Karazhan Returns! And Other Things

Karazhan Returns! And Other Things

Blizzard announced over the weekend that Patch 7.1 will re-introduce the Karazhan dungeon. My first instinct is to start digging out the healing gear and working on getting re-acquainted with and dungeon ready for the best dungeon ever designed. The video clip was incredible, too, but it also appears that a lot will be changed inside those walls. That took a little bit of wind out of my sails. Will it really be Karazhan? Or will players not recognize it? It's one thing to bring the charming place up to current standards, but I'm less enthusiastic about a new group of badguys to contend with. My preference is to stay with updated originals. If anything in the world could get Wildshard or kin back into a dungeon run, however, it would be Karazhan. BUT, if anyone is thinking that wanting to do one beloved dungeon is enough of a leap to thinking about raiding again - Uh, no. 

As for the Broken Isles - This is not a rant, but a plea. I wrote a rather uncomplimentary post about how complicated and unbalanced the Broken Isles expansion is. I never posted it, though, figuring most of the confusion was on my part as I learn how things work. I'm still baffled by what seems to be a much more complicated leatherworking profession, the process of which still eludes Keya. She keeps killing things to get pelts but has no clear idea how to go from there other than standing around at the leatherworking place looking lost.

One thing Keya does like is her near invunerability. Piles of mobs? Bring 'em on. Elites? All she needs is time. What I mean is that she kills things slowly . . . I mean glacial here . . . but it's near impossible to kill her. Large groups of uglies (8 or more) are no challenge. Your run of the mill elites are going to die . . . eventually, and Keya will still be sporting health above 90%. Other players love her because she keeps all attention on herself while they can stand back and fire at will. There is a one headed sea beast that when killed turns into a two headed beast, and when it's killed becomes a three headed beast. Keya spent half an hour helping players complete that elite triple kill over and over, and never needed a break.

That assumes, of course, that Keya is facing level 100 mobs and elites. Keya tried to gallop through a zone in Suramar looking for a flight path. Suramar mobs and elites are level 110. That didn't end well. She was slaughtered.

Maybe a teensy bit ranting now. I'm gaining a slightly better comprehension of order halls, but I still gnash my teeth over the number of game characters on Fel Hammer that stand around with "you need to do something" exclamation points over their head but offer no hints about what I should be doing about it. Keya has sent followers and soldiers on three missions so far and gotten mostly artifact power upgrades. Then leaves, with nothing better to do there.

Getting up to speed on artifact weapons has been a slow process. She's "doing stuff" but so far there's been no progress other than earning artifact power (AP). She has two artifacts that are made to be inserted into the weapon, but cannot because there are missing pieces she needs to get/find first. She has 1,020 AP now, but we all know that's infinitesimal progress on a scale that rises above a million. She's reached Level 102, with overall armor at i712. She's still hindered by the slow process at which quests turn up. Numerous staged bonus areas help with pure murder and mayhem for the sake of leveling, but the rest . . . well, we're on an island, and a small one at that. All Keya can do is wait for the "next thing" to appear once she's run out current things to do.

One tip to impart when you first arrive. Do not return to Dalaran until you've found a flight master. Don't leave an area you want to come back to without finding the nearest flight path to it. The Dalaran flight master will only take you to a known flight path, ignoring all intermittent flight paths that haven't been "found" yet. Another tip is that despite the small size of the island, there are many areas that are restricted until certain conditions are met. Keya found herself being lulled to sleep and returned to an earlier area when trying to get into one zone. Some others, though can be worked around, although in that case you may have bypassed necessary quests that will complicate things later. Keya is a very curious person, and getting in trouble is just part of her makeup.

Then there are the tunnels beneath Dalaran. Keya had heard rumors of great battles down there and was curious about what was going on. Well, it appears to be a free for all killing spree down there. There may have been an elite kill involved, but there was also a lot of pvp in the midst of it. Keya threw a few punches trying to get a better look and was quickly wiped out by level 110 hordies. Ouch. She wore her pvp tag proudly, though.