First of all, I want to apologize for my absence last week. I only managed to get to 2 posts last week, as opposed to my usual 3 posts. Real Life hit me over the head when one of my coworkers suddenly left the company for greener pastures. Yours truly just happened to be this employee’s backup, so I ended up with a double workload for now. Of course the present state of the economy doesn’t help, as I don’t know if that post will be filled any time soon. Oh well, back to business!
So of course you’ve heard by now about the huge outbreak of news concerning Wrath of the Lich King. I won’t bore you with another features post, as my fellow bloggers and other sites have that well covered. I will take the time to touch on two pieces of news that are salient to the casual player. Here goes.
Raiding and Instances in Wrath
ALL raiding dungeons will have both a 10 and 25 man version. You’ll have to excuse me as I wipe the tears from my face. This, to me, is the most exciting piece of news I’ve heard about the expansion. My regular readers know by now that I come from a Casual raiding guild, with a strong emphasis on Casual. We run a few 25 mans in house, like Gruul, Magtheridon, and a smattering of runs in Mount Hyjal. We are also part of an alliance that is working on SSC and TK. We just flat out have never had the numbers to get serious about 25 man raids.
We can, however, put together at least 4 or 5 10 mans a week. Now, in Wrath, we will have a much larger selection of raiding options. Blizzard also let us know that the 10 and 25 man versions will be on separate lockout timers, and there will be NO attunements.
I cannot freaking wait. My guild LOVES Kara, but ZA was a bit of a letdown for us. It was just plain too tough for our overall gear level (go ahead and read my post on ZA if you like). I can already see visions of having several 10 mans we could run in any given week. Monday in Utgarde, Tuesday in Raid Dungeon #2, Thursday in Raid Dungeon #3. You get the picture. Ain’t it purty?
The 25 man version of the new instances will have loot a “tier higher” than the 10 man versions, according to Blizzard. I don’t really care. For me it’s never REALLY been about the loot. It’s not that I want to have the best gear in game, I know that given my play time it wouldn’t be fair to other players. I may never see the inside of the Black Temple (though I could go there now and get kicked around!), and I just want freaking SEE things like Arathas!!!
Blizzard also let the world know that all 5 mans will have heroic versions with completely separate loot tables from the regular versions. I like heroics, but I always wished there was MORE too them loot-wise. It’s always just a handful of differences. There will also be a badge system similar to the present one in place, which is more good news. The badge system is GREAT for Casual players. It gives us a fighting chance at good loot! Also, all the 5 mans are supposed to be doable in an hour. Woohoo! You mean I could finally do instances more often in my normal 1-2 hour play window? *sob*
The Death Knight
Really, there’s one big thing that I love about this news. We knew that Blizzard was planning on starting you off with a leg up as far as leveling, but now we know the Death Knight will start all the way at 55. This is great news for casual players! I might actually be willing to give one a whirl, now. If they started in their 20s or 30s, I’m not so sure I would have. My playtime is precious. I don’t know if I’d want to start off Wrath with a new level 1 or 20 or 30 to get a DK. Now that I know I can start off in the old world, and it won’t be long before I can hit the Outlands, the Death Knight is a much more appealing possibility. (Heck, I remember when on Day 2 of the BC release I saw a nearly level 60 Draenei Shaman run by. Some people have a crazy amount of time to spend in this game, but I’m not one of them.)
Another appealing aspect of the Death Knight is it sounds like I’ll finally be able to get the skeletal warhorse I always wanted as an alliance player! Woot! And, of course, there’s a whole new playstyle to figure out, and it sounds like the DK will be an appealing, hybrid type class. I love hybrids. It’s also good to know that any race can be a Death Knight. Just how many DK gnomes do you think there will be?
There’s a very big downside to the Death Knight for casual players, though. Now there’s yet ANOTHER alt we will be tempted to start!
Well, that’s the stuff that really jumped out at me. There’s a boatload more info, along with some great screenshots and even some wonderful movies over at Gamespy.com. Heck, the news about more 10 mans alone was enough to make my heart go pitter patter and all that stuff. Now I REALLY can’t wait for Wrath!
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I have to admit that the 10 mans make me slightly nervous. With 25 mans you can pull in a small handful of people who are behind in gear and are anxious to join in the fun. But with 10-mans…you often don’t have the room to have one, let alone two, people behind. Granted once your main raiders get the better gear it’s not a problem at all. But in those early days I expect to see a lot of heartache in more casual guilds.