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The Maelstrom: Lore behind the possible next WoW expansion
Many of you have likely heard the theory floating around that the Emerald Dream might be the next expansion pack, but you may not have heard about the other popular theory: The Maelstrom. How would you feel about an expansion where the naga are the villains, the murlocs do their bidding, a powerful queen emerges, and dormant gods awaken? We've braved alien lands and the cold, harsh climate of Northrend, so how would you fancy going out to sea, discovering new islands and diving down to sunken cities?I have to admit, my first reaction to the concept was an inner groan of disappointment, but when I read into it further over at Lorecrafted, I became intrigued. After all, who hasn't dreamed of drifting off to explore the Great Sea? I've wanted to see a sunken city ever since my first character, a female Troll Shaman, discovered that she had no home city. Deep down, she was sure that there simply had to be some lost troll city, perhaps beneath the sea, or at the very least, a place to rebuild, reconnect and start anew. What do you think, folks? If this were to be our next adventure, do you think you could get excited, or are you itching for the Emerald Dream or something else entirely?
The Queue: I can't help it if it's true
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.Just gonna let this one speak for itself. Oh, and if you want to know what today's obligatory Reading-The-Queue-Music is, it's of Montreal.lgnorman420 asked... "So I've been wondering as my guild has been running through Ulduar about the various machine names one might encounter throughout the game. Mimiron's creation, the V0-L7R-0N combat system or the XT-002 Deconstructor are two examples. Also the mechanical chicken quests back from mid-40s to 50s leveling also come to mind. Do these number/letter codes have any significance or are they just random sequences to give them a machine sounding kind of name?" I don't think there's any naming scheme across the board for robotic things in WoW. How they got their names differs from one to the next. For example, V0-L7R-0N is just a Voltron joke. I don't think XT-002 has any significance except that maybe (maybe) the 2 signifies that he's the second creation of Mimiron that you fight in Ulduar. The second line of defense or what have you. Someone smarter than I am should figure out what XT stands for. The robochickens are named after the zone you find them in.
The Ice Stone has melted!
When The Love is in the Air started up this morning, a really curious bug cropped up that has even some Blizzard employees stumped. Every now and then, a server-wide emote (like the one you see when Eranikus is defeated in Moonglade) announces to the world that, 'The Ice Stone has melted!'Nobody really knows what it is, or why it's announcing that. As I mentioned, even a few Blizzard employees have no idea what it is, though they're looking into it. The only 'ice stone' that crops up when Googling or Wowwiki'ing around to find this thing is the objects from the Midsummer Festival that we interacted with last year. It's possible that the team responsible for world events was working on an update to the Midsummer Fire Festival and crossed some wires somewhere. After all, if any of the holidays need an urgent update, it would be that one.
Ask a Beta Tester: Starter zones and starter epics
Just a little earlier, Allison Robert posted questions we wish we had been asked on Ask a Beta Tester. Me? I'm still going to answer the questions we have been asked, starting with Jay's question... In Warcraft III:The Frozen Throne, the Blood Elves and Naga teamed up to wage a massive battle against Arthas right on the slopes of Icecrown. It's already been mentioned that settlements and Ruins from further back, when Arthas's expedition land are still there. Is there any sign of the Belf and Naga ruins from their assault? In Icecrown it's nothing but Scourge and the Scourge's servants as far as the eye can see. Anything that had been there previously is gone. There are Naga ruins further out, though. Off the coast of the Borean Tundra there are some Naga structures you'll be questing in. For those of you sick of killing Naga like I am, don't worry. There's a twist.
All the World's a Stage: So you still want to be a blood elf, part 2
Stealing the LightAt this point it is important to draw a distinction between the blood elves who followed Kael'thas and the naga through the portal into Outland, and the blood elves who stayed behind in Quel'thalas and Silvermoon City. They were still one faction at this point, but a number of differences were starting to appear. For one, although the blood elves in Quel'thalas were drawing on fel energies just like their brethren in Outland, they certainly weren't surrounded by demons like Illidan and all his minions all the time, not to mention the vast energies of the evil Twisting Nether, which surrounded all of Outland. Thus, the blood elves in Outland were saturated to overflowing in magic and power, while the blood elves in Quel'thalas were still rather hungry for it.Therefore, Kael'thas thought it wise to send the gift of this captured naaru, named M'uru, back to Silvermoon City, so that his people there could have more energy to help quench their magical thirst. Soon, however, the blood elves of Quel'thalas found a way to start using this power of the Light rather than merely feeding on it, casting spells and blessings in the same way that human, dwarven, and draenei paladins could -- while the other races drew on the Light through the power of their faith, the blood elves learned to control it as it flowed through M'uru.The first blood elf to take up this path of corrupted paladinhood was Lady Liadrin, who then founded the order of Blood Knights that became infamous throughout Azeroth and Outland alike. Thrall and the other leaders of the Horde disagreed with the methods the Blood Knights had employed, but could not deny their strategic value on the battlefield.
Ask a Lore Nerd: Which came first, the Lich King or the Egg?
Welcome to Ask a Lore Nerd, where each week Alex Ziebart answers your quests about the lore in the World of Warcraft. If you have any questions, no matter how big or small they might be, ask them in the comments section below and we'll try to answer it in a future edition.It's another beautiful Sunday, and it's time for another edition of Ask a Lore Nerd! Let's jump righ tin with realmreaver's question... If the humans turned their back on the Forsaken due to their undead condition. Why are they all lovely dovey towards the Death Knights? Are not an army of undead LOVED ONES a necessary evil too?The Death Knight questline explains their return to the Horde/Alliance, and supplies some reasoning for why their factions are okay with them. Forsaken, on the other hand, are painted by the game to be very anti-Human. Why in the world would Humans accept them, former loved ones or not? One of their battle cries is, "Death to the living!" and they say such things consciously aware of their words. It's a completely different situation.If a group of Forsaken went through the same thing our Death Knights did and atoned the same way our Death Knights are, they'd potentially have a shot of joining the fold, at least for awhile. As it stands, the Forsaken reject Humanity just as much as Humans reject the Forsaken. Sylvanas is their Queen, Varian Wrynn is not their King.
Ask a Beta Tester: Exotic weapons, furbolgs, and more
Hi there, and welcome back to Ask a Beta Tester after its little Sunday break! If you're new to the column, then just 'welcome' instead of 'welcome back' and if that's the case allow me to explain! Have a question about the Wrath beta? We have an answer! Probably. Just ask in the comments section below, and we'll try to answer you in a future episode. Now, let's get started!CactusHam asked... I noticed on the Description of the Shaman's Maelstrom Weapon (and maybe its in other places as well, but this is where I saw it) that in addition to requiring axes, maces, staves and daggers it also requires "One handed Exotics, Two Handed Exotics" as well as "miscellaneous". I'm curious about what seems to be a new weapon type? Is this a new weapon type? If so, what classes can use "exotics"? And what exactly is an "exotic?" Exotic weapons are unique NPC items. If you've ever used something like WoW Modelviewer, the Exotic category contains things such as Maiev's huge chakram thingy or whatever it is. It's not something players will ever get their hands on. It's sort of like the armor sets you see on Wowhead and Thottbot that have the listing of which races can wear it, and races such as Fel Orc and Naga are listed. That doesn't mean we'll get playable Fel Orcs and Naga, it means if they're putting together an NPC that uses those racial models they can use that armor to play dress up with. Fel Orc did technically come into play at the Netherwing Ledge, but meh. Yeah, that's right. Meh.
Big set of icons from the WoW comic
Popehippo on WoW Ladies LJ was kind enough to post these 59 icons, directly from the World of Warcraft comic. They actually come from all over the place, including the comic itself, as well as from cover and concept art. And there's all kinds of different stuff in here, from Orcs to dragons to Druids to Naga.They're meant, of course, to be used on Livejournal, but they work, I'd imagine, for all kinds of icons, from Twitter and IM to even the comment profiles right here on this very site. If you've been poking around for a Warcraft-themed online identity, look no further, odds are that there's a cool piece of art you'll find in this big layout Popehippo's assembled.
Midsummer Fun: Unusual Activity
Not all is fun and games at the Midsummer Fire Festival this year. A number of concerned members of the Earthen Ring are looking to the Horde and the Alliance to look into some suspicious activity. It seems that the Twilight's Hammer have moved into a new location in the Zoram Strand of Ashenvale, and considering the Festival's origin lies with the Old Gods, the very beings the Hammer serves... well, it's worth looking into, isn't it?The first step of the quest is very basic. Go to the Zoram Strand, stab members of the cult until they drop something noteworthy. It seems to have a rather high droprate, so don't worry too much. Once you've read the note (and I'll trust you read it so you don't need to reread it here) dig in your bags for the Totemic Beacon you were supplied with, and put it to good use. The neighborhood puppy will run up to have a chat, he'll hand over some Burning Blossoms and we move on to the next step.In my opinion, this next step is one of the coolest things we've seen in a quest recently. Not only do you get an awesome disguise, but you're also in for a pretty sweet resolution to a loose storyline in The Burning Crusade. Before we get ahead of ourselves, head north. You don't need to use that Orb of the Crawler you were just give yet, but you can. If you're a high enough level to have a mount, you can ride toward the northern camp much faster and use the orb when you're there. However, you only get this thing for so long, so I crabbed it up the whole way up the shoreline.The camp you're looking for is at the very edge of the northern beach, where the Strand bends toward the ocean. By the time you see it, you'll nearly be in Darkshore. Refresh the duration on your crab disguise, and approach Ice Caller Briatha and the Naga up ahead. Yes, you saw that right. Naga! Naga Heretics at that. What's the significance of that, you ask? If you have a level 70, you probably understand the conversation between the Naga and the Cultist pretty well. This is the conclusion of Skar'this the Heretic's story, and we finally learn his purpose. They're preparing to summon Ahune the Frost Lord, servant of Neptulon, in the Coilfang Reservoir. From there, they'll usher him into Azeroth to battle Ragnaros and bring about an elemental apocalypse. I thought we killed Ragnaros a few years ago, but hey, what do I know?After returning to your capital city of choice and talking to the Earth Ring Elder, two new opportunities open up for you. The first is a quest called Striking Back. Wowhead lists multiple versions of this quest for various level ranges, but I've so far only been able to access the level 67+ version. All of them look roughly the same, so the strategy I am about to supply you with probably applies to them all.Travel to your destination. In our case, it's Hellfire Peninsula. When you're looking at the Dark Portal, the Twilight's Hammer camp is directly to the left, behind the Legion forces. Walk up to one of the bright blue obelisks, click, and summon one of Ahune's minions. The strategy is thusly: HIt it until it dies, then turn in your quest. It is very, very weak for a giant elemental. This becomes a Daily Quest once you've completed it the first time, and the reward is 10 Burning Blossoms and 7 gold, 83 silver.Your other newly available quest, Ahune, the Frost Lord, is fairly straightforward as to what you need to do until you meet Ahune himself. Go to the Slave Pens, talk to who you need to talk to, and follow the instructions. The strategy for Lord Ahune is quite a bit more involved than that of his underlings. Unfortunately, that will have to wait until another time. Until then, goodbye and good luck!
Ask a Lore Nerd: The Evil-o-Meter
Welcome to Ask a Lore Nerd, the column that answers your questions about the story and lore of the Warcraft universe. Click the Comments link below, ask your question, and blogger/columnist Alex Ziebart will answer you in a future installment!Travis asks... What can you tell me about the other portals around Outlands (the only one that springs to mind right now is the one in Zangarmarsh)? They look just like the one you get to Outlands through, but are just standing there doing nothing. Answer: Those portals were once used by the Burning Legion and their lackies to travel between Outland and various other worlds. Those portals were also used to send Legion reinforcements to Outland. Before Illidan and his posse usurped Magtheridon, they went around shutting down these portals to prevent Magtheridon from being reinforced. Further, they've been kept closed so Kil'jaeden can't come stomping back into Outland to punish Illidan for not being able to kill the Lich King.
Ask a Lore Nerd: Nagapalooza
Welcome to Ask a Lore Nerd, WoW Insider's newest weekly feature column. Have a question about the story and lore of the Warcraft universe? Click the Comments link below, ask your question, and blogger/columnist Alex Ziebart will answer you in a future installment!Thanks to the overwhelming popularity of Ask a Lore Nerd's first installment, we are now a weekly feature! I hope you enjoy it, because it's here to stay. This week we're fielding a large number of questions from a few contributors. A number of you have taken full advantage of this opportunity and posted an avalanche of questions. Good! That's what I like to see! Let's jump right into it, shall we?Matt said: Not a lore question, but lore speculation. Blizzard hinted at a major event would cause the uneasy-peace of Horde and Alliance become not on uneasy. What could cause tensions to rise? Also in the real world alliances crumble, and are reformed. What races of the Horde and Alliance do you see possibly switching sides?Answer: From what I understand, Garrosh Hellscream will be following in his father's footsteps and the good ol' Orcish bloodlust will color his actions in Northrend. Additionally, I'd be willing to bet the Alliance is mighty nervous about the Forsaken's new plagues, considering they had been thoroughly tested on Alliance citizens in the past. The Lich King may also play a substantial role in the rising tensions, playing the two factions off of one another. As far as switching sides, I don't see it happening. If anything, factions would splinter further but not switch sides. The Forsaken and Blood Elves might go off on their own. The Night Elves might go off on their own. Pretty unlikely in both cases.
Know Your Lore: The Defias Brotherhood
Welcome to Know Your Lore, where each week Elizabeth Wachowski and Alex Ziebart bring you a tasty little morsel of lore to wrap your mind around. Sweet, sweet lore. Mmmm.The Defias Brotherhood is something that I'm sure both factions have at least a little familiarity with, though the Alliance most definitely has more exposure to them. There aren't many Horde questlines that will give you a brush with this faction of bandits, but even my Horde friends take a trip to Westfall to check out the Deadmines every now and then.I don't blame them, either. Not only is the Deadmines an awesome instance, the Defias Brotherhood also has quite the interesting background. While there are superhuman entities involved in their story, it isn't laid on as thick as in other Warcraft plotlines. Theirs is more a story of political and social unrest, and the power of manipulation. I would go as far as to say this is part of the single largest plotline in Warcraft currently, spanning half a dozen zones, three expansions, a comic series, and involving at least five different major factions.
"Maximizing" reputation gains
My Blood Elf Paladin is level 63 now, and I'm currently after Sporeggar reputation, in hot pursuit of that greatest of Protadin prizes, the Petrified Lichen Guard. Of course, when I started, the first thing I did was go buy a few Bog Lord Tendrils, planning to turn them in until I jumped out of unfriendly. It was the most efficient way to get that faction jump, so I considered the silver money well spent. With friendly under my belt, I can safe turn in a load of Mature Spore Sacs and Glowcaps (I took the quests before I turned in the Tendrils, so I can still turn them in despite being friendly).
Report Card: Phase 4 daily quests
Phase 4 is now well underway, with about 50 servers having it unlocked according to us.gorgonnash.info at the time of this writing. There's still a few more things to unlock, but for the most part, the Sunwell Isle is complete, and what you see is what you get as far as resources and places to fight. So, once again, it is time to ask the question: How do these quests fit into your busy up-to-25-daily-quests-to-do lifestyle? They fit pretty well, actually!
Insider Trader: Jewelcrafting, the final stretch part 2
Last week, Insider Trader began the journey from 300 to 375 jewelcrafting skill. While we were able to avoid using recipes that required faction reputation or that had to be farmed, the cheapest methods to 375 from about 365 may require a bit more effort to obtain. If you are like so many other craftsmen, stuck with 375 seeming far away and expensive, then carry on through the break to examine ways to not only maximize your skills, but to attempt to make a profit while doing so, rather than running on a loss. Featuring several distinct ways to reach 375, you will find that you have many choices to suit your own needs, your guild's needs, and your server's market. In addition, I've put together some links for further reading that you should find helpful. Each week, Insider Trader takes you behind the scenes of the bustling sub-culture of professional craftsmen, examining the profitable, the tragically lacking, and the methods behind the madness. For more guides to maximizing your chosen profession, check out the final stretches for Leatherworkers and Alchemists alike, as well as part one of Jewelcrafting's final stretch. For a complete list of profession guides, feel free to peruse our directory.
Report Card: Phase 3 quests
Phase 3 is now in full swing on many servers, including mine, and this time, we're working on taking the Sun's Reach Harbor as well as opening up the long awaited badge loot vendor. How do the quests stack up this time around? Does the near flawless run for great dailies from Quel'danas continue? I've had a few days to try out the runs, and I have to say that there's a few rough spots, but you can continue to grow your list of dailies with confidence as the new phases come on.
Phase 4 Dailies: Disrupt the Greengill Coast
Disrupt the Greengill Coast opens up as soon as Phase 4 begins, and is given by Captain Valindria. She can be found on board the ship(known as Silvermoon's Pride) parked in the Harbor which you took in Phase 3.Captain Valindria is apparently the SSO operative in charge of dealing with the Naga infestation on the southeastern section of Quel'Danas. Like most people in Azeroth, she needs our help. This isn't just another kill quest, but it is a kill quest in disguise. I recommend doing it alongside Don't Stop Now... because you'll be killing the required mobs simultaneously.It turns out the Darkspine Sirens are mind controlling the Murloc slaves you see throughout their camps, and they're doing it using some fancy orbs. An Orb of Murloc Control is what you want, and they drop off of the aforementioned Sirens. You want to throw and smash them into a camp of murlocs to release them from their control, and turn them on their Naga masters.What these means is the Orbs work like grenades, targeted AOE spells, et cetera. When you right click the item, you'll get a targeting circle that the previous bombing quests have trained you to use, and throw them at a pack of murlocs. You need to free a total of 10 murlocs, so try to get as many of them in the ring as possible to cut down on Orb hunting.Simple quest, and fantastic to do alongside Don't Stop Now... as I mentioned before. Doing them together will net you some easy money. Even if you don't do the other quest with this one, you'll still get a pretty decent reward. 11 gold, 99 silver, and 250 Shattered Sun Offensive reputation. Note that this quest doesn't help to progress anything on the island, and will not change once the Alchemy Lab is acquired and the Monument to the Fallen is completed.If you need more information on this quest, please head on over to Wowwiki or Wowhead!
Tales from the Lion's Pride Inn: Rescue
Every Wednesday, Chris Jahosky brings you another page of Tales from the Lion's Pride Inn, a WoW webcomic you'll find only on WoW Insider!It's been almost a month since the last installment of Tales, and I'm very sorry for the delay. About a month ago, my old computer died, taking a good chunk of the comic with it. I've since recovered, and I have a new computer, so Tales will resume it's normal Wednesday updates. As a peace offering, I've made a new wallpaper based on one of today's panels. It's 1920x1200, and you can find it here. Enjoy!As for the comic, you can view today's page by clicking the image above, or browse to it from the gallery below if you need a small refresher. Looks like Kat arrived with help just in time to save Byron!Note: When going to the gallery page, click on the HI RES button in the upper left of the screen to see a full sized version of the image.%Gallery-11275%
Your least favorite races
We all have our favorite races, whether we actively play them or not. Personally, I have a thing for playing Humans and I desperately want to play an Ethereal one day. At the very least, have an Ethereal presence in Wrath, even a small one.What about your least favorite races, though? We all have those, too. We don't always have good explanations for it, but for one reason or another there's just something that drives us absolutely crazy. My #1 most hated race in Warcraft would have to be Gnolls. What do they even do? Their most famous member is Hogger, who doesn't even do anything. Okay okay, they kill people and that's bad, but they don't do do anything. At least Kobolds mine stuff up.Tell you what, I'll go ahead and give my Top 5 after the jump. If you're interested, go ahead and read on!
Breakfast Topic: Potential playable races
Corpsebride of Nordrassil made a suggestion that Naga should be a playable race in World of Warcraft. She gives a list of reasons why Nagas should be a playable race such as: they're highly intelligent with their own language; they have a unique architectural style; they have permanent underwater breathing as a built-in racial ability. The author pointed out that Naga would fit in better with the Alliance than the Horde due to their lore and relationship to Night Elves. I would make Goblins a playable Horde race if I were in charge of recruiting playable NPC races from the existing environment. The Horde needs an annoying little race to balance out gnomes. While they're neutral, goblins already have an inhuman look to them that tends to be characteristic of the Horde. They might have racial traits that help them to get better deals on goods from vendors, perhaps even if they were not skilled in engineering, they might be able to use player-made bombs such as the Exploding Sheep. I would have Goblins play Warlocks, Mages, Hunters, and Rogues. If you could play any race in the game, what would it be?
