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Warlords of Draenor: Frostfire Ridge preview
So far we've had official previews of Shadowmoon Valley and the Tanaan Jungle, and today Frostfire Ridge joins that cohort. Game Designer Ryan Shwayder and Associate Game Designer Zachariah Owens are the interviewees leading us through this glimpse of the zone and giving us an idea of what we can expect when we arrive there. If you had access to the Warlords alpha, you're likely already somewhat familiar with Frostfire Ridge--it's the Horde's starting zone, the zone where Horde players will build their garrisons, and was the first zone available for alpha testing. In Frostfire Ridge, the Frostwolf clan stages the defense of their ancestral homeland against the other orc clans who have thrown their lot in with the Iron Horde. The overarching story of the zone, as summarized by Zachariah Owens, is thus: survive. The choice to put pieces of zone music at the beginning of these previews is one of my favorite things about them, and Frostfire Ridge is no exception. The zone music, titled "Magnificent Desolation," is haunting and, well, magnificent. It really does capture the scale and harshness of the zone--cold, snowy mountain peaks, frozen lakes, and constant struggle. In Frostfire Ridge, players will find the Thunderlord clan, Iron Horde loyalists who seek to prove themselves by wiping the Frostwolf off the face of the planet. In addition, two groups of ogres: the Bloodmaul and the Bladespire, cling to the remnants of power that the ogres once possessed in Draenor by any means necessary. In the eastern part of the zone, the masters of the gronn, the magnaron, plot and scheme to their own ends. I didn't expect to be all that interested in Frostfire Ridge--I play Alliance-side, after all--but this preview, plus the music, kind of has me sold! Head on over to the official site to see what Zachariah Owens and Ryan Shwayder have to say about this hostile, fascinating zone.
Killing ogres and feeling like a jerk
I wrote about dropping Mining to take up Enchanting, and I'd like everyone to know it's going fine. I'm now at 357, being patient with the last few points to 360, opting to sell enchantments and save what little money I have after blowing quite a bit on all the materials up to 300+. Of course, now I feel somewhat compelled to acquire Enchanting formulas just so I have more options to use as I level up. The tips are a nice bonus.Anyway, one of the formulas I wanted to go after was the Formula: Enchant Bracer - Spellpower, which drop off the Bloodmaul Geomancers in Blade's Edge Mountains. So off I go to kill these ogres, I figure it'll take maybe an hour of so of farming. Easy, right? Well, what I didn't expect was that these ogres still paid fealty to me after I completed the chain of quests to unlock the quests in Ogri'la. I didn't make much of all the yelling those fatties did when they made me king, but since I didn't bother going around Blade's Edge much after that, I didn't notice that the Bloodmaul had turned yellow, or neutral, towards me. So it took me by surprise that upon killing these ogres, they say mortifying things like, "Me honored, King kill me," or "King <name>, me die now."Thanks a lot, Blizzard. Now I feel like a total jerk. These ogres consider me (and I'm sure millions of other players... but anyway...) their king and now I'm cutting them down like some maniacal despot. They also reference Ogri'la, which is kind of like paradise to them and a Blizzard reference to the Utopian haven of Shangri-La. It's heart-wrenching when they keel over saying, "King really think... there is... an Ogri'la?" or "Me go to... Ogri'la." It's like having some distant friend with Down Syndrome die in your arms with dreams of shiny, happy places. It's tragic. I know, it's a silly video game, and I'm not even on an RP server. But still, you have to wonder how you can keep killing those who consider you their king. After a while of killing and not getting the formula to drop, I called it a night and took a break. I probably shouldn't feel so bad. After all, if I'm truly their king, why don't they just hand over the stupid formula?
