Project Lore

The High Inquisitor is a regular column at Project Lore that seeks answers to the greatest mysteries of Azeroth. Each installment, the inquisitor will attack a previously unanswered question and attempt to explain the unknown. But she won’t rest until all plausible explanations are explored. The best, most probable comment(s) will be highlighted with the next edition’s inquisition. Welcome, dear readers, to another installment of the High Inquisitor. This time, I want to take a look at the spirit healer's role in our adventures. But first, let's take a look back at some of your submitted answers to the last question, when I asked where all the kids are in Azeroth. We got a nice range of answers, from pointing out that there are kids running around, they're just sometimes hard to find, to the thought that Azerothians have stopped having kids during wartime. The idea that I like best, however, is that our toons, before we start playing them, are the kids of the world. I thought Phanttas described it best:

I think that over time the children of Azeroth evolved to become safe from all those gigantic spiders, raging elementals and opposing faction members by turning invisible. The children stay like this while they train to become adventurers themselves, but do it in a safe way, because the creatures they are trying to take [enlarged spleen]s from can’t see them. Some of the children realise that they aren’t going to every be good enough to be an adventurer and stop being invisible to live their life running round Stormwind free of the perils of adventuring. The other children however, once they have been training for several years, suddenly get a calling to run to a certain place to start their true lives, where they become visible at last: the starting zones. If you hang around them for long enough you can see this miraculous act happening.

Now moving on, let's explore this week's question a bit. I'm sure you're all familiar with Spirit Healers, those celestial beings who await adventurers who enter the astral realm between life and death, ready to guide them back to the land of the living. While I appreciate the life that my toons can continue living, I also am aware that these spirit healers also must be the reason for respawning foes in areas that we so painstakingly clear out while questing. So here's the question: How can any side ever truly win? Be they members of the Scarlet Crusade, tribal leaders atop Darkcloud Pinnacle, hostile centaurs or quirky murlocs, our enemies will simply run back to their corpses and respawn a few minutes after their defeat. How can any group ever claim victory when neither side's numbers wane? In the case of PvP, we at least have an objective that will determine the winner; Capture the flag, defend the keep, gain the most resources. In the rest of the world, our objectives are outlined in quest form: Kill 10 of these and 20 of those; gather 8 shiny items scattered throughout the enemy village. But the world is static, and so the outcome of our endeavors is less defined. After we leave, the world goes back to the way it was before we ever came. Generations later, our alts can perform the same quests. Once again, game mechanics come into play. This is an essential aspect of MMO gameplay, and the only way around it that I've seen is through phased events. But phasing the whole world would be quite a task, and wouldn't necessarily give us anything better. Regardless, I'm interested in how we can use the lore to explain the situation. I say we need to appeal to the enemy spirit healers themselves, and convince them they're on the wrong side. Then, we'd get somewhere. How do you think we can get past this dead heat?

Likely in accordance with the raid testing today, 3.3 has been updated yet again. Though it's a full 181 MB, the documented changes are minuscule, as they have been over the past few builds. I'll be the first to tell you that I'm happy about the changes being made to Murder. The description below isn't just Blizzard being cheeky, it's a legitimate concern. A talent whose chief functionality is providing extra damage when faced with a variety of enemies is rendered impotent when nearly an entire raid instance is filled with nothing but the undead. And it may be one piece of the puzzle as to why Rogues have seen their DPS dip a little bit when testing encounters in Icecrown Citadel. [caption id="attachment_7705" align="alignright" width="240" caption="He's waiting for you..."][/caption] Of course, this makes the talent a flat damage increase, which is exactly the kind of thing Blizz has said they want to shy away from in Cataclysm. This is almost certainly a stop-gap measure for Icecrown Citadel alone and Murder may yet be evaluated again when expansion time comes. Other than that, there are some other small class changes, another nerf to the Oculus, and that's about i-- oh, wait, what's this? Could that be where most of the 181 MBs went?! Readers, it seems that Blizzard has done something I didn't entirely expect them to do: open the Halls of Reflection. As of the time of this writing, you still can't enter the dungeon, but it's assumed that it will be open very shortly. 4PM PST sounds good, as that's when the raid test content will be available as well as when PuG With The Blues (Take 2) will be occurring. If you didn't get in on the action last time, now's your chance to run an instance with a company employee, as long as you make use of the new Dungeon system to do so. If you don't have the PTR client at the moment or haven't transferred any characters, you may not be able to make it online in time to participate, but if you're more or less up-to-date, it's a really cool opportunity. A couple of us bloggers might be around, so don't be afraid to say hi (or tell us how much we suck) if you happen to see us! By the way, something else I noticed (and it may have been there since I haven't visited the ICC 5-man area in a few weeks), is that there is now a Meeting Stone smack dab in the middle of the three new dungeons. Convenient, huh? Here are the rest of the notes:

General

• Icecrown Citadel
  • All three wings of the 5-player dungeon are currently available for testing.

Dungeons and Raids Oculus

• Azure Ring Guardians aggro distance changed from 50 to 40 yards.

Druid Restoration

• Gift of the Earthmother: Redesigned. This talent now increases spell haste by 2/4/6/8/10% and reduces the base global cooldown of Lifebloom by 2/4/6/8/10% instead of its previous effects.

Paladin

• Sanctified Light - Reverted due to changes being made to Lay on Hands.

Rogue Assassination

• Murder: This talent now provides a flat damage increase of 2/4% against all targets, instead of only targets which do not appear in Icecrown.

Warrior

• Glyph of Victory Rush: This glyph now increases the critical strike chance of Victory Rush by 30%, regardless of the percentage of the target’s remaining health.

That's it for the documented changes today (though there may be more lurking beneath the surface). If you're antsy about Halls of Reflection and can't make it onto the PTR, don't worry. Project Lore will be bringing you coverage in one form or another in the near future! Stay tuned!

And we're back to a robust week of testing in Icecrown Citadel! If you had seen this schedule earlier, either on a different news site or on the official PTR forum itself, do note that the dates have been shifted. There will no longer be any testing done tonight (Tuesday, 11/10), and the encounters that would have been are only being pushed back a day or two, so we'll essentially still get to test everything as originally planned. There's at least one potential spoiler below that you may want to watch out for if you intend or reading any further (not mine, it's in the schedule itself):

We are scheduling raid tests in Icecrown Citadel for November 11-14. The schedule is as follows: EU Servers Thursday, November 12 at 19:30 CET – Blood-Queen Lana'thel, Rotface Friday, November 13 at 19:30 CET – Blood Princes, Professor Putricide Saturday, November 14 at 19:30 CET – Lord Marrowgar US Servers Wednesday, November 11 at 7PM EST / 4 PM PST – Lord Marrowgar, Festergut Thursday, November 12 at 7PM EST / 4 PM PST – Deathbringer Saurfang Friday, November 13 at 7PM EST / 4 PM PST – Blood-Queen Lana'thel, Icecrown Gunship Battle Saturday, November 14 at 4PM EST / 1 PM PST – Sindragosa Only normal difficulties will be tested, although 10 and 25 player raids will be available. The Icecrown Citadel raid test schedule will be very flexible, and can change at a moment's notice due to build status, bugs, and server issues. Remember that this is the test server, so things can, do, and will break from time to time. Check this forum for the latest Icecrown Citadel raid testing schedule information in the weeks to come.

I noted on the last schedule update that there were only four more bosses to be tested. After this week, three of those will be knocked out (Blood Princes, Blood-Queen Lana'thel, Deathbringer) and only the big, bad guy at the top will remain. We have it on good faith (and a little bit of experience) that the Lich King will NOT be available on test servers, and will rather continue to be evaluated in-house. The case has been similar for end-bosses in past raids, and with an extra helping of lore and spoilers plopped on top of Arthas, I highly doubt Icecrown Citadel is going to be any different. Likewise, I anticipate Blizzard testing all hard modes internally, which shouldn't much of a problem considering they'll have extra time to do so. Even when 3.3 goes live, players will have to wait for the Lich King to be unlocked and defeated before they can even begin to tackle any bosses in their more difficult forms. As for the encounters being re-tested? Some like Professor Putricide presented with rather large bugs the first time around (you couldn't target him again after engaging him for the first time!), while others seem to be on their way to receiving their final coat of polish (Lord Marrowgar). By my estimation, this places the patch about three weeks away at Dec. 1 (right after Thanksgiving), though that may depend on whether or not they postpone holiday-week testing to the next (assuming they even need it in the first place), which could push 3.3 back to Dec. 7 at the latest. We'll keep you posted here on Project Lore and, if all goes as planned, there will be some videos of all the new encounters being tested on the US servers this week. So stay tuned!

Before you get your "ZOMG Cataclysm Is Coming Out In August" panties in a bunch, let's be clear, the release date of the book makes no mention of the third expansion launching side-by-side with it.  Technically the date isn't even official, no matter how accurate Amazon has been in the past, Blizzard is Blizzard, even with the extended universe stuff.  The novel, titled World of Warcraft: The Shattering: Prelude to Cataclysm (Semicolons of Destruction), is available for hardcover pre-order at the exuberant price of $26.00 and should hit your doorstep around August 31. Believe it or not, you are currently in the process of reading right now.  So stop being all high and mighty, claiming that you aren't so nerdy as to read a book about a video game, and give it a shot.  After all, Christie Golden absolutely bowled everyone over with her treatise on Arthas, his fail at horseback riding and Jaina.  She's also written other solid books and stories set in the Warcraft universe. There's currently no information available on the plot, but considering the subtitle, I expect there to be a good chunk of the novel dedicated to Deathwing's awakening.  Who, what, or why it happens will be up to Golden's creative mind - with some input from Metzen for sure - but I hope Rhonin dies. Actually, Knaak should be the one to put his own character down.  No, Rhonin deserves to die twice.  Knaak has a perfect opportunity to kill Rhonin in February as part of World of Warcraft: Stormrage, a novel that's to revolve around the Emerald Dream and Malfurion Stormrage.  Okay, enough Rhonin hating, he may cry about it. Anyways, being a prelude I expect The Shattering will come out well before Cataclysm.  The exact opposite of the release schedule for the Arthas novel. Who's going to geek out on lore with me?

Though it's come rather late in the week, it looks like there will be some Icecrown Citadel raid testing this week, after all! As of this posting, EU realms have already run their first of the set, having taken another crack at Lady Deathwhisper. Though this isn't a new fight, US players haven't had the pleasure of fighting the vile lich (lichess?). Here's what everyone can look forward to this weekend:

[caption id="attachment_8169" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Valithria Dreamwalker, tested again on US servers."][/caption] "We are scheduling raid tests in Icecrown Citadel for November 6-7.

The schedule is as follows: US Servers Friday, November 6 at 7PM EST / 4 PM PST – Valithria Dreamwalker Saturday, November 7 at 4PM EST / 1PM PST – Icecrown Gunship Battle EU Servers Friday, November 6 at 19:30 CET – Lady Deathwhisper Saturday, November 7 at 19:30 CET – Professor Putricide Only normal difficulties will be tested, although 10 and 25 player raids will be available. The Icecrown Citadel raid test schedule will be very flexible, and can change at a moment's notice due to build status, bugs, and server issues. Remember that this is the test server, so things can, do, and will break from time to time. Check this forum for the latest Icecrown Citadel raid testing schedule information in the weeks to come."

Looks like there's only one new encounter being tested , and that's Professor Putricide. As that's on the EU realms, I won't be able to bring you the down-low just yet, but it does bring us one step closer to the eventual release of Patch 3.3, doesn't it? So far, (including this week) we've seen the following fights:

The High Inquisitor is a new regular column at Project Lore that seeks answers to the greatest mysteries of Azeroth. Each week, the inquisitor will attack a previously unanswered question and attempt to explain the unknown. But she won’t rest until all plausible explanations are explored. The best, most probable comment(s) will be highlighted with the next edition’s inquisition.

Hello, and welcome to another inquisition! Last time, we had even more participation from readers who wanted to give input on the magical mystery of bag space. And we weren't the only ones with the topic on the brain. Earlier this week, the official Warcraft twitter account asked the same question of readers, also paying tribute to a pretty hilarious artist's depiction of Warcraft bags. They even showed Project Lore some love when I replied that we also were looking into the question!

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I had been putting off starting on the Hodir quests for several weeks in favor of working toward becoming an exalted champion with all my Horde factions, but soon realized that was a mistake. To up my raiding game, I really need those shoulder enchants that come with exalted status with the Sons of Hodir! So, I've switched up my daily routine mid-tournament and opted to follow what I've found to be a somewhat... dirtier path.

In the past I've lamented over the goopy, gooey, poopy (literally) quests that seem to plague Azeroth. On the surface, the Sons of Hodir quests are nothing like that. The initial quest chain actually is a ton of fun, all the way up to jumping from dragon to dragon, killing riders along the way as you fly the long way up to Thorim, atop the Temple of Storms.

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With the first part of Icecrown Citadel open today, not only did we get to preview and test the first boss (Lord Marrowgar), we also had access to a new vendor inside the palace, itself. Mott Sercer is a Quartermaster for the new faction, "The Ashen Verdict," and he stands just to the right of the entrance when you zone in. It's not entirely clear if he'll be the person to go to for things like Tier or badge gear, but he currently offers a drool-worthy collection of crafting patterns. While the gear you can create doesn't have stats yet (aside from armor and item level), it's almost assured they'll be things people want as soon as possible.

Please note that to purchase a recipe, you'll need to have a certain level of reputation with Ashen Verdict and an item called Primordial Saronite, which likely drops off of bosses or trash inside the instance (perhaps ICC's equivalent of Crusader/Runed Orbs?) . Below, I've listed each pattern and its material requirements:

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Project Lore has been a bit hung up on the whole Arthas/Lich King tandem of late.  And why not.  Blizzard has been trickling information on patch 3.3 for over a week now.  Between the model updates - which elude to an awesome in-game Icecrown event - character bios refreshes and general patch updates, there's no better time to get excited. Earlier this week I posed the question, "How do you want Arthas to die?" Only one clear cut morsel of information came of that discussion; that the playerbase isn't in agreement that he should die.  Pixiestixy asked the perfect follow-up question, "Is Arthas capable of redemption?" Before you jump to your conclusion, here's all the well-known people he's screwed over the course of his life, including that as the Lich King: Jaina Proudmoore:  Jaina grew up with pretty boy Arthas, making her one of the few people, that still breaths, to know him through the course of his tumultuous life.  The leader ofTheramore loved the man, only to be pushed away by him during their formative years.  It's at this time that Arthas begins slipping, making ever worse decisions, and all Jaina was able to do was deny helping him.  The budding student of Dalaran witnessed his descent into obsession.  She was even party to some of his acts.  But she never once tried to stop his acts, not even in Stratholme, leaving the proud mage with an immense amount of guilt on her conscious. Even more soul crushing, Jaina knew him when he was good, a true bearer of the Light.  A believer.  That's something she is hell bent on returning, a good, true, loving Arthas.  Hopefully her emotions and feelings don't cloud her judgement if there's no alternative, or if her very life is on the line. Sylvanas Windrunner:  Jaina may agonize over Arthas for knowing him when he was good, but Sylvanas has only known the bad.  The two females have entirely different views of the man; Jaina reveres him as a man who lost his way, whileSylvanas despises him for destroying her home.  Ruining Sylvanas ' way of life wasn't enough.  Instead of turning her into one of the mindless undead, Arthas decided to teach her a lesson for standing up to his Scourge army.  Upon her death he allowed her to retain her memories as a banshee, but he remained able to bend her to his will when needed. That's until she broke free from his control, attempted to murder him (obviously failed), founded the Forsaken, and now continues to seek her revenge. It has already been confirmed that these two leading ladies will be partaking in the assault on Icecrown Citadel. Muradin Bronzebeard:  Muradin is in much the same position as Jaina, only without the sex (we hope).  The former Ambassador to Lordaeron helped train the young Arthas, enabling the prince to become a well-versed warrior in a variety of weapons.  Muradin was witness to some of the worst atrocities Arthas committed in his quest to rid the world of Mal'ganis, including stranding his men on Northrend, and murdering the very mercenaries who helped him get that far. If seeing your student go completely insane isn't enough to tear someone apart, how about a shard of ice through the chest?  That's exactly what Muradin was treated to when he tried to stop Arthas from retrieving Frostmourne and forever becoming bound to the Lich King.  Muradin has never been the same since. Muradin will be in attendance for the Icecrown Citadel festivities. Tirion Fordring: The next three people don't have much beef with Arthas directly.  They just happen to hate the Scourge with more venom than anyone else on Azeroth.  Fordring was one of the original members of the Knights of the Silver Hand before being exiled for saving a greenskin. During the Third War he routinely dispatched minions of the Scourge army to protect his small farmstead and trail his son.  Upon his son's death, Tirion set his mind to destroying the threat, the Lord of the Scourge.  To accomplish this goal he brought the old Knights of the Silver Hand and the Argent Dawn under a new banner, the Argent Crusade, that has been bolstered by the death knight faction, Knights of the Ebon Blade.  He continues to run the faction. Darion/Alexandros Mograine:  This father and son duo also lack a direct hatred of Arthas.  As both former Scourge minions, and wielders of Ashbringer, the pair still pose a threat.  Darion remains steadfast in his quest to eliminate the Lich King, while Alexandros' fate isn't known as of now.  It's suspected that Darion saved his father from the clutches of The Dark One when he impaled himself on Ashbringer, but it has not been confirmed. Their tales are told in-depth in the excellent one-shot comic by Wildstorm, World of Warcraft: Ashbringer.  Highlord Darion Mograine is another confirmed raiding member. Varok Saurfang: Saurfang is one of the more recent high profile characters to mix it up with the Dark Lord of the Dead.  He first got on the Lich King's tail when he was sent to lead the Horde warparty in Northrend.  Initially just a routine station, it became personal for Varok after his son, Saurfang the Younger, was killed by the Lich King during the battle of Angrathar the Wrathgate. The newcomer in the Lich King's matrix will be aboard Orgrim's Hammer for the horde encounter. Kil'jaeden:  The current leader of the Burning Legion isn't a nice guy.  He doesn't take failure very well, and he doesn't enjoy people turning against him.  Ner'zhul, whom was the original Lich King, and later one-half of the being, managed to fail and then betray his master.  That's two strikes when normally one is forty two too many.  Arthas himself was never a direct underling of The Beautiful One, but he was indirectly being controlled by manipulation through the nathrezim agents sent by Archimonde.  It's roundabout, but Kil'jaeden was ultimately the creator.  Like how Steve Jobs created the iPod. Kil'jaeden slips many people's minds when they think of the Lich King's enemies, but he'd love to possess the Lich King once more.  Or put him down for failing, and then betraying him.  Still, it's highly unlikely that the spotlight will return to the Burning Legion in this fashion, or any time soon. The list is in a specific order, my order of who deserves it the most.  I still believe that Jaina requires redemption more than anyone else.  You'll have to read the novel to understand all the intricacies, but she's been hurt by Arthas, when he was good and as he became bad, and then when he became the Lich King.  The triple threat.  She's also the only person on the list who isn't in it mainly for the revenge, but to try to save him.  She may gain something from saving his soul, but at least she'd be bringing a person back into the world, instead of dispatching one. I am fairly confident that that encompasses all of the major players.  If I've missed someone important, or overlooked a connection to another character, leave me a note in the comments or @iTZKooPA and I'll check it out.

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The High Inquisitor is a new regular column at Project Lore that seeks answers to the greatest mysteries of Azeroth. Each week, the inquisitor will attack a previously unanswered question and attempt to explain the unknown. But she won’t rest until all plausible explanations are explored. The best, most probable comment(s) will be highlighted with the next edition’s inquisition. First off, a look back to last week's question on why dwarves are portrayed as drunk Scots. Azurienatei had this answer that may explain: "In both Irish and Scottish lore there is a type of fae, something between a leprechaun and what we think of as a dwarf, that wears red clothes, is heavily bearded, and often likes to trick humans in taverns and inns by drinking unattended ale. Given the demographics and of course the penchant for drinking these creatures were eventually molded in with dwarves." Most of you seemed to agree that WoW hasn't strayed much from the stereotypical view of a dwarf, which has evolved over time. Thanks for the input! Now onward to this week's inquisition! Last week was somewhat of a philosophical view on a topic that could be at least somewhat explained with real life folklore. So this week, let's take a look at something that, at least when thought of through a realistic magnifying glass, would be pretty much impossible; Just how do us WoW toons carry all that crap around in our bags while criss-crossing the world and fighting our enemies? Here's a look at what I have in this 22-slot Dragon Hide bag:

1. 49 Drakkari Offerings
2. 15 Vrykul Bones
3. 12 pieces of Salted Yeti Cheese (yummy)
4. 8 Core of Elements
5. 8 Dark Iron Scraps
6. Sayge's Fortune #29
7. A Horde LANCE (I refuse to believe that this would fit into a conventional bag!)
8. Green Brewfest Stein
9. 933 (!!) Frostbite Bullets
10. 2 Dalaran Fireworks
11. 9 Sewer Carp
12. A lone piece of Frostweave Cloth
13. Tabard of the Explorer
14. Frost-Rimed Cloth Gloves (Need to sell!)
15. 20 Heavy Frostweave Bandages
16. 14 Slabs of Salted Venison
17. Tabard of the Ebon Blade
18. 6 Relics of Ulduar
19. 891 Terrorshaft Arrows
20. 4 Knothide Armor Kits
21. Grom's Tribute
22. Brewfest Dress

Super-Scientifically Estimated weight: 452 pounds. And that's just one bag! Now multiply that by 5, and also consider all the armor and weapons we carry on ourselves that's NOT in bags. That's easily a TON, literally, of stuff we're carrying around. All without feeling any effects whatsoever. When put into a game mechanics perspective, it's certainly a matter of making it easier for a character to get around as they level or go about their business without having to stop at a bank or vendor every 10 minutes. But let's think beyond mechanics and decide whether the question could be answered with lore/in-game explanations. Consider the Bottomless Bag and Pack of Endless Pockets. Sure, they each have a limited number of slots, but not necessarily a specified amount of space. Could it be that, like a magician's hat (or Time Lord technology for all you Dr. Who fans) the bags are bigger on the inside? And if that's the case, then perhaps it's true for all equippable bags. But there's still the matter of the sheer weight of all our gear. Even if it fits in a bag, it's still incredibly heavy! Or is it? If the size of an item is compressed, then you could conjecture that the weight could be, too. Perhaps this also helps explain why a giant lance fits in the same slot as a tiny vial of poison. Or perhaps the answer lies not in the bags, but in the super strength of adventurers. Our toons are all so strong and fearsome that we manage to carry everything on us and it doesn't effect our fighting whatsoever. So here's where you all come in! Do you accept either of my possible answers? Have a better proposition? Let me know, and I'll feature the best comment(s) next week.

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