Cataclysmic Shift: Deepholm: Complete

Monday 2 August 2010

Deepholm: Complete

So I completed Deepholm over the weekend, which left my Druid 20% shy of lvl83. Since there hasn't really been a pass over the zone, I don't expect the xp to be too meaningful and I assume that you'll be hitting lvl83 so you can then move to Uldum.

There's a great variety of quest-types in the zone, and even a cameo of Millhouse Manastorm (who I've also seen during a solo ninja run of the Stonecore instance).

The zone has you searching Deepholm to recover the fragments of the World Pillar, which was shattered by Deathwing as he ascended and broke through the planar barrier into Azeroth. Without the World Pillar, Azeroth is destablised and is being drawn down into Deepholm, the elemental plane of earth. Thrall is up top holding back the vortex at the Maelstrom, but you are tasked with bringing the fragments together so that the Earthen Ring can mend it from the other side.

As is so for both Hyjal and Vashj'ir, phasing tech is everywhere and the zone is very often changing due to your efforts.

I really enjoyed this 'journey to the center of the earth' feel, and am looking forward to the suspense and ambience being polished even more.

As for Balance Druids, they've barely been touched other than a slight rearranging of talents. Hopefully I'll be tackling Uldum and its air elementals with a freshed Moonkin in the not too distant future.

2 comments:

Relevart3 August 2010 at 03:52
Grats on completing Deepholm. I liked Hyjal more (as far as storyline goes) but there were some really fun quests in Deepholm too. I thought the scenery was simply stellar. The colors (especially Therazane's Throne) were very rich and when settings are pumped up all the way, its beautiful. Unfortunately, about all I can do while the settings are maxed is stand in place, so I won't be enjoying the game to that level, but even on minimalistic settings, the zone carries quite the beautiful backdrop.
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Aaron3 August 2010 at 09:41
Yeah, the zone is just so unique in its style and scenery.
I avoided playing my Druid for a while for a few reasons - both WoW and IRL - and am really happy that I was able to keep my settings at max after things had settled down. I'm hoping that a solid Balance Druid pass comes with Uldum :)

I had a few random crashes throughout the zone, and a few random de-'flight forming' which hurt. That aside, I loved to see the zone amp up that the worlds are ending (miniquakes tied to quests, quests directly dealing with planar instability etc) so as to actually give connection to 'omg the World Pillar is destroying and Azeroth is being drawn into Deepholm!'.

I haven't completed Hyjal yet on my Warlock, but am mostly done with him a bit over lvl82. At this stage I'd have to say that I've enjoyed Vashj'ir the most just by it being such a cool and unique zone in all of WoW. I went through it before their recent pass of it, but the pacing and suspense of the zone was fantastic.
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A (long) brief Bio

I started off as my Mage, Oraan, at the very beginning of Vanilla and raided Molten Core until: 1) I was sick of turning up 30mins early to a raid to make water for everyone, including those who loved to have fun instead, and 2) we really started to hurt for Warlocks when one of our two took the night off.
So I was asked to swap to my Warlock (which I had been leveling on the side for kicks) and suddenly was thrown from the sidelines of being a random Mage into being a frontline Warlock.

Onaar, as a Warlock of old, I had duties beyond simply making water as a Mage. My beloved imp, Zeptuk, bravely charged into the fray to pull, my Banishing finesse put me at the front of 40 other players (sometimes as the sole Warlock for the night), and my Heathstone ninjaing was unparalleled. These were my glory days of raiding.

My leveling addiction gained momentum with Anaro, my Druid, who leveled as old school and pre-Druid patch Feral. I eventually hit 60 and then occasionally subbed in for other healers throughout MC and Blackwing Lair while maintaining the role as Warlock class officer.

After about 8 months of clearing BWL, I completed my Warlocks tier2 Nemesis with my shoulders finally dropping...

We then moved on to AQ40 on its release where I further took up the role as raid strat devisor, which got us to the Twin Emperors before Naxxramas was released and then I subsequently moved overseas.

I finished leveling my Paladin in the lead up to BC. I barely raided beyond Karazhan in BC, but had made a somewhat official transistion to my Druid as both Moonkin and Resto. I completed all raids of BC, all but TK and BT as progression clears.

Moving back from overseas, WotLK again saw my Druid as the focus, however, I was joined by a load of extras from BC; Shaman Raaon, Rogue Roaan, Naaro Warrior, and Raano Priest.

I progression healed Naxx, Malygos and Sarth as both Druid and Pally, before settling back into a non-raiding routine where, in addition to leveling all my 70s to 80, I added another Shaman as Ranao and Death Knight Naaor.

In WotLK, I have cleared all but Ulduar as multiple characters (primarily Druid and Paladin, but ICC instead as Priest and Enh Shaman).
I will always be a healer at heart and I am always drawn back to the Druid, especially as the underdog Moonkin.

Other characters have had various other experiences, such as my Subtley Rogue in Arena (until they were buffed :S), my Frost DK tank, and so on. I've raided to varying degrees with all characters in WotLK bar Warrior tank and Rogue, but Druid, Pally, Warlock, Priest, Enh Shaman, and Ele/Resto Shaman the most.