Project Lore

Ahh, yes. With a new (old) encounter comes new achievements to earn, or fail spectacularly trying to do so. The 5th anniversary version of Onyxia is no exception, and the latest build of 3.2.2 on the test realms brings with it news on just what we can expect in this regard. Deep Breath in all its fearsome glory! The achievements are as follows:

• Onyxia's Lair (10-man) - Defeat Onyxia in 10-player mode.
• More Dots! (10-man) - Defeat Onyxia in less than 5 minutes in 10-player mode.
• Many Whelps! Handle It! (10-man) - Cause 50 Onyxia Whelplings to hatch within 10 seconds of Onyxia's liftoff, and then defeat her in 10-player mode.
• She Deep Breaths More (10-man) - Defeat Onyxia without anyone taking damage from a Deep Breath in 10-player mode.
• Onyxia's Lair (25-man) - Defeat Onyxia in 25-player mode.
• More Dots! (25-man) - Defeat Onyxia in less than 5 minutes in 25-player mode.
• Many Whelps! Handle It! (25-man) - Cause 50 Onyxia Whelplings to hatch within 10 seconds of Onyxia's liftoff, and then defeat her in 25-player mode.
• She Deep Breaths More - (25-man) - Defeat Onyxia without anyone taking damage from a Deep Breath in 25-player mode.

You might recognize a few of those phrases from the famous Onyxia Wipe Animation (WARNING: Not to be viewed at work!):

And really, how could Blizzard not reference the video? Not only is it still funny after all these years, it represents all of the memories players have from when Onyxia's Lair was the pinnacle of Vanilla raid content. The flames, the whelps, the wipes! There truly is a little angry raid leader in all of us. Likewise, "She Deep Breaths More" is a nod at the oft-maligned attack she uses when in flight during Phase 2. Players swore that she did it more often (and more randomly) in later patches. The dev team even poked fun at this reaction at the Dungeons and Raids Panel last weekend. When they showed off the tools used to tune boss encounters, the randomization for Onyxia's Deep Breath skill was set a little higher than usual. Some of you might be wondering what's going to happen to the old Level 60 Onyxia's Lair achievement. Well, it's going to be turned into a Feat of Strength once the patch hits, so if you want that particular notch in your belt, I'd get on that as soon as possible. So, what do you readers think of these achievements? Will they be hard to obtain? I think it'll be hard to say until the patch hits and the rest of us have an opportunity to experience the re-tun first hand!

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Cataclysm is changing many things, but perhaps nothing moreso than player psychology. The thing you really have to be careful about, when deciding what information to reveal for an expansion that's still at least nine months out, is how that's going to impact progression from right now, up until its release. We've witnessed it before: the vast swaths of people who fret for the worth of their gear when Wrath was announced. Many had considered themselves burned by the instant upgrades they found when they first stepped foot into Hellfire Peninsula. All the goodies that they had earned through blood, sweat, and tears of high-end raiding; so many epics, just completely wiped out by a green or a blue won for killing a few basic demons. Blizzard took note of this and made gear scale differently in Wrath of the Lich King. I admit that I didn't find very many replacements for my Rogue's gear until I got into the 78-80 range. Sure, there's an innate thrill in obtaining cheap upgrades, but it surely isn't one that lasts very long. Even though I'm sure Cataclysm will continue this positive trend, the effects of itemization mismanagement are still felt. I was shocked to hear that one of my guildmates hadn't even heard there was going to be an expansion, but when words reached his ears, he briefly sighed and wondered if all of this neat stuff he'd be accumulating would be worth anything a year from now. Who knows? Maybe initially, but it never will in the long run. Even Icecrown Citadel gear will likely struggle to find a home with the equipment that drops from Blackwing Descent or Grim Batol. But I don't consider that to be a big deal anymore. I think a lot of people (and I know for sure that I have) accepted that as part of the game. It's always the effort I put into obtaining an epic that I appreciate more than the item itself (unless it looks really, really cool). cataclysm logo Cataclysm is already having its effect on players in other ways. One major issue is, of course, the controversial change to stats. Players are going to have to start wondering whether or not that extra Armor Penetration or MP5 is worth it on their next drop. In the end, this probably won't be a huge deal. All of these extraneous stats will be folded into the basic ones, so while you'll see certain things disappear entirely, you'll see others boosted greatly. I believe this is something that will resolve itself with time, but players react quickly and fiercely whenever they're confronted with such sweeping changes. For the record, I agree with Blizzard's decision, and I think their reasoning is sound (that most people can't eyeball legitimate upgrades on the spot). It's just going to affect player habits, and I think that's what really scares people. Naturally, we all fear the unknown, and while we know a lot more about the expansion than we did a week ago, it's done nothing but raise more questions. When nobody can provide concrete answers, the mob gets antsy. And that's when we get extreme claims of people quitting en masse or calling out Blizzard for ruining the game. The fact of the matter is that we've gone through this at least two times before, and the number of people who play WoW has only increased. We'll get used to the differences, and we'll get through it again. But until we can wrap our grimy mitts around our very own copies of Cataclysm, player habits are still going to change. There's a psychological effect associated with anticipation that causes people to fear until the worst of things are over. Think of it as a roller coaster. Right now we're going up the first hill, we're tensing up, we're worried about what's to come, but as we crest that hill and start to come down the other side, we'll let loose and enjoy ourselves. As I said earlier, I've come to accept a good many things about the nature of the MMORPG, and World of Warcraft specifically, but if there's one thing I know I'm personally going to have to change, it's this: I'm going to really have to pump the brakes on my habit of creating new alts. Right now, I'm working on a Paladin. It's Level 73. When I hit the level cap, that means I'll have five 80s. But I really want to experience all of the new and improved 1-60 content. I want to move along the new leveling paths, complete all the new quests, and see what Goblins and Worgen have to offer. One of the reasons I've never gotten an Alliance character past the mid-20s is because I hated having to jump around the world only to find a small pocket of quests available at each new location. Leveling a Horde character isn't a cakewalk, but Alliance just felt so much worse to me. Now that I have a race that I'd actually like to be, and the flow of leveling is going to be streamlined, I think I might be taking my first Alliance character to the cap. I just have to make sure that I leave some classes untouched until Cataclysm comes around! So what about you folks out there? Has the expansion already changed your playing habits? Do you think these are positive or negative changes? Are you worried about what's to come or have you already begun to accept what Cataclysm plans to offer?

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WoWFlix is a new weekly 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 think we've all brought that special someone home to our parents only to have them shot down for not playing WoW. What really jumped out to me was Mrs. Leet commenting that this boy who watches VHS tapes and uses a corded phone "might as well play Alliance." The first time I checked out Project Lore, I was severely disappointed that it was a group of Alliance characters plowing through dungeons. Somehow, this stigma of Alliance attracting n00bs and young kids while the Horde attracts a more "mature" audience is ingrained into my way of thinking. I've really tried to level Alliance characters, but having played Horde for years I can't get over my biases. For all you Alliance players out there, do you still watch VHS tapes and use corded phones?

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Note: The below information was covered as part of our Live Blogging & Tweeting during the show.  But the information is simply too important to be glossed over.  Here are the major class changes in one convenient, to the point package.

Blizzard once again organized two class panels, and once again the later gathering repeated the earlier get together.  Instead of covering a snippet of each class the three panelists decided to dive headlong into two classes, the Warlock and Hunter.  These two DPSing classes were chosen because of the drastic modifications being made to them for Cataclysm's release.  A quick summary, Blizzard wants DPS classes to struggle with resource management less. Hunter:

• Resource change - This is by far the biggest change to Hunters, and possibly any class, since the game was released.  The class' current resource, mana, will be thrown out the window and replaced with Focus, an all new resource.  Focus is a lot like a rogue's Energy.  Hunters will regen during battle, with a maximum default pool of 100.  However the resource will regenerate slower than a rogue's energy on average.  It'll regen at a faster rate when using Steady Shot.
• Cooldowns - As a direct result of the resource change, Hunters will now struggle with cooldowns less.  Instead you will be fighting with gaining the appropriate amount of focus to launch an attack.  Get ready for tons of "Not enough Focus" error messages.
• Aspect of the * - Aspect of the Viper, as it plays now, will be gone, obviously.  It may come back in a different form, or Aspects may disappear all together.
• Ammo - They still promise to address this issue, but ammo will remain as an item, just a non consumable item.

Warlocks:

• Soul Shards - Here's the big change for the other WoW pet class, the shard mechanic.  For starters, shards will no longer take up bag space!  But that isn't as good as it sounds, because you'll be needing them less, and creating them easier.  Locks will only use a shard during combat (likely 3 per fight), and summoning your demon buddies won't waste one.  Shards will regenerate when out of combat.
• UI change - The shard mechanic is becoming such a focal point that Blizzard is changing the default Warlock frame to include a spot for (currently three) shards.  If you don't like shards "you play a Mage."
• Soul Burn - This will be your new spell, and the basis of the new shard mechanics.  Using the ability will burn a shard and empower your next spell.  Once triggered, nearly all of the following spells will behave differently (Death Coil -> longer, more powerful Death Coil, Summon Demon -> Instant Summon Demon, Fear -> Instant Fear, etc).  Soul Burn will have a 30 second, off GCD, cooldown.

These are class changing rewrites in my opinion.  Exciting ones at that.  I did enjoy my previous huntard, but haven't played one since returning to WoW.  I dabbled in a Warlock back in the day, but the shard fiasco really annoyed me.  There's a good chance my Worgen will be a Warlock, instead of a my previously planned Druid. Of course, my class decision is just a predication based on information for something that will see many iterations before the "2010" release.  It's in quotes not only because Morhaime said it, but because I doubt it'll happen.  One wrong move and I could just as easily swing back to a Worgen Druid. What do you think of these major class changes?  Warlocks have always complained about the shard stuff, a drastic change there isn't too surprising.  But the Hunter stuff, that really took me by surprise. The class changes were followed up by the overhaul of statistics and itemization during the panels.

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This week we get access to boss encounter number four of five in Trial of the Crusader, and tonight at around 7pm PDT/10pm EDT (that means soon!), The Totally Rad Guild will be trying the 10-man version of the instance. Once we get through the four released bosses, we will be heading to Ulduar most likely, so check those encounters out! Tomorrow at the same times (7pm PDT/10pm EDT), we'll be running through the 25-man version of the same instances. So if you want to see the differences, come back tomorrow and see! As usual, I'll be in the USTREAM chat and I'll try to answer any questions that come up whenever I can. The streamed video and chat are embedded below, so come in, join the chat, and check it out. You can also follow Project Lore on twitter or check out our USTREAM channel to find out more! Also, if you happen to miss the stream, there should be some archived videos embedded below!

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The patch 3.2.2 notes have been updated in a post by Zarhym. Check them out below and scroll down for my highlights and more: General

• The Brood Mother Returns
  • After years of lurking in her lair battling the many brave adventurers who travelled from afar to challenge her, Onyxia returns to commemorate World of Warcraft’s five-year anniversary.
    • Onyxia has been scaled to offer new challenges to level 80 players and is now available for testing in 10- and 25- player modes.
    • Adjustments have been made to the encounter to keep it fit for modern raiding, but the fundamental experience of fighting the Brood Mother will remain, as will the horror of the Deep Breaths!
    • Some classic items Onyxia offered level 60 players will have their stats adjusted appropriately for level 80 players.
    • Brood of Onyxia, a very rare 310%-speed mount modeled after Onyxia herself will be available for the luckiest of challengers.
• Copied Test Realm characters will no longer be copied with their achievement history in order to better facilitate the character copy process.

PvP

• Battlegrounds
  • Players level 11 and higher will always see a daily Battleground quest, as the quest giver will only offer daily quests for a Battleground in which a player is eligible to participate according to level bracket (i.e. players levels 11-20 will always be offered a Warsong Gulch daily quest, while players levels 11-50 will be offered either an Arathi Basin or a Warsong Gulch daily quest, etc.).

Death Knights

• Pets
  • Gnaw: This death knight ghoul ability now has a 1-minute cooldown.

Druids

• Talents
  • Balance
    • Moonkin Form: This form now also reduces the damage the druid takes while stunned by 15%.
    • Typhoon: The knockback distance from this spell has been increased to match Thunderstorm and the range of the ability has been reduced to 10 yards.
  • Feral Combat
    • Predatory Strikes: This talent now also causes the druid’s finishing moves to provide a 7/13/20% chance per combo point to make the next Nature spell with a cast time below 10 seconds instant cast.

Mages

• Arcane Blast: The buff from using this ability now stacks up to 4 times instead of 3, and each application increases mana cost by 175% instead of 200%. In addition, the duration of the buff has been reduced to 6 seconds.
• Talents
  • Arcane
    • Missile Barrage: The effect from triggering this talent now removes the mana cost of Arcane Missiles. In addition, the chance for Arcane Blast to trigger this talent is now 8/16/24/32/40%. All other listed spells continue to have a 4/8/12/16/20% chance to trigger it.

Paladins

• Righteous Fury: The bonus threat from Holy spells caused by this talent has been reduced from 90% to 80%.
• Talents
  • Protection
    • Blessing of Sanctuary: This blessing now grants 10% strength in addition to its current effects. Also, the strength and stamina bonuses from this blessing will no longer be lost when Blessing of Kings is removed.
    • Judgements of the Just: The reduction in cooldown to Hammer of Justice provided by this talent has been reduced to 5/10 seconds instead of 10/20 seconds.
    • Touched by the Light: This talent now provides 20/40/60% of the paladin’s strength as spell power instead of 10/20/30% of the paladin’s stamina.
  • Retribution
    • Seal of Command: This ability now chains to strike up to 2 additional targets when it is triggered by an attack that can only strike a single target.

Rogues

• Envenom’s scaling has been increased from 7% to 9% of attack power per combo point.
• Fan of Knives: The damage done by this ability has been reduced by 30%.
• Talents
  • Assassination
    • Master Poisoner: Now also provides a 33/66/100% chance of preventing Envenom from consuming Deadly Poison.
  • Combat
    • Throwing Specialization: This talent no longer causes Fan of Knives to interrupt spellcasting.
  • Subtlety
    • Honor Among Thieves: A 1-second cooldown is now enforced on how often a rogue can gain combo points from his party via this talent.

Warriors

• Talents
  • Arms
    • Sword Specialization: Now has a 2/4/6/8/10% chance to proc an extra attack, up from 1/2/3/4/5%.

Dungeons & Raids

• Shadowfang Keep
  • Wailing Guardsman: Screams of the Past will no longer have multiple applications on a target. Recast time has been increased.

Items

• Druid Tier-8 Healer 4-Piece Set Bonus: The amount of healing this set bonus grants on the initial cast of Rejuvenation has been reduced by 50%. In addition, this set bonus no longer has strange interactions with Harold’s Rejuvenating Broach.
• Glyphs
  • Glyph of Mind Flay: This glyph no longer reduces the magnitude of the movement reduction on the Mind Flay victim.
  • Glyph of Typhoon: This glyph now increases the range on Typhoon by 20 yards in addition to its current effects.
• Libram of Obstruction: The buff to block value from this relic is now exclusive with the buff to block value from Libram of the Sacred Shield; it is impossible to have both buffs at once.
• Libram of the Sacred Shield: The block value buff from this relic has been increased to match its item level.

User Interface

• The size of the Focus Frame can now be adjusted via the Interface Options menu.
• For additional notes on Lua and XML changes please visit the UI & Macros Forum: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/board.html?sid=1&forumId=11114

Bug Fixes

• Arcane Missiles: Ranks 12 and 13 will now properly cause players to enter combat.
• Balance of Power: Misleading tooltip reworded. The tooltip previously reported an incorrect value for the increased chance to hit with spells. The actual benefit of the talent is unchanged.
• Demonic Circle: This ability now correctly removes the snaring component of Frostfire Bolt.
• Divine Aegis: Ranks 1 and 2 now work with Holy Nova.
• Hand of Freedom: This ability now correctly removes the snaring component of Infected Wounds and Frostfire Bolt.
• Hunter Tier-9 2-Piece Bonus: Critical damage from Serpent Sting will now work properly with the Mortal Shots and Expose Weakness talents.
• Master’;s Call: This ability now correctly removes the snaring component of Infected Wounds, Frostfire Bolt, and Slow.
• Mote of Flame: Corrected typo in tooltip.
• Shard of Flame: Corrected typo in tooltip.
• Trap Mastery: Tooltip now states the correct amount of snakes summoned.
• Val’anyr, Hammer of The Ancient Kings: This item’s special bonus now works properly with Prayer of Mending and the heal-over-time effect triggered by Flash of Light cast on Sacred Shield targets.
• Vanish: This ability now correctly removes the snaring component of Frostfire Bolt.

In addition to the patch notes, the following achievements have been observed in both 10 and 25 player modes for the Onyxia raid:

• Onyxia's Lair: Defeat Onyxia
• More Dots!: Defeat Onyxia in less than 5 minutes.
• Many Whelps! Handle It!: Cause 50 Onyxia Whelplings to hatch within 10 seconds of Onyxia's liftoff, and then defeat her.
• She Deep Breaths More: Defeat Onyxia without anyone taking damage from Deep Breath.

These additional changes were also listed: New Pets •    Core Hound Pup - Right Click to summon and dismiss your core hound pup. •    Gryphon Hatchling - Right Click to summon and dismiss your gryphon hatchling. •    Wind Rider Cub - Right Click to summon and dismiss your wind rider cub. •    Zipao Tiger - Right Click to summon and dismiss your zipao tiger. •    Pandaren Monk - Right Click to summon and dismiss your pandaren monk. New Mounts •    Onyxian Drake - Summons and dismisses a rideable Onyxian Drake. This is a very fast mount. This mount can only be summoned in Outland or Northrend. Enchanting •    Abyssal Shatter - Disenchants an abyss crystal into greater cosmic essence or infinite dust. Inscription •    Runescroll of Stamina - Snowfall Ink, Resilient Parchment x 5 - Increases Stamina by 165 for all party and raid members for 1 hr. Leatherworking •    Drums of Forgotten Kings - Heavy Borean Leather x 8, Icy Dragonscale x 8 - Gives all members of the raid or group the Blessing of Forgotten Kings, increasing total stats by 8% for 30 min. •    Drums of the Wild - Heavy Borean Leather x 4, Jormungar Scale x 20 - Gives the Gift of the Wild to all party and raid members, increasing armor by 750, all attributes by 37 and all resistances by 54 for 1 hr. Druid Balance •    Moonkin Form now reduces the damage taken while stunned by 15%. Feral •    Predatory Strikes now has an additional effect - In addition, your finishing moves have a 7/13/20% chance per combo point to make your next Nature spell with a base casting time less than 10 sec. become an instant cast spell. Hunter Survival •    Trap Mastery now increases the number of snakes summoned by Snake Trap by 2/4/6. (Down from 3/6/9) Mage Arcane •    Arcane Blast has been changed, Each time you cast Arcane Blast the mana cost of the spell is increases by 175% (down from 200%). It now stacks up to 4 times (up from 3) and lasts 6 sec (down from 10 sec) •    Missile Barrage now has a 8/16/12/24/32/40% to proc from Arcane Blast instead of 4/8/12/16/20%. Proc % from other spells remains unchanged. Paladin Protection •    Righteous Fury now increases the threat generated by your Holy spells by 80%. (Down from 90%) •    Judgements of the Just now reduces the cooldown of your Hammer of Justice by 5/10 sec. (Down from 10/20 sec) •    Touched by the Light now increases your spell power by an amount equal to 20/40/60% of your Strength. (Old - 10/20/30% of your Stamina) •    Blessing of Sanctuary now increases strength and stamina by 10% instead of just increasing stamina. Retribution •    Seal of Command now has an additional effect - When used with attacks or abilities that strike a single target, this additional Holy damage will strike up to 2 additional targets. Rogue Combat •    Fan of Knives now causes 105% weapon damage with daggers (down from 150%) and 70% weapon damage with all other weapons. (Down from 100%) •    Throwing Specialization no longer affects Fan of Knives. Assassination •    Master Poisoner now has an additional effect - gives Envenom a 33/66/100% chance to not consume Deadly Poison. Warrior Arms •    Sword Specialization now gives you a 2/4/6/8/10% chance to get an extra attack on the same target after hitting your target with your Sword. (Up from 1/2/3/4/5%) Whew! That's a lot of changes! This will be a doozy of a patch. Here are my favorite points (beside the Onyxia stuff):

• All players, regardless of level, will be able to get a daily battleground quest. This is an important step to making PvP popular and viable for leveling for non-max level characters.
• The buff to Envenom and Master Poisoner will make me switch back to Assassination. It puts it back in line with Combat.
• Pandaren Monk pet? This could be the first step to seeing Pandaren in the game!
• Abyssal Shatter will help maintain the value of Abyss Crystals and is a welcome addition.
• The new Leatherworking drums make it less important to have a Druid/Paladin in your raid for MotW/Blessings.
• Is the runescroll a new raid buff, or is there already one for stamina? Could this perhaps not stack with the Imp buff?

What do you think about patch 3.2.2?

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Grunty Going Nuts Just shy of a year ago I had a gripe.  I know, hard to believe, but I did.  Blizzard had dropped the ball with vanity pets, and I wanted it fixed.  The gist of the ancient article is that the most recent non-combat pets lacked animations.  The beings, the Spirit of Competition and hard to get Archangel Tyrael, would simply be.  No movement and little, if any, interaction.  In the case of the Diablo II buddy (released to attendees alongside the Diablo III announcement) it was a missed opportunity of epic proportions.  Tyrael flat out ignored mini Diablo, his arch nemesis. Blizzard seems to have learned from the mistake.  Grunty, the space traveling Murloc decked out in Tier Terran Marine gear does battle with the Zergling.  The Zergling was part of the Collector's Edition for the original World of Warcraft, so coming across a toon with the insectoid may be difficult.  Given the chance, you should travel to the ends of Azeroth to see this far reaching space battle take place on our humble planet/dimension/time.  Here's the flip side. Even though BlizzCon 2009 attendees didn't get a beta key, or access to the Diablo III beta it seems, at least we have this consolation prize.  Even if it is far more common than any other BlizzCon pet before it. Onyxian Whelping's First Appearence Let us not forget the upcoming fifth anniversary of WoW itself.  Forget a shot at an Onyxia mount, I'm not a masochist.  Even if I was, I'd take a cute companion pet any day of the week.  And that's exactly what the incoming ("sometime in November") Onyxia Whelpling is.  It's animation you ask?  Why the little bugger tries to Deep Breath, what else?  Even cuter is a failed attempt, where rings of smoke billow from its mouth instead. What a magnificent time to be a vanity pet collector.

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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!

Sylvanas Windrunner, Dark Ranger

The Windrunner sisters are the three most prominent members of the high elf Windrunner family. The eldest sister, Alleria, has been missing since she ventured into Draenor (now known as Outland) during the Second War. The youngest sister, Vereesa, is currently the leader of the Silver Covenant and wife to Rhonin (leader of the Kirin Tor), and the middle sister, Sylvanas, was raised as a banshee by Arthas and currently leads the Forsaken (the undead faction allied with the Horde). The sisters were very close and have a tragic history. The Windrunner family resided in Windrunner Spire in Eversong Forest, currently known as the Ghostlands. During the Second War, King Anasterian Sunstrider sent Alleria Windrunner and a small group of high elven rangers to aid the Alliance. Alleria was one of the greatest elven rangers and her skills were invaluable to the Alliance. Alleria had quickly gained a strong distaste for the orcs and was one of the few high elves who believed that they would be a threat to the high elves and not just the humans. She devoted her rangers to the Alliance during her excursion to join the Alliance at Southshore.

Vereesa Windrunner

Meanwhile, Vereesa Windrunner was tasked with escorting the human mage Rhonin to the port of Hasic. They had some strange encounters along the way that led them to the Battle of Grim Batol. The details of their journey can be read in the novel Day of the Dragon. The Second War was brutal. The Horde managed to push as far north as the borders of Quel'thalas. Sylvanas discovered jungle trolls burning the forests and attacking her rangers, which she quickly terminated. Sylvanas got word from Alleria that there was a massive army of orcs headed their way, and this was quickly relayed to Anasterian. It was at this point that Anasterian admitted that the trolls were involved with the orcs and he fully dedicated the high elves to the cause of the Alliance and defeat of the Horde. Alleria and the Alliance quickly returned to defend Silvermoon. Alleria fought along sight her sister Sylvanas and their good friend Lor'themar Theron. Sylvanas was perhaps the most skilled ranger of the high elves, hence her position of Ranger-General of Quel'thalas. The high elves repelled the invasion of the Horde, but it was at a great loss, especially to the Windrunners. Eighteen of their kind died, including Lirath Windrunner, younger brother to the sisters. On that day, Alleria's hatred of the orcs intensified, and she would forever view them as savage beasts that must be exterminated at all costs. Her despair led her into the arms of the Paladin Turalyon, with whom she likely had an affair. Shortly after, the iconic battle of Grim Batol occured. Vereesa Windrunner was instrumental in freeing the dragon queen Alexstrasza and draining of the power of the Demon Soul, which was enchanted by the Dragon Aspects so that it could never be used by dragonkind again. This was the turning point of the Second War, and the orcs began to be rounded up and placed into the internment camps.

Statue of Alleria Windrunner in Stormwind

Following the Second War, Anasterian and the high elves would have little to do with the Alliance. Vereesa and Rhonin were tasked with touring the various nation of the Alliance and reminding the nations to stay together, as there would be threats besides the orcs in the future. The pair fell in love, and eventually had twins,  Galadin and Giramar. Half elven child births often fail, as do twins, and as such their healthy arrival into the world was viewed as very fortunate. The Alliance sent military forces through the Dark Portal to Draenor to retrieve the Book of Medivh to seal the Dark Portal once and for all, as well as stop the orcs from opening portals into new worlds to continue their bloodthirsty campaign. Alleria and her rangers continued their own mission to exterminate the orcs. It is unclear as to precisely when Alleria gave birth to her and Turalyon's son, Arator. It seems to be retconned, and the current story is that Arator was already a child when the Alliance ventured through the Dark Portal. Before departing, Alleria split the necklace she inherited from her parents into three pieces, and sent a piece of it to each of her sisters. She kept the emerald for herself and sent the ruby to Vereesa, while she sent Sylvannas the sapphire. Continue on to part 2!

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As Amatera detailed for us live during BlizzCon, and Heartbourne has expanded upon a bit, too, it looks like we'll be getting a ton of new dungeon and raiding content in the third expansion. Continuing along the same topic, I recorded a bit of the panel at the convention so you all can hear exactly what developers had to say about the new content. And best of all, right here is where you can see a ton of artwork on the new content and several quick sneak peek videos that Blizzard unveiled live Saturday. Cut into three YouTube-sized video portions. Take a look: The video pretty much speaks for itself if you want to watch all the way through the three parts. But here are some of my thoughts on what we saw at this panel:

• Abyssal Maw - Beautiful updated water graphics, lots of pretty underwater colors for this dungeon on the sea floor. I wish the teaser would have shown a bit more! Dueling Naga should be fun. And, it's "something we've never done before."
• Halls of Origination - Looking forward to another 5-player dungeon, and one built by the Titans at that. I'm digging the Egyptian-like concept art and glowing blue-green ceilings. And what about that "secret weapon...?" Sounds interesting.
• Blackrock Caverns - It "reinvents" the fan favorite of Blackrock Spire, which I'm sure a lot of players will really dig. The graphics look promising, with lots of glowing reds and flowing lava.
• IceCrown Citadel and Dungeons - Sounds huge and epic, and I was happy to hear in the Q and A session after the panel that Blizzard is planning to do something special when Arthas goes down... they didn't elaborate, but hinted that we'll see some cinematics. Also, the whole rocket ship scenario with Alliance and Horde battling it out sounds like a lot of fun, and something we haven't seen a lot of in the past. And, of course, I'm looking forward to seeing what Sindragosa brings and how Blizz wraps up all the loose story ends.
• The Firelands - Fighting Ragnaros at his "full strength" (So, what, he'll be the size of a skyscraper?)? Could be intense. Beautiful concept art and the keep has some neat architecture.
• Onyxia - That new Onyxia-inspired mount looks amazing, and the whelpling almost (but not quite) as cute as a baby murloc :). I like the updated loot tables that are based on the original drops. Nostalgic. Watch out for the "little bit" more Deep Breath randomization.

And last but not least, the cross-server LFG sounds like it will be incredibly handy for PUGing. Plus, I'm really looking forward to the prospect of playing with some of my friends on other realms! And we don't even have to wait for Cataclysm; it's hopefully set to come out in patch 3.3. So what does everyone think of all this new content? Sounds like we'll have a lot to keep us busy. This is the last of my video posts covering BlizzCon - I hope you've enjoyed them! There's still a ton of information to comb through, so look for more in the coming weeks.

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Look up. See those guys in little boxes? Playing World of Warcraft? I know you miss them. We all do. But when site founder Alex Albrecht and his buddy Jeff Cannata aren't busy filming Project Lore, they spend their time on a little program called the Totally Rad Show (or is it the other way around?). Well, if you've been itching for your fix of these two handsome and very talented men, then you're in luck! The latest episode of Totally Rad features segments filmed live from this past weekend's BlizzCon (on a side note, does anyone ever actually call it Blizzard Convention? That just sounds weird...), which means you get to hear your Project Lore favorites rap about Cataclysm for the very first time, as well as a few of those other games shown at the event. If you don't recognize these guys, then you haven't been on Project Lore enough! They talk about the pre-show leak, several of the new features, and the surprising changes made to Azeroth. Jeff goes so far as to call it World of Warcraft 2, a sentiment I have to admit that I agree with. Well, maybe more like WoW 1.5 now that we know not every zone is going to get such a massive face lift, but the fact remains that Cataclysm represents a major overhaul of the game in more ways than one. Overall, it seems like the guys are really excited for the expansion, going so far as to say it rekindled a somewhat waning desire to play through recent raid content. Alex seems pretty enthralled with the ability to play as Worgen or go back into Deadmines at 85 (in fact, the crew's first time through the dungeon is currently replaying on Project Lore if you haven't caught it yet). Even Totally Rad's third pillar, Dan Trachtenberg, seemed intrigued with the prospect of getting back into the game. If you want to hear their thoughts on WoW, skip ahead to the 29-minute mark, but there're plenty of other cool (dare I say, rad) things in the episode. They include a review of Hayao Miyazaki's animated film Ponyo, the newest entry in the Wolfenstein series, and a segment on Epic Games' wonderful Metroidvania-inspired Shadow Complex (just finished it over the weekend, myself, and I can confirm the awesome). You've already heard so much of what we on the blogging side think of Cataclysm, but share with us your reactions to Alex and Jeff's, err... reactions to BlizzCon in the comments section!

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