northrend
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New mounts discovered in Wrath Beta
MMO Champion has dug up more amazing stuff from the Wrath of the Lich King Beta in the form of new mounts! A full gallery of the mount models are up on their site, and they look very interesting. If you don't manage to get your own Amani War Bear before the expansion hits the shelves, it looks like you'll get another shot at an ursine transport in Northrend. Model previews show several versions of a polar bear mount, from what look like ordinary bears (60% speed increase) to armored bears (100% speed increase) to... double passenger armored bears! Don't ask about the goggles, though.Are passenger-ready mounts usable anywhere? Or will they be zone-exclusive, similar to the bug mounts in Ahn'Qiraj? There's no way to tell just yet, but MMO Champion also has pictures of a three-passenger Alliance Wooly Mammoth. This means a Horde version is available, too, and likely to be part of a PvP scenario where the two factions have different mount skins. Speaking of PvP scenarios, there are also pictures of new siege vehicles as well as the previously seen Skeletal Gryphon Mount and an odd Blizzcon-tagged bear.
[UPDATED!] A look at Wrath of the Lich King's Green quest rewards
When Blizzard half-seriously apologized for the brutally ugly Season 4 Brutal Gladiator gear by saying that their artists were hard at work on the expansion, they weren't kidding. If any of us were afraid that there'd be massive clown action, we can rest easy because from the look of things, even green items have an epic feel to them. The designers over at Blizzard have done a fantastic job making the green quest rewards in Northrend look impressive and even menacing that players won't feel embarrassed to equip them. I haven't checked out all of the armor pieces, but a quick perusal of the weapons shows that Northrend won't be a total circus when we finally get there. I mean, just look at the gun above. That looks really badass, specially with the skull and weathered metal. Check out pics of uncommon, or 'green', weapons found all over Northrend in the gallery below. [UPDATE!] By popular demand, I included a couple of green staves and as a bonus, took a sneak peek at the two blue quest reward items for Death Knights. I know they're not green, but they're pretty cool, nonetheless. %Gallery-28586%
How to fly through the cold winds of Northrend
Blizzard has stated that they'll be disallowing the use of flying mounts in Northrend for the first few levels in order for players to appreciate the geography and not miss anything in the latest expansion. Given the amount of work they've put in so far, and looking through the fantastic scenery, it seems like a fair charge. It's recently come to light that the 'attunement' process, which was under much speculation, will not be an attunement at all or cost any money.In fact, the ability or key to fly in Northrend, called Cold Weather Flying, is a reward from a quest chain obtained in Sholazar Basin at Level 77. The so-called attunement process for flying will actually even reward money, rather than cost anything. MMO Champion has screenshots of, and Wowhead has information on the ability and quest chain. It seems like the mad rush won't necessarily be to Level 80, but a first stop at the all-important Level 77.
New pets from the Wrath beta
Our favorite Hunter (although BRK comes close), Mania, has had some help from the Wrath beta, and has now updated the great Petopia with all the new pets seen in Northrend so far. No penguins yet, but there are some great new bears in there, and some awesome wolves (is it just me, or are wolves underrated as pets?). Unfortunately, there are no new families up yet, but Mania says updates are coming, and of course Wrath is still in beta anyway.She's also got a Beta pet FAQ up, with everything you'd ever want to know about being a Hunter in the beta, from pet talents to "exotic pets" (the real ones, not the ones BRK dreamed up for us).It's going to be an exciting time to be a Hunter in Northrend. Pet versatility makes Hunters one of the most interesting classes in the game, and it looks like Blizzard is set to open it up wide in the expansion.
Ask a Lore Nerd: Now now, there's enough Light for everybody
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!Aydinn of Cenarion Circle wrote in to ask...My question is (which may seem obvious to some), who is the goblin statue at Booty Bay? Why does he deserve a statue?Answer: Thanks for writing in! Good to hear from people from my home server. That statue on Janeiro Isle might be of Baron Revilgaz, the overseer and top dog of Booty Bay. He deserves a statue because... he wanted a statue, and he's freaking Baron Revilgaz. He runs the show. Really, though, it's kind of a generic Goblinoid figure so it could be nobody at all. At one time, it was a statue of a Human Priest. It's a nod to a really cool landmark here in the real world. It's based on Christ the Redeemer, a statue found in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. You may recognize it from an episode of Lupin III. Eh? No? ...oh. Oh well. It's a pretty awesome sight to see in real life regardless of whether you put faith in what it represents or not. The in-game model was likely changed from a Human to a Goblin to back away from the religious overtones while keeping the reference, and Goblins fit the area better anyway.
Dalaran's now a hole in the ground
Kaydeethree over at WoWWiki posted a picture of Dalaran's old spot in Azeroth. It's now a gigantic hole with purple residue all over. The city has moved to Northrend, where it will be a pinnacle of Wrath of the Lich King. Click on the image above for a high resolution version.This is really quite cool, and it's been one of the big mysteries of Wrath. It will be interesting to see what the NPCs have to say about its removal to Northrend. I'm sure we'll have that covered in the days ahead when we find out more.Many thanks to reader Adam (no relation) for alerting us to this. Stay tuned! Lots of great Wrath coverage all weekend.
Wrath of the Lich King maps
Wrath of the Lich King information is really flooding in. For the latest bit, let's take a look at some of the new maps in the game. These were obtained through a variety of sources and are 100% real, all right from the beta. Click through our gallery to see them all – including nice high res versions. You'll notice three maps missing - The Storm Peaks, Icecrown Glacier, and Dalaran. Those maps are not done yet. There are some composites that other sites have put together via the mini-map from the data files, but they're neither finished nor "normal" maps.I like the Stormwind Harbor one the best, if only because the Stormwind map hasn't changed in all these years and it's odd to suddenly see it different. The one I enjoy the least is the Borean Tundra, the color scheme doesn't sit well with me. It looks like...well...I'll let you all draw your own conclusions.Enjoy the maps! And stay tuned to WoW Insider all weekend, we've got some great content lined up for you. %Gallery-28087%
More Runeforging weapon enchantments unveiled
We've already shown you screenshots of some of the new Runeforging abilities for Death Knights. Now, we have them all via MMO-Champion. As expected, they should let you customize your weapon for whatever role you expect to play, whether it be tanking or DPS, and what type of enemy you expect to go up again, be they undead, spellcasters, or melee. It looks to be an exciting system. Read on for a full list of the Runeforging Enchantments.
More leaks from the Alpha forums on Shamans, Warriors, and Death Knights
Deathknight.info has just posted another batch of info from the Alpha forums, this time with Wryxian and Slorkuz talking about Shamans, Warriors, and Death Knights. Primarily, they focus on the tanking abilities of Death Knights and Warriors and delve into some possible improvements to the Shaman Enhancement tree in WoTLK, including possible new talents: Shamans Enhancement Shamans, says Wryxian, will probably see further review. It looks like a lot of the new Enhancement talents will see some changes as well: Weapon Specialization (which gives special abilities based on which weapon type the Shaman uses) will likely be removed Improved Shamanistic Rage (which made Shamans using SR immune to all movement impairing effects and stuns at 2 points) will also probably be removed. Wryxian mentioned a possible replacement for Weapon Specialization: Each melee critical hit would give a stacking buff that reduces cast time by 20% and lasts for 15 seconds. That would mean that at 5 stacks, you'd get a free instant cast spell. Feral Spirit, the 51 point enhancement ability that summons ghost wolves to aid the Shaman, may be getting a second look as well. For Enhancement DPS, they hope that totems and shocks make up for the lack of melee abilities to keep it interesting, though they may consider a new melee move for Shamans as well. In addition, he promises new totem changes soon. Read on for some juicy information on Warriors, Death Knights, and Blizzard's vision for tanking in WoTLK.
Ask a Lore Nerd: Only a little broken
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!skoll asks...Whats your speculation about the Burning Legion in the new expansion, since Kil'jaeden has been killed/defeated? IF he is dead.. will it that be the end of Burning Legion? If not, what you think their role will be?Answer: Well, Kil'jaeden isn't dead. Not at all. In the Sunwell Plateau, Kil'jaeden is being summoned but never fully makes it through the portal. We bop him on the head and he just falls back in. What presence will they have in Wrath? Well, it will probably be minimal. I am sure they'll have some presence, the Legion doesn't really have any love for the Scourge, but it won't be anything like what we've seen in The Burning Crusade. Kil'jaeden is alive and well, but I think they'll scale way back on demons just because we've seen so many lately. They will probably want to step away from thrusting the same thing on us for another entire expansion.
Northrend mount attunement will not be expensive
We've known for a little while now that our existing flying mounts will not be usable straight off the bat in Northrend. The reason for this is that they don't want us little level 70s hopping onto the frozen plains, mounting up, and zipping right off to Dalaran or Arthas or wherever; in short, they don't want us to skip content. After all, imagine if you had a flying mount at the beginning of Outland – you would've gone to Shattrath even sooner. We also know from the WWI Q&A live blog that there will be some kind of "attunement" process for getting our fliers working up there, which has jokingly been referred to as "mount mittens" (it's cold in Northrend, you know). What we haven't known is precisely when the mounts will be usable (though Ulduar's Halls of Stone, a level 77-79 dungeon, was said to require flying mounts), and whether the "mount mittens" (or whatever they actually implement) will be a tremendous gold sink. Today Bornakk puts as all at ease, by saying that flying mounts are currently set to be usable in Northrend at level 77, you will use the same mounts currently used in Outland, and it is not expected that "a large sum of gold" will be required (for another tier of mount skill or something). As always, this could change before the expansion goes live, but for now, it seems that we can look forward to not spending several thousand gold on griffin defrosting equipment.
WWI '08 Panel Analysis: PvP part I, Lake Wintergrasp
We've been receiving a constant stream of news from the ongoing Worldwide Invitational in Paris, France, and we've gotten hints of changes coming to the game that promises overall improvements to PvP. In the developers' panel discussion, we learned of a Shadow Priest talent called Dispersion, which Blizzard hopes will allow the underrepresented Shadow Priests to become more viable in Arenas. The dungeons and raids discussion yielded plans to further continue the purchase of PvP gear through PvE, such as from reputation. The panel at the WWI earlier was cleverly titled "PvP Game Systems", where Tom Chilton and Corey Stockton discussed Lake Wintergrasp, new Arena maps, and the new Battleground. It was a rather uninspired panel compared to the previous ones, revealing very little that anxious players didn't already know. Because of the suspiciously lengthy yet predictable presentation, very little time was left for questions (of class balance, I bet), although a few good ones were asked -- and surprisingly answered -- during the session.
Insider Trader: Professions from the Wrath alpha
This week, Insider Trader will be taking a further look into the future of professions in World of Warcraft. Although Wrath of the Lich King is still only in alpha testing, what little we do know, though it might change, helps us anticipate the direction Blizzard is taking. In fact, we can even begin to see what the army of Death Knight Inscribers might take as their second profession, which will undoubtedly have repercussions on the market. Not only will the amount of competition skyrocket, but opportunities to make a buck selling to lazy Death Knights will abound. For these and more details, head on through the break.
WotLK bestiary presents Flesh Giants
The Wrath of the Lich King bestiary has been updated and it now introduces us to the Flesh Giants, "nightmarish creatures that make abominations look tame by comparison." I must say, I agree with that description! Abominations have the 'ew gross' factor, but these guys look downright intimidating. Even though they are basically the same as the regular Northrend giants (their parts are harvested from those giants), the Scourge variation has a little something extra. I'm not sure what it is, but I like it!Next up on the list seems to be the Darkfallen, so maybe we'll learn just what they are fairly soon. Of course, it is Blizzard's website and they don't need to reveal those next if they don't want to, but it's next on the list so I'll continue assuming it's coming like a good boy. From the name alone, my first thought is the Darkfallen will be ghosts or spectres of some sort, but we already have those. Maybe some sort of Priest or Acolyte of the Shadow? Perhaps the vampires we've been hearing rumors about?
WotLK bestiary presents the Jormungar
The official WoTLK bestiary has been updated yet again with another of the creatures we'll be meeting in Northrend. This time, we're introduced to the Jormungar, a race of massive worms with sharp teeth capable of boring through solid rock. Apparently, they were used by the Nerubians as slave labor to hew out their massive subterranean empire. However, when that empire fell to the Scourge, the Jormungar broke free, and now run rampant, drilling through the permafrost and destroying everything in their path. It seems likely that the worms themselves are named after the Norse mythological figure Jormungandr, a child of the trickster god Loki, also known as the the World Serpent who surrounds the Earth. In the end times of Ragnarok, he will kill Thor (although Thor will kill him first). Now really, you know that anything bad enough to kill Thor himself is something you have to take notice of, so if these Jormungar are even half as strong as their namesake, it looks like we could have a lot of trouble with them. Maybe we should look to the old massive sandworm Ouro (whose name is likely a homage to another mythical serpent, the Ouroboros), to give us some idea of what we might be facing. [via MMO Champion]
Changes to old Azeroth coming in the next expansion
In the last expansion, all we did was walk through a portal and find a new world -- the old one was left pretty much unchanged overall. But in this coming expansion, Blizzard has made it pretty clear that almost nothing is off limits -- Northrend is getting added to Azeroth, and we're not traveling across space to get there. And considering that Arthas' story echoes throughout almost all of the old world (and that the whole thing is named after him), things are definitely going to change once Northrend appears on the world map.So we've put together a gallery of just what will be different about the old world after the Wrath of the Lich King comes upon us. To be fair, some are set in stone (we know for sure that Naxxaramas is exiting stage left for a bigger part later), and some are little more than speculation (Uther played a huge part in Arthas' life, so his tomb seems like a good stage for an event at some point), but odds are that by the time we've all reached level 80, all of these places in Old Azeroth will look very different.%Gallery-25018%
Ask a Lore Nerd: You're how old?
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!We have no reason to delay, so let's get right into the meat of things!Jere asks: I might be wrong on location, but why is there a member of the Argent Dawn stationed in Dun Morogh just southeast of IF?Answer: Unfortunately, we have no idea. Father Gavin might just be an emissary or representative from the Argent Dawn to Dun Morogh, but he has no quests or dialogue attached to him. It's possible he'll be used for something in the future, but it seems unlikely. He simply exists. Nothing more.
Breakfast Topic: Lore and story progression via static NPCs
When the Burning Crusade first came out, veterans noticed a few things back on Azeroth: Some of our favorite NPCs had disappeared! The wandering Rexxar was replaced by a fellow name Rokaro, and Hemet Nesingwary left Stranglethorn, leaving his son, Hemet Nesingwary Jr., to take over the hunt. More recently, Lady Liadrin has come to Shattrath City, leaving behind Lord Solanar Bloodwrath to guide up and coming Blood Knights in her place. In order to move along a few story lines, Blizzard decided that it was worth moving NPCs to move along the story, and left other NPCs in place with minor alterations so that other people could still experience their old quests. This, however, isn't the only way Blizzard has dealt with progressing story lines.
Know Your Lore: Brann Bronzebeard
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. Oh yeah, and it's late this week. Blame it on the severe dehydration. Or Alex, you can blame him too, if you want.Continuing the Wrath preparation train, this week's Know Your Lore will take a look at one of the three Bronzebeard brothers. Not the King one or the dead one, but the eccentric, probably-should-be-dead one. The one and only Brann Bronzebeard, explorer extraordinaire.Brann Bronzebeard is the very definition of a Jack of all Trades. He's an explorer, a linguist, a warrior, an archaeologist, et cetera, et cetera. He is the premier member of the Explorer's League, and while the guild was founded under an edict by Magni, Brann was one of its founding members.
Wrath of the Lich King update loaded with frozen treats
As World of Warcraft slowly progresses to the release of Wrath of the Lich King, the juicy tidbits keep hearthing our way. Blizzard recently took some time to release some more information concerning Northrend within Wrath of the Lich King. There are a few glimpses at new dungeons, some notes on vehicle combat, and some new screens of snow and ice. The big feature is an entirely new site devoted to the new class, the Death Knight. Not surprisingly, the updates come rather close to the release of Age of Conan and are filled with content information and a nifty little Death Knight animation. The new WotLK gameplay features talk about some rather major changes to quest mechanics and, most importantly, raid mechanics. For the hardcore raider in you, the instances now carry a 10 and 25 man raid that are the exact same instances, but offer different ways to advance. Players taking on the 25 man content will get better rewards, but the shift is meant to allow more folks to absorb the new content. If some extra power is needed, the new Death Knight class will be a welcome friend (oddly enough) in any raid or group with his all powerful skills. Unlocking this class of doom is an easy task. Simply have a level 55 character and the class is open to you. Then you create your Death Knight and start raising skeletons to do your bidding! The expansion is still in alpha testing, but make sure to check out some of these changes before you are left in the cold.
