WoWing Around Again: Forsaken

| Monday, October 17, 2011
Let's start not at the start, with a quest, a murloc quest.

An old Forsaken man is lonely. He has money, but wants a murloc companion. I guess all the dogs around are plagued. So I go to the beach with a leash and instructions to capture a murloc, which of course requires a bit of uh, let's just say pacification. Hit it until it is at low health and then capture it.

What do murlocs do at low health? That's right, they run. Where do they run? Of course toward other murlocs. But not just any murloc, oh no, to the much bigger and more dangerous rare spawn murloc named Muad. I'm not sure who named him.

But to get to the point: I died. Deadered. Then I ran back and found the a minor vilefin oracle has higher relative DPS than me. So I died again. So far I think Blizzard has done an excellent job with the new Forsaken starting experience.

Arise, Octonde, and with your new undeath, do what we tell you to do, because you have free will now.
I wasn't quite sure why the one guy whose name I forgot seemed to instantly fall in line. Sure, I suppose if I was undead I'd join the Forsaken. It's really the only logical thing to do if just about everyone would kill you and there is a group of people who will fight beside you. But the change was so quick, and the mention of the Dark Lady seemed odd. If I found myself undead, my first few thoughts would not include my obligation to help Sylvanas, even if I was planning to join her.

But whatever, at least the guy has hands now.

There is the usual stuff of killing non-threatening wildlife and whatever the local evil is, in this case Scourge who walk in circle.

The murloc almost killed me a third time. Maybe I should learn mutilate off-hand.

I might need it to take on this elite level 5 quests. EPIC FOUR POINT EVISCERATE FOR 43 damage and I live with only a few health left. Go me.

It felt good bringing him the murlock.

Oh hey, a Redpath. I remember those fellas. They're all dead, except maybe the one at Light's Hope, unless he somehow died too. My guess is that Varian killed him, because that's what he does, kill things to ruin everything. Like Onyxia. I'm still bitter about that retcon. Anyway, the Redpath decided to start a faction of Forsaken, but clearly failed at his goal of "having elbows" and so of course I killed him.

And then I went to go kill more farmers and steal their pumpkins, because sometime tradition is important.

A Scarlet Letter
Poor Lillian, scared to be undead. So stubborn. Why? Of course no one likes being killed and then raised as a walking corpse, but she seemed unusually resistant, without being one of the mindless types.

Hey, spoilers!

The daughter of the High Priest of the Scarlet Crusade. Wow. Now that's an interesting situation. The Crusade was at least nice enough to capture, until orders, from her father, ordered her to be killed. But what a strange thing to say "You were too dangerous in life, and now you're far too dangerous in death." What was she? He called her a witch, as if he knew of something. She killed him with some sort of dark energy. Yep, sounds just like the new Scarlet Crusade!
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Protip: there are a bunch of sea cucumbers clustered under the big rocks.

Poor Gordo never got his gloomweed. Why do they keep sending him to pick herbs?

Somehow the rare spawn Lost Soul gave me 1200 xp. Unrested, no heirlooms, no hacked-in xp potions from the f2p future. For reference, level 7-8 requires 4500 xp. Looking it up on wowhead I learned that multiples can spawn, so of course I had to go find them. I found one and it gave 900xp. Hm. Less because it was lower level? I didn't check on either one. Or is this some strange diminishing return mechanic so we don't farm it for levels? I need a third one to see if I get 600. While I'm at it, a fourth and fifth to see if I can hit zero. For science! Log in the next day and kill one for 1237, obviously that includes some rested, but my combat log isn't showing the xp, so I can't subtract the rested. But clearly not headed for 600, or zero. A level 7 one was up and gave 1200 xp. They all give 6-slot bags. Totally worth killing! Except this science experiment has put me a level off the curve, plus whatever the screwed up leveling was doing anyway.

Apparently Lillian has been busy. By "busy" I mean "busy killing over a dozen Scarlet Crusade." That's pretty impressive for an NPC. Plot doesn't have that much killing very often. On the way there I was surprised at how many darkhounds carry small vials of blood inside themselves.

Dealing with the Worgen infiltrators was pretty neat. I liked that they didn't do the usual "they have stealth but really weak so you see them from across the town", but instead had some dust clouds to see them by.

Leper gnome! Aw, he's so cute. I wonder if he's being literal when he ask if I've "drained them of their ichor", I assumed the gnolls carried it in their pockets, not their veins. He's a smart little guy though. He knows that the offspring always seek revenge, so logically I should go scare... tadpoles. But why does it work while stealthed? Either they can't see me, or they can, and what is less frightening than a rogue failing a stealth check?

At level 11 the quests are still of a reasonable level. I hope that is maintained.

Lillian Voss continues to be a badass. I'll leave it at that.

Time for Silverpine!

5 comments:

Rades said...

I hope you stick with the zone and see the Lilian storyline through to its conclusion. I think it's one of the best mini storylines Blizz has introduced in Cataclysm. She's become one of my favorite characters, and is actually who my fiction contest entry was about. :D

Nils said...

But to get to the point: I died. Deadered. Then I ran back and found the a minor vilefin oracle has higher relative DPS than me. So I died again. So far I think Blizzard has done an excellent job with the new Forsaken starting experience.

Didn't I tell you? :)

Unknown said...

I liked that quest and, indeed the whole starting zone for the Forsaken. Great story and I think it is the best starting zone in the game. I would've like my own Murloc pet, but oh well.

I had assumed that the rare murloc was nod to Muad'Dib and I silently added a title to Muad of 'of the deep' to add to the reference.

There is also a rare crab in the Badlands named Crusty and I felt bad for killing him on my kids behalf.

flosch said...

Hmm... Now that I forgot to cancel my account, I might give the Forsaken experience another try.

Never was a huge fan of them, and became even less of one when they got revamped. I really liked the rickety dilapidated style of their villages, and not so much the forsaken gothic they have now.

But you're the second person after Nils to call the Forsaken starter experience one of the better. So maybe I'll give them another chance.

Klepsacovic said...

@Rades: My writing may have been ambiguous. I finished the zone; I just didn't want to spoil all the fun.

@Corey Hunt: You're probably right about Muad'dib. Blizzard likes nodding.

@flosch: Give them a chance. The buildings might not be dilapidated anymore, but I assure you, they are more Forsaken than ever.

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