tauren-paladin
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The Light and How to Swing It: Leveling your new Sunwalker
Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Every Sunday, Chase Christian invites you to discuss the finer side of the paladin class: the holy specialization. Feel free to email me with any questions you want answered, like how awesome tauren paladins are. After The Shattering hit Azeroth, it was clear that the world was never going to be the same. Entire zones were torn asunder, and everyone who can take up arms to combat Deathwing has stood up to fight. The Horde recently inducted the Sunwalkers into the fold, and they're eagerly training in the way of the Light. Now players won't be stuck with blood elves when they want to play the paladin class. If you've been on the general forums in the past few days, you've seen some of the clever names that people have come up with for their tauren paladins. Retbull (gives you wings), Skim (Light milk), and Bovinity (divine cows) were among my personal favorites. I decided to start a new tauren paladin myself, figuring I could heal my way through the low-level dungeons and try out the new starting quests and zones at the same time. It's been years since I've played a new paladin, and it was time for a refresher course.
Shifting Perspectives: Why (or why not) to play a tauren druid
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Shifting Perspectives for cat, bear, restoration and balance druids. This week, welcome to Thunder Bluff. This week, we're continuing our series on why (or why not) to play a particular druidic race in Cataclysm, and today we'll continue with the tauren. Fair warning: We tread on some expansion spoilers in this article. The full series is available here: Shifting Perspectives: Why (or why not) to play a night elf druid Shifting Perspectives: Why (or why not) to play a tauren druid Shifting Perspectives: Why (or why not) to play a worgen druid Shifting Perspectives: Why (or why not) to play a troll druid
Know Your Lore: Story analysis and the misconception of "lolore"
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. Today's post was supposed to be an introduction to the Wildhammer, a dwarven faction that will be responsible for bringing the shaman class to the forefront of dwarven society; however, plans have changed. As I was writing the article, I kept going back to the comments on last week's post and addressing issues and concerns brought up by readers, as well as thinking about the people out there who believe that the storytelling is "shoddy" or "unbelievable." So I'm putting the dwarves aside this week -- don't worry, they'll be back next week, I promise! Some of Blizzard's decisions regarding new class and race combinations make more sense than others -- as stated last week, hunters aren't a big stretch for the imaginations of most players. Some take advantage of expanding upon existing lore, like the development regarding the forgotten eye of the Earthmother, An'she. There was a lot of commentary and discussion on the tauren paladin article regarding whether or not these decisions make sense, but what people seem to be overlooking is it's not a matter of whether or not these changes make sense. What it is about is storytelling -- the construction of a believable story that progresses in a fashion that isn't too out of bounds. While the draenei race was a stretch in many player's minds, the basic fundamentals behind their introduction and integration into the Alliance during The Burning Crusade wasn't as far-fetched as people first thought. Yes, the original story of the draenei involved one of the biggest "whoops" moments in Warcraft's history -- but even the misstep with lore could be explained in a logical fashion when looked at in the correct light.
Know Your Lore: An'she and the Holy Light
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. When considering the new race and class combinations that Blizzard has to offer, some are immediately recognizable, such as human or Forsaken hunters. It stands to reason they'd exist; they already have in game since the very beginning. Some take a little more research, such as the history of the Shen'dralar and how that effects new night elves that would like to study the arcane. However, some of these new race and class choices are so far out there and so inconceivable that the very mention of them existing seems completely out of place. The tauren race has long been a follower of nature, the spirits of the elements and the mysterious "Earthmother," as well as the elusive Mu'sha -- also known as Elune by the night elves. Yet in Cataclysm the tauren will be following the path of the Holy Light -- the paladin and the priest class. At first, the announcement seemed entirely out of line for the nature-loving race, but examining the tauren a little more closely gives the answers and the explanations we're looking for. To explain the tauren paladin and priest class, we first have to go way, way back to the dawn of tauren civilization and the only know records of tauren history, the Thunder Bluff scrolls. WARNING: The following post may contain some spoilers for the upcoming Cataclysm expansion. If you wish to remain spoiler free, do not continue.
The Light and How to Swing It: Retribution and protection paladins in the Cataclysm beta
With the Light as his strength, Gregg Reece of The Light and How to Swing It faces down the demons of the Burning Legion, the undead of the Scourge, and soon, an entire flight of black dragons. It's here! Cataclysm has moved from the alpha stage into the closed beta stage. The non-disclosure agreement is no longer in effect and all of the news sites are going crazy with information overload. At first glance, not much has changed, but a lot of little things have been tweaked and I have a feeling a lot more changes are in store for the paladin class throughout the course of the beta. Some things, like the Guardian of Ancient Kings that I used a reader screenshot to fake above, just don't appear to be coded yet (and with its complexity, it will probably be a while). Speaking of which, if anyone wants to show up in the column, just send screenshots to gregg@wow.com and I just might be able to make that dream come true.
The Queue: Facts of life
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today. To celebrate my most recent level 80, a protection warrior, I was going to use a screenshot of it in the header of today's edition of The Queue. Unfortunately, I'm writing this on my laptop and when I play WoW on this thing the character models... well, let's just say they mutate a little bit. It's not pretty. So instead, I'm using a screenshot of one of Matt Rossi's warriors and we're all going to pretend it's a white-haired female draenei. Sound good? Great. Now let's move on. Kar On E asked... "If you could trade out one of the new race/class combinations coming to us in Cataclysm for one that will not be there, which would you trade out? Which would you instead trade in? Why?"
The Queue: Mike Sacco and the Saccos
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today. What happens when you put WoW.com staffers in a room with a karaoke machine and alcohol? The video embedded above is what happens. And there were only two of them, Mike and Fox! BlizzCon is going to be... interesting. scraggerly asked... "I was just visiting Dominic's warlock column, mainly because I love the lock-mage feuds and comments. Is there a particular origin (maybe lore) to the feud, like the montagues and capulets, or is it mainly player generated? Also, can we start more feuds?"
New race/class combos will not be live before Cataclysm
In a very short answer, the devs confirmed in the recent Twitter developer chat that the new race and class combinations will not go live until Cataclysm itself goes live. In a way, this isn't too much a surprise. Despite some rumors to the contrary, we didn't get death knights until the first day of Wrath, and we had to wait for Burning Crusade to play draenei and blood elves. So with that in mind, it makes sense that we have to wait until the last possible moment for yet another new breed of player characters. That said, it is probably true that the new race/class combinations are a bit different from the examples above. After all, they simply take existing races and existing classes and put them together, so it might seem that it wouldn't be too hard to just turn them on.
The Queue: Apology denied
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today. I thought about starting today off by apologizing for the abomination that was yesterday's image... but what did Mike Sacco think would happen when he asked me to add a picture to the post for him? That's a dangerous thing to ask someone. He brought it on himself, and has nobody else to blame. If the image scarred you for life, it's his fault. Krsnik asked... "What level of gear is recommended to have before attempting to raid ICC 10man? Can I just go from 10 man ToC to 10man ICC or must I first get gear from 10man ToGC? I would really hate to replace my tier gear and since the guild I'm in is just starting 10man ToGC, I know it'll be a while before I can get Tier 9.5 gear."
Flavor names for new race/class combos
Unsurprisingly, the hottest forum topic upon the announcement of new race/class combinations in Cataclysm isn't an analytical discussion of their racial strengths and weaknesses -- it's pun names for Tauren Paladins. Well, Kisirani, illustrious World Event Designer and Mistress of Flavor, popped into one such thread to give the actual name that Tauren Paladins will be given, a la Blood Knights -- "Sunwalkers."A great name, and somehow less menacing than "Blood Knights." One has to wonder if this sets a precedent for the other new combinations, too. Could we be seeing Forsaken Hunters phased in via quests as Dark Rangers? Dwarf Shamans as Wildhammers? Blood Elf Warriors as Sunreavers? Dwarf Mages as Runeweavers?Kisirani indicated that the new combos would be phased in gradually and with ample explanation for each one via new quests and NPCs, and we've already seen the start of those with the An Injured Colleague and A Cautious Return quests added on the PTRs. There are lots of great flavor opportunities here, and I hope that Blizzard takes the time to introduce each and every new combo in their own unique way. Then again, with Kisirani at the helm of the whole thing, I doubt we have much to worry about. World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will destroy Azeroth as we know it. Nothing will be the same. In WoW.com's Guide to Cataclysm you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion. From Goblins and Worgens to Mastery and Guild changes, it's all there for your cataclysmic enjoyment.
Breakfast Topic: What do you think of new race and class combos?
One of the big things announced at BlizzCon were the new class and race combinations. These were originally datamined from patch 3.2.2 and include everything from Gnome Priests and Goblin Rogues to Worgen Druids. I'm especially excited about the last one.For years, the race you played has been indelibly linked with the class and defined how you play the game. Say, for example, you like playing Night Elves, you're limited class-wise to rolling Druid, Priests, Hunters, Rogues and Warriors. On the other hand, if it's a specific class then you are sometimes limited to a particular race. So Draenei are the only Alliance race which can current become Shamans while the same is true, Horde-side, for Blood Elves becoming Paladins.From a lore perspective, there is little preventing any of these combos. This is especially true as Azeroth expands and the game evolves. But readers, this is new territory for us, as WoW becomes more open. What do you think of the possibility of lore-centric or even playable class and race combinations?
A discussion in defense of new race/class combinations
There's been a lot of news about possible new features arriving with the upcoming Cataclysm expansion. I covered one of those recently, that being the possibility of new race/class combinations, ones that were previously unavailable to player characters.Now, this feature would actually make a ton of sense, especially taking the following into consideration: - We've had the same 9 classes available for going on 5 years now.- With new races being added in Cataclysm, there's almost certainly no hero class.- It's quite likely that the new races will be unable to be Death Knights, at least at first.- The leaked information from MMO-Champion suggests that Azeroth is getting a makeover, graphically and design-wise.- The Paid Faction Switch service is coming soon, and adding these new combinations would bring almost 100% parity between factions in terms of classes available.- Blizzard has been tossing quests that hint at these new combinations into the past few patches and onto the PTR.But of course, the WoW community is a fickle beast, and what they seem to be focusing on here tends not to be the gameplay benefits of adding new race/class combinations, but the "lore-breaking" aspects of said combinations.Well, I don't think any of these are unreasonable, and in fact many of them have precedents in lore. To make the discussion more interesting, I've brought in my lore-hound colleague Daniel Whitcomb, and we'll expound on each new possible option to give you clear reasons why they're not only plausible, but likely. On top of that, I'm bringing in our class columnists to give their insight on the new choices and explain their pros and cons in terms of gameplay!Let's start, shall we?
Possible new race/class combinations datamined
Here's another whopper from Handclaw at Scrolls of Lore, who first uncovered the goblin and worgen masks a month ago. You may remember the quest added to Thunder Bluff recently, where two druids talk about the merits of following the Sun instead of the Moon. Well, on the 3.2.2 PTR, another new quest has been added, this time to Darnassus, where a Highborne mage asks for an audience with Tyrande to offer his services as a mage. While many speculated that the Thunder Bluff quest indicated a new class, they may be more correct than they think.In the Patch 3.2.2 PTR files, a number of new race/class combination NPCs were discovered. The data mined from MMO-Champion seems to indicate that several races will have the ability to roll classes previously unavailable to them. Unlike our confirmed addition of the new races, it is only speculation that these combinations will be playable, but with the addition of the class-related quests with each additional patch, it seems quite likely.The current list of these combinations is after the jump. Several races should prepare to jump for joy.
