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Returning to a paladin's vault
Back in January of 2013 -- nearly two years ago now -- my rogue alt became my main. Part of the transition process involved sifting through the dusty depths of that character's bank, discovering treasures (and trash) long forgotten. I documented the process back then and, while my main isn't changing, I've decided to document the process once more while I go through banks in preparation for Warlords of Draenor. Today, my paladin is up to bat. My history with my paladin is complicated. Though my priest was my main for most of my raiding career, the paladin was my favored alt -- if not my favored character altogether. There simply wasn't a need for more paladins in my raid, so I avoided pulling the trigger and changing mains until mid-Wrath of the Lich King, where the raid was willing and able to accommodate a paladin. I continued investing significant time into my paladin throughout those years, however, and accrued a whole bunch of stuff. Back in the day, I loved the lore and flavor of the paladin and its numerous class quests -- while playing that class, it felt like I was playing someone truly special in the world of Azeroth. As such, I attached a great deal of sentimental value to the many class quest rewards. Verigan's Fist still holds a place in my collection, now moved into void storage. I also discovered I still possess a Holy Mightstone, a secondary reward for the old level 50 class quest, which I meant to use on the Lich King when I first met him in battle. Given my paladin has Shadowmourne, it's safe to say I forgot to use it. At this point, I never will, but I'm keeping that Mightstone anyway.
WoW Archivist: Patch 1.10, Storms of Azeroth
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? Personally, I find patch 1.10 to be one of the most memorable patches of classic WoW. It was a patch dedicated almost exclusively to giving nonraiding players more content, access to better gear (without trivializing raids), and generally making the world a prettier place. Patch 1.10 was the patch that implemented weather, as its Storms of Azeroth title implies. More than that, patch 1.10 taught non-programmers everywhere how version numbering works. "Patch one-point-ten? You can't do that! Shouldn't it be patch 2.0 after 1.9? Isn't 1.10 the same as 1.1?" Nope, sorry! Version numbering doesn't work that way! These aren't decimals, folks. The .10 does not represent a fraction of a whole; it's part of a versioning scheme set up like so: expansion.major.minor.build Patch 1.10 indicates that this is the first retail software release and it is in its 10th major revision. While I'm writing this, World of Warcraft version 4.2.2.14534 is on the PTR. Build 14534 of the second minor revision of the second major revision of the fourth expansion/retail release. These aren't decimals, and this isn't math. Patch 1.10 is neither patch 1.1 nor patch 2.0. Got it? Good! Now on with the show.
Collecting Armor Sets: Dungeon set 2
For the longest time in vanilla World of Warcraft, players were content with collecting the dungeon set 1 pieces from Stratholme, Scholomance and Blackrock Spire. A purple item was a incredibly rare thing to see in the early days of WoW. It was a status symbol, a badge of pride for raiders who managed to band together to defeat Onyxia or brave the depths of Molten Core. With epic items soon came epic discontent, largely from casual players who either didn't have the time or the inclination to raid. As time went on and more raid dungeons were released, the complaining continued; players who were unable to dedicate the time needed to successfully complete a 40-man raid dungeon felt it was unfair that they could not obtain epic gear. It was a valid complaint, but it took well over two years before Blizzard finally did something about it. About four months after the release of Ahn'Quiraj, Blizzard implemented Patch 1.10, "Storms of Azeroth." Among the fun changes like the introduction of weather in Azeroth and quest-experience-to-gold conversion at level 60, casual players finally received what they'd been asking for: a quest line that didn't require raiding and would allow them to upgrade their dungeon sets one into new ones that included epic gear. This set is called, appropriately enough, dungeon set 2.
Official Dungeon 2 Graphics and Stats
Rumor no longer - the official graphics and stats for the Dungeon 2 armor set (sometimes called tier 0.5) have been released by Blizzard, as well as information on modifications to the Dungeon 1 (sometimes called tier 0) armor set. I don't see anything unexpected here, but if you haven't been following the rumor mill too closely, it's worth checking out.
