The Razing of Orgrimmar was simply excellent, as was the Zombie Invasion a few weeks ago. Thrall and Garrosh discussed war against Arthas the Lich King at the entrance of the Orgrimmar Arena in Valley of Honor. To their sides were Lady Sylvanas, Grand Apothecary Putress and High Overlord Saurfang. Thrall wishes time to consult with Jaina Proudmoore what the Alliance will be doing in the battle against the Northrend threat, but Garrosh is too impatient and a few harsh words forced Garrosh to challenge Thrall in combat to decide whether Garrosh wouldl be the one leading the Northrend offensive-strike army.
Thrall was surprised to hear the son of Grom Hellscream had challenged him, but dismissed the idea of a duel with so many war preparations and tasks on his hands. However, Garrosh gets daring and calls Thrall a coward in front of everyone. To this Thrall invites Garrosh to go inside the Arena to settle this.
(Read my review and video after the break)
The fight was awesome. Thrall and Garrosh could have used more abilities though. To everyone’s astonishment, Garrosh defeated Thrall in single combat. This is kinda hard to believe. Thrall defeated Orgrim Doomhammer over ten years in the past, but a non-corrupted Mag’har orc defeating Thrall with all his shamanistic prowess and the legendary Doomhammer was a bit too exaggerated.
Before much could be said, the Herald of the Lich King yelled, initiating an all out invasion on the Valley of Honor with Frostwyrms and Abominations. The worst part of the new world event was the invasion itself. The Abominations didn’t have enough hit points and would die too soon. Leaders would just hit them a few times and move away. With mobs dying so soon, and the very lengthy respawn timer resulted in Lady Sylvanas walking back and forth near the Arena doing nothing but walk, except when an Abomination occasionally spawned. Lady Sylvanas is a Dark Ranger, and as such, she should have used her bow to shoot arrows at the Frostwyrms. That didn’t happen. Only the female tauren defenders were shooting their shotguns. Garrosh was mindlessly running back and forth around the wolf den with not much to attack. Thrall would run back and forth between the entrance to the Valley of Honor and the front of the Arena. The mob respawn should have been faster; mobs should have had more hit points, and more type of Scourge units should have been added.
Thus far only Abominations attacked the Valley of Honor. It would have been nice to see Ghouls, Necromancers, Cult of the Damned, Shades, and why not, even Vrykul on their proto-dragons and Death Knights. Setting up the flavor to what players would encounter in Northrend. Sadly it didn’t happen that way.
The way this event was designed was well thoughtout, even if PvP players say otherwise. Mobs wouldn’t attack bystanders. Only other NPCs. However, you could attack the Scourge if you chose to. And this event only happened inside the Valley of Honor, instead of the rest of Orgrimmar. How is that good? It didn’t disrupt activities in the Bank, Auction House and other important vendors. The event is optional, rather than forced upon players. Everyone can prepare for their raiding schedule and stock up consumables from the Auction House and Bank without getting ganked, or finding NPC vendors dead.
Except for these few glitches, the event was pretty entertaining. With this we know why the Horde is going to Northrend. First the Lich King spread the zombie plague through the Horde cities. Now the Scourge has razed a portion of Orgrimmar, in the Valley of Honor. This can only mean War. And Revenge. At the end of the event, Thrall authorizes Saurfang to prepare the soldiers for war and to accompany Garrosh to Northrend as leader of the offensive strike. A very climatic event heralding the arrival of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. Players can witness this event every 20 minutes while it lasts by going to the Orgrimmar Arena and awaiting the event to reset at the Arena entrance.
Overall I rate this invasion 8.5 out of 10 due to the glitches. I hope the Blizzard developers do more of these world events in the future, more often. With the use of the phase technology many things can be done without affecting other players’ business. I would like to see level 80 players helping retake Gnomeregan and with the use of Phase technology see a new Gnomeregan city with NPCs and vendors. And why not? Even new quests sending us throughout Azeroth, Outland and beyond.
FYI Stormwind harbor is under attack as well, so this is not an event exclusive to Horde as the last three news posts seem to suggest.