Comparing two artifact quest lines

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Sukurachi
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Comparing two artifact quest lines

Unread post by Sukurachi »

Today I got to do the artifact quest lines on two of my toons, different classes.
My first one was, obviously, my BM Hunter.
The second was my Destruction Warlock.

The hunter quest line was... annoying. I died multiple times, my pet died over and over, and I had trouble targeting things because I constantly had to keep an eye on my action bars for cool-downs. And before I knew it, the quest line was over.

The warlock quest line was... long! It just went on and on and on and on and on... a veritable Energizer bunny quest line. And it FELT epic and important! but still! I didn't die once, my demon never died. I felt POWERFUL.

If I compare the two it seems pretty obvious to me that Blizzard's designers put absolutely no thought whatsoever into the hunter quest line.

All of BM hunter's weaknesses were readily apparent doing this quest line. my pet died repeatedly. I died a couple of times. I felt ineffective and powerless. At least when compared to my Destro Lock.

The most insulting thing about this comparison is that my Hunter is FAR better geared than my Warlock was.

And now, sadly, because I have so many alts, I have to go through the whole process nearly 30 more times. A few of those are other classes: a couple Priests, a Monk, a couple Demon Hunters, a Warrior, a Paladin, a Death Knight, a Druid, and the balance is all Hunters.

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Re: Comparing two artifact quest lines

Unread post by Wain »

On my 725 geared hunter I had no problems with the BM quest, BUT I remember from the beta that it was quite hard in default blues and I died a bit. Not impossible though, just difficult. Maybe it needs tuning if other ones aren't like that.

From a story perspective I'd have to say that the BM quest is really well done, though. It had a lot of details, numerous changes of scene and I enjoyed it thoroughly. The SV quest wasn't as rich in story and scenery changes, but was still enjoyable. The only Hunter one I didn't like much was the MM one which I found was very linear, lacked varied activity, and I thought the character behaviour was nonsense.
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Re: Comparing two artifact quest lines

Unread post by Nachtwulf »

I've done BM and SV and honestly the BM one is more interesting of the two. The SV one wasn't awful, just... I was supposed to feel emotional impact for the NPCs that died and it just wasn't there. (Maybe I'm just not into tauren, idk...) At least I like Mimiron and it made me laugh a few times. I think my pet only died once (during the door unlocking part) and I was able to get it back up and active quickly, and then I did die the first time during the fight with whatsherbutt at the end, because I hadn't realized that the answer to all her poop on the floor is to stand really close which makes it much easier to avoid.

I will say the rogue 'Kingslayer' quest felt a lot more involved, though. Serious plot, serious intrigue... but jefus barking cripes it was hard. I died SO MUCH. Now, my rogue was doing it at ivl 610 or something like that so I daresay that had something to do with it, but neither of the hunter quests were ANYTHING LIKE as hard as rogue. But they also weren't anything like as thought-out. Then again, the fury warrior quest was about as straightforward as the BM quest, to me anyway. I think just some classes got more lore due to the nature of the expac.

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Re: Comparing two artifact quest lines

Unread post by Shinryu Masaki »

Sukurachi wrote:I died multiple times, my pet died over and over,

All of BM hunter's weaknesses were readily apparent doing this quest line. my pet died repeatedly. I died a couple of times. I felt ineffective and powerless.
What kind of pet are you using and in what spec? I use one with a shield skill and specced Tenacity. I also took the Aspect of the Beast talent to get the 15% reduced damage to my pet for 6 seconds every time I use Kill Command, which means it's up 99.99% of the time.

I care very little for the potential damage that Stampede is supposed to dish out, assuming everything is in its damage zone to begin with, and I prefer to use a talent that makes my pet takes less damage when in tank spec.

My pet never once died, unlike me during the Mimiron event (damn you ground fire!). But then again you respawn right there in the room so it's not the end of the world.
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Re: Comparing two artifact quest lines

Unread post by Vephriel »

I did the one for my arcane mage last night and holy crap was it ever hard. I'm not really sure how we're supposed to do it honestly, I died so often. As an arcane mage I don't have any healing abilities or even really much to mitigate damage or handle mobs. Sure I've got a barrier but it breaks fast, especially when there were multiple enemies at points. And it's not like he was terribly geared either. I did complete it, but only after dying at like..each stage a couple times. I might not play mages very often but I just have no idea how we're supposed to avoid all that damage with nothing to help soak it up. :/

I had some problems with the MM hunter quest as well, but that could largely be how unfamiliar I am with the new MM spec. BM I don't think I had any troubles on.
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Re: Comparing two artifact quest lines

Unread post by Sukurachi »

With my destro Warlock I was surprised that his health was at 100% nearly continuously. It seems almost unfair that Warlocks get a spell that heals them strongly and constantly and at the same time damages their enemies.
I'm not complaining regarding Warlocks - I did the Warlock quest twice today (I have two locks) and it was just as easy both times. The only other class I've played that has such strong healing/damaging ability is monk. I find my priest WAY too squishy. and he's supposed to be a healer but can barely keep himself alive.

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Re: Comparing two artifact quest lines

Unread post by Sigrah »

Nachtwulf wrote:I've done BM and SV and honestly the BM one is more interesting of the two. The SV one wasn't awful, just... I was supposed to feel emotional impact for the NPCs that died and it just wasn't there. (Maybe I'm just not into tauren, idk...) At least I like Mimiron and it made me laugh a few times. I think my pet only died once (during the door unlocking part) and I was able to get it back up and active quickly, and then I did die the first time during the fight with whatsherbutt at the end, because I hadn't realized that the answer to all her poop on the floor is to stand really close which makes it much easier to avoid.
Only did the survival one so far, and you're right, it's pretty "meh". I didn't know either of those Tauren, and the beast I had to slay wasn't anything special or epic. It could have been better, maybe by having a plot involving Magatha Grimtotem racing for Talonclaw in an effort to use it in some bloody quest to conquer Thunder Bluff or vengeance of some sort, something along those lines. Would have even been cool if she was seeking it out in an effort to win over the Broken Isle Tauren tribes for her own nefarious goals. That's just one idea anyways.

But, they pretty much redid the whole survival spec from the ground up, so it wouldn't surprise me if the artifact weapon quest line was secondary to all of this. Besides that, the spear and spec are pretty freakin sweet, so a "meh" legendary quest story is fine given how much fun the new version of Survival is, at least from my perspective ;)
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Re: Comparing two artifact quest lines

Unread post by Sukurachi »

I noticed something tonight:

I didn't know that the new "Play Dead" ability was a toggle, which is nice. just put "Play Dead" on your toolbar and when your pet is feigning death, the button changes to "Wake Up", so no need for two slots taken up....

HOWEVER

it now has a 30, yes THIRTY, Three Zero, second timer on it? As in, you have your pet play dead, and you can't wake him up for another 30 seconds???

Blizzard really IS trying to kill Beast Mastery.

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Re: Comparing two artifact quest lines

Unread post by Makoes »

Sukurachi wrote:
it now has a 30, yes THIRTY, Three Zero, second timer on it? As in, you have your pet play dead, and you can't wake him up for another 30 seconds???

Blizzard really IS trying to kill Beast Mastery.
Not on mine, the 30 sec timer doesn't start till after my pet has woken up. So just a 30 sec timer on pet play dead, not on the wake up. Just like how FD doesn't start the CD till you start moving again.

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Re: Comparing two artifact quest lines

Unread post by Nachtwulf »

Yeah, I've been able to wake my pet up instantly too. They just want you to not be able to spam it, for whatever reason. Probably 'annoyance of pet death noises'.

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Re: Comparing two artifact quest lines

Unread post by Sukurachi »

OK, it must have been a glitch earlier.
I hit play dead they both dropped.. but then there was a 30 second timer before I could wake them up.

I just tested it (after logging out and back in for other activities) and it works as you say.

crisis averted!

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Re: Comparing two artifact quest lines

Unread post by Nachtwulf »

Also I am gratified to see Hati responding to play dead in a prompt fashion too. Had to aggro-bail tonight and it worked smoothly.

(also I found out enabling Titan's Reach makes him/her more Skoll-colored which is encouraging me to keep the look. Getting the COLOR I want though is gonna take...100 dungeons... good christ.)

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Re: Comparing two artifact quest lines

Unread post by Sukurachi »

To compare yet again with another class...
Today I did the holy Priest artifact chain.
I have quite honestly never really healed, ever. It's always scared the crap out of me because it's a huge responsibility.

Well, I took the plunge in the worst possible way.
And guess what?
The Holy Priest quest chain is SO short and so easy it was over before I knew it.

One way to compare the different quest chains is by the amount of experience I got from them.

my BM Hunter got around 19% of a level out of it (resting bonus).
meanwhile, my Destro Warlock got over 33% of a level (again, resting bonus)
and my Holy Priest got around 19% of a level (comparable to the hunter, again with resting bonus).

So there's something unbalanced about the Destro Warlock artifact quest chain if it is so long that it gives nearly twice as much exp as other classes.

Anyway, glad I tried the healing spec. It was fun and I guess I'll stick to it on my priest.

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Re: Comparing two artifact quest lines

Unread post by peanutbuttercup »

I did both the BM and MM questlines (both in BM spec though). MM was linear as heck, they might as well have put you in a giant long hallway and just handed you the weapon at the end. BM was more story driven (though I don't really read quest text so I just wanted to hustle through it) but felt a too long, especially in comparison to how fast other classes seemed to be able to get through their questlines.

Neither was hard but doing stuff like jumping over rings of fire was completely unnecessary IMO. Had nothing to do with hunters or pets :? other than using my spirit beast to heal myself after I ate too much fire.
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Re: Comparing two artifact quest lines

Unread post by Sukurachi »

I think because I had already done it on the beta, I already knew that I had to be at those consoles, so the jumping over rings of fire thing was barely noticeable to me.


I'm trying now to decide whether or not to make my 2nd Priest a Shadow Priest, or stick to healing, which seems kind of cool actually.

This 2nd Priest is actually my "main" Priest.. as in the Priest I play most often. I've always played him as Shadow, but now Shadow Priests basically have next to no healing ability at all. So I'm wondering just how useful another DPS would be for me. Also, if the artifact quest chain is too annoyingly difficult, I will regret it.

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Re: Comparing two artifact quest lines

Unread post by Rhyela »

Uh-oh Veph, I'm looking to work on my arcane mage, so now I'm worried.

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Re: Comparing two artifact quest lines

Unread post by Nachtwulf »

Afflic lock was long as hell too. So was ass rogue (lulz ass rogue i'm 12). Surv was fairly long too though, so I really don't know that there's any particular ruler of how long/complex a quest is that's related to class. There's a dude you have to kill in the retpally chain that's GROTESQUELY overtuned, for that matter...

I think it necks down to 'what got worked on at the beginning' and 'what got worked on toward the end' that's the defining factor of how long/involved the chains are. Warlocks were at the top of the pile, hunters somewhere near the bottom with Surv being slightly higher because it was a new spec.

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Re: Comparing two artifact quest lines

Unread post by Arthur »

The MM artifact quest was disappointing to me.

It was so quick and at the end I thought, "Oh this has gotta be a trap! I can't just grab this bow and walk out", But.. that's what we did!?

So far to me the hardest/longest(??) was the Dreadblades. I died no less than 20 times causes of those damn bone pirates ripping me out of stealth in the middle of a pack of mobs, and I was an idjit and never bothered to do any invasions with my rogue so he was undergeared!! But finally did it. It was cool, but golly, I felt like the game was telling me L2P LOL.

Actually, I think for me the demonology was longer, but I didn't die only twice. It was just long. Or *felt* long.

I had plenty of fun with the BM line. It was pretty good, IMO!

So far I've done BM/MM Hunters, Elemental Shaman, Outlaw Rogue, Demonology Warlock and Feral/Guardian Druid (On same character), and Havoc Demon Hunter.

Out of all these, I was least impressed with MM (told above) and ele shaman.

I suppose this isn't really what the thread's about -- But I didn't really know where else to post it.\
Sorry if I went too off topic on your post.

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Re: Comparing two artifact quest lines

Unread post by Sukurachi »

My major disappointment with the BM questline was that when Hati "dies" at the end, you don't really feel anything because, well, this is basically the first time you meet him. Hati should have been involved in the questline somehow.

It's not like Blizzard don't know how to get your emotions in a turmoil with their quests... just the Broken isles scenario had me in tears at the end, and the hair on the back of my neck standing up in terror, and feeling pride in my Horde, and sympathy with the Alliance (a hard one to get me to feel.. being a fervent anti-alliance player).

So it's a bit disappointing to do a quest like this that SHOULD have had some major feels in it, and it's so cold and impersonal.

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Re: Comparing two artifact quest lines

Unread post by Rhyela »

I just did the arcane mage one last night, and it was the toughest one I've done yet. I only died once but I did have invasion gear. But I had to heal at the end of every fight. It seemed a little longer than the others I've done, too. I liked it, though! And Aluneth is a beautiful weapon, much prettier in person.

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