Photo Tour of Teldrassil

I hopped a boat on over to Teldrassil to check out the "damage" over that direction.  There are only really 2 main changes to Teldrassil.

Rut'heran village has been separated and half sunk by the events in Azeroth recently.  It's still pretty, but the layout is very different now.

The Night Elves have taken responsibility for the Worgen situation and they have offered them sanctuary in Darnassus with this very intriguing looking tree.  It is located between the craftsman's terrace and the Cenarion enclave area.

These are shots from the one large room area underneath the Worgen tree.  As you can see, it's still very Night Elven in design and feel, but there are gathering groups of Worgen learning from the various Elves available.

Photo Tour of Westfall

Westfall has traditionally been a pretty yellow and bleakish area of farms and grasslands - fairly uncomplicated really.  But there have been a few changes to the landscape that I thought I would share.

It would seem there is a murder mystery afoot - human as well as poor old Blanchy that we used to gather oats for.  I would like you to notice the redheaded investigator in the photo - remind anyone of CSI-Miami?

Going further up the road we now see how much progress these steadily working farmers have made on their little town surrounding Sentinal Hill.  The wall construction is still going on, but it's made massive progress recently.

And perhaps the strangest change... I am not sure what you'd call it, but it would appear that one of the Defias caves has literally been blown to pieces and some energy vortex still swirls there throwing trees and debris around and around.

A Photo Tour of Stormwind and Elwynn Forest

After finally finishing the download, I thought I would enjoy some exploration.  One of the areas I've been most interested in was Stormwind.  Knowing that the Park had been a central RP hub on many servers, and was no going to be obliterated made me curious.  Stormwind is now a massively sprawling city with an incredible garden and water system.  I think I'll just post the pictures to illustrate it all.

Thank you for joining us on this adventure through the streets and above the rooftops of the new and grand and completed Stormwind City - home of King Wrynn, and many humans among other races of the Alliance. Please save all questions for the end of the tour, and enjoy the ride!

WATER IN THE FOUNTAINS!  About time Blizzard.  This is one of my favorite improvements just because it gives more actual life to the whole feel of the city.  As the water content everywhere is so much greater, I'm glad they managed to fix the plumbing for the fountains.

New Auction house directly across from the Bank.  Nice looking actually, and all the closer for bank/AH runs.

In the central area closer to where the old AH was - we now have a bulletin board quest thing.  There is also one in the Dwarven district between the AH and the bank there now as well.

Between the Trade District and Old Town there is now a cool looking fountain and a rounded curving walk - aesthetic value for sure.

Neat!  You can now buy horses in the courtyard area where SI:7 is now located.  There are also training dummies there and it's much more spacious rather than just the cramped corner to corner style it once was.

Aerial view of the new SI:7 layout.  (once I figured out how to fly - silly me)

The entrance of the new Stormwind Keep from the bridge in between the Trade District and the Dwarven District.

Welcome to Stormwind Keep - now a much grander home for the King of Stormwind, his now adolescent son Anduin, and also King Genn Greymane of Gilneas.  This structure is finally more befitting of the royalty and grandeur it should always have had.

Across the courtyard and above the statue, this is the main entrance to the Keep proper.

Above the throne in the main hall - they have added some nice detail to the room giving it a very Grand feeling.  The throne is no longer weirdly in the center of the room, but against the far wall, which makes more sense really.

In the center in front of the throne is the King looking splendid in the new model we've seen in Wrath recently.  To the left of him is his now adolescent son, Anduin.  My how the lad has grown!  He's complete with a teen voice now as well.  And on the right we have Genn Graymane from Gilneas.

This is a nifty new item, a table map of what appears to be Alterac Valley?  I thought it was interesting.

Before I explain this picture... the keep makes more sense in layout now as the garden is no longer down a disjoined hallway, but directly to the left of the throne room.  The library is also attached to the garden, and the garden is open on one side now with a lovely view like the one above of the Island we'll explore later.

There is an impressive system of waterways, canals, fishing spots, waterfalls, lakes, and so on through all of Stormwind now.  this is one of the nooks next to the keep where fisherman can happily cast their lures without all the traffic around them scaring the fish away.

this area is below the lake with the interesting island in it (which is below the keep on one side), down another waterfall to this lake, and inside this lovely little home resides Celestine, local Gilneans will recognize her as their Druid mentor in Gilneas City.  She has apparently been compensated for the loss of her home and is now living in Stormwind peacefully in this little corner.

Directly behind the Cathedral of Light there is this absolutely gorgeous little spot.  Being an RP-er, I can't help but notice the amazing RP potential for an outdoor wedding here.  There is an arbor arch leading down a short path to a gazebo surrounded by more arbors and plenty of benches to sit on for guests.  Right behind my standing point of view is another lovely water filled fountain.  It would appear that they have now fixed their plumbing issues.

And what a lovely view of the Cathedral from across the lake at the other end of the massive cemetery, now part of Stormwind City.  Peaceful area dedicated to those who have passed on.

The cemetery arcs all the way around one side of the lake with a pathway down the middle and graves on both sides, some areas more elaborate than others in their memorials.  This view is directly 180 degrees from the photo above.

This is the view of the Mage District from the ground, I thought it rather scenic looking so I snapped a shot to share.  I love the towers in the background.  Perhaps I never noticed how lovely this area was before, but I certainly do now.

The sad counter weight to all this new loveliness, is the loss of the Park area.  This is looking over the edge.

Looking slightly to the right of the same view point at the still smoldering and scorched ground.

This shot is directly across the lake from the Keep and the view point I had before.  You can see the archways up in the keep garden that I was standing in before looking down over that interesting island.

Once I discovered how to fly, I took some aerial shots of the city for you... this is from the gates looking over the whole of Stormwind.

The rooftops of Old Town.  I love that all the different districts have different colored roofs.

Looking over the rooftops of the Trade District from the perspective of between Trade and Old Town.

Flying over the Mage District also gave me the impression that this area was far prettier than I really gave it credit for previously.  The lovely plum colored rooftops set off all the greenery in the area.

This is the Cathedral area.  It's own in back as you can see to both the harbor and to the Cemetery down the right corner from this view.

Aerial view of the cemetery arch around the lake.  Cathedral is to the bottom left of the photo.

The aerial view of the new Keep and courtyard areas.  It's much more regal, and now I can see why the Defias are as disgruntled as they are!

The scorched pit where the Parke once was.  All the buildings in the area bear the markings of scorching and smoke damage.

And the mysterious island out there.  At first it looked like it might be a shaman area, and perhaps it still is, but there are an awful lot of portals there.  One said to Tol Barad, and another looked like it was to the undersea instance.  It's a rather fascinating spot.

The area where the bit of Elwynn and Stormwind seem to merge in the corner.  Celestine's house is down in the bottom left corner.

A closer view of the little pumpkin growing farm.  Just don't wander close to the hills if you're below level 80-ish, a level 83 attacked me there.

This is what I would assume is a boat werehouse.  It seems that large, and is in the corner of the Harbor area.  Nice filler for the spot, but kind of bulky really.

Here is another view of the decimated park from a flying view point looking at it from the sea side.

Much of Elwynn is untouched by the fury of Deathwing - but apparently he was angry with the vinyards near Northshire Abbey.  This is the starting area field where we used to pick grapes and dodged the low level defias.  It's a wee bit crispy now.

I think at one time or other we have all wanted to visit that little tent area up in the hills above Elwynn that we flew over on flight paths coming in from the Burning steppes.  Well I went up there now that I can, and followed the little river back to this amazing mass waterfall.

For kicks and giggles I visited Goldshire, and it was entirely the same (at least at my fast glance) with exception of this.  Yes, Goldshire as a flight point now!

This concludes our little photo tour of Stormwind City and the Surrounding Elwynn Forest.  Thank you for coming along for the ride.  I hope you all get to see all this for yourselves very soon!

My impressions were that the new areas added to Stormwind have far outweighed the sadness and loss of the Park.  It seems balanced into the positive in my opinion.  I can see Stormwind as an even bigger hub for RP than before, and PvP should be really interesting with the flying involved.  I wouldn't want to take on 2 boss kings at once though.  That might be tricky!

Downloading... still Downloading...

It's been downloading for the better part of two days now.  I got to the point where I could login and experience some things in the game, but I'm not sure what portions are just missing due to beta and what portions are actually still downloading.  I can see the female Worgen creation screen but can't actually "make" one.  However, I have to say I hope they give us more hair colors for Human form than just black.  They probably will.

I also created a Goblin even though I don't intend to play one.  I just want to test drive a few things and see how it goes.  Isn't beta about doing exactly that?  I've never done a beta so hopefully this will be interesting and maybe I'll have some useful information to give.  I do feel a little out of practice at the game.

I'm still not certain how you copy over a character you already have.  I might have to ask someone about that.  I would like to do that because I'd like to see the various zones and I'd need to play a higher level character than a  brand new one to achieve that.

In Non-Cata/beta news, I've worked on the RP for one of my favorite characters so that she doesn't end up getting deserted just because my guild seems to be a sinking ship.  As much as I wanted it to survive, I don't think there's enough dedication to it to keep it going.  It seems if I ever have RL rear it's ugly head, everything collapses.  So be it.  I'm kind of ready for a change of pace and would rather be a member now than a guild leader really.  I'd like to get back to enjoying the game more and running things less.

However - the change in RP now makes my character a redhead - which will be interesting.

Beginning a Fiery Journey

I woke up to an email like several others I had seen.  This email said I was accepted to the Cataclysm Beta.  Nothing to get excited over.. another Phishing attempt right?  Well maybe not so much.  The further I read, the more intrigued I became.  I didn't see any non-valid links or strange addresses in the header.  I figured the true test would be to just go directly to battle.net myself and see if there was a client there to download.  A little hopeful, and trying not to get my hopes up, I logged in and punched in the authentication code.  Clicked manage accounts.... and my jaw dropped.  IT WAS REAL!!  I am now installing the Cataclysm Beta client.  I have never before participated in a Blizzard beta so this is going to be a very unique journey indeed.  Wish me luck!