I was going to make this another low-level alts post, but since my post last time was about low-level WoW and since when you get right down to it the low-level experience is fairly similar across the board, I thought it might be more interesting to talk about one of my highest level alts instead.
Moniker (see what I did there) is a 66th (now, thanks to this post, 67th) level Warlock. She started out Demonology, but I went Destro for a less micromanagey playstyle in instances. She’s currently leveling in Terokkar.
Originally, this post was going to be about me trying to level as high as I could just eating delicious candy from those candy buckets.
1% XP? Screw you, delicious candy.
Then I realised that the darned things only gave you 1% XP each, and were sufficiently far apart that regular ol’ questing was going to get the job done much faster.
I’ve not played old Moni in a while, fortunately the Destro Lock playstyle isn’t exactly easy to forget (Immolate, Chaos Bolt, Conflagrate, Loot) so it all came back fairly quickly, and I was soon tromping around Shattrath and environs like I’d never been away.
It felt kinda sad.
I helped some Orcs reconnect with an ancient Wolf Spirit, and then set about dealing with the Arakora and the Fel Horde. I got passed around various Horde encampments and I slowly began to realise that there was actually a lot going on in Terokkar.
For what it's worth, I got killed saving this screenshot
Somewhere in the south, a group of mutated Fel Orcs were working on some terrible project for the Fel Horde.
This clearly needed closer investigation.
Closer investigation: with FIRE
(By the way, check out my totally stupid pants)
So I slaughetered the Orcs, but it seemed that they were somehow in league with the Blood Elves of Kaelthas, who also had business in the area, poking around amongst the ruins of Atho Autho Autochotho of that instance with the dead space goats.
So then I went to see what the Blood Elves were up to and ooh if it didn’t look dodgy:
Keep those ley lines focused! And be careful in case any big blue demons come and kill us horribly.
It was as Charrath and I were chowing down on the corpses of a couple of warlocks that I suddenly realised how sad it was that all of these plotlines were just dead in the water. I already knew more or less what was up with Kaelthas Sunstrider – I’d kicked his head in a good few times on my 80. And whatever these guys were up to Moniker was level 67 by this point, a few thousand experience points away from hopping on the zep to Howling Fjord and never thinking about Outland again.
Now I know that actually this is all completely within my control, the Blizzard Police aren’t going to come to my house and beat up my housemates if I don’t go to Northrend the moment it’s mechanically possible, but leveling in Outland always feels spookily like you’re wandering around a ghost town (an impression which is not alleviated by the sheer number of Death Knights you meet there). Every now and then you stumble across the remains of a plotline that simply no longer matters. There’s all these echoes of things that obviously used to have meaning to them. Little things like the fact that the Blood Elves drop signet rings which can be turned in for Scryer rep, but which now have no particular purpose. It’s like when you’re looking at some bit of junk in a museum and you suddenly realise that it used to be part of a person’s everyday life long ago in the unimaginable past.
I don’t think the sense of melancholy is helped by the fact that Terokkar is basically all about things that are lost and forgotten. You battle cultists and madmen scrabbling in the ruins of a dead civilization, and take up with refugees from Shattrath trying to survive against the predations of the Arakora, themselves a fallen people.
I’ll leave with one last shot of Moniker, standing in the desolate wastes of Auto Autho the space goat place, reflecting on the tragedy of the bird-folk.
When it doubt, kill it with black magic.
Every level 80 cloth wearer remembers those pants… not so fondly. They took forEVER to replace because the stats were so good, but they were so hideous. I think they were the first pants you got from a quest in Outlands too, aren’t they?
In 13 levels, you’ll look back on these pictures in much the same fashion that some reflect on things they wore in the 70s… “I can’t believe I EVER wore those pants…”
Armoury says:
Deadly Borer Leggings. Pretty darned sure they were a Hellfire Peninsula quest reward.
And yeah, really, really unflattering. And that’s by the standards of a character who has her *knee bones* poking out.
Yeah Hellfire Quest reward – my priest had them… I called them hippie pants lol
I agree that there’s something particularly sad about Outland’s emptiness. I mean, many old world zones are pretty deserted as well, but somehow it never seems quite as bad. Maybe it’s because Outland is not part of Azeroth; maybe it’s because so much of its content was set up to be huge and epic (Anyone remember their first time through the Dark Portal?), making the lack of interest in it now an even more jarring contrast.
I think it’s a combination of things. Part of it is simply that the old world was *designed* to be leveled through. You don’t lose out on much by being alone in Tanaris or Desolace (indeed it arguably enhances the atmosphere). A lot of the Old World is scattered outposts and small camps. Outland, on the other hand is *supposed* to be bustling. It’s supposed to be in the middle of a war.
On the flip side, Outland is very much about loss (Christ that sounds pretentious) but it’s all about the remains of a world that was destroyed and abandoned so having it be *actually* abandoned makes it feel really eerie.
Here’s where, as a n00b, that I really DO feel that I’ve missed out by being new.
Pretty much EVERYWHERE I’ve played has been rather empty, Big cities not-with-standing. Well, Dal isn’t, but my PC hates it, so I spend as little time as possible there.
But so much of the game seems to echo with emptiness: the Caverns of time, Zul Farrak, and all the rest. Deadmines & the local area seems fairly busy, but I think it’s still a fun place so that even “old hands” enjoy running through it.
I am glad I don’t have the same sense of loos due to the game’s progression, but I DO feel a sense of having missed out.
Neat post, and rather somber, considering it’s Halloween.
As I think I said in another post (unless WordPress ate it) I sometimes think that the emptiness is an advantage. One simply wouldn’t expect that many people in Desolace (the clue’s in the name).
But yeah, it is tragic how quickly stuff gets obsolete these days. Even Howling Fjord seems relatively empty nowadays.
I think these pictures sum up the fact that the best thing about Outlands was the clothes. Northrend is so dull in comparions, all those dark grey winter wooly type dresses. Some form of happy medium would be nice, Victorian governess meets burlesque clown for Cataclysm perhaps.
Personally what I’m holding out for in Cataclysm is pirate costumes.
What a beautiful post, thank you
I think the loneliness of outland has a lot to do with the fact, that today it isn’t really anything much other than a detour that you end up on on your way towards where all the action is.
Somehow im reminded of pixars Cars. Maybe there should be am organisation set out to show all that outland has to offer for players who re just stopping by on the highway towards Northrend
Yeah, I think Outland suffers particularly badly because it’s so distinct from Azeroth. It’s literally a whole other planet.
It’s particularly ludicrous if you’re a DK, because you get the Battle at Light’s Hope and Tirion Fordring and Darion Morgraine are both all “And now! We shall go to Northrend! To take the fight to the Lich King!”
And then you go to another planet and fight Fel Pigs for ten levels.
It is true, it felt very very anticlimatic to run of with all the little emo kids who failed at huntarding to level up on outland.
Not only Outland is a big ghost town, before that places like Darnassus and Exodar are also very empty. I don’t know how’s with Horde, but in Alliance going to the big old tree or the crashed spaceship is like being alone in the world (save the mobs) because you can be around for a long time and no players will show around.
And the pants… yep, I think no caster will ever forget them. And back then there were few good long robes that could cover them.
I’m glad the plotlines of Outland are dropped, discarded and forgotten now. They were rubbish and I’m happy to not think of them anymore.
“Hey guys we treasonously defected from Kael’s army! He’s dumb though and you should believe our side of the story and only our side and never ever question it even a little bit!”
Sigh!
Poor old Kael.
Of course it’s not like Blizz has exactly abandoned their policy of turning previously interesting Lore characters into one dimensional charactatures. See King, comma, Lich.
I’m leveling my second prot warrior (masochism? moi?) through Terrokar right now, and I have to say, while Nagrand is IMO far and away the prettiest zone in Outland, Terrokar is becoming my favorite. The sheer scale of the wreck of Auchindoun is breathtaking, even seeing it on my sixth different character to make it that far. There’s so much going on in Terrokar, it makes Nagrand feel totally empty.
Grangolvar Village, however, still needs to be nuked from orbit. Repeatedly.
Gotta love those pants!
Ah, Burning Crusade with their Hunks O’ Burning Love!
Glad in LK they hired someone with fasion sense.