Project Lore

With Yogg Saron having already been downed many times all over the world, there remain a few challenges from Patch 3.1 that have yet to be overcome. Wraith, an EU guild has managed to unlock the 10-man version of Algalon the Observer, the "True" final boss encounter of Ulduar by defeating the Assembly of Iron, Hodir, Thorim, Freya, and Mimiron, all on their hard modes. MMO-Champion has a multitude of screen shots courtesy of Wraith, along very few details about the fight, but it is being speculated that each raid has only one hour per day to attempt to defeat the boss. I've heard rumors that failing to defeat Algalon results in the destruction of Azeroth, though I can't help but feel that might be a bad move on Blizzard's part. I guess we could all escape to the Outland, though. Check out MMO-Champion's post for all of the crazy screen-shots, and leave your predictions on how long it might be until we see a world first Algalon kill.

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BigRedKitty bring us along as they venture into the Arachnid Quarter of 25-man Naxxramas. Watch as BRK squash this oversized bug with the help of a couple dozen other people. Addons mentioned in this video include: Omen Threat Meter Mik's Scrolling Battle Text Power Auras - check out some more tips from BRK about Power Auras here. Deadly Boss Mods Remember to vote for Project Lore on the streamys at http://vote.streamys.org/

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Before Burning Crusade hit the shelves, the raiding scene was very different. Raiding guilds would quickly abandon earlier raids like Molten Core once most items were being disenchanted and they wanted to spend more time progressing through new content. Since there was no value in running an easy raid and well-established guilds could just as easily run harder instances with a few ungeared players in their 40 man raid group to gear them up faster, Molten Core and all the level 60 dungeons fell into oblivion. Blizzard sought to change this in Burning Crusade. First, they introduced heroic dungeons, which offered all of the new 5-man dungeons with better gear drops and more difficult mobs. Additionally, all heroics dropped Badges of Justice, which were exchangeable for gear that was on par with raid gear. As more content as released, they wanted to keep heroics relevant. The solution was to add even better rewards for badges at the requirement of many more badges. Eventually, as Karazhan and Zul'Aman became PUGed more often than arranged, they added badges to them so that they stayed relevant to veteran players. Badge gear on par with some of the best raid drops would cost on the order of 150 badges, equaling dozens of heroics for a single piece, but players continued to run heroics. In WotLK, Blizzard adjusted this system slightly. With the introduction of achievements, heroics would have "hard modes", which would make heroics relevant and difficult to even seasoned players. Every raid has the same system as well, with a normal "10 man" version and a heroic "25 man" version. More importantly, Blizzard introduced a multiple tiered "badge" system. Heroics and the easiest raids, Naxxramas and Vault of Archavon, drop the first tier of badges, called Emblems of Heroism. These are exchangeable for entry-level raid gear. Harder raids drop Emblems of Valor, which are exchangeable for better raid gear. It was inadvertently announced in a post about PvP that a new tier of emblems is to be introduced in patch 3.1: Emblems of Conquest. One of the announcements that startled some players was that Ulduar would drop Emblems of Valor on normal mode and Emblems of Conquest on Heroic mode. The reason this didn't sit well with some players is that they view Ulduar on the same level of difficulty as existing raid content. Most players agree that raid content is much easier than it was in Burning Crusade and earlier and want it to be more difficult. The hardcore raiders have no use for Emblems of Heroism and their Emblems of Valor are looking to be barely useful already, and with the introduction of Emblems of Conquest and heroic Ulduar, Emblems of Valor will likely be less valued than ever. A common request is that emblems should be exchangeable at some fixed rate. For example, an emblem of valor could be bought with 5 emblems of heroism. Blizzard does not want to implement this because they want players who want better gear to play harder instances rather than farm easy ones. They don't want raiding to be a grind. Perhaps a better solution is to make existing emblem gear cheaper as new content is released. Then, that shiny 50 emblem sword might cost 20 emblems instead of 50 in later patches, and you've had an incentive to run a few heroics instead of just getting the next tier up. Another problem is the distinction of PvP gear. Right now, raiders can buy PvP gear with emblems. Without even setting foot in a battleground or arena, they can buy some of the best PvP gear in the game. While PvE players should have access to PvP gear, it shouldn't be that easy to obtain. Rating requirements might be required in patch 3.1 for the best PvP gear, even if you buy with emblems. The main reason emblems are important as far as a mechanic is that they mark which raids are on what "tier". Here is a list of what raids drop what kinds of emblems. Dungeons in the same grouping have similar drops.

Emblem of Heroism	Naxxramas (normal)	Used for Heirloom items, iLevel 200 items, Savage Gladiator
	Vault of Archavon (normal)
	Obsidian Sanctum (normal)
	Eye of Eternity (normal)
Emblem of Valor	Naxxramas (heroic)	Used for iLevel 213 items, Hateful Gladiator
	Vault of Archavon (heroic)
	Obsidian Sanctum (heroic)
	Eye of Eternity (heroic)
	Ulduar (normal)
Emblem of Conquest	Ulduar (heroic)	Used for the next tier of raid drops, Deadly Gladiator

I personally think that this is a good design philosophy. I didn't get to see most of Black Temple or Sunwell because I couldn't spend enough time playing to raid that much. With all of the content being accessible in normal mode to all players but still having rewarding hard modes, the greatest amount of players are satisfied. What do you think? Is the emblem system working? Should 10-man content stay easy and 25-man be made hard or should everything be made difficult?

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A long, long time ago, in Stranglethorn Vale, our guild started Zul'Gurub. At the same time, the elite guilds had finished ZG, Molten Core, Black Wing Lair, and were doing AQ20, AQ40 and Naxxramas. We had Dungeon Set 0 and epic PvP gear, they were decked out in Tier 3. There was a huge chasm of raiding experience and gear-level between us and them. A long time ago, in the Caverns of Time, our guild finished Mount Hyjal. At the same time, the elite guilds had completed Black Temple and Sunwell. We had 4/5 Tier 5 and they were decked out in Tier 6. There was a significant difference in gear-level and raiding experience between us and them. As of this week, our guild has completed all 10- and 25-man raiding content in WotLK. The only challenges left in front of us are Sartharion with two and three drakes up, and some raiding achievements. The elite guilds have finished the "hard modes," but there is no raid-boss they've seen that we haven't. We are 13/15ths of the way to being totally decked-out in Tier 7.5 gear - they have a better necklace and trinket than we do. They also have the gun from Kel'Thuzad, those rotten {expletive (plural) deleted}. There is no real difference in gear-level, and while they have many more years of end-game content raiding experience than we do, we’ve walked where they've walked in the new expansion, and not years after they have. So what’s the deal? We've heard over and over that the content is easier. Bullpucky. We remember our first kills in Karazhan. We remember going to Maiden and being sure it was going to take many hours to kill her. We remember warning the guild that wipes were the price of success. Then, we one-shot her. /kapow! "Don't move when Flame Wreath is cast!" And if you didn't move, and you had the DPS, you'd beat Shade of Aran. Learning the skill took time, as did getting a high enough raid-DPS, but once the skill was learned, never again did a movement fight cause as much fear. Thaddius in Naxxramas is a movement fight, and people don't freak out about that guy nearly as much as they did about Shade of Aran. The problem with Karazhan was two-fold: First, an entirely new population of WoW-players suddenly had access to raiding content, and they weren't used to it. Second, in a 40-person raid, you can have a screw-up. In a 10-person raid, a single person could easily wipe everything. So in old-school raiding, the old-school raiders learned to raid as they were "carried" through Molten Core. They made mistakes, they were mostly hidden, and the raid kept on trucking. By the time they got to Karazhan, they knew how to raid and thus breezed through it. In contrast, a new generation of players learned to raid in 10-man Karazhan, and they learned to raid as they wiped. Karazhan was hard, not because of the difficulty of the content, but because individual mistakes were magnified and the results were much more severe. Was Gruul or Magtheridon much harder than Karazhan? No, because these 25-person raids required Karazhan-geared people to attempt them. And once you've gotten gear from Karazhan, you probably knew how to behave in a raid. The difference between 10- and 25-person raiding isn't much, the only difference is in specific people learning their specific roles. Once the trick of the boss is mastered, the basic raid skills needed are already known. (i.e. don't stand in the fire or the black circle, don't take aggro from the tank, etc.) Then we get to WotLK and the new Naxxramas. Is 10-person Naxx easier than Kara was? Yes. Is it because the content is easier? We say No. We say that people crushed Naxx with such relative ease because there were no new skills needed to defeat the place. If you raided Kara, you could raid Naxx. There is no skill needed for Naxx that was not taught in Kara. And who didn't raid Kara? What percentage of people who are raiding Naxx do you think didn't step foot in Kara? Five percent? That means ninety-five percent of the people with their eyes set on Naxxramas just had to level to 80, then they'd have the gear and the Kara-learned raiding knowledge to defeat the place. And they did, foshizzle. So now we have the promise of Ulduar. What's the big scary thing there? Vehicle-mounts for combat. /shudder What fight do we have right now with something like vehicle-mounts? Malygos. What raid boss do people dislike the most? Malygos. Why? Phase three - The drakes. People dislike the drakes because they don't get to play their own class, and because it's a new mechanic. We love Naxx because it's just an extension of Kara. We've mastered Kara, so Naxx is easy. We have never had a vehicle-mount boss before, so people hate learning Malygos. Defeating one, two, and three drakes-up Sartharion is a matter of gear, positioning, and DPS. All three of these things are easily comprehended by Kara-experienced raiders, and thus three drakes-up Sartharion, while technically a much greater challenge than Malygos, does not inspire the same dread and hostility as Malygos does. Ulduar is bringing vehicle-mount boss fights to an entire new level, like it or not. What are you going to do about it? Are you going to farm Naxx for fun and profit? Are you going to go for the hard-mode achievements and beat 10-person Sartharion with three drakes up? Or are you going to practice your vehicle-mount combat skills in Malygos? Just as the Aces High! daily is practice for Malygos, so is Malygos himself practice for Ulduar. If you have the choice, we recommend you get your happy little tuckus out to Borean Tundrea every week, do both 10- and 25-person Malygos, not so much for the gear, but to get used to the dynamic. The skills you learn in Malygos are going to prepare you Ulduar, just like Kara prepared you for Naxx.

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Edit: Looks like Blizzard didn't want this video out there. If you didn't manage to catch the video, you'll just have to wait until Ulduar is public! Earlier this week we saw MMO-Champion's preview of Tier 8 Gear. Now, via the wonders of private servers and YouTube, we are given a glimpse of what Ulduar may look like on the inside. Sure, many people have checked out the Halls of Stone and Halls of Lightning which are all a part of the same overall instance group, but the Ulduar raid is still somewhat of a mystery. None of the bosses are present in this ten minute run through but we're able to see how huge the instance is on the inside, which is one of the things I was worried about. I can't wait to experience this for reals.

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One of my favorite things about picking up a new piece of loot, or even just seeing a piece linked, is trying it on in the dressing room by Ctrl+clicking it and seeing how cool it looks. While we've heard a few details about the next major content patch and the raid that will be included in it, Ulduar, we haven't seen any phat lewtz that are going to be added. Well, the folks over at one of my favorite WoW sites, MMO-Champion.com, have put together a six minute video that shows off models that are wearing what is presumably Tier 8 pieces for Death Knights , Hunters (starts at 0:53), Rogues (1:35), Mages (2:40), Warlocks (3:45), and Priests (4:50). Unfortunately, there is no set implemented for any of the other classes (including the best class, Shaman), but I have to say the priest set looks pretty sweet and that rogue set is very creepy. Check out the video below!

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I'm currently specced enhancement, which is my spec of choice for the time being. It's also the one I tend to recommend to shaman who are leveling up. Of course, both Elemental and Restoration have come a long way in their viability as leveling specs, but an enhancment shaman is able to solo with very, very little downtime, PvP decently, bring utility along with great DPS in groups, take on elites without breaking a sweat, heck I even tanked the ranged horsemen in 10 Man Naxx. Knowing the abilities that are at your disposal will help you make fights go much smoother. One of the key abilities available to enhancement shaman is Feral Spirit, the 51-point enhancement talent introduced in the Echoes of Doom patch. I said I would address my love for this tandem of wolves and you might have wondered what they do besides look cool and make lots of noise. I'll tell you right now - they are a versatile little cooldown that I've used in a myriad of situations. While leveling through Northrend, I used my wolves to solo most of the group quests that I encountered. My basic strategy when approaching an Elite was to start out with totems that would increase my damage output. That means Strength of Earth, Windfury, Flametongue, and Mana Spring. If I knew the enemy was a caster, I'd drop a Grounding Totem and wait for the cooldown to be up before heading in. Once set, I'd run in, let the dogs out, take some damage, heal with a 5 stack of Maelstrom Weapon when I got low on health, use my wolves' Twin Howl when I got too low on health to let them soak up a little damage, grab aggro again, and repeat. Usually by the time my wolves despawned, I was able to kill the enemy. If things got too dire, I'd use Shamanistic Rage or even Heroism, but most of the time I wouldn't need to go to those lengths. Now, while the additional DPS from the twins doesn't hurt, the real key to these guys is one of their abilities: Spirit Hunt. Spirit Hunt heals the wolves along with the Shaman, for 150% of the damage they cause, which ends up being a very nice HoT on both me and the wolves. This means that when I'm ping-ponging aggro on an elite by using their taunt, I generally don't need to heal myself during the time that they are being targeted and they don't need healing unless they're taking a severe beating. It also gives your healers a break during heavy raid damage and can give you a nice buffer in PvP so long as your wolves can stay on an enemy. Another useful ability that the Spirit Wolves have available is Bash, which is a stun. This is the only true stun that shaman have access to. It's amazing for PvE since it can give you an extra breath between damage, and in PvP, well, you can't do that while stunned. If you're a Shaman who's done any real PvPing, you know how much it sucks to be stunned, so start using it against all of those rogues and pallies. Unfortunately, the wolves will cast this as soon as they start attacking something, and although autocast can be turned off manually once the pets are out, it will turn back on the next time they are summoned. I've looked and tried hunter macros that turn off autocast, but they are not effective on the spirit wolves. Blizzard is aware of the issue and hopefully it will be fixed soon. Spirit Walk is the last of the wolves' abilities that I'll cover. It is a Sprint-like ability that increases your run speed and your wolves' run speed by 60%. It also clears any root effects on all three of you. Incoming AoE spell? Stuck in a Frost Nova? Getting kited? Running a flag? Trying to catch a flag carrier? For an enhancement shaman, if you aren't in melee range, you're missing out on a lot of your potential damage. Sure you can Lava Burst for a decent crit on top of a Flame Shock, but that's not how you get your damage done. Movement is critical especially in PvP. Spirit Walk will get you there faster than Ghost Wolf, frees you from roots, and even works indoors! (Insert Plea for Ghost Wolf Indoors, maybe a glyph? Please!). If used early enough in the wolves' 45 second duration, it can be used twice per summon. I often use it while running back in an instance if I know it is going to be a long one. Now, if only they were permanent and not just 45 seconds every 3 minutes...

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I’ve been trying to keep a healthy perspective on this thing. Sure, I called in sick on Friday, and sure I logged more hours this weekend than I probably did the past 3 weeks combined, but I’m having fun and fully expected to invest a lot of time during these initial few days. With everyone racing to level cap, it is very interesting to see how far various members of my guild are approaching it. There are some that are playing about the same as they did before, there are actually some that are playing less (waiting for things to settle down) but what I am noticing most is those that are playing more, much more. There is the guy I know who went 40 hours without sleeping, there is the one that did 3 levels in one sitting (and hasn’t logged since), and even the guy that took 2 weeks vacation to dedicate all day everyday to getting up to the cap. Now I’m not here to judge, like I said I have logged more than my fair share of hours over the last few days, but sometimes I just have to wonder. Where is the line for all of this? I hear people calling each other noobs for not leveling fast enough, or on the other side calling them nerds for playing too much. I cannot say what the proper balance is, but it is certain that there are strong opinions all around. What does it take to be the world first 80, or be the first to clear all the PVE content? Are we so competitive that we push our selves to the brink to beat that other guild, the others of your class, or even your friends? I know that this will all be very short term, and soon all will be back to normal, but in the mean time it’s a great time to learn a little about your friends and guildies. What about you? Are you feeling the pressure to level like a madman, or are you appalled by what you see going on around you? I wish I had a way to wrap this all up into a moral or a strong opinion either way… let’s just say I have found the last few days very interesting. Now back to leveling.

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Ever feel like you found a dungeon, zone, or raid that was just made for you? Depending on your class, spec, and general play style some places just click with the way you play. As a protection paladin I've been close to experiencing this a few times. The Plaguelands were full of undead and great paladin lore. It was definitely one of the first places my tankadin felt at home. Further down the road there was Kara. A masterfully designed instance, and again crawling with undead. This had to be it right? Not quite. After all this time playing my Pally, I am proud to announce I have found my place. My "Zen" instance. The raid to end all raids for the protection paladin: Mount Hyjal. I zoned in there for the first time ever a few weeks ago, and it all just feels right. Waves of mobs just charging into my consecrate, piles of undead that I can blast with my Holy Wrath, and pulling stray mobs off an over zealous DPS is just an exorcism away. Even the bosses are all demons, sending our threat through the roof. I know we are designed for AOE tanking, and this instance seems to be designed for us. For those that have never seen the raid, Hyjal is set up much different than others. It is similar to the 5-man instance The Black Morass. You must survive waves of undead that descend upon various towns you must protect. Instead of pulling the instance, the mobs come to you. After you have downed 8 waves you get greeted by a boss. It can be rather hectic, but with all these mobs charging into your raid the Prot Paladin is invaluable for keeping everything under control. I have never had more fun in a raid than I did my first night in Hyjal. Not only did I get to tank in a way I never have before, I even showed up in the top 10 of the DPS chart! I think I am in love. We still have a ways to go, and I know there is an obstacle or two in our way, but I am thoroughly looking forward to working through this instance. I've heard from many people that this instance gets repetitive and tiresome after a while, but I have a feeling I will be enjoying it much longer than others. What about you guys? What zones seem designed for your class? Where are you in your element? Surely there are other zones that seem to be such a good fit for various classes and specs. So what are yours? If there isn't one, what would it take to make one? I'd be curious to know.

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Alright, I’m just going to come out and say it. I am dreading the new expansion, yes dreading. Don’t get me wrong, I’m very much looking forward to exploring Northrend, unlocking achievements, and charging into a new end game, but lately I have been looking to Wrath with a sense of impending doom. The reason is pretty simple; I still have too much to do in TBC! I’m sure there are many of you that couldn’t disagree with me more, but as someone who got into the whole raiding scene a little late, I have a whole list of goals and not enough time to do them. This sense of doom was only amplified by the recent announcement that the Amani War Bear will no longer be available after the next content patch. Yes, one of my goals was to set up my guild with a nice cavalry of bears. Other goals included downing a few choice bosses and earning the Hand of A’dal title, another privilege that could be taken away when WotLK hits. I understand why Blizzard is taking all this away, in fact I approve of it. These things need to stay special. Because of this, I’ve had November 4th marked on my calendar for a while now as the big due date. It is the drop dead deadline for me to get all this done (assuming Wrath hits when people think it will). What I don’t approve of is the news that the new content patch may eliminate my chances even sooner. My time frame just went from a defined date to “within weeks.” My hopes of riding around on my bear with a new title above my head are quickly slipping away. Now, with the update to the launcher earlier this week, the chances of the patch hitting soon seem to be getting better all the time. These titles and prizes should be special and would be much to easier to earn at level 80. I understand why they must go away, I’m just worried they are going away a little sooner than I would like.

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