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Worgen you doing here?
For the Alliance the new race being made available in Cataclysm is the Worgen, or the Humans of Gilneas if you like. For those unfamiliar with the game, let us take a stroll down lore crescent.
The kingdom of Gilneas was formed following the disillusion of the empire of Arathor and is ruled by the House of Greymane. While the Gilneas supported the Alliance during the Second War, Genn Greymane was never a strong supporter of the Alliance and believed, perhaps foolishly, that his armies were strong enough to deal with any threat on their own.
Following the end of the Second War Genn decided that he’d had enough of the Alliance and pulled all his forces back to his kingdom, sealing it off from the rest of Azeroth by creating the Greymane Wall. No one was allowed to enter, and no one had heard anything from Gilneas, even during the Third War against the Burning Legion… until now.
With the sundering of Azeroth following Deathwing’s ascent in Cataclysm, the Greymane Wall is breached, opening up this area to the rest of the world and bringing the Worgen and their kingdom into the game.
The Worgen race will allow Alliance players the ability to create a new beastly class. While the Horde have always had the Tauren, the Alliance haven’t really had access to a non humanoid race (though we can argue about whether the Draenei are humanoid or not) so this alone is a change to the main mechanic. The class choices available for the Worgen are Warrior, Hunter, Rogue, Priest, Mage, Warlock and Druid. Death Knight is also currently available in the beta however it’s unclear if we’ll be able to create a Worgen Death Knight at the launch of Cataclysm.
As befits a race infected with lycanthropy the Worgen actually have two forms, something else brand new for a WoW race. When out of combat a Worgen can be in either human or Worgen form, a choice we can make ourselves. However when in combat the animal within is unleashed and the character is transformed into Worgen form.
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The starting zone for the Worgen and the story it tells is a very dark one. We start out as a loyal member of Gilneas called to arms to protect the city against a wave of invading Worgen, attacking from nearby Silverpine Forrest. As the story unfolds over the first few levels we help out with the cities defences while taking down as many enemies as we can.
Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we end up being bitten and become infected ourselves and as the screen goes blank, we fear the worst. All is not lost however as a friendly alchemist we assisted earlier in the game gives us a potion, which while not a cure, allows us to retain our senses while in Worgen form.
Then, just as it looks like we’ve been able to turn the tide on the attacking hordes of wild Worgen the city is rocked by an attack by the Forsaken. Lead by Lady Sylvanas Windrunner the Horde have decided to attack the kingdom by sea. Before we know it, we are fighting a war on two fronts and are dispatched to the front lines to help counter the Forsaken attack. In the midst of this chaos Deathwing decides to burst forth from the elemental plane with the result being destruction of most of the coast of Gilneas, along with a good chunk of the Horde forces.
From this point on the storyline takes on a frantic pace as we race to save the survivors of the Cataclysm, fight off the Forsaken who are tight on our heels, and try to make it to higher ground as the land around us keeps slipping into the ocean.
We eventually make our way back to the city, which has been overrun by Forsaken. The ‘Battle for Gilneas’ is a quest similar to the ‘Battle for Undercity’, in that mechanics make it very difficult for us to die, while allowing the character to take on large numbers of enemy NPCs. It also allows us to face off against Lady Sylvanas herself; however events don’t quite go our way and at the darkest point of the story, when all seems lost, an old ally appears to aid us; The Night Elves.
With the help of the Night Elves we are able to turn the tide of battle against the Forsaken and the storyline ends with a daring raid on an Orc battle zeppelin heading in to deliver a killer blow to the remaining Gilneas forces… but do we succeed?
Goblin Theft Auto
Cataclysm delivers the first ‘small’ race for the Horde, the Goblins. While the Alliance has always had Dwarfs and Gnomes the Horde have traditionally been a race of giants.
The Goblins have been part of WoW since its launch however they’ve always been a non player class. A tinkerer race, Goblins have provided the steampunk element to WoW with their mad inventions and machines, never willing to join either the Alliance or Horde, they have only ever been interested in turning a profit.
New players choosing Goblins will be able to select a class from Warrior, Hunter, Rogue, Priest, Shaman, Mage and Warlock. As with Worgen the Death Knight class is also currently available in the beta.
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When we first start our new Goblin character they fit into the stereotype exactly, however we are about to set into motion a chain of events that will forever alter the Goblins of Kezan.
We begin as an aspiring Goblin, looking to turn a profit, have a good time, and perhaps blow something up. One of the best aspects of the initial levels is that we are given a hotrod to ride around Kezan with. The design of Kezan fits the use of this vehicle perfectly, unfortunately they city doesn’t stay in one piece for long…
During a game of footbomb, don’t ask it’s a Goblin thing; it seems that we’ve inadvertently kicked a super-powered bomb into the active volcano, Mount Kajaro, on the island of Kezan. Whether it is in fact this action that sets in motion the destruction of the island or the rise of Deathwing is unclear, however we prefer to blame Deathwing.
Luckily the Trade Prince of Kezan is more than happy to provide passage off the island, as long as we can pay our way. Thus starts a short series of quests that see us running down local pirates to steal their booty, sneaking in the Trade Prince’s mansion to steal rare artefacts and breaking into the Bank of Kezan to, retrieve our savings (the bank having closed early due to the imminent destruction of the island). All the while the volcano is raining down lava bombs and causing earthquakes.
We manage to retrieve all the required items to gain passage on the Trade Prince’s ship, and just when it seems we’ve escaped Kezan our saviour turns on us and throws us in the hold of the ship as a slave. Well, he is a Goblin after all.
A short while later we awake on a raft off the coast of an unfamiliar island. It appears that the Trade Prince wandered into the middle of naval battle between the Alliance and the Horde and his ship was destroyed. After making our way to shore we begin to explore the island we find a dead Orc with a journal. Returning the journal to the nearby Orc encampment and providing them with assistance soon gets us in the good graces of this stranded Horde expedition where we find the Alliance has stolen some precious cargo and set out to retrieve it for the Horde.
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After stealing a plane, we are Goblins after all, to get us to the Alliance ships it turns out that the precious cargo that the Horde lost is none other than Thrall himself. After helping Thrall escape from the Alliance we begin to set up a settlement on the island using a ‘town-in-a-box’ that we managed to salvage from the wreckage of the Trade Prince’s ship and almost immediately we come under attack from Naga, local tribesman and Zombies.
While trying to fend off all these attacks we, inadvertently, kill the local fire god residing in the island’s volcano and set off another volcanic eruption.
It’s now another race against time to help the Horde fight off the advancing Alliance troops, rescue our friends who’ve been taken prisoner by the Trade Prince and then, with the help of Thrall, attempt to overthrow the Trade Prince once and for all.
Summary
Both the Worgen and Goblin starting zones are excellent and really show the lessons Blizzard have learned about questing and game immersion. Varied types of quests are provided, giving new players a solid grounding in the play style of, not only their class, but of WoW in general.
The storylines are gripping to say the least, especially when we consider that by the end of the above sections we have only experienced 5hrs of gameplay reaching level 10 or so. The darkness of the Worgen zone is contrasted with the humour and fun of the Goblin zone. Both have a sense of urgency and keep us wanting to take the next quest to find out what happens next. The visual design of the zones are quite distinctive, with Gilneas resembling 19th Century London and Kezan resembling Las Vegas merged with the slums of Bombay. Then when the floods start and the volcanoes begin to erupt Blizzard has made excellent use of their terrain phasing technology, completely changing the world around us as the story evolves.
New WoW players are certainly in for a treat when they start a Worgen or Goblin, and returning players will have a starting experience unlike any they’ve seen before in WoW.
As Blizzard have been able to deliver such a high level of quest immersion and superb quality in these starting areas for the new races, we can’t wait to see what they’ve done with the new zones for the level 80 to 85 levelling race.
Next time…
We’ll take a look at some of the new zones available in the beta and touch on what the new talent tree design will mean for WoW players.
If you missed Part One of our WoW Cataclysm Blog’s click here
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Defense is a tanking stat designed to give tanks of all classes the things they need to avoid and survive physical hits. It has many functions. Each point of Defense skill (not rating) adds a .04% chance to be missed by the target, and to dodge, block, and parry – meaning for every 25 Defense skill you have you increase the miss rate of your opponent by 1% and give yourself a 1% each chance to dodge, block, and parry an incoming attack. At level 80, it takes 4.92 Defense Rating to make 1 Defense Skill.
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