[1.Local]: One sick puppy

The future of the Horde
Ready to dig in? You simply can't beat a post about lore for all-hands-on-deck comments.

Amaxe: Seems to me (and I'm only experiencing Horde-side through a level 80 I switched for an RP spying mission, so I may encounter more later which changes my mind) that Northrend forces have been following Garrosh and seem to be loyal to him personally, and loyal to "The Warchief" more as an abstract.

The quest where you administer a blood oath to the Taunka seemed almost sinister to me ... like they were exploiting them to swear blindly to obey the "Warchief" in whatever he commanded. It makes me think of the Japanese army in Manchuria before WWII, where commanders and officers there could enact their own decisions against the decrees of the government and not be rebuked for it. I don't know if Thrall condones what Garrosh does or if he is kept uninformed, but it is interesting to look at Alliance quests and Horde quests in light of the war.

As I see it, there are certain factions within the Horde (Forsaken, those who follow Garrosh) who were acting as warmongers long before Wrathgate and seem to be the cause of the war with the Alliance. The problem as I see it is: These groups have been committing acts of war against the Alliance, but if the Alliance goes to war with them, they have to go to war with the whole Horde unless Thrall repudiates them.

Ilnara: And I think this is why most Hordies are reluctant to simply follow Garrosh ... We've grown with Thrall, we've seen his plight, and it has softened many of our views on war and this conflict with the Alliance. We rather work an uneasy truce then remain at full war with the allies ... At least, this is how I feel. There are greater threats to the Horde and Alliance than our mutual hate of one another. So Garrosh represents a sort of de-evolution of the way we've come to think and feel about our faction and Thrall's leadership.

This reader knows how to keep things in check.

Callimaco: The change to Garrosh will not affect me at all. As a blood elf warlock, I run around assuming I run everything, anyway.

The story of vanilla WoW
Adam Holisky's reflections on the story of vanilla WoW raised the eyebrows of some, but most readers appreciated the connections and insights in this piece about the themes of original WoW.

Malkavos: This is Holisky in rare form. I really like the idea of the players (groups, guilds, raid groups, whatever) being the central heroes of the story. It's kind of a foreign concept to many of us raised on westerns, Kung Fu and Star Wars, where the hero is a loner or at least a single identifiable person surrounded by his entourage. Many RPGs fall into that same narrative rhythm, but WoW to me evokes the large-scale hero stories of ancient Chinese literature like Romance of the Three Kingdoms or Outlaws of the Marsh, in which the cast of heroic characters expands into the hundreds, each with his own back story and motivations.

Alanid: @Malkavos It's even more prevalent in Wrath. (In BC, the NPCs still considered you to be a newb for some reason.) A lot of quests in Wrath are like, "I never thought we'd get someone with your expertise!" "Who in the Alliance hasn't heard of !?", etc. And I loved it.

Patch 3.3 PTR: Gunship battle impressions
Matt Low's description of the 3.3 PTR gunship battle (spoilers ahead – fair warning!) were clear: "High Overlord Saurfang had approached us and began systematically dismantling all of us, one by one. The clothies had no chance. When he was on the tanks, the damaged appeared to be marginal. The tank I was with reported that Saurfang gained a stacking buff that would increase the amount of damage the orc would do. This led me to conclude that a tank would be needed specifically for Saurfang while the rest of the raid was working on the other NPCs on the ship. We would have a limited window of time before Saurfang tore us apart and it was best that he be held off to the side. ... You can't kill Saurfang. When he reaches a certain point, he just lays the smacksdown on the entire raid. We found that out the hard way by pouring massive DPS on him. Nope, didn't work."

Apparently, Chupathingy figured out the secret.

Chupathingy: When you were fighting Saurfang, that green bar isn't his health -- it's his patience with you. It would be wise to keep that from hitting zero.