Ghostlands
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WoW Rookie: Reading about Warcraft
New around here? WoW Rookie points WoW's newest players to the basics of a good start in the World of Warcraft. Send us a note to suggest a WoW Rookie topic, and be sure to visit the WoW.com WoW Rookie Guide for links to all our tips, tricks and how-to's. Even if you're not a roleplayer, it's almost impossible not to find yourself swept up by some aspect of the hundreds of compelling stories tucked into the World of Warcraft. The question is, how can you dig deeper? Where do you find more? The answer: Books ... Manga ... Comics ... RPGs .... Page after page after page of glorious lore. Blizzard approves the storylines and lore included in the Warcraft and World of Warcraft line of novels, although you won't find a straight and clear progression across the whole line. Not every story and character crosses over from books to game (and vice versa). Besides the Warcraft novels, WoW-starved readers can chew through enough manga, roleplaying game books and gaming guides to sate any lore feeding frenzy. The best part? You enjoy +Lore bonuses to your online play experience. Even the RPG books add color to the overall picture. Follow us beyond the break for a basic reading outline to escort you down Warcraft's path of lore.
The Queue: Deconstructed
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.For a brief moment, I considered embedding 10 Minutes of In The Mountains in place of the XT-002 remix, but come on. That joke is already dying a slow death, and I don't want to be the guy that puts the last nail in Thorim's coffin. I'll leave that to the guy that made the video. No, today is an XT-002 day. It helps that the Deconstructor remix is actually good.eevul asked..."Do you think the faction transfer will allow us to carry over heirloom items in order to help level our Worgen/Goblins?"
Retaliation battlegroup down again
For the second Tuesday in a row around the same time (9:00-9:30 pm EST-ish), the US Retaliation battlegroup has crashed. Blizzard has confirmed that it's performing urgent maintenance on the hardware of the affected realms, and they'll provide an update at 11:00 PM EST/8:00 PM PST. Hmmm. Makes you wonder if whatever caused last week's crash was accidentally rolled back during server maintenance earlier today.The following are the affected realms: Area 52, Auchindoun, Azuremyst, Blade's Edge, Blood Furnace, Coilfang, Dawnbringer, Exodar, Fizzcrank, Galakrond, Ghostlands, Grizzly Hills, Shattered Halls, Terokkar, The Scryers, The Underbog, Velen, and Zangarmarsh. My guild's on Retaliation and has consequently found itself without something to raid for the second Tuesday running. Last week their solution was to take off to Mug'thol and do a level 1 Hogger raid, complete with designated tanks and healers, damage meters, and -- to top things off -- a bonafide ninja looter of the Malachite drop. Our server might be down, but our hallowed traditions remain.
Breakfast Topic: Those little annoyances
So like Alex, I figure I probably have a few more alts than your average player. I have 3 level 70s, 3 more characters above level 60, and a few more at various levels of play. I even started a new shaman just this past week, just because I decided I had a really cool character concept for a female Orc shaman. Anyhow, I've been playing the shaman quite a bit, and I've actually not been twinking her at all, enjoying the challenge of starting a character from scratch and making sure I still have my mojo despite getting all fat and sassy from all that easy daily money from Sunwell Isle. WoW's done a pretty decent job of keeping the lower level game easy enough for characters, but there's a couple things I've noticed while playing that still feel like they need some work. If I could highlight one, it would be the complete lack of Shaman trainers in Lordaeron.
WoW Lore: Zul'aman vs. Sunwell Plateau
So... how is Blizzard doing on Lore? Ever since the Burning Crusade came out, the battle cry of many a disgruntled fan has been "lollore," a cry which signifies a disgust with the direction the story has taken and a belief that many of the twists have betrayed the previous feel of the world or fallen short of some expected level of quality. Now honestly, There have been some lore twists I haven't really liked. Certainly, there were ways to give us the Draenei besides besides massively retconning the back story of the Burning Legion and making Sargeras corrupt them instead of the other way around. That said, I don't really mind that the Draenei came to us on a space ship. After all, the Orcs came to us through a Stargate! I also appreciate that Blizzard has, in the lore arena, learned where they tripped up and tried to correct it. This is very apparent to me in the differences between the Lore behind Zul'Aman and the Lore behind the Sunwell Plateau. Where Zul'Aman's lore felt lackluster and weak, the lore behind patch 2.4 keeps getting better and better.
Blizz opens up brand new realm, more transfer opportunities
Blizzard has launched the first new realm since the release of The Burning Crusade. It's a PvE realm called Ghostlands, and it's part of the latest batch of free realm transfers. You ready for the list of available transfers? Okay, here we go!If you're from the PvE realms Aerie Peak, Aggramar, Alexstrasza, Alleria, Argent Dawn, Blackhand, Cenarius, Doomhammer, Hellscream, or Whisperwind, you can move to Ghostlands.The rest are PvP servers. Arthas, Burning Blade, Illidan, Skullcrusher, and Warsong residents may all move to Balnazzar. Folks from Mal'Ganis, Mug'thol, Sargeras, Tichondrius, and Twisting Nether may move to Onyxia. Finally, if you've been playing on Gorefiend, Kel'Thuzad, Mannoroth, Shattered Hand, or Smolderthorn, you can jump on over to Malorne.Phew. So there it is. Anyway, it's exciting that a new realm is opening up. The community's been twiddling its thumbs for a while now.
Around Azeroth: Leveling up all over again
Reader Endreign writes saying he's recently re-rolled a Horde character and is enjoying the sights on the "other side" of the game. And with the changes to the leveling curve that arrived with patch 2.3, there's never been a better time to start working on that alt. Have you been adventuring in any new parts of the World of Warcraft? Send your stories and screenshots to aroundazeroth@wow.com -- your image may be featured in the next Around Azeroth! %Gallery-1816%
Everything you wanted to know about Zul'Aman
Patch 2.3 drops tomorrow, and with it, what will surely become the most popular instance in Azeroth. Blizzard has yelled from the rooftops about how much players are playing Karazhan, and Zul'Aman is a brand new 10-man for groups who conquered Karazhan to find their way through.In preparation, WoW Insider has compiled everything everyone knows about the new troll city. From history, to quests, to bosses, to loot, it's all here. We've gotten great information from MMO Champion, World of Raids, WoW Wiki, our own Zul'Aman playthroughs and research, and guides all over the internet. We're all going to be headed to Zul'Aman tomorrow, so here's your chance to know everything you need to know today. It all starts after the jump.%Gallery-5517%
Zul'Aman cleared on the PTRs
Warcry reports this morning that less than 24 hours after the launch of Zul'Aman on the test realms, that the Europeans have done it once again and the guilds Curse and Death Wish have cleared the instance all the way to Zul'Jin.The article notes that the loot quality appears to fall between Karazhan and SSC, around level 132. Each boss reportedly drops two Badges of Justice while Zul'Jin drops three.It certainly looks like there is "fresh meat" just around the corner for the raiding community. If you missed it, be sure to go back to check out the Zul'Aman preview so you can get ready for the latest ten-man instance when the next content patch goes live! With a high-level raid in such close proximity to (potentially) flagged lowbie blood elves, I can see Zul'Aman being a very popular Alliance destination!
Zul'Aman's location causes gripes
The next 10-man dungeon, Zul'Aman, is located in the Ghostlands. That makes it the first raid dungeon located in Horde/Alliance territory, which is raising some hackles on both sides on the WoW forums. Teallc wonders why there are so many instances in Horde territory already -- RFC, WC, SFK, RFK and RFD are all in Hordelands. The Alliance get Stockades, Gnomeregan and Deadmines. To get to Zul'Aman from, say, Shattrath City, the Alliance will have to port to Ironforge, take a lengthy gryphon ride to Lights Hope Chapel, and then run up into the Ghostlands -- leaving themselves vulnerable to attacks from Horde raid groups. Meanwhile, Horde just has to hop in the Silvermoon City portal and take a very short windrider trip to Tranquillien. But Ucantseeme suggests that the new dungeon might cause headaches for lowbie Horde. The guards at Tranquillien are very low-level, so it would be pretty simple for bored Alliance raid groups to wipe out the town and prevent blood elves from turning in their quests. I don't think this is really going to be that big of a deal. An instance entrance can't get any more horrible, PVP-wise, than Karazhan is, and I doubt that Alliance members are going to take time out to repeatedly camp questgivers. Plus, I wouldn't be surprised if they increased the level on the Ghostlands Guardians. As for Alliance having to fly a long way to get to the instance ... yeah, I have little sympathy there. After all the time I spent on zeppelins and windriders trying to get to Blackrock Mountain while you guys were just hopping over from your convenient capital cities, it'll be nice to see you desperately trying to make the raid line-up for once. What's your opinion on raid dungeons in non-contested areas?
Around Azeroth: Say hello to Knucklerot
Cynnamun of Shadow Council sends in this shot of the deceased Knucklerot, elite wanderer of the Blood Elf starting area Ghostlands. You may think he looks awfully creepy dead, but trust me, he's just as bad alive. As far as wandering elites go, he's not as bad as Stitches (which is to say players in the upper-end of the zone's range can kill him), but he's certainly capable of stomping you if you aren't paying attention.Do you have a unique shot of Azeroth or Outland that you'd like to show off to the rest of the world? Tell us about it by e-mailing aroundazeroth@gmail.com! Or perhaps you'd just like to see more of your pics from Around Azeroth. %Gallery-1816%
