Stratholme - Present Day

Since I've acquired my epic flight skill I've decided to start collecting mounts. I started with all of the Alliance ground mounts, slow and fast, and I'm going to try and get all of the available gryphons. Eventually, I'd like to get the Albino Drake.

To reach 50 mounts, though, I'm going to have to get lucky and/or creative. So last night I ran into old school Stratholme...well, I guess old school Stratholme would technically be the Culling...but I....ah, screw it, you get the point.

Anyway, my target was Baron Rivendare. I was going to ask him (with my axe) if I could have his horse. Well, I asked, and he refused, so I asked repeatedly until he collapsed into a bloody pile on the floor.

But all of that isn't the point of this post. The point is, Stratholme is huge. WotLK dungeons are small and linear, and were designed to be so. Vanilla WoW dungeons, on the other hand, were sprawling, non-linear, and would take a whole afternoon if you ran it at an appropriate level. I knew this was the case, don't get me wrong, but it's still kind of shocking when you zone in and get reminded of it.

During the week, I have limited play time. I have a couple of hours between work and sleep to do what I need to do. The smaller dungeons, therefore, appeal to me. It's nice to be able to get in, get out, and get to bed at a reasonable time. I'm getting older, after all.

Still, I admire the effort they put into those old dungeons. They really were pretty epic and well-designed.

The other, less important point to this post is...how is that city still burning? Seriously. It's been years since Arthas ran rampant through the place, yet the buildings are still standing and they're still on fire.

Sometimes it's best not to think too hard about stuff like that.