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Know Your Lore: Breakout Characters of 2014, Part One
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 2014 saw the end of one expansion and the beginning of another, it's actually got quite a list of characters that got an expanded role in the lore. Some of these are fairly predictable, and others less so. Since I like to talk about lore (it's what the column is about) I decided to round up some of the ones I found the most interesting. I've set myself a few arbitrary rules for this. One, Mists of Pandaria characters are fair game. I know the last patch was in 2013, I don't care. Secondly, they had to do something in terms of story. Sorry, Varian, but you really didn't do much at all in Siege and you haven't done much in Warlords, either. This isn't listed by priority - the last character we talk about isn't more or less important than the first. So let's get down to brass tacks - who do I think broke out in the past year? (If somehow you still haven't had any exposure to Warlords of Draenor's story, be warned, Here Are Spoilers.) Vol'jin This one is kind of borderline for me - while he certainly took a big role in the end of Mists of Pandaria, he hasn't done a whole lot yet in Warlords. But I think it's an indisputable fact that Vol'jin's mere presence as a non-orc (a troll, even) atop the Horde power structure is a very significant change in terms of what it means for the Horde going forward. Before Vol'jin's rise to power, there had only been four warchiefs, two from the old Horde and two for the new, and all were orcs - the institution of warchief itself was an orcish one, brought over from Draenor when the Horde invaded. No other change in the history of the Horde has done more to draw a strong line of demarcation between past and present. The ascension of Vol'jin says to the world of Azeroth (and beyond it) that the Horde is no longer Orcs and their Amazing Friends, but instead a collective of races banded together for mutual survival, and one where no particular race predominates (at least in theory). We have yet to see how successful Vol'jin is in the role, but he definitely changes the status quo dramatically for the Horde.
The Queue: Lockouts, level 3 mine, Nagrand, and NSFTQ
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Adam Holisky (@adamholisky) will be your host today. Kyra asked: If I already cleared Highmaul on normal difficulty with my guild, can we still do it on Heroic and get loot? People don't really agree on this, some say yes and others no. Any idea?
Know Your Lore: 2014 Lore in review
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. I like to do year end reviews of lore we've seen in the past year, but this year's review is going to be a little odd. A little different. This is largely because we didn't actually see a lot of lore introduced until November of this year, when Warlords of Draenor was finally released. Patch 5.4, the last content patch for Mists of Pandaria, was released in 2013. So we had the majority of a year with little to speak of in terms of lore and story development, and then a massive avalanche of new lore and story delivered just last month. That makes reviewing kind of difficult. But at the same time, we do have plenty to talk about, particularly since we're dealing with a brand new expansion and a brand new world -- a world full of new mechanics, storytelling and characters that are just as vibrant and vivid as anything we've seen in Pandaria. So what did 2014 offer for the Warcraft lore fan, exactly -- and where did it falter?
WoW Moviewatch: Rent-An-Orc
I didn't really think I needed an orc in my life, but I may have just changed my mind thanks to today's machinima offering. Rent-An-Orc is a pretty short little film, and I think this may be the first piece I've seen from Youtuber wthMerhaba. It's a simple premise -- Ragnar the Bloodthirsty has come under some financial strain, and is now offering his services via informative infomercial to assist would-be customers with their lives in a variety of colorful and suitably orcish ways. Sounds simple enough, and the film itself is pretty simple too, but the subject material is funny, the voiceovers work really well, and the added bonus to the offer had me in stitches. Sometimes things don't have to be incredibly fancy to be perfect -- a good joke and a good delivery will get you everywhere. If you like what you see, check out wthMerhaba's Youtube channel for more. Here's hoping we'll see a lot more from him in the future. Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an email at moviewatch@wowinsider.com.
The Queue: You shall not pass
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Anne Stickney (@Shadesogrey) is answering all kinds of questions today. Today's Queue has absolutely nothing to do with Gandalf, I swear. Whiteout asked: Question for the Eminent Queue: Have you discovered anything odd in World of Warcraft, not a bug or error produced by lag, but something intentionally placed in the world, whether it be in Outland, Azeroth, or Draenor? Once upon a time back in vanilla WoW, there used to be places you could get to through ... creative use of game mechanics. I may or may not have been pretty good at getting into said places due to my overwhelming affection for punching the space bar and making my character jump every where I went. Back then, Hyjal wasn't a zone. It wasn't even an instance, it was a completely blocked off section of the map. There was very little in it save canyons, paths, a few houses, and a layout that looked kind of similar to what we got with the Hyjal zone in Cataclysm. That big crater that Goldrinn's shrine is in? It was there back then. There were also a few instance portals that looked like they could go to a raid or a dungeon at some point in the future. And if you happened to follow the trail all the way to the top, you were treated to an amazing view of Archimonde's skeleton impaled upon the World Tree. And at the very, very end of that trail were the construction signs shown above, marked "Blizzard Construction Company." It was weird. Maybe not quite as weird as the crypts beneath Karazhan, but it was pretty weird.
WoW Moviewatch: Starcraft Evacuation
Okay, obviously this isn't Warcraft -- heck, I'm not even sure we can classify it as machinima. But this is the second place winner from the 2014 BlizzCon movie contest, so I thought you guys might like to see it. Starcraft: Evacuation is a short film by Youtuber Peter Stroll about a small Terran mining settlement that is under attack -- the story is relatively straightforward. What's pretty cool about this particular movie is that sure, there's live action, but there's also some visual effects included that are surprisingly well done for an amateur effort. My only lament is that the film cuts off just when I wanted to see what was going to happen next. Maybe we'll see a sequel in time for the next BlizzCon? Let's hope so. Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an email at moviewatch@wowinsider.com.
The Queue: Disturbing orc face
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Anne Stickney (@Shadesogrey) is answering all kinds of questions today. I think maybe I'm just never going to ask an orc to smile for the camera ever, ever again. maalin asked: Q4tQ: I got started late and am struggling to get my ilvl up before MC goes away. Why does MC not even show up in my lfg/lfr list? Others show up as disabled and the tool tip tells me what ilvl I need to queue. Molten Core won't actually show up on your list of raids until you're at an ilvl of 615.
The Queue: My cat is the best rogue ever
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Matthew Rossi will be your host today. That's my cat Sasquatch. He is adorable, and also, apparently he's a master of stealth. Just look at him up there. Oh, wait, you can't, because he's just that stealthy. Right now, let's answer some WoW questions! The way Sasquatch would, with all the craft and guile of a master of subtlety. Failing that, let's just hide under a rug. Bapo-The-Paladin asks: So do all three world bosses share a loot lockout, or is it just Drov and Tarlna? The hotfix makes it sound like it's just them, since Rukhan also drops higher ilvl gear? Based on my reading of the patch notes it's just those two. I don't think there's a third for this to be applied to yet anyway.
Getting started with pet battles in Warlords of Draenor
Though the basic battle pet system hasn't changed, if you're a pet collector heading into Warlords of Draenor you'll find plenty of new pets to collect, six new tamers to beat, daily battles at your garrison's menagerie, new achievements, and a new pet-centric currency. So where's a potential pet tamer to begin? We'll walk you through all of the pat battling Warlords has to offer. Find and fight Draenor's pet tamers There are six new tamers to battle in Draenor, one for every zone (excepting Tanaan and Ashran). You can fight each tamer once a day in exchange for 4 Pet Charms, which you can use to buy pet-centric gear at your garrison. In addition to fun toys like costumes and pet treats, you can buy bandages, and battle-stones. Amongst that gear, of the most interest to pet levelers will be: Marked Flawless Battle-Stones for 15 charms, Flawless Battle-Training Stones for 3 charms, and Mystery Bags which a random family battle-training stone for 2 charms. Here's who you'll need to fight (and where you'll need to go) for your pet charms: Cymre Brightblade, Gorgrond (51, 71): Strategy Ashlei, Shadowmoon Valley (50, 30): Strategy Vesharr, Spires of Arak (46, 46): Strategy Gargra, Frostfire Ridge (67, 64): Strategy Taralune, Talador (49, 81): Strategy Tarr the Terrible, Nagrand (56, 10): Strategy
The Queue: It could all be about the pet battles on iPad
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Adam Holisky (@adamholisky) will be your host today. Welcome to another week of Warcraft -- let's talk about WoW today, shall we? Sgracy asked: Do you think they should allow the battle pet game to be separately available on iPad, etc? I think it would do really well like Hearthstone, and Blizzard could make money too. I subbed 1 year back and really liked collecting battle pets. Since there is no pokemon on mobile yet, it would do really good.
Know Your Lore, Tinfoil Hat Edition: The mystery of Archmage Khadgar
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. Last week, we talked about the history of Khadgar -- a mage who had the unfortunate fortune of being apprenticed to Medivh, the Guardian of Tirisfal, just as the Guardian unleashed an angry bloodthirsty rampaging army of orcs upon Azeroth. It wasn't Medivh that carried out this task, but the spirit of Sargeras that lingered on inside him, passed on from his mother, Aegwynn. Although Khadgar eventually figured out this plot and confronted and defeated Medivh directly, the consequences for doing so were dire -- Khadgar found his magic and his vitality sapped away, aging from a youth to an old man near instantly. The loss of so much of his precious mortality weighed hard on Khadgar, but it didn't stop him from accomplishing the seemingly impossible -- closing down the Dark Portal not once, but twice. The second time would be the last anyone would see of Khadgar for years, because he shut it down on the Draenor side of the Portal, stranding himself and the rest of the Alliance Expedition on the shattered wastelands of Outland until we found him again in Burning Crusade. And now, it seems Khadgar has closed the Dark Portal for a third time, with the aid of heroes both Alliance and Horde. Yet there's something strange about Khadgar, a peculiar mystery that keeps getting stranger the longer I look at it. Today's Know Your Lore is a Tinfoil Hat edition. The following contains speculation based on known material. These speculations are merely theories and shouldn't be taken as fact or official lore.
WoW Moviewatch: Warlords Countdown
Look, I'm pretty sure by this point in Warlords of Draenor you can automatically win over my heart in any machinima just by putting together a cheery video of any of the titular Warlords being happy, sunny, and dancing. But David Nguyen went one step further and put that all into an almost shot-for-shot recreation of the original Care Bears opening sequence, which just set the bar that much higher for anyone wanting to win me over with silly orc warlord shenanigans. Warlords Countdown is a pretty short piece, comparatively speaking, but I loved every second of it. If you like what you see, head over to David's Youtube channel and check out his other work. Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an email at moviewatch@wowinsider.com.
The Queue: Sha crystal power, make up
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Anne Stickney (@Shadesogrey) is answering all kinds of questions today. Since I already had one short video yesterday, I figured I'd do another one today. If you haven't seen Just Another Summer Night in full, you really should watch the whole thing. Let's get to the Warcraft questions ... or actually, first, let's look at a comment. atanae commented: For those of us old enough to remember beanie babies... If Blizzard made plushies of all the battle pets...yeah...license to print money. I never collected beanie babies. I couldn't throw money hard enough at Blizzard to collect plushie battle pets. Priorities... This is something I have wished that they'd do for years, and I have no idea why they haven't jumped on that particular licensing opportunity yet. No idea!
WoW Moviewatch: The Sore Loser
I first saw The Sore Loser while standing in line for the BlizzCon store -- it was the first place winner of the 2014 BlizzCon movie contest. And even without quite being able to hear every line over the din of the crowd, I still ended up laughing by the end of the short. The film, from Mushanga's Machinima Movies, features voice acting by Jesse Cox, Rawrbug and Chase Johson, all of whom were absolutely excellent. The effects were great too -- I loved the teleportation sequence. Between the film work, the story, and the voice acting, it definitely deserved first place. Take a look, and if you like what you see, be sure to check out Mushanga's Youtube channel for more. Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an email at moviewatch@wowinsider.com.
The Queue: Mom's not home
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Anne Stickney (@Shadesogrey) is answering all kinds of questions today. The above film was a little too short for a Moviewatch, but just right for a Queue header. I could totally see a couple of goblins doing this, too. What's the Azeroth equivalent of Vine? Do we have one? Should we have one? hordak asked: is there a way for alts (or toons in general) to fly at 85 in Pandaria? I thought I saw something about a tome on the BMAH, but it wasn't specific and my google searches have come up short. There is a book called Grimoire of the Four Winds that is Bind-on-Account so you can send it to your alts. However, the book is only available in the Black Market Auction House in Nagrand, and the starting price is 1k. Leveling is pretty speedy these days, so unless you're dying to fly prior to level 90, honestly I'd say just use your ground mount.
WoW Moviewatch: The Force Awakens
We've all seen the new Star Wars trailer and, with Blizzard's help, started wondering just what an Azerothian interpretation of the film might be like. However, Ian Beckman's taken the idea even further with a WoW machinima timed to the original trailer's sound and dialog. And the finished product manages to hold together the plot surprisingly well, from Gorehowl (with mini-Gorehowl crossguards) replacing the infamous lightsaber to Khadgar on a rocket replacing the Millennium Falcon. My only complaint: where are the gnomes and goblins?! This high-tech crossover universe was sadly lacking all of Azeroth's engineering talent... much like actual Warcraft trailers. Oh well. While we're still waiting for the goblins and gnomes to have their day, we can enjoy this machinima. Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an email at moviewatch@wowinsider.com.
The Queue: Sunday is my birthday
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Matthew Rossi will be your host today. It's been a rough month. Physically, at least. I've been unwell, let's put it that way. Anyway, Sunday is my birthday and I'm pretty excited about it. Excited enough that I'm going to address Sheoll's comment about galloping crocodiles here instead of as a WoW question, because, well, it's not a WoW question yet. (But it could be. Come on, WoW devs, give us some panzercrocs.) I've liked terrestrial crocodilians like Pristichampus for years, but Serano's galloping crocodiles are evidence that crocodiles were a very broad group with significant variation between members. Crocodilians are an incredibly successful group, the only surviving archosaurs besides birds, and its fascinating to see them in the fossil record varied from 40 foot long, 9 ton Sarcosuchus to tiny Araripesuchus, with body plans for completely terrestrial life, semi-aquatic, and even fully aquatic lifestyles. Seeing crocodilians with fully upright gait still blows me away. One of the concepts I love when discussing paleontology is that of deep time - essentially, instead of trying to create a narrative for these animals (like, as an example, the one that argued dinosaurs were doomed to extinction because they were more primitive than mammals, which has been entirely disproved by now) you have to realize how vast the periods of time we're discussing. The Cretaceous alone was over 79 million years long. That's just the Cretaceous, that's not even counting the Triassic or Jurassic, nor periods like the Permian that predated them. Essentially, it's impossible to compress that much time into anything like a meaningful narrative - too much happened that we don't know, can't know, and will never know. It puts a birthday in perspective, let me tell you. Anyway. World of Warcraft questions. Let's discuss them. CaptainCakewalk asks: Q4tQ: Seeing as there has been a rather enormous amount of mounts in Warlords, I am wondering what is your favourite so far? A pig. Specifically, this pig. Now if only there was a boarcroc mount in WoW.
WoW Moviewatch: Life in Draenor
We're all getting used to our lives in Draenor (in garrisons and out), and Slightly Impressive has put together a machinima that sums up the Draenor day-to-day, from mostly-safe in-garrison gathering to the dangers of garrison envy. But more importantly, this video raises a key question about the expansion: just how does Khadgar manage to show up everywhere with a problem for you to solve? It's a mystery for the ages! Instead of giving yourself a headache trying to figure it out, we'd recommend just watching the video -- or taking a nostalgic trip through WoW history with Slightly Impressive's other machinima. Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an email at moviewatch@wowinsider.com.
The Queue: Pressure pushing down on me
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Matthew Rossi will be your host today. My birthday is in six days. What did you get me? You didn't get me anything, did you? This is my sad face. You can't see it, of course, because it's just that sad. And also because I didn't actually take a picture of it. Let's all just listen to my favorite David Bowie song, which also happens to be my favorite Queen song. PhantomQuasar asks: How would you like to see the Garrison evolve in the next expansion? What could be done to improve this concept even more? The three ideas I've seen for Garrisons that I've liked so far are as follows: Warcraft style Garrison PvP, where you and your followers (acting as hero units ala Warcraft 3) do battle against another player and his followers. Mobile Garrisons - maybe an airship like the Skybreaker or Orgrim's Hammer, or gigantic naval craft, or if we go up against the Burning Legion maybe something like a Naaru dimension ship. Heck, maybe we can get our hands on Tempest Keer. And maybe it can transform into a giant robot. Yeah, I like Macross so what? Dance Studio. Just make it happen already. I don't necessarily think it should be the same Garrison, or even called a Garrison next time, but if we're going to evolve the concept, I love the idea of a mobile base that takes you from zone to zone. Kind of a quest hub that follows you around.
Know Your Lore: Khadgar, of the Sons of Lothar
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. He has successfully managed to close the Dark Portal three times now -- an astounding feat, no matter which way you look at it. As former apprentice to the Guardian of Tirisfal, Khadgar has had a long and storied life -- a life lived fast forward, that now seems to be traveling in reverse. If we've learned anything about Khadgar so far in Warlords of Draenor, it's that this mystery mage has far more up his sleeve than any of us would have guessed upon our first meeting with the mage in Shattrath City during Burning Crusade. He's lively. He's peppy. He's downright snarky at times, and full to the brim with witty banter and wittier planning. Khadgar is a man of many talents, the least of which involves the destruction of Dark Portals and the ushering of armies. And in between all these madcap adventures, one has to wonder if Khadgar ever imagined, at age seventeen, staring at the tower of Karazhan, just exactly what he would spend his life getting into and out of as gracefully as any dancer on Azeroth.
