Project Lore

The first few times I ran Vault of Archavon, I was lost. It was my first real foray into 10-man content, and I was trying to keep Archavon, Emalon and Koralon straight. Which one overcharged adds? Which cast a nasty fire that you had to get out of immediately? Is it Lightning Nova or Chain Lightning that you have to run away from? These are three relatively straight-forward boss fights, yet I was having one hell of a time getting them down.

But the learning curve eventually turned in my favor. Somewhere along the way, that little metaphorical light bulb clicked on inside my brain - and I just got it. Since then, I've learned that it usually takes me a good three to four successful boss kill attempts before I really know the fight.

The same was true of the new Onyxia. While I had watched videos of the battle and new the basics behind the battle, it took some actual experience with the fight to learn my role. My favorite part - wailing massive FoK damage on the whelps - isn't the most critical. While I would rather watch my DPS meter run sky-high during Onyxia's second phase - the one where she's airborne and sends adds in after you - I've learned (the hard way) that the priority goes to DPSing down Lair Guards whenever they're up.

I'm still in that hazy, starting-to-understand-but-not-quite-there phase for a good number of encounters. I've run Naxxramas only once on each 10- and 25-man, and a few of the battles I'm still a little iffy on. I've barely touched Ulduar. Trial of the Crusader also is starting to come together, but I still get the two giant Jormungar debuffs - and what to do for each of them - confused in the heat of that first battle. And don't even get me started on those cursed Twin Val'kyr. I think that particular battle is going to take about 10 times before I really understand all the mechanics.

But there's an upside to this ginormous learning curve. Once you get down a fair number, bosses seem to each be variations of one another. Some put some nasty crap, be it fire, smoke, poison or other, on the ground that you need to stay out of. Some cast massive AoE damage that you need to watch for - and move the hell out of the way when it comes. Some bring out adds that need to be dealt with immediately. Some teleport away, fly up, burrow down, or otherwise get out of range periodically and find another way to keep you busy for that phase. Some are straight-up tank and spanks. Several put whirling bubbles of spores or light into the raid party that can either give you a buff or debuff. And then there's every melee's favorite boss attack to dodge: the infamous whirlwind attack.

My best suggestion for anyone else in a similar stage of learning as I - get Deadly Boss Mods as soon as you can. It helps a ton with reminding you when you need to run away and what you need to watch out for. And it may sound simple, but this also helps: Do your homework before you get to a fight and make sure to listen-up for any boss-strat on what your specific role will be.

How has everyone else gone about keeping boss fights straight? Does it also take you a few tries to get it down? What about those of you with multiple level 80 characters - how do you keep all your different roles straight?

A new round of changes to go with the next week of testing! Perhaps the most important of the bunch are those relating to the way Rogue poisons work. We brought a potential problem to your attention last week, which involved an add-on allowing Rogues to weapon-swap (and thus poison-swap) on the fly. This was supposed to increase DPS because whenever Deadly Poison was maxed out at five stacks, the mod would switch a different piece of gear with Instant Poison on it to maximize its proc rate. When DP needed to be reapplied, it would automatically switch your weapons again. Naturally, Blizzard didn't intend for Rogues to work this way and figured that the normally clunky mechanic, (which the add-on made easier, and thus, more popular) would set a bad precedent if it was allowed to continue unchecked. So they changed Deadly Poison to proc the poison on your other hand whenever it is at five stacks itself. In addition, Deadly Poison now also procs more often. I'm not sure how long this mechanics will stick around since it seems to be a quick fix for the add-on problem, so enjoy the DPS boost while you can Rogues! Massage your brain-things with the rest of the latest changes below:

Paladins

• Divine Intervention: This ability now also removes Exhaustion or Sated from a target if the recipient is out of combat when the effect ends. In addition, the cooldown on this ability has been reduced from 20 minutes to 10 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas.

Priests

• Shadowform: This talent also now causes Devouring Plague and Vampiric Touch to benefit from haste. Both the period length and the duration of these spells will be reduced by haste. In addition, the mana cost has been reduced from 32% to 13% of base mana.

Rogues

• Deadly Poison: In addition to its existing effects, when a rogue applies Deadly Poison to a target which has already reached the maximum number of applications, this will also trigger the poison which the rogue is using on his or her other weapon.

Assassination

• Improved Poisons: Bonus chance to trigger Deadly Poison from this talent increased. (4/8/12/16/20% per rank, up from 2/4/6/8/10%)

Shamans Elemental Combat

• Elemental Mastery: This talent now increases spell haste by 15% instead of critical strike chance while active.

Warlocks Affliction

• Improved Drain Soul: This talent now reduces threat by 10%/20%, up from 5%/10%.

Destruction

• Destructive Reach: This talent now reduces threat by 10%/20%, up from 5%/10%.

User Interface

• Dungeon System renamed Dungeon Finder

Graphics

• A new feature has been added to the D3D graphics engine to improve texture management (particularly for Windows XP users). If you are experiencing random crashes related to file read errors or out of memory, this new backend may help. To enable the new backend, add the following line to your Config.WTF file: SET gxApi "d3d9ex". For more information please visit our Test Realm forum: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/board.html?forumId=11572&sid=1

Items

• Shaman Tier-9 4-Piece Set Bonus (Elemental): This set bonus now does an additional 10% of Lava Burst’s initial damage over time instead of increasing the size of the Lava Burst.

Bug Fixes

• Misc. bug fixes added. Check here for the complete list.

As cool as it would be to get your hands on the Lich King's wretched blade, Frostmourne, it remains far too powerful and evil for the average hero to withstand its influence (never mind that you've killed more world-destroying threats at this point than any NPC to date). Nonetheless, there must be some weapon out there strong enough to equal the sword's might. Enter the defiled axe: Shadowmourne. The weapon was first revealed at BlizzCon 2009, and now that 3.3 is knocking on the door, Blizzard felt it was time to set up a preview page dedicated to one of the latest legendary items in the game (the other being Quel'Delar, though at this point, it doesn't carry the classic orange name-tag). According to the site, Shadowmourne doesn't technically "exist." You won't find it laying in a cave or a forgotten treasure chest somewhere. Instead, the dire blade is nothing more than a theory, a remnant of arcane knowledge hidden deep within the recesses of Darion Mograine's mind. But he's convinced that Tirion Fordring's Ashbringer simply isn't enough, and that Shadowmourne may prove to be the true key to taking down the Lich King. In order to do this, a player seeking the axe's power will have to accomplish a variety of tasks which includes collecting souls and shards of the Frozen Throne itself. Indeed, it's shaping up to be an undertaking similar to that of Val'anyr, where muliple runs through Icecrown Citadel will be required to gather all the materials necessary for forging the blade. But, once created, what of its power? A weapon nearly as corrupted as Froustmourne itself must still be wielded by a righteous warrior, and who's to say that Arthas himself couldn't control it just as easily as he does his currently favored blade? It's sure to be a sought-after piece of a gear for those who are capable of handling it... But this is only a mere overview of what's to come. If it is more stirring questions and information about the lore and formation of Shadowmourne you seek, please check out the official preview at Blizzard's World of Warcraft Community Site.

Protip is a weekly short video segment. Check back every Monday for a new guide or tip. Leave a comment to let me know what you want to see in future segments. Follow @Heartbourne for notifications of new videos! 

This week, join me on my epic quest to solve the mystery of the Night Elf Mohawks.

If you haven't already, make sure to check out the Mr. T Warcraft commercials.

[caption id="attachment_8493" align="alignright" width="300" caption="I'm Super. Thanks For Asking!"][/caption] Vanity items don't get me going, for the most part ("ZOMG vanity pets! Squeal!").  I don't care about having cute or unusual costumes.  I don't piece together entertaining ensembles or strive to get rare pieces of rather pointless gear.  Yea, I had a Twill set, but that was sparked by competition rather than my actual desire for it.  Generally speaking, I only go for functional items, the general gear, professions that can save your ass, or help you out, and the one required for a supportive nature.  Hell, I don't bother with extra mounts, one is enough to serve its purpose. There is one vanity item that I have been striving for - Chef's Hat.  Yes, it looks ridiculous.  Yes, it hangs a little to the right.  Yes, it is half the size of Solidsamm.  But I'll be damned if it doesn't make me feel special.  I've been a purveyor of Fish Feasts and other tasty morsels of Northrend for some time, and now everyone can know just how dedicated I've been - dare I say at the drop of a hat (couldn't resist)? The Chef's Hat was a goal of mine, but it wasn't something I was wholly dedicated to.  That was until Blizzard announced that it would speed up your cooking.  Then I became a cuisine concoting fiend, missing the Dalaran daily only once.  Now that I have it, I can't believe anyone would cook or lay out a Great Feast without equipping it.  Frankly, the speed increase is amazing when compounded over a few stacks of edibles and should prove totally worth the effort. Everyone's got their hook.  For Pixie, it's an entire outfit.  For me, it is a hat that increases the speed of my Wolfgang Puck-ness.  What's your most coveted vanity item?

The latest raid testing schedule kicks off with both Lord Marrowgar and the Icecrown Gunship Battle (both US and European servers) on Wednesday. As much as these two have been under the microscope so far, I'd anticipate that they're nearly ready for prime-time. And on top of that? Every encounter on the list this week will have their Heroic (read: Hard) Modes available to play around with, should your nascent raid group actually be up to the task! Now, this might make it sound like 3.3 is breathing down our necks and we're fit to see it really, really soon, but something worries me. Of all the fights tested so far, two stood out as being rather unfairly bugged: Deathbringer Saurfang and Professor Putricide. Now, Deathbringer is being done again Thursday, and from what I understood (and experienced first-hand), the only major problem with his fight was the bug that gave him a ridiculous dodge rate, which sounds like an easy fix. [caption id="attachment_8500" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Vailthria Dreamwalker will once again be tested this week. "][/caption] Professor Putricide, on the other hand, is nowhere to be found and considering the problem with him was that he couldn't be targeted after the first time you engaged him, very little actual testing was done. And getting the Abominations to work correctly during the encounter also seems to present an issue. So while Heroic Modes are a really, really good sign, I can see at least one encounter holding the patch's release back a little bit, unless they continue to plan on "gating" the instance, in which case the good doctor would likely be available further down the line. Regardless, here's the schedule as it looks now:

We are scheduling raid tests in Icecrown Citadel for November 18-20. The schedule is as follows: US Servers Wednesday, November 18 at 7PM EST / 4 PM PST – Lord Marrowgar, Icecrown Gunship Battle Thursday, November 19 at 7PM EST / 4 PM PST – Festergut, Deathbringer Saurfang Friday, November 20 at 7PM EST / 4 PM PST – Valithria Dreamwalker EU Servers Wednesday, November 18 at 19:30 CET – Lord Marrowgar, Icecrown Gunship Battle Thursday, November 19 at 19:30 CET – Rotface, Blood Princes Friday, November 20 at 19:30 CET – Lady Deathwhisper Heroic difficulties will be available for testing! The Icecrown Citadel raid test schedule will be very flexible, and can change at a moment's notice due to build status, bugs, and server issues. Remember that this is the test server, so things can, do, and will break from time to time. Check this forum for the latest Icecrown Citadel raid testing schedule information in the weeks to come.

Also, don't forget about PuG With The Blues! This is the third week in a row that Blizzard has hosted the event, in which testing the Dungeon system on the PTR allows you the chance of running an instance with a company employee! I was there last Wednesday, and even though I wasn't ever paired up with a Blue, there were some speaking up in the General Chat channel, so you can still interact with them. If you're interested and haven't previously downloaded any of the current patches on the PTR, I'd recommend starting now so that you'll be up-to-date by tomorrow.

50 DKP minus if you don't get the reference.

It's hard not to get attached to guild mates when you spend hours on end online with them working though complex strategies and making friendly jokes at their expense. On top of that, add on real-life friendships with said guildies and you've got one heck of a bond. That's been my WoW world ever since I first started out in Vanilla. During a hiatus from playing, those same friends were groomsmen in my wedding. And when I picked up the game again after WotLK came out, we picked up where we left off in-game. There were a plethora of benefits of having a guild of just friends from RL. No awkward getting-to-know you phases, no hesitance of saying something which may offend them, basically no drama, and a hell of a good time. But there also were drawbacks: the main one being that rarely were there more than five of us on at a time, so any 10-man or more content had to be PUGed. We struggled with how to remedy that problem for months. For a while, we were hopeful that we could find another small guild to partner up with for 10-man content. That didn't pan out. We also spoke about starting to recruit, making our core group the officers and bringing in more members. But that also seemed to take away the point of us having a friends-only guild. I also worried whether newcomers might feel left out from all our inside jokes and already-forged bonds. Finally, it came down to it, and a couple of us decided to look into finding another adult, somewhat casual raiding guild, and see how many of us they would absorb. I did a little research and found the friendliest bunch of players I could, and ran a couple of trials with them. My husband went first. A couple of our original guild mates didn't like the idea of playing with people they didn't know IRL. I stood torn for a couple of days. Not wanting to betray my friends by leaving, but also wanting to see more content. I really shouldn't have worried so much. After I decided to switch guilds, a lot has stayed basically the same. We still do a lot of 5-man content together. Now, 4 of us original buddies are in the new (to us) guild, and a few decided to stay behind. We're building up new friendships with a group of really fun people, and have been running 10- and 25-man raids regularly. But more on that later. So, what's the point, you may ask. This whole experience has reminded me how emotional this game and all of its different aspects can be. I was so incredibly torn about switching guilds and changing that little name plate that hovers above my toon. It's amazing, in a way, the sense of camaraderie  that develops between groups in-game. Already, from playing with this new group for about the past month, I can see that it's not just between people with real life bonds. The in-game ones also can be quite strong. Has anyone else felt this sense of uncertainty when it comes time for a /gquit? How did you decide whether it was time to move on?

In addition to World of Warcraft, I've found myself playing a couple of "loot whore" games lately, and they've got me thinking about the balance between static and continually-generated end-game content. These sorts of things can be important when considering how entertained or bored your players are going to be when they reach a certain point in the game where there is, relatively, nothing "new" to be accomplished, and I'm wondering how such concepts can be applied to our favorite MMO. I first started down this path by picking up From Software's punishingly awesome Demon's Souls. As opposed to the Diablos and Titan Quests of the world, Demon's Souls can be an extremely slow burn. You're not running around hacking your way through unrelenting hordes of enemies and picking up everything in sight just for a run back to the vendor to sell it for a meager some of gold. In fact, in this game, you can't sell anything at all! Upgrading your character and equipment is done with souls, which are more akin to experience points than currency. Instead, when something drops from an enemy, you decide if you want it right then and there, and if you're overburdened, that means you either leave it to rot or drop something else you already have in your inventory. You see, Demon's Souls rewards you for patience and planning, taking on each fight as if it was your last (and it often is, even against lesser enemies). It's an incredibly difficult title for the average twitch gamer to progress through, but the feeling of taking down a big, nasty boss who would otherwise one-shot you can be immensely satisfying. The problem with the game is that there is a relatively small set of loot to pick up, and even though multiple play-throughs are available, you'll largely know exactly what to expect the next time around. Sure, enemies will hit harder and award more souls when defeated, but you'll know boss strategies by then and where you found that awesome sword last time. Plus, weapons can only be upgraded to a maximum of 10, with a few small, branching paths to explore that unlock at certain points, each subject to the same restrictions. Demon's Souls is an important case study because it provides an extremely strong first run, with iterations there-after becoming less important or engaging. To keep a game going past this phase, the player has to either be allowed significant means by which to continually strengthen their character or be faced with a fresh set of challenges to overcome. This is where more traditional "loot" games excel, with randomized drops and dungeons to play-through, ensuring that, at least to some degree, the feeling of seeing something you've never seen before is maintained. [caption id="attachment_8483" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Borderlands may feature random loot, but you can expect to fight this monster every time you play."][/caption] But at the same time, randomization gone wild can be just as dull without some greater purpose pulling the experience together. This brings me to Borderlands. Developed by Gearbox, this first-person shooter has been given a nice, shiny coat of role-playing paint to keep people playing long past the initial campaign. This type of game can be a tricky sell, and while I won't say Borderlands is a run-away success, it's fun enough and beats the snot out of the last major attempt at the genre, Hellgate: London. The game features the good-old randomized loot system of its forebears, complete with mixed-together names that can tell you instantly what modifications an item might feature once you learn to decipher the lingo. The problem here is that it all cuts off rather early, as most people will hit the level cap of 50 mid-way through their second run. There is the option to continually farm for slightly better guns or class mods, but with no further to progress in the game (there is no third play-through and enemies reach a maximum level of 52 currently), you just end up combing one small corner of the map over and over again. While gear might be randomized, the environment remains static like it does in Demon's Souls. Sometimes you will get variations on the enemies, but the locations remain precisely the same in terms of structure and the subset of foes that you will face within them (for instance, you will never find Skaggs suddenly spawning where Bandits always have). Neither of these game philosophies works for World of Warcraft alone, but at their cross-section, they might provide something worth adding to the game at some point in the future: a truly random dungeon. I'm not talking about picking what to run on any given day out of a hat, like the new Dungeon system allows you, but rather one that features a continually changing set of encounters worth revisiting over and over again. Let's face it, 5-mans are painfully simple these days as it is, and while Wrath of the Lich King features a lot of good content, a handful of its instance feel kind of half-assed. Look at Azjol'Nerub. Tiny dungeon, three bosses, very little trash (especially if you let Hadronox web the enemy spawns). Is this what the mighty Nerbuian nation deserves? Sure, we get Old Kingdom, but besides the architecture, it seems decidedly un-Nerubian. Blizzard felt so sorry for Anub'Arak, they had to give him a second chance! But I digress... What I'm really getting after here is a truly random dungeon. Something that a player would want to run repeatedly. Something that would make them more than badge factories. If Blizzard wants to continue making the rest of the 5-man content accessible, then why not consolidate all that potential into one, constantly shifting dungeon for those people out there who really want to experience a challenge at that level again? Now, the most difficult part of creating something like this, arguably, would be making the layout itself random. It just makes the development process a lot more complicated, because you have to be able to test all kinds of different permutations and make sure that nothing can be broken by players. Would be nice, but not a deal-breaker. The meat-and-potatoes of WoW are its encounters. And what better to challenge players with a fight that they least expect? The game already does this, but in a muted and less complete fashion (i.e. Confessor Paletress calls up random memories, Violet Hold features limited variation in its encounters, and you can end up going against slightly different setups when fighting Faction Champions). I say Blizzard needs to go whole-hog and just throw everything into the pot. Even the trash could be randomized (within reason, of course)! Instead of the Live Raid at BlizzCon 2009 showing off upcoming content as it has in the past, Premonition was faced this year with a decidedly different task: taking on several bosses at the same time, all topped with a surprisingly tricky encounter with the infamous Hogger. That's what I want. That's what I want to experience, and I think that's the best thing any of us could currently get out of a random dungeon at this point in time. If we can't use the philosophy for 5-mans, then why not turn it into a simple, arena-style raid? Give people a reason to return to the Argent Tournament after everyone has moved onto Cataclysm content by featuring random or, at least, a rotating array of encounters to experience. Imagine having to tackle two or three completely different bosses at the same time and the new strategies that would have to be put together on the fly to deal with those combinations. To me that sounds like fun. And what of itemization? All bosses could give rewards from the same pool of loot, reducing the need to produce new equipment for each permutation of a possible encounter. Or it could still just be a badge factory, but at least earning them would be a lot more entertaining. They key though, and I realize this, is to make the content optional. It should never be a roadblock to progression. I suspect that if a "truly random dungeon" like this were ever to come to fruition, it would be co-opted by raiders like the current Onyxia revamp has been. At least until the next tier of content. But some people still wouldn't enjoy the idea and I can respect that. And yet, for others like me, it sounds like a unique and engaging way of tackling the game. No pre-set strategy you looked up online would work; we'd all be flying by the seat of our pants like we used to in the old days. I guess that's why it's called wishful thinking! What do you think the pluses and minuses of a dungeon like this would be? Is it something you would be interested in running, even if it didn't feature nice rewards, or are you the kind of person who would rather move forward and prefer Blizzard working on more reliable content?

[caption id="attachment_8472" align="alignright" width="300" caption="This Is Still My Desktop Background"][/caption] When I rejoined the masses during The Burning Crusade I knew that I wouldn't be raiding like I did in vanilla.  I knew that I'd already be behind on gear when I joined, with the difference growing as time went on.  I also knew that Wrath of the Lich King was coming soon, and would reset the Azerothian digital divide back to zero.  Sadly, it was just that, a reset of the cycle.  But the cycle would be different this time.  Blizzard had changed its tune, refining its raid philosophy to allow easy entry into the early raids, with difficulty ramping up over time (whether that actually happens is another discussion entirely). Upon hitting level 80, in a somewhat timely manner, I geared up and prepared for my second go at Naxxramas.  During these early raiding days I was highly competitive, grabbing top DPS on numerous occasions.  The accolade was nothing special, players were still gearing and learning their new specs, but I enjoyed my time in the spotlight.  As time passed the DPS merged into a group, with members floating up and down the scale depending on fight, mindset and who had the best party buffs.  With my gear becoming outdated - hello ancient trinkets - I began to fight for my life, scrapping for every bit of DPS I could muster. In comes Ulduar, and the cycle reboot moves to full effect.  I can no longer compensate for my gear's age.  Skill, willpower and all the random buffs in the world fail to keep me highly competitive.  I've been relegated to a replacement, alt night or fill-in-the-hole role, but I'm okay with that, I understand.  I contribute where I can, and hope that everyone is fully geared out when I enter a raid.  Perhaps, just maybe I'll get something to increase my DPS. A funny thing happened a few months ago.  The cycle was seemingly broken, not reset, just broken.  Call of the Crusade came out, and people loved it.  For a few weeks.  But now, now I've realized that my gear has made a comeback.  Thanks to VoA, Onyxia The Head Regrower and my random Ulduar runs my average ilvl's moved up, and I've begun to to climb the DPS charts.  I'm no longer scrapping by, but actually beating players whose DPS I once though unobtainable. How could this be?  Is it boredom?  Are these players so tired of Call of the Crusade and its lock out that they've ignored the gear, or simply cut back on raiding?  Have that many of them returned to alts, allowing me to soak up gear at an equal speed?  Maybe they geared up that quickly?  These aren't rhetorical questions, I honestly don't know, and only assume it is some combination.  SoProjectLoreians (just made that up) are you bored with Patch 3.2?

Mr. T is back! Apparently some players tried to diss his previous claims that he could hack the World of Warcraft to make the fabled Night Elf Mohawk class. Here is the previous commercial if you aren't up on his claims: Apparently, you can get them right now on live US realms. You can grab them from any starting zone. Check out the official FAQ:

Q. What is the Mohawk Grenade? A. The Mohawk Grenade is Mr. T's latest invention: an in-game item that, when hurled at another character, gives everyone within the blast radius an instant T-riffic haircut. Don't worry, you and your friends will look gooooood. Q. Where do I get it? A. Quit your jibber-jabber and claim your Mohawk Grenades from any of the Night Elf Mohawk NPCs camped outside every starting zone. Q. What regions are eligible to claim the Mohawk Grenade? A. North America, Europe and Korea. Q. Is this a permanent item? A. Each Mohawk Grenade has five charges before exhausting its power, and you're welcome to claim another once the charges are gone. Q. How long will the Mohawk Grenade be available in-game? A. Claim Mohawk Grenades starting November 16th in North America and November 24th in Europe and Korea. They'll be available until... well, until the Night Elf Mohawk decides his work is done. Q. Where can I see the Mr. T commercials? A. The commercials will be airing on major TV networks throughout North America beginning on November 16th and in Europe starting on November 27th.

If only there was a video show that showcased new and exciting things in WoW to show you where to get these grenades and what they do...