I “tweeted” last week that I was going to take advantage of an offer from Blizzard (seven whole days of free game time, woot!) to go and take a look at Karazhan. The venerable Big Bear Butt offered to show me around the joint. So, I finally saw Karazhan. And took almost 250 screenshots of the place.
…it’s way bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. Oh, and in BBB’s son’s continuing quest to Control All the Things, he managed to grab control of one of Moroes‘ beefy melee henchmen. That would have made a nice difference if we were running the place at level. Also, Tinhead is creepy, but the Opera Event is pretty cool, and the Chess Event is awesome. Yes, it’s not real chess, but it’s good fun anyway (and, like in real chess, knights are nicely useful).
Some highlights (in no particular order, because I’m short on time):
…and then, just because Blizzard finally got with the program and decided to allow anyone, even trial accounts, to play any race, I fired up a Pandaran Rogue. The Pandaran starting area is really nice… even if I can’t fly around in it. It’s the new shiny, and I like it, but I still like Gilneas and Mulgore about as much. The Pandarans themselves are very well done. I like the “Red Panda” look the females can access, even if the real world red pandas aren’t actually pandas.
So I guess I’m a Tauren/Worgen/Panda kinda guy. Though I still say Blizzard missed a trick in not letting Pandarans be Druids. Still, their starter area is open to pretty much anyone, so have at it! There are plenty of photo opportunities and some fun character animations.
Some of us in our multigaming guild are playing WoW right now, and one of our goals is to get one of our friends to level 85. He hasn’t been in any group content BC and up, and once he gets high enough, a bunch of us would love to bring him through Kara as his first “raid”. I have fond memories of that place. I didn’t really appreciate it at the time, but looking back now, it was great fun running it with my guild back then, even though it was not without its frustrations.
Yeah, BBB mentioned some choke points and tricky spots as we went through. I can imagine some frustration… but I think, with a good crew, it’s definitely a fun place to prowl through.
I knew Trials could play Goblins and Worgen now, but didn’t realize Panda was also on the menu. That’s awesome!
I loved Karazhan back in the day. It may just be because it was my first raid, but I thought it was amazing. Such good memories of the game because of my experiences there.
It’s technically my first raid, too… albeit done *way* overleveled, undermanned and at a nice, fast clip. Interestingly, it seems like the Chess Event just functions like it’s always “at level” since you use the pieces’ stats, not your own. That’s a nice touch.
Cap’n, yeah, I’m loving that decision to open up the races. It’s a smart business move. It means I have more characters primed and ready for when they finally open up the F2P gates, more characters that may well wind up spending money when they don’t have to sub.
Soo beautiful….love it!!!