Turning back time

You can't turn back time, but sometimes you can modify circumstances to closer resemble earlier days. Playing World of Warcraft with lower level characters on Runetotem wasn't much fun, there was something missing. After some thought about what the problem was, it dawned on me that the missing ingredient were groups with other players. Runetotem is an old server, been around since the very start, and now 40% to 50% of the people online are level 60. And then I'm playing Horde, which only has half the number of players than Alliance has anyway. So running a census reveals about 10 people per level below 60 only, distributed all over the world, so groups rarely happen. In addition the high number of level 60 and twinks totally changes the economy, low level magic items aren't even traded any more on the auction house, unless they are blue.

So I looked up which were the newest European servers, and found that some new servers had opened less than a month ago. I picked an English language non-PvP server, Bronzebeard, and created an Alliance character. Not having played elves sinced I left the US servers, and never having played a hunter beyond level 10, I made a night elf hunter named Waldin and played him all weekend. I made it to level 14, and I have lots of fun at the moment.

It took me some time to figure out pets, because the system is a bit complicated. You basically chose one main pet, but then you occasionally put that pet away in the stable, and go and tame pets with special abilities. By using those pets, you can learn the special abilities of them. You can also learn special pet abilities from the pet trainer. Going back to your main pet, hunting with it will give you training points, and then with the training points you can have it learn all the special abilities you picked up from other pets and the trainer.

Less complicated, but taking a bit of effort, is keeping your pet happy. On your pet screen you can see what types of food your pet eats. Then you have to feed your pet with one of those kinds of food, until it becomes happy. When it is happy, or at least content, it fights better, and its loyalty goes up. The effect of loyalty is a bit nebulous, but I got from level 1 to the highest level, 6 - Best Friend, in a few hours, so it isn't much of a problem.

Pets seem to be pretty well balanced, there is not one "must have" pet that everybody is running around with. But there are some rare spawn animals that you can tame, and often they have interesting stats. So after studying some hunter sites, I chose The Rake as my pet. That is a male lion, with a good looking mane. He has a very high attack speed of 1.2, and runs very fast, which is good for pursuit. Like all cats he deals out lots of damage, has medium hitpoints, and low armor. And cats eat fish, with fishing being probably the easiest and cheapest way to feed a pet.

So I was pretty busy with my new hunter, doing fishing, cooking, skinning and leatherworking as tradeskills. Then travelling a lot to get The Rake, and to find the animals from which to learn all the special abilities. And trying to finance it all by skinning and selling leather and light armor kits on the auction house. I enjoyed it very much, sometimes it is better to be poor, at least in virtual worlds.

But I couldn't totally turn back the time. I have a good memory, which unfortunately meant I still remembered many of the quests I had last done a year ago with my night elf druid on the US server. And while a year ago I approached everything with a sense of wonder and discovery, I was playing the new hunter more like a pro does. I don't think many newbie night elf hunters travel to Mulgore to get a pet. I see lots of elf hunters with cats, but all of the leopard type which is common in Teldrassil and Darkshore, nobody else has a lion.

This being Alliance and a new server, there are lots of people around, with most of them between level 10 and 20. I already joined a big guild, and it should be possible to find groups for dungeons when I have the appropriate level. The only trouble I see ahead is that a census reveals the usual picture: 20% of the players are playing hunters, and only 5% are playing priests. On the older servers the numbers even out a bit, because people notice how much more important priests are for groups and guilds. But I decided not to care, and just play what is fun to me now, and not worry about the long term. If I want high-level groups, I can always go back to Runetotem and play my "useful" characters.

After having gotten used to the economy on Runetotem, the auction house prices on Bronzebeard feel a bit strange. Items that can be gathered by low level characters, like the light leather I want to sell, are unfortunately a lot cheaper here, because the supply is bigger than the demand. I might need to change my strategy and tailor some magic leather armor instead, that might sell better. I remember on Runetotem at the start smithing was still profitable. Rare fish, like Blackmouth, likewise aren't in demand yet. I have the feeling that most people are still busy questing and leveling, and haven't gotten around to crafting yet. On the positive side the AH is full of low level magic items at reasonable prices, so I found a nice two-handed axe and a good bow. While the hunter was a bit mediocre until level 10 with just the quested weapons and armor, and without pet, now with the pet and better gear he is a real powerhouse. Especially when I can launch my attacks from maximum distance, in confined spaces the hunter gets more difficult to play.

I haven't got a clue how long I will play my new hunter, but for the moment he has revived my interest in World of Warcraft, and I am enjoying the game again. Blizzard gets top marks for replayability by switching classes, they are all interesting and very different. Less good marks for quest replayability and amount of content, but that is something that expansion sets should fix over time.
- posted by Tobold @ 8:56 AM Permanent Link