Project Lore

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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Wishful Thinking is a column for 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. Well, readers. I don't know about you, but I've been working on that old Loremaster title for some time now. It was easy enough to complete all of the Northrend zones, perhaps because they were freshest in my mind. But the old world? Not a chance! On my main, Amatera, I must've leveled through those areas at least three or four years ago. And if you're like me, then you know the real pain isn't necessarily doing all the quests you missed, but finding them in the first place. Why, just the other day, I decided to pick up the torch again and make some progress on the achievement. I flew over to Tarren Mill and found a whole bank of quests that I had never actually finished. I'm talk at least six or seven missions that I apparently didn't touch on this character. Of course, I thought I'd done them, but that might just because when leveling up one of my numerous alts, I made sure to clear out the area before moving on. Time had fogged up my memory, and in all likelihood, I pushed Amatera forward to new zones where there were better experience-gaining opportunities to be had and never looked back. Oh, and then there's Nagrand. The only zone in Outland that I've yet to get the questing achievement for. I've heard it's a little harder to finish on the Horde side, and that I'm not the only one who's had trouble with it in the past, but at the same time there are people that have obviously done what, for me, seems currently impossible. In other words, I must be missing something. One possible candidate is this quest: I'm Saved! But the problem is that the NPC needed to complete it spawns seemingly at random. I've spent long spans of time at Nesingwary's camp waiting for her to show up and she never does. Do you know what makes it even worse, though? I need two more quests to get the Nagrand achievement. And I have absolutely zero clue as to what the second might be. This is why I'm putting out the call to Blizzard: where's my completed quest log? It seems like such a simple feature to implement that you might wonder why it wasn't included with the game when it launched. I'd love a way to easily check an online database against a list of my finished quests to figure out which ones I'm missing. Sure, there's always flying from hub to hub and picking up tasks from NPCs with punctuation over their heads, but others aren't that easy to find, like those that might require a random drop from a group of enemies. And it goes beyond achievement tracking, too. I can't count the number of times someone has asked me if I've completed a specific quest and I've had to go all the way back to the quest-giver to see if there was still an exclamation point there. It's a real shame, because they've made some significant improvements to the quest log over the years, and they're set to do it again with 3.3. The only two reasons I can think of for not implementing a completed quest tracker is because there is either some technical issue preventing them from doing so, or it's simply something they don't deem important enough to spend time developing. I'd like to rule out the former, because it seems that the game already knows what missions you have and haven't done. After all, achievements like the Loremaster ones can keep track of them numerically. They'll tell you how many you've finished, just not which ones. Currently, the only solution is to download an add-on that can do it for you, but they tend to only be able to log quests you've completed since installing them, and not any of the ones before that. I feel like I'm about to give up on my Loremaster title, but there is one shining hope on the horizon. I speak of: account-wide achievements. When Cataclysm hits, I already know I'm going to roll a Goblin alt, and I can make sure that I do everything right from the very beginning. Not to mention, of course, that the quests themselves will likely change with the expansion, meaning that Loremaster achievements will likely be reset, or moved to Feats of Strength and replaced with new ones for the old world anyway. But this is one of those simple conveniences I still can't believe hasn't made its way into the game just yet. What say you, readers? Wouldn't it make your life a whole lot easier?

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I've had a ton to keep my busy in WoW since dinging level 80 a couple of weeks ago. There's rep to grind, daily heroics to run and farming of the ToC to be had (building up my purple collection FTW). But on the side when I have a few moments (or hours) to spare, I've taken up exploring Azeroth. Perhaps it's not something that most players would have at the top of their priority list after hitting 80, but so far for me it's been a bit of a nostalgic way to re-visit the old world, run through parts I've never seen before, and earn some achievements in the process. Plus, now we have an even more compelling reason. With the imminent destruction of Azeroth in the Cataclysm, this could be the last time I see some of these zones before they are changed forever. Sure, I'll likely visit Orgrimmar and UC, but the surrounding areas? Probably not. And we still don't know what the expansion will mean for exploration achievements - if a zone is completely altered to the point of being split in two (I'm thinking Barrens), will the old exploration achievements be locked? The same could be said for questing in the Old World, but that's for a later conquest. Maybe there will be some middle ground on the issues, but I'd rather not take my chances. Anyhow, back on point. I started out in Kalimdor, from good ol' Durotar, where I had neglected to uncover Kolkar Crag. Then it was west to the grasslands of the Barrens, where my Zhevra visited her long-lost cousin. I worked my way west and then to the north, finishing off a couple of uncovered areas in each zone of Thousand Needles, Feralas, Mulgore, Desolace, Azshara, Stonetalon Mountains, Ashenvale, Felwood and Winterspring (and /love-ing every critter I see along the way). One of the high points: running into a pack of Worgen hiding out in Ashenvale and beating up on a few of them (good practice for future PvP fun). There also was Moonglade and Dark Shore, neither of which I had stepped foot in before. So far, I've finished up 14 of the 20 zones in Kalimdor, but I've still got a long ways to go before hitting that coveted Explorer title. It's easy to forget, when hidden away in the deep corners of Northrend, how vast and diverse Azeroth is. My secret pleasure - I've really enjoyed running into some of those humanoid tribes that you don't see too much of anymore: The Centaurs, Ogres, Furbolgs, Harpies and Wildkin of the world. I suppose Murlocs still are a pretty common sight, but I also made a point to run over top of every single murloc I came across, just to hear their gurgling battle cry while I galloped away. And more fun is yet to be had. I still have more nostalgia to come as I finish up Kalimdor, then head to the Eastern Kingdoms. Has anyone else taken to exploring lately? What about any other achievements that you want to get before the expansion? Don't worry if not - it seems that we'll still have quite a while before it comes out.

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The info just keeps on rolling in today. A week out from the rockstar event that is Blizzcon and we might have our first major leaks. Heartbourne has already clued us in on potential new class combinations, but our friends over at MMO-Champion seem to have found a whole lot more. Boubouille absolutely insists that none of this is speculation, and while I remain skeptical about his sources, his track record is proven. This is as close to gospel as we're going to get until we hear something officially official. So keep on reading to find out what we know (or think we know) so far. Be warned, though, spoilers are abound if you want to keep your sense of surprise. SPOILER WARNING Herein is a rough list of major content changes that we can expect to see in the next expansion:

• New Class Combinations - No new classes will be added to the game. Instead, existing races will be given access to classes that they never had before. It is currently unknown what classes will be available to the new races, however.
• New Level Cap - Surprisingly, it's only 85. This may fit in with a new philosophy of improving characters through gear instead of pure XP. Likewise, if the end-goal for WoW is 100, it leaves a little more space for successive expansions to grow.
• Azshara, Queen of the Naga The Cataclysm - This titular event, set in motion by Deathwing and Queen Azshara, will bring many changes to the existing content in the game, as well as open up several new ones.  Their motivations for unleashing such destruction upon the world may be in part due to those pesky insanity-inducing Old Gods.
• New Horde Race: Goblins - The Goblins have found their island home virtually destroyed by the events of the Cataclysm. Washing up on the shores of The Barrens, a quest line involving Thrall's capture (and subsequent rescue by the Goblin race) will explain how they ended up as the new consorts of the Horde. With their homeland gone, it's unclear whether or not we will get to visit Kezan, the island where the Goblin capital of Undermine exists.
• New Alliance Race: Worgen - The Greymane Wall, which separates Gilneas from Silverpine Forest, has been shattered by the Cataclysm. Bewildered from their self-imposed exile, the Worgen venture forth and find friends in the Alliance. It is unclear what the Goblin starting area may entail, but the Worgen will be receiving the Death Knight treatment. Gilneas will be a heavily-phased zone that will shuttle your character through the nation's history before unleashing them on the rest of Azeroth. Did I mention that Worgen do get to transform? That's right, you'll be able to shift from Human to Worgen at the click of a button, though we don't know if it will afford you any special abilities to do so.
• Azeroth Remade - Goblins and Worgen aren't the only ones who have felt the impact of this catastrophic event. Existing zones will be remade or phased in order to accommodate the current state of the world. The examples given include remaking Azshara into a 10-20 level area and splitting the Barrens into two distinct zones for players of different levels.
• New Areas - There will be no new continents introduced in the expansion, but instead, unreleased content in Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms will finally be filled in. In addition to the aforementioned opening of Gilneas, you can also expect to see modern-day Hyjal and Uldum. These are only examples and do not represent the entire breadth of fresh content that will no doubt be introduced.
• Mainland Flight - Restructuring the two core continents has allowed Blizzard to add flight to those zones that never had it. Now you can ride all the way from the Plaguelands to Booty Bay on you very own flying mount. Presumably, you will still need to take a boat or zeppelin to go from one continent to the other.
• Dungeons Remade - Onyxia was only the beginning. This does not preclude the addition of new 5-man dungeons or raid content, but many of the old instances will be retrofitted for players progressing from Level 80-85. Reportedly, we'll also be seeing Ragnaros again. It is not known how extensive the changes will end up being (new bosses/new graphics or merely upgraded stats on mobs and items).

That's a lot to digest and I'm honestly eager to see how everything fits together. There are some controversial ideas in there, as well as changes that players have been clamoring for year after year. In fact, a lot of it sounds like the kind of stuff that Blizzard employees have wanted to implement themselves, but have repeatedly insisted they haven't been working on. Phasing, as I previously proposed, will play a large role in the recreation of mainland Azeroth (self high-five!). By treading this path, however, I'm afraid there is also the chance of alienating a certain portion of the  player base who see this as merely reusing old content. That may or may not be the case, and we may have to wait another week to find out. I think it really depends on how fresh the revamped content ends up feeling. Will the graphics of many areas be significantly improved or changed? Will the new quest lines make it worth adventuring through old zones? Is this the vanilla WoW that we always wanted? Or will the new Azeroth be a whole lot like the old Azeroth? A yet-to-be-confirmed post on the Something Awful forums indicated huge, sweeping changes for the landscape, though. Thousand Needles flooded, many zones in absolute ruins, Orgrimmar sundered in two (with the introduction of a new Orc main city). The forums are private, but the summary has be re-posted on MMO-Champion. I'm sure you all have a lot to say about these revelations, so feel free to strike up a conversation in our comments section. I know I'll be watching it closely!

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One example of phased content: the Wrathgate event. The MMO is an odd beast. Like most games, or game series, it evolves and grows in expected ways over time. Players are provided with a bevy of new options or the graphics are given a shiny new coat of paint (especially if it's associated with a generational jump in hardware). But the online RPG is no moulting reptile. It can't simply shed its old skin. Expansions offer new content, but rarely do much for the old, so we're stuck with the less impressive aspects of the game, and the developers are consistently reminded by these ancient artifacts of their failings the first time around. I'm sure Blizzard would love to reshape the original continents as much as we players would like to see them do it, but the drain on resources would be absolutely massive. I know I've stated this in previous posts, but it entails so much more than a graphical overhaul. They'd have to reconsider how quests, dungeons, leveling, and other such balance-related aspects of the game are dealt with. What starts as one problem to deal with quickly spirals out of control. But let's be honest, who is it that wants to experience this content again? I'd wager it's largely people who are at the end game, and have been there for a very long time. Often, that means relegating yourself to a scant few zones worth of content, which, as we all know, can get boring very quickly. A first-time player should still have a lot of fun exploring the old world and those who are leveling alts likely want to progress through it as quickly as possible. Mainland Azeroth, specifically Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms, is the bread and butter of the Warcraft universe, though! It seems necessary to revisit and reinvigorate those areas so absolutely central to the lore. So, how do we do that? What can Blizzard do to persuade us to go back? Well, by moving forward, actually. Through the idea of phasing. It's already in the game, if you're looking for it. The go-to event whenever anyone talks about this sort of thing is the Wrathgate, and as great of a showcase as it might be, it doesn't really deal with the complexities of the concept's implementation.  Simply put, phasing allows parts of the world to look/act/behave differently for players at different stages of the game. The problem with Wrathgate is that it's mostly cosmetic: a player who hasn't completed the line will see a standing army and one who has will see, well, the aftermath. A better example to look towards, and perhaps a test bed for what we can expect looking forward (should Blizz choose to go down this road) is actually Icecrown Glacier. There are several questlines involving the Argent Crusade and Ebon Blade that slowly change certain parts of the zone, even opening up new questlines along the way (which otherwise wouldn't be available to players who haven't progressed that far yet). For phasing to truly be game-changing, it needs to be able to make sweeping changes to the player experience. What this all boils down to is this: why not phase the whole of Azeroth? If some world-changing event is ahead, make it so that level 80-90 players see a different kind of world. What if the Crossroads were in ruins or you suddenly had high-level mobs in the newbie zones? Those are simple examples, but they could scale with the amount of work Blizzard feels they want to put into it. It's the Battle for the Undercity on a much greater level! Of course, that does present some problems to overcome. Specifically, how two such versions of Azeroth can exist concurrently. Blizzard isn't completely shy about fudging the timeline (which would explain how Kael'Thas could exist as an uber raid boss in Tempest Keep and in his weaker, defeated form in Magister's Terrace at the same time), and you could argue that's necessary in a persistent-world MMO like Warcraft, but there are more practical concerns. For instance, would it be possible for a level 80+ character to return to the old version of Azeroth and how would that even be justified in the lore? What if they want to play with or help our some of their low-level buds, who they wouldn't be able to see in the phased version of the world? Would things like auction houses be connected across the great 4th-dimensional abyss? The disconnect between gameplay and practicality does eventually reach the point of becoming undesirable if you stretch players' suspension of disbelief too far. Nonetheless, I can think of at least one solution, as cliche as it might be: portals. WoW lore does have a few built-in fail safes for things like this. We already know there are alternate versions of Azeroth, like that of the Emerald Dream. And then there's the possibility of the Infinite Dragonflight finally finding success in corrupting the timeline, resulting in a completely different chain of events. Areas, or possibilities like these, can be accessed through special gateways opened up by the dragonflights in their attempt to restore order. What sorts of ideas might you readers have for this sort of thing? Is phasing a viable option? Would you be willing to excuse the lore to explore an alternate version of Azeroth at any cost, or should it have to jive with the existing story line? Let us know what you think in the comments section!

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The Dusty Lands Of Tanaris It's been a long time since I went traversing Azeroth, and the Outlands.  Normally we players are just trying to get from point A to point B in the fastest way possible.  We could be in a rush for a heroic run, trying to clean up our dailies, farming or even heading to a raid.  Outside pissing off the party or raid group, a few extra seconds don't matter.  Yet I, and probably we, race to each destination with reckless abandon, and a pair of blinders on.  A secondary effect of the just completed Midsummer Fire Festival was the removal of those blinders, and a re-discovered appreciation of the world I spend so much time in. In my continued obsession with non-combat pets I spent the better part of last week flying around Kalimdor, Northrend and Outland (and a little Eastern Kingdoms) in search of flames to urinate on and praise.  In doing so I was reintroduced to the scope of the Old World, something that was lost upon me after flying around Outland, and later Northrend.  If there's anything that can impress upon you the vastness of the old continents it is the inability to fly on your own.  If you thought flying around Northrend for the Argent Tournament dailies was bad, image a five, seven, even eleven minute flights.  Flights that you can't abandon when your mini map shows a precious mining/herbalism node.  Oh the pain. A Midsummer's Desecration I'm not hear to talk about the pain though, it's just hard to forget.  What we are here to talk about is the lush locales, the cohesive zones and traversing landscapes.  Traveling through all four continents back-to-back is something I have never done, and likely wouldn't have if it wasn't for the Midsummer Fire Festival's second pet (that little bugger is the only reason I collected Burning Blossoms, and I am glad I did).  The trip down memory lane wasn't all bright spots though, it reminded me just how much I hated The Burning Crusade's zones.  The zones are so self-contained, so drastically different from those adjacent to themselves as to make one wonder how they could ever come together.  Then it hit me, the realization that my dislike for the Orc's homeland is misplaced. I don't see how I didn't come to this realization before, but the disjointed menagerie makes perfect sense.  After all, the Outland is a collection of fragments of Draenor's former glory.  It isn't a continent in the normal sense, it is what's left of a ruined world.  A stew of lands if you will.  I could be rationalizing, but it's a perfect explanation and something I should have seen long ago. After being steamrolled by blatantly overlooking a key piece of lore I headed to the lands of Northrend for additional easy blossoms.  Unlike Outland, Northrend reminded me a lot of the original continents and is likely why I was so drawn to the territories.  Blizzard did a wonderful job creating a barren wasteland for many of the zones, but the artists blended those expected areas with some diverse starting territories.  Only after getting used to the chill were we thrown into the cold, wind-shaped lands of Dragonblight and Icecrown. Swamp of Emo After collecting nearly enough flowers from the two expansions Solidsamm ported to Darnassus and began his trek through the Old World.  The little gnome trotted the streets of Astranaar, a former favorite raiding area of the Horde, clambered through the snow of Winterspring and sweat his body weight in Gadgetzan.  He even climbed aboard a boat to Feathermoon Stronghold in the lush oasis of Feralas.   Although the goal was getting to the fires, taking in the sites and sounds of the lands, all of them, were a nice flashback.  Even if it was a lot of wasted time.  Hopefully the upcoming expansion can pick up were the old world left off, vast, flowing, yet diverse, lands full of unassuming and aggressive beings. I never did get my drop off Ahune, but with my Captured Flame in the pet bag, and some nostalgia in my mind, I consider this year's Midsummer Fire Festival a small victory.  How many got the title and continue on your way to your Proto Drake?  Did anyone have their streak broken?  Enjoy the flights?

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A series of trademark requests that Blizzard Entertainment recently filed may indicate the possible name and lore of the next World of Warcraft expansion. Wednesday, Tumblr blogger Supererogatory revealed that Blizzard is seeking trademarks that would include computer games, paper-based products and online games with the name "Cataclysm." For all we know, that could be the name of Blizzard's super-secret project under development, a new MMO or something else completely unrelated to WoW. But given the name's relationship to the Maelstrom, some people (including myself) speculate that this could be the name for the next WoW expansion. There's been a great deal of speculation for a long while now that the next expansion will relate to the swirling vortex of power that lies between Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms, the Maelstrom. To refresh your memory, the Maelstrom was created in a huge world event at the end of the War of the Ancients, thousands of years ago. Often referred to as the Cataclysm or the Great Sundering, it all started with the destruction of the Well of Eternity. The giant explosion that this caused ripped Azeroth asunder, destroying most of the land mass (previously there was one giant continent, Kalimdor) and reshaping what little remained. In place of the Well of Eternity now lies the Maelstrom, a constant, thunderous reminder of the peaceful times that now are lost to the world. It also is implied that the giant storm is slowly drawing in the surrounding land masses. It could even eventually swallow all that remains of Azeroth. What more could you ask for in a conflict? Another noteworthy, though perhaps coincidental factor: WoW.com pointed out that the WoWcataclysm domain expired on June 26, the same day that the trademark requests were filed. Interesting. There also have been a lot of guesses that the next expansion could be related to the Emerald Dream, the realm of Dragon Aspect Ysera. That speculation was flamed by several blue posts that hinted at the area as a possibilty for future development, but I haven't seen any new, official mentions of that for at least a couple of years. Let's see if we can glean a little bit more information for what the Trademark would encompass by reading the details of the applications, which were filed June 26. According to the documents posted on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's website, the three requests are classified to cover:

• Computer game software and related instruction manuals and guides sold together as a unit; downloadable computer game software; interactive multimedia computer game program; mousepads
• Comic books, computer game strategy guides, trading cards, coloring books, adhesive stickers, rub-on transfers, notebooks, stationery-type portfolios, posters, greeting cards, calendars, instructional leaflets in the field of computer games, computer game instruction manuals, catalogs in the field of computer games, advertisement boards of paper or cardboard, photographs, art prints
• Entertainment services, namely, providing on-line computer games; providing computer games that may be accessed via a global computer network; and providing on-line information in the field of computer gaming entertainment

It certainly sounds like an MMO to me. So what does everyone else think? Would you be all for some maelstrom-based content for the next expansion? Do you think that's what all this information points to? What else do you think the trademarks could be for?

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With Yogg Saron having already been downed many times all over the world, there remain a few challenges from Patch 3.1 that have yet to be overcome. Wraith, an EU guild has managed to unlock the 10-man version of Algalon the Observer, the "True" final boss encounter of Ulduar by defeating the Assembly of Iron, Hodir, Thorim, Freya, and Mimiron, all on their hard modes. MMO-Champion has a multitude of screen shots courtesy of Wraith, along very few details about the fight, but it is being speculated that each raid has only one hour per day to attempt to defeat the boss. I've heard rumors that failing to defeat Algalon results in the destruction of Azeroth, though I can't help but feel that might be a bad move on Blizzard's part. I guess we could all escape to the Outland, though. Check out MMO-Champion's post for all of the crazy screen-shots, and leave your predictions on how long it might be until we see a world first Algalon kill.

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You know you're a WoW addict when... the lore of Azeroth and its wide cast of characters follows you into slumber. I have had many a night, usually after an action-packed evening of playing until I can't keep my eyes open any more, in which my main character continues her conquests in my mind, while my body is at rest. Unfortunately, usually when this happens, I can't remember all my awesomeness when I wake up. I just have a feeling that whatever Locomomo was up to, she kicked some serious tail. But there are a couple of dreams, at least, of which I retained hazy bits and pieces. The first time I remember dreaming about WoW also was when I had a terrible cold. I stayed home from work, and made a couple feeble attempts at playing. Each time, the game made me feel dizzy and even worse. So I gave up on that idea. But apparently even trying to play left an impression on my medicated and sleepy mind. Maybe it was the cold medicine; maybe it was withdrawal from leveling. Either way, my head hit the pillow, and I was seeing my rogue in double vision. Patches of neon colors swirled around her as she stun-locked a random, made-up giant with a combination of ambush, gouge, backstab, gouge, eviscerate. She may have been controlled by an out-of-it mind, but she still knew how to put up a decent fight. My other, more recent dream memory is even less clear. But I think I fought a really powerful, undead frost dragon. And single-handedly tore him to shreds. Looking back, I hypothesize that the wyrm could have been Sapphiron, who now haunts those unfortunate enough to disturb his lair in Naxxramas. Now just how my level 71 rogue could have taken him out on her own? That is her secret that she will carry to the grave. Or maybe the Spirit Healer. The biggest downside - when I wake up, all the experience I could have gained from such an epic encounter is wiped. Something that awesome could have taken me way past the level 80 cap. Old school, I'd be all the way to level 99. If only. Yes, there are many tell-tale signs of a WoW addict. And every now and then, I'll be detailing the symptoms here at Project Lore. So do you know someone who has been sleeping erratically or gurgling "Arthas..." while thrashing in his or her bed? Perhaps yourself, even? You know the cure: more WoW.

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So we’ve probably all heard by now of the infamous death grip bug. The one that drags unsuspecting duelists, PvP’ers and joyriders alike all the way across Azeroth and into a ghost ship in the nether realm. The music video-inspired footage and numerous threads on the WoW forums are hilarious enough to make basically any DK (and there are a lot) say, “I have GOT to try that.” But here’s the bad news: all the hype caught on, the bug caused GMs a lot of headaches and help tickets, and perpetrators now face warnings of getting banned. But all hope is not lost for those of us who want to have fun with what I would argue to be one of the most powerful abilities in the game. There are still plenty of options for death grip pwnage that don’t involve getting banned. And I’ve been running through a few of them to find the most thrilling. Option 1: Massive slaughter Nothing makes the somewhat overpowered DK revel in their glory better than death gripping a weakling and one-hitting their asses. This is a good option for those of us who play mostly PvE. So when you need a quick fix, run into whichever low-level area you’re closest to, and start pulling any gray beasts who have the misfortune of being close to a bloodthirsty DK. Unfortunately, the 35-second cool down can be a buzz kill. Not ideal. Option 2: PvP The best part of death grip is making your target come to you - whether they want to, or not. So when you see that little gnome trying to escape with the Horde flag: death grip!! There used to be a lot of complaints about death grip being broken for PvP play. But it seems players have simply adapted by rolling their own DKs. Now from what I've noticed, about half of all battleground players are Death Knights. Which leads to the next fun choice. Option 3: Double death grip!! With all the DKs running around battlegrounds, it’s not hard to see that sometimes two DKs of opposing factions will death grip each other at the same time. Imagine the scene in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire where Harry and Voldemort duel, their wands connect, and everything goes haywire. It’s JUST like that. Or close, anyways. The dual death grip sends you both flying through the air. And if you time it just right, you’ll unexpectedly land behind each other. Try it – you’ll be delighted. And there’s still endless possibilities to try out. Want to run around Northrend pulling all PvP members of the opposing faction off their flying mounts, just for kicks? By all means, have at it. Let me know how it goes. Just don’t do anything that I wouldn’t do. Especially not anything involving the boat on Booty Bay. *wink*

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