Howling Fjord vs Borean Tundra: Where Should You Start?
Galoheart posted some good views and tips on the leveling experience from 70-80. I figured I'd weight in my opinion on the debate between starting in Borean Tundra or started in Howling Fjord.
Let me first just get out of the way that you are going to want to do both starting zones to get the full picture of what's going on. The order that I quested in beta was Borean Tundra to Howling Fjord to Grizzly Hills to the Dragonblight to Zul'drak and from there I would have gone to Sholazar Basin to the Storm Peaks and the culmination at Icecrown Glacier.
Borean Tundra and Howling Fjord span the same levels (69-72). The Grizzly Hills and the Dragonblight span the same amount of levels (73-76). Sholazar Basin and Zul'drak span the same amount of levels (76-79). And finally, The Storm Peaks and the Icecrown Glaicer span the same levels (79-80). In essence, if you ran a lot of instances, you could go straight from 70-80 doing just one half of Northrend. I don't think this is best way as I hit 80 about halfway through Zul'drak in my journey and that left three and a half zones for me to quest for gold.
Now the question on a lot of peoples minds (I know some people located this blog by searching the question in Google), is whether they should start in Howling Fjord or Borean Tundra. I'll give you a nice set of pros and cons for each zone.
Borean Tundra
Borean Tundra is on the west side of Northrend. The Horde get here from the zeppelin tower outside Orgrimmar and the Alliance get here from Stormwind Harbor.
Borean Tundra is the launch point of the orcs lead by Garrosh Hellscream and Overlord Saurfang. The main enemies you face are blue dragons, nerubians, magnataur, Nessingwary hunters, and generic undead Scourge forces.
I think that majority of people are going to hit Borean Tundra first. Orgrimmar and Stormwind are more popular than the Undercity or going to Menethil Harbor. So expect to see Borean Tundra crawling with people. Borean Tundra is also quite ugly. A mixture of whites, reds and browns make up the color palette.
On the upside though, the initial quests in Borean Tundra will give you more experience than the ones in Howling Fjord. The initial Borean quests all give 20k experience each, with the initial Howling Fjord ones giving only 12k each. (Note: I only know this from early beta, so they may have retuned the experience rewards since then). If you're in need of weapons, Borean Tundra has a quick questline that culminates in a blue weapon that is fairly simple to get through.
The variety of quests in Borean Tundra is also a bit more exciting as well, having multiple quests that give you control of siege weapons.
There is one level 70 instance here where you fight the Blue Dragonflight.
Howling Fjord
Howling Fjord is on the east side of Northrend. The Horde get here from the zeppelin tower outside the Undercity and the Alliance get here from Menethil Harbor.
Howling Fjord is the launch point of the Forsaken and their quest for a plague. The main enemies you face are Vykul and Dark Iron Dwarves.
I am expecting that Howling Fjord will be the less populated place just because more people just have the instinct to go to Northrend as soon as possible and their habits lead them to Orgrimmar and Stormwind and not Undercity and Menethil.
I do think that Howling Fjord is a much more beautiful zone. Sweeping green hills and lots of trees as well as a great soundtrack as well. It just doesn't have as many quests as Borean Tundra. But while the quests are less varying in style, they aren't short on lore.
Howling Fjord also has one level 70 instance where you fight the Vykul.
Synopsis
All in all, it just depends on your own personal preference. I expect for the first couple days Borean Tundra will be as bad as Hellfire Peninsula was whereas Howling Fjord, while busy, won't be nearly as populated. If you're trying to rush to 80, I think Howling Fjord would be the path (even though the quests are less experience initially there will be less competition). I know some people that are set on Howling Fjord first because they can't wait to see the Forsaken lore and fight with vikings. I know others that are dead set on Borean Tundra because they love the orcs and the Blue Dragonflight.
If you have any other questions about the zone, just leave a question in the comments.
How to Fix the Warhammer Open World RvR Problem
While I don't play Warhammer myself, I do spend a lot of time reading Warhammer blogs (don't ask me why). The general consensus is that scenarios are killing open world RvR.
Personally, I think there is a solution to this. Having never played the game myself, I could be completely wrong but I figured I'd throw in my own opinion. Also, since I have no idea what kind of numbers certain things actually account for, I'll be making a great deal of assumptions.
From everything I have been reading, people are saying that there is very little open world RvR and people doing PvE questing because running scenarios (or battlegrounds as they're called in WoW) is just too time to experience efficient.
On the PvE front, I think Warhammer should stick to its bread and butter of RvR and leave PvE as something of a nice distraction to do when there isn't a major battle going on (but if everything worked out properly, this would be never because remember, War should be everywhere). Public quest, while very neat in concept, I think are better left for a game like WoW which has more of a PvE focus since the more people you have going PvE, the less people you have doing RvR.
Now on to how to deal with scenarios. Let's say at level 20 it takes you 200,000 experience to get to 21. Let's also assume that every person you kill gives you 200 experience and every scenario you win gives you 10,000 while if you lose, you gain 5000 experience. We will assume that a scenario takes roughly 30 minutes to complete, you're winning as many as you lose, and in each scenario, you're getting 30 kills (one kill a minute). Now I know that these numbers are completely off from what is really in the game, but I'm going to show how I would balance open world RvR based on these numbers.
If you had instant queues on scenarios, on an hourly basis you would be gaining 15000 experience just from scenarios (one win, one loss per hour) and 12000 experience power hour from kills. This would give you a grand total of 27000 experience per hour, allowing you to gain a level in just under eight hours.
So if you are going to make open world RvR important, you're going to have to make it so people can do purely open world RvR and level faster than this. A good goal would be one level in every six to seven hours as well as offering additional benefits.
I think the best way to get people out into the field is offer very rewarding quests for attacking and defending keeps. With this situation, I'm going to make the assumption that a keep siege will last one hour, within this hour, you will get 60 kills at 200 experience per kill. The way to get people out there would be offer a quest at war camps for people to overtake keeps. The problem with this however is people would just go to abandoned keeps, so the quest would have to be something along the lines of "Go kill the Keep Lord and get 40 player kills as well" with a reward of about 25000 experience.
Now you need to offer a quest given from the Keep Lord to defenders that is something along the lines of "Get 60 kills of attackers within the Keep" with a reward of about 25000 experience. Both of these quest would be infinitely repeatable. Killed 60 attackers? Go turn in the quest and get it again to go kill 60 more. Hold them off forever!
Assuming you're always victorious, you would receive 37000 experience per hour (25000 from quest, 12000 from kills). So people would be gaining a level in just under six hours if always victorious.
While these numbers would need some serious tuning based on how long keep sieges and scenarios last, this would move the cheese from the scenarios and into the open world. People who have a longer time commitment (at least an hour) would be doing keep sieges while those that don't have much time (about a half hour) would do scenarios, so you know those wouldn't be barren.
I would also suggest two more things:
1 - I think that controlling the keeps of a tier should give a buff to all members that fall in that tier (i.e. tier 1 keeps give buffs to all those 1-10 no matter where they are in the world, and so on and so on). For each keep your faction controls, you gain an extra 5% bonus experience, renown and gold and your enemy loses 5% of any bonus experience, renown and gold. Not in the way that they lose from their regular 100% of gold, experience and renown, but in that they can't receive a buff from a keep. For instance, if each side only controlled one keep, no one would be receiving any bonus. If one side controlled two keeps and the other controlled zero, the side controlling two keeps would receive 10% bonus. If one side controlled two keeps and the other side controlled one keep, the side controlling two keeps would be receiving the 5% bonus. If Order controlled 6 keeps in a tier, they'd be getting +30% experience, gold and renown. As Destruction, if you took one keep, you wouldn't be gaining any bonus but you'd be getting rid of the bonus Order got. They would have gone from +30% to +20%, that is something that will get people out to keeps to viciously defend.
2 - Notorious Killers. Let's say that killing someone at level 20, gives someone 200 experience. Set a threshold, say 10 kills. Once someone gets 10 kills without dying, they become a "notorious killer" and every time that person gets another kill, the value of killing them goes up by 20%. So if you're at 15 kills, you're now worth 400 experience to people. Also, to make notorious killers easier to spot, make them grow in size (of course have an upper limit on how big they can get). So now whenever you're in a battle and see some huge dwarf, you know they're worth more experience than everyone else around them. It'd add a little spice to the mix.
Whew... this actually ended up being a lot longer than I initially expected. Anyway, let me know what you think. Am I completely crazy or would a system like this work. It doesn't seem like it would be that hard to implement. It's just a couple of quests coding in a buff.
The Plague Has Been Cured!
As we saw the progress with Grand Apothecary Putress yesterday, it finally seems like a cure has been found for the plague.
Tigole weighs in on the matter:
We'd like to thank players for participating so zealously (and valiantly!) during the Great Zombie Plague of '08. Our intention with this event was to create something memorable and to literally change the face of Azeroth for a few days. This event is just one of many leading up to Wrath of the Lich King. As you know, the Scourge Invasion is now live as well and there is some other cool stuff coming up before all is said and done. Also, Hallow's End continues on!
While we recognize that the event could prove to be disruptive at times, we hope you made the most out of it while it lasted. Part of playing in a "living and breathing world" means that things are going to change from time to time. We meant no harm but only wanted to create a lasting impression on players as they head to Northrend to defeat the Lich King. The Lich King's goals (as you will soon learn) are to turn the Horde and Alliance not only on one another, but on their own kind as well. I think the plague truly demonstrated this firsthand.
So it looks like a cure has finally been found… for now.
Thank you for participating in our most memorable event to date… for better or for…. brrrrrrraaaaaains…
Couple of other important notes:
- The scourge invasion will continue for a few more days.
- The prologue event is not over! More to come!!
- The Karazhan boss will be up for approximately another week still
- We increased the respawn rate of the Necropoli
- Zombie cure should kick in by around noon PST
One thing I find interesting is his words of "...for now." It looks like we have a lot of things to look forward to over the next three weeks. Perhaps the last 72 hours we'll see the return of the zombies? I can only hope.
Grand Apothecary Putress Makes His Appearance – A Cure For The Plague Soon?
So it appears that a new phase in the zombie invasion has come to be. Grand Apothecary Putress is now on the scene working on a cure. You may remember him from the event that shall not be named. WoWInsider.com is reporting that there is a new questline to research a cure for the plague that involves faction leaders. The night elf questline even reports rumors of yet another World Tree in Northrend.
WotLK Beta Blog – Zul’drak
The image gallery for this post can be found here.
This is most likely the last post I'm going to be making about the beta (aside from the end of beta event of course). At this point there isn't much else to say about it now that most of the mechanics from beta are on the live servers and everyone is busy getting their achievements.
I hardly logged onto beta at all anymore. I didn't do all the instances but I did all but two zones. I didn't want to start instance or quest grinding only to redo it on live. There are those that are running heroics and raids daily on beta; I just don't understand that mentality. Plus, I've been busy leveling with Regina. Our characters are 68 now and I want to get her to 70 and get some Kara/ZA/whatever else runs in before WotLK so she can see a little of what I have always spent so much time doing.
Zul'Drak is the home kingdom of the Ice Trolls. While there are two really epic questlines, everything else is generally more of the same. You get the resolution to the Drakuru questline as well as a great questline that deals with what the Ice Trolls have been doing to their gods. The Argent Dawn and Knights of the Ebon Blade both have a large presence here. The Argent Dawn base is now also home to Eitrigg. This zone does have the Gun'drak instances so I don't expect this place to be completely forgotten, but like Grizzly Hills, I expect it will probably be one of the lesser talked about zones of the expansion.
The Lich King’s Invasion Continues – Phase 4 Reached
Well throughout the week, the plague has been spreading. What started as crates in Booty Bay spread to crates and roaches in the cities. The plague's incubation time went from ten minutes, down to five minutes and is now down to two minutes as the event continues. Necropoli have started attacking Azeroth and there is a new quest in Light's Hope Chapel to go kill a new boss in Karazhan.
More can be found at MMO-Champion.com
Recap of Z-Day – Day 1 of the Zombie Apocalypse
Braaaaaaaaiiiiiiinnnnsssss!
So we got to have some fun with the Wrath of the Lich King event that started last night. After picking up the disease, about 10 of us met outside Orgrimmar to mess with all the people dueling. I went first and bubbled (to instantly convert myself to a zombie) and blew myself up before I got killed so I could infect everyone in the area. The rest of us turned to zombies but were quickly dispatched by the local good samaritans.
We decided to reform outside the Crossroads and this was when our group started picking up steam. Before too long, we had a full 40man raid of zombies completely devastating the Crossroads. All guards were turned into zombies. I almost feel bad for the lowbies there. If they walked into the Crossroads, they would get attacked by the level 40 zombies. They couldn't turn in quests because the quest givers were zombies, they couldn't fly out because the flight master was a zombie, and they couldn't trick or treat because the innkeeper was a zombie. I even heard reports of people going to starting zones and killing the guards and quest givers, making lowbies unable to leave the level 1-5 area.
After about a half hour of fun at the crossroads, we made a ghoulish pilgrimage north. In short order we had overrun Astranaar and made our way to Auberdine. We took over a ship and set sail for Darnassus. The level 75 guards proved to be fairly easy for a full raid of zombies to take down, and plus, they were level 70 zombies when turned. After taking down a multitude of guards outside Darnassus, we killed the server. We logged in 10 minutes later to find half of our raid dead and the other half still zombies. We regrouped and marched our way through night elf capitol. Destroying anything in our path, we made our way to Tyrande. Unfortunately for us, she was immune to the plague and could one shot zombies. We regrouped in normal form and tried a regular attempt at her with no success before disbanding for the night.
I think one of the greatest things about this whole event is when you turn someone of the opposite faction, they become friendly to you. You can talk (in Zombie speak) and even trade with them. It is very funny to see the confusion of someone who has been turned for the first time.
I can't wait to see where things go from here. I expect this event to grow in proportion and maybe even see a mutation of the plague.
The Zombie Apocalypse Has Begun – WotLK World Event
What appears to be the Wrath of the Lich King world event has begun on live servers, as reports MMO-Champion.
Update 00:00 CEST - Event is going live on ALL servers !!!!!!
Wrath of the Lich King - World Event
As I write this news, it looks like the pre-Wrath of the Lich King world event has been started on one of the US live servers, we're still unsure if it's just an error or if Blizzard is testing the event on a few servers. Below is a small preview of what to expect during this event .... You can probably expect more updates in the next hours if the event is extended to all realms.
- Zombies will randomly spawn in the world (and near cities) and infect anyone they damage.
- People infected by zombies can either get cured by other players or by Argent Healers deployed in most of the zones.
- If a player or NPC isn't cured within 10 minutes ... He will turn into a zombie !
- Players changed into zombies have access to a new set of skills to let them attack and infect other players. They become friendly with other zombies and hostile to all player factions.
Also ...
- Don't waste your time finding and creating a level 1 on this server, being hostile with all player factions also means that guards will kill you on sight and pretty much instantly in the case of a level 1 character.
- This is probably just the first part of the world event, it doesn't look fully deployed at all
You might want to get ready for some serious zombie invasion in the next days ....
Building My Dream MMO Part 2 – Factions and Races
For now the name I have come up with for this MMO is "Dawn of Steam" or DoS. I don't think it's perfect but it will serve for now.
This is a section that I both like and dislike things done in Warhammer Online and World of Warcraft. On problem with both of these games is population balance. Every Warhammer realm as a huge imbalance with far more Destruction than Order. WoW on the other hand has far more Alliance than Horde, but its impact is far less significant in WoW. I think that the only true way to find balance is for three factions. In this way when one rises to power and begins to dominate, the other two can band together and fight them.
One thing though is that I am over the Good/Evil viewpoint of factions. I don't think any faction should be seen as the "good guys" or the "bad guys" and each faction should be a wide spectrum of views. This also helps to eliminate some of the roleplayer restrictions in my mind.
DoS's world is made up of three different factions. Each faction, while neither right or wrong, has very different viewpoints on how the world should be run. The names of the following factions are just things I came up with fairly quickly and would probably need changing.
The Julians (based off Jules Verne), would be the truly steampunk faction. Filled with engineers and scientists, these ones use technology and gadgets to revolutionize the world. They use guns, sci-fi style melee weapons, and gadgets to fight their fights.
The Organics is the magical faction. Attuned to nature, the Organics have forsaken the rising technology and bustling cities and have taken to living in nature. They use elemental magic and animals for their fighting.
The Synthetics are outcasts. They are the bi-product of the Julians. A mixture of people with implants, androids, and beings changed forever by technological disasters. They are the outcasts that aren't welcome with the Julians or the Organics. This race will be the somewhat sci-fi race in the way that they've been forever changed and mutated so they have abilities that wouldn't seem to fit in the world. In most cases, their weapons are body attachments and they can summon beings from beyond the void.
Now faction is the first and foremost decision you make in DoS. Before you even pick your race, you need to know with whom your loyalties lie. Race is almost insignificant. Each side contains all the races of the game. I think that's about all there is to the three factions. The next article in this series will be about the different classes.
3.0.2 is Tomorrow!
WoW servers will be down for extra extended maintenance tomorrow (2am to 2pm). So that can only mean that the new patch is landing.