hellfire
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Breakfast Topic: Karma comes around
Elizabeth talked about karma in that fun little guild drama story last week, but karma is even better when it comes not from other players, but from the game itself. Case in point: the_pr0letariat on WoW LJ got laughed at by a Hordie while almost dying to a Hellfire boar, so it made things doubly sweet when a Fel Reaver stomped by a few minutes later and sent the Horde on a corpse run.Likewise, I was almost ganked a long while back while grinding on my rogue in front of Blackrock Mountain-- a gnome rogue tried to take me out while I was fighting with a Lava Spider, but I'd recently pickpocketed a few potions, so I kept the fight going for a little while, long enough to swing the gnome around near the Dark Iron mobs there. Just as he was about to finish me off, three Dark Iron mobs latched onto him, I vanished, and I got to /laugh at him as they beat him down.Have you seen karma come around in the game? Or maybe it's come around on you...
Around Azeroth: The Pools of Aggonar
Reader Paul sends in this nice areal shot of the corpse of Aggonar located in the Pools of Aggonar in Hellfire Peninsula. When the Pit Lord Aggonar died here, his demonic aura quickly corrupted the pools, which were once a sacred site to the Draenei.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%
Blood Furnace boss event now with ExtraHardSauce(tm)
Patch 2.1 had a few hidden surprises for players. Among them is the increase in difficulty of the Broggok event in Blood Furnace.For those of you not familiar with this boss fight, here's a quick overview. Big floating-eye poison-dropping tentacle-waving boss guy can't be touched until you take out four waves of Fel Orcs first. With a mix of elites and non-elites in each wave, these orcs were hard, but not crazy hard. After the last one dies, you can face off against Broggok who isn't as difficult as the orcs before him.The problem with this event is that your group's casters were usually out of mana at the end of the Fel Orc part of the event. Though Broggok isn't crazy tough, he isn't a pushover with zero healing mana available for the fight either. A typical strategy was using some form of crowd control on the last orc in the last wave to allow you group to regen mana before triggering the boss.But with the last patch, the game has a new twist.
Around Azeroth: Warlock and friend(s)
Reader Naury sends in this nifty shot taken shortly after arriving on Hellfire Penninsula. In a world full of incredible demons like Subjugator Shi'aziv here, what Warlock walks around with a boring old succubus, anyway? (Though, okay, the cost of re-enslaving them would be a problem after a while, but it's just the price you have to pay for being the awesomest Warlock in Outland.)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%
Dear Alliance Mage (and three friends)
As I've said many times before, I'm not particularly good at PvP. This is primarily because I generally don't ever take PvP quests, and I avoid the battlegrounds for the most part. But the other night while running around on an alt, I ran across the PvP quest I'd skipped on my main to capture the three posts in Hellfire Peninsula. Since it was 2 AM server time, I figured what the hell (no pun intended) and took the quest. Hellfire seems to be deserted on most days with everyone playing World of Motecraft lately. Surely 2 AM had to be even better for my chances to capture the towers and get away without any trouble! So, I accepted the quest, jumped on my trusty kodo, and hauled my Druid butt out to the first objective. Sure enough. As expected, nobody was around. The Alliance had the flags, so I dropped off my kodo and flagged so that I could "recapture" the Stadium. After waiting a few minutes... *whoosh!* Horde had control! Hooray! Still cautious, I jumped back on my kodo and beelined for The Overlook. Waited a few minutes, and *whoosh!* The second objective had come under Horde control as well! Woot! Still flagged, I hopped back on my kodo and headed for Broken Hill. Almost as soon as I got there, two level 70 Alliance players flew by on their birds. As my Druid is currently level 63, I knew no amount of bear tank weardown would save my noob PvP self from the beatdown they would undoubtedly soon be coming to administer. Nervous, I slid off my kodo and surveyed the area. Good. Nobody else around. Maybe I could finish and get back to Thrallmar! But just as the flag slider on the bar was about to go into the grey area between Alliance and Horde control, the two Alliance players landed and started towards me. They were unflagged, and talking between themselves in that strange Common language. I mentally prepared myself with the certain knowledge that I was about to become a rug...
Hellfire at level 55
A week or so ago, a friendly lock in our guild summoned me out to Honor Hold to train in Enchanting. It appears to be bothering people that this is possible, that we are somehow abusing the system. I don't feel that I am, and in fact I was able to summon an entire group ranging from 51-55 for some Outland fun. We killed boars, a lot of them, and enjoyed ourselves immensely. It's interesting to note that although I cannot pass through into Outland, I am able to go through the Dark Portal into Azeroth. To me this is the sign that what I am doing is not against the design of the game. It's more like that shortcut to UBRS, built into the game for those resourceful enough to find it. I have yet to be able to get a quest, but I get plenty of looks from other players. Most are supportive, and many have helped me survive those times when I managed to attract too much attention from the wandering wildlife. Some have watched me die and laughed at my corpse. It matters not. What matters is that I can level my Tailoring and Enchanting again, I can use all that Netherweave I have been gathering, and I am having the time of my life. I have rediscovered the joys of grinding. I find it a better use of my time grinding the levels until 58 in an environment where the exp gain is so high. It sure beats Silithus and those darn Dredge Crushers.
Around Azeroth: The throne of Kil'jaeden
Reader Eccentricity sends in this amazing overview shot of the throne of Kil'jaeden in Hellfire Peninsula. The area is really only supposed to be accessible by flying mount, but intrepid explorer Eccentricity managed to reach this cliff-top vantage point at level 62. If you decide to take time to visit this scenic spot yourself, beware -- usually you'll find Doom Lord Kazzak waiting here, and neither he nor his minions are particularly fond of visitors.Do you have a unique shot of Azeroth or Outland that you'd like to show off to the rest of the world? Tell us about it by e-mailing aroundazeroth@gmail.com! You can attach a picture file or send us a link to one -- and don't worry about formatting, we'll take care of that part. See more of your pics from Around Azeroth. %Gallery-1816%
Around Azeroth: Whereami?
This isn't the first shot I've seen of a low level player running around Outland (no, players can't go through the Dark Portal before level 58, but they can be summoned by a warlock or ported by a mage at any level), but I think it may be one of the most amusing. Reader Nirun sends in this shot of an amusingly named level one warrior running around -- not in Shattrath City but outside Hellfire Citadel itself! And to the burning question of, "Is there really any place in Hellfire Peninsula a level one player can stand without aggroing half the zone?" The answer, apparently, is yes!Do you have a unique shot of Azeroth or Outland that you'd like to show off to the rest of the world? Tell us about it by e-mailing aroundazeroth@gmail.com! You can attach a picture file or send us a link to one -- and don't worry about formatting, we'll take care of that part. See more of your pics from Around Azeroth. %Gallery-1816%
Does Hellfire Peninsula parallel the Iraq war?
Over at Curmudgeon Gamer there's some speculation that the zone Hellfire Peninsula is meant to be Blizzard's commentary on the Iraq war. And Blizzard is certainly known for making in-game references to pop culture; why in Outland alone you can find Star Wars, Masters of the Universe, Monty Python, Snakes on a Plane (literally!), Star Trek, and Dune, just to name a handful. But usually they restrict themselves to to humor -- their goal, after all, is to entertain, and making you stop and laugh (come on, did anyone not lol at the "Voidwalkers Gone Wild" quest?) is just part of the job. So is Blizzard really making Iraq war references here? Curmudgeon Gamer makes note of the invading army (us: the denizens of Azeroth), the plumes of fire coming out of the ground (oil refinery fires, anyone?), and the Zeth'Gor Must Burn quest which requires you to mark towers in Zeth'Gor for later bombing runs. And then there's this bit of NPC chatter:Marshal Isildor says: Do you think that demons will play fair? These beasts are more savage than orcs and more cunning than the undead.Marshal Isildor says: How many more soldiers need to die before we start paying attention out there?While I see his points, I'm not so certain the zone is meant to be a specific reference to the Iraq war as opposed to trying to catch the feel of a front-line war zone in general. With the Iraq war being the current event of the day, a connection stands out -- but I wonder if the political climate were different would we just connect Hellfire Peninsula to the most recent conflict?
WoW Moviewatch: Dancing Fel Reaver
I'm sure we're all familiar with the Fel Reavers who wander around Hellfire Penninsula. You know, the massive mechanical beasts who stomp around the zone smashing anything in their path? (How could you forget those deaths, after all?) However, apparently smashing innocent players is not their only talent...Previously on Moviewatch...
Up and down, all week long
Well I'd love to give you first impressions of the Burning Crusade, but the only land I've visited is Outlagg. So far, my realm, Thunderhorn, has been all over the place tonight.I started out by taking my Shaman to Outland-- Hellfire Peninsula was up, but lagging so much I couldn't even get off my mount. So I pushed inland, to Shattrath City, where I got my first quest done (the tour of the city is fun and easy, and gives you a little lore, a little XP, and that nice Aldor vs. Scryer decision). Eventually, however, that too was lagged. My friend and I then decided to start up our Blood Elf alts (I'm doing a mage), but while there were plenty of player Blood Elves in the starting area, the NPCs had decided to stay home. It's about then that the world server crashed, kicking us all off.Later I tried to run Hellfire Ramparts, and we started rolling, even as the Outland server crashed (all of our guildies exited the game). Unfortunately, we had a bad pull, and wiped, and then as soon as I released, the server did a "what the??" (because it wasn't there), and kicked me out of the game again. Our instance group is going to try again later.It's too bad, because everything else I've seen of the expansion is terrific-- the lands look great, the story is deep, the music is terrific, and the items are droolworthy (even the few greens that dropped in the instance made us all go "whoah", and we're in Tier 2 sets). If it weren't for the lag, things would be great (and on the less popular servers, things probably are). But considering how many more people are going to be picking up BC and playing this weekend, outlook not good for Outland on the high traffic servers.
Faience's adventures in Outland: Elites? What elites?
I'm sure we're all familiar with the elite quests scattered throughout Azeroth. Or if not familiar with the particulars of each and every one of them, at least aware that there exists such a thing as quests that are flagged "elite" that involve killing more powerful "elite" monsters. Well, in the Burning Crusade you won't be seeing any of those. And, no it's not because Blizzard has decided to remove elites from the game. Instead, Blizzard has dropped the "elite" flag from quests and replaced it with a "group" flag, which I first noticed when questing on my new level 12 Blood Elf. Curious about the above Anok'suten quest, I located a partner and headed out to complete it immediately -- in the end it involved killing a single level 11 elite, surrounded by non-elites of around the same level. I might have been able to solo it -- but the suggested players hint is appreciated.And this trend continues into Outland -- only the elites are a bit bigger.
Faience's adventures in Outland: Welcome to the Cenarion Refuge
I've come through the Dark Portal and fought my way past legions of demons and inward through Hellfire Peninsula... all to get tired of the crowds and almost immediately relocate to the next zone over. That zone, Zangarmarsh, is everything Hellfire Peninsula is not, starting with the color palette. Immediately upon entering the zone, I found myself in Cenarion Refuge, a neutral faction that, no, does not care about that Cenarion Circle reputation you spent so long trying to gain.Lucky for all of us, then, that reputation is more easily gained these days...
Please bear with us...
There really is a story -- perhaps even a funny one, behind all of these awful puns. Occupants of the Hellfire Penninsula in the Outlands, the Fel Reaver is a terrifying sight -- level 70 elites that easily take down lone players in one or two hits. The ground shakes as it approaches and it makes a sound like a train -- but as of the last beta patch, their huge and ominous forms were replaced. With grizzly bear models. As you can imagine, much hilarity has ensued. In the form of countless "bear" related puns...[Thanks, Mordiceius]
