frostfire-ridge
Latest
The Queue: Exploration, garrison resources, and more
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today. After the long drought, we now have a deluge of Warlords of Draenor questions. And I couldn't be happier. ArthurN asked: Is there supposed to be an easy way for Horde to get into Shadowmoon Valley? I had a Garrison quest to tame an animal in Shadowmoon Valley. I made it in, even picked up a flight path with the Shadowmoon Exiles (they were yellow to me instead of red like everyone else in the zone). But I had to run around the coastline a bit to find some passable beach. The only way in by land that I found was guarded by Alliance. Am I missing something? And is it similarly tricky for Alliance to get into Frostfire Ridge?
Warlords of Draenor previews Frostfire Ridge
As the closed beta for World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor rages on, Blizzard has a pair of previews up for one of the expansion's zones: Frostfire Ridge. Frostfire Ridge's biome features a fun combination of snow-covered wastes and towering volcanoes, so whether your tastes run hot or cold, this place will have you covered. The zone is what will eventually become the Blade's Edge Mountains in Burning Crusade's version of the zone, and here players will be helping Thrall's daddy survive among a closing net of enemies. Even among such hostile environs, players will find a fortress of solitude. The Horde garrison will be established in this zone, offering a base from which to build a sanctuary and an army.
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.
The Queue: Spikes
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today. We have a number of quickie questions today. Some longer ones, but a lot of quickies, too. BoltzmannHatchling asked: Talking about Gorgrond, where all the spikes in Blade's Edge Mountains? I thought it was a remarkable and unique orogeny of that place, but Draenor lacks the "spikes" and can't seem to pin point them on the alphabeta maps. But if they are gone like my pools and volcanoes of green lava, then I understand...
WoW Moviewatch: Pointless Top 10: Coolest Frostfire Ridge Mobs
Wowcrendor's Pointless Top 10 lists are usually really, really pointless... but since it's right there in the name, you know what you're getting into when you click. But that said, we always wind up laughing at even the most pointless of pointlessness, so we keep watching them. Today's Pointless Top 10 is actually less pointless than usual, since it takes you to the Warlords of Draenor alpha to find the coolest mobs on Frostfire Ridge. We hate to break it to you, Wowcrendor, but #10 is on fire and therefore it can hardly be considered cool... but other than that we take no objection to these coolness rankings. So why not take a tour of Frostfire's most interesting and/or pointless inhabitants? 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 moviewatch@wowinsider.com.
Livestreaming Warlords of Draenor tonight
Tonight at 8:00 p.m. EDT, we'll be livestreaming Warlords of Draenor. We'll be rolling whatever class you decide in the comments below and taking it through the opening portion of Frostfire Ridge. We'll also take a look at the opening garrison quests and hunt around for rare spawns. Additionally, we'll be taking your questions from the chat and trying to answer them. Update: The stream has ended! Thank you for watching!
Warlords of Draenor: New garrison screenshots from PAX East
Hunter site Eyes of the Beast attended PAX East this weekend, and uploaded some images from the press kit. Included in the screenshots are an impressive shot of what appears to be the Spires of Arak, a shot of Frostfire Ridge, another shot of the gorgeous scenery in Shadowmoon Valley, and of course, garrisons. The garrison screenshots in particular are interesting because it looks like this is a garrison at or very near completion -- giving a much clearer look at just what these things will look like when we get to set them up ourselves. Of course, the buildings displayed are all Alliance structures -- we haven't really seen any fully realized previews of Horde settlements just yet. The Alliance architecture seems to blend in with Draenor's lush landscape remarkably well. I'm hoping that the Horde buildings won't stick out like a sore thumb in comparison -- but we'll have to wait to see what the Horde structures look like, for now. Check out the full post on Eyes of the Beast for all the images.
