One scroll of resurrection later and my Tauren warrior is level 80 and suitably attired for adventuring in Mt Hyjal. It’s been a while since I’ve walked the lands of Azeroth – the best part of two years in fact, ever since my Warlock dinged level 85 shortly after Cataclysms release and I logged out over the Christmas break and didn’t log back in. But while I had no intention of necessarily getting the new expansion at release, I wanted to see what the 5.04 changes were like and check out the significant overhaul to the talent system. Also, mounts and pets are now shared account wide which is sort of cool. That means as and when I eventually get my Mechano-Hog, I only need it once.
After my free 7 days was up, I decided to sub for a month, primarily to see Rouf up 85 (he got to 83 in the short week of the trial) but also to check out the new scenario that was being made available for the week prior to the expansions release. I’ll admit that I have no idea what these Scenarios are other than they sound like 3-man, story driven, instances – although they differ from a 5-man story-driven instance like the Culling of Stratholme I’m not sure (no role requirements is apparently one selling point). Prior to the xpac release, the Fall of Theramore scenario is a level 85 instance. After release it will be for level 90.
But it doesn’t look like I’ll get to see it just yet.
Today, however, I learn that in addition to the level requirement, there’s also a gear requirement too – characters must have iLevel 353 gear, which I gather is normally obtained after repeated runs of the latest Heroic dungeons. This seems a bit harsh on players who are returning and want to see the content for themselves, as in my case. The scenario experience might be the one thing that convinces me to buy the expansion when its released. Probably not, in all likelihood but considering the number of subs that the game has hemorrhaged over the last couple of years, is it really wise of Blizzard to turn away potential resubscribers?
Of course, I might be talking out of my arse – I don’t actually know how easy it is to gear up at this point in the game (plus I still have 1.5 levels to go but that I reckon I can easily do in a week.) Or I could always relent and try to get my already-85 warlock geared up. Anyway, here’s Rouf the cow.
