World Of Warcraft Review

                       World Of Warcraft Review

Ever since its release in 2004, World of Warcraft (WoW for short) has been the golden standard of the MMORPG genre. With a heavily quest-driven progression system and simple gameplay, WoW appeals to a large audience. The cartoony graphics may at first deter players but after some play time, they come to life and truly immerse players into the world of Azeroth. In WoW, players of all classes can easily progress alone but must work together to complete instanced dungeons that reward the best pieces of equipment. This style has helped World of Warcraft remain popular across the world and it continues to attract casual and hardcore gamers alike. Those familar with the Warcraft series will recognize the locations and important NPCs featured in WoW. Players can do battle with Illidian, visit the Orc’s capital of Orgrimmar, or explore parts of the world only hinted at in previous Warcraft titles. But before anything else, players must chose which of the two factions they wish to join — the Horde or the Alliance.

Races:

Alliance - Humans, Gnomes, Night Elves, Dwarves, and Draenei*
Horde - Orcs, Trolls, Undead, Tauren, and Blood Elves*

Classes:

Druid - The most versatile class. Druids are effect support characters but can also call upon their feral nature and shapeshift into powerful beasts.
Hunter - The archer class of WoW, Hunters prefer to attack from a distance and lay traps. Hunters can tame beasts and fight in melee range when the need arises.
Mage - Masters of the elemental arts, Mages have high damage potential but suffer from low defense.
Paladin - Holy warriors who can wear plate but can also cast supportive spells to aid their allies in battle.
Priest - The main supportive class in WoW. Priests have the most powerful healing spells but can also inflict heavy damage with shadow related spells.
Rogue - The premier melee damage class. Rogues can dish out a lot of hurt in a short period of time but suffer from lower defense and health compared to other melee classes.
Shaman - In touch with the spirit world, Shaman’s use totems to channel energy towards those around them — be they friend or foe. Shamans are a hybrid class capable of both melee and magic attacks.
Warlock - Sinister spell casters who use the diabolical arts to summon demons to serve them. Warlocks learn curses and DoTs that weaken and damage their opponents.
Warrior - The primary melee fighter and tank. Warriors in WoW can do much more than absorb damage, properly trained they are capable of inflicting heavy damage.
Death Knight - The first ‘Hero Class.’ Introduced in the Lich King expansion, Death Knights start the game at level 55.*
* These races/classes are unavailable to free trial players.

              World of Warcraft: MoP Beta Highlights

The beta test for World of Warcraft’s next expansion, “Mists of Pandaria,” went live back in March, but for those who didn’t make it into the initial waves of invites, Raptr gave away 5,000 more this week through Raptr Rewards.
So, what are some of the highlights of the beta test?

Monk signature move: Roll (image: Blizzard Entertainment)

For me, one of them is the revamped and highly improved character creation screen.  In the current version of the game, the player must press arrow keys to see various customization options on the character (also called a ‘toon’).  In the current version of the beta, you can see five options at a time on the right side of the screen, and this panel is interactive, so when you turn your character, the samples in the pane turn as well. The Pandarens have a range of skin/fur colors and hairstyles.  There are even more available now than a few months ago, and players are hopeful that Blizzard will continue adding customization options as the playtest goes on.
Of course, getting to experience the Pandaren starting area first hand is very exciting. The new race has a full set of emotes now, including dances: Caramelldansen for the females and the Party Rock Anthem “shuffle” for the males. The male’s sleep emote is quite humorous, beginning with a yawning stretch and ending with him laying on the ground looking a bit like a bear rug.
In addition to the new race, Mists of Pandaria is introducing a new class. Monks have some fun and flashy abilities, such as Roll, which allows monks to tumble out of harm’s way. Much like druids, monks wear leather and can fulfill all three roles in a party: tank (Brewmaster), damage (Windwalker), and healer (Mistweaver).
So far, my favorite part of MoP is AoE (area of effect) looting.  If you kill two or more creatures, you no longer need to click each sparkling corpse to loot them all.  With one click, you get all the gold and items off of all the bodies in range.  Each time I go back to the beta, I’m spoiled by it, and I miss it when I go back to play the live game.
Blizzard is selling three Warcraft products for $10 a piece through July 9, so this might be the opportunity you’ve been waiting for to try the most well-known MMORPG out there.