borean-tundra
Latest
The top ten most desolate spots in WoW
A little while ago, we did a "Top ten most beautiful spots in WoW" post, and many commenters had an interesting request: a companion post of the ten most desolate places in WoW. We thought it was a great idea, so we're taking the suggestion to heart. This was an interesting topic to think about, because the desolate spots in WoW are the ones I tend to avoid. For the most part, I don't want to spend my fun WoW time in virtual wastelands! Then again, sometimes those deserted, eerie places have a haunting beauty all their own. Check out our list, and tell us your own favorite desolate places in World of Warcraft!
Breakfast Topic: Terrible things
Back-channel team discussion these past few days has been reminiscing about the Warcraft series' best bits of lore, and eventually discussion turned to the things that we wish Blizzard had revisited or expanded. Zul'jin came up, with people a bit uncomfortable that the great story promised by the Zul'Aman trailer didn't transition to the actual raid very well. "Both Horde and Alliance had perfectly good reasons to raid it," Rossi observed. "Instead, we go there because someone wants to plunder Amani riches." That made us think about all the stuff we do in-game that kind of makes us...well, bad guys, for lack of a better term, and we started wondering -- what's the worst thing that player characters have done (or been asked to do)? Setting Teron Gorefiend loose has to rank pretty high up there. Then there's that torture quest out in Borean Tundra, which squicks people to this day. While we're on the subject of Borean Tundra, nobody particularly liked thinking about a daily quest offered in Coldarra, or the ugly results of Horde questing in Howling Fjord. If you wanted to look at the whole "player evil" thing from a larger perspective, you can even make a case that player-generated PvP is, within the context of WoW's lore, one of the more significant contributions to faction antagonism and war. So what's the worst thing that your character has done -- or, failing that, the thing that you still feel the worst about? I've already got my pick.
Breakfast Topic: Where do you get your meat?
I'm still working on my Chef's Hat, and there was always one cooking daily which took more time than the others: Mustard Dogs. The wild mustard is easy enough to find in the grassy areas of Dalaran, but the Rhino Meat always used to give me fits. I would fly out to Sholazar Basin and kill rhinos until I was bored which was usually right at the 4 meat mark. After whining about it in Twitter one day, multiple people replied to me with their suggestions for rhino hunting grounds, with the consensus being Borean Tundra. The section of Borean Tundra in between Amber Ledge and Warsong Hold is home to roaming Rhino families. If you AoE just some of the members of a family, the rest of the family will aggro. So, if you are of sufficient level and have a good Area of Effect or cone attack, you can take down multiple families of rhinos in a very short time -- even if there is someone else there farming rhinos, too. The hard part then becomes making sure you've looted each corpse in a pile of enormous dead mammals. Now, if I'm out of Rhino Dogs, I just take a few minutes to go stock up and then take a dragon back to Dalaran, just because I can. Where do you get the meat you need to make the recipes you use regularly? Perhaps you know of where large families of Shoveltusks graze? Do you have any other tips for budding chefs looking to speed up their meat farming?
One year of Wrath
Rufus on Livejournal reminds us that one year ago as of November 13th, Wrath of the Lich King first came into our lives. That means it's been one full year since we had our launch events, since death knights first became free of the Lich King's control, and since we first stepped foot in Dalaran. It's the one year anniversary of our arrival at Borean Tundra and Howling Fjord, the addition of Inscription to the game, and the first fights in Strand of the Ancients and Wintergrasp. If you add in the pre-Wrath patch 3.0.2, you can add in achievements, barbershops, and a whole bunch of other changes. It's almost unbelievable how much has been added to the game in just the last year, though of course, considering that most of these things were actually announced way back at BlizzCon 2007, we've been living with them a little longer than that. And of course it's not over yet: we're currently standing on the doorstep of Icecrown Citadel, about to finish the fight over Arthas' soul that was started way back in Warcraft III, and there are rumblings under the earth of a whole new threat. Who knows what the World of Warcraft will look like a year from now?
The importance of the Wrathgate story in Icecrown Citadel
Zubon of Kill Ten Rats has been playing through Northrend lately, and it sounds like he's right around where my paladin is: working through the Wrathgate questline. The zombie invasion was the most important kickoff event for this expansion, but especially with what we've been seeing of Icecrown (spoilers there) lately, it looks like the events that went down at Angrathar might be the defining moments of Wrath of the Lich King. So much we're seeing in Icecrown and even beyond seems to be debris spinning off of the clash in that cinematic. Zubon has mostly high praise for the storyline -- I agree that Borean Tundra and the Howling Fjord are preludes to the real anti-Scourge action you find in the Wrathgate questline. But then he goes one step further, and says that the end just shows how old Blizzard's game really is. Even while such an epic story is unfurling, graphical glitches and the realities of Blizzard's game (one of the phases is essentially an ongoing fight in which you personally have no effect) bring the experience back down. Wrathgate is certainly an epic event, and every indication is that we're going to be feeling its repercussions a lot in the next dungeon. But five years after launch, it's also a sign that Blizzard is pushing this old game as hard as they can. Patch 3.3 is the last major patch of Wrath of the Lich King. With the new Icecrown Citadel 5-man dungeons and 10/25-man raid arriving soon, patch 3.3 will deal the final blow to the Arthas. WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.3 will keep you updated with all the latest patch news.
Lichborne: Death knight leveling 68-80
Welcome to Lichborne, WoW.com's column for all things deathly, knightly, and death knightly. So, death knight. You're through with Outland. You just dinged 68 in Nagrand and want to move on to whiter, snow covered pastures. Maybe those pastures are in Northrend. Maybe those pastures are in Alterac Valley. Either way, let's discuss getting through those final levels and pushing you through to the end game.
Phat Loot Phriday: Black Jelly
It's the third anniversary of Phat Loot Phriday and in celebration we bring you an item that we can all enjoy. So raise a pint and enjoy the feast before you!Name: Black Jelly (Wowhead, Thottbot, Real life)Type: Common FoodDamage/Speed: N/AAttributes: Why are we featuring a food on Phat Loot Phriday? Because it's only the best food in the game right now -- this baby restores 45,000 health and 38,400 mana in one sitting. For both of those, this is the biggest gain you can get. %Gallery-33600%
One Shots: Beauty in the Borean Tundra
While the Borean Tundra in World of Warcraft's Wrath of the Lich King expansion is generally a cold and unwelcoming place, there are occasional bastions of warmth and fellowship across the landscape. Today, we bring you one such Alliance town, situated on the coast, surrounded by steep cliffs and some fairly nasty monsters (despite the fact that they don't show up here). This image, sent in to us by Soulbreeze, Level 80 Human Rogue from the guild Crimson Alliance, shows off a land many of us who leveled through Northrend saw. He writes in: I've ran through this town a million times while leveling up my character, but it wasn't until I got a look at it from a nearby cliff that I truly appreciated all the work that went into it. Perspective is an amazing thing.Do you have screenshots from a bit of cliffwalking adventure? If so, you should send those in to us -- after all, vistas like this are better when you share the experience! Just pop them in an email to us at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name, the name of the game, and a brief description. %Gallery-9798%
Death Knight Manga to be released December 2009
Via Blizzplanet, we have news of yet another Warcraft graphic novel coming to us from Tokyopop in December 2009. This time, the story will focus on Thassarian, a Human Death Knight NPC in World of Warcraft. If you've played a Death Knight or an Alliance character in Northrend, chances are you know of Thassarian. He first shows up in game as a thrall of the Lich King, but even as he assists in the slaughter of the Scarlet Crusade, he shows a noble spirit that even the Lich King's control can't completely suppress.
Mysterious twink rends worlds [UPDATED]
Our inbox has been absolutely flooded with reports of this mysterious twink, Aigni of Ner'zhul, that appeared on the official forums in the last 24 hours. If you look closely at his Armory, you'll notice some pretty big oddities. For one, the character is wielding a weapon he really shouldn't be able to have. Two, the character has some other items equipped that are normally far out of the reach of a level 10, such as the Violet Badge. Three, he has the achievement for downing Gruul the Dragonslayer.A lot of people have called 'hax' on it, but how it went down was probably more innocent than that. Not completely, entirely innocent, but more innocent than hacking Blizzard's Gibson. Our first instinct when looking at the items is that he must have simply completed a few bugged quests that had no minimum level requirement. Looking at his achievements killed that theory pretty quickly, though. The sword he's wielding, the Combatant Greatsword, is from a quest in the Borean Tundra. According to his achievements, he's never been to the Borean Tundra.
An artistic look at the Alliance Northrend flight points
When Jackhammer of EU Frostwhisper first sent us this Alliance Northrend flight point gallery, I kind of shrugged it off. Flight points are the most traveled places in the game, by definition. Why would we be interested in something we see all the time. You take pictures on vacation, not at home. But after looking through it, I was struck by just how well-crafted these places are. From the Fizzcrank Airstrip to the heights of Icecrown, there's a lot of beauty to be found in these places as well, and not just on the back of a griffon.It's a nice gallery, and it gives you a nice hint of just how varied Northrend is -- there are fires burning and flightmasters giving rides all over the continent, and by browsing through the pictures, you get a good look at what kinds of crevices the Alliance have inserted themselves into in Northrend. And if nothing else, it's some nice art to look through on a Saturday afternoon.
Breakfast Topic: Is 68 too low for Northrend?
My Shaman and I have been becoming best friends lately. I've been doing about a level every other day with her, and as I said in the WRUP last Friday, my goal was to get her into Northrend to have some fun. To do that I needed to bring her to 68 and head over to my preferred starting zone, the Howling Fjord.But when I got there I was in for a bit of a shock.Everything wasn't dying as fast as it was in Outlands. At 67 my Shaman was plowing through mobs left and right, outfitted in mainly greens and a few quest reward blues. With Shamanistic Rage, and my two ghost wolves I could pop out at a regular interval, I had nearly no downtime.Enter Northrend, and enter the difference.
Ask a Lore Nerd: Hail to the king
Welcome to Ask a Lore Nerd, where each week blogger and columnist Alex Ziebart answers your questions about the lore and history of the World of Warcraft. Ask your questions in the comments section below, and we'll try to answer it in a future edition.Welcome back! This week we're mostly tilted toward Scourge questions, whereas just a few of weeks ago we were all dragons, all the time. Things just happen that way, I don't plan it! Really! Anyway, let's get this party started. Promethus asked... Does anyone actually know that Arthas merged with Ner'zhul? Any NPCs that is. Because there was no one besides those of the Legion like the Dreadlords and Kil'jadean who knew that the original Lich King was armor on a pedestal, everyone else like Thrall, Jaina, Rhonin, Bolvar, Wrynn, just know that Arthas was the one who marched to Icecrown and came back only to spread the plague and kill his father. No one but the player actually saw him walk up Icecrown Citadel and shatter Ner'zhul's prison.
New PvE realm open for character creation
On top of free transfers for both North American and European servers, a brand new realm has opened up for the US! The vital stats: Name: Borean Tundra Type: PvE Time Zone: Central Battlegroup: Emberstorm As a non-transfer realm, you can't transfer characters to it (duh) or create Death Knights on it (unless you have another level 55+ character on that realm) for the next 3 months. AQ gates are closed. Reroll locusts, get ready to swarm. When I was on a few hours ago, the highest level was 13 (a hunter); it seems like the realm opened around when Bornakk did his post (9:30 PST/12:30 EST). There is also, apparently, a new RP transfer realm planned to open at some point; we'll let you know as soon as we find out anything more. P.S. Hi to Justin, Nerdan, and Healinator.
The OverAchiever: Completing Nothing Boring about Borean
Every week The Overachiever gives advice, walkthroughs and guides on completing your latest Achievement obsession.Last week, I kicked off this new column covering the "I've Toured the Fjord" Quest Achievement for the Wrath starting zone Howling Fjord. Today, as promised, I'm going to cover the Quest Achievement for the other starting zone in Northrend, Borean Tundra with "Nothing Boring about Borean" (A/H)But first, I want to highlight some excellent resources brought to my attention in the comments of last week's column. I stated that there was no way to track which quests you have completed and which you haven't. Turns out you can with an AddOn called Everyquest. It can only track quests you've done after it's been installed, but you can manually mark off quests you've done previously. An alternative is QuestGuru.Another good tip is to turn on your low level quest tracker if you are going back to older zones to finish off quests. You'll find it by right-clicking on the magnifying glass icon on the edge of your mini-map.Now, on to the good stuff!
Winds of the North achievement getting fixed
When you log in the day after patch 3.0.8 goes live, odds are that if you've hit 80, you'll be picking up a relatively free achievement. Winds of the North is an achievement that's been more or less impossible to get since Wrath was released -- it requires you to get Exalted with all three of the "starter" reputations for your faction, depending on whether you're Horde or Alliance. But while it's relatively easy to get Exalted with the overall reputaiton for your faction (Horde Expedition or Alliance Vanguard), it's very tough to get Exalted with the reputations within that faction (Explorer's League, Valiance Expedition, Frostborn and the Silver Covenant for the Alliance, and Hand of Vengeance, Taunka, Warsong Offensive and the Sunreavers for the Horde -- whew). There are almost no daily quests for any of those factions, and even just doing all of the quests is designed to get you Exalted with the major faction, not the minor ones. Patch 3.0.8 will fix this, and only require you to get Exalted with the overall faction. Which you probably already are, since if you don't wear a Champion tabard during the endgame instances, you'll instead earn rep with the starter reputation for your faction. (Not to mention that even before you get there, the mini-factions all add up to the major faction, so if you get Revered with two of the mini-factions, you'll be Exalted with the overall faction.) Got all that? In short, Blizzard built an achievement into the game without realizing how hard it really was to get. And in the next patch, they're going to change it so that even if you haven't been paying attentention, you've probably already gotten it. So enjoy the free points.
Arcane Brilliance: Leveling your Mage, 70-80
Each week, Arcane Brilliance invites Mages everywhere over for brunch. We serve muffins, sweet rolls, croissants, and enough mountain spring water to wash it all down. Then, for dessert, Arcane Brilliance conjures strudel for everyone, because who doesn't like strudel? If you raised your hand, you, sir or madame, are a dirty, dirty liar. Everybody likes strudel.About a billion years ago, when Warlocks still ruled the world, back in those dark days before Arcane Barrage, spellpower, and elementalist specs--in that bygone era before Death Knights appeared in Azeroth, bringing with them their ridiculous magic resistances and eighty-seven different ways to silence or interrupt--Arcane Brilliance brought you a series of Mage leveling guides. In those days, we didn't have any of this crazy "rock music" you kids listen to now, and when we fought Illidan, we had to chain pot. We walked naked twelve miles to school through nineteen feet of snow while fending off wolves and dinosaurs with our bookbags, and we liked it. Things are different now. Nowadays, when you hit level 70, your experience bar doesn't vanish, never to return. We have ten new levels and an entire new continent to adventure our way through, new talent points to spend, new gear to pick up, and several fresh and exciting ways to barbecue zombies. It's an exciting time to be a Mage, and Arcane Brilliance is here to open a portal to level 80 for you.If your Mage is at some other point along the leveling continuum, you can find the previous leveling guides here, here, here, and here. You can find the new one by clicking the words "read more" directly following this period.
Going to Northrend for the holidays
It's the day after Christmas. A fair portion of our readership is only now getting Wrath of the Lich King installed on their computer, especially after the gift exchanges of the last few days. Over the weeks since Wrath's release, we've had quite a bit of content to ease you through your first steps into Northrend. With this latest wave of people hitting the frozen shores for the first time, it's a good opportunity to look back on a lot of that.
WoW Moviewatch: To Home for Christmas
Even Blood Elves want to come home for Christmas. For today's Movie Watch we present Baron Soosdon's depiction of a Paladin's epic journey through the Borean Tundra to be with his family. This video was created as the producer's entry to the WeGame Christmas machinima contest of 2008.As always, the images are crisp and visually stunning. Watching the video we get a nice tour of the Borean Tundra. There is very little action in this clip, more or less just one quick fighting scene during the opening credits. Aside from a couple of NPC interactions, the video is mostly a Paladin riding around. Emotes have a limited capacity to capture the true emotions of homecoming. I think Baron Soosdon did as good a job as he could, but I felt a little bit let down. The end should be heartwarming but it's just kind of there. If you're making your own epic journey this Christmas season, slow down and be safe. It's nasty out there.
The daily quests of the Kalu'ak
We've completed our first set of Wrath Dailies outlining ways to increase your reputation with the Kalu'ak faction. The three quests that you can do are all available to you when you hit Northrend, and are generally pretty easy to swing through if there's not a lot of other people around.The best way to complete them all is to begin at one of the starting zones and work your way across Northrend. I usually start off in the Howling Fjord with The Way to His Heart since that's the least heavily farmed, then go Dragonblight for Planning for the Future, and finally end up in the Borean Tundra doing Preparing for the Worst.The Way to His HeartIn this daily quest you have to mate two squishy sea lions. Have fun, and don't forget that soap you made earlier. And what gets two sea lions to mate better than some yummy gooey raw fish?
