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Around Azeroth: Nagrand sky
The sky across Outland really is incredible. I doubt there's a single place in a single zone where you could look up and not be a bit awed by the sky. This shot, taken by reader Vincent, happens to be of my favorite skyscape in... can you guess?... Nagrand. Just lurvely!Do you have a unique shot of Azeroth or Outland that you'd like to show off to the rest of the world? Tell us about it by e-mailing aroundazeroth@gmail.com! You can attach a picture file or send us a link to one -- and don't worry about formatting, we'll take care of that part. See more of your pics from Around Azeroth. %Gallery-1816%
Around Azeroth: Floating island... of DEATH!
Reader Flyv of We Know on Eitrigg sends in this stellar shot of one of the many floating islands above Nagrand. But below the most innocent looking apple tree lies a corpse with an axe through its head. What a way to go...Update: Reader Gallen of Stormscale sends in this speculation on how all this might have happened. (The suspense!)Do you have a unique shot of Azeroth or Outland that you'd like to show off to the rest of the world? Tell us about it by e-mailing aroundazeroth@gmail.com! You can attach a picture file or send us a link to one -- and don't worry about formatting, we'll take care of that part. See more of your pics from Around Azeroth. %Gallery-1816%
Hey! You've got your Azeroth in my Outland!
So earlier today I finally decided to leave the confines of Hellfire Peninsula (I haven't even come close to finishing all the quests there-- Outland is just plain packed with things to collect and kill) and check out the rest of the continent for myself. I did a quick loop around Zangarmarsh and then headed for my favorite zone so far, Nagrand, to see the PVP town of Halaa, and then, on my way back to Terokkar Forest and Shattrath, I noticed a familiar looking camp on the side of the road. I pulled up, shocked, and sure enough, it was my old friend Hemet Nesingwary! The master hunter (and quest giver) actually recognized me when I talked to him from our time together back in STV (apparently he's left his son in charge back there), and said he'd come through the portal and leveled up to 70 in the blink of an eye, just to see how the hunting is here in Outland.Likewise, while I haven't seen him yet, I hear Rexxar, the questgiver in the Horde Onyxia quest chain who used to be in Desolace, now resides at a settlement in Blade's Edge Mountains. Maybe I just don't know how much WoW has affected me, but seeing Hemet in Nagrand was like seeing an old friend, and I know when I see Rexxar I'll have to give him a /nod or even a /wave as well.And the self-referential stuff goes back even farther than WoW's Azeroth-- the Unyielding Vengeful Knights and Footmen in the Expedition Armory in Hellfire Peninsula are right out of Warcraft II, and the first time I went to Shattrath to do the little tour quest, I was too agog at the scenery to realize the questgiver I was clicking through was none other than Khadgar-- THE Khadgar! As in, the one standing with the rest of the statues in Stormwind!I love Blizzard's references to pop culture and the real world. And yes, it's nerdy, but I think that I love their self-referential lore stuff even more-- it's awesome to see the story of these characters play out before our eyes. Seen any other familiar faces in Outland yet?
Six North American realms to open for BC
Blizzard has been telling us for a while that they will be launching new realms when the Burning Crusade hits (they'd be crazy not to). But what they haven't told us was how many, which kind, and most importantly, what their names will be. Haven't told us until now, that is. I present to you the following post from Drysc: We'll be launching the following six realms with the release of The Burning Crusade expansion on January 16, at 12:01 AM EST. Nagrand - PvE, Oceanic - Bloodlust battlegroup Velen - PvE, Pacific Coilfang - PvP, Pacific Terokkar - PvE, Central Exodar - PvE, Eastern Auchindoun - PvP, Eastern The majority of these realms will be placed in a new battlegroup, the name of which has yet to be announced. These are new non-transfer realms and as such the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj will be closed and they will not be open to character transfers for six months. Six realms seems a little skimpy to me; I think it's a safe bet that they'll be opening more either with the BC launch or shortly afterwards. The names follow the trend of BC-themed names that we saw with the European servers, which is cool. I like the new flavor they bring to my realm list. Speaking of the names, Drysc tells us that Auchindoun is pronounced "Aw-kin-dune." Good to know.Will you be rolling on one of these new servers when you get the expansion, or staying with your old home? Me, I could never leave Shadow Council, but I'm sentimental like that.
World PvP in the Burning Crusade: Nagrand
World of Raids has a great preview of Nagrand -- covering both the gear you can get there and how to get it. The zone sounds to be a PvP playground -- though obtaining gear there will require both PvE and PvP work within the zone. The rewards are nice blues (with a single epic jewel) that seem to be not too difficult to obtain, at least not compared to current PvP gear standards. They are purchased with tokens, one type of token acquired from killing opponents in PvP within the zone (one Halaa battle token per kill) and the other type acquired by killing NPC opponents within the zone (Crystal Powder, which drops from NPCs, is turned in for Halaa research tokens). The gear itself costs between 20 to 40 of the battle tokens as well as 1 or 2 research tokens (requiring 20 to 40 Crystal Powder), with the epic costing 500 battle tokens. So I'd imagine that a few hours of PvP could well result in several pieces of gear, if you were after it. To access buy gear and obtain the research tokens, your faction must have access to the neutral city of Halaa in the center of the zone. To do this, you must kill off all the guards and occupy the city -- a "bomb run" to slaughter the guards shown in the video above. Such fun!
Burning Crusade mounts: Talbuk
In a recent post about mounts in the Burning Crusade, there were screenshots of the Talbuk, a mount listed, interestingly, as of "neutral" faction. And my curiosity about what that meant has finally been appeased by Aofto, who tells us this is a reward for reaching exalted with your respective city in Nagrand -- and provides plenty of screenshots of the mount itself. Nifty!
