Revendreth – The Climb #644

Friday 27^th November 2020

As expected, I hit level 60 within a few minutes of arriving in Revendreth. However, I still needed to complete the campaign to choose my covenant and unlock the endgame.

I’d always intended to go Revendreth as a covenant. From an RP perspective it was always this or Maldraxxus, and whilst Maldraxxus was probably a stronger RP choice for a Death Knight, the fact that I spec as blood made this covenant seem a more logical choice.

From a gameplay perspective, during beta – with everything changing week by week – this felt like the safe choice. Looking at guides, I tended to look at what was best for Mythic plus rather than raiding. Mythic plus has a speed element which meant that it matches better with my solo gameplay.

Aldenweald did tempt me with the modified Death & Decay ability but Revendreth’s enhanced DPS as well as the Door of Shadows ability felt right for what I intend to do on this character.

And hey, the NPCs all use rapiers. If there was ever a sign this was the covenant for me, then this was it.

I like the zone. Suramar was great with its city and I was a little jealous of Boralus for the Alliance which looked just as good. Revendreth has that same feel. A city with loads of streets, coupled with mires down below.

As the story progresses you encounter the Ember Ward, where broken sunshine drives the NPCs a little mad. Whilst this zone might not be beautiful, it is certainly one of the best looking areas in the game. It feels like a zone in itself.

Given that I was having to slow myself down to reach the end of the campaign and join friends in the endgame, the look of this area, coupled with some amazing voice acting meant that I took my time to enjoy it.

There was a great ending, with a cinematic that like so many, I hadn’t seen and caused me to gasp. And then it was time to choose my covenant.

I did consider it for a while. Whilst it’s possible to change this really is intended to be a one-time deal, and as such, I wanted to make sure I choose wisely.

In the end, my research prior to the expansion proved right. Whilst Aldenweald did throw a bit of a spanner in the works, the balance of aesthetic, abilities I would use daily and simcrafting, meant that Revendreth came out on top. I had expected this to be a straightforward choice, but I liked that it ended up not being so easy.

And of course, once you hit max level, you think it’s all over and you can dive onto another character and start leveling them. Except there’s a ton of endgame content, a lot of which needs to be unlocked. So there was still a lot more work to do before I could access things like The Maw and Torghast. It felt like getting to 60 was only half the job.

This is the reason I love WoW. Whereas a lot of MMOs put 90% of their focusing on leveling, it’s just a small part of Warcraft. Instead, there are a load of things that suddenly become available once you reach max level: from unlocking certain features, to hunting mounts, to building up your renown, to getting started in Torghast, to gearing your character through world quests and dungeons.

It’s not an end, it’s a beginning.