Wednesday 3 September 2008

Now is the pre-expansion lull of our discontent

Unless you've been very cunning with what you've been reading on the interwebs you'll be aware that there's an expansion on the way, and before that a hefty content patch with some of the new stuff.

Will all this exciting stuff in the offing there are a couple of view points which are surfacing and being discussed.

The first is expansionitis which means people cut back on their playing because anything you might be able to gain in game now will soon be replaced by quest and dungeon rewards from the frozen north.

The second is what I shall call preparationitis, where people are trying to get everything they might need for the progression through the new levels, professions, dungeons. This can include but is not limited to crafting materials, armor/weapons and of course gold.

Either of these can suddenly make the game seem like a chore as you wait patiently for the new exciting stuff just peeking it's head above the horizon. So my advice is don't let it; if you've lost interest in raiding, why not go back and do some old quests around the place, check out Tranquillen if you've not rolled a Blood Elf, go kill Hogger (I might do this as I've only played Horde). If you're sick of all the dailies or flying around mining, herbing or skinning stuff, go look for fun stuff to pick up from in game. There's loads of things that are in the game for fun whether it's a non-combat pet or random trinket which should be very easy for a level 70 character to go and collect.

If you've still done all this and looking for something then why not roll an alt, not for any particular purpose, they don't need to hit 70, they don't need to be geared for whichever raid you're currently running, they can just be there for a laugh and something new to learn. If you're doing any kind of raid leading or boss tactics, nothing gives you a better insight into how a class works than to have played it, at least out of the starter zone and a spending a few talent points.

Personally I've got a troll hunter who's running through the Arugal quest line and searching for Mankirk's wife again. Come the expansion he'll probably be forgotten whilst Crash and Med and a yet to be named Death Knight head towards 80 but it's a bit of a laugh running through the old content and quite frankly ridiculously easy with my ickle cat keeping everything at bay.

So what are you doing in the pre-expansion lull, or are you not feeling any problems and WotLK can arrive when it arrives?

1 comment:

Rakhman said...

I have a druid alt *and* am preparing a profession... well, levelling a druid alt up for enchanting as described in my post.

I am also planning on going on a major achievement bender, to try to crack some of them early. Although I'm still not entirely sure what the point of the achievement points is. Currency would be useful to get some nifty items, a big score to compare against your friends seems less useful, apart from epeen value.

Finally I can recommend respeccing to a different play style, or set of skills, to see the game from a different perspective. I am planning to try out melee combat, a style I don't generally play as. I can just respec my Shaman to Enhancement and away I go, from caster to melee for a mere 25 gold or so.