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The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Hail and Farewell
Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Care and Feeding of Warriors, the column dedicated to arms, fury and protection warriors. Despite repeated blows to the head from dragons, demons, Old Gods and whatever that thing over there was, Matthew Rossi will be your host. Eleven months ago I wrote this farewell. It says everything I wanted to say about this column - I'm not going to repeat it.But with WoW Insider as a whole in its last days, it felt right to bring back the longest running continuous class column to say something else - to take a look back at the class over the years, to say goodbye to the past and take a look forward into the future. First off, let me say that for the most part, the redesign of warriors in Warlords of Draenor seems to be working out. Arms and fury DPS? Too low.l Arms in general doesn't feel good to play, and any arms warriors saying so are correct - the spec didn't get the overhaul it needed. Or more accurately, it got an overhaul, but it didn't need one, and now it feels like a once grand 1969 Shelby Mustang with half the options yanked off. Fury plays fine, if somewhat boring depending on your talent choices, but it's clear that it still lacks the bite it needs to be a competitive DPS spec. The buffs it received recently have helped, but in my opinion they haven't helped enough. What I'd like to see for DPS in the future is an arms spec that recaptures some of the fun and feeling of the Mists arms warrior, and simply put, more damage in a less spammy format for fury. A big, big hit instead of having to get off three Wild Strikes when they're free. As for Gladiator Stance, it's the hit of the expansion. Everyone loves it. People are raiding as DPS using it, because for quite a while it was head and shoulders above any other DPS spec warriors had. Even after the fury buffs and the change to the talent, Gladiator specced prot warriors are a force to be reckoned with, and it's a huge proof of concept success for designing a tanking spec that can also perform as a DPS spec. So kudos to Blizzard there. Okay, with that out of the way, let's talk about warriors one last time.
The Queue: Let's talk about Fraggles and Warcraft
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Anne Stickney (@Shadesogrey) is answering all kinds of questions today! You know what? I loved Fraggle Rock when I was a kid, and I still do today. When I was a kid, it was all about the music and the story, and as I grew older, it was all about the slow and astonishing realization that a few pieces of felt and a couple of ping-pong googly eyes felt really real. It wasn't the felt or the googly eyes, it was the person operating that device as a vehicle for delivering authentic emotion. More importantly, it was the wide-eyed audience that watched it all and somewhere in their heart of hearts held the little spark of belief that it all was real. Basically what it boils down to is this: You can set the stage and build the parts, but without that genuine exchange between actor and audience, you've got nothing but a shell. Shells are nothing. The rest of it, that's the really amazing part, the part that can't be easily replaced. With that, let's answer some weekend questions, why don't we? BaronoftheLake asked: QFTQ: Where is the Exodar on Draenor? I haven't seen any Draenei ships in Draenor, and I thought that was rather strange. The Exodar was originally one section of Tempest Keep -- but Tempest Keep didn't arrive on Draenor until after it had already shattered into Outland. It's not a draenei ship, it's a naaru vessel -- it's the ship A'dal and the rest of the Sha'tar arrived on. There is one other naaru vessel on Draenor, but it's half-buried in Nagrand and falling apart.
Breakfast Topic: The places you love, the places you hate
World of Warcraft is full of amazing environments where we quest, level, and raid -- but we probably don't hold every in-game locale equal in our hearts. There are dungeons I've only run once or twice, and there are dungeons I've run a hundred times. There are zones I go out of my way to quest through when I'm leveling an alt and there are zones I avoid like the plague (and, no, I'm not just talking about the plaguelands). I'm pretty sure I'm not alone here: we all have our favorite game zones that we return to again and again. Karazhan still tops my personal favorite places list, with a great story, great setting, great music (see above), and some unusual boss encounters that remain memorable even though it's been years since the dungeon was current content. But tell us, readers: what are your favorite (or least favorite) in-game locations? What are the zones you keep gong back to -- and which zones do you escape as soon as possible?
Massively-that-was
I have sad news for the Massively staff and community today, news most of you already knew was coming. This week, we learned our AOL overlords have decided that they no longer wish to be in the enthusiast blog business and are shutting all of them down. This mass-sunset includes decade-old gaming journalism icon Joystiq, and therefore, it includes us. February 3rd, 2015, will be the final day of operation for Massively-that-was.
The Queue: Dinosaurs, Twitter Questions, and a hug
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Matthew Rossi will be your host today. I don't really have a favorite dinosaur. Or it's more like I have so many favorite dinosaurs I can't pick one. And to be honest when I do sit down and think about my favorite dinosaurs, my opinion changes with the research to a degree. At the moment, I'm fond of Deinocheirus with those massive arms. But a lot of people ask me what's the deal with all the dinosaurs, like there's a proper age to like them, and I'm way, way over the limit. So I'll try, just this once, to explain what the deal is with the dinosaurs. They were our superiors. They were better suited to life on Earth than the mammals. This is indisputable. They first arose 231 million years ago during the Triassic, at a time where our own therapsid ancestors were recovering from a mass extinction that nearly wiped out all life on Earth, just as the mammals were starting to evolve. Our ancestors. Us, in potential. And our ancestors, with their highly evolved teeth, with the start of the mammalian body plan that we see today in everything from tigers to dogs to sheep to cattle, lost the competition with the archosaurian dinosaur clans. It's just that simple. For over one hundred and thirty five million years, mammals went head to head against dinosaurs in the evolutionary arms race. And in all that time no mammal larger than a modern housecat thrived. The dinosaurs won. Their dominion was so total that even after the extinction at the end of the Cretaceous, it was birds that first evolved into truly massive predators feeding on our mammal ancestors. So that's it. Dinosaurs are proven winners. They lasted for one hundred and thirty five million years, and they still exist today in the form of birds. And you'll notice that no mammal has managed to push birds out of their aerial niches. So yeah, I like dinosaurs, and I see no reason not to keep liking them for the rest of my life. I realize this was a huge digression, but to be honest, it simply wouldn't have been right for me not to talk about dinosaurs in this edition of The Queue. This edition of the Queue will likely be very, very long. I got quite a few questions on Twitter, and there's 981 comments, so we're going to try and get through as many of those as we can. Sean Boyle asks: Here's one for you Rossi. Why haven't we seen any Naga or Ethereals on Draenor? Naga are native to Azeroth. The ones we saw on Outland were part of Lady Vashj's contingent, pledged to Illidan's service. Etherals are also not native to Draenor, but were cosmic exiles whose native world of K'aresh was destroyed by Dimensius the All-Devouring, and in the process of trying to save their people from his arcane devastation the Ethereals lost their corporeal forms. Neither group was on Draenor thirty five years ago in our timeline, and as a result, they aren't on the alternate Draenor we now explore.
Around Azeroth: Meat for the meat god
Are you ready for some football? This weekend features a certain game that cannot be named without paying the NFL approximately eleventy billion dollars, starring Short Religious Quarterback, Tall Handsome Quarterback, Running Back Who Won't Talk, Cornerback Who Won't Stop Talking, Frozen Caveman Tight End, and Coach Hoodie. Submitter Gizmoto of Gnomeregan Forever on Wyrmrest Accord (US-A) started his game preparation a little early, and now has to figure out how to keep a thousand pounds of meat fresh until Sunday night. Time to call in an ice mage! Want to see your own screenshot here? Send it to aroundazeroth@wowinsider.com. We strongly prefer full-sized pictures with no UI or names showing. Include "Azeroth" in the subject line to ensure your submission dodges email spam filters; if you'd like to be credited, also include your name, guild and realm.
Breakfast Topic: My first character
That's my first character ever, Marketh the warrior from Azjol-Nerub. That's him in his hideous mismatched DPS gear (I was tanking back then, in the Naxx 10/25 days) He's been through several race changes, faction switches, and realm transfers, but he's still around, and I still log on and go on rampages through older content for transmog gear, or a dungeon run or two. And that seems very important today. Are you still playing your first character? Is she or he a main or an alt? And how long have you been playing her or him?
The Game Archaeologist travels to Nexus: The Kingdom of the Winds
I confess that I have a particular fascination for MMOs that came into existence in the 1990s. It's not only the fact that I was oblivious to them at the time (er, wild college days?) but that practically each and every one of them were true pioneers in their own fashion. And while your standard MMO fan might think that there were only three such games in that decade (four, if they are gracious and include Meridian 59), the truth is that there were far more of them. Today we are going to look at one of the most important MMOs to emerge from that time period, Nexus: The Kingdom of the Winds, although its influence was primarily located in Korea while being vastly downplayed in North America. Still, here's a successful MMO that not only beat Ultima Online out of the door by a year but has since won a Guinness World Record for longevity!
WoW Moviewatch: That's the World of Warcraft That You Play
In our revisiting of classic WoW machinima, we couldn't skip Ian Beckman's Weird Al parody, That's the World of Warcraft That You Play. Beckman's made two versions of this, and while the original (from the dark ages of 2006) holds a special place in the nostalgia center of our hearts, this updated version (from the less dark ages of 2013) includes commentary on all of the game's current classes. Despite their age, however, both videos are still surprisingly relevant to gamers today... but, hey, that's just the World of Warcraft that we all play. Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an email at moviewatch@wowinsider.com.
WoW Archivist: 10 years, 10 amazing moments, part 2
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? Reflecting back on 10 years of WoW, I find it hard not to smile and shake my head in disbelief. If someone had told me early in 2004 that a game would be released that year and I'd still be playing it week in, week out in 2015, I never would have believed it. If you missed part 1, I covered world PvP near Uldaman, founding a guild, getting lost in Gnomeregan, earning my Rhok'delar bow, and my first night in Outland. Here are five more amazing moments. 6. The Wrathgate. In the weeks after Wrath of the Lich King launched, one achievement got instant attention in your guild chat: Veteran of the Wrathgate. Those who had already experienced the awesomeness congratulated the player who earned it. Those who hadn't waited in anticipation of that moment (and hopefully remained unspoiled until they did). And those who had just earned the achievement were left saying, simply, "whoa." It's a quest line that deserves its own Archivist column someday, so I won't go into detail about the lead-up to this incredible event. Once you completed it, the cinematic began. Going into it, we thought we knew what Wrath was all about. We thought it would be straightforward: The Lich King attacked us, so the Horde and Alliance would put aside their differences to take him down. No mess, no fuss. Four and a half minutes later, the champion of each faction was (apparently) dead, the Forsaken were in open rebellion, everything was on fire, and we realized that this story would be far messier and more interesting than we thought. Afterward, we gazed over the charred remains on the battlefield and listened to the screams of the dying, shellshocked from this devastating moment. It was over, or so it seemed. But Blizzard had another surprise in store for us a few quests later: the Battle for the Undercity.
The Queue: Archaeology, specs, and a personal note about this column
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Adam Holisky (@adamholisky) will be your host today. A few days ago I was trying to reflect on what my favorite Queue of all time was -- and I think it's the one where I announced my engagement to my wife. First, it was the initial time that I thought to myself, "I really love the community we have here. They're a whole lot better than a lot of the other junk on the internet." Secondly, the post marked such a momentous occasion in my life, and one that I will always hold close to my heart, that it has some major sentimental connotations. Let's jump into the questions, going loudly into that good night. Pvpscrub asked: QFTQ: Is there a catchup mechanism for Archaeology?
Chaos Theory: These are a few of my favorite Secret World things
There's a lot about The Secret World to like. So much so, in fact, that you just can't name it all in once place! I've had to split talking about the best parts of this conspiracy-laden masterpiece into a number of different Chaos Theorys, from my favorite first moments to amazing NPCs to fabulous places to favorite missions. Even Massively's Justin Olivetti chimed in with his favorite characters. But not even that can cover it all. That means today I'll tackle another topic: my favorite things. TSW has a plethora of little gems scattered throughout the game that enhance the play experience and attest to the level of detail put into development. And I'll totally go all Julie Andrews and sing their praises, hilltop or not. I only have so much room, however, so these are my top choices; be sure to add your own in the comments below!
Around Azeroth: Things we lost in the fire
"Wandering around Stormwind during the wee hours of the weekend mornings means you run into the most ... ah ... interesting people," writes submitter Arugadh of The Brotherhood of Iron on Wyrmrest Accord (US-A). "Or trees, in this case. Self-immolating druids, actually, protesting the non-existent AH markets due to the over-abundance of materials. Or maybe they were just drunk and dancing and not noticing they were on fire. You never can tell with druids." Want to see your own screenshot here? Send it to aroundazeroth@wowinsider.com. We strongly prefer full-sized pictures with no UI or names showing. Include "Azeroth" in the subject line to ensure your submission dodges email spam filters; if you'd like to be credited, also include your name, guild and realm.
Breakfast Topic: Your favorite (WoW) things
Though we may all be playing World of Warcraft together, we're not all necessarily playing for the same reasons. Some of us are into PvP, others are only interested in raids, some might love the game's lore, some might only want to collect everything the game offers, and some are just here for the in-game community. Whatever your reasons for playing, whether you're brand new or you've been here since the beginning, they're probably different from your nearest WoW neighbor. Today, let's talk about the reasons we all play. What's your favorite WoW thing, the part of the game that keeps you logging on day after day (and year after year)?
Patch 6.0.3 Hotfixes for January 27
Another round of hotfixes for patch 6.0.3 were released yesterday and posted to the official blog -- including several bug fixes that have been plaguing players for a while now. Plenty of talents and abilities should now be working correctly for several classes, several quests have been adjusted and resolved, and on top of all of that, if you've been missing a certain promised follower, they should be happily ensconced in your garrison now. Good news all around! Players that have completed the quest Primal Fury before the January 21 hotfix should now have either Thisalee Crow (Alliance) or Choluna (Horde) as a follower. All quests should now be awarding XP even if the character is dead at the time that the quest is completed. Swapblaster no longer works while characters are engaged in battlegrounds. Read on for the full list of hotfixes.
The Queue: Twitter Edition
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Anne Stickney (@Shadesogrey) is answering all kinds of questions today! I've had this song stuck in my head for a couple of days, so now you guys get it. Today's Queue is a special Twitter edition, because oh my gosh 1,700 comments and there is no way I'm going to be able to sift through all of that for questions, guys! But let's get to the good stuff, shall we? @WarlockTriqz asked: How do we get that new mount that Blizz announced? Boy I wish I knew! But I really have no idea -- however, the purple color scheme and books/runes on the kitty make me think it might be something legendary quest related. I mean, we have Khadgar, who's all Kirin Tor which is all about the purple and the runes, and we have the Watchers hanging out with him, and they all ride nightsabers, presumably. So maybe something tied into that? Alternatively, maybe a tie-in for Heroes of the Storm, but I'm not sure about that one.
Around Azeroth: The monster in the well
Defender Illona and I were making our usual rounds in my garrison, and when we stopped to smell (and pick) the proverbial roses, one of the ever-present thorns paid us a visit," writes submitter Paladave of Clan Wilkes on Garona (US-A). "Having been denied its pound of flesh, the ankle-biter was not content to merely die and give up its flowery innards. No, these little monstrosities are content with nothing less than poisoning the wells." Want to see your own screenshot here? Send it to aroundazeroth@wowinsider.com. We strongly prefer full-sized pictures with no UI or names showing. Include "Azeroth" in the subject line to ensure your submission dodges email spam filters; if you'd like to be credited, also include your name, guild and realm.
Breakfast Topic: What do you do when you need a WoW break?
World of Warcraft has been running for over ten years now, which is a long time for any game. When we're talking time-spans like that, sometimes you're just going to find you need a break. This doesn't necessarily mean you're leaving for good, but sometimes you just need to shake up your gaming routine and take a break from the daily grind of WoW to avoid burning out entirely. For my part, I took a fairly long WoW-break when Cataclysm came out, but I also took a few weeks off when Dragon Age Inquisition came out -- and I'm likely to skip WoW for as long as it takes me to play through Grim Fandango, too. So today let's talk about our WoW respites. Do you take occasional WoW breaks? Just what do you do with your gaming time away from WoW?
WoW Moviewatch: The Story & History of The Furbolgs
Warcraft goes beyond just World of Warcraft, and nowhere is that more obvious than in the game's lore. Sure, you can find out plenty by questing your way through WoW, but there's a lot you won't find without delving into the older RTS games, the novels, or even more obscure sources. That's what makes Bellular's lore videos so great: they pull together lore from all sorts of sources to tell you new things about in-game elements you though you understood. This video digs into the surprisingly fascinating history of the Furbolgs... with the interesting suggestion that they might be related to the Pandaren. Wouldn't that be an interesting storyline to explore? Only time will tell if Blizzard ever decides to expand on the idea or leave it to collect dust as arcane game history. Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an email at moviewatch@wowinsider.com.
Jukebox Heroes: The quieter side of LotRO's soundtrack
Yes, I'm kind of nuts about the Lord of the Rings Online soundtrack. It could be because I've played this MMO more than most any other at this point, but I like to think that it's also due to a really well-done score that does more for world-building than most soundtracks. Even though I've talked about the soundtrack as a whole, interviewed Composer Chance Thomas, discussed my favorite housing themes, and reviewed both the Riders of Rohan and Helm's Deep scores, there's still more that I wanted to cover. Today, I want to share with you exactly why I love this soundtrack: for the quiet moments. There are a select few tracks that are nearly ambient but are also perfectly immersive. I can't help but get kicked in the feels every time one of these comes on, and I know that for years to come I'll have fond memories of LotRO whenever I play them. Let's get a little mellow and hear the whispers of Middle-earth today.
