World of Warcraft Beta 3

By Holliday

This will be the last in the series of my experiences with the Stress Test. For a couple reasons. I was originally planning on a 4 article series since I had a rather large amount of events and experiences that were worth mentioning. But as it turns out shortly after the beta ended a new wave of Closed Beta invitations were sent out. I myself ended up getting not 1 but 2 closed beta invitations so I am now playing in that with some new characters. I gave the other beta invitation to a friend and WoW has again taken over a good portion of my weekly activities.

Upon entering the closed beta I could not keep Filth, my character from the stress test. So my new character I made I decided to choose a new race and class. While my experiences with Filth had instilled a certain draw to both the Warlock Class and Undead race I decided it would be best to get a feel of the whole game to change both. So I choose a rather opposite class, the Warrior, and the Orc race.

I’ll keep this short about the closed beta so I can finish out my Stress Test adventures without dragging this last article on forever. A great surprise to me was how different both the classes and races play. It’s a blessing and a curse I guess since it makes me want to try all combinations. Starting as an orc I figured the quests would be difference since I was in a different part of the world but I thought they would have the same basic goals. I was quite wrong. I did some quests that were not like anything I ever did as an undead warlock. The whole play experience was so much different and again I was caught up in the world and my place in it. Perhaps in another article I will go into what I like about warrior but not now.

Anyways, I covered the tech of sound and visuals last time. This time I will get into the more organic side of the game.

Community

By community I don’t mean the exact players that play the game, but how Blizzard has structured the game for community involvement. World of Warcraft hits the sweet spot between solo and group play. Some MMORPGs treat social grouping with other characters basically just as a way to level a bit faster. Other MMORPGs treat the social aspect as the backbone of the entire game, a risky venture as we can see in Star Wars Galaxies. World of Warcraft makes sure to make the game accessible from all fronts. When you are out by yourself you don’t feel like you are useless or wasting your time. When you are with a group you are usually more focused on what you are trying to accomplish (whether it be a quest or even PvP) rather than “I need to gain X amount of XP”.

WoW simplifies the grouping process with genius results. There is no complex math to work through or supreme group balancing to take care of. You can gather 4-5 people of any class and be successful. However its not to the extent where Healer classes are left hanging. Blizzard thoughtfully made more than one healing class and made them quite able to hold their own rather than just stand in the back and heal. This works well since most MMORPGs are really lacking in players that want to be healers. Healing was often a very boring class to play yet so essential in groups that it created a rather unpleasant group environment.

Recently added to the beta is extended groups called “Raids” which is going to be truly amazing once it comes into the game. The best way I can describe Raids is Armies. The normal group cap is about 5, which you’ll never need more than. But once you have a large amount of people you can turn your group into a Raid. A Raid can consist of 40 people at the moment, perhaps more in the future. Raids can be used for 2 things, 1 is Player Vs Player combat whether on battlefields or in enemy cities. Even more interesting is massive Raid specific events. Like an instanced dungeon that only your raid can participate in. Imagine you and 40 others waging war in some large scenario with multiple goals an what not. Sounds verrrrry interesting.

PvP

Kind of an extension of community, PvP is built into World of Warcraft but not to an extent where players are forced to participate. All servers will have Alliance vs Horde PvP. Blizzard stated that competitive play is so intertwined into the Warcraft universe that it would be ridiculous to have the game without it. But for those who don’t necessarily like to stand toe to toe with other players, they don’t have to. In a standard server a player will be specifically warned when he or she enters a territory where they can be openly attacked by opposing faction players. So players that wish to keep their battles away from live players can, and there is plenty of content for them.

There are also servers designed for more open PvP. From the stress test amount I can assume about 40% of servers will be PvP servers. The Closed beta has 1 PvP and 1 Standard. In the PvP servers, Alliance and Horde are always at war regardless of where they are. As I previously said Raids can be used in PvP for large scale assaults against opposing cities and enemy raid groups. Blizzard had a feature on their beta website a couple days ago about a rather massive staged battle on the Korean beta server. Over 200 players met at specific location and waged a rather impressive war.

To further play like that Blizzard is adding battlefields to the game sometime soon. Battlefields will be on both PvP and normal servers. The battle will go beyond just eliminating the other side. Certain battlefields will have different objectives for each side. Conquering certain points or or holding a location. Blizzard even speaks of much more advanced scenarios with their promised “siege vehicles”. While not ready for launch blizzard guarantees that siege vehicles will be the first content added after launch. They will be units each side can buy to accomplish tasks on battlefields, getting to the point of destroying the other side’s building and such. Sounds a lot like Warcraft from the gruns point of view.

You can view all this PvP info and more here, Blizzard’s write up on PvP plans.

Interface

Just a quick tech bite I wanted to include which I found out today. The interface of WoW is modifiable. There are already 4 or 5 alternate interfaces out on the internet you can download and use with the closed beta. These interfaces offer more customizability as well as new features and layouts. Making certain tasks easier for however the player wishes to play. While I didn’t have many issues with the default WoW interface blizzard ships, after trying a rather popular user made interface calls “Cosmos UI” I couldn’t be more thrilled. If such customizability makes it to the retail release I will be quite happy. Its nice that Blizzard is so dedicated to making this game suit a player’s needs in so many ways.

The Final Chapter of Filth
Blazing Glory

Since we last left our hero much has happened. His skills have increased greatly and he has discovered much of the world that surrounds him. The town of Brill is more home to him than where he started and he has fought many a battle and furthered his cause in many ways. We’ll join our hero as he goes for training in his dark arts at the inn in brill.

As I strode through the doors ever so familiar to me something felt a bit different. I felt as though the next step of my training was something of more importance than I had previously experienced. Once I found my master he mentioned I should have a word with the man in the corner. I had never noticed this man previously but somehow I knew he had always been there. Perhaps the bright yellow exclamation point now above his head made him more noticeable. The man spoke of how great my power was growing and how I may be able to handle some of the more advanced features of the warlock. He told me to speak with another man in the Undercity, a place I had heard of but never been. It was in the ruins of Lorderon. I left immediately.

I found the ruins of Lorderon shortly after and on my approach the walls visible on the horizon were gigantic. Through the gate I entered the remains of a war torn castle. What once had been the pride of the human race was eerie rubble with echos of a glorious past. Nature had taken over the architecture and the courtyard was full of crumbled walls and boulders. I made my way past to the king’s hall where the echos of arguments between the kind and his advisors faded in my ears. At one point I could swear I heard the dark prince “Succeeding” his father. I finally found the entrance to the Undercity guarded by massive abominations. Once inside I realized how large this underground dwelling was. An entire city underground with devious architecture and so many places to go it was a little overwhelming. The signs posted around helped me find my way rather easily and I got to the man mentioned.

He was standing beside a platform that was encircled by a trench of slime. He told me that I may now be able to harness the power of a Voidwalker, a summoned being of great strength. The Runes needed to invoke this voidwalker had been stolen by the pesky Red Guard humans that I have had run-ins with in the past. I agreed to go kill the Captain and retrieve these Runes.

They had taken up camp in the ruins of a tower outpost. I ripped through the guards in the surrounding area to clear away any chance surprises incase things got ugly inside. With such a promising goal I was relentless and nearly exhausted my health when the Captain came at me. As unprepared for this battle as I was I had to improvise and cast Fear upon the captain. The human was weak willed and fled from me, I sent my Imp after him while I chugged a quick potion.

Once the human had his nerve back he engaged my Imp and I caught up to the battle to finish him off with a few curses and shadow bolts. Once he fell I searched his tower to find the Runes in a chest. I ran back to the Undercity to claim my voidwalker.

The man was impressed at my skill and now believed I could harness the power of the voidwalker but first… I had to defeat it. I had to challenge the very beast I intended to control. With the runes I stepped onto the platform in the circle of slime. I called forth the voidwalker and our battle began.

The Voidwalker was obviously a creature based on brute strength as it directly engaged in melee combat. I used every spell and curse I knew to push him back and finally as my life was nearly gone he fell defeated and now under my control.

I emerged from the Undercity with the voidwalker at my side ready to take on whatever the lands of Azeroth could throw at me. Nothing could stop me now! Well except the stress test ending of course.