An Eternal Odyssey

Cataclysm Levelling: A Really Entertaining Highway

2011-02-28T18:43:00.000-08:00

I have recently begun leveling through Uldum, due to my need to do something between 40 minute heroic queues (as you can't heal a heroic unless you have disproportionately better gear than dps, which basically means you need to do offspec roics - more on this later) and something very strange came to my attention. All throughout Uldum - not to mention in Hyjal, Twilight Highlands, and low level zones from Thousand Needles to Stranglethorn to Gilneas - I never ONCE met another player.

Not once.

Okay, this is a lie. I met another player. I've probably met a total of 12 players in leveling. Every time it's followed by a bout of annoyed cursing, as they've just jacked my Cinderbloom and they couldn't show the bloody patience to let a druid who's trying to farm his alchemist's stone get a gorram CINDERBLOOM I mean CMON it's like the worst herb since Dreaming bloody GLORY.

But anyway.

I have never whispered another player. I have not /said a word. I have not /yelled, /facepalmed, or "/join 1 WTB Tank for Durn the Hungerer, Willing to pay 200g! Whisper plx!"ed in Uldum once. There have been no group quests (the exception, Ring of Blood Mk III, proves the rule), there have been no reasons to group. The only point of other players, gameplay-wise, is to steal kills, loot, herbs, experience, and time.

This, needless to say, is not a very healthy thing for a MMORPG. In fact, WoW from levels 1-58 and 80-84 is not an MMORPG - it is a MSORPG (Massively Singleplayer Online Role Playing Game). Meaningful (say, repeated more than once) contact with a person is never necessary; it's never encouraged; at times, it seems it's actively discouraged. Dungeon runs are 1-offs with people you'll never see again and perhaps won't even talk to the whole run, group quests are gone, 'public' quests like the battle for Undercity do not need more than one person ever and frankly can be annoying with just two, Microdungeons have gone the way of Laird the Fish vendor (R.I.P.), and Blizzard does not seem to care/notice.

Why? Probably because their multiplayer at level cap is their main focus of attention, and the community all gets there eventually - and the vocal minority exists at level cap. But what about those millions of customers who shell out 15$/month for what has turned into a single player game? The Altaholics, the casualcore levelers, the RP levelers, the millions who enjoy getting characters to level 40, deleting, starting afresh - you may not know them, but I do, and they're there, maybe not on blogs but playing the same game as all of us Raiders and Mount Collectors and Illustrious Master Alchemists and Herbalist Ninjas and all of us - so Blizzard, please stop shutting down their potential social connections, let low level guilds grow again, encourage people to meet during leveling, because it's fun and interesting and doesn't deserve to go away.

O frabjous day!

2010-11-30T16:42:00.000-08:00

Callooh! Callay! I chortle in my joy! Because blizzard has seen fit to respond to my most recent post with a wondrous statement: http://www.wowhead.com/blog=175386/experience-reduced-for-dungeon-quests! Experience is being reduced for dungeon quests! Success! Triumph! Happiness for all!

An Old Solution is a New Issue

2010-11-25T22:57:00.000-08:00

Leveling some characters on a RPPvP realm (I normally play on a normal) in the post-cataclysm has given me an interesting yet vaguely annoying feeling - I level too fast. Way too fast. I mean, I should be progressing to the next zone when I've barely completed the first quest hub. While I am not required to move to the next zone, it does mean that questing provides no challenge whatsoever, which is much less fun for me. And I was on a new server, so no twinking, and no heirlooms! "Egads!" You must be saying. "Where could we have gone so wrong?" There are 3 simple reasons: Random Dungeons, Past Habits, and Tons of Content.

Random Dungeons

In the old days zones were structured as follows: Intro quest(s), Exclamation Point Explosions, then Dungeons. The Intro quests were just to give brief exposition; they could be as brief as a one-quest story bit from Hemet Nesingwary in STV, or as intricate as a couple quest chain. the Exclamation Point Explosion (which has all but disappeared in the Wrath/Cata world) was when your minimap would be flooded with fifty quests and you'd refer to Wowwiki or your leveling guide, or your pal who just leveled the wrong way. Dungeons could be instanced or microdungeons, like Jintha'Alor, and you'd have a smattering of quests that let you go into the dungeon and beat up some trolls or naga or what have you. It was not this organized, but it was what was behind the design.

In BC, they refined their ways to the form above. It worked well; at normal speed of leveling, you would get through every quest and every dungeon and be very prepared for the next zone. Then... well, then came XP nerfs (which I won't write about, because they should be taken into consideration when Cata was designed) and wrath. Oh, I should note - you could intentionally make the game easier by doing more lower level quests, or harder by doing fewer harder zones.

Then came random dungeons. Dungeon quests are now offered in instances (so they are removed from the lore of zones), making people think of them more as separate bits of 30-minute content. XP-ridden content. You can level a good number of times without actually doing quests and not getting bored of dungeons. With a new dungeon ever couple levels, it's quite profitable to at least run them a few times and out-level what the zone thinks you should be.

Past Habits

Face it - Wow had 11.5 million players BEFORE Cata. even if a solid million of players now come with Cata, it's ridiculous to assume that the majority will not have played the game before. That means people leveling will be looking at content with experience; this means people will be smarter. Running dungeons when they're bored, killing a few extra mobs for a bit more xp, making sure your characters are well equipped, not to mention bag space, twinking, and heirlooms. Especially not the heirlooms. People will be smarter, and out-gear and level content faster.

A Bloody Ton of Content

Not a whole lot to say here. There's a bloody ton of content, and not only is there lots, but it's good content. Compelling. And fun. More zones = more XP = more outstripping of higher zones.

Why is this a bad thing? Well, if I want to play the game - and make it a challenge - I have to a) skip fun content or b) not finish any content. Both suck. Or, I could cap my XP. Which is no fun, because I still want to develop my character. Solutions? Maybe a Difficulty slider, or an XP slider, or something? Please? Because your game is fun, Blizz, and I want to play it.

Sheldras Moontree and his Fair Warning

2010-11-24T00:10:00.000-08:00

Sheldras Moontree was the head druid trainer (or so it looked like) in The Park of Stormwind. When Deathwing took a little vengeance upon the trees and happy courtyards, he managed to escape with a few others out to the docks, where he currently resides. When you approach him on a druid, he says an oddly forecasting statement:

"There will be a time soon where the call of the Emerald Dream will take hold in you. You will hibernate for many years and walk amongst the purest of forms. It is there and then that your ultimate training will take place."

Well. What does that mean? First off, Stormrage was only a setback. Obviously we are going to the Emerald Dream at some point, but in no way can it be as peaceful as our Lunar Arborist suggests - because there is no such thing as class-specific content any more, remember?

What I think is going to happen is that some time before the expansion is launched but in a world event, there will be a little class specific content. Druids will be called together and will enter the Emerald Dream. But all will not be as was hoped - and Old God, or one of their puppets, resurfaces there and the entire fight begins. The druids have to open a massive portal to Moonglade (all sorts of potential here), where a huge staging ground is built and (just like in Ulduar) the horde and the alliance aren't teaming up this time.

So the expansion Starts - using a heavy amount of phased content - when the invasion of the emerald nightmare/dream begins. Unlike Outland, where bases and outposts are already made (Honor Hold must've taken months to build), this one's entirely fresh - any quest hub will be the barest of places and entirely phased. Tacking in monthly world events that are seemingly in the works, this hypothetical expansion could be quite epic indeed.

An Awesome Idea that Never Will Exist

2010-11-15T22:25:00.000-08:00

Blizzard implements an item, given through a ridiculously long (perhaps repeatable) quest chain which is profession specific, which acts as an enchantment to any item of rare quality or lower. When it is applied, it turns said item into Bind on Account, scaling based upon your character's level. Totally, totally wicked awesome. Never, ever implementable. Le sigh.

Wulfrix on the evolution of rotation complexity

2010-11-14T22:20:00.000-08:00

As a preface to this post, it would be widely advisable to go read This Post over on WoWInsider. Essentially, it's a peek into Blizzard's current design focus, and how the game has adapted from a 'Sink or Swim' talent speccing situation to a 'Dog-paddle or Butterfly'. While talents have previously blatantly disregarded the community that is built up around the game, now they incorporate this huge community fanbase into existing design decisions. Interesting stuff, but for one simple issue, which Eyeball2452 correctly points out.

To take a look at this, let's bring in Billo, the brother of Billy from wowcrendor's 'How to Win' series.

Hello Billo! I see you've decided to try to spec your talents.

"Yea! And there's a whole lot of choices to pick! Ooh, I want this one! And this one!"

Hold on, Billo. You need to think hard about what talents you pick. First off, what blogs do you read?

"What's a blog?"

-cuts to MSPaint rendition of EJ-

A 'Blog' is a place where someone who has played the game far more than you ever will tells you how to play it and what to do. And if you don't, people will assume you are terrible, and nobody will ever group with yo. Especially in harder content.

"But I want to play my own way how it suits me!"

You can't, Billo.

"This place sucks! I want to go hang out with Gamon! And the Go guy!"

Shut up, Billo.

-Crazy Music and Credits-

The issue is that if Billo here never heard from us what EJ was, or read a blog, or heard about WoWInsider, they would never have heard about this 'higher' grade of talent speccing that is necessary for all raiding. Sure, it's difficult now to think 'Oh, who doesn't know what WoWInsider is?', but it took me a solid 3 years of playing WoW to learn about what theorycrafting was (I joined in 2004), and I have seen people play - and raid - in Wrath with less knowledge than what I had in my first UBRS run. Which consisted of Leeroy Jenkins, a Dungeon Companion, and Allakhazam.

Blizzard needs to actively support the community in ways it just isn't doing. Knowledge accessible to average players consists of the forums... which would be a horrible first place to learn things... and a couple of well-hidden links on their main page. Adding large featured pages with links to major websites (EJ, WoWInsider, Wowhead, even Graylo and more specific blogs) on the website is a simple way to start, but there is a much more elegant solution.

What is the number one place that people who play WoW look for information? If you answered the GAME ITSELF, you'd be correct. And would also posses common sense. Why in the WORLD does the library in SW not contain Phaela's dissertation on Threat Management? Or a tome of BRK Lore? Perhaps the book seller nobody actually goes to in Undercity might hold some speculative lore from Shades of Gray? Billy and Blind could appear on the big screen in Ironforge! Cranius and Shigihara would perform at the World's End Tavern! The possibilities are ENDLESS, people! Just let the community into the world in a way more than casual references, so that the community can teach the world. Talents are just a stepping stone, people. But without the stepping stone, this brave new philosophy is an adaptation that will split millions.

Solokin: ZG Addendum

2010-11-05T23:16:00.000-07:00

Hey all, keeping a post schedule is harder than it seems. I can only imagine the horrors it must be to try to keep to, say, a webcomic posting schedule! Blogging makes me pity such persons all the more. Also, the deadly blog-dance Blogger and I are having is drawing to a more explosive tap-dance number, where Blogger has a load of new cool features and then decides to change the styles of all of my posts. Anyways.

I imagine, as you read the previous Solokin, you skipped past all the annoying bits and wanted to get to the meat of the post: How to beat the two Mount-Bosses, Mandokir and Thekal. Oh, you might say, what an ingenious yet simple to understand way to defeat the Bloodlord! You must have a similar means of vanquishing our tiger-taming friend! Yet when you scrolled down a paragraph or two, you were left disappointed and deflated in spirit. Be deflated no longer! For I have worked out an ingenious yet simultaneously brilliant means of defeating Thekal, without the bug I mentioned in the previous post!

Your first challenge is going to be clearing the road (past the edge of madness, Bloodlord, Bat-lady and all the way back to the entrance) of ALL patrols and mobs. Not too difficult, as you probably did it on the way here, but if one of the big trolls knocks you into the water mid-fight, things are going to get far too interesting. The background data is this: If you spam attack Thekal's minions and Thekal and such as you are fleeing out of the room, usually, they will disregard the tether that keeps them linked to Thekal's den (which as far as I know is NOT a bug, or at least a non-important one because it doesn't despawn or mechanically alter anything). Thekal also has a much, much faster run speed than either of her priests. Lastly, the fight ends when you kill Thekal, even if his two co-priests are up; but he is healed to full when he gets too low by one of his priests, Lor'kahn, if she is in range.

The main idea is you want to kite the whole squad of em back to the instance, while insect swarming Thekal and swarming yourself. The priestess cohort, Lor'khan, needs to be kept out of range of Thekal. I found a tactic most effective was summoning trees early on and sticking them on her, so they would get aggro and Zath might be delayed a good distance behind, Then, popping in and out of travel form/cat form + dash when it's up/periodic self-heals and reapplication of insect swarm and perhaps a random spin-cast of a instant starsurge, thekal should die (the first time) far away from both priests. Kill him in is tiger-mode phase, a simple TanknSpank, for instant profit. Using this method, I got my Zulian Tiger on the first try!

An Ode to a Daniel Serbicki

2010-10-30T14:43:00.001-07:00

I nearly forgot! When I began this blog, I promised that I would write an ode to the first person to comment here. So, in such accordance, here is my 'Ode to Daniel Serbicki':

O Daniel, the wisest of all wond'rous ones,
who notes the anachronisms of a Psychic Turban,
may you feel beneath the warmth of the plaintive suns,
and ne'er feel the force of the Crab's hammer of ban.
Picture a ninja upon a space station of gold
with none but his trusted aids, a raptor and a tornado,
and can raze the world with a single Knaakian spell.
Who counts among his ranks Saurfang the old,
Norris, Crowley. Try to imagine this, then, so
that you might see the man who wants to be Daniel.

New Basic Template!

2010-10-25T10:58:00.000-07:00

Hey, as you may notice, I changed the site design, from a pretty awful looking premade thing, to a less awful premade thing. Whoop-de-do! I may, at some point, try and write up a personalized theme for this blog, if I ever get inspired to do so.

Solokin: Zul'Gurub

2010-10-24T21:38:00.000-07:00

Hey all, hope you are having/had a good time at Blizzcon (if you could go, unlike I). I, instead of frolicking around as elves and spacegoats with like-minded individuals, set down to the hard work of grinding Zandalar rep before it gets turned into a Feat of Strength in Cataclysm. And, as you may be well aware, one of the prime pieces of grinding Zandalar reputation is doing the dungeon, Zul'gurub, which is also getting removed in Cataclysm. You may be even more less aware that I am a moonkin, and perhaps even the least aware that I didn't want to group with people, so I'm doing it solo. So... yep. That's the title.

Zul'Gurub: The Background

ZG, as it is abbreviated, was a raid instance, added in patch 1.7. The first raid that was neither 40-man nor world, it paved the path into the 10 and 25 man raids we know today. The lore behind it follows the ancient troll empire called the Gurubashi, who were in great desperation after the Sundering. In order to help with their troubles, a group of Gurubashi Priests called the Atal'ai enlisted the aid of one Blood God Hakkar (who has nothing to do with a Knaakian Houndmaster) to help them. But, as blood gods are prone to do, he wanted a load of sacrifices which the trolls weren't too keen on. They sent in those priests to try to kill Hakkar, but they got enslaved, and eventually everyone who wasn't enslaved fled. Now, the Zandalar tribe is recruiting adventurers to go destroy Hakkar, in an attempt to rid the trolls of him once and for all.

The raid is on a 3-day lockout timer and is not reset as per the weekly schedule. It has 5 priest-bosses which need to be destroyed before Hakkar if you wish him not to gain special abilities. For soloing purposes, just kill the priests then him. Also, there are 4 optional bosses per lockout, one requiring fishing and a questline done (Gahz'ranka).

Picture from Wowwiki's DarkRyder

THE RAID!

The entire raid took me about 2 and a half hours to complete, but that was with two optional bosses, learning the strategies, and killing extra trash for rep. After a couple of tries, I'd imagine I can speed it up to under an hour. I should mention to solo this, you need to be in a raid - I logged on to a second account, invited them, and then disconnected off of that account. If you have a friend who isn't questing, that's another alternative.

A couple of brief notes: Starfall is handy, but be careful not to pull too many groups. Thorns is now deadly, so keep it in your rotation. Typhoon with daze can be a godsend, and if you're alliance, use and over-use that shadowmeld. 1-stack lifeblooms were, I found, the most effective healing technique, with a rejuvination on top of that if you need a bit more punch till the bloom comes around. Anything requiring more than that, and you're better off killing the damage-doers.

First, you are met with a bit of trash in the path going forward. They're pretty easy to kill, but the Axethrowers can get you into trouble if they're left alive for too long - they have a nasty 10-second or so channeled stun. Dotting them up is a simple, but effective, way of removing this threat. Barkskin + Hurricane + Typhoon your way to the first fork, where you'll take a right to the first boss: 1, High Priestess Jeklik (Wowhead). She's a pretty simple tank and spank, but she's a little hard to find if you don't know where you're looking - she's standing on the wall where you'll be looking as you come in. "/tar High" if you're really having trouble.

After her comes 2, High Priest Venoxis (WH). Just run back down the road to the fork, and go straight until you hit the room filled with snakes. clear the snakes and burn him down. Simple simple tank+spank.

Next is 3, High Priestess Mar'li (WH), the Spider boss. Go out of the snake room, follow the main road, and take the next right. Take a right at the next fork and from there follow the cobwebs and skitterers. Oh, and don't use Starfall in this room. Just... don't. She's now much of a challenge, but it makes sense to kill her adds so they don't get big, which they do if they're left alive. She'll turn into a nerubian at the end, which can be pretty shocking if you're zoomed way in. Yea, that's you, Myebika.

Once the spiders are put to an end, you have the option of doing an extra boss - 7, Bloodlord Mandokir (WH). He has a chance of dropping a mount, so it's usually worth it. Take the alternate fork from where you went following the spiders, and take a left in the room filled with trolls. You don't need to kill them, but they drop coins and other rep-things that, if you can't use, someone on your server can (so stick those on the AH!). Clear the floor, and get ready for 2 minutes of travel form. The trick to him is that after 2 minutes, he hits for very little damage, making the fight a breeze. But before then, you have a high danger of dying if you try to just take it. The trick is to aggro him, set your trees and dots on him, then kite him around in travel form for two minutes while periodically breaking form to heal yourself. It can take a while to get used to, but once you do, it's a snap. After that, it's a DPS race, so blow up his face with all you've got.

A note here - there are some big trolls that run around and aren't to tough, 'cept they have a brutal knockback. Just keep it in mind when you're fighting - don't get knocked into the lake!)Next comes another optional event, 10, The Edge of Madness (WH, 2, 3, 4). This one's just bloody annoying - first off, you can't pull too many of the trash imps at a time, because they spawn portals that summon trough voidwalkers that (if you have too many) can overwhelm you or, you need to kite. Second, the bosses are summoned out of four, which are determined by the day you summon them on. Lastly, you need a now-never made item to summon them (oh, by the way, alchemists can click on the tablet on the wall to learn how to make said item). So... yeah. Not really worth it. They are, however, required if you want to make the ZG Trinkets.

This is followed by another brutal one - 4, High Priest Thekal (WH). I have not found a successful way to kill this boss, as a moonkin, without the now infamous bug. I'm not going to relate it here, but I'm sure you can find it if you look hard enough (it was on wowhead, might have been removed). Otherwise, you'll need to kill the two tigers (probably by Thorns) and simultaneously dps down the two adds, making sure they die at the same time. If you can do that without dying, I'm super impressed, and then you'll need to kill Thekal himself (who, once this has been done, is pretty easy). It's the high damage output that really gets you here, so +Defence food, pvp gear, maybe some Indestructible potions even. Comment below if you find a good strat.

EDIT: A strat has been found! See here for more info.

Next is another optional (Fishing!) boss by the name of 9, Gahz'ranka (WH). He is fairly simple, in that if you do enough damage to him before he kills you, he dies. I didn't attempt him because I forgot my Mudskunk Lure, which must be purchased from Nat Pagle in Dustwallow Marsh after completing a quest, started in ZG, which requires you to go to Nat and return his... measuring tape. You actually only need level 1 fishing to do this quest. To summon him, fish up 5 Zulian Mudskunks from pools nearby Gahz'ranka, and then combine them using the Mudskunk lure you purchased. Use it at Pagle's Pointe (9) and dps him down. Fishing him up also gets you an achievement (Deadliest Catch) which will become a FoS in Cataclysm. (Side note - he drops Tome of Polymorph: Turtle, a cool polymorph for mages, but this will NOT be removed in Cataclysm, and will be available through alternate means. Sorry, all you who were hording them.)

Next, run up the ramp from Pagle's and go down the main road on the other side of the lake until you see the big building guarded by panthers. Run/fight your way to the bottom, and you're at 5, High Priestess Arlokk (WH), a bit of a joke compared to the previous bosses. The one issue I found with her is that she likes to bug out. Often. So dps her down quickly, and there's a chance her panthers might not even attack you, so a few hundred panthers might jump you at the end. Have your typhoon key ready.

Next is the last optional boss, 8, Jin'do the Hexxer (WH). If you use trees here, he tends to mind control you and make you attack them. Other than that, I found fighting him on top of the dancing skeletons is a good idea, because then when he teleports you it doesn't require extraneous movement or potential buggery. Hurricane + barkskin or just thorns the skellies, and blow the Hexxer to bits. Oh, and little bit of annoyance can happen here if he decides to mind control you near the end. If he dies while a mind control totem is still controlling you, you will stay that way for 4 minutes until it despawns. Yep. Fun times.

Now, the main event. 6, Hakkar (WH), resides at the top of the temple in the center. Fight your way to the top (there's a couple of large trash packs, so don't be afraid to wait for cooldowns), and it's nice to face him on an open platform. He hits a little harder than the other bosses, but it's not much to be scared of. A rejuv or a lifebloom here or there will cover it.

And once he's dead, you're a new Hero of this Realm. Congrats on your new soon-to-be-Feat of Strength, Zul'Gurub.

A Brief History of Phasing

2010-10-17T21:25:00.001-07:00

Hey all, I'm back and better than ever! Oh, and welcome to all of you that found this site through WoW.com, it's good to have you here. A few bits of info before I get to the meat of the post:

First, this is now my dedicated WoW blog. Tangential postings will be limited.

Second, I think I'm going to keep to a posting schedule (gasp!) that will prompt further ramblings and helpful advice. So, you can check back here on Sundays and Wednesdays for posts which may intrigue the mind and inform the unknowing.

Third, my guild (finally) downed Arthas on Saturday! I must say, it's one of the coolest fights in all of Wrath, and it was triply awesome in that it was one of the last things on my checklist to do before Cataclysm! Anyways, on with the post.

Ah, Phasing. One of Wrath's biggest selling points - letting the world evolve in accordance to your actions, demand and create new challenges, and build an interactive story. One of the most hyped features by the fans, too - and yet, one that (in my opinion) fell all too short. Except perhaps on one account. But we'll get to that later.

What is phasing, anyway?

Phasing is, first and foremost, a shifting of your character from one 'phase' to another. Think of it as jumping sideways through time - something any quantum physicist can understand quite well. Essentially, you can see and interact with objects and players in your 'phase', and can't see or interact with things that are outside of it. It attempts to solve one of the greatest challenges in the making of any traditional MMO: player interaction with the world. By doing things, the world changes around you - if this were completely true, you would be left something like LOVE (not entirely feasible for a game like WoW) - but by using a structured approach it enhances player investment without an exorbitant amount of effort or re-designing things.

In the beginning...

In a couple of Blizzard podcasts, developers have noted that phasing began with a fun little quest implemented in patch 2.4 (Fury of the Sunwell/Isle of Quel'danas) called 'Intercepting the Mana Cells', which was the daily that initially opened up the portal to the Isle from Shattrath. The quest has you jump from one phase, where you can see mobs that have an item which lets you jump phases, to another, which has the objects in it but not the mobs. It was a neat idea, and made for an interesting daily (the first ten or twenty times). But 'phasing' as it is called began much earlier, with a quest I have written about by the name of 'You Are Rakh'likh, Demon', where, at one point in the chain, the questgiver (The Fallen Hero of the Horde) gins a new dialog option that allows you to summon a tauren who continues the chain. This early instance doesn't have the fancy triggers we know today, and relies on dialog trees to solve the issue of world-changing: clunky, but effective.

Dialog was lot the only way of escaping the staticness of WoW - another major way was using items as a trigger. Simple things like the Argent Dawn Commission 'phased' you into the loot phase where the argent dawn rep bits exist. It seems like a stretch, true - but when you extend this to look at things like the Spectral Essence of Caer Darrow, you can see half of phasing is present - you do a quest, getting an item thereby producing a trigger, and then can see new things and even access new vendors (a repair guy).

The phasing also existed in some more core ways: first, invisibility! It only shows you people that are invisible too, and effectively phases you 'out' of the rest of the world. Second, and most like the phasing we know today, is Death. When you die, you jump out of the 'Living' world of units and items and even abilities, into a 'Dead' world with units like the Kodo Spirits in Desolace or Gaeriyan in the Un'goro Linken quest chain. Whole quests had you jump between phases, including BRD's Shadowforge Key - this being the true birth of phasing. But there was only 1 of these 'true' phases, with dozens of half-phases, like the instanced Corrupted Ashbringer event. But the triggers for jumping phases were limited to these annoying events - instances, equipped items, death, and a painful dialog system.

Enter Wrath.

The Death Knight zone exemplifies Wrath phasing. It really is the shining point of Questing in general, but in this region it shines especially brightly. Units and items progress, it is true - but Blizz stepped it up a notch, providing phased units, items, speech, animations, events, skills, light masters, buildings, teleporters, events, ui (maps), group-events (like the Battle for the Undercity or the Fall of Zalazane), and much more. From being a cool on-death way of spicing up a fedex quest, to a new and interesting way of using consumables for Sunwell Dailies (or finding mobs in Shadowmoon Valley), it became a full-fledged zone development system.

And with Cataclysm introducing 'Terrain Phasing' - basically, not only units, structures and items changing, but the actual ground and foliage too - it only furthers the scope of possibility.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's not 'phasing' as a core mechanic that really developed much at all in Wrath, but the successful use of new triggers and new things effected (yes, I mean effected). It is interesting and exciting to see what they can do with all this new technology in Cataclysm and beyond - and, I mean, the Emerald Dream is the obvious next step.

(And I promise to update this with shiny pictures soon.)

Questes: Well, that about sums it up.

2010-09-24T23:45:00.000-07:00

I finally completed my compendium of the most fabulous and endangered quests in all of WoW; so now I urge you to complete them, post-haste, before they are swept away. Below I have them listed in the order which I feel they are best completed, based upon precise calculations, balancing time and scope versus endangerment and epicness:

The Battle For Darrowshire

In Dreams

You are Rakh'likh, Demon

I'd be happy to explain my rationale if anyone has the will to wonder - but if not, just accept it as a universal truth and move along.

Questes: Only One May Rise

2010-09-24T21:46:00.000-07:00

Alright, I know it's been a while (I have excuses abound, I promise!) but I figured, with Cataclysm looming, I figured it was about time to wrap up this bloody series. Also, I'm just starting this last quest chain and hope to finish it before Cataclysm, as it is one of the most epic quest chains everto have existed; and most certainly the most epic pre-BC. The Quest I refer to is, of course, The Scepter of the Shifting Sands.

The Scarab Gong, courtesy of Wowwiki.com

Who can do this?

First, you need to be level 60 or above - but only a level sixty full of ambition, and an even fuller friends list of 80's, will ever get this done.

Second, you'll need time, as portions of this quest can revolve around ten-hour grinds or multiple runs of weekly lockouts. You really only need to run every particular dungeon once, but it's a lengthy grind nonetheless.

Where do I begin?

The first quest of the arching chain begins with What Tomorrow Brings..., given by one Baristolth of the Shifting Sands in Cenarion Hold, Silithus.

How does this one work?

This questis NOT simple. It requires a boatload of different interlocking, interweaving, and generally crazy quest chains that are hard to follow. As usual, Wowwiki has a wonderful guide; looking at Hoddie's comments on Wowhead are quite helpful too.

Oh, and remember - vigilance is key. If you want to obtain, well, what you see in the section below, there is no way but to persist. Good luck!

And finally, what do I get?

Well, first off, if you were the first person on your server to complete the quest (or completed it within ten hours of said person) you would get the fantastic title 'Scarab Lord' and Feat of Strength, and the unique one-of-a-kind Legendary mount Black Qiraji Resonating Crystal, which has a unique history you can go read about on Wowwiki. Unfortunately, these are no longer attainable, so if you are reading this, tough luck.

Increases in the numbers...

At the very least, Neutral with the Brood of Nodzormu +4365 reputation.

+1000 rep with Gadgetzan

+1525 Reputation with the Cenarion Circle

And a smattering of XP to be made into golds. And some more golds.

Then, the epics themselves. First you'll get whatever you pick up in your BWL, Onyxia, MC, and quite probably AQ runs. You'll get the achievements for each of those, and then the achievement for the level 60 Onyxia feat of strength too, as an added bonus.

Then, in the chain, you are awarded...

First off, the repeatables for Brood of Nozdormu rep give you Proxies of Nozdormu, which help alleviate some of the grind by allowing you to grant other players the ability to get stuff for you to turn in.

You get the choice between a Drake Tooth Necklace, a caster dps neck with Nature resist, and Drudge Boots, leather melee feet with nature resist too.

You get a choice between the Amulet of Shadow Shielding, a Stam/spirit shadow protection neck, and Onyx Embedded Leggings, shammy mail pants with some shadow resist too.

You get 3 Major Rejuvination Potions. Whoop-de-doo!

You get the one-of-a-kind, epic recipe (which is still highly coveted to this day) Dirge's Kickin' Chimaerok Chops, which is BoE if you want to sell it for a profitable sum to recipe collectors. You also get 20 of said chops, which were the best food around back in the day.

You also get the super awesome silence-limiting Gnomish Turban of Psychic Might, a cloth caster head.

You get to choose between the Band of Icy Depths, a underwater breathing ring, and Darkwater Robes, a Fire Resisting cloth chest.

You get The Scepter of Shifting Sands, a now-useless white BoE which was used to bang the gong back at the release in order to get the title and the mount, but still a cool keepsake.

Lastly you get your pick from four weapons: The Fang of Korialstrasz, a caster dps dagger; Shadowsong's Sorrow, a melee dps dagger; Runesword of the Red, a caster dps sword; and Ravencrest's Legacy, a tanking mainhand.

What did I just do?

You just completed the pinnacle of WoW Vanilla questing. You saw some of lore's most major characters come into play; you fought your way through multiple vanilla raids and world raids, events and grinds, to obtain the scepter of the shifting sands. And, if it is any indication from the cataclysm beta, you will be one of the last to do so, as in the Beta right now, the quest has been removed. Now is the time to strike, now is the time to take action and complete what may be the most grand, time intensive, satisfying and exclusive of questing accomplishments in all of the World of Warcraft!

Questes : The Lady's Necklace

2010-05-23T17:06:00.000-07:00

Look at that, twice in two days! I'm on a roll. Also, this is the second-to-last one of Questes, so let's make it count with the flat out coolest piece of audio work in the game.

Who can do this?

This is a horde-specific questline, but don't let it discourage you - it only requires level 15 to do, so you might as well level up some race/class combination you haven't done yet (easiest is BE or Undead, location-wise) and you can do both WC for The Glowing Shard and then this in one demonic, or even fel, swoop.

All Credit to http://www.wowhead.com/item=22597#screenshots:id=55354

Where do I begin?

It can be annoying, or it can be easy. I've never had an issue with getting the item that starts the quests - The Lady's Necklace, dropped off of Fallen Rangers and Deatholme Acolytes at Windrunner Spire in SW Ghostlands. However, a select few have just very poor luck and end up farming for a while before it drops. It's just the luck of the RNG, but it's always dropped within 3 or 4 kills for me.

How does mine necklace?

Seriously? This is like the simplest quest in the history of simple quests. Just read the bloiting quest text. I'm not even linking to wowhead here, it's just that easy.

And now, the loot.

You guessed it! Loot.

First off, you get 100,000 rep with Tranquillien, and 250 with Undercity. Toss on a sprinkling of gold and xp, and it's not a bad quest in and of itself. After the completion event, you also get a book, if you talk to the nearby question-markless Ambassador Sunsorrow. More on this later.

That's it, though - there's not much here. Of course, as we know, the journey is the worthier part.

All credit to WoW.com this time.

So... What's the point?

If you've done it by now, you know the point. At the end of the quest chain... *SPOILERS*... Deathwing appears and blows up the Undercity! Haha... see, now, the people who haven't done it are now going to go and complete it before actually having it spoiled. What really happens is that Sylvanas and a few of her banshees sing an epic and stunning song named 'Lament of the Highborne', all in Thalassian. I doubt that something of this quality will disappear in Cataclysm, but it very well could disappear, at least in its current incarnation - as Undercity and the entirety of Northern Lordaeron is getting hit by the renovate-bat, who knows.

For those allies in the crowd who can't be bothered to level up a measly level 15, I mean, seriously, you could just make a death knight for A'Dal's sake, you can type

/script PlaySoundFile("Sound\\Music\\GlueScreenMusic\\BCCredits_Lament_of_the_Highborne.mp3")

into the text window to hear the song, or watch a video on youtube. There is, however, nothing quite like walking up to the throne room and seeing it live. This is one of the truely amazing artistic feats in WoW - and something not to be missed.

It's simple.

2010-05-22T16:33:00.000-07:00

Whew. Back again. It's been a busy couple of months, so it's nice to finally be able to type something up.

During that time, I had the delight of experiencing two unrelated yet simultaneously very very closely related endeavors - one, I watched the entire 3 seasons of Avatar, The Last Airbender (delightfully entertaining series) for the first time. Also, I listened to a large number of 3-minute protests - informing, convincing, and venting, all mixed together, in such a short period promotes very interesting topics and thoughts to be brought forth. One which struck me as particularly cool was protesting clapping directly after a performance - that brief, 2-second interlude between conclusion and applause is a sacred and necessary moment that must be always held dear. However, I am not here to talk about the importance of postconclusory peace - I am here to talk about racism.

One of these protest speeches was on the racism in the casting of 'The Last Airbender', the live-action movie based on the aforementioned television series. I had heard about the movie before, but had not watched the show nor had I heard about the controversy. It was only after watching the show and watching a few trailers that I really understood what was going on - and after all this, hearing the speech made the subject all the more interesting. (The same person that wrote the speech drew up the above poster.) I'll summarize the argument below.

Essentially, what it boils down to is this:

1: Every single character in Avatar is not white. The main characters are Asian and Inuit, and a select few are based off of other cultures. This was intended, as the creators of the show to create an entirely eastern-based fantasy world.

2: Every single actor that was cast was white. However, when enough people protested through letters and the internet, they responded by casting the villains as Asian, Middle-eastern, or Latino. Also, because Hollywood is traditionally anti-Asian American, there a huge numbers of Asian actors very willing to play the parts. It is not a matter of acting skill.

3: This sends a very wrong message for kids, at whom the T.V. series and Movie is aimed; the heroes are white, while the villains are of different races, leading to more intolerance and inacceptance.

4: The awful irony is that the show preaches acceptance, the writers for the show promoted acceptance, the T.V. series was voiced by Asian actors which led to more successful careers in a traditionally anti Asian-American Hollywood, while the movie - a trilogy that could quite possibly be very influential - is anything but.

So, the speech went on to say, what can you do about it? Boycott the movie. Do not show up, do not give them your money, show them that racism is not ok.

(Also, they cut Sokka's humor. WTF?)

Update: There's a site full of more information, if you're interested, at http://www.racebending.com/v3/.

P.R.I.D.E: Movie-Based Video Games

2010-04-05T14:11:00.000-07:00

Now, there is no reason to RANT if you don't follow up on it, so I have begun the "Post-RANT Idealistically Determined Exposition", or PRIDE. Essentially, I will look back on my R.A.N.T. post and either take a more explanatory/realistic view on things, or one that is far more radical if I felt I was out of line.

Obviously, looking back now, the rant was not angry enough - I find I actually agree with most of what was said. However, a few footnotes on the post:

First, games like Star Trek Online or any one of hundreds of Star Wars video games jump to mind. They did successfully, so what does this person mean when they slanderize all movie based video games? I think a point of clarification needs to be made: Games based off of IP's, or Worlds, do not fall into that category. Star Wars games produced after a trilogy, or Lord of the Rings games produced not based upon the movie but based on the land of Middle Earth, do not fit the definition.

Perhaps that was the point of the whole thing. Perhaps we can escape the downward spiral of awful. We just need to stop making games based upon all the pieces of the movie - the milieu, the idea, the characters, and the events - but just pick one and build from that. The easiest is obviously the milieu, and if we are to break the spiral then this is the way to do it, because milieu is a constant in both Card's MICE anagram (which could very well apply to movies, with maybe an addition of a Visual category) and my SPAM. But after video game tie-ins are taken seriously, one could retell the events from another point of view, or experience the character's adventures before or after the timeline of the movie. There is a world of possibility out there - all we need is for someone to take it seriously.

R.A.N.T.: Movie-Based Video Games

2010-04-04T20:32:00.000-07:00

I have a bunch of spare time right now, so it seems about time to start another category of post. This column I will hereforth label as the "R.A.N.T." : Random Acronymized Nettled Text. Yes, I did just Google an acronym for 'angry' starting with n. So bite me.

We'll kick off this column with something that has really, really irked me. Like, alot. A great deal. This is the Movie-inspired video game. Looking at such classics as E.T., whose 4 million excess copies helped cause the video game crash of 1983 and the majority of which ended up buried under concrete in a New Mexican landfill; or Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie, holding one of the worst video game reviews on multiple gaming sites; or even such recent releases as James Cameron's Avatar: The Game, it is obvious that developers do not take these games seriously. If we follow the post 1983-crash trend of gaming, we note that when developers do not take games seriously, players do not take games seriously, and so now even if a really decent game was released under a movie title, nobody would care.

The reason people actually make these games, in what seemingly has been forever, is because you can sell a few games on the wave of hype that follows a successful movie. You can also produce a game before a movie, and use it as a form of advertising - this is risky, however, because usually nobody will buy the game until after. Gamers don't buy movie-based games, and the hype-skateboarders don't have the hype to poon onto. Therefore most... scratch that, ALL, are just rushed drivel.

Why am I ranting about this? Why should I care that this market is so idiotically dull, when it is so easily avoided? BECAUSE THERE IS SO MUCH POTENTIAL. I saw two different movies this last weekend. The one I just saw, literally a few hours ago, was 'How to Train Your Dragon'. Actually a very good movie. I'd recommend it - it's a high quality film, another reason that animation can now be seen as a 'true' movie, not a specific brand. Anyway, they made a game, it was crap like the rest with poor ripped-off fighting mechanics and weak yet highly-toted customization, and I despised them for it. Here they have an epic world, one with huge potential, yet they scrap it for a dead game. GG Activision. GG.

The second, Clash of the Titans, is just a flat-out awful movie. Do not see it. Seriously. However, it got me wondering what it would be like if someone did a movie based upon Ovid's Metamorphoses (basis for most modern Greek myth), or did a full 3D epic... literally... of the Odyssey. If someone took the visual style of a movie like that, did a God of War style action-adventure game with a fairly linear storyline but great game play, it could be a very fun game... and not only would it be fun, but the game would promote the movie and the movie would promote the game. It could be epic. To bad it will never, ever, happen.

Other things I hate about movie based video games: 99.99% of them are catered towards an audience under 12. Seriously. This is because they are more impressionable and much more capable of surfing the hype wave. That means those of us gamers that want to play on Pandora or Berk or wherever are SOL. Also, they are almost always placed exactly where they should not be. A successful video game will draw you into the world - not tell you the storyline of the movie set in the world the game should be about. Why in the world would you stage a game inside of a village that was just saved? Set it in a nearby village. A cut storyline - something the writers wanted to do, thought up doing, but then never got to implement.

A video game is a second chance for writers to tell a story they didn't get to - and a second chance to explain the world through another story. Not a chance to have you run through some muddied maze of puzzles between narrated bit of exposition that tell you about a story that doesn't matter, or a story that you already know.

White Words on a Black Site

2010-03-31T21:34:00.000-07:00

Three large cardboard boxes are, at the moment, sitting full of unread books. I intend to change this, whether by burning the boxes, throwing them around, or reading the books. Perhaps all three. However, in order to do such things, I will probably eventually read the majority of them anyway. I have about 25 critically acclaimed Fantasy/SF books now displaced onto a shelf, where I will begin to read them. As a way of making myself read them more/learn more from them, I'll post a short review/synopsis/etc. on the site about each one. Should be fun!

There and There Again; The World Strikes Back!

2010-03-27T16:57:00.000-07:00

New oratory today, folks! However, in addition, I will try to reduce rampant resurgences of blatantly boring banality by practicing perfect punctuation and accepting an alliterative air. Or not.

I am here to converse about a game. A free to play game, in fact, the type of which I have mentioned before. A familiar, famous, frequently-mentioned free to play game, one which brings to mind many marvelous mishaps. This game is known as Allods Online. I will attempt to describe to you the wonders of my first few levels there for you. See if you can spot my point before I've said it. It'll be like a game!

Yes, I do all my own stunts. If (stunts == screenshots).

Wellp, proto or otherwise, I logged on to a brave new world with such people in it. Not over-densely populated, but a good number, so competition - as well as companions - were always within reach. I was excited, too - this was a game that took things as we knew it and shook them up a little, improving here, sidestepping there, all with a very detailed and amazing art scheme that would assuredly last a long time. A community was slowly building up around it, with jokes about awful drop rates and overpowered classes already emerging. It was enthralling, to be a part of something so new and so large. But enough about the large-scale stuff.

It began with a densely packed tutorial with firm, regimented boundaries, designed to give a thorough knowledge of game mechanics in their entirety to the player. It was successful, too - by the time I walked out of the bounded area, I understood what I needed to know to begin in the first zone. Following a number of grindy quests involving either killing mobs, getting drops, or using items, was another camp, filled with quests that involved... well, killing getting and using. Some drops were atrocious, some places overfarmed, some zones overfilled. Creatures like the Damned Soul one shotted me without a trace. In such, I was astonished to find I loved it. Why? Because it was Vanilla WoW.

I could do a recap paragraph, but really, just go read that again if you have to. It's EXACTLY THE SAME. Now, I understand that the story is more focused in this, yes, and it has a more Cryptic-style in medias res tutorial, sure, and the levels are different and it's free to play and... fine fine fine. It's not 'exactly' the same. But to me, the player, it feels the same. Like, to the note. Levels are gained insubordinatly slowly, compared to today's WoW, and the death penalty is not devastating yet is much harsher than I'm used to. Really, it was just fun feeling like the world was tougher (read: not more difficult, just tougher) than I'm used to.

Unfortunately, I cannot draw concept art for an already released game, so this is liberally hijacked from developers. :(

I'd heartily suggest anyone that played vanilla WoW and is still playing a modern MMO to go check it out. Or, those that want too feel what vanilla was like if they missed it. If anything, it reminds you of exactly why they made the changes they did - opening up content, speeding levels and death, adding a report spammer function - but the community is different, too, and it's worth checking out. People react differently to a harsher world, with a very different mindset than what has cropped up in the 'pandering to casuals' world of today. (You can stop reading now if you don't want a sweeping game design-esque solution.)

I think what this gets at for developers is that the new-game experience, eyes wide and unblinking, is not unachievable twice. While many people say that your first MMO, first shooter, first game will be the only one ever to pull you in with that fascination, I felt it slowly gripping me again. Not firmly, just an ever-so-slight tug to enter a new world, forge a new trail, leave a path of brilliance behind me. MMOs made today do not NEED to cater to new players to impart that first-game feel. It can be done. It just requires a successful IP, a brilliant developer, superior art and level and gameplay design, and a fanbase eager to explore a brave new world.

In which I rediscover oratory; or, The expotition of theatrical game design

2010-03-19T20:16:00.001-07:00

After reading through my previous posts, I realized one thing - that they were simply tirades, endless rants that (I believe) contained useful and interesting information, yet presented in a dull fashion. Some bloggers can get away with this; in fact, almost everyone who has another aspect to their blog attached to it (see: webcomics, machinimas, class data-crunching, etc.) are allowed to make such posts, people will read them, and leave enlightened.

I am, however, slightly different, in that: a) webcomics that I made would be drawn with a trackpad in paint.net, b) Machinimas are... well... tricky, and while I've tinkered around a bit I've found that using free movie editors just doesn't cut it. I may try to do one using all in-game footage a la Scarlet Toy, but that also takes time. Which is something I am severely lacking at the moment. Lastly, c) there is already a wonderful, marvelous, magnificent moonkin blogger out there and it would be repetitive to post similar information.

So, since posting such posts would be silly, I will instead change the presentation of the posts, using in this the common oratorical device of explaining the macrocosm through the microcosm - explaining major problems, difficulties, etc. through another, apparently unrelated story. In any case, it will be an adventure. School is in session!

(Disclaimer - The picture is entirely irrelevant. Though, very cool.)

My sister recently directed her first play. Now, this was no simple series of one-acts; it was a full-blown musical, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, involving a huge cast and crew, and a multitude of moving pieces. From music to costuming to production to everything else, she had a huge hand in making sure each piece would line up perfectly. It was a massive amount of work making sure each piece was in line, and there is no way that she could have done it without help - so she divided it up into smaller tasks, directed by their own individual directors - one for music, one for crew, and herself for the characters and cinematography.

Parallels are abound here, and I'll let you bask in the fact that you see them - if you see them - for the time it takes you to read another paragraph. What prompted me to think about this was not the production in and of itself, which was packed with high energy and was extremely entertaining to watch, but rather the weeks up to their first performance. No more than one or two people ever saw the play in action, but when they did, they mentioned key advice and gave input over multiple views. If they had mass screenings of, say, 20% of their targeted audience beforehand, voices would become cluttered, and a number would not ever come back and see it again simply because they had seen it in pre-prediction.

Ah-ha, say ye astute readers. That sounds EXACTLY like modern MMO production! Your script-writers become writers, your crew becomes programmers, your characters become voice and action-capture actors, your costume designers become model artists, your directors become designers. Yes, this is what I'm getting at. Energy, as we see, is an extremely powerful portion of a game's success - look at the impact you see in Portal and you can understand what I'm getting at. Another key piece is division; where 30 years ago games would be made with teams of 5, now hundreds of people can work on triple-A titles, and making sure that communication lines stay open is a must.

But the key point I'm pointing out here is the evolution of Beta testing. Essentially, early MMOs took in a few beta testers after the F&F alpha phase, as a sort of meager stress test and to see a bit of reaction to the game from your target audience. This crosses over to the dramatic realm; first invite a few friends and family - and if you, say, needed to check the stability of the sound system or the capacity of the audience, you'd invite a few more in. Maybe get a few random fans in for a private screening to get some fresh ideas. But that's IT. Beginning with huge closed betas for Warhammer and AoC (10K testers there), then progressing to ridiculously large 'Open Betas' in titles like Pirates of the Burning Sea, Aion, STO, and Allods, it has really gotten out of hand. A player now sees a beta like a demo; and the testers who have a true passion and dedication fade into obscurity, outshouted by the hundreds of whining testers that are annoyed a game is not finished before it has been finished.

What do I suggest? Take a look back at our oratorical device. Pick a select few for hardcore testing. Limit the beta test for others, perhaps allowing them to run through the starting levels of the game only, at specified times to stress test, but no more than that. Jam-pack your audience full to see if they'll fit, and reward them with a promise of a better play in the future, or a cheaper play, or a play with exclusive in-play titles and minipets, but never show them the whole game, just whet their appetite for a better, sharper, more structurally sound experience.

Questes: The Sprite Darter

2010-03-10T18:28:00.000-08:00

Well, here we are again, with me reopening up the old Questes template in one tab and a Wowhead client in another. In an unrelated note, I really, really dislike blogspot. Like, really. I could write a post about it. However, I will not, as this is a Questes, not a Tyrades. Which would be a cool column. Maybe I'll do it. But until it occurs, we shall never know whether it will be cool or not. Ah well.

Who can do this?

Only Alliance, sadly. However, the once Alliance specific reward that makes this whole chain worthwhile is not available to the Horde through a drop off of the Sprite Darters in Feralas. Almost easier for them, really, if you just put in the required amount of grinding to get the random.

Level requirement for the first quest Alliance side is 37; Horde side, the mobs are level 42-45, so the drop is technically possible for your level one bank alt if you really want to put in the time and dual-box or have a good high level friend who'll group with you and farm for you for a while.

Where does this start?

This one is pretty simple, although it actually isn't. Holy contradictory statement, Batman! But really, it begins at Kindal Moonweaver, up a little path northwest of the Grimtotem village. A little tricky to find at first, so turn on low level quest tracking.

The reason that it is tricky is that about halfway through the chain, it stops. As if the chain is over. You need to return to Kindal at this point, and you can begin working on getting your own sprite darter hatchling with 'An Orphan Looking for a Home'.

Also, before you begin it, pick up two Elixers of Fortitude. You can do it in the middle of the chain, when you're at Darnassus, but you might forget, and it doesn't hurt.

How to do this:
Horde: Get a good audiobook (I recommend Douglas Adams) or catch up on your shows on Hulu while grind, grind, grinding away.

Alliance: Follow NinjaPirateTaki's guide on the wowhead pages. Or you can look on Wowwiki, or check out the guide WarcraftPets recommends.
What do I get?

You get a totally awesome and unique pet. Not many people have it, so it is a mark of prestige as well as another pet to check off for your deer.

Also, you get some other stuff. Not really anything of note, but here goes:
Nightscale Girde: A high strength mail belt, and
Firwillow Wristbands, some cool NElf Druid RP gear, has a unique texture that would go well with the starting cloak.

Why this? Why now? Why meeee?
Basically, this was (and still is) one of the rarer, more unique pets out there - simply because there is nothing pointing you towards it. Of course, anyone with Wowhead in one hand a questhelper in the other can have it done faster than you can say 'Darnassus Hold-Em', but the rarity and coolness factor still stands (especially when the new swarm of Cataclysm WoWers heads in). Also, it could go away in cataclysm, yadda yadda yadda, all stands here. I've just realized if you're reading these out of order, my ramblings and exclusions could seem a bit weird. However, you all who this applies to are from the future, so you obviously have more pressing issues to worry about. Like zombies.

Silence.

2010-02-28T12:51:00.001-08:00

Let me hypothetically pose a hypothetical situation to you. One day, you find yourself in a ~~parallel dimension~~! It is just like normal, an average tuesday, chatting on Facebook (like usual) and talking with all your friends remotely. You call up one person and invite them over; it's just like every other time you've done so. Everything's the same. You talk, you hear, on both ends of every conversation. However, your friend (lets call him Moist), after talking and playing some AoC for a while, has the brilliant idea of going to see the Evil League of Evil, the elite team of super-villains. You travel all the way over to their secret headquarters - signing in using the secret password - and listen in on their fabulous and devious schemes. All is as it should be.

But soon things start to go wrong. After you leave the base, you decide to go to the frozen yogurt market. All sorts of frozen yogurt vendors from across the galaxy gather there to hawk their sales. But once you arrive, the world is in dead silence. Well, not complete silence, because there are the sounds of birds chirping in the background and some distant music (and ancient times) playing alongside. But nobody speaks. Whenever you walk up to a vendor, they shout a greeting to you, then hand you a slip of paper with a conversation on it - in the best case situation, you get to give a response (on paper, of course). Not that you have a choice what the response is, or whether you get to give it or not, but a response nonetheless.

Now, more astute metaphoricists will have noted, Hey! That's just like the current state of all MMORPS! Egads! Gadzooks! Conker! And you would be right. Walking down a back alley in Stormwind has exactly the same sounds as walking through the market district - it's all the same. Bioware is, you might say, the King of getting this.... nearly right. Playing through Denerim's market district has vendors hawking their wares, reactive responses from your party members, and fully-voiced dialog. MMO's can pick this up, and SW:TOR will probably be the first of many fully voiced MMOs to come. Well, nearly fully voiced. Because there has been one piece of the situation always missing.

That would be the player. Even if you are given 5 options to speak, you are only given 5 options - whether you can predict a new outcome or not, see the trap before it's sprung, have a counter-argument the developers never thought of, or generically make a pretty funny joke, it doesn't matter. It never matters. You only have the words, phrases, sentences, given to you at your disposal. Perhaps they will give the character a voice of their own at some point (though this runs the risk of further distancing the player from the character's dialog). This is how RPGs have always been, right? This is how they have been since their inception. WRONG.

RPGs began with the pen-and-paper - the In the Labyrinths, the DragonQuests, the DNDs. In these, NPCs did not exist (at least not how we think of them currently). Every character had a human brain behind them, from a goblin to a wolf to an orc to a housecat. Each was fully reactive, and the depth of the character was based on the person behind it. With MMOs, nowadays, NPC 'intellect' can be increased to a degree of nigh-impossibility, in the gameplay of the game - but they remain woefully ignorant in terms of Speech.

How do we solve this? There are a few options, and I'll list them in terms of time:

1) Add a ventrilo-style chat, in game, in place of a text-based system for /say speech. Have it diminish in terms of distance, how speech does now. Communities will shun those who yell stupidly - if not, ignore features and the like will follow just as text-based speech has forever.

2) Add a decent STT (Speech To Text) system into these games. This is mainly heightened by option #3, however it does allow for a fair bit of interesting potential - first, it is faster than typing, and allows for Text just as fast as you would receive voice commands (great for raiding or PvP or other quick decisions). Also, it frees up hands for doing whatever - fishing, grinding for Shadowmourne, dancing - while you can 'type' in guild chat with speech. As I said, though, mainly heightened by #3.

3) Add a decent TTS (Text To Speech) system into these games. Add accents, variants, sliders and more to increase customization - this will allow both players to role-play easier and more effectively, as well as allowing dynamic NPC speech without needing thousands upon thousands of Voice Actors (as in SW:TOR). Would make voicing in games nigh-infinitely easier. Also, sadly, by far the most difficult of the bunch. Possible, but difficult.

Modern AI will handle the rest - the anger, the inflection, the character behind the words. All it takes is for these to be built, and perhaps the Bazaar won't feel like a graveyard (no matter the number of people in it) any more.

Of MICE and MMOs

2010-02-22T17:20:00.000-08:00

I'll dive right in to this post, because I want to. The Scourge cannot be stopped!

I recently read a book by Orson Scott Card, acclaimed science fiction author, about Characters and Viewpoint. I hadn't read much about the science of writing novels before this, so even the basic concepts it talked about held my interest for a while. One of the points he makes, early on, is about the four different kinds of stories, specifically novels, that exist. They follow the acronym MICE, and I'll briefly sum each one up:

Milieu stories are those that focus on setting and the world the characters exist in beyond all else. It can house such things as poems, recipes, songs, as well as extraneous and unrelated plot points, just to convey the setting (or Milieu) of the story. Examples of this are Lord of the Rings and Avatar.

Idea stories are written to push across a single thought, element, or idea. This can be something relevant, such as the intricacies of modern evolution or gender roles in American society, or something as fantastic as posing the question 'What if a giant lizard attacked Tokyo?'. Inside this category falls all Speculative fiction, and so a great deal of science fiction can be housed here. Examples are Waterworld and the Left Hand of Darkness.

Character stories are just made to show, reveal, and explore different characters in different situations. Most modern drama television shows fall under this category, as well as a few comic books. Examples are Firefly and the Dark Knight.

Event stories simply chronicle one event, one point in time, whether a conflict or a simple day at the park. Nearly every short story has to fall in this category because, you know, they're short. Narrative poems are usually here too. Examples include Poe's The Raven, and the first 20 minute opening scene of Saving Private Ryan.

A short disclaimer:
Yes, I know every single novel has every one of these ideas. But did anyone go to see Avatar for the characters? No. How about watching the Dark Knight solely for the events? It just doesn't make sense. The novels, or movies, we view as amazing, take Lord of the Rings, are strong in three of the four categories, but one truly shines above the rest. You can't tell me that the Battle of the Shire was for anything but more interactions in the world, nor Tom Bombadil, (which is in fact why both were cut from the movies). The characters, the events, the ideas, they all back a strong world that it is housed in. Some are ambiguous - Firefly had a very strong world - but in general, both movies and novels stick to these lines.

Now, you say, what is this doing here? On a blog so previously dedicated to events in the video game world? I'll tell you. Calm down. Relax, man, you're two tents.

I would argue, or at least postulate, that games follow a similar structure. Not quite the same, as they are two (very) different storytelling genres, but they share similar structures. While this could, with a little extrapolation, cover all games, I will focus on my MMO genre rating system that I call SPAM.

Sandbox/Social games take one category. They are not built by developers, but the players that play it. They may have a plot, or a world, that forms around it - even WoW has a massive following of machinima and comics - but true games in this category have all the following categories made up of the people, by the people, and for the people. EVE, Second Life, and LOVE all are versions of this.

Plot games follow a (usually linear, but not necessarily) plot that goes from point a to point b. They have a defined starting and ending, and whether DLC or expansions increase this, its is still a game driven by a single goal. (Every game made based on a movie, ever, in the history of ever, has been this type of game. Some of the blandest, most boring, and lamest games have fallen here too.) For MMOs, plots have been harder to come by - though we see major signs of plot- centric MMOs in Wrath of the Lich King, with Arthas's storyline, and (of course) in SW:TOR.

Amusement games are just made for gameplay. Combat, racing, puzzles, riddles, exploration, minigames, boss fights, sports, whatever you fancy - the developers had an idea for a fun game on the forefront of their minds when they built it. You, naysayers, may say that everything falls in this category. All games have to be amusing, or else they wouldn't sell! But I am using amusement in a "shallower", or more "accessible" sense. Free Realms and the majority of Kids' games fall right here. There are others here too, and games that make excessive use of combat can be tossed into this category. I know a number of people name Aion, but I'm reluctant to take a stance seeing as I've never actually played the thing.

Lastly, Milieau games are all about the world you exist in. In fact, they are very similar to Milieau stories, in that they push worlds in front of them. However, this also encapsulates the Character piece of the novel - because either you are a character, or the character is part of the reactive NPC world. I can't think of an MMO that doesn't, or shouldn't, fall into this genre. World of Warcraft (esp. Vanilla) is most definitely in this breed, with its voluminous lore and all sorts of unnecessary background. Another example would be Star Trek Online, and indeed most franchise settings (because people who pay to play one of these games will leave disappointed if they don't feel entrenched in the world). Avatar: The Game should have been in this category. It wasn't.

And, to end, a brief hypothetical summary. I feel like this makes sense. If not to you, or any developers, then to me. Good MMOs, like good Novels, highlight one of these aspects beyond all else, and use the other aspects to foil that piece. I'm not saying that anything should be done to lessen how well each is executed, just that a game needs to bring the other genre's up to par. If you want to immerse your players in a world, that's fine! Just don't tell them that it's also all about a single plot. Want it to be a very community game? Neat! Just don't waver between a world you build and a world your players build. SW:TOR chose story. LOVE chose gameplay. EVE chose sandbox. It's those other games, the EQ2's and the AoC's and the STOs and oh so many more, that don't (to me) have one outspoken genre. By no means diminish what you have - all pieces, from community to world, are necessary for a successful MMO. But without an point of contrast, the whole masterpiece fades.

Tips to MMO'ing on 15$ a Month

2010-02-04T17:21:00.001-08:00

It's tricky to play two MMO's, there's no doubt about it. However, it's a a very hard time finding cheap entertainment in this economy, and some times - you just get bored with one MMO. It happens. That doesn't mean you won't want to play it from time to time, or you won't want to raid with your guild on Tuesday evening any more - it just means you want another option. Makes sense. However, getting another MMO can be downright expensive - playing CO, AoC, War, Aion, CoH, STO, LotRO, and any number of others at the same time can cost you a rather large fortune. Luckily, you have other options!

1) Free to Play is your friend!

There are a number of free, yes, free MMOs out there. And even better - there are quite a few good ones - not just flash-based browser games like AdventureQuest or NeoPets that can scarcely call themselves MMOs, or things like... *shudders*... Runescape.

The thing about these free games is that basically all of them have microtransactions. Meaning, if you have a collector's habit of wanting to get every minipet or title, it'll probably end up being more expensive for you to play this than to open up a new account in AoC or EVE.

However, if you can stand not buying the newest sparklepony on the block, there are some pretty fun, good, decent games out there.

Chronicles of Spellborn: Free to play for the moment, didn't have an extremely solid beginning, but is working its way back. Has an interesting combat system - otherwise, haven't gotten a chance to check it out.
Runes of Magic: Despite being very good at blatantly destroying contests, Runes of Magic is an often-toted WoW Clone. A decent one, but very very similar to it nonetheless - if you're looking for more WoW, go for it; otherwise, you might want to try something new.
Free Realms: Targeted for a younger audience than most multi-MMOers, it still deserves note as one of the most interesting MMOs to date, simply because it removed the 'requirement' of combat-based leveling from the MMORPG genre. With kart-racing, cooking, and exploration all being ways to level, along with about 6 or 7 other options, it is an interesting and refreshing take on the genre.
Allods Online: A pretty cool looking sci-fantasy game with hints of that over-used 'WoW Clone' branding, still in beta and said to be released at some point this year. Check back on release - the graphics are, well, stunning. Not Aion, but still very cool.
Torchlight Online: Still in production, but promising to be a very cool game if the dungeon-crawler it is preceded by, 'Torchlight', is any indication. Not much information other than it will be free to play and micro-transaction based.
Almost forgot! Dungeons and Dragons Online, better known as DDO, is a game turned recently from pay-to-play to free. It's been around a while, meaning it already has a decent fanbase and a bit of history - not a thouroghly innovative game, but decent and, best of all, free.

2) 1-Time Purchases

Even if you only have, say, 15$ a month to spend on your MMO, you might still have money you normally spend on those other, single player games. While I'm not going to cover those here...because this post would encompass several small terabytes... I can tell you about those 1-purchase MMO's that you pay for once - then you're done.

Guild Wars (plus like 5 expansions): Arenanet attempted to revolutionize the gaming subscription models with this game. They thought, hey, we can sell these games - no subscription attatched - just like any other game, and it could work if we sell enough! Cool! However, when it was released, people slowly began to realize that it wasn't an MMO at all. The entire world outside of cities was instanced - making it just a couple of visual chat rooms with solo or group games that you can play out of them. Still worth noting, because it can be a fun game.
Guild Wars 2: They came back, 5 years later, reevaluated, reassessed, and decided that it was time to make a new MMO - same subscription model of a 1-time purchase (though a number of expansions) - however, in an actual virtual world. Coming out (probably) some time this year or next, definitely keep your eyes peeled for this one. Looks to be a very, very cool game.
Global Agenda: This one's a bit tricky, and not necessarily an MMO persay, however I'd brand it one. However, the stuff that typically brands it as an MMO - crafting, end-game leveling, open world environment - only are unlockable with a (you guessed it) 15$ a month subscription.

3) Lifetime Subscriptions

The last... and the most difficult to suggest. Whereas you can pay 15$ a month until you want to stop, some MMOs nowadays are offering limited lifetime subscriptions for a fixed rate, until the game goes under. I urge caution for a few reasons with this category:

First, most MMOs offer this as a limited offer, only allowing you to purchase it before or within a few weeks of release. You might not know what you're getting in to.

Second, the world of MMOs is just that, a world, evolving an constantly changing. you never know when your game developer might pull a NGE on you and reverse your loved game into a graveyard overnight.

Third, the 'industry standard' for the cost of these is 200$ - and rising. This is pretty expensive, and if you play for a full year and two months you'll barely break even. If you plan on playing more, great, but otherwise... meh.

Champions Online (Over) This is one to pay very close attention to if you're thinking about getting a lifetime subscription - apparently, Cryptic has released additional, important and almost necessary content to the game - for a price. Think like a full patch, a whole zone, held only for people who pay. Even the ones that shelled out the 200$ at launch. It's a bit sketchy.
Star Trek Online (Over) This is one I got in on, however, we'll see how it works out. First off, it's a good 40$ over the standard price, and with the same people that made Champions Online. However, I have one explanation for why I bought it, despite all of this advice - I liked it. I liked the game. It was fun. Entertaining. A cool IP, with so much potential and even more interest. I don't see it as a WoW killer (stupid term, by the way) or anything, but I can see it being a fun game. Also, I know I won't be able to afford two accounts at the same time, so it makes sense to buy it now - when the value is constant and will thin with time.
Lord of the Rings Online This one's 300$, but only after their own limited offer of the standard 200. However, it is available still, which is pretty neat and a great giveaway. However, with it being 3 years old, it is an odd choice to buy now, with a necessary 1 yr 8 months to break even.

In recap, there are a number of ways you could, and can, play multiple MMOs - without ever subscribing to a game, or just subscribing to one.

YARRRRRGH

2010-02-01T10:20:00.000-08:00

I officially hate Amazon.
Wow. Really?
So, I tried to buy the Star Trek Online lifetime subscription. I only really can pay for one monthly MMO at a time, and STO attracted my attention, so it made the most sense - just a really expensive, 1 time purchase game. However, when STO says 'offer available until February 1st', they actually mean 'offer available until when we feel like it, or more the retailers who we don't actually keep in contact with so if you really want to buy it now then you're just out of luck'. They wouldn't give me a pre-order code after many calls and emails... eventually leading to one individual telling me that they can't give out the pre-orde codes until TOMORROW. Which, seeing as the lifetime subscription offer ends tomorrow, doesn't make much sense.

Why didn't he just order it like a week ago? What an idiot.
Well, seeing as this situation still stands, I am off to go get Dragon Age. Take that, Cryptic.

EDIT: Well, I still dislike Amazon for being stupid about things, but Cryptic pulled through for me! Yay! They bumped up my account to pre-order status, and I purchased it then. Whew. Go Cryptic.

Dragon Age: Origin (of Nightmares)

2010-01-30T23:08:00.000-08:00

RSS feeds will show me.
Well, Dragon Age: Origins (or the two hours that I played of it on a friend's laptop) has officially turned me off of MMOs (more specifically, WoW) for the moment. As much as I love the world of WoW, and it's amazing setting and milieu, the game itself is a bit... outdated. Each story, while interesting nonetheless, lacks the voice acting which is present in DA:O, Age of Conan's starting area, and other games - the whole human-NPC reaction in WoW is really really lazily done, with a simple text box for you to read, and a TL:DR post at the bottom of the blurb. Also, storylines have future implications - which actually impact how storylines work with each other.
That's basically the best part about it. Save a man here, he'll offer you a quest on the other side of the world - while simultaneously angering his captors. Shoot that man instead, and you've flipped the coin, which may limit your options for henchmen or spells in one area but open up hundreds in another direction. Its replayability is amazing, and when combined with an interesting combat system and fully-voiced dialogue (as Bioware is well known for *cough*SWTOR*cough*), and you have an extremely powerful and potent game.
If you're reading one, this must look odd.
Next, graphics are stunning in newer games, and while WoW is still amazing in its potency, it's seams are really beginning to show. You just have to look at the water to know this is a game past it's day in the graphic spotlight. Spell effects (while cool) are not close to as partically awesome, and meanwhile we have 1 single cinematic throughout the entire game. And it isn't even in the powerful cinematic engine we know that WoW has, that we've seen in the cinematics we load up in the loading screen - no, it's a much wimpier vamped up game engine. Cool, still, and I still get chills whenever I hear Putress cackling upon the cliff face, but the epic wars in which you take part in DA:O, or the space missions in Star Trek Online, simply outclass WoW a hundredfold. Just google "Dragon Age Spell Effects" and you'll see what I mean. Just, wow.
Like, really odd.
There are things I do disagree with in the game. First off, loading screens inside the game really are just a put-off; I hate em. With a passion. They have even less place in an MMO, which is what really sucks about AoC and STO when I've played them. It cuts the 'World' part of the MMO buisness to shreds when you lose that; really a poor decision on the part of MMO developers to leave that in, no matter the programming cost. Spell effects can fall to this point, and upon this I will not concede.
Odder than peppermint kiwi soda.
Second, instant travel-porting between towns kills that sense of 'world' too, when when you 'randomly' have to fight in between - it just spits in the face of the individual who's trying to piece together the world in their head. The Legend of Zelda series has a great way of circumventing this, by making their 'fast-travel' both make sense in the story and simultaneously not always the most effective means of transport (it could make more sense to just call up your horse and ride there, for example).

If the powers of WoW and the newer gaming era combined... I'd shudder at the outcome. Hopefully Blizzard will not look back at their open world experience as a mistake in their upcoming MMO - hopefully, they will combine the old with the new, seeing what they can work on while simultaniously holding onto those core ideas which keeps me shelling out 15$ a month.
Which is really, really, gross.
However, it means nonetheless that I find it hard to jump into the random dungeon finder tonight, knowing that there is a whole world out there where everything I do has a repercussion; everything I do has an impact. Ha ha, I know, real world does this too, you're so clever. Unfortunately, I'm blowing all the money I have for gaming on the Star Trek Online Lifetime Subscription, so it'll be a while before I pick it up - maybe I'll get it in whatever pack they put it with the expansion.
Ah well.

Here. We. Go.

2010-01-24T23:07:00.000-08:00

I am feeling fairly philosophical at the moment. However, I am fairly sure that whatever I post here, on the subject of gaming, religion, butter side up or butter side down, the declining state of the ridiculous in the modern world - will not be quite so helpful as your own post. Your own thought. So, I, standing here - well, sitting really - invite you to think for a while. Find your own controversy. Do that for as long as you would spend reading a normal... or at least average post. To help you with that, I have provided the general length of a blog post in blank lines.
and 4. Have fun!!!

Hello, I'm the guy that writes in the blank spaces of all the blogs in the world.

Wait, you thought that they were just... blank spaces? Devoid of thought? No. There are too many ideas in the world, waiting to be heard, to actually leave anything truly barren.

Wherever you go, there's one of us.

Waiting.

Watching.

Silent.

don't report anything, i might get in trouble :)

No matter where we go... here we are.

2010-01-22T23:35:00.000-08:00

I have 3 more questes to do. One is probably the coolest quest in WoW history, two others are pretty good as well, but I'm not feeling it at the moment. So, I decided to write about something different. Amazing, that.

I may have tricked you, dear readers, into thinking this was a world of warcraft blog. Shazam! Kablooey! No. You were wrong. This blog is about life, the universe, and nothing, nobody, and perhaps nothing at all. However, despite the presiding disclaimer, I will speak about WoW oncemore, because I feel like it. So, there. Take that.
I feel like Blizzard - more specifically, that part of Blizzard that works on WoW - has lost some of it's goals. Some of it's purpose. Ka-Pow! Now I have a thesis. You must be drawn in. It is law. For a little bit of background, I have played for a good four years... Got it in the summer after it came out (so 4 1/2 yrs I guess) and it was my first MMO ever. Noting the necessary haze of nostalgia and epicness that obviously cloud those memories, I will tread quite carefully into its lair.

I would challenge you to tell me the story arc of WoW Vanilla. Perhaps tell me the main villain... or the link between the various baddies... or even explain the significance of the thousands of existing storylines, both unfinished and finished, from An Azsharan Shipwreck to the Rise of the Troll God Hakkar to the Summoning of an Ancient God to Quelling a Human Uprising to... thousands more. The obvious point here is that their IS NONE. You cannot convince me that each piece of each of these storylines - while each a very worthy, interesting storyline in its own right - have anything to do with one another. In short, Blizzard did not build a game on a story - it built a game on a world.

However, this idea is slowly... slipping. Slipping away. Outland preserved a bit of it - you'd have no clue why the Consortium were there, or the history of Medivh and is ivory tower, or the Arakkoan Gods or the Ancient Gods of Zul'Aman. However, we fought, in every single zone, members of the Legion. We crushed hundreds of their troops, allied with Demon Hunters, defeated the standing leader, destroyed two of the most powerful lieutenants, up through the big, titular baddie himself, up through one of the most powerful members of the legion known to date.

In short, we went through a story.

In Wrath of the Lich King, it is even MORE present. I mean, you see Arthas is basically every zone, and even in the ones you don't see him in, his presence is felt. Almost every single dungeon touches on him. Yes, we had the Nexus War. Yes, we had the Titans. That's what, 3 storylines compared to hundreds in vanilla? Thousands? BC had more, what with Gruul and Oshu'gun and the Blood Elves Redemption and Auchindoun and the Ogres and the Cenarion Expedition and all sorts of others.

It may just be the product of having a thing like an 'Expansion'. You have to reset the level cap, gear cap, and you only have 1 continent - with 7-9 zones - to work with. It only makes sense to push across one storyline. However, this expansion scheme kind of kills that world-like realism that WoW built around itself. No, the villain wasn't always present. But you still got to see a giant dragon appearing in the throne room, and defeat the Old God C'Thun, and discover the mysteries of the trolls and the scourge and the aftermath of the wars behind and looking to the years ahead.

I am... afraid. As always. We only have around 5 zones this expansion. We have 2 heroiced old dungeons, with no more background in lore than Onyxia that we know of, and about 8 that all directly tie to Deathwing and the Black Dragonflight. Uldum's secret weapon, the raids on the Elemental Planes, all lock together to form a cohesive narrative... one with a single storyline. I am really, really scared that people will not notice that their 'world' is dissolving around them. Because if it works in an expansion, why not, while revamping the old world, make all the pieces fit together? Have the quest lines build like a plot from a novel? They could do it. I really, really don't want them to.

I think one of the easiest ways to see the decline in the world is the Role-Playing community. It was really, really hard to be a 'Mary Sue' in Vanilla. Sure, people did it, but there was no 'Arthas's betrayer' or 'Illidan's best bud' storyline to follow. You picked a path, of vengeance or light or honor or general connivery, and could make a person - a real, live person - out of all the pieces. Nowadays, it gets harder and harder to do so. If you want to play through the entire last twenty (five) levels of the game, you have to follow these plot lines.

But even more scary about WoW doing this is that other people will do it to. I mean, who's to say that the new MMO won't be all story driven? Linear or otherwise, with an intended goal and a path to follow? Exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution, however they spin it, it'll just be one more game - not a "real" world. This is what really, really worries me about SW:TOR. They say that they're bringing the 'story' to the MMO. Giving it a more RPG feel, letting you pick a path and meet with other people along a way. It's not a world - its a walkway. Maybe you'll have two, five, eight paths diverging in a yellow wood, but really they'll all lead somewhere, and there's only one path to follow.
Maybe I'm mad. Perhaps this is just natural evolution of the MMORPG, to a more RPG based, soloplayer style. But I hold out that this isn't true. The idea that you can build a world, from scratch to full animated glory, is so astonishing - so mind boggling - that I still find it hard to switch to any other game.

What do I hope for, in the not-too-distant future? I hope that Blizzard will release larger, more expansive expansions. One every two years, or two and a half. Include multiple coexisting storylines, and not just multiple, but tons upon tons upon tons. I am not against evolving worlds - in fact, I am heartily for them. However I am against single-lined, one stranded plots. This is a virtual World. It is a community, a hub of lore and art and music and thought, philosophy and theory and statistics and design, planning and crafting and building and living. It is not just a game - it is a world. If the day should ever come that WoW forgets this... it may be time to find a new game.

Short, Unstated PuG Healer Tips

2010-01-18T16:05:00.000-08:00

Well, it seems like our random dungeon finder has really taken off, both in terms of use and blog posts. I'm not sure if there is a WoW blog which has not posted about hints and tricks to make your PuG experience more enjoyable. I, in turn, have decided to follow - however, I will attempt to avoid all previously stated tips. Which is actually pretty difficult. Here goes.

1) If you are overgeared for a certain instance - which a ton of people are (I don't think I've seen a healer that isn't overgeared for dungeons like roic Nexus or UK) - pick yourself up a Darkmoon Card: Twisting Nether. Basically, it acts as a free soulstone 10% of the time. If anyone messes up, probably an additional small amount of spellpower/mana probably won't save you. If it will, then by all means keep your snowflakes or pictures equipped; however, usually, it's an issue of threat or the tank picking up the wrong adds, and it's a 1-hit KO either way.

However, if you have the slightest doubt about your performance in a heroic, have everything (including your best gear) ready! Flasks, potions, reagents, food, the works (keeping a few feasts around always makes group members happy). Also, don't have this equipped in the new heroics. You'll need to be on your toes every moment.

2) Fear, though not as present as in BC, is still a factor in the equation. There are 2 spots I notice it most frequently - the trash pulls in the end of DTK, and some random guys in UP [edit: also, Halls of Reflection trash. But it can get so messy there, it's not really a specific mechanic that needs worrying about]. Probably exist other places as well, but it doesn't spring to the top of my head as I think about it, so it's probably not all that annoying.

However, you can be SURE that the last two pulls of DTK will always be aggroed together, because of fear, and you can also be sure that King Dred will make your life miserable with his own roar of fear-inducingness. A wonderful counter to this is equipping a PvP Trinket (or using the racial if you're human) - or just spamming hots. Effective management of fears can mean the difference between a wipe and a clean kill, and if you're really unlucky - it doesn't matter HOW geared you are.

3) Here, there is a very fitting quote from Simon Tam, medic of Firefly:

Simon: No matter what you do, or say or plot, no matter how you come down on us… I will never, ever harm you. You're on this table, you're safe. 'Cause I'm your medic, and however little we may like or trust each other, we're on the same crew. Got the same troubles, same enemies, and more than enough of both. Now, we could circle each other and growl, sleep with one eye open, but that thought wearies me. I don't care what you've done, I don't know what you're planning on doing, but I'm trusting you. I think you should do the same. 'Cause I don't see this working any other way.

You are a healer, or a tank, a crucial member of the team. It is a privilege that you get to queue so quickly (this applies even more to tanks). You do NOT get to pick who gets healed, you do NOT get to 'accidentally' let one mob run by, and let people die. If you signed up to be in a role, you better perform that role, unbiased, no matter how much of a jerk that hunter is, or whether or not the mage won't switch out of his PvP gear. It is your very own Hippocratic oath, one that you signed by clicking that little check box next to the plus symbol with the 'Healer' text below. Don't be an idiot about it.

4) There is a following, very fitting quote from Simon's sister, River:

River: Also... I can kill you with my brain.

Just because you cannot be an arbiter of life between your party members, you still do have a voice. First, if someone is being extremely offensive, there is the Ignore button, as well as the 'Report to GM' button. Both are viable solutions for most of your troubles. However if their conduct falls outside of the realm of the little chat box int he bottom left corner your screen, then you have the 'Vote to Kick' button in your arsenal. If one person is really bugging the whole group - through offensive actions, AFKness, DC'dness, or other general ruderies, then do the vote and remove him from the group. A few rules I follow when dealing with the 'vote to kick' function:

First, if someone has said they will be afk for under 3-5 minutes, I won't kick them. If they don't return by then, I feel totally in the right to do so.
If someone is taking too many afk's, then I feel I am in the right there too. It depends on the length and number, but most often people find themselves agitated after 2 or 3.
If a person doesn't tell the group they're going offline, and they're gone for over a minute and a half, I usually send out a vote.
Lastly, if someone is attacking another person verbally, or being purposely offensive, they will earn an immediate vote from me.

Remember, these are my own guidelines, and you by no means have to follow them - but it IS a good idea to figure out what yours are, so you can be consistent about them. Lastly, each of these simply votes for the individual to be kicked, and if someone knows more than you do, they can decline and inform you of the reason for the DC, or the number of AFKs, or an assurance the rudeness will die down.

5) Lastly, you really do have a powerful weapon at your disposal. Your final option is to quit the group, but this power should be exercised with extreme caution. Tanks do not get to drop group because CoS starts with a 5-minute speech. DPS can't call it because they hit FoS and actually needed 5 badges instead of 4. Healers can't immediately drop group when you see that the rogue has two trinkets from level 70 brewfest. You have an obligation to stick around for at least a little while, because you signed up for it.

The dungeon finder has a great option, letting you NOT pick a random dungeon. Also, you can just run with guildies or PuGs from your server, and not use the tool at all, to avoid potential conflicts - you can even select a random dungeon and get your daily frosts that way. However if something truly unexpected and intolerable occurs, and you feel that it is time, do not hesitate to drop group. Just remember, with great power comes great responsibility. Yea, I just went there.

Questes : The Shady Rest Inn

2010-01-13T16:43:00.000-08:00

This is one of the most excellent sidequests in the game. By sidequests, I mean ones that don't send you up against ancient demons or powerful avian gods, but ones that describe the little people of WoW - in the case, one innkeeper now known by the name of 'Smiling Jim'. There are a bunch more of these, like Mor'ladim and Jitters and Magister Duskwither and so many more... I might cover them all at some point. However, today is not that day. Today, we Questes!
Who can do this?
Well, both Alliance and Horde members can do the quests, however they are fairly different and the Alliance one ends with much more conclusion.
In terms of level requirement, you need to be level 37 to finish it, and 30 to start. You might level up enough over the course of the chain, because a ton of quests coincide with the quests in this area, however it's your best bet to just wait a little and at least hit 34 before starting. Unless you plan on running dungeons/bg's in the interim. Which isn't a bad idea.

Well, finding the start for this one has to be easy!
There are like 18 different ways to start this quest, so I'll be brief about each.
Alliance: First, you can pick up the quest chain off of Connor Rivers in the Blue Recluse - the inn in the Mage District in Stormwind.
Next, you can get it from Guard Byron (No, not the extremely stealthy tauren) who's inhabiting the walls of Thermore.

Horde: You can pick up a quest from one Krog to go check out the ruins, who's chilling in Brackenwall.
OR, you can just go straight to the source, the Shady Rest Inn, and grab the three objects off of the ground and surrounding areas; The Black Shield above the fireplace, the Suspicious Hoofprint on the ground, and a little glimmering badge on the floor.

Fine. Its four. Still a lot.

Ok, got a little tricky maneuver for me this time? Huh?
Nope. Wowwiki it is. Horde has a nice wowhead post too (the pink one).

Any 1337 Loot?
Ee-yikes. I'll make it quick.

In the end, you get some Leggings of the Long Road (caster cloth), Skirmisher's Cover (Hunter/Feral Druid/Rogue cap), or a Steel-banded Hauberk (nice for warriors/pallies).
Then you get one of three: Biting Axe (Str/Agil), Bone Dirk (Many Agils and a stam), and a Glowing Tourmaline Ring (stam/Spi, eww).

Then the horde can get:
You get to choose between 2 items: Eyepoker (statless wand) and Blasting Hackbut (statless gun).

Not all that great, but not all that bad.
Why this?
As with all of these... A - it rocks, and B - it could go away. However here we get to see some of the neat things Blizzard did with two different factions - if you get a chance to do both sides of the quest, you see insights into the situation that you never would get if you only saw half of the story. The Battle for the Undercity is another such quest which is explored differently on both factions (I only recently did the horde side one and was duly impressed), and it'd be neat to see if Blizzard gets to bring more such quests into Cataclysm - even in dimensions like PvP or dungeons or raids, which explored different sides to different stories or different factions. There's so much that Blizzard can do, and has done, it'll be quite awesome to see how they tinker around with things now, to get a feel for what they can and cannot do in their unannounced MMO.
Also: the alliance quest ends in a tragic yet noble way. It's one of those things that would deserve voice acting if Blizzard put the time into it (perhaps a short cinematic as well). But it's a cool quest in the constraints they have - one that really shows you what the smaller stories of Warcraft are all about. I don't know how much time they'll put into revamping Dustwallow as in 2.3 it got added to a fair bit, but who knows what can stay and what will go... when the world is devoured by rage.

Questes : The Glowing Shard

2010-01-12T19:36:00.000-08:00

Now, hey, adept readers will note. The Glowing Shard? That sounds like some low level FedEx quest! What're you trying to pull on us? And you might even be more surprised when I tell you, you're right! It IS just a low level FedEx quest! But one chock-full of very, very, current and relevant lore.

It is no mystery that I am an ardent lover of all things druidic. This quest basically deals with all sorts of druidic dealings which will come to fruition in Cataclysm, and will play out also whenever we get to see the Emerald Dream (well, more than just a little acorn-filled grove surrounded by elite ancients of war). If you don't know what I'm talking about, go finish up your Icecrown Loremaster Achievement. The entire quest deals with the Nightmare and lore leading up to the Hyjal zone and the Barrens revamp and sundering. This quest is assuredly going to disappear. No doubt about it.
Who can do it?
The level cap for this one is 10, making it the most easily doable one of the lot. Unless you're getting run through the dungeon required to start this quest - Wailing Caverns, though, it really behooves you to get up to about level 15, when the random dungeon finder will queue you for it automatically. Otherwise, you're basically good. To solo the thing, it pays to be at about lvl 25-35, lower if you're more confident, and higher if you want it to go quickly and without deaths.

Start this is where?
The Quest begins off of a little green gem, whose icon looks like the Essence of Eranikus, that drops off of the end boss of the Wailing Caverns. It's a really, really annoying dungeon if you haven't done it before. In fact, it's really annoying even if you have. To spare yourself the trouble, follow your group leader, mind the jump, and if you are soloing hag upon wowwiki's every word.

Already had the page open for Wowwiki...
HAHA! This time, I'm actually going to TELL YOU what to do! Innit strange? If you still want to do it on your own, fine. I'm not going to stop you. However, you'd be a little nutty to do so.

Blizzard had a grand idea for a number of 'Mystery Quests' to be scattered throughout the world - like the one to find Jitters (easy) to the one from the scroll in the bottom of the bloodsail ship (harder) to the one from the dwarf in southern westfall (completely and totally insane). This is one of those 'mystery' quests - and Blizzard never made one after Vanilla, because they basically stunk. As this quest should be done simply for the lore, and more so to get you to run WC before it implodes in a bronze dragonflight paradox of insanity, it does not behoove you to run around the barrens and ask every person whether or not they know about a little green prism-thing. I'll spare you the trouble.

Basically, after you loot the gem, run to Falla Sagewind next to the flight master in Ratchet. She has no Question Mark. This is supposed to make the quest more 'mysterious'. In actually it makes it just eighty times more annoying if we didn't have wowhead. But, we do! After this it's simply a little jaunt up to your major druidic city (TB/Darn).

What crap do you get from this?
Not... much. If you haven't done the instance before, you get an achievement. Woo! Might even be a FoS someday.
You get to pick between two items. The Talbar Mantle, a very low level shoulder gear - once cool, now nulled by heirloom shoulders - and Quagmire Galoshes, a pair of decent tanking boots. Nothing spectacular, but a bit of XP and major city rep comes alongside.

So... That was totally not worth it.
You might think so. You got to do a really, really terrible dungeon. One that Blizzard will probably... hopefully... remove. Even its druidic awesomeness doesn't make up for the fact that it sucks. You ran around through a city to find a mob with no question mark over her head. Then, you flew an annoyingly long way back to an underused faction city you might not even have the flight route to, in which case you would have run or taken an arduous journey by foot/boat/zeppelin. Then you talked, finished the quest, and got a one of two low level greens.

HOWEVER. You now get to see WHY the barrens will be half a lush tropical forest in Cataclysm. You got to see the first warnings of the Emerald Nightmare, which Malfurion will come back yelling about. You destroyed the corrupted creations of the dream, and witnessed the power it has, first hand. This is Cataclysm's lore IN ACTION! The world is evolving before your very eyes! Live it! Breathe it! The Azeroth around you actually exists. It may not make up for the fact that you just ran WC, but hey, you did it. This is what too many quests were like pre-BC. So if you complain about how you have to go joust again, or your quest to pick up citizens on gryphonback is too long, or your grinding in Grizzly Hills isn't as much fun as it should be - you can now look back upon your arduously annoying journey and think, huh. This isn't so bad after all. In fact, this game might just be entertaining.

Questes : In Dreams

2010-01-11T16:53:00.000-08:00

Hah, you thought you were rid of me, didn't you? DIDN'T YOU? Well, you were WRONG, soldier! Wrong as a doornail! In light of how wrong you are, I've decided to spotlight something completely off topic! That would be one of the most universally heralded quests in the game! A little quest from our Ashbringer-wielding, justice-serving head-of-the-Argent-Crusade Tirion Fordring!

First named in Metzen's short story 'Of Blood and Honor', Tirion has a long history described in said novel - a great precursor to the questline and WoW in general - you should read it. If you can't be bothered, a short summation follows: A post WC2 setting, just a week or two after 'Lord of the Clans', it describes Tirion's happenstance meeting with an orc by the name of Eitrigg (who you can see now in Ogrimmar/The Argent Stand) and how he ended up an outcast due to his pact of honor he swore to defend the orc, after his life was spared in turn. His family stayed in the town of Hearthglen (located in northern western plaguelands, now a scarlet crusade front) while he was exiled into the forests. It's a good read, and like always I'd heartily suggest it. Now, on with the show!

Who can do it?
Anybody that wants to, really. You need to be level 52, and that's about it. Youll need a fair bit of time as well, as the first three quests are pretty grindy, but the mobs are very close together and not hard to kill. Soloability I'd suggest around outland-ready, but if you're brave and daring you might even be able to do it at 52. Probably want stealth or invisibility potions, though.

Another thing - you can see a bit more of his history by going into Old Hillsbrad Foothills in the Caverns of Time.

Where do I beginz teh lulz?
Tirion himself has the starter. He's a bit hard to find, you know, being exiled and all, but you can either follow the river that divides E and W Plaguelands north on the Plaguelands side, or you can run through the Terrorweb Tunnel (usually a rare spawn in there, drops a load of Crypty Bits). Either way, he starts it off with three lengthy kill quests: Blood Tinged Skies, Carrion Grubbage, and Demon Dogs. Grind, grind, grind away.

A little hint to cut down running times: If your faction controls the Plaguewood Tower, you can fly using the spectral gryphon rider there to any of the other towers - specifically, the Eastwall Tower, as it is very near to the Light's Hope Chapel, which has a flight point. (Woo!)
One note about completion...
Try not to kill Isillien when he spawns at the end of the last quest. The end event has a chance to bug out, and while when I did it it was fine, other people have had issues. You can still turn in the quest in if you remain where you stand, though.

Where to go for teh guidez...
Wowwiki. Done and Done.

1007!
You get one choice out of 5 for the entire thing. Woo Beans.
First, a Mark of Fordring, very nice pre-OL neck for people that like crit/ap.
Then a Ornate Adamantium Breastplate, very very shiny tanking breastplate.
Next a Shimmering Platinum Warhammer (One of a kind model!), which is a.... decent weapon that looks very cool.
Penultimately a caster cloak, Shroud of the Exile, which is decent and graphically fine.
And last and certainly not least, for casters anyway, is a pretty little thing by the name of Fordring's Seal, a brilliant healing/dps ring for 50-60. All this'll be replaced in Outland ('cept for the hammer's total awesomeness), but nice for those neverending random Blackrock runs.
(See that hammer? Isn't it AWESOME? Yea. It is.)

Why this? WHY???
Firstly, it ends beautifully. Really well done stuff. Not going to spoil it here, but it's safe to say that it was the highlight of the questing experience for many Blizzard developers (as evidenced by a number of different podcasts/videos).
Also, Tirion exists in about 8 incarnations. With the heavy Plaguelands revamp, it could be seen that the world is brought up to the current timeline so as to make your actions feel more impacting. This may be very cool and awesome in its own right... but it would mean nixing some quests that no longer follow that path, including this one. This is one of those wuest which define why the Questing system implemented in WoW was so revolutionary. This kind of stuff hadn't happened before. It just... hadn't. This is one to do. It leaves you hanging to the last moment, and you can see how far Tirion has come, even to this day in Icecrown Citadel. All we are left to ponder, in every hero's case, is... Redemption?

Questes : The Battle for Darrowshire

2010-01-06T15:20:00.000-08:00

Wait, you say. I know that name! I have seen a great many things... and that's one of them - that's the extremely awesome video and song by Cranius! Of course, if you don't know about it, then now you do, so you can reread the beginning of this paragraph and be just as informed as the rest of us. Congrats.
Now, what would you say if you could relive one of the best machinimas of all time IN GAME? Yes, I know you can blast your foes in twill and stealth into Stormwind (can't attack Ony any more, but you could) - but seriously, Darrowshire was a brilliant masterpiece by Cranius... and was based on a quest. Which is, oddly enough, the very same quest that we're going to do today in questes! It makes a man wonder, it does. With that said, let's get to fightin'!

Who can do it?
Anybody over level 50. This chain used to end in one of the most epic outdoor raid quests ever - no longer, nerfed in the death of the microdungeon in patch 2.3. Now it is possible to finish the last quest with a decent 5-man at level, or 3-man if you're good. Try to solo it if you really want to, but it is difficult and requires an inaverage amount of cleverness/speed. I'd wait until 70 or so to attempt soloing it, however, especially as a class not so levelling-inclined.

Where to begin!
There are two options of where to start this. Firstly, you can talk to Jessica Redpath in Everlook, the goblin quest hub in Winterspring, for the quest 'Sister Pamela'. Or, you can begin the chain qith a very similar quest from Marlene Redpath, who wanders around a ramshackle inn in the Western Plaguelands. Starting it here is suggested, because you have to go back to her later, she is in the same general area, and the quest she gives you offers a bit more xp. Basically, start with her. Also, neat bit of music inside the hut she stays in - not sure if it exists anywhere else in the world.
You an also bypass both of these quests, and go straight to Pamela Redpath on the outskirts of Darrowshire - use quest tracking to make it easy.
Who tells me how to do THIS one?
Well, you guessed it, wowwiki once again comes to the rescue. Isn't it amazing how much anonymous people give to the community through posting there? Also, if you know your mobs well, you could try to just do the quest based upon Cranius's masterpiece. However, it takes some artistic interpretations, and if you just followed it linearly you'd probably get lost. Best to just stick to Wowwiki/Wowhead with this one.

Like always, however, I'd really suggest that you try and do these quests on your own, without outside instruction. In-game quest help makes it pretty simple, and if you keep referring to a guide, at least I feel it takes away from the epicness of the game. You can do what you wish, however.

The stuff we find...
Like always, experience is good. So is Argent Dawn reputation, for a number of reasons, not least the Argent Champion title.
As for stuff stuff, you first get some Tea with Sugar, which is actually usable during the Vezax encounter. Only 3 charges, but still neat you get something useful after all this while.
Next, you get three decent blue items, good for their level, but soon replaced by outland gear. They are the Ring of Protection (Best Vanilla feral tanking ring evar - its true, some durids is bare), the Arclight Talisman (Caster neck) and the Magebane Scion (offhand with a heap of resistances).

Why I picked this...
First, this is the best quest that is currently in game. No question. Beautifully crafted, brilliant story, interesting yet not idiotic game mechanics. All ending in a really awesome and epic encounter. Well done, Blizz, well done.
However, Blizzard is revamping all of the Lordaeron zones. A lot. It seems like the plaguelands may be hit by the revamp bat the hardest. It would be a really sad shame if it got lost to the hourglass of eternity - and I really hope it isn't - but just in case, do it now. Even if they make it better, and add more interesting and new followup quest lines, you really really dont want to miss your opportunity now. You'll kick yourself for it later.

Questes : Class Quests

2010-01-05T08:39:00.000-08:00

This is sort of a stand-in for all of the class quests out there. If you are lucky enough to be graced with a really cool, class-specific quest, you better do it. No question. These are those defining factors that tie classes together, that prove your mark as a real (fill in your class here); these are the quests that people hold as some of their highest accomplishments in the game. I'll jot them out here. (In addition to the ones listed, each class - bar DKs - has a quest that brings them to do a specific thing in the Sunken Temple. Some are more interesting than others, but the dungeon's pretty fun, and I'd suggest doing it at some point. Very soloable nowadays.)

Death Knight: Sorry, all you get is the starting zone quests. Well, not sorry, actually, because this is the most polished zone in the game. But no active seeking of quests for you.
Druid: The Seal Form quest is a bit of a trial of patience. It's one of the defining factors of a druid, in that it made a ton of people change classes right at level 16. Annoying, yet relieving, that they dropped it a few patches ago. The real gem is the Epic Flight form quest: see below.
Hunter: The Ancient Petrified Leaf is your epic quest. Very cool from the looks of things - I haven't yet gotten to try it with my hunter.
Mage: No really epic quests (sorry). You do get a quest that teaches you Polymorph Pig, though.
Paladin: Lucky bum, you get two! Sorry, got. First, along with Warriors, you could craft one Quel'Serrar - sister blade to Quel'Delar. Buuut with level 80 Onyxia, the quest was removed. Sorry. However, you still get the very very cool Paladin Charger chain, which I highly urge you to do.
Priest: Benediction. Do it.
Rogue: Ravenholdt! It's a faction, I know - but it's YOUR faction. Some rogue-specific quests are around there too.
Shaman: You have an epic quest for a Helm, which is kinda cool. Not very long, not as amazing as others, and no Alliance equivalent. However, you do have a quest for each of your totems (no longer necessary), which are worth doing.
Warlock: Three! Three whole class defining quests. In addition to a quest for each Demon. Lucky. First are the two demon quests a large number of people skip: the Infernal, and the Doomguard. Next is one of the coolest quests that I have done, and that's the Warlock Epic Mount chain. Really dead annoying if you do it to get your first epic mount (as I did), but still annoying even now. But the annoyance is far overshadowed by the pure, unadulterated awesome that exudes from it.
Warrior: Cool level 40 quest where I still remember being awed at the sheer size of the wind elemental. Also, the quests for stances are neat. No level 60 quest since Quel'serrar was removed, though. Sorry.

Of course, as you may have realized, I still have to cover a quest here. Obviously, I will cover the magnificent Druid's Epic Flight Form quest.

Who can do it?
Unfortunately, only Druids can do the Druid epic flight form quest. Oddly enough. Never understood the reasoning behind it. Also, you need to be level 70 and honored or higher with the Lower City (so you can enter heroic Auchindoun instances).
Also, you need to have both regular and epic flight training. This costs a hefty amount of gold - 4 to 5k, depending upon your reputation. You get the regular flight training at 60 for next to nothing, so it's not really an issue. I farmed up this gold during BC by grinding eternal water around skettis - the easiest way to get gold now is to quest at max level and do dailies - professions are also a viable option. However, to obtain swift flight form, you do need to already have purchased artisan flying - unlike the other mount chains.

Where to begin...
To start the chain, just talk to any druid trainer, and they'll give you a quest to go talk to a druid in the Cenarion Refuge in Zangarmarsh. The easiest gut to talk to, though, is an old Druid in Moonglade by the name of Loganaar. Just teleport to Moonglade (Remember that spell? Yeah? you get to use it now! Woo!), and accept his quest - and you're on your way.

How do I do this nao plox kthxbai?
Of course, there's a brilliant guide once again at Wowwiki. You can always check the pages for each specific part of the chain on wowhead as well. In fact, I seem to be saying that alot, and I could probably just nix this section. Whatever.

Roxxorz Lootzorz!
This quest used to have the best loot for any druid in the game. That loot is the spell 'Swift Flight Form'. An instant cast, while moving, mount that gives you all the usual bonuses of shapeshifting - including the ability to pick herbs. However, no longer. You can now train this spell at level 71, and the quest has faded into oblivion. However, there are a few other notable and still useful rewards in the chain.
Firstly, as with most of these quests, you get a great deal of reputation - this time with the Cenarion Expedition, useful for grinding keys for old roics, or getting exalted for your Hippogryph. Also, you get 100g.
Next, you get a dead useless trinket. It used to act as a riding crop for swift flight form, increasing flight speed by 10%, but no longer. It is now, essentially, useless. Undisenchantable. Not even sellable. Even the vendors know how useless it is.
Later, you get a marginally useful idol. I don't do much of my levelling in form, but for ferals and the odd non-healing straight boomkin-form leveller, it can last you through the first couple levels of Northrend. Otherwise, DE or sell it.
Lastly, and much more importantly, you get a very, very important key. The only way of getting this key, the Essence-Infused Moonstone, is either from a quest in this chain or a repeatable quest you an get after the fact. It summons an extra boss, Anzu, inside of Heroic Sethekk Halls. Now, this is just an ordinary boss... But he is no ordinary boss! He has a chance to drop a highly coveted mount - The Reigns of the Raven Lord - which, though the drop frequency is quite small, looks totally awesome.
Lastly, you get a Feat of Strength. Woo!

Why am I bringing this up an expansion too late?
Firstly, this is one of the most epic quests in ever. No, really. Solo boss fights encompassing all druid forms, thrilling heroics, an awesome aqueous chase... it's brilliant. Also, it's a unique experience for Druids alone, and so us ardent followers of Alamo are brought all the closer together.

However, Blizzard has stated that Class-specific quests are going the way of the Captain Placeholder. It's understandable, because only 1/10 of the characters get to actually see the content, but it's definitely a loss - they really tied the classes together. This is the last class quest we may ever see (excluding Hero classes), so it's worth cherishing. It's also relatively soloable nowadays, or at least doable with just the help of one more person. However, the river chase heavily relies upon no flying in Azeroth (and the old, un-hordesymboled Azshara) - it may be that Blizzard lazily waves this quest off as one not to revamp, because nobody's doing it anymore. I... sure hope not. But just in case, dust off that old druid of yours and level him up to 80 (it can't take you long - not with RaF, Heirlooms, Battlegrounds, and Random Dungeons), then go do this quest. You won't want to miss it.

Epic^2

2010-01-04T15:35:00.000-08:00

Now, I was going to write another 'Questes' today, on what I think personally is the second best quest in the game. However, my excitement to do so was significantly diminished by the overwhelming power that two wonderfully epic pieces of art had on me. As such, you better go read/watch them. Within 17 minutes of your reading this. Seriously.

Lord of the Clans

Personally, I think this is the best book ever written in the world of Azeroth. Seriously, Golden really hit it this time. Of course, Thrall is in fact one of the coolest characters in the entire everness-ness, but really, go read this. You won't be disappointed. Well-versed ones among you may notice this to be a significant ripoff off of a number of different sources (not discluding one of the planet of the apes's) , but it is brilliantly done. Also, it's a great lead-in to Warcraft 3, and sets up a real backstory to the entire orc campaign. Without it, you may not ever even have heard of Drek'thar, or Grom's inner demons... even the entire clan of Forstwolf and Warsong still play into the world as we know it today. In other news, it really makes the Horde look justified in hating the humans. (Also, if you've read or will read Golden's other, more current work - Arthas: Rise of the Lich King - you'll appreciate the subtle nods she casts in its direction.)

It's based off of a never released Warcraft Adventure game, dubbed by the same name as the book, and promised to be interesting indeed (though it probably would not have done the story justice). You can pick it up for like 4-8$ from any local bookstore that sells it, or off of Amazon, and unlike Mage-lord Urom says, it is definitely worth your time.

Avatar

If you haven't heard of Avatar, then you are either from some twisted demonic realm or perhaps have just been running random heroics for about two weeks straight. Either way, sprint as fast as you can to a local cinema (or find one here). I cannot do it justice to describe its brilliance. So I will simply say, it is Epic incarnate and shall change how science fiction in portrayed in theaters for years to come. It takes a simple, understandable plot, shows it magnificently, and.. and... I really can't put it into words. Just go see it. Now. NOW.

Questes : The Master's Key

2010-01-01T07:24:00.000-08:00

Not so long ago, in that same rather near world, there was a tower in Deadwind Pass known by the name of Karazhan. It was the first step in what promised to be an epic raiding scheme, more accessible than ever with the new 10 and 25 man raids, versus the previously very constricting 40-man ones. Home to Tirisfal's Last Guardian, Medivh, it was packed with all sorts of lore and touted as a dungeon even from WoW's release (but didn't make it in 'til BC). However, it (like almost all BC's raids on release) required the completing of a quest chain, to obtain the key which opened the gate before Karahzan. Later the attunement feature was removed - only one raid member needs to have the key, to open the door which lets you enter Karazhan.

Who can do it?
There are a few requirements before you can get the key to enter Kara. First, you will need to have access to a Key to the Arcatraz, which comes from the quest chain that begins with 'A Heap of Ethereals'.
Next, you will need access to Shadow Labyrinths, which requires a key from a chest in the end of Sethekk Halls. (Both of these doors can also be avoided by using a rogue with 350 or greater lockpicking).
Lastly, you will need access to the Black Morass, which requires continuing the quest 'To The Master's Lair' through 'Escape from Durnholde'.
To actually do the chain, you will need to be level 70. However to do Karazhan solo, you must be level 80 and fairly well geared - as well as knowing what you're doing. Even then, It'd be difficult.

Where to begin...
You can either start with the lead-in quest, Archmage Alturus, which begins with Apprentice Tasserel in the World's End Tavern in Shattrath. If you don't want to go there for some weird reason, you can always just head out in front of Kara and pick up the two beginning quests.

Who can tell you how to do it?
There's a great guide on Wowwiki that takes you through it step by step. (A note on Wowwiki: It's a wiki, so, things can be wrong on the site! That, however, does not make it less creditable - as long as you note the discrepancy, and fix it yourself.)

Epix Lootzorz!
First, you get a great deal of xp and gold, as with any long quest chain. However, all through this quest, you get to take your first steps through the Violet Eye reputation, which has a great deal of neat rewards if you keep at the raid for a while. Really only useful if you plan on staying at lvl 70, though, because most if not all rewards will be replaced within the first few zones in Northrend.
Next, you'll get your very own copy of 'The Master's Key', which will allow you to enter the tower of Karazhan at any time you like.
Lastly, if you continue the quest all the way through the dungeon, you get a 'Violet Badge', a decent trinket with a ton of arcane resistance - useful for soloing a number of the bosses in Kara, especially The Curator. Who is indeed equipped for gallery protection.

Why in the gorram world does this quest matter?
Well, I'll tell you. Firstly, as with all others, this could be removed in Cataclysm - we just don't know - and it'll be neat to have a unique, no longer obtainable key if that is so.
Secondly, this was the first rite of passage for all BC raiders. It's a cool thing to be able to know the roots of raiding, and what has come before - so you can feel lucky that there are no more fights with ridiculously annoying RNG like Prince, or feel sad about the loss of your free epix off of Chess. Also, having a key is nice in case you want to shoot for the Karazhan achievement - with nobody doing it nowadays, it'll get harder and harder to find a key.
Lastly, it's just a pretty cool quest. All sorts of lore is intertwined throughout.

Questes : You Are Rakh'likh, Demon

2009-12-31T00:56:00.000-08:00

A long time ago, in a world far, far away from being far away (as in it is very close), the world of warcraft as we knew it was much smaller. About half as large, actually, and simultaneously, in being so small, there was a great deal less to do. No achievements, no heroics, not even daily quests to keep casual players occupied. However, there were a few quests, such as this one, which were extremely difficult and could even have been considered the pinnacle of non-instanced play, pre-Burning Crusade.

Who can do it?
Most people. For alliance, you must be neutral or higher with booty bay - for horde, you don't. Bit of a weird catch for this one, and sorry to all you Bloodsail Admirals out there. Also, to pick up the first quest, you have to be level 45 - you can do the whole thing at that level, too. However, to actually contribute to whatever group you are with, I'd heartily suggest at least being able to go to Outland (level 58). If you're looking to go solo, shoot for 70+.

Where to begin...
If you're Horde: You pick the first quest in the chain, 'Fall From Grace', from the Fallen Hero of the Horde, who stands in the Swamp of Sorrows entrance to the Blasted Lands.
If you're Alliance: You pick up your first quest in the chain, 'Petty Squabbles', from Ambassador Ardalan in the single tower in Nethergarde Keep, who tells you to go to the Fallen Hero of the Horde, who stands in the Swamp of Sorrows entrance to the Blasted Lands. Don't be put off by his name; the quest is available to both factions.

How to do it
Haha, you didn't seriously believe that I'd tell you how to do this quest on your own, did you? Do it yourself! However, if you did, then I'd suggest going over to Wowhead, where one commenter by the name of mootoo has a large guide on how to do them, and there are a number of useful comments on each portion of the quest on their specific pages. If you can't be bothered to tab out and check the site every step of the way, I'd snag this addon off of WoWInterface, a nifty little thing by the name of LightHeaded which displays all of a quest's comments on Wowhead right there next to your quest log, in game.

Da Loot!
Of course, the best part of all this is what you get.

First off, this quest results in a ridiculous amount of xp. So, if you're looking to do it while leveling, I'd heartily suggest it.
Next, it results in a Shard of Afrasa, a trinket which is nice to be able to obtain at a low level like 45, but it otherwise useless and can be vendored or disenchanted.
For the quest you are given a Enchanted Azsharite Felbane Staff, Dagger, or Sword, which you get to keep after killing the final big baddie. The only reason I can see keeping them is aesthetic, or perhaps on the first few quests in outland where the additional attack power vs. demons would be useful. I'd vote just to trash or DE it; your choice. Makes a nice memento of the occasion, however.
You also get a necklace, which is essentially just garbage now, however back in the day was quite useful it forming up a fire resistance set for Molten Core.
Also obtained is a SECOND trinket, by the name of Demon's Blood, which is now unique in being the only non-engineer trinket that has Shadow Resistance on it, as Loatheb's Reflection and Ward of the Elements were made unobtainable in 3.0. (Credit due to Skelic).
Lastly, you obtain a free 16-slot bag. Not bad for untwinked or first time toons.

Why do we care about this one?
The first thing that made me want to shove this back into the public eye is the simple fact it may not be around for much longer. Even though it has one of the coolest 5-man boss fights in WoW, it's OLD. Like, in there on release old. It may be one of those things Blizzard may renovate, wipe out, or just forget about as they restructure the zone.
Secondly, you get to see how Blizzard began its great journey to phasing as we know it today. In one part of the quest, you return to the fallen hero of the horde, and if you ask nicely, he'll summon up another fallen hero who gives you the next quest. Not close to as neat and elegant as we see with our questgivers disappearing and reappearing in the fleshwerks, but still a cool chance to see how the game mechanics have evolved over the years.

Questes of Moste Epic Praeportiones

2009-12-29T20:52:00.000-08:00

What's a better way to kick off a blog than with a post telling you what's awesome in WoW? A SERIES of posts telling you what's awesome in WoW! Yea! Woo!

Basically, the idea is that I will make a list of the 10 most epic quests which you probably missed and perhaps will disappear when the earthquakes begin to truly take hold of Azeroth. I'll list each quest/chain, where you can begin it, and whatever else I feel like, in each post. Isn't it good to have structure? On a side note, I'd like to give a call-out to everybody in the chat channel! Howwwwwwws it going? (We'll miss you, Mike!)

The Rise and Fall of the Micro-Dungeon

2009-12-28T20:55:00.000-08:00

As the name of the blog implies, it's been quite an arduous and epic journey to the place I am today. And there can truthfully be no story without a beginning. You would think then that now would be a great time for me to tell you a bit about myself. If you thought that then I say, screw you, I feel like writing about something else at this moment, so deal with it.

Dear readers, what I really want to yell at you about is a certain little feature that Blizzard seems to be keen to hastily get rid of. What I am talking about is one idea they called the 'Microdungeon'.

From the Wowwiki page on dungeons:
"Players will come across two types of dungeons while playing World of Warcraft: micro dungeons and world dungeons. There are more than a hundred micro dungeons throughout the world of Azeroth, ranging in size from small to quite big. Micro dungeon locations will include tombs, haunted mines, ice caves, and sunken ships to name a few. The transition into and out of these dungeons will be seamless, and you'll be able to run into other players anywhere along the way."

There are thousands of these microdungeons, and often you do not even notice you are entering them; the cave filled with ravagers in Hellfire Peninsula, or the seafloor where you pick up those annoying tablets swarming with murlocs in STV are but a few. They are where our questgivers send us; Kurzen's Compound or Raven Hill or any other of many surrounding ourselves. They are essential to solo-play and leveling, and will not be going away any time soon. I would be very surprised if Cataclysm did not add many more of such micro-dungeons to help smooth out the leveling process as they have talked about quite frequently. However, if you are quite astute you may have noted that all of these micro-dungeons are not so small - some are, in fact, "quite big."

These are what wowwiki has coined 'Elite Areas'. Locations such as Jintha'Alor, Deatholme, Tyr's Hand, Darkwhisper Gorge, and other sprawling areas were once prime grouping spots, being the objects of several quests rewarding powerful green and sometimes even blue items, far more powerful than other items in that location. There were a few bosses in such locations, and a few were as large or larger than some Some team of developers at Blizzard must have had a grand idea for these in sight - these locations were not limited by instancing, allowing for a grand open-world experience. But simultaneously it seems like the team for micro-dungeons were given a much greater task than that team who ran the instances. There were only 8-10 of these areas upon release, none were added through patches, and 5 or 6 were added in Outland. But this team existed all the way through the Burning Crusade, in areas like the Vector Coil the area outside of Gruul's lair. It was a noble vision, to be sure, and so you might ask - why are there none of these Micro-Dungeons in Northrend or the entire WotLK expansion? What prompted Blizzard to shut down these group quest areas entirely?

As grand as these elite areas were, the issue with them was dependant upon the sole fact that you no longer were contained by the the artificial boundaries of instancing; you could charge a raid into these zones and complete quests for more than a single group at a time, trivializing content; kill-stealing and farming were possible, as was camping and griefing on PvP servers. They lent themselves quite nicely to being really annoying areas if the community surrounded them was annoying; while meanwhile if the community was kind and friendly, inside of one you could find great rewards and simultaneously have a blast. But too often people sat in the center of Jintha'Alor, grinding quest mobs there for silk, or killing the lowbies who were trying to save sharpbeak, or generally being a menace to the people around them.

It would be counterproductive to not mention another, similar feature which tread the same path - the Outdoor Raid Boss. Packed with lore, a perfect post-instance opportunity, these too lasted throughout the Burning Crusade. They roamed the land we quested upon, under names like Doom Lord Kazzak and Doomwalker, spreading terror and making quite a name for themselves throughout the community. But they felt the same neglect in our most recent expansion, due to peoples same idiocy. One passerby who walked into the middle of a fight with Kazzak would heal him immensely, causing a wipe. If people were just wanting to be mean, they could cause 40 individuals undue grief by just wandering onto the scene. And, more often than not, they did.

Now, it is not entirely all the fault of the idiots that these have been removed. Blizzard made some very silly decisions as well. Why in the gorram world would you put a daily quest hub at the feet of a world boss? I mean, what were you thinking? And why were players not given some sort of a warning before entering the Dream Bough, perhaps a druid at the entrance that just stood and yelled "Abandon all hope, Ye Who Enter Here! This is a lvl 60 raid zone! Watch out!"? They later added the feature to know how difficult quests were, but why in the world was the Tower of Azora 10 levels too high for the zone you placed it in? Is that really necessary? As cool as some places like Stromgarde Keep were, it really kills the mood when you find out that the group quest you and your buddy were about to do actually requires 5 players, not 2. But they were slowly taking steps to bring the ignorant ones into the light - but no number of resources would be able to stop idiots from being idiots.

Blizzard saw all of this unveil over the course of vanilla and BC WoW. Some game designer must have, somewhere along the line in Wrath development, just said "Nope, it's not worth it. From now on, all bosses are in raid instances, and all dungeons will be instanced too." It just wasn't worth their time anymore. So around patch 2.2 they nerfed all these current elite areas, making them all (or most) soloable, and vowed to put none in Northrend. It was a real loss for the whole of Azeroth on that day, though the community cheered because no longer would they have to worry about griefers ruining their fun. A piece of vanilla was cut out then.

But what made me think about all of this was the fact that the entire old world is getting remapped in the Cataclysm coming. I am afraid that Azuregos will lose his stronghold, and the portals to the Emerald Nightmare might end up closed forever. New players will never again get to charge through Jintha'alor, discovering the Hinterlands' deepest secrets. But more is lost. With dungeons now cross-realm, it's much harder to invite that random PuG to join your guild, add him to your friends list, or even do something with him again. Its getting much harder to just make friends in this game which balances upon the complex social webs beneath it. I sincerely hope that Blizzard does not take further steps to make this MMO a single player game; it is community that keeps me here, community that makes it so hard to tear myself away after 5 years playing.

Perhaps... perhaps in the end, all that I can say, is don't be an idiot. No matter what game you play, if you're doing something that hurts someone else, stop. Think about what you're doing. Whether you're buying gold, griefing, or botting, you're just making someone else feel worse - but not only that. When people feel worse, grand ideas like the micro-dungeon can get removed by the designers, because what should have worked, didn't - because of you.

The Obligatory First Post

2009-12-28T20:49:00.001-08:00

Hello World!

Well, it's been a good four or so years of WoWing on my behalf. I figure that I might as well say something about it - and something about other things as well - just for the halibut, and perhaps a cod or two. Perhaps it is a good time to mention that if you're reading this, then that means I am exorbitantly famous and you are drudging through my first attempts at posting something slightly witty or humorous. To you, I say, sinu a'manor - may the wind be at your back.