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Know Your Lore: The origin of goblin and worgen death knights
The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft. Most of Cataclysm seems solid from a story standpoint, but a few plot holes continue to pop up here and there that cause people to wonder exactly how certain elements and creatures fit into lore. One question that seems to come up more often than anything else is the origin of goblin and worgen death knights. After all, these guys didn't even exist during Wrath of the Lich King -- the Greymane Wall isn't coming down until Cataclysm hits, and the Bilgewater Cartel goblins are still on Kezan, right? Well, not quite. In order to understand where these guys come from -- and they do fit in lore, Blizzard managed to integrate them quite nicely -- we have to take a look at one of the continual banes of my existence: timelines. The timeline for World of Warcraft was pretty straightforward during vanilla and The Burning Crusade. However, with the introduction of the death knight class in Wrath, players were introduced to a much heavier use of phased content, including a phased version of the death knight starting zone that introduced the reason why these servants of Arthas suddenly turned on him and formed their own independent alliances with either the Alliance or the Horde. WARNING: The following post contains spoilers for the upcoming Cataclysm expansion. If you wish to remain spoiler-free, do not continue.
WoW Moviewatch: Mafioso Swing
Mafioso Swing was the first place runner-up for the BlizzCon 2010 machinima contest. This video by Firebolt Productions is a musical introduction to the goblin race and the many entrepreneurial ways they'll be helping out the Horde. If I weren't already completely sold on how awesome goblins are going to be, this video would finish the job. Mafioso Swing is beautiful, well written and even better performed. This is one video that's going into my rotational deck to check out periodically because I just can't get over how much fun it is. FireboltPro has really stepped up the bar with this video and it's more than worth the time to check it out. Click here to check it out. Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an email at machinima@wow.com.
The OverAchiever: New feats of strength in Cataclysm
Every Thursday, The Overachiever shows you how to work toward those sweet achievement points. This week, we discuss the achievements most likely to drive you crazy in Cataclysm. "Wait a minute," you say, in your continuing quest to point out that I am one card shy of a flush. "We've already covered feats of strength." True. But we covered the ones that are becoming feats, most likely in patch 4.0.3. Are you still waiting for the Zulian Tiger to drop? Of course you are. I can't do anything to help you with that right now, so I figured I'd add to your misery by covering all the maddening stuff you'll find in the game later.
Vindictus open beta off to an early start
Looking to get a head start on some F2P dungeon-crawling, vampire staking, and goblin smashing? It's your lucky night, as Nexon America has let us know that the Vindictus open beta has left the terminal a bit ahead of schedule. The festivities include the game's newly accessible third episode, the aforementioned new mobs, and a new dungeon (Ainle), which you can enter from boat dock three. Inside, you'll encounter a town overrun with fireball-flinging undead and assorted underworld minions, many of which can be picked up and used as thrown weapons thanks to the game's Source Engine physics. In addition to the new content, early access beta players will be able to retain their characters, rank, and loot when Vindictus officially launches later this month. Check out more of our Vindictus coverage, including video of the game's grappling moves, or head over to the official web site for more info.
Vindictus is moving into (fully) open beta in North America
Are you part of the masses eager to get your hands on a Vindictus beta key? Well, we have good news for you! Nexon has let us know today that its highly anticipated free-to-play hack-and-slash action-adventure how-many-hyphens-can-we-get-in-a-sentence game, Vindictus, will be heading to a true open beta status in North America on October 13th. So, sure, you could continue spending time trying to track down a key, or you could simply relax and get ready for the doors to open on the game in a couple of weeks. As part of the opening, Nexon is going to be adding in the dungeon of Ainle, which will offer players new challenges in the form of fireball-throwing vampires and goblins intent on destruction. Nexon has also said that players will have to do everything they can to stop these new invaders, including "hurling the corpses of their defeated enemies at the attacking mobs." Also, players will have a chance to check out the fishing system as a way to enjoy some downtime and potentially land some nifty loot. You know, if you can pry yourself away from hacking everything to bits. If you aren't in the beta, we have a handful of new screenshots for your eyes below. %Gallery-97587%
Goblin cinematic: Escape from Kezan
Xfire user Zilas just uploaded what we believe to be the cinematic detailing the end of the goblin starting zone Kezan. Frankly, it's amazing. There are spoilers for the end of the first part of the goblin starting experience, so be warned. Blizzard has, once again, topped itself in terms of cinematic quality and expression outside of its general pre-rendered cinematics. Hopefully the worgen transformation movie is just as awesome.
The Queue: The cleavening
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column, in which the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today. Today's edition of the Queue inspired me to show off the video of Lord Darius Crowley cleaving his way through a massive pack of worgen again. Really, I don't think you ever need a reason to watch that. It's just awesome. richtoad asked: "Is archaeology still in for Cataclysm? Or has it been scrapped like Path of the Titans?"
Azshara: Changes and what will be missed
The Cataclysm beta is at times a little off putting. Flying over zones is an alien experience that is still somewhat strangely familiar. There aren't really words to describe the disconnect you feel -- it's got something to do with the newness of the old zones. Suddenly that place that had been a lake for the past five, six years is gone. Suddenly entire rock faces have vanished. And in the case of Azshara, suddenly large parts of the landscape have taken a dive into the ocean. For Alliance players, Azshara wasn't really much of a zone to begin with -- there are a few quests at Talrendis Point in Azshara, a few more neutral quests here and there, and of course the level 50 class quests and the quests for the Hydraxian Waterlords -- other than these however, Azshara was simply a mystery. At Talrendis Point both Alliance and Horde players can find an NPC named Loh'atu, a tauren who will give quests to either faction. He'll also tell you a little bit about the history of the area, but doesn't really go into great detail. And that's always been the major problem with Azshara -- there wasn't really anything of significance to be found there, generally speaking. Unlike Felwood, Feralas, Tanaris, Un'goro or any of the other Kalimdor zones in vanilla WoW, Azshara seemed to be a zone that consisted of large amounts of land that you had to run over and mobs you had to dodge to get to the one place that had the one item for the one quest you needed to complete. Everything else? It could be ignored. And so it was -- most players tended to skip the zone entirely after Burning Crusade's launch. There are, however, small bits and pieces of lore and quest lines that shouldn't be missed, quests that will be disappearing entirely when Cataclysm hits. Check out the gallery below for a look at Azshara as it stands today -- the list of quests, and the reasons why you should do these quests now, start after the break. %Gallery-97278%
Goblin up all the excitement
Sure, the worgen are badass and all that. When Cataclysm breaks, we'll probably see a wave of rerollers populate the Alliance with werewolves the way Burning Crusade glutted the Horde with pretty boys (and girls). The worgen have so much angst and goth sensibilities, and Gilneas evokes that whole aura of Victorian doom and gloom that the new race is guaranteed to attract a tidal wave of players to roll characters from scratch or, sometime in the future, pay for a race change. Heck, even I plan to roll a worgen and level it through the new starting zone. But what really excites me are the goblins. Sure, they're short, green, and by any measure pretty ugly, but man, they appear to be a total riot. We've never seen anything like this before. Personally, I think the whole deal with worgens is just too emo. But goblins? Insanity. Goblins are hedonistic, money-grubbing, self-destructive and completely, off-the-deep-end wacky. They have a pleasure palace in Azshara. A pleasure palace. With a swimming pool. If you thought starting areas on RP servers had some interesting RP going on, you might be shocked at the kind of RP that a freaking pleasure palace with a swimming pool invites. Goblins aren't nice guys. They're abrasive and offensive by design. I can't wait to play one.
Blizzard's creative development team answers tons of lore questions
Lore nerds, rejoice! Weeks back, Blizzard asked official forum-goers to submit questions for the CDev (Creative Development) team in this thread. Questions have been answered, and there is information-a-plenty. We learn about the ethereals' home planet, pieces of lore about the tol'vir and the oft-reviled Obsidian Destroyer unit from Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne and World of Warcraft, why goblin shaman exist, and the origins of Varok Saurfang, to name just a few awesome reveals. Here are some highlights: Quote: Q: What happened to Frostmourne after it was shattered? A: While this is a closely guarded secret, we'll trust you to be discreet: no one knows where the remnants of Frostmourne are now. source Quote: Q: The Blood Knights of Silvermoon lack direction. None of them were seen in Northrend, and it is very unclear whether the Order still exists, or if it's been disbanded. It's also very unclear where the Blood Knights obtain their power, now. It used to be the Naaru, but then... remnants of the naaru. Surely these remnants are all but tapped now. Do we obtain power from the Sunwell? A: As of the end of the Burning Crusade expansion, blood elves who wield the Light do so through the power of the renewed Sunwell. It is a harmonious relationship, no longer one of discord caused by the blood elves' attempts to bend the Light to their will, which will likely have a positive effect on blood elf society in the long run. Look forward to updates that reflect this change in the Silvermoon and Blood Knight quests. source Quote: Q: What role, if any, will Med'an play in Cataclysm? A: Med'an will not be visible in Cataclysm; something else is keeping him occupied. source For the full list of questions and answers, visit the World of Warcraft official forums thread here.
Know Your Lore TFH Edition: Cataclysm Horde politics
The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how, but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft. WARNING: The following post contains spoilers for World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. Players who wish to play the new expansion spoiler-free should veer away from this post. All right, we've seen over the past five weeks the current political activity in all of the Horde races; orcs, trolls, tauren, Forsaken and blood elves. Needless to say, there is a lot of conflict just beginning to rear its head -- not just from one race to the next, but internally within those races as well. What does all this mean in regards to the Horde, when Cataclysm comes into play? Today we'll be looking at what (given all the information we've been presented previously), if anything, will happen when Cataclysm finally launches and the world gets thrown into chaos. Please note I've put a spoiler warning on this post. This is because the following content, while mostly sheer speculation, may or may not end up being correct and will also directly address several rumors regarding Cataclysm that have not yet been confirmed. If you see a "TFH" demarcation on any future Know Your Lore posts, these are "Tin Foil Hat" predictions based on current lore and are in no way actually indicative of anything officially from Blizzard in regards to the game or where it's going to go. If anything presented here does end up being correct, these will actually become Cataclysm spoilers; if not, we've still had plenty of fun trying to predict how things are going to go down! Potential spoilers start immediately after the break.
Breakfast Topic: Preparing for the storm
This Breakfast Topic is brought to you by WoW.com's guest blogger program! Want to participate in a future call for guest posts? Read up on how to contribute, and keep an eye on the site for program announcements! When faced with warnings of imminent change, what do you do? Do you stockpile and organize, or do you let it just happen? Cataclysm is fast approaching and preparing for it in-game can be as much a part of the process as pre-ordering a copy of the game in real life. There's several new things coming in the expansion that certainly may go smoothly if you take the time to plan for it -- two new races (worgen and goblin), new level cap, and a lot more classes opening up for the existing races. In the past, people also stockpiled things like cloth for bandages or mats for new tradeskills that were being introduced. Some players have given up doing anything in general and stopped playing WoW until Cataclysm hits. I myself tend to be more of the planning type, especially now on the horizon of my third expansion -- I am stockpiling a lot of gold in the event of some ridiculous new transportation cost. I also recently completed Loremaster on my main character as many of my favorite quests or zones in the old world might be changed or gone entirely by the time the expansion rolls around. I also might sink a little bit of money into buying a Traveler's Tundra Mammoth. Having a portable repair-bot and vendor will ease the burdens of leveling considerably. Some new character names might have also been reserved on my server in preparation for a cute little gnome priest or worgen rogue in the future. So what have you been doing to brace yourself for another (possibly your first) expansion? Is it grinding out badges for BOA gear for a new toon? Perhaps you are sitting around Dalaran doing nothing!
Submarines coming in Cataclysm
While we didn't get the full fledged Maelstrom expansion that some people were predicting, Cataclysm still promises to have some water-related content, such as the Abyssal Maw, the elemental plane of water. And where there's water, you need a boat. The recent Twitter developer chat revealed that we will, in fact, be using new transports to get to certain places in Cataclysm, and that these transport would be submarines, built by the gnomes and goblins for their respective factions.
The Queue: Two bosses enter this one, too
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. It's happened again, ladies and gentlemen. I've run out of things to say in the intro portion here. That means it's time for another edition of, "write Alex's intro for him in the comments below along with your regularly scheduled questions for the next edition of The Queue." I should probably figure out a shorter name for that game. Brouck asked... "When Cataclysm hits what will happen to Neutral Goblin cities such as Booty Bay, will they become Horde controlled or remain neutral? Do you think another neutral faction will take over."
Is the Alliance aiming to retake lost lands in Cataclysm?
Derthelz on the official forums asked a good question -- why is the Alliance prepared to kill Arthas but not to try to retake their lost city of Lordaeron? After all, the upper half of the Eastern Kingdoms is almost completely lost to the Alliance, despite the area being the former home of some of Azeroth's most powerful nations. Why doesn't the Alliance try to take them back? Crygil says that, actually, they just might: "Who said that the Alliance wouldn't attempt to reclaim these lands? That is a very dangerous assumption to make, especially if you're of the forsaken persuasion. The Lich King is a threat to all the inhabitants of Azeroth and, as such, he needs to be put down before territorial disputes can be resolved. Leaving those claims for the future only makes sense; far easier to fight one war at a time. For now, it's better to focus on the task at hand."
The Queue: Puppies
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. Mike Sacco will be your host today. Puppies. Puppies. Aliceness asked ... "Where might Blizzard go in terms of (maybe) implementing a new class for the next expansion? What kind of class haven't we seen?"
WoW.com's top ten stories of 2009, part 2
In mid-August, Blizzard released patch 3.2.2, which re-introduced Onyxia, the game's first raid, as a special anniversary encounter. Blizzard told us all sorts of stories about how they did it, from the early trepidation (soothed by one of their bosses saying that they'd have "a million subscribers" someday), to the first launch night and the subsequent scrambling for more and more servers to keep players in the game.
The Queue: Isthmus-time is here
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. Michael Sacco will be your host today. It's officially Winter Veil, and you know what that means! Azerothians donning their yuletide apparel and decking the halls with the blood of their enemies. Is there anything more demoralizing than getting decapitated by someone dressed like a holiday centerfold? And just think, without achievements, this activity would be naught but a holiday novelty. Technology is a wondrous thing. Daniel asked... I have noticed that dark ranger hanging around in Dalaran, and decided to look them up, and noticed that they were neutral hero unit in Warcraft 3:The Frozen Throne. I was wondering, could, it be even remotely possible, that in the future we have that class introduced into the game that will be neutral? Extremely unlikely. There are also some dark rangers wandering around the Undercity post-3.3, and it appears that they're there as a buildup to playable forsaken hunters in Cataclysm. Sylvanas herself is classified as a dark ranger. We'll probably see quests just like the ones introducing night elf mages and tauren priests and paladins for these NPCs.
IgroMir 2009: Goblin gameplay footage
More Cataclysm footage is trickling onto the internet from IgroMir 2009, Russia's huge gaming convention, and there was a beautifully clear (well, compared to what we usually see) video of early Goblin gameplay that merited some attention here. I have to confess; I wasn't initially enthusiastic about Blizzard's choice for a new Horde race, even if Goblins do make sense from a lore perspective. But after trawling through so many videos of their early questing experience in the Lost Isles, I'm sold. Female Goblins still aren't playable yet, but their male counterparts have some awesome casting animations and an incredibly endearing sort of waddly run. They just look so interesting and dynamic doing anything that now I'm torn over which class to roll, although I can't really take their 2H special attack seriously, so it'll probably be a caster-class of some sort. I enjoyed Necrolord_Bob's answer to our poll on which Goblin class to roll: "Priest! Priest of the Holy Temple of BOOM!" We didn't think that Blizzard would tolerate any Cataclysm footage floating around YouTube for long, but it looks like the earlier Worgen video we posted is still up. That said, don't bank on these (or the related videos) being around for long. World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will destroy Azeroth as we know it. Nothing will be the same. In WoW.com's Guide to Cataclysm you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion. From Goblins and Worgens to Mastery and Guild changes, it's all there for your cataclysmic enjoyment.
Breakfast Topic: A trip to the stylist, part one
Full disclosure here: The main thing that makes me want to play a particular race is their choice in hairstyles. Especially the females. Sometimes when I go to Stormwind and enter the barber shop I say, out loud, "All right, designers, let's send our models to the L'Oreal Paris hair salon! Make it work!" Okay, that last part isn't entirely accurate. Or is it? Anyway, yeah. Hairstyles are important to me, which is why I'm simultaneously happy and a bit miffed about the new styles in Wrath, a lot of which were just copy-paste jobs from other races. Night elf females still have a grand total of two good haircuts and human males can, joy of joys, be Goku now. So my question to you, dear readers, the first in a series, is this: What are your favorite and least favorite hairstyles in the game? When you see a human male with the Goku haircut or the foxtail, do you want to kill a man? For female troll players, you don't even need to answer. I mean, you have what, two hairstyles anyway? Neither of them any good? Maybe next expansion. Addendum: And just why do goblin females get all the good hipster haircuts, Blizzard? They can be Tegan or Sara. I can't even be the girl from La Roux.
