Project Lore

As we enter the end of the 3rd 'set' of raid instances in the current expansion, I think it is a good time to take a look at Blizzard's new raid philosophy which made another dramatic change in WotLK, not unlike the change from 40 man raids to 25 man raids in Burning Crusade. With the release of this expansion Blizzard essentially made a promise to the entire WoW community that the raid content would be opened up to everyone (in theory). They changed all raids in Wrath to have two separate versions, a 10 man and a 25 man. Within those raids they had even more lines drawn with heroic and standard versions of many of the fights. For better or for worse though, six months into this expansion we can see that they are well on the way to their goal to opening this content up to nearly everyone. On my home server of Cenarius you can find PuGs for any range of content that fits your need without too many problems. Did your side just capture Wintergrasp? It's very easy to find a group for Vault of Archavon which drops some of the best armor pieces in the game (for both PvPers and PvEers). Naxxramas, Eye of Eternity, Obsidian Sanctum, and even Ulduar are all PuG options for both versions. Granted you most likely will not be hitting up the hard modes with these kinds of groups, but you're seeing the content, which is esentially what Blizzard wants. This is why they brought Naxxramas back (which I missed the first time around, so I am a huge fan of the decision) and why they have expanded the types of groups that can attend these raids, and brought around the philosophy of “bring the player, not the class” (which was a problem in TBC, especially with Sunwell). As positive as these changes are there are naysayers, mostly in the hardcore raiding community. They do have a point as they continually clear through normal modes like nothing. Blizzard really changed the raid designs with Ulduar though. There was only one fight with the release of WotLK that gave those who went “the extra mile” incentive and better gear for doing the fight in a more challenging way (Sartharion with three drakes up). With Ulduar though, most fights have a hard mode, better loot and a greater sense of accomplishment. To even clear the whole instance though players must clear hard modes to unlock the extra boss Algalon. Now that Ulduar has been fully cleared (all hard modes completed) we can shift our focus to the future once again with 3.2. The raid philosophy gets a slight shift again, this time with the separation of 10 man and 25 man raids into regular and heroic, all with separate lockout timers, so essentially you'll be able to run Trial of the Crusader four times a week, all on the same character. In the coming weeks though, we will get a lot more information about this raid zone as we will see the zone live on the PTR for testing. Blizzard seems to be opening things more and more for players to experience the raids. With the change to badges helping players gear up fairly quickly to be able to have proper gear for the new content shows a shift in design philosophy. Previously you absolutely had to have cleared old content (within that expansion) to really gear up for the newest, or next tier, of content. The lines have been blurred now and there is no “one” way to gear up properly anymore. Once patch 3.2 drops we will most likely see an emergence of heroics being run once again, and quick clears of Naxxramas (my guild doesn't even have anything besides Ulduar and Wintergrasp on our raid schedule). It seems as if Blizzard is attempting to please everyone with this patch, the hardcore raiders will have their 25 man heroic and regular 25 man to gear up quickly and easily. While tighter knit guilds still have the opportunity to do regular or heroic modes. Blizzard is also introducing a feature that I think every guild will be able to appreciate, with the ability to extend a lockout period an additional week. This will allow guilds to get additional work on a particularly challenging boss, but will require them to give up loot on the “easier” bosses for one week. I think this will be another level of strategy for raid leaders and guild leaders to use their time more effectively for their guild. Possibly the biggest surprise throughout all of this is that there will be absolutely no trash in this instance, purely bosses! I am a huge fan of this and I think more people will be happy over this than just me, no more complaining that mages pad the meters on trash! Will this be how it is in Icecrown Citadel though? I would be very surprised if they did, as I think this is a special case scenario and I think they want the Colosseum feel to feel authentic and not similar to how it was in Hyjal. If we take a look at our preview of Crusader's Coliseum then it appears that it will be just one area that we fight in (this may or not be the case and we should know very soon). Do you like the way Blizzard is pushing their raid content now? There are a lot more options for people (three separate versions of the Tier 9 gear) do you think this will spread the player base out a bit too much? And one more thing, what will you be doing with your guild, just one tier of the new raid or multiple ones?

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UPDATE 7/7/09 Wow, I figured this would be fixed, but I didn't think it would come quite this quick. Mania's Arcade now is reporting that the Worgen can no longer be tamed, and those that already have been tamed are somewhat useless. It was a good show while it lasted! Earlier: This past weekend was a great one for hunters everywhere as word spread about a newly discovered way to tame a Worgen - WoW's version of a werewolf-like, badass humanoid creature. It turns out that with just the right timing (described in detail at Mania's Arcade) you can tame Garwal, an NPC in northern Howling Fjord who gives out the quest Alpha Worg (in both Horde and Alliance versions). He has both a worg (beast) and a worgen form, and you have to tame him at just the right time to make sure you get to keep him as a worgen. And once you've gone through the trials of claiming the worgen pet, you then have to be careful in order to keep him. You shouldn't, for example, risk certain activities like bringing him out in an arena, lest risk his return to worg form. Now the big question - will Blizzard allow this game exploit/bug/awesomeness to stay in the game? All this excitement over an unexpected new pet reminds me of a similar situation with the Ancient Grimtotem Spirit Guide, who once upon a time in late 2007 / early 2008 was tameable. Similar to this time around, there was a ton of activity on the official hunter forums about the new addition to the pet kingdom. First, a blue poster for WoW Europe said the bug would not be removed. A couple weeks later, a separate post on the US forums informed us that the ability had been removed through a hotfix. With this in mind, it seems unlikely that the worgen will remain as a pet, now matter how many petitions you sign. In fact, I'd say that all the attention the topic is receiving through blogs and the forums may just hasten Blizzard's response. But, there is some good news. If you're able to claim him quickly enough, I would say that chances are good you'll get to keep him. Any non-hunters who are trying to complete the Alpha Worg quest in the meantime may just have to put up with some serious competition! Also something to keep in mind - not everyone is happy with being able to tame a worgen. But I'm keeping my positive stance until I hear a good reason beyond jealously because you've already turned in that quest and can't go back to redo it (Yeah, I know it sucks. But at least some people can partake in the fun - I'm all for that). I've had  a great time sorting through the dozens of threads that have spawned up as a result of the whole situation. Everything from what to name your new pet worgen (my fave submissions - ManBearPig, Sirius, GonnaGetDeleted) to what other creatures players wish they could tame (griffons and zhevras are high on my list). It also makes me want to log on to my lowly level 19 hunter in the Project Lore fan guild and start pumping her up. It's a race against the clock! So what does everyone else think of this recently discovered game mechanic? Have any of you hunters gone out and tamed a worgen yet, or have most of you already completed that quest? For those of you who have successfully tamed the worgen, are you hopeful that you'll be able to keep him?

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Last week you guys might remember that I wrote a bit about my love of the Dragonblight zone and all of its lore-tastic quest lines. And I should have known I can't sneak anything past you guys! As several of you pointed out, I excluded from my post the major Wrath Gate cut scene and epic event that follows. Well, that's partially because I hadn't finished that quest line yet. But it was also because the quest line was so grand that I thought I'd dedicate an entire separate post to it. **Possible spoilers for anyone who hasn't played through WotLK content!!** You have to work to get to the awesomeness. As a Hordie, I worked through four quest lines to prove my worth: Into the Fold, Victory Nears, Strength of Icemist, and The Forsaken Blight and You: How Not to Die. From there Overlord Agmar offers The Kor'Kron Vanguard:

The time has come, the moment is now - our elite soldiers at the Wrathgate need you. The son of Saurfang awaits your arrival at the Kor'kron Vanguard. Go now, northeast to the Wrathgate.

Another quest line later, some Scourge defeated, and the fun begins. Start in-game cinematic. I'll admit it. the first time I saw this was before I did any of the questing. But the second time, after all that work, left much more of an impact on me. We (who aren't DKs) get our first in-game glimpse at the Lich King, and it's an epic one at that. Both Bolvar and Saurfang Jr., along with a ton of their accompanying forces, get fandoozled by the Scourge (who are parading as the Forsaken). I knew those creepy apothecaries were up to something sinister! After the scene ends, everything has changed. In place of Bolvar and Saurfang Jr. stand Alexstrasza and Korialstrasz, who you met in previous questlines in their humanoid forms atop Wyrmrest Temple. Those who still are alive are running around screaming, mourning the dead. And you're left to inform either Saurfang or King Varian Wrynn of the casualties, and deal with the remaining aftermath. I've heard that some thought the cutscene was a rip off Lord of the Rings - and I can definitely see the resemblance. But regardless of where Blizzard drew its inspiration, I think this was a huge step in the right direction. The movie gets both Alliance and Horde energized for the big event to come, which is another big WIN for Blizzard - The Battle for the Undercity. Whether you're battling Varimathras alongside Thrall and Lady Sylvanas for the Horde or smacking up Grand Apothecary Putress with King Varian Wrynn and Lady Jaina Proudmoore for the, in this case, ill-informed Alliance, the battle for the ruins of Lordaeron is one of the most entertaining events I can recall for many reasons. Not the least of which is getting constant buffs that transform your character into a badass as you battle hell-minions who obviously are confused about their place in Azeroth. But there's also a ton of great lore in there for those of us who love the storytelling aspect of WoW, and we see some insight into the current relationship of Horde-Alliance. The phasing of areas we usually see much differently was pretty damn neat, too. I had a difficult time tearing myself away from the computer after all that excitement. Blizzard's movie site explains a bit about their thoughts behind the cinematic that triggers it all:

One of the design goals for Wrath of the Lich King was to elevate storytelling in World of Warcraft to new heights. Northrend is brought to life by engaging quests, memorable characters, beautiful environments, and the introduction of a brand-new feature: in-game cinematics. The first of these cinematics, The Wrath Gate, is now available for viewing and download on the Wrath of the Lich King website.

Now since this is the "first" of the "cinematics" (plural!) I really hope that means more of this is to come in the future. I'm not sure whether they're considering the Ulduar cinematic to be another of these, since it's really more of trailer than anything resulting from quests. But at least it adds on to the storyline, too. And Blizzard has put out plenty of trailers in the past, but the in-game Wrathgate morsel really seems like more of a reward and motivation to me. It may be unrealistic knowing that cinematics have got to be pretty expensive to make. But I can't help it - I just want more! Don't you!?

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If you look back at my blogs since the launch of Wrath of the Lich King and compare them to my collection of thoughts from the The Burning Crusade days, you may notice a trend.  During Illidan's and later Kael'thas' respected reigns my posts were more often focused on news and game updates, rather than discussions and dissections about our favorite MMORPG.  The reason for this is quite simple really, I wasn't participating in World of Warcraft as much then as I am now.  For the longest time I couldn't pinpoint the exact reason for is.  It had nothing to do with why I quit WoW in the first place, and I still followed the lore almost as closely as I do now, yet, I was hardly ever pulled into the game. It took me a few months of play, up and downs and a new guild, but I had an epiphany while biking around Philadelphia the other night.  The reason I am more drawn to WoW now is that I don't feel left behind.  Thanks to the new expansion Solidsamm was put on a level playing field with every buddy else.  No longer was I three tiers of gear behind, thousands of rep in the hole or penniless because I hadn't been doing dailies for over a year.  Solidsamm was on equal footing, grinding his way to level 80 with the majority of players and entering the same raids that many other toons ran on a weekly basis.  Sure, he still hasn't seen Ulduar yet, but it's only been available for a few weeks. The irony here is that this ability to catch up was one of the reason I was annoyed with the first expansion.  TBC's opening quest rewards were good enough to replace some of the AQ40/Naxxramas gear that players - including myself - had spent months collecting.  As a hardcore raider I felt that all the time I had put into the game would be tarnished since a player with less than a third of my playtime could now be as geared as I.  How naive I was. It was odd being on the exact opposite end of the spectrum for the second expansion, but it made me realize that the changes are necessary if the game is to grow at all.  That being said, I would argue that the replacement rate of The Burning Crusade's gear wasn't nearly as drastic as vanilla WoW, which was a very smart move by Blizzard. Now that we are almost 6 months from Wrath of the Lich King's release, how is it treating you?  Are you enjoying it more than The Burning Crusade or is it pretty much the same to you?  Personally I think the questing is far better than TBC, but itemization at the high end (normal vs. heroic vs. hard mode loot) seems to be a bit screwed up.  What is your take?

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Maybe they’re just bitter about being killed by the plague. Or they could still be holding a grudge against the Lich King and his Scourge legions. Perhaps they just love torturing people with their creepy, oozing concoctions. Whatever it is, apothecaries and all the messed up lore surrounding them gives me the chills. Now, I’ll cheer on my Horde comrades any day, but these witch doctor guys only seem to remain allegiant out of convenience. Within the first few levels of rolling a Horde character, toons are tasked with completing numerous quests for these macabre NPCs. As a Forsaken starting out in the eerie green haze of Tirisfal Glades, you’ll be asked to turn a captured mountaineer into a ghoul, cause the flesh to rot off a Scarlet Zealot, and, of course, contribute to the spread of a new plague. How’s that for payback to those nasty humans who condemned you to undead life? And that’s all just in the starting area. At least if you roll undead, you have some good motivation for causing all this mayhem – revenge. What about the rest of us unsuspecting Horde toons? Many of us aren’t even aware of the Dark Lady’s ulterior motives to wipe out all civilization. But when members of the Royal Apothecary Society are offering sweet gear in exchange for our deeds, it’s not hard to lure us into poisoning the occasional captured human. Or two. Even when the reward is quite satisfying, I can’t help but feel tainted. So it’s not hard to see why I wasn’t sad to leave my old home of the Undercity and put some distance between my rogue blood elf, Locomomo, and Master Apothecary Faranell’s dungeon of bubbling vials and experiments gone awry. I dinged level 58 and got the hell out of there. But lo and behold, the Forsaken have brought their grudges with them to Outland, and then again to Northrend. Where will the madness end? These Royal Apothecary dingbats still weird me out. But I guess it’s the greedy, sneaky rogue in me that just can’t help but complete even the darkest of quests in exchange for upgraded gear. I’m in Howling Fjord, and working toward earning a nice Featherweight Claymore simply by contributing to a new plague specifically targeting the giant vrykuls.  I’m also helping Plaguebringer Tillinghast create a new and more sinister plague that will infect humanoids and creatures alike. I can’t wait to see how that one turns out. At least “Hacksaw” Jenny seems to understand. All this plague business has ruined her prospects for finding bones suitable for her own questionable uses. So she’s asked me to go collect some from reanimated skeletons on Shield Hill, and is paying me handsomely for it. This is the last time I'll work with these hooligans. Honest.

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Allakhazam continues its interview series with with the Project Lore crew this week by conducting an interview with Lylelovett, Project Lore's protection warrior tank, AKA Joshua Brentano. When he isn't busy tanking for Project Lore, Joshua is also the Executive Producer of the hit G4 show, Attack of the Show. Joshua talked with Allakhazam about such topics as tanking, WotLK, and the future of WoW. Check out the interview with Joshua and let us know what you think! Also, don't forget to check out the other interviews with Dorkins, Juggynaut, and DrDark!

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Earlier I discussed some of the hidden gems in the Wrath of the Lich King Collector's Edition Artbook. That article focused solely on the idea that a few artistic scribbles could be Tier loot that will be added to World of Warcraft in the near future. This post will have a much larger scope, peeling back the shrink wrap on all aspects of $69.99 Collector's Edition. A price that a few of us balked at.

Behind-the-scenes DVD

The DVD featured a widely varying collection of World of Warcraft related content. Naturally, we have some developer comments on things like The Burning Crusade versus Northrend, Northrend's art direction and environments and the in your face lore that so many people love about Wrath. The DVD includes trailers from TBC's content patches, v2.1, v2.3 and v2.4 and a collection of funny machinima. It is a pretty standard fare DVD pack-in, with no shocking revelations or insights we weren't already aware of. Content discussions aside, the sheer passion that Blizzard's employees emanate, especially their Lore Historian, is what makes them, and WoW, so great. Worth a watch when your internet is down.

Official Soundtrack

There is actually a section in the Behind-the-scenes DVD that perfectly expresses my feelings for the OST of WotLK. As I have been walking around Northrend, I have never been hit in the face by the ambient music kicking in. Instead it weaves in and out of the background, adding some stimulation to my auditory senses, while not being too disrupting. The OST simply gives us a continuous stream of this music, and while it doesn't flow as well as in the game, I do not expect it to. Nonetheless, I have added it to my playlist of game music which includes The Witcher: Enhanced Edition's OST and everything from The Advantage. Way more utility than the DVD.

Feelies

Feelies are a lost art in video games. The young whippersnappers out there - who won't stay off my lawn – missed out on the golden age of feelies. Back in the day of walking to school, up-hill, both ways, purchasers of PC games would be meet with trinkets galore in their ridiculously oversized boxes. Especially if you had just purchased an adventure game.

Nowadays, the only place to find anything remotely close to that is by paying extra for the “collector's edition” (Actually the aforementioned re-release of The Witcher had feelies included for only $39.99. Also, I like The Witcher: EE). Blizzard's best feelie, is not a physical item at all, but the mini Frost Wyrm pet that becomes account bound when you upgrade to Wrath. The initial oohs and ahhs of guildmates and friends have worn off though, so back to Egbert. The mousepad is cool, but not replacing my dirty Pokemon pad ('m' doesn't bring up a list of the badass Pokemans now does it?!) and I didn't score any godly cards from the two packs of WoW TCG. Not being a TCG player, they are now worthless, although some users will enjoy the free cards.

Wrath of the Lich King Artbook

I suck at art, but wow do I appreciate this book. The book, rather tome, is chock full of Northrend goodies and broken up by sections. Often with an introduction that was lifted from the official website. The book is probably the only thing in the CE that would interest anyone outside of the game. My casual gamer friend looked at it for about 20minutes yesterday after we watched the Behind-the-scenes DVD. Not counting the actually game, the art book is what defines the Collector's Edition and made the purchase worth it, even if there were a lot of prints straight from the cinematic.

While I don't feel that buying the CE was a waste of $30, I do wish there was a bit more to it. I mentioned that I would have loved a cloth map, well, I guess I can hang-up the mousepad since I won't be using it. Still, pre-loading the title would easily make the CE's hefty mark-up worth it to many users, while not upsetting the casual base as much as in-game items.

Blizzard, are you listening? We want more bang for our buck next time.

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Many players have been griping that the gear they have seen on their first five levels towards 80 have not been good enough. Generally speaking, these players are decked out with Tier 5/Season 3 gear, or better. Heck, one of my characters has a combination of heroic/Karazhan/Season 2 and their set is still going strong. Blizzard Poster Bornakk even addressed the lack of upgrades by stating that those with concerns should "keep leveling and keep instancing, you'll find upgrades soon enough. :)" The flip side to this discussion is that this is exactly the opposite situation from The Burning Crusade's release. After TBC went live, people who had been raiding for the previous two years realized that their gear was being replaced by early quest rewards and instances. Mind you, these players had the best gear available in the game, making them feel that all their hard work was pointless. The reversal of fortunes is not perfect, but I feel it is a much better way to go than the itemization from The Burning Crusade. However, it remains to be seen if Blizzard made the end-game stuff difficult enough to force players to upgrade. While TwentyFifthNovember has now beaten all of Wrath, the hardest way possible, they are the best of the best. Many other guilds are now tackling endgame heroics with their Sunwell gear, and blowing them away. Hopefully they have upgrades available to them, and need them to complete the end-game raids. It remains to be seen. While I have been complaining the majority of this post, that isn't my only point. Many of you out there are in the same boat as me, seeing quest reward after quest reward being wasted because you can't use it. In the interest of helping with your personal economy, I have another gold creating tip for you. If the quest reward isn't a solid upgrade then buy the plate or weapon reward and just vendor it. As tanks know, plate gear costs way more to repair, but on the flip side, sells much higher than Cloth or Leather. The Auctioneer Suite used to be able to tell you exactly how much things would vendor for on mouseover, but the last version I grabbed does not have the updated information. It will likely be updated soon, if it hasn't been already in an alpha release. So for the players out there complaining about not getting upgrades, perhaps this is Blizzard's way of handing you 1000 gold for the Cold Weather Flying fee. Seriously, if you do 300 quests with item rewards on your way to 80, average 4 gold per vendor, you'll bank 1200 gold. Remember, the harder it is, the better it sells.

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Most players who care already know what the Tier 7 loot is going to look like.  The loot from the retuned Naxxramas - which, by the way, has already been beaten - will be styled after the look from the old Tier 3 of vanilla WoW's Naxxramas 40.  Styled doesn't mean copied however, with Blizzard confirming that their will be some model upgrades and modifications, as evidenced by the difference in 10-man and 25-man varieties, which can be as little as a color palette swap. But what about beyond Tier 7 you ask?  Well, if you purchased the Collector's Edition of Wrath of the Lich King, you might get a sneak peek at upcoming tier sets.  Included in the Phat Lewtz section of the art book is four images of gear sets, presented in the common modeling fashion, but sans any kind of label. Two of the pictures are pretty easy to figure out, with this one almost certainly being a Warlock set.  Notice the demonic energies flowing around the armor.  This set obviously looks holy in nature, leading one to label it as a Priest set, but possibly a Paladin set as well.  However, the robe's look has me to leaning in the direction of the priestly arts. It appears the Blizzard may have also included a Death Knight set in the bonus section.  The DK set is complete with their iconic skulls at the belt buckle and knees.  We also have their trademark blue aura disseminating from the gear.  Last but not least, is the piece that took a friend and I some time to make a guess at.  While the other three pieces were relatively easy, I had to mull this one over before agreeing with him.  The gear obviously wasn't of the Rogue or Hunter variety, with a robe kind of ruling out Warriors.  It doesn't appear as earthy as most Druid stuff, so we finally settled on a Shaman set. The book also has presentation of Rogue and Hunter sets, but they are not in full frame and do not appear to be part of the other series.  The scans we have aren't high-resolution (don't want to infringe on any copyrights here), so if you are interested in the details then take the book out of the shrink-wrap or head over to a friend's house. Any differing opinions on which sets the images belong to?  Think we will see these bad boys with patch 3.1 and Ulduar?  Perhaps later, or maybe they are truly just concepts and will never be implemented.  That would suck because, as usual, I think the Warlock set looks awesome.

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Photograph by L. Simon.

Like many of you, I am taking my time in getting to level 80. I did not create an elaborate flowchart of areas to tackle, research the best grinding spots or enlist a friendly Priest, Paladin, Shaman and Warrior for their buffs. Last night I got a few of my guildmates to slow down and enjoy some of the content they have skipped over, bringing two level 75 players into Utgarde Keep with my newly-found old friend.

This weekend, well that was an entirely different story. With my girlfriend busy with visiting friends, I had Friday night, Saturday and most of Sunday to do with what I pleased. Naturally, I took the extra free time to tear into Northrend, although not as focused as some people. As of launch, I was still uncertain who I was going to level, my Rogue or my Priest. In the end I surprised myself and rolled a Death Knight. An enjoyable experience thus far, but it wasn't long before I jumped back to my Rogue to see Northrend.

By mid-Saturday, General Chat was full of people looking for healers for various things. Being the good samaritan that I am, I logged in and began SolidSagart's journey into Northrend. After performing the first few quests outside Valiance Keep, I realized that my professions were woefully under skilled. Not wanting to pass up dozens of skinning opportunities or trot by numerous herb nodes, I had to head back to Stormwind and went about the tedious task of skinning low level mobs and picking pointless flowers. Say what you will about my choice in professions, she is simply my gathering girl.

After logging a reasonable 20+ hours across the three characters, I feel I got a bit done. The DK is now up to level 68, SolidSamm is a bubble shy of 71 (he was the most neglected character) and SolidSagart has her professions up to snuff and is a hair shy of finally hitting 70. She started the weekend out as 67, with little rested. If only her professions were leveled beforehand, I would have been able to get her past 70, possibly even jumping ahead of the rogue.

While my WoW avatars progressed a decent amount, other parts of my life were pushed aside. As you can see in the image above, my kitchen is an absolute mess of dishes, plates and glasses. I even saved numerous articles of kitchenware from washing by abandoning them, opting to eat right out of pots and pans like any good college student would – just over my computer instead of the sink. On the brighter side of things, my ferrets, fish, snails, crayfish, and plants all made it through the weekend. They would like to thank boat rides, flights and queues for their continued existence.

What'd you accomplish?  Perhaps more importantly, what didn't you accomplish?

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