7.2 PTR Warrior Campaign

[Archimtiros]

Disclaimer: All information below contains extensive spoilers and is subject to change without warning or explanation, as is per usual with early testing.


Just finished the 7.2 PTR Warrior Campaign, and I have a slew of screenshots to share.

First off, it's pretty short. I missed the early screenshots but you get the introductory quest to report to Odyn upon zoning into the Skyhold, after which he directs you to Aerylia (the Skyway teleport master) to send you to Helheim to recover Helya's Horn and liberate the Kvladir. Upon arriving she gives three simple quests:





The third of which takes forever (probably due to bugs, which have been reported). Took me about 25m, but assuming the issues are fixed, it shouldn't take any longer than five. Afterwhich she thanks you, and returns you to the Skyhold to report to Odyn again.





Again, I missed the picture, but the group in front of him were Vrykul, who he turns into Stormforged with a burst of light magic. Next, you're sent to the Broken Shore to report to Danica. Oh, and apparently you're in charge of the Kvaldir now.





The quest to get Crowley/Eitrigg (Horde variant is exactly the same) is offered by Danica, and no explanation is given as to why Crowley/Eitrigg is "leading their forces" or why the Valarjar have even ever heard of him. In my opinion this is supremely bad storytelling and unfortunately doesn't get any better.






His quests are pretty simple, just go kill a couple things while he tags along. Most interesting though is that he still provides the "Rebel Valor" buff from way back in the beginning of the Gilnean starter zone, which increases haste by 100%. It's almost definitely a bug, but it's pretty awesome if you happen to have the movement speed Legendary boots. After completing his quests he leaves for the Skyhold.



...with absolutely no explanation as to why he's even aware of the places existence, much less allowed in. Again, this is supremely bad storytelling, and also exactly what I suspected, which is why I argued against his choice as our newest follower to begin with (see the relevant thread in this forum).

To finish up in the Broken Shore, the Kvaldir quest is very simple: Blow horn, summon Kvaldir allies, find portals, blow horn to destroy them, report back to Danica for a prize.






The toy is basically power-posing; I recommend using it before attempting raid bosses or public speaking.


You also recruit Crowley/Eitrigg (and the active follower count is increased by 1 to allow him to be used without deactivating any other Champion).





Note that all Champions gain a 3rd equipment slot available at "Titled" quality which requires 200k experience after Epic. Crowley/Eitrigg's abilities haven't changed since my initial report last week, and are still unimpressive with the uncommon bonus being a duplicate of Svergan Stormcloak's bonus. You also unlock Tiers VII and VIII of Order Hall Advancement. The initial research for T7 takes 1hr, retraining it takes 3 days, and Tier VIII takes 14 days.






*Roster of Champions allows a total of 7 active Champions since completing the campaign also increases active count by one.
*Don't bother asking about Relic Empowerment, nobody knows yet.

Finally, the Class Hall mounts were not unlocked upon completion, although they may simply not be implemented yet, or require some follow-on chain. However, you can see them in the Mount Collection tab, and their color variations change with specs. Keep in mind that this is not necessarily final, and it's completely possible that every spec could end up with every color variation anyway, and please no complaining that your favorite spec isn't also your favorite color, I quite simply don't care:

Arms - Red


Fury - Black


Protection - Purple


Whole thing took me about an hour, so it's pretty short, and in all I'd say it's pretty good, except for the lack of explanation given for Crowley/Eitrigg's involvement with the Valarjar. Fun as it may be to tie in some faction-heroes (and I've argued before that they should have been included from the start), it simply isn't explained, and that leaves some pretty huge plot holes. I'm also very disappointed that Trollbane/Saurfang don't appear to be involved in 7.2 at all, despite being the players initial introduction to the Warrior Campaign - they may be "too big" of heroes to be placed under our command, but it'd be nice to at least see them around Deliverance Point, providing Command and Control as befitting their status as legendary Alliance/Horde wartime commanders.

As a final bonus, Aerylia's option to teleport to the Broken Shore remains, although it currently takes you right back to the quest location in the middle of nowhere. Hopefully, this will redirect to Deliverance Point on live.




Follow my twitter for updates as I continue to explore the PTR; thanks for reading, and enjoy 7.2.

[Deleted]

You were able to blow the horn? I'm stuck there, I can't even see portals.

Edit: Regarding your Saurfang/Trollbane theory - we are greater heroes than them ....
Edit 2: Found the sweet spot for the horn, it's a bit off for me. reported it

[orgonutil]

ty for that, saved me some time and now i can rush these things when they come to live.

"I recommend using it before attempting raid bosses or public speaking." Noted.

[Archimtiros]

You were able to blow the horn? I'm stuck there, I can't even see portals.

Edit: Regarding your Saurfang/Trollbane theory - we are greater heroes than them ....
Edit 2: Found the sweet spot for the horn, it's a bit off for me. reported it

Point was that they're impactful characters to the story though, not necessarily whether we're "greater heroes" (which is kind of obvious, seeing as the story narrative revolves around the PC now). The problem with making just anyone a follower/champion is that they tend not to move on with the story after that setting is done.

Personally I'd just as soon have Trollbane/Saurfang leading the A/H forces in 7.2+, seeing as they are some of the last-surviving/longest-living military leaders of their respective factions.

As I'm sure you found out, the spot for the horn is behind is (as you approach the quest area), near the water.

- - - Updated - - -

"I recommend using it before attempting raid bosses or public speaking." Noted.

Glad someone picked up on that.

[Deleted]

snip

I'm totally share your opinion. Storytelling and the fact that the character of crowley is somewhat cool, imho Muradin would also be a great choice and someone can argue that dwarves have a closer relationship to the stone-/stormforged than humans or worgen.

about the horn: when I did it, there was a Tauren on a spot and used it while I wasn't able to there (inside the broken boat)

[Archimtiros]

I'm totally share your opinion. Storytelling and the fact that the character of crowley is somewhat cool, imho Muradin would also be a great choice and someone can argue that dwarves have a closer relationship to the stone-/stormforged than humans or worgen.

about the horn: when I did it, there was a Tauren on a spot and used it while I wasn't able to there (inside the broken boat)

Muradin has some merit, given his interactions with the Keepers/Titans and Ulduar, but I think he (like Saurfang/Trollbane) is a bit to "big" of a character to make one of our minions. It isn't that they or the PC are necessarily above one another, but that they still have a focus in the overall story narrative, and it wouldn't work out too well to have them playing a dual-role (as both our minion and a part of the larger storyboard). They typically only do it with "big" name characters (Rexxar, Thorim, etc), once their specific roles in the games story are done (at least for the foreseeable future).

[Tatsujin]

So that new traits, is it just 4th trait or it gives us up to 5 traits?

[Archimtiros]

So that new traits, is it just 4th trait or it gives us up to 5 traits?

Each trait that was 3 points goes up to 4 points (including the new one - Pulse of Battle) in 7.2.

[stalker226]

What do you think of the new traits in 7.2 for the Fury weapon Archi?

[Archimtiros]

What do you think of the new traits in 7.2 for the Fury weapon Archi?

The RB crit rage trait is cool, procs often enough that it's entertaining, and feels fluid. It's especially cool during Battle Cry and synergizes well with Frothing Berserker.

• I think the overcap value on it might be a little high, but realistically people aren't going to be trying to put relics in there to begin with, so it isn't exactly a problem (in fact, might even be a good thing).

The BT proc trait is bland. Basically it has a 20% chance to give you one of two results: Your BT crit, and you proc a second which does nothing since you're already Enraged; or your BT didn't crit, and the proc probably won't either.

• The proc will also generate an extra 10 rage and heal a little bit, but the inability to control it means you could just as easily be wasting that rage generation.
• Overall, I think it's too similar to the RB trait - we already have a "chance to generate more rage than normal" trait... do we really need a second one? I'd be happier with something like "if your BT doesn't crit, you have a 100% chance to trigger a second" or a simple "your BT has a permanent +15% chance to crit".

The Odyn's Fury trait can't be tested yet, and is missing values in the spell data, so I'm on the fence about it. I think the concpet is pretty cool: Everytime you OF it deals extra Fire or Shadow damage with some rage gain or leech. However,

• OF already deals Fire damage, so it isn't as impactful as turning physical damage into elemental (ignoring armor). To me, it seems like it just makes OF hit a bit harder.
• Fury already excels at burst AoE damage, largely due to OF... does it really need to boost that abilities damage even further?
• 1 hit of extra leech (shadow effect) is largely wasted unless it's really well timed... which also requires coordinating your other CDs. I find that significantly reduces its effectiveness.
• Extra rage gen (fire effect) could be useful, but consider that it's during the BC cycle, in which we'll have Enrage (extra rage gen), RB's will be critting (extra rage gen), it's yet another effect that does the same thing. There's no way it doesn't end up overcapping and wasting rage.

Personally, I'd rather see it changed from "using OF empowers OF" to "using OF empowers your auto-attacks". As stated, Fury is already excelling in burst AoE, and tends to struggle more in pure single target. I'd like to see something like "Using OF empowers your auto-attacks for X seconds/next # of auto-attacks causing them to alternately deal Fire/Shadow damage and generate extra rage/leech".

• My idea would be to have OF buff follow-on auto-attacks do more damage, ignore armor, generate more rage, and/or leech. This spreads the effect out a bit, rather than putting it all into one big burst (which largely just wastes the rage/leech), and is more impactful to single target rather than increasing Fury's already high burst AoE.