isle-of-giants
Latest
Patch 5.4 PTR: A glimpse of the Timeless Isle
Patch 5.4 has plenty of new features to offer, but at the present time many of those features haven't quite been released yet on the PTR, including the Timeless Isle. What's the Timeless Isle? It seems to be home to the new pet battle tournament that was discovered, as well as some sort of temporary hiding place or home for the August Celestials as well. You can't access the Timeless Isle on the PTR currently, but Adriacraft has managed to put together some footage of the Isle in detail. The video is after the break. Please note: This post contains possible spoilers for patch 5.4.
Officers' Quarters: 9 new guild activities in Mists
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook. Mists of Pandaria has given us some fantastic raiding experiences -- it's easy to forget just how many activities this expansion currently offers. Much of this new content is either group-oriented or can become group-oriented if you want to make it so. With Mists' third content patch set to go live tomorrow, now is a great time to look at some of the many guild activities that are possible in this expansion. Here are nine ideas that go beyond raiding. 1. Earn your Stormbreaker titles. Some of the achievements for this meta can only be accomplished solo, but many of them are much easier with some help -- and some all but require it. The summoned elites for It Was Worth Every Ritual Stone, for example, mostly require a group to take down. Some classes can't solo Tak'u with all of his powers active if they can't dispel his robust HoT for Our Powers Combined. Ready for RAAAAIIIIDDD?!?ing is rough to solo. It can be accomplished most easily right after a server reset, but with a raid group you skip that hassle. Every roach squished counts for everyone in the raid.
Why head to the Isle of Giants?
Patch 5.2 introduced the Isle of Thunder, but it also introduced some other things to explore. One of these things has some players absolutely mystified -- the Isle of Giants. Located in the northernmost reaches of Kun Lai, the island is home to a never ending stream of giant dinosaurs and the Zandalari Dinomancers that seek to capture them for their own purposes. Why are the Zandalari so concerned with getting dinosaurs? Well, if you've wandered around on the Isle of Thunder or stepped into the Throne of Thunder, you'll see that the Zandalari are pretty keen on enslaving the dinosaurs and using them as mounts, pets, and even raid bosses. The bigger question on the mind of a lot of players, however, is why we should be concerned with the Isle of Giants at all. With no quests, no portals, no lead-ins and no clear defined purpose besides the world raid boss Oondasta, why would we want to spend any extended amount of time on the island at all?
Five reasons patch 5.2 will pull you back into WoW
So you quit playing WoW. That's okay: we understand. All of us here at WoW Insider have been playing the game an awfully long time, and we know it can get old sometimes. Once you've played through all the content and there's nothing but the same dailies and the same raids over and over again... well, there's only so many times you can go through the same content before it starts to lose its shine. We don't judge. However, even if you've moved on to new games, Blizzard's latest content bonanza might be enough to come back to WoW (at least for a little while). So let's talk about why patch 5.2 is worth coming back for. A huge array of new content with Isle of Thunder and Throne of Thunder We'll start with the obvious: patch 5.2 introduces a brand new zone to explore. The Isle of Thunder will unlock in stages as players on your realm complete daily quests (not unlike the Isle of Quel'Danas in The Burning Crusade). Would-be heroes join forces with one of two new factions, The Kirin-Tor Offensive (Alliance), led by Jaina Proudmoore, and Sunreaver Onslaught (Horde), led by led by Lor'themar Theron. And though we know new factions and their associated dailies sound like yet another grind, the new faction quests will at least be fun the first time. And, as with all factions, with reputation comes reward, and we're pretty sure everyone enjoys new loot.
Patch 5.2 PTR: Kill dinosaurs, get fabulous prizes
What's that Isle of Giants all about? Dinosaurs, apparently -- the island is crawling with an assortment of dinos that put Un'goro Crater to shame. But there doesn't appear to be any kind of quest hub on the island as of yet, with one small exception. Hidden in a cave on the western side of the island is a truly monstrous troll who looks like he's seen better days. Dataminers over at Wowhead dug up the details on this strange troll earlier today. Ku'ma is a bone collector. What, exactly, he does with all the bones he collects is unclear -- perhaps he is planning on building one of those fabulous Zandalari boats when he has enough of them. However, you don't really want to ignore Ku'ma or his bone-loving ways, because he has plenty of rewards to offer to those that bring him bones. Lots of bones. What kind of rewards? 10 bones will net you a Mote of Harmony. 100 will net you a Spirit of Harmony. If you get your hands on 1000 bones, you can turn them in for a Spectral Porcupette. And if you have the temerity to gather 9,999 bones ... you're rewarded with a mount. But not just any mount; the Reins of the Bone-White Primal Raptor, which is a dead ringer for the Ivory Raptor from the days of vanilla, long-gone from the game. So just how hard is it to collect these bones? It's not as bad as you'd think. I decided to make a trip to the Isle of Giants to see for myself, and while the larger dinosaurs seem to be pretty daunting, the smaller ones weren't too difficult to solo. Once dead, they dropped four bones -- so gathering isn't quite the painful process that I'd imagined. As it currently stands, getting a mount may take a while. But keep in mind that this is all PTR information, and these amounts may change by the time the patch hits. Regardless of whether or not the amount of bones required is altered, I'm pretty sure I know where I'll be when the patch goes live. Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.
Patch 5.2 PTR: Isle of the Thunder King Preview
With the Patch 5.2 PTR finally allowing access to the Isle of the Thunder King, I logged on both my Alliance and Horde warriors to see what all the fuss was about. Both the Sunreaver Onslaught and the Kirin Tor Offensive are in full swing, with both Lor'themar Theron and Jaina Proudmoore directly leading these opposing forces into battle. There's so much to look at that we had to resort to a massive gallery to even get a little of it for you. After the cut, I'll talk about some of the daily quests and how they play out. %Gallery-175676%
Patch 5.2 PTR zone previews from Wowhead
If, like me, you're stuck waiting for the PTR to download so you can run around exploring the new content of patch 5.2, Wowhead has a gallery of the new zones already up for you to obsessively comb over. These galleries include content from the new scenarios, To The Skies! and Tear Down This Wall. When I was able to get on briefly, I managed to queue up for Tear Down This Wall, but no one else entered and I wasn't able to progress. However, the scenarios take place in an instanced version of the Isle of the Thunder King, which gives you the pictures from the Wowhead gallery. There's a lot to explore, so head over and take a look. Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.
Mysteries of the Isle of Giants and patch 5.2
New maps have been dug up from the patch 5.2 PTR, covering both the new raid and the new zones we'll see in the upcoming patch. One of the maps is for an area called the Isle of Giants -- home to a new world boss, Oondasta. The map, shown above, looks like a mountainous island with a sunken center and the possible existence of tar pits. In fact, it looks a lot like a crater. One that is pretty similar to two fairly substantial craters we already have in game: Un'goro Crater over on Kalimdor, and Sholazar Basin up in Northrend. Given what we've been told so far in regards to the new raid, and how the developers wanted to make something in the style and scope of Ulduar, this raises a few questions. The biggest one being -- what if that similarity to Ulduar isn't just a matter of size and scope?
