George In The Meta
What is the WoW Forever Beta Farewell Tour?
By George In The Meta ·
Short answer: It's Blizzard's 24-hour send-off for the WoW Forever beta, with world bosses like Lord Kazzak and Azuregos in every starting zone, infernals falling out of the sky and normal mobs dropping Molten Core epics. It runs until the beta shuts down at 10am PDT on Friday 23 October, and none of it comes with you to launch. I couldn't get on for it, but I watched a friend's stream of it while I got ready to travel, and it was hilarious.
What happened in the Beta Farewell Tour?
My friend spent most of the farewell tour running around and getting clapped. He was on his Rogue, which I think is how he kept getting away, and somewhere in among it he got some loot too.
What got me was the size of it. Stitches is normally the elite abomination that walks down the road to Darkshire in Duskwood after a quest. For this he turned up in Goldshire, about three storeys tall. You can see people in WOIOY's video just strolling up to him and getting clapped. I can really imagine someone who didn't know the event was on, going about their life, thinking that's just how big Stitches is meant to be, and getting flattened while everyone else stands around watching.
Blizzard only promised "24 hours of shenanigans and upheaval" in Zephras Isle, Dun Morogh, Elwynn Forest, Teldrassil, Durotar, Tirisfal Glades and Mulgore, so every starting zone on both sides. The rest is what players and Icy Veins found:
- World bosses: Lord Kazzak, Azuregos, Prince Thunderaan and a Super Hogger. Patchwerk gains a level every time he kills someone. Kill any of them and the loot is legendary.
- Infernals dropping out of the sky.
- Epics from everything: mobs of every level, even the level 1 wolves in Northshire, drop the Molten Core loot table, Tier 1 included. They're low-level versions with cut stats, all bind on equip.
- Endless elixirs: players report one for 200% experience and one for 50% run speed. Blizzard hasn't said what they do.
- The last hours: one player's forum thread says a toxic fog and a Lich King invasion are coming. Blizzard hasn't said that, so treat it as a guess until someone shows it.
Has Blizzard done this before?
Yes, Blizzard has done this since the original beta, which I didn't know. Ten Ton Hammer wrote in January 2007 that the original WoW beta ended with infernals "summoned from everywhere" and the Burning Legion taking over Azeroth. The Burning Crusade beta ended with the Legion attacking every major city except Exodar and Silvermoon.
I missed all of that. I played the original WoW from when it first came out, but on a smaller scale, just me and my brother. It was 2007 when I really got into it, with about 12 of us all playing together. I never did a beta back then, so Forever is my first.
Has it made me more hyped for launch?
Yes, and I think that's the point: Blizzard celebrating the end of the beta and keeping people hyped going into launch. Although it's hyped me up for something that's not going to happen again. When I'm playing WoW Forever after 4 November, at no point is a three-storey Stitches going to roll through Goldshire.
Should you be annoyed your beta character is getting deleted?
No. You always knew your beta character was getting deleted. If you feel like you wasted your time, you've missed the point: we got to play it before it was even out.
I don't play a game just to be the highest level. I play to have fun. Getting to max level is a byproduct, and it is fun, but as cliché as it sounds, the journey to 60 is most of the game. People stay at max level on a main and do all the endgame stuff, but it's very unlikely anyone has one 60 and never rolls another character and goes on the journey again.
The beta was just one of those journeys. I only got to 23 because I kept swapping characters to try everything out. When the cap was 20, people didn't hit 20 and stop. They rolled again. So even if your beta character wasn't getting wiped, you were never going to stay on it.
Launch is 4 November at 3pm PST, which is 6am on 5 November in Thailand, and I'm going in as an Orc Enhancement Shaman. Everything else I've written about Forever is on the WoW Forever page.
