Project Lore

Here is the latest version of our WoW Web Comic, Random Heroes. If you haven't already, check out the previous Random Heroes comic or all of the Random Heores comics.

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So this is it, there is less than a week left until the new WoW expansion changes our whole world. Some of us may be fully prepared to head into Wrath of the Lich King, but I’m sure there are many, like myself, that still have lots of preparation to do. Personally, I have been utterly neglecting the preparations I need to make to be ready for WotLK. With our guild up and raiding again, my thoughts have been directed toward BT progression and not into cleaning out my bank… but we are reaching the point where I need to get things in line to make the boat ride to Northrend as comfortable as possible. First thing is first. I just started going through my overstuffed bank and started getting rid of all the mats and consumables that will be rendered completely obsolete next week. Being and enchanter and engineer I’ve got more dust and gizmos than I know what to do with. I’ll kill two birds with one stone by clearing up some space and getting some much needed funds to help smooth over the leveling process. That takes me to the next point. I’ll need gold. I know I will make some along the way, but leveling professions, learning to fly in the cold, and buy BoE epics is going to be expensive. The more funds I have the better, and right now my funds are dangerously low. Then I’m going to have to take a hard look at my quest log. It’s high time to finish up those last quests that have been rotting in my log for months… either that or drop them. All I know is that when I hit the Fjord, I will want as few quests sitting in there as possible. At last I will soon have to tweak my spec for leveling, make sure I know what gear will be best for the process and park my toon in front of the boat the night drops. It should be a fun process, and I need to make sure by toons are ready to start the next chapter in there digital lives!

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First things first, this post will contain some information that many players may consider spoilers.  The information presented later in this post will only be discovered by most players once Wrath of the Lich King goes live. So that is your warning. I actually haven't managed to get myself into the beta, despite my best efforts.  This is coming from someone who has been in the previous two closed-beta sessions, so I feel a bit left out now.  Thankfully, my closest World of Warcraft buddy did manage to snake his way into the beta and has kept me up to date on things I need to know.  Over the weekend he pointed me to the small image you see to the right.  As any WoW player knows, those little foot icons are flightpaths. The image only shows the horde friendly flightpaths, so you can safely assume that there are at least 50% more.  At first glance I thought this was an incredible amount of nodes for the island of Northrend.   That is until I compared the size of Northrend to Outland and the other major islands.  The small picture  does not do the new island justice since it is not to scale, but Northrend is probably two to three times the size of Outland.   For a more appropriate picture check out the upcoming World Map. But my original surprise at the amount of flightpaths still stands.  There are more nodes crammed into Northrend than either of the original islands.  What makes even less sense is that players will be able to us flying mounts in Northrend, so why the need for more nodes than before?  I guess the one saving grace is that Blizzard will not allow players to use flying mounts on the island instantly.  Therefore, players will still be forced to explore the island before taking to the skies. Oh and as proof of the island's size. the route selected in the picture – Dalaran to Borean Tundra – takes about five minutes to complete.  Just enough time to get some dual-gaming in.  Does anyone else feel that Blizzard is eroding exploration by making it so easy to get around?

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A few things have cropped up in the larger World of Warcraft community that are likely to interest many of you. Both of them are Wrath based, although I would not call any of the upcoming information a “spoiler.” So feel free to read on without learning that Arthas is a sled and that Azeroth is really Earth in the distant future. First up, we have a YouTube look at the new calendar system. The guild calendar is one of the biggest changes that Wrath of the Lich King will bring to the user interface. Although, we now know that the change will be coming as part of the last content patch for The Burning Crusade. When the patch launches, guilds can stop depending on, and the author can stop creating, GroupCalendar. Since the video is from the beta, things may change a bit before it goes live. Highlights include:

• Personal calendar filtering by Battleground Holidays, Raid Lockouts, Darkmoon Faire, Weekly Holidays and Raid Resets.
• All users can create events viewable by a selected group and/or the guild.
• Created events can be of various categories - PvP, Raid, Dungeon, Meeting, Other.
• Creators and moderators can modify the event including attendee status.
• Users will be notified of event invites by a flashing calendar icon on the minimap. They can then RSVP to the event.
• Events will display the number and classes of players that have RSVPed. Inviting from the calendar interface is also possible.

The next piece of Wrath goodness isn't created by Blizzard in anyway. WotLKWiki has put together a tidy, interactive map of Northrend that acts a lot like Google maps (it is “Powered by Google” after all). You can click-drag the map, center, zoom in and out. Double clicking on an area will zoom in and center. So yea, just like Google Maps. Really there isn't anything too impressive with the map but it's fun to take for a spin.

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