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WoW Archivist: 10 years, 10 amazing moments
WoW Archivist explores the secrets of World of Warcraft's past. What did the game look like years ago? Who is etched into WoW's history? What secrets does the game still hold? In 2004, I bought a brown box with some discs inside it. On the cover was a close-up of a woman with crazy purple eyebrows and an angry bearded guy -- possibly Matt Rossi -- holding a gun. I didn't know anything about the Warcraft universe at the time. I'd watched someone play Warcraft III once (or was it II?). I remember chuckling at the peons' comments as they got to work. That was the extent of my experience. I'd been playing Final Fantasy XI and I loved the concept of an online world. I was hoping for a game that was more accessible than FFXI but with all the cool monsters, grouping, exploration, and loot. I never imagined the journey that I was about to take, the people I would meet, the opportunities that would become open to me as a result of that purchase. Many of us who played back then had no idea what was about to happen to the gaming world because of that brown box. With all the hoopla surrounding Warlords of Draenor, Archivist has been busy covering yesterday's precursors to current content, such as the zombie plague pre-expansion event, patch 3.0, and the original Upper Blackrock Spire. WoW's 10th anniversary events officially ended this week (after an unscheduled extension), and it is past time that I looked back on my own ten years in Azeroth. Here are ten of my favorite WoW moments, in order. 1. Showdown at Uldaman. One of my first PvP experiences in WoW was a complete accident. In late 2004, a friend and I were questing in the cave outside of Uldaman in the Badlands. We were in our mid to high 30s at the time on our first characters. One of the mushrooms we had to gather sat behind an Alliance NPC. I went to right-click to gather it but instead I clicked the NPC and started attacking him. We were flagged for PvP on a PvE realm. We knew it was now open season on us. And on Khadgar-US, Horde players were heavily outnumbered by the Alliance.
About the Bloggers: Scott Andrews
About the Bloggers introduces you to the people behind WoW Insider. You can find articles on more of our staffers in earlier About the Bloggers profiles. What do you do for WoW Insider? I contribute the WoW Archivist features and other articles. Recently I interviewed several Blizzard developers at PAX East 2014. For seven years, I also wrote Officers' Quarters, an advice column for officers and guild leaders. If you have an idea for an Archivist feature that you'd like to see, please let me know! Keep in mind that the topic has to be meaty enough for 2000 words. That's almost double the length of this post. How did you get started at WoW Insider? When WoW Insider put out a call for contributors in 2007, I pitched the Officers' Quarters column. Since almost no one was writing about guild leadership back then, the editors loved the idea. I'm sure the master's degree in writing didn't hurt, either.
More old World of Warcraft design notes
Creative Director Alex Afrasiabi loves to tweet out his old notes, and this morning has seen another two instalments from his journals of Warcraft past. This time, we saw Rhok'delar's design laid out in messy scrawls over two pages, personally the "turn in to third dude" made me chuckle. The interesting thing about those notes is how the design is created before any kind of story, and how the different stages panned out in concept. Next up, as an extra treat, Alex posted the to do list we see above, which you can view in all its glory on Twitter. He also issues a challenge, asking readers to spot what didn't make it to fruition. What can you see? I can certainly see a couple of lines that I can barely make out... Repeatable something something for Silithus? Hard to tell. And if you want to follow the Blizzard team on Twitter to see these for yourselves, WoW Insider posted a guide to Blizzard's Twitter accounts.
WoW Archivist: WoW's 20 greatest non-legendary weapons, part 2
WoW Archivist explores the secrets of World of Warcraft's past. What did the game look like years ago? Who is etched into WoW's history? What secrets does the game still hold? Based on your comments from part 1, I feel the need to explain my criteria so that people can debate these choices with the right frame of mind. This list isn't just for a weapon that had good stats, or a great model, or even one that is a big part of the lore. Those are all bonuses here, but they are just that -- bonuses. This list is about weapons that straight-up delighted us because they did something new or unique, because they were memorable in some grand way that other weapons haven't been. Gorehowl and Ashkandi, as beloved as they are, as gorgeously modeled as they are, just weren't interesting enough as items to make the list. They deserve honorable mentions, though. A lot of amazing weapons have been left out, including some of my personal favorites, but hey, WoW just has too much greatness for any mere top 20 list to contain. Let's proceed to the top 10!
Weapons of Lore: Rhok'delar, Longbow of the Ancient Keepers
For hunters in vanilla WoW, it was the pinnacle of weapons -- a bow with incredibly powerful stats. But Rhok'delar wasn't without its issues, mainly concerning the ability to change the bow into a staff but not being able to use both staff and bow at the same time. This was eventually changed so that hunters could have both Rhok'delar and its counterpart, Lok'delar, Stave of the Ancient Keepers, after completing the Rhok'delar quest chain. And if that weren't enough, hunters also could obtain the Ancient Sinew Wrapped Lamia, an at the time unheard of 24-slot bag perfect for carrying around all the ammo a hunter could ask for. Though all three of these items were only of epic quality, like Benediction, Rhok'delar represented a legendary test of skills for the player who tried to obtain it. Although Benediction only had one event for priests to frantically heal through, Rhok'delar contained four of these trials, all of which had to be completed without even a pet to assist. It was a brutal test of shooting, traps and hunter cunning, but those who completed the chain were richly rewarded. And it all began with one unassuming petrified leaf, found in the fiery depths of Molten Core.
Legendary Weapons: Story chains or class quests?
So last week, the first rogue in my guild got the Fangs of the Father set, and I started working on my set. Right now, I'm about a third of the way to stage two, and then I'll have stage three to contend with. Though there are fewer pieces to collect for the daggers, unlike the items for Dragonwrath, only one rogue can proceed on the chain at a time. That's OK with me -- I don't mind the wait, and I know I have fun stuff to look forward to in between stages. I wasn't expecting a cutscene after starting the chain, but I was absolutely delighted with the fact that I got a bit of story to play through instead of "You killed Illidan and you're very lucky -- have a Warglaive!" However, there was another, slightly more bothersome difference between Dragonwrath and the Fangs of the Father, one I'm not quite sure how I feel about. When our first raider got his Dragonwrath, everyone rushed to Orgrimmar and watched Kalecgos appear and deliver the staff in front of everyone that happened to be idling in town at the time. It was a moment of sheer excitement, joy, and fun, both for the player who got the staff and the guild who had helped him along the long road to getting it. We didn't get that with Fangs of the Father.
Cataclysm: Class-specific quests removed
Sit a spell, sonnies and lassies. In my day, we didn't have your fancy dungeon finders and PvP leveling. We had quests! And we did 'em. Class-specific ones. I had to run around Stranglethorn Vale collecting tusks from trolls! Both ways! You whippersnappers won't be able to do that in Cataclysm, no sir. Now that I've fulfilled my duties as Official Site Curmudgeon, as it were, we'll get down to brass tacks. Many class-specific quests are being changed or removed entirely. We'll let Nethaera fill you in on the details. Nethaera - Class Specific Quest Removal Azeroth is on the eve of a dramatic transformation, and as World of Warcraft changes, sometimes the old must go to make way for the new. Since the world elements that support them will be gone, many aging quests will exist only in the mists of the past. In particular, there's been some confusion regarding lower-level class specific quests that can no longer be completed. Never fear: class mounts and abilities remain available via class trainers, even though the quests associated with them are no longer available. Also, there are several low and mid-level weapons, trinkets and robes that were once awarded via class specific quests which are no longer available and their associated quests have been removed. We are looking forward to offering new quests, quest lines and rewards as players level through World of Warcraft: Cataclysm instead. For example, we plan a level 20 dungeon based quest which will offer weapon rewards appropriate to all classes. There will also be a similar level 50 dungeon quest which has a headpiece reward. source Alas, my worgen warrior won't be able to carry a Whirlwind Axe with pride. Blood elf paladins will still be able to get their tabards via a level 50 quest, and hunters working on Rhok'delar will be able to complete that quest at level 60 by running Blackwing Lair, as Nefarian will now drop the Mature Black Dragon Sinew. Otherwise, all the old class-specific quests are gone and new ones are coming in for levels 20 and 50. No word yet on if you can make an old-school Quel'Serrar in BWL as well, or if you still need to kill a level 80 Onyxia for a level 60 epic sword. World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will destroy Azeroth as we know it; nothing will be the same! In WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion (available Dec. 7, 2010), from brand new races to revamped quests and zones. Visit our Cataclysm news category for the most recent posts having to do with the Cataclysm expansion.
Scattered Shots: Rhok out with your Lok out
Welcome to Scattered Shots, written by Frostheim of Warcraft Hunters Union and the Hunting Party Podcast. Each week Frostheim uses logic and science mixed with a few mugs of Dwarven Stout to look deep into the Hunter class. Once upon a time, back before you could get showered in epics within a week of hitting the level cap, the most badass hunter weapon you could wield was Rhok'delar, Longbow of the Ancient Keepers. This amazingly impressive weapon did a whopping 44 DPS (later boosted to 53 DPS), making it clearly the best hunter weapon in the game. With the same quest you also get Lok'delar, Stave of the Ancient Hunters. Two epics in one! Acquiring the weapon required embarking on the most epic hunter quest the game has seen, even all these years later. When you saw a hunter with Rhok, you could be certain she knew her stuff. Yesterday Dawn talked about the priest quest to get Benediction (and poked me about Rhok'delar in the process). And she has a really good point -- who knows what will happen to Molten Core come Cataclysm? Hunters may not have the chance to do this quest much longer. Even though you can dwarf the DPS of Rhok'delar with a quick auction house purchase these days, I still think that going through the quest chain for Rhok'delar is well worth it for all hunters. So join me after the cut as we go back in time and walk through the quest chain, both how to do it now and some reminiscence on what it was like back in my day.
Whither Quel'Serrar?
I am hugely, massively, ridiculously excited about the new level 80 Onyxia raid. Completely, dementedly gleeful. But one small thing does nag at the back of my head: what happens to Quel'Serrar? Will Warriors and Paladins still be able to obtain it? And what about the Mature Black Dragon Sinew? Will Hunters be able to complete their Lok'delar and Rhok'delar? Or will these quests become relics, no longer able to be completed?On the one hand it would seem very odd to go through the rest of the quest chain for Quel, then take the Unfired Ancient Blade in to level 80 Onyxia to complete The Forging of Quel'Serrar in order to run back to Dire Maul and pick up a 20 level out of date tanking sword, no matter how cool it looks. But since the quest doesn't specify what level she is, it might be possible (It was possible to complete a Naxxramas quest from before TBC launched in the current 25 man Naxxramas). However, unless Ony will continue to drop the sinew, I can't see how folks could possibly complete the epic Hunter quest chain. Does that mean those quests will be gone from the game?Since I don't play a Hunter and I already have Quel'Serrar, this is all kind of academic to me. But I do wonder: my dearest hope is that they actually update the Quel quests (or make an entirely new one) which allows you to get an updated Quel'Serrar. Perhaps Quel'Zaram? I guess I might as well dream big while I'm at it. Bornakk's post certainly hints very strongly that there will be a successor to Quel dropped from Onyxia.
