World Famous Comics: World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Official StrategyGuide (Bradygames Official Stragey Guide)
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Official StrategyGuide (Bradygames Official Stragey Guide)
By: BradyGames Publisher: BRADY GAMES Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: BRADY GAMES Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 352 Publication Date: November 13, 2008 Release Date: November 13, 2008
Very Informative Currently I am in Iraq and ordered this book to learn about the WoW expansion since I am unable to play it yet. I would say I am very well informed and by having read this it will keep me from having to ask so many question of other players in game. There are a few typos but they are easy to overlook. The layout of the book is very pleasing to the eye and I really can't think of anything they left out. I feel I am ready to dive in to Wrath with a very good idea of the changes.
Out of Date before it even ships publisher... Beware These books from Brady Games are usually ok, problem is with WoW you need to be careful because the game updates and changes so quickly, these guides are usually about 30-40% correct by the time you buy them.
A disappointing, thrown-together mess Having reviewed other Bradygames guides, I must say that I was deeply disappointed in this latest installment.
It clearly was thrown together before all information about the expansion was available; perhaps Bradygames wanted to ship a product as close to the launch as possible. Nevertheless, the guide is relatively useless, and provides little assistance to anyone not already familiar with the content.
Dungeons/Instances: The guide addresses only four instances in the Expansion: Utgarde Keep, The Nexus, Azjol-Nerub and Drak'Tharon Keep. No mention is made of Violet Hold, Caverns of Time: The Purging of Stratholme, Gundrak, or even Utgarde Pinnacle (which is located in the same hub as Utgarde Keep). Further, no even passing reference is made to any of the three raid instances - Naxxramus, The Obsidian Sanctum or Eye of Eternity. This is particularly surprising and disappointing, since Naxxramus was only a reintroduction of existing content; Brady could have brought the old maps, boss fights etc. forward to offer at least a preview. No resource referring to itself as a "strategy guide" can do so and ignore 2/3 of the instance content.
Death Knights: One of the most eagerly anticipated features of the expansion was the introduction of the Death Knight class. Brady devotes 25 pages to a summary of the class and, although it provides a fairly decent walkthrough of the introductory content (starting zone) and abilities, pays only lip service to the lore surrounding Death Knights. This was a missed opportunity, as the concept of the death knight class was probably as much a draw as the mechanics.
Professions: Another missed opportunity was Brady's gloss over of the new "Inscription" class. Sticking to their usual format of listing each item crafted but failing to provide any stats or information about the various glyphs, Brady offers only 4 and a half pages of information about the profession, most of which is simply a bland list of the various glyphs and their component parts. A more useful guide would have included a summary of what each glyph DID, as the material costs are relatively standard and (frankly) uninteresting. Also the Table of Contents is somewhat misleading, in that it referernces "Crafting" as a main heading followed by the sub-heading "Inscriptions" (starting at page 239) followed by the next main heading "Quests" at p. 256, leading the browsing reader to believe that nearly 20 pages of information about Inscription could be found inside. However, as noted above, Inscription ends half-way through p. 243, where we are then treated to a materials list of every item for every other profession. Again, a real missed opportunity here.
Achievements: Another eagerly anticipated major content addition was the inclusion of the "Achievements" system. However, Brady sticks what information it provides about this new feature at the very end of its guide (starting at p. 304), where we are treated to roughly one page of information followed by a 40-page list of achievements and their respective point values. This felt like filler, and was laid out in a rather bland fashion. I would not call this information useful.
Other Disappointments: Though a rather personal preference, I was disappointed to find none of the inset comic panels in this guide that were found in the Burning Crusade guide.
Overall Impression: The guide does include a succinct and relatively complete overview of the new factions and their respective rewards. The few boss fights that were included for the dungeons above were of a consistent quality with prior guides, and the artwork included within the guide was nice, but overall this guide felt hastily thrown together and incomplete. Not worth $25.00 in my opinion. Frankly, I would have preferred that Brady waited until the game had been released to prepare this guide so they could have included more content, and would like to see them focus on different information in professions and achievements; materials are nice, but I think most people would rather see stats.
In the end, I cannot recommend this guide to anyone, especially to anyone who has looked at a previous Brady guide. They really rested on their laurels here, and there is absolutely no information in this guide you cannot find on one of a dozen fansites for free.
Gotta agree with the other reviews... I picked this up as an impulse buy when I got up my anxiously awaited pre-ordered WoftLK expansion. I was wishing I'd pre-ordered the Special Edition and thought I'd console myself with buying SOMTETHING extra... Pretty much, this guide is a dud. I did find some of the maps of the different areas useful and I've used the zone quest listings a couple times. But, Wowhead or Wowwikki are just as good for that, better for everything else, and FREE. I doubt I'll ever buy another "guide" by these folks.
WOW If you play World of Warcraft this is an excellent guide, if you don't, then you should!
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Trevor
Megaton Man
