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Know Your Lore: The history and origins of the mogu
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. Of all the creatures in Pandaria, none have been quite so mysterious as the mogu. From day one they were presented as one of the villains in the saga of Pandarian history -- and although the days of the mogu empires were long over, their legacy lived on. Mogu architecture, mogu statues, mogu ruins, they all littered the landscapes of where we leveled. To the pandaren, the mogu were a threat, but one that had long since died out, leaving the race as little more than scary tales to tell the children at night. Until Mists of Pandaria, and the arrival of the Alliance and Horde. With the sudden uprising of the mantid, the release of the sha, and the frightened movement of the yaungol, the pandaren had more than enough to contend with. The sudden explosion of mogu activity was just another addition to the pile -- and the appearance of the Zandalari as allies made the reappearance of this ancient threat even more dire. But who are the mogu? Until patch 5.2, that mystery hadn't been fully defined. And it still may not be fully defined, but at least we have a slightly clearer picture. Please note that today's Know Your Lore contains some spoilers for patch 5.2 Lorewalkers content.
Cataclysm Post-Mortem: Uldum
Alex Ziebart and Mathew McCurley (that's me) decided to give each Cataclysm zone the once-over now that we're many months out from the release of the expansion. In this post-mortem series, we'll examine what worked and what didn't work in terms of story, quests, and overall feel for the zones and the cool moments that dotted the landscape. On the southern end of Kalimdor, a forgotten civilization hides behind otherworldly technology, forged by the Titans to protect the great machinery of Reorigination. The tol'vir, great protectors of the ancient machinery, stand stalwart against the corruption and fighting. Some tol'vir have succumbed to the aqir long ago, but the civilization remained unknown to the whole of Azeroth. After Deathwing's violent breach from the Maelstrom changed the world forever, the resulting chaos broke the shield that hid Uldum and revealed its sands. Now, Deathwing and his allies fight to corrupt the tol'vir and bring chaos to Uldum and beyond. Uldum continued the Cataclysm zone progression by moving you from the rocky, subterranean world of Deepholm into an open-air desert, a welcome change for the claustrophobic adventurer. Giant pyramids, monumental statues, and an Egyptian motif made Uldum one of the most beautiful and well-realized zones in Cataclysm. As players embarked on two very distinct quest lines, the story of Uldum unfolded as the forces of the wind broke the Skywall through the desert sky and into Azeroth's realm. On the other side of the zone, players were sent on a sprawling adventure with fan favorite Harrison Jones on a bumbling expedition to figure out the purpose of the Obelisks of Uldum and get into some wacky trouble. This is going to be the most controversial of the Cataclysm post-mortems. I can feel it. Uldum was a zone that people either loved or hated during the content push to 85. We are going to try to keep it civil.
Two Bosses Enter: Ammunae vs. Baron Ashbury
In Two Bosses Enter, WoW Insider's series of fantasy death matches, the bosses of World of Warcraft face off in the squared circle. Your vote determines who wins and claims the season title. This week on Two Bosses Enter, it's a battle between Ammunae, the Construct of Life, and Baron Ashbury, a scary dead guy. Oh, the anticipation! %Poll-63235% In last week's matchup, Augh and Lockmaw slammed face-first into the Scarlet Wall that is Renault Mograine and Sally Whitemane. The pygmy and his pet didn't stand a chance. %Gallery-119335% Follow along for the details of this week's matchup, as well as discussion on last week's match.
The OverAchiever: First look at Glory of the Cataclysm Hero
Every Thursday, The Overachiever shows you how to work toward those sweet achievement points. This week, we have to see a guy about a drake. As with its Wrath of the Lich King counterpart, the Glory of the Cataclysm Hero meta rewards a nifty drake and bragging rights for defeating the toughest 5-man content in the game. Roughly a month after Cataclysm went live, this is a pretty challenging meta to tackle, and I thought it might be nice to break the achievements down by which dungeons they're in and their general level of difficulty. More involved strategy'll have to wait for more specific articles, but if you're looking for a general sense of per-achievement difficulty and whether you can do them without depending on the oft-fickle gamesmanship of pugged groups, I hope this will help. I've organized the meta according to dungeon and boss for quick reference past the cut. This week, we'll tackle Blackrock Caverns through Halls of Origination.
Cataclysm Dungeon Guide: Halls of Origination
Halls of Origination, a 5-man instance located in Uldum, seems larger and scarier than it actually is. However, it's easy to get the hang of things, and you'll spent most of your dungeoneering time on boss encounters. Trash is pretty thin on the ground. Halls of Origination bosses drop ilevel 333 loot, which puts it around the pre-heroic blue level. You'll want a lot of this stuff before you start queuing for heroics. Halls of Origination is basically just seven boss encounters. The only advice I can give you is to kill the big guy in any given pull first, and don't be shy about crowd-controlling the others. Additionally, stay well behind the tank in the hallway before you go outside to Earthrager Ptah. The hall has a series of spawning mob packs (akin to the hallway after the second boss in Halls of Lightning) that will charge and stun the closest person. Ideally, you want this to be your tank. Just as ideally, you do not want to unleash hell on these mobs while your tank is sitting there stunned. But that probably won't happen. Do I sound bitter?
Totem Talk: Totems and heroics in Cataclysm
Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration will show you how, brought to you by Joe Perez, otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and host of the BDTU: Lore edition podcast. Last week, we talked about what to expect in the upcoming patch 4.0.1 and how healing felt in the new pre-Cataclysm patch. After that, we also got news of a very important update for us in the latest PTR build, patch 13033, with Mana Tide Totem's recent change to increase our spirit by 200 percent rather than just give a flat percentage of mana back when used. The cooldown of the ability was reduced to 3 minutes, down from 5 minutes. Last week, heroic dungeons were also made available in the Cataclysm beta for us to test out, including heroic Shadowfang Keep and heroic Deadmines. This week, I would like to talk a little bit more about the changes to Mana Tide Totem and what to expect using it in the next expansion. I would also like to share with you my experiences healing through the new heroic dungeons as a restoration shaman in a new set of blue ilvl 333 gear.
