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First Impressions
BadSpock
Member UncommonPosts: 7,979
So yesterday I got myself into the first instance of The Burning Crusade: Hellfire Citadel-The Ramparts
Straight forward, fairly easy. Very linear progression, just about watching for patrols, pulling correctly, and crowd control in the larger pulls.
Boss fights were pretty good, the first being a simple "pull and gank." The second boss fight was pretty cool, had a rubber-banding ability that shot a player off (uber knockback) then pulled them back in, this boss also summoned demons to assist, though we got three hellhounds which go down really fast. I guess he can summon Succubus who tend to charm the healer, that would cause some frantic action. Main boss gets off his flying mount, pretty straight forward gankage. His pet will fly around and drop little fire bomb things that can really mess ya up if you don't move out of the fire, so it requires everyone to pay attention and the main tank to move the boss as neccessary. When he is almost dead the dragon will land and again it's very straight forward ganking time.
Loot was pretty darn good too, lots of nice green drops, boss loot was very good blues. Had a nice quest reward for killing three bosses, some plate shoulders (for me) that were blue and better then my epic Arathi Basin PVP shoulders.
Best part of the instance was that it was very short. Just one wing of I think two. Took no more then an hour, hour and 15mins to run through.
So first impression of new instanced content in BC? Excellent. Absolutely excellent.
Comments
from a design perspective it's very smart to have the first wing of the first instance in the expansion to be somewhat easy and straight forward.
now i've been a long time raider and got enough gear/skill to consider HFC: rampart to be easy, though there were a few tricky parts that might be more challenging for others.
It's so smart from a design perspective because everyone with a 60 who buys the expansion is going to get into HFC:rampart fairly soon, so it can't be ridiculously challenging or it will turn a lot of more casual players off
so it's excellent in that it is accessable and provides a perfect glimpse into the direction Blizzard has taken the expansion, which is further strengthening the core points of the game while still providing challenge and excitement in the form of new and varied content.
also, a LOT more voice acting done, every boss would say stuff when the fight started, during the fight, and had some kind of "death speech" which is pretty amazing. I mean no one will care after the fourth or fifth time but it's very cool the first time around.
i remember first time I went into Ragefire Chasm in Ogrimarr, ya know, the level like 10-15 instance lol and thought it was SOOO amazing. And it really was because no other game had done anything like it before. The new instance, though short and somewhat easy gave me a lot of that same feeling, hence why I believe it was excellent.
If the linear is made good it will be good. If it is made bad and linear it will suck. Anyways I like the way the instances are linear in a postive way.
I've been hearing a lot of praises and a lot of griping.
NO, it is not anything innovative or groundbreaking. WOW has a great working game already. Why mess with it?
It is however something new to explore. After years of wandering around seeing nothing new, it was fun to go into new areas with no knowledge of what you were going to see or run into. The loot is already better than most of my previous gear (I have gained over 1k health and armor in 2 levels). My only complaint is that the beginning quests were fun (fly over and bomb things) however the later zones become all about the grind.
I'm having FUN, which is more than I can say about most of the MMO's out there right now, so I'm happy with it.
Favorite mmorpg's:
SWG
WoW
Overall, I'm enjoying the xpac.
I thought Hellfire Citidal was way easy and very fast.
Unlike, Coilfang Reservior: Underbog (Which reminds me of Maraudon and Black Fathom Depths). That place is pretty rough if you try it in your level 61-63s. Not many green drops when compare to the Hellfire Citidal.
I also like how when you get high enough in rep, you can buy the key to turn the instances into "heroic mode" thus making the instances harder and making the drops better.
"Whosoever shed last blood
By man shall his blood be shed
For immunity of God make he the man
Destroy all that which is evil
So that which is good may flourish
And I shall count thee among my favored sheep
And you shall have the protection of all the angels in Heaven."