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The surreal concept of neutrality in Warcraft
Remember the Argent Crusade? It was a result of merging two factions -- the Argent Dawn, which spent its time in the Eastern Plaguelands trying to eradicate the Scourge, and the reformed Order of the Silver Hand, an Alliance order of paladins formed by Uther the Lightbringer and Alonsus Faol. The Argent Crusade accepted members of both Alliance and Horde who wanted to fight toward the Crusade's ultimate goal: the defeat of the Lich King. Today, the Argent Crusade sits in Hearthglen, working to restore the Western Plaguelands to their former beauty. The Argent Crusade is just one of the neutral factions in WoW, along with the Cenarion Circle, the Shattered Sun Offensive, the Earthen Ring and many others. Chris Metzen spoke about the Argent Crusade and the concept of neutral factions in our Mists of Pandaria press event interview, citing the Argent Crusade as one of the neutral factions that just rang true, whereas the Shattered Sun Offensive simply didn't feel quite as emotional. But here's the thing -- the Argent Crusade, while being very active in Wrath, is hardly doing anything at all in the Western Plaguelands. There's a fight for Andorhal going on on the Crusade's doorstep, but they aren't stepping in. The Forsaken -- members of the Horde -- are actively seeking out activities that look suspiciously like Scourge activity, even going so far as to recruit the val'kyr, former servants of Arthas. So ... what gives?
Lichborne: Divining the direction of death knight lore in Pandaria
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Lichborne for blood, frost, and unholy death knights. In the post-Cataclysm era, death knights are no longer the new kids on the block. Let's show the other classes how a hero class gets things done. Let's face it: We had it pretty good in Wrath. Since that expansion was our grand debut, we were everywhere. We had an opening experience where we connected with our origin and found out that our own factions, for obvious reasons, barely trusted us. We were instrumental to the battle in Northrend, doing things other factions wouldn't do, with a clear goal of destroying those who wronged us. We were perfect tragic figures with some robust story and great characters in the form of Thassarian, Crok Scourgebane, and Darion Mograine, among others. In Cataclysm, things have been, to say the least, a little bit sparser. With Arthas dead, do death knights have a purpose in lore anymore, or are we just around because it'd be sort of silly to remove the class and have everyone reroll? I tend to think death knights are still a pretty interesting and dynamic class, story-wise, and this week, we'll look at where we are at the end of Cataclysm and where our story might go in Mists of Pandaria.
Roleplaying plot points for the death knights of the Ebon Blade
All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players. In World of Warcraft, that player is you! Each week, Anne Stickney brings you All the World's a Stage with helpful hints, tips and tricks on the art of roleplay in WoW. Death knights saw their introduction in Wrath of the Lich King, which was the only appropriate point for them to be introduced. Former servants of the Lich King, the death knight class as we see it in World of Warcraft has now broken free of his hold. The death knights that have broken free rejoined with their former comrades, either Alliance or Horde, but not without a struggle. As a class, the death knights are masters of undeath, using unholy, frost and blood powers against any who would stand against them. But for roleplayers, the death knight offers a unique challenge. Here is a character who once had a life filled with hopes, dreams, aspirations and goals just like any other. But that character had his life taken from him abruptly and then found himself brutally ripped back to a mockery of his former self. It creates an interesting space in which one can play with the notion of what might have been, had you not been relegated to an unfortunate fate. The playable death knights of WoW have their own organization, the Knights of the Ebon Blade. It was formed primarily to retaliate against the Lich King, which was taken care of in Wrath. So what are these knights up to today?
Lich King animation found
SPOILER WARNING: There is a spoiler behind the cut. Spoilers, generally defined, are hints or flat-out explanations of events in a story. Therefore, if you were to read behind the cut, you would get a hint or explanation about something happening in the Icecrown raids. I'm just warning you.Zaneosak over on YouTube has put together a video that's pretty much a final conclusion to some things in the Icecrown Citadel in patch 3.3. Is it the final explanation? Well, let's take a look at the video behind the cut and then discuss it.
Ask a Lore Nerd: The 7th Legion is cooler than you
Welcome to Ask a Lore Nerd, where each week blogger and columnist Alex Ziebart answers your questions about the lore and history of the World of Warcraft. Ask your questions in the comments section below, and we'll try to answer it in a future edition.Another day with a load of Northrend questions! I like those sorts of questions, because they're relevant right now, but don't be afraid to ask about older stuff, too! We're going to jump right in today, though.gearwhizz asked...The Scarlets have a new class of Raven Priests who carry Terrok's Shadowstaff, cast shadowy magic and are accompanied by flocks of birds; is there any other connections between them and the Skettis, is it a red herring or should I wait and see?
The Queue: Legendaries are for suckers
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider's daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.What? Me lace a post title with jealousy? I would never do that! Never ever! Okay, okay, maybe there's some jealousy there. Can you blame me? Screw purps, I want me some orange. Orange is where it's at, cat.erogroth asked...I have a question about legendary items. Do we know what Legendary items are planned for WotLK? Are there currently any in the game? If not what are planned for the future or can we speculate? It sounds like Ashbringer will not be a item that a player will be able to get. Is that true? Also, what about upgrade quest for old world legendary items. It seems like so much work went into getting them (Thunderfury anyone?) that it seems a shame that they are worthless.
Ask a Lore Nerd: More Scourge love
Welcome to Ask a Lore Nerd, where each week blogger and columnist Alex Ziebart answers your questions about the lore and history of the World of Warcraft. Ask your questions in the comments section below, and we'll try to answer it in a future edition.We seem to be plagued with Scourge and Lich King sorts of questions lately, but that's to be expected. We're all playing Wrath of the Lich King, so it's far more likely we'll get Scourge questions than, say... Naga questions. I welcome your love of undeath with open arms.Nic asked...What do the tally marks on Highlord Bolvar's shield represent? Battles? Years in exile? One night stands? Or are they there to just look cool?
Scattered Shots: A PvE gem and enchant guide for Hunters
Welcome to this week's edition of Scattered Shots, which is dedicated to shiny things and dust.So by now you've seen our normal dungeon gear guide, our heroic dungeon gear guide, our reputation gear guide, and our holiday gift guide. Between all of them, you should be able to put together a nice solid set of gear that should let you tackle 10-man Naxxramas pretty easily. But grabbing the gear is the easy part. To go the extra mile, you need to grab those gems and enchantments. Let's look at some of the best gems and enchantments you can take along to secure your place in the DPS charts in Naxxramas.
Things that don't annoy me
About half a year ago I wrote the article "Things that annoy me." However, I'm in a good mood tonight:1. The music in Storm Peaks and Howling Fjord, particularly the choral portion of the former. Spooky and haunting and ethereally on edge, like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir had just glimpsed a large angry dinosaur through the window.2. The leather boots available at exalted with the Argent Crusade. Yes, the stats are great, but it's how they look on Tauren that really vaults them into the realm of unbridled win. For all I know, the graphic on female Tauren is a serious bug that programmers are working frantically to correct, but I think that boots on a cow look awesome.3. Dalaran when it's not crawling with people.4. Which is to say never.5. Pretty much everything that High Overlord Saurfang says, does, thinks, or writes for the entirety of the Horde's Wrath storyline.
Wrath 101: Getting your dungeon reputation tabards
Reader Paul K. sent us a query today about how to go about getting each of the champion dungeon tabards available at level 80, and since I'm about to hit level 80 (hopefully will be doing it tonight), I figured I'd do the work so the rest of you don't have to. Wearing these tabards will give you faction reputation for whatever tabard you're wearing in the endgame 5mans, so instead of running Steam Vaults over and over and over for Cenarion Expedition rep (oh man am I tired of that grind), you can just put on one of these, and then run whatever instances you want.There are currently four factions that you can champion in the game, and all of the tabards for each are available at Friendly. So you'll need at least friendly with all of the factions -- Wyrmrest Accord, Knights of the Ebon Blade, Kirin Tor, and the Argent Crusade -- before you go around to pick them all up. Getting there isn't hard at all -- if you've leveled by questing, you should have built up the necessary reputation (the one exception in my case is the Knights of the Ebon Blade -- I'm neutral right now, but I haven't really done any questing in Icecrown yet at all).After the jump, a list of where you need to go to get each tabard.
All the World's a Stage: So you want to be a Death Knight
This installment of All the World's a Stage is the eighteenth in a series of roleplaying guides in which we find out all the background information you need to roleplay a particular race or class well, without embarrassing yourself. Originally I had planned to write about death knights only after I had written about all the other classes, as a way of wrapping up and rounding out this whole series of articles about the lore behind the playable races and classes of World of Warcraft. But then ZuWho posted a comment on my last article specifically requesting me for my thoughts on death knights -- and even used the word "pleeeaase!" So of course I'm always a sucker for such polite requests, especially comments like this with really insightful questions. Today we'll look specifically at these questions and see what possible answers come to mind.To a certain extent, we already covered a number of possibilities for death knight characters about 6 months ago. However, while most of those possibilities are still valid, there was so much we didn't know about the player-character death knight lore at that time, and there are definitely some points that need updating.
Phat Loot Phriday: Vile's Uglystick
I couldn't remember the last time we did a big two-handed mace (or as I like to call them, "facebasher"), so here's something to quest for this weekend, if you're into that sort of thing.Name: Vile's Uglystick (Wowhead, Thottbot, Magelo)Type: Uncommon Two-handed MaceDamage/Speed: 350-525 / 3.30 (132.6 DPS)Abilities: +53 Strength, +80 Stamina Equip: Increases your parry rating by 53. %Gallery-33600%
Insider Trader: Highlights of Wrath crafting, Tailoring edition
Insider Trader is your inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.Wrath of the Lich King has changed many things about the professions we all know and sometimes love. Last week, Insider Trader looked at the highlights of the Leatherworking and Blacksmithing professions, showing you what's new, how to plan out your leveling, and what you can look forward to at what points. This week, Tailoring is up for discussion. There are faction recipes and dropped recipes, as well as highlights from your trainer that you won't want to miss. Here is a quick summary: New and improved exclusive spellthreads for enchanting your pants. A 20-slot bag and a 22-slot bag. A slow flying carpet mount as well as an epic one. Specialty cloth for epic gear. Frost resistance gear. An 8-piece PvP pseudo-set. Exclusive cloak enchants. Special threads that you can sell for a profit. Soul shard and enchanting bags with 32 slots.
Shifting Perspectives: Faction gear for Druids, part II - Argent Crusade
Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting Druids and those who group with them. This week we continue our examination of the faction gear available for Druids in Wrath and have a serious conversation with our aesthetic conscience regarding the hideous Kirin Tor tabard: "Is the tanking staff we get at Revered worth the humiliation of wearing that purple monstrosity?" The answer, dear readers, is no.In the first part, we covered Druid gear available with the Tuskarr, the Alliance Vanguard/Horde Expedition, Wyrmrest Accord, Kirin Tor, and Oracles/Frenzyheart. This week, we're going to finish with a look at the Knights of the Ebon Blade, the Argent Crusade, and the Sons of Hodir. You're unlikely to encounter any of these three factions while leveling between 70 and 74, but all three figure prominently in mid to late '70's leveling. Read on for the last three factions, but if you want a quick set of links to each individual faction, here you go: Kalu'ak and Horde Expedition/Alliance Vanguard Guide Wyrmrest Accord and the Kirin Tor Guide The Frenzyhearts and the Oracles Guide The Argent Crusade Guide The Knights of the Ebon Blade and Sons of Hodir Guide
Scattered Shots: Normal dungeon gear for Hunters in Wrath of the Lich King
Welcome to Scattered Shots, the weekly Hunter column where we could really use a plane to head back to Shattrath and pick up more ammo since we haven't bummed a teleport to Dalaran yet. So. You've breezed past the early 70s. You've checked out the reputation gear for Hunters, and now you're ready to grind. So you've picked up your tabard, and you realize that you still have a question left to answer: Which dungeon should I run? What dungeon has the gear I need to get suited up and ready to run Heroics? Scattered Shots is here to help. We're going to look at some of the best pre-Heroic drops for Hunters in Wrath, and hopefully give you some idea of what way to go when you look for your next dungeon, or at least what drops to cross your fingers for. This guide will focus mostly on normal dungeon drops, although where a quest reward, reputation reward, or relatively easy to craft crafted item is a good option for the slot, we'll highlight it as well. By the end of this guide, the Hunter that didn't quite finish their Karazhan runs during Burning Crusade should hopefully have an idea of where to get a good outlay of gear to prepare them for heroics, and eventually for Naxxramas itself.Good luck on the drops, and good luck winning the rolls over those enhancement shamans!
Shifting Perspectives: Faction gear for Druids, part I
Every Tuesday/Wednesday/some day that ends in -y, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting Druids and those who group with them. This week we take a look at faction rewards available to Druids in "Wrath of the Lich King" and wonder if that Mysterious Egg of ours -- the only faction reward we could truly be said to care about -- is ever going to hatch.Like most of you, I'm still running a lot of dungeons and getting acquainted with the array of drops available on both normal and heroic mode, and I'm not anywhere near as familiar with the Northrend 5-man drops as I am with Outland's after tanking them all eleventy-billion times. For the moment, my ability to compare all of the reputation gear available from Wrath factions with potential dungeon drops is fairly small and mostly confined to feral equipment, so I apologize. What I can say is that I've noticed a fairly clear trend favoring Balance if you're planning on getting a lot of your gear at 80 from faction reputations (although if you go that route there's a sizable pitfall in the form of a serious lack of +hit on most pieces). Feral is a little more hit-or-miss. Restoration seems to have the hardest time getting its best pre-raid or heroic pieces from rep grinds, and I'm not going to lie; get used to most of your best pieces being cloth.With what are essentially four different specs to cover for all the new factions available in Wrath, this got a bit long. So this week we'll discuss the rep grinds that become accessible a little earlier in the trek to 80 -- namely, the Tuskarr, the Alliance Vanguard/Horde Expedition, Wyrmrest Accord, Kirin Tor, and Oracles/Frenzyheart. Next week we'll cover the Knights of the Ebon Blade, the Argent Crusade, and Sons of Hodir, as you're not likely to see these guys as early as you'll see the others. Indeed, before a quest line that phases the lady into existence, you won't see the Knights of the Ebon Blade quartermaster at all.EDIT: Now that the faction guides are finished, here's a set of quick links in case you're looking for information on one faction in particular: Kalu'ak and Horde Expedition/Alliance Vanguard Guide Wyrmrest Accord and the Kirin Tor Guide The Frenzyhearts and the Oracles Guide The Argent Crusade Guide The Knights of the Ebon Blade and Sons of Hodir Guide
The Queue: Can't get enough sockets
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider's daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft.Just a few questions today, because slow weekends are slow. Who wants to ask questions when you can be playing? Certainly not me. I will still answer questions, however. Let's jump right in with ender's question... What, in your own opinion, is the easiest faction to start to grind on for rep as a new level 80? I know there is the "championing" but with dailies etc, what seems to be the easiest?
Arcane Brilliance: Wrath reputation rewards for Mages, part 2
Each week Arcane Brilliance cooks up a feast for Mages everywhere, just like your mom does. Well...maybe your mom cooks for Druids--I don't know--but my mom always cooked for Mages. Especially at this special time of year, she wanted her little Mages to eat well and give thanks for the bounty they had been given. She taught us to always be grateful for Pyroblast, and Polymorph, but most of all, for Mirror Image. Oh, and she also taught us to kill Warlocks, but that's a whole other story.So I assume that you're all about sick of leftover turkey at this point (at least, those of you who happen to live in America, I guess), and are ready for a heaping helping of something...Magier. Fear not, for Arcane Brilliance is here to serve a steaming pile of Mage directly to you. If you top it with enough gravy, it tastes pretty good.Last week we went over some of the new Wrath factions and the rewards they offer for Mages. If you missed that first part, you can find it here. As quite a few of you pointed out in the comments, the stuff from those factions was a bit...underwhelming. Fear not, fellow Mages, the best is yet to come. This week, we'll hit the rest of the new expansion's reputation rewards and highlight those that you'll want to start grinding for now, if you haven't already started.
Scattered Shots: Reputation rewards for Hunters in Wrath of the Lich King
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! You didn't think Scattered Shots was taking the day off, did you? Hopefully, there's enough of you who aren't completely zonked out on turkey, ham, or beef to read this.So by now, I figure most of you are well on your way to 80, and are probably starting to ask yourself: Which reputation should I grind first? There's tons of ways to choose, be it roleplaying who your character would align themselves with or choosing the one that's easiest to grind. One of the most popular and most effective though, is pretty simple: Asking yourself which one has the best loot. Today's Scattered Shots will center around that last one. If you're still not sure how to grind reputation in Northrend, or forgot where the quartermasters are, be sure to check out our Wrath 101 post on reputations, as well as our post on the Wolvar and Oracles of Sholozar Basin. Once you've done that, or if you remember the basics, read on!
Encrypted Text: Wrath reputation rewards for Rogues
Every Wednesday, Chase Christian of Encrypted Text invites you to enter the world of shadows, as we explore the secrets and mechanics of the Rogue class. This week, we'll be talking reputation gear available in NorthrendRogues are like butterflies. We soar between currents of air, our paths seemingly chaotic. We serve no master, no blood oaths to demons or fear of a higher power. We simply float our way through the world, focusing on preservation of self as the highest goal. Our path is truly our own.Rogues are also like Joe The Plumber. We've got bills to pay, mats to farm, and drops to grind. While driving around Azeroth in your parent's Traveler's Tundra Mammoth with your disappearing act may seem attractive, life in WoW isn't that easy for a Rogue. In order to keep up with content, we're in constant need of new leather gear to keep us at the top of our game. We've got our dues to pay, and one word describes how "The Man" requires us to fulfill these obligations: Reputation. Read on to explore exactly what juicy pieces of rep gear await in Northrend.
