Battle for the Undercity

I didn't mean to leave a gap of more than a year between posts - I'm not sure how that happened! If I did that on my main blog, people would have mentioned it, but no-one reads this but me, so it doesn't really matter :-)

I want to write sometime about my experience so far with Wrath of the Lich King in general, but for the moment I'm going to concentrate on one aspect of it - the Wrath Gate quest chain. Many people have written about how good this sequence is - it's a long, long series of quests that takes you over the whole of Dragonblight (and, at the end, back to Azeroth too). The quests aren't just random - they are parts of an unfolding story, and they involve some of the major NPCs of the game (Thrall, King Varian Wrynn, etc.) You actually get to fight alongside these characters, and it feels as if you're part of a proper story. Plus, doing these quests has a lasting effect on your in-game experience - unlike many quests where (e.g.) you kill a monster, only to find that he's alive again next time you go that way, the people who get killed during the Wrath Gate quests stay dead (as in, you never see them again, although other players - who haven't done these quests - can) and the villagers who live near the battlefield are still screaming when you fly over the area. (This does get a bit irritating after a while, but it certainly reminds you of what happened!)

The best thing about this quest line (to me) is actually that it's entirely soloable - there are SO many parts of the game I know I'll never be able to experience because I can't do group stuff, so it's nice that there's a major part I CAN do! But the other really good thing is that there are two sides to the quest line - an Alliance bit and a Horde bit - and the two sides interact with each other. This is what led to my latest bit of WoW-OCD :-)

(Warning: if you haven't done at least ONE side of the Wrath Gate quest line, I recommend not reading the rest of this until you have - don't spoil it for yourself! The gist is that it's particularly interesting to do both sides of the chain one after the other.)

The Alliance chain starts with Into Hostile Territory, although there are a few prequests (listed in the comments for that quest) and the Horde chain starts with Into the Fold. (The Horde side seems quite a bit shorter and less complex, I wonder if there's a reason for that?) As you're going through the quests, do read the quest text to see the story unfolding. (Especially when you meet Ambo Cash, who starts by mentioning that he isn't wearing any pants! Sadly I think the Horde don't meet him...) However, when you get to the quest Return to Angrathar (Alliance) or Return to Angrathar (Horde), pause, because from this point on the two sides of the chain are linked, and I have a suggestion. (Hee! Chain? Linked? See what I did there?)

Last night, Madmargaret (my blood elf rogue, level 76) was working her way through Dragonblight, and I knew that Wrath Gate couldn't be far away. When I got the Return to Angrathar quest, I realised it was taking me to the battle, which I'd been looking forward to for ages. I'd done the whole chain with Iolanthe (my night elf druid) a few months ago, and at the time I wondered what it would be like from the viewpoint of the other side. But when I was about to finally find out, I suddenly wanted my previous experience to be fresher in my mind, so that I could compare the two. Of course I couldn't repeat it with Iolanthe, but I considered looking stuff up on YouTube. I knew it wouldn't be quite the same, though, and then I had a brainwave - Mabel, my gnome mage (level 74) had just reached Dragonblight, although she hadn't done any of it (Iolanthe was stuck in Dragonblight for AGES because there's a load of group stuff that I didn't want to miss out, so when Mabel got there I couldn't face being stuck that long again, and went to work on Madmargaret for a while).

So, I logged onto Mabel and started trying to remember how to be a mage. It took a few hours to get her to Return to Angrathar, due to the huge number of prequests - I was concentrating on the chain quests, although if there were other quests in the exact same place (e.g. in the Wintergarde mine) I decided it would be stupid not to do them at the same time. But, finally, I got to see the battle again, and then to fight to retake the Undercity. I was really glad I did this, because although I had seen and done this before, it was only once, and it was long enough ago that I'd forgotten lots of the details.

Having finished the chain with Mabel, I left her in Dalaran and went back to Madmargaret, who I'd left about to do Return to Angrathar (which is the quest that plays the cinematic). The Horde version of the cinematic was VERY similar to the Alliance one - in fact at first I thought it WAS the same one - but then I realised there was at least one extra bit, where we see Saurfang the Younger (aka "the Horde guy who dies") before he joins Highlord Bolvar Fordragon.

The next stage, on the Alliance side, is to take Fordragon's shield to the king on Stormwind, and then go with Jaina to see Thrall in Orgrimmar, then back to Stormwind, and finally to the Undercity, where you assist the king and Jaina in the battle to retake the city. So I'd expected a similar amount of hopping around on the Horde side. But it was quite different - the main difference being that there was no visiting of hostile capital cities! Here's how it goes: You take Saurfang's armour to his dad at Warsong Hold (in Borean Tundra). He sends you to see Thrall in Orgrimmar. While you're there, you witness Jaina coming to see him. You then go to the Undercity with Thrall and Lady Sylvanas Windrunner.

Unlike the Alliance assault on the Undercity, which starts in the sewers, the Horde assault enters via the front gate. There is a battle in the courtyard - at the start of it, Sylvanas sings (the song is actually the Lament of the Highborne, one of the best bits of music in the game) and this grants a useful buff, in addition to the one you get from Thrall. When the courtyard is secure, you enter the city, but the elevators have been removed, so Thrall gets air spirits to support you all as you jump down the shaft. There's another long battle once you're inside the city, and eventually you get to the throne room, where Varimathras is waiting. Guess what, there's another battle. I died during this one, so the people who say that the buffs mean you can't die are wrong! But it wasn't a problem (although I think it would have been if I didn't know my way round the Undercity very well) because I was easily able to get back to the throne room before the battle ended. (I remember, when I was doing my first few quests in the Undercity, that I had a LOT of trouble finding the throne room the first time - but once you know how to get there, it's easy.)

After Varimathras dies, Thrall and Sylvanas are about to go and finish the job by killing Grand Apothecary Putress, but at this point you hear the sound of horns (another good reason to have the in-game sound enabled!) This is thrilling, because it's reminiscent of the Riders of Rohan arriving at the battle near the end of The Lord of the Rings. But in this case it's not necessarily good news, as Thrall immediately realises - he tells everyone to be ready to defend themselves, because those are the horns of the Alliance. Sure enough, at this point King Varian Wrynn and Jaina Proudmoore turn up with the Alliance army, having just killed Putress. (They enter the throne room from the opposite side to the way you came in, having battled through the other half of the city.) This is the bit which really got to me, because of course I'd already been part of this scene when I was on Varian's side (always a shock to see the "good guys" with red names and ??? level btw!), and at that point all I knew was that all of a sudden Thrall was there... it hadn't occurred to me to wonder WHY Thrall was there or what he'd just been doing, and I certainly didn't realise that he'd just killed Varimathras. (Yes, I know that if I'd been paying attention I would have remembered that he needed to be killed and the Alliance hadn't done it!)

The conversation between Varian and Thrall, and Varian's attack and Jaina's spell, are exactly the same from both sides, but I got a much better view when I was with Thrall. When I was with Varian, I was (obviously) behind him, so when he stepped into the throne room I was still in the corridor, and could only see a small amount of the throne room (I couldn't really see anything other than Varian's back). But when I was with Thrall I was actually in the throne room when the Alliance arrived, so I saw them arrive and had a great view of the subsequent events - including all the Horde and Alliance soldiers fighting each other, which I hadn't realised was happening.

After Jaina teleports the Alliance away, Thrall is depressed, and there's a bit more conversation between him and Overlord Saurfang before everyone goes back to Orgrimmar. There's much more of a feeling of war (between the factions) being inevitable, and that this is just the beginning of a much longer story. (This is also fairly obvious from the Alliance perspective, but somehow when you're with Thrall - who's the one who gets attacked for no reason - it sinks in more. But then, I do love Thrall!)

Anyway, the point of all this is: if you've only done one side of this quest chain, try to level a character up so that you can do the other side - and when you do, repeat the side you're familiar with immediately beforehand, if you can. It's epic!