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WoW Insider Show with BRK and BBB live tomorrow
Should be a great show tomorrow on the podcast, as we welcome two terrific WoW bloggers to the table. In one place together for the first (second? third?) time ever, both Daniel "BigRedKitty" Howell (who has his own very popular, very well-done podcast, by the way, if you haven't heard it yet) and John "BigBearButt" Patricelli will be in attendance. And we'll be talking about, as usual, all the biggest stories from the past week in Warcraft, including how the new Kara boss is going (and almost gone), whether Karazhan itself is too easy these days, and that whole class forums megaton yesterday (that turned out to be a dud, more or less). And we'll cover the end of the zombie event, too, and whether or not it worked the way Blizzard planned it to, or if they cut it short early because of all the griefing.The show will air live at 3:30pm Eastern (time zone calculator) over on our Ustream page. Lots of people have had questions about how to get the show lately (and of course, it hasn't helped that our feed is going through some growing pains), but all of your questions should be answered in our last podcast post. And we're working on the quality issues, too -- I can assure you that the recording issue has been fixed, so no more tinny voices this week.But you don't want to wait until the recording anyway -- join us on the Ustream page tomorrow (or just come back to this post -- the stream is embedded after the break), and you can chat with us and other listeners live, as well as vote in polls and participate in a rumored "aftershow" that's been popping up after we're done recording lately. See you tomorrow!
WoW Moviewatch: Do you speak English?
This isn't EgadPit's first time on Moviewatch, as he'd previously been featured for his work with the Warchief Debates 2008. Using the soundtrack to a Simon Pegg skit, Do you speak English? tells the tale of a blood elf whose conveyance breaks down.
Times Online examines WoW's zombies and the connection to real life
Forget Fox News -- the Times Online has an analysis up of Blizzard's zombies event, and their main point seems to be that you can't compare a plague outbreak in the World of Warcraft to one in real life. Risk is what defines real outbreaks, and since there was really no risk in whether you became a zombie or not, players didn't necessarily act as they would in the real world. Some players even willingly submitted to infection, which of course presumably wouldn't happen with a real widespread fatal disease.But there are parallels to be drawn, and professors say that the zombie plague worked a little closer to real life than Hakkar's corrupted blood did (no coincidence, I'm sure, that the zombie plague was designed to be spread, while the Corrupted Blood was basically a bug). While the plague never did really infect everyone in the world, it did spread pretty quickly -- apparently there's a number you can use to track how quickly a disease spreads, and the zombie plague landed in the arena of a normal outbreak of smallpox (given, of course, that we don't know exactly how fast or how widely it spread).Very interesting. There is still more to say about this plague, I think (and though things have slowed down on the realms, hopefully the event itself isn't completely over). But it is fascinating how Blizzard turned emergent gameplay into an official event, and how they mimicked the real-life qualities of a spreading disease (the more of it around, the more likely you were to pick it up) while still leaving the idea firmly grounded in the in-game lore. Very cool indeed.
FOX news covers WoW's Zombie Invasion
FOX news picked up the story of the big zombie invasion, citing that the plague came to an end on Tuesday. They covered the event as a deliberate contagion that, if left "untreated," would turn you into one of the "flesh-eating zombies." Like our own Mike Schramm, FOX parallels this purposeful in-game disease with the previous accidental "Corrupted Blood" plague. I love it when WoW is in the news. I love it even more when the media's not talking about us being game-addicted fiends smashing the buttons for our Pavlovian treat. While FOX's story isn't exactly ground-breaking info for those of us toiling against the continuing Scourge invasion, it might reach a few of our friends and coworkers and convince them to give WoW a try. Or, this coverage could just be another sign of the impact Blizzard's game is having on the mainstream, while that 11 million subscriber base just keeps growing. And, yup, FOX's article does mention the upcoming Wrath release, so it's certainly possible Blizzard will see a few more players from the coverage. Every time WoW has an event like this which has mainstream interest, there'll be a few more people logging for the first time to see what the buzz is about. And, hey, it certainly lines up with the Holiday theme.
Scourge invasion in Stormwind and Undercity
While it's not something new exactly, it seems a lot of people haven't quite seen it happen yet. Along with the Scourge Invasion in places like the Burning Steppes, Azshara, and other points around the world, the invasion has hit some of the capital cities. Every now and then a strike team of Scourge, a Pallid Horror and Flameshockers, will spawn in a capital city and start attacking nearby guards and NPCs. When defeated, they'll leave behind a broken Necrotic Crystal which will have a quest for you.This is something exclusive to the invasion, but it's not something that just started happening today, and not the next step/phase of the event. A lot of people are under the impression that it is simply because it happens so infrequently. It really is rather cool when it happens, though. The first time I saw it was back in 2006 when this event happened the first time. Since I roleplay when I'm not raiding, I was sitting in the Cathedral of Light in Stormwind just yapping away with some people. The Scourge actually spawn in the 'basement' of the Cathedral, so my first experience with them was seeing them rise up out of the catacombs. Freaky? I think so!
What to do after the zombie apocalypse
Ah, zombie apocalypse. We hardly knew you. Your sudden departure leaves a lot of us confused, even if Blizzard swears it was all on purpose and according to plan. Regardless, the zombie plague seems to be over for now. We talked last week about how you could roleplay your sudden transformation into the undead brain muncher. Now, let's take a bit to talk about how your survivors are going to be feeling about this mess. Remorse. If you acknowlege that you died, came back as a zombie, died as a zombie, and came back yet again as a humanoid race, then you should probably acknowledge that you did some pretty horrible things. It's one thing to think, "My God, I ate the neighbor's cat," but there's a whole level of horror involved with "My God, I ate the neighbor!"This also supplies that most beloved motivation for roleplayers everywhere -- angst. You can be horrified ("I ate the neighbor!"), angsty ("And I liked it!"), and perhaps even be corrupted ("I'd do it again!"). If the memory of your wanton deeds aren't enough to sustain your remorseful roleplay, you can look to further naughty urges to supply more angst.
WoW Insider Show Episode 61: Filling the achievement tank
Here's episode number 61 of the WoW Insider Show, recorded last Saturday over on our Ustream page. On the show last week, we welcomed WoW Insider's Matthew Rossi back to the virtual airwaves, along with blogger Amanda Dean and our good friend Duncor of WoW Radio. And we talked a little more about achievements and which ones we liked the most, what was going on with all the zombie action, and of course since Rossi was around, we churned up some good discussion about what's up with Warriors, other tanks, and Shamans since the big Wrath patch.Lots of people have been asking questions about how to get the show, so after the break, I've included an exhaustive guide to how you can get our show nowadays. I apologize to everyone who's had problems so far -- obviously, with the switch from WoW Radio, we've had to deal with some tech roadblocks, but if you check after the break, you should find a way to listen to the show that fits what you want to do.Thanks for listening -- we'll be back as always next week![Ustream] Listen to the unedited recording in Ustream.[RSS] Add the WoW Insider Show to your RSS aggregator.[MP3] Download the MP3 directly.Or listen to Episode 61 right here:
Breakfast Topic: Uh, now what?
So the zombie invasion's over, huh? Just like that, the coolest World Event to ever hit Azeroth was gone just as quickly as it arrived. If you didn't log on this past week, you likely missed what was one of the most chaotic and fun times in the game -- players turning into zombies, infected roaches and rats infesting cities, and hordes of Scourge knocking at our city gates. It was unique, creepy, fun, and sometimes even disruptive -- but it was one of the most well-designed events we've ever seen happen to our favorite game. And now it appears to be over.What happened there, exactly? Just when everything was ramping up to a fine crescendo -- with the disease duration shaved down to an apocalyptic one minute and infected rats streaming out of our city sewers -- it suddenly dies out without warning or climax. No big battle. No quests to fight zombies. No conclusive finding of a cure (Grand Apothecary Putress' quest line wasn't quite anywhere near epic...). It just... ended. There were rumors of something going down at 4pm server time, but that hour came and went without so much as a bang and a clatter.What happens now? What do you guys think is in store for Azeroth? Certainly the Lich King won't let things end in such an anti-climactic fashion, right? Arthas, the baddest of all bad guys, must have something else up his cold, icy sleeve, right? What's going to happen next? Armies of Scourge attacking cities, perhaps, or some other impressive, crazy thing. I mean, certainly things won't be status quo all the way until November 13. Or can it?
New spooky forum avatars
Taking a gander at the official forums tonight will reveal something magically spooky.All the blue posters have been turned into glowing jack-o-lanterns, and all of us normal folks have turned into undead zombies.The conspiracy theorist in me suggests that this is a clue to the next stage of the zombie invasion. Tomorrow we'll all log on and have a strange urge for brains and only brains. Lots and lots of juicy... yummy... braaains. Insert Homer Simpson drool here.Of course this could just be another fancy bit for Halloween, but who knows....There is no indication how long this will last, and also there's no word if there'll be new Wrath of the Lich King avatars after this is done as there were when the Burning Crusade was released.
Zombies are bad for the economy
It's a good thing the zombies are going away now, isn't it? For the past few days, I noticed -- or rather my money-making wife noticed -- that the undead throng was badly tanking Azerothian commerce. The reason is that a lot of players' bankers and Auction House entrepreneurs are low-level alts that succumbed easily to the plague and random zombie attacks. When a Level 65 city guard turned into a zombie, it would naturally aggro the low-level bank mules and auction house regulars, killing them instantly. It didn't help that most players-turned-minions-of-the-Scourge usually targeted the Banks and Auction Houses for infection. Actually, we even recommended it as the best course of action as a (not so) mindless ghoul.When the disease grew potent enough to transform anyone it infected within a minute, it became practically impossible to accomplish anything. Especially not with Argent Healers calling for a hasty retreat. Entire cities -- or key areas of cities -- were quickly transformed into ghoulish carnivals and it was simply too bothersome to do any business. As a result, players couldn't put anything up on the Auction House nor could anyone buy anything, either, slowing commerce to a crawl. My wife's daily Auction House profits of upwards 500 Gold dwindled down to nary a copper with her alt being unable to collect from the mailbox, move stuff from the bank, or scan the Auction House, as she died istantly to roving zombies.What's next in store for us? Did Blizzard really cave in to the demands of players who felt that the World Event disrupted their normal routine too much? Or is there something more devious waiting in the wings? I know my wife was so upset by being unable to conduct her business that she decided to hold off from logging in at least until the event died down. Now that the zombie infestation seems to be under control, perhaps business will pick up again. Or maybe not, depending on what Blizzard has prepared for Azeroth. One thing's for sure, these Dawn of the Dead-type events certainly take a bite out of the economy.
The plague is gone, zombies dropping like flies
Just as Tigole said, the plague has indeed gone away. The crates are still there, but you can't contract the plague anymore. The zombies haven't been wiped out yet, but they'll eventually just wear themselves down, they can't spread the infection. No ceremony, no big events or explosions, the plague just stopped being effective. A little disappointing, really.However, there is a rumor, a rumor, that at 4 PM PST there will be stuff goin' down in Azeroth. Supposedly it will be 'epic.' What is it? I don't know. It's entirely a rumor, but man do we love us some rumors. You do too, don't you? I thought so! Well, if anything actually does happen, we'll be right here to let you know!Edit: Well, a whole lot of nothin' happened. Rumors are a fickle mistress! A few readers have reported that the necopoli outside of major cities are hovering lower in the sky, but it's difficult to tell. That's all we've seen or heard so far.
The Undead Plague ends today
We have good news and bad news. The good news is, if you hated dealing with zombies and the plague, it's going away in just a few hours. The bad news is, if you loved dealing with zombies and the plague, it's going away in just a few hours. Tigole confirmed it in a thread on the General forums, and also mentions that this isn't all that they have planned for the pre-Wrath umm... festivities, I guess?He doesn't go into specifics about what will be happening next, but the plague is going away. The special bosses and the necropoli wil be around for awhile yet, a week for the former, a few days for the latter, but the zombies will be no more as of noon PST. Tigole also assures us that this had nothing to do with the whining. This part of the story had simply run its course. We have no idea what's next, but whatever it is, I can't wait to see it.
Scourge Invasion: Lady Falther'ess
Alliance players, are you having fun globetrotting into dangerous Horde territories to track down these bosses? No? Well, too bad! This boss, Lady Falther'ess, is a level 37 banshee in Razorfen Downs, all the way at the bottom of the Barrens on Kalimdor. The easiest way to get there as the Alliance is from Stormwind. Fly (or ride) down to Booty Bay, take the boat across the Ratchet, and then ride all the way down to Razorfen. The outside of the dungeon is a bit confusing to figure out, but you'll find the entrance eventually. Hint: It's inside the big decayed pig's head. For Horde players, getting here is easy. Fly to the Crossroads or Camp Taurajo and jog down.She's pretty deep in there, so fight through the dungeon, no need for me to tell you how, and this is where you'll find Lady Falther'ess. She's the purty lookin' one. While you're here, if you have Cooking, make sure you talk to Henry Stern. If your skill is high enough he'll teach you how to make Goldthorn Tea. In addition, if you have high enough Alchemy skill, he'll teach you how to make Major Troll's Blood Elixirs.Once you open her cage, the fight begins! She fights as most banshees you come across fight/will fight. Her melee attacks do Shadow damage. She has the ability Ribbon of Souls which just does more Shadow damage. She has a Silence called Banshee Shriek, and a curse that lowers your chance to hit called Banshee Curse.Just be careful so your healer doesn't get silenced repeatedly, and this will be an easy fight for a level appropriate group. A level 70 can, of course, tear her up without worry. Once she's dead, snag your loot.She drops primarily healer/caster loot, but don't worry about that too much, melee players. This dungeon has a lot of nice loot including one of the first plate drops you'll encounter, so convince your party to do the whole thing. Maybe you'll get lucky and Ragglesnout will spawn with his X'caliboar. It's a fun instance, anyway. If you don't see Mordresh Fire Eye at least once in your lifetime, Sylvanas will never love you. Or uh, Varian Wrynn? Thrall? I don't know how you people swing, you freaks. You're probably into that C'Thun stuff, aren't you?Anyway, Lady Falther'ess drops a pretty good wand for the level, Lady Falther'ess' Finger. She also drops a pretty white spell power cloak, Mantle of Lady Falther'ess.That's all for this boss, and while there's been a bunch of these bosses one after another from the early 20s, the next one isn't until level 60. Since we're already on Kalimdor for this boss, let's take a look at Dire Maul's Revanchion next.
Scourge Invasion: Lord Blackwood
Lord Blackwood, found in the bowels of Scholomance in the Western Plaguelands, was one of the most popular invasion bosses back in 2006. One of his drops were so cool because it had a particle effect! Holy crap! That was a rarity back in our day. These days they'll put stars and glitter on any damn thing, but back when we were 60? We got our sparkly weapons from once (twice, I guess) in a lifetime world events or the bosses that were the very pinnacle for 40-man raiding. Yeah. Forty men. Sometimes women. Well, not forty women. Some men, and some women. Man, it doesn't matter. My point is, you kids don't know how good you have it!Anyway, head on into Scholomance! If you don't know where this is, you should take the Western Plaguelands map and beat yourself with it. I'll give you a hint, though. It's on Caer Darrow. You 'need' a key to get in the front door, but if you don't have one there are alternatives. Bring a Rogue. If you lack Rogue... Kite dozens of undead all the way to Sorrow Hill so they can murder you outside of the door of Scholo, thus allowing you to rez on the other side of the door. Easy! Okay, clear through the dungeon, you know how to kill things I'm sure. Fight your way down through the Summoning Chamber, and you'll come across this room here. See the purple glowy guy? That's him. He patrols around the entire backside of the room, and I recommend clearing out the room, even some of the areas back there. He likes using his bow and arrows, so if he runs in that direction to get range, you're going to get some adds. That's bad. When you engage Lord Blackwood, you'll very quickly discover he has a ton of health and armor. This fight is going to last awhile. Blackwood is the most difficult of the invasion bosses so far, because he has a lot of tricks up his sleeve. One, the most basic, is he has Shield Bash. Keep him away from your Casters and Healers or he'll have a lot of fun interrupting them. To get to range, he'll use Smoke Bomb. You get stunned, and he runs off to start pelting you with his bow.While at range, he uses a basic Shoot which does more damage than his basic melee swings. He also uses a Multi-Shot that hits multiple targets for Arcane damage. Basically, leaving him at range is a lot more dangerous than keeping him in melee, but he'll use Smoke Bomb fairly frequently to escape. That's why I suggested clearing as much of the room as you can before pulling him. When he starts running around trying to get range, he could easily pull a lot of extra mobs.Once he's dead, you can take a look at your loot! He drops primarily tank loot, a shield and a sword. The shield is Lord Blackwood's Buckler and the sword is Lord Blackwood's Blade. Truly, that sword is a relic of the past. Back when particle effects meant something.*For an added piece of trivia, Lord Blackwood shares his name with Blackwood Lake in the Eastern Plaguelands. It's very possible he used to own/oversee that region of Lordaeron before the Scourge came. These little details are sprinkled all throughout the Plaguelands. It's part of what made me love those zones so much back at 60.Now that Blackwood is done, let's bop over to Stratholme and check out Balzaphon!*I'm completely joking around here. I'm glad everyone gets cool stuff and there are more unique weapons in the game.
Scourge Invasion: Revanchion
Revanchion is a level 60 ghost... thing in Dire Maul: West. He's one of the more annoying-to-get-to invasion bosses. Not because he's all the way out in Feralas, but because he's in Dire Maul: West. To get to him you need the Crescent Key which is earned via a quest in Dire Maul: East. So he may be more trouble than he's worth, but that's not for me to decide!If you're level 60 (or higher) I assume you know where Feralas is, I assume you know where Dire Maul is, so I'll forego the handy dandy map this time. If you have the Crescent Key, just run up into Dire Maul and get started. If you don't have the key, you can work around that by rounding up a bunch of ogres, letting them have their way with you by the door, releasing spirit, and rezzing on the other side. You bunch of cheaters.When you're inside, there are some wandering trees you should deal with. If you're really good at timing and sticking together, you can get away with killing only one or two if you work around their patrols. On the other side, you'll come to a set of three archways. The middle will lead you to Tendris Warpwood. We don't care about him. The right will lead to the upstairs section. We don't care about that either. Go left. You'll see an area like this: See that ghost hanging out waayyy in the back in the corner? Like they should be wearing a dunce cap? That's Revanchion. Clear the trash here, then pull the boss! The biggest problem when fighting this guy is he has an insanely high dodge rate and has Frost Armor. Your tanks will have very very low threat unless they're a Paladin, so be careful! Beyond that, the fight really isn't so scary. He has a Shadowbolt Volley he does now and then, but that's about it. He also melees, but it doesn't hurt much. Just kill him.Unfortunately, the loot Revanchion drops isn't as good as the drops you were getting from earlier invasion bosses. At level 60, Outland gear is available to you, and that stuff is amazing. Back in 2006, though? Before epics were commonplace, and before we even had access to Outland? This stuff was top of the line.So what does he have? He has some healing bracers, Bracers of Mending. Though with the spell power change, some regular caster could get use out of those! Shadow Priests would enjoy that Spirit for leveling, for example. There are some spell power gloves, The Shadow's Grasp. Melee classes can bask in the not-quite-glory of the Cloak of Revanchion. Lastly, he drops Corruptor's Scourgestones if you're wearing your Argent Dawn Commission (or similar trinkets) just in case you're working on Argent Dawn rep for achievements.If you've never done Dire Maul before now, I recommend taking this opportunity to run through it. Heck, do all three wings if you can. They all tie together a bit while still having their own individual stories. It's a bit like what Burning Crusade dungeons should have been. It has wings, but they're all interconnected in little ways. You can go from one to the next without every stepping out of the instance if you want to do so. It's neat! Explore!Now, let's go back to the Eastern Kingdoms with Lord Blackwood!
The bosses of the Scourge Invasion
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/The_bosses_of_the_Scourge_Invasion'; In the chaos of the plague and looming ziggurats, a portion of the overall invasion has been overlooked. Tenris Mirkblood of Karazhan isn't the only limited edition boss during this invasion, and not all of the content is exclusively for top level players. There are unique bosses with unique loot for players of all levels, starting from your early 20s right on to level 70. Whether you're leveling your first character or you're leveling you umpteenth alt, the Scourge Invasion has something for you to do. You get to do it away from all of the chaos, too. Round up some appropriately leveled friends and fill out a group to tackle these bosses, or find a kind-hearted level 70 looking for something to do, and knock these guys out! Behind the link below you'll find a list of each of the bosses, as well as a quick guide for each one of them.
Scourge Invasion: Sever
Sever is a level 21 Abomination boss found in Shadowfang Keep only during the Scourge Invasion event. Moreover, Shadowfang Keep (and its associated quests on the Horde side) is the precursor to another upcoming storyline as mentioned by Blizzard (and beta testers) so I highly recommend giving this place a go if you haven't yet. Low level players will enjoy the drops here, and both low and high level players will appreciate seeing the story of this dungeon and your final opportunity to see a boss we may never see again.If you're a new player playing Alliance and you're trying to get to Shadowfang Keep, you have quite a journey ahead of you. Shadowfang Keep lies in Silverpine Forest, in the northern Eastern Kingdoms. For Horde players, that's just a jog down the block. For Alliance, you'll be crossing half of a continent. It's easiest to start from Ironforge (if you're a Night Elf or Draenei, you can take the boat from Auberdine to the Stormwind Harbor, and from there take the tram to Ironforge) and run east to Loch Modan. From there, run north through the Loch, up through the Wetlands, east through the Arathi Highlands and the Hillsbrad Foothills, and then to the Keep itself in Silverpine. That's pretty much what my map looked like the first time I tried to find the place. I saw the funny shaped island and said, "Ooooh that must be it!" That took me through a slightly more dangerous area than the real path. Follow the red arrow to the red circle. That's Shadowfang Keep.If you and your group is into the story of WoW, wait until you're all there and go into the dungeon together. When you zone in, run straight ahead to the grate blocking you off from the courtyard and watch the show.Once that's done, start clearing the dungeon! I won't ruin how to do it for any low level parties that are trying this place out, but I'll give a little guidance at least. You need to get to the courtyard to progress, but it's sealed off with a locked door. There's a way through it, so kill the baddies in this first area until you find it.When you're in the courtyard, stop off and kill some ponies for a free bag. Sweet, sweet bags. Then you go to the right, where you're faced with a split in the road. It's dark in Shadowfang Keep, so it's difficult to see in my screenshot, but there are two ways you can go here. Up the ramp, or through the door just left of the ramp which leads to the kitchen and banquet hall. If you just want Sever, you want to go up the ramp. If you want to see all of the bosses, you can hang a left and clear through the kitchen and banquet hall. Once you've done that, you can backpedal a little and go through Sever, then continue through the dungeon. The rest of the exploration is up to you! Have fun with Shadowfang!We're not done with Sever himself, though. Sever is an abomination, and as you'd expect from abominations, he's a pretty physical fighter. He hits like a truck on level-appropriate players, but you should be okay. He's a tank and spank encounter. If you don't know what that means since this might be your first dungeon, it means he has very few gimmicks or tricky mechanics. Your tank tanks, and your DPS spanks him. He'll pound on the tank and every now and then cast Diseased Spit which does around 100 Nature damage and lowers your stamina a little. Nothing tricky, nothing scary. When he has roughly 40% of his health left, he'll Enrage and his melee damage will go waayyy up. I've heard people say he has an AOE Fear as well, but I've never actually seen him do it myself.Once Sever is dead, enjoy your rewards! There are only two items on his loot table. There's a two-handed axe, The Axe of Severing, that is pretty good. He also has cloth leggings with spell power on them, Abomination Skin Leggings. Casters see very little spell power this early in the game, so this is actually an incredible drop for level 20ish players that don't have someone twinking them out. Heck, if you do have someone twinking you out, make them do it with these! They're fantastic.And that's Sever! Your next target will probably be Scorn, whether you're high or low level. He's the closest in terms of difficulty and location, being level 30ish and up in the Scarlet Monastery.
Scourge Invasion: Balzaphon
Balzaphon, like Scorn, is a lich. Like Scorn (and most liches... lichen?), he's primarily a Frost-based caster. You can find him within the burning streets of Stratholme, and while you can get at him by going in the front door, it's much easier to use the eastern entrance that takes you straight to the Undead side of Stratholme. You need the Key to the City to get in through that way, so if you don't have it, bring someone with one! Or fight your way to this spot through the other entrance. If you go in through the Undead side (as you should) then you'll see a fork in the road just inside. There's an open gate on the left, and a locked gate up ahead. You want to hang that left, where you'll see a fountain surrounded by undead. Clear a path to the right, watch for abomination patrols, and hang that right. You'll see Balzaphon right up ahead. Before you fight him, clear around him. He has a Fear, so you should be careful in this area.Ready? Fight! He rapid-fires Frostbolts. And I mean rapid. He casts them very quickly, and he casts them one after the other. If he takes a break from that, he casts AOEs (Frostbolt Volley, Cone of Cold) instead. Your tank will need a whole lot of healin' here. When his health starts dropping, he'll start mixing Fears in there on people, which is why you cleared around him. It's very easy to get feared into nearby groups of undead.It's a harder fight than the earlier bosses, but Lord Blackwood is a little more tricky, I think. You'll get Balzaphon down pretty easy, just stay alive longer than he does! Easy! Right?Now, the loot. Again, Balzaphon is caster heavy. Sort of what you'd expect from a lich. He has a spell power necklace, Chains of the Lich. He has a spell power belt, the Waistband of Balzaphon, that is marked as being frost spell power only on Wowhead but I was under the impression they has removed all class-specific spell damage/power, so who knows! He also forks over his staff, Staff of Balzaphon, from time to time.Back in the day, the biggest draw about this guy is that if you're after Argent Dawn reputation, he drops two Corruptor's Scourgestones and he's only a handful of pulls away from the entrance. You could farm up a dozen of the things in no time flat. If you're looking to complete the Argent Champion achievement and need a lot of Dawn rep still, this is a good place to go.If you want other bonuses, if you go a bit further up the road from Balzaphon you'll come across The Unforgiven. It's only a few pulls away, so it's some extra loot and scourgestones. And if you want to go a little further than that you'll find Hearthsinger Forresten, who will sometimes drop the Piccolo of the Flaming Fire, a trinket that will annoy your friends for eternity.That's it for the level 60 bosses from the Scourge Invasion! The only one left now is Tenris Mirkblood inside of Karazhan. Good luck!
Scourge Invasion: Scorn
Scorn resides in the Graveyard wing of the Scarlet Monastery, which is actually quite convenient because the Headless Horseman is there during the Hallow's End event as well. As a high level player, you can take out two birds with one stone. As a low level player with friends willing to twink them out, you can get a shot at Scorn's loot and a ring that can sit in your bank for 40 levels until you can use it. If you play Horde and have never been to the Scarlet Monastery before, it's right in the northeast corner of the Tirisfal Glades. You can just bop out of Undercity and scoot over. Alliance is going to have a rougher time. For directions, just look back on the ones I gave for getting to Shadowfang Keep. They're mostly the same, except you keep going north through Silverpine Forest and into Tirisfal Glades. If you've never been there, this is where you want to go when you get to Tirisfal. Alliance, be careful and try to stay clear of the Horde towns and NPCs here. The guards (and players, probably) will kill you if you get too close.The Graveyard is one of the two instance portals here that isn't behind a great big door. If you go inside of one and it says "The Library!" then you're not in the Graveyard. That would be... the Library. Fight your way through the dungeon, it's pretty linear so I won't explain how anything goes, but at the end you'll fight Bloodmage Thalnos. Killing him is what spawns Scorn, so you will need to clear both of the bosses. You don't need to clear all of the undead in the instance, just clear what you need to so you have room to move around.While you're clearing, keep an eye out for the Graveyard's rare spawns for extra loot! If you want to use a simple /target Mob command or macro, their names are Azshir the Sleepless, Ironspine, and the Fallen Champion. No 'the' on his name, it's just Fallen Champion.After Bloodmage Thalnos is dead, run back the way you came, toward the entrance/exit. You'll see Scorn eventually. He's a lich, you won't miss him. He'll be the big undead boney skirty floaty guy.Scorn is, for the most part, a Frost Mage that hacks and also specced into Mind Flay. He has a Frostbolt Volley, which is an AOE Frostbolt. He has Frost Nova, which is an AOE snare/root. He has a normal melee attack, which he seems to use while Mind Flaying, and he also has one final, ultimate ability. Lich Slap. Ouch!He doesn't have a lot of HP, so you shouldn't have too much trouble killing him. If casters and healers stand as far away from him as your spells allow, you won't get hit by his AOE spells at all.Once he's dead, split up your loot! Warriors and Paladins will likely enjoy The Frozen Clutch, a pair of Mail DPS gloves. Hunters might like them as well, but they can't use them until 10 levels after the item's minimum level, so they'll likely find better. Casters and Healers of all flavors will like his other drops. A spell power necklace, Scorn's Icy Choker, and a spell power dagger, Scorn's Focal Dagger.Again, these drops may not look like much to us level 70 players, but stats like raw attack power and spell power aren't exactly plentiful at these lower levels. These are very good items for their level, and they'll only be around for a limited time.That's it for Scorn! If you're looking for another target, the closest in terms of level is Lady Falther'ess all the way in Razorfen Downs. Geographically the closest target is probably Lord Blackwood in Scholomance or Balzaphon in Stratholme. Go! Adventure!
A critical look at WoW's zombie issues
In a move driven in part by frustration, Lume the Mad recently outlined his specific beefs with Blizzard's pre-Wrath zombie event for World of Warcraft. We've seen in the past that some people weren't enjoying the event whatsoever, but Lume has gone the distance and outlined exactly what's wrong and how massive frustration could have been avoided.It's very unfortunate that greifers are ruining the event for everyone, but then again nobody should be surprised. Everyone should be familiar with John Gabriel's Greater Internet D*ckwad Theory by now. We're all for events that shake up player expectations but Lume makes a very strong point by point argument that's hard to argue with in any sort of rational way. Hopefully, Blizzard will learn from this experience and put in a few more safeguards next time around. That is unless they've simply become unscrupulous evil men and women, corrupted by nerd money and power.
