nether-drake
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Breakfast Topic: That longing feeling
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the AOL guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages. Once upon a time in a distant land called Azeroth, a Night Elf druid was born. This little Night Elf was running around being its level 4 self, exploring the world and its purpleness (Teldrassil being the whole world for a level 4.) A hop skip, and a boat ride away, she found herself in Stormwind, city of the humans. "It's not nearly as purple here as it is back home!" Hardly two steps into the great city when all of a sudden the sky darkened and a deafening screech rose. At first startled and then in awe, the little druid looked up to see the silhouette of a great winged dragon. The best part about it ... it was purple! "I must own that dragon!" She thought. After a quick trip to the internet, the goal was set and the journey began, pushing through 80 levels of dungeons and deaths, beginning the rep grind, and finally obtaining the fruit of the efforts: a netherwing drake. Although I don't play that Night Elf druid as much anymore, I still remember the wonder and awe I first felt when I began playing. Have you had similar experiences? Did you ever have a goal that you once thought was unobtainable? If so, did you prove yourself wrong, or does your goal still elude you?
Ask a Beta Tester: The mystery of Crystalsong and other things
I showed you the Alliance airship on yesterday's Ask a Beta Tester, now you get to see the Horde version! And now that that's out of the way, let's start with a couple of questions from Aerei... I've got possibly the most important question ever asked in this column! Are we going to see NPCs rocking the new hairstyles now available? I don't think it's fair only PCs should get them. Yep! You'll spot the new hairstyles on NPCs here and there. Not super often yet, but you definitely see them. A lot of the guards in the Argent Crusade camp are rockin' the new styles. They're very progressive! Also, if Dalaran gets mage trainers because it's the mage city, how come Shattrath doesn't have paladin trainers? Huh? Because Shattrath sucks.
Season 4 mostly ending with patch 3.0.2
Just moments ago, Eyonix posted some great news for arena players. Expected news, but still great. Due to the sweeping changes coming in patch 3.0.2, they're going to take a snapshot of arena ratings and rankings on the day of the patch, and use that information for handing out title and rewards. As far as titles and Nether Drakes are concerned, that will be the end of the arena season.The season will not completely end at that point, however. The Arenas will continue, and you will still be able to gain rating and arena points right up until the release of Wrath of the Lich King so you can finish getting whatever pieces of gear you'd like to take with you into Northrend.I think we all knew they were going to do something along those lines. If they didn't, the entire season would essentially have been blown. Turning class balance upside down and adding a whole ton of new abilities to the game right at the end of a competition is just a poor move. I think this is the best compromise, too. Ending the season while still letting people gear up for Wrath is great. Raid zones aren't shutting down with 3.0.2, so it would be a little annoying for PvPers if the arena did.
Is Leading the Cavalry possible?
I mentioned the Leading the Cavalry achievement earlier, the achievement that requires 75 mounts to... well, achieve. The big question is, is that actually possible? Let's find out!Let's use a Forsaken for our example, since they have no factors working against them like racial boundries on mounts. Keep in mind that some races will have a harder time, like Tauren can't use two of the five Horde mounts, and Gnomes don't allow anybody but Gnomes and Dwarves to use mechachickens.The Horde has Peacocks, Raptors, Wolves, Skeletal Horses, and Kodo. From a glance at Wowhead, there seems to be...
Ask a Beta Tester: Scourge Strike, titles, and flying mounts
What you're seeing up above is a flaming quill in a well of frozen ink. Is it useful? No. It looks wicked awesome sitting in the Inscription trainers' shop, doesn't it? Heck yeah it does! We'll kick off today's Ask a Beta Tester with Askhill's question... Does Lake Wintergrasp seem dominated by only one class, or is it pretty even among the 80s? Unholy Death Knights are the current "overpowered spec of the day" (formerly the role of Ret Paladins) so there's tons of those rocking face right now. Beyond that it's pretty difficult to judge, since Blizzard hasn't balanced all of the numbers yet and few people are in Resilience gear. The only really memorable thing are the absolutely enormous Scourge Strike crits. By enormous I'm talking numbers anywhere from 10,000 to 16,000, and since it's Shadow damage, your armor isn't going to do a darn thing to help. Luckily, I was healbotting one of those Unholy Death Knights rather than being on the receiving end. Death Knights are bloody fantastic at keeping people off of Healers, by the way.yazah asked a couple of questions...Why does the Scarlet Crusade employ Death Knights in Northrend? Doesn't that seem unlikely since they were slaughtered by them back in Tyr's Hand?
Shock and awe in the Arena
In all of my many Arena matches, I've never had the pleasure of running into a multiboxer. I've never even seen them around the battlegrounds. Sure I've seen them around the environment, and they're always impressive. Aelli of Smolderthorn may well be the first to multibox four Elemental Shamans to Gladiator status in arena season three. The four Elemental Shamans, Aelli, Aellei, Aellii, and Aellie, are joined in Team Bubbanaught by Resto Shaman Bubbajingles, controlled by another player. The Shamans are flying high on their freshly-acquired Nether Drakes. The original poster has less than humbly declared that he plans on an even better showing in season four. Along with many words of congratulations, this thread has its fair share of negativity toward multiboxing. Multiboxers in PvP are often a source of contention. Now, I know that not everyone loves this style of play. But you've got to give credit where credit is due, and this is pretty cool. Congrats Aelli, and good luck! Check after the break for some video footage of the team.
Incoming nether drake fix
It looks like the swift nether drake situation is getting fixed sooner rather than later, and they're going to have to bring the realms down for a few early-morning hours to do it. (Edit: early morning for some, but prime time for Oceania!) From the breaking news box:We will be bringing down all realms to implement a fix for the Arena end-of-season rewards, and sending the correct rewards to teams that participated. This maintenance will begin at 5:00 AM PDT, June 22, and will last until approximately 7:00 AM PDT. For more information on this issue and resolution please visit the PvP Discussion forum.Over in the PvP forums, Drysc posted the following:During this maintenance all of the end-of-season rewards will be resent to the correct teams and players. By resending the rewards players who already have an Armored Nether Drake will simply receive duplicates. As these are unique items the new mail messages can only be deleted. The Arena titles will also be applied again, and players will have the correct title available to them after the maintenance. We appreciate everyone's patience in awaiting this resolution, and apologize for any inconvenience or frustration that it may have caused.
Where to start with 2.1 content
The 2.1 patch this week introduced enough new quest lines, top-end raid content, flying mounts, and L70 solo & small group content to qualify as its own game. With a three day weekend looming I didn't even know where to begin. So I scoured the web and found the where to go and what to do to get me started. THE BLACK TEMPLE: Already planning to strut around Shattrath in your T6 Raid gear? Don't bank that T5 set too quick. The Black Temple attunement quest is ... epic. And it hasn't even been fully discovered so far. What is known is that you will have to slog through a great deal of the Burning Crusade raid content that comes before it: Karazhan, Gruul's Lair, Magtheridon's Lair, Serpentshire Cavern, The Eye and The Battle of Mount Hyjal. And many of those raids require extensive attunement quests of their own. If you are still itching to begin, you can dig in with the Tablets of Baa'ri chain out of Shadowmoon Valley to start grinding that Ashtongue Deathsworn rep. NETHERDRAKE EPIC FLYING MOUNT: First, don't confuse this with the Swift Nether Drake top Arena teams are awarded with at the end of every season. That one has a speed increase of 310% and has an armored appearance. This is the normal epic nether drake with a speed increase on par with other epic flying mounts: 280%. What's special about this epic flying mount is that it can be obtained through solo and small group quests. No raid required. What is required is a great deal of dedication.The first steps on your journey is to dig yourself out of Hated reputation with the Netherwing clan and get all the way to Exalted. This is accomplished through solo, 5 man and 3 man daily quests. Head to the south east corner of Shadowmoon Valley and speak to Mordenai in the Netherwing Fields. A complete write up can be found here.
Blizz: Regular nether drakes may be available next patch
Level 70s who've spent a lot of time in Shadowmoon Valley may have noticed that they're able to get neutral with the Netherwing Faction. Several of my guildmates who did the quest chain, which ends with you killing Zuluhed, were disappointed that they weren't able to grind up to exalted and get a nether drake mount. It's already been stated that armored nether drakes will be the prize for the top arena PVP team each season, but what about the regular drakes? Drysc said Monday that in the next content patch, players can probably expect a questline for a 310 percent speed nether drake mount. He refused to give any more details about the quest, though. Most speculators are guessing that it will be a continuation of the Shadowmoon Valley chain, probably involving a horrifically long Wintersaberesque reputation grind. Some more cynical players said they expected it to not only be a rep grind, but involve drops you can only get from high-level raids, to keep the mounts rare. Would you grind for a nether drake mount, or will you be content on your 280 percent speed swift windrider or griffon?
Burning Crusade Update: Nether Drakes
The Burning Crusade site has been updated with further information on the flying mounts that may be found in the Outlands. Lore-wise these creatures are the offspring of the black dragon Deathwing, who traveled through the Dark Portal to Draenor, believing it to be a safe haven for some of his eggs. When Ner'zhul opened multiple portals on Draenor with the intent of invading foreign lands, the magical energies released tore the planet apart - and altered the eggs, causing the resulting creatures to have the ability to shift between the physical and astral planes. In use, a Nether Drake will have the speed of an epic mount and be able to run on the ground as well as fly through the air. How they may be obtained or what they might cost, however, remains a mystery!
