jandice-barov
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Heroic Dungeon Bosses in 5 seconds
Oh god, oh god, oh god... That really is a giant bug. So, there you are in the Gate of the Setting Sun heroic, on your first run, and a really giant bug comes smashing through the walls. A really giant bug. Really giant. Ugh. You don't want to have to think on your feet, you don't want to have to explain tactics to the panda gently rocking in the corner, or the blood elf running in circles screaming "I can feel them crawling in my hair!" What you need is some five second explanations to copy and paste into chat, that your party can read and execute. And it's OK, WoW Insider is here to help. We've totally stopped freaking out about the giant bug. If you're wondering where the heroic versions of the leveling dungeons feature in this guide, they don't. They're almost exactly the same as the leveling dungeons, for bosses in 5 seconds purposes! Gate of the Setting Sun Striker Ga'Dok: Don't stand in the green. Healers watch for Prey Time and Impaling Strike. His two strafing runs create a wide strip of death from one side to the other. Stay in corners. Tank adds.
Mists of Pandaria: Dungeons and challenge mode
Mists of Pandaria will launch with nine heroic dungeons, four of which were previewed to one extent or another at last week's press event: Temple of the Jade Serpent, the Stormstout Brewery, the updated Scholomance, and the updated Scarlet Monastery. Temple of the Jade Serpent Blizzard is taking a new approach with its introductory dungeon of the expansion. Rather than starting you off in instances that are entirely secondary to the expansion's story arc and saving the dungeons that tie closest to the plot of the expansion for the level cap, the very first dungeon you run in Mists of Pandaria will set the story's tone. The Temple of the Jade Serpent will display the expansion's villainy right up front. The sha, as you've heard by now, are the core external villains in the land of Pandaria. They are the manifestation of negative emotion. The Temple of the Jade Serpent will be your introduction to the sha. The Temple is where, once upon a time, an old emperor of Pandaria beat down the Sha of Doubt and saved the entire empire. Unfortunately, the war that the Horde and the Alliance have brought to Pandaria's shores has rekindled the Sha of Doubt and the temple has fallen under its influence. We did get to tackle the Temple hands-on at the press event, so we can provide a few concrete details about the bosses within and their abilities.
Know Your Lore: Scholomance revisited
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. On a lone island located in the middle of Darrowmere Lake it sits, the remnants of the keep of Caer Darrow. The history of this isle dates all the way back to the high elves of Quel'Danas, who used the site as the location of one of many runestones the quel'dorei used. But the history of this isle has been lost in the face of far more recent history -- the history of the noble Barov family and their downfall, the history of a school dedicated to horrors the rest of Azeroth would rather forget. During the Second War, the ancient site was invaded by the Horde, who took the runestone and broke it into pieces that were taken to create Altars of Storms. And some time after that, the Barov line came to own the property, as well as several others across Lordaeron. The Barovs, however, were not content with their mass amounts of land -- they wanted to make sure they held that land and their fortune for as long as possible. And so they struck a deal with a powerful mage, one who could easily give them all they asked and more ... for a price. The mage's name was Kel'Thuzad.
