kisirani
Latest
Midsummer Fire Festival level guide
You don't have to be level 70 to get in on most of the fun for this year's Midsummer Fire Festival. Here is a guide to the minimum levels required (as stated by Kisirani) and recommended for each of the quests: Torch Tossing and Torch Catching have no minimum level requirement. Because you complete these quests in the safety of a capital city, any level is appropriate. Honoring the flames has no minimum level requirement. Unless you are 50+, however, the recommended level is the same as the level of the area you can comfortably hunt in. Desecrating flames also has no minimum level requirement, but considering it flags you for PvP even on a PvE server, do so at your own risk if you are low level. Incense for the Festival Scorchlings also has no minimum level and any level is recommended. Unusual Activitiy requires level 16, but I wouldn't recommend lower than 20 given that you have to fight level 20 and 21 cultists and the area is rotten with level 20 Naga. A Thief's Reward or stealing the flames in the other faction's capital cities required a minimum level of 50, but if the flame is at all defended, it's best to be level 70. Lord Ahune requires a minimum level of 65. Slave Pens is where he resides, so any level above the minimum that you feel comfortable in that instance is recommended. Edited to add: Upon further review, the recommended level to complete this quest is 70 and it is easier if the 70s in your group are well-geared. These quests give a lot of experience if you are below 70 and a lot of money if you aren't. Regardless of the rewards, however, these quests are a fresh infusion of fun during this period of pre-expansion blahs. So if you haven't tried them yet, what are you waiting for? The Midsummer Fire Festival is upon us! Check out WoW Insider's complete quest guide to collect those Burning Blossoms as well as our guide on how to spend them. Also, don't forget to eyeball our screenshot gallery of Midsummer events. Finally, find out how to kill Lord Ahune, and check out our break down of his loot table.
Rolling restarts at 5am PDT today
Just a heads up to all our American night owls and Oceanic players: There will be rolling restarts for all Realms starting at 5am PDT, about an hour and fifteen minutes from now. Each realm will be down for about 15 minutes, and the entire process will take about an hour. It's likely that this downtime is for working out a few kinks with the Midsummer Fire Festival. Kisirani confirmed earlier that there is a problem with the Striking Back quest for those under level 65, so it's likely that these rolling restarts will institute the hotfix to that problem. In addition, there's been some rumors that Lord Ahune's Normal and Heroic loot tables are not properly separated, so it's possible that this will fix those issues as well. Speaking of Ahune, be sure to keep your eyes glued to WoW Insider today. We're writing a complete loot guide and a strategy walkthrough for the new holiday boss as well speak. You can also check out the Midsummer quest walkthroughs we already have set up -- they're perfect reading material for the downtime. Happy reading, and we'll see you on the other side of the restarts.
The Brewfest Kodo and what it may mean for WotLK's release date
Tipster Graffias pointed out an exciting find in the latest leaked Alpha files for WoTLK: An Icon for a Brewfest Kodo. You may recall that last year's Brewfest included a Ram mount that was purchasable with tickets by both sides, allowing the Horde very easy access to an Alliance mount with a few days of grinding for Brewfest Prize Tickets. Many Alliance weren't happy with this, annoyed that the Horde got such easy access to an Alliance mount without having to kill Baron Rivendare or a Troll a couple hundred times. Bornakk decided that the best way to answer this criticism would be by promising the Alliance that the Horde would be getting access to yet another previously alliance-only mount skin in the Cenarion War Hippogryph. Of course, Kisirani, being as awesome as she is, later said that we should have patience and things would work out in the end. Listening to the words of the world designer seem to have paid off, as it looks like the Dwarves are going to turn the tables on the Goblins this year and steal some Kodos from them. I can finally fulfill my dream of owning my very own Kodo. My Night Elf Druid is from Kalimdor after all, and you would think there would be some Night Elves who decided to domesticate Kodos as beasts of burden too. But really, as much as I am looking forward to grabbing myself a Kodo (and seeing a tiny Gnome riding around on a huge beast of burden), what's really exciting is this thought: If the Brewfest is in late September to early October, does that mean Blizzard is planning to give us WoTLK by September, Brewfest Kodo and all?
Blizzard developers are out there
An interesting discussion went on in the Community Service forums yesterday concerning the role Blizzard developers play in those very forums. A poster was obviously attempting to troll and start some argument, asking if the Blizzard devs actually do read what people write or pay attention to the community at large. Kisirani, a Blizzard developer, responded that indeed they do.A few interesting things came from subsequent blue posts that help outline the roles of the developers and community managers. First, it is the job of the community managers (CMs as we call them) to do just what their title says: manage the community. This includes the forums and everything that goes on in there. Kisirani tells us that they regularly collect feedback and suggestions and pass them along to the developers. Kisirani makes it a point to say that they don't have enough time to read everything themselves, and if they were to read everything the game itself would not be developed – and again, this is where the community managers come into play.
Darkmoon Faire calendar error [Updated]
Many of those who were waiting to turn in their decks at the Darkmoon Faire may have to wait another month. It's been changed now, but the official events calendar for the faire showed it as coming from March 10th-16th this month, when it actually showed up in game from March 3rd-9th. When one of the people who was counting on that March 10th date posted a thread wondering what had happened, world events designer Kisirani posted. She admitted that, yes, the calendar was in error, and the faire has come and gone for the month. Unfortunately, she also went on to say that there's not really a way to get people their decks, and it's looking likely that they'll have to wait for April. She's gone over future dates to make sure they're correct, but spawning a turn-in NPC or allowing people to petition a GM for a deck turn in would be, she says, a logistical nightmare. It looks like the only option Kisirani and her team are willing to consider is respawning the faire for the week, but even that is still up in the air. Hopefully, if you had a deck waiting to turn in, or just wanted to stock up on Spiced Beef Jerky, you thought to check last week. If not, we'll have to see if the dev team decides that the calendar error deserves allowing everyone a second chance to experience the faire this month. UPDATE: It looks like Kisirani came through for us. The Darkmoon Faire will be up after tomorrow's maintenance!
Is the saga of Griftah over?
While there's definitely been quite a few changes around Shattrath in 2.4, one thing that stayed the same was good old Griftah. It looked like he might be back to stay, the saga of his betrayal and exile over with his triumphant return to Shattrath, complete with a legitimate piece of merchandise to sell. Which was, in a way, a bit disappointing. After so many patches, seeing what Griftah got up to next was almost a tradition. Luckily, it looks like we may not quite be done yet. Peacekeeper Jadaar has been standing in the World's End Tavern arguing with Investigator Asric for quite some time now, but if you talk to him, he still acts like he's standing outside Griftah's tent. World Event Designer Kisirani answered someone's question on this by saying it's been on her list and she's getting to it. Certainly, this could mean she just plans to update his speech to explain that the investigation failed and Griftah is back, but then again, it could mean we'll see more of this epic storyline. He may not have ended up being the real Zul'jin, but maybe he's still got a few more tricks up his sleeve. I'm thinking that at the least he'll start selling "genuine artifacts from the first Northrend expeditions" soon. Maybe "Defeat of Illidan Commemorative Coins." It's definitely a storyline I'd love to see evolve some more. Even if he's not exactly M'uru, Griftah's earned enough of a place in Warcraft lore that he can't just sit comfortably in Lower City pushing trinkets.
Breakfast Topic: What's your favorite WoW holiday?
Zom over on the forums asks: what's your favorite WoW holiday? And the response is extra special because it's by Kisirani, who, you may know, is actually Blizzard's World Event Designer-- him showing up in your thread about holidays is kind of like God showing up on a thread about your favorite mountain range.Kisirani asks specifically for constructive, reasoned posts, but c'mon, he's asking on the WoW forums. Fortunately, this site is not the WoW forums, and our comments are more than capable of giving constructive and reasoned.. well...I kid! Tell the guy what your favorite WoW holiday is, whether it be the free epics of Hallow's End or the ticket grinding of Brewfest, and maybe the upcoming updates to Nobelgarden (we hope) will incorporate some of your constructive and well-reasoned ideas!Thanks, Joshua!
Beefing up the holidays
Okinos does a little trolling on the forums about holidays supposedly being boring (when actually, with the exception of no new content for Winter's Veil, they have been anything but), but at least something good did come out of the thread: not only does Drysc lay down a huge burn, but we're rewarded with a visit from Kisirani, part of Blizzard's world events team.And she's got great news for those who love holidays-- all of the holiday events are scheduled to get a makeover, Hallow's End style. Darkmoon Faire is getting beefed up, as is "an older holiday" that is getting "a significant amount of punch" added to it. Chinese New Year, aka the Lunar Festival? Valentine's Day? Your guess is as good as ours.Blizzard's team has to take time off, too, so it's not too surprising that there wasn't too much new content to go through this year (although the Clockwork Bots definitely make up for it, if only they'd work right). But it's definitely awesome to hear that there's more in store for holiday events around the realms.
The real Griftah story
Griftah has now been exiled to the outskirts of Shattrath in Patch 2.2.Players complained loudly on the forums after realizing they paid over 30 gold for an amulet that allowed them to resurrect when they died and were not mollified when informed that they should have shown a bit more caution before buying items from a character named after another word for con artist. Everyone (including me) assumed that Griftah was being exiled from Shattrath because of these complaints.His creator, World Designer Kisirani, says otherwise. Though we don't know how the story is going to unfold, Kisirani says that Griftah is kind of a progressive content guinea pig. He explains:It's a shame you're unwilling to believe what is, in essence, the truth -- that Griftah has been a small foray in progressive content as we gauge certain things.
Immersion in the story is just icing on the cake
Chris Metzen and Alex Afrasiabi discussed with players at BlizzCon their desire for the World of Warcraft to be more immersive, for the characters to be more believable and relevant, and for the story to be more at the forefront, right alongside gameplay. So now a professional screenwriter named Cocles submitted a suggestion on the forums as to how that feeling could be created, by letting the world's characters react to you in a more believable way. Here's one of his examples:Think of how immersive it would be if you were to step into Outland and have Nazgrel look at you and say, "When I sent word to Orgrimmar that we needed more troops, I never dreamed they would send the slayer of C'thun himself to aid us. You will be a great asset to us Cocles, and I am glad to see you here!"Had I not killed C'thun, or done anything else of note, Nazgrel could instead look me up and down and say, "Well grunt, let's see what you're made of." Check out Blizzard's response beyond the jump...
