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Ask a Faction Leader: Master Mathias Shaw
WoW.com's prestige in the community has afforded us the opportunity to speak with major Azerothian leadership figures on any subject, and we're letting you, the reader, Ask a Faction Leader! We recently spoke to Sylvanas Windrunner, Banshee Queen of the forsaken, and she shed light on several key issues, including undieting, hunter training, building this city, and bouncing idly. In this installment of Ask a Faction Leader, we'll be sitting with Master Mathias Shaw, leader of Stormwind's SI:7, covert agents of the crown. Our first reader question... Hello Mathias, Can you describe the feeling you got when you found out that you couldn't beat your granny? Verenor, Warlock - Defias Brotherhood Mathias responds: Gahaha, that's what I like to see! Pullin' no punches, right from the get-go. Hard-hittin' questions.
Encrypted Text: Emblem of Triumph rewards for Rogues
Every Wednesday, Chase Christian of Encrypted Text invites you to enter the world of shadows, as we explore the secrets and mechanics of the Rogue class. This week, we talk about the upcoming Emblem of Triumph gear, analyzing each piece's stats and bonuses.Due to the tireless work of Boubouille of MMO-Champion and many others, we've been able to discover many of the new items coming our way in patch 3.2. There's a wide variety of gear planned for Rogues, as there are three separate ilvl tiers of gear being distributed. In addition, Blizzard has included two copies of nearly every piece of gear: one for the Alliance, and one for the Horde; each piece possesses its own art and design.We'll be able to pick up our new Emblems of Triumph from the Daily Dungeon quests and the new Crusader's Coliseum. You can trade the EoTs for a few very attractive pieces of gear, especially for those few slots that you could never find the gear to fill. When planning your gear migration path in patch 3.2, remember to include these items in your spreadsheets. They're guaranteed items that you can plan to acquire within a well-defined timeline.
Where in time is Azeroth?
There's a great question fluttering around the community lately: just when are we anyway? It's a good one for the Lore Nerd, actually, and maybe he can answer it in more detail than I can, but it's almost a question of relativity as much as it is of lore. The official lore says that World of Warcraft takes place four years after Warcraft III (hence the reason for the "four years have passed..." in the opening cinematic). And since then, we've heard from Blizzard that they consider every expansion to be another year in the history of Azeroth -- Burning Crusade takes place a year after the original game, and Wrath of the Lich King two years after that. But when, for example, did Van Cleef fall? Has it been just under two years since his plan to attack Stormwind was defeated? And what about our characters -- you'd assume that if you started from level 1 today, the story would be beginning four years after the events of Warcraft III again, so have our characters aged two years since they first stepped foot out of Elwynn or Durotar? And we'll ignore that when you get to Orgrimmar, you might see Death Knights walking around, who technically won't join the Horde until two years in the future.See how confusing? Of course, the right answer to all of these questions is "it's just a game," but there are plenty of interesting thought experiments here. Time and story in the World of Warcraft aren't necessarily connected, which is why Blizzard can get away with things like having Kael'thas in two places at once, but still tripped up by things like getting Onyxia out of Stormwind. Phasing helps a little bit (and who knows what WoW would be like if Blizzard designed it from the ground up with phasing -- we'll have to wait for the next-gen MMO to see how that works). The official timeline has Arthas brooding in Icecrown for around six years. But just like real relativity, our characters have experienced that time period in all sorts of different ways.
WoW Moviewatch: Defias Mightiest
It might help if you know a bit about the Defias Brotherhood. (Lapdogs! All of you!) Defias Mightiest by Myndflame was originally featured (in part) at the opening of the epic Illegal Danish: Escape for Orgrimmar. This is a pretty neat stand alone music video in its own right, however. I wanted to draw attention to it, especially, because I'm excited about the upcoming release of Death Knights Ride Bikes. It's created by the same folks, and I like their WoW-inspired music. The pacing and music are both pretty awesome, in my humble opinion. I will admit to being a little disturbed by how long I spent looking at Van Cleef's tushie, but that's kind of part and parcel of the joke. I want to note, however, that the final shot of the video's protagonist overlooking the spires of Stormwind is a strong image for anyone who knows the lore. It's funny that the moment captures the essence of the Defias story so strongly even while taking place in a comedy music video. That says something about the strength of both WoW's lore, but also the power of the machinimist responsible. If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.Previously on Moviewatch ...
For great (Badge of) Justice!
The other night my guild stepped into a heroic instance for the first time. Now this isn't great news for those of you who already spend your weekend nights huggling Gruul, but it's a great accomplishment for us. Since we all have the Coilfang Resevoir key we started with Slave Pens, and I must say it was a joy to have challenge in that instance again. It felt like I had been given the instance back, as it were. If I were to walk into Slave Pens at the normal level I would feel little interest since it's tuned for 62-64. I finally understand the method behind the heroic dungeon concept, to allow level 70 players to have fun going to those dungeons again. But what I'd really like is heroic dungeon settings for the old instances in Azeroth. Can you imagine what Van Cleef would be like at level 70? It makes me giddy just to think of it. We only got as far as the first boss, and then the trash beat us to a complete pulp before exhaustion forced us to quit. I really was surprised how the tides shift with heroics. I have a hard time reconciling trash mobs who are impossible to kill and bosses who are manageable. Either way I am excited to have such a novel experience added to our game play. Whoever came up with the concept of heroic dungeons was brilliant. I have my first Badge of Justice, now. Only 112 to go.
WoW Moviewatch: Rogue solos Van Cleef
While the title of this post may not seem that amazing, the actual video and character used are impressive. Theotwink of Malygos has twinked his character's basic gear, causing his dodge rate to exceed 100%. At level 10 (base level to enter the Deadmines) his high-level allies helped clear him to Van Cleef, where the showdown began. In what I can only guess was an excruciatingly long and probably boring fight, given all the guild/tell chat that was taking place, Theotwink emerges victorious over Van Cleef and his adds that he calls during the fight.
