Illidan
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One Boss Leaves: Illidan vs. Kael'Thas wrap-up
It should come as no surprise to most of you that Illidan dominated our last round of Two Bosses Enter, winning with an impressive 85% of the total vote. Of course, Illidan is the big end boss of The Burning Crusade, and you'd expect him to be a tough fight. But it's time to say goodbye to Kael'thas, who's leaving our match with a disheartening 13% of the vote: Illidan has certainly won this round, but he's not our champion yet! Check back later for another round of Two Bosses Enter!
Two Bosses Enter: Illidan Stormrage vs. Kael'thas Sunstrider
A new week means it's time for a new edition of Two Bosses Enter, WoW Insider's series of fantasy deathmatches where we pit two raid bosses against each other – and you get to tell us who emerges victorious. Two bosses will enter our arena, but only one will get to leave! We're going to keep pitting boss against boss until we finally emerge with a single victor. This week we'll be judging a fight between two powerful Outland bosses: Illidan Stormrage, the final boss in the Black Temple, and Kael'thas Sunstrider, the final boss in the Eye of Tempest Keep. Curious about what might happen if these two bosses met up? Keep reading!
Guildwatch: The drama trifecta
I never, ever thought this would happen, but apparently people are actually trying to be the biggest Guildwatch drama story now. Someone emailed a tip in hoping that his drama would be highlighted here on the front page, and unfortunately, while his tip was good (a massive PvP battle after a forum flame war), it just didn't match up to this mega ninja/ gquit/ game quit from Barthilas. But better luck next week, drama queens!This week's GW starts right after you click the link below. And don't forget: the place to send all your info about drama, downings, or recruiting notices is wowguildwatch@gmail.com. Onward!
Legendary items come and go too
From time to time players who get (or dream of getting) one of those iconic legendary items, such as the Twin Warglaives that Illidan uses, suggest to Blizzard that they should make these items somehow upgradeable so that they can keep on using them no matter what else happens in the game. On one hand, I can understand their point of view -- getting these items can be a legendary amount of work, and naturally one would want to make the reward last as long as possible. Also, it's natural to cling to the glory of wielding the same incredible weapon throughout your character's life. On the other hand, Blizzard's philosophy is that gear comes and gear goes: you only use whatever gear you have until you find something better, and this applies across the board without exception. Besides, allowing any item to truly scale with the player could create all sorts of logistical problems that Blizzard doesn't want to get into; they'd have to scale the difficulty of getting the items, the difficulty of improving them as you level, and a whole lot of other work they'd rather put into making new items for you to replace your legendary stuff with.Some players seem to rally against this philosophy of constant change. Perhaps they feel as though the effort they put in is worth permanent rewards? Or perhaps they feel like their awesome items are a part of who they are, and their characters just don't feel the same if they have to give them up. For myself, I prefer to keep on upgrading my gear than ever to have one permanent item, since it helps to keep things fresh and interesting.
The claiming of Frostmourne
Blizzard has posted Chapter 2 of their little "Rise of the Lich King" series on the official Wrath of the Lich King website. It's called "The Claiming of Frostmourne," and it covers Arthas' descent into corruption, the razing of Stratholme (remember that place?), and the finding of the sword Frostmourne in Northrend.If you've played Warcraft III, of course, this is all old news, as all these events are actually shown in that game. But if you haven't played Warcraft III (and its expansion, the Frozen Throne), now might be a good time to do so. While the Burning Crusade reflected more old school lore, including the creation of the Orcs and the opening of the Dark Portal, Wrath of the Lich King's history is pretty recent. Yes, Illidan appeared in the expansion, and others in Outland did as well. But since the beginning of Warcraft III, the story has been all about Arthas, and how bad things are done in the name of believed-to-be-good intentions.With the next expansion, it'll be great to finally return to that story. Of course, my favorite part of Arthas' story is actually the scene that comes after "The Claiming of Frostmourne"-- what Arthas does after he obtains Frostmourne and is corrupted by the Lich King. Echoes of that are still heard (literally) in the world of Azeroth today.
Furi of Blood Legion completes Warglaives of Azzinoth
With all this crazy BlizzCon stuff going on, I almost forgot that there's a game everyone's playing. But fortunately I was reminded of it with news that Furi of Blood Legion on the Illidan server has completed the Warglaives of Azzinoth set (possibly making him the only person to wield not one but two legendary items at a time?). Looks amazing.These are of course Illidan's blades, and they both drop from him in the Black Temple. There was a rumor for a while that they could be transformed into one blade, but these blades can't do that-- the combined blade was at one point seen on a GM, or it could be an ability that only Illidan can do. At any rate, it's not like these two need to be combined to be mind-blowingly awesome. Grats to Furi on a world first of the set.Thanks, Derek!
WoW Moviewatch: Azerothian Supervillains, Episode 3 teasers
BlizzCon begins tomorrow, and with it comes the world premiere of Azerothian Supervillains Episode 3! Ian Beckman has crafted it as his entry in the X-Fire Video contest they'll be holding there. Hopefully Episode 3 will be available to those of us who can't attend BlizzCon in person tomorrow too. If you are attending though, be sure to find Ian there and tell him his movies are really funny!While we wait for the real deal, I bring you two teaser trailers to whet your appetite. (Click on the jump below for Teaser 2, or click the following links for Azerothian Supervillains Episode 1 and Episode 2).
Curse joins up with MYM, in both PvP and PvE
Curse has announced that they're throwing their hat in the professional gaming arena with Meet Your Makers, a group that both sponsors and supports PvE and PvP teams. The PvP part of the team, called MYM.PvP, is the "Log" arena team (and they're part of the tourney at BlizzCon later this week), while the "MYM.PvE" group will consist of the Curse guild and their ingame progression.Now, the PvP side of it is hardly new-- we've already seen quite a few teams get picked up by sponsors, and since Blizzard implemented the arena system, we've seen a few teams, most notably Team Pandemic, rise to the top. But the PvE side is very interesting. Curse says that they're going to get a "significant boost to our PR and Administrative capabilities" from the partnership. On first thought, it doesn't seem very profitable to support guilds making progress in-game-- unlike tournaments, there's no monetary prize awarded for being the first guild to down Illidan.But in point of fact, there is a lot of mindshare out there to be grabbed by being the first guild to drop a boss-- players are interested in the kills, and therefore sites like ours are definitely interested in reporting them. Seeing a PvE boss kill "sponsored" by an eSports company like Meet Your Makers might not be that far off.[ via MMO Champion ]
First US Illidan kill
US guild Death and Taxes has managed to snag the US-first Illidan kill and thus finish all available raid content in the game. Their US-first puts them world-sixth, behind European guilds Nihilum, Forte, Last Resort, Curse, and For the Horde. So I'm thinking the process has to go something like this.... Kill Illidan Farm status .... Profit! Regardless of what step three may be, I'd like to congratulation Death and Taxes on their accomplishment!
WoW Moviewatch: Azerothian Super Villains, Episode 2: Kaelzilla
Illidan, Kael'thas and Archimonde are back with their evil plans to make plans of evilness. They have their own website now, and their ambition, if not their intelligence, is growing larger by the day. This time, they turn to an old friend for help in thinking up what to do, and things get... out of proportion. My personal favorite of the villainous trio is Illidan: I love the way his voice actor gets his accent so right, and drops in plenty of running gags and references to other movies.Click here for Azerothian Super Villains, Episode 1.Previously on WoW Moviewatch...
WoW Moviewatch: Nihilum vs. Illidan
You've seen the screenshots. You've debated the impact. Now, you can watch the movie. All 711mbs and 21 minutes of it. It's the world first kill of the bad boy of Patch 2.1, Illidan Stormrage of the Black Temple by European raiders extraordinaire Nihilum.I'm grateful that Nihilum took the time and resources to record this event and make it available to those of us who will never see this content, but 21 minutes? How about a highlight reel? In fact, how about a highlight reel of all the bosses in 2.1 they smacked down cut down to, oh say, 2-3 minutes? Anyone got one of those coming down the pike?
Blizz increases difficulty of Hyjal and Black Temple
Daelo, Blizzard's lead encounter designer, posted today on the forums that they had decided to ramp up the damage of six bosses in Hyjal and Black Temple: Gurtogg Bloodboil, Teron Gorefiend, Mother Shahraz, The Illidari Council, Illidan Stormrage and Archimonde. This contradicts Tigole's earlier statements that the raid game was where they wanted it to be. Daelo also said, "Our intent is not to make the encounters impossible. Even with the increased difficulty, I do expect some of them to be quickly beaten again after guilds experience the changes and adapt." But it's hard to see this as anything other than a slowdown of progression for high-end guilds. There's some discussion about this on the Elitist Jerks forums. What do you think? Image from Nihilum via the Elitist Jerks boards.
The pacing of the new endgame
So Illidan met his match yesterday in the form of Nihilum, which means that since the Black Temple is the last and latest bit of content to show up on the live servers, the game is effectively beaten. That's it. We're done. Time to go home.Didn't that seem a little fast? The original WoW content took a few years to "beat," it seems, and now Burning Crusade (and the 2.1 patch) has been beaten by players in a matter of months. Is the endgame going too fast? From Boubouille's wrapup of the Illidan defeat yesterday, we get this post on the Elitist Jerks forums by Tigole. He says Blizzard is very happy with the way Black Temple is tuned. He also takes a look back at Naxx, and says the Four Horsemen were an example of an encounter that was well-tuned, but players at the time didn't have the gear they needed, so it took much longer for guilds to finish them off. The biggest hole in WoW content right now, Tigole says, is the lack of options after Karazhan for 10 man raids-- but, he says, "we're fixing that." So /cheer for more 10 mans to come.But is the endgame dropping too fast? In my estimation, not at all. In my estimation, Nihilum is not a normal guild. If you're willing to give them the benefit of the doubt on gold buying (and frankly, I am not-- I believe they're cheating), they clearly play the game more than anyone else, driven by both their own determination and the fact that they are basically raiding celebrities in Azeroth. They are the hardcore. And if you're asking me whether hardcore players should finish the endgame content quickly, I'd say they should.Why? Because that means it will be that much easier for casuals to get there, too.
Illidan slain by Nihilum
This should mark an end to this string of world-first posts, and hopefully the poor raiders of Nihilum can get some sleep now. Illidan has now been defeated: the Black Temple is cleared. But how did the fight go? Do you actually kill Illidan, or is it more like the Majordomo Executus fight from MC? At the moment, I don't know, because they haven't uploaded any pictures or information to their site -- no loot, no fight shots, no kill shot. But I'm sure these details will surface soon, and when they do, I'll update this post. For now, I offer one more "congrats" to Nihilum, the current champions of WoW raiding.Update: loot, via World of Raids; apparently there were also 2 Tier 6 chest tokens. Also, if you look at the killshot above (click for a bigger version), Illy certainly looks dead...
PTR: Images of Illidan in the wild
Many of us have been curious to see just how Illidan would look when he was actually in-game as opposed to data-mined from the PTR client and then previewed through the WoW model viewer. Well, several brave souls from the PTR have managed to locate him in the Black Temple and have sent back the above screen shot of the man Night Elf-Demon himself in game. The reports are that he's roughly as tall as Onyxia large, but not overly so, yet extremely imposing when you're standing face-to-err ... hooves. The rumor from the peanut gallery says that when he gets to 20%, he despawns saying only "A terrible and costly mistake you have made. It is not my time, mortals." [via Curse, with a video size confirmation from Ysona]
Five must-see quests at 70
When I finally hit 70 on my main, the last thing I wanted to do was more quests. But lately, after a lot of prodding from guildies and a lot of drooling over the thought of a quest reward Netherwing mount, I've gotten back into questing with my main. And after going at it for a week or so now, I've discovered there are some pretty awesome quests to do even after you hit that final ding in Outland. If you're just getting ready to start questing for gold instead of XP, here's five terrific quest chains you can seek out and work through.(And yes, I do realize that most hardcore players will have already found and completed these chains-- if you know of more fun, rewarding, or cool quests to do post-70, feel free to add them in the comments below.)1. The Cipher of Damnation. This is a loooong, long questline that will get you ready to do The Eye, the 25-man raid in Tempest Keep. It starts off with some solo quests in Shadowmoon, and then takes you through all the Heroic instances in TK. Along the way, you'll use boars to dig for tubers, and puke your guts out going through rotten Arrakoa eggs. Lots of fun. It starts in Shadowmoon Valley's Wildhammer Stronghold if you're Alliance, or Shadowmoon Village if you're Horde.2. Entry Into the Citadel. This questline and the next one are key quests-- they'll finish with key rewards that will let you into endgame dungeons. This questline is the making of the Shattered Halls key, necessary to enter the toughest 5 man in Hellfire Citadel (not every group member needs these keys to enter these instances, just one-- unlike the raid instances). So lots of guildies will love you if you finish these quests, and for this questline, you get to kill a Fel Reaver in the process. The Shattered Halls key questline starts from a drop from Smith Gorlunk, on the Northern Terraces outside of the Black Temple in Shadowmoon Valley.
Tier 6 in motion
By now, you've probably seen the Tier 6 shots (if not, you've got to read Elizabeth's great critiques of them all), but here they are in all of their full-motion glory. Yes, even the Warlock (lol) set. Don't watch this if you're not into spoilers, especially because there's a little surprise at the end... Was it just me, or did the Paladin set just look like weird flat spikes before? Here, you can see it's actually glowy. And it's awesome to see the eyes on the Hunter set blink, although I think that if I ever did get my Hunter to the point where he could wear and obtain those shoulders, all that blinking would annoy me after a while. The Mage's head just looks all pointy. But oh yes, that Shaman set does look awesome. You hear that, guild? We've got to get to the Black Temple... it will be mine.
Illidan says: You are not prepared (for my coolness)
Somewhere out there, one of my guild-mates is about to squeal with glee. For that matter, so am I... if only internally.For you see, buying Collectors Edition Boxed-Set versions of the game, trading card game packs, t-shirts and stickers just isn't enough for my collectable-loving little heart. DC and Blizzard have ensured that I will once again break down into a puddle of "that is SO COOL" in front of my fellow gamer geeks. (Well, okay, maybe only in front of the fellow geeks who happen to frequent my favorite local comic book store, but I digress...)Sure, we knew back in February that the Illidan Stormrage figure was coming out. We even had an idea of the rough look of the statue. And considering the already drool-worthy things we've seen from the DC World of Warcraft line, we knew it was going to have to be cool. But now we have the final picture of what the new figurine is going to look like. Much like the others in the DC figure line, it is truly a (SO COOL) thing of beauty.Mind you, I can't speak for anyone else - or ultimately that guild-mate of mine who is probably noting the December 19th release date even now - but I know what just landed on my holiday wish list!Now if you'll excuse me, I think I'm going to go invest in some earplugs before the squealing starts up over Vent.[Via bowzerblack on the WoW LJ community]
PTR notes: Exalted with Netherwing
Wondering what exactly happens when you get exalted with the Netherwing faction to get that neat flying drake? Joni of Malygos has done the grind on the test realm and has some information for all would-be dragonriders. After pretending to work for (and sabotaging) the Fel Orcs, she had to race six netherdrakes at honored reputation. On the way to exalted, she could complete 9 daily quests for reputation with the Netherwing. Finally, she hit exalted and got her "reward" from the Fel Orcs ... a personal audience with Illidan. Oops. Looks like those magical eyes can see through your disguise, and you'd be pretty much boned if the Netherwings didn't come down and save you. Joni ended up being flown to Shattrath and getting to pick a free netherdrake from a number of available colors. The questline also gave her a nice trinket that summons a netherwhelp as a combat pet! She says the grind will take a non-human about two weeks if you do all the daily quests each day, and she plans on writing up a Netherwing guide to help those of us who are a little less motivated to do the whole thing on the PTR. Congratulations, Joni, and may you fly your dragon proudly through the skies of the test realm.
Model grabs from the 2.1 PTR patch (Updated with Tier 6!)
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gaming_news/Brand_new_WoW_models_from_the_2_1_PTR_patch'; MMO-Champion has already started cracking open the Public Test Realm patch with a model viewer, and he's found some pretty cool stuff, including new weapons models (some of which still look unfinished), what appear to be bosses from the Black Temple (or possibly new models from the other opened areas), and even Illidan and the Druid epic flight form. If you're worried about spoilers, don't-- I'm going out of my way here to keep them from you, but definitely don't click on any of those links, because there are definitely spoilers ahoy.And don't click on the "Continue reading" link below either, because I've put a few of the more pertinent snaps after the jump, along with a little healthy speculation about where and what they're for. MMO-Champion promises more, so check over there to see what else he's put up.
