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Enter at Your Own Rift: How to tell a great story in an MMO
My character still hasn't (ahem) ascended to Nightmare Tide levels yet, so today's RIFT story will instead be about Storm Legion. I had been working my way through the Eastern Holdings in Brevane when I encountered a quest chain that floored me with brilliant storytelling that showed exactly how MMOs can utilize this platform to tell tales in ways that other mediums cannot. It is audacious, bold, and incredibly dark, especially for RIFT. And I cannot praise it enough, especially in light of long-held claims that RIFT is often weak on story. I have two caveats before we go through what made this quest chain so great. First, I'm going to spoil it from start to finish, so if you haven't played it and want to remain innocent, just bookmark this column to read later on. Second, there are some truly edgy themes in this recap. Got it? Let's go!
The Daily Grind: Do you get emotionally involved in MMOs?
Massively reader sty0pa offered up today's Daily Grind question to us, and it was too good to pass up: "In which MMO quest or event have you been the most emotionally involved? I was just reading You Awaken in Razor Hill and thinking that World of Warcraft was pretty good at poignant quest lines, and it made me wonder what people had found in other games." I agree that for a game lately panned for its pandas, WoW has some great storylines. The coin in the image above still gives me goosebumps of sadness when I read Jaina's hopeless wish. But then again, I've never stayed up until 4 in the morning because of a game's plot; it takes a player-driven roleplaying plot to really get me that emotionally invested to the point that I have real tears in my eyes for characters that are entirely fictional. What about you? Do you get emotionally involved in MMO stories or lore or quest lines? If so, which one stands out the most for you? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
WoW Moviewatch: Questline
This is a trailer for a new project by Bloodvein and Propostris. The video does a pretty good job of summing up what's going on, so take the time to check it out. The trailer itself is smooth and entertaining; we can hope that the Questline project will be just as good. I don't why I'm excited by the idea that Bloodvein and Propostris are both playing Dwarves. I'm a fan of the stout characters myself. (Do you see what I did there?) Dwarves don't get nearly enough play in the community, so that's another reason to hope the new series takes off. First, Bloodvein and Propostris get some play, and Dwarves get another marketing vehicle. Now, if they could just get Magni to return. 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.
The ups and downs of the Battered Hilt
Yesterday, Bornakk said clearly that the Battered Hilt drop that starts the Quel'delar questline was dropping at the right rate, which is much less than when the patch first hit. And then of course, in last night's fixes, they went ahead and increased the drop rate anyway. He also claimed there were no plans to make it BoP, but who knows what'll happen in the future? For now, however, you can still buy and sell the quest item for quite a bit of gold. We'll have to see where the price eventually ends up -- on the staff here, we've seen anything from 8,000g to over 23,000g, and Twitter tells us that people are paying an average of around 12k or so, going up to as high as 30k (or even shady real money offers in online classified ads). Our own Matt Low has actually seen the drop three different times, and lost every roll. It drops off of any of the mobs in the Heroic versions of the Frozen Halls 5-mans, and as Bornakk says, any class can use it to come up with a pretty solid weapon, so the competition will probably keep the price high, depending on where the drop rate ends up. The silver lining, if you really want one, have terrible luck, and don't ever expect to have all that money, is that the price will probably go down eventually. Bornakk says that as people move up into Icecrown and start picking up weapons that are even better than the sister blade, demand is likely to drop off a bit. But he also says that Blizzard does want this to be a special and relatively rare item, so you'll still have to probably either be lucky or ready to grind it out. Good luck -- I'm out there searching for one with you.
Patch 3.3: Quel'delar caster mace hastened
Ah, Quel'delar -- the Patch 3.3 questline with rewards for everybody. Well, everybody except tanks. And elemental shamans. And shadow priests, and moonkin, and mutilate rogues, and you get the idea. While the caster sword is itemized very well for DPS casters -- and can be used by two of them -- the mace version is loaded with MP5, which is patently useless for them. A lot of healers don't even really need it on their weapon. Well, Blizzard may not have caved to tanks or rogues, but they certainly caved to DPS casters, as Bornakk indicates that the MP5 on the Hammer of Purified Flame is being converted to haste to better match Quel'delar, Lens of the Mind. As an elemental shaman in dire need of replacing his Aesuga, I appreciate that! Then again, this makes it even more odd that sword-and-board tanks are still left out in the cold in this questline. I suppose there's still time before the patch for Blizzard to make the change, but it looks like they're not going that route. Oh well, tanks. There's always dual-spec. Patch 3.3 is the last major patch of Wrath of the Lich King. With the new Icecrown Citadel 5-man dungeons and 10/25-man raid arriving soon, patch 3.3 will deal the final blow to Arthas. WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.3 will keep you updated with all the latest patch news.
Patch 3.3 PTR: Quel'delar weapons revealed [Updated]
We've been waiting to see the end rewards for Patch 3.3's Quel'delar questline, purported to be capable weapons, and it looks like this latest build revealed the stats for all of the weapon's incarnations. Swords: Quel'Delar, Ferocity of the Scorned Quel'Delar, Cunning of the Shadows Quel'Delar, Lens of the Mind Quel'Delar, Might of the Faithful And if you can't use swords, you can turn Quel'delar in for: Maces: Cudgel of Furious Justice Hammer of Purified Flame Lightborn Spire The stats are pretty good, actually! Not a bad reward at all. No tanking sword, though. Weird! Patch 3.3 is the last major patch of Wrath of the Lich King. With the new Icecrown Citadel 5-man dungeons and 10/25-man raid arriving soon, patch 3.3 will deal the final blow to Arthas. WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.3 will keep you updated with all the latest patch news.
Phat Loot Phriday: Helmets of Second Sight
Today's Phat Loot isn't just one helmet-- it's actually your choice of six available from a neat questline in Outlands. So stick with me here. Things may get a little complicated.Name: (Overlord's, Shamanistic, Druidic, Stealther's, Evoker's, Stalker's) Helmet of Second SightType: Rare (Cloth, Leather, Mail, Plate) HeadArmor: VariesAbilities: They all have different abilities, of course, according to their title. You can see a list of all the available helmets here (the Scintillating Headdress is not one of the quest rewards, actually). Altogether, if you run this quest, you'll get a pretty nice pre-Epic helmet out of it. Also: All the helmets "allow the bearer to see into the ghost world while in Shadowmoon Valley." It's a lore thing, stick with me. And if you haven't noticed yet, all the helmets are reskins of the Tier 2 helmets (and in some cases, Tier 1-- see Warrior Helm above) that originally dropped from Onyxia and Molten Core. So if you never got to get your Dragonstalker's Helm or your Helmet of Ten Storms, here's your chance to get a lookalike. With better stats, if you ask me. How to Get It: You've got to do the Teron Gorefiend quest chain in Shadowmoon Valley. It's quite fun, will net you a lot of XP (if you're not 70 yet), a little bit of gold, and your choice of these helmets.For Alliance, it starts with a quest called "Ghost in the Machine" from Zoram the Judicator (geez, what did his mom have against him?) at Wildhammer Stronghold. Horde go to Chief Apothecary Hildagard in Shadowmoon Village for a quest called "A Haunted History." That chain will take you through about seven quests, most of which are soloable (one of them asks for two players, and one of them requires a full 5man group to do). At the end of the quest chain, you'll meet up with the man himself (and make a "mistake" that really wasn't your problem in the first place.As for Gorefiend himself, I don't want to spoil anything, but you'll meet up with him later in the Black Temple (I'm not sure if you actually need the helmet to face him, as the questgiver hints, but you might want to keep it anyway). Meanwhile, you'll get a spiffy helmet that will get you ready to start up the level 70 instances at endgame. Grats!Getting Rid of It: They all sell for different values, from about 2g for the cloth helmet, up to 4g for the plate version. Disenchanting any of them will hook you up with a Large Prismatic Shard.
