Finished up as much of Zul’Drak as I could comfortably solo (Ding, 76!), and flapped my way back to the western edge of the continent to explore a new zone: Sholozar Basin. From what little I’ve seen, I already don’t like it. It’s very much like “Stranglethorn Vale: Part Two”, with giant rhinos, tigers, and crocolisks (oh my!). Nesingwary returns with another encampment… the Venture Bay Mining Company (an evil goblin mining corporation) returns… etc.
The quests so far here aren’t interesting and as almost a nod to Aion, this time we get a dose of killsixtyrats. After running a few odd jobs, I decided to park my butt in the encampment and look for a dungeon group. I hadn’t played any of the Lich King ones yet and heard they were “streamlined”. I was ready to see… and was impressed.
All total, I spun the wheel of fortune five times and wound up in three different dungeons: Drak’Tharon, the Violet Hold, and Gundrak. Overall, extremely positive experiences, even if my death counter did tick up slightly. Each time I entered a new dungeon, I told the party it was my first time through and someone was always kind enough to advise me to “Watch out for the black spots on the floor” or “This guy does AoE fears” or “GET THE F**K BACK!”, whichever was appropriate to the encounter.
In doing so, I cleared a few quests out of my log that had been growing stagnant, earned a half-level worth of experience and a few rare blues (2k Gearscore—woo! I’m no longer the least geared in the dungeon!), and had an absolute blast.
The highlight was the finale to Drak’Tharon, wherein a captured troll that was a major quest line in Grizzly Woods was revealed to be working for the Lich King the entire time. I had unwittingly removed “all of the opposition” to Lichy-poo’s expansion, and the Lich King appeared in the (rotted) flesh to reward his servant’s cunning. I politely stepped back. The troll got seriously buffed and after the King had left the building, he bade me seek him out—“Da lich king rewards all dose who follow him, mon.”
The Violet Hold was probably the simplest design and appealing if you like movies about gladiators. One big sealed off circular room with portals that appear periodically to rift in nasties. Every six waves, a boss would enter the arena. After 18 waves and three bosses, victory is attained. Designed to wear groups down, there’s no break in the action and it was a good spot of fun, if somewhat short.
The streamlining mentioned earlier cuts down dungeon size even moreso than the previous expansion. Now, a decently geared team (that doesn’t wipe) can clear a dungeon in about fifteen minutes. The thought of my old City of Heroes team crushing through 4-5 of these in rapid succession makes me smile inwardly.
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