Investigative Gaming

Issue 3: World of Warcraft, Part 3

Since our last dissertation,  I've put in the time to get a character of each class and race up to at least level 10. Some of my favorites, other then the human Paladin I mentioned last article, include my human Warlock and my gnome Rogue. My dwarvin warrior was completely disappointing.  I completely expected to be able to go toe-to-toe with most like-level-or-lower baddies, but it became evident that anytime I wandered anywhere, I got the ire of any baddies within 50 yards, so I was unable to get any fair fights. He also did less damage then most of my other classes at his level, and died too easily. I'm not sure what the casual player is supposed to do if they want to solo a warrior without learning all of the intricate ins-and-outs of the game's talent system. The talents themselves are great, but you need to make about six characters to try and find out what works for your style, which isn't fun, since you have to get to level 10 just to start. The horde races are naturally darker in tone, but you can't tell me it's not funny to click on an orc peon and hear the old Warcraft unit comments, proving that this development team has a sense of humor, even with it's 'evil' races. My only complaint in the races themselves lies in the limited appearances. You will too often see similar looking characters as you spend your time playing.

I've found that there seems to be a limbo level for soloists around 20 or so. My human Paladin has been sitting at 21 forever because he's done all of the lower-level quests he can get to but is too weak to handle the higher level quests. The answer? Grind out more levels by killing random things. Gavelier is my Paladin, and I've trekked him across the map, from the human areas of Elwynn Forest and Redridge to the dwarven lands of Dun Morogh up through the Wetlands and to the shores of Dustwallow Marsh, and he's still at 21. I finally killed enough Blackrock Orcs to complete a quest near Lakeshire in Redridge by getting 10 battleworn axes - after dying some 5 times - and yet he's stuck at level 21. It's enough to make me want to pass on him. My warlock - seen in the picture here - was able to complete quests that my paladin had trouble with thanks to his minions, but he's running out of quests he can do as well. I've also noticed that the human lands are the best areas for early levelling, with the most quests that a single lower-level character can complete. Grouping is quick and easy but can be tedious since most people seem to be me-first and me-last. It took me forever to kill a Satyr in the Night Elven homeland of Teldrassil because no one wanted to cooperate and it was a race to kill him first. This, sadly, is too often the case, with most everyone out for themselves.

About the proffesions, I've found that they all seem to have a value to the right character. Also, with more then one character on a server, you can have them team up by mailing goods back and forth, so long as they're both of same faction. For example, my Night Elf druid gets cloth from all my other alliance characters so he can work on his tailoring, and he sends back clothes and bags.

To conclude this chapter, the different characters and races are great in their diversity, but the game reaches a point where the it becomes work after a certain amount of time, if you're not into the whole leveling aspect. Teaming up with other players makes this easier, but good luck picking the good folks out of the slew of bums. I'll do my best to wrap this article up next chapter. Look forward to it. Alphasim out.

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