This time around for the Ekerameter (gosh that name is clever, it's so catchy and not at all retarded) I'll be taking a look at Azjol-Nerub, the city of the Nerubian spider people... things. For thousands of years, the Nerubians dwelt beneath the glaical ice of Northrend, building, amassing knowledge, and generally being creepy as shit. Once the Lich King showed up, however, he conquered them and raised those he had killed from the dead to serve him. Of the living Nerubians there are few left, and while they're evil, the Lich King is more evil. Enemy of my enemy is my friend and all that, so you're tasked by one of them to fight your way into Azjol-Nerub and slay the traitor king, Anub'arak.
For both factions, Azjol-Nerub is very easily accessible, although it's not immediately obvious. Outside Icefall Village in western Dragonblight, there's a hole in the ground called the Pit of Narjun. It is from here that the Lich King's Nerubians have spilled to flank the Horde and Alliance on their march to Icecrown. Thus, Azjol-Nerub itself is very quickly reachable from Star's Rest (for Alliance) and Agmar's Hammer (for Horde).
The questing for this place is very simple. While there are quests in and around Icemist Village for both factions, none of them lead to any actual instance quests. Instead, just outside the instance, you'll find Kilix the Unraveler, one of those "friendly" living Nerubians, who asks you to stroll on inside and finish a couple things for him. While there isn't any loot involved in either (beyond what you get from bosses), you get a hefty amount of XP for both, and neither requires any excessive time investment.
Comments - Azjol-Nerub is short. Very very short. Not including what is directly connected to bosses, there are 6 trash pulls in this place. Six. Counting the first boss, that's nine. If your group's all been here before and knows the pulls, I could see knocking this place out in 20-25 min if not faster. For all that, though, it can be tricky. The trash packs connected to the first boss can be dangerous if you don't know how to handle them correctly, although the boss himself is kind of a pushover. The final boss, good old Anub'arak from Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, is not especially challenging, but can be made a lot more annoying by slow players.
Lootwise, three bosses plus no quest loot doesn't make for much in the way of rewards, but what does drop is generally useful. Plate-wearing DPS will want to look elsewhere, though. Design-wise, this place is stunning. The Egyptian/Mesopotamian feel of the Nerubians is really brought to life here, and you will spend a whole lot of time looking around in awe at the scenery, even in such a short instance. This is actually improved by the lack of trash, as you'll have long periods of running to see the sights. The bosses themselves are fairly fun and engaging, and the speedy nature of the place is helpful for quick XP and loot.
All told, this isn't really a place you'll run more than once or twice, unless you're desperate for a piece of loot from here. It's very very neat to see, and plus there's the novelty of killing a big name like Anub'arak, your feelings on a WC3 hero being "just" a 5-man boss aside. The shortness of the instance does kind of detract though; it takes away a bit of the epic feel. Granted, this has to be only a small portion of the true size of Azjol-Nerub (it's purported to, at minimum, span the length and breadth of the Dragonblight underground), but considering Blizzard's very early plans were to make AN a whole underground zone unto itself, it would've been nice if this instance was a bit longer.
As my last review was of The Nexus, one of the two opening dungeons of Wrath of the Lich King, I figured I'd follow up with a review of the other, Utgarde Keep. Situated in the center of Howling Fjord, Utgarde is the main stronghold for the recently returned Vrykul, a race of hulking half-giants reminiscent of Vikings in many ways. Having disappeared without a trace centuries ago, they've recently reappeared to wage war on the Horde and Alliance forces arriving in Northrend. It becomes fairly clear very early on that they're in league with the Lich King in some way, and as time goes on, you find out just how deep that allegiance runs.
Utgarde Keep is a stone's throw from Valgarde for Alliance, although getting there requries running the gauntlet of Wyrmskull Village. It's a big easier for Horde - up the dragon lift outside Vengeance Landing, and across the western forest to the dam that bridges Daggercap Bay. Either way, the trip there gives you some great views of the towering Keep, a great representation of the might of the Vrykul.
Here marks the first instance I've reviewed where there are seperate Horde and Alliance quests for it. Horde-wise, one quest becomes available through the opening lines at Vengeance Landing, which includes an introduction to Prince Keleseth, one of the San'layn and the head Scourge ambassador to Utgarde. The other two Horde quests are obtained just inside the instance entrance, and require no pre-questing. For Alliance, there appear to only be two quests, one involving some prerequisites, and both from the same NPC just outside the Keep.
Comments - Like The Nexus, this place is easy, although the final boss of this place is more difficult than anything in its Coldarra counterpart. Trash can be tricky too, depending on pull composition and how well your group handles Runecasters. There are at least a couple places here where a retarded PUG healer or tank could get you killed, putting that rating middle of the scale. The loot here is slightly better for Horde than Alliance, as you pick up a nice set of bracers from the quest that the two factions don't share. All told, though, you're looking at 5 blues (4 for Alliance) vs. 8 from The Nexus, assuming you're doing all the quests for both. So this place loses out on that factor.
FYQ? This one comes with a caveat. I fucking love the Vrykul. Everything about them is cool to me - their design, how they dominate the Fjord, the imposing nature of Utgarde, the storylines that come up through questing, and so on. Plus, the instance itself is designed very well. From what I understand, the same person who worked on Shadowfang Keep (and, I'm guessing, Karazhan) put this and Utgarde Pinnacle together, and it shows. Each room/area has an obvious function, instead of just being "place where dudes congregate waiting for you to kill them." Forge, dragonpens, strategy room, tunnels dug through the rock, the outside balconies... this feels like a real place. On that note the instance, like many, is very linear, but it's got enough twists and turns that you don't necessarily feel like you're just being herded to the end (a major fault of Auchindoun instances in TBC).
Like The Nexus, Utgarde Keep is a great introduction to Wrath of the Lich King. It puts you squarely in the middle of the conflict with the Vrykul, and takes you into the heart of their stronghold. The twisting halls and tunnels and the outside balcony at the end are VERY reminiscent of Hellfire Ramparts, but then, that instance was very successful at what it did too, so that's hardly a mark against it. Plus, Howling Fjord is a HELL of a lot prettier to look at than Hellfire Peninsula. Definitely check this place out.
This time out, I'll be reviewing one of the first two dungeons you'll get a chance to enter after arriving in Northrend, The Nexus. The instance is situated at the center of the stronghold of the blue flight, Coldarra, which itself is off the western coast of the Borean Tundra. Based here is Malygos' plan to divert and destroy all magic on Azeroth; the Aspect believes the mortal races have abused the power of magic for too long and seeks to rein them in by ensuring they can no longer use it. Allied against the blues are Alexstrasza's red dragonflight and the Kirin Tor, the latter of whom obviously have a vested interest in not losing their magical ability. Dalaran would probably look less spectacular if it were cratered in the middle of Crystalsong Forest.
The Nexus, as stated, lies in the subzone of Coldarra, accessible by flight from the Amber Ledge in the Tundra. One can run the place fresh off the zeppelin or boat, however... the flight path is available already to all players, and though Blizzard states the place is suited for 71-73 level players, I've done it multiple times in a group of all 70s without a problem.
There is a significant amount of quest support for this instance. No less than FOUR quests, all providing blue rewards, are available eventually. All of them require you to do a quick pre-questing line that starts at the Amber Ledge, and then a bare minimum of questing in Coldarra itself. One comes at the end of a very long line, but all in all, it's worth it to get all four. The rewards are very good, especially for newer 70s, and there's a significant amount of XP to be had leading up to them.
Comments - The Nexus is easy. VERY easy. It's intended to be, however, as it's an entry level dungeon. Like Hellfire Ramparts, you're expected to be able to run this place with damn near any group composition, and in the very worst of gear. To that end, Blizzard has accomplished a decent effort at sleight of hand - the boss fights are engaging and fun for being so easy, and if you do all the pre-questing, a run here is a literal XP and loot bomb. Four blue rewards await you from quests, plus four bosses worth of loot that is equivalent to or better than Black Temple epics.
The design of the instance is very good, and reminiscent of the Tempest Keep flavor of dungeons. It acts as a nice counterbalance to the Viking-themed Utgarde Keep and the relative "normality" of the Howling Fjord's vrykul. The instance is circular, so one can go in almost any direction to start with, arriving back at the beginning for the final boss fight once the rest have been defeated.
All told, this place functions very well as an introductory dungeon to Wrath of the Lich King. The loot is good (great if you're going through on a poorly-geared TBC alt or if you're relatively new to the game), and it's fun and great XP. Plus, you get to fuck with the blue flight, payback that's long overdue considering all the times those shitheads dazed me off my mount in Azshara while I was farming for Dreamfoil.
Well, if Blizzard is going to mimic Lord of the Rings, I'm certainly going to do a little thievery for the title of this post.
After a lot of anticipation, Icecrown is finally open, and while the quests are still questionable in places, there are plenty of placeholder models for NPCs, and bugs abound, the views are fucking amazing.
The standout things in the zone are, naturally, the three gates. Companion to Angrathar: The Wrath Gate in Dragonblight, we have Mord'rethar, Aldur'thar, and Corp'rethar. It's like Blizzard took Tolkien and multiplied it by 4. Plus, there's a quest that involves poking out a giant, all-seeing eye. Sound familiar? Wholesale BORROWING aside, however, this zone is amazingly done.
My only complaint, and maybe this is for lack of finding the damn thing, but... where's the Frozen Throne? I couldn't find it in my flying around. Hopefully it's just tucked away somewhere that I haven't looked yet, off the beaten path since Arthas has a much more imposing place to hang out now. Speaking of...
Icecrown Citadel is far, FAR more impressive than the Black Temple, definitely befitting the abode of the end boss of the expanson. While not quite as monumentally astounding as Ulduar, it still very much catches the eye.
Anyhow, videos! Here's the YouTube, and below is the high quality link, which you should go to and download. The file size is almost twice as big as the last one (350MB this time), but it's rendered very close to in-game quality. Besides, on broadband, 350MB is fucking nothing. Stop being a pussy.
The oft-interesting thing about beta is that it's unfinished. Shit breaks, sometimes spectacularly. Instability is a fact of life. Sometimes you think things are perfect, only to have them fall completely apart. Actually, this sounds remarkably like dating a woman for any significant period of time.
Regardless, this is how beta is. You get used to it, because there's no alternative. In exchange for getting to see new content months before anyone else, you're expected to test it, break it, trash it, and then explain to Blizzard what you did so they can fix it.
Crystalsong Forest goes haywire
Even knowing all that, however, it's very easy to get frustrated when things simply refuse to go your way. Take our attempts at Naxxramas.
We've got enough of us in beta that we can put together a pretty solid Naxxramas 10-man run using the PvP premades. We had one scheduled for Wednesday evening, only to have surprise maintenance and a new beta patch preclude that occasion. So, we reschedule to tonight.
First up was an old friend, Anub'rekhan.
Anub'rekhan back in '06.
Anub'rekhan in '08.
It's both surprising and amusing that 8 of the 10 people in tonight's raid were present at our guild's first 40-man Anub'rekhan kill almost two years ago. Goes to show that, while we might suck, we're consistent.
In any case, first pull of the evening was going fine... until the instance server crashed at ~70%.
After waiting for roughly 30 minutes for things to sort themselves out, we zoned in, cleared trash again, and were just about ready to pull him when... the instance servers crashed again.
Ok, well, one more go? After retrieving a few people who had been mysteriously ported to Dalaran and reclearing trash again, we were doing fine and dandy... until the server crashed again around 20%. SIGH.
Nostalgia factor was high, though, and while the fight is incredibly easy compared to its old 40-man counterpart (which was itself easy compared to later fights in the zone), it's absolutely awesome to get to see Naxxramas again.
Next up for the Ekerameter is the first troll dungeon you'll run into in Wrath of the Lich King, Drak'Tharon Keep. Situated roughly where the zones of the Grizzly Hills, Zul'Drak, and the Dragonblight trisect, in the past this keep served as the Drakkari Empire's southern bastion. Now, however, the Scourge have driven the Drakkari out in their march into Zul'Drak and hold the Keep against all comers.
Technically, Drak'Tharon Keep is in Grizzly Hills, although it is also accessible from Zul'Drak; in fact, once you pick up the flight path for Light's Breach just inside ZD, it's a quicker trip to land there and ride south to DTK than to weave your way up through the forest from Conquest Hold.
While not immediately available - in fact, for one of the two lines, a minimum of an hour of questing is required - there are two quests that eventually lead here. This follows the renewed trend by Blizzard of giving clear quest support to almost all of their dungeons. Seek out some familiar faces at Granite Hills in the forests directly south of Drak'Tharon Keep for how to get started on these.
Troll dungeons have gotten a pretty poor reputation through the course of the game. Zul'Farrak is tiny yet has tons of trash, Sunken Temple is... horrible (the only instance for which I'd give a PUG Factor rating in the negatives), and Zul'Gurub and Zul'Aman have both caused their share of headaches. So, now it's ice trolls? Well, for one, Drak'Tharon Keep is as much DEAD trolls as anything - the Scourge have taken over, and nearly every inhabitant is reanimated. Additionally, the design of the place is unlike anything I've seen before - it seems sort of a strange combination of Mayan and Japanese architecture. Moving on into Zul'Drak proper gives some Greco-Roman hints too.
Difficulty-wise, the place is average. At present in the beta, the bosses are on the easy side, but that may be intentional for most of the leveling dungeons. Trash can be tricky in places. Considering this is around the Mana-Tombs/Auchenai Crypts point in leveling in comparison to TBC, this place beats the pants off of those.
The loot here is well-suited for the levels, with a good mix of drops. As with most dungeons, each boss has 3 blue drops, meaning you won't need to run these places a thousand times unless your luck is truly horrendous. The two quest lines that lead here also give some good additional blues. An errant PUG member could cause havoc in the pulls leading to the latter two bosses, so keep your idiots on tight leashes. In the FYQ side of things, one of the quest lines, while having an ending that most will see coming, nevertheless concludes in a very cool fashion, and sets up a storyline that continues into Zul'Drak.
All told, this place defies the odds for a troll dungeon, and is definitely worth running several times for good XP and drops in the mid 70s.
So, first up on the agenda for instance reviews is the first of two 5-mans set in Ulduar in the Storm Peaks, the Halls of Stone. Ulduar is a Titan city, like Uldaman or Uldum in the old world, except this one isn't buried and isn't in ruins. Ulduar itself (and thus the instances) are only accessible by flying mounts unless you are summoned, much like Tempest Keep.
First, a handy dandy series of ratings for the dungeon's merits, and some spoiler-and-strategy-free comments to supplement and explain the ratings. This all sounds very official but actually it's entirely arbitrary and I reserve the right to blah blah on with it.
So here are the 5 ratings categories and what they mean:
Difficulty - Quite simply, how hard is this instance relative to the level it's presented at? 1 means the place is poorly tuned - either it's way too easy or WAY too fucking hard, whereas 5 means it's very challenging and manages to be fun because of it. Loot - Is the loot worth coming here for? 1 means skip this shit, it ain't worth it (Auchenai Crypts anyone?), whereas 5 means almost every boss drop is a keeper. This includes rewards from quests that take you inside the dungeon. PUG Factor - Different from difficulty, this essentially answers: How likely is it that a complete moron pickup member could wipe your group? 1 means you're better off 4-manning it; conversely, 5 means shitty players are a nonfactor. FUCK YEAH Quotient - Essentially, how cool is this place. Are you going to be sleepwalking through another boring highway of loot (LOOKING AT YOU AUCHENDOUN INSTANCES)? Are the boss fights innovative and engaging? Is there cool scenery? Familiar NPCs that show up? Tie-ins with leadup quests/zone content? 1 means YAWN, 5 means FUCK YEAH. Who didn't see that coming? Overall - Sums it all up. May not necessarily reflect the other 4 ratings perfectly, as some things weigh more heavily than others in a given instance.
Comments - Medium sized instance with some decent variety. The boss fights are relatively simple and very difficult to wipe on at their present state in beta. Loot here is very good for the level, with some great, relatively common BoE trash drops. The PUG Factor refers to a specific boss that will have a familiar mechanic. FYQ-wise, there are definitely some cool visuals here, but a lot of it is offset by a long lost character's return... specifically, his voice actor is fucking TERRIBLE. Lots of good lore here about the Titans and the dwarven race, however. Overall, an instance that's worth a run or two on regular.
Quest Availability - Aside from the heroic/nonheroic dailies, there is only one quest for this instance, started inside as part of a boss event. No pre-questing is required.
