Project Lore

Continuing their romp through Karazhan, Project Lore and friends downed a bunch of bosses: Big Bad Wolf, Nightbane, Curator, and Illhoof all went down. Here are quick links to each episode from this past week: Episode 10.1: Karazhan Episode 10.2: Karazhan Episode 10.3: Karazhan Episode 10.4: Karazhan Episode 10.5: Week 2 Wrap-Up In addition to the amazing week in Kara, we were interviewed by Nihilum. Everyone is still looking forward to Wrath, getting worried, or hoping their computers will even run it. Oh and also, Death Knight footage? Yes please! Remember, we're be at BlizzCon today and tomorrow, so follow our Twitter to keep up with the latest haps. If you want to keep up with whatever Alexis is up to, follow her on twitter at twitter.com/alexisknapp or you can email her at alexis@projectlore.com! Join us next week as the team of ten make their way through the next bosses in Kara, starting with the Shade of Aran. As usual, keep up with us by using the Episodes RSS feed, the Blog RSS feed, or Twitter, and join our Facebook Group, Facebook Page, and MySpace! You can head to our subscribe page to find us on some of your other favorite sites, too. Lastly, get over to the Lore Store to grab yourself a Project Lore T-Shirt and stay tuned for next week's schedule on Sunday. Hope to see some of you at BlizzCon!

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After the Utgarde Keep episode, we got a myriad of questions about the Wrath of the Lich King Expansion. Often, we were asked about the new Hero Class, the Death Knight. Apparently, you all want to see some footage of one in action. You guys have been begging us and begging us, and we are giving in (To be honest, we couldn't wait to show you guys this stuff either). Next week, in addition to the Karazhan episodes that we are still churning out, we are going to start a ten part special that will be all about the Death Knight leveling experience, as seen through the eyes of none other than Zand Broumand, AKA Dorkins. How does that sound? Stay tuned, as we will have the schedule and more details for you on Sunday.

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In light of all the downtime, alts have been a pretty hot topic lately. Just about everyone I play with is working on one, and now a few people I know are even thinking about switching mains. I know I’ve been working my alts pretty hard recently. I went through a number of different classes before I decided I want to make the rogue my “main alt.” It got me thinking about the role that your main plays in picking your alt.There are a few ways to approach it. At first I decided I wanted to do the complete opposite of my Protection Paladin. After a bit of thought I decided this would probably be the Warlock. Unlike my Pally he’s a DPS class, he’s squishy, he’s ranged, and he has a pet. It seemed difficult to find something much more different. It turns out that this was a little too different. My play style was that of a tank, I would always pull more than I could handle, and it ended up being a fairly unpleasant experience. I was disappointed, but I decided it was time to try something else. I then started my rogue. This was much better. Leather armor meant she could take a little more of a beating, and she was a melee class, so as that was certainly in my comfort zone. Turned out I really enjoyed the class. Play style actually wasn’t far off from my Paladin. Combat was actually more similar than I would have thought, just much faster. Instead of pulling mobs and counting on being the one that dies last, I just had to count on being the one that kills the other one first. Once I got her to 30 I decided to try some other classes on for size. I’ve played shaman, druid, warrior, and priest all past 30. After all that I ended up going back to the rogue. It was simply too much fun. In the end I found picking a class that compliments your play style is a win. My recommendation would be to find that common link between what you enjoy and what other classes have to offer. For me it was getting up in peoples faces with melee classes. Maybe you want to stick with pet classes, or keep it at range, or stick with mana users. Whatever it is, I think common ground is a good thing. What about you, what made you pick your alt? Is it similar or completely different from your main? Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to grind out a level and a half to 70!

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Blizzard Entertainment announced the official System Requirements for their second expansion to World of Warcraft. Wrath of the Lich King sports higher requirements in a few areas that will likely force some users to upgrade their computers, or go nuts and get new ones. The announcement comes by way of Bornakk and the official forums. If you are interested in the full run down, then click that link. I will simply highlight and discuss the major changes. We learned shortly after Wrath's official release date was announced that the title would only be available on DVD. According to a poll run by WoWInsider, this means that some 7.5% of WoW users will need to upgrade their CD-ROM or CD-RW drive to a DVD-ROM or DVD+-RW. Thankfully, that cost is only about $30-$50, if you have the know how to install it yourself. Of course, there are some tricks around this, such as loading the game off an ISO image by way of an external harddrive. The rest of the upgrades are likely caused by Wrath's bump in graphics capabilities, like real-time shadows. The upgrades fragment a bit for the different platforms, PC or Mac. First off, PC users must have Windows XP SP3 or Vista SP1, but both service packs are free upgrades (for legal owners). This means that users of Windows 2000 will finally have to make the jump to Vista. Those who are scared of Vista should start searching for copies of XP now. Then comes the most drastic change for PC users. PC machines are required to have a faster processor than before, a 1.3GHz processor (or equivalent) instead of that old 800MHz dog. That is almost a 40% boost and will cause people on the low end to upgrade.  If you have the know-how this can be cheap, but most people will probably just opt for a new machine.  Ram and video card requirements remain the same, although Vista users need double the Ram than XP players, since that OS is a hog. Mac gamers are an entirely different story though. I will start it off with the worse news, all G4 machines will be unable to play Wrath of the Lich King. Blizzard states that the minimum processor requirement for Mac machines is a Power PC G5 1.6GHz processor.  This kills G4s across the board, PowerMac and PowerBooks. As for the OS, 10.3.x is being dropped in favor of 10.4.11 or higher. Look on the bright side , at least your OS doesn't cost hundreds of dollars.  Mac players will also need double the Ram at 1GB required, another low-cost upgrade. Lastly and most costly, Mac Minis and most MacBooks have been dropped due to their on-board video cards being a bit behind. MacBooks released almost three years after World of Warcraft can not play Wrath due to Apple's poor choice in graphics processors. Models from Late 2007 were finally updated with the Intel GMA X3100 on-board graphics solution, which can do the needed Lighting and Hardware Transform.  However, as of press time Blizzard has not confirmed them as suitable for Wrath, but it meets the announcement's listed requirements. It seems that many Apple supporters got the short end of the stick on this deal. This isn't to say that all year old PC laptops will be able to play Wrath.  Many OEM manufacturers (Dell, HP, Sony, etc) cut costs on the low- and mid-range machines the same way. Rule of thumb for those PC gamers, if you have an Intel on-board solution, there is cause for concern.  Lucky for me, my third gaming machine (I have a problem) squeaks by the requirements with a Radeon 9700 Pro. How do your machines hold up?

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I haven't been playing a whole lot of WoW lately. I'll hop on vent every once in a while to hear the latest haps, or maybe log an alt and spy on the Totally Rad Guild (or their lower level equivalent, The Knights of Radshire), but I haven't spend much time doing anything meaningful in game. The one thing that really made me want to play last week, Brewfest, is no more. Of course, there are some other fun holidays coming up, but the Darkmoon Faire just doesn't do much for me. I turned in the Blessings deck a while back for the Crusader card, but now I don't even use it in enhancement spce (I've got a couple of trinkets that are better). So in light of this lull that many players seem to be noticing, I decided to look forward. The 3.0 patch is coming soon, which means there are going to be a lot of changes for, well, everyone. For some, more than others. Some classes, like Shaman and Paladin, are having set pieces reworked to play nice with new class mechanics. This will probably cause me a few headaches. To avoid those headaches, I have been playing around with Wowhead's recently unveiled Item Compare feature. In short, it allows you to compare a bunch of items or groups of items with built in stat weighting so you can decide which item would be best for you. For example, say I have two helmets and I need to decide which one is better for me. I take a look at this page and it shows me. What does this have to do with the changes to certain set pieces? Well, change the www. in that link to wotlk. and you get this page. Now, currently the feature doesn't seem to allow socketing or enchanting, but since, for an enhancement shaman, strength will be worth one attack power after the patch hits, even a lowly Bright Blood Garnet will be better than an epic Bold Crimson Spinel. So, let's say red socket will be worth 16 AP, a Bright Living Ruby. That offsets the AP bonus. Enh shaman will also be gaining 1AP per agi and 1AP per Int (talented). This means that, while crit chance will go down by a little under 1%, with the Cyclone Helm, AP will be much higher. Take into account a Meta gem and we have a winner. So, all I'll need to do is change to a Bright Living Ruby and I will be set for 3.0, at least in the helmet department. This tool will give me a chance to really figure out what I will need to change before the market gets crazy. Well, crazier, I guess.

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Wrath of the Lich King has me far more excited than The Burning Crusade ever did. I don't know what it was about TBC that turned me off so much, because I was interested in what it had to offer. I was in TBC's beta, but I didn't burn myself out in it. In fact, that is where I realized that I wasn't as intrigued by The Burning Crusade as much as I was for World of Warcraft. I bought the first expansion regardless, hoping that Blizzard would manage to wow me in some way. I don't believe TBC struck me as much as vanilla WoW, but the expansion – and the community - managed to keep me entertained for the past 21 months and counting. Thankfully, WotLK seems like it will do more than just hold on to me.  With exciting features like these, how could it fail?

• Questing & Exploration – I love exploring these digital worlds that we spend so much of our time in and the new quests should make it that much more enjoyable.  To top it off, the lands are full of unseen monsters living in harsh conditions.
• Phasing – Phasing is the new black. The idea of phasing is to allow players to have their own unique world. Did you manage to do an escort quest and your buddy didn't? Well, to you, the person you escorted may appear in the nearby town, while for your buddy, he is still held captive by the forces of the scourge.  Same game, but appearing to each player in its own special way.
• Stormwind Harbor – Stormwind is getting a large addition that will gradually be introduced to the Human stronghold.  For the aesthetics alone, it is nice to see the major cities change over time.
• Naxxaramas – My hardore raiding days ended with Naxxaramas 40-man. No guild on my main server managed to clear it before TBC went live, although we were the closest. I can't wait to dance tackle it again, only this time at level 80.
• New talents & Level 80 – The idea of dual specs are interesting and so are all the new talents, for all classes.
• World PvP – World PvP and Battlegrounds are to make a comeback in Wrath. Arenas with environmental hazards are all well and good, but Lake Wintergrasp and Strand of The Ancients are where it is at for me.
• Enchanting Changes - Being able to sell and purchase Enchants on the Auction House = priceless.
• Death Knights – Forget about new races, that is old hat. Yea, we will have new racial abilities, but what could be more exciting than the first Hero class? I won't be leveling a Death Knight right away, but I will definitely take one for a spin due to the quest chains and lore associated with starting one.
• Lore – This is actually the number one thing I am waiting for. Wrath of the Lich King promises to have some killer lore.  With the introduction of the new Death Knight class, new quests, the lead up to Icecrown Glacier and the battle against the Lich King/Arthas, how could it not be awesome? I guarantee you that there will be one quest chain in the game that will blow you away. KooPA's are known for their truthiness...and walking off cliffs.

There is tons more to Wrath of the Lich King than what I have listed, another reason that I can't wait to jump in on November 13th. What has you all in a tither?

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My fellow blogger Bastosa recently posted a nice article on the grind to level 80. It will be interesting to see how well the 5-man instancing team sticks together. From my previous experiences, running with a group of friends over and over caused us to become a bit competitive.   One evening, we called it a night after a few productive hours of grinding XP.   Well, we woke up to see that our Mage had stayed up all night to get three levels higher.  It wouldn't have been the end of the world if he wasn't six levels higher than the lowest person, and refused to come back and help us. The Mage's overly competitive nature basically killed our group. Bastosa's logic – that a group leveling together in instances should create skilled raiders down the road - is sound nonetheless and I hope it works out for them. For me, I will be going the same route as a few of the commentators, questing and exploration. Here is the major difference though, I will be leveling my newly acquired level 59.99 Priest instead of my faithful Rogue. Thanks to the Refer-A-Friend benefits, my buddy and I managed to level up a new set of alts to level 59.99 in under three days playtime. For the moment, we are both enjoying our never-before-played class and do not feel like stopping. By the time Wrath of the Lich King drops on November 13th, my new Priest should be 70.  At that time I hope to have enough experience under my belt as a healer – yes, also my first healbot - to begin healing in all of the new 5-man instances. Heck, if all goes well and I ding 70 with time to spare, I will probably start a tank on that server.  People always need a tank.  We have to burn those extras hand me down levels somehow. This isn't to say that I am abandoning my Rogue. I have been roguing since day 1 and have no intention of stopping. Yes, there have been ups and down through that time. Rogues were overpowered to begin with, causing us to be nerfed left and right. C'Thun was incredibly annoying as a dagger Rogue.  Gruul is just annoying, and I still have little group utility (that will change with the Echoes of Doom patch). It would be nice to say that I will try to co-level the characters on my main server.  Trading back and forth to get the most benefit from Rested XP, but honestly, that is just a pipe dream. So what about you guys? Sticking with your main? Taking this opportunity to switch your main? Re-rolling Death Knight?  Or experiencing the new content with an alt first? Bastosa, best of luck to you and your group. Be sure to update us when you ding level 75. I can't wait to do the Heigan dance again – the pull to him...not so much.

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First things first, this post will contain some information that many players may consider spoilers.  The information presented later in this post will only be discovered by most players once Wrath of the Lich King goes live. So that is your warning. I actually haven't managed to get myself into the beta, despite my best efforts.  This is coming from someone who has been in the previous two closed-beta sessions, so I feel a bit left out now.  Thankfully, my closest World of Warcraft buddy did manage to snake his way into the beta and has kept me up to date on things I need to know.  Over the weekend he pointed me to the small image you see to the right.  As any WoW player knows, those little foot icons are flightpaths. The image only shows the horde friendly flightpaths, so you can safely assume that there are at least 50% more.  At first glance I thought this was an incredible amount of nodes for the island of Northrend.   That is until I compared the size of Northrend to Outland and the other major islands.  The small picture  does not do the new island justice since it is not to scale, but Northrend is probably two to three times the size of Outland.   For a more appropriate picture check out the upcoming World Map. But my original surprise at the amount of flightpaths still stands.  There are more nodes crammed into Northrend than either of the original islands.  What makes even less sense is that players will be able to us flying mounts in Northrend, so why the need for more nodes than before?  I guess the one saving grace is that Blizzard will not allow players to use flying mounts on the island instantly.  Therefore, players will still be forced to explore the island before taking to the skies. Oh and as proof of the island's size. the route selected in the picture – Dalaran to Borean Tundra – takes about five minutes to complete.  Just enough time to get some dual-gaming in.  Does anyone else feel that Blizzard is eroding exploration by making it so easy to get around?

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If you are anything like me, you want to get to level 80 as soon as possible. Sure I understand that some people would like to sit back, smell the roses, and enjoy all that Northrend has to offer. But for me, this game is all about the end game! I'll save the roses for my rogue alt. I want to start raiding as soon as possible, so myself and my fellow guildies have spent some time recently discussing the fastest way possible to get into Naxx. I don't want to do any stupid 48-hour marathon power-leveling or anything, but let's just say I won't be wasting any time. There are a few options, but the one I think we have settled on is pure instance grinding. Being a tank, this would be ideal. First of all, it prevents me from having to respec Ret, which is the last thing I want to do. It will also allow us to learn all the new class skills and abilities in a group setting, which will be valuable down the road.  I'm sure we will poke our heads out of the instance portals from time to time, grab a quest or two, and see what the countryside is about, but I think that the XP from the instances will get us where we want to go fast. Add on the quests that are in the instances themselves and we should be leveling in a hurry. In order to get this dialed in, we are wanting to put together a team of 5 people that will basically level as a unit, make sure we stay close in level, and just hit the 5-mans over and over until the final ding. I imagine it will take more than a couple  runs through each one before we are ready for the next,  but its not like we haven't run every heroic into the ground already. I doubt anyone will mind. I know there are others in the guild with the same plan, so hopefully it will be easy to hook up with one of the groups and go straight into the 10-man scene at 80. Now this is certainly not the only way, just my way. I know people that are going to quest from sun up to sun down. I even know a few that plan on filling their quest logs with 25 completed quests in SMV beforehand and hope to get a level or two off the turn ins when Wrath goes live. In the end I think it comes down to doing what you enjoy. I enjoy group play, so that is my route, what is yours?

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Ugg, maintenance day. What a waste of perfectly good play time Tuesday mornings are. Doesn't Blizzard know that the morning is when I do my Auction House browsing and such. Anyways, since there isn't much going on in the game right now I figured I could hit you guys with an update on Wrath of the Lich King and the load of mounts that are being added with its launch. MMO-Champion has a screenshot for all but one of the mounts, so its best you head to their post if you want to see more. At the moment there are 32 new mounts by my count, a few of which we have known about for some time. However, 32 is a bit of an inflated number since many of the mounts are simply different colors of each other. Currently, there are actually only eight drastically different models split up into seven categories. Category and model breakdown:

• Others – Windrider and Gryphon
• Bears – Four Assorted Bears
• Mammoths – Eight Assorted Mammoths
• Proto-Drakes – Seven Assorted Proto-Drakes
• Drakes – Seven Assorted Drakes
• Tailoring – Two Magnificent Flying Carpets
• Engineering – Two Hogs

I am less than thrilled about the Alliance version of The Hog, the motorcycle that I raved about before. My second choice would be the BlizzCon Polar Bear (aka Big Blizzard Bear), but we all know how that went. So now I am on to my third choice for a ground mount it seems. I guess I will just have to settle for ridiculousness and put my Gnome Rogue atop one of the many Mammoths. Why is it ridiculous? Because my character is smaller than what he would poo.

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