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WoW Archivist: Flight
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? Flying is second nature to WoW players. We've been doing it for almost eight years now. Sure, we've adventured in a few flightless places, like the Isle of Thunder, the Isle of Giants, and the Timeless Isle. Even The Burning Crusade, where flying originated, had a no-fly zone on the Isle of Quel'Danas. (What is it with these isles anyway?) But almost always, since 2006, we've flown. And we always expected to, for the vast majority of our in-game time. Now, because of Blizzard's impassioned arguments against flight on Draenor, flying is suddenly controversial. If you look back, you can see why: flying has changed the game like no other feature before or since. Let's start where it all began, however, with classic WoW's humble flight paths. They used to be cool I'm about to express something that you may not believe. Once upon a time, flight paths were cool. Yep, I said it. Before flying mounts, when you couldn't even get a ground mount until level 40 and epic ground mounts were just a dream for most due to the steep cost, in that early version of the game where you spent most of your travel time walking or riding at the pace of a Throne of Thunder gastropod, flight paths were cool. Not only did they get you around the continent at the fastest possible speed, they gave you a cinematic view of Azeroth from the skies. It was the only time you could get that view from above. The first time most classic WoW players rode a gryphon or wyvern from A to B, we loved it. No other MMO at the time had anything like it. We felt like masters of the world -- at least, when we could afford to take the trip. Most players were broke in the early days, and using flight paths too liberally often meant forgoing buying a new skill when you leveled. Taking a flight path was an indulgence, a treat, instead of the annoying hassle we see them as today.
Breakfast Topic: Oh right, I forgot about you guys
So confession time: I just now reached exalted with the Netherwing. To be honest, I completely forgot they existed. I was working on their rep grind back in Burning Crusade, but it was terrible (as all BC rep grinds were) and I just lost interest in it when Wrath came out and there were all sorts of new cool mounts to get. The bar was half-way to exalted, but every time I looked at it (not very often) I imagined grinding that last 10,000 or so rep over the course of a week and I always, always came up with something better to do with my time. Wrath faded to Cataclysm and the Netherwing were ever further from my mind. Rep grinds in the here and now had my attention, with more and better quests and generally a much less onerous feel to them. The Netherwing was the furthest thing from my mind. Anyway, with patch 5.3 out I discovered that Netherspite now drops Netherwing eggs. And with that one little change, since I'm in Kara killing him almost weekly anyway, I suddenly found myself motivated to get that final bit of rep to exalted. I still hate the Netherwing quest, but at last, I'm exalted with the Netherwing and riding my new Azure Netherwing Drake (that's not him, it's just too cool a shot to not use). So here's my question for you: anything you forgot to do over the years?
Rising to exalted with the Order of the Cloud Serpent
If you've hit level 90, it's likely you've already seen the sheer amount of dailies and other activities to do in Mists. Along with the grind for gear, there's a grind for the beautiful cloud serpent mounts that can be found flying all over the Jade Forest. If you love the cloud serpents, you'll need to learn how to ride them. And in order to ride them, you need to get exalted with the Order of the Cloud Serpent. To begin, head to the Arboretum and speak to Elder Anli the Serpent Master, who will send you to Windward Isle to the northwest. Upon finishing the opening chain, you'll be roughly honored with the Order of the Cloud Serpent, and you'll have picked a cloud serpent of your very own to raise. A series of dailies will let you play and interact with your cloud serpent hatchling, and as time goes on, your reputation with the Order will rise. If you're saying this sounds an awful lot like the Netherwing grind in Burning Crusade, you'd be absolutely right. But reputation and dailies aren't the only things shared between the two factions.
Mists of Pandaria Beta: Raising your very own cloud serpent
With the reopening of the Jade Forest, several quests and dailies that were no longer accessible have been reopened, including the opportunity to get your very own cloud serpent. Unlike the cloud serpents you can purchase from the various reputation vendors around the world, this cloud serpent is yours -- raised by you from the moment it hatches until the moment you can slap a saddle on its back and fly away into the clouds. Much like the Netherwing in The Burning Crusade or the Winterspring Frostsabers and Venomhide Ravasaurs for Alliance and Horde, respectively, your cloud serpent is obtained through a series of daily quests in which you take care of the little guy, keep him safe from certain doom, clean up after him, and keep him amused. You can start the chain by heading to the Arboretum in Jade Forest at level 90 to speak to Elder Ani the Serpent Master, who will take a good look at you and determine whether you've got the stuff to keep a cloud serpent. Don't worry, you do.
WoW Archivist: 5 years of daily quests
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? Just like Officers' Quarters, another WoW staple has recently celebrated its fifth anniversary. Daily quests were added to the game a little over five years ago, on May 22, 2007, in patch 2.1. One of Blizzard's big selling points for Mists seems to be its huge amount of daily quest content. Dailies are undoubtedly going to be a big deal at level 90. Blizzard has even lifted the daily quest cap that has stood at 25 for several years, so players will be free to do whatever dailies they like across the entire history of the game. Dailies seem like such an obvious and critical element of WoW, but they weren't part of the vanilla game. In this week's Archivist, we'll explore how daily quests began, how they have changed over the years, and how Blizzard is trying to recreate the glory days of daily quests in Mists. WTH is this blue exclamation point? Has a single piece of designed punctuation ever been as famous as WoW's chubby yellow exclamation point? It even has its own merchandise. Believe it or not, the exclamation point was one of Blizzard's biggest innovations when they created the game. No longer did you have to chat with every single NPC in town to figure out which one of them needed a favor -- a staple of RPG games for decades. Now you could tell at a glance which NPCs were willing to pay for a bit of random mercenary work. I remember how odd that first blue exclamation point looked. They had been yellow, after all, for two and a half years. Changing its color seemed like sacrilege. After accepting the quest, it had the word "(Daily)" next to it in my log -- it felt like both a promise and a warning. Daily quests were an exciting new element, but they were not without their critics.
What makes a "good" reputation grind?
Reputation is one of those double-edged swords in World of Warcraft. Speaking as someone who played classic WoW, I find it sometimes odd to see the amount of focus put on gaining reputation with various factions. This is largely because I remember the days when grinding out reputation really didn't get you anything at all in the long run. It wasn't until later in the game that Blizzard introduced the concept of gaining reputation with other races for mounts, and the only way to get that reputation was to turn in ridiculous amounts of cloth. Factions like the Hydraxian Waterlords, the Zandalar, and the Argent Dawn all had their reputations firmly locked hand-in-hand with raiding. But reputations like the Shen'dralar, the Bloodsail ... they had no real purpose at all. When The Burning Crusade was introduced, the idea of factions was reworked. Suddenly you really wanted to gain reputation, because doing so meant you could unlock heroic dungeons or get neat incentives like armor, pets, and tabards. Reputation design has changed drastically since then. Where once you got a tabard as a reward, now you slap one on and grind dungeons to earn reputation as quickly as you can. Different factions have different rewards, and rewards like shoulder and helm enchants are absolutely required if you want to perform optimally. So ... what was the best of the best?
Breakfast Topic: Has the time come for Outland story updates?
After Chris Metzen's seeming joke at BlizzCon concerning the possible reappearance of Illidan in future WoW storylines, it occurred to me that we really haven't seen much of Outland or its storylines lately. Well, maybe that's not fair -- if you're leveling a character between 58 and 68, I imagine you've seen all too much of Outland and are heartily sick of the whole continent and its dungeons by now. Still, The Burning Crusade featured some great stories, and if Illidan ever does come back, there are a few people I hope he'll (metaphorically) drag alongside him. The two that come immediately to mind are the Netherwing Dragonflight and the Ashtongue Deathsworn. What's up with the Netherwing since Deathwing's demise? Do they even know about it or what's happened with the Aspects? And what's going on with Akama now? I'd argue that he, more than Kael or Vashj or Illidan, was the greatest and most compelling character of WoW's first expansion, and he had one hell of a unique model. The brains behind the Ashtongue's high-stakes Batman Gambit (warning: TV Tropes link) has got to be up to something these days, and if Blizzard ever revamps Outland questing, I hope it gives players a peek. Then again, that's assuming that yanking Illidan back from the dead is even a good idea to begin with (is it?) or that Outland stories can be made relevant to their modern counterparts. Thoughts, readers?
Know Your Lore: Lore Q&A-palooza
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. Warcraft has a huge story behind it that stretches back over three expansions and an original MMO, three RTS games, and expansions to those RTS games. It covers novels, comics, manga, short stories, and even books, quests, and items currently found in World of Warcraft. The sheer amount of information out there can be a dizzying, massive pile of stuff to keep track of for the average player. Though Cataclysm's done pretty well with incorporating story and lore into gameplay, there are still tons of question out there left to be answered. Cataclysm doesn't cover everything. That said, this week I decided to mix it up a bit and answer some lore questions from previous posts. To mix it up even more, I also put a call out on Twitter for everyone's burning lore questions. I won't be doing these too terribly often, but if you've got a question that isn't answered in this post, feel free to leave a comment and I'll come back here next time I decide to do a Q&A. Let's get started, shall we? @ericisgame from Twitter asked: How many Old Gods are there currently and how many do you think will be eventually revealed?
Breakfast Topic: That longing feeling
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the AOL guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages. Once upon a time in a distant land called Azeroth, a Night Elf druid was born. This little Night Elf was running around being its level 4 self, exploring the world and its purpleness (Teldrassil being the whole world for a level 4.) A hop skip, and a boat ride away, she found herself in Stormwind, city of the humans. "It's not nearly as purple here as it is back home!" Hardly two steps into the great city when all of a sudden the sky darkened and a deafening screech rose. At first startled and then in awe, the little druid looked up to see the silhouette of a great winged dragon. The best part about it ... it was purple! "I must own that dragon!" She thought. After a quick trip to the internet, the goal was set and the journey began, pushing through 80 levels of dungeons and deaths, beginning the rep grind, and finally obtaining the fruit of the efforts: a netherwing drake. Although I don't play that Night Elf druid as much anymore, I still remember the wonder and awe I first felt when I began playing. Have you had similar experiences? Did you ever have a goal that you once thought was unobtainable? If so, did you prove yourself wrong, or does your goal still elude you?
The OverAchiever: Mountain o' Mounts in Outland
Every Thursday, The Overachiever shows you how to work toward those sweet achievement points. This week, we continue the Mountain o' Mounts grind in Outland with a few notes on BC reputation. If you're catching up with us after last week, we've finished off both The Ambassador and the first leg of Mountain o' Mounts. I have to confess that I approached both achievements from the perspective of a player who wasn't necessarily at the level cap (I've been leveling a goblin priest lately and greatly enjoying the benefits of faction tabards in dungeons), and I completely forgot that the Argent Tournament even existed. Whoops. (Either that, or I've got one hell of a mental block concerning jousting.) This week, we're going to hit the dark portal in pursuit of more mount and reputation achievements. Outland is the single most fruitful continent for getting lots of mounts from a limited set of factions. If you've got the patience to make it to exalted with the three factions that sell transport around this shattered hellhole, you'll have an additional 19 mounts at your disposal. You can bump this up to 21 if you count the two PvP talbuks available from Halaa, but these days you'll probably have to arrange a battle royale in the zone in order to get the kills (and tokens) needed. More on this in a bit. Otherwise, your three targets here are the Netherwing, the Sha'tari Skyguard, and the Kurenai/Mag'har. But first, a brief history lesson for all those of you who joined the game in Wrath of the Lich King and still need to work on your Outland reps ...
Know Your Lore: Sinestra and the Night of the Dragon
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. My master... He continues the work that his progeny began. Though the Black Dragonflight is in the process of dying out, that isn't stopping Deathwing from trying to keep it alive. Sort of. Over the course of Warcraft, Deathwing has been on a very deliberate mission to repopulate the world with dragons of his choosing. During the Second War, Deathwing discovered the location of the Demon Soul, a powerful artifact he created back during the War of the Ancients in order to control the other dragonflights. Deathwing wasn't able to wield the Demon Soul, however -- the other Aspects placed a powerful enchantment on the device so that he would no longer be able to use it. But Deathwing was a very clever dragon and realized this meant he simply had to find someone else to use it in his stead. Through visions, he led a powerful orc from the Dragonmaw clan named Zuluhed the Whacked to the artifact. Zuluhed couldn't decipher how to use the thing, and so he handed it over to his second in command, Nekros Skullcrusher. Nekros then promptly used the thing to enslave Alexstrasza the Dragonqueen.
Manga Review: Shadow Wing Vol. I -- Dragons of Outland
The Dragons of Outland is the first volume of the Shadow Wing series, a sequel of sorts to the tremendously popular Sunwell Trilogy. Written by Richard Knaak and illustrated by Jae-Hwan Kim, it follows the further adventures of the paladin Jorad Mace, and the blue dragon Tyrygosa, or "Tyri" in her elven form, as they travel through the Dark Portal and into Outland. Jorad and Tyri were last seen at the end of the Sunwell Trilogy, saying goodbye to Anveena and Kalecgos as they parted and went their separate ways. Jorad was being given a ride back to confront Arthas by Tyrygosa, who intended to drop him off and then report back to Malygos with the events surrounding Anveena and the Sunwell. The beginning of Dragons of Outland tells a different story however; apparently Jorad was unable to defeat Arthas (no small surprise), and rejoined the paladins of the Silver Hand in an effort to redeem himself from previous transgressions. Tyrygosa ... well it's never really stated whether or not she made it back to Malygos. Instead, she joined the high elf contingent of the army and traveled through the Dark Portal with everyone else, intent on something strange she sensed on the other side.
New Warcraft manga previews available
Warcraft: Shadow Wing, Vol. 1: Dragons of Outland, the new Warcraft manga written by Richard A. Knaak and illustrated by Jae-Hwan Kim, now has a preview available online at BlizzPlanet.com. Shadow Wing follows the continuing story of Jorad Mace and the blue dragon Tyrygosa, who parted ways with Kalecgos and Anveena at the end of the Sunwell Trilogy. Jorad and Tyri meet up in Outland -- and hopefully the manga explains what the two have been doing out on Celestial Ridge all this time, and how Tyri's research eventually ties in to Malygos' efforts up in Northrend. In addition, there is also a preview available for Warcraft: Mage, the second in the series of class-based books that began with Warcraft: Death Knight. Unlike Death Knight, which detailed the untold story of Thassarian, Warcraft: Mage seems to be taking a different route and telling the story of a character as yet unseen in World of Warcraft. Aodhan is a young man who comes from a lineage of paladins and warriors, but finds himself drawn to an entirely different path. While training to become a mage in Dalaran, Aodhan and the rest of the city abruptly find themselves under siege by Malygos and the Blue Dragonflight. Warcraft: Mage is also written by Richard A. Knaak and illustrated by Ryo Kawakami, who has also done work for the Warcraft: Legends series. While the manga novels still aren't available for pre-order, it looks like both novels will be released on June 1, 2010, from TOKYOPOP, and will be available at bookstores across the country.
Know Your Lore: The Netherwing
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. In Azeroth's history, there's a distinct path that dragon evolution follows. First, there are the proto-drakes of Northrend. From these drakes came the other drakes of lower Azeroth, and the five flights that were developed to watch over the world; red, blue, green, bronze and black. The more the game is played out and the longer the story runs, the more we learn about the dragons -- why they're around, what their purpose is on Azeroth. Today, we're going to focus on one of the new flights of dragons, one that didn't see its creation on Azeroth, and instead finds its origins on the planet of Draenor: The Netherwing. The genesis of the Netherwing is an odd story, some of which was explained in the article covering the Black Dragonflight last week. Deathwing the Destroyer, the by-now insane leader of the black flight had made a deal with Teron Gorefiend shortly after the orcs were defeated in the Second War. Gorefiend had been ordered by Ner'zhul to go to Azeroth and retrieve several artifacts of power that Ner'zhul needed to open dimensional gateways to other worlds. By doing this, Ner'zhul hoped to escape Draenor, and the influence of the Burning Legion, for good -- and take his people to another land in which they could begin to rebuild after the staggering losses from the wars, and the orcs corruption. The gist of Deathwing's deal was this -- Deathwing and his black drakes would help Gorefiend find the artifacts he was looking for. In exchange, Deathwing wanted access to the Dark Portal so that he, some of his drakes, and some cargo he had could be transported to Draenor. They would continue assisting the orcs on the other side of the portal as long as the orcs left the drakes, and the cargo, alone. While Gorefiend wasn't sure he trusted Deathwing's motives entirely, the addition of drakes to their fighting forces would make things much, much easier -- and so he agreed.
BlizzCon 2009: Tokyopop creates stories about the little guys
While wandering about the floor at BlizzCon, I stopped over at the TokyoPop Manga booth and spoke a bit with editor Troy Lewter, who we've talked to before.. Currently, the big series they write for the world of Azeroth is the Warcraft Legends series, which is on its 4th volume with a 5th due out next month.Talking with Troy and other members of the Tokyopop team at the booth, what I was most struck with was the passion for the work and the universes of Blizzard's games that they display, and, perhaps more importantly, to the art and stories they tell.Troy laid out three important concepts that they follow in creating the mangas: Telling a solid story, focusing on a few characters, and cross-pollinating with other forms of media.In telling a solid story, the aim is to create the story such that you don't need to rely on the Warcraft world and characters, per se. In short, even if the story wasn't about Thrall or Varian or the Scarlet Crusade or anything else, you could still connect with the characters themselves.
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The Queue: To fly or not to fly
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider's daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today. Starting this week, we have a little change coming to The Queue. Adam Holisky and I will be tag-teaming the column, taking turns writing it each day. Today is me, Alex. Tomorrow is Adam. The day after is me. The day after that is him. I think you get the picture. It'll let both of us do a lot more work on the site as a whole, while still keeping The Queue fresh and awesome. I think it'll work out well!Ezzy asked...Did they remove the ability to buy Ruby Shades from Haris Pilton? I camped them for a while and the never spawned.
Netherwing dailies nerfed
MMO-Champion found small, yet important, undocumented change. The Drop rates for Netherwing Relics and Fel Glands have been increased to 100%. This will significantly shorten the time it takes to do the two daily quests The Not-So-Friendly Skies... and A Slow Death.For those that need their memory jogged, The Not-So-Friendly Skies daily is the one where you have to go around and kill Dragonmaw Transporters. It was, for me, one of the most annoying quests to do in the whole chain. The spawn points always seemed camped, and the previous drop rate was about 50%, give or take.In A Slow Death, you have to poison 12 Dragonmaw Peon Camps. The Fel Glands dropped from any tainted wildlife in Shadowmoon Valley at a previous drop rate of about 25%.Hopefully this will do two things. First, it'll help everyone working their way towards the 100 mount achievement, Mountain-O-Mounts. And secondly, it should help people get their alts a Nether Drake all the faster.
Ask a Lore Nerd: All about dragons
Welcome to Ask a Lore Nerd, where each week blogger and columnist Alex Ziebart answers your questions about the lore and history of the World of Warcraft. Ask your questions in the comments section below, and we'll try to answer it in a future edition.The last Ask a Lore Nerd brought a whole load of Dragon-related questions, likely a result of the huge amounts of Dragon lore we've been given in Wrath of the Lich King. So today, we're going purely Dragon themed, and I'll be hitting a few of the bigger questions. Let's get started! Ves asked...Who are all these humanoids aiding the blue dragonflight? I did the quest where you find out one of them was a Troll forced to work for them under the threat of harm for his family, and I assume some of them are blue dragons taking human form becuase sometimes blowing up the world requires opposable thumbs, but surely they can't all be either dragons or slaves.
Poaching for skins
I have to thank you, other players on my realm. If it wasn't for you, I probably wouldn't have reached 450 Skinning already. Yes, the garbage of dead mobs that you leave behind becomes my profit -- when you leave that worg corpse or the dead drakonid behind, I'm all too happy to run over, skin it, and clean up that little mess you've made, while sticking a little gold in my pocket as well. Matthew is right there with me -- he calls it poaching, though we're both referring not to stealing, but to simply skinning the leftover mobs of all those players before us.Truth be told, I probably poached more than ever down in the mines of Netherwing Ledge -- there were always players killing down there, and what they didn't skin, I did, both for the quest skins and for my own Knothide. But in the expansion, things are even better -- everywhere I go, there are fields of leftover mobs, and even when someone is able to kill a mob before I get there, I hover over them to pick up the skin afterwards.Matthew has put together a list of all the great places to pick up extra skins -- I'll agree that Coldarra is full of poaching options right now, as is Kamagua on the other side of the continent. Grizzly Hills, also, is not only full of creatures to skin, but lots of leftover corpses as people quest across the zone (though odds are that if you keep up on skinning, you'll be 450 by then anyway). Think of it as a service -- we're the garbagemen of the realms, cleaning up your kills so the next can spawn and the circle of loot can go on.
Phat Loot Phriday: The Booterang
I've been grinding as much Netherwing rep as I can lately, and this is definitely the most fun of the quests down there, if not the most fun daily quest ever.Name: Booterang (Wowhead, Thottbot, Armory)Type: Quest itemDamage/Speed: N/AAbilities: Gets Disobedient Peons back up and working again, and fast. As you might expect, the Booterang is a boot you can throw that will come back to you, whereever you are. It's part of the Netherwing rep questline, and involves a daily quest where you must search out Disobedient Dragonmaw Peons on Netherwing Ledge, toss the Booterang at them to give them an attitude adjustment, and then the boot flies back to you (and as you catch it, you do a great fist pump motion). It's great, great fun -- while the bombing daily quests are always a good time, and the Murloc de-mind-controlling on Sunwell Isle always brings a smile to my face, the Booterang is the best. Unfortunately, the Booterang only works on Disobedient Peons on Netherwing Ledge, so using it to knock some sense into raiders who aren't paying attention or battleground members who aren't fighting at the flag is, unfortunately, out of the question. But maybe we'll see an upgraded Booterang in the expansion? There is also a technique called "Booterang chasing" -- you can use the item from your mount, and since an epic mount is required to do the Netherwing quests, you actually move faster than the Booterang can come back to you. Since you can use it 20 times in a row, you can throw out 20 Booterangs at various peons, and as long as you keep moving, you can trail all 20 Booterangs behind you, spinning around you as they try to find their way back. The 'rangs can be trailed anywhere, too, so people can be seen flying around Shadowmoon Valley with a trail of spinning boots behind them. How to Get It: There are lots of Netherwing quest line guides around (including an official one) -- to start the quests, you've got to first have a 300 riding skill, and then you'll have to grind a few dailiy quests until you get to Friendly reputation with the Netherwing Faction (by masquerading as a Dragonmaw Orc grunt). Once you hit Friendly, you'll get upgraded to an Overseer, and with the promotion comes your very own Booterang (which you've got to assemble with a quick quest that requires you to get some Knothide Leather, easily attained on the AH if you're not a skinner, and the hide of Tyrannus, a dinosaur hiding in the northernmost ecodome in Netherstorm).Make your Booterang (the "There are many like it, but this one is yours" inscription, along with the text of the quests, comes straight from the great Full Metal Jacket), and then the next quest requires you to bust some Peon heads. And let me tell you -- after a day of slogging through the Netherwing mines dealing with all those Flayer respawns and fighting with other players over drops and mobs, there is nothing better than slinging a booterang around and telling some lazy orcs to get back to work.Getting Rid of It: Unfortunately, you don't actually get it -- even though you "make" it by getting the mats together, the Overseer who gives you the quest keeps it when you turn the quest in. It sure is fun while you have it (and note to Blizzard: this would be a great leatherworking pattern, especially if you threw a stun or even a debuff on it), but when the quest is gone, so is your Booterang. Until the next day, anyway, when you can do the quest again.
