caverns-of-time
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Level 70 Elite Tauren Chieftain, now featuring an orphan on Air Guitar
So, with Children's Week upon us, the lore buff in me was wondering something: What's going to happen with Salandria? If you had a high level character Horde last year and did the Shattrath Orphan's Week quest, you know what I'm talking about. Salandria, your Blood Elf Orphan, is a somewhat snooty and stuck up girl who loves to stick her nose where it might not be safe (such as the fire elemental up at the Throne of Elements), but she seems mostly like a normal, if slightly precocious girl. Until she asks to go to Silvermoon and the Caverns of Time.
The Infinite Dragonflight in Stratholme
We hit on this one with Mount Hyjal before, but Ironcog brings up an interesting point: why exactly are we going to be mucking around in the old city of Stratholme via the Caverns of Time? In Escape from Durnholde, we're obviously trying to make sure Thrall gets out of the prison camp, and the Infinite Dragonflight is fighting to stop us and ruin history. Same deal in the Black Morass -- the Infinite Dragonflight is trying to keep Medivh from opening the Dark Portal. But in Hyjal, the dragonflight is nowhere to be seen, and we're basically just time tourists. You'd think the Bronze Dragonflight would want us to stay out of there.Of course, we don't exactly know what's happening in the Stratholme of the past -- maybe the Infinite Dragonflight is causing problems there that we need to stop (or, even better, maybe we'll get to see an as-yet-unknown reason why a Paladin of the Silver Hand, headstrong as he might have been, decided to slaughter an entire town even before he was under Frostmourne's corruption -- maybe there's more to Arthas than we saw in Warcraft III).But hopefully the Infinite Dragonflight storyline will be continued in some way -- mucking about in time isn't exactly safe, so there should be good reasons the Bronze Dragonflight sends us back to these past events. Watching history firsthand is fun and all, but the lore of the Bronze Dragons falls apart completely if they just start opening up theme parks in the past.
Angelista? Who the heck is that?
I've been looking through patch 2.4's loot tables fairly frequently, and just the other night one piece in particular really jumped out at me. Angelista's Revenge. Yes, good ol' Angelista is back yet again.There's no lore or backstory for Angelista, she's not really a lore figure at all. Like Foror and Styleen, Angelista is a just a little plug for a Blizzard employee, or friend/family member of a Blizzard employee. We don't know exactly who she is, but it's fun to see all of the signs pointing to her that crop up. Ahn'Qiraj, Stratholme(see above), Blackwing Lair, and now the Sunwell.Even though I know there's no real lore for Angelista, I have a mind obsessed with story telling, so I started to wonder what she would be like if she was a Warcraft figure. Her name sounds like a Priest, but her equipment definitely isn't priest-like. There's cloth belts in BWL and Mount Hyjal, a melee DPS ring in 2.4, a tanking ring and healing neck in Ahn'Qiraj... the only classes Angelista could possibly be are a very, very confused Shaman, Paladin or Druid.
Insider Trader: Leatherworking, the final stretch
Insider Trader is your inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.If you have ever rolled a druid, rogue, shaman or hunter, it is quite likely that you ended up choosing leatherworking as one of your professions. Because it can be a valuable source of gear for the leather and mail-wearers, it is a common choice. If this is the case, you are going to want to hit 375 skill in order to make your end-game epics. If however, you chose leatherworking as a companion to skinning in order to make money, you will only need to reach about 325. Once there, you will be able to convert any type of skin into its available higher form in order to maximize your profits. Still, leatherworking, like any profession, can be an extremely costly skill to cap. This week, Insider Trader will be taking an in-depth look at some of the best ways to reach 375 from 300. Hop through the break for tips and analysis.
Around Azeroth: The CoT swirl
Waiting for a tank to fill the last slot in his pick up group for Durnholde, player Corvia decided to take a break in one of the swirls in the Caverns of Time. A camera move later revealed a very cool symmetrical pattern with his party in key positions.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. No, really. Ok, only if it's a sunrise in new Patch 2.4 lands. We'll take those anytime.%Gallery-1816%
Tuesday night live!
Live, from Blizzard H.Q., it's Tuesday night!The Blues (official Blizzard forum posters) have given us a few important late night news tidbits, including some new patch 2.4 news. However, they lack the comedy stylings of John Belushi in a bee suit: The World of Warcraft website at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/ will be taken offline for about 90 minutes tonight, starting at midnight PST. There is no reason to suspect this will affect players in the game. On the PTR, Shattrath Flasks will soon work inside the Sunwell Plateau raid instance. Also on the PTR, the transporter to the Caverns of Time will soon require revered reputation instead of exalted. If you notice strange happenings with your sever, you can always checkout the realm status forum on Blizzard's site. And of course, stay tuned to WoW Insider for the latest news.Updated 12:16 a.m. EST: We are getting user reports of Canadians not being able to access either the game or the World of Warcraft website. However, Blizzard has yet to officially comment on this. We'll keep this post updated with anything more we learn.Updated 12:33 p.m. EST: I heard your calls for help! I've written up an article titled Solving recent connection issues, which goes into some details about what you can do, including Blizzard's tech support phone number.
General boards poll reveals the obvious
Friday afternoon, Blizzard employee Bornakk posted a poll on the General boards to find our favorite 5-man dungeon of the Burning Crusade. As you can see in the above image, the Caverns of Time is rocking the charts. I can't say I disagree with the numbers there, they're pretty close to my opinions as well. Old Hillsbrad and the Black Morass offer something that most of the other instances don't: Fast pacing, minimal trash pulls, and a story element. The instances aren't very long, either. Black Morass is what, thirty minutes? These dungeons on Heroic remain difficult and dangerous, adding some new elements to the instance, such as a necessity for speed and stealth when it comes to the patrols in Old Hillsbrad. Some of the other Heroics do this as well, but most of them coast along on 'ow this mob hurts a lot'.
One Shots: Opening the Dark Portal
Reader Furret of the World of Warcraft realm Alleria sends in this shot of Medivh opening the Dark Portal -- a major story in Warcraft lore. In game we can only access this area through the Caverns of Time, where the Keepers of Time allow us to travel to the past, striving to put right what once went wrong. (And whether we're confusing our fantasy worlds with our science fiction worlds or not, that is the premise, more or less.) However, Furret notes an inconsistency with this scene, telling us, "According to lore, Medivh summoned the portal first, then the stone gateway was erected around it. According to this, it happened the other way around." Oops!One Shots lives on a steady diet of your screenshots! Snapped a good screenshot lately? Tired of seeing the same old games featured? Send us shots from your favorite game! It's easy to participate -- just send your screenshots and stories to oneshots@massively.com. %Gallery-9798%
Two Bosses Enter: Kel'Thuzad vs. Archimonde
Two bosses will enter... but only one will leave in WoW Insider's fantasy deathmatch series. We're pitting two of Azeroth's raid bosses against one another in a battle that your votes get to decide -- until in the end we're left with a single boss as the ultimate champion. Be sure to check out our brackets for a full round-up of our ongoing fight schedule!) This week we present Kel'Thuzad, the ominous Archlich of the Plaguelands, and Archimonde the Defiler, the greatest and most ruthless of the Eradar. Who will win no one knows -- because ultimately, it's for you to decide. So read on and voice your opinion!
Around Azeroth: It's a beautiful day!
Reader Buttink of Illidan sends us this shot taken while on his way up Mount Hyjal in the Caverns of Time to kill Archimonde. It's such a perfect sunny day in Azeroth -- clearly the ideal setting for spilling some Eredar blood.Ah, the slaughtering of innocent NPCs -- the reason we all log on every day. Do you have any especially good screenshots of that peaceful moment before the kill? We want to see them 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!%Gallery-1816%
Mass Murder 101: How to be a hero
It's a fact that the majority of what we do in World of Warcraft is kill things. Nearly all the supplementary activities we engage in, from shopping to crafting, are all basically to help us improve the effectiveness of our violent capabilities. Many players have noted that if WoW were at all real, then nearly every one of our characters would be considered a genocidal maniac for all the people and creatures we have killed, and yet we view ourselves as heroes.The idea is, of course, that most of the lives we take are really evil anyway, so we're actually doing the real good guys a favor. We kill tons of demons, ghosts, zombies, dragonkin, giants, and rabid beasts -- even most of the humanoids we kill are bandits or wicked cultists of one sort or another. This way we do lots of killing, but still feel as though we are heroes.There are some situations in the game, however, that turn things around for us, in which our character is not the hero. While there are some higher-level instances such as the Black Morass, or the new Caverns of Time: Stratholme, in which one could argue either way whether what we're doing is good or evil, most of situations in which you are clearly the bad guy, as far as I am aware, have to do with the undead, and to a lesser extent the blood elves as well. Of course, you can argue that in general, undead are just misunderstood, and the blood elves are just tragically misled, but as in the case of quests in Hillsbrad that ask you to go slaughter human farmers, or help develop a new plague, there's really no denying that your character is doing something "morally wrong."
Around Azeroth: Just inside the Caverns of Time
An elaborate sand clock, a brilliantly colored sky (is that lightning?), dragon overhead... yep, this couldn't be anywhere but the Caverns of Time! Thorion of Hydraxis sends in this iconic shot taken of the sand clock just inside the Caverns of Time in Tanaris -- an excellent addition to the collection of anyone playing the "gotta catch 'em all" game with our Azeroth screenshots.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%
Slaughtering? No, it's just burning down houses (with people inside?)
When I first heard about the new Caverns of Time instance coming up in Wrath of the Lich King, where we go about helping the pre-lich king Arthas as he tries to "purify" the city of Stratholme, I heard other people jumping for joy, while I was feeling a bit of dread. When I played through that stage of Warcraft III, I remember that Arthas was already going down the proverbial moral hill, being ruthlessly indiscriminate as to whether the citizens had actually become undead or not. He didn't have much interest in helping them -- even if help was impossible, he didn't have any sympathy or hesitation in his slaughter.I understood that part in the game to show how he was already beginning to fall even before he went to Northrend and picked up Frostmourne. I was pressing the buttons that killed those digital Stratholmians, but I also knew that I was just advancing the plot of a story, even if I didn't approve of the action. If the same scene appears in the Caverns of Time however, then this is not, in my mind, merely advancing the plot. This is my character taking part in activities that I myself would never condone. Slaughtering almost-but-not-yet-undead families feels a little too close to home to me. "They're doomed anyway so might as well slash them to ribbons?" That inhuman attitude is sometimes used in real life to do horrible things, and it's quite chilling.Well, Blizzard CM Bornakk would disagree with me: "Slaughtering is a strong word," he says, "maybe it would be better to say that you are aiding the pround Prince Arthas in Straholme [sic] as he uses his divine Paladin powers to purify the streets of vile evil undead creatures ... and burns down houses." Well, I'm glad not to be hacking defenseless mothers, fathers and children apart myself, but burning down their homes is a serious thing, particularly if the houses to be burned are supposed to have these not-yet-undead families inside of them. For Arthas to do that in the story of his corruption is one thing, but for my character to help him is totally different.Now, admittedly you could argue that one of the existing CoT instances has us helping Medivh open a portal for orcs to come and rampage lots and lots of people, and yes technically that's an evil thing to do. But there's a big step between opening fantasy portals and burning down houses that are supposed to have families inside them. Does anyone else see a problem here? [Also, as a side note, the thread in which Bornakk tells us that slaughtering is a strong word actually begins with a really funny idea for another CoT instance, "Back to the Future," which is worth checking out.]
Killing your grandfather: What happens if you wipe in the Caverns of Time?
The Caverns of Time are a pretty neat place. With the recent announcement of Old Stratholme, we'll get to go back and preserve the timeline through four different events: Medivh's opening of the Dark Portal, Thrall's escape from Durnholde Keep, Arthas's purging of the city of Stratholme, and Azeroth's victory at the Battle for Mount Hyjal. The mysterious Infinite Dragonflight is trying to disrupt the timelines for unknown reasons, and we have to keep things the way they were. But why? Yes, any change in the past will have a ripple effect on the future, bla bla bla, but there are people who would definitely prefer that events went down differently in three of the four CoT instances. Blizzard doesn't show us what happens when we wipe, fail or simply choose not to preserve things in CoT ... so we've had to fill in the blanks ourselves. The Battle for Mount Hyjal: Okay, no one really wants to see history changed for this one. Heck, it even looks like the Infinite Dragonflight may not want to change it, since we see none of their members in the battle. If history was changed ... actually, I'm not sure what the Burning Legion really would do if they won the war. Destroy all the mortal races in their quest to bring chaos to the universe? Enslave all the playable characters and force them to become an invading force for another world? Man, that would be awesome. For the Legion. Not so much for Azeroth. The Burning Legion winning at Hyjal is like a big Game Over sign for the Warcraft universe.
Where would you put a new instance?
I was thinking about Zul'Aman the other day, the incoming 10 man dungeon, if for no other reason than it will probably be the next place my guild goes after Kara: we don't really have enough people to do more than the occasional Gruul or Magtheridon PuG's. (I've actually done more SSC PuG's than either of those, amazingly enough. And I died a lot.) Now, I remembered that some folks are unhappy with Zul'Aman being located in a Horde zone, especially on PvP servers. That then got me to thinking about the announcement from Blizzcon that there would be at least one more five man dungeon before the expansion. I'm not sure if that's been changed by the announcement of an 'Old Stratholme' CoT for level 80 or not, but it all combined in my head and I started wondering where, exactly, they should put a new 5 man dungeon?Obviously you'd want to avoid the issues around Zul'Aman by not sticking it in a Horde or Alliance controlled zone, so Stormwind Vault is probably out unless the Horde gets some kind of teleport or back door. That still leaves a lot of zones available to us, though. With the advent of Caverns of Time instances that look like open, outdoor zones why not open up Azshara Crater? It would be nice to have a reason to go there now that Azuregos isn't really a draw anymore, and we haven't had a Night Elf/Naga instance since Blackfathom Deeps.Heck, maybe the entire zone behind the Greymane Wall could be a giant instance. What's up in Gilneas? There's rumors of Worgen infestations, Naga on their shores, undead in the hills... I'd personally love to get a chance to ride into the place and check it out. Maybe Genn Greymane's insane, a puppet of the Naga, or even a giant Worgen sitting on a pile of bones that used to be his own people? Well, okay, probably not. Still, there's plenty of room for a new instance in either Azeroth or Outland... Winterspring, Felwood, Blade's Edge and Nagrand all lack one, and both Winterspring (with the demons of Darkwhisper Gorge) and Nagrand (with Oshu'gun) even have likely places to put one.So where would you want to go adventuring next? Where would you put a new instance, and what would it be?Edited to add: I'm reminded that Gruul's lair is in Blade's Edge. I meant more five man content, but with a raid in there already, maybe Blade's Edge has enough on its plate. Especially with the Ogri'la quests. Still, an ancient Apexis Ruin could always surface.
Archimonde Hotfixes
Daelo, Lead Encounter Designer, has announced on the forums that the Archimonde encounter in the Battle of Mount Hyjal (Caverns of Time) has been hotfixed in preparation for Patch 2.2. Daelo says: In an effort to apply some of our upcoming 2.2 changes in a more expedited manner, we're hotfixing some elements of the Archimonde encounter. Not every planned change to Archimonde could be hotfixed, the other announced changes will occur with the release of patch 2.2. The following hotfix changes are now live: - Archimonde now casts fear in a bit more consistent manner, roughly every 40 seconds. - Fear's cast time is now 1.5 seconds. - Grip of the Legion now has only a 60 yard range. - Red Soul Charge now only silences players for 4 seconds. The planned changes for Mother Shahraz could not be hotfixed, but we are working to resolve via hotfix the timing issue with Essence of Desire's Rune Shield and Spirit Shock. Working on that fix, we discovered that Rune Shield wasn't actually absorbing any damage. We're also working to fix that error. Since the Rune Shield is normally removed quickly, Essence of Desire still won't get much benefit out of the effect. Mages who Spell Steal the effect will be quite a bit happier, however.I wonder if this means that Patch 2.2 will be coming out in the next couple of weeks. Since VOIP just got implemented on the PTR, I doubt it will be released any sooner. Are you happy with these changes?
WoW Moviewatch: Soloing Durnholde Heroic
In this video, Dysph shows us that anything is possible -- including soloing Heroic Outland content. In this video, Dysph takes out Lt. Drake from Durnholde Keep in the Caverns of Time. And while it takes an hour and a half, I've got to say it's still a huge accomplishment for a single player! But if seeing people tackle content like this single-handedly doesn't interest you, there's also an entertaining little backstory to the movie.Previously on Moviewatch...[Thanks, Mastari!]
Around Azeroth: Me and Medivh
Silverfury of Hyjal sends in this shot of, as he describes it, "me and Med." He continues, " that's how we call each other nowadays." I'm impressed -- I wish I were on a first-name (nickname, even!) basis with Medivh!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%
Child of the Elements
I finally finished the children's week quests on the alliance side, after being quite busy for most of the last week. It's interesting to note how different the draenei girl is from the blood elf that Elizabeth covered earlier. Far from a girl seeming fated to grow up to be a evil-doer of some kind, young Dornaa seems to be a child destined to be a kind and powerful shaman, deeply in touch with the elements.The Exodar's resident Naaru, named O'ros, seems very impressed with her and asks you to have her visit Farseer Nobundo, leader of draenei shamanism, upstairs. She and the Farseer have already met in a dream, apparently! Nobundo is astounded that the child should have such a natural connection to the elements, and says he will petition for her to stay in the Exodar and train under him after you return her to the orphanage. At the Caverns of Time, she is approached by the Wardens of Time (and saved by the great dragon Zaladormu) just like the blood elf orphan, but the feeling of this is quite different in her context, especially since she wants to befriend a dragon someday, not own one like the blood elf. It seems to me as if a great responsibility rests on her at some time in the future, not some great and evil destiny.Does the difference between the Horde and Alliance orphans reinforce the thinking that the Horde really is generally evil (with a few who are good) while the Alliance is generally good (with a few who are evil)? Is that the balance we like? Does Blizzard need to provide more kind hordies and wicked allies?(By the way, if you haven't yet done the Children's Week quests, today [the 29th] is the last day already too late. It seems that Blizzard has once again posted one time on the calendar but gone ahead and cut it off early. Personally, it irks me when this sort of thing happens for no reason -- product delays I can understand, but cutting off a fun event before you promised you would? Grrrr!)
WoW Moviewatch: Archimonde Encounter by Curse
At last, we see a teaser of the final encounter of Mount Hyjal! Curse from Vek'Nilash has gone up against Archimonde to give us a preview of this epic, world-changing battle. They bring attention to a few of his abilities, and particularly how incredibly difficult he is. I can't wait to see what kinds of items he has in store for us! [Thanks, WarcraftMovies.com]
