Project Lore

Making the trek to Ahune should be a lot easier this year.A new version of Patch 3.3.3 hit the PTR today. To be completely honest, there's not a whole lot in this build that we haven't already tipped you off to. From the new holiday boss mechanics to the class changes hinted on Facebook last night, it's all there. 

But if you still need a quick run-down of what's been modified in 11599, here are some highlights:

• Holiday bosses can now only be fought by queuing up through the Dungeon Finder system or special NPCs (likely to be found in major cities). As a result, the previous requirements for summoning these bosses has been removed.
• Death Knights' Chains of Ice now automatically inflicts Frost Fever.
• Druids' Nature's Grasp spell now has 3 charges.
• Hunters' Ferocious Inspiration is now an aura.
• Warriors' Vitality talent now buffs Stamina by 3/6/9%.

The rest of the details, including more class changes, can be found after the jump!

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The new build brings several changes, but we still have to wait for the Halls of Reflection. It looks like that little bit of extra maintenance on the PTR today wasn't just for show, as a new build of 3.3 has been deployed on the test realms. Unfortunately, this one doesn't seem to be quite as substantial as the first two, as there seem to be no new instances to run through. Part of me wonders if they'll just keep Halls of Reflection internal for the duration of the testing period in order to preserve the secrecy of whatever events might transpire there. But that doesn't mean there aren't any new or interesting changes. Here are the updated patch notes:

Druid

• Rebirth: The cooldown on this spell has been lowered from 20 minutes down to 10 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas.
• Gift of the Earthmother: Redesigned. This talent now increases spell haste by 2/4/6/8/10% instead of its previous effect.

Hunter

• Call Stabled Pet: Cooldown reduced from 30 minutes to 5 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas.

Mage

• Improved Scorch: The debuff from this talent no longer stacks, and instead can apply the full effect from a single cast of Scorch.

Priest

• Power Word: Shield; This spell can now be cast on non-raid/party friendly targets.
• Improved Devouring Plague: This spell now deals 10/20/30% of its total periodic effect instantly, up from 5/10/15%.
• Shadowform: This talent also now causes Devouring Plague, Shadow Word: Pain, and Vampiric Touch to benefit from haste. Both the period length and the duration of these spells will be reduced by haste. In addition, the mana cost has been reduced from 32% to 13% of base mana.
• Vampiric Embrace: This ability is now provides a 30-minute buff that cannot be dispelled, instead of a target debuff.

Shaman

• Reincarnation: The cooldown on this spell has been lowered from 60 minutes down to 50 minutes (Improved Reincarnation will continue to lower the cooldown by 10/20 minutes).

Warlock

• Create Soulstone: The cooldown on this spell and duration of its buff have been lowered from 30 minutes down to 15 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas.
• Decimation: Redesigned. When Shadowbolt, Incinerate or Soul Fire hit a target that is at or below 35% health, the cast time of Soul Fire is reduced by 20/40% for 8 seconds. Soul Fires cast under the effect of Decimation cost no shards.
• Molten Core: Redesigned. Shadow spells and damage-over-time effects have a 12% chance to increase the damage done by Incinerate by 5/10/15% and Soul Fire by 4/7/10% for 12 seconds. In addition, Molten Core now has a new spell effect.

User Interface

• Non spell-based tracking now persists through logout.
• Any party member may mark raid targets.
• Users will be warned when their talents are reset due to a new patch.
• “/Settitle” command has been added.
• Instant quest text is on by default.
• “Tentative” status added for calendar responses.
• Players below level 10 may not join raids.
• Ignore list expanded to 50 to match the friends list.
• Unit frames added for special encounters.
• Interface element added next to the mini-map to show what dungeon you are in (ex: 10- and 25-player Heroic dungeons marked with a skull).
• Experience earned for a quest will display in the Quest Rewards section.
• Confirmation box added when buying stable slots.
• Macro Changes

Symbol “@” added as a synonym for “target=”;. For example, “/cast [@focus] Flash Heal”. New macro conditionals: “vehicleui” (if the player has a vehicle UI) and “unithasvehicleui” (if the target of the macro has a vehicle UI). Character and Creature Nameplates

• The range at which players can see nameplates has been significantly expanded.
• You can no longer see nameplates through objects which block line of sight.

As long as you are able to peer through the doorway of a room, you will see nameplates of characters and creatures in that room. Pillars and bridges in Arenas will not hide friendly or enemy nameplates.

• Totem nameplates can be toggled off under “PRODUCTION” settings via “Interface Options” on the test realms.
• Instead of nameplates for large groups of players or creatures trying to sort themselves, they will now overlap. This functionality can be toggled off under “PRODUCTION” settings via “Interface Options” on the test realms.

Addon Author Changes

• “registerForClicks” added to xml buttons.
• “MouseIsOver” has been converted to a “C” function for increased efficiency (e.g. /dump PlayerFrame:IsMouseOver() ).
• When an addon file is loaded, the addon name and an addon table are passed to the file through ‘…’. The same addon table is passed to every file loaded by a particular TOC file (example at the top of a Lua file: “local addonName, addonTable = …;”.
• “motionScriptsWhileDisabled” attribute added to buttons. This allows “OnEnter”; and “OnLeave”; to fire while the button is disabled.
• “GetFileHeight()” and “GetFileWidth()” added to Texture objects. 0 is returned if no texture file is associated with the texture.
• You can now query for a list of completed quests with “QueryQuestsCompleted()” then wait for the “QUEST_QUERY_COMPLETE” event, and call “GetQuestsCompleted(<luatable>)”.

As you can see, several spells have been redesigned (and I'm personally pretty happy about the reduced cooldown on Rebirth), but some of the most exciting changes are coming to the User Interface. Though allowing anybody in your party to mark targets may seem like trouble waiting to happen for an unruly group, it should be quite beneficial for those that know how to control themselves. It takes some of the sweat of the tank or raid/party leader if other people can be designated to mark targets on the fly. Likewise, I'm glad that they're finally adding a "tentative" option to calender responses. I'm sure we've all had days when we weren't entirely sure we'd be able to make it to a raid or not, and just knowing that much makes organizing them a heckuva lot easier. As for the nameplates? Well, I always have them on, and while I can see a few problems with allowing them to overlap, I think it'll be much less confusing than the current setup which has them bouncing all over the place when there is a large group of mobs to deal with. That makes them extremely hard to individually target with the mouse. You go to click one and its nameplate has just jumped across the screen, and we all know that mis-targeting can, on occasion, lead to rather unfortunate consequences. As a side note, MMO-Champion has revealed that Oswald the Penguin will now once again go by his old name, Mr. Chilly. One might wonder why Blizzard did such a quick one-eighty! This new build is sure to bear more fruit as we continue to explore what it offers, so please stay tuned, and let us know what you think of the changes above!

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Blue Stew is a semi-regular column bringing you a delicious concoction of developer news, thoughts, and opinions straight from the boiling pot that is the official World of Warcraft forums. The highlights of each day include additional commentary by Project Lore staff. How Do You Separate Yourself? As a rogue, I absolutely never feel remorse for any of the actions that I perform. I play the game perfectly and I'm not afraid to Vanish and hide if I sense an impending raid wipe (don't judge me, you'd all do it if you could!) It would be so much easier if healers could just turn their fellow raiders into zombies when they died. so when Neonpeon mentions his "burden," I have absolutely no clue what he's talking about:

"I find I have a bad habit that I need to break. I'm hoping some of you have experience on something that worked. The bad habit is that when I heal I suddenly take on every life in the raid as if I'm the only one responsible for them. When someone dies, no matter what the cause, I feel guilty that I couldn't save them. Even with multiple healers in the raid I take every death as a personal failure. Over the course of a night it really affects me even when half the deaths were impossible for healers to prevent."

Guilt? Personal failure? I don't think I'm familiar with these concepts...

"It doesn't bother me that a virtual character ceases to live for a brief instant. The loss of a digital life is not worth concern. It's that people dying means the raid wipes and more and more time is wasted. The remorse comes from knowing that if you could have kept that person alive, somehow, that you could have downed the boss and moved on to the next. It's the time lost and the head bashing against the same encounter that is the struggle, not a virtual avatar changing states in a digital world."

Ohhhhh... OK. Now you're speaking my language! Who does like waiting around for wipe recovery. I may not understand the healer's plight, but I suppose it wouldn't hurt to relieve them of it once in awhile. In all seriousness folks, while I can't say I've ever felt the same way as Neonpeon does, I do recognize who easy it is for us normally self-reliant DPS class players to forget who's keeping us alive during a boss fight, and there are always a few things that we can do to keep them from pulling their hair out. Rogues in particular can use skills like Feint to reduce predictable, incoming AoE damage or Cloak of Shadows to get rid of a harmful debuff before it causes any pain. But every one of us has the ability to be aware of what's going on around us. Be vigilant for void zones, fires, and other common raid hazards during a fight. You might just save your healer's life. It's the least you can do when they're saving yours with a well-timed heal every few seconds. As I haven't had much experience with playing healing classes or specs, is this something that's common amongst you guys and gals? What about the tanks out there? Do you suffer from a constant feeling of remorse, or do you just let it slide off your back and keep trucking along like nothing ever happened? While guilt can be a powerful motivator, it can also be a terrible burden that drags down your performance if you dwell on those feelings too much. Blue Nethaera abides:

"You do need to find ways to get yourself away from blaming yourself too much when someone dies. It happens. Shrug it off and unless you purposefully let them die or made some error in judgment, don't sweat it. If you do make an error, apologize but don't wallow in it. It's easy to get wrapped up in the concern of being excellent at what you're doing as a healer and a point of pride keeping everyone alive. The very best healers are concerned with these things, but the most important thing to remember is to have fun with it and if someone gets on you for what they feel you are doing wrong, ignore it. As long as you know what you are doing for the group and are doing your best, there isn't anything they can say to take that away from you."

Recent In-Game Fixes - September 2009 - 9/22 Even though the release of 3.2.2 caught all the attention today, Bornakk makes us aware that there were a few extra tweaks hotfixed into the game:

• The Faction Champions encounter in the normal 10-player and normal 25-player Trial of the Crusader instances have had a number of spells and abilities altered which should result in less overall damage.
• The Anub'arak encounter has been changed on all difficulties. Anub’arak now attacks faster, the Nerubian Burrowers should hit a little harder, and their Expose Weakness ability now caps at 9 stacks.
• Some season 7 arena weapons will now have a socket.
• Threat of Thassarian will now properly halve the damage of Rune Strike for the off-hand strike.
• Soulstone Resurrection now fades upon entering raid combat if the character who cast it is not present.
• The Idle/Inactive debuff is now cleared upon round switches in Strand of the Ancients.
• The Mistress of Pain will now target more accurately in the 25 man Heroic Jaraxxus encounter.
• The damage of Hunter’s Volley ability has been increased.

Personally, I'm not sure how I feel about the changes to Faction Champions. While it's a slice-o'-pie on 10-man at this point, my guild has still run into a major wall while trying to take them down on 25-man. I agree that they should remain untouched for heroic, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't in favor of at least a tiny nerf to their damage-dealing capabilities. We still haven't figured out how everyone suddenly starts dying after we take out the healers. The other changes to Trial of the Crusader seem less drastic, with Anub'Arak getting a small buff (and he really needed one on normal, he's way, way too easy as it is) and the Mistress of Pain being a little easier to control (as a melee DPS I can't stand how she jumps around all the time). Hunters should be happy with their Volley buff, even if it is only incremental. I'm still QQing about what they did to Fan of Knives (though I can't complain too much, as our single-target damage has gone up with changes to Envenom and Master Poisoner). Missing Brewfest Quests? Euro players like Sakhar have been wondering what's up with the absence of Brewfest quests like "Catch the Wild Wolpertinger!" and "Pink Elekks On Parade." They were completely removed from the holiday last year, Blizzard citing that tweaks needed to be made to them could not be completed in time. However, both made their triumphant return in the 2009 version of the beer-chugging event. Well, they did in the United Stats anyway. Sorry to say, friends across the pond, but for one reason or another, they chose to leave them out on European servers. Vaneras confirms it:

"The Brewfest quests ‘Pink Elekks On Parade’ and ‘Catch the Wild Wolpertinger!’ were removed to ensure that World of Warcraft contains content that complies with regional game rating requirements."

And fellow Blue Wryxian backs him up:

"This is unfortunately not correct. The Pink Elekk and Wolpertinger quests are deliberately not available in Europe. Though we would like to have them available here too, this isn't possible I'm afraid."

With the rest of Brewfest left, presumably, intact (not to mention that the real-life inspiration for the holiday, Oktoberfest, comes from the Old World), I'm left wondering why these seemingly innocuous parts of it were nixed. If I had to venture a guess, it's that, despite the theme of getting pissed, both quests run with the idea that your character can see things "under the influence" that they wouldn't be able to when stone-cold sober. As Vaneras said, this is a "game rating requirements" issue, which probably means that even if the drinking is OK, associating hallucinogenic properties with it is not. Otherwise, you know, all the little kiddies out there would be breaking into their parents' liquor cabinet and going three sheets under in order to find the horned rabbit hiding under the house.

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Blue Stew is a new daily column bringing you a delicious concoction of developer news, thoughts, and opinions straight from the boiling pot that is the official World of Warcraft forums. The highlights of each day include additional commentary by Project Lore staff. It's Day 4, and somehow I'm still truckin'. All of this info-gathering business can really take it out of a guy, but I've still got some juicy tidbits for my loyal readers! Without a doubt, the biggest piece of Official World of Warcraft Forum-related news today is the opening of the Cataclysm section. There's not much to be found there yet, but it's sure to be the place to go for developer thoughts on the next expansion in the near future. I think I'm going to shake up the format a little bit today, if that's alright with you folks. Don't worry, I'll keep all the commentary and silly non-sequiturs intact. I just think it might be a tad more readable if I stay away from the bullet points. Paragraph breaks are a good thing, trust me! Guild Advancement Suggestion Quintas wants a Ferrari that brews coffee for you and irons your clothes on the way to work. Outside of some Xzibit-brand charity, she's going to have a hard time making that happen (and she'd probably have to actually own one of those zippy, Italian roadsters in the first place). Likewise, she wonders why we can't have our own Guild Houses that do everything for us, defeating the need to ever visit the outside world again! As WoW players, don't we already have that problem? Amongst her proposed "enhancements" is an Artisan system that attracts specialist NPCs to your guild, supplying them with unique patterns and schematics. Yo, yo, yo! It's yo' boy, Xzibit, here teamin' up with West Fall Customs to bring you the tightest rides this side of the Thandol Span! Like most "good ideas," though, it quickly spirals out of control, and soon enough you're running back and forth around the world collecting materials, doing dailies, and trying your best to woo this demanding NPC for what amounts to very little in return. I'm sure Blizzard isn't short on good ideas, it's more a matter of whether or not they're worth executing, something that I think Qunitas forgot to consider while in the midst of her illustrious proposal. I highlighted this post to once again address the issue of Guild Housing: it's just too much of a hassle. If you ask me, Blizzard's got the right idea. They're implementing most of the features people have always asked for, but they're doing it through the UI, instead of spending resources on constructing virtual domiciles. Think of it this way: why go through the trouble of having to meet up in a Guild Hall every time you want to do something when all of your normal business can be conducted through Guild Chat? Player housing is great when you can implement it from the ground up, and when you have the opportunity to incorporate it into PvP play (sacking fortresses and whatnot), but it's not worth shoe-horning into the game for purely cosmetic purposes. Will we ever see it in WoW? Maybe. Blizzard always used to rebuff the idea of changing Azeroth and, well, look where we are now. I just wouldn't expect it anytime soon when there are clearly so many more interesting things for the development team to work on. My Tiny Crimson Whelp Story Judging by the thread title, Velliana either writes articles for Highlights or has seen one too many episodes of  Taxicab Confessions. I'm not sure what a "Tiny Crimson Whelp" might entail in the world of prostitution, but I bet  you could find out for a couple Benjamins. The (admittedly short) story details her jaunt into Grim Batol, and the epic, emotional struggle she underwent wondering whether or not it would be worth killing a whelp for the mere chance of a drop! You'll have to click through to the thread for the shocking conclusion! What I found most interesting about this post is that it attracted more attention from the Community Management team than even the worst nerf complaint thread. Not one, not two, but three chose to respond, each detailing their own attempts at collecting all of Azeroth's tiny whelps. Thundgot had an especially tough time. It took him over an estimated 5000 kills to lock down all four. Thankfully, he made some extra gold along the way, but it just goes to show you that even Blizzard employees don't get everything handed to them on a silver platter. I don't have any of the whelps myself (I've barely even tried), but how about the rest of you? Were you as lucky as Miss Velliana here or was it a much more laborious and frustrating experience? Elitist Jerks Closes Thread on Unholy DK Ghostcrawler's been on the warpath today, dealing primarily with massive amounts of Hunter QQ. But that's not all! The Death Knights are itching to have their say, too. Now, I'm always a little wary of people who obsess over min-maxing their characters, but I can't deny that Elitist Jerks is one of the best sites to look at if you really want to understand how to play your class (that is, if you can sort through the long threads and gobs of esoteric information). Why Skaven is whining to Blizzard about something someone else decided to do on another forum, I don't know, but he sure is upset about them closing one of his favorite threads. GC reminds us of why he likes Elitist Jerks so much. They conduct the kinds of conversations he likes to see: "One of the things I personally appreciate about the EJ forums is they tend to focus on what is, not in their opinions on what should be. That tends to lead to discussions based on facts and not opinions. Their Unholy DK threads focus on how to maximize dps as Unholy not on petitioning Blizzard to buff Scourge Strike." The way I understand Skaven's complaint is that changes made to Unholy spec now favor one skill over another similar skill. Now we all know that sometimes even small modifications to a class can have a greater impact on the way they work in practice. But, as Ghostcrawler points out, he and so many others, like to complain because their class no longer fits the idea of what they think it should be. In other words, he's freaking out over having to re-learn the ins-and-outs of his Unholy Death Knight, even when the change itself is miniscule. This may seem like pointing out the obvious, but it's clear that there are many people out there who have yet to learn that crying on the forums isn't going to help or change anything. I think that about wraps it up for this edition. Please chime in with your thoughts on all of these topics below, and let me know if you prefer this format over the other one!

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UPDATE 7/7/09 Wow, I figured this would be fixed, but I didn't think it would come quite this quick. Mania's Arcade now is reporting that the Worgen can no longer be tamed, and those that already have been tamed are somewhat useless. It was a good show while it lasted! Earlier: This past weekend was a great one for hunters everywhere as word spread about a newly discovered way to tame a Worgen - WoW's version of a werewolf-like, badass humanoid creature. It turns out that with just the right timing (described in detail at Mania's Arcade) you can tame Garwal, an NPC in northern Howling Fjord who gives out the quest Alpha Worg (in both Horde and Alliance versions). He has both a worg (beast) and a worgen form, and you have to tame him at just the right time to make sure you get to keep him as a worgen. And once you've gone through the trials of claiming the worgen pet, you then have to be careful in order to keep him. You shouldn't, for example, risk certain activities like bringing him out in an arena, lest risk his return to worg form. Now the big question - will Blizzard allow this game exploit/bug/awesomeness to stay in the game? All this excitement over an unexpected new pet reminds me of a similar situation with the Ancient Grimtotem Spirit Guide, who once upon a time in late 2007 / early 2008 was tameable. Similar to this time around, there was a ton of activity on the official hunter forums about the new addition to the pet kingdom. First, a blue poster for WoW Europe said the bug would not be removed. A couple weeks later, a separate post on the US forums informed us that the ability had been removed through a hotfix. With this in mind, it seems unlikely that the worgen will remain as a pet, now matter how many petitions you sign. In fact, I'd say that all the attention the topic is receiving through blogs and the forums may just hasten Blizzard's response. But, there is some good news. If you're able to claim him quickly enough, I would say that chances are good you'll get to keep him. Any non-hunters who are trying to complete the Alpha Worg quest in the meantime may just have to put up with some serious competition! Also something to keep in mind - not everyone is happy with being able to tame a worgen. But I'm keeping my positive stance until I hear a good reason beyond jealously because you've already turned in that quest and can't go back to redo it (Yeah, I know it sucks. But at least some people can partake in the fun - I'm all for that). I've had  a great time sorting through the dozens of threads that have spawned up as a result of the whole situation. Everything from what to name your new pet worgen (my fave submissions - ManBearPig, Sirius, GonnaGetDeleted) to what other creatures players wish they could tame (griffons and zhevras are high on my list). It also makes me want to log on to my lowly level 19 hunter in the Project Lore fan guild and start pumping her up. It's a race against the clock! So what does everyone else think of this recently discovered game mechanic? Have any of you hunters gone out and tamed a worgen yet, or have most of you already completed that quest? For those of you who have successfully tamed the worgen, are you hopeful that you'll be able to keep him?

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A Goblin Zeppelin heading into Undercity. Pixiestixy broke the news last night about the mount changes that will be coming in the next major patch, 3.2. There are some additional news to note as Zarhym posted some more information about transportation changes which are being implemented to improve leveling: From the World of Warcraft Forums:

In the next major content patch we will be adding a few methods of improved transportation to areas of interest while leveling. It is time for the denizens of Azeroth to witness the full might of the Horde as they do what they do best: employ goblins to construct zeppelin towers and float players across vast seas using sky boats. That's right, a new zeppelin route is being added in Thunder Bluff and will transport players to Orgrimmar. Isn't technology magnificent? Also, brought to you by Azeroth's greatest users of magic, are all new portals coming to Stormwind and Orgrimmar. These portals will transport players directly to the Stair of Destiny at the Dark Portal. Travel is just so much more convenient when it's instantaneous! Players will then find that a new connecting flight path exists at the Stair of Destiny allowing players new to Outland easy and direct access to the city of Shattrath. Keep your seat backs and tray tables in a full upright and locked position, and we hope you continue to enjoy your methods of travel in Azeroth and beyond!

So even more changes are in store! Horde players I'm sure will be loving the new zeppelin between Orgrimmar and Thunder Bluff, while everyone can appreciate the instant transport to the Stair of Destiny to get you to the Outlands faster! These changes seem to fall in line with the Blizzard philosophy of making leveling more accessible and faster for players. As a player who has only one max level character and a multitude of alts I can really appreciate this! This is not the end of the changes of course as there are also changes coming to the class specific mounts and movement abilities, also found on the World of WarCraft Forums:

Movement Speed Training By Class

• Druid
  • Travel Form: Requires level 16
  • Flight Form: Requires level 60 (150% flight speed)
  • Swift Flight Form: Requires level 70
• Hunter
  • Aspect of the Cheetah: Requires level 16
• Shaman
  • Ghost Wolf: Requires level 16
• Paladin
  • Warhorse: Requires level 20
  • Charger: Requires level 40
• Warlock
  • Felsteed: Requires level 20
  • Dreadsteed: Requires level 40

No surprises from the class mount changes, but the movement ability changes are nice as getting ghost wolf, aspect of the cheetah and travel form earlier will be a really nice change for leveling! What do you think of these changes? Good or bad? Is Blizzard making it too easy for newer players?

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Up until the past couple of months, I always stuck with Horde characters. Sure, I've tried out Alliance here and there, but never found them quite as intriguing. I'm sure the fact that my RL friends I play with are all Horde also plays a role. But now that I've been true to the Horde since the WotLK release, I decided to try out an Ally once again. And the fact that I wanted to roll a character on the Executus server so I could play in the Alliance Project Lore fan guild gave me a good push. I know my way around gameplay pretty well, and I expected a refreshing change of pace when I rolled a draenei hunter. But as I've been leveling with her, I've been surprised by how much it has changed my perception of the game by adding to it. Obviously, Alliance is a new faction, and draenei a new race for me. And therefore, it's a new starting area to learn my way around. Pixie is my first hunter character (but thankfully I have a little guidance on how not to be a huntard). I've tamed my first combat pet, Artemis, and started training fishing and cooking for the first time to support his dietary needs. I picked up a couple of professions I've never leveled before - herbalism and alchemy -  just to keep the excitement going. And the friendly group of players in the guild that I'm new to have done a good job of making me feel welcome. So how has all this affected gameplay? Well, there have been a couple of funny moments. Like the first few times I came back from questing and initially thought it was weird that I was walking into a group of Draenei and not getting attacked. Then, realizing I'm one of them now. Also, the first couple of quests to kill Bloodelf spies or other Hordies tore at my heart a little. My Locomomo started out just like them! And now that I've pointed out differences in how we speak in vent, I owe my guildies some props. I've gotten a lot of help learning my way around the Alliance areas that up until now, I've only ever heard of and never fully experienced. And, I learned how to cluck at a chicken until it laid an egg that I now have for a pet. That confirmed my suspicions that indeed each faction has a few surprises up their sleeves. So all this new stuff makes it almost like I'm playing for the first time again. But at least I know the basics and lingo to help get me through. And it's making clear to me just how wide the world of warcraft can be, if you choose to utilize all it has to offer. One aspect that I'm looking forward to seeing in action will come once I leave the starting area. This is my first time on a PvP server. Have mercy! Has anyone else had a similar experience when starting up a new character?  And how long did it take you to get into the groove and past the feelings of awe that come along with the unknown?

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