Ask a Beta Tester: Raid zones, plot, and more on phasing
by Alex Ziebart 
Oct 2nd 2008 at 2:00PM
Milkgas asked quite a few question, but many of them involve story spoilers that I don't think readers would appreciate seeing in this particular column. What I don't answer, you can truck over to Ask a Lore Nerd and I'll squeeze them in on the bottom behind my usual "spoilers be here, yarrrr" line. We can definitely hit a few of them though.
Has there been any hints in the quest text of either the Uldum or the Karazhan Basement as a raid or dungeon in this expansion or the next?
Nothing that I've seen! We'll have Ulduar as a raid zone in Northrend, so to me that seems like a definite no on Uldum. I don't think they would put two Titan raids in one expansion, unless Uldum turned out to be a 5 man dungeon. We've seen nothing about the rest of Karazhan.
Ive noticed some undead blood / high elf models in the beta, is there any evidence of us having to fight an undead Kael'thas?
No.
Are there any keys necessary to access raids or dungeons? One of which I noticed was the drop from Sapphiron to access the Eye of Eternity.
That's the only one we know about so far.
In Warcraft III there were eight dreadlords sent to keep Arthas in check. Six are dead, all but Mephistroph and Varimathras. Is there any hint of Mephistroph in Northrend?
Not that I've seen or heard.
Is the Scarlet Crusade still determined to flight the plague? If so why do they have a base off the coast of Icecrown, surley the Lich King would have pushed them back if they were so close.
The Lich King has the following factions on his tail: The Horde, the Alliance, the Argent Crusade, the Knights of the Ebon Blade, the Scarlet Onslaught, and a few others which I shall not name here. Arthas pissed off a lot of people. Even the Lich King needs to pick and choose his battles. There are other factors involved as well, but I will avoid bringing them up here. There is a ton going on in Icecrown, story-wise.
uncaringbear asked...
What happened to the new dances? Weren't we supposed to be getting some sort of a dance studio to make our own customized dances?
I never heard of the customized dances thing, I thought that we were just getting new dances. Either way, there's been no sign of it. I think they scrapped it, or put it off to the side for awhile.
Chris asked...
Will titles like Champion of the Naaru and Hand of A'dal be disapearing with patch 3.0 or when the actual expansion hits? My guild only needs to kill Kael...
I am pretty sure that the ability to gain those titles goes away in 3.0.2, same with the Amani War Bear. They're very similar. Specific challenges for the current game, yadda yadda. If one was trivialized by 3.0.2 then the others likely are as well.
Talia asked...
You've mentioned, regarding the new phasing system, riding through a zone "empty of mobs" because you've already quested through it. Does this phasing idea hold for all mobs, or only special/quest related ones? Does this, then, have the obvious implications for helping friends with quests you've already done? What about farming/grinding?
Not every quest changes how you see the world. It's reserved for very, very big quests. Let me lay out two hypothetical quests to try and give examples.
- Kill ten boars.
- Assist Tirion Fordring and Darion Mograine in assaulting a Scourge stronghold.
In most cases, yes, this does prevent you from going back and helping your friends with older quests in these areas. You'll see one another on the mini-map, but you can't interact. You won't see eachother in the game world. However, there aren't many group quests that cause these phase changes, or come in between phase changes. They tend to be towards the end, or at the very end of a series of phases. It shouldn't be a very big problem. There's only one quest chain that went against that, but the quests were for 2 or 3 people and not 5. It might be a little harder to find groups for those quests, but not impossible.
Also, most places that change over like this aren't really places you would want to farm. You won't make an entire zone unpopulated this way, just pockets of it.
Derec asked...
Are there any quests that send you back to Outland?
Yes, I've seen a number of them. They're usually short, though. To go talk to some person, or something like that. There are plenty that send you to Kalimdor/Eastern Kingdoms as well.
The Wrath of the Lich King beta is in full swing, and the WoW Insider crew is here to sate your curiosity with Ask a Beta Tester! Leave your beta questions in the comments and we'll do our best to answer 'em! And if you can't get enough Wrath, don't forget to check WoW Insider's Wrath Roundup page for anything we haven't answered here!Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Lore, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
494alex Oct 2nd 2008 2:15PM
in regards to the article about the motorbike mount, is that a mount like a flying one which can only be used in a certain area? (ie outland)
also, is it like a regular mount where it is summoned and dismissed or do you have to pick it up from an area and once it is used its gone?
ty, please message me back
Unmei Oct 2nd 2008 3:43PM
from what I've read the motorbike can be used everywhere. it's a land mount you just have to be level 80 to be the main driver or something like that. Flying mounts are ONLY going to be used in Outlands and Northrend (when you get cold weather flying skillz)
VSUReaper Oct 2nd 2008 2:15PM
I dont understand the question/answer about Kara's basement? TBH, I thought Kara's "basement" were those caves you go into for the attunement.
Rodrigo Oct 2nd 2008 2:22PM
Lore-wise, there is a basement inside the instanced Karazhan that is about the same size of the regular kara run.
VSUReaper Oct 2nd 2008 2:28PM
Where can I find out about this lore? All I have ever learned about Kara is that Medivh, and later others, used it as a place to study magic due to the way that it attracted so much power.
JPN Oct 2nd 2008 2:34PM
Wasn't there some talk at some point about being able to do the whole Kara upside down? Like, a separate instance but it was all upside down and under Karazhan? Seems vaguely familiar.
jay Oct 2nd 2008 2:46PM
I think this question pertains to the place located around the back of the castle, outside of the instance, there are steps that lead down to a crypt that is blocked off.
Reinard Oct 2nd 2008 3:05PM
"Where can I find out about this lore? All I have ever learned about Kara is that Medivh, and later others, used it as a place to study magic due to the way that it attracted so much power."
The Warcraft novel, "The Last Guardian," details quite a bit about Karazhan and Medivh himself (as well as Khadgar, Garona, Lothar, and King Llane).
gridwerk Oct 2nd 2008 7:42PM
Medivh used to be a New York cop with a wise-cracking young black rookie as a partner. He ran afoul of his grouchy-yet-kind-hearted commissioner after a hostage negotiation went horribly wrong causing an explosion that killed the hostages and hideously disfigured the hostage-taker making him go nuts and become an Arch-criminal with a subterranean lair beneath the stately but reportedly haunted Karazhan.
Was I close?
Xaktsaroth Oct 2nd 2008 2:16PM
How does reputation work in general in Wrath? Are there turn-in quests? Rep for killing Mobs? Quested Rep? If you just quest, how far along does that reputation take you?
I had to run a load of dungeons for rep on my first toon, that I managed to avoid on subsequent characters because I planned better; Do we have the knowledge to do this planning up front in Wrath?
JPN Oct 2nd 2008 2:21PM
I just hope there's not a lot of "turn in x until you get honored, run y until you get revered, then do quests to get halfway to exalted, then run z dungeon to exalted" - that to me is just a lazy way of making you do extra work, unless you fully research a zone/faction before you start it, which kinda ruins the fun, for me at least.
onetrueping Oct 2nd 2008 5:13PM
Since, with the major factions, you get the faction tabards that turn any dungeon's rep into the rep you wish to grind, you can run any dungeon you want for them. As far as I'm concerned, that's perfect: get all the drops you need or want, and get exalted to x number of factions on the way.
Rodrigo Oct 2nd 2008 2:20PM
1. Kill ten boars.
2. Assist Tirion Fordring and Darion Mograine in assaulting a Scourge stronghold.
The first one won't change anything.
Pity. I would have loved to see a "phased crossroads" with that wife problem of Mankrik finally solved.
Lemons Oct 2nd 2008 2:40PM
Amen, I wish phasing was around in vanilla wow, on top of the whole Mankrik's wife thing I can think of a bunch of other quests that coud of used some phasing.
Zoidberg Oct 2nd 2008 2:21PM
"Are there any keys necessary to access raids or dungeons? One of which I noticed was the drop from Sapphiron to access the Eye of Eternity.
"That's the only one we know about so far."
Does that mean we don't have any attunement for heroic dungeons?
Jack Spicer Oct 2nd 2008 3:51PM
I'm pretty sure that its been stated a number of times officially that the Blizzard policy on attunements is 'no'. Meaning 99.9% of the time there will be no attunements for content. That still leaves room for something important, but in most cases, including the new heroics, you do not need to be attuned.
Serahvin Oct 2nd 2008 2:26PM
That music is amazing!
timmy! Oct 2nd 2008 2:26PM
With the adjustments made to healing, is it still possible to heal 5-mans while leveling with a non-healing spec e.g. a shadow spec priest healing a 5-man dungeon?
Robert M Oct 2nd 2008 5:21PM
Well I always healed 5 mans with a balance druid, then went total resto at 70. There was always good synergy in the talents and Dreamstate for mana regen.
Shadow priests, balance druids, and elemental shaman who say they cant heal a 5 man are full of BS. You don't need a pure healing spec until heroics and raids.
That being said, it will most definately be able to be done since you will now only need one set of caster gear to pull off the heals in 5 mans. Before the only problem was that your dps gear didnt boost your heals the way your healing gear did so you usually had to have 2 sets of gear.
Sweet Sweet SoulShards Oct 2nd 2008 2:28PM
Tell us more about the smaller factions of Northrend, like the Frostborn, the Sons of Hodir, the Sunreavers, Oracles, Frenzyheart Tribe, the Kalu'ak, the Silver Covenant, exc. You know, lore and quests and stuff.
Eh, also, is there a chance this will be brought up in Ask a Lore Nerd instead or do I have to repost it there?