I found this video that I never uploaded. Apparently, Carpe Flux Capacitor drafts players when we need to split the raid group. It was a good time.
siege of orgrimmar
All posts tagged siege of orgrimmar
Warlords of Draenor has been out for a few weeks. I’ve been waiting to make a proper post about it in general until I got some time with it. I think there’s been enough time. This isn’t meant to be comprehensive on every aspect of the expansion, but it does cover my general thoughts.
Questing and Story
Loved it. I know a lot of people were confused by the alternate timeline, but it didn’t seem confusing to me. Then again, I’ve also read WoW books that contained multiple timelines. This isn’t anything new to WoW. The quests feel really immersive and important. Not everything is incredible, but I didn’t feel like the quests were a grind like they were in the past. It seems like Blizzard just keeps getting better and better at this.
The introduction through Tanaan Jungle is exciting and sets the stage for the expansion. Frostfire Ridge was simply amazing; maybe my eyes watered at the end. Maybe. Although to be fair, that tends to happen something seems really awesome to me, so all three zone cinematics did that to me. Looking back on Gorgrond, it doesn’t stand out in my mind, but I enjoyed it while I was questing through it. Talador dragged a little, but it was still fun, and I enjoyed the cinematic a bunch. Yrel makes me want not only to play Alliance but also to play as a dranei specifically. Spires of Arak definitely takes a detour from the Iron Horde story, but I found it extremely fascinating to learn about the gods of the arakkoa. The culmination in Nagrand was terrific. The mood of the last cutscene… wow.
Garrison
Garrisons were engaging right from the start, but they also took the most researching I think. It was a brand new mechanic with a lot of choices. Luckily wowhead had some great guides. The missions are a fun bit of minigame, but more importantly, the garrison system as a whole makes me feel powerful and important. I still have a couple buildings that aren’t level 3 yet, but they should be done very soon.
Professions and General Ease of Use
Choosing the right profession is less important than it was previously, and I like that. There’s still something to gain by choosing a specific profession, but none feels like a requirement. I’m an enchanter and miner, and I chose the Enchanter’s Study and Engineering Works as my profession buildings. I like being able to dabble in the other professions. Being able to level everything in Draenor seems like a cool change, although I wasn’t behind in professions, so I don’t know how well it worked. I’ve also enjoying fishing with the baits, three different sizes, and garrison daily.
Dungeons and Heroics
Dungeons were fairly interesting, and I haven’t learned to hate any of them yet. Healing them was a little challenging at first but no where near the difficulty of Cataclysm.
Auchindoun – Not particularly memorable, which is a little sad considering it was a cool place in BC.
Bloodmaul Slag Mines – Interesting place. I like the aesthetic.
The Everbloom – I don’t know. Sometimes I found it a tad annoying because it felt like it was spread out, but it’s not bothering me much now. Come to think of it, maybe now that groups always skip trash makes it better!
Skyreach – I’ve probably done this least of all the dungeons. I feel like groups struggle with it more often.
Upper Blackrock Spire – This one was one of the more challenging dungeons at first – especially Zaela. Now that it’s fine, remembering how challenging it was makes me like it more.
Shadowmoon Burial Grounds – This is a gorgeous dungeon, and it makes me want to see the Alliance story in Shadowmoon Valley.
Iron Docks – This dungeon sounded super cool, and I was excited to see it. I like that kind of rough technology in the setting, so I was expecting to find it amazing. It’s a fine dungeon, but it’s disappointing in that you’re not really interacting with the ships much.
Grimrail Depot – This is another one that I thought was going to be amazing because of the technology. And yes, I thoroughly enjoyed it. The second boss was really difficult for a while, but groups seem to have it now.
I think the most important thing about heroics is that they don’t seem as vital. All of my gear is now the ilvl of heroic dungeons or better, and you don’t need to do a daily heroic for valor when there isn’t valor. They’re not getting over-used, so I haven’t grown to hate them.
Raiding
I’ve done the first wing of LFR and the first two bosses of normal Highmaul. Somehow they’ve made LFR even easier. I suppose I like that. I know LFR was easy before, but that just made it all the more frustrating when groups couldn’t do it. If you did know what you were doing, it didn’t help others. I’m all for LFR being a cakewalk.
Normal, on the other hand, was surprising. I expected to get through a lot more than two bosses the first week, but maybe my expectations were just off. Thinking back to flex, there’s no way I would get only two bosses done in Siege of Orgrimmar, but we were also coming from the previous raid tier rather than gearing as new max-level characters. I didn’t think normal gear would be important, but it is. I’ll be curious to see how the next tier is done. I’m hoping that if you’re heroic geared, you can just step into Blackrock Foundry heroic without needing normal.
Max-level Quests
Max-level questing content came as a pleasant surprise. I’m actually enjoying the apexis dailies. In addition, the Garrison Campaign quests are very interesting. Staggering them out weekly is a superb idea too, because it ensures there’s more content spaced longer. I love it. On that subject, garrison invasions are pretty cool too and give additional content!
PVP
I’ll probably talk about PVP more in a different post, but I haven’t enjoyed PVP this much in a long time. I don’t understand every little bit of Ashran, but I have great time in there. The Gladiator’s Sanctum is a superb source of honor, conquest, and PVP gear, and the Nemesis quests that reward you with a title for each race of which you kill 500 is awesome. The Highmaul Coliseum is really awesome too. Now that battlegrounds drop lockboxes, it actually pushes groups to try to do well even when they’re going to lose. Having a set of PVP gear lower than honor gear that can be obtained randomly makes entry even easier. In addition, it’s more fun; who doesn’t like upgrades?
All said, I’m incredibly happy with Warlords of Draenor. It’s my favorite expansion yet.
Carpe Flux Capacitor, the guild of which I’m a member, defeated Garrosh on March 10. Since then, we’ve been inactive awaiting Warlords of Draenor. I realized that I might think to myself, “boy, remember all those good times I had raiding? It was always a positive experience.”
Now I have this video to remind me what it was really like. This is the last few seconds of every progression wipe we had in Siege of Orgrimmar.
We’re going to be recruiting for the next expansion, so maybe we could use this to remind new recruits what they can expect!
All kidding aside, wipes are to be expected. I just thought it was fun.
We finalled stripped the mantle of Warchief from Hellscream and liberated Orgrimmar! According to my count, it was on the guild’s 45th attempt.
I’m happy to finally complete normal mode. This might be it for the guild for a while; I know a number of people are looking forward to a break. I think the guild will take a break for a week or two and then see who wants to continue.
I won loot from my bonus roll – a tier token! I turned it in for the fifth and final normal-mode healing tier piece. I don’t think I’m going to use because my off-tier is better in that slot, but I’m glad to have the option
Normally I include a montage of our deaths before the kill video, but with 43 failures, it would take me a while to edit them and render the video, plus it would make the video pretty long. You’ll have to live with the kill video alone. Of course, I doubt anyone really cares to watch our kill videos, so it shouldn’t be a big deal. Unfortunately, I had WoW’s audio routed through my speakers and Mumble through my headset, and somehow FRAPS only picked up Mumble. No WoW audio in this one. Oh well.
You can read more details about the kill on the Carpe Flux Capacitor kill announcement.
I’m pretty excited to finally share this. I painted this Horde plate and Horde mug at Color Me Mine! In case you’re not familiar with the chain, allow me to briefly explain. Color Me Mine lets you choose and purchase ceramic pieces. Once you’ve chosen, you paint the piece there in the studio. They fire it while you go about your week, and a week later you can pick up your finished piece.
Because I’m more excited about the mug, I’ll talk about the plate first. I painted this on February 22 of this year. We were celebrating Mooglegem’s birthday!
If I spend too much time on details, I won’t be able to finish in a single evening and will have to return multiple times. To avoid that with this plate, I tried to keep it simple. I based the Horde symbol on the way it appears on the banners at the Shrine of Two Moons in Mists of Pandaria. It’s clearly Asian-inspired. The plate’s simple, but I’m pretty happy with it!
This mug is a much bigger deal. I’m so happy to finally have it completed. I don’t remember when I started it, but I do know that I signed and dated the bottom, and when I checked today, the year on the bottom was 2012.
I put a lot of work into this. In fact, it took me much longer than a single session. I probably went at least five times, spending hours each time. There was some other stress involved as well. Normally, you pay for the piece and you pay a studio fee to paint. If you purchase one piece or three pieces, the studio fee remains the same. If you don’t finish and bring a piece back, you don’t need to purchase the piece again, but you’d need to pay the studio fee again.
This side’s pretty boring. My intent with the colors here was to get that metal look with which Garrosh infused the Horde. Those circles were supposed to be metal rivets. I don’t know how well that came across.
I spent so much time on the mug that the Color Me Mine at which I purchased the piece closed. However, they had assured me when I began that I could take it to any store to continue working on it. The manager at the other store, however, seemed pretty upset by it. He made a big deal about how he can’t profit if I’m not purchasing from him. I guess he didn’t think the studio fee was high enough. Regardless, he was very huffy about the whole thing but let me work there, and I eventually finished. I’m not very artsy usually, so it was a big deal to me.
As a troll, I had to include some Darkspear love of course. Too bad a crack runs through the right mask.
A week after I finished painting, I went to pick up my piece, and it wasn’t really a piece. It was a bag of pieces. It had exploded in the kiln, which happens sometimes. I asked to look at the pieces because I was curious how it turned out, so the woman working there handed me the bag. A few moments later, she told me something about how she’d throw the pieces away for me, but I told her that I still wanted to keep it. She told me that they can’t let me do that because the sharp pieces are dangerous. This seems rather dumb to me, because I could always break a piece and then cut myself on it, right? Well, I told her that I really still wanted it. I think it helped that I was still holding the bag, and I honestly wasn’t going to give it back to her. I had already paid, I didn’t consider theft, and I doubt she would have physically stopped me. Luckily, she said okay, although she did make me sign the back of the receipt after she wrote something about how they wouldn’t be held responsible if I hurt myself.
The handle has a vine wrapping around it. It took a while to do that due to the shading.
I kept the bag in my room for a long time. I wasn’t sure what to do with it. There was lots of conflicting advice on what type of glue to use and how to fix it. Rather than choosing something, I kept putting it off.
When I painted the Horde plate, Mooglegem and I chatted with the staff, and one woman mentioned being able to glue pieces together there in the store. When I picked up my plate, I brought my mug with me, and they glued it back together for me!
For those wondering, the Color Me Mine in Tustin, CA on El Camino Real is a great business, and the people who work there are terrific!
The vine reaches the top and wraps around the inside of the mug.
It’s not safe to drink from it, but I created it for artistic reasons, not utility. I’m really pleased to have them completed. Now I just need to figure out where to display them!
Oh, and I suppose that the cracks just add to the representation. The Horde are the outcasts and underdogs. Individually we might be broken, but we come together! It’s apt that I didn’t get this glued together until after the Siege of Orgrimmar as well. Even though the Horde has been shattered, we piece ourselves back together!
We awakened the Paragons of the Klaxxi, so it’s only fitting that we put them down too. Tuesday we fought the Paragons for the first time. On our eighth attempt we managed to kill them.
No loot for me, but as usual, I prefer progression over loot. We’ll be seeing Garrosh on Thursday hopefully. I might go shadow for the fight, which could be fun.
Our guild’s kill announcement can be found here.
Alright! We downed Siegecrafter Blackfuse on Tuesday. Yes, maybe it took 21 attempts, but we killed him regardless. No loot for me, but I’m happy to be continuing forward. The Paragons of the Klaxxi seem complex yet, if LFR and flex’s trend applies in normal, easy. Will we get to see Garrosh Thursday? I’ll find out soon I suppose.
Our guild’s kill announcement is here.
We ran the fourth wing of flex on Saturday night, and I ended up having a blast. I grabbed a few PUGs at the beginning, but most of them left. We ended up with fourteen of us – all friends except for a single PUG. It was a lot more fun than joining a flex group of people I don’t know. Of course, it has its drawback; if you want to play with friends, you have to coordinate a time. I suppose that’s a big trade-off in WoW all the time. One of our hunters got the heirloom from Garrosh, and our undergeared players all got some loot from the wing. I wouldn’t mind doing this more in the future.
Last night we defeated the Spoils of Pandaria on our fourth attempt. Not bad! It felt like more honestly. The fight went pretty smoothly. I’m glad we’re making rapid progress.
No loot for me, but that’s okay.
We also managed to kill Thok the Bloodthirsty on our eighth attempt. This was a much rougher fight than the Spoils of Pandaria. I think we were healing too long and keeping Thok in that interrupt phase too long. At first we were getting him to around 66% health before transitioning, but maybe that was allowing him to hit the tanks too hard. Honestly, we didn’t have a problem keeping the tanks up in that phase, but a tank would almost always get one-shot in the second interrupt phase. We were probably using too many CDs on the first one. Anyways, once we went with much shorter phases, things went better.
I won gloves that I’m not going to use right now I don’t think but could be useful later depending on how tier works. I also won the tier helm! That’s great, because it would give me four-piece if I choose to use it with the LFR tier legs that I didn’t use yet. Unfortunately, AskMrRobot shows that I’ll take a significant loss if I used the four-piece because I’d be changing from Warforged normal legs to LFR legs. It’s better to use the higher ilvl gear without four-piece for now. I’m hopeful that I’ll get another piece though. If not from normal, even a flex one would probably be great. I have normal chest, hands, and head tier, and LFR legs. My non-tier shoulders and legs are Warforged normal, so we’ll see.
You can check the guild kill announcement here or our log at World of Logs.
That was a nice raid night! We managed to one-shot General Nazgrim. No loot for me, but I’ll take progression over loot anyways!
We cut it pretty close at the end, which is always exciting.
Malkorok was a little harder. It took us five tries to down him. No loot for me this time either.
Next week we start at the Spoils of Pandaria. I think it’ll go smoothly, but we’ll see.
Additional information was posted in our guild’s kill announcement.
We killed the Kor’kon Dark Shaman as a guild for the first time yesterday! We extended last week’s lockout so we could start right on progression. I even managed to get a warforged mace off my bonus roll – Kardris’ Scepter.
See my post on the Carpe site for more details.
I’ve been complaining a bit because I couldn’t manage to down Garrosh in flex. In fact, most groups couldn’t get past the first boss of Downfall. On Friday I listed myself for Downfall and got invited to a group just for Garrosh. It was super simple, and everything went extremely smoothly. It was a lot easier than most LFR groups even! Anyways, I’m happy to have completed flex.
It might not be guild progression, but I had some personal progression. Pepper asked me to join a PUG for Siege of Orgrimmar, so I decided to give it a go. It seemed like it was at least half of a guild run. We started at Galakras and made it through the Dark Shaman. It was my first time downing them!
It was actually a rather unpleasant experience. They were very rude to non-guildies. I stayed simply because I thought I had a chance at progression. Is that bad of me? Whatever.
I spent another three to four hours doing flex the other night. I’m attempting to get a Garrosh kill. On this particular night, I was never able to kill the first boss of flex 4. People wouldn’t know what to do, and that would cause other people to quit. We’d wipe and wipe and then fall apart. After four groups, I gave up for the evening.
It was very frustrating. I dislike LFR because it’s boring, but I dislike flex because if other people are bad, you’re just wasting your time completely. If I could just kill him once in flex, I’d leave him be!
Wednesday we had our one and only attempt on Iron Juggernaut, defeating him! It seemed like a strangely uneventful boss. I’d heard it was easy, but after a boss that had a group leaving to do their own thing in the towers on Galakras with comparatively complex mechanics, I don’t understand why Iron Juggernaut was even there! That said, he’s pretty cool looking, so I guess I get it.
You can watch our kill too. I forgot to start the video right at the beginning, but I remembered pretty early. Now that I’ve become the official kill poster on the Carpe Flux Capacitor guild website, I might as well link to our official kill announcement too.
Last week we finally killed Galakras! We were missing our main tanks and actually had to PUG a DPS as well. It was the first time we had raided in about a month due to attendance issues.
This was our 20th attempt when we finally defeated Galakras. I’m surprised it took so long, but I’m glad to see him die. Off to Iron Juggernaut this week I hope!
We’re almost two months into the patch, so I thought I’d talk about some of the content. When the Timeless Isle was released, I was pretty excited. It was largely free-form content. In many ways, it mirrored the feeling of World of Warcraft when it was first released. I didn’t have particular expectations. There were no grinds of dailies. I was just able to explore and find things to do. I talked to Wrathion and his friends, got sent around the island, and met the Emperor. I killed some random monsters and did some platforming to find some treasure chests. I even bested the Celestials in battle, earned by legendary cloak, and fought Ordos. I was excited and incredibly happy with the Timeless Isle. I loved platforming to reach chests, and I particularly enjoyed getting carried by a bird to the top of a mountain.
Soon I began working on it a bit more. I wanted to complete the weekly so I could see the vision. I wanted to kill Yaungol so I could earn reputation with Emperor Shaohao. I wanted to get more armor from the island so I could use Burdens of Eternity on them, even if they’d only provide a small upgrade.
Soon I realized that there wasn’t an abundance of fun to reach chests. Platforming was very limited. The second week on the Timeless Isle, I didn’t quite finish gathering enough Epoch Stones to complete my quest and earn a vision. The next week I still hadn’t finished it. Fast-forward until today, and I’ve still only turned in the quest once and currently have 27/50 Epoch Stones.
Looking at my quest log, I see that I’m supposed to kill Yaungol for Emperor Shaohao, kill Elite creatures for Emperor Shaohao, kill Rare or Rare Elite creatures for Kairoz, and kill everything for Epoch Stones for Kairoz. These don’t scream fun to me. In fact, they seem pretty terrible. At least the Isle of Giant was even looser. This just feels fake. I have a few different quests, but really I’m just so run around killing things haphazardly. I primarily play to experience the content, see the story, and challenge myself. Challenge doesn’t really apply to this type of content, so let’s disregard that. I’ve already experienced the content. The Timeless Isle is now asking me to experience the same content again and again. I’m missing some story, but I feel like I’d be better off watching the visions on YouTube than continuing.
I do like PVPing, and I purchased the Censer of Eternal Agony, but I’ve never even used it honestly. I don’t really want to screw with people who are trying to get things done. I’d rather go do some battlegrounds. The Burdens of Eternity could provide me with some minor upgrades, but they’re not enough to really motivate me.
It’s really too bad. I’m not trying to say that the Timeless Isle is bad. A lot of people enjoy it, and that’s great. Unfortunately, it’s just not for me I suppose. When I first explored the island, it reminded me of the way exploring World of Warcraft felt for the first time. In many ways, it mirrored the experience of the game. That exploration is much more limited than implied. I understand what it wants and requires, and it offers a lot less than I originally thought. Perspective changes.
For now, I’ll fly out to the Isle once per week to spam smite at Ordos and to tag a Celestial right before the kill.
Behind the Blogging Scenes Interview: Rohan, Matticus, World of Matticus, 10/5/13.
Matticus interviewed Rohan, one of my favorite bloggers.
I Think I’m in Love With 5.4, Balkoth, Balkoth’s Word, 10/3/13.
Wondering what’s so special about 5.4? Balkoth can explain.
Inventory fixes being worked on, Olivia Grace, WoW Insider, 10/5/13.
Yes yes yes.
Warcraft as a whole: story balance between RTS and MMO, Matthew Rossi, WoW Insider, 10/7/13.
A consideration of the different ways the MMO and RTS games have interacted with story.
WTB generic glyphs, Sarah Pine, WoW Insider, 10/9/13.
Some interesting ideas for generic glyphs.
The Mists of Pandaria that never was, Anne Stickney, WoW Insider, 10/4/13.
Things could have been a bit different.
New Refer-A-Friend system revealed, Olivia Grace, WoW Insider, 10/7/13.
The new system sounds good, but are there really people who are coming to play WoW for the first time still?
Breakfast Topic: Today, the Sky Golems invade Azeroth, Adam Koebel, WoW Insider, 10/9/13.
This is a pretty sweet mount.
I like that LFR is included, and I think it’s a great feature. That said, the experience is usually infuriating. People are usually under-geared, which is to be expected, but they also don’t know what to do and don’t listen to instructions. Honestly, LFR is open to everyone, and many people have never raided outside of LFR. I understand that it can be daunting. What gets to me, however, is when we wipe so many times and fall apart so much that it takes 2 or 3 hours to complete a wing. This happens pretty frequently, and it’s especially bad now that we’re in a new tier. Everyone’s yelling at each other, we have four stacks of determination, half the group drops, and I just want to finish.
Tuesday night after our raid, I decided to do the Vale of Eternal Sorrows in LFR. I was great on Immerseus, and we completed it in one attempt with no problems. The Fallen Protectors also went very smoothly, but I was beginning to get tired. We had no problems on Norushen either, but I was incredibly sloppy. I didn’t switch to adds, and I didn’t do anything but spam Smite and occasionally cast Penance or Holy Fire on the boss. By the time we got to the Sha of Pride, I was falling asleep. Sometimes I cast Smite on the Sha. Most of the time I did nothing. Yes, I was stacked at the correct spot, but I didn’t move. I didn’t fight the add. I didn’t use my healing CDs. Pretty much, I just slept.
Whoops. I was the bad that got carried last night.
Tuesday we cancelled our raid due to low attendance. We tried recruiting and taking trial members, but the couple that was planning on running with us restarted their computers and never returned. However, on Wednesday we breezed through Immerseus and the Fallen Protectors and finally completed the Norushen encounter! I got a belt, too. I think it was only on our second attempt of the night, although we wiped a total of 24 times.
Then we moved on to the Sha of Pride. If flex was any indicator, I expected this to be easier than the Norushen encounter, and I was right. We did wipe four times, but we defeated the Sha of Pride on the fifth attempt. Take that Sha of Pride! Who’s the best now? Us! Wait…
Hopefully next week we’ll be able to push into Orgrimmar itself!
The bag space problem, Adam Koebel, WoW Insider, 10/2/13.
An examination of the problem with bag space with possible solutions.
A lack of triumph, Matthew Rossi, WoW Insider, 10/1/13.
The Siege of Orgrimmar lacks a triumphant feeling, and maybe that’s okay.
WoW’s Singing Sunflower sweetens the Lament of the Highborne, Lisa Poisso, WoW Insider, 7/29/13.
Whoops, I missed this one. Laura Shigihara, the voice of the Singing Sunflower pet (and the song from Plants vs. Zombies), sings Lament of the Highborne.
About a week ago, Mooglegem earned her legendary cloak, Xing-Ho, Breath of Yu’lon! I was looking forward to seeing her increased DPS, but we called raids off this past week. Hopefully next time we raid she’ll get to put her new legendary cloak to good use!
We may be in debt, but the chips on our shoulders are chocolate, Sarah Pine, WoW Insider, 9/18/13.
When Greg Street and Brian Holinka traded tweets about exciting changes to PVP, Olivia Grace replied to them, saying that she’d bake them each 1,000,000 cookies if the changes were cross-realm arenas. Well, they’re in patch 5.4 now, and in the Alliance PVP room in the Valley of the Four Winds, there’s an IOU note for “1,000,000 Chocolate Chip Cookies” signed “- O.D.G.” She better get on that.
WoW Trivial Pursuit now available, Sarah Pine, WoW Insider, 9/25/13.
Sweet.
Know Your Lore: This Was All Necessary, Matthew Rossi, WoW Insider, 9/25/13.
Pandaria grew stagnant under the Sha of Pride. Garrosh was right that “such power cannot be contained.”
Hearthstone account wipe is coming, Sarah Pine, WoW Insider, 9/26/13.
Good to know if you’re still playing Hearthstone. You’ll be reimbursed with gold for your purchases, and they don’t believe there will be any additional wipes.
Queue for all the LFRs at once in patch 5.4, Olivia Grace, WoW Insider, 9/24/13.
This is a welcome change.
WoW Archivist: A rolled-back history of realms, Scott Andrews, WoW Insider, 9/13/13.
I remember roll-backs. Dark days, they were.
Know Your Lore: The future of the Horde, Anne Stickney, WoW Insider, 9/15/13.
What will happen to the Horde after the Siege of Orgrimmar?
Know Your Lore: Delenda est Orgrimmar, Matthew Rossi, WoW Insider, 9/18/13.
This is a satirical piece from the Alliance perspective on why Orgrimmar should be destroyed.
Escape from Orgrimmar, Matthew Rossi, WoW Insider, 9/19/13.
And this is the follow-up Rossi wrote after realizing that people didn’t realize the first was satirical. It lists the reasons why Orgrimmar shouldn’t be destroyed.
When the big squish happens, you’ll still be able to kill the mobs, Adam Holisky, WoW Insider, 9/19/13.
Some clarification for people who are still confused.
Last week, I earned my legendary cloak, Jina-Kang, Kindness of Chi-Ji. If you follow my blog and know that I play a discipline priest, you won’t be surprised that Jina-Kang is the healer legendary. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a chance to earn this before my raid nights, but this week I should be set!
I’m sure you can find hundreds of videos showing the cutscene, but I recorded mine as well. It starts with some quest text and dialog before Wrathion sends me to the Seat of Knowledge above Mogu’shan Palace in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms. Around 2:00 into the video is when the good part starts. Do you remember how Lorewalker Cho has shown you scenes from stories? Now he, with Wrathion’s help, tells my story. This is one of the coolest things I’ve seen in World of Warcraft. We’ve all done great things, and the cutscene that plays will show each player his legendary accomplishments. To someone who loves the lore and story as well as building a character, it was incredible.
After earning it, the player is displayed with his or her appropriate legendary proc outside the Seat of Knowledge. I’m sad that I didn’t wait for Mooglegem so we could be displayed together. Oh well. Now to complete this chapter of the legendary, I just need to stop Garrosh Hellscream!
The Fallen Protectors went down again! It took us seven attempts, which isn’t too bad at all. The fight itself wasn’t too interesting, but I definitely like the idea of fighting sha-corrupted, fallen heroes.
I’m sure you really wanted to see us do it, and now you can! We did some attempts on Norushen – 10 it looks like if each of these Fraps videos is a full attempt – but we weren’t able to finish it.
I also completed the first flex wing, Vale of Eternal Sorrows. It was interesting. Yes, it was easier than normal, but we still had to pay attention to mechanics. I think I liked the difficulty. What really sets it apart though is requiring it to be pre-formed. I bet people would do their jobs better in LFR if you had to form your own group as well! I was a little stressed out joining a PUG because you never know what you’ll get. I guess it was kind of silly. Regardless, it went well, and I particularly enjoyed seeing the Sha of Pride. That’s a really cool boss to include. Afterwards you get some dialog between Jaina Proudmoore and Lor’themar Theron that I enjoyed.
And So It Begins, Averry, The Warchief’s Command Board, 9/10/13.
Averry, the man behind Garrosh Hellscream at the Warchief’s Command Board, posts a little bit out of character. He brings up leading a raid of Warchief’s Command Board readers in Siege of Orgrimmar. Could be fun!
Timeless Isle Guide (WoW MoP 5.4), Damien, Icy Veins, 9/10/13.
This seems to be a great guide for the Timeless Isle.
Know Your Lore: The legacy you will leave behind, Matthew Rossi, WoW Insider, 9/11/13.
An examination of the major players of Mists of Pandaria.
Know Your Lore, TFH Edition: The haunting refrain of the Mists of Pandaria, Anne Stickney, WoW Insider, 9/8/13.
This is a sad tale of the Vale of Eternal Blossoms.
World of Warcraft Trivial Pursuit coming soon, Olivia Grace, WoW Insider, 9/6/13.
There isn’t too much to say about this, but I’m excited.
I won’t cry for you, Garrosh Hellscream, Sarah Pine, WoW Insider, 9/5/13.
It’s time for the story to end.
Tuesday night, Carpe Flux Capacitor descended under the Vale and fought to cleanse the corrupt Immerseus. On the eleventh attempt, we succeeded! I’m very excited to be in the Siege of Orgrimmar. From what I know of it, it seems like a well made raid. I know many people dislike raids set in old environments; new is interesting, but old environments make it seem more real. I think Blizzard nailed a good mix with Siege of Orgrimmar, but I suppose I need to see a lot of more of it for myself to make that call.
We also moved on to the Fallen Protectors. We made some attempts but haven’t downed them yet. Maybe tonight!
Know Your Lore: Alea iacta est, Matthew Rossi, WoW Insider, 9/4/13.
The war against Hellscream is coming. The die has been cast. This is a fantastic piece of the importance of this event. It could be a big turning point for the Alliance as well as the Horde.
Blizzard reveals Siege of Orgrimmar raid schedule, Matthew Rossi, WoW Insider, 9/4/13.
Good information if you’re anxious to jump into Siege.
Know Your Lore: The mysterious disappearance of Varian Wrynn, Anne Stickney, WoW Insider, 9/1/13.
A look back at the lack of Varian in vanilla. I really wonder what stories were dropped by Blizzard.
Diablo III: Reaper of Souls loot designed to make auction house a ‘last resort’, Mike Foster, Massively, 8/29/13.
Good news!
Raid Lockouts and “Free Loot,” Balkoth, Balkoth’s Word, 8/25/13.
Balkoth discusses an idea he got from Theck at Flex Capacitor (who got it from someone named Thels). What if you got your shot at LFR loot (and/or Flex) when you downed a boss in normal or heroic if you hadn’t done that boss in LFR that week (or Flex)? Raiders would still be encouraged to step up in difficulty but no longer down. Great idea. I’m so mad at Blizzard for not doing something like this already.
Low level dungeon and raid scaling technology complete, Olivia Grace, WoW Insider, 8/28/13.
Tom Chilton revealed that Blizzard has finished the technology to up-scale dungeons and raids. They’ve yet to find a reward scheme that they liked for it.
World of Warcraft Trading Card Game closes its doors, Anne Stickney, WoW Insider, 8/26/13.
This makes me a sad
pandatroll.
Player sweeps all three Stranglethorn Fishing winning spots in one day, Lisa Poisso, WoW INsider, 8/28/13.
How could someone come in first, second, and third? Amazing.
Warcraft and its “Joker Problem,” Matthew Rossi, WoW Insider, 8/28/13.
We keep killing our good enemies.
The Queue: No Hearthstone Day, Michael Sacco, WoW Insider, 8/23/13.
The answer to the last question has information that’s good to keep in mind – the ilvls for Siege of Orgrimmar. Raid Finder: 528,. Flex: 540. Flex Hellscream Weapons: 548. Normal: 553. Normal Warforged / Ordos: 559. Normal Hellscream Weapons: 561. Heroic: 566. Heroic Warforged: 572. Heroic Hellscream Weapons: 574.
Know Your Lore: The life and legacy of Lei Shen, Anne Stickney, WoW Insider, 8/25/13.
Care to know more about the guy you just killed?
Item Squish extremely likely for WoW’s next expansion, Olivia Grace, WoW Insider, 8/24/13.
I think we all knew this was coming.
What If Paladins Had Stayed Alliance-Only?, Rohan, Blessing of Kings, 8/19/13.
I love this. The Alliance story was the story of their paladins. What if paladins had stayed Alliance-only and shaman had stayed Horde-only? What if Death Knights had been given to the Horde, and monks to the Alliance? It’s an interesting article.
Thoughts on Garrosh Hellscream, Rohan, Blessing of Kings, 8/14/13.
Why do the orcs want to kill Garrosh? Why do players hate Garrosh but like Sylvanas? Rohan thinks that in lore, the orcs in general aren’t turning on Garrosh. As players, we like Sylvanas because she’s “all cool and calculating” while Garrosh “is a thug.” Players are more likely to identify with Sylvanas.
Window Shopper, Prinnie Powah, That Was an Accident!, 8/14/13.
Be careful with whom you /flirt.
Patch 5.4, flexible raids, dailies and more with Tom Chilton, Anne Stickney, WoW Insider, 8/16/13.
Chilton’s discussion of the Timeless Isle and Blizzard’s pull away from dailies are particularly interesting.
Patch 5.4 confirmed for release on September 10th, Adam Holisky, WoW Insider, 8/21/13.
I’m glad we have a little more time to Ahead of the Curve: Lei Shen for raid team members who missed our kill.
Know Your Lore, Tinfoil Hat Edition: The Dark Below, Anne Stickney, WoW Insider, 8/18/13.
Speculation on what The Dark Below could bring.
Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls Lore Speculation, Neinball, BlizzPro, 8/14/13.
Reaper of Souls Lore Speculation Part 2: The Usual Suspects, Neinball, BlizzPro, 8/16/13.
Reaper of Soul [sic] Lore Speculation Part Three: Eternities of Conflict, Neinball, BlizzPro, 8/19/13.
Reaper of Souls Lore Speculation Part Four: Oh, The Places We’ll Go, Neinball, BlizzPro, 8/20/13.
Reaper of Souls might have been unveiled, but I still think these speculation articles are great.
Diablo III Expansion Speculation, Rohan, Blessing of Kings, 8/15/13.
Rohan’s wish list includes paladins, necromancers (or maybe druids), a no-trade, no-AH mode, and the ability for hardcore characters to become normal characters upon death. I think the no-trade, no-AH mode would be nice, although Blizzard would never do it, and the hardcore change would be great.
What If: Cult of the Mechanical, Matthew Rossi, WoW Insider, 8/15/13.
Rossi explains how awesome it would be if we had an expansion focused on Gelbin Mekkatorque embracing technology and shunning the divine.
Old Enemies: OOC Epilogue, Anna, Too Many Annas, 8/15/13.
Even if you haven’t been reading this story, this is an interesting article about “assumed RP.” I didn’t really know anything about this, but it was a fascinating read.
Will we see an ability purge?, Matthew Rossi, WoW Insider, 8/14/13.
If we’re going to continue to get new abilities every expansion, an ability purge seems important to me.
This epic crafted Frostsaber has ridden off with our hearts, Elizabeth Harper, WoW Insider, 8/15/13.
This is so cute!
Diablo 3 to get new features, fore free, in pre-expansion patch, Adam Holisky, WoW Insider, 8/22/13.
No surprise here. Changes to the core mechanics will happen even if you don’t purchase Reaper of Souls.
WoW Archivist: WoW’s first legendary quest line, Scott Andrews, WoW Insider, 8/16/13.
A retrospective on the first legendary quest line, the series to obtain Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker.
Know Your Lore: A Precarious Position Part 1 – Horde, Matthew Rossi, WoW Insider, 8/14/13.
What will happen to the Horde after the Siege of Orgimmar?
Wow. I’m impressed with most patch trailers, but I loved this one. By talking about it, I’m spoiling it, so please watch the trailer before reading.
Okay?
Okay.
Taran Zhu’s back-and-forth with Hellscream was great. They seemed to take turns having the upper-hand. I liked when Taran Zhu brought up Grom Hellscream, although I’m not sure when he learned of Grom. I didn’t catch that he got impaled on Hellscream’s axe on my first watch. I also found it interesting that the trailer opened with butterflies and when the sha energies spread out from the heart of Y’shaarj, it corrupts a butterfly.
I’ve been wondering about something Hellscream said. Taran Zhu says “I have fought besides the tauren, trolls, and others. You are nothing like them.” Hellscream responds, “they are no longer part of my Horde!” Is Hellscream referring to those who are rebelling against him or to all tauren? Up to this point, it seemed like he was still accepting of tauren. He thought of them under orcs, but still felt they contributed. He seemed to consider them much higher than the other races of the horde. Hellscream tolerated the Blood Elves and goblins and largely ignored the pandaren and Forsaken. As far as I can tell, the Darkspear were no longer considered part of his Horde. By the release of patch 5.4, are we to assume that his Horde consists solely of orcs? It seems very plausible that he would have heard that Baine was working with the Darkspear Rebellion, so it wouldn’t be surprising.
The scene in which the navies arrive is also great. When was the last time we saw Horde (well, former Horde at this point) and Alliance forces so intermingled? I found the sails interesting. I see Horde sails, red with the black Horde symbol. The Forsaken are present with their purple sails. I assume both the blue and white sails belong to the Alliance, but I’m actually not positive. (Anyone who plays Alliance care to comment?) I wasn’t sure on black and red striped sails, but YouTube commenters pointed out that those ships belong to the Bloodsail Buccaneers. What are they doing attacking Orgrimmar too? Very interesting!
Blizzard does an amazing job with the story, and it’s in such an odd way as well. There’s really not that much story, and it’s usually not a huge deal in game. They’re excellent at creating background lore to hype people for playing. Escalation’s lore was also great in my opinion. There was a formal declaration of a Darkspear Rebellion led by my own racial leader – much deserved after Garrosh Hellscream declared martial law in the Echo Isles and rounded up the Darkspear in the Valley of Spirits. But in game, it just meant that I farmed Kor’kron in the Northern Barrens. That doesn’t change the fact that I was incredibly excited to be joining the Darkspear Rebellion just as I’m excited to come together with the other armies of Azeroth to bring judgement upon Hellscream.
I can’t wait for the Siege of Orgrimmar.
We did it! Two weeks after first having killed the Twin Consorts, we attempted Lei Shen for the first time. After seventeen wipes, we managed to kill him! I’m very excited and extremely relieved. I still want to repeat it for the people who weren’t there, get more gear, and maybe push some heroic bosses for gear, but this was the big moment. Especially considering that there’s no way we’re going to finish heroic mode by the next patch, this was the big “end game” goal for us for this tier.
It’s also special for me. I’ve been raiding this tier with the guild, Carpe Flux Capacitor, since the beginning, and now it’s completed. During tier 14, we finished Mogu’shan Vaults, but we didn’t complete the other two raids. In tier 13, we raided Dragon Soul, but we stopped raiding long before the end. I did manage to complete the raid before Mists of Pandaria was released, but it wasn’t with the guild.
I was taking a break from WoW for much of tier 12. In my first time in the Firelands, I joined a PUG at the request of a guildie. They needed a healer for Ragnaros. I pointed out that not only had I never killed him, I had never entered the raid. They discussed it and let me join. I pulled him by accident before we were all ready. They didn’t kick me. We killed him, and I won loot. The next week, we finished Firelands as a guild. At the time, the guild hadn’t yet killed Ragnaros. When we killed the previous boss, my achievement suddenly popped for finishing the raid. While I completed the raid, I didn’t work for it all tier.
In tier 11 I was with a different guild, Playground Brigade, made of friends I knew from out of WoW just for that tier. We fell apart in the middle of the tier. We were 5/6 Blackwing Descent, 2/4 Bastion of Twilight, and 1/2 Throne of the Four Winds.
Tier 10 was my first current-tier raid. I had just hit level 80 and joined Carpe Flux Capacitor. I was an alternate, and my first boss was Deathbringer Saurfang. Maybe I wasn’t there from the absolute very beginning, but we pushed the entire tier, and yes, we finished the raid (as well as Ruby Sanctum).
I mention all this because it means this is only the second raid tier for which I worked the entire tier with my guild and still completed. Carpe, thanks for being a great guild (and taking me back after my one-tier stint with another guild). Here’s hoping next tier goes smoothly well. Let’s take back Orgrimmar!
The State of Healing, Rohan, Blessing of Kings, 7/21/13.
Rohan considers healing in Mists of Pandaria.
Nice Guy Award: Player gives away two 50,000g mounts, Adam Holisky, WoW Insider, 7/11/13.
Sadly, they weren’t given to me.
Patch 5.4 PTR: New mounts from the Siege of Orgrimmar, Elizabeth Harper, WoW Insider, 7/24/13.
These look very cool.
What if: Rage of the Kaldorei, Matthew Rossi, WoW Insider, 7/19/13.
An examination of a hypothetical expansion involving a Night Elf internal conflict with Shandris Feathermoon as the antagonist.
What If: Purge of the Aspects, Anne Stickney, WoW Insider, 7/18/13.
What if Alexstrasza declared war on mortals?
What If: Velen the villain, Matthew Rossi, WoW Insider, 7/16/13.
Here’s another. What if Velen manipulates the Horde and Alliance, causing deaths on both sides, for what he considers the greater good?
Know Your Lore: A hostile universe, Matthew Rossi, WoW Insider, 7/16/13.
What else is in the universe?
With the presidential election behind us in the United States, I thought it’d be a good time to discuss the future of the Horde. We still don’t know have confirmation of what Garrosh does to make Horde and Alliance decide to unseat him, but we’ve been told that he “has become corrupted and has been doing some really nasty things beneath Orgrimmar.” I suspect this is sha corruption, and my guess is that he’s trying to control and use sha underneath Orgrimmar. At this point though, who knows? What I’m anxious to find out is who his successor will be.
Thrall
J. Allen Brack, lead producer, claimed that Thrall would be reinstated, although Blizzard later backpedaled. I really loved Thrall, but lately I’ve been disappointed in him. More and more I think that his legacy will be founding the Horde, but that he doesn’t really have the ability to lead. I don’t think Blizzard should go this route.
Baine
Baine has been thrust into a leadership position after his father fell in battle to Garrosh. It’d be fitting if Baine took Garrosh’s position after taking his own father’s as well. He’s strong and willing to fight, and he loves the Horde. He’s also willing to talk to the Alliance and very much wants peace. My character would love for him to become Warchief, but would the Horde be too friendly with the Alliance?
Vol’jin
Vol’jin promised Garrosh he’d be the one to kill him. I’m very confident that that will come true. I see Varian acting honorably and pulling back from landing the killing blow before Vol’jin shoots an arrow through Garrosh’s heart. Vol’jin is aggressive and has been more and more willing to get his hands dirty lately. He’s willing to work with the Alliance, which is great. While I could see Baine wanting to unite with the Alliance practically, I don’t see Vol’jin going that far. Vol’jin would make a good leader, but he’s also one people expect.
Sylvanas
Then there’s Sylvanas. If Blizzard wants to keep tensions high between the Horde and Alliance, Sylvanas should be the next Warchief. Garrosh is bad, and most people dislike him. Sylvanas is bad, and many people like her. She’s a much more interesting character in that she doesn’t have personality shifts (Garrosh demands people act honorably and then uses the mana bomb) and is simply who she is. You may not agree with her actions, but you’re not surprised by them. This would also give the story an interesting twist. Imagine the Alliance’s response when they find that Varian led a fight to unseat Garrosh only to have Sylvanas fill that seat. If they did this, I’d suggest they make the Undercity the capital with portals to the new zones in the next expansion, but leave old portals set up the way they are. This would keep Orgrimmar an important hub for some content but spread most of the population into the Undercity. (However, this wouldn’t be mirrored to the Alliance unless a new reason is introduced to make Ironforge the primary city.) Is this likely? I don’t know. But it would be very interesting!
After the NDA on the Mists of Pandaria Press Event lifted, WoW Insider had a lot of new information about the expansion.
This was by far the most exciting news. In Mists’ final patch, we will lay siege to Orgrimmar to remove Garrosh Hellscream as Warchief. What an awesome move! I’m really curious to find out how he falls that far out of favor with the entire Horde. Some of this was planned for a while. Chris Metzen said “We always knew we would make him Warchief, but that would be a short reign. It’s not his Horde.” It would have been nice to see Hellscream hand over the leadership and take up a military position or something of that sort, but this solution works well too. The development of Varian also sounds fantastic. In the same interview, Metzen says that Varian will say something along the lines of “Protect the kids. We’re not here to conquer these people; we’re here to bring down a guy that needs bringin’ down.”
Two new battlegrounds – also great news! Temple of Power is set in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms. In it, the Horde and Alliance battle for a powerful artifact. The artifact sits in the middle of the battleground with the two factions’ graveyards on either end. When someone picks up the artifact, they start earning points for their team. However, holding the artifact also causes damage to the holder; the longer they hold it, the more damage they start taking. In addition, the farther from the center the holder runs, the less points they’ll earn for their team. This keeps them engaged. It sounds like a fun new battleground gets its inspiration from a FPS match type just like most of the other battlegrounds.
On a similar note, have you heard of payload maps in TF2? Well, tha’s what you’re getting in Silvershard Mine. The Silvershard Mine is an abandoned Venture Co. mine in Stranglethorn Vale, and the Horde and Alliance are fighting over it for resources. Standing near the mine cart moves it forward; get it to the end, and you win. In addition, enemies can flip switches to make it take a longer path. This also sounds like a lot of fun.
(Image from WoW Insider.)
The female Pandaren model was also revealed! Females can be black and white like their male counterparts or red pandas. The red pandas will have tails, too! They’re very cute!
This is particularly interesting I think. Instead of rolling against other players, you simply have a chance to win a random piece of loot usable by your spec. Quite the departure from normal loot mechanics, but a good one for the Raid Finder.
earthwormgem
Peter (Devee)
Kor'kron 501st 