Project Lore

Quel'Delar's Rest

Proverb is an occasional column discussing the lore of Warcraft. It is spoiler heavy for all past, present, and future 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! Little is known about the new sword Quel'Delar. Patch 3.2 introduced the Argent Tournament and the area known of Quel'Delar's Rest. Speculation began even then about what or who Quel'Delar was, and now Quel'Delar has been revealed as a one-handed sword, as was Quel'Serrar. Parallels are being drawn between the two, so lets take the opportunity to remember the story behind Quel'Serrar and and review what we know about Quel'Delar. Quel'Serrar is the name of a particular sword that players could obtain, however, the name merely means "high blade" in Thalassian. There may exist several Quel'Serrar. Players obtained the first named Quel'Serrar by taking Foror's Compendium of Dragon Slaying, a rare drop in Dire Maul, to Lorekeeper Lydros. He claims that the book is "one of their greatest compilations" and presents the player with A Dull and Flat Elven Blade and confides the following story to the player:

<Lydros reaches into his robe and presents you with a dull, flat elven blade.>

In ages past well before even the War of the Ancients, there existed this blade. The blade itself had to be crafted in ceremony with the children of the Aspects. A rare occurrence indeed... For not only would a dragon have to willingly heat and mold the enchanted metal with their breath, they would also need to contain the fury of their own enchantment by using their blood as temper. Over the course of 8,000 years, only a handful of these blades were created - each blade unique in both power and appearance. The blades of Quel'Serrar would take on the characteristics of their creator. Rumors exist of a single, legendary blade of Quel'Serrar crafted for an unknown entity by the combined might of the five Aspects. Before the abominations of Nefarian and Deathwing were thrust into our world, such meetings of the Aspect were represented by the term 'Prismatic.' I could only assume that the Prismatic Blade of Quel'Serrar was a most glorious creation. What I offer to you now is one such blade, unfired, unheated, untreated - the most raw and basic form.

Now you merely need to find a dragon that will willing enchant the blade.

If you had an eternity to live, this might be a possibility; but since you are mortal and could very likely cease to exist at any moment, might I recommend trying to persuade one of the lesser dragons to do your bidding.

Have you heard of the brood mother of the Black Flight? I believe she is called Onyxia...

Players would then be provided with the Unfired Ancient Blade, which they would then take into combat with Onyxia. After the sword was placed on the ground and hit by a deep breath, players would need retrieve the Heated Ancient Blade from the ground, which would only remain heated for 20 minutes, and drive it into the corpse of Onyxia after slaying her to temper it in her blood. Players would then return it to Lydros to receive the Quel'Serrar. As of Onyxia's revamping in patch 3.2.2, players can obtain new versions of the Quel'Serrar as drops from Onyxia; there is the Burnished Quel'Serrar that drops in the 25 player version and the Gleaming Quel'Serrar in the 10 man version. Like the reintroduction of Onyxia, these items have no place in the lore and are in the game just for fanservice. So now we come to Quel'Delar, which is another of these High Blades wielded before even the War of the Ancients. Through data-mining, a variety of information has been gleamed about this sword. First, we have its model. These High Blades should each have its own unique look, although still look similar. Compare the Quel'Delar (left) to the Quel'Serrar (right):

The coloring, runes, and shape are slightly different, but the blades appear very similar.

Continue to part 2...

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Death By Tar & Feathering? Patch 3.3 is so close that I can almost connect to the PTR long enough to play it.  We've been waiting for this content patch ever since it we revealed that Arthas would be joining the game dedicated to him a little late - by C'Thun the star could never arrive on time.  Now that we have the PTR housing patch 3.3, the first round of ever-changing patch notes, maps of the dungeons and lots more, one burning question remains.  How will Arthas die? Let's start with the more appropriate question.  Will Arthas die? It has almost become cliche that World of Warcraft's bosses manage to slip through death's grasp at the last second.  A large number of the best known bosses have merely been de-summoned, released from someone's control or regained their sanity (put down at his request).  In the case of the Old Gods, we mortals have been fighting parts of them, leading some to believe that we've only faced a portion of their vast power.  Is it possible that Blizzard could allow one of Warcraft's most infamous villains to avoid the grave?! Hell no.  The disservice done to fans by allowing Arthas/The Lich King to live would be unfathomable.  He's going down. Of course, then we return to the original discussion, how do you want Arthas to die?  Blizzard could go one of a hundred ways for Arthas' demise, so I can only tell you how I'd like to see him die.  That would be by Jaina's hand.  If there's anyone who needs redemption for all Arthas has done (that's still alive) it is Jaina, his former lover. Rather than another Maiev + raiders vs. Illidan team-up, I'd like to see Arthas go all Hulk on us, freezing our toons when we get him to zero HP.  As he's toying with us, attempting to crack our minds, Jaina pops out of no where to confront him.  Being the former suave Prince The Lich King tries to sweet talk his former mate, only to be struck down mid sentence by an icy bolt, and then finished off with a melee move from her staff.  Double tap, it's important.  Her icy demeanor would vanish as he falls to the ground, and then she'd weep over his fallen corpse (as we looted it) as she curses the gods for putting her in such a position. The odds of my vision coming to fruition are slim to none, but it doesn't hurt to dream.  It wasn't until I finished reading Christie Golden's book that I came to believe Jaine is the only person to send the Prince of Lordaeron six feet under.  How do you want the former paladin to go down?  What about you hordies?  You likely have a different view on this whole Scourge debacle since one of the leaders of your nation-states didn't date the backstabbing necromantic.  Although I hear Thrall has the hots for Jaina.  Just a rumor someone's spreading.  And there is that Slyvanas lady.  Perhaps she'll get her revenge in the horde script?

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Patch 3.3 has been in the limelight the past couple days. With the Frozen Halls preview, patch notes, and PTR released in such a short period of time, there is an information overload! First and foremost in my mind is the introduction of two new named weapons - Quel'Delar and Shadowmourne. Quel'delar seems to be a one-handed sword that is part of a long, epic quest chain involving Rhonin, Vereesa Windrunner, the Sunwell, and Icecrown Citadel. Shadowmourne is a legendary two-handed axe that drops from Arthas in place of Frostmourne, as Frostmourne has a "unique fate". Models for both of these weapons were data-mined by World of Raids: Another change that has yet to be reflected in the Patch Notes are the addition of race-specific totem models for Shaman. The current models in patch 3.2 are the Horde model that seems to be Tauren-themed and the Alliance model which is Draenei-themed. In patch 3.3, all races that are capable of being Shaman get their own totem model. Tauren and Draeni seem to keep the current models, while Trolls, Orcs, and Dwarves (in preparation for Cataclysm) get their own models:

	The lack of Dwarf keg totems is saddening. Other new models include Terenas Menethil II (Arthas' deceased father) and the ghost of Mr. Bigglesworth (Naxxramas was only a setback):

	There are also a series of loading screens for the 5-mans and Icecrown Citadel available. Hop over to World of Raids to check them out. In-game maps for the 5-mans are also in the game. Looks like there is a lot of development going into the art for this patch. Hopefully this patch will be a content-packed conclusion to Wrath of the Lich King!

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All Dinged Up...Don't Know What To Do. It's common knowledge that many, many, users return to MMOG when a large content patch comes out.  The phenomenon is no different in the lands of Azeroth.  Whenever Blizzard releases major content it is almost always joined by an influx of returning characters, thus a spike in subscription rates and server population.  After a few weeks, or possibly a month or two, things begin to settle back to "normal" and life continues.  Patch v3.3 and the upcoming changes to Azeroth, by way of Cataclysm, may throw a curveball in those assumptions.  We may very well see more of the old world being re-populated by the nostalgic, or late-to-the-party players, eager to taste the untainted lands of old.  Even if it is at a relatively Sonic pace. Modifying leveling times began with the launch of The Burning Crusade, and continues to be tweaked with each of Wrath of the Lich King content patches.  The largest being changes to mount level requirements and prices, and the invention of the wonderful Heirloom Items that can grant up to a 20% bonus to XP gains.  Like the patches before it, Patch 3.3 is shaping up to offer new ways to make getting to the end game a far faster process. Heartbourne posted the full PTR patch notes as soon as they went live.  Below is the subset of changes that directly impact the leveling aspect of WoW:

• Default Equipment: Starting weapons are now more uniform. Rogues now start with a pair of daggers equipped. All other classes except shamans start with a 2-handed weapon equipped and the required skill already known. Shamans start with a 1-handed weapon and a shield, as they benefit more from the shield than they would from a 2-handed weapon.
• Health and Mana Regeneration: These regeneration rates have been increased by up to 200% for low level characters. As a player’s level increases, the regeneration rates gradually reduce, returning to normal rates at level 15.
• Spell Mana Costs: These costs have been reduced for almost all lower level spell ranks. In general, if a spell decreased in cost with a higher level rank in patch 3.2.0, that spell now has the decreased cost at all ranks. In addition, spells learned before level 20 with reduced cast times and/or durations have even further reduced mana costs, proportionate to their reduction in cast time or damage.
• Racial Attribute Bonuses: These bonuses have been recalibrated to even out the amount of starting health on the various races. All races start with a standardized level of stamina, except for orcs, dwarves, and tauren who now start with 1 extra point of stamina. For each class, bonuses and penalties to all attributes have been adjusted so that each race has an equal attribute total.
• Dual Wield: Rogues now know this ability upon logging into the game at level 1.
• Stealth (rogues): This ability no longer has multiple ranks. While active, the single rank of this ability (available at level 1) allows rogues to move at 70% movement speed.
• Summon Imp: This ability is now available from the trainer for level 1 warlocks and no longer requires a quest to learn.
• Victory Rush (warriors): This ability is now trainable at level 6.

I don't forsee these changes drastically cutting down leveling time as much as previous patches, but they will speed things up.  Health & Mana Regeneration, default equipment and spell mana costs will impact the time it takes to hit level 80 the most.  Has anyone leveled a character to max level recently?  If so, how long does it take these days? I've striven to have a collection of max level characters that could perform the holy trinity (DPS, healing, tanking) myself.  When Cataclysm was initially announced I planned on leveling a tanking class (gave up on my death knight after the starting zone) as a worgen.  Now that we have more early level changes I may join the crowds that are attempting to play through the old world before it disappears forever.  There's also my sneaking suspicion that hitting level 80 now will be faster than after Blackwing Deathwing (edit: dunno how I botched that one) destroys the planet. Anyone else going to take a dip in the old world before it's flushed?

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As of tonight, Patch 3.3 has gone live on the Public Test Realm. Earlier today, we caught our first glimpse at the latest PTR patch notes, signifying that we knew it would be coming soon. But here it is, just a few hours later, and it's already here! Happy day! The long fight against the Lich King has been arduous, and the final battle has been a long time coming. It seems that we'll all soon get our shot at Arthas. But first - to test out the fights and ensure that they're in good enough condition to release to all. I would expect there will probably be at least 6 to 8 weeks of beta testing before the patch is passed on to everyone, and perhaps there will be drastic changes by then, since nothing on the PTR is ever guaranteed to appear in-game. This is just pure speculation on my part, but perhaps we could see the finalized Patch 3.3 out sometime in January. It seems appropriate, somehow, for the final battle to be played out in the winter (at least for us Northern Hemisphere dwellers). Personally, I can't wait to hear and see more about the new 10- and 25-man raids, and especially the 5-man dungeon at Icecrown Citadel, since I've been having a great time with the 5-man content as of late. And now that I've got a level 80 character, I'm debating whether or not to download the PTR myself... but I'd hate to get attached to any content (or loot!), not to mention Rogue vanish fixes that may never end up on the final version. Oh, decisions. Well, for any of you who are looking into beta testing, here's what Blue Poster Aratil gave as advice on the forums:

Patch 3.3.0 is available for testing on the PTR. We would like to encourage everyone to take time to test this patch and provide feedback on the Test Realm forums. For more information on the PTR, please visit the following threads- Introduction, Installing.

The forums already have jumped alive with excitement, and apparently some at grief that the patch is more than 1.3 GB in size. Hopefully that's an indication that there's LOTS of new content for us to discuss in the coming days and weeks. So, how many of you are going to foray into the PTR?

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It looks like we will see the new patch, patch 3.3, on the public test realms any day now. Check out the current draft of the patch notes: General

• Icecrown Citadel
  • The Forge of Souls, the first wing of the 5-player dungeon, is currently available for testing.
  • Additional Icecrown Citadel dungeon and raid content will be made available in future test builds.
• Dazed: Creatures attacking a player from behind can no longer cause players level 1-5 to be dazed, and have a reduced chance to cause players level 6-10 to be dazed.
• Copied Test Realm characters will no longer be copied with their achievement history in order to better facilitate the character copy process.

Classes: General

• Default Equipment: Starting weapons are now more uniform. Rogues now start with a pair of daggers equipped. All other classes except shamans start with a 2-handed weapon equipped and the required skill already known. Shamans start with a 1-handed weapon and a shield, as they benefit more from the shield than they would from a 2-handed weapon.
• Glancing Blows: The mage, warlock, and priest classes no longer have an increased chance for their melee attacks to be glancing blows; and the damage penalty due to their glancing blows is the same as for other classes.
• Health and Mana Regeneration: These regeneration rates have been increased by up to 200% for low level characters. As a player's level increases, the regeneration rates gradually reduce, returning to normal rates at level 15.
• Spell Mana Costs: These costs have been reduced for almost all lower level spell ranks. In general, if a spell decreased in cost with a higher level rank in patch 3.2.0, that spell now has the decreased cost at all ranks. In addition, spells learned before level 20 with reduced cast times and/or durations have even further reduced mana costs, proportionate to their reduction in cast time or damage.

Races: General

• Racial Attribute Bonuses: These bonuses have been recalibrated to even out the amount of starting health on the various races. All races start with a standardized level of stamina, except for orcs, dwarves, and tauren who now start with 1 extra point of stamina. For each class, bonuses and penalties to all attributes have been adjusted so that each race has an equal attribute total.

Death Knights

• Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle: There is now a 1-handed version of this rune in addition to the current 2-handed rune.
• Talents
  • Unholy
    • Night of the Dead: Now reduces the damage your pet takes from area-of-effect damage by 45/90%, but no longer applies to area-of-effect damage caused by other players.

Druids

• Pets
  • Avoidance (passive): Now reduces the damage your pets take from area-of-effect damage by 90%, but no longer applies to area-of-effect damage caused by other players.

Hunters

• Misdirection: Redesigned. Instead of having finite charges, it now begins a 4-second timer when the hunter using Misdirection performs a threat-generating attack, during which all threat generated by the hunter goes to the friendly target. In addition, multiple hunters can now misdirect threat to the same friendly target simultaneously.
• Talents
  • Beast Mastery
    • Intimidation: If the hunter's pet is in melee range of its target, the stun from Intimidation will now be applied immediately instead of on the pet's next swing or attack.
• Pets
  • Avoidance: Now reduces the damage your pet takes from area-of-effect damage by 30/60/90%, but no longer applies to area-of-effect damage caused by other players.

Mages

• Talents
  • Arcane
    • Arcane Empowerment: This talent now also grants 1/2/3% increased damage done by the mage's party or raid for 10 seconds after the mage gets a critical strike with Arcane Explosion, Arcane Missiles, Arcane Barrage, or Arcane Blast. This effect is exclusive with Ferocious Inspiration and Sanctified Retribution.
• Pets
  • Avoidance (passive): Now reduces the damage your pets take from area-of-effect damage by 90%, but no longer applies to area-of-effect damage caused by other players.

Priests

• Pet
  • Avoidance (passive): Now reduces the damage your pet takes from area-of-effect damage by 90%, but no longer applies to area-of-effect damage caused by other players.

Rogues

• Dual Wield: Rogues now know this ability upon logging into the game at level 1.
• Stealth: This ability no longer has multiple ranks. While active, the single rank of this ability (available at level 1) allows rogues to move at 70% movement speed.
• Vanish: For the first second after this ability is used, neither Vanish nor Stealth can be broken by taking damage or being the victim of a hostile spell or ability.

Shamans

• Fire Nova Totem: This totem has been replaced with a new spell, Fire Nova, which is available at the same ranks as the old Fire Nova Totem. Existing characters will automatically learn this new spell in place of the totem. With a Fire Totem active, shamans will be able to use Fire Nova (fire magic) to emit the same area-of-effect damage as the old Fire Nova Totem from the active Fire Totem, not consuming the totem in the process. Fire Nova will activate a 1.5-second global cooldown when used and has a 10-second spell cooldown. The caster must be within 30 yards of the totem to use this ability, but does not need to be within line of sight of the totem.
• Talents
  • Elemental Combat
    • Improved Fire Nova Totem: Renamed Improved Fire Nova. This talent now provides an additional 10/20% damage to the spell and reduces the cooldown by 2/4 seconds.

Warlocks

• Pets
  • Avoidance (passive): Now reduces the damage your pets take from area-of-effect damage by 90%, but no longer applies to area-of-effect damage caused by other players.
  • Summon Imp: This ability is now available from the trainer for level 1 warlocks and no longer requires a quest to learn.

Warriors

• Victory Rush: This ability is now trainable at level 6.
• Talents
  • Protection
    • Damage Shield: This ability will no longer trigger any chance-on-hit effects from the warrior or the opponent it damages.

User Interface

• Quest Tracking Feature
  • This system is currently under development and is not fully functional.
• Looking For Group System
  • This feature is undergoing several improvements and is not available for testing at this time.
• For additional notes on Lua and XML changes please visit the UI & Macros forum.

Graphics

• A new feature has been added to the D3D graphics engine to improve texture management (particularly for Windows XP users). This is currently enabled by default on the public test realms. For more information please visit our Test Realm forum.

Professions

• Enchanting
  • Black Magic: This enchantment now sometimes increases haste rating for the caster rather than inflicting the caster's target with a damage-over-time effect. It is also now triggered by landing any harmful spell rather than inflicting damage with a spell.

Items

• Glyphs
  • Death Knights
    • Glyph of Icy Touch: Instead of granting additional runic power, this glyph now causes Frost Fever to deal 20% additional damage.
  • Shamans
    • Glyph of Fire Nova Totem: Renamed Glyph of Fire Nova. This glyph now reduces the cooldown of Fire Nova by 3 seconds.

Bug Fixes

• Druids
  • Rejuvenation: Rank 15 of this spell was providing a 15-second duration. It has been correctly reduced to 12 seconds.
• Mages
  • Flame Strike: Some ranks of this spell had an incorrect cast time of 3 seconds. All ranks now share a 2-second cast time.

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The Forge of Souls

With patch 3.2.2 now live, the next major patch on the radar is patch 3.3. It introduces three new 5-man dungeons with both normal and heroic modes, as well as Icecrown Citadel, the flagship raid of Wrath of the Lich King where players will face off against Arthas. The 5 man instances will be three wings of "the Frozen Halls." Players will be assisting one of their faction's heroes, either Sylvanas Windrunner or Jaina Proudmoore, as they infiltrate Icecrown Citadel through an alternative entrance while the Argent Crusade and Knights of the Ebon Blade attack the main gates. An epic questline will lead players through the three instances, and players must participate in the questline in order to get attuned to the second and third dungeons.

Scary

The first wing, The Forge of Souls, tasks players with assisting their faction's hero to destroy machines known as "soul grinders." The instance has two bosses who operate the machines: Bronjahm, the Godfather of Souls, and The Devourer of Souls. The second wing, Pit of Saron, is home to Scourgelord Tyrannus. Players will free soldiers of their faction to assist them in combating Tyrannus. It is not clear who or what this "Saron" is. Players will apparently get clues as to where Arthas' private chambers outside of the Frozen Throne are. Three bosses inhabit this instance: Forgemaster Garfrost, Krick and Ick, and Scourgelord Tyrannus. The final hall, the Halls of Refection, seems to house Frostmourne, the legendary weapon that the Lich King wields. Players, accompanied by their faction's hero, will ultimately confront Arthas. It is unknown how this encounter will progress. Two encounters exist in this instance: Falric and Marwyn, and The Lich King. More information can be dug up at the official World of Warcraft website.

10-man	ilvl	25-man
Naxx	200
KT, EoE	213	Naxx
Ulduar	219
IC 5 mans	219
Ulduar hard	226	Ulduar, KT/EoE
CC	232	Ulduar weapons
IC heroics	232
	239	Ulduar hard
CC hard	245	CC
	258	CC hard
IC Raid	??
	??	IC raid

This information is flooring. Not only is it a lore-gasm, but the loot here is astoundingly good. Players can grab iLevel 219 loot in the normal version of the instances, and iLevel 232 gear in the heroic version. That puts the normal mode on par with Ulduar 10-man, and the heroic version gear on par with 10 man Crusader's Coliseum loot. The full, updated iLevel chart is on the left. The first two wings seem to introduce new characters as bosses, but the final wing, Halls of Reflection, bring back Arthas' two old commanders, Falric and Marwyn as bosses. It was unconfirmed prior to this announcement if they were truly undead. They were last seen accompanying Arthas into King Terenas II's chamber to slaughter him and signal the downfall of the human kingdom of Lordaeron. And who knows of what nature the encounter with Arthas will have? He will not be defeated here, as he is the final boss of the 10/25 man raid instance. Jaina is seeking any humanity left of him, so perhaps this will be some shade of Arthas' soul. I, for one, look forward to accompanying Sylvanas to hunt Arthas to the death.

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The dungeons and raids panel made a lot of big revelations. On top of the huge amount of Cataclysm information, we also got a glimpse of what to expect from patch 3.3 and Icecrown Citadel. Icecrown Citadel will include the main raid instance, which will come in 10 and 25 man versions, and a series of 3 5-man dungeons. There will be an epic questline to unlock the dungeons; players who have not progressed through the story will be unable to enter the second and third dungeons. Once you complete the dungeon, you will be able to go back and farm purples until your heart is content. There will be about 8 bosses distributed across the dungeons Click on the map on the left to see a general layout of the dungeons. The main raid enters on a first floor and progresses up the citadel. There about 12 bosses in this epic raid, and it certainly sounds epic. The first floor has a few bosses, and you see the base of the spire of the Frozen Throne. The second floor has you taking an airships up the spire. Varian mans the Alliance one and Saurfang mans the Horde one. Each faction races to reach the top to defeat Arthas. Players will battle the other airship directly with cannons. Enemy NPCs will use jetpacks to land on your airship and try to sabotage it. Some of your players will have to do the same to the enemy's airship. The third floor has three different wings, which seem to be accessed from different points on the second floor. It seems that Sindragosa will be somewhere in here. The fourth and final floor is the epic battle with Arthas. Parts of the floor will break off and if you fall, "its bad". There will be waypoints, like in Ulduar, to teleport throughout the dungeon and not have long runs after wipes. Major characters will make an appearance in the raid, including Jaina and Sylvanas. In addition, Frostmourne will have a "unique fate" and will not be a weapon that players can loot. There will be a new, legendary 2-handed axe called Shadowmourne which players can get from Arthas instead. Check out the maps for a more visual idea of whats going on. Click them for a full view:

First floor Second floor Third floor Fourth Floor

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Project Lore bloggers have been all over speculation over the last few months. iTZKoopa has been talking about the possibilities in the next expansion, and our posts about lore are certainly not devoid of our own theories. pixiestixy has also had her fair share of wacky ideas. As far myself, way back, just after the release of patch 3.1, I wrote about what we might expect in patch 3.2, which was just released today. How well did my crazy speculation hold up? My first prediction is that this patch would not contain a major raid instance. This was largely wrong, but not completely off. The Crusader's Coliseum instances do not contain trash, and bring a new model for raids that is more friendly to non-hardcore raiders. In that sense, I was not far off the mark. In fact, many of our bloggers consider the new style of raiding to hardly be raiding at all. Blizzard probably wants to get as many players ready for the final battle with Arthas in patch 3.3 as possible. Do you consider Crusader's Coliseum to be a major raid instance, or is it just to appease the progression raiders with something to do until patch 3.3? Where I was really spot on was the topic of PvP. A new battleground was indeed introduced, and it is an epic 40 versus 40 battleground. The battleground system was updated heavily, with some small mechanic changes and increased honor when battling near objectives. Wintergrasp was indeed largely reworked with a limit on players, a queue, and auto-forming raids. The Horde versus Alliance theme is being pushed, and we will likely see some major Horde versus Alliance take place with the final encounter with Arthas. Now, crazy ideas for patch 3.3 are a-brewing in my head. What do you think? What do you want to see in patch 3.3 along with the fall of Arthas?

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