Friday 10 September 2010

Battle for Gnomeregan – Meh!

I hope the title didn’t give it away. I am not too terribly impressed with the Battle for Gnomeregan (week 1?) for the moment. The quests at the start (the ones available to any level) were cute. I liked the gnomish drill sergeant showing us all the valuable skills required of the infantry.

Okay, so maybe they were not the most encouraging lessons, but no matter. The “fly around and throw things at tiny targets” mission was okay – it could have been more Death-Star like if there was some incoming fire, but oh well.

And then there is the motivational speech – brilliance in itself, mostly for being so utterly rubbish. It reminded me strongly of the “40 motivational speeches in under 2 minutes” thing.

The final event of retaking the Gnomer? Not so much.

It seems Blizzard either prepared this a long while ago (hmm… this voter says nay) or didn’t listen to any of the comments about the Wrathgate questline. Basically (and sorry, spoilers ahead here): You join the mechanized army of High Tinkerer Mechatorque, approach a fortified position outside the entrance, blow up some turrets, walk towards the tunnel, destroy waves of adds driven forth by a small nuclear device, jump down into the lift-shaft (without getting specifically told you have a parachute – but you do) and then battle some more things until the High Tinker disarms another nuclear device.

Sure … the dialogue was fun. I really rather enjoyed it (What? You left it on the factory default?...), but once again players get a ridiculous damage buff and are healed by Deus Ex Gnomish-Machina every second for more than they can possibly take damage.

I only played this from a tank perspective, but this is not fun. Sure, it might be okay as dps. I don’t mind seeing big numbers bubbling up above my head, I have to admit. It’s also nice not to actually have to worry about drawing aggro – especially as the wildly random composition of each “expedition group” does not necessarily have a tank. But seriously?

My numbers for shield slam are still pathetically low. I am basically watching a guided movie – and walking behind a bunch of people. On the second try (I had to go afk during the first and was subsequently killed in an un-ressable-position – that was nice as well!) I just didn’t even bother fighting any more.

If this is the case, why not just show me an in-game movie instead. Something with better acting and more drama. Something like the Wrathgate film, which was good, not like the Invasion of Undercity, which was tedious and boring.

Stop bloody taking the game out of the game!

Thank you. And I’d really like to hear a healers comment on this one. Is it just as bad for you?

2 comments:

  1. My main problem with the event was that it didn't feel thoroughly tested.

    When I was waiting for the event to reset I decided to run into Gnomer to look around just to kill time. BIG MISTAKE. I get taken out by the radiation and it takes me 3 rez's to get back out. A little warning would have been nice!

    When I finally do get out, some elite mobs have respawned and they quickly tear me apart. My repair bill pretty much cancelled out all the gold I'd made throughout the quest line :(

    I also had to do the event twice - first time through it completely stalled just after killing all the troggs at the Gnomer entrance. We hung around for 5 minutes waiting for something to happen. Eventually it just reset and you guessed it - the elite mobs respawned and killed me again!

    All that said, I thought the music was fantastic and the whole thing had quite an epic feel to it. I can see why tanking/healing it might have felt like going through the motions but it was fun as a DPS.

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  2. Yeah, no healing required.
    About as much fun as fishing.

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