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Guest Post: Azshara revamp ushers in new level range, epic stories
This article has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages. I would hazard a guess that a vast majority of WoW players have never even been to Azshara. Honestly, since Molten Core is no longer a major raid zone and the Runes of Fire Lords just put themselves out, there really isn't much reason to. Those of us who raided in vanilla made weekly trips there to pick up our Aqual Quintessence, and I was also an herbalist, so I would spend another hour or so out there looking for Dreamfoil because of needing a bag full of mana pots to raid in those pre-potion sickness days. Clearly, the zone was unfinished. There was one quest hub, if you could call it that, because there were only a very small number of quests there. Blizzard tried to bring people to the unused zone later on by adding in the level 50 class quests that led up to Sunken Temple -- but really, in the process of leveling, you could basically ignore Azshara and move on. I hated the original Azshara because it was out in the middle of nowhere and fairly poorly designed. It was hard to get to places because of all the rocky cliffs, and passages up and down from the beach to the cliffs were too few and far between. It could even be dangerous at level 60 before The Burning Crusade's stamina inflation; lots of mobs feared and or put debuffs on you, and there were elites wandering around over huge portions of the zone. Sadly the few fond memories I have of old Azshara are gone, as well. When Azuregos was up in vanilla, the entire zone would become a raiding guild, PvP fight zone as the top Horde and Alliance raiding guilds fought over who could tag him, killing flagged members of the group who got him, hoping to wipe them and inflict them all with the debuff. It could get fun and entertaining -- and one time, it even caused our server to be shut down. Well, that has all changed come Cataclysm.
Blood Elf tank and Murloc hair bow, as seen on Etsy
Alice Taylor has quite the eye for scoping out awesome gaming crafts, and just recently, she did a nice roundup (and another post) that had two great handmade WoW items in it. First up was this great-looking Sin'dorei (that's Blood Elf, in case you're not up on your Thalassian) tank top -- it was originally a T-shirt that the maker, smarmyclothes, turned into a tank top with some industrious cutting and stiching. Looks great -- at $52, the price is a little steep, but then again, this is a one-of-a-kind handmade item, so you get what you pay for.And second was this Murky hair bow -- to tell the truth, I have no idea what a hair bow does (it must tie hair back or something, right?), but I am a huge Murky fan, or at least a fan of /punting the little guy, so any article of clothing with him on it, no matter what it's for, gets my approval. The bows are two for $11, and it looks like there's only one in stock, so SugarPopRibbons is probably making them to order. But I'm sure if you're patient, you can get your hands (or hair, I guess) on one.Seen any other great WoW crafts, on Etsy or anywhere else? Let us know!
Phat Loot Phriday: Orb of the Sin'dorei
Like the ol' Orb of Deception, here's another fun toy -- that's brand new in patch 2.4.Name: Orb of the Sin'dorei (Wowhead, Thottbot, WowDB)Type: Rare ItemDamage/Speed: N/AAbilities: On use, transforms the user into a Blood Elf. Lasts for five minutes with a 30 minute cooldown between uses. Also drops on shapeshift of any kind. One of the cool things about this trinket is that it keeps your equipment looking the same. Always wanted to see what a Blood Elf warrior looks like (since they don't exist in game)? Use this on your tank, and how they might appear. Unfortunately, there is a catch: if you use this item on your Blood Elf, they won't change at all. Lore note: "Sin'dorei" actually means "Children of the Blood" in Thalassian. Before the High Elves got all corrupted, they were the quel'dorei ("Children of Noble Birth") and then they split into the BEs and the Night Elves (who are also known as the kal'dorei -- "Children of the Stars"). Unfortunately, there still isn't a perlman'dorei in Azeroth (though that, of course, would be the "City of Lost Children"). Yeah, this orb thingy is kind of silly, but Blood Elves are, as the kids say, pretty hawt. Who wouldn't want to be one? How to Get It: Drops from any of the bosses in Magisters' Terrace, but on Heroic Mode only. The drop rate is pretty low (about 1-2% per boss, but considering that you get a chance for it to drop every time you down a boss, this is actually a relatively common drop -- definitely moreso than, say, the Baron's mount).And don't forget that to get into MrT Heroic, you've got to finish the quest to kill Kael first. Get that done, get Heroic Countenance, head on into Heroic MrT, and down bosses until you see this pop up.Getting Rid of It: Sells to vendors for 46s 18c, and disenchants into an Arcane Dust, Lesser Planar Essence, or (very rarely) a Large Prismatic Shard. But I'd keep it if I was you -- you never know when you want someone's girlfriend to wish you were "hot... like... me."
