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WoW Archivist: Tier 0.5 and the birth of modern dungeons
WoW Archivist explores the secrets of World of Warcraft's past. What did the game look like years ago? Who is etched into WoW's history? What secrets does the game still hold? For a long time in classic WoW, nonraiders felt neglected. Dungeons were the only endgame PvE option for nonraiders. Back then, dungeons didn't have a 5-player limit. They could be "raided," even though they weren't considered raids. Blizzard added new raiding content on a regular basis, but the developers didn't release new dungeons after adding Dire Maul in patch 1.3, four months after the game's release. Until the launch of The Burning Crusade in early 2007, nonraiders ran the same dungeons for almost two years. Amidst a storm of complaints, Blizzard said they wanted to offer additional content for nonraiders. In patch 1.10, Blizzard delivered a new endgame quest line using existing dungeons. Comprised of 29 steps in all, this was one of the game's most elaborate -- and most punishing -- quest lines ever. Blizzard called it the "high-level armor set" quest line. Players called it Tier 0.5. To create it, Blizzard had to reimagine what WoW's dungeons should be. This quest line was removed, like many others, when Deathwing brought the Cataclysm. Let's walk through what once was, and explore how it gave rise to the modern dungeons we tackle today.
Leveling a time capsule
I still remember the first day I played this game on live servers, even though it's been nearly nine years since I looked at the login screen and tried to muddle out what to pick. Friends of mine had already made an Alliance guild and encouraged me to join them. When I mentioned I wanted to play a rogue, I was told that they really needed healers, not rogues. However, my friend suggested I roll a druid, as they could not only heal, but they could turn into a cat and stealth around like a rogue does. That seemed suitable to me, so I rolled a night elf druid, logged in and began to play. Several months and sixty levels later, that experience remains full of fond memories of endless frustration with the class and how it played. It absolutely did not help that giant improvements for that class were rolled out in a patch shortly after I hit 60. I rolled Horde, and the rest is history ... or it was, anyway. The druid remained at level 60, years after I hit 70, 80, 85 and 90, frozen in a distinct period of time. Several months ago, while idly looking at the login screen and pondering what to play, I decided to actually level the druid and get it caught up. Furthermore, I decided to make the trip without heirloom gear -- after all, it didn't exist when I originally played the character. This is the story of a peculiar alt that used to be a main, and what happens when you crack open a time capsule from 2005.
World of Wardrobe: Plate tier look-alikes for death knights
Heading back to pick up some awesome armor sets from vanilla WoW or that dazzling weapon that'll have your enemies cowering in fear? Transmogrification makes it possible -- and World of Wardrobe shows you how. I feel kind of bad for the death knight class. While every other class in the game has had tier sets galore, death knights got a late start. So all those lovely tier sets from vanilla through The Burning Crusade are specifically for all the other classes, while death knights are left in the lurch with nothing to call their own. But that's not really the case, actually -- scattered throughout The Burning Crusade are recolored versions of most of the old sets. For death knights, these sets have to be plate, but other than that, they don't really have a requirement. Death knights can look like whichever class they prefer, paladin or warrior ... only dead. Since all prior World of Wardrobe columns have been focused on every other class, we're going to give the death knights out there a little love -- and a little advice on where to go if you want some cool old-school gear. Paladins and warriors, if you'd like a little plate variety, this one is for you, too!
WoW Archivist: Patch 1.10, Storms of Azeroth
The WoW Archivist explores the secrets of World of Warcraft's past. What did the game look like years ago? Who is etched into WoW's history? What secrets does the game still hold? Personally, I find patch 1.10 to be one of the most memorable patches of classic WoW. It was a patch dedicated almost exclusively to giving nonraiding players more content, access to better gear (without trivializing raids), and generally making the world a prettier place. Patch 1.10 was the patch that implemented weather, as its Storms of Azeroth title implies. More than that, patch 1.10 taught non-programmers everywhere how version numbering works. "Patch one-point-ten? You can't do that! Shouldn't it be patch 2.0 after 1.9? Isn't 1.10 the same as 1.1?" Nope, sorry! Version numbering doesn't work that way! These aren't decimals, folks. The .10 does not represent a fraction of a whole; it's part of a versioning scheme set up like so: expansion.major.minor.build Patch 1.10 indicates that this is the first retail software release and it is in its 10th major revision. While I'm writing this, World of Warcraft version 4.2.2.14534 is on the PTR. Build 14534 of the second minor revision of the second major revision of the fourth expansion/retail release. These aren't decimals, and this isn't math. Patch 1.10 is neither patch 1.1 nor patch 2.0. Got it? Good! Now on with the show.
Armor Set Collecting: Dungeon Set One
Set collecting is one of those things that you either love or hate -- either the thought of running around in old gear is curiously nostalgic, or you simply don't care to fill your bank with a lot of useless junk. With the introduction of Cataclysm, a lot of these old dungeon sets appear to be changing or disappearing entirely, making them a hot commodity for set collectors. Since a lot of players these days picked up the game in the BC or Wrath eras, not everyone knows where these pieces come from and how to get them. The first of these sets is the Dungeon Set One. Obtained through various level 60 instances, these blue armor sets were the top of the top before the days of Molten Core and purples everywhere. Originally, these sets had very boring graphics, until a patch was implemented in which all sets got a shiny new graphics update. In the early days of vanilla, these sets were pretty much all players needed to farm for, and the +8 to all resistances that served as a set bonus for each was handy in places like Molten Core, which was nothing but a fun fire factory in which you wanted to stack as much fire resistance as possible. There are nine sets to collect, and each set is class-specific. All set pieces can be found in Stratholme, Scholomance and Blackrock Spire (both lower and upper).
