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Two Bosses Enter: Echo of Sylvanas vs. Yor'sahj the Unsleeping
In Two Bosses Enter, WoW Insider's series of fantasy death matches, bosses, leaders, and powerful figures of World of Warcraft face off in the squared circle. Your vote determines who wins and claims the season title. Season 3 is full of surprises as the Echo of Jaina takes the win over Morchok by a smaller margin of votes than I could have ever predicted. Seriously, Jaina, call out the fan brigade, because you are not winning this tournament with numbers like that. Against Morchok. Seriously, that game? Gotta get upped. This week's matchup is going to be an awesome treat for those of you who like to write your own posts about how these battles turn out. Check it out: Sylvanas, Banshee Queen and Dark Lady of the Forsaken, goes head to head with one of the Old Gods' most powerful, colored-slime lord Yor'sahj the Unsleeping. Two dark powers will rumble in the ring today on Two Bosses Enter. %Poll-73126%
WoW Insider's guide to End Time
After writing the guides to Zul'Gurub and Zul'Aman, it occurred to me that I'd missed out on the opportunity to include a useful feature. Most of us will be seeing the patch 4.3 5-mans with a Dungeon Finder group at one point or another, and a high percentage of Dungeon Finder groups contain ... How shall I describe this politely? ... at least one player who has obviously spent the better part of a day with his head down a glue jar. You don't need a sophisticated understanding of the boss' mechanics for these people. You want to explain the fight as quickly and simply as possible to someone whose pupils are the approximate size of a dinner plate. Consequently, in addition to information for the folks out there who care about what the boss is actually doing, I have also included a small section for each boss called Explain it in 5 seconds or less. And take heart! There's at least one boss in End Time where you don't have to care about anyone's survival at all! If you want the quickest possible guide to all the new 5-man boss mechanics, read Patch 4.3 5-man bosses in 5 seconds or less.
Why you might like Blizzard DOTA
Fans of Defense of the Ancients, the immensely popular Warcraft III mod that spawned an entirely new genre of gaming, are already conditioned to love Blizzard DOTA. I got to play it this week at BlizzCon 2011 and had a great time getting into the very familiar world. However, many Blizzard fans are not DOTA enthusiasts or even privy to the genre itself. WoW players may not really understand what this Blizzard offering is about or even why they should be interested. Warcraft fan-favorite characters Thrall and Arthas are making appearance in Blizzard DOTA, which means gamers who have ever wanted to pit these monolithic figures against other Blizzard staple characters will get the chance. Here's what you need to know about Blizzard DOTA and why you just might like playing as one of your favorite WoW personalities. Defense of the Ancients was originally a Warcraft III mod that became so incredibly popular that it spawned the genre know known as MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) or ARTS (action real-time strategy), depending on who you ask. The game consists of three paths that connect two bases with destructible buildings and towers along the path routes. Waves of minions or creeps, NPC characters that spawn endlessly from both bases, meet in the middle of these lanes to do battle. You control a powerful hero who levels up, gains skills and abilities, and can purchase items from a shop. Your goal is to fight these minions and enemy players, destroy the enemy towers and buildings, and win the game.
Faction leader short stories continue with Sylvanas Windrunner
The leader short stories continue with Sylvanas' own tale of vengeance, loss, and coming to terms with the death of Arthas in Edge of Night. Finally, we get to see Sylvanas ascend the Frozen Throne and come face to face with the broken and empty armor of the former Lich King, her pact with the Val'kyr, and the war front in Gilneas. There are lots of unexpected twists and turns, especially involving Sylvanas' pact with the Val'kyr, that may not be exactly how we imagined things had actually commenced between the former allies of the Lich King and the leader of the Forsaken. Personally, I think this is one of the strongest leader short stories, delving into answerable questions and giving us real, solid lore to fill in the holes in the story. Seeing Sylvanas' grief and lack of focus after Arthas' death was something I had hoped would be addressed, as well as the Val'kyr, both of which were discussed and explained. Check out the story, written by non other than Dave "Fargo" Kosak, and marvel at a new chapter in the Dark Lady's story. Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Look at what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back!
Bashiok comments on Fire Festival; new Hallow's End surprises
Blizzard has been getting hit with a few complaints since the Midsummer Fire Festival began -- that the holiday was just a stat-bump for the items and was relatively the same event as last year. Even the highlight item, the Frostscythe of Lord Ahune, was part of the controversy. Bashiok took to the forums to discuss the changes that had to happen for the Midsummer Fire Festival to even happen and gave players a clue to confirm the widely held belief that Hallow's End this year will play into the larger story between the Forsaken and the worgen. The Midsummer Fire Festival remained largely the same due to the amount of work that had to go into rearranging fire locations due to the cataclysm, changing around all of the decorations, and generally spending a lot of time switching over from the old world. Bashiok does cop to the fact that the event is more or less the same as last year's, but reminds us that the Midsummer Fire Festival has already had its major overhaul back a few years ago. The more interesting news, however, is that Bashiok says we've got some surprises coming our way with respect to Hallow's End, WoW's take on Halloween. We've been long speculating, based on data-mined items and story cues, that Hallow's End will deal with the continuing story of Sylvanas' march into the kingdom of Gilneas and the worgen's fight to take back their homeland. Plus, who doesn't love the classic Halloween monster movie tropes of zombies and werewolves? Bashiok confirmed that there are changes in store for Hallow's End. To what extent, we do not know. However, I will be looking forward to surprises because, really, I love surprises. I'm a giant sucker for surprises. Bring on the surprises!
The Queue: Panda ... nope, not going to do it
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today. Every time the pandaren get mentioned in The Queue, we end up with a week straight of pandaren headers, themes and puns. I'm going to break that trend and completely avoid the topic of the pandaman in this edition of The Queue and hopefully end the horrible cycle of pain. riley asked: Do you think Warcraft ever seen an ending to its story or will Blizzard keep adding content and lore until they subscriber numbers drop below profitability? Will we ever get to fight Sargeras or will the servers just shut down in the middle of the 6th expansion?
Know Your Lore: Interbellum Part 4 - The Queen of the Dead
The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft. With Illidan set to return to the war against the Lich King, we now switch stages and ask ourselves, what of the effect of his initial attack? Even though stopped by Malfurion and Maiev, Illidan had done great damage to Northrend and the Frozen Throne stronghold of the undead mastermind. Unbeknownst to anyone, the Lich King had gambled heavily when he had forced Frostmourne from the icy monolith that held the armor his spirit was bound into. The ice was his prison, yes, but it also held the vast necromantic powers that Kil'jaeden had bestowed upon him. By damaging it, he had started a slow leakage of his might. Clearly, he viewed this an acceptable trade-off for gaining a valuable servant in Arthas. Just as clearly, he never foresaw Illidan's attack on him with the Eye of Sargeras. Illidan's interrupted magical onslaught managed to penetrate the Scourge's defenses and do untold damage to their frozen fortress and, in the process, greatly damaged the ice tomb of Ner'zhul's spirt, causing his power to gush forth like blood from a wound. At the pivotal moment when Kil'jaeden was renewing his alliance with Illidan, the Lich King found himself weaker than he had ever been. It was the ideal moment to strike, and so the decision was made by the frozen entity to recall its most loyal servant. In so doing, a series of events was set in motion that would lead to the end of the Menethil line's dominion over Lordaeron -- and indeed, the end of humanity's rule over the greatest of human kingdoms. The dead would have their day.
WoW TCG: War of the Elements worldwide release April 26
Cryptozoic has just announced that War of the Elements, the first WoW TCG Worldbreaker expansion, will be released worldwide on April 26, 2011. The expansion is being released in four languages at the same time around the world, a first for the trading card game. War of the Elements also features loot cards, as usual, for WoW players to redeem cool pets, mounts, and other in-game items from WoW TCG cards. War of the Elements will include Landros' Lichling, Fool's Gold, and the Savage Raptor mount. War of the Elements will also feature two new dragonflights: the bronze and blue flights, with respective leaders Nozdormu and Kalecgos. What is interesting is that the TCG has solidified Metzen's statement that Kalecgos would become the new leader of the Blue Dragonflight and plays up the importance of these two flights in the coming patches and content in Cataclysm. %Gallery-119621%
Review: WoW TCG Assault on Icecrown Citadel Four-Player Game
Ever since acquiring the license to the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game, Cryptozoic Entertainment has been making a huge push to make the game even more accessible. This doesn't mean just accessible for people familiar with hobby games -- it also means accessible to someone who's a huge World of Warcraft fan, but never got into hobby games. One of the steps in this process was the release of the Assault on Icecrown Citadel Four-Player Game. You might be familiar with the "raid deck" format (utilized previously with Molten Core, Onyxia's Lair, Magtheridon's Lair, Black Temple, and Naxxramas), wherein a group of players play cooperatively against one of their friends, who's controlling the boss(es) of the dungeon. But there's a stumbling block for those who want to just jump right in and play a raid: you have to buy your own cards and construct your own deck if you want to play as anyone but the bad guy. Assault on Icecrown Citadel changes up the format slightly, instead putting players in the roles of Tirion Fordring, Jaina Proudmoore, and Sylvanas Windrunner as they battle the Lich King. Each hero has their own themed deck included in the box, along with Arthas' boss deck, meaning that the moment you pick up the game, you can crack it open and play. I'm not a huge hobby gamer. I played Magic: The Gathering in middle school, but the WoW TCG is pretty much the only card or board game I play with any regularity. And I have to tell you: Assault on Icecrown Citadel is an absolute blast.
WoW TCG Assault on Icecrown Citadel 4-player game now available
Grab three friends and roll the dice to see who gets to be the Lich King -- Cryptozoic Entertainment just released the Assault on Icecrown Citadel four-player game! The game is built on the WoW Trading Card Game, but rather than having to build and use your own deck, you take control of decks themed around Icecrown's biggest heroes: Tirion Fordring, Sylvanas Windrunner, and Jaina Proudmoore. Each hero plays differently, and you'll need all of their unique abilities and weapons to defeat the Lich King, also controlled by a player. To top it off, it's packaged with a special Treasure Pack containing cards unique to the set and Worldbreaker loot cards. I was lucky enough to get to play the game before its release, and I can vouch for its fun factor. Being able to play as a lore hero instead of an average Joe gives the game a really epic feeling. The Assault on Icecrown Citadel game retails for $39.99 and is available at retailers now.
Patch 4.1 PTR: Hints of a new Hallow's End
The Forsaken have already carpet bombed Southshore with plague, so their annual ritual of tossing innocuous stinkbombs into town probably isn't going to have much of an impact anymore. We aren't sure how Blizzard is planning to update Hallow's End for Cataclysm yet, but the patch 4.1 data has some hints as to what we can expect this year -- at least the fun and games portion, if not the lore. Mixed in with the latest additions to Wowhead's database are new versions of the Hallow's End masks. Rather than replacing your helm slot, it appears that the masks now go over your helm slot -- meaning your human female can wear her tauren male mask while raiding Blackwing Descent without losing the stats on her epic helm. As an added bonus, it appears the masks that aren't player races also supply a stat buff of their own. The Naga Masks, for example, are consumed on use and provide an intellect buff.
Know Your Lore: Sylvanas Windrunner, part 1
The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how, but do you know the why? Each week Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft. It can be reasonably argued that of all the faction leaders currently featured in Cataclysm, none are quite as questionable in both motive and actions as Sylvanas Windrunner. The history of Sylvanas and her role in Wrath of the Lich King has already been discussed in the Forsaken politics article from earlier this year; at the point it was written, we had no real idea what exactly she was going to be doing in Cataclysm. Now we have answers, and those answers do nothing but raise even more incredibly disturbing questions. Where do the Banshee Queen's loyalties lie? To the Horde, to her people, or to some other power entirely? Sylvanas' past was fraught with grief and horror; her future seems to be teetering on the brink of something even worse. With the introduction of the worgen, Sylvanas has something to focus on -- but what exactly are her motives, and who is it that she's ultimately fighting for? Please note: The following post contains spoilers for the Forsaken storylines featured in Cataclysm content. If you have not played through Silverpine, Hillsbrad Foothills or the Western Plaguelands, turn away! And go play through those zones, because they are amazing.
Know Your Lore: Shadowfang Keep
The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft. Since I talked about Gilneas last week, it only makes sense to continue the discussion with one of the most worgen-centric places in all of the World of Warcraft, namely storied Shadowfang Keep. It debuted in vanilla WoW as a brooding ruin infested with those dastardly worgen and the angry, unquiet ghosts of their victims. Now, some six years on, it's a brooding ruin infested with those dastardly undead, led by three traitors to both the Forsaken and Gilneas itself, also jam-packed with the ghosts of its former worgen masters and their victims. In short, time hasn't done much to improve Shadowfang Keep's general disposition. Well, unless you like your keeps to be atmospheric, top-filled with raging monstrosities and jam-packed with the loots -- in which case, the former estate of Baron Silverlaine awaits you. Yes, before it was a dungeon, Shadowfang Keep was the ancestral home of Baron Silverlaine, a noble who owed allegiance to Gilneas and whose ancestral lands lay just outside of where the Greymane Wall would be erected. Ruling over the settlers of neaby Pyrewood Village, the Baron seemed a relatively capable leader... until, of course, the coming of the Scourge.
Know Your Lore: The Third War, part 2
The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how, but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft. A few months back, I started on an overview of the Third War. As you can see from reading it, the following week, I did not in fact talk about the Third War at all. If you're familiar with my Thrall piece for KYL, you understand this is something that happens to me from time to time. I fully intended to go into more details about the war, but I got sidetracked by something shiny or a colorful ball of twine or what have you. But with Wrath of the Lich King a month from its exit from center stage, it's time to look back again at the war that made it all possible. After the Culling of Stratholme, Arthas Menethil had taken his first steps into obsession. The Culling itself is often treated as an indefensible act that proves Arthas was already evil, but I personally see it as the first tipping point, when a young and idealistic man who wanted to do right by his people was presented with an untenable choice and let his own impulsive nature decide. Waiting outside the city for the residents to turn into undead and destroying them as they attempted to escape was, after all, neither a more merciful nor a more prudent option. In the end, Arthas made the choice he did, and in so doing alienated both Uther, his direct superior as a paladin (and one who has his father's ear, to boot) and Jaina, his on-again, off-again romance. This left him free to pursue Mal'Ganis to Northrend. His actions would change the face of Azeroth and her nations forever.
Breakfast Topic: Transformed by the blood
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW.com. Spoiler alert: This post contains fairly heavy lore spoilers for the Cataclysm expansion. If that's not your thing, you should stop reading now. In Cataclysm, during the quests in Silverpine Forest, Horde players learn that human refugees from Hillsbrad have fled to Fenris Keep, and our glorious Banshee Queen Sylvanas sends us with a loyal val'kyr to kill and raise the poor humans as Forsaken, to bolster their forces in Silverpine. Using the new on-the-go questing feature, Sylvanas informs players to find and convert the human leaders inside their keep. This is when things get a little hairy, as the keep is guarded by elite worgen guards. Battling through, the players find themselves arriving at the middle of a meeting between the big names of Southshore and Lord Darius Crowley.
Cataclysm Spoiler: Sylvanas' plans no one saw coming
With all of the awesome Cataclysm news coming out about skills and talents and spells, it might be easy to miss the immense lore moments and motivations of the faction leaders. We have Sylvanas news, and it's big and very much a spoiler. Want to know what the Forsaken Queen is up to in Cataclysm, and why this expansion is going to rock the Horde and the Alliance even moreso? Again, we are warning you: there are spoilers here that are quite huge in the world of lore. The big part of the spoiler is in red. After the break.
Know Your Lore: Current Horde politics -- the Forsaken
The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how, but do you know the why? Each week Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft. While the politics of Horde races such as the orcs, blood elves, tauren and trolls span literally thousands of years, and feelings and current beliefs held by both races are deep-seated within that history, not all of the Horde races have such an extensive past. In the case of the Forsaken, the history goes back not thousands of years but approximately six or seven by Blizzard's timeline. A relatively new race, the Forsaken were introduced in World of Warcraft as playable members of the Horde faction, a move which confused some of the player base as the Forsaken were most definitely up to no good. Why would Thrall, who has been presented as a good character, agree to ally with a group that were presented as primarily evil? This was never directly addressed other than being waved off as an alliance of convenience, but most of the Horde seemed to either distrust or share outright loathing for the Forsaken. While other races started out on good terms with the rest of their Horde brethren, players rolling Forsaken found themselves at neutral standing with all three of the other Horde races available. There are exceptions, however. The Tauren -- particularly Magatha Grimtotem -- seem interested in working with the Forsaken and possibly developing a "cure" for their undead state and aren't quite as unforgiving when it comes to dealing with their undead comrades. While the relative time of the Forsaken on Azeroth has been short, in the few years of their existence they've managed to accomplish much -- largely due to the efforts of their leader, Lady Sylvanas Windrunner. Sylvanas had quite a history of her own prior to becoming the banshee queen, and it is doubtful that the race would have accomplished anything, much less banded together, without her leadership. I've covered some of the history of the high elves in last week's post, but this week I'm going to look at Sylvanas in a little more detail as the leader and the driving force behind the Forsaken.
Breakfast Topic: Meet Sylvanas, she snores
Meet Sylvanas. She's about ten weeks old, and she awfully likes to gnaw on bones and my slippers. I'm aware that makes me a giant dork. I probably should have thought twice about naming my puppy after Sylvanas, but it's an awful lot of fun to point out things like "Sylvanas snores." My favorite is "Sylvanas has been sleeping with me and my wife all week." I know, I have the sophomoric sense of humor of a twelve year old. But, really, Sylvie's adorable. However, I couldn't make this post if all I were doing was saying I named my dog after World of Warcraft. No, no, I'm going much further. Instead of telling her to "sit," I'm training her to plant her butt when she's told "Lok'tar." (That's not a very Orc-like use of the phrase, I know, but it's still very endearing.) "Ogar" is her command to "heel." I'd like to pretend I'll eventually have Sylvia trained to a precision level like any good hunter pet. But for now, I'm just going to be satisfied if I can get her to stop chewing my slippers.
World of Warcraft 5th Anniversary mosaic finally complete
It looks like the fans followed through, after all, and we finally get to see the Battlecry mosaic much sooner than I'd previously thought. The completed mosaic reveals a truly awesome piece of art by Wei Wang depicting all the current faction leaders. By awesome I mean truly mind-blowing, and Blizzard has high resolution versions of both the mosaic and the actual painting available for download in different versions. The full mosaic, for example, can be viewed in all its 14400 x 6150 pixel glory. Arguably the best version is the dual screen wallpaper which shows the most detail, although there are also much smaller versions for mobile phones. The Battlecry mosaic is comprised of 20,000 player-submitted pictures called out by Blizzard as part of the World of Warcraft 5th Anniversary celebration. Each section of the multi-part mosaic unlocked various content over the past few months, which included sneak peeks at conceptual art and even a piece of the game's musical score. The final artwork is arguably the best and coolest rendition of all the faction leaders so far, including a dual-wielding Magni Bronzebeard in armor that's significantly different from what he's wearing in-game, which may or may not hint at a possible model change come Cataclysm. Congratulations to all the fans who contributed to the mosaic!
The Queue: Son of Q
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Michael Gray will be your host today. While Adam yesterday (rightfully) pointed out the necessity of the occasional Star Trek reference in this feature, he failed to point out its natural outgrowth. While there is always Q Continuum, there must also be the Son of Q. He goes by q, in the lower case. That leads to some funny sounding dialogue like "I will always be your soulmate, little-case-q." Or something more awkward like "I am the great and powerful little-case-q." But that's okay. For the continuum, it's all third person references. Which leads me to . . . Transit asked . . . "At he beginning of Forge of Souls (Horde version) Lady Sylvanas says; "The Dark Lady watches over you. Make haste!" Who is the Dark Lady? She could be talking about herself in the 3rd person, but I don't think so. It seems she is talking about a particular entity. I also noticed the "Dark Lady" in the phrase is capitalized, which I think is also significant." I had actually wondered the same thing, once. I briefly believed that maybe this was some kind of generic dialogue, and maybe Blizzard didn't update it to be spoken by Sylvanas. Now, however, I have learned the error of my ways. Sylvanas is The Dark Lady. She's just referring to herself in third person, as you pointed out. It might seem a little up-on-herself, but it's more that she's being regal and queenly. Imagine King Wrynn urging Alliance soldiers forward, shouting at them "Go! Your King commands it!" You wouldn't think anything particularly odd about that phrase. In this case, it just looks a little funny because The Dark Lady isn't a title we're accustomed to seeing elsewhere.
