Posts with tag scenarios

I love scenarios and I just figured out why.

I love scenarios because I can queue up and run them as DPS, and when I do, I end up DPS tanking everything. Whether or not there's a healer, it almost always goes the same way. I queue, get in, wait to make sure everyone else is there, and start charging into things. The damage I take I mitigate with Die by the Sword, the Draenei racial and my ridiculously high parry chance. Finally, after eight years, I can get a sense of what arms tanking would be like and it's glorious. It's exactly what should have happened after Wrath of the Lich King, instead of DK's losing tanking spec versatility, warriors should have gained it. Let's rename protection into juggernaut spec, and all three trees should be able to tank or DPS!

No? Just me? Ah well. At least in scenarios, this is exactly what warriors do. I come in as prot and I wreck faces, I come in arms and I Bladestorm/Sweeping Strikes everything onto me. And I'm having a blast doing it.

Scenarios are perfect content for the warrior just getting used to level 90, finding your feet and trying to decide what role you want to play in instances. They're like danger room practice sessions and you get to be both Colossus and Wolverine, throwing yourself at the mobs. I find them excessively satisfying. For some, though, they might be a little daunting. So we're going to talk about how to approach the scenario as a warrior.

Ever since Nagrand, the latest version of Ring of Blood has been a great rite of passage. Once you're close to max level, you beg, wheedle, or cajole 4 friends, strangers, or even enemies to join you in fighting a series of elite mobs, with the final reward being a blue weapon that will serve you well until you get something better from a heroic dungeon.

Luckily, this tradition continues in Mists, and it's even easier to get started. Once you're 90, head to Kun-lai Summit and the Temple of the White Tiger. Gurgthock will be standing next to a gong just outside the temple proper, and he'll give you a quest to enter the Arena of Annihilation, with the reward being the choice of a couple weapons tailor made for your class.

Once you get the quest, what you'll want to do is queue for the Arena of Annihilation scenario. Open the Dungeon Finder Interface (The hotkey should be "I" by default) and choose the Scenarios option. Choose Specific Scenarios from the drop down menu, check the box next to Arena of Annihilation, make sure no other boxes are checked, and hit Find Group. Within moments, you'll be in the Scenario and well on your way to your weapon. Once you defeat the final boss, Wodin the Troll-Servant will be waiting right there in the scenario to reward you.

The weapon will be a nice, solid rare weapon of ilvl 450. It's not as good as a heroic dungeon drop, but if you just dinged 90, it's bound to be better than the quest green you're likely using, and it'll help boost your item level so you can run heroics that much faster.

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It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!

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Ready for your first taste at scenarios? You'll get to enjoy them a day earlier, it looks like. Kaivax's post on the official forums has been updated to indicate that the Theramore event is actually releasing today (September 17) in the U.S. and not tomorrow, as was previously planned.

Bashiok hopped on and provided some additional timeframe details:

Bashiok

For US servers it will be unlocked today in the afternoon.

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There are some item level requirements you'll need to be aware of before you run the scenario, so be sure to check those out. Additionally, you can get prepped for the scenario by reading our short history of Theramore; find out what all the fuss has been about over the years.

Looks like it's time to go see Jaina get mad!

The game is eternally evolving. Sometimes that means things get added, and sometimes that means they get taken away (Oh, Have Group Will Travel, I miss you every day). This means the game is in a constant state of evolution and therefore that there's always room for improvement. With Mists of Pandaria changing the game and adding features like Scenarios, Challenge Modes and Pet Battles, and Cataclysm having already added void storage and transmogrification, the mind moves to what we could potentially see in the future. What features do we all want to see?

I have no idea. Seriously, how could I possibly know what you want to see? I mean, you might tell me in the comments, but that's in the future. There's no way I can have read the comments on this post before I finish writing it. However, I'm fairly in touch with what I want to see. And so, here's five features I wish WoW had. (Note - I didn't say more bank space or void storage tabs, but man, I want those too.)

1. Mentoring

One of the features the lamented MMO City of Heroes had that I always enjoyed was its Mentoring system. Now, this isn't something WoW's developer's are unaware of - it's a fantastic system which allows higher level characters to play with their lower level friends, either by raising the lower level character temporarily in order to be able to survive higher level content, or by lowering the higher level character to the lower level. The current system that can raise or lower gear levels for beta testing and which will normalize gear for challenge modes could be used in such a fashion, and I think it's an idea long overdue for WoW to blatantly pilfer and run with it.

Recently I was perusing the forums as I am wont to do (I am also wont to use the archaic phrase "wont to do") when I saw a forum thread about bringing back the Wrathgate as a scenario. My first thought was "Eww, no" -- and it's not because I didn't like the Wrathgate or the Battle for Undercity that followed. I did. I greatly enjoyed both the Horde and Alliance versions.

No, my reaction was based on the extreme negativity of a vocal minority of the playerbase any time anything gets revamped or reused. After listening to a litany of complaints about the return of ZG and ZA, and the complaining about the return of Wyrmrest Temple and the Eye of Eternity in Dragon Soul, and some of the complaints I've already heard about the changes to Scarlet Monastery and Scholomance, I kind of hope they never revamp old content again.

But Vaneras made some good points in his response to the thread. Blizzard is pretty forward-focused right now, but they're not entirely unaware of the idea of returning old content this way.

Vaneras - The Wrathgate Scenario

We are aware and do acknowledge that there are people would like us to focus some more on renewing old content, but we do indeed want the game to progress and evolve with new content. :-)

It has previously been said that adding new content is something we feel is generally more exciting than renewing old content, and this is still true today. Renewing existing content can be great in some situations, especially if it is content that is very popular or if it is content that hasn't been experienced by a large portion of the player-base, but in generally we feel it is better to spend our resources on creating new content that is fresh for everyone.

Existing content has been renewed before though, and it is most likely going to happen again in the future in some form. Even though there are no immediate plans for it, perhaps we will one day get to see the Wrathgate and the fight for the Undercity converted into scenarios :-)

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Hopefully this clears up everyone's questions about this process. If not, you can always check out the discussion thread on the official forums and ask away!

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It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!

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Following along on the hype train (choo, choo) after the MoP release date announcement come previews for two scenarios, a new feature in the game's fourth expansion. The two scenarios in question are A Brewing Storm, where you have to protect a brewmaster with the very pandaren name of Blanche while she brews her finest beer yet, and Greenstone Village, where you take on the forces of agitated earth spirit Hui.

Scenarios are short, queueable instances for three level 90 players of any class -- no holy trinity needed. Progression is based on fulfilling story objectives instead of defeating trash and bosses. Check out the full previews for Greenstone Village and A Brewing Storm over on the official WoW site.

You can now read more about the Mists of Pandaria Scenarios feature in our updated expansion preview website! Check out our sneak peek at two of the scenarios you and your friends will be able to play in Mists of Pandaria: A Brewing Storm and Greenstone Village.

What's a "Scenario?"

Scenarios are short, instanced adventures for three players that directly follow the stories and events in the open world. In a scenario you'll be presented with a number of goals you need to achieve in order to progress. So instead of "clear trash, kill boss, rinse, repeat", you will be given objectives you have to complete to move the scenario's story forward. Yes, that's right – scenarios are heavily story-driven, much more so than dungeons.

You'll be able to queue for scenarios, dungeons, raids, and battlegrounds all at the same time in Mists of Pandaria. Scenarios share a common UI with dungeons and raids as part of the Dungeon Finder, and you can check your queue statuses by clicking on the LFD icon next to your minimap.

Check out the previews now for more info and screenshots, and make sure to check back often as we'll be adding info for more scenarios soon. Stay tuned!

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It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!

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