I Come From the Land of Ice and Snow

Ah, ah,
We come from the land of the ice and snow,
From the midnight sun where the hot springs blow.
The hammer of the gods will drive our ships to new lands,
To fight the horde, singing and crying: Valhalla, I am coming!
-Led Zepplin, "Immigrant Song"

Northrend doesn't stand a chance.

I'm taking it slow in the frozen north, trying to pace myself so I
a) don't fail out of my master's program
b) don't give myself Carpal Tunnel
c) actually soak up the lore leading up to max level; and
d) let the crazy people get ahead of me and I can quest in peace.

I've been time-sharing my paladin and my death knight. So far my paladin is about 60% of the way to 71 and has completed a good portion of Borean Tundra (I think a good portion? I can't tell how many quests there are to be done). I just stumbled upon the D.E.H.T.A quest hub, and I'm supposed to go to Amber Ledge and Fizzcrank's Airstrip next.

On the flip side, I started a death knight - a red-haired pale Dwarf named Tytos. Yes, I stole the name Tytos from GRRM's ASoIaF series. If you don't know what I'm talking about, look back at any post where I ramble about naming my characters, you'll get it. None of the names I wanted for him were available, so I resorted to a cool-sounding one. Plus, the GM's wouldn't let me steal Baelor back from whatever good-for-nothing Horde is holding it on a bank character, so I couldn't rename my paladin and then just use Cathmor for my DK. Phooey.

The death knight starting experience thus far is pretty cool. Seeing a lot of the Naxx bosses milling around as interactable characters is great, as are the first few quests. So far, my DK hasn't leveled, but he has his charger, a PvP trinket, a few talent points (which I invested in the blood tree, because life leech is awesome. Second choice would be unholy), and is enjoying slaughtering Havenshire. The playstyle is sort of button-mashy - it plays like a quick-fire arcade fighter like Street Fighter. You need to think one move ahead constantly and plan out your attack sequence, and the next attack needs to come quick. Might change down the road as I get more abilities/talents, but that's my initial impression.

My paladin is quite overpowered in the early Northrend experience. He is 2 or 3-shotting just about everything, doesn't run out of mana if I take things one or two mobs at a time, and absolutely wrecks level 72 elites by himself. I probably could have solo'ed the culmination of the quest line in En'kilah if I wanted to (it's marked as a 3-man group quest). Of course, he is in tier 6+ gear, so his stats are probably the equivalent of a level 76 paladin at this point. Can't wait to advance further in the quest lore and see the Wrath gate cinematic!

And if I hadn't mentioned it before, the holy trinity of Art of War, Sheath of Light, and Judgements of the Wise is f*ckin win.

Lastly, the new engineering stuff is drool-worthy. I don't care if it isn't powerful in the end-game, I want it. Has anyone seen the [Gnomish Army Knife]? Or the [Flexweave Underlay]? Or the belt-clipped spynoculars, which give you the effects of goggles without having to wear goggles? Or the nitro-boosts for boots? I'm especially psyched about the army knife. I'll be able to ditch my half a bag's worth of engineering tools and just carry that! Must have the precious...

Anyway, that's where I'm at. How's your Wrath experience going? Smashing face and taking names? Getting pwned by queue's and quest cluster-f*cks? Rerollin' DK? Quit for Warhammer? Eating pie?

This weekend is sure to be filled with quests and kills. Check back next week for another episode of Adventures in Azeroth: The Travels of Cathmor!