As it should be!

Patch 3.3 dropped last week to much happiness from the community at large.  The changes introduced are *far* too numerous to list without being the 10,000th site to just copy and paste patch notes, and quite frankly, I’m not down with that.  So I’ll just say that while the overall features of the patch were almost infinite, there were a few major things to focus on.  Namely three new 5-man dungeons(Normal and Heroic), a 10 and 25 (Normal AND Heroic of each) raid into the citadel itself, a cross-realm LFG and group making tool, heavy adjustments to the new player experience and the long promised “Hold my hand because I’m bad at video games” quest tracking system.  Oh, and did I mention “The most important piece of Lore in World of Warcraft History”?  If not, I’d be silly.

I’ve run through the three new 5-man dungeons, in both normal and Heroic.  They are, and must be completed in order to unlock the next, The Forge of Souls, Pit of Saron and Halls of Reflection.  I can say that they are three short, very rewarding, very well scripted and put together instances.  Blizzard gets an A+ here, up from their F- they got with Trial of the Champion.  As for the raid of Icecrown Citadel?  I haven’t been able to attend either 10 or 25 of this new raid, as raiding guilds are, well, snooty and bad, so I do not partake at this time.  Still, from the videos and first-hand reviews I’ve received, it also is a major improvement over the failure in Trial of the Crusader.  So as far as actual added new game content, this patch seems to be the best so far in Wrath.

I cannot comment on the “New player experience” as I haven’t made a new, untwinked character in a looooooong time and do not see myself doing so in the forseeable suture.  Reading through them, it seems mostly like logical things that should have been changed years ago (Starting food and drink?  Has anyone EVER used those?) and things to make getting to 20 even easier.

Speaking of “even easier”, here is my only criticism of this patch.  The “Long awaited” quest tracking system.  There have been mods around that have done this for years, and to be quite honest, I have very little respect for people who use them.  It is akin to using cheat or console codes in a single player game to skip content. The *only* challenge in the leveling experience in WoW was having to keep your eyes open long enough to read a 2 paragraph blurb about a quest.  Everything was spelled out, VERY clearly.  People who can’t even do that?  I’m sorry, I’m from the EverQuest generation, where we earned every piece of crap gear and point of experience the hard way.  I’ve never thought WoW was “Too easy” in it’s default form, but people will take any steps imaginable to dull the fun out of anything, I guess.

However, none of this means anything next to the most important piece of Lore ever revealed.  In the Halls of Reflection, it is revealed by none other than Uther’s spirit that without Arthas, without *A* Lich King, the Scourge would have and will destroy Azeroth with little effort.  In essence, Arthas is keeping the undead in check, in a way.  As I predicted long ago, he is actually some kind of Dark Knight, doing a job that nobody else can do, sacrafising so much of himself in the process.  Arthas never wanted power.  Arthas only ever wanted to defend, only wanted what was best for his people.  In a sick, twisted and very sad way, he saved not just his people, but all of Azeroth when he shattered the Frozen Throne and took up the mantle of Lich King.

The savior of all life on Azeroth? I think so.

All I can say is WoW.  Blizzard continues to show why they are the bottom line in this genre.  Gameplay standards nobody else can meet is daunting enough for other games to go against, but couple it with a 15 year old polished, established lore set, and you have an unstoppable juggernaut of Win.  I cannot wait to see where this storyline that has been building for almost 10 years leads us!