Project Lore

This morning blue poster Bornakk announced the first of what could be several fixes to the PvP system. Resilience will soon be getting double its regular buff, which he states would decrease the damage taken from other players by up to 10 or 20 percent. Here's the exact wording of the announcement:

"We are currently in the process of applying a hotfix to buff resilience. While some modifications may be made, we intend to have this buff in effect for the remainder of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. The change will double the value of resilience in reducing damage done by players.

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Wow, WoW, you're going too fast for me! It seems like only yesterday that the Plagueworks opened, and now today we'll get the blood-thirsty minions within The Crimson Hall for our stabbing pleasure. But are we ready?

It seems like most groups venturing within Icecrown Citadel have started to get a feel down for defeating the first four bosses in the instance. But with only a couple of weeks under our belt for the three bosses in Plagueworks, I know there are still many groups struggling with these new encounters. My personal raid group has nearly gotten Rotface down, had an epic wipe the one and only time we faced Festergut, and has yet to see the face behind that ever-amusing voice of Professor Putricide that echoes within the hall.

We're progressing, which is a start, but I would hardly say that the encounters have become routine yet for anyone. So this is why I'm somewhat torn.

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I got the unfortunate notion last week that I wanted more flying mounts. Specifically, those glowy, bright Netherwing dragons that look awesome as they streak through the sky, leaving a luminescent haze in their path. So for the past 4-5 days, I've been questing in southeastern Shadowmoon Valley and soaking up a dose of that Burning Crusade content that I missed out on during my break from WoW in 2008.

And so, this is how I came across the Dragonmaw race questline. It starts with a race against Oldie McOld. You, upon your epic flyer (and disguised as an orc upon a netherwing) must fly within range of your opponent and not get dismounted as he weaves around crystals and twists through the sky, heaving pumpkins at you all the way. The races get progressively more difficult, and so does dodging whatever your opponent throws at you -- be it skulls, lightning or meteors. If you successfully get through all six races, you earn the Skyshattered achievement.

And now thanks to a 3.3 change, the achievement is much easier to get. I read right over this change in the 3.3 patch notes and didn't think much of it:

• Knockbacks no longer dismount players. If on a flying mount, you will be knocked back a short distance before being able to resume flying.

As it turns out, the change is huge to this particular questline, which used to be probably the most difficult quest while flying in the game. Now it can still be a bit tricky, but as I understand it, not nearly as much as before. So those of you who have avoided this rep grind or even this achievement in the past have reason to try again.

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Welcome to The High Inquisitor, where Project Lore pokes fun at all those crazy, unexplained WoW impossibilities. While the answers to these great mysteries of Azeroth often are a matter of game mechanics, here we’re less interested in that aspect, and more interested in exploring our own unique brand of lore that could happily provide explanations. The inquisitor will make her own suggestions, and the best comment(s) with more possibilities will be highlighted with the next edition’s inquisition.

It's the dead of January, and my usually decently warm spot in the world on the eastern coast of the U.S. is downright frigid. Even my friends in Florida have been seeing wintry temperatures below freezing. It's days like today that I'm happy to escape to Azeroth. ...But wait!

The different zones of Azeroth remain basically the same year-round. Northrend is a chilly place no matter what time of year, seemingly stuck in a perpetual winter. And Durotar... well, have you ever seen snow there, or anywhere else that it doesn't fall regularly? What is going on with the seasons of Azeroth!?

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The Icecrown Citadel gunship battle may not be the most challenging of fights in the raid, but I would definitely argue that it's one of the most fun. The jetpacks you get to strap on to your back coupled with a coordinated effort to bring down the other ship before they can shoot yours out of the sky brings an exhilarating thrill unlike any other fights I've previously seen in WoW. (Added bonus - get a druid to use the jetpack while in bear form. Hilarious.)

Both times my raid group has gotten to the battle, we defeated it pretty easily once we got in the groove. As a melee dps class, my primary job has been to man one of the guns on the ship. I shoot the heck out of the other ship and strategically use the stronger cannon once enough pressure has built. Once our cannons are frozen by a meddlesome sorcerer on the other ship, we rocket on over. The tank and healer go first, then I and the other gunner charge in, too. We get her down, and come right back to the canons that are now free to be used again. Those of you who already have seen the fight know there's a lot more going on, too. While the gunners have their own mess to work on, other members of the raid group have a whole 'nother set of problems.

But it's easy to get sucked into a bubble while concentrating on your designated task, as I found out the hard way last night. Our cannons were about to get frozen again, and the rocket group was preparing for another trip over to the enemy ship. We've gotten the timing down SO quickly -- the tank and healer rocketed over as I got booted from the gun, and fractions of a second later I also clicked my rocket to board the ship. But we were so engrossed with our duties that we didn't realize we had already won the battle.

The realization sunk in pretty quick, though, as the three of us (the second gunner stopped short) flew through the air, and our destination ship pulled further and further away.

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Of the Christmas presents (a few WoW-related) that I was happy to receive over the holidays, the one that I most appreciate is a present from myself: a new desktop. You see, for the past few years I've been playing WoW and doing all of my other computer tasks (such as blogging) via laptop.

First, it was a Sony VAIO running Windows Vista with pretty measly specs and a 15.4-inch screen. I could do most of my day-to-day productive tasks on it fine, but WoW -- not so much. My graphics were turned way down, addons were kept to a minimum and tabbing out of game was really the equivalent of committing in-game suicide -- an automatic crash. Not too fun at all.

Then, a pretty major upgrade came when I started swiping my husband's "gaming laptop" (an oxymoron? yes.), a Gateway FX series, when it wasn't in use. A larger, 19-inch screen, more graphics capabilities, less worry about tabbing out. But to keep things running smoothly, it was best to close all other programs while playing. Then there was the addon confusion. Our two sets of addons aren't entirely compatible, and it took me a few times to realize that I could customize the addons per character. Not a huge deal, but it still wasn't my computer.

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Finally, this week saw a return to somewhat normalcy in-game, after about two weeks of haphazard scheduling around the holidays. Starting the week of Christmas and stretching through New Years, my own guild and many others I know of saw a startling halt to raiding, despite all that new content and drool-worthy loot within Icecrown Citadel. I was able to sneak in a couple hours here and there for the weekly raids and a few daily randoms. Then toward the end of my extended vacation, I had a couple of entirely empty days that I chose to fill with WoW. With few others in my guild on, I decided to catch up on some questing that I've pretty much abandoned (other than dailies) since hitting 80. I finished up quests in Zul'Drak, remembering the days when that content was incredibly difficult, spent a little time in Storm Peaks, and continued on to Icecrown. And something struck me: Arthas really has left his mark all over Azeroth. Of course, with hordes of undead minions roaming the planet, you can see Arthas' imprint everywhere. But through questing, you see more the larger essence of his influence. Such is the case with a quest chain starting at Sindragosa's fall that leads the adventurer through some key moments in Arthas' life. It begins with meeting a ghostly childish figure, Matthias Lehner, who gives you the quest Where Dragons Fell and you witness the Raising of Sindragosa. In subsequent quests, you play as Arthas and see him kill his own soldiers then raise them as undead, then battle Illidan Stormrage. I don't want to give anything away to others of you who may not have seen the line, so I'll simply say that the questline concludes with a heart-pounding confrontation between the Lich King and the heroes who are fighting against him. I've heard others reference this questline before (mainly through comments on my post asking whether Arthas can be redeemed, a question which I still think is valid despite the conclusion of the questline). But since it's something that easily can be overlooked on the grind to 80, I hadn't actually seen it for myself. So if you, too, find some time leading up to the battle with the Lich King, I recommend seeking out this ghostly little boy (whose name, by the way, is an anagram of Arthas Menethil) and playing through it for yourself. Now that the battle is nearing, has anyone else found themselves thinking through some of these older quest lines involving Arthas? Do you think we can draw any clues about the final encounter from them?

WoWFlix is a column featuring videos from around the web related to World of Warcraft. For this edition, regular columnist Heartbourne is handing the reins to Pixiestixy after she found her own video she wanted to share. If you find something you’d like to be featured, leave a comment or send a tweet to @Heartbourne. I went and saw Avatar over the holidays with my in-laws, and got thoroughly sucked in to the stunning visuals of the film and the fantasy storyline. I didn't think much about it during the movie, but afterward my father-in-law, who had seen me playing WoW while visiting, commented that it could have been taken straight from the game. Chinese player WenYe Shang attempts to prove just that with his video that echoes an extended Avatar trailer, but with visuals from WoW. If you've seen the movie, you'll get a kick out of the video here. If you haven't, you've probably at least heard enough about it to enjoy the movie regardless.From aircraft to floating cities to flying mounts to other roaming creatures, Shang found a WoW visual for just about everything in Avatar. I just wish the video didn't have that weird haze to it -- that would make it just perfect in my book. Also, interesting choice for music in the ending credits. As a side note, since I saw the movie I've heard it be compared to many, many other stories because of its somewhat recycled, simplistic storyline. It's been compared to Star Wars, Disney's Pocahontas and, of course, The Smurfs. Perhaps there are more of these gems floating around for each of the other stories, too. I still prefer the WoW version!

It's one of those signature Shammy abilities that sets them apart from all other classes and makes them, for some, an essential party member of any raid group: Bloodlust / Heroism. But a lesser version of the ability could soon become available through leatherworking drums, according to Blizz posters Eyonix and the fabled Ghostcrawler. Earlier this week, Eyonix replied to a thread inquiring  on the topic with this response:

We’re considering it. There are two big considerations at play here. One is we’re unsure the buff is as mandatory as some players think it is. It certainly feels like a big boost when it happens, but part of that is because so many groups use the Bloodlust / Heroism moment as the time to blow all their cooldowns and go all out. While it is unarguably a buff (though for some specs more than others), it’s role as “blow everything!” is significant too. Secondly, while we ultimately wouldn’t mind having a weaker consumable available (like Kings and Fortitude) for groups, we’re not crazy about the idea of every character running around leveling, using Bloodlust for every kill quest. At that point, it just feels like a mandatory consumable and anything designed to make it feel less mandatory (like an expensive cost) feels bad.

Even the slight possibility of this happening set of a rage of hundreds of responses, to which Ghostcrawler also contributed his own two cents. Check the forum post for his full diatribe on why "Shaman aren't a support class," but the gist of his point was summarized by his final paragraph:

We're not sure we'll make Bloodlust drums for the reasons we stated above. But we're not worried about the concern that shaman will never get invited again. You shouldn't be getting invited because of your buff today. You should get invited because you're not annoying and because you contribute to progress.

So the drums definitely aren't a for-sure thing, which isn't surprising. It's hard for Blizzard to commit to anything because if it later gets pulled from the table of consideration, there's bound to be upset fans. But as a skinner and leatherworker who only recently hit 450 and gained access to using Drums of Forgotten Kings and Drums of the Wild, (both of which are greatly useful in 5-man groups), I can say that the mere thought of a Bloodlust drum is quite exciting. I definitely can see the viewpoint that Shammies don't want that taken from them, but then my own greed sinks in and I want it for myself! What do you guys think of the prospect? And what do you make of the whole debate this has set off about whether Shaman are essential to every raid group (and whether a bloodlust drum would nullify that)?

I've only had the chance to complete three weekly raids since the release of Patch 3.3 (with the fourth one awaiting me when I find the time this week), and I already can say that I'm a big fan. As opposed to the daily heroic quest that we had waiting for us prior to the new patch (replaced with random heroics that we continue to run without the quest), it seems that this new challenge of a weekly raid offers a slightly new experience -- plus the drool-worthy spoils of 5 Frost badges, 5 Triumph badges and 33 gold. The first couple of weeklies I got, Lord Jarraxus must die and Instructor Razuvious must die were pretty straight-forward since both include content that I've already seen plenty of times. And both involved me grouping with guildies who also were familiar with the fights, so it went really smoothly. Then last week threw a curve ball when Malygos must die made its way into the rotation. Since I've only made my way to the raiding scene in the past couple of months, I actually had not previously downed the arrogant dragon. And apparently I wasn't the only one, since out of my group only three players knew the fight going in. That made the fight interesting, to say the least, but also a lot of fun. Even though I died promptly at the start of Malygos' third and final phase in flight, the rest of the raid party battled it out, and we managed to one-shot it. This week, I'll take on everyone's favorite temper-tantrum throwing robot, XT-002 Deconstructor. So after a few shots, here's what I really like about the weekly raid:

• Coordination is necessary. It's a lot easier to screw up a 10- or 25-man raid, especially in a PUG. This also could be a bad thing if you get an inexperienced group. But I see it as a good thing, because it adds to the challenge.
• A variety of content. As was the case for me with Malygos, the weekly raid likely will introduce players to a lot of content that they otherwise might not go see ( such as the Obsidian Sanctum, Naxxramas, The Eye of Eternity and Ulduar). Likewise, it may also allow more recent level 80s the opportunity to try to get into groups for the newer content like Trial of the Crusader and, of course Icecrown Citadel.
• The option for 10- or 25-man raid groups of varying difficulties. If you're not having any luck getting into a 10-man group because everyone has already done it for the week, you can try to form a 25-man group. Or if you already have one achievement but need the other, once again you can choose to try that route. Options are always a good thing in my book.
• Only once a week. Which hopefully will prevent the raids from getting stale -- at least not right away.
• Phat lootz, as mentioned above.

And the cons:

• Once again, the need for coordination. If you find yourself in bad PUG after bad PUG, it could get frustrating quick. Players who don't know the fights (or don't have the achievements to prove that they do) also may have a hard time getting into groups if its not with guildies or other friends in-game.
• Killing of specific bosses leads to skipping over the rest of the content. Perhaps that's good for old school raiders since you can get the quest done pretty quickly. But for newer raiders hoping to get through the whole raid, they'll have to advertise it that way to the group or risk everyone leaving after the downing of the quest boss.

Overall, though, I'm digging the new system, which is why I'm obviously in favor of it. Perhaps that will change over time if I think of more cons to add to my list. What does everyone else think of the weekly raid so far? And what pros and cons would you add from your own experiences?