Project Lore

The Novel Post is Project Lore’s review column for materials - books, manga, comics, card games, etc - of World of Warcraft’s Extended Universe.  As such the column’s posts may contain plot, character or other spoilers. Run Draenei, Run! Ignore the note above, I did my best to rid this post of spoiling material. I have never been big on manga (pronounced it incorrectly for over a decade), but I've come to love these compilations from Tokyopop.  Each and every episode has bowled me over with at least one epic story.   The upcoming Volume 5 continues, and closes, not one, but two storylines that were launched in Volume 4.  It also includes what equates to an opening for Richard Knaak's upcoming book, Stormrage.  Fear not though, Volume 5's quality stays on track with the previous installments, thanks to Blizzard's lore historian. Yes, the company has frakking historians. A Warrior Made - Part 2:  Christie Golden's tale of Thrall's mother really lost it for me at its closing.  Part 1 was a finely crafted look into the clan atmosphere of the Frostwolfs, and the Spartan like attitudes towards ill children.  Part 2 sees her continuing her quest, and then she has a very special Blossom moment and the chapter on Draka is closed.  We do see a little character development in the pages - a nod to where Thrall gets his cool determination - but even the connections to a pair illustrious characters didn't save the story for me.  A drag to start out with. Warrior: United:  Grace Randolph also returned to complete her two-part story.  Warrior: United sees us following the estranged twins Lieren and Loania as they attempt to save their other parental unit from the damnation.  It just so happens that their father has become trapped in Karazhan.  This little tidbit allows Randolph to bring the nostalgic entry raid from The Burning Crusade into the story.  You'll have to read it to find out if they move during Flame Wreath. Randolph and artist Erica Awano do a fantastic job at displaying the differences of the twins.  In both the art and the writing, we can see how the separate upbringings of the twins, one as a Dwarf, the other as a high elf, impacted their lives.  The environment even impact their skillsets, the dwarf-raised Lieren is well versed with a mace, while Loania is a mage in training.  Warrior: United was a little predictable for me, but the fantastic characters kept me interested. The First Guardian:  Louise Simonson, co-writer of the Wildstorm comic, dives deep into the past for this previously unknown story.  I am talking way back there.  We're talking before Warcraft 3, before Aegwynn.  It's elf old, not dragon old, but it's old enough that most people - myself included - couldn't place the story in the timeline accurately.  You'd have to be a heavy, heavy lore buff, one who reads the RPG manifests for fun, to place the tale of The First Guardian off the top of your head.  For the rest of us, Simonson writes a nice recap of Dalaran's history, and where we are in it, before the opening. As a seasoned comic scribe I expected Simonson to be able to deliver a fantastic story in the 50 or so pages she had.  She didn't disappoint.  The mage heavy tale, with a gnome (!), explains the early days of the Guardians of Tirisfal, and the groups constant struggle against demonic beings.  There's also that small problem of the tearing of the world by magical use.  Simonson used the plight of the world as a backdrop, setting up the main character, Alodi, as a Peter Parker type.  A great read, but the art isn't as detailed as I would have liked. A Cleansing Fire:  Evelyn Fredericksen, Creative Development Historian for Blizzard (seriously, that is her title) and nutty professor on the Wrath DVD, doesn't pen many stories for the universes she watches over.  When she does, you'd better stand up and take notice.  Evidence?  She crafted the original Naxxramas tale, and the short for Wrath Gate.  And now they roped her into a bit of story telling for the manga.  This story alone is worth the price of the collection. Fredericksen picks a character that we all know.  We all know him because he's the centerpiece of Hallow's End.  That's right, the main character is the rhyming Headless Horsemen.  But Fredericksen paints a new picture for us.  A Cleansing Fire isn't about the horsemen's love of pumpkins, but his fall from grace and his ultimate corruption from the horrors of war.  It's a captivating look into a character we just thought of as a loot pinata.  Like last edition, the best story is accompanied by the best art. Nightmares:  Richard Knaak is back in short form - where I enjoy him the most.  Glancing at the first page of Nightmares I noticed two things.  First off, the art looks like cartoons from my childhood (not a bad thing), and it's annoying me that I can't place which cartoon I am thinking of.  The second is that Knaak dropped the L word at the first chance he got.  I am starting to think that it's a private joke of his - "How many times can I say leviathan before Blizzard censors me?" To sum up the story, Nightmares is a shameless self promotion for Knaak's upcoming book.  I'll let that slide simply because the story was so engrossing.  As the title suggests, Knaak conjures up a trio of stories told through dream sequences.  Each of them touches an important city leader, Thrall, Jaina, and Magni Bronzebeard in ways unfathomable and highly disturbing.  Knaak takes old stories that we are familiar with and casts his own spell over them.  Changing them into dark, horrible What If...? series of tragic happenings.  Very entertaining. What the writers and artists pull off in such a small amount of space continues to impress me.  We've got stories from thousands of years ago, psychological warfare, battles from beyond the grave, cracked minds, the early horde and avenging hearts all rolled into one Volume.  I highly recommend that more people begin reading these tales.  They are relatively inexpensive, imaginative, and very quick reads. Something to do while your waiting for that 7:30 raid to start...at 8:30. Warcraft: Legends Volume 5 comes out on September 1.

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iTZKooPA took us through the starting area of the Goblins, who have joined the stinky Horde, where as I will be bringing us back to the, ahem, better faction with the Alliance. I know you've been clamoring for this, so here it is: the hands-on preview of the new Alliance race, the Worgen! With the announcement of Cataclysm, the Alliance and Horde are once again receiving new races. The Alliance finally get a “beastly” race in the Worgen, which are a group of feral wolf-beasts. Those of us who got to attend BlizzCon 2009 got a chance to get some hands on time with the new race and their starting area and it is quite good! Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately?) the demo we played started the Worgen off at level 6 (in the Cataclysm panel they told us they didn't want to show us exactly what happens with 1-5 just yet) and if you were at the event this weekend and saw a Worgen Rogue running around named “Projectlore”, well, more than likely it was me (a little more creative than certain other bloggers!). The demo started us off with your character, in Worgen form, in “The Stocks” with other Humans around your character discussing your fate. Some of the humans seem to think you are lost to your fate as a beast and should be killed, but a doctor runs up with a potion which allows you to be “cured” and appear as a Human again. This allows you to start your questing, and you have the ability to switch from Worgen form to Human form at will (although you are forced into Worgen form while in combat). Worgen also get a “sprint” ability on a three minute cooldown which increases their run speed for a short time. They also have a couple of static racials: Flayer, which increases skinning skill by 15, and Viciousness, which increases damage by 1%. The quests are designed to get you involved in the Forsaken invasion that is happening in Gilneas. The first couple quests involve finding a package, which upon completion starts a small cut scene showing you the Forsaken ships docked on the shore near Gilneas. You then go and kill them to advance to the next area, which involves Worgen in the basement of a shack where a mother asks for your help with finding her children at the farm nearby, and another asks you to continue to help kill the Forsaken. There has been a lot of care put into the starting zone, as Blizzard felt that the Death Knight area was really successful in engaging the player and getting the player really involved in their character (and I'm inclined to agree). While we only got a small taste of the opening area for the Worgen, we still witnessed lots of scripted events, phasing, and cut scenes which only get me even more excited for the new expansion. The area is well designed, and if this is any indication of how they're revamping classic WoW, there will be a fewer obnoxious walks to get to different places, which I am perfectly OK with. The whole of Gilneas looks absolutely stunning and I am really excited about what's to come in the later levels of the starting zone. Blizzard uses the weather effects extremely well here, as well, and I am looking forward to seeing how the rest of the zone turns out. For players wanting a fresh start, there is a nice selection of classes to choose from including: Death Knight, Druid, Hunter, Mage, Priest, Rogue, Warlock and Warrior (only classes they cannot be are Paladins and Shaman). I am really hoping that, similarly to what they did with Wrath, they lock out Goblins and Worgen from being Death Knights at the beginning of the expansion, and maybe allow it later on in the life of the expansion. It would really be a shame if the first 85 worgen didn't even set foot in Gilneas because the brief taste we got at BlizzCon was so polished and well done that I can't wait to do 1-15 again (and I honestly thought I would never say something like that). I included some screenshots that will hopefully give a bit of perspective of what this great starting zone looks like! [gallery]

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Proverb is a twice-weekly column discussing the lore of Warcraft. It is spoiler heavy for all Warcraft games, novels, and other media. Comment on this post or send a tweet to @Heartbourne and let us know what you would like to see in future columns!

Sylvanas Windrunner, Dark Ranger

The Windrunner sisters are the three most prominent members of the high elf Windrunner family. The eldest sister, Alleria, has been missing since she ventured into Draenor (now known as Outland) during the Second War. The youngest sister, Vereesa, is currently the leader of the Silver Covenant and wife to Rhonin (leader of the Kirin Tor), and the middle sister, Sylvanas, was raised as a banshee by Arthas and currently leads the Forsaken (the undead faction allied with the Horde). The sisters were very close and have a tragic history. The Windrunner family resided in Windrunner Spire in Eversong Forest, currently known as the Ghostlands. During the Second War, King Anasterian Sunstrider sent Alleria Windrunner and a small group of high elven rangers to aid the Alliance. Alleria was one of the greatest elven rangers and her skills were invaluable to the Alliance. Alleria had quickly gained a strong distaste for the orcs and was one of the few high elves who believed that they would be a threat to the high elves and not just the humans. She devoted her rangers to the Alliance during her excursion to join the Alliance at Southshore.

Vereesa Windrunner

Meanwhile, Vereesa Windrunner was tasked with escorting the human mage Rhonin to the port of Hasic. They had some strange encounters along the way that led them to the Battle of Grim Batol. The details of their journey can be read in the novel Day of the Dragon. The Second War was brutal. The Horde managed to push as far north as the borders of Quel'thalas. Sylvanas discovered jungle trolls burning the forests and attacking her rangers, which she quickly terminated. Sylvanas got word from Alleria that there was a massive army of orcs headed their way, and this was quickly relayed to Anasterian. It was at this point that Anasterian admitted that the trolls were involved with the orcs and he fully dedicated the high elves to the cause of the Alliance and defeat of the Horde. Alleria and the Alliance quickly returned to defend Silvermoon. Alleria fought along sight her sister Sylvanas and their good friend Lor'themar Theron. Sylvanas was perhaps the most skilled ranger of the high elves, hence her position of Ranger-General of Quel'thalas. The high elves repelled the invasion of the Horde, but it was at a great loss, especially to the Windrunners. Eighteen of their kind died, including Lirath Windrunner, younger brother to the sisters. On that day, Alleria's hatred of the orcs intensified, and she would forever view them as savage beasts that must be exterminated at all costs. Her despair led her into the arms of the Paladin Turalyon, with whom she likely had an affair. Shortly after, the iconic battle of Grim Batol occured. Vereesa Windrunner was instrumental in freeing the dragon queen Alexstrasza and draining of the power of the Demon Soul, which was enchanted by the Dragon Aspects so that it could never be used by dragonkind again. This was the turning point of the Second War, and the orcs began to be rounded up and placed into the internment camps.

Statue of Alleria Windrunner in Stormwind

Following the Second War, Anasterian and the high elves would have little to do with the Alliance. Vereesa and Rhonin were tasked with touring the various nation of the Alliance and reminding the nations to stay together, as there would be threats besides the orcs in the future. The pair fell in love, and eventually had twins,  Galadin and Giramar. Half elven child births often fail, as do twins, and as such their healthy arrival into the world was viewed as very fortunate. The Alliance sent military forces through the Dark Portal to Draenor to retrieve the Book of Medivh to seal the Dark Portal once and for all, as well as stop the orcs from opening portals into new worlds to continue their bloodthirsty campaign. Alleria and her rangers continued their own mission to exterminate the orcs. It is unclear as to precisely when Alleria gave birth to her and Turalyon's son, Arator. It seems to be retconned, and the current story is that Arator was already a child when the Alliance ventured through the Dark Portal. Before departing, Alleria split the necklace she inherited from her parents into three pieces, and sent a piece of it to each of her sisters. She kept the emerald for herself and sent the ruby to Vereesa, while she sent Sylvannas the sapphire. Continue on to part 2!

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Ah, yes. All of your favorite Blues are back from their trip to BlizzCon, ready to tackle the never-ending Q&A session that is the official World of Warcraft forums. And those of you that didn't attend the convention certainly aren't scared to toss a few inquiries their way! Ghostcrawler was bemused that his sarcasm didn't come off very well over the internet when he unwittingly convinced people that Icecrown Citadel would be home to a whopping 31 different bosses (we now know it to be 12). Well, it seems that it doesn't work any better in real life, either. Ghostcrawler when he doesn't have to deal with the official forums. Referring to the top drop from the very same dungeon (the Legendary 2-handed axe, Shadowmourne) as a "Hunter weapon" didn't fly with the WoW community, apparently. Constantly fretting over nerfs and the unfair advantages of rival classes tends to keep the obsessive players on their toes. While I think most people got the joke, it seems as though GC still had to come right out and say it:

Anyone capable of using a two-handed axe can use Shadowmourne. The stat allocation may not benefit hunters or shamans as much as warriors, DKs or paladins.

So there you go. No need to whine (unless you like to run around in tights with a large wooden stick strapped to your back and make your pet do all the work). It might not even work for Hunters. But even if it does, it's certainly not an exclusive prize. Also, Nethaera is doing her best to keep eager players safe:

As always, when there is a beta, we will announce it. Please be wary of any and all claims of a beta or alpha for the new expansion being held.

Boubouille over at MMO-Champion says he's already received his first beta-invite spam, so let that be a warning to all of ya. If you see anything in your inbox claiming to give you exclusive access to the alpha, beta, or Cataclysm in any form, you might as well just go ahead and drag it to your trash can (or better yet, report the spam). With those caveats out of the way, we can see what Blizzard's saying about all of the interesting new systems they introduced over the past weekend. Here are the paraphrased highlights:

• On the simplification of stats: They were actually worried about oversimplification of items, citing that while some people enjoy doing the complex math associated with min-maxing their gear, most people took this information and just plugged it in on best-in-slot sites (like MaxDPS). In other words, they could probably get away with just giving equipment a name and some art if the trend continued. Folding extraneous stats back into the basic ones allows most players to eyeball which drops they want on the spot. (Amatera's conjecture: This doesn't preclude them from adding new stats again in the future, but this time they'll have a better understanding of how to do so without confusing players.)
• On the guild leveling system: Advancement is based on the Top 20 producers of the guild each day. If your guild is smaller than that, then everyone's contributions will count. Even if you think you've done a lot for the guild on a certain day and still don't appear in the Top 20, it shouldn't affect guild progression much anyway, and since you're doing the sorts of things you'd normally be doing to earn those points, it won't feel like wasted time, either.
• On the lack of new Draenei classes: They didn't think that any of the classes Draenei currently didn't have access to would fit them if they did. Ghostcrawler acknowledges that they have implemented some interesting new choices that some people would find hard to justify in the pre-Cataclysm lore, but maintained that the Draenei already have a well-rounded class structure.
• On changes to old zones: Bornakk says that while the terrain will not change for every zone (aside from those needed to be made to accommodate flying, of course), quest lines within them will be modified to allow for a more natural flow of leveling. Essentially, all those "bread crumb" quests that lead you halfway around the world will now send you, logically, to the hub in an  adjacent leveling area.
• On the new system of Reforging: Blizzard is reinforcing the idea of restrictions. This system is designed to make undesirable drops somewhat more desirable by giving players the ability to restructure its existing stats (the operative term here is "consolation prize"). This should not make said undesirable gear better than those designed to advance your class. Likewise, the best gear you can obtain benefits from Reforging the least, so that it cannot be extensively manipulated by min-maxers to break equipment progression.

So what do you guys think of this clarifications? Do they make you more excited? Have they eased some of your fears or have they made some of these new feature less interesting?

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I was lucky enough to get a round and a half of playtime with Cataclysm over the weekend, despite the lengthy lines. For both of my expeditions I chose a backstabbing goblin to ease my transition, and to allow me to experience the maximum amount of content in the short windows allotted to me.

The World of Warcraft: Cataclysm demo started off with my goblin near death, or so the debuff explained. A shock with jumper cables didn't manage to awaken my heroic avatar – he saved the people around him – but accepting a quest revived his spirits. I quickly learned that my level 5 rogue, quickly named 'Asffda', arrived in his dire circumstances thanks to an explosive payload from the local Alliance navy. I was then tasked with rescuing my comrades from their escape pods. The escape pods exploded upon interaction. Miraculously, the diminutive greenskins inside are able to survive the blasts. Blizzard forgot to announce their other racial, Immunity to explosive, I guess.

Asffda then paddled ashore to tackle other missions. Missions of pure goblin bliss. I collected a trio of quests at the first hub, only one of which was cheesy. Everyone single one of them was along the generic lines of “Kill 10 foozles”, but they possessed some unique goblin twist that made them amusing. One had me collecting tools, while the other one had me tossing explosive banana bunches at the local monkey population. An incredibly effective method of pest control.

Due to the amount of people in the starting areas (hello WoW in late November 2004), I decided to break away from the pack after bagging those quests. I spent the rest of my time taking in the sights, soaking up the rays in my new home and greeting the locals. A few things became quite apparent. First off, the Alliance is definitely put in a position as the absolute enemy from the get go. For starters, their dastardly navy nearly killed me. Compounding one's hatred would be the incessant attacks by the local SI:7 who inhabit the tiny island. The instigators even randomly attacked the local Orc Camp while I was having my gear repaired and feeding the vendors. The audacity of those cretins! Down with the Alliance!

/me clears head

Goblin culture was also expressed in the very environments that I traversed over my sessions. In true goblin form, the inventive creatures managed to train the local monkey population to help in their mining operations. Although they had just made camp, the cave looked well mined, and operations were running smoothly. I highly expect Blizzard to focus most of the early goblin experience on the race's fondness for environmental...shall we say, "enhancements?" Supporters of Al Gore they are not.

Speaking of environments, the water in Cataclysm looks pretty amazing. Considering how wet we will be (underwater dungeons!), it's a good thing that Blizzard updated the dual hydrogen compound's effects.

What, you thought I forgot about the racials? Heavens no, I am simply saving the best for last. Rocket Barrage could be cooler, but it's pretty fun either way. The ability fires a single goblin-constructed incendiary device at your target. I forgot to check the range on it, but it may be useful as a pulling ability for melee classes. I just don't see it having much utility unless it scales to have multiple explosives. The Rocket Jump is where it's at. Triggering this spell on your utility belt will vault you into the air as your arc over some 20 yards. You can easily leap over foes in the way (I kept pulling aggro), vault to higher ground, across canyons or launch yourself out of the water. No matter what your end goal is with a lift-off, the character is beautifully animated with pyrotechnics, swinging arms and all. It's easily the most enjoyable racial in the game.

I really want to roll a toon for both of the upcoming races. Who else got to take a goblin for a spin? What'd you think? What class are you gonna roll? If I didn't already have a gnomish Death Knight, I'd rock that.

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And when I say "Project Lore," I really mean "myself." I don't want to speak for the rest of my fellow bloggers, but I made a great number of predictions in my series of Cataclysm Countdown articles, leading up to the events this weekend. While I still maintain that most of them were logical considering what we knew at the time, Blizzard threw a major curveball that negated many of my initial preconceptions. Lore Malfurion Stormrage, Lord of the Druids A lot of people predicted that Queen Azshara would be the big baddie, the number one villain, of Cataclysm. But she was rarely referenced in any of the panels, and was all but missing from the expansion's reveal. At first, I believed that she might be brought into the story as Cataclysm rolls along. Maybe you'd defeat Deathwing after the first patch or something, and then Azshara would rise from the depths, ready to challenge players in the wake of the Black Dragon Aspect's demise. But through all of the live feed interviews and panel Q&As, it's been brought to light that they have no plans at all for Azshara or the Maelstrom to be included in this expansion. The best we can hope for, it seems, are a few related story elements revealed in the Vashj'ir zone. Other lore elements, such as Thrall becoming the next Guardian of Tirisfal or Cairne Bloodhoof being framed for betrayal, were completely side-stepped. I'm not sure anybody even bothered to ask during the Q&A sessions. However, a few revealed plot details do cooberate these ideas. Malfurion, who is supposed to be key in turning Thrall into the next Guardian, has indeed returned from the Emerald Dream to defend the World Tree from Ragnaros, and it was also mentioned that Garrosh is the one behind the changes to Orgrimmar (Dark Iron reinforcements) and the creation of a new Horde base near Darkshore. They stopped short of calling him the new Warchief , but clearly, he is privy to some power and influence that he didn't have before. Azeroth Remade Oh yes, the old Azeroth is gone, but not quite in the way we expected it to be. Once again, the supposed inclusion of Azshara implied something happening with the Maelstrom, and a water-related apocalypse. We've yet to see how Deathwing's explosion into the world has affected every zone (my guess is that Blizzard has shown those that are farther along like The Barrens and Darkshore), but we do know that lava, fire, and large gutters literally burned into the earth feature far more prominently than any sort of flooding. And in places where water has affected the environment (Desolace), it seems more like a positive change. Likewise, if the world map used to display the new zones is any indication, we will not be seeing any large, sweeping changes to the coastline. In some places, there may be light flooding, or new estuaries formed as the ocean fills in ancient rivers, but we have not seen anything on the scale of Swamp of Sorrows being completely washed away or Durotar being destroyed. Then again, there is still plenty of time for things to change, and as development progresses, we may still see several classic zones undergo similarly drastic transformations. New Zones I sincerely thought that we'd see a lot of the South Seas and the Maelstrom open up with the expansion, but with Azshara being nixed, that no longer seems to be the case. The two zones which represent the area, The Lost Isles and Vashj'ir, are both completely new, previously unrevealed in the lore. It is reported that Kezan will make a brief appearance (I'm guessing in the 1-5 level Goblin content, before they are forced to flee), but that's about it. Instead, we received a rather large surprise. To supplement the opening of previously closed mainland zones like Uldum and the area near Grim Batol (now the Twlight Highlands), we're also getting access to the Elemental Planes. These were long supposed to comprise an expansion all their own, and while it's slightly disappointing that we'll only be able to see small parts of them (aside from Deepholm, which we'll get to see all of), they are an exciting and interesting addition. My biggest disappointment? Probably the distinct lack of anything related to Trolls! I suppose there's always a chance that Zandalar could show up in a content patch somewhere down the road. Kul Tiras was missing, too. Mention of the Alliance nation was nowhere to be seen, but the prison in the new PvP/daily zone Tol Barad was reportedly built by then. That's something, I guess. Raids The first article in my Cataclysm Countdown series dealt with potential raid content. I proposed six different raid zones: Nazjatar, The Rift, Zandalar, Grim Batol, CoT: War of the Ancients, and Blackrock Mountain. Without the Maelstrom, those first two are completely out. Zandalar, as I've already said, I lament the exclusion of. And the War of the Ancients is no longer as integral to the expansion's story as it would've been (though Deathwing still played his part). That leaves Grim Batol and Blackrock Mountain (specifically, Blackwing Descent). I suppose one-third of my predictions isn't too bad in the grand scheme of thing, and I nailed two of the four raids. Right? Right? Blackwing Descent 2D Concept I'm also glad that we got to hear some details about Icecrown Citadel, something I was afraid might get completely overshadowed by the expansion announcement. PvP Now I was way, way off here. I anticipated all sorts of new PvP options to be implemented with the expansion, but it seems that Blizzard is largely content to stick to their roots. We get a new Wintergrasp-style area (Tol Barad, complete with Vault of Archavon-style raid instance) and the promise of three new Battlegrounds. The first of which will be the Battle for Gilneas, a fight for control of the capital city's various districts. Though I cited Hillsbrad as the primary area of contention, it's nice to know that I wasn't completely off when I said that the Forsaken would be causing havoc in the area. The only other revelations we saw at the convention were the promise of new arena maps and ranked Battlegrounds. I suppose this is something we'll be hearing a lot more about down the road. The Right of Wrong My final article laid out several rumors to be wary of going into BlizzCon, and I think I scored on every one of those. The oft-cited list of expansion zone sets was completely disproved. Just like my own predictions, it's easy to assume what zones might be included when you think you know what the next expansion is about. Both "The List" and I considered the whole of the South Seas fair game, but that was when we all thought Cataclysm was simply code for the Maelstrom. Then there was Cataclysm's release date. As expected, no specific date was given, but it was made clear that StarCraft 2 was their first priority for 2010. Nonetheless, while Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime tried his best to side-step saying anything definitive, he couldn't deny that they were, indeed, targeting two releases for next year. Finally, we got confirmation on the status of the old Azeroth. It's gone. For good. Finito. You'll never be able to go back and, no, the new version of the world won't simply be phased over it. There is one, single Azeroth. But phasing will still be used extensively. Perhaps even more exciting is that Blizz has figured out how to phase terrain, something previously said to be a limitation. This means that phasing can make the play experience even more dynamic. I questioned the Globes of Ulduar and came away with a win. The artwork included in both the Ulduar raid instance and Halls of Lightning displayed a freshly sundered Azeroth, in several stages. Many of the zones have changed, but we have seen no evidence of any of them completely disappearing or being underwater. There was an awful lot of denial going around before the reveal. A lot of people read the spoilers and said that most of it couldn't be done. That Azeroth wouldn't change so drastically. That the new race/combinations were impossible because they didn't jive with the lore. Well, most of it ended up being true, proving that the developers are the true masters of their lore. But that doesn't make them appreciate their watchdog fans any less. Chris Metzen stated, in one of the live feed interviews, that there is so much lore to consider, that during heavy and rapid development, it is quite possible for them to miss inconsistencies, and that the fans do a lot to keep them in check. So that's it for BlizzCon 2009. We (I) got a few things right, and a lot of things wrong. I'm willing to admit it! In the end, I'm glad we couldn't predict everything, as that would've taken the punch out of many of the surprises they had in store. But I still hope that we end up seeing all the things I touched on somewhere down the line. For now, it seems like Blizzard has their hands full implementing all of the content they revealed over the past few days! As usual, keep your eyes on Project Lore. After all, the more you know, the more questions you have. And the more questions you have, the more they consume your mind. We are in for another good year of speculation!

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Welcome to day 2 of Project Lore's Blizzcon coverage! Unfortunately, the WoW panels this morning were not featured on the live stream, so we were unable to report on them live. However, here are some of the highlights from the panels: WoW Q&A:

• There will be more class-related hubs like Moonglade in Cataclysm, and it will be "MEGA".
• Phasing, especially with terrain phasing, will be somewhat backwards-sharable so you can help your friends or bring them into your phase.
• Probably still a limit of 10 characters per server in Cataclysm. The number of players with 10 characters on a server is still very small.
• Onyxia's level 60 version will no longer be accessible in patch 3.2.2. However, in Cataclysm, they want a lot of old content to still be accessible.
• Night Elf mages were controversial, but they like the idea of bringing in "fringe groups". It will be cool to be this Highbourne elf from 10,000 years ago.
• Thrall, as a shaman, is doing something new in Cataclysm.
• Hunters and Enhancement Shaman will share little gear in Cataclysm.
• Trolls and Worgen will get unique Druid forms.
• Although Armor Penetration will no longer be on gear, the concept will remain in the game to even out PvP for plate wearers, probably through talents.
• Guilds will be able to "craft heirlooms", for the entire guild, any slot. They will scale with level.
• Old world factions will become more relevant.
• Assassination might get buffed in 3.2.2 (woo-hoo!)
• Same-faction race changes will happen in the future.
• "Frostmourne has a.... unique fate. The encounter is going to be mega. Keep your hats on."
• Blood Elf/Draeni starting areas less affected by the Cataclysm.
• Battlegrounds experience will be tweaked. Alterac Valley XP is really high relatively and too easy to "leech"
• Racials will be revisited.
• New dances and dance studios are being developed actively.
• Northrend will be less impacted by the Cataclysm. Outland will be nigh unaffected, but it will have Archaeology implemented.

WoW Game Systems Panel: Rated Battlegrounds:

• Rated Battlegrounds will award arena points.
• Every week will feature a battleground. It will align with the weekend holiday battleground.
• It works like arena; if you win a battleground, you gain rating and arena points. The number of arena points you can get from rated battlegrounds is related to your rating from the previous week so it doesn't encourage grinding.
• If you lose a a battleground, you do not lose rating. This is to prevent the unlucky loss/group from affecting your rating.
• This system will reward ranks like the old honor system and will have seasons. Titles are awarded at the end of the season based on player ratings.
• Rated battlegrounds will have unique rewards like epic ground mounts and Guild Achievements and Guild Experience out of it.

Tol Barad:

• Tol Barad is an outdoor PvP zone like Wintergrasp and plays similar to Isle of Conquest.
• It will probably be south of Hillsbrad.
• There will be a limit on the number of players in the zone during battles, like Wintergrasp.
• There will be control points and whichever side captures them all first controls the zone for awhile.
• There is an instance that can only be entered when your faction controls Tol Barad
• The controlling faction will have access to additional daily quests. Regardless, both factions will use it as a major daily quest hub.
• There will be Tol Barad marks of honor.

Guild Advancement

• They want players to be in guilds to progress with their friends and other players.
• There will be guild experience that will be gained by doing different tasks and achievements.
• There will be 20 guild levels.
• Examples of ways to gain guild experience is killing a raid boss, fighting in rated battegrounds, arenas, leveling professions, and gaining reputation ranks.
• In order for a guild to get credit for a boss kill, you need 75% of the raid members to be in the guild.
• Every time your guild gains a level, the guild gains some talent points. There are guild talent trees that apply to everyone in the guild.
• Some example of talents include reduced repair costs, mass resurrections after wipes, removal of reagents for raid buffs, et cetera.
• One talent increases the gold drop from monsters, another summons the entire raid.
• Guilds can respec for a price.
• Guild experience is converted into some sort of guild currency. These can be used to buy things like guild battle standards and new "bind to guild" items like heirlooms, mounts, etc.
• If someone leaves the guild, the stuff they got from the guild's achievements gets returned to the guild bank.
• Guild currency can be used to buy replacements for reagents. For example, instead of using standard herbs for flasks, you can buy replacement reagents with guild currency.
• Guild Achievements will be like player achievements. Examples include having a legendary weapon in the guild, having grand masters in every profession, et cetera.
• There will be a "guild news feed" and the Armory will get some RSS support!
• You will be able to browse your guildmate's professions much easier. The guild UI will be completely redone, search-able, and filter-able.
• The extra gold from talents that players loot will go into the guild bank.

Mastery

• Talents will be less about "+x to stats" and more cool things you want to do, like abilities or effects.
• The more points you put into a tree, the more stats you get related to that spec. For example, Rogues will ge tMelee Damage, Hit Chance, and Armor Penetration in the combat tree, while Subtlety will see more Melee Damage, melee Haste, and Energy Regeneration .
• Mastery will be a new itemized stat that will increase the gains that you get from talents. Thus, gear will be useful for more specs and classes more easily.

Path of the Titans

• Path of the Titans will be how your character progresses when they are at max level.
• The main reward of the Path of the Titans will be the "Ancient Glyph", unrelated to Inscription.
• These paths will have you align with a different Titan cult. These are not class specific.
• Rewards are glyphs, vanity pets, and other such things.

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As we head into Day 2 of BlizzCon, why don't we just take a moment and reflect upon everything we learned during Day 1? Electricity filled the air during the Opening Ceremony, as Mike Morhaime and Christ Metzen danced around the announcement of Cataclysm until the very end, yanking the audience along like a wooden duck on wheels. But when it landed, oh boy, did it! Deathwing's ugly mug. Many of MMO-Champion's predictions came true, but sadly few of my own. Hey, I thought there were a lot of good ideas, but many of them were also heavily dependent on Queen Azshara being the main attraction, not Deathwing. As it turns out, he's the one that causes all of the mayhem and destruction, not the Maelstrom (though it is still featured prominently several times during the trailer). So there's still someone, or something, kicking around down there in Nazjatar, but Blizzard is holding those details close to their chest. Moving into the World of Warcraft Preview Panel, we learned all sorts of new details about the features revealed in the trailer. We were given a look at how many current zones transformed, as well as shown previews of what the seven new ones might look like. Perhaps one of the most interesting things to come out of the Preview Panel was the fact that we would be visiting all four of the core Elemental Planes, with the Earthen one, Deepholme, being the primary hub area of the expansion. New game systems such as Guild Leveling, Mastery, Path of the Titans, and the secondary profession of Archaeology were touched upon, but further details on those were left for future panels, such as the Items, Classes, and Professions Panel. And nothing, not even the reveal of the expansion, commanded as many pops and boos from the crowd as that panel did. The world you run around in is exciting and everything, but players really do feel like they own their characters, so when you mess with those, you're always going to get some extreme reactions. The Archaeology Logbook Sure, we learned a little bit more about the nature of the Goblins and Worgen, as well as what's going on with Path of the Titans (using Archaeology to find artifacts around the world, you can turn them in for character progression awards for further customization), but the real meat of the panel was the class changes. Warlocks, for instance, will no longer have to farm Soul Shards. They'll get three at the start of any given fight which can activate Soul Burn, a spell which modifies and boosts the rest of the Warlock's playbook. Hunters are also receiving a major change: no more Mana! Instead, it will be replaced with Focus, a mechanic that functions much like a slower version of the Rogue's Energy (unless you use Steady Shot, which actually makes it regen faster). Shockingly, Blizzard is planning to chuck a good number of existing stats in the game in order to make the core ones look more attractive. Mp5, attack power, spell power, armor penetration,  and defense are completely gone. Their impact will be integrated into other corresponding stats, while others like Block and Haste will be modified to compensate. People might complain that this makes itemization less interesting, but like many aspects of the expansion, it really allows Blizzard to get back to basics and rebuild things from the ground up (hopefully better the second time around!). The night ended with a series of contests intended to champion fan creations. Hosted by comedian Jay Mohr, the highlight was, of course, the Costume Contest. With what seemed like a hundred different Elves (of both the Blood and Night varieties) and at least five versions of Alexstrasza, WoW fans dominated the competition, but in the end, it was a fantastic Diablo III Mistress of Pain costume that took the grand prize. Unfortunately for those of us at home, the live feed only covers a single WarCraft panel today, but it's an important one: Dungeons and Raids. We'll be live-blogging that one, just as we did those yesterday. Fellow blogger iTZKooPA, will be covering some of the others via Twitter, so keep an eye on him. We'll bring you summaries and all the essential news as quickly as we possibly can!

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Incoming! The short answer is that Boubouille scored.  The data mining machine, who used some other resources for his recent discoveries, received almost a perfect score during yesterday's opening ceremony.  Nearly every World of Warcraft detail that had been disclosed by MMO-Champion.com came true.  Nearly ever one. There's absolutely no way I can take away from the sleuthing that went on to find out Cataclysm's particulars.  Sure, I didn't believe them all at first, but Blizzard confirmed that the company is simply crazy.  Crazy enough to reinvent what MMO gamers, not just World of Warcraft players, will expect in future expansions. Here's what MMO-Champion had spot on:

• Worgen & Goblins - WoW.com independently "confirmed" this before the event ever happened, but it was Boubouille and his mask discovery that sparked the rumors.  The new races' racials definitely sound OP as announced.  However it was later confirmed that all the other races will have their racials revamped.
• Level cap raised to 85 - Seems an arbitrary choice, but Blizzard wants players to focus a bit more on the content leading up to level 85.  Not just the idea of getting there.  Of course that won't stop many people from being level capped week 1.
• Azeroth revamp - The lands as we know them will indeed change drastically.  Barrens is split in two (double the Barrens Chat?!), Grim Batol is now Twilight Highlands and various other lands, coastlines and jungles will radically change.
• Flying everywhere - Yes folks, we will be able to fly everywhere in Cataclysm.  This even includes Wintergrasp.
• Class combinations - Data mining discovered the new possibilities and they've all come true, even Night Elf Mages.  Solving the 2:1 Horde to Alliance druid question is the Worgen's ability to offer a self-standing holy trinity.
• Unfinished original content done - Uldum and Mount Hyjal will both be arriving as part of Cataclysm.  Blizzard stated that Hyjal was never completed because it was impossible to do what they wanted previously.

There's really only one thing I can say Boubouille missed the mark on, and that's the main protagonist of the third expansion.  Deathwing is, without a shadow of a doubt, the bad guy in Cataclysm.  He's the force that lays waste to the lands as we know them.  Not an erupting Maelstrom as so many speculated.  QueenAzshara and her Naga buddies are definitely around, they have a new island to themselves just south of the Maelstrom, but they'll be a distraction compared to The Earth Warderer. "That is their (Goblin) mount" We've also got some additional details that no one guessed.

• New Secondary Profession - Archaeology (a word that will be often misspelled) will be added to WoW.  It'll be the first secondary profession that plays like a gathering profession.  No, fishing doesn't count.  After collecting from nodes of ruins and such, players will be able to discover rewards.  The mechanic to discovery hasn't been disclosed, but the possibility of a mini-game (Bejewled?!) was mentioned.  We will be able to track ruin nodes, and other gathering nodes at the same time.
• Mastery system - A new mode of progression.  The Mastery system is going to work alongside Talents to offer additional character customization, and it won't be class restricted.  This means a Priest can pick up the same Mastery skills (or whatever they are to be called) as a Rogue.  We are going to find out more details during the WoW Game Systems panel at 10:30 PST.  I'll be covering it via Twitter, and I expect it to be live blogged here as well.
• Heroic Deadmines & Shadowfang Keep - We heard dungeon revamps were coming, and now it's official.  These particular dungeons will use the same art and models.  To spice things up these assets will be mixed with new encounters and fights.  We'll hear more at today's Raids & Dungeons panel, which I'll be covering as well.
• Ragnaros - He's indeed back, "bigger and more pissed."  How much bigger can the developers possibly make the Lord of the Fire Elementals?
• So much more - Changes to fishing, Blackrock Spire is back, new PvP zone, rated BGs and the Alliance loses Southshore!

Consider me excited.  What do you think?  Good, bad, lore buster?  Anything that truly shocked you? For the StarCraft II players out there; I'll be sitting down for a StarCraft II interview later today. @iTZKooPA with your questions.  I'll select the best ones and work them into my own queries.

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The newest addition to the Alliance is indeed the Worgen. The kingdom of Gilneas assisted the Alliance during the Second War. However, going into the Third War, Gilneas realized that there was little the Alliance to provide to them, and they were just fine governing themselves behind the impenetrable Greymane Wall. The curse of the Worgen began to spread, perhaps because of the Scythe of Elune. Regardless, Archmage Arugal of Dalaran became fascinated with these creatures and retreated into Shadowfang Keep to study them. They were great weapons for him in fighting back the Scourge during the Third War. The curse of the Worgen, however, is infectious, and it quickly spread and reached the nearby kingdom of Gilneas. The Gilneans, being confined to their kingdom, quickly fell to the curse. Civil war broke out, and their kingdom became ravaged. The Gilneans have managed to control their curse somewhat and seem to able to transform between Worgen and Human forms. The Cataclysm has been disastrous to them, and the Greymane Wall has been destroyed. Gilneas shares a border only with Silverpine Forest, which controlled by the Forsaken. The Forsaken push southward into their kingdom, and the night elves came to their rescue, perhaps with a sense of responsibly regarding the Scythe of Elune. Now, the Worgen fight along side the Alliance. The exact story behind the Scythe and the Worgen's origins remain unclear, but I'm sure the story behind the Worgen's origins will slowly be uncovered. The worgen racials include +1% damage, 70% run speed for 10 seconds, duration of curses and diseases reduced by 15%, and skinning skill increased by 15. They also don't need a skinning knife! Worgen can play as Death Knights (likely starting in Ebon Hold, and likely the coolest thing ever to grace WoW), Druids, Hunters, Mages, Priests, Rogues, Warlocks, and Warriors.

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