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Know Your Lore: The Dragon Soul
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. It was a tiny, small, inconsequential disc. Golden in color, simple in appearance, the talisman was far more dangerous than any could comprehend. Well ... almost anyone. The goblin servants of Neltharion, the Earth-Warder, created the object, and even they weren't truly aware of just how terrible that creation truly was. For the golden disc held not only the power to tear through the Burning Legion; it held the power to control every dragon, every flight in the world -- with the exception of Neltharion, of course. For he would rule them all. The voices told him so and promised him glory above all creatures of the world, mortal or immortal, no matter how insignificant. The Burning Legion was simply an army of pests to be eliminated, as were the kaldorei; the War of the Ancients was a petty squabble marring the glorious moment of his ascension. It was only a matter of time. The Dragon Soul was perhaps the most dangerous creation in existence, and it was held in the claws of a dragon that was most certainly completely insane. Today's Know Your Lore contains some information regarding Thrall, Twilight of the Aspects, the 4.3 5-man dungeons and the Dragon Soul raid. If you're avoiding spoilers, I'd skip this for now.
Encrypted Text: Top rogue gear in patch 4.3
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Encrypted Text for assassination, combat and subtlety rogues. Chase Christian will be your guide to the world of shadows every Wednesday. Feel free to email me with any questions or article suggestions you'd like to see covered here. If you studied my Excel usage patterns, you would be able to easily predict when a new patch is scheduled to drop. As soon as the release date is relatively fixed, I start working on my gear acquisition plan. My rogue takes priority when it comes to gearing up quickly. I'll spend as much gold or as many valor points as necessary to make sure I'm ahead of everyone else. I typically spend my holy paladin's first batch of available valor points on the BoE valor piece for my rogue. Healers don't need gear anyway, right? If I can get my gear faster, my raid will be able to down bosses faster, and I'll get my hands on the Fangs of the Father sooner. It's a win-win scenario, and so when it comes to my rogue, I spare no expense. Please note that there are now three different levels of gear available, with the introduction of the Raid Finder difficulty level. The gear is identical between all three tiers and is simply scaled up or down appropriately.
Spiritual Guidance: Patch 4.3 raid gear for holy and discipline priests
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Spiritual Guidance for discipline, holy and shadow priests. Dawn Moore covers the healing side of things for discipline and holy priests. She also writes for LearnToRaid.com and produces the Circle of Healing Podcast. I've always hated patch day, and not for the reasons you'd think. The servers' being down doesn't bother me, and neither do broken addons or occasional lag. What bothers me is that after spending a few straight months piecing together a good-looking outfit, I'm suddenly forced into a situation where all my gear will inevitably start to mismatch as I acquire upgrades. That's why this upcoming patch is so amazing ... Transmogrification means I can transmogrify my new gear to match what I'm wearing until I have enough pieces to swap over to a new outfit. I know that's not as exciting as transmogrifying all my gear into a cool RP outfit, but after thinking about it for a while, I think I'd prefer to keep all my RP gear in my bags for special occasions. That way they're always special, since people will only see them once in a while. Anyway, a new patch is right around the corner, which means shiny new priest gear is on its way too! In preparation for this, I've made a gear list for priests to reference as we progress into the newest content in the coming months.
Spiritual Guidance: A shadow priest's first look into the Raid Finder
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Spiritual Guidance for discipline, holy and shadow priests. On Wednesdays, shadow priesting expert Fox Van Allen comes from out of the darkness to bask in your loving adoration and grant you one birthday wish ... Let's start off today's column with a question to you, the reader: How did you get your start raiding? Me, I got my start in the PUG raiding circuit of yore. Someone would spam trade chat with their need for one ranged DPS for whatever raid instance happened to be in fashion at the time. I'd whisper them, hoping to snag that elusive slot (and believe me, as a DPSer, that slot was very elusive). Generally, I had no idea what I was doing while in the raids. I knew not to stand in stuff and to target whatever had the skull over its head. I was a pretty lousy PUG raider. Let's face it -- we all were. PUG raids aren't known for their rates of success. Which is why I was intrigued when Blizzard announced its new Raid Finder system, coming in patch 4.3. Could Blizzard have found a way to make PUG raiding ... bearable?
Totem Talk: Procs for elemental shaman in Dragon Soul
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem Talk for elemental, enhancement, and restoration shaman. Josh Myers once only tackled the hard questions about enhancement but has recently expanded his sphere of responsibility to all shaman DPS specs. (And no, two-handed enhancement is still never coming back.) It's official. Arena Season 10 is ending in two weeks, and with it ends the reign of Ragnaros. We raiders will be moving on to bigger and better things, hopefully with a better color palette than endless red and orange. Deathwing's end and the saving of Azeroth as we know it awaits us ... but really, more importantly, so does the chance at more epic lootz. I know rationally that this loot will all be replaced within the first zone of Pandaria, but for the time being, I'm eagerly awaiting the last tier of gear of this expansion. Loot is cool, and Dragon Soul has some of the best gear we've seen this expansion. Trinkets are really some of the most fun items in the game. I hate how aggravating they are to get; I just got Necromantic Focus last night, and I still have nightmares from The Burning Crusade when I ran heroic Magister's Terrace 34 days in a row to try and get a Shard of Contempt. Dragon Soul has some excellent trinkets, and almost all of them look appealing to elemental.
Patch 4.3 PTR: Heart of the Aspects and other new mounts
Patch 4.3 has a new mount we're all very curious about, the Heart of the Aspects. What we're curious about is how we're going to get our grubby little mitts all over it. Is it a heroic Deathwing drop? Or do we get it for completing a raid wide meta-achievement? Is it for killing Deathwing without the aid of the Aspects, the way Mimiron's Head dropped in Wrath? That last one seems unlikely to me, with the way heroic difficulty is accomplished now, but I can't rule it out. Also interesting to note is Experiment 12-B, also new in the most recent data push. What does he look like? Where does he come from? Is it for killing Ultraxion? Another possible meta-achievement mount, as we speculated the Life-Binder's Handmaiden could be? At this time, I have no idea -- but it's new and shiny and I'm sure we'll all want one. We've included the video from MMO-Champion behind the cut, so you can get a look at the Heart of the Aspects mount in motion.
Patch 4.3 PTR: Gear levels revealed for Dragon Soul raid
The newest updates to the patch 4.3 public test realm have revealed the new item levels for gear acquired from the valor point vendors as well as the loot dropped from Dragon Soul bosses. With Dragon Soul, Blizzard is introducing a brand new difficulty tier in raids called Raid Finder, aimed at providing a new difficulty curve for new raiders and players who want to pug these raids. Valor point vendors now have a piece of armor for every slot, mitigating that whole "no shoulders drop except tier shoulders" problem that warriors had this recent patch, among other classes. You will be able to fill every slot with new gear from valor points but will not be able to purchase set pieces. The new gear ilevels for Dragon Soul are as follows: Raid Finder drops ilevel 384 (just a bit better than normal Firelands). Normal Dragon Soul drops ilevel 397 (just a bit better than heroic Firelands). Heroic Dragon Soul drops ilevel 410 (the best around). As with other valor point tiers of gear, the boots and bracers on these vendors will be bind on equip, allowing players to purchase these items with valor points and send them to alts, sell them on the Auction House, or help out a guildmate in need. Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Review the official patch notes, and then dig into what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back!
Patch 4.3 PTR: Raid testing schedule for Oct. 17-18
Blizzard's Daelo has just announced that several patch 4.3 Dragon Soul raid bosses are coming open for testing on the PTR. The bosses are coming fast and furious; hopefully this signifies a near-future release date for WoW's final raid content patch. The first boss (Warlord Zon'ozz) will be available very shortly, so start rounding up guildies for a test run! PTR Raid Testing Schedule - Oct 17/18 Today and tomorrow we're going to try and test the remaining bosses in Dragon Soul on 10 player difficulty. Oct 17 14:30 PDT - Warlord Zon'ozz (10 Player) 16:30 PDT - Hagara (10 Player) Oct 18 10:15 PDT – Ultraxion (10 Player) 11:45 PDT – Warmaster Blackhorn (10 Player) 14:30 PDT – Spine of Deathwing (10 Player) 16:30 PDT – Madness of Deathwing (10 Player) There will be additional testing scheduled in the upcoming weeks including 25 player and Heroic difficulties, both in the morning and afternoon. There will not be any testing during Blizzcon. As always, the scheduling for PTR testing will be VERY fluid. Tests can be announced, canceled, or rescheduled at a moment's notice depending on build and server status, outstanding bugs, etc. I will try to give as much advance notice about tests, but that is not always possible. Also note that these encounters are all works in progress. source Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Review the official patch notes, and then dig into what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back!
"There are no simple solutions" -- Design diversity in WoW
In a recent post on the forums, Bashiok responded to the idea that 1.35% of all WoW players have completed normal Firelands and what that does or does not mean for the recent changes implemented to the raid instance. It's a very interesting and information-filled post that I think deserves a thorough examination, as it reveals elements of Blizzard's current design philosophy and how and why it chooses to alter raids from their initial difficulty levels. I intend to go over the entire post carefully, but here are some highlights to ponder up front: The 1.35% number is just plain wrong. Blizzard has its own numbers that it's not going to share, but the 1.35% is probably as accurate as could be expected without access to Blizzard's internal data gathering. Blizzard's design intent is to make content for all of the playerbase. "It's both a blessing and a curse that the WoW player base is as large and diverse as it is." Players raid for many different reasons, some challenge, others loot, and others just to see the content. Some players are happy if they just see a boss once, while others enjoy weekly clearing. The idea of being willing to wipe a hundred or more times to clear a boss, a staple of the raider mentality for years, is not appealing to most players. OK, so now that we've picked out a few highlights, let's go over the entire post and really consider the implications of designing for as many players as possible.
Patch 4.3 PTR: Dragon Soul raid now available for testing
Testing has begun for Dragon Soul, the raid instance coming with patch 4.3 that culminates in the Deathwing encounter. Lead Encounter Designer Scott Mercer, aka Daelo, posted a schedule today for upcoming raid testing phases for Morchok and Yor'sahj the Unsleeping, two of the pre-Deathwing bosses. Testing starts ... today, actually. Like, really soon. PTR Raid Testing Schedule - Oct 14 And so it begins... Today we're going to try and test a couple of the initial bosses in Dragon Soul. 14:30 PDT - Morchok (10 Player) 16:30 PDT - Yor'sahj the Unsleeping (10 Player) There will be additional testing scheduled in the upcoming weeks, both in the morning and afternoon. As always, the scheduling for PTR testing will be VERY fluid. Tests can be announced, canceled, or rescheduled at a moment's notice depending on build and server status, outstanding bugs, etc. I will try to give as much advance notice about tests, but that is not always possible. Also note that these encounters are all works in progress. source Looks like it's really happening. It's time to slay the dragon. Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Review the official patch notes, and then dig into what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back!
The OverAchiever: Examining patch 4.3's new achievements
Every Thursday, The Overachiever shows you how to work toward those sweet achievement points. This week, all hell breaks loose. Hey folks. The Littlest Pet Shop option was the most popular choice in last week's The OverAchiever: Wrapping up Mountain O' Mounts, but that was before all manner of patch 4.3 goodness was datamined on Tuesday night. I spent the subsequent 24 hours in a caffeine-fueled haze running three characters around the PTR investigating the new achievements for you. I bring tidings of great, albeit currently bugged, joy to you all.
Encrypted Text: Blackfang Battleweave, or Deathwing is the Joker
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Encrypted Text for assassination, combat and subtlety rogues. Chase Christian will be your guide to the world of shadows every Wednesday. Feel free to email me with any questions or article suggestions you'd like to see covered here. Blizzard has been posting previews of the upcoming tier 13 sets, allowing us to see what our new sets will look like visually. When describing the tier 13 set for rogues, Blackfang Battleweave, it was said that the armor is bat-themed. When I think of bats and bat-themed armor, I immediately think of the Caped Crusader. Not to worry, as the preview also claimed that they "were careful to skirt the more obvious inspirations." Oh, that's good news -- so they're not designing our next tier set in such a way that it would warrant a cease and desist letter from DC Comics. The only real similarity between our gear and the Dark Knight's is the pointy cowl; I don't see any shaped abs on our leather tunic. As soon as I let my guard down, the WoW Facebook page posts an image of a rogue soaring through the night air on a pair of dark wings. Our new legendary daggers, the Fangs of the Father, apparently, give us wings. You can't see this picture and not immediately see the resemblance to the Masked Manhunter himself. I can only think of two possibilities: Either I accidentally started playing DC Universe Online at some point without realizing it, or Frank Miller has replaced Samwise Didier as Blizzard's art director.
Patch 4.3 PTR: New loading screens and zone maps
You can't hit a new dungeon without knowing where you're going these days, can you? MMO-Champion has datamined the new loading screens for all three new dungeons, the new Darkmoon Faire, and the Dragon Soul raid, and Wowhead News snapped up maps for all the new instances, as well as some old. The zone maps include not only the new instances and raid dungeons, but a new map for the Vault of Archavon, the Forge of Souls, and Baradin Hold. Baradin Hold seems to indicate we'll be seeing a third boss with this patch. I wonder what will happen to the wandering eyes of Occu'thar? Check out the gallery for a look at all loading screens and maps for patch 4.3. %Gallery-135016% Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Look at what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back!
The MMO Report: Rainbow lightsaber edition
Welcome to another exciting episode of The MMO Report, now with 100% more beard. That's right, the first note on the agenda today is BioWare's announcement that same-gender romance arcs will indeed be present in Star Wars: The Old Republic. BioWare claims that the feature couldn't be implemented at launch, citing time and design constraints. Next up on the list is DC Universe Online's imminent free-to-play transition. Players will be able to choose between playing for free and shelling out for DLC and extra character slots or subscribing to the game with the benefit of expanded character slots and free DLC. Meanwhile, World of Warcraft's patch 4.3 is gearing up for release, and it will bring the end of an era with it. When the patch, titled Dragon Soul, goes live, players will finally be able to bring an end to Deathwing's reign of terror. And of course, with the help of the new Transmogrification system, they'll be able to look dashing while they do so. Dragon Nest is next in line with the announcment of its official launch, and Red 5 Studios announces the inclusion of in-game pets in upcoming MMOFPS Firefall. And of course, no episode of The MMO Report would be complete without a trip into Uncle Casey's mailbag, so for all of the meme-tastic goodness, click on past the cut to watch the full video.
Scott Mercer details Deathwing raid encounter
This evening, Blizzard has released an interview with World of Warcraft's lead encounter designer, Scott Mercer. In this interview, Mercer details the scale of the final showdown with Deathwing and explains just how much work went into making the encounter possible. The Deathwing Raid: Interview with Scott Mercer In World of Warcraft content patch 4.3, players will make their ultimate stand against Deathwing the Destroyer. Almost a year has passed since the corrupted Dragon Aspect burst forth from the Maelstorm to bring the Cataclysm down upon the mortal races. Now the determined survivors from the Horde and Alliance have rallied to unleash vengeance of their own. To prepare for this earth-shattering battle, the Blizzard Insider recently discussed the upcoming Dragon Soul raid with Scott Mercer, lead encounter designer from the World of Warcraft team. Read on for all the epic details. source Since Blizzard offered a spoiler warning before getting into the fine details of the interview, so shall we. There are major spoilers for the Deathwing raid ahead. If you don't want to be spoiled, stop now.
Patch 4.3: Dragon Soul raid preview
We've been hit with a ton of patch 4.3 news today, from previews of all of the new 5-man content to the new loot distribution for tier pieces coming with the next raid encounter. Now, players are given a sneak peek at the raid instance for patch 4.3, Dragon Soul, where heroes from the Alliance and Horde will face off against Deathwing himself. Three difficulties of Dragon Soul will be available out of the gates, including normal, heroic, and the new Looking For Raid difficulty intended to give players an easier time with casual raiding in a new, less severe setting. The raid begins at Wyrmrest Temple, where Thrall has successfully delivered the Dragon Soul that was nabbed out from under Malfurion long ago in the Caverns of Time instance The Well of Eternity. The aspects are all there, ready to deal the final blow. First, however, players face off against six bosses, and then two encounters against Deathwing. The first fight is a mighty elemental, Morchok, who attacks Wyrmrest itself. Players then face off against Warlod Zon'ozz, Yor'shaj the Unsleeping, and Hagara the Binder, all minions of the Old Gods assisting Deathwing in his plans to destroy Azeroth. Ultraxion, a dragon of immense dark energy, will attack players on Wyrmrest, followed by an army of Twilight's Hammer drake riders led by Warmaster Blackhorn. Most interestingly absent is Chromatus, the great five-headed chromatic dragon who first appeared as an enemy in Christie Golden's Twilight of the Aspects and was pegged to be a raid boss in the coming patches. Finally, players will take the fight to Deathwing himself, landing on his back for the first part of his encounter and then attacking him in his final form on the edges of the Maelstrom. I cannot even begin to describe how excited I am for these final raid encounters from Cataclysm. Way to turn up the epic, Blizzard. %Gallery-134345%
Patch 4.3: Blizzard's official preview of the Hour of Twilight heroic dungeon
The last of patch 4.3's time-traveling dungeons now has a preview available on the official website. The Hour of Twilight takes place in present-day Azeroth, where the Twilight's Hammer is putting on a full-scale invasion of Dragonblight. Why Dragonblight? Because that is where the ultimate showdown with Deathwing will begin -- and the Dragon Soul plays a key part in taking the former Aspect of Earth down. Included with the preview are some unsettling images of Wyrmrest Temple crawling with the tentacles of Old God minions, as well as some shots of the surrounding areas. There are three bosses mentioned with the preview: Arcurion, a formidable water ascendant who is tasked with killing Thrall; Asria Dawnslayer, a deadly agent of the Twilight's Hammer; and a third face who should be instantly recognizable to Alliance players. If you want to avoid spoiler content, I'd avoid the preview, but the third boss is a shock for those familiar with him in game so far. Did we mention Thrall? That's right, he's there too, and players must escort him and the Dragon Soul safely to Wyrmrest Temple. I'm having flashbacks to CoT: Durnholde Keep, but they are good flashbacks. From the looks of things, these events tie directly into Thrall: Twilight of the Aspects; those who are wanting to know more about the events in Hour of Twilight should check out that novel. All in all, it looks like the three dungeons are similar to the last three dungeons of Wrath of the Lich King. They tie into the final raid encounter in a crucial way, and the story is interlocked between all three dungeons. Check out the official website for the full preview, plenty of images, and more boss information. Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Look at what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back!
Patch 4.3: Blizzard's official preview of the Well of Eternity heroic dungeon
Today seems to be a huge day for patch 4.3 news, as Blizzard has just released a second 4.3 dungeon preview, this one for the Well of Eternity. After opening the gateway to the past in End Time, players will be transported back in time to Azshara's palace during the War of the Ancients to retrieve the Dragon Soul. Sounds easy enough, right? Yeah, not so much -- the Dragon Soul is busy hovering over the Well of Eternity and being used to open the portal that will allow Sargeras into the world. In order to retrieve the Dragon Soul, players will have to fight and defeat the enemies that stand in the way, including Queen Azshara herself. Also seen in Well of Eternity are two names that should ring a bell to those familiar with lore -- the pit lord Mannoroth, whose blood is responsible for the corruption of the Orcish race, and Varo'then, head of Queen Azshara's personal guard. We already know what happens to Mannoroth and Varo'then in the future, so what will happen if we mess with them in the past? It seems as though all this mucking around in time is something players will have to be considerate of, however. According to Zarhym, "The tragic events which took place at the Well of Eternity must ultimately come to pass, leading to the Great Sundering, the creation of the Maelstrom, and the loss of countless lives." I don't know about anyone else, but I'm looking forward to saying hello to the younger versions of Tyrande, Malfurion, and Illidan. Check out the official website for the full preview, with plenty of images and more information on the various bosses in the dungeon. Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Look at what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back!
Blizzard's Tom Chilton on World of Warcraft's patch 4.3 and beyond
It may be hard to believe, but World of Warcraft's Cataclysm expansion has been out for the better part of a year now. All the while, players have been on a long and arduous adventure to defend the lands of Azeroth from the nefarious Deathwing and his minions. In an interview with Blizzard's Tom Chilton, Joystiq brings to light some details on the dragon's imminent demise as well as a few insights on what players can expect from WoW's patch 4.3: Dragon Soul. Chilton details the upcoming Transmogrification system, which allows players to customize the appearance of their gear by transferring one item's graphic to another. He also discusses the new Void Storage system, which grants increased storage space, with the caveat that any item stored in the void will be stripped of all gems and enchantments. The pièce de résistance of the whole affair is, of course, the final showdown with Deathwing himself. Players will have to traverse three separate five-man instances, which will culminate in a huge battle that doesn't just feature Deathwing as the opponent: He's the battlefield as well. But we don't want to give it all away, so head on over to Joystiq for the full, juicy interview.
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?
