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Know Your Lore: Breakers and Primals
The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft. What is Draenor, exactly? It's a world beset by war on many different levels -- there's the threat of the Iron Horde, of course, and battling clans among the orcs, fighting with the ogres, skirmishes between orc and draenei. But beyond that, there's another layer of conflict on the world, one that seems like a much larger struggle, one far more ancient and primal than anything the orcs, ogres, draenei, or even the arakkoa could conjure up. In the wilds of Gorgrond, a struggle is taking place that almost seems to serve as a backdrop to the main Iron Horde-centered story we're concerned with. While we struggle with the Iron Horde and their plans, massive creatures both plant and rock are embroiled in a constant battle with each other, either unaware of our presence, or so intent on their purpose that we are simply being ignored. Or, to turn that around, we are so insignificant in the face of this conflict that to these giants of the world, we don't even register as being anything of importance at all.
Pick up Peckers the Majestic for your garrison
Sure, collecting followers for your garrison is pretty fun -- after all, they head out on missions and can potentially bring you back all kinds of valuable rewards. But what about your garrison while everyone is away? Oddly enough, there are a few different potential garrison denizens that aren't followers. You'll never send them on a single mission. But they'll come hang out at your garrison anyway, if you go out of your way and rescue them from whatever unfortunate situation they've accidentally stumbled into. That's where Peckers the Majestic comes in. This fearsome looking raptor will gladly follow you back to your garrison if you take the time to help him out. Don't expect him to be too terribly friendly, though. While you can pet the raptor, he'll respond by promptly giving you a swift kick and running away. Apparently, he's been taking lessons from Ruthers the bad yak. Yet despite his temperamental disposition, he's a pretty cool addition to any garrison -- so how do you get this ornery raptor? You'll want to head to Gorgrond.
Warlords of Draenor: Highmaul Coliseum offers free-for-all PvP
Warlords of Draenor certainly seems to be mixing it up on the PvP front, offering a lot of new options for players that enjoy PvP. Oddly enough, one of the coolest opportunities for PvP I've seen so far comes not in a battleground or even on the fairly addictive isle of Ashran, but from your garrison. While leveling through Gorgrond, players can choose to make one of two outposts, that will unlock the plans for one of two medium buildings -- the Lumber Mill, or the Gladiator's Sanctum. If you choose the Gladiator's Sanctum, you get a few nice perks for Gorgrond -- and you also get to build the Sanctum itself. Level 3 of the Gladiator's Sanctum unlocks the Highmaul Coliseum, shown in the video above. A solo scenario, the Coliseum places you in a pit with other players. Once the event starts, it's a free-for-all brawl, and the last person standing wins the spoils. What kind of spoils? PvP gear, of course! To unlock the level 3 blueprint for the Gladiator's Sanctum, players must first complete The Bone Collector, an achievement that requires players to collect 4,000 Broken Bones from PvP combat in Draenor -- any kill that awards honor also awards 3-6 bones. Once you've built the level 3 Sanctum, you gain access to Highmaul Coliseum, as well as a buff that reduces all damage in outdoor Draenor zones by 50% if you fall below 35% health. Take a look at the video for more of the Coliseum in action -- I particularly like how dead players are teleported up into the stands to watch the rest of the brawl play out, spectator style.
Know Your Lore, Tinfoil Hat Edition: The terrifying, living world of Draenor
The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft. We don't really know much about Draenor. Certainly we know plenty about Outland, the shattered remains of a world once called Draenor, but that shattered world is a mere remnant of what Draenor actually was. In the Warcraft cosmos, the only planet we are incredibly familiar with is Azeroth -- and even then, Azeroth holds plenty of mysteries and riddles that have yet to be solved. But Draenor bears very little resemblance to Azeroth, touted instead as a savage land on which we'll have to fight to survive. That statement is far more literal than you'd think. And if you thought the Iron Horde was the biggest problem we were going to face on Draenor, you'd be very, very wrong. In a universe of benevolent Titans, bastions of order, what makes a planet fight not just with aggressive invading forces, but itself? Please note: The following Know Your Lore contains spoilers for Warlords of Draenor. Today's Know Your Lore is a Tinfoil Hat edition. The following contains speculation based on known material. These speculations are merely theories and shouldn't be taken as fact or official lore.
Warlords of Draenor encourages the return of free-form world PvP in Ashran
World of Warcraft players who pine for the "good old days" of open world PvP may get to sup from that cup again come Warlords of Draenor. The devs are whipping up a new island, Ashran, that pulls upon lessons from past PvP zone designs to create something that encourages as close to the real open world PvP experience as one can get (and still have it designed). Ashran is for level 100 players who want to pop in and engage in up to 100v100 battles. Unlike past PvP zones, players won't have to join a raid group to partake in the fun and can choose between world and objective-based PvP. "We want players to get caught up in the moment and become emotionally invested in the outcome of each new encounter, whether it's just getting the drop on a member of the opposite faction player or getting revenge for a stolen kill," Blizzard wrote. The team also previewed another one of Warlords of Draenor's zones with Gorgrond. Gorgrond is an area split between the themes of creation and destruction and the biomes of heavy flora and barren wasteland.
Warlords of Draenor: Gorgrond preview
Fresh on the heels of today's Talador preview, we get a look at Gorgrond, forbidding home of the Iron Horde's industrial machine. Gorgrond is the next step for fighting back Iron Horde aggression -- after you've fought them off in Shadowmoon Valley or Frostfire Ridge, it's time to take the battle to them, and Gorgrond is exactly where you're going to do just that. Smash them Iron Horde. Smash them good. But they won't just sit back and take it. In Gorgrond you'll come face to face with some of the most powerful and destructive weapons the savage world of Draenor had to challenge you with. After withstanding the Iron Horde's initial assault, you'll make your way into Gorgrond with a handful of allies to try to discover the Blackrock orcs' intentions and find a way to thwart any plans the Iron Horde may have. It's a perilous recon mission. Gorgrond is a land of giants embroiled in an epic struggle between creation and destruction. It's the kind of place you avoid unless you have a death wish. If there's one thing I know about players, it's that they can't resist going someplace conce they've been told not to go there. It's like candy to them. I expect we'll all flood to Gorgrond as soon as we possibly can. I for one welcome our new Iron Horde victims, and everything else in the zone that gets in the way, too.
Gorgrond and Talador coming soon to Warlords beta
World of Warcraft Creative Director Alex Afrasiabi confirmed today on Twitter that Gorgrond and Talador are "on deck" with the Spires of Arak and Nagrand close behind. Currently, only the Tanaan Jungle introductory sequence, Frostfire Ridge, and Shadowmoon Valley are available for testing. Whether or not "on deck" means in the next build, we aren't sure, but we do hope it will be soon. Gorgrond and Talador are on deck. Spires of Arak and Nagrand to follow closely thereafter. http://t.co/oOE7QJRCu5 when we have more info! - Alex Afrasiabi (@Abrosiabi) July 14, 2014 From what we know of these zones, the Blade's Edge Mountains of Outland were formed when Gorgrond and Frostfire Ridge collided in the shattering of Draenor. Early release screenshots, as seen above, also suggest that part of what became Outland's Zangarmarsh is on the outskirts of Gorgrond. Talador is a central zone in Draenor and is known to us as Outland's Terokkar Forest. Talador includes Shattrath and Auchindoun. We suspect we can expect a distinct orcish flavor in Gorgrond and Draenic in Talador.
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...
Warlords of Draenor: New Gorgrond screenshot
Hot on the heels of the Talador screenshot we got the other day, Creative Director Alex Afrasiabi has also tweeted the above picture of another Draenor zone: Gorgrond. Gorgrond is found in Draenor's north, a formerly lush oasis that has been reduced to Victorian levels of pollution (thanks Olivia!) by the Blackrock clan's industrial development. I'd say the picture, with an Iron Horde fortress looming ominously in the background, makes Gorgrond seem like a suitably hostile place. It's certainly far less inviting than Talador was. My poor druid is already feeling the distaste.
