Death As An Explorational Tool
Ain’t MMORPG’s great? They make death an inconvenient distraction, rather than the existance-ending trick that happens in Reality.
World of Warcraft’s death system is actually better than most I’ve seen for many reasons, including ones I’ve already written about. This entry is about another aspect of the WoW death system, from the angle of exploration and flight-path finding.
Reaching A New Far-off Destination
The first time I tried to get to Shadowprey Village in Desolace in order to find the Expert Cookbook, I started my journey at Sun Rock and walked (pre-mount) or swam the entire way. I was chased by everything I went by since I was in my early 30’s and Desolace is home to late-30’s and 40’s.
As a Hunter, I have a pet which I found to be very useful when running past aggressives - if it’s just one, my pet can defend me and take the attention off of me while I run away, and if I run far enough away my pet disappears and I can re-call them while I run, to defend me from the next aggressive. But ultimately I run into places where I don’t have enough pets to defend me, and I die.
Strategic use of Spirit Healer
Instead of worrying about the fact that I am going to get killed, I use death to my advantage to further my exploration. So, I’ve died, and I’m in front of the Spirit Healer. What’s next?
Well, if I’ve been placed at a Spirit Healer who is further along in my journey than my corpse is, or a Spirit Healer in a town I’ve never been in, I’ll resurrect on the spot, taking the 10 minutes of resurrection sickness and 25% durability loss on all of my items (worn and in bags). After all, knowing how to make cash on an ongoing basis has left me with enough money to repair my (leather and mail) equipment at a whim and never worry I won’t have enough.
After waiting out the resurrection sickness timer, I’ll continue my journey.
If, however, I’m placed at a Spirit Healer I’m already familiar with, I’ll usually choose to find my corpse for resurrection purposes. The only time I will resurrect then is if I’ve been attempting this journey a few times and I feel it’s time to do something else for a while, instead.
I guess I’ve been lucky - I’m level 46 and I’ve never experienced Death while dead… never had an elite see or attack me while I was dead. However, it’s something to keep in mind.
The Death Relay For One
The most familiar scenario after death when I’m exploring is that I’ll head off immediately to find my corpse, trying to resurrect in a “safe” place so I won’t get attacked again right away. As a Hunter, I will spend time resurrecting (and feeding) or calling my pet, and then restoring mana points afterwards before continuing on, unless I’m chased out.
Sometimes I do get chased immediately, and sometimes it takes three or four death relays to get out of a particularly bad situation. As long as I see there is a way out, I keep trying. If I feel I am trapped, I might resurrect at the Spirit Healer and try to avoid the problematic area next attempt.
It’s probably taken at least 10 deaths for me to find some of the far-off places from my Troll homeland of Durotar - Hammerfall in Arathi Highlands, Shadowprey Village in Desolace, Badlands on the Eastern Continent, and even Dustwallow Marsh’s flight point in Brackenwall Village.
Why Do The Death Relay?
Some may wonder, what’s the point of doing the Death Relay at all? Why not just wait until you’re high enough level to make it through those tough areas?
Besides the fact that you’d probably run out of quests you could handle by yourself, and the boredom that might creep in, there’s the fact that if you explore, the rewards are mainly the fact that you find flight points which you can use to get back there without the great journey next time.
Having many areas you can head to for your questing and vendor-scouting needs makes the game a lot easier in terms of advancement and quick money making opportunities.
And I don’t know about you, but that sounds good to me!
I remember the first time I went to Desolace, I actually went at early 30s because I heard that they had lots of beast mobs for me to hunt/skin… I didn’t even know where the towns were until a few levels later! lol.
I can’t imagine not playing a hunter now, with the pet that does EVERYTHING! I was grouped with a level 50 warrior the other day and told him my level 46 pet had 4500+ armour and he said that was more than he had! I solo things that others wouldn’t dream, my dps is pretty sweet, and now that I can wear mail, we’re a little hardier… although I still get schooled by warriors in PVP sometimes… unless I dodge their hamstring and hit them with wingclip, then I’m laughing! :P
To keep with the subject:
I think I’ve only ‘eaten’ the death once, once I had that rez sickness on for 10 minutes I was like “WTF, I’m never doing THAT again” heh, but I guess if you are really fubar, its better than multiple deaths, especially in a new area. ‘
Half of the fun of a new area is the exploring, although running around the ‘fog’ on the map just so you can find the ‘right spot’ to unlock it is a little frustrating. :) I had a guildie told me they took the Tram from IF to SW, and had all these alliance newbies looking at him like he was going to jump them at any time, then he did the ‘tauren dance’ and he had it rocking in no time… was a gas!
- Rizzo, level 47 1st Sergeant of Alexstrazsa.
Comment on March 21, 2006 @ 11:56 pm
Smart idea, didn’t think of that before… I’ll try it out as a tactic for maximizing cash. Put a link over to my blog and I’ll do the same! virtuallyrich.blogspot.com :)
Comment on March 24, 2006 @ 9:50 am
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Comment on December 18, 2006 @ 2:02 pm