Outland: deceptively beautiful. If you let yourself look up at the neighboring planets that seem to be approaching Hellfire Peninsula at an alarming rate for more than a few minutes, you'll find yourself lying dead in the sand--usually due to some sort of demon boar, a sneaky sand monster, or a level 68 Horde Druid who has nothing better to do.
Expanding has been an extremely emotional experience, full of anticipation and regret. I look pretty nifty in that screenshot: I've got my epic mount, most of my Beaststalker armor, and my end-game weapons and pet. Unfortunately, the Expansion has made most of those things obsolete. It was extremely painful to swap my Beaststalker helm for a green item helm with far higher stats. Also, an epic mount is great, but now it's time to start saving up for the flying mount! Lastly, I love my kitty, but I'm sure there are beasts in Outland that will shame him.
The whole process is ultimately depressing. My solution? Tons of quests in Outland and a Draenei alt. If you focus constantly on the pretty new zones and the fact that your level 60 gets XP again, you can distract yourself from the fact that all of the other goals you had in the game are obsolete. Also, Draenei are adorable. Witness exhibit A:
Cimorine is the most adorable thing on the planet. Her horns perfectly match the contour of her hair! She's like what would happen if Satyrs weren't scary and also they were aliens. She looks like a horned dominatrix in this pic, but in reality she is quite cute and nymphlike. Also, I decided to make her a Paladin instead of a hopping on the Shaman bandwagon. A rant will surely be written later about how Pallys exist for the sole purpose of helping other characters.
One of the main downsides to playing a Draenei Paladin is that they still get the stupid Pally armored horse. The fact that it's free is great, but why couldn't Stormwind slap some armor on an Elek for their new Draenei allies instead? I have similar feelings about how there should be Nightrams and and Mechanonightstriders for our non-human Warlock friends if they so choose.
To combat the ugly armored horse fiasco Cimorine will face, I have laid the following plan: endure the ugly horse until a regular Elek can be bought after reaching level 40, and then endure the Elek until the ideal mount can be bought at level 60:
Witness the Talbuk: one of the most adorable mounts Blizzard has created yet. Don't get me wrong: I'm a kittyrider through and through, but the idea of a horned alien riding a horned zebraanteloperamthing makes me happy in ways I can't describe. It shall be mine! That is, if I don't cure this addiction before Cimorine reaches level 60.
To conclude: the Expansion has to be bought. Its pros far outweigh its cons and the fun to be had both in the Draenei beginning zones and in Outland helps soothe the pain of the obsolescence of level 60 goals and attainments. Also, jewelcrafting is the shit.
3 comments:
That last line sounds like a Trevorism.
You touched on a lot of things here that I beat into the dirt in my post below. Which just reinforces that everyone feels about the same about the expansion right now.
I'm glad you're posting again! It's refreshing to have a two-person blog.
Was that a nice way of saying "WTF Maddo why didn't you read my post more carefully before writing your own?" ;). I am *so* braindead.
No! That wasn't it at all! I was making fun of my lengthyness and saying we agreed with each other. =(
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