Beta Invite!

     I am not sure that I am not the worst possible person to give a beta invite to. Yesterday when I got one I was thrilled and couldn't resist installing it right away but when it comes down to betas I am reluctant with this one, as I was with Mists, to actually step into the new continent.
     On the one hand I want to desperately, I want to go and see the new shiny zones and the critters and the quests so badly I can almost taste it. I want to help finding the bugs and things so that when it does go live it will be amazing.
     On the other hand I'll do all that content many times when it goes live and I am very reluctant to take that shiny newness away from myself before it actually launches. But I've played with it some, gone in and looked at the character creator for the models that have been updated, and made myself a few characters to try out.

     This is Kaarras. He's letting me see what the pared down retribution paladin plays like while also giving me a look at the new male draenei model in action. I like that he's less top heavy than they were before but still big, but looks wise there were a few things about the older model I liked better. As far as Retribution... I can already tell that I'm going to spend a lot of time looking for Inquisition at first. I keep trying to find it and hit it and then remember it's not there any more. I miss the Guardian too, but aside from that I don't think I'll be completely out of my depth when it's time to play Seish with his new abilities.

     Then because I also wanted a look at hunters I made Semariyan. And she needed a friend, so off to Northrend we went and surprisingly enough she flew right over to where Tyl had tamed Snowthorn and there was Loque'nahak, in the very same spot, waiting. Tamed, but it doesn't feel right for her to be running around with Tyl's kitty so she went off to find a friend of her own. Arcturis was waiting too.

     I've got mixed feelings about the new female Night Elves. Semariyan looks wonderful to me, fierce and tough, but then I designed her with the new models just as I wanted her. And even then looking over the faces they all look so very much alike to me. There was more variation in the old ones for sure and I can only hope that will still change. As for Beast Masters... they don't seem so bad to me as far as the abilities they've lost and the new glyph 'play dead' is wonderful! I already knew Tyl would be getting that as soon as he could, but now I'm doubly sure.
     And so far dipping my toes in that's all I've done: Taken Kaarras to the Timeless Isle to see how he stacks up against a much better geared ret paladin in live. (About like I'd expect, really, though without meters and with squished numbers I'm going purely on how it feels to kill things.) I'm still so tempted to look at the new things, just poke my head in the door. On the other hand once I see it I can't get the newness back. So just at the moment I'm seeing how many times I can crash the game by rearranging my action bars (twice so far).