Project Lore

The new build brings several changes, but we still have to wait for the Halls of Reflection. It looks like that little bit of extra maintenance on the PTR today wasn't just for show, as a new build of 3.3 has been deployed on the test realms. Unfortunately, this one doesn't seem to be quite as substantial as the first two, as there seem to be no new instances to run through. Part of me wonders if they'll just keep Halls of Reflection internal for the duration of the testing period in order to preserve the secrecy of whatever events might transpire there. But that doesn't mean there aren't any new or interesting changes. Here are the updated patch notes:

Druid

• Rebirth: The cooldown on this spell has been lowered from 20 minutes down to 10 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas.
• Gift of the Earthmother: Redesigned. This talent now increases spell haste by 2/4/6/8/10% instead of its previous effect.

Hunter

• Call Stabled Pet: Cooldown reduced from 30 minutes to 5 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas.

Mage

• Improved Scorch: The debuff from this talent no longer stacks, and instead can apply the full effect from a single cast of Scorch.

Priest

• Power Word: Shield; This spell can now be cast on non-raid/party friendly targets.
• Improved Devouring Plague: This spell now deals 10/20/30% of its total periodic effect instantly, up from 5/10/15%.
• Shadowform: This talent also now causes Devouring Plague, Shadow Word: Pain, 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.
• Vampiric Embrace: This ability is now provides a 30-minute buff that cannot be dispelled, instead of a target debuff.

Shaman

• Reincarnation: The cooldown on this spell has been lowered from 60 minutes down to 50 minutes (Improved Reincarnation will continue to lower the cooldown by 10/20 minutes).

Warlock

• Create Soulstone: The cooldown on this spell and duration of its buff have been lowered from 30 minutes down to 15 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas.
• Decimation: Redesigned. When Shadowbolt, Incinerate or Soul Fire hit a target that is at or below 35% health, the cast time of Soul Fire is reduced by 20/40% for 8 seconds. Soul Fires cast under the effect of Decimation cost no shards.
• Molten Core: Redesigned. Shadow spells and damage-over-time effects have a 12% chance to increase the damage done by Incinerate by 5/10/15% and Soul Fire by 4/7/10% for 12 seconds. In addition, Molten Core now has a new spell effect.

User Interface

• Non spell-based tracking now persists through logout.
• Any party member may mark raid targets.
• Users will be warned when their talents are reset due to a new patch.
• “/Settitle” command has been added.
• Instant quest text is on by default.
• “Tentative” status added for calendar responses.
• Players below level 10 may not join raids.
• Ignore list expanded to 50 to match the friends list.
• Unit frames added for special encounters.
• Interface element added next to the mini-map to show what dungeon you are in (ex: 10- and 25-player Heroic dungeons marked with a skull).
• Experience earned for a quest will display in the Quest Rewards section.
• Confirmation box added when buying stable slots.
• Macro Changes

Symbol “@” added as a synonym for “target=”;. For example, “/cast [@focus] Flash Heal”. New macro conditionals: “vehicleui” (if the player has a vehicle UI) and “unithasvehicleui” (if the target of the macro has a vehicle UI). Character and Creature Nameplates

• The range at which players can see nameplates has been significantly expanded.
• You can no longer see nameplates through objects which block line of sight.

As long as you are able to peer through the doorway of a room, you will see nameplates of characters and creatures in that room. Pillars and bridges in Arenas will not hide friendly or enemy nameplates.

• Totem nameplates can be toggled off under “PRODUCTION” settings via “Interface Options” on the test realms.
• Instead of nameplates for large groups of players or creatures trying to sort themselves, they will now overlap. This functionality can be toggled off under “PRODUCTION” settings via “Interface Options” on the test realms.

Addon Author Changes

• “registerForClicks” added to xml buttons.
• “MouseIsOver” has been converted to a “C” function for increased efficiency (e.g. /dump PlayerFrame:IsMouseOver() ).
• When an addon file is loaded, the addon name and an addon table are passed to the file through ‘…’. The same addon table is passed to every file loaded by a particular TOC file (example at the top of a Lua file: “local addonName, addonTable = …;”.
• “motionScriptsWhileDisabled” attribute added to buttons. This allows “OnEnter”; and “OnLeave”; to fire while the button is disabled.
• “GetFileHeight()” and “GetFileWidth()” added to Texture objects. 0 is returned if no texture file is associated with the texture.
• You can now query for a list of completed quests with “QueryQuestsCompleted()” then wait for the “QUEST_QUERY_COMPLETE” event, and call “GetQuestsCompleted(<luatable>)”.

As you can see, several spells have been redesigned (and I'm personally pretty happy about the reduced cooldown on Rebirth), but some of the most exciting changes are coming to the User Interface. Though allowing anybody in your party to mark targets may seem like trouble waiting to happen for an unruly group, it should be quite beneficial for those that know how to control themselves. It takes some of the sweat of the tank or raid/party leader if other people can be designated to mark targets on the fly. Likewise, I'm glad that they're finally adding a "tentative" option to calender responses. I'm sure we've all had days when we weren't entirely sure we'd be able to make it to a raid or not, and just knowing that much makes organizing them a heckuva lot easier. As for the nameplates? Well, I always have them on, and while I can see a few problems with allowing them to overlap, I think it'll be much less confusing than the current setup which has them bouncing all over the place when there is a large group of mobs to deal with. That makes them extremely hard to individually target with the mouse. You go to click one and its nameplate has just jumped across the screen, and we all know that mis-targeting can, on occasion, lead to rather unfortunate consequences. As a side note, MMO-Champion has revealed that Oswald the Penguin will now once again go by his old name, Mr. Chilly. One might wonder why Blizzard did such a quick one-eighty! This new build is sure to bear more fruit as we continue to explore what it offers, so please stay tuned, and let us know what you think of the changes above!

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It's the time of year again, boys and girls. As Hallow's End approaches, everyone is gearing up to slay the Headless Horseman and gorge themselves on Tricky Treats, but it might be worth your while to celebrate the holiday's real-life equivalent, too. Each year, Blizzard hosts a pumpkin carving contest, and 2009 is no exception. They're looking for some talented gourdsmiths to artfully slice up these over-sized fruits to depict characters or scenes from at least one of the company's video game franchises. Zarhym details the rules below:

"The Royal Photographic Society of Azeroth is renewing its competition in celebration of Halloween. In a longstanding Blizzard Entertainment tradition, this year we're proud to announce our seventh annual pumpkin-carving contest. 2008's Winner, an exquisitely-crafted Horde pumpkin by Merrlynch Between 12:00 a.m. PDT on October 13 and 11:59 p.m. PDT on October 28, the RPSA will be accepting submissions for the pumpkin contest. The shutterbugs who submit the most outstanding photos of their work will have their pictures proudly displayed on WorldofWarcraft.com and Blizzard.com on Halloween. In addition, the crafters of the five most interesting, original, and well-carved pumpkin designs will each be recognized for their merits with a 32 GB iPod touch! Special thanks go out to Apple for this fantastic prize! Pumpkin submission tips:

• The winning entries will display high levels of originality, craftsmanship, and possibly humor.
• Your pumpkin must be lit up by a candle or other light source in your photo entry. You can show another photo of the pumpkin unlit if you wish.
• Pumpkins must be related to World of Warcraft or another Blizzard Entertainment title.
• Try to take the best picture possible, as picture quality helps make a good impression on the judges.
• Make sure you tell us what the pumpkin is supposed to be in the caption, just in case it's not clear."

Having big, meaty fingers like my own, and the carving skills of a back-alley surgeon, I don't think I'll be participating, myself. Every jack-o-lantern I try to make looks like Gary Busey after a motorcycle crash. And, besides, some of the winners from past years are intimidatingly well-made! But if you think you've got the chops, why not try your hand at it? Even if you don't win, you'll still have a bad-ass looking pumpkin to put on your doorstep. Full rules and a submission form can be found here.

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There once was a time when earning a badge meant slogging through a 5-man dungeon over the span of a couple hours, or spending an entire night on downing two or three bosses in a raid. And it was a really long haul towards the next piece of gear. Not to mention that there was only one type of badge, so you knew exactly where to spend it and how many you would need when you got there. In an effort to equalize the playerbase, Blizzard has expanded on this idea several times in Wrath of the Lich King, first introducing a new set of badges for each tier of content, and then, in 3.2, making their acquisition even easier by handing them for just about anything remotely dungeon-related.

BlizzCon Entry Pass: the hardest badge to earn of all!

What once took weeks could take a matter of days, especially if you've got a group of people capable of running Trial of the Crusader in all its forms. Some in the community have cried foul, myself included, but even I can admit that its only because I've been around the block a few times. I've seen the gear grind at its worst, and it's all too tempting to look down my nose at the people who've only picked up the game more recently, and yell at them in my shrill old man voice, "Why, back in my day...!"

And also like a confused geriatric, keeping all the different badges (and how you can get them) straight sometimes makes my head spin. It's bad enough that (excluding Badges of Justice from Burning Crusade) we have four different kinds, but to obtain Tier 9.5 equipment, you need to pair them up with trophies you can only get from 25-man ToC.

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I've Already Sent In My Application Since Wrath of the Lich King launched in November I have been in more guilds than I have ever been in my lengthy World of Warcraft career.  Now moving on to my fourth (and fifth) guild, I've discovered a trend.  A trend that I believe caused my former two guilds to collapse on themselves, leaving me holding the non-raiding bag for a few weeks.  That trend is focusing on 10man content.  But what's causing us to fail? Bad Tuning:  10-man content is considered to be the easiest way to raid, but I simply don't believe that.  If one person dies in a 10-man encounter it's far more difficult to deal with than in a 25-man match-up.  It comes down to simple math, you're losing 10% of your force to a paltry 4% if a single member dies.  Here's a bit of anecdotal evidence to back that up.  In the early going of Wrath 10man Sarth+3D was considered the most difficult encounter in the game. The developers obviously comprehend that simple math, and design around it.  Or at least we'll assume that.  But it's unlikely that Blizzard expects many guilds to stick to one degree of raiding.  Most people that I know mix in 25-man, PUGs or guild runs, with their 10-man plate.  This allows players to acquire gear that will make the 10man encounters more trivial.  A smart idea.  My previous two guilds didn't have much success in this, leading us to stick to 10-man progression by and large.  This path proved unsuccessful after a few months. Too Many Guilds:  One issue that I've mentioned before is the amount of guilds there are these days.  Guilds come and go as often as celebrity relationships, allowing players to see greener pastures with an alarming frequency.  Sure, new guild X may be doing great right now, while your guild is stuck in Ulduar, but who knows how long they will be around?  For most players, it doesn't matter.  They subscribe to water's mantra, the path of least resistance (to gear). In theory the amount of guilds shouldn't really matter.  Having options is nice, and guild competition tends to drive players to perform at their peak.  A win-win, right?  In practice, the setup leads to guild hopping, and spreads the herd of good players over a wider range of guilds.  Thus, lowering their collective effectiveness. Too Many Bad Players:  I honestly don't believe that WoW has a larger percentage of bad players nowadays.  They've always been around in large numbers.  They just appear more obvious simply because the entry to raiding is far lower than ever.  On top of that my guilds have chosen the level that nearly everyone starts at, 10man raiding.  Because of this Smooth Criminals and Warriors of Faith had a high percentage of mediocre players, poorly geared players or flat out bad players in their ranks.  Ranks that have a small portion of good players that aren't casual.  Mix too much bad with good and the results are always the same. Players that are new to raiding are also highly likely to either quit raiding, possibly the game, or even progress past their guilds after they learn the ropes.  Causing the guilds to fill up with another round of unskilled or under-skilled players that need their hands help.  Repeating the viscous cycle. Me:  Sure, I have been one of the only absolute constant factors in these failing guilds.  That isn't a matter of opinion, but cold hard fact.  I hope to god I'm not such an awful player that I can cause a group to collapse when I am only there once a week!  I guess it's possible though.  I do play a gnome.  If it turned out to be true I think it would just increase my ego further, in a very unusual way. Before you go tearing me a new one let me reiterate that I know that 10man raiding is easy to PUG.  I know that many guilds succeed week in and week out.  This is just a discussion as to why my last two guilds failed to stay together during their 10-man push.  Ultimately, we failed to dominate content, hitting a wall at some point.  Then the leaders got fed up and moved on.  Do any casual raid leaders/GMs have any tips? My ideal guild would be a rather close knit group of friends and acquaintances, around 20 players, that could raid on the same schedule.  Two nights a week would be dedicated to tackling various raids, and one day would be spent on progression and just having fun (to ease the tension of failing).  We'd obviously be casual, but when raiding it'd be taken seriously.  Pots, food buffs, full enchants, gemmed to the gills, we'd expect every character to be at the top of their game from trash to boss for three hours a night.  Most of all, people would show up on time! What's your ideal guild?

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Ever since Blizzard went about the process of remaking Battle.net the company has kindly asked players to merge their World of Warcraft accounts with Battle.net.  As many of you may know, Battle.net is being completely revamped as the catch all account service for all of Blizzard's online-enabled products (WoW, Warcraft RTS,Diablos, StarCraft).  Version 2.0 of the system is supposed to launch alongside StarCraft II, a title that is now expected in the first half of 2010. To date, Blizzard has been enticing players to merge their accounts.  Claiming it'll make logging in easier, give you faster access for spamming for BlizzCon 2009 tickets, win Warcraft III games on its own and even make one immune to H1N1.  Yesterday the company stopped asking politely.  Now it's outright bribery. Or is it? The information that Heartbourne revealed yesterday has since been modified, the mentions of a penguin pet and the firm date since removed.  It's unlikely that Blizzard will back down.  After all, if the company did, it would have a mob of vanity pet lovers charging the building.  With Heartbourne and I at the helm. It's not like Blizzard to hand out a specific date to something.  Let alone do so and then take it back, but that's exactly what has happened.  We'll likely hear more about the pending merger requirement in the near future. I merged my WoW account long ago and haven't had a single issue.  There's been problems on and off, mostly login issues, but they have never affected me (/me knocks on skull).  How many of you have merged and joined the Big Brother system powered by Blizzard?  For those of you that haven't, is it out of laziness, or are you actually scared of bad things happening? Actually, Tobold just pointed something out to me.  By forcing us to use an e-mail account instead of an original login name, there's a good chance that your friends/family will now know your login name.  Worse yet, it'll be easier for nefarious beings to find it as well.  He explains his worries about the lower security via BNet merger here. *Note* I logged in during lunchtime and the launcher confirmed that all accounts must be merged to Battle.net by November 12, as previously reported.  Penguin will indeed be the reward for complying (to continue to pay Blizzard money).

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After five years on the Australian market with no classification, World of Warcraft finally has a rating. Late last week, the Australian Classification Board decided that WoW will be rated M for "Fantasy violence." As one comparison point in the U.S, WoW is rated T for teen for blood, suggestive themes, use of alcohol and violence. Earlier this year, questions were raised regarding the legality of selling the game in Australia since it was not rated. According to a Gamestop Australia article package, the mixup was more of a loophole, since the Classification Board until recently has not had a system in place for rating games with online-only content. This obviously included many online games other than just WoW, such as Warhammer, Age of Conan and Aion. Now, that's changed and WoW has a rating. But no word yet on ratings for any other online games. Now it seems the biggest contention is that the Australian Classification board is at minimum five years behind the times in terms of finding a way to rate online-only games. There also still seems to be some confusion as to whether there actually is any new classification system, or whether the game finally was just rated as a "computer game," under the same system that was in place five years ago when WoW came out. Here's what the Australian classification board told Gamespot AU :

“It is the Board's view that World of Warcraft meets the definition of a computer game provided in the Classification Act and therefore can be classified. This is consistent with the intention of the National Classification Scheme to provide parents and consumers with classification advice on the content of games.”

Meanwhile, Blizzard said that the same board told them five years ago that WoW was not classifiable:

“Blizzard Entertainment has always worked closely with the Classification Board for all its titles. However, back in 2004, we were advised by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) that the online-only nature of World of Warcraft was unclassifiable under its definition of computer games at that time. Recent changes at the Classification Board have led to their ability to classify online-only games such as World of Warcraft.”

Whatever the case, at least WoW is now rated, and hopefully that means Cataclysm will have a more certain future on Australian shelves whenever it's released. Last time this topic came up, our dear Australian readers had a lot to say, many saying that was the first they had even heard of the matter. Do any of you think this will impact you at all, or is it pure politics? And do you think the M rating is appropriate?

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I have been obsessed with collecting non-combat pets recently. I've got quite a collection, and I'm hoping to round it out with more pets soon. Well, it sounds like we are going to have a new penguin friend very soon! Players who merge their WoW accounts with a Battle.net account will receive Oswald the penguin as a reward! This will come with the requirement to have a Battle.net account merged with your WoW account to play WoW, effective November 11. Note that these details are from the European WoW site and will almost certainly be applicable to US accounts as well. Battle.net is scheduled for a major revamp, and Blizzard seems to be preparing for that by getting their huge WoW player base onto the network. Soon, features like being able to friend accounts instead of just characters, account-wide achievements, and a single account for all Blizzard games will be reality. The ability to get the pet will likely be removed shorty after the mandatory merge date, as it seems to be an incentive to merge early to relieve stress on their servers on the cutoff date. Oswald used to be known as Mr. Chilly, which was a reward for Wrath beta players who merged their accounts to Battle.net accounts. He has not yet been obtainable on live servers, and it is unclear why he is now going by his first name. In addition, the existing penguin pet, Pengu, will have a slightly updated model that changes his red eyes to nice blue ones.

As well as Oswald, players will soon be mailed their Onyxia Whelplings for logging in on or around WoW's 5th anniversary on November 23. The EU WoW site's FAQ answers some questions on the details:

Q: What happens if I don’t merge my World of Warcraft account with a Battle.net account? A: After November 12, 2009, you won’t be able to log in to the game unless you merge your account with a Battle.net account. You will need to log in using your Battle.net account username (your email address) and password. Q: How can I obtain the penguin pet? A: Once you’ve successfully merged a World of Warcraft account with a Battle.net account, the penguin pet will be sent via in-game mail to all existing characters on the merged World of Warcraft account, along with all future characters on that World of Warcraft account. Players who merged previously will also receive the pet this way. Q: Do I need to merge by a certain date in order to receive the penguin? A: We plan to remove the ability to get the penguin pet at some point in the future, we haven’t determined exactly when just yet. Q: If I create a new World of Warcraft account, will I receive the pet? A: Only existing World of Warcraft accounts that merge with a Battle.net account are eligible to receive the penguin pet. If you create a new Battle.net account after November 11 and merge an existing World of Warcraft account with it you will still be able to receive the pet. However, please note that we plan to remove the ability to get the penguin pet at some point in the future.

Are you as pumped up as I am?

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Project Lore has been a bit hung up on the whole Arthas/Lich King tandem of late.  And why not.  Blizzard has been trickling information on patch 3.3 for over a week now.  Between the model updates - which elude to an awesome in-game Icecrown event - character bios refreshes and general patch updates, there's no better time to get excited. Earlier this week I posed the question, "How do you want Arthas to die?" Only one clear cut morsel of information came of that discussion; that the playerbase isn't in agreement that he should die.  Pixiestixy asked the perfect follow-up question, "Is Arthas capable of redemption?" Before you jump to your conclusion, here's all the well-known people he's screwed over the course of his life, including that as the Lich King: Jaina Proudmoore:  Jaina grew up with pretty boy Arthas, making her one of the few people, that still breaths, to know him through the course of his tumultuous life.  The leader ofTheramore loved the man, only to be pushed away by him during their formative years.  It's at this time that Arthas begins slipping, making ever worse decisions, and all Jaina was able to do was deny helping him.  The budding student of Dalaran witnessed his descent into obsession.  She was even party to some of his acts.  But she never once tried to stop his acts, not even in Stratholme, leaving the proud mage with an immense amount of guilt on her conscious. Even more soul crushing, Jaina knew him when he was good, a true bearer of the Light.  A believer.  That's something she is hell bent on returning, a good, true, loving Arthas.  Hopefully her emotions and feelings don't cloud her judgement if there's no alternative, or if her very life is on the line. Sylvanas Windrunner:  Jaina may agonize over Arthas for knowing him when he was good, but Sylvanas has only known the bad.  The two females have entirely different views of the man; Jaina reveres him as a man who lost his way, whileSylvanas despises him for destroying her home.  Ruining Sylvanas ' way of life wasn't enough.  Instead of turning her into one of the mindless undead, Arthas decided to teach her a lesson for standing up to his Scourge army.  Upon her death he allowed her to retain her memories as a banshee, but he remained able to bend her to his will when needed. That's until she broke free from his control, attempted to murder him (obviously failed), founded the Forsaken, and now continues to seek her revenge. It has already been confirmed that these two leading ladies will be partaking in the assault on Icecrown Citadel. Muradin Bronzebeard:  Muradin is in much the same position as Jaina, only without the sex (we hope).  The former Ambassador to Lordaeron helped train the young Arthas, enabling the prince to become a well-versed warrior in a variety of weapons.  Muradin was witness to some of the worst atrocities Arthas committed in his quest to rid the world of Mal'ganis, including stranding his men on Northrend, and murdering the very mercenaries who helped him get that far. If seeing your student go completely insane isn't enough to tear someone apart, how about a shard of ice through the chest?  That's exactly what Muradin was treated to when he tried to stop Arthas from retrieving Frostmourne and forever becoming bound to the Lich King.  Muradin has never been the same since. Muradin will be in attendance for the Icecrown Citadel festivities. Tirion Fordring: The next three people don't have much beef with Arthas directly.  They just happen to hate the Scourge with more venom than anyone else on Azeroth.  Fordring was one of the original members of the Knights of the Silver Hand before being exiled for saving a greenskin. During the Third War he routinely dispatched minions of the Scourge army to protect his small farmstead and trail his son.  Upon his son's death, Tirion set his mind to destroying the threat, the Lord of the Scourge.  To accomplish this goal he brought the old Knights of the Silver Hand and the Argent Dawn under a new banner, the Argent Crusade, that has been bolstered by the death knight faction, Knights of the Ebon Blade.  He continues to run the faction. Darion/Alexandros Mograine:  This father and son duo also lack a direct hatred of Arthas.  As both former Scourge minions, and wielders of Ashbringer, the pair still pose a threat.  Darion remains steadfast in his quest to eliminate the Lich King, while Alexandros' fate isn't known as of now.  It's suspected that Darion saved his father from the clutches of The Dark One when he impaled himself on Ashbringer, but it has not been confirmed. Their tales are told in-depth in the excellent one-shot comic by Wildstorm, World of Warcraft: Ashbringer.  Highlord Darion Mograine is another confirmed raiding member. Varok Saurfang: Saurfang is one of the more recent high profile characters to mix it up with the Dark Lord of the Dead.  He first got on the Lich King's tail when he was sent to lead the Horde warparty in Northrend.  Initially just a routine station, it became personal for Varok after his son, Saurfang the Younger, was killed by the Lich King during the battle of Angrathar the Wrathgate. The newcomer in the Lich King's matrix will be aboard Orgrim's Hammer for the horde encounter. Kil'jaeden:  The current leader of the Burning Legion isn't a nice guy.  He doesn't take failure very well, and he doesn't enjoy people turning against him.  Ner'zhul, whom was the original Lich King, and later one-half of the being, managed to fail and then betray his master.  That's two strikes when normally one is forty two too many.  Arthas himself was never a direct underling of The Beautiful One, but he was indirectly being controlled by manipulation through the nathrezim agents sent by Archimonde.  It's roundabout, but Kil'jaeden was ultimately the creator.  Like how Steve Jobs created the iPod. Kil'jaeden slips many people's minds when they think of the Lich King's enemies, but he'd love to possess the Lich King once more.  Or put him down for failing, and then betraying him.  Still, it's highly unlikely that the spotlight will return to the Burning Legion in this fashion, or any time soon. The list is in a specific order, my order of who deserves it the most.  I still believe that Jaina requires redemption more than anyone else.  You'll have to read the novel to understand all the intricacies, but she's been hurt by Arthas, when he was good and as he became bad, and then when he became the Lich King.  The triple threat.  She's also the only person on the list who isn't in it mainly for the revenge, but to try to save him.  She may gain something from saving his soul, but at least she'd be bringing a person back into the world, instead of dispatching one. I am fairly confident that that encompasses all of the major players.  If I've missed someone important, or overlooked a connection to another character, leave me a note in the comments or @iTZKooPA and I'll check it out.

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WoWFlix is a column featuring videos from around the web related to World of Warcraft. If you find something you’d like to be featured, leave a comment or send a tweet to @Heartbourne. I decided that this edition of WoWFlix should be non-music based and PG rated, which ruled out most of the WoW videos I saw in the past month. However, wowcrendor recently hit the scene with his snarky videos, and this one is perhaps my favorite. It tells the story of Urtharo, who starts the video as a boy aspiring to be a Weapon Vendor. Horde players know him well, as he is on the way from the area where you port into Orgrimmar to the bank and auction house, making him clearly superior to Kaja for repairs and vendoring grays. The story goes that he ran a successful weapon shop until BC came out, and nobody bought his stuff. Since he was required by the Orgrimmar constitution to buy people's stuff, he went bankrupt. His shop closed down, but he played the auction house to regain his fortune. He became extravagantly rich, but then didn't pay heed to the warning that Wrath of the Lich King was coming out, and invested and lost most of his money on Primal Fire, since most people wanted Eternal Fire. After becoming so poor that he wandered out of Orgrimmar to the boar farm, where he got boar flu. He then got killed by a harpy when searching for a cure. Discuss.

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The High Inquisitor is a new regular column at Project Lore that seeks answers to the greatest mysteries of Azeroth. Each week, the inquisitor will attack a previously unanswered question and attempt to explain the unknown. But she won’t rest until all plausible explanations are explored. The best, most probable comment(s) will be highlighted with the next edition’s inquisition. First off, a look back to last week's question on why dwarves are portrayed as drunk Scots. Azurienatei had this answer that may explain: "In both Irish and Scottish lore there is a type of fae, something between a leprechaun and what we think of as a dwarf, that wears red clothes, is heavily bearded, and often likes to trick humans in taverns and inns by drinking unattended ale. Given the demographics and of course the penchant for drinking these creatures were eventually molded in with dwarves." Most of you seemed to agree that WoW hasn't strayed much from the stereotypical view of a dwarf, which has evolved over time. Thanks for the input! Now onward to this week's inquisition! Last week was somewhat of a philosophical view on a topic that could be at least somewhat explained with real life folklore. So this week, let's take a look at something that, at least when thought of through a realistic magnifying glass, would be pretty much impossible; Just how do us WoW toons carry all that crap around in our bags while criss-crossing the world and fighting our enemies? Here's a look at what I have in this 22-slot Dragon Hide bag:

1. 49 Drakkari Offerings
2. 15 Vrykul Bones
3. 12 pieces of Salted Yeti Cheese (yummy)
4. 8 Core of Elements
5. 8 Dark Iron Scraps
6. Sayge's Fortune #29
7. A Horde LANCE (I refuse to believe that this would fit into a conventional bag!)
8. Green Brewfest Stein
9. 933 (!!) Frostbite Bullets
10. 2 Dalaran Fireworks
11. 9 Sewer Carp
12. A lone piece of Frostweave Cloth
13. Tabard of the Explorer
14. Frost-Rimed Cloth Gloves (Need to sell!)
15. 20 Heavy Frostweave Bandages
16. 14 Slabs of Salted Venison
17. Tabard of the Ebon Blade
18. 6 Relics of Ulduar
19. 891 Terrorshaft Arrows
20. 4 Knothide Armor Kits
21. Grom's Tribute
22. Brewfest Dress

Super-Scientifically Estimated weight: 452 pounds. And that's just one bag! Now multiply that by 5, and also consider all the armor and weapons we carry on ourselves that's NOT in bags. That's easily a TON, literally, of stuff we're carrying around. All without feeling any effects whatsoever. When put into a game mechanics perspective, it's certainly a matter of making it easier for a character to get around as they level or go about their business without having to stop at a bank or vendor every 10 minutes. But let's think beyond mechanics and decide whether the question could be answered with lore/in-game explanations. Consider the Bottomless Bag and Pack of Endless Pockets. Sure, they each have a limited number of slots, but not necessarily a specified amount of space. Could it be that, like a magician's hat (or Time Lord technology for all you Dr. Who fans) the bags are bigger on the inside? And if that's the case, then perhaps it's true for all equippable bags. But there's still the matter of the sheer weight of all our gear. Even if it fits in a bag, it's still incredibly heavy! Or is it? If the size of an item is compressed, then you could conjecture that the weight could be, too. Perhaps this also helps explain why a giant lance fits in the same slot as a tiny vial of poison. Or perhaps the answer lies not in the bags, but in the super strength of adventurers. Our toons are all so strong and fearsome that we manage to carry everything on us and it doesn't effect our fighting whatsoever. So here's where you all come in! Do you accept either of my possible answers? Have a better proposition? Let me know, and I'll feature the best comment(s) next week.

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