Tuesday (7 Sep) - Cataclysm is Here!

Tuesday (7 Sep) - Cataclysm is Here!

Now, hold on! The expansion is not here yet. But the events leading up to Cata's arrival have begun, brought via the completion of Tuesday's "maintenance." Every player received an in game email. For the Horde the letter came from Vanira, a servant of the leader of the Darkspear tribe, Vol'jin. It was a call to war.

On the southern tip of Kalimdor is a small troll enclave called Sen'jin Village. This is where young trolls grow to manhood (uh, trollhood) and where all good trolls get their first ground mount (a raptor). Across a narrow strip of sea from Sen'jin Village is the Echo Isles. Among the many quests on those islands is a quest to kill Zalazane and return with his head. Zalazane is a powerful troll witch doctor who has violated troll ways and desecrated the Echo Isles.

We thought we'd killed him, but like so many beings in the world of Azeroth, "Death was only a setback." It seems that Zalazane used his witchcraft to make it only appear as if we'd taken his head.

So, on Tuesday, in the first Cata pre-launch event, the horde is called upon to defeat Zalazane once and for all. The letter directs all to travel to Sen'jin Village and seek out Vol'jin. That begins a quest chain. So it begins.

What is the significance of Sen'jin Village and the Echo Isles? In Cata the horde must retake the Echo Isles so they will become the starting zone for level 1-5 trolls. Currently, trolls and orcs use the same starting zone area and then the trolls travel to Sen'jin Village for continued leveling. Many players had hoped that a troll home city would arise on the Echo Isles, but that was not in the cards. So they had to satisfied with taking control of Echo Isles.

Wild family thought it only fitting that our top troll, JB, be the first to complete the quest chain.

JB already happened to be in Orgrimmar, so she hopped on her ground mount and rode south. She soon reached Sen'jin Village, discovering that the preparations for war with Zalazane were already underway.


JB found Vanira and accepted the first task, "Da Perfect Spies." We needed some spies to scout out Zalazane's forces on the Echo Isles, and according to Vanira the perfect spies were - frogs! JB bagged five frogs and returned to Vanira, who "prepared" them for the next step in the plan.

In the quest "Frogs Away!" JB was sent to a nearby flight master (in place only for the event, I believe, since that area normally has no flight master) and was given a bat flyer. Using the sack of frogs Vanira gave JB, she tossed frogs at Zalazane campsites all over Echo Isles. Ok, it sounds pretty silly, but it was fun.

With our "spies" in place, Vanira sent JB to Vol'jin himself, who was raising an army. In "Trollin' For Volunteers" Vol'jin sent JB to the small town of Razor Hill to the north to pound the drums of war. JB found the five volunteers she needed, hopped on her mount and headed with them back to Sen'jin Village.

[Just as an aside, it is interesting how Blizzard improves it's content in small ways to fix incongruities. For example, quests which require traveling with one of more npcs originally required the player to walk with that npc - on foot. Try to mount and ride and you'd leave the npc behind and fail the quest. So Blizz got smarter and allowed players to mount up and the npc would run fast enough to keep up. But the npc was still on foot! Players could even use flying mounts, and the npc would still keep up, running four times normal speed on the ground. It made the quest go faster, but it was, well, stupid and unrealistic. When JB mounted up to return with her volunteers, guess what happened? The five volunteers also mounted up on their own ground mounts. Nice. ]


Ok, back to the retaking of Echo Isles. "Lady of Da Tigers" is a cool challenge quest. Vanira cast the "spirit of the tiger" on JB and sends her to one of the Isles to challenge a powerful tiger and attempt to win the tiger's support in the battle. Troll gods all have animal forms, including their Tiger god. With the spirit of the tiger on her, JB had access to three melee attacks there were actually feral druid cat abilities. How cool that JB could feel what is was like to fight like a druid cat! JB won the challenge and the tiger agreed to help. In Cata trolls will be allowed to select the druid class for the first time. This quest provides the rationale for that - we got the help and blessings of the great tiger and the tiger god.

"Dance of the Spirits" is exactly that. JB joined a group of npcs and other players and waited for a repeating scenario to start. JB didn't have to do anything but be close by while Witch Doctor Hez'tok banged his drums and led us all in a cool dance. While we didn't "have" to do anything, every player standing around when it started did a /dance and joined in. The purpose of the dance was to determine when to start the attack.


Completing the Dance rewarded JB with [Darkspear Pride]. This is about the coolest looking disguise Blizz has come up with since the Murloc costume. I highly recommend that every player and every alt do at least up to this part in the chain to get this. It has a very long cooldown (4 hours) and only lasts 30 minutes - but if you want a costume to turns you into a Darkspear Warrior, don't miss out on this! Once the event closes the costume may never again be available. JB will show off her disguise at the end of the post.

"Preparin' For Battle" sends JB back to the flight master and a short bat flight to eastern Isle. There, a small army of players were already milling about. This is the launching point for the attack. Most of us had no idea what to do at this point. We all wanted to "do something!" but there were no clues what that was. In a way it raised the excitement level, wondering what would happen next. But as more and more players showed up and not much happened, we started getting impatient. What was happening, though, is that the group before us was still on the next leg of the chain and we had to wait until that played out to completion.


We waited probably 15 minutes, and then we got the nod that the attack was about to start. JB was ready and carrying the battle flag!


"Zalazane's fall" is the final quest in the chain, and it's an exciting, running battle against Zalazane. The pics below don't do the battle justice - you should experience it yourself. I believe this part is for level 80s only, but I'm not sure.




When the battle was over and we had defeated Zalazane, JB was rewarded with [Darkspear Shroud]. Not to take anything away from the Event, but the shroud is just a cloak with no stats on it. It's just a plain 'ole cloak. There are rumors that Cata will introduce an "overcloak" which would be a new gear slot. However, there is no such thing in the beta so far, and no hints from the developers. Some are already calling the cloak vendor trash (ie, throw it away). JB is holding on to hers. Who knows what it might be worth? And she loved doing the quest chain!

Now, how long will it take for the entire Wild family to get this done?

As promised, here are some pics of JB in her Darkspear Warrior diguise:




PS - By the way, there is also an Alliance pre-launch event. One of Wild's alliance cousins had better get moving and tell us about that!