24 Hours of Wrath

Geek that I am I ordered my expansion pack the day after Blizzard announced that it was available.

The receipt had been tacked to my bulletin board at work, carefully folded and hidden behind a small calendar, right up until my arm injury.

Once I was home resting after surgery my pre-order made its home on my fridge held in place by an Einstein magnet.

I found out that the Vegas GameStops were participating in the midnight launch, and /woot! mine was on the list.

Here is how my first 24 hours of Wrath unfolded.

11:45 pm - Leave the house for my local GameStop

12:00 am - GameStop starts handing out WotLK, apparently there is a nation wide issue with credit card verifications at game stops across the US. WoW Insider had a post up about it, and I got to verify the issue here in L.V.

Fortunately I had paid in full, and brought along enough cash to cover any kind of snafu, so I got my copy with no problems. I had planned ahead because I was getting a little concerned as the ink on the reciept was old enough to have started to fade.

12:31 am - Finds me back at Home and inserting the game disk.

1:03 am - Installation is complete, patches are run and accounts are all upgraded.

1:05 am - Log into Wrath of the Lich King. I had Vik and Kaylee already standing by at the docks so we jumped onto the boat and made the trek to the Borian Tundra.


My goal for the evening (evening? phtttt. who am I kidding) was to run through the starting areas and get flight paths. I have to say I am completely blown away by all the new graphics. The landscapes and towns are gorgeous, and maybe my favorite discovery is the soundtrack. I love the Norse/Celtic theme to starting zones.

So Kaylee and I set forth to meet the new factions and grabbed all the flight paths between Howling Fjord and Borian Tundra. Then I grabbed a drink and flew back to the Tundra just to enjoy the view. It was a nice relaxing look at the new zones.

I can't believe how clear the graphics are, and how far into the distance you can see.

I am a happy WoW camper again!

So back to the timeline:

2:15 am - Log off Vik and Kaylee, switch realms to Echo Isles and Create Berthold. Bert is my new Death Knight. Why Bert? Well, I wanted a normalish-yet-funny name for my D.K. and I was a huge fan of the spoof daytime drama Soap.

Holy crap, did I just date myself or what?

I played approx. half the Death Knight starting quest lines that night. OMG! As an old Blizz. fan I was floored at how well they set it all up. Talking to Arthas really brought out the role play in me and I totally did a /kneel for that first speech he gives you.

I also made the decision to have Bert take up Inscribing and Enchanting for his professions. My guild needs both, and Enchanting is such a good income source. I'll need the cash for that Mammoth mount that you can take your friends for a ride on.

2:50 am - I just couldn't leave Finegas behind after all the work I have done on him to be ready to roll into the new content. I switched characters and hopped the Zeppelin to the Vengeance Landing planning on grabbing the Horde flight paths.

I made it through all the Howling Fjord flight masters and then....

3:15 am - Head + Keyboard. I was falling asleep at the keyboard. Time to pack it in and get some rest.

9:30 am - Egypt the Cat was very hungry and woke me up to tell me all about it.

9:35 am - Stumble to the kitchen, start up the coffee maker and feed the gatos.

9:40 am - I log on to Viktel and begin a 12 hour WoW marathon. I knew I would be unable to resist playing so I just decided to go with the flow and had fun with the game.

I took breaks here and there for food and household chores, but those were more about stretching the legs and getting the blood moving than doing anything meaningful.

9:00 pm (ish) - I got texts from my local Horde guild members that they were logging on so I switched over to Bert and finished the D.K. starting zone, and worked through the rest of the Horde starting zone flight paths.

It was great to listen to the oohs and aaahs as my friends experienced the DK starting areas.

I was really thrilled with how the D.K. story line unfolded. I think Blizz did a fantastic job of explaining how the fallen heroes of Azeroth could redeem themselves, and that's all I'll say since there are lots of folks that haven't had the chance to see it yet.

Lets just say the final quest in the chain gave me goose bumps and I finished the way I started, with a /kneel for the big guy himself: Thrall.

10:00 pm - Done with Bert for the moment I picked up on Fin where I left off and got the rest of the flight paths in the new zones.

11:45 - pm Naioka and I are the only two left online, and she has just completed the DK starting zone. I log off tired and very happy.

And now if you will excuse me, scheduled maintenance is complete and realms are starting to come back on line again....