Project Lore

It's easy to become insulated when you write for a subject-specific site like Project Lore, surrounded by like-minded colleagues and readers whose clear interest in the topics at hand is evidenced through repeated page views and lengthy comment sections. But I have, and still do, inhabit other realms of the internet, many of which I've been a part of since long before wetting my feet in the World of Warcraft. There, a fan like myself comes under fire from care-bear-hating MMO elitists and console proselytizers, and that's just the gaming forums! I couldn't imagine, for a second, what undying vitriol might be slung my way in more "public" spheres. The same old arguments await me at every turn, variations on "who in their right mind would pay 15 bucks a month for this crap?" or "it's all just one big grind!" What's even more defeating is when the hate comes from lapsed players who chime in only to pat themselves on the back for leaving the game some months ago, as if they'd just successfully completed a marathon run of treatment at the Betty Ford Clinic. Even knowing that there are at least 11 million other people out there just like me, it's hard not to let the scathing commentary get you down sometimes. What are we WoW fanatics to do? How do we counter? Do we sag our shoulders and willfully take our lumps, or do we fight back? Well, scratch that last part. Fighting back on the interwebs will only invite more catcalls and mocking derision like "Warcraft is serious business lawl!" No, that may not be an amicable solution, but you can take solace in the following: Life, like Warcraft, is a grind. We all do it. We all go through the motions, day in and day out. "Grinding" is an integral, and inseperable, part of our working lives. Allow me to indulge in a couple of generic scenarios here:

You drive to your job in the morning, bleary-eyed and sipping coffee while trying not to get run over on the freeway. Eventually, you arrive at work, and are given a set number of rote tasks to complete that day. You've done them all a thousand times before, but hey, you're earning money right? Chances are you're working with a team, and you have to coordinate with them to get these things done. Once in awhile, you might have to go to a meeting or be given a new, interesting project to work on. At the end of the day, you hope that all of your efforts might someday result in a raise, promotion, or even just a nice pat on the back. The money you've earned is spent on living expenses, and if you have some leftover, you might be able to afford that new TV you've always wanted.

Now, take a look at this:

You get on your computer, bleary-eyed and slamming your energy drink of choice while trying to avoid the ire of your significant other. Eventually, you log into WoW and figure you might as well get your dailies out of the way. You've done them all a thousand times before, but hey, you're earning gold right? Chances are you're in a guild, and you might be doing some raiding tonight. Maybe you'll clear through to a new encounter or try some fresh content. At the end of the day, you hope that all your efforts might result in some tier gear, sweet epics, or even just a few DKP. The gold you've earned is spent on repair bills from all those wipes, but if you have some left over, maybe you can actually afford to enchant your equipment or purchase that bear mount you've always wanted.

By no means are these scenarios exemplary of every person or player, but I do think that there are common experiences shared between them. But if playing Warcraft (or, really, any other video game, MMO or not) is, at its basic level, so much like our daily lives, why do we find it to be so much fun? Isn't it meant to be escapism? I'd like to quote the wonderful popular science author Steven Johnson from his book Everything Bad Is Good For You:

The dirty little secret of gaming is how much time you spend not having fun... if this is mindless escapism, it's a strangely masochistic version. Who wants to escape to a world that irritates you 90 percent of the time?

This took me aback when I first read it several years ago. I've been playing video games for most of my 25 years, but not until then did I realize that playing it truly amounted to so much work. He also provides an anecdote, which is too long to reproduce here, but can be summed up as an account of a construction worker who willingly spent months in the virtual world of Ultima Online leveling up his blacksmithing (and selling the produced wares), just so he could afford a better in-game house. I can hear cries of "madness!" and "waste of money!" coming from the far reaches of the internet now. But you and I, WoW players, do the very same thing every day (and the rest of the world does, too, whether they care to admit it or not). We parade our avatars around Azeroth, spending unquantifiable amounts of time doing the most seemingly mundane activities for the simple chance to make them look cooler. And why? The easy, and inevitable answer is: to increase the size of our e-penis. That construction worker, when asked the same question, replied with, "Well, it's not work if you enjoy it." A long, perhaps more satisfying answer, is given by Johnson himself. He goes on for quite awhile talking about dopamine and the reward center of the brain, an explanation that seems to ring true. Critics will cry that it's just further justification for MMOs being nothing more than an addictive drug, but that would be willfully ignoring that dopamine can produce positive reinforcement and applies to the "good feeling" that comes from accomplishing any task. What video games do, in a sense, is give us a shortcut to the rewards we desire. The satisfaction of killing Arthas, just like earning a promotion at work, may yet be a long way off, but at least in WoW we're treated to plenty of smaller pleasures along the way: completing a quest, a new piece of gear, an honor kill in PvP, downing a boss. Each and every turn we take in the game is a chance to earn a new reward. MMOs, in particular, promise a potentially limitless or expanding number of rewards, unlike your typical console game, which often has a concrete endpoint. We discuss Blizzard's development philosophy a lot here on Project Lore. From all of the changes we've seen to leveling and bosses, gear acquisition and the like, it's clear that they've been paying attention. Sure, those of us who've been playing the game longer will continue to balk at newbies getting a free pass on parts of the game we had to slog through, but that's a feeling that comes from latent jealousy. If we'd been afforded the same conveniences from the get-go, we'd heartily lap it up, wouldn't we? Rewards are wonderful, and they make us feel good, but I'd like to add some insight of my own: despite our frustrations, and despite lashing out at the developers, many of us enjoy grinding on some level because it is work. We play WoW because its underlying structure is intimately familiar to us, and that familiarity is comforting. But there's another wrinkle: it's work on our own terms. Normally a slave to the greater aspects of life that plague us all, World of Warcraft gives us the opportunity to have some control over what we do and where we go; what tasks to complete, in what order to complete them, and the ability to stop when you feel like you've accomplished enough. Of course, all of this rests on top of the basic fact that it is escapism. We can travel in different circles, and talk to different people, and engage in a world that is different from own in just as many ways as it is similar. To work is to grind, and to grind is to play. Next time an internet bully gives you a hard time about playing WoW, tell them to stick that in their craw and chew on it (or maybe it can just be our little secret!). As usual, thoughts or opinions are very much welcome. If you've made it this far, I'd like to think you have something to say on the subject, so please chime in and post in the comment section below!

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Lilyterrain's final adventures in Azeroth went out with a whimper, or perhaps a fart.  Barely hours into her career as a hunter, sans pet taming abilities, and the character was left for dead, never to be seen again.  I chalked up the loss of a subscriber to Blizzard's inability to grab Lesley with a compelling story in the early going.  Sure there were quests for her to tackle, but few of them were more than a collection or kill quest, let alone interesting enough to grasp her brain stem and demand its undivided attention. Due to the very nature of the early levels, how fast you get out of them, it makes sense that Blizzard didn't spend an obscene amount of time creating memorable stories.  Why invest money into something that players will complete in a few hours?  To leave a good impression on new characters of course!  Leave it to a commentator to prove myself, and various other readers, wrong, at least partially.  {swc}Ebek.Frostblade (known in the future as Ebek) was the first to point out that there is a sense of cohesion in the opening territories of the game. Paraphrasing from the comment:

• Humans:  Initially the race is worried about a Kobold threat, only to realize that VanCleef and the Defias Brotherhood, a disenfranchised group of blue-collar workers that rebuilt Stormwind, are far more troublesome.  Arguably the earliest, least subtle and best starting chain in the game.  WoW.com & WoWWiki have fantastic wrap-ups of the whole ordeal, one that stretched into vanilla WoW's endgame.
• Dwarves:  Players will continue the civil war with the Dark Iron clan while battling pockets of Trolls in their lands.
• Gnomes:  No longer secretly battling the Troggs that managed to take over Gnomeregan.  Even though the race is playable there is not much known about Gnomish culture outside their affinity for invention.  Chalk it up to the destruction of their capital city, which caused the pint-sized race to be scattered across the lands.  Starting alongside the Dwarves, you'll likely encounter a mess of trolls and dark iron mobs.
• Night Elves:  Young Night Elves battle with demons attempting to taint nature, an aspect the Night Elves hold dear.  Sound familiar?
• Draenei:  The spacegoats attempt to make contact with the rest of the Alliance while they recover their own people from the crash and clean-up the ecosystem that their ship, Exodar, tainted with foreign energies.  The story actually makes the MMO staple kill and gather quests quite logical.
• Orcs:  Orcs continue to fight for survival in Azeroth, which to many of the clans means defeating the Shadow Council that have tainted and controlled the noble creatures.
• Trolls:  The most diverse, and least played, race remains close to the Orcs who rescued them.  Thus, you pretty much go through the same things as the green skins.
• Tauren:  The Horde's nature lovers will tackle the wild bristlebacks before moving on to two factions they believe are defiling the world, the Venture Company and Bael'Dun.  Tauren players enjoy the most impressive early experiences for the Horde thanks to quest pacing, introduction to reoccurring factions and the art design of the opening lands.
• Undead:  In a twisted variation of the Draenei's starting quest (although this obviously came first), the Undead are also trying to find their place in the world.  Severely isolated from their un-trusting allies of the Horde, the Undead are left alone to fight pockets of the Alliance sooner than any other race.  As if that weren't bad enough, members of The Forsaken remain in constant struggle against their former master, the Lich King, and his Scourge.
• Blood Elves:  Although destroyed by Arthas during his initial campaign across Azeroth, the area around Silvermoon City is strikingly gorgeous.  The rapid rebuilding of the once decimated land is thanks to the race's heavy use of magic.   However, players will quickly come across numerous abominations of the magical kind in the fabled woods.

Ebek does have a point.  There is a semblance of a story in each of these zones, but most of them are entirely unremarkable and that is the issue.  Generally speaking, the content is little more than fleeting connections to land that surrounds your "birth."  Aside from the human struggles with Van Cleef, a questline that eventually leads you to Onyxia, not a single opening story will follow you past level 10.  The homogeneous experiences also offer little incentive to start alts outside of class boredom or to fill a role in a guild. Why is it that the humans alone are guided into such an awesome questline?  The rest of us struggle with monotonous grinding, while they are off saving diplomats and putting down rebellion.  Heck, for the most part the connections between the early racial quests are far to subtle to reconize while you are doing them!  We are hit with so much information up front, especially new players, that subtlety isn't the best route. The next time Blizzard adds a playable race (Pandaren please) I want to see two changes.  Mostly, I want the player to be handed a lengthy quest chain that will follow him throughout the game till the late levels.  Rather than forcing players to bounce all over creation, phase the chain so it can be completed in numerous towns.  Roaming NPCs anyone?  As for the chain's direction, it should be used to show the history of the applicable race at the get go, before moving in the direction of the current main conflict (ie Arthas for Wrath).  Second, the opening racial cinematic should set the stage for the quest clearly.  If Blizzard had grabbed Ms. iTZKooPA's attention with the opening machinima, shown her race's importance to her from the start and strung her along with interesting plot points as she became accustomed to the game, I think she'd still be playing instead of labeling MMORPGs as a chore.

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Whew, long walk! Glad I brought some snacks! I was recently told by our readers (several times, and with gusto), that if I'm so damn tired of raid content, why don't I go try out one of the other multitude of things to do in WoW? Well, I'll have you know that leveling alts, as banal as it can be at times, is one of my hobbies, and this post is proof positive! Allow me to take you on the mystical journey of a mage's life from a mana-limp bolt-slinger to face-wrecking powerhouse. Geez, that's a lot of hyphens. Now, let me throw out a couple warnings before I continue. I know I'm new around these parts, and there's a good chance this stuff has been covered before, but I do hope you enjoy my, er... unique slant on things. The other issue, which stems from the same basic problem, is that my mage is actually already level 38. Ideally, I would've liked to start this article at square one, but I'm not about to reverse all my progress just for that. So what I want to do is talk about what I've learned so far. I started off, like all Trolls, in the Valley of Trials. I tend to play a Troll whenever I get the chance; they're pretty awesome, and since they're the least played race in the game, I'm always up for increasing the server population. Drawback? Lack of shoes. I'll never have cool-looking kicks. The beginning levels were easy enough, especially since I suited Forcekin (yes, that's his name) up with a couple heirloom pieces: [Tattered Dreadmist Mantle] [Discerning Eye of the Beast] But even with the buffs these items provided, it was evident early on that mana would be a problem. I'd always heard that about mages and dreaded dealing with it myself. At 38, I'm happy to admit that things are improving, but prepare to grind out your first thirty-or-so levels like a sloth on Sunday. Taking a time-out to drink and eat after every pull or two really put a damper on my motivation (and its even more annoying when you have to stock up every time you log on), but I kept reminding myself that one day I'd be popping crits like a bag of Orville Redenbacher and destroying mobs before they even get within spitting range. A pleasant surprise came from how well my mage was able to take his lumps (when the enemies do manage to close in on you). Ice Armor, Mana Shield, Elemental Wards, and even Dampen Magic can take you far when spells like Polymorph and Frost Nova fail to keep the baddies at bay. And, of course, there's always Blink for getting your keister just out of harm's way. Indeed, the mage's repertoire of mitigation and avoidance skills is first-class. I chose to level as Frost spec in order to take advantage of the slow-down effects, and they've served me well so far, but I was initially disappointed in the lack of damage being dealt. For me, leveling an alt is a race to the top, so I often don't bother with group quests or dungeon runs unless it happens to be with a fellow guildie or I find myself in the right place at the right time. So, aside from the heirloom equipment, I've had very little to increase my crit chance -- no blues, no enchants, and I haven't even slotted any glyphs yet. But in my early 30s, I decided to go back and look at what Frost had to offer and found a magic combination I'm surprised I didn't see at first. I specced out of Cold Snap (boy was that a mistake at this level) and put a few points into the first-tier talent Frostbite. Combine that with Shatter, and you've got a 15% chance to increase your crit against a target by a full 50% when both talents are maxed out! This also applies to any other time a mob might be frozen, as with Frost Nova. Really nothing like flash freezing a bunch of mobs as you proceed to rain down some icy armageddon in the form of Blizzard. This probably seems like grade school for any mage in the know, but things really started picking up for me at that point. It even helped with my chronic mana problems! More crits per point of mana = less mana spent. Math is not my strong point, but even I can dig that brand of algebra. So, I'd have to say I'm in a pretty good spot with my frosty mage wonder. Being able to skirt around hapless mobs whilst nuking them in the face is getting to be pretty enjoyable. Unfortunately, I'm at that part of the game where, at least for a Horde player, there's a lot of running around to do. I have yet to make the long journey to Badlands or Swamp of Sorrows and I've still got a boatload of quests in Stranglethorn to complete. Not to mention that Tanaris, Hinterlands, and Feralas are all on the horizon. And all my mage trainers want me to hotfoot it to Duskwallow Marsh for some reason! But, hey, that's where a Mage truly shines. Portals anyone? I'd like to continue updating everyone on my progress, if you'll have me, but in the meantime, I'm curious as to what kinds of experiences Project Lore readers have had leveling their own mages. Did you make any of the same stupid mistakes I did? Attempt to level as a different spec? Find the constant picnicking too much of a hassle or did the crazy damage co-efficients see you through to the end?

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Fresh on the heels of my post about cool things to explore in the old world, I thought I would take a moment to highlight one of the more interesting ones: Stratholme. I will say this now, I am extremely lucky. I received the Baron mount on my 4th attempt. For those of you who don’t know what that means (I was surprised to learn how many are unfamiliar), let me explain what I am talking about. The Baron mount, or The Deathcharger's Reins, is an epic ground mount that drops from the final boss of Stratholme’s dead side: Baron Rivendare. It has a 1 in 100 drop rate. This has been greatly increase recently as it used to be 1 in 1,000 and 1 in 5,000 before that. Now that it exists in the world of attainability, lots of people spend time farming for this unique mount. Doing the “Baron Run” is not only a great way to get Argent Dawn rep for those of you going for Argent Champion (be sure you have your Argent Dawn Commission equipped!), but there is that great carrot of a mount at the end to keep you grinding away. Stratholme is a level 60 instance, and can be easily soloed by level 80 characters, and with a little more work if you are 70+. If done correctly the Baron run can be completed very quickly, with some able to do it in under 10 minutes. The easiest place to start is at the service entrance, far to the east of the main entrance in Eastern Plaguelands. To do this you must have The Key to the City. If you do not have the key, simply go in the front. You can also have somebody else open the gate for you, or even pick the lock if you have the ability. Once inside, make sure you kill Magistrate Barthilas as this will make future runs much simpler! Trash is packed tight in Stratholme, so you best policy is to kill things as soon as you aggro them so they don’t pull other mobs. That being said, a vast majority of the trash is completely skippable due to a very small aggro radius, especially for level 80s. In order to get access to Baron Rivendare, there are 3 bosses that must first be killed: Baroness Anastari, Maleki the Pallid, and Nerub'enkan. None of these bosses should present a challenge at high level, just make sure you enter their temples after the boss dies and kill all of the acolytes. You can find a great map of where to find these guys at Wowhead. Once the acolytes are dead you will gain access to a new area full of abominations. These must all be killed in order for the door to Rivendare’s room to be opened. It is good practice to save one for last, and kill him in front of the door to the Baron's chamber. That way, you can run in before the door shuts. Once this happens you have one more boss to kill: Ramstein The Gorger. Get him down and go kill the Baron! The run is quick, and I wish you luck on the drop! If you aren't lucky enough to get the mount, be sure and pick up all the loot, as it can be sold for a suprising amount of gold.

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Way back when I started here at ProjectLore.com I was all giddy over a new engineering pattern that showed up on the Wrath of the Lich King Beta. The Mechano-hog (Horde) or Mekineer's Chopper (Alliance) infatuated me with its ridiculous clunkiness , gnomish features and lifelong dream to be part of a biker gang.  We should also factor in the hilarious Predator reference that comes via the accompanying achievement, Get to the Choppa!

I had been waiting to get on this bike since Wrath launched, but its insanely steep price and my incredibly slow grind to level 80 have delayed me severely. I am underselling the price when I say steep though. The bike is on the Auction House for downright ludicrous prices, well over 10,000 gold the last few times I have checked.  I am not poor but in this economy I find it difficult to even spend virtual money.

Being an engie, Solidsamm has an alternate route, making it himself. This would require a crapload of money spent to level the profession (see link above), then a boatload of time spent getting the required materials. Lastly, a small purse full of money and time spent rep-grinding to pick up the pattern itself. All of this to ride around in a spiffy hog, that can't fly.  At the moment my time is better spent on other things, causing me to go with option three, the passenger's seat. Shotgun!

While participating in yesterday's Heroic Daily, I noticed my tank had pulled out his shiny new Hog, complete with PWN license plate. As I ran up to him to get a free ride click the green arrow, a party member dove in before me. Being the little knee biter that I am, I harassed the paladin until he got out of the sidecar and allowed me to navigate. After all, I did call shotgun.

To my surprise, Blizzard actually intended the person in the sidecar to navigate. Once belted in, I noticed a scroll of parchment placed in front of my character. On it was a map of Kalimdor. The map wouldn't help in Stratholme (Lordaeron is part of the Eastern Kingdoms) but I loved the small detail nonetheless. It is the little things Blizzard adds that make their titles more enjoyable.

Although we didn't succeed in completing the timed event (I blame Arthas and his snail pace), I did score some loot. Sadly, it was two new pairs of gloves, but they may both be used. Until I can get my hit rating up to something respectable, the Handwraps of Preserved History are my new gloves. Bile-Cured Gloves should make an appearance when I begin to approach the the hit cap. This is all assuming both pairs aren't replaced by then.

I would say that Solidsamm had quite a productive weekend. Scored a few pieces of new loot, got more than a dozen Emblems of Heroism, over twenty Stone Keeper's Shards, a good amount of reputation and his first ride in Wrath's version of the ROFLCopter.  He also got a sad reminder of his sister's lack of playtime. According to the returned mail he received from Solidsagart, I haven't paid much attention to her in 30 days!

The irony of the whole situation was that as I oogled that glorious chopper, my buddy went on to explain that he wanted my Mechanostrider...Anyone else manage to have a productive weekend in Azeroth?

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Yes, I dinged while working on Sons of Hodir

Wrath of the Lich King's PvE content may be easy compared to The Burning Crusade, but there remains a line of progression.  For instance, hitting level 80 does not mean you should immediately jump into one of the many heroic dungeons.  With my long weekend, I figured I could get a bunch of heroics under my belt seeing as I have finally hit level 80 (DING!).  My old warrior buddy set me straight in only the way he can, through ridicule and yelling. I still have a lot of gear from Season 2, Karazhan and high level crafted items equipped and haven't seen many alternatives.  This is why I was thinking about banging out a dozen or so heroics with my free day.  After the text-lashing, I checked in with WoWHead to see just how much my gear could be upgraded through non-heroics.  Turns out to be a crapload.  Nearly every dungeon from Gundrak on has some sort of an upgrade, incremental and not so incremental.  The only thing that they lack is a pair of quick daggers for my Mutilate build.  Guess I will be sticking with old trusty for awhile longer. Rather than diving into the ranks of heroic runners, I have taken the advice of my friend (although I will never admit it to him) and segued to the non-heroic instances for the moment.  By the end of the day I will have run over a dozen non-heroic dungeons, and hopefully, bumped by gear into the next level.  But damn if I don't want a new off-hand dagger. Doing non-heroics before jumping to heroics may seem like an obvious notion to many of you, but I have run across countless people in the non-heroics who are barely geared for them, let alone the more difficult flavor of the dungeon.  Even many of my guild mates tried to make the leap from level 79 to heroics.  The better geared members were able to roll with the punches, but just as many had to be replaced during the instance.  From our anecdotal evidence, anyone decked out in SSC gear or better, with some Wrath gear mixed in there, was more than ready for heroics. Nice, just found a group for Halls of Lightning, off to shiv some baddies from Nordic lore.  This will be my first run at Loken, hopefully he is kind enough to drop his hood.  For those still leveling, do all the heroic runners a favor, check out which dungeons have gear you need and hit them up first.  My tank is sick of out DPSing other party members in heroics... How many of you had the patience to gear up before attempting your first heroics?  For those that just dove right in, what was your gear like and how did you do?

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Well it has come down to this, the final level. I am fairly certain that I am going to be the last player at ProjectLore to hit level 80, but in all fairness, they play the game for a job. I write about the game for my job. My original goal was to hit the level before the holidays, enabling me to get some raiding in before the new year. Then it was to have it done before my birthday, which was yesterday (Thanks for the awesome weekend Lesley). I guess all those trolls are right, I do fail in an epic manner. New goal equals this week!

I may not have hit 80, but over the weekend I busted into my final stretch to immortalizing SolidSamm as one of the millions of toons to hit the level cap. After watching my second to last ding go off, I quietly logged out of the game and pondered his immediate future. On recommendations from friends and guildies, the little rogue will skip out on all of the quests for the lower zones, heading straight to Storm Peaks and Icecrown to finish out the experience bar.

Many of you may be wondering why a level 79 character hasn't already been in these zones, and that is a legitimate question. Being a hardcore PvEer, I have been tackling every quest I have come across, interesting or not. No ? has gone unanswered as of level 79. Due to this incessant questing, I spent most of my time in the lowbie zones – Borean Tundra, Howling Fjord, Grizzly Hills, Zul'Drak – going wherever those NPCs lead me. With 80 coming in just a few hours and my guild waiting for me to join the raiding ranks, I am abandoning Dragonblight and delaying my personal quest to complete all of Northrend's quests, in favor of starting my Sons of Hodir questline for the shoulder enchant.

Don't worry though, my escapades won't stop me from reporting on any fun quests that I came across. Icecrown's many phasing quests are supposed to be awesome and I will be running through them in short order. On top of that, I do plan on returning to questing between my reputation farming, heroic runs and raiding.  Those of you in my boat, how do you plan on heading to 80?  Do you have any special celebrations for when you join the ranks of the raiding elite?

Before I go, I have to mention Blizzard's newest WoW product, the The Cinematic Art of World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King. When I originally heard about the book, I figured it was another cash grab by Activision-Blizzard, but after previewing the first chapter, they had me sold. Hopefully some of our thoughts on the cinematic are confirmed.

P.S. Amazon is offering a nice discount on the book right now.

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I first recall hearing about the Faceless Ones – in World of Warcraft - around the time of Ahn'Qiraj and its faction's leader, C'Thun. While I can not recall why they came up in this context exactly, I assume it was because of the link between Forgotten Ones leading the Faceless Ones. No, C'thun isn't a Forgotten One, he is an Old God, but he looks a lot like the Forgotten Ones from Warcraft 3. Anyways, today isn't a day to dive into their lore, mainly because the topic could take more than a day to cover! Instead, I want to talk about my first interaction with the Faceless Ones via WoW.

While grinding my way to level 80 I skipped over one instance for some time, Ahn'kahet: The Old Kingdom. I wasn't dodging Herald Volazj or anything like that.  In fact, I much wanted to meet the oddly proportioned end boss, but I could just never get a group going, PUG or otherwise. Finally, many levels over the suggested range and at a time when I logged in to “play for 30 minutes,” I got invited to a party for OK and couldn't refuse. The fact of the matter is that after killing members of the Lich King's Scourge, decimating any spider mob is on the top of my list. I hate spiders, but I love their fangs and femurs.

The following contains ***SPOILERS*** for boss encounters. You have been warned.

The instance is pretty standard fare, feeling much like the earlier Azjol-Nerub. After replacing the tank due to a few bad pulls early on, we breezed through the cobwebbed corridors and on to meet the Faceless Ones and their leader, Herald Volazj. The fight is tank-and-spank with a substantial twist at 66 and 33 percent. At those designated intervals, Volazj will cast a debuff across the whole party. The debuff is quite frankly best one since Vaelastraz in Blackwing Lair, and possibly the best ever.

For the lore nuts, this gives us another link to the use of insanity and C'Thun for the Lovecraft connection.  Although I may be stretching it there since the evil eye is not a Forgotten One.

The spell makes use of the phasing design, showing each party member a slightly different scene. Each player's view has the rest of their party turn on them, playing their previous roles only now you are the target. Before you can get back to the boss fight (or help the slower DPSers) you must dispatch the shades of your friends.

***SPOILER OVER***

The encounter's design saved the instance from being run of the mill.  Launching it ahead of the insanely short Azjol-Nerub and into the realm of fun instances, if only for the gimmick. If you haven't been there already, be sure to hit it up as soon as possible, it is another aspect in WoW that everyone should experience.

Personally, I think the guys are going to go nuts when they finally get to The Old Kingdom. Hopefully someone is new to the instance when they film it so we can see the raw reaction.

Past that, lets get some more Faceless Ones in WoW now that we have opened up the Nerubian empire. I do hear there are some in Icecrown's lands, hopefully they come with some solid lore to boot.

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If you look at him hard enough, he will die.

If you do a quick Google search of Escort Quests and filter through all the links to guides, the next group of articles you are sure to find is people complaining. Gamers have been QQing about escort quests since they were introduced into the video game industry so many years ago. There is not a single factor that makes them annoying, rather it is a cavalcade. Pointless backstory and ridiculous requests for the escort, random mob spawns, atrocious pathing (scripted or unscripted), and let us not forget, how incredibly slow they can be. This is all compounded a few times if you happen to be on a PvP server, as getting ganked at any point in time will cause you to fail the quest. But PvP does come with the territory.

As I have progressed through Wrath's various quests, I have not come across too many escorts. Not nearly as many as vanilla WoW and less than The Burning Crusade. So I decided to give them another try.  To be completely honest, they weren't annoying on the usual scale. There was a reason for the escort - lost, stranded in Scourge infested areas, dieing, tagged along with you to help – and most pathing issues were resolved by having the NPC use the /follow command. Most importantly, they moved at your pace, and waited for you if you stopped to gather something.

I found a new annoyance though, NPCs that follow you that possess little to no health. Generally speaking, only Rogues and Druids are likely to come across this with much frequency. Initially I just thought it was the one NPC, but I later ran into another and another. Nass the deaf, blind and dumb NPC, was the latest NPC inflicted with the inability to take a hit. He is sent with you to collect Hair samples from Trolls in the colorfully named Kickin' Nass and Takin' Manes quest.

Being a Rogue, I stealth around as I wait for the opportune moment to attack, often opening with a Pick Pocket before I Garrote, if I can. The problem I have with Wrath's new fangled helper/escort quests is that these mobs pull aggro and then die in a few hits. If I fail to open my assault quickly then back to Stefan Vadu I go because I “lost” Nass.

Sorry for the additional QQ, but I am here to point out the good quests along with the annoying ones. Despite Nass' frail nature, the quest text is more than hilarious, referencing a few different cultural lines. Seriously Nass, everyone knows that Stamina is the most important stat to stack!

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What, no meal with this flight?

Before Wrath hit, I admitted that I was awaiting its release far more than its predecessor, The Burning Crusade. Blizzard Entertainment planned to do things with The Burning Crusade that I just did not agree with. And if you ever state a fact along those lines in General Chat, you'll know that one of the first responses you will receive is “Quit if you don't like it.” The thing is, I actually did.

I was only gone a few months, but I tried to show my disdain for some of their choices by slightly lowering their income. I highly doubt they noticed. Shortly after my return, solid details of Wrath started pouring onto the Internet, but I only needed one detail, that the Lich King would be in the expansion. Once the storyline was revealed to include and extend Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne's theme, I was as good as signed up. The other stuff was just icing.

The quest designers really, I mean REALLY wanted players to understand what is going on in Northrend. One would have to be incredibly feeble-minded (or adverse to questing) not to see that Arthas, aka The Lich King, has his talons in everything and sees all.

While putzing around Zul'Drak I picked up the Unliving Choker from a random mob. During my routine vendoring of my junk, I realized that it was actually a quest item that begins the Betrayal quest line. The chance at spying on the Scourge, by disguising myself as one, was enough of a motivator to send me off on my way. The Achievement hungry will be happy to know that it is one part of a two quest chain Achievement for Zul'Drak.

/me spams Vanish

The chain is much longer than that of the Storm Giant's, but to be honest, the gameplay isn't as cool. The chain lacks the destructive qualities of Gymer, but makes up for it in story, which Gymer severely lacked. If only the designers could have merged the strengths of both. Zul'Drak has already hit me with two chains that I have loved enough to highlight here. Safe to say that it is a pretty solid zone, and from what I am told, Icecrown only gets better. Can't wait.

Towards the middle of the chain it becomes abundantly clear why the chain is called what it is. The twist – if you can really call it that – reminded me of something a great man once said “Ah, curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!”

I miss that show.

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