Wrath of the Lich King – Alpha Test
Developer: Blizzard Entertainment
Publisher: Activision Blizzard
Platform: PC
To Be Released: Q4 2008
Posted: July 19, 2008
With the release of the Beta Test for the Wrath of the Lich King expansion for the highly popular World of Warcraft, the Alpha Test Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) has been lifted. The information below is from my own participation in the Alpha and has not been merely gathered from the numerous websites that are no doubt already flooded with data from other players.
Along with hit, crit, and haste, spell damage and healing were combined into one bonus called "spell power."The absolute first thing that I noticed upon logging into the Alpha Client was that all haste, hit, and critical hit statistics for both spells and physical attacks were combined into one. In effect, this means that a piece of gear that has “10 haste rating” will grant 10 haste to both physical attack speed and spell casting speed. This is a huge boost to hybrid classes, like myself, and seems rather over due; a relatively simple idea that took its time being implemented. While it is much more beneficial to these hybrid players than others, instead of being overpowered I believe it will do more inventory clearing-out than game mechanical harm.
My main interest with being a part of the Alpha Test, besides assisting with making the game better by reporting every single bug I saw (just like everyone else), was experiencing the new trade skill: Inscription. This new profession is supposed to allow the player to create enhancements that can be applied to spells, much like enchantments can be applied to weapons. Unfortunately, there were only two implemented recipes during the test, leaving me with no better idea of what it would be like.
One-handed weapons are only getting bigger with every drop; this is already clearly evident in the Live Client, especially with regards to Gladiator PvP gear and Black Temple raiding drops. Even simple green weapons that I received from quest rewards would be two-thirds my size, and I am a Tauren! It is too much when one-handers are surpassing two-handers graphically; they do not need to be bigger, just make them look cooler.
My main-hand fist weapon that I picked up early in the game was quite unnecessarily gigantic.
There are quests galore for all players to take part in. Most importantly, unlike The Burning Crusade, there are two starting areas open to both Alliance and Horde players. From either end of the Northrend continent, progression will bring players from these two starting areas to meet in the middle of the island where the higher-end content will be accessible. Quest objectives, for the most part, remain primarily unchanged and will mostly require you to kill a certain number of creatures or request you obtain a certain amount of items from creatures. A notable new quest type that I did notice was focused on players gaining knowledge about their surroundings, and would ask the player to visit four to five nearby locations. During the Alpha Test however this was rather difficult as the map system was not yet implemented, leaving us without the names of the areas.
Unlike the original and previous expansion games, there are many more, smaller quest hubs from which players can do quests in a given area; rather than one or two large town hubs. This allows engagement with many more non-player individuals, my favorite of which was the Druids for the Ethical and Humane Treatment of Animals (D.E.H.T.A.) group. I had never been a fan of the Nesingwary crew, and now we are able to take up arms against them and their genocide-like tactics. The addition of these quest hubs enhances and encourages exploration, and removes some of the lengthy running that would occur when returning to turn-in quests to a main quest hub.
There was one quest that allowed me to utilize one of the new tank vehicles in the costal area, Kaskala, of the Borean Tundra. It was controlled just as everything else is, simple movement and an arsenal of weapons for me to destroy hordes of undead with. That part was thrilling, but otherwise the vehicle did not seem like anything very new.
Graphically, the game has changed little. Besides the new equipment, there really is nothing that adds a wow-factor to the Wrath of the Lich King. While the graphics themselves have not been updated so much, the new zones are varied and appropriate for a continent in the frozen north. Several of the zones were left unopened during the Alpha Test, and upon entry to one of these zones the player would be instantly teleported out. I primarily avoided the Howling Fjord area; initially because it seemed most other players ventured there first. Instead, I leveled within the Warsong Hold in Borean Tundra. It seemed much less finished, so far as environments go, with sharp cliff edges and mob pathing errors. Progressing farther, I moved into Eastern side of the Borean Tundra, and it felt like an entirely new area with open fields, deep caverns, and geysers.
The best area that I had the opportunity to quest in was the Dragonblight, primarily because it featured many different types of environments based on the separate dragon flights. Each flight had their own mini area that reflected who they were; a grassy, tree-filled area for Red, sandy desert for Bronze, and a thick jungle-like Un’Goro section for Green. The Blue dragon flight had assumed possession of an island in the Borean Tundra called Coldarra. Here there was the Nexus dungeon dedicated to Malygos, the Blue Aspect, where you and your comrades will actually have to face him in the unnamed raid dungeon. I stepped inside the Nexus’ Ice Caverns dungeon only once, and it appeared as though you can see the final boss from the entrance way, but he is protected. No doubt this requires the players to complete various tasks before engaging him.
The Northrend area map. Only four of the displayed zones were actually open for play; Borean Tundra, Dragonblight, Grizzly Hills, and Howling Fjord.
Through the various new quests the players get to meet some very famous lore characters, including nearly every dragon ever mentioned: Krasus, Chromie, and even the Red Aspect herself, Alexstrasza. Many of these famous dragonkin are in human form atop the Wyrmrest Temple within the Dragonblight area. Among the familiar characters there were new non-player races as well; including the Tuskarr, a walrus race, the Magnataur, gigantic centaurs that live in caves, and the Vykrul, a race of giant-like warriors. Wrath of the Lich King also heralds the reintroduction of the Nerubian spider race.
My favorite, and one of the more troublesome bugs, in the test was for the Shaman talent Mental Dexterity. When this 3-point talent is filled it increases Attack Power by 100% of the player’s Intellect; a solid-sounding enhancement talent. One issue though, instead of adding Intellect to Attack Power, this talent would add Intellect directly to damage instead. This meant that decking yourself out in your elemental or restoration Shaman gear could have you dealing more damage than you would otherwise in your traditional enhancement gear. Very fun, yet very big problem.
The most overpowered anything that I made contact with throughout my time in the Alpha Test was a Warlock spell, surprise. My only dungeon run was very late at night in Utgarde Keep one evening with four of my fellow testers. We had a Druid tanking in bear form, dpsing Warlock, Mage, Paladin, and myself, an enhancement Shaman healing; not that the tank or me healing were really necessary. The Warlock needed only to cast Cripple on every mob, which essentially causes effected creatures to wander aimlessly, not attack, not cast any spells, not take any physical damage, but take plenty of spell damage. Effectively, it could be considered a sheep that you could shoot magic at. And yes, it even affected bosses. Needless to say, we cleared through large portions of the dungeon with ease.
One of the new Shaman talents allowed the summoning of two wolves to fight by your side. Too bad they would only sit there.
In Wrath of the Lich King there is a new, unlockable class for play: the Deathknight, another plate-wearer intended to be a dps or tanking class. To play a Deathknight, players will need to attain a particular level and complete several quests to be allowed to create one of these characters. For testing purposes, we were allowed to make Deathknights regardless, and they began at level 55, complete with a mount and many unallocated talent points. Deathknight spells and abilities rely upon their runes, of which they have 6; 2 blood, 2 unholy, and 2 frost. Once used, the runes will recharge on a timer, and if abilities successfully hit they will charge the Deathknight with runic power which will open other abilities to be utilized. Think of a Rogue combined with a Warrior. To test out each individual spec, I created three Deathknights (also because the streaming client was not working properly and several of my characters would be disconnected and unable to be logged back in.) The Blood talents were rather overpowered at first, as one would grant free use of a Death Coil (instant shadow damage) attack upon a mere hit with the Blood Strike ability (an instant melee attack.)
Unfortunately, during the Alpha Test there was no starting area for the Deathknight, and they were simply spawned at Tirion Fordring in the Eastern Plaguelands. Since then, an expansive, enclosed area has been created specifically for them, and is filled with runic lessons and quests that reward the player with a unique steed and gradual talent points. After spending a short time in the newly released Beta Client, I can say that many additions and changes have been made to the Deathknight already. It will probably be a highly popular class for a long period of time. As much as I would love to see a range of new “unlockable” classes, I can understand Blizzard’s desire to balance one before implementing several others.
An emberwyrm outside of a small horde camp.A new potential software feature of the expansion is the option to use a streaming client instead of the traditional download client. As it is now, to play World of Warcraft you either install from a disc, or download from the Blizzard site and install the game in its entirety from the executable file. With the streaming client, players will be able to install a smaller amount of game files and download the files that they need in the background while playing. This is very similar to the current Guild Wars client, but is much more annoying. Instead of waiting once for a large download and install, the player must deal with multiple stalls while logging in and playing as the client downloads and applies patches. The most drastic issue I found while using the streaming client was that map files were extremely large, so much so that they would not be able to be fully downloaded upon logging in and would cause my game to time out and prevent me from logging in at all. For several characters, including Deathknights, some maps areas would be downloaded and would allow for some traversing; however some areas I would come upon too quickly for the map file to be downloaded and would disconnect me. I would then be locked out of those characters, as the map file would again be unable to be downloaded while attempting to log in. From what I understand, the streaming client will be an option that the player can choose to use or not to use at their discretion.
Overall the test was enjoyable. I am a huge fan of questing and discovering new areas, and that is a huge part of a new expansion. There have been a few advancements, but there still feels like there are many more ideas out there that can and should be implemented; such as most class- or race-specific quests, more graphical differentiation between player avatars based on class, and less luck-based drop rates. Perhaps one day.
TLDR: It is more of the World of Warcraft that everyone is addicted to, and will undoubtedly come with fresh quests, challenging new encounters, redesigned gear, and even more reputation grinds, achievement arrogance, and broken lore.
