nielas-aran

Latest

  • Ask a Lore Nerd: Hail to the king

    by 
    Alex Ziebart
    Alex Ziebart
    01.18.2009

    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.Welcome back! This week we're mostly tilted toward Scourge questions, whereas just a few of weeks ago we were all dragons, all the time. Things just happen that way, I don't plan it! Really! Anyway, let's get this party started. Promethus asked... Does anyone actually know that Arthas merged with Ner'zhul? Any NPCs that is. Because there was no one besides those of the Legion like the Dreadlords and Kil'jadean who knew that the original Lich King was armor on a pedestal, everyone else like Thrall, Jaina, Rhonin, Bolvar, Wrynn, just know that Arthas was the one who marched to Icecrown and came back only to spread the plague and kill his father. No one but the player actually saw him walk up Icecrown Citadel and shatter Ner'zhul's prison.

  • The Queue: Future raids and more on daily quests

    by 
    Alex Ziebart
    Alex Ziebart
    11.21.2008

    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.Be warned that today's edition of The Queue contains some light spoilers at the very end, regarding the Death Knight intro quests as well as some quests in Icecrown. To avoid spoilers, stop reading a little before the end, but you're safe until then. Thiosion asked...What instances other than Ulduar and Icecrown are (is?) Blizzard suspected to be working on?

  • Father's Day in Azeroth: A salute to the fathers of Warcraft lore

    by 
    Daniel Whitcomb
    Daniel Whitcomb
    06.15.2008

    So it's Father's Day, the time when we all pay homage to the fathers or father figures in our lives, and thank them for all that they do. While we can't say for sure if they celebrate Father's Day in Azeroth, too, there's a lot of people in Azeroth and Outland who have reason to think back on their dads today. Many dads of Azeroth have affected their children's lives or been affected by them. The ramifications of the interactions of these fathers and children have then in turn affected the lore and story of Warcraft in ways great and small. Therefore, in honor of the holiday, let's look at 10 famous and not-so-famous dads of Warcraft lore (listed in no particular order).

  • Deep Breath Syndrome and related ailments

    by 
    Alex Ziebart
    Alex Ziebart
    05.18.2008

    Since time began, chants of "Onyxia Deep Breaths more" have been heard throughout the land announcing the arrival of new WoW patches. Sure, bugs have come and gone, but Onyxia's Deep Breath has never Deep Breathed more. Really. Deep Breath is fine. I promise.Burning Crusade has spread this phenomenon to other bosses, too. In Karazhan alone, the Prince, the Maiden of Virtue, and Nielas Aran seemingly cast whatever it is they cast more frequently. Infernals, Holy Fire, Flame Wreath, the whole shebang. In general, this crops up for encounters that have an element of randomness. Malchezar's infernals can drop wherever they'd like. Safe spots are only safe until the randomness of the encounter decides to be random. In the case of Deep Breath, it simply occurs for your raid more often because you didn't take the proper steps to prevent it.I actually think it's sort of fun to see so many people complain about these things with every patch because it's a good sign of the encounters actually working as intended. I just wonder how many encounters this has applied to over the years. Onyxia is most famous for it, but how far does Deep Breath Syndrome reach?