Project Lore

Slowly, but surely, Solidsagart has been progressing along the levels on her way to level 80.  With her XP busting in to the level 76 range I decided to take her to the one zone that Solidsamm skipped, Sholazar Basin.  The last bastion of (almost) untouched life by the Scourge was a wild ride of old quest design, new ideas, stellar writing and world traveling. I'm sure most players know of Sholazar as the new home to the greatest hunter of them all, Hemet Nesingwary.  That, and the presence of the Ghostfish, are about the only things I really knew about the basin before I decided to tackle its content.  Yea, you read that right, I wasn't aware that both the Frenzyheart Tribe and the Oracles made their homes in the Un'Goro Crater-esque zone.  I did figure that out soon enough. Sholazar starts off innocent, offering a cavalcade of quests that hearken back to the days of Stranglethorn Vale.  I was tasked with killing ten of these, eight of that, and then going for the leader of said species.  It's not until I begin tackling the big game that Nesingwary becomes interested in me, and my various feats.  Once I begin to gain a following in the zone, Nesingwary actually joined me in the hunt as I went for the really big game.  The interaction with such a well known NPC made me feel as if I was having some impact on the world; a great use of subtle phasing. Juxtaposing Nesingwary's incessant need for bigger, badder and more dangerous game is a Avatar of Freya.  The demigod is struggling to comprehend, and hold back, the Scourge that are pouring in from Icecrown.  She asks any who will listen to investigate their coming, and help in their destruction.  She becomes so desperate that she allowed me, a mere mortal, to travel to Un'Goro Crater to unlock a Titan weapon for use against the Scourge. I was told that if I managed to succeed she'd overlook the death I caused in her lands.  My spine tingled when I realized that she witnessed me laying waste to the wildlife, for fun and gold.  The antonymous and interweaving stories between the two hubs end up delivering a perfect opportunity for a moral question or mechanic.  Unfortunately, there was nothing along those lines.  A missed opportunity in my book. The most memorable part of the zone for me wasn't hunting game, or demolishing the Scourge.  It wasn't even the fun quests presented by the Oracles or Frenzyheart factions.  What stuck out in Sholazar Basin for me was the writing for the quests, and the story arcs.  As noted, the Freya/Nesingwary tandem made for some good, if one-sided, moral discussion, but the wolvars and gorlocs each had an entire language of their own.  And the language was used, with one quest giver as an exception, for each and every quest presented by the factions.  I actually enjoyed reading the quest text just for the nuances in the language.  The entertaining gameplay mechanics and actual story arcs presented by the faction dispute was simply a bonus. I can't say any other zone's quest dialogue can compare to Sholazar Basin's.  There are areas of the game that offer more jaw dropping revelations and unexpected twists of allegiance, but the basin had it all in one nice little package.  Hell, I even found the hatch from Lost while running around the lush lands. I highly suggest cleaning up any remaining quests you have in Sholazar.  If you haven't been there, you are missing one of the most integrated and self aware zones in the game.  Be sure to run the Frenzyheart/Oracle line to the end.  You'll know the end when you get there...

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Lots of things in WoW require you to wait a certain amount of time or keep track of different events that happen at some point in the future. For example, your spellcloth cooldown can only be done once per 20 hour period, so you might want a reminder about when you can next transmute. Blizzard has helped out with a few of these things. The in game calendar allows you to create reminders and marks special events. The built in clock can be used to set alarms or used as a stopwatch. In patch 3.1, you can see when the battle for Wintergrasp will begin from anywhere in Northrend. For players who want more automated tracking, there are a few different addons I'd like to spotlight. 1. EggTimer. This addon is named for the famous Mysterious Egg, which hatches into one of several great items, like the Green Proto-Drake mount or the Proto-Drake Whelp pet. You can only have one at a time and it takes 7 days to hatch, so to get the most phat loot, you need to go visit Geen every 7 days to get a new one. EggTimer plugs into FuBar and shows you how long you have until your Mysterious Egg hatches. It also tracks Digusting Jar if you decided to ally with the Frenzyheart instead of the Oracles. It can also automatically create calendar events to mark when you should get your new egg. It also tracks Ahn'kahar Watcher's Corpse for the Ahn'kahet timed event and Zorbin's Ultra Shrinker for a level 55 quest. It works across characters. The developer takes suggestions for items to watch and is working on making it a more robust addon. 2. WintergraspFu. This addon is also a FuBar addition. It tracks when the battle for Wintergrasp will begin. If you participated in a recent battle or have been in the Wintergrasp zone, or have talked with the Wintergrasp mages in Dalaran (or heard them yell to get to Wintergrasp), the addon will display the amount of time until the next battle (or estimate based on when past battles ended). Patch 3.1 allows you to see when Wintergrasp will start from anywhere in Northrend, but this addon still gives you a nice display of it and will work anywhere in WoW. It will probably get the time from the map in patch 3.1 whenever you are in Northrend and save it for if you happen to leave to go back to Orgrimmar or Ironforge. 3. CraftTimersFu. This is one of most practical ones. Any tradeskill you have with a cooldown, like Northrend Alchemy Research, Smelt Titansteel, or Spellcloth, can be tracked by this addon. It works across characters and can be configured to show the time to the next available cooldown or the number of cooldowns currently available. Its simple and makes managing multiple character's tradeskills a breeze. 4. FishingBuddy. You might find it weird that I put this on the list, but there is one facet of it that keeps it in my addon collection. The Stranglethorn Vale fishing tournament is every week at 2PM Sunday, and this addon will pop up on Sundays with a display telling you how much time til the tournament starts. Once the tournament starts, it lets you know that it is underway and tells you how many Speckled Tastyfish you've caught. That's all for today. What timer-style addons do you use?

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