Project Lore



Slowly, but surely, Solidsagart has been progressing along the levels on her way to level 80.  With her XP busting in to the level 76 range I decided to take her to the one zone that Solidsamm skipped, Sholazar Basin.  The last bastion of (almost) untouched life by the Scourge was a wild ride of old quest design, new ideas, stellar writing and world traveling. I'm sure most players know of Sholazar as the new home to the greatest hunter of them all, Hemet Nesingwary.  That, and the presence of the Ghostfish, are about the only things I really knew about the basin before I decided to tackle its content.  Yea, you read that right, I wasn't aware that both the Frenzyheart Tribe and the Oracles made their homes in the Un'Goro Crater-esque zone.  I did figure that out soon enough. Sholazar starts off innocent, offering a cavalcade of quests that hearken back to the days of Stranglethorn Vale.  I was tasked with killing ten of these, eight of that, and then going for the leader of said species.  It's not until I begin tackling the big game that Nesingwary becomes interested in me, and my various feats.  Once I begin to gain a following in the zone, Nesingwary actually joined me in the hunt as I went for the really big game.  The interaction with such a well known NPC made me feel as if I was having some impact on the world; a great use of subtle phasing. Juxtaposing Nesingwary's incessant need for bigger, badder and more dangerous game is a Avatar of Freya.  The demigod is struggling to comprehend, and hold back, the Scourge that are pouring in from Icecrown.  She asks any who will listen to investigate their coming, and help in their destruction.  She becomes so desperate that she allowed me, a mere mortal, to travel to Un'Goro Crater to unlock a Titan weapon for use against the Scourge. I was told that if I managed to succeed she'd overlook the death I caused in her lands.  My spine tingled when I realized that she witnessed me laying waste to the wildlife, for fun and gold.  The antonymous and interweaving stories between the two hubs end up delivering a perfect opportunity for a moral question or mechanic.  Unfortunately, there was nothing along those lines.  A missed opportunity in my book. The most memorable part of the zone for me wasn't hunting game, or demolishing the Scourge.  It wasn't even the fun quests presented by the Oracles or Frenzyheart factions.  What stuck out in Sholazar Basin for me was the writing for the quests, and the story arcs.  As noted, the Freya/Nesingwary tandem made for some good, if one-sided, moral discussion, but the wolvars and gorlocs each had an entire language of their own.  And the language was used, with one quest giver as an exception, for each and every quest presented by the factions.  I actually enjoyed reading the quest text just for the nuances in the language.  The entertaining gameplay mechanics and actual story arcs presented by the faction dispute was simply a bonus. I can't say any other zone's quest dialogue can compare to Sholazar Basin's.  There are areas of the game that offer more jaw dropping revelations and unexpected twists of allegiance, but the basin had it all in one nice little package.  Hell, I even found the hatch from Lost while running around the lush lands. I highly suggest cleaning up any remaining quests you have in Sholazar.  If you haven't been there, you are missing one of the most integrated and self aware zones in the game.  Be sure to run the Frenzyheart/Oracle line to the end.  You'll know the end when you get there...

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In the past month or so, I've had a lot more time to really sink my nails into playing WoW. While getting caught up in the hype of gold, dungeons, scoring a hot new flying mount and figuring out how to best spend my emblems is fun, more and more I'm coming to realize that there are so many amazing, intricate aspects to gameplay that I've come to expect to the point of no longer appreciating. Now let me preface this by saying that Blizzard knows its business. If executives want WoW to remain the top MMORPG out there, they undoubtedly know that they have to stay on top of their game and keep coming out with challenging, fun, cutting-edge material to keep players engaged. And, for the most part, they do. There's always insatiable audiences who constantly demand more content, but all in all, I think Blizzard pretty much tops the industry in keeping subscribers happy. Let me also say that I am in no way informed about the actual process behind creating content. I'm happy with myself when I can just successfully get an addon functioning, so make what you will of that. So perhaps I'm in the minority when I say that sometimes, it's those simple things in the game that can most amaze me. I think a lot of this has hit me during my recent jaunt in exploration. Sometimes the large size of a zone would be daunting while leveling. And yes, even annoying. Running back and forth across an expansive area to complete quests wasn't my favorite aspect of the game. But by the same token, I wouldn't have enjoyed the actual questing if everything was crammed into one tiny, crowded area. I remember when flight paths were a godsend. Each discovery of one of those tiny green exclamation points was reason to celebrate. But eventually, they grew to be expected. And when there were areas without enough flight points, it was disappointing because it would throw off my leveling agenda. Certainly I'm not the only one who has felt this way; the Patch 3.2 implementation of mounts at lower levels makes me think I'm in the majority, not the minority. I'm not ashamed to admit that I suppose I also can be demanding of Blizzard. Why shouldn't I be? As subscribers, most of us probably do feel entitlement in some form or another. I just try not to be an ass about it because in the end, I'm still having fun playing. But its during those instances of annoyance that I try to remind myself of just how awesome this game is - without even going into the expansive lore, which alone is enough to draw me in. When I can't find an NPC because (lightheaded isn't working and) their location isn't clear enough on a quest description, I instead find joy in the hunt. When I was leveling and couldn't squeeze in all the quests I wanted because they were so spread out, I instead popped into an inn and decided to make up the difference on rested XP another day. And (before the days of being able to trade BoP items with raid members) when I had to put in a GM ticket to swap a piece of loot, I focused on the fact that Blizzard cares enough about keeping players happy that they will do something trivial like allow me get a gear upgrade. Now I'm even more amazed by some of this after reading WoW.com's report the other day that Blizzard tracks 180,000 bugs at any one time. That's a hell of a lot of content to be weeding through and still find time to make one individual's gameplay experience a priority. So perk up and show some appreciation. We'll always find things to complain about, but there's so much more to be excited about. If you need further proof, just take a look at Project Lore's blog page on any given day and learn about what Blizz plans next.

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I've had a ton to keep my busy in WoW since dinging level 80 a couple of weeks ago. There's rep to grind, daily heroics to run and farming of the ToC to be had (building up my purple collection FTW). But on the side when I have a few moments (or hours) to spare, I've taken up exploring Azeroth. Perhaps it's not something that most players would have at the top of their priority list after hitting 80, but so far for me it's been a bit of a nostalgic way to re-visit the old world, run through parts I've never seen before, and earn some achievements in the process. Plus, now we have an even more compelling reason. With the imminent destruction of Azeroth in the Cataclysm, this could be the last time I see some of these zones before they are changed forever. Sure, I'll likely visit Orgrimmar and UC, but the surrounding areas? Probably not. And we still don't know what the expansion will mean for exploration achievements - if a zone is completely altered to the point of being split in two (I'm thinking Barrens), will the old exploration achievements be locked? The same could be said for questing in the Old World, but that's for a later conquest. Maybe there will be some middle ground on the issues, but I'd rather not take my chances. Anyhow, back on point. I started out in Kalimdor, from good ol' Durotar, where I had neglected to uncover Kolkar Crag. Then it was west to the grasslands of the Barrens, where my Zhevra visited her long-lost cousin. I worked my way west and then to the north, finishing off a couple of uncovered areas in each zone of Thousand Needles, Feralas, Mulgore, Desolace, Azshara, Stonetalon Mountains, Ashenvale, Felwood and Winterspring (and /love-ing every critter I see along the way). One of the high points: running into a pack of Worgen hiding out in Ashenvale and beating up on a few of them (good practice for future PvP fun). There also was Moonglade and Dark Shore, neither of which I had stepped foot in before. So far, I've finished up 14 of the 20 zones in Kalimdor, but I've still got a long ways to go before hitting that coveted Explorer title. It's easy to forget, when hidden away in the deep corners of Northrend, how vast and diverse Azeroth is. My secret pleasure - I've really enjoyed running into some of those humanoid tribes that you don't see too much of anymore: The Centaurs, Ogres, Furbolgs, Harpies and Wildkin of the world. I suppose Murlocs still are a pretty common sight, but I also made a point to run over top of every single murloc I came across, just to hear their gurgling battle cry while I galloped away. And more fun is yet to be had. I still have more nostalgia to come as I finish up Kalimdor, then head to the Eastern Kingdoms. Has anyone else taken to exploring lately? What about any other achievements that you want to get before the expansion? Don't worry if not - it seems that we'll still have quite a while before it comes out.

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Evil Sudoku Puzzle Via WebSudoku - Good Luck! The RPG genre, and by extension the MMORPG, is full of cliches.  Tired cliches.  We are led to believe that our single avatar has enough skill, power, intelligence and cunning to change the fate of the world/galaxy/universe/dimension alone.  Our toon can wield unimaginable power no matter how long it has been fighting, and, for most games, with absolutely no sleep.  For some reason the capabilities of our fighter, be it healer or warrior, never diminishes as our health depletes.  Health, which is a static pool assigned by an arbitrary numbers, may fall from from 18,928 HP down to 1 HP, but the savior remains piss and vinegar till the last drop.  For some odd reason the gear carried by our hero contains power of its own, which is granted to our avatar when worn.  And to cap it off, lions, boars, bears and other nefarious creatures carry these items with them until they breath their last breath.  Yet we never receive the exact item they just wielded against us. Sound like damn near every RPG you've played this millennium?  Frankly it should, because it has been the tried and true method since RPGs started.  And I don't mean in the digital form.  Sure, there have been incremental changes, and even some titles that stand out for one reason or another (loot drops in the Fallout series), but by and large, developers know that gamers fear drastic change and have heeded that warning. Blizzard has made its own steps towards Vulcan approval in Wrath.  During my questing expeditions in Dragonblight I ran across a little number that tasked me with collecting animal hides.  Being a skinner I initially rolled my eyes, annoyed at the prospect of having to skin for a quest.  Not only had I perfected the act ages ago, but couldn't the dozens of stacks I already posses, some still on my person, count towards the requirement? Nope. But it wasn't as painful as I thought it was going to be.  Sure I had to hunt down some worms, and shake out some birds, but my skinning abilities did come in handy.  After looting the downed beasts I was able to skin them, like normal, only this time Borean Leather wasn't the only thing my blade peeled off the corpse.  I was also given a Thin Animal Hide, at a 100% skin rate no less, the very quest item that I was after.  It struck me how much sense it made.  Solidsagart is a skinner.  She skinned an animal that died as part of a quest and received the standard drop of a hide, but gained another item - a guaranteed one - for her additional skills. I know I saw something along these lines during Solidsamm's quest, likely from his engineering skill during Fizzcrank Airstrip quests, but I can't remember the specifics.  Do you remember anything of this nature?  Perhaps not the logical use of a skill, but something that broke from the traditional group of cliches that we so easily accept. Shortly after the small step forward I was tripped back in line.  Not a day later, Solidsagart progressed to Zul'Drak where she helped Gristlegut feed his Scourge buddies.  An act that doesn't make any sense.  Unlike the Drakuru-based quests, they are for subterfuge, helping the Scourge here does nothing to further our own cause.  In fact, we are strengthening them!  Back to the illogical I guess.  At least the quest text, item descriptions and completion text is funny. Num, num indeed.

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Who Needs A Body? For reasons unknown I was meet with a good amount of playtime this weekend.  Rather then ponder on my good fortunes I set out to plow through level 73 (accomplished) on my priest in an effort to have her join the raiding ranks before Cataclysm is released.  With most of the quests in Dragonblight accomplished on my dagger lover I went about my business rushing through quests, burning down numerous mobs and getting ganked.  Then I ran into Orik Trueheart and his eye-catching T2 (recolored) Paladin set. Trueheart is a dwarf on a mission.  He was sent to the Forgotten Shore in Dragonblight to free the souls of those that Arthas betrayed.  In case you forgot, upon hearing that his father had ordered Arthas' troops returned to Lordaeron, the crown prince had the fleets boats burned to their frames.  The actions have been retold numerous times, most recently in the novel, so the setup isn't exactly new.  But we've always followed Arthas' journey into Frostmourne Cavern after that.  Turns out that the men Arthas stranded on the chilly shores eventually died to the Scourge around them and were cursed to defend the landing forever.  That's where Trueheart comes in. Trueheart's questline, one that offers a whopping amount of quick, easy and local experience, has players once again leave their bodies to converse with the dead.  After learning their plight, we realize that the souls have been trapped because they forgot how they came to be.  Naturally it's up to us to release them.  Upon finding a use for the unusual emblem residing in the snow we are graced with a scripted cinematic that brings numerous other names into play.  If you haven't played Warcraft III or read Arthas' novel, then the line is a good place to witness Arthas' descent into madness. This Random Emblem Caught Me Off Guard Until... Sick of reliving old lore and wishing Blizzard would introduce more original backstory?  Stop crying and do it anyways.  Upon completion of the Arthas nostalgia I was given the opportunity to crush some Scarlet Onslaught faces.  Seeing as decimating the ranks of the Scarlet followers, Crusade or otherwise, is a favored pastime of mine, I couldn't say no.  Zelig, Trueheart's "bra", and his compadres of the 7th Legion, sent me off to collect information, curb overpopulation and brush up on my reading comprehension.  How could one pass up XP and nostalgic murder?  Little did I know that my face melting would lead me back to ancient lore.  The scripted culmination with Muradin in the Frostmourne Cavern is both new, and highly interesting.  It also offers sick loot too boot. I was privy to the information given in the cinematic, I just can't believe that I missed such a long questline the first time around.  According to my buddy, the chain continues, becoming far more complex than a little Spock-style retconning.  If it stay on the same level of awesomeness then I will definitely have more for you.  Approaching a year from releases Wrath of the Lich King continues to impress me with its quest design, presentation and integration. These Alliance restricted quests make me wonder, what the heck is the Horde revisting?

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You know those discussions you have with friends or guildmates about PvP.  The conversations were you tell a story about how you, and possibly some buddies, took on X amount of the opposing faction with only Y amount of help?  You know the stories I am talking about.  It's the speech type, the ones you stop listening to instantly just so you can gather your thoughts to tell your own awesome story.  Everyone has them, heck, everyone has dozens of them.  They are the experiences in video games that we won't forget until they are replaced by something that much cooler.  That's what today is.  Just be kind enough to read my version of the battle before you jump into yours.  Thanks. Solidsagart has seen most of my playtime recently thanks to a little predicament.  Even though I have slowly been leveling her since my rogue hit level 80, the amount of time spent on her is limited to minutes at a time.  Therefore, I have never truly got the hang of, well, pretty much anything.  With rookie Shadow spec skills activated I began to light up Coldarra's army of quest mobs.  Thanks largely to my inexperience I pulled a couple of mobs in a row.  Not to worry, with Power Word: Shield, Inner Fire and the occasion healing spell, I was able to handle the one or two guys who came at me like I dissed their mother.  Then another pair pathed in my direction unseen to me.  Now I was just minding my own business, collecting XP with four guys wailing on me. It became obvious that the replacement rate of Vampiric Embrace's healing was less than the incoming damage.  In my further ineptitude I decided to Fear the mobs after a round of DOTs so I could heal in peace.  Any knowledgeable priest knows how bad an idea that can be in crowded areas.  I was left in solitude with only a pair of mobs hoping to spread my brains across the snowy landscape.  Upon his (one mob died from the DOTs) return he brought a few buddies along with them.  Five fresh mobs to be exact. Gulp. It took five and a half incoming mobs before I knew I had botched it.  I would be popping into Spirit Form and need a repair any second now.  But I wasn't going down without a fight.  I fired off my Shadowfiend, drank a pot, clinched my belt, through out another round of DOTs and feared once again.  After a few volleys of Mind Blast, Mind Flay, shield refreshes and yet another personal heal I had it down to three guys.  Then two.  And finally only one lowly Mage Slayer remained to have its face melted and skin later flayed. The great battle of casters, eight died without Sagart leaving combat, was one of those rare occurrences in WoW where you actually fear for your life outside of an instance.  Rarely do we feel that our demise is immediately at hand when PvEing for quests, or just grinding for loot, but I certainly thought I was going to bite the dust during the excursion.  Sure, it would have been easier to accomplish with some familiarity to my second spec, but I thoroughly enjoyed the heart racing, fear-filled, learning experience and wish that it would occur more often.  Only next time I hope it is not due to my own ineptitude, but as part of the punishing world we take part in. Ok, now that I have recanted my none cyclical battle story, no 2-3-4-5-6-7-wand this time, and you politely sat through it, cheering me on of course, you can hit me with yours.  What was your greatest moment of survival in the environment?  How about some unbalancedPvP destruction on the level of OrangeMarmalade? The sad fact, I would have Vanished on my rogue so fast as to make your head spin.

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I've always thought that murlocs have an odd cuteness to them (despite that crazy grrlrgglglg!!  noise they make - actually, maybe because of it!). But on the cuteness scale, nothing compares to murloc babies. As I headed back to Borean Tundra after questing through Zul'Drak and still not dinging level 77, I joined the ranks of those of us who have learned just how adorable these little creatures are. It all starts when King Mrgl-Mrgl sends you on a mission (what I would argue to be one of the cutest quests I've experienced yet in game) to rescue 20 Winterfin Tadpoles that have been encaged by the evil (or perhaps just misunderstood) Makrura Claximus (seriously, who would ever want to mistreat these little buggers?) Conveniently, while doing this quest, you also can complete Them!, a quest in which Brglmurgl (love these onomatopoeia names) asks you to kill 15 of the murloc savages. As you ravage through the encampment and open up cage after cage, you'll amass an army of murloc babies running behind you and gurgling the occasional "mama!" Later, you face off with Claximus himself after disguising yourself in a murloc costume (complete with a white flag) and parading right past his minions. I would consider the borrowed murloc suit to be another high point of the zone (if you look close enough, you can even see little heart boxer shorts peeking through the zipper opening in the back). Anyone else find it hard to believe that such a costume would fool anyone, much less another murloc? Perhaps they're not the smartest humanoids around. I seriously debated not turning that quest in so I could keep the costume. But alas, you can only wear it while in Winterfin Village  (another option - go back in time and attend Blizzcon 2007 so I can get a similar version of the suit!). I obliged and turned the damn thing in. But not before getting in a little /dance action in costume. I don't know about you guys, but all these quests have got me really wanting a RL murloc. Yes, I know they are humanoids in-game, but I can't help but think they would make for a fun pet, if you could train one to maintain its baby sweetness. I suppose I'll have to settle with Grunty, or maybe a murloc plushy -- if I can ever manage to find one that's not sold out. What are your feelings on the murloc race? Love them? Hate them? Want to eat them? I've seen some people argue in the past that murlocs should be made into a playable race in the next expansion. But I'd be content to just have one as a lovable companion!

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QuestHelper/Carbonite & Extended QuestLog/DoubleWide Features Incoming I've never been one to play on the PTR.  Like many other players I don't want to spoil the upcoming content or experience "unfinished" gameplay.  And yet I spend hours a week just staying current with the latest news and revelations, from the Live realms and the PTR.  I guess that would make me a bit of a hypocrite - I won't spoil by playing, but get spoiled by reading occasionally - but that is the price I pay for knowledge.  So when my buddy noticed that the patch notes had changed again, he knew I would be interested. Blizzard began implementing QuestHelper functionality as part of the Secrets of Ulduar patch, and I was okay with it.  They have been trying to make leveling easier for some time now, and that change was the next logical step.  The devs seemed to have found a happy middle ground between the hardcore and the casual players thanks to additions to the tooltips.  In essence you still had to read the quest text to find out where mob X or item Y was located.  Only when you were in the general location - being able to mouseover an objective - would you be tipped off.  No biggie.  Enter Call of the Crusade, which is taking it a step further.

• A skull graphic will be placed on the map in the general area where players can find creatures they must kill for a quest.
• A skull graphic with red eyes will be placed on the map in the general area where creatures can be found that must be killed in order to collect quest objects.
• A gear/cogwheel graphic will be placed on the map in the general area where players must loot quest objects found in the world.
• A chat bubble graphic will be placed on the map in the general area where players must interact with a specific NPC for a quest.
• A yellow question mark graphic will show on the map to provide the location of a NPC whose quest the player has completed.

Aside from these obvious benefits, former downloaders of quest helping mods should see an increase in available system resources and (slightly) more secure accounts. Okay, this is way further then I expected Blizzard to go.  Before the hardcore base goes all "reading comprehension" on us let's take a step back.  Remove yourself from the discussion and just look at WoW as a product.  Blizzard, the creator of said product, is looking at QuestHelper, and mods like it, and realizes that it is one of the most downloaded add-ons for World of Warcraft.  What would you expect them to do?  Would you want them to simply ignore the actions of millions of players?  No, of course not. Here's the rub, many other UI changes are getting the option to be toggled on or off, but Zarhym's updates make no mention of that for the topic at hand.  If you want to play WoW the hardcore old school way it doesn't seem to be an option.  The freedom of choice is what the hardcore should be complaining about, not the dumbing down of a part of WoW that you are no longer a part of. Under what circumstances would you accept the added features to the world map?  Would it have been acceptable to you if it was implemented back in 2004?  Should the option be defaulted off?  Are you going to abandon your helpful questing mod if the feature goes live?  With the amount of subscribers reaching a plateau, does it even matter at this stage in the game? Let the QQ begin. <popcorn>

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As I recently lamented, questing in Zul'Drak has brought out a huge need for healing my leather-wearing rogue. The other day after a particularly close call, I called up a Heavy Frostweave Bandage, and my screen lit up as that familiar, lovely sight of an achievement flashed across my bandaged figure. Ultimate Triage. Apparently, it was a closer call than I had realized, and just through that simple action of healing my character that had less than 5% health, I had earned an achievement. It was easy. Perhaps too easy. And if I was as big of an achievement whore as some of us out there *cough* Juggynaut, I certainly would have already completed it, even if it meant intentionally waiting until the last second possible to make a killing blow on a mob while it beat me senseless. But, like many aspects of WoW, achievements are like candy. And once I got the one easy fix, I started searching for more. I've come to expect certain achievements - exploring areas here, completing X number of quests there. And I'm sure you have, too. So I won't detail those. The achievements that seem a bit more random, and still relatively simple, are what I'll focus on for now, since those are the ones I'm going after myself. For one, there's It's Happy Hour Somewhere. I had seen this one on the list before, but I didn't look too much into it previously. Turns out not to be too tough if you've made it to Outland. A quick trip to the Shattrath bar yields 13 different drinks from the two different barmaids. While your there, buy coffee from a roaming vendor in the Lower City. If you have any mage friends (or are a mage yourself), each of the 9 conjured waters counts. Find any remaining drink needs from a general goods vendor. Cha-ching. One warning: I do not recommend drinking and riding (your mount). The simulated dizzyness can make you feel sick IRL (or maybe I'm just too sensitive!) Another achievement that I didn't intentionally go for but was happy to get was a while back when I visisted the barber in the Undercity. Style your hair, and you get Shave and a Haircut. So simple. Then, there's Going Down?, which you get for falling 65 yards without dying. I got it a while back after an accidental fall, but as you can see from the WoWhead page, players have figured out plenty of high spots to jump off of for the achievement. And regardless of whether you like tabards as a fashion accessory, buy one and you get the Represent achievement. Of course, if you collect 10 tabards, that's another achievement. But if you're just starting out with achievements, you may not want to jump for that one just yet. I would consider these at the bottom of the difficulty scale for achievements, but a good place to start if you want to up your achievement points. WoW may make an achievement whore out of me yet. So who else out there loves achievements? What other achievements would you recommend for someone starting out? Any achievements you're stuck on? I'm still /love-ing and then killing all the critters I see in hopes of one day getting them all!

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