Game changing event - SPOILER

[Naethyn]

So we finished the zone dragonblight last night. Lots of quests. 140+ After all were complete we found a quest leading to the deathgate in the north by Ice Crown (Lich king's house). We had no idea what was about to happen, but it was nothing short of awesome.



After this cutscene we head to ogrimmar to find thrall and sylvannas talking about the undercity being taken over by Varithamas and this plauge guy. We fought an EPIC battle to retake the undercity. At this point we found ourselves fighting with Thrall and Sylvanas. They owned and they also super buffed us so we were basically unkillable.

When we did kill Varithamas the king of the Alliance was at our footsteps! He and thrall fought and then Jayana Proudmore came in and teleported them all away. It was by far the most fun I've ever had in a quest ever.

But now the world has changed. The undercity is in ruin and ogrimmar is flooded with refugees. I am now unable to see the old undercity and ogrimmar nor see the people who've not done this quest while in the major cities. It is a game changing event and it owned.

Ps. General Arlos dies =p

[Arlos]

General Arlos dies in undercity as part of the horde version of the quest? Awwww....

Well, at least I have a major role.

The alliance version of the final battle quest, you go in with Varian and Jaina, and clear into undercity, and fight Putress, head of the alchemical society. Varian sees what's been going on in undercity (lots of bodies of humans that have been used for unspeakable experiments, etc), and when combined with his time being a pit gladiator slave, he goes a bit berserk, declares war on the horde, and charges Thrall. Jaina then ports everyone out.

By the way, the fact that the world has changed is an example of what they call Phasing Technology. Basically, it's individualized instancing, based on character flags. So, when you complete quests, you see one version, anyone who hasn't sees the other.

-Arlos

[Maeya]

That is pretty damn cool.

[Arlos]

Which, the quest line or the phasing technology? heh.

Both are incredibly cool, IMHO. It really gives the player that single-player RPG feel of having your actions actually impact the world around you, and put you at the center of the storyline. Yet with the phasing technology, they can give that exact same experience to EVERYONE, not just the first group to do the quest.

They use that technology pretty heavily in the Death Knight starting area for the tutorial questline, and all over the place for other quests too, not just that Wrath Gate questline. For example, the whole Sons of Hodir sequence uses it. As you complete quests for them, their keep and the area around it changes dramatically, as you complete quests.

They really have done some AMAZING stuff in this expansion. There are some seriously cool new quests and types of quests even. There's not one, but 2 separate daily quests where you fly a dragon into aerial combat against other dragons. They've also introduced a MUCH darker tone into the game, as seen by deaths of major figures in that Wrathgate quest, along with one where you have to torture a prisoner, and one where you're sent to kill someone who turns out to have been forced into her job, and she's secretly been sabotaging it, and you only learn it from a "if you're reading this daddy, I'm dead" letter you find on her body.

-Arlos

[Tuggan]

I was seriously impressed with the Deathknight starting area, and quests. Raiding Undercity was also really impressive, I want Jaina's buff. The interactive mounts, and weapons/vehicles are badass too. I've been really impressed with this expansion. I haven't even encountered any serious bugs yet. Content wise I give it a 10/10.

I hate my warlock now though, the affliction rotations are ridiculous in PVE. Slight lag and you drop from the dmg meter with no coming back. I won't even get started on how stupid burst damage and PVP is, getting killed by melee in like 12 seconds sucks

[vonkaar]

I'm not planning on coming back or anything, but... can anyone give an opinion on how the shaman has been treated in this expansion? Viable class? Fun? Enhancement especially...

[Naethyn]

I have a friend who plays an enhancement shaman. They got buffed more than any other class. They absolutely own DPS. No one is higher. Ever. He also heals more than my pal because the end talent spawns two wolfs that do damage and heal the group. It's fucking crazy. Str, Agi, AND int all give attack power. They get 30% spell power based off attack power. Spell power counts towards heals and nukes. Crit counts towards melee and spell.

They are fucking rape. He does 3k DPS.

By far the most OP class.

[Maeya]

Enhancement shaman are SO much fun. I am not a very good player as far as minmaxing and being able to give you solid numbers, but some of the changes that they made that *I* appreciate are:

-Lightening shield no long casts mana, and with talents you can get up to 9 charges. Additionally your talents allow your shield to have a chance to zap your target even without them hitting you, so if you're in a raid situation, you still get some dps benefit from your shield.
-Summonable wolf combat pets that heal you (edit: Naethyn says they heal the whole group? That's cool, I didn't know that part) and damage your target, 3 min cooldown
-Threat reducing no damage shock
-A talent that reduces your cast time by 20% each time it procs, stackable up to 5 times (100% cast time reduction), which works on both lightening spells AND heals
-Totems last 5 minutes now, and work raid-wide
-Unleashed rage (talent) is raid-wide

I was only geared in Kara gear & badge stuff, but my DPS easily saw around a 25% increase simply from the changes in the mechanics.

I love, love, LOVE my enhancement shaman. Only complaint is that I run out of mana pretty easily, but then I just pop my Shamanistic Rage and gain it all back in 10 seconds.

[Naethyn]

what server maeya?

come play ner'zhul!

[Maeya]

I've been on Durotan since day 1 There's probably no way I'll ever switch servers, since I'm so established. Too lazy to start over!!

[Arlos]

Not even fully in L80 gear (I've still got L70 shoulders and an L70 ring), and without a single piece of even 10-man Naxx gear, last night in a 25-man raid, I was doing over 3700 dps vs Patchwerk as an enhancement shaman.

The much better-geared enh shammy in the guild cracked 5k on the same fight, and was regularly #1 on the DPS meters. I was #8 that fight, ahead of some better geared people of other classes.

So yes, enh shamen are certainly viable if played well.

-Arlos

[vonkaar]

That's cool... glad to hear it =).

I think the main thing about enh was that it was so much fun to play, but I always felt like Blizzard hated my subclass. That's cool that it's a capable class nowadays.

[Dylan]

Yeah well, I almost beat Deadmines. So there.

[Jay]

Hunters destroy everything, including enhance shaman. However, next patch we're getting nerfed into oblivion.