shattrath-city
Latest
Know Your Lore: Khadgar, of the Sons of Lothar
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. He has successfully managed to close the Dark Portal three times now -- an astounding feat, no matter which way you look at it. As former apprentice to the Guardian of Tirisfal, Khadgar has had a long and storied life -- a life lived fast forward, that now seems to be traveling in reverse. If we've learned anything about Khadgar so far in Warlords of Draenor, it's that this mystery mage has far more up his sleeve than any of us would have guessed upon our first meeting with the mage in Shattrath City during Burning Crusade. He's lively. He's peppy. He's downright snarky at times, and full to the brim with witty banter and wittier planning. Khadgar is a man of many talents, the least of which involves the destruction of Dark Portals and the ushering of armies. And in between all these madcap adventures, one has to wonder if Khadgar ever imagined, at age seventeen, staring at the tower of Karazhan, just exactly what he would spend his life getting into and out of as gracefully as any dancer on Azeroth.
Know Your Lore: Shattrath City and the Lost
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. Standing in Outland as a sanctuary capital shared by both Alliance and Horde, Shattrath City isn't exactly much to look at. The city is divided into several different sections, housing a variety of occupants from draenei to arakkoa to everything in between -- refugees, for the most part. In Warlords of Draenor, we'll finally see Shattrath as it was in its glory days. A coastal city, a museum metropolis, described as an architectural marvel. Unfortunately, the city will also be occupied by the Iron Horde. The events that turned Shattrath from shining capital of the draenei to the ruins we're familiar with today are steeped in tragedy that still affects the draenei race to this day. Certainly there was sorrow to be found in the fall of the city -- but its fall, and the fall of the other draenei cities scattered around Draenor, were also directly responsible for the evolution of the draenei race as we know it.
Know Your Lore: The warlords 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. Originally, Draenor was a planet with a nigh-uneventful history until a series of progressively more incredible and unusual events, brought to the world from outside sources, plunged it into chaos. According to what we knew -- which was admittedly very little -- the orc clans of Draenor had no issues with the rest of the world, or with each other. There may have been the occasional squabbles between clans, but there was nothing remotely resembling full out war ... at least nothing that's been recorded in history as we know it. However, the announcement of Warlords of Draenor seems to indicate a big history lesson is on the way. Draenor's history, one distinct moment in time has been altered, creating a separate fork -- a bubble of time, if you will -- that has changed the fates of these old heroes. So who are the Warlords of Draenor? We have their names. What we don't have is the new history revealed in the expansion just yet. But even in the original timeline, these orc warlords each had different, unique histories that all tied in together, courtesy of the Burning Legion's meddling and influence.
Know Your Lore: The History 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. It may not be Azeroth, but it's got a history just as rich and just as convoluted. In the Warcraft universe, the planet Draenor plays a secondary role to Azeroth in terms of storyline -- consider it something like a sister planet, one whose history is irrevocably entwined with Azeroth's. Although these days Draenor exists as a mere shell of what it once was, Draenor, its inhabitants, and its fate are all one of the most significant pieces of Warcraft lore out there. After all, if there were no Draenor, there would be no First or Second wars. There would be no Horde. Why is this planet so important? It certainly didn't have very much to do with the original inhabitants. In fact, Draenor would have likely lived on in obscurity were it not for the strange, peaceful settlers from another world. Peaceful they may have been, but they had a history they could not escape -- a past that forever linked them with the Burning Legion ... and the Burning Legion knows little of forgiveness or mercy for those that incur its wrath.
Breakfast Topic: Are neutral cities better for server communities?
I ran into an old friend from the Burning Crusade days recently, and we found ourselves reminiscing about the things we missed from that expansion. While we both agreed that the quality of the play experience is way better these days, there was one thing that we both missed: Shattrath. As any BC-era player could tell you, Shattrath was a busy place, with players getting their tailoring and blacksmithing done in Lower City, loitering around the Scryer and Aldor bank ledges, playing chicken with the elevators, and riffing on Cro Threadstrong's threats to the nearby fruit vendor. Because the Alliance and Horde were both headquartered in the city and there were no faction restrictions on which of the two banks and inns you used, it was pretty common to encounter both friends and enemies as you went about your business (or, just as commonly, sat somewhere and gossiped in guild chat). While we were chatting about this, my friend said something that stuck with me: "It felt like you cared more about players from the opposite faction because you saw them all the time." The more I thought about it, the more I felt he was right. I knew if my counterparts in Alliance raiding guilds had upgraded their gear, /waved at them a lot, and /pointed and /cheered to the telltale flames in the central part of the city to congratulate them on their Kael kill. In Cataclysm, we find ourselves largely on opposite sides of the world and encounter each other but rarely outside of the entrances to raids or while farming in higher-level zones. Now obviously, there are technical issues with sticking players of both factions into the same city (Dalaran was famously laggy for most of Wrath of the Lich King), and given the Mists of Pandaria storyline, it doesn't make much sense to encourage interfaction closeness. But still I wonder, would the sense of server community (otherwise hurt by the success of the Dungeon Finder and Raid Finder) benefit from the reintroduction of a popular neutral city?
WoW Archivist: The Emerald Dream, Outland, and other Z-axis secrets
The 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? This week's edition of the Archivist will be a little different than what you may be used to seeing. Rather than exploring a specific event in World of Warcraft's history, we're going to look at a bit of antiquated game design. Specifically, we will be looking at one of Blizzard's old development practices: trying to hide content development in progress on live realms. Before I begin, I want to note that to my knowledge, none of the hidden locations outlined in this article are accessible anymore. If there are still ways of accessing them on live realms, I want to request that none of you discuss the methods of entering these places on our site. Blizzard hid these places for a reason, even if it didn't do it very well. Follow along for a look at the Emerald Dream, an early Outland testing ground, and other Z-axis shortcuts and secrets.
Breakfast Topic: Where will you ride out the Cataclysm?
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW.com. Soon, Deathwing the Destroyer will spring forth from his exile in Deepholm and wreak havoc upon Azeroth. The world (of Warcraft) as we know it will never be the same again. Some locations will be mostly unchanged, while others will be completely unrecognizable. One of the things I'm looking most forward to in Cataclysm is having my characters wake up in the newly changed world and experience that "Holy cow!" moment. When I get home from the midnight opening of my local game store and install the game, I want to log in at the most interesting and significant place I can. I plan on taking some time during that last night to move my characters to certain specific locales. There are many places to choose from. Where will you log out the last time before the expansion? Will you choose a place that will experience a big change, like the bottom of the Shimmering Flats? While it might be fun to wake up underwater -- or will you be floating, or ported to the speed barge? -- there might also be a million other players who had the same idea. You may want a more secluded and original place. Other zones with big changes like Desolace or Blasted Lands might be less crowded and still provide that "whoa" factor.
Know Your Lore: Current Alliance politics -- the Draenei
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. Well, after last weeks extensive look into dwarven politics we're closing in on finishing off the Alliance. So far we've seen the night elves, the gnomes, and the dwarves – today we'll take a brief look at the Alliance race that hasn't had much to say since Burning Crusade: the Draenei. Luckily Matthew Rossi has already written up an excellent post on the history of the draenei and their otherworldly origins. This post explains the corruption of the eredar at the hands of Sargeras, and the lone faction of eredar that escaped to become what we know as the draenei today. It's only been a couple of years at best from a timeline standpoint since the blue-skinned aliens made a smashing debut on Azeroth, yet they've been largely absent from the war efforts in Northrend -- what's left for the draenei, and what does their future with the Alliance hold? The draenei race is quite possibly the most peaceful race the Alliance has on their side. While the other races of the Alliance are prone to conflicts and struggles over petty disagreements, the draenei only seem to strike out in defense. Their arrival on Azeroth wasn't pretty -- they ended up tearing up the landscape over on Azuremyst and Bloodmyst isles. While they were of course concerned about their fellow survivors, they were just as concerned with what they'd done to the land and the creatures on it -- as a society concerned with not only the Light of the naaru, but the elements of shamanism, the last thing they wanted to do was wreak havoc on a new world, especially since they'd just left a dying world behind.
Breakfast Topic: Mister Jones and me
Jones and I are buds. He's a cat that likes to hang out on the landing in the stairwell of the Legerdemain Lounge in Dalaran. He's a stealthy little guy -- he doesn't even have a listing on Wowhead, but if you stop to give Jones a /pet, he'll purr contentedly. I like to hang out in the stairwell sometimes, just Jones and me -- it's a relatively quiet spot in the middle of a usually busy area, and I can sort through my bags, chat with the guild, harass trade chat engage in some lively banter in local channels, and just hang out without being pestered. I've got a few different spots I like to hang out at, and the locations change every expansion or depending on what I'm focusing on at the time, but nothing beats Jones, he's the best. I'm not sure why exactly I like finding non-crowded places to sit and chat with people -- it shouldn't really make a difference where I'm typing to people from, but I enjoy the relative solitude in what is otherwise a very busy and populated game. And every expansion it happens -- in vanilla, it was the upper buildings in the Drag in Orgrimmar. In Burning Crusade, I liked the relative quiet that could be found in the World's End Tavern in Shattrath, or the rocks up above the city. In Wrath, it's either the Underbelly, or the little landing in the Legerdemain that I share with Jones. He doesn't mind, he's a pretty well mannered kitty. Sometimes we tell each other fairy tales. So how about you guys? Do you have a favorite spot to sit and chat? Does the generally crowded nature of Dalaran bother you? Do you, like me, seek out an area of relative solitude to hang out at when you aren't off storming the castle or otherwise occupied?
WoW Moviewatch: Shattrath: The Forgotten City
Do you remember Shattrath City? It was the busy, bustling hub of the Outland. You could fly in and out of it, pick up some awesome badge loot, and even check out a music show? Those were the days. Of course, now, everyone's moved on to the floating city of Dalaran, and busily raiding the heck out of Arthas. Wowcrendor has revisited the abandoned stomping ground with his new video Shattrath: The Forgotten City. He's taken the time to zip back through the old town, and check in some old friends like Haris Pilton. This is pretty classic Wowcrendor material, and it definitely takes me down nostalgia lane. I remember spending hours in the place, scaring up extra raiders for a PUG Karazhan. 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 e-mail at machinima AT wow DOT com.
Breakfast Topic: Exploring the World of Warcraft
One of the things which kept me in Azeroth -- at least long enough for the addictive side of the game to set in -- was the promise of exploration. I originally rolled a human mage and still remember at level five, being taken all the way from Elwynn Forest to Darnassus. Bear in mind though, this was back before The Burning Crusade when being Alliance meant traveling from the Eastern Kingdoms to Kalimdor took a good forty minutes if you didn't have the flight paths or a mount. You had to get the tram to Ironforge then run the gauntlet of death to Menethil, catch the boat to Theramore, get another to Auberdine and then fly or get another boat to Teldrassil. The whole trip really showed me how big the world was, as well as teaching me all about threat and my ability to aggro everything in a three-zone radius.So when I rolled my druid, the day before the expansion hit, I was determined to see as much as this beautifully crafted world as I could. Yes, I essentially had a death wish. I was exploring Outland with an honour guard of my guildies at level 10 (and hearthed in Shattrath), I ran through the Arathi Highlands at level thirty, swam through Un'Goro Crater in my forties and was pushing the boundaries of Shattrath by my fifties.However along the way I found some amazing places: the crystal filled cave at Marshal's Refuge, the boughs where the Dragons of Nightmare can occasionally be found, the first time you run into Azuregos in Azshara, the Twin Colossals of Feralas -- well the eastern one at any rate. Then when I got my flying mount I really started exploring properly.Nagrand alone is full of nooks and crannies and I adore the beauty of Crystalsong Forest.So come on, readers, I want to know if you've explored all the hidden places of Azeroth and Outland. Do you have any favourites? You do? Great, be sure to tell us about them in the comments box.
Around Azeroth: Jurassic Zombie
If they make yet another sequel to everyone's favorite modern-day dinosaur movie, Jurassic Park, we at WoW Insider feel that the film would best be served by being shot entirely in World of Warcraft. The Devilsaur, of course, would have a starring role. And did we mention the zombies? Yes, such a cinematic jewel would, by necessity, feature zombies. We had a screenplay half-finished when this screenshot from Cinate of Sasquatch Vanguard on Azgalor arrived, showing us that our Jurassic Zombie concept had already been done, and better than we could have ever imagined it. In the meantime, our search for fame and glory continues. Raiders of the Lost Zombie, perhaps?Do you have any unusual World of Warcraft images that are just collecting dust in your screenshots folder? We'd love to see it on Around Azeroth! Sharing your screenshot is as simple as e-mailing aroundazeroth@wow.com with a copy of your shot and a brief explanation of the scene. You could be featured here next! Remember to include your player name, server and/or guild if you want it mentioned. We strongly prefer full screen shots without the UI showing -- use alt-Z to remove it. Please, no more battleground scoreboards.%Gallery-1816%
The strange task of entering Dalaran
Here's a somewhat annoying little problem with the Beta. As of the latest build, you can't just walk into Dalaran, or rather, you can't just use the teleportation crystal go up. Instead, you have to complete a quest to align yourself to Dalaran. But this quest is only available at level 74. In the Outlands, it's not uncommon for a fresh 58 to head through the Dark Portal and right to Shattrath City. Binding in one of the Inns there essentially puts all of the Outlands before you, with flights connecting you easily to where you wish to go. It seems strange that Blizzard has put up this strange quest attunement roadblock to those who wish to alight from the boat to Northrend and head straight to the capital. Perhaps it's a similar decision that caused them to restrict flying mounts to level 77 and above -- they don't want people skimping on exploration and seeing content, so they make you hang around the newbie zones for a while before you can just stick with Dalaran. Luckily, not all is completely lost. Much like with Shattrath before level 58, You can still get teleported or summoned up by a Mage or Warlock before level 74. Still, it's a strange little extra hoop Blizzard's having us leap through to get the to top.
The Darkmoon Faire is in town
Here's a friendly reminder for everyone: The Darkmoon Faire starts today in Terrokar Forest, just to the southeast of Shattrath City in Outland. Be sure to check out our guides to the ticket system and the card decks, as well as Alex Ziebart's gallery of a day at the faire, as well as all our other Faire news and information, then start planning your trip there. If you're lucky, Thaddeus Paleo and Lhara will have some rare items that'll catch your eye, or Sayge might give you a quest in your written fortune as well. And since Children's Week is still going on, if you haven't sent your Orphan back to the orphanage yet, why not give them a treat? Show them around the faire and buy them an Iced Berry Slush (and get yourself a Darkmoon Special Reserve at the same time)! Also, if you're not level 58 yet, don't despair, you can still join in the fun. A Mage can teleport you to Shattrath City any time, so if you can bribe or convince them to open a portal for you, you can still make it over. %Gallery-20398%
Gallery Walkthrough of Children's Week, Shattrath City, Horde-side
Children's Week is one of my favorite events of the year. You can get a couple of pets, some reputation and cash and, in the Shattrath City version, there be dragons. Dragons are cool.I have chronicled my questing in this year's Shattrath City Children's Week event for the Horde in a gallery walkthrough. It's an interesting story and a nice tour of some fun spots in Outland and Azeroth, but if you also want to know the hard numbers for completing the entire quest chain, here they are: Cash: At level 70, the cash total was 45 gold and 54 silver. Reputation: Your Lower City Reputation increases by a total of 1760. One very cute or disturbing pet. So check out our Horde-side Children's Week in Shattrath City Gallery Walkthrough and stay tuned for more on the rest of the event.%Gallery-21949%
The Outland daily circle
With Phase 4 upon us, The options for dailies are pretty much long and endless. Of course, with a daily limit of 25 dailies, you can end up doing most of them anyways, and while certainly don't try to spring for 25 dailies every day, I still do my fair share of dailies. About once or twice a week, I do what I have come to call my Outland Circle. All three of my characters have all the daily hubs unlocked, so between Ogri'la, the Skyguard, the Netherwing, and the Shattered Sun Offensive, I can get a lot done.
Phase 2 Dailies: Intercepting the Mana Cells
This Daily is located back in Shattrath, and given by a Draenei called Exarch Nasuun. He will be located in A'dal's chambers, in the northwestern Alcove where G'eras, the Badge of Justice vendor, used to be (G'eras himself is now on the walkway above the Alcove). He'll send you to the Bash'ir Landing, on the northern plateau of Blade's Edge Mountains. This means that this daily will require you to have a flying mount. Once you receive the the quest, you can fly to Evergrove in Ruann Weald via flightmaster, then fly northwest from there on your mount to reach Bash'ir landing. Once you're there, you'll want to kill any of the Ethereals until you receive the Bash'ir Phasing Device. The device is a very common drop, so you shouldn't have to kill more than one or two ethereals until you get one. This Device will put you, your pets, and your group members into a state not unlike the Mage spell Invisibility. You will not be able to see any non-phased players or mobs, nor will they be able to see you. This device, however, only works with Bash'ir landing, and any pets or groups members must stay within 100 yards of the person who used the device to get the benefit. As long as you stay within Bash'ir landing, the effect is permanent, although you can right-click it off. Once you're phased, you will need to start looking for your quest objective, the Smuggled Mana Cells, which will appear on the ground as translucent hot pink boxes. The boxes will appear mostly near the machinery and other stacked boxes around the camp. They will be guarded by Phase Wyrms, which should be relatively easy for a level 70 take out, and drop Motes of Mana for a nice little bonus. Once you have your 10 cells, you can drop the phased buff (Be careful for any ethereal aggro when you do. You can't see them while phased, but they'll be there when you come out of phased mode), mount up, and head back to Shattrath. Upon turning this quest in to Nasuun, you'll get 10 gold, 10 silver, a cache of Shattered Sun Supplies, and some credit toward the opening of a portal to Quel'danas on your server. All in all a very worthwhile quest, especially if your cache has a Badge of Justice. Once the portal is opened, this quest will be renamed "Maintaining the Sunwell Portal," but the objectives and rewards will remain the same. For more information, you can also read the pages for this quest on Wowwiki and Wowhead.
Sunwell Phase 2 daily quest walkthroughs
Starting early yesterday afternoon and into the night, quite a few servers have unlocked the 2nd phase of the Shattered Sun Offensive at the Isle of Quel'danas, known as the Sun's Reach Sanctum (We can't confirm for sure who was first, although rumor has it that Cenarius was a strong contender, and I'm sure accounts will differ unless Blizzard decides to establish a tracking page like they did for the Ahn'Qiraj event). This means a new building under control of the offensive , a tradeskill vendor (no ability to repair just yet, alas), and a handful of new daily quests dedicated to unlocking the 3rd phase, the Sun's Reach Armory. %Gallery-19191% Look after the break for links to walkthroughs for every Phase 2 daily quest!
Phase 2 Dailies: Know Your Ley Lines
This quest, while technically part of the 2nd phase of the Shattered Sun Offensive, does not appear immediately at the beginning of the Offensive. Instead, your server must complete the portal from Quel'danas to Shattrath by doing the Intercepting the Mana Cells quest. Once you've unlocked the portal, a new NPC, Astromancer Darnarian, will be found inside the Sanctum building alongside the other daily quest givers. When you talk to him, he will complain that no-one appreciates the effort that it takes to do Translocations, and demands that you educate yourself by taking an Astromancer's Crystal and attuning it to 3 different places: The Bloodcrystal to the west, the Dawning Square portal to the south, and the naga shrine at Greengill Coast to the southeast. Be sure to use the crystal at each area to get your credit.
