Thrall
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Know Your Lore: Thrall (part one)
You knew we'd get to him sooner or later. Brace yourselves for a two parter: this one's going to be huge. There's so much to say about Thrall.Thrall, son of Durotan. Rightful Chieftain of the Frostwolf Clan. Warchief of the Horde. Single most badass orc out there. He's a shaman, but he can wear plate. He's that awesome. Since last time I wrote about the most evil orc ever, I figured this time out we should talk about the savior of the orcish people, the guy who brought pure shamanism back to the Horde, the guy who threw a freaking hammer at a pit lord (okay, so he got owned, but we all know he was just giving Grom his big hero moment) and who was the only one to just listen to Medivh instead of doing something stupid like going to Northrend.Even when I played Alliance... heck, even when my main was an Alliance Paladin, way back in the dim misty recesses of the past.... there was no question but that you had to respect Thrall. So how did this paragon of Orcishness (no, it's not a word) come into being? How did he rise from being a heck of a pain to escort in Durnholde Keep to eventually being a heck of a pain to keep away from the fighting at Mount Hyjal? Like most people, Thrall started life as a baby, in his case a baby orc. His father Durotan and mother Draka were among the few orcs that didn't buy into Gul'dan's new Horde and refused to drink the Blood of Mannoroth. Not drinking the blood was smart. Letting Gul'dan know they didn't like him wasn't as smart. (Durotan's childhood friend, Orgrim Doomhammer, also didn't drink the blood, but he managed to make it look like he was deferring out of reverence for his warchief, Blackhand the Destroyer, whereas Durotan outright refused to do it.) Since the Frostwolves had been warned by Gul'dan's former mentor, Ner'zhul, they ended up exiled for their refusal and found themselves forced to eke a difficult life out of the frozen Alterac Valley.However, as we learned last time, Gul'dan was not exactly the forgiving sort. So he decided that exile to Alterac Valley wasn't enough punishment for Durotan and his people. Being Gul'dan, he decided that having the defiant chieftain of the Frostwolves treacherously murdered was a better idea.
WoW Moviewatch: Mount Hyjal
Raid videos can be monotonous. Most are one long shot of the same spell effects hitting the boss mobs for 20 minutes straight. Then there are videos like this one. Let's list all the things that sets this video apart: A 2 minute story-based intro with (are you sitting down?) excellent voice acting Dynamic editing synched to the soundtrack that keeps the fights interesting Many different types of music to give each encounter its own flavor For 98% of the WoW population that will never see the Mount Hyjal raid instance, this is video is a gift from the gods.Previously on Moviewatch...
Blizzplanet corners Walter Simonson on the comic
Blizzplanet has posted an interview with Walter Simonson, and is it me, or is it time to stop poking around for information on the new comic? Just let the nice people write and draw the thing already!Simonson doesn't actually confirm the non-secret secret that Varian Wrynn is the amnesiac starring in the comic, but that doesn't keep Blizzplanet from prodding and poking everything they possibly can out of him. He says the comic will be set in the present, but when they nerd it up with some more lore, he admits it'll actually take place before the Burning Crusade. Simonson tries to drop a hint that the hero will end up in Orgrimmar, but then he's eventually exasperated enough to reveal that Orgrimmar, Thunder Bluff and the Pools of Vision, Ashenvale, Darnassus, and the Eastern Kingdom will all make appearances inside the comic. And while Blizzplant has heard rumors that Dire Maul will be featured in the comic, they eventually get Simonson to tell them that "we're going to witness an event involving ogres (and others) that occurs regularly in a hitherto underutilized part of Dire Maul." And that sounds, of course, like a Tribute Run.I can see how, if you're a big fan of the comic already, learning stuff like this might be fun and interesting. But at some point, you've just got to leave Simonson alone and read the comic for yourself. Enough interviews, enough hinting, enough speculation. Just let him write it so we can read it already!
Gruul looking as hot as he'll ever be, relatively speaking
Well unfortunately, it seems my request is not to be. As commenter so2 pointed out the other day, Illidan is not actually a humanoid, so he's not affected by the Beerfest goggles that turn everything into a Gnome (Alliance) or a female Orc (Horde). Bummer-- I really wanted to see Illidan as a tiny little Gnome guy.However, as you can see above, Gruul is technically a humanoid. And thanks to reader Nate S., we've got a picture of Gruul in his lair, looking as attractive as a female Orc can look. I don't know how much Mudder's Milk you have to drink to make Gruul look that attractive, but it's got to be a whole lot of alcohol.Of course, the other thing about Gruul is that as the fight goes on, he gets bigger, so I'm still curious to see if, while wearing the Gnome glasses, you could get a picture of the raid fighting a giant Gnome (heck, who needs the glasses-- Blizz, here's my official request for a giant Gnome instance boss in Northrend). And I think a lot more experimentation is needed with these goggles, anyway-- can we see Thrall as a Gnome or Bolivar Fordragon as a female Orc?Update: Ask and ye shall receive. Thanks, myrlin!
Breakfast Topic: The perfect server
Spiritus has a good quesiton on WoW Ladies: if you could transfer, right now, to any server, what would you look for in the server you moved to?What makes the perfect server? I can think of a lot of things that would go into the server decision. If you had friends there already (this was the reason I rolled on the server I'm on now) Server population Server age (you reroll locusts) AH prices Guilds and progression Server type (PvE, PvP, or RP) And does anyone consider the server name in their choice? Would you rather be on Arthas or Thrall? So if you could conjure up your perfect server, what would it be like and why? If Blizzard offered transfers tomorrow to any realm, what would server heaven be like for you?
More bugs than patches
By now you've heard of the Orc shoulder problem (and maybe you've even confronted Azeroth's Greatest Male Orc about it), but as MMO Champion shows, that was definitely not the only major bug that showed up in 2.1.3. There's a huge list of things going wrong-- Dwarf females' offhands are huge, Blood Elf males can walk through chairs, Cyclone can prevent players from getting their BG marks (!), and ghost wolves, when attacking, can now be seen carrying weapons. What happened?!The problem becomes even stranger when you consider the patch notes-- almost nothing got changed compared to previous patches. All we saw were a few graphical changes, an added interface option, and some high level raid tuning. As someone asked yesterday, how can all of this seemingly unrelated stuff be breaking? If all Blizzard is doing is updating the mail system, what does the size of shoulderpieces on male Orcs have to do with it at all?The answer is probably more complicated than we can know. As commenter Okoloth said yesterday, object-oriented programming (which Blizzard uses to code the game) is full of parent/child relationships, which means that a change in one class ("wearable items in the mail") can have strange effects all across the game ("Orc shoulders shrink"). And then there's the whole fact that even though the patch notes for 2.1.3 are small, that most likely doesn't mean Blizzard is slacking-- they could be implementing more subtle changes on the system (in preparation for future content that we don't know about yet), and those changes might be having an effect on the actual game we play.Of course, just because we aren't being told why these things are happening doesn't mean we should give Blizzard a pass on fixing them ASAP (in my opinion, they shouldn't wait until the next patch to fix my shoulder size, thank you). But just because seemingly unrelated bugs are popping up doesn't mean they don't know what they're doing.
Norgannon and Thrall Transfers Opening!
Finally, I'm sure some of you are saying. Initially announced on March 24th and delayed three times since, it appears that transfers to the new Norgannon and Thrall realms are finally going to happen. Begining Monday, April 17th, at 3:00 AM PDT, players from Shadowsong and Azjol-Nerub will be able to transfer to Norgannon while players from Alleria and Hellscream will be able to transfer to Thrall. Transfers will close on Thursday, April 20th, at 3:00 PM PDT, so get on it while there's a chance.
Update on Upcoming Character Transfers
Transfers to the new Norgannon and Thrall servers are still on hold until further notice, though CM Drysc posted on Saturday assuring us that preparations for the transfers continue, and that they have not been canceled. Drysc has also provided an update on transfers to new realms Black Dragonflight and Dalvengyr. Due to "gameplay-related concerns" the Khaz'goroth to Dalvengyr transfer has been dropped from the list, but the remaining transfers began this morning at 3:00 AM PST. These transfers end on Thursday, so if you're interested, get to it as soon as possible!
Norgannon and Thrall Transfers Postponed
While Norgannon and Thrall are supposed to be two new servers accepting transfer accounts (from Shadowsong & Azjol-Nerub and Alleria & Hellscream, respectively), transfers keep getting pushed further and further back. At the end of last week, they were scheduled to come online Monday. On Monday, technical issues prevented transfers from occurring. On Tuesday, as I'm sure you recall, all servers were offline. On Wednesday, we were told they were opening on Thursday. And today we're told that transfers are postponed until further notice. It's nearly getting to where you can't trust these people...
Norgannon and Thrall Transfers Extended
Transfers to new servers Norgannon (from Shadowsong and Azjol-Nerub) and Thrall (from Alleria and Hellscream) were set to close this Thursday, but due to yesterday's extended maintenance (and perhaps the fact that transfers were offline on Monday), the transfer period has been rescheduled to start Thursday, March 30th, and to run until Tuesday, April 4th. Remember, transfers are only available between 3:00 AM and 3:00 PM PST. If you're interested in transferring, hit up the character transfer page.
New Server Monday: Maybe Not!
While two new transfer servers were supposed to go live today, it sounds like there are some technical problems. Players hoping to transfer from Shadowsong or Azjol-Nerub to Norgannon or Alleria or Hellscream to Thrall will have another chance tomorrow, when transfers should re-open at 3AM PST.
Two More US Realms on Monday
I imagine the server folks at Blizzard have had a hard week - because they've announced another two realms, transfer only, opening Monday. Players on the servers Shadowsong and Azjol-Nerub can transfer to Norgannon while players on the servers Alleria and Hellscream can transfer to Thrall. As usual, transfers are open from Monday to Friday, 3AM to 3PM PST, and the transfer period closes on Thursday, after which point normal character creation will be available.
