With all the new zones and quests implemented in the last patch, I started a new character in World of Warcraft last Friday. I was torn between creating a Tauren Paladin and Priest. In the end, I just settled for a Priest. When I had completed the quests in Mulgore, I wondered where to go next. I didn’t want to go to Azshara, as I’m planning to take my Goblin there in Cataclysm. I didn’t want to go to Northern Barrens either, because it still looks depressingly similar to… the Barrens.
My girlfriend wondered why I didn’t go to Silverpine instead then. I quickly decided she was a genius, I had already seen all changes made to the zone with one of my other characters and was very impressed with it, and took the Zeppelin ride from Orgrimmar to Undercity. Absolutely nothing had me prepared for what I would experience on my adventures in the gloomy forest of Silverpine!
The zone tells the story of the Forsaken battling against the Worgen of Gilneas. Fairly soon I got to meet with Lady Sylvanas herself as she waited for the Warchief, Garrosh, to show up. Sylvanas shows Garrosh the power of the Valk’yr from Northrend. She lets them raise a number of dead as Forsaken. Naturally Garrosh doesn’t like this and wonders, perhaps rightfully so, what makes her different from the Lich King now. Sylvanas however, doesn’t think much of Garrosh and pursuits her own goals regardless.
From that moment on I worked for Lady Sylvanas and helped her in the battle against Gilneas. I felt a little uneasy during some quests. I wondered how I could have gone from the relatively peaceful plains of Mulgore to this dark and foreboding war on the other side of the world. I had envisioned my priest as a noble Tauren, skilled in the powers healing and defending allies. Instead, I found myself gliding down the path of shadow, inciting terror in the heart of men (or in this case, Worgen) and aiding Lady Sylvanas and her dark cause.
All too soon I found myself in a situation where Sylvanas gave the Worgen leader, Crowley, a choice. A choice she had never been allowed to make: retreat his forces or see his very own daughter be raised as a Forsaken to serve her in undeath for all of eternity. I felt a little dirty. I had kidnapped his daughter and I had brought her to Sylvanas, although admittedly I had a little help with that. Help from former enemies who had been raised as Forsaken (yep, thanks to my help… again).
At the end, Gilneas is lost and I felt as if I had took part in a real war. Never had I experienced anything similar. I felt like shouting POWER TO THE FORSAKEN! I almost regretted I had made a Tauren instead of an Undead Priest!
On a more personal note, Lady Sylvanas has become my absolute favourite faction leader. With Thrall stepping down as Warchief and leaving a brute like Garrosh Hellscream in charge, I felt a little unhinged. I had always seen Thrall as the absolute leader of the Horde. No… Thrall is the Horde. He is the symbol of all the forces united under a single banner. With him gone, the factions are slowly crumbling and no longer solidly united. In a way, it could be said I felt leaderless. Not anymore though! Sylvanas showed herself as a solid and strong leader, although her cause might be a little… questionable?
My goodness, these quests were just awesome! I can only hope the rest of Cataclysm is going to be equally impressive! I might actually start to like questing!
In the weekend I have played a “bit” of Starcraft 2. I had a bit of fun, with a mate, playing 2v2 games. We started off with trying to beat the AI on the ‘Very Hard’ difficulty. Without much success! We ended up getting slaughtered by the AI for a couple of games in a row!
He convinced me to try some online play instead. We did a few matches in the practice league and after a number of games we got placed in the silver league. No clue why we didn’t get placed into the bronze league, but what the heck! After another few games we came to the conclusion that we had been placed in the wrong league. We couldn’t win a thing and generally didn’t stand much of a chance against our opponents! Luckily, I’m not fussed about competitive play (yet), so it was all good fun for me.
Later on in the evening I tried my luck against a ‘Very Hard’ AI opponent in a 1vs1 game. I had never played the AI on that skill level yet and to my surprise I managed to win! Even though I had a bit of luck as you will be able to see in the video below. My luck was that I missed the enemy army when I was on the way to their base. And so, before I got to attack them, I got surprised by a reasonably sized army in my base. I hesitated shortly, not sure what I should do, and settled for a do-or-die approach by just going into their base and do whatever damage I could. I was happily surprised to find them retreating as soon as I started my attack.
The first thing I did was take out the pylons powering their gateways to stop reinforcements. With a bit of luck I managed to survive the battle with a single void ray when the enemy army arrived back at their base. I used it to harass and destroy pylons and gateways before they were able to be built up again. I sent in another wave of zealots with another void ray and won the match! Yay!
I’m starting to like this game!
A wet, dark, early Wednesday morning.
I’m rushing to the train station in the hopes of still catching my train. Once I’m on the platforms, I see the signs: 10 minutes delay. Wonderful! Ten minutes later, no train still. Ten minutes turned to fifteen and eventually to twenty before the train finally showed up. A huge mass of people swarmed to the train; crushing, pushing and pulling their way inside, hoping for a place to sit. Due to the delays I missed my connecting train. The consequence of this, of course, is the next train with the exact same symptoms; a huge mass of people crushing, pushing and pulling their way inside.
I felt disgusted at the behaviour of the masses. Civilization my ass! The anti-social side of my is done with civilization for the day – and it’s only 10AM yet…
