. I don't really pay too much attention to the storylines. It's enough for me to know that there are monsters in there that have my stuff. Strat is interesting in that there are two "sides" to it. One side is populated exclusively by the various undead nasties. The other side you can cut through the undead to enter the fortress of the Scarlet Crusade, the last holdouts against the undead menace. Then, of course, you can kill them, and take their stuff.
Above level 50, and particularly over 55 or so, gear starts to change. Rather than being random equipment, gained as possible to get the best combination of stats, your gear becomes very "set" based. A big factor in this is aesthetics. The sets are matched in look, and meant to go together. Walking around with a full set of blue ('rare', not just blue in colour) armour has a certain cool factor to it. Most particularly, though, the armour has "set bonuses". As well as the stats and improvements you get just from having decent armour, there are additional bonuses that apply as you get more pieces of a set. It might be +armour boost, or improvements to element resists, strength, agility. There are lots of different ones, and they all stack up as you get more and more pieces.
In general, the "lesser" pieces of armour, such as bracers and belt, are relatively easy to get, dropping off random monsters in instances. These are also "BoE", bind on equip, meaning if you get one that's not suited to your class you can actually sell it, or give it to someone else. Higher stuff is Bind on Pickup. The instant you touch it, you cannot sell it, or even give it away. These only drop from specific bosses, so it usually takes a number of attempts to get them.
Blackrock Mountain
The final, and last area that needs to be mentioned here is Blackrock Mountain. Situated half in Burning Steppes and half in Searing Gorge, Blackrock Mountain is a hub of endgame and near-endgame goodness. In the middle is a huge pit of lava. Or possibly magma. I'm iffy on the definition there. Around the edges, and through various doors are the starts of other instances. Blackrock Depths (BRD) is a pre-endgame, 55+ raid instance (meaning 10 people, not a small group of 5). It contains the standard things. Smallish monsters in large groups. Largish monsters in small groups. Then largish monsters in very large groups. Then giant bosses of death. Blackrock Spire is much the same, at least in "Lower" Blackrock Spire. "Upper" Blackrock Spire (UBRS) is a different beast. It's getting close to 60, and requires a special key, which in itself is a challenge to get.
The third instance there is Molten Core. Molten Core is basically a sub-instance of the BRD instance. A quest in BRD to be "attuned" to the instance lets you skip BRD and go straight to MC.
Molten Core, though, is a different level altogether to BRD. It is a 60+ 40 man endgame instance, featuring a whole new world of hurt and fire and pain and death.
That pretty much puts it out of the range of this particular segment of the review, and into the next: World of Warcraft Endgame - Life at 60. Coming soon!
