Project Lore

I'm usually a gung-ho fan of world events. Since hitting 80 on my main in September, I've plunged myself head-first into every event in the quest to complete What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been and earning that coveted Violet Proto-Drake. And since it's my first time doing most of the event-related achievements, they've been intriguing enough to hold my interest.

But over the course of February, something changed and withered away at my enthusiasm for world events. I blame the latest combination of Love is in the Air butted up and overlapped with the Lunar Festival.

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Sure, holiday bosses (and the potential for their phat lootz) are one of the biggest draws for many of us to world events. But up until now, a lot of drama has come with them - the potential for players not being "fresh" for their daily kill, the difficulty in forming groups late in the day, and of course QQ over rolls on loot.

Patch 3.3.3 aims to bring closure to some of those issues by bringing in the LFG system that we so love here at Project Lore. And now we also have a bit of clarification from blue poster Zarhym on exactly how it will be implemented (at least as of now).

Buried within the Patch Notes for 3.3.3 on the PTR, we have this little morsel:

• World Event bosses (such as Ahune for the Fire Festival) will now be accessible through the Dungeon Finder. Players must use the Dungeon Finder to access these bosses.

And here's what Zarhym said to bring a bit more clarity to the matter:

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I know, I know. I gave Brewfest a hard time when it first started up. On top of my frustrations with blurry screens and fatigued rams, Blizzard was working through some bugs that prevented players from properly using their mugs to bonk dwarves attempting to steal beer kegs. Then, as if that wasn't enough, serious server stability issues set in after the unexpected release of Patch 3.2.2. But I suppose I ruled out this merry holiday a bit too soon, and have since grown to enjoy even those aspects that previously were driving me insane. Which is why I'm happy to report that Bornakk announced today the event has been extended for an additional two days:

"Brewfest is a time of year where the focus is placed squarely on the celebration of fun and food. In order to give everyone enough time to truly experience this event (and after some fine tuning on the part of the event organizers), we will be extending the event two additional days. The festivities will end on October 5th at 11:59PM, so don’t miss it."

Yes, it seems Blizzard has taken notice of our frustrations with bugged-out quests and lagged-out ram racing, and in compensation has decided to give us extra days to earn those all-important Brewfest tokens. Now that we've memorized the perfect routes for the Bark For.. quests, perfected the timing of whipping our mighty rams to go faster and learned (the hard way) that not all pugs are trustworthy when it comes to winning loot, we have the opportunity to get a little more out of the event. Personally, I got the Brewmaster title a couple of days ago by selling back my Brewfest garb before purchasing the Brew of the Month membership. But as a starting-out collector of vanity gear, I'm looking forward to getting a couple of pieces back. Plus, more chances at the ram or kodo mounts, and that mighty (and highly auction-able) BoE Tankard O' Terror. I'll drink to that!

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Yarr mateys, landlubbers and scallywags! This Saturday be the grandest, greatest o' world events in all o' Azeroth. Why, I'm talkin' about Pirates' Day, o' course. Ye may recall that last year the fearsome Dread Captain DeMeza an' her crew shipped in t' Booty Bay in thar Stranglethorn Vale. Well, we be makin' ourr return fer another round! Saturday, we be takin' the liberty o' sendin' some pirate commoners to shack up in all o' yer cities. All ye scurvy dogs have t' do is speak with me pirate mateys an' agree t' don some fine pirate garb o' yer own fer up t' 12 glorious hours. Then get ye t' Booty Bay, talk t' me Captain t' become an honorary pirate, an' partake in the pillage alongside ye Goblin brethren. Just keep ye away from me booty! Lily-livered lads and lasses, ye need not attend: PvP servers will be rife with swashbucklin' and riotin'. But ye adventurers with half a backbone arr invited to join in on the dancin', eatin', drinkin' and shootin' o' fireworks. Listen t' the piratey music an', if ye dare, take a nice, long look at the fine, partially dressed pirate ladies. Me drunken corsairs might e'en fire ourr cannons int' the bay. I' ye want t' converse with me mateys, try First Mate Hapana, his talkin' assault parrot Nyuni, Cap'n Slappy an' o' course Ol' Chumbucket. Find a hearty bottle o' rum an' enjoy a years' worth o' celebration packed int' a mere 24 hours. Share a drink with me Captain DeMeza, an' being the fine lass that she is, the pirate lass will bestow on ye an achievement fer participatin' on this grandest of all holidays. Don' be gettin' greedy, though, fer a title ye do not deserve! I expect ye t' be there, lest feel the wrath of me wench!

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I'm not much of a PvPer. Sure, I play on a PvP realm. I hate the Horde (or Alliance, depending on which character I'm playing). I dabbled in battlegrounds. But in MMOs in general, I have never really gotten into the Player vs Player aspects of the game as much as I have the PvE ones. Over the past couple of weeks, I've had the chance to step into the arena for a few games each week and I can confirm that I am not an elite player in those situations. Both in the 2v2 bracket and the 5v5 bracket, my teams have lost more games than we've won. So we need to get some more practice. That is beside the point, however. The past few weeks have given me a lot of useful experience as a healer (my chosen arena spec) as well as a lot of good times. The times we have won, though, have been a lot of fun. Even some of the losses were entertaining. And ultimately that's the point of WoW - to have fun. After participating in a few arena matches, I feel like I've been missing out on a huge opportunity for fun in World of Warcraft just because I was afraid I might be bad. Well, I am bad. At least, I'm not as good as I wish I was. That's OK though, because with each match, I feel like I am getting better. I find problems with my game like focusing too much on what opponents are doing and not being aware of my teammates enough. That's a lot different from DPSing in most boss fights where maximizing DPS and staying out of fire/void zones/clouds is all I need to worry about. Of course, I have spent a lot more time facing bosses than I have in arenas, so it all feels like second nature now. I used to avoid world events. Now I go out of my way to complete them. I used to rarely raid. Now I love fighting those skull level enemies. I was wary of stepping foot into arenas. Now I look forward to the virtual beat downs. Of course, all of those achievement points waiting for me to earn don't hurt. I wonder what other fun activities I've been missing out on in Azeroth. Any tips on where I should look next?

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One of the coolest things of vanilla WoW was the release of the first Old God's lair, Ahn'Qiraj.  Blizzard made a huge deal of the event, going so far as to completely re-design an original zone (it was basically unused at release).  The developers added lore, additional factions for rep grinds, more lore, not one, but two raids, and the most epic questline/launching event in the game.  The line was completable by only the most dedicated of players, only with the support of the most skilled guilds.  And if you think your Achievements mean something, try being one of a handful of people (usually only one or two) on the server with the Scarab Lord title and the super-duper incredibly rare, don't even bother asking where they got it if you don't know, Black Scarab Battletank. It's quite hard to describe exactly how crazy The Gates of Ahn'Qiraj were, but I will try anyways.  The opening of the Isle of Quel'Danas was a nerfed version of The War Effort.  In it the Horde and the Alliance had to turn in separate supplies to their capital cities.  The requirements covered everything, various fish, cloths, herbs, food, metal bars, animal hides, etc.  If it was a collectible, often profession-based, several thousand of them were required for the war effort.  Tens of thousands of gold "wasted." Unlike the Isle's opening events, the event would not progress on a timer either.  If the denizens of the server didn't contribute, then the content didn't become available.  On Magtheridon (US) the largest Alliance and Horde guilds set up trading posts in the neutral auction house to quicken the pace.  To foster additional faction support, the guild I was a part of offered free BWL and MC (best available at the time) loot to those that sent us items to hand in.  It was a massive undertaking, far more than the Isle of Quel'Dans times four, and as far reaching as the infamous zombie invasion of Wrath of the Lich King. When my guild decided to patch up our problems by running some old world content I pointed them in the direction of Ahn'Qiraj.  They bit without a second thought.  Most of the guild members wanted to run it for the achievements, which was fine by me since SolidSamm didn't have any C'Thun gear (anymore) to be retroactively awarded, but I suggested it mainly for the memories.  The Gate opening was the first, and only, time that I woke up at 6:00 AM for a video game.  AQ40 was what made me a min-maxer, it's when I first tried to compete with other members.  The raid made me a hardcore player, rather than a member of a hardcore guild.  I finally began to pull my weight, rather than being pulled. To say I was excited to run across those sands again would be an understatement.  With only one other raid member (of 10-13) having been to AQ40 before, I felt like a tour guide.  Myself and my GM, who cleared most of AQ40 back in the day, touched upon the lore as we tore though AQ20, answering questions, elaborating on how hard this boss was, or how you could graveyard zerg General Rajaxx.  After downing Ossirian we headed off to AQ40 which, thanks to Naxxramas moving, is still the most difficult level 60 raid in the game. Off the bat we received not one, but two Red Crystals, both of which I lost.  I also noticed a few changes, namely the uselessness of said crystals, now that all mounts are usable in the Temple, and a severe reduction in the amount of trash.  Certainly didn't expect them to edit another old world instance. We continued on with Solidsamm pretending to be a capable tank as we progressed to the Twin Emperors largely unfazed.  Although we touched upon the boss strategies for every encounter, more to reminisce and inform rather than being worried, this was to be the only discussion that mattered.  And matter it did. To summarize the battle, the Twin Emps will heal each other if they are within 60 yards, so they must be tanked on opposite sides of the room.  Easy right?  Complicating things a little is the fact that one is immune to physical, and the other magical damage, so a caster tank must be employed.  Oh, and there are bugs in the room that become mutated and must be killed, but they are trivial at level 80 (not everyone was 80), as should the entire encounter.  It wasn't. It turns out that the guildies and PUGs we brought couldn't follow simple directions.  People ran around like headless chickens on every single transfer, which allowed the Emperors to constantly heal each other.  After struggling with the 100% mobs for a few minutes I gave up DPSing in protest.  A few wipes later and it was over, I sad my goodbye, thanks and ran for the hills.  Without the Achievement. I'll be going back to poke C'Thun's eye at some point, but perhaps ProjectLore needs to create an AQ40 video so my pampered guildmates can visually see how the tanking is supposed to occur to show the old content to new players.  We tried the IBM approach, piling on more raids members, but that only added to the headless chicken effect.  I don't regret the repair bill or the time spent.  It was a wonderful experience to express my useless knowledge, pretend to tank and just relax during a raid.  I believe the guildies who attended would agree. Has your guild ever ran old content for soothing purposes?  How about just to check out the old school content, to see what you missed?  I think we all could use some more fun runs in this serious business. Quote of the night:  "How did you guys ever do this with 40 people?"

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Patch 3.2 is finally available on the PTR, which means that players will be able to find out all sorts of fun information about what changes lay ahead for us. Most of the changes are covered in the patch notes, but MMO-Champion found a bunch of new achievements to go along with the new patch. I, as an achievement whore, am very excited about these new (pointless) goals. Browsing through the list of achievements, they come out in a few different categories, covering the 10- and 25-player versions of the Crusader's Colloseum along with their heroic modes, Isle of Conquest (the brand new battleground), Koralon (the new Vault boss), and Pilgrim's Bounty and Pirate Day/Day of the dead. Wait, Pilgrim's Bounty? Pirate Day? Day of the Dead? New world events! Since Pirate Day and Day of the Dead only have one achievement listed for each of them, I'd assume they'll occur for only one day and have minimal impact on the world for their duration. But Pilgrim's Bounty raises my excitement level! There are a number of fun looking achievements to go along with the new holiday that I'll assume will take place over Thanksgiving week. For those of you unaware, Thanksgiving takes place on the fourth Thursday of every November in the United States. Of course, Blizzard could always adopt the Canadian version, which takes place on the second Monday of October each year. The only question I have is whether or not we'll have to participate in this new world event to get our Violet Proto Drakes from the Long Strange Trip achievement. If it's anything like the new and improved Noblegarden, then we will. I'm OK with that, but I'm sure some of the other players hoping to get that 310% mount might get upset. In addition to those new holiday achievements, there are a few new Feats of Strength, which hint at some more free pets for logging in. A Jade Tiger sounds like fun! What are your thoughts on these new achievements? Anything in particular draw your interest? What about the new world event? Can't wait or sick of holidays?

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I’m not sure if it’s the recent holiday events, the new achievements system, or something that has been here all along, but it seems the whole world is going crazy about mounts. People want them, want to show them off, and are going to extremely lengths to get them. The most obvious example is the holiday mounts. Groups of dedicated people are spending hours everyday farming the latest seasonal boss and hoping they will drop the latest mount. First it was the Kodo/Ram now it’s the Horseman mount. I’ll admit, I am one of them, and because I don’t have luck like Juggy, I imagine I will be in SM everyday for the rest of the event. It doesn’t stop there however! It’s just the tip of the iceberg. With the new achievement system in place lots of folk in my guild have spent tons of gold and farmed tons of rep  to buy every mount they can get their hands on. The goal is the 50 mount achievement, and yet another mount. (A very cool one, given). While we are on the topic of achievements, the other reason the whole world is farming away inside SM this week is to make sure they get the squashling and the Hallowed title. Not a mount, I know, but guess what you get if you finish all the seasonal event achievements? You guessed it: another mount. The problem actually predates the newest batch of content. People have been mount obsessed long before this. Rare mounts are certainly nothing new. On the extreme end, there is a friend of mine in my guild that has soloed Stratholme several times every day for the last few months. The reason is the Baron Mount. Rumor is that it is the lowest drop rate in the game, and from the stories I’ve heard I believe it. This is one for the truly dedicated, or truly insane (sorry, Feralface). Then of course there is the Huntsman Mount, The White Hawkstrider, The Anzu Mount, The Ashes of Alar, The ZG Raptor and Tiger, and the now inaccessible Bear Mount. While given mounts are really really cool, is it really worth all this time we put into farming them? The are (usually) cosmetic, they don’t improve our ability to down a boss. The are vanity items, but then again, perhaps that is their appeal. What about you? What lengths have you gone to to get a mount? Or are you just happy riding around on your boring faction mount?

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