Riding a Giant

***This is a spoiler for any reader not yet quested in Zul'Drak***

Last night, determined to get Kuan and Viljo to 77, we took them into Zul'Drak. We had a choice of quests in front of us: Ebon Hold rep or Argent Crusade. Since our trolls are more partial to AC we spent most of the time on those.




While poking around we came across a Storm Giant imprisoned by the Scourge. He set off this whole quest chain to get him out, much to the dubiousness of the Argent Crusade dudes whose help we enlist. Once out, he's mad, and will gladly let the character ride on his head as he wreaks his vengeance. They did this with the new "vehicle" implementation that is throughout the WotLK.

So there are two reasons I'm posting about this event. Well, three. First of all, riding the giant was fun, but ooo boy the camera angles vs what the game thinks is a movement obstacle was annoying.

Second of all, it was bugged. As far as I can tell, opening the quest log stunned my giant, disabling all control keys as he stands there like a drunk dwarf until he's killed. And, it takes a lot to kill him. Exiting the game and logging back in did not rectify the situation. I spent like half an hour or more trying every button on my screen to move, attack, dismount, anything. I haven't ever been so frustrated. This happened twice, and I even disabled addons the second time. All in all I spent almost an hour sitting on a stunned giant.

Third of all is a bit more game-philosphical. Quite naturally it would be disruptive if there were lots of players on top of giants stomping around Zul'Drak and killing all those mobs everyone else is painstakingly farming for whatever other quests. So Blizzard phases the giant into some elsewhen the rest of the players are not. However, they also take out all the other NPCs. So the giant can be ridden about causing mayhem and destruction with no care other than for his own healthbar.

I think this would have been better done if they had somehow incorporated the other NPCs to this scenario. The Argent Crusade dude was dubious of the giant; maybe somehow make the quest fail if your giant stomps him. I'm not really sure. But seems to me it would have been a bit more of a challenge (mysterious stun notwithstanding) if care for the peeps on your side was incorporated into the event.