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Know Your Lore: The Scarlet Crusade
Welcome to Know Your Lore, where each week Elizabeth Wachowski and Alex Ziebart bring you a tasty little morsel of lore to wrap your mind around. Sweet, sweet lore. Mmmm.This week on Know Your Lore, we're going to talk about the faction that manages to be one of the most beloved organizations in the game while also being one of the most hated. Whether you love them or hate them, the Scarlet Crusade remains one of the most interesting factions in WoW, and they're attached to the Ashbringer that the WoW community is so fascinated with. Better yet, they return in Wrath of the Lich King.The Scarlet Crusade was founded during the fall of Lordaeron, shortly after the Knights of the Silver Hand had been decimated by the Scourge and largely disbanded. Though its founders did not necessarily have the most sane or noble intentions, many of the men and women who joined their ranks did have only one primary goal in mind. They wished to free Lordaeron of the Scourge in the name of the Light, and crush the undead utterly. Considering those undead brought their homeland (one of the most powerful kingdoms in the world at the time) to its knees and blighted it beyond belief, that was a pretty noble cause.
Breakfast Topic: Silly, unconventional, and amazing dungeon runs
One of my favorite memories of WoW came from a year and a half or so back, when Alex and I were both leveling a pair of DPS Warriors as alts, mine a Gnome female, his a Night Elf male whom he RPed as being absolutely insane and having an unhealthy love of cheese. We had a friend who was leveling a Druid, another who was leveling a Shadow Priest and a third who was leveling a Warlock. So, it seemed on a lot of nights, all 5 of us would get together and take on whatever dungeon was in our level range. We conquered most of the mid-level dungeons once or twice this way, with no tank -- Alex would just charge ahead screaming and pull a bunch of mobs -- and somehow (we were never sure how) we generally killed them while staying alive. Often, neither of us Warriors made a special effort to tank, we just somehow DPSed them to death before they killed us.
Player versus NPC health
A comment left by Argent on my article about the maximum amount of stamina got me thinking. How does player health stack and scale against NPC health? I quoted 17,500 unbuffed health as a good target for maxed unbuffed stamina, which equates to about 22,000 health fully raid buffed (possibly more depending on group, consumables, and talent composition).So, let's take a look at what some mobs are that have around 22,000 to 23,000 health. Remember, this is as much as a fully equipped tier six warrior will probably have in raid. Archaedas, Level 40 Elite, Uldaman Princess Theradras, Level 51 Elite, Maraudon Timmy the Cruel (Timmeh!), Level 58 Elite, Stratholme Live Highlord Omokk, Level 59 Elite, Lower Blackrock Spire Magister Kalendris, Level 60 Elite, Dire Maul West Maleki the Palllid, Level 61 Elite, Stratholme Undead Novice Astromancer, Level 70, Tempest Keep the Eye (pulled in packs around Solarian) Culuthas, Level 70 Elite Demon, Netherstorm If you want to just go by unbuffed numbers, some famous mobs that have around 17,500 health include:
Around Azeroth: The Scarlet rack
Player Naraki of the Battle Royale guild on Trollbane decided to have a little fun on a trip to the Scarlet Monastery. Apparently these racks can be used for more than torturing the unclean. They're also good for taking a quick snooze.Do you have any unusual World of Warcraft images that are just collecting dust in your screenshots folder? Because we'd love to see it on Around Azeroth! Sharing your screenshot is as simple as e-mailing aroundazeroth@wow.com with a copy of your shot and a brief explanation of the scene. You could be featured here next! Remember to include your player name, server and/or guild if you want it mentioned. We prefer full screen shots without the UI showing. And please, no more sunsets. This means you. I'm not kidding, yours is not the exception. No, really. Sigh.%Gallery-1816%
Last few days for Headless Horseman farming
About a week and a half ago, the halls of Scarlet Monastery were packed with more players than they've seen in a long time. Corpses of Horde, Alliance and unwitting Scarlet Crusaders littered the floor when Hallow's End hit the servers and plate-wearers world wide began their obsessive quest to nab the Horseman's Helm. Of course, the warriors and paladins aren't alone in their enthusiasm. Since there are a variety of goodies that can be acquired, it wasn't difficult to find groups to challenge the Horseman the first few days of the event. As players have collected the items they were hoping to get or simply got bored of the encounter, it's become more difficult to find a group to take down the cackling loot piñata. With the real life holiday of Halloween marking the end of its Azerothian counterpart on Wednesday, time is running out to summon the Horseman. Hopefully more people will be online and willing to get a couple more shots at the helm/pet/ring they've been salivating over.Personally, it took me over thirty-five attempts to get the Helm for my warrior, and I have guild mates that are still trying to get the Sinister Squashling. While the drop rates are certainly random, in my experience, these two items are both the most sought after and the least common. While I'd love to get the pet for one of my characters, the grind for the helm was enough for this year.Have you achieved your Hallow's End goals? What are you still hoping to get accomplished?
Zul'Aman and Scarlet Monastery becoming safer for Alliance
Level 70 Elite Tauren guards (not to be confused with L70ETC) have been stationed outside Zul'Aman on the test server. I agree with Elizabeth that the race choice makes no sense, but according to CM Nethaera, the guards (in some form) are there to stay. This is, of course, in response to the overwhelming complaints from Alliance players that have to go to Horde territory in order to try out the new instance.Nethaera also says that they will be implementing a Contested Area around Zul'Aman to further alleviate the unbridled ganking currently occuring there. She says that in the past, they could only flag entire zones as contested, but now they have the ability to change the PvP status of just an area within a zone. This change will be implemented on the PTR first before coming to live servers.They are also going to be surrounding other instances with contested areas, such as the Scarlet Monastery. Unfortunately for the Alliance players currently trying to farm the Headless Horseman, this change will come a bit late. But maybe it will be implemented in time for next year's event.Players have been voicing concerns about changing the areas in lowbie zones to contested. How will it affect the level 10s trying to quest around these new contested areas?
Breakfast Topic: Your Hallow's End goals
With Hallow's End upon us, there is much for the intrepid Trick or Treater to enjoy. Will you be killing the Headless Horsemen for epic rings and Sinister Squashlings? Or riding through Outland on a Flying Broom? Or indulge in the many RP possibilities using masks and illusions? Or will you pass on all the holiday activities because you're too busy learning Zul'Aman on the PTR? Tell us what you plan to do during the two weeks of Hallow's End and why. %Poll-4356%
Epic gear coming to Scarlet Monastery (and elsewhere)
Here's a little change I missed in the midlevel updates notes: Epic gear will now drop for lowbies. Example number one is the Deadman's Hand, which will drop from Arcanist Doan in SM, and has a proc that "freezes" attackers for a full three seconds. Hawt! Eyonix, who's poking around the forums today after a long absence, confirms that the proc will scale with level, which means it'll be basically useless by 70.But still-- Epic gear for lowbies! What is the world coming to? A quick search on Wowhead doesn't bring anything else new yet that I can see (lots of Epic turn-ins and the old World Drops that we already know about), but this can't be the only Epic they're adding to the lowbie dungeons-- I'm sure we'll see lots more pop up as more people test the PTR and the patch eventually goes live.Yes, giving Epics to folks who haven't hit even 50 yet might seem a little strange-- just how epic can a piece of equipment be if a knockover like Arcanist Doan can hang on to it? But it's more than worth it, as even lowbies running instances should have a chance to know what it feels like to loot a boss-- and find some of those tasty Professor Plums.
Totem Talk: So I'm levelling an enhancement shaman again...
Totem Talk is written by a shaman for shamans. What does that mean? Well, it means that Matthew Rossi is currently healing with a level 70 resto shammy, and is leveling up a 47 enhancement shaman as well. In fact, the only reason he stopped playing said shaman to write this column is out of his deep sense of commitment to you. Oh, and they shut down the servers for a couple of hours. But mostly deep commitment to you.I hated my first shaman so much I left him at level 16 for five months.It was hard to figure out for me. I was so used to warriors that I couldn't wrap my head around how to play a mana-using class, especially one that lacked all the abilities I'd grown so used to and dependent on. I tried a mage, a warlock, a hunter and a shaman, and none of them really worked for me. So I gave up on the shaman, and went and rolled up a new tauren warrior and leveled him up post haste so that I could join in on the fun reindeer games on my new horde server. (The server's not horde, but I was horde on it.) Every so often I would try another character... I made a druid and a priest but didn't get that far with them... but in the end, once I hit 60 and with the expansion looming, I decided to go back and give the shaman another try and I discovered the spec that changed everything for me.Enhancement. Say it with me. Enhancement. To make things better. And boy, in my case, enhancement delivered all the better I could possibly have needed. A lot of folks make a typographical error and call them enchantment shamans, and in my case that's apt, because the first time I saw a windfury crit I was indeed enchanted. Rapt, even. One moment I was fighting a hyena outside of Gadgetzan and the next... I wasn't. It fell down. Fell down and went boom, even. I'd had that happen to me in battlegrounds, mind you, but I'd never really imagined that I could do it to others.I admit now, trying to go elemental was a mistake for me. It's an excellent spec, but it's a caster spec. And I, my friends, am not a caster. I am melee in my heart, and so, I needed a melee spec to level. And with dual wielding, weapon enchants like windfury and rockbiter, and totems like grace of air and strength of earth, the enhancement shaman is a melee spec that makes other melee better to boot. How, I ask you, how can you go wrong with enhancement?
Around Azeroth: Arcane Explosion ftw
Reader Marty sends us this shot, showing off the how impressive it can be running through lower-level content at level 70. Here we have a level 70 mage bringing down dozens of mobs in Scarlet Monastery at a time. There's something very satisfying about seeing an Arcane Explosion cause all of your enemies to drop instantly to the ground.Do you have a unique shot of Azeroth or Outland that you'd like to show off to the rest of the world? Tell us about it by e-mailing aroundazeroth@gmail.com! Or perhaps you'd just like to see more of your pics from Around Azeroth. %Gallery-1816%
Collect the whole set!
My little blood elf pally has finally hit 40 and got her free mount, and with it comes a new goal -- collecting the entire Chain of the Scarlet Crusade set from Scarlet Monastery. I probably would have never thought of doing it until I got the only BOP part of the set during my first Cathedral run. Then I got the Aegis of the Scarlet Commander and Herod's Shoulder, and realized that I was starting to look pretty cool. At that point, it became a quest. I knew it would be difficult -- and that I'd even have to go back at 70, most likely -- but I still want to do it. As I write this, I'm off to tag along in Armory with a 70 rogue from my guild who is doing silk farming in hopes of getting the Ravager or the mail helm from Herod. All in all, I only need the helm, chestpiece and boots to look like a real Scarlet Crusader. The tabard would be nice but not necessary. The boots are extremely rare, so I'm either going to have to do a lot of farming or plunk down some money from my epic flying mount fund. But it'll be worth it when I can stand in the lobby of Scarlet Monastery and taunt the Alliance. Hmm, the Ashbringer would also be a nice fit ... Have you ever wanted to collect the full set of something, whether it be from BRD or Naxx? Have you ever bought an item just because it was cool to have it?
Around Azeroth: Scarlet rainbow (of lootable goodness)
Kellhan sends in this shot of a pristine Herod kill in Scarlet Monastery. I'm really not sure you could get it any prettier, unless you actually manage to complete the smiley face of dead Scarlet Crusaders. But until we see a screenshot of that, this one is awfully pretty!Do you have a unique shot of Azeroth or Outland that you'd like to show off to the rest of the world? Tell us about it by e-mailing aroundazeroth@gmail.com! You can attach a picture file or send us a link to one -- and don't worry about formatting, we'll take care of that part. See more of your pics from Around Azeroth. %Gallery-1816%
WoW Moviewatch: Paladinypse Now
Paladin Regis of Sunstrider (EU) offers us this sample of a paladin's abilities at level 70. And while you may believe that Scarlet Monastery isn't the most challenging place to test your skills, I'm not certain which classes, other than the paladin, have the ability to take out the whole instance at once, even at level 70. Warriors could equal them in damage mitigation, but don't have the same AoE options. And mages could certainly best paladins at the AoE game, but probably couldn't take that much of a beating. Am I wrong? You're welcome to prove it with a video of your own!Previously on Moviewatch...
Around Azeroth: Into the cathedral
Reader Joanna sends in this nice view of the cathedral section of Scarlet Monastery. As unfriendly as they are, those Scarlet Crusade fellows know how to decorate, fountain, fish and all. (They probably never meant for adventurers to go wading through their lovely fountain in an effort to avoid aggro from patrols along the sides, but if they didn't want us to do it, they shouldn't have made it so cool and inviting!)Do you have a unique shot of Azeroth or Outland that you'd like to show off to the rest of the world? Tell us about it by e-mailing aroundazeroth@gmail.com! You can attach a picture file or send us a link to one -- and don't worry about formatting, we'll take care of that part. See more of your pics from Around Azeroth. %Gallery-1816%
