Saturday, February 10, 2007

Killing Slaves

In the Outlands so far, there's been a persistent slavery sub-theme. The demons and the naga often have Broken slaves and they will force the slaves to attack you when you fight them.

Maybe it's just because I play a paladin, but I've always felt a little uncomfortable killing the slaves in places like Blackrock Mountain. I tend to go out of my way to avoid aggro'ing them.

So when I got to Outlands, and saw the linked overmasters and slaves, I had a sinking feeling that I was going to have to kill some of them to complete my quests. But I was pleasantly surprised to see that the slaves run away after you kill the overmaster, allowing you to complete the quests without killing the slaves. It even adds a bit more challenge to the affair, as you can't use reactive damage (Holy Shield, Ret Aura, etc.) safely.

It's a small touch, but it made me happy. In many ways, Blizzard excels at these small effects, and its a major reason I love their games.

5 comments:

  1. It's definitely nice to know that in situations like that where you might aggro three mobs, you only have to kill one of them because the others will go running off once the leader is dead. That is, as long as I remember to keep my pet on passive.... >_>

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  2. Overall I love this touch too, but the thing they *blew* in execution is that killing the slaves gives rep, but killing the slavemasters doesn't. What the heck is up with that?!

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  3. On my RP server, we went in the the warrior decided to free them from their humiliation by giving them merciful deaths. Pretty funny. I can see a Paladin having the same attitude.

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  4. I'm in pretty much the same situation. It is a problem game mechanic wise, but is a boon for advancing and defining your character in an RP manner.

    I avoid killing any slaves (like the ones in Zangramarsh), avoid quests that advance magic in some way (I'm a Kaldorei and hate the arcane). I never take part in warlock summons either.

    I always take up quests that involve fighting enemies of the night elves, like the ones where you have to kill naga/satyrs/orcs/demons.

    BTW Yunk, I play in Kirin Tor too.

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  5. Heh, I actually don't mind the killing slaves giving Rep thing. It makes doing the "right" thing hard, and that makes it worthwhile.

    It makes it an actual choice, rather than a no-brainer.

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