Arugal Lives!

Last night I found a questchain involving Argual out in Grizzly Hills! I think Shadowfang Keep is one of my favorite instances of all time, and have mentioned it more than once on the blog here. The pacing of the dungeon itself is almost perfect. Start at the door, work your way to the cell where the deathguard lets you out to the courtyard. You have the option of tackling the horses in the stables at a chance for a bag (which isn't as big a deal now as it was long ago, but still), then battle your way either thru the kitchen, or up the ramp to the right. Through that area, and along the ramparts, then into the tower proper, where it's up and up and up, sqauring off against Fenrus, the Hound Master, and then Argual himself.

All of the fights in the dungeon are basic tank and spank affairs, with nothing really special about any of them except for Argual himself, who teleports around the room, and mind controls party members. The atmopshere of the dungeon itself is awesome, and I love the whole 'ghosts, wolves, and wolfmen' theme. Even the neighboring town (Pyrewood Village?) has an awesome twist to it, that the inhabitants change based on the time of day. During the day they're normal humanoids, and at night time they turn into wolfmen. This is the only example I can think of in all of WoW where the time of day in the real world affects gameplay. Animal Forest on the Gamecube and Wii made extensive use of this feature, where you would have to perform certain tasks at 10pm or whatever, but WoW users would just cry and complain if that kind of limitation was in place.

Actually, WoW users seem to cry and complain about pretty much everything these days.

Anyway, I was putzing along in Grizzly Hills, and came across some blind chick that needed me to collect some moth juice or whatever, and then click some crystal ball and have some vision. Pretty run of the mill stuff. But then, when I noticed the vision had three dudes digging up Arugal and saying stuff along the lines of "he will serve the Lich Kings purpose nicely" I just about crapped my pants. I secretly hoped that this would be the beginning of some huge questline that would offer no immediate resolution. That finishing the chain would just offer a glimpse of things to come, and that Arugal would make a triumphant return in a much later raid encounter, like how Baron Rivendare from Stratholme was given a 'second chance to kick ass' in Naxxaramus during the Four Horsemen encounter.

Sadly, I banged out the whole chain last night to it's final conclusion, and no such grand plans were in store for Arugal himself. He wasn't exactly a pushover, and his three lieutenants were tough work to solo as a clothie. The quest is a level 75 quest asking for 3 party members, and at 77 I had a hard time with it. I barely managed to kill two of the lieutenants alone by blowing cooldowns and potting (bonus: they're immune to fear), but Arugal himself was crazy. I actually ended up logging a second account 80 to help with the chain (wiping multiple times even then, as I was manually clicking shit on two screens), but he's finally dead again. :(

Characters returning from the past are a really cool situation, though, and I'd like to see more of this happening. The repurposing of Rexxar as a questgiver in The Burning Crusade, even seeing Nefarion watching us fight Rend in UBRS. They all give a more cohesive feel to the 'story' of WoW. Wrath of the Lich King has taken a larger stance on having us run into Arthas on seeral occasions, and this has been covered to death, but seeing more minor characters make a comeback (bosses from RFD or WC, etc) would be cool, since nobody bothers to go there anymore.

Then again, given that no one goes there anymore, half of WoW's population probably wouldn't even know who Charlga Razorflank was if presented with a re-appearance of her in the next expansion at the head of a level 90 five man. :(