The Sacred Artifact and Wrath's immersion factor
by Mike Schramm 
Nov 14th 2008 at 3:00PM
We posted about this quest months and months ago, but of course now it's available on the live realms -- in the Utgarde Catacombs, which turns out not to be an instance but just a non-instanced quest area, there is a quest to retrive a "sacred artifact" of the Argent Dawn, which is basically a must-do quest for anyone that's a fan of the, err.. "bashringer," if you know what I mean. It's simple, so there's not much to spoil, but yeah, just a few quests in to Wrath, you're already wandering around epic lore territory.And odds are that you've met the main guest of the expansion already as well -- I bumped into him during a walk through the spirit world in Wyrmskull Village, and he wasn't very nice to me already (and frankly, I saw a side of him I've never seen before -- having identifed myself as a Shaman for so long, it was extremely interesting to see him do the same). Blizzard promised from the beginning that we'd meet and greet with the lore heavyweights early on, and they weren't kidding -- we're right in the mix from the time we step off the boat.
I love it -- without getting too spoilery, what else is worth seeing in these starting zones? We almost got Keristrasza down last night in The Nexus, and it's almost hard to remember those days when it took 40 players to take down a dragon -- even solo and five man players get to do epic stuff nowadays. What have you done already?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, Quests, Expansions, Lore, NPCs
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Alittan Nov 14th 2008 3:08PM
Ugh, I wish I was 70 already so I could go to Northrend.. I migrated to the US and leveled up a hunter on the US servers before Wotlk, to get a Death Knight yesterday. I have 3 lvl 70's on the EU servers, but since I'm not using that one any more, I gotta start from scratch. Well, I'll powerlevel through Outland and be there in a bit! I'm starting in Howling Fjord btw, that one seems the coolest for me.
Marc Sadowski Nov 14th 2008 3:10PM
I did Utgard Keep as well as running into him in the spirit realm. I was like, Oh yeah, I can take him. It was funny.
ash Nov 14th 2008 6:24PM
Lol, I did the same thing. I just stood around listening to him talk after I realized I couldn't really attack him and he killed me with a "pop." When I rezzed too close he ended up punishing me for my persistence. Oh well, at least you don't take any durabilty damage from getting pwned by the lich king.
Eric Nov 14th 2008 3:12PM
I got ganked, waited in a queue (T-Shirt idea - I survived the expansion Queues), and transferred servers overnight. Epic... fail. This weekend I'll be doing some solo questing and if the server pop picks up I might get to run some instances!
matty Nov 14th 2008 3:15PM
Keristraza down, pug 1st try.
Me and my buddy bolvar went into some Crypt near wintergarde, killed some lich dude. No biggie, nothing epic about that.
Hard8 Nov 14th 2008 3:17PM
Got owned by "You know who" also, just thought "well he is targetable so why not"
Marc Sadowski Nov 14th 2008 3:18PM
Tonight, I would like to try tanking an instance. I've been Ret since day one (I remember when consecration was a Ret only skill), but I just made the entire Cobalt defense set with my new blacksmithing skills, and I would like to try tanking.
So far, I'm loving the new expansion!
Reno66 Nov 14th 2008 3:18PM
Went with some good friends and one shot the nexus and utgarde keep. I kinda prefer utgarde, nexus was too shiny for me.
Beli Nov 14th 2008 3:18PM
Keristraza down, The nexus was pretty easy for my guild group. A different guild group went into Utgard keep and had the same experience - not too difficult. I'm sure that'll change when we stop out-gearing things...
Tieria Nov 14th 2008 3:19PM
Fortunatly I made it online before my server went into queue mode. I ran around lost in Warsong Hold for a while before venturing out to tame a rhino. I then spent 30 minutes on the first 3 quests trying to doing the "tag the mob first!" race. I was fine with the quests outside of Warsong Hold for a while until it came time to kill Orabus. I summoned him 3 times only to have someone come along at the last second and ninja-tag him from me. Frustrated after that, I went back to Orgrimmar, did an auction scan and went to bed.
archangel723 Nov 14th 2008 11:12PM
The Nexus is gonna be all kinds of fun on heroic mode.
Clasifyd Nov 14th 2008 3:33PM
The whole Malygos/Keristraza quest line in Coldara is pretty cool, though the second to last quest is VERY buggy right now. I've tried to do it twice and it's yet to complete. From a continuity standpoint, I kinda wish you had to do this quest before you could get into The Nexus.
The Nexus was very easy, for the most part. Keri hits like a truck, though. Her mage friend from earlier in the instance is a bit of a pain to do with limited CC, but other than that, things went swimmingly. I think I'll be trying Utgarde tonight, or maybe hit up Sholazar Basin for some quests. SB looks beautiful from the screenshots I've seen so far.
Leejin Nov 14th 2008 3:43PM
Haha...ALMOST downed Keristraza??? I steam rolled that whole instance the first time through....no wipes. I srsly thought it was way easy... I'm the most casual of casual too...
deathbygnome Nov 14th 2008 5:13PM
I ran Utgarde Keep, was too easy. Was hoping for something a little more difficult. The quests are cool though. I made a death knight and got him too 58 and into Stormwind. I was a little offended because I met the Lich King in the spirit world. I had too listen to him talk to me for 5 minutes then he told me, ME!!! That I WAS NOT PREPARED!!! And 1 hit me. I lol'd so much when that happened. So far though, expansion is cool.
Joe Nov 14th 2008 5:27PM
Well they are going to be easy because we've been gearing up at level 70 for who knows how long. It has to be tuned for th e wave after us, the ones who dont gear up at 7o for 2 years before hitting northrend. So yeah, we should outgear everything for a few more levels at least.
Stefan Nov 14th 2008 3:53PM
me and my friends took Keristrasza downlast night was a pretty easy fight lmao we didn't read up on the instance we just ran around killed everything then we get to the dragon and we're like um that is one huge mutha shut your mouth lmao we downed her just kept moving and casting
Rohannor Nov 14th 2008 4:04PM
Did about half a level of questing in Howling Fjord with my prot warrior. Relatively easy stuff and not many queueing problems except for a certain harpooning quest with only two harpoons. Enjoyed the visuals and some of the newer game mechanics like falconry and the robot suit thing.
Then last evening I started my Death Knight. That questline is a load of fun and is well done. Stopped at battle for Light's Hope and plan on finishing the starting zone for that this weekend, then leaving him to lvl my main more.
Yeffertone Nov 15th 2008 10:25AM
We cruised through Nexus until Keri. She gave us a bit of trouble until we started cleansing shackles and moving the pets to keep the debuff off. I thought the instance looked gorgeous and is very well built.
Aeonus Nov 14th 2008 4:34PM
Wait wait wait, what?
Why are there 2 ashbringers?
Eversor Nov 14th 2008 4:44PM
All I have done is boiling in rage for game.co.uk incompetence and leveling my frostmage.