Project Lore

Proverb is a twice-weekly column discussing the lore of Warcraft. It is spoiler heavy for all Warcraft games, novels, and other media. Comment on this post or send a tweet to @Heartbourne and let us know what you would like to see in future columns! If you haven't done so yet, be sure to read part 1!

Ysera in the Emerald Dragonshrine

After the War of the Ancients, Ysera returned to her reclusive ways. The green dragonflight is extremely reclusive, spending most of their time wandering the Emerald Dream, even though they possess the ability of dreamsight that allows them to exist in both worlds at once. The new night elven druids agreed to wander and safeguard the Emerald Dream in exchange for their immortality, and their slumber lasted for some ten thousand years. Ysera wasn't seen again by mortals by some time. She and all other dragons were much weakened after sacrificing much of their power to the Demon Soul. The various dragonflights continued their war on the black dragonflight. One brood of Ysera coexisted with the night elves on Azuremyst Isle. The night elves rode atop the green dragons, and they became known as the Dragon Riders of Loreth'Aran, led by Prince Toreth. Deathwing noticed Ysera's kindness to permit the night elves to ally with her brood, and send Razormaw and other black dragons to eradicate them on Wyrmscar Island. The green dragons eventually lost, with all of that faction losing their lives. Their souls have not been put to rest, as Prince Toreth swore to not let their story be forgotten. The next sighting of a green dragon was some 9,000 later during the War of the Shifting Sands, where Merithra along with the red dragon Caelestrasz and the blue dragon Arygos pushed the Qiraji past the Scarab Wall. After being sealed inside, those dragons remain to this day. Anachronus, the great Bronze Wyrm who led the dragons against the Qiraji, entrusted the night elf Fandral Staghelm with The Scepter of the Shifting Sands, which could be used to open the gates of Ahn'Qiraj where the silithid were sealed if needed. Fandral shattered the scepter, and the four shards ended up in the hands of various dragons. One of them was the green wyrm Eranikus.

Eranikus, Tyrant of the Dream

Shortly after, Ysera learned of another nefarious plot. The trolls of the Gurubashi empire were undergoing a civil war, and a group of priests known as the Atal'ai had plans to summon the ancient blood god, Hakkar the Soulflayer into the world (not to be confused with Hakkar the Houndmaster). They were defeated and fled from their capital at Zul'Gurub north to the Swamp of Sorrows. There, they erected a great temple, known as The Temple of Atal'Hakkar (meaning "In Honor of Hakkar" in Zandali). Ysera attacked the temple with some of her most trusted lieutenants, smashing the temple and sending it into the soft, marshy ground (hence its common name Sunken Temple). Many of the green dragonflight remained in the temple, guarding it from ever having any such dark design again. Among those guarding it were the great wyrms Eranikus and Itharius, as well as four younger drakes, Dreamscythe, Weaver, Hazzas, and Morphas. While they succeeded in destroying Hakkar's physical form in the world after the trolls had summoned it, his spirit influenced the dragons, sending them into a madness. They suffered in both the physical world and in the Emerald Dream, where they seemed to be corrupted by another source as well (more on this later, see Emerald Nightmare). Eranikus became known as the Tyrant of the Dream. Players enter into a long quest chain to free him from this corruption. Itharius is one of few drakes that was not corrupted, and he sends players to aid the green dragonflight in the temple.

Itharius in his high elf form

A thousand years later, during the second war between orcs and humans, Ysera and the greens again made an appearance to mortals. Alexstrasza had been enslaved by Nekros Skullcrusher, an orcish Warlock, and was being manipulated by them using the Demon Soul. Deathwing had no small part in their designs. The other three Aspects were summoned by Korialstrasz, Ysera included. His plea to her to save his queen stirred Ysera to open her eyes, one of the few times she did so. The only other recorded times were upon seeing Malorne's death during the War of the Ancients and again when commending Malfurion on his skills in druidism. Ysera's eyes are a vast, shifting rainbow of colors, and in them you can see the eyes of every living creature on Azeroth. With the aid of the green, blue, and bronze dragons, Alexstrasza was freed. They destroyed the Demon Soul, restoring their powers to as they were before the War of the Ancients. Ysera again opened her eyes with the joy of regaining her power. Dragons again began emerging in the world with their return to grace. The next Proverb will be about the corruption surrounding the Emerald Dream and recent green dragon and druid history.

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Maintenance day is always a good time for implementing hotfixes and this one is no exception. Several tweaks and (dare I say it) "nerfs" to Heroic Trial of the Crusader have been deployed onto servers, amongst other things. Here is a run-down of the changes: Northrend Beasts:

• Fixed a bug where the flag that prevents a creature from gaining attack speed after a parry was inadvertently left off Gormok the Impaler. This bug is fixed in normal mode as well.
• Gormok the Impaler no longer attacks quickly after a parry in any difficulty.
• Icehowl receives his fair share of change in the latest round of hotfixes. Increased the amount of time players have to defeat the encounter before Icehowl berserks.
• You have an extra half second to get out of the way of a very angry charging Yeti. Players with high ping rejoice.
• Icehowl will become tauntable. (This particular element isn't hotfixed quite yet, but should be shortly).
• Icehowl takes a bit longer to enter the arena in 10- and 25-player Heroic modes.
• Icehowl takes longer to berserk in both 10- and 25-player Heroic modes.

Lord Jaraxxus:

• Infernal Eruption will now spawn an additional Felflame Infernal the instant the eruption occurs.
• Nether Portal now summons Mistresses of Pain slightly more often.
• For both 10- and 25-player heroic modes, the Felflame Infernals and Mistresses of Pain will spawn a little quicker in the Lord Jaraxxus encounter.

Other

• Relentless Gladiator ranged weapons damage has been adjusted to the appropriate value for their item level.
• Holy Wrath now has diminishing returns and shares this with all other stuns (Blue poster, Daelo expands upon this in an additional post).

Seems like most of the changes are to the first two encounters which likely represent the wall most guilds are hitting when they attempt Heroic mode. While these aren't hardcore tweaks or anything (more issues of timing than, say, reducing health or damage dealt), I certainly hope they don't make these fights significantly easier in practice. I know my guild was quite happy to be presented with a fresh challenge, even if we wiped on Northrend Beasts for a good hour-and-a-half. Hard modes are supposed to be hard, right Blizz? What say you of these hotfixes, readers? I know they aren't drastic, but I'm always afraid of the slippery slope that even the smallest of nerfs can send us sliding down.

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We dedicated players can bicker all we want about Arena balance or Rogues being over-powered, but what about the presence of PvP available in the game itself? When you have a game as popular as World of Warcraft, you're bound to attract the ire of the gaming community at large. In my travels around the internet, I've learned that there are quite a lot of people fed up with Blizzard's baby, and one of the chief complaints, next to simply being an MMO, is that it doesn't focus enough on Player versus Player combat. I suppose this isn't a new argument. After all, the game's been criticized for its "care bear" approach to open-world ganking since before its launch, and, at that point, I can understand why. It stands to reason that the people most interested in the game at the time were those that had spent extensive amounts of time playing through the Warcraft strategy games. WoW offered them a new, interesting, and more intimate way of engaging in the age-old conflict between the Alliance and the Horde. With so much standing animosity between the two factions, it would be reasonable for your average pre-release gamer to expect copious amounts of wanton bloodshed and for all-out war to consume Azeroth whole. Well, the fight with the Burning Legion mellowed those tensions. The Alliance lost their core leaders and Thrall tried his best to pacify the more chaotic aspects of the Horde. So when it came to retail, the only thing you could do in WoW was to attack someone on the opposite side if they let you, duel with fellow players, and play a silly game of "capture the flag" in Warsong Gulch (though, if memory serves correctly, Arathi Basin may have been available, as well). Quite the disappointment for some, but a great boon for others. The game's population swelled not only on the brand name, but the number of players who wanted to work cooperatively towards their goals. But Blizzard didn't completely forget about PvP. Instead, they made great strides to make it more and more a part of the game without completely alienating their base. But to this day, the game takes a lot of guff from those who have long-since quit the game or never played it in the first place. In fact, so heralded is this mythical PvP nirvana, that a lot of people believe that's the only way to make a dent in Warcraft's armor. That its players simply continue to bide their time and play such a "boring" game because a real, honest, PvP-dedicated MMO has yet to come along. Isle of Conquest... on of Warcraft's most recent PvP additions. The problem is that they have. Guild Wars, Warhammer, Aion. Countless other Korean MMORPGs. More games than I'm willing to list here have used PvP as a selling point to distance themselves from WoW. And yet, its success remains unparalleled in the genre. Now that's not to say that they're bad games or that they don't present a viable PvP option, but rather, I propose, the market for such games isn't quite as big as one might initially think. After all, not only are these games competing with Warcraft, but also games in other genres: Call of Duty, Unreal Tournament, HALO, Gears of War, Madden, Street Fighter, Super Smash Bros., Starcraft, Warcraft 3. Taking a quick look at the pro circuit will allow you to see what sorts of titles are dominating the competitive gaming scene at any given moment, and MMOs are curiously absent... aside from, ironically, Arena play in WoW. In my experience, the vast majority of competitive gamers prefer instant action, as opposed to the typical need to grind to a certain level to even start playing seriously. Now here is where WoW excels: it's got some excellent PvE content to pull you along, making that grind more or less worth it (at least the first time through). PvP, even if it isn't in its ideal form, is layered on top of that core structure. But some people maintain that the game simply doesn't go far enough. Really? Currently, you've got your choice of six different Battlegrounds, an extensive, rating-based Arena system, and World PvP objectives like Wintergrasp (and, to a lesser extent, Venture Bay, Halaa, and the Bone Wastes as the next most popular locales). The next expansion will add ratings to Battlegrounds, three brand new ones to fight in, the Tol'Barad PvP zone, and most certainly several unrevealed Arena maps, to boot. I contend that the sum total of World of Warcraft's PvP content eclipses that of  nearly any competing MMORPG. Is it as integrated into the game as it is in other titles? Perhaps not, but that's splitting hairs. If a game's PvP is restricted primarily to certain zones, regardless of whether or not they are physically connected to the core game world, I don't think it's any different from the way Battlegrounds are set up. And, of course, there's always rolling on an open PvP server if that's the way you really want to play the game. Blizzard may have shifted their focus to PvE content early on, but I think that the concept of PvP in Azeroth has come back in a very big way. With those old conflicts rising once again, both the Horde and Alliance marching to war against each other, even with a greater threat looming, I think the game's potential for competitive player combat can only become greater. So, I ask you readers: Is Blizzard really short-changing PvP? Have you been satisfied with the amount of content added, or do you think other games have succeeded at competing on this front, offering a better, and supposedly more comprehensive PvP experience?

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The Orgimmar bank, in cake form. These photos and more from this post at CakeWrecks.blogspot.com

Don't you love it when two geeky fandoms collide? That was my experience this past weekend as I was browsing Cake Wrecks and came across some brilliant WoW-inspired cakes. Now I've seen a fair share of World of Warcraft cakes before, but these definitely top my list as some of the best. So I thought I'd pass the goodness along. My fave from the post would have to be the Orgrimmar bank, complete with the sign in front and a mailbox. I have spent many an hour sorting through my goodies in that very structure. Perhaps even more impressive is a cake shaped to look like a laptop with a WoW login screen showing, all sitting atop books with titles such as "Self Help for WoW Addicts," "Gold Farming Guide" and "Shamans for Dummies." Whoever crafted this masterpiece certainly knew what they were doing. Also check out the post for a few more cakes inspired by our favorite MMO - one of an Alliance Pally smashing through a laptop screen, and two more cakes with the Horde insignia emblazoned across them in one form or another (apparently Hordies can bake. Not me, but I sure could eat one of those cakes... Now I'm hungry!) The post also is an interesting glimpse at how WoW players are viewed by the non-players among us. What do you think of this assessment?

" I get the impression that everybody who plays WoW is in the Horde (the bad guys) and that the Alliance (the good guys) are all "noobs," or geeks of lesser standing (as determined by those who really are in no position to judge)."

The author already had plenty of comments chastising her for misspelling "Orgrimmar" as "Ogrimmar." And she had another large portion of comments either agreeing with that view or opposing it. Looks like she unintentionally got sucked into the debate of what it means to be Horde or Alliance. Fun stuff. So who among our readers would flaunt their WoW fandom to the point of ordering a cake inspired by the game? I think I'd have to go for something a bit less extravagant. I'm thinking cupcakes with the Horde insignia on top. Now just to find the right occasion...

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Blue Stew is a new daily column bringing you a delicious concoction of developer news, thoughts, and opinions straight from the boiling pot that is the official World of Warcraft forums. The highlights of each day include additional commentary by Project Lore staff. What a long, long weekend, folks. I decided to take a little breather from WoW, myself, spending a little "quality" time with NCSoft's Aion, instead. I also gorged myself on snacks, caught up on True Blood Season 2, and felt sorry for myself because I couldn't attend PAX this year (but at least I didn't catch the swine flu!). What were you guys and gals up to? As for Blue Stew, I sincerely apologize about the lack of updates, but there was simply nothing to talk about. Labor Day, as it turns out, has nothing to do with going to work, so I imagine that a lot of Blizzard employees were off hanging with their families and friends instead of answering questions on the forums. Today seems no different, with a marked decrease in overall Blue activity. But I think we can find at least a couple of things to talk about from the WoW Europe community. The Availability Of AddOns? Vanera is either an extremely bored CM or he's not very good at veiling his questions. It didn't take more than three replies for someone to call him out on the poll he posted earlier in the day. Ceriulun posed the following:

"Would the question be: 'Would you like an official AddOn browser feature in the new Battle.net?' my answer would be 'Yes.'"

It was the first thing that came to my mind, as well. Blizzard's been sticking their paws in all sorts of honey jars lately, and though it's not quite the same thing, I can't help but think about the company's reactions to Warcraft-theme iPhone apps. Specifically, the way in which they systematically shut them down before releasing their own, comprehensive Mobile Armory software. Will an AddOn Browser join Cross-Game Chat as one of the new Battle.net features in WoW? Now, Blizzard has a pretty open policy towards AddOns. Occasionally, they've even seen fit to incorporate the functionality of popular ones into the basic UI (see: the failure of in-game voice chat and the recently-added Equipment Manager), so I don't think they're about to outlaw anything like that. Rather, a poll like this seems to target modding community sites like WoWUI or Curse Gaming. Some of the sites have even started releasing independent AddOn update clients, which may be verging on the edge of what's kosher with Blizzard and what's not (and they sound an awful lot like those iPhone apps in terms of out-of-game functionality). But, if you use these clients, I wouldn't start fretting just yet. Perhaps, like Ceriulun proposes, Blizz just wants to incorporate their own AddOn browser into the game. If they follow a model similar to what they plan to use for the StarCraft 2 community, that means that you can download and install add-ons from the in-game interface, they can be ranked for popularity and monitored for safety, and the ones that rise to the top could even begin to earn revenue for their creators. It certainly seems to fit with Battle.net's modus operandi of having everything you need in one place. As convenient as something like this might be, what do you think about Blizzard exercising that much control over AddOns? Open Letter To Blizzard: Thank You Illea's made me feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside with the following post:

I know I'm just one man in a sea of millions, and I may not be able to express myself fully, but I felt this need to share my love of the game. Hopefully it might serve as a reminder to some. =) I want to thank the people who work at Blizzard Entertainment and all the people who have made World of Warcraft what it is. Because it is truly an amazing game. I can't think of any higher praise than saying that, after several years, I still get excited thinking about it. Once I stop bringing my problems to the game and really *feel*. Listening to the soundtrack. The sheer magic. Makes me want to create a piece of art. But since I can't do that right now, I write! Anyway, I think many people have forgotten that. Most of all, playing it remains *fun*, beyond any doubt. You really nailed the basic elements that make the experience fun, and I'm very grateful that you paid attention to that process. Most of all, I trust you. I believe in your ability to make the choices that serve the game and its players best. To continue improving this game. Even in the face of criticism, I believe you have made and will make the right choices, and I respect your ability to make the unpopular ones. At the same time you manage to be down-to-earth with your players, you can really sense the life and love behind the game, websites, events, posters... Somehow you all seem like buddies. I know that there are many others who feel like me. Who think this is a game that keeps on giving. Heck, just the other day I decided to really take a walk in the Temple of the Moon, noticing myriad things I never noticed before - the music and imagining the space, and it was a great experience. I'm looking forward to really rediscovering content both new and old. It's a great feeling, giving yourself to the experience. Of course there will be problems and challenges as the game goes on, but if I were to trust a group of people to deal with it intelligently, it would be you guys. I know the future of the game rests safe in your hands. Thanks for being an inspiration.

D'awwwwwww... it's good to see some nice words used on the forums once in awhile. Next time you want to bitch or cry about something in the game that you think is unfair, just stop and remember why you still continue to play the game. Somewhere along the line, you had fun, and hopefully you still do. If there is one company that cares about its fans more than any other, it's got to be Blizzard. They just happen to have one of the most continually popular titles on the market right now, and it's nigh impossible to make all 11.5+ million players happy at once. Couldn't you give 'em a break? Today really is a bit of a bum day for news, but as usual, comments are appreciated. I'm especially interested to know what you think about a potential in-game AddOn browser!

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Proverb is a twice-weekly column discussing the lore of Warcraft. It is spoiler heavy for all Warcraft games, novels, and other media. Comment on this post or send a tweet to @Heartbourne and let us know what you would like to see in future columns!

Fan rendering of Ysera, night elf and dragon forms

Of all the dragonflights, the green and red dragonflights are considered to be the most peaceful. Alexstrasza, the aspect of the red dragons, the Life-Binder, rules over Wyrmrest Temple and has long been a protagonist of many perilous adventures. Ysera has not gotten nearly as much attention as Alexstrasza, but with Neltharion as the main antagonist of Cataclysm, Malygos killed in the Nexus War, and Nozdormu likely involved in the Infinite Dragonflight (see previous Proverb columns), Ysera and the green dragonflight may be one of our last remaining draconic allies. Ysera, like all dragons, was created by the Titans from the great proto-dragon Galakrond. The titan Eonar gifted her with the powers of nature. Eonar also imparted some of her power to Alexstrasza, but the form it took was more specifically in life energy. Ysera was tasked with safeguarding the natural world and the Emerald Dream, an alternate realm that exists parallel to the mortal realm where all mortals dreams take place, among other things. The Emerald Dream exists much as the world was at its shaping, a lush, green paradise. It is what the world would be like if sentient beings were not to exist. Even those who can walk the Dream, including its master, Ysera, cannot alter the Dream; it will always quickly revert to its unaltered state. Many powerful beings, especially those skilled in the ways of natural magic, can exist in both realms at once, or move their spirit through the Emerald Dream while their physical forms remain in the mortal realm. Novice spellcasters can easily become overwhelmed by the serenity of the Dream and never return to their bodies. Their physical forms slowly die of starvation, destroying their spirit as well.  Ysera, known as The Dreamer, nearly always has her eyes shut, wandering the Emerald Dream in spirit while she freely roams the mortal realm. Ysera often takes the form of a female night elf with green robes, hair, and eyes, especially in the Emerald Dream.

Ysera's current (temporary?) model in her night elf form in WoW

Cenarius, the patron of the Druids, was "adopted" by Ysera. Cenarius' actual parents are Elune and Malorne (known to the Tauren as Mu'sha and Apa'ro), but as Cenarius was much more mortal than Elune, she entrusted him to Malorne for his upbringing. Malorne was very close friends with Ysera, and Ysera seemed a more proper mother figure for Cenarius' life. Cenarius learned much about natural magic from Ysera's teaching and became a master of the wistful Emerald Dream. Perhaps 55,000 years after these events, Cenarius imparted this information to the night elves, training Malfurion Stormrage as the first druid. Many druids maintain a very close relationship with the green dragonflight, as they both spend much of their time tending to the natural world and the Emerald Dream. Many druids even become dragonsworn. Soon after Cenarius began training Malfurion, the Burning Legion invaded Azeroth. The night elves fought a difficult war and many of the Ancients, including Cenarius, ultimately helped decide the outcome. Neltharion, later known as Deathwing, tricked the other four dragon Aspects, including Ysera, into sacrificing much of their power into an artifact known as the Dragon Soul, later called the Demon Soul. He did not impart any of his power to the artifact, and as such remained much more powerful than the other dragons. Malfurion and Krasus attempted to travel to the lair of the Aspects so that Krasus could commune, but Neltharion had erected a strong barrier, making it impossible for them to enter. Malfurion entered the Emerald Dream to seek out Ysera to grant them an audience with Ysera. After repeatedly mentioning that he was a student of Cenarius, Ysera allowed his spirit passage to the meeting of the Aspects. While the Aspects discussed the demon soul, Malfurion investigated it silently with his mind. Neltharion noticed his meddling, and attacked him with silent spells. Malfurion attempted to escape to the Emerald Dream, and Neltharion surprisingly was able to follow, and follow undetected to Ysera. Neltharion took on an even more fearsome form in the Dream, but appearances in the dream world mean little. The implications of this event are many; the fact that powerful spellcasters such as Neltharion can enter the realm without communing with nature is interesting, as is the possibility of such beings entering the Dream without Ysera taking note.

Creature of the Dream

Neltharion's madness drove him to use it against anyone not of his flight. This caused a desperate struggle that resulted in the vast majority of dragons perishing, including practically all of the blue dragonflight. After a long battle, the demon soul was taken from Neltharion and sealed far beneath the earth, with an enchantment that prevented it from ever being wielded by dragonkind again. The War of the Ancients, as it later became known, ended with great losses, such as the death of most night elves and the exile of the highborne. Illidan Stormrage recreated the Well of Eternity using the Vials of Eternity, which caused his imprisonment at the hands of the remaining night elves. Ysera rewarded the night elves by planting a great tree in the Well of Eternity using an acorn from the Mother Tree G'Hanir, which perished with the death of its master Aviana during the War of the Ancients. This new tree became known as Nordrassil, the first World Tree, which greatly aided druids with natural powers, including the entry into the Emerald Dream. This direct endorsement from Ysera of the druids may have been one of the reasons druidism grew. This tree was blessed by the remaining Aspects. Nozdormu's blessing made the tree timeless, and the night elves inherited from it the power of immortality, causing them to never age (until the tree's eventual destruction). Look for part 2 tomorrow!

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Wishful Thinking is a column dedicated to the theorycrafting behind World of Warcraft.  No, not the number crunching madness perfected by the folks at ElitistJerks, but the features, abilities, and design ideas that the Project Lore writers conjure from their squishy pink stuff. A Perfect Example Of A Soloable Boss Please hold your comments until after reading the post.  Fallacies and design flaws will be brought to light later in the post. World of Warcraft's dungeons are absolutely fantastic.  They offer bite-sized content (at least since The Burning Crusade) for players with only an hour or so to spare.  The challenges are appropriate for the levels required, and include a healthy mix of encounters, trash mobs and loot. Sure, it may take as long as the run to create a group, but that should change with the upcoming cross-server LFG system.  I digress.  Five mans are as close as the MMORPG comes to offering a multiplayer experience that's deep and goal oriented without requiring an immense time investment.  But it doesn't have to be. Imagine dungeon designs that didn't require five players.  Heck, it wouldn't even allow a full handful of Azeroth's finest to enter.  These dungeons would be specifically tuned to smaller groups, four, three, two, possibly even a soloable dungeon.  They'd be even more bite-sized content (more pickup and play).  Challenging the group to push through smaller trash groups and requiring players to maximize the skillsets and abilities made available to them.  The inherent need for less people would mean less time forming a group.  The new creation would allow for Blizzard to easily return to a long lost dungeon attribute, non-linear gameplay.  In short, tons of benefits. The possibilities of sub five man dungeons are nearly limitless.  We'd have soloable dungeons that offer a maximum challenge for every class.  Those capable of perfecting their class would be rewarded with maximum loot, those who wipe could be locked out of the instance until the next day.  Groups could be split up – Gothik The Harvester style – and forced to help each other through the split paths.  The smaller nature of these dungeons would allow for Blizzard to implement experimental gameplay attributes for an increasingly diverse and unique grouping experience. Running with a priest, rogue and a mage?  Well then there'd be no reason to tackle that boss who drops plate and mail.  But perhaps you have to kill Big Bad Bossman because he offers the only priest, rogue, mage route to the final encounter.  That's right, done well the long lost design method could allow a group that isn't the holy trinity alternate ways through the dungeon.  Yes, a design that wouldn't require the holy trinity, a DPSers wet dream. Now on to the obvious problems with such designs.  The main problem is one of balancing.  No matter the size of the content balancing is always an arduous task.  That fact doesn't change here, and could easily become worse.  If Blizzard designed the content to accept absolutely any combination of classes, then balancing would get out of hand.  Instead the developers would have to be smart in the creation, designing the experience to only work with a subset of classes.  A subset that the players would have to figure out, the hard way.  Or they could use the multi-pathing idea to give players multiple routes to try. Another issue would be loot.  Should players be given the same ilvl of loot as a normal five man?  What about badges?  All of that should be entirely dependent on how difficult a run is – an idea that Blizzard already subscribes too.  That's the third issue, the perception that a raid would be easy, or easier, when run with classes x, y, and z.  That's pretty much the case right now - run without a Shaman and you feel that lack of Heroism – and won't change until all classes become clones of each other.  Or those special abilities are turned into items... Just do it in five man you say?  That's a reasonable point, but there are many ideas that wouldn't make sense, or even be feasible in a five man environment.  Not to mention that an attractive factor to these fun sized packages is that they'd be easier for Blizzard to create due to their minute nature.  A five man that ended in twenty minutes just wouldn't seem all that challenging, or engrossing. Blizzard's mantra lately has been that the company wants to offer content to all of its subscribers, not just the hardcore, or the casual.  Wouldn't the mix of incredibly difficult solo dungeons and smaller dungeons offer just that?  What do you think?  Would you be up for the challenge of a soloable dungeon?  Interested in experimental design and story telling mechanics?  Let's here your ideas for a sub five man group.  The best may be selected and expanded upon in the upcoming revitalization of the Design A Dungeon column.

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Blue Stew is a new daily column bringing you a delicious concoction of developer news, thoughts, and opinions straight from the boiling pot that is the official World of Warcraft forums. The highlights of each day include additional commentary by Project Lore staff. It's a surprisingly tame day on the forums, folks. Well, of course there's the usual whining, and some questions about the Paid Faction Change, but if you want to find answers to those or discuss the new service, Project Lore's coverage is a really good place to start (I even wrote it myself!). With that said, I've still managed to cherry-pick a few things that I think are worth looking at: So Explain To Me Again... Weapon Skill: Quite possibly the most useless skill in the game! Wait, wasn't that supposed to be Spirit? Nerthuz must be suffering from Memory Gremlins in her brain again, because she can't remember what she was told last time she asked about Weapon Skill. It must be hard with those nasty little critter eatin' up your thoughts and all. But, hey, she has a point. What is up with Weapon Skill, anyway? This is an issue we've covered here at Project Lore before. Why iTZKoopA posted something about it just one month ago, and he came to the conclusion that it was a sloppy, poorly-implemented stat, though it may have simply been used as a limiter to keep people from tackling mobs way above their current level. But, then, couldn't weapon proficiency simply be built into levels instead of being something you need to raise? Why not just tack on an extra five points every time you ding and automatically pro-rate new skills you learn from Weapon Trainers? Lore-wise, I suppose there is some sort of justification. Ancilorn points out, in accordance with the theme of Nerthuz's original post: "The worlds most skilled swordsman are not so skilled when it comes to wielding axes in combat. They would have to hone their skill to become competent at wielding axes in combat effectively." Indeed, it makes sense that while just about anybody should be able to theoretically wield any weapon, Weapon Skill is associated with how well they can actually do it. In real life, anyone can learn to shoot a gun, but not everybody can be a Bob Munden. Still, I think it's an iffy stat. It's not terribly inconvenient to max out, but it does feel kind of useless. Even if its inclusion can be justified, maybe it should've been tossed out like all those other stats were at BlizzCon. Cataclysm Compilation Nothing snarky to say about Frejya, the kind of person that everyone on the official forums should strive to be. And it seems that Blizzard approves, as well, as they've given her the hallowed green text of a V.I.P. (Very Important Poster). Now that the Cataclysm section has been opened, Nethaera thought it was high time to move Frejya's extensive and resourceful thread on the next expansion to the new forum. The only flaw with it, of course, is the lack of back-linking to Project Lore! Be sure to check it out if you need to know something about Cataclysm on the fly! Two Minute Buffs Need [To Be] Changed! It just wouldn't be a normal day on the forums without Ghostcrawler addressing a little bit of QQ. This time, 'letter Z' fanatic Bearlizion wantz to know why Blizzard dizcriminatez againzt all of hiz two-minute buffz. This is where I bring up something we talked about yesterday, namely people who don't play the game as it is and rather desire to play it the way they want it to be. Usually, this means ignoring basic play mechanics in favor of unrestricted convenience. Why can't people realize that without limiters placed on your class, it wouldn't be fun to play at all? Ghostcrawler's sage advice shines like a light from the heavens once again: "With warrior shouts, the intent is that the resources do matter. You might not have enough rage at any given moment and part of the skill required in playing a warrior is making sure you have enough resources to both shout and do your other damage." The fun in playing the game comes from strategizing in combat and figuring out how to manage your resources and when to use your skills. As I see it, most Warriors (especially tanks), already deal with a rather bland experience and the best thing to do would be to make them more complex, not easier to play. GC goes on to detail a couple of ways in which that could be accomplished, but the common theme seems to be restructuring rage so that a Warrior tank would have to pay attention to it throughout an encounter and not just at the beginning of it. You guys do remember the old days, right? When threat was actually something people had to worry about? I know I can recall the days of having to strategically limit my DPS and make alternate use of Feint and Vanish to clear my aggro on the target. His other core idea is perhaps putting key Warrior buffs on CDs: "Imagine (I am arm waving for a moment) that Battle Shout and Commanding Shout didn't cost any rage and in fact gave you rage, but were on a cooldown. Then using the shouts might become a more interesting choice -- you'd want to use them at moments when you're rage-starved and generally not when you have a full bar. However, you'd also want to keep them going because of their buff so you couldn't neglect to use them too often either. A challenge of playing the class / a test of your skill would be to shout at the right moment to keep the buff up but also make sure you earn the rage when you most needed it." Sure sounds more interesting to me! But I don't play a Warrior as my main, so I'd like to hear what you more experienced players think of this sort of change. Keep in mind that they're only ideas and this is not an indication that the development team is going to suddenly change the class' mechanics. I just happen to believe that making any class more strategic to play can only be a good thing!

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With all the well-deserved hoopla regarding BlizzCon and WoW Cataclysm over the past few weeks, I thought it'd be fun to take a look back at some of the user interface changes we saw implemented nearly a month ago, in Patch 3.2, now that we've had time for the content to sink in a bit. It seemed that while many of us were excited to see these changes made, a large number of players also were concerned that the changes would make the game too easy, or even dumbed-down. This always seems to be a difficult line that Blizzard must walk when making content changes - and players aren't always happy with the results. Now that we've had a month to adjust to the changes, let's take another look at some of what was implemented:

• How about that auto-complete for character names while in chat, for mail, etc? It certainly simplifies chats and invites, especially for those toons with special characters in their names.
• I'm a fan of the casting bars that now show under target nameplates. It makes timing interrupts considerably easier. But I suppose that also could be considered a bad thing if I was the one being interrupted.
• The double-paned questlog makes viewing quests a bit easier - I basically already had this through the DoubleWide addon, but now it's built in to the standard WoW UI.
• Automatic item comparisons per armor slot and the ease of seeing vendor sell prices also are a welcome addition in my book, but also both are similar to the addons RatingBuster and Auctioneer.
• Druids now can see their mana bars when shape-shifted. Sounds handy.
• Have you found it helpful to have the item level on tooltips? I'll admit, this one I haven't done much with yet.
• Another useful addition - options menus now display an exclamation when they have new features.
• Remember all of those Quest helper additions that were on the 3.2 PTR patch notes? The ones that probably were the most widely debated for their simplification of questing? Well as we've all probably figured out by now, those never made it onto the regular servers. But it should be interesting to see if they were scrapped altogether or if they'll make another appearance in a later patch.

So in retrospect, now that we've had some time to adjust to all these changes, what do you guys think? Are you happy with what Blizzard has brought? Perhaps now couldn't live without some of the changes? They may be minor in the grand scheme of things, but I always think that the UI changes can bring so much to the game in their functionality. I also would say that first starting out on the game can be a bit intimidating. I would argue that many of these changes simplify aspects of the game that wouldn't necessarily affect the actual gameplay, but moreso the ease of getting around the interface and learning how to play. Perhaps Blizzard's looking to expand its market... or perhaps I'm just trying to make something out of nothing. What do you think?

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Tyrael's Normal, Boring, Pose I was absolutely ecstatic when it came to light that Grunty, BlizzCon 2009's exclusive pet, and the Zergling, one of the possible three pets from the World of Warcraft Collector's Edition, tangled.  Much to my surprise, both of the pets mixed it up StarCraft style, not just Grunty.  That means that someone, somewhere, deep in the bowels of Blizzard took the time to go back and edit the Zergling's properties to attack his foe.  Yep, the doggie actually attacks, and kills Grunty in a messy death animation if he gets the better of the space marine.  It's an incredibly minor, but brilliant bit of content. The intergalactic tango only whet my appetite for further (no longer) non-combat pet interactions.  My prayers, and previous complaints have been answered, kinda.  Tyrael, the archangel from the Worldwide Invitational in 2008 is getting some added interactions.  Tyrael will now increase his repertoire two fold, adding the ability to fall asleep (and be stirred awake) to his list of skills.  The little guy is a very light sleeper, constantly rolling over and fidgeting during his Zzz's.  Previously the tiny angel would only fold his arms and dance.  Okay, still not that impressive, but at least it sucks less.  Plus, there could be more animations that just haven't been discovered yet. If you want to see the new animations you can head over to this post, which tipped me off in the first place.  Although his animations remain on the low side - and lack any sort of sound - at least Blizzard has shown they are willing to edit old pets, again.  Now if only those few Tyrael holders could meet up with those few mini Diablo holders - also from the original Collector's Edition - then we may be in for some more cross-title mayhem. Have I told you that I love vanity pets?

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