zul-farrak
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Phat Loot Phriday: Mallet of Zul'Farrak
Yeah, we're going a little hefty this Friday (as in, low level, so not quite that phat), to focus on an item that's new, but only kind of, in patch 3.0.8.Name: Mallet of Zul'Farrak (Wowhead, Thottbot, Armory)Type: Quest Item Rare Unique One-hand MaceDamage/Speed: 58-109 / 2.50 (33.4 DPS)Abilities: +8 Strength, +8 Stamina Yes, this is the legendary Mallet of Zul'Farrak, the one you had to fight all the way up to the top of Jintha'alor to get in order to summon Gahz'rilla in the midlevel instance of Zul'Farrak down in Tanaris. But as of patch 3.0.8, this mallet, and a few other items, are now not necessary any more. Still, instead of deleting them completely, Blizzard decided to turn them into real items, much like Pinocchio was turned into a "real boy!" Plus, they used a pretty awesome model, too, especially if, like me, you're a fan of the Troll aesthetic. Pretty nice weapon for a one-handed mace at level 35, even if it's a pain to actually get. %Gallery-33600%
All the World's a Stage: How to roleplay your way to level 70
When you decide to roleplay, a whole new world of imagination opens up to you -- soon you realize that all the World of Warcraft is a stage, and all the orcs and humans merely players.A friend of mine recently complained that lately leveling has been extremely tedious. Even with characters he might feel excited about at first, he eventually gets bored after just a few quests. We talked about this for a little while, and he brought up the fact that if he was going to play WoW by himself he might as well play a single-player game instead. It got me thinking that, in spite of all the demand people have for more solo and casual content, this is significantly better when we play it together. Even when I play by myself, my eye is always on my friends list to see if someone I know is going to show up and chat with me. Thinking about my friend's problem, I thought maybe it would really help if he and I were to go questing together -- so we found the two characters we had with the smallest level gap between them and we decided to go at it. Rather than just just going through the motions of killing the various enemies listed on our little quest sheets as if we were buying groceries or something, we made it into a neat little roleplay experience.In fact, there are lots of quests in the game that are very appropriate for roleplaying. When you get together with your friends to level up and quest together, you can focus on the quest that has the deepest possible connection to your own character, or the one with the most intrinsic storyline. Of course there are many other throwaway quests you can do along the way, like "kill 10 Generic Humanoids" or whatever, but it works best to pick one that seems to have some meaning to you or your character and start there.
Breakfast topic: There is only Zul
Zul'Farrak vs. Zul'Gurub vs. Zul'Aman.Bronko on the forums says "if the mobs were of equal level... go!" but I can't tell if he means which we like better or which would win in a throwdown (my hunch thinks "throwdown," since that would be so much more interesting to see). So let's answer both.I haven't played Zul'Aman yet, so it may be amazing, but I think I might have to agree with Bornakk-- the stairs in Zul'Farrak are pretty epic, especially for their level. Then again, Zul'Aman will probably have at least one or two events like that, so I'd be partial to the troll city in the Ghostlands in that case. And ZG is definitely a great 10 man 20 man (boy it's been a while since I've been there), too-- Hakkar's whispers, all the different bosses, the funny little in-jokes ("Ding!" "Grats!" is a classic, as is Nat Pagle's fishing spot), and the different animal areas make it a great instance. Hopefully Zul'Aman will match up.And in terms of a throwdown, as players note in the thread, the Blood Drinkers in Zul'Gurub make things harder for everyone else. Will the trolls from ZF and ZA know to down the other bosses before Hakkar? Or can anyone, for that matter, stand up to the might of Zul'jin himself? So who wins, ZA, ZF, or ZG?
