exodar
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Breakfast Topic: Major city vibes
This morning, Damian Olson writes in with a concern that not all of the major WoW cities are created equal. In fact, he goes as far as to suggest that perhaps the Horde "got the short end of the stick" in comparison to their Alliance counterparts. For example, he points out that Ironforge has an impressive entrance and heroic theme-music, while Undercity is a broken, sad place. What do you guys think? Does the lore behind each major city justify the design, or should some of the cities have been given a little more development love?Personally, Undercity is my favorite city in the entire game, and I find parts of the Alliance capitols to be a bit overly patriotic and proud. How do you feel about the major cities, and what would you change if you could? Where do you feel most at home, and why (the racial capitol of your main or first character, etc)?
Around Azeroth: Set sail
There was only one type of boat to be found in Azeroth -- the ships that traveled the seas, be it from Darnassus to Auberdine or Booty Bay to Ratchet, were all identical. At least until the release of The Burning Crusade, when the nautical technology of Azeroth jumped forward with a new ship design. In this shot, sent in by reader Dana, we see the results of this innovation at the end of the dock, just waiting to transport us to The Exodar.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 a copy to aroundazeroth@wow.com, with as much or as little detail as you'd like to share with the world! %Gallery-1816%
Mysterious Mysteries: the Exodar
While questing in Azeroth the other day, a guildy and I got into a discussion on The Exodar. He mentioned that it looked to him that it was a ship and that someone should be able to fly it. That led to my geeking out a bit over the lore, and explaining that it was indeed a ship, a nethership, and the fourth part of Tempest Keep. I've often speculated about this strange city. As I fly around Netherstorm, I try to imagine what it was like to have that last piece of the armada floating with the others, and where it might have been placed. But the true mystery is what might have been within the Exodar. We know it had a boss, but who was flying that great ship when the Draenei broke in? What exactly was it used for? I think of it in terms of the Caverns of Time. If we were able to step back to that moment when the ship was hijacked, what would we see? I bet the battle was immense. Okay, here's where I'd like to here from you. What do you think the Exodar originally was? Are there clues within the existing structure that can hint at it's original purpose? [image courtesy of WorldofWar.net]
WoW Moviewatch: Prophet Velen is defeated!
Once the members of my guild hit 70, we decided to stage a raid to liberate the captive Naaru, M'uru, who is being ripped of his powers by the blood elves to grant the abilities of the light to their blood knights. We thought this was a noble endeavor, but now it seems that there is some speculation regarding the true intentions of the Naaru. Regardless, the revenge of the Horde was just around the corner. The Broken, from the Stormrage realm, have posted their victory over the leader of the Exodar, Prophet Velen. What surprised me was the near complete lack of resistance from the Alliance. Ah well, we had a few quiet raids on Undercity, too, so I suppose it's bound to happen anywhere. Beware, Broken...the Alliance shall retaliate!
I have portals, I know things
The other day I was helping a guildie with their mage as they reached 20. Thus began the long journey to collect teleportation training from around Azeroth. Something he said along the way stuck with me though. He mentioned that he hardly sees people asking for portals to Darnassus now. I thought about it, and would have to agree. I seem to sell as many ports to Darnassus as I sell to the Exodar. The cities are so closely linked, it's fairly easy to hop on a boat and be anywhere on Kalimdor that you need to be. Why then the great level difference in the training? The portal to Darnassus still remains a spell you can train in at level 50, while the portal to the Exodar is a level 40 spell. This goes for the teleport spells as well, since the level for Darnassus is 30, while all the others are available at level 20. So in essence, all that bouncing around the continent starts ten levels sooner. I imagine that initially the portal to Darnassus was level 50 because it represents a greater magical achievement. You are now transporting a group across the ocean. Does the Exodar require less skill to use? You are still transporting people across the Great Sea. Wouldn't it in fact require more skill, seeing as how we have had a longer history with the Night Elves than we have with the Draenei? I am thinking that the developers might want to take a look at the level requirements for the portals. The initial level requirements seemed to support the lore. The training, as it stands currently, does not. A possible explanation is that Night Elves shun arcane magic. However, they do accept the portal trainer within their city, so this argument doesn't seem to work for me. If they let that first mage in there to create the portals in the first place, why would it be more difficult for other mages to do so? Is there some sort of other explanation that I'm missing as to why there is such a level discrepancy with both the teleport and the portal spells to Darnassus?
Around Azeroth: Flying draenei!
Draenei don't naturally fly, as best I can tell. They don't, after all, have wings or any other obvious mechanisms of flight. However, reader Genso of Hyjal sends in this shot of what can only be described as a flying draenei. He claims it's some sort of quest, but I'm not so sure -- who knows what kind of technology those crafty draenei brought with them to Azeroth... Watch out, draenei, I'm on to your secrets!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%
Six North American realms to open for BC
Blizzard has been telling us for a while that they will be launching new realms when the Burning Crusade hits (they'd be crazy not to). But what they haven't told us was how many, which kind, and most importantly, what their names will be. Haven't told us until now, that is. I present to you the following post from Drysc: We'll be launching the following six realms with the release of The Burning Crusade expansion on January 16, at 12:01 AM EST. Nagrand - PvE, Oceanic - Bloodlust battlegroup Velen - PvE, Pacific Coilfang - PvP, Pacific Terokkar - PvE, Central Exodar - PvE, Eastern Auchindoun - PvP, Eastern The majority of these realms will be placed in a new battlegroup, the name of which has yet to be announced. These are new non-transfer realms and as such the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj will be closed and they will not be open to character transfers for six months. Six realms seems a little skimpy to me; I think it's a safe bet that they'll be opening more either with the BC launch or shortly afterwards. The names follow the trend of BC-themed names that we saw with the European servers, which is cool. I like the new flavor they bring to my realm list. Speaking of the names, Drysc tells us that Auchindoun is pronounced "Aw-kin-dune." Good to know.Will you be rolling on one of these new servers when you get the expansion, or staying with your old home? Me, I could never leave Shadow Council, but I'm sentimental like that.
Exalted with Exodar?
Everyone's trying to get a jump-start on preparing for the Burning Crusade, whether it's by getting new PVP gear, finding a leveling guild or gathering all your jewelcrafting mats. Some people take the phrase "getting a jump-start" a bit farther than others, though -- like the members of the Exalted with Exodar Club. Yes, these brave souls have gotten exalted with the Draenei faction so they can get the Draenei elekk mounts as soon as Burning Crusade hits. And since you can't get Exodar faction by doing runecloth turn-ins, they did it the hard way, by grinding turn-ins in AV that raised their rep with all Alliance cities. Warla, a warlock from the Dragonmaw server, got Exodar as her twentieth exalted faction. Holy magoley, Batman! I can't even imagine the /played it takes to get that. There are a couple Horde who have posted about being exalted with Silvermoon City, but not nearly as many as on Alliance. Maybe the Horde are all busy PVPing, or the hawkstriders are just uglier than the elekks, or (my theory) the Horde generally can't win at AV enough to do this. Whether you consider getting exalted with the new factions on live to be genius or crazy, you've got to admit it's an interesting way to pass the time until the expansion.
