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Know Your Lore: The Pale
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. When the draenei first came to Azeroth, they landed in spectacular fashion, tearing up an island off the coast of Kalimdor. New draenei players are taken on a journey through the wreckage and the mess, picking up the pieces and dealing with the unique effects the crash had on both flora and fauna. Several years later, and it seems the draenei are still doing clean-up work -- although that may be more due to Azuremyst being perpetually stuck in the past for mechanics purposes, rather than story content. Why bring this up? Because it's not the first time the draenei have shattered a world. On Draenor, the new inhabitants of the planet landed in similar fashion, tearing up a great chunk of Draenor's landscape in Nagrand. Both times, the incidents were due to faulty ships -- and both times, the surrounding region was affected. But while Azeroth's torn landscape and blood-tinged skies were obvious demarcations of narrowly-avoided disaster, the landing of the Genedar was viewed as something different entirely to the natives of the world. To the orcs, it was unknown -- and then thought, perhaps, to be a gift from the ancestors. They couldn't be further from the truth. Please note: The following Know Your Lore contains several spoilers for Warlords of Draenor. If you are avoiding spoilers while you are leveling, come back when you've finished Nagrand.
The Queue: Ode to the Frostwall Woodcutter
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. Oh Frostwall Woodcutter, I know not who put you in this game, nor do I understand why you and your brothers are content to do endless rounds of squats rather than toting your lumber to the appropriate building. But I am certain, dear Frostwall Woodcutter, that perhaps you would be more comfortable with a shirt. I mean come on. There's snow on the ground here. Although I do kind of like that whole burly lumberjack thing you've got going on. Zug zug. DavidBaldock asked: Not that I'm concerned about getting to 100, but in a non rushed approach, if I start on Monday and put in say 3 hours a night every night, when should I expect to hit max level? Friday? The following Monday? Just curious. If it's three solid hours of questing and dungeons, I'd say maybe a week to ten days or so, two weeks at most -- and that's mostly if you spend a lot of time fiddling around. Leveling really doesn't feel like an arduous chore this time around. It's fun, and seems to be pretty well-paced. Make sure you park it in your garrison or an inn to get rested XP when you aren't playing, and the process should be pretty smooth and painless. No rushing necessary.
The Queue: Let's do the time warp again
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 spent way too much time yesterday looking at the screen pictured above -- let's hope that won't be the case today, shall we? More importantly, let's answer some Warcraft questions. msphoenyxx asked: Follow up question on the portal thing. Khadgar (and all the mages in Stormshield) can open it from alternate Draenor to our Azeroth in present day. As alternate Draenor is not present day time, how does this work? I'm not familiar with mages having the powers to access time ways. That sounds like a bronze dragon thing. Mages can handle time magic a bit -- Time Warp, after all. It's definitely not just a bronze dragon thing -- although from a speculative standpoint, I think it has less to do with time manipulation and more to do with the fact that they are basically creating a portal home -- making a portal to a place they've never been would likely be pretty difficult. Making one to home? Little easier. But only a little. Khadgar has a tough time with it, at first -- he says as much in the quests.
The Queue: Hipster Grom had Gorehowl when it was cool
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. Seriously. That's what, a level 12 green? What happened there? Did Grom see all the people transmogging to Gorehowl and decide it wasn't cool anymore? "Oh, a Gorehowl. Yeah, I had a Gorehowl once. But then it sold out." TheGreatJacob asks: Q4tQ: Followers question: My husband and I were merrily garrisoning today congratulating each other on our various rare/epic followers when a question came to mind. Are we stuck with what we roll for a follower forever? Say my main gets crap rolls for followers, and my alt gets all epic followers. Are those followers set for the rest of the expansion? I included this question because while I know that your followers level up as you go, getting better at various missions, I honestly don't know if there's a system in place for getting a green follower to go to rare or epic. So I figured this being the Queue, someone will come along and point to a post somewhere that I missed saying exactly that. Then I read the person who responded to you, and they posted a link that in fact answers this question. So thanks, jmlafave85. I was worried my current collection of homicidal axe-wielding lady followers would end up somewhat weak at level 100, but no, they're all going to be epic eventually.
The Queue: Everything I do is a distraction right now
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. Writing this Queue? A distraction. Showering, eating, experiencing the joys of nature? All distractions. My soul longs to be drowned in Draenor. Yet here I am writing this Queue. For love of you, dear WoW Insider readers who are likely currently playing in Draenor instead of reading it. Fie! A pox upon the frailties of my human body, my human brain, that cannot simply be submerged forever into the deep, deep digital waters of Warlords. Anyway, the Queue. I believe in the before times we answered questions here. It shall be so again. Merkavar asks: How many hours from 90-100 you think. I'm not an energy drinking nutter with a 20 step plan for most efficient leveling. My plan is to go fast to 100 the first time then go back for the story etc on my many alts Matt "Matticus" Low is already level 98. So it's reasonable to estimate 10 to 12 hours.
The Queue: Professions, BlizzCon, and Asking Questions
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. I'm back from BlizzCon and fully rested. Let's do this, Warlords! Magruun asked: I don't quite understand the small plots in your garrison. I have Alchemy and Inscription on my character. should I build the buildings for those 2 professions or is it better to pick 2 buildings for professions I don't have? What are the advantages/disadvantages for picking one way or another exactly?
The Queue: In which Scott Leyes is our hero
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'm pretty sure my least favorite moment of every road trip ever was when we checked out of our hotel today and went to the parking garage only to find my car completely lifeless. After some brief panicking on my part and a call to my insurance company followed by an excruciating wait for a repair man who never came, reader Scott Leyes decided to be a big damn hero and swoop in to rescue us. And by rescue I mean jump start my car back to life, at which point we took the thing to an Auto Zone and got a new battery ... just in case. Look, the desert is nice and all, but I don't want to be deserted there. Needless to say it's Been A Day, I'm really tired, and it's time to curl up and answer some Warcraft questions. We still do that around here, after all! Devin asked: I'm curious how many people actually want yearly expansion... I personally don't mind the downtime at the end of an expansion but understand why others do. I think 18-20 months per expansion would be perfect. Any faster than that and you're just paying more for roughly the same amount of content. I think that it depends on what one's definition of an expansion happens to be. Blizzard has kind of defined the word as "a giant block of new content, new levels, new maps, new quests, new races, and anything else we'd like to throw in." That definition is very hard, if not next to impossible, to fill in just one year. And as long as that's the case, we're not going to see it. Personally, I'd be perfectly content if they reduced the definition of the word expansion and what that encompasses, and instead released smaller expansions on a more timely schedule. It's not that I don't like the idea of large chunks of content delivered all at once -- I just don't like the big delays in between those large chunks of content, and I'd be perfectly happy with smaller chunks delivered on a regular basis.
The Queue: Reinhardt is
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. Okay, when I finally get to play Overwatch, I'm absolutely going to play as this man/woman/robot/whatever it is. Just look at it. It's perfect. It's huge, armored, carries a gigantic hammer. Boom. Sign me up. jpec07 asks: So Rossi is on queue duty while the rest of the gang is on vacation to SoCal? That sucks, man, I'm sorry. Q4tQ: I'm going to be picking up my pre-order of Warlords: CE next Thursday/Friday, and it made me realize I have an entirely new opportunity to do a level 90 boost. So queuers, my question to you: What is your favorite race/gender/class/spec combo? If you can, give me three reasons why. Yes, yet again I miss all the previews and games and just all the cool stuff. It has always been this way. As for your question, my actual answer would be draenei male fury warrior. This is why. (I know that's the old model, but if anything he looks better now.) But since I know you want something else, I'll say female undead fury warrior. Roll one, get it a couple of two hand weapons, watch her go. It's mermerizing. The animations are the best. And you get cannibalize, which is gross, but it's helpful while leveling. Also, you'll get to ride around on a bone pony. (My actual #2 is tauren prot warrior, but I figured I'd give you something unusual.)
The Queue: He screamed BlizzCon and then keeled over
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. This column goes live at 11 am on the East Coast of the United States. BlizzCon opens at 11 am on the West Coast of the United States. That means another three hours until BlizzCon. The suspense is killing me. I feel as though I were being crushed in the jaws of a mighty Giganotosaurus. Yeah, okay, I was reaching for that one. It's a Friday Queue, gotta have some dinosaurs in it. Enjoy you screencap from Primeval. If you haven't watch it yet, do. Saph asks: Q4TQ - Having gone back to ICC multiple times these past few weeks, do you ever think we will go back to Icecrown and have more story with Bolvar? With the many 'nearly a setback' baddies out there, returning enemies is clearly a story theme in WoW. It's certainly a possibility. I wouldn't expect it next expansion or anything, but I think the idea of losing the Scourge entirely was too much from a story perspective - the recurring threat of the walking dead is one Blizzard wants to have in the quiver, so to speak. Then again, Sylvanas and the Forsaken could well end up filling that role for the living of Azeroth at this rate.
The Queue: Holding Down The Fort
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. Just sing the title of this Queue to the tune of the song, it'll all make sense. Loremaster asks: I come to you with a decent sized WoW Lore Question. "What major storylines/events happen between Warcraft 3 and Vanilla?" I am having a hard time tracking events. . . any help would be helpful! I have played since BC and for the Light I cannot recall any events of interest between the RTS and MMO. Obviously rebuilt Stormwind (Rise of Difias), Sylvannas enters the Horde. . . but what else? Assuming we don't count the WCIII expansion as between WCIII and Vanilla WoW... For starters, the entirety of Cycle of Hatred takes place in that time period. It's set roughly one year before World of Warcraft. In addition, the scenes in the War of the Ancients trilogy that are set in the 'present day' (the stuff with Rhonin and Korialstraz and Broxigar before they travel back in time) are also set after the conclusion of the Third War, but prior to the MMO. Besides those, we know that at some point the night elves decided they liked the cut of the human's gib and joined the Alliance, probably because the orcs just wouldn't stop cutting down their trees without asking (because the answer would be no), the gnomes ended up in Ironforge during this time period (no gnomes to speak of in WCIII, after all) and joined up with the Alliance. Stormwind was actually rebuilt significantly before Warcraft III. It was mostly intact by the time Warcraft II's expansion Beyond the Dark Portal came out. It just didn't have much of a role in WCIII, because the plague and the Burning Legion never made their way south from Lordaeron. The plague was contained to the north of the Eastern Kingdoms, and the Burning Legion was more focused on getting to Kalimdor and blowing up Nordrassil. From the perspective of Stormwind, what happened was their biggest and most powerful sister kingdom went belly up before they could even react. In a way, it must have seemed like Warcraft I and II all over again, but in reverse - instead of refugees from Stormwind pouring into Lordaeron, refugees from Lordaeron came pouring into Stormwind. That migration and resettlement of Lordaeron refugees into Stormwind (the ones who didn't go with Jaina to Kalimdor and settle in Theramore, which is to say, the majority of them) took some of that four years between the end of the Third War and the start of classic WoW. There's more, of course - the silithid started getting out of AQ during this time period, Onyxia arranged for Varian Wrynn's kidnapping, Nefarian started his awful experiments in Blackwing Lair, Ragnaros was pushing the Dark Irons to get out there and do evil stuff, and Arthas was taking a heck of a nap - more than we could really cover right now. If you go to our lore guide and search for Interbellum you'll find a series of six or seven posts I did covering the period just after the Third War. I linked to the first one to get you started.
Enter at Your Own Rift: Do my bidding, minions!
RIFT: Nightmare Tide is here at last, and the one overriding thought that permeates my every gaming minute is this: I am going to get totally addicted to minions. Heck, I already am. I'll be getting into other aspects of the expansion in coming weeks (spoiler: sidekicking is way tubular), but since this one feature is available to everyone right now and it's completely new to the game, I wanted to discuss minions today. There isn't a lot of information out there on the minion system thus far, which is surprising considering how much I've seen guildmates and general chat buzz on about it. Perhaps it's simple enough not to require detailed explanations, but there's still enough depth to elicit a few questions. So what's the minion system like? How does it benefit players? How much money does it require of free players? What are some good strategies for it? I'm all over this today, so let's get into it!
The Queue: A wild trademark appears! It's super effective!
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. Let's just cover this here, because I think this constant monitoring of the trademark databases is kinda silly. Luminous asked: New Blizzard Trademark registered : "Eye Of Azshara". A new Hearthstone expansion? The next WoW expansion? Blizzard releasing a shooter -- "Call of Duty : Eye Of Azshara"?
The Mog Log: Exploring Final Fantasy XIV's 2.4 dungeons
The first time I ran the new dungeons added to Final Fantasy XIV in patch 2.4, I was kind of surprised. They seemed a lot harder, and I hit more wipes on the way to the end than I had while learning the 2.3 dungeons. After a couple of additional runs, though, I don't think they're really all that bad, just replete with mechanics that are sort of designed to trip groups up and with more than a few nasty surprises. It also helped that I was running with Ninja after the first runs, so that felt more natural. As it's been less than a week since the dungeons were added, it seems like a fine time to give you lovely folks a guide to what's going on in here and what needs to be done. So let's chatter about the new dungeons you'll be running in Expert roulettes for that beautiful poetics armor.
The Queue: Vengeful, Tricksy Ghosts
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 know people who don't like Massive Attack. I've never understood those people. I'm writing the Queue today because Alex Ziebart apparently angered a ghost or something. I'm in Texas and the only person with a Texan accent is the guy who they let into my room. What the hell. - Alex Ziebart (@AlexZiebart) November 2, 2014 Seriously, any tweet Alex made yesterday could be in Alighieri's Inferno. I'm seriously afraid that Alex is being hunted by vengeful, tricksy ghosts. diamondustviil asks: Hm, here's a question for you. My Shaman has a reagent bag for her enchanting stuff. Is there really any reason to keep it around anymore, or should I just get her a good-sized normal bag and throw stuff in the reagent tab as much as possible? Nope, no reason at all to keep that bag. Reagent tab all the way.
Know Your Lore: Five characters to watch for in Warlords of Draenor
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. Warlords of Draenor launches in a little over a week, with a ton of new story and a cast of characters both new and old -- very, very old. Since the expansion's reveal at last year's BlizzCon, we've been covering the major players of the next expansion -- their history in our universe, as well as their history in this alternate version of Draenor we'll find ourselves wandering upon. Each orc clan on Draenor has its own unique history and is led by a distinctive leader, a major name that in most cases, we've been familiar with for years. But those big names and major characters aren't the only people we'll be seeing on Draenor, and by all means they aren't the only characters we should be paying attention to. For every Grommash, Gul'dan, Blackhand, Velen, Khadgar -- the list goes on -- there are other players, not quite as loudly promoted, who have their own place in this Draenor's history. Characters you should be watching out for -- because they've got some pretty interesting story hooks of their own. Please note: The following Know Your Lore contains several spoilers for Warlords of Draenor. If you are avoiding all expansion spoilers, avoiding the article would be advised.
The Queue: I solemnly swear that I am up to no good
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. By the time you guys are reading this, I will have already picked up Alex Ziebart from the airport and we are likely already somewhere in the wilds of Utah on our way to BlizzCon. Thus is the magic of internet scheduling! We'll be up to shenanigans and keeping you all informed during the week. I promise I won't lose him in the desert. His girlfriend would kill me. gazaa07 asked: Q4tQ: Now that pre-Mists raids are soloable to a larger group of people, How far are you into getting the xmog you want to march into Dreaenor with? Oh man. Have I mentioned I filled the entire second tab of void storage as my first act upon logging in in 6.0? I'm set for wardrobe, really.
The Queue: How was your haul?
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. This song has been stuck in my head all night, pretty much! But hey -- how was everyone's Halloween? Did you get a lot of candy? Do you have a lot of leftover candy you didn't give away? I don't get trick or treaters out here in the mountains, so the night has been pretty uneventful. Let's answer some Warcraft questions, shall we? wrathofkublahan asked: Lets pretend I have a ton of herbs in my shiny new reagent tab. On Nov. 13, if I start making flasks; a lot of them, will my alchemy be leveling points? Is it worth the grind? Would you gain points? Some. Is it worth the grind? No. Profession leveling is pretty easy in Warlords, you'll actually be leveling right along as you're questing. No pre-grinding required -- you'd be better served hopping through the portal and just getting started with content.
Chaos Theory: Exploring the Halloween that almost wasn't in The Secret World
Funcom just about blew it. I have cut The Secret World plenty of slack for hiccups and bumps over the years (and I am willing to do so in the future because it just doesn't have an equal in the MMOverse and it does what it does so well), but this last one can't be brushed off. This latest misstep could have cost TSW dearly in good will, patience, and even players. You don't take the holiday that the game is essentially based on and not celebrate it! Luckily, TSW's much-anticipated Halloween event did finally show up, albeit 10 days late -- barely in time for the holiday. I am betting that the delay has cost the company some cash. The build-up to this holiday is a huge part of the excitement; the weeks preceding All Hallows' Eve is the perfect time to get people who are in the Halloween mood to return to the game or dive in and try it for the first time> Not to mention it's the time when folks are more apt to buy costumes! Funcom squandered that. And why the delay, anyway? During my Issue #8 tour last year, Creative Director Joel Bylos teased, "Our Halloween next year is going to be amazing! I wrote it for this year, but we didn't get done in enough time." Wasn't 12 more months enough time? We've been waiting with bated breath! So after all that wait, and then even more, is the event worth it? My answer is...
The Queue: Why does Blizzard hate warriors?
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. Look, as soon as you saw the question yesterday, you knew I was going to answer it. Let's not play games - it's beneath us. MichaelVakian asks: Q4tQ: (age old question) Why does blizzard hate warriors so much? On a side note, maybe it's just me because my main is a frost mage and I have 3 warrior alts. :( Hi, Michael. I'm Matthew Rossi. I've played a warrior a few times over the years. What I'm going to say now may surprise you - I don't think Blizzard hates warriors. However, I'm willing to say the following: Blizzard has not done a fantastic job of keeping warriors balanced over the years. Blizzard nerfs warriors too quickly when they're powerful in outdated content that doesn't matter any more. We saw similar nerfs at the end of Wrath of the Lich King. Warriors get more complaints from other classes when they are strong than any other class. I'm not sure why this is. Should warriors top the DPS meters, there will be wholesale wailing and weeping and gnashing of teeth. Rage is, as it has always been, both a boon and a curse. We have to wait to generate it before we can unleash our best attacks, it often costs too much to do what we need it to do, and yet because it's such a malleable resource it tends to get very good once we're geared to a certain point. Warrior still are weak until they're in the best possible gear. Let's not pretend warriors were weak when 6.0.2 launched. They weren't. Were the nerfs we've seen warranted? No. They were too harsh. Far, far too harsh. But I can't with a straight face sit here and say we didn't have some nerfs coming. However, I also think those nerfs could have waited - there was really no reason to nerf us in SoO content. So in short, no, Blizzard doesn't hate warriors, but it sometimes feels like they're ridiculously quick on the nerf switch when it comes to us.
The Mog Log Extra: Hands-on with Final Fantasy XIV's new Ninja
This week's patch 2.4 for Final Fantasy XIV added in a new class and job: the Rogue and Ninja. It's the first addition to the game since 2.0's Arcanist, Summoner, and Scholar, and as was true with those classes those, this week you could not take two steps outside of Limsa Lominsa without seeing a flurry of Rogues everywhere, thus rather obviating the "stealthy" part of the whole stealthy assassin gimmick they have going. Of course, only a few Rogues reach maturity from their Limsan spawning grounds. But maybe you're in it for the long haul. You want this to be your new main, you want to understand how to play this class in the endgame, and you want to be one of the best darn dagger-wielding maniacs the game has ever seen. I cannot tell you how to be one of the best, but I can at least give you the benefits of my insights from having relentlessly pushed at the class and learned what makes it tick.
