Mists of Pandaria Beta: New Ragefire Chasm video
by Mathew McCurley 
Mar 23rd 2012 at 10:30AM
Four new bosses now reside in Ragefire Chasm, including:
- Adarogg, a nasty flamehound that has eaten his captors
- Dark Shaman Koranthal, who is performing a creepy ritual
- Slagmaw, who is Magmaw, but not; name potentially not final
- Lava Guard Gordoth, a caged experiment that breaks out just as you arrive
What secrets does this new Ragefire Chasm hold? Hopefully, the answer is just around the corner as we dig deeper into the Mists of Pandaria beta. Stay tuned, and check out the video of some of the new changes to the Ragefire Chasm instance above.
My personal pet theory is that the Dark Shaman (from the Twilight's Hammer cult) and Burning Blade cultists have been doing some Nefarian-esque experiments beneath Orgrimmar and found some sort of discovery to enhance the ability of orcish soldiers, resembling the Shadow Council's forced aging of children. After finding out about these experiments, Garrosh might be desperate enough to use it. Maybe he even created it. What about former Twilight's Hammer cultists?!
Whatever it is, it's under Orgrimmar -- and it's bad. Stay tuned.
It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!Filed under: Mists of Pandaria
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Cephas Mar 23rd 2012 10:35AM
Awesome treat for new Monks and Pandarens, in your very first dungeon you get to kill Magmaw and Gurtogg Bloodboil! (sort of) Plus, everybody knows what red skin means, right? There's definitely some serious demonic corruption going down here.
Imnick Mar 23rd 2012 10:37AM
What is that sword you are using?
Batleth Mar 23rd 2012 11:52AM
Looks like the Obsidian Edged Blade from MC...
http://www.wowhead.com/item=18822
Mathew McCurley Mar 23rd 2012 12:58PM
OEB yeah you know me
Pyromelter Mar 23rd 2012 2:36PM
@mccurley I c wut u did thar!
You down with OEB?
Josh Mar 23rd 2012 10:39AM
Almost an open question:
Do you think they basically retconned Garrosh? I'm having a little trouble digesting that "oh yeah... yeah... Garrosh was always meant to be annoying and a short lived leader"
In my opinion, I think they had different intentions for him, but because they couldn't write his angry passion into the story in a likeable way, we'll have another good-guy-gone-bad.
Daedalus Mar 23rd 2012 10:49AM
Nah; I think it's a pretty natural progression at this point; he came to the warchief position with an idea of conquest and glory; that was reinforced by his massive public support (canonically, anyway...). We've seen he can be rash, that he's got a fierce temper, and most importantly, once he's made a decision, he won't back down from it, especially if he's challenged. He's the kind of guy who can admit he's wrong, but not if someone else calls him out on it; once he's been challenged like that, he'll defend to the death something that he might realize, deep down, is a truly stupid course of action.
So it's a natural progression that, in a moment of anger, he'd make a snap decision to employ extremely inappropriate tactics, and then, finding himself backed into a corner trying to defend that decision, refuse to reconsider and back down.
Revynn Mar 23rd 2012 10:50AM
Chris Metzen said (at Blizzcon, I think) the Garrosh was always supposed to act as a plot device for developing Thrall. He was never intended to replace anyone or become a permanent Warchief.
Also, "Retconned" does not mean "we decided to do something different going forward with this character". It means "Yes, I know I said he was 6 feet tall, but it didn't make sense for him to be that tall if he finds out that his parents are gnomes, so let's all pretend that he's always been 2 feet tall".
Blackdemon Mar 23rd 2012 10:54AM
My own opinion here, since I don't have any facts at hand just memory. But I believe this was always the long game. I got the impression from talks Chris Metzen and Alex Afrasiabi did at Blizzcon 2010 (prior to Cataclysm) that Garrosh was not going to be around forever. At the time they were trying to defend putting him in charge and were hinting that people needed to wait for the story to come to fruition.
quelaenvyn Mar 23rd 2012 11:12AM
I do see a little retconned being that in the low level of Cata, he kill one of his general for kill the inocents and by the end of MOP, he going to be cometing war crimes!?! But it not that have a different intention on his out come, blizzard have been plan to remove him as War chief since before Cata. It may have been that they had its plan that He would step down for Thrall return but see that would not fit Garrosh's new character, they have start his reconned to give a reason for his removal by both faction since Varian we will have by the end of MOP wouldn't have a problem with a thrall-like war chief and though the orcs want a more war like war chief, they will never allow themselves to be slaves to the blood corrupting and the daemons again.
Sir Broose Mar 23rd 2012 12:12PM
"I do see a little retconned being that in the low level of Cata, he kill one of his general for kill the inocents and by the end of MOP, he going to be cometing war crimes!?!"
Again, that is not retconning. Retconning does not mean making a character do something unexpected or even completely opposite of what he/she used to do. Retconning means going back in the past and saying something never happened or happened differently. He would be retconned if Blizzard said, "We've decided Garrosh always killed innocents. All that stuff about him being angry about it never really happened. Just forget about it."
Sunaseni Mar 23rd 2012 12:38PM
To put it succinctly:
Retconning: "We've always been at war with Eastasia."
Not retconning: "We're done fighting Eurasia, so we're fighting Eastasia now."
Unless they say Garrosh didn't do something he absolutely did, it's not retconning. The other way around, he did something that they never said he did, is different as we aren't watching the character all the time, and he could have easily started down the path behind our backs.
icepyro Mar 23rd 2012 2:06PM
I think in this case, OP means the fact that Garrosh may have a temper, but he's tried to keep his army fighting with honor (at least when he's personally involved) and now he's going to be a raid boss somehow.
It might not be a retcon, but we are missing the link on why he would abandon the honor that he's slowly gained by wanting victory with honor before and victory at any cost now. While he had no honor to speak of until this expansion started, he's seen what happens without it and feels guilt and has curbed some of his most ambitious generals to remember it. They spent an entire expansion trying to make us like him enough to keep playing as Horde, and now that turns out was a bad decision?
I do think the others are correct and once the Alliance really starts making some strategic decisions, he will be in a corner. He already had one twilight cult advisor and soon he will have a (Dark) Shaman one most likely. Who doesn't listen to a wise shaman? Especially when he "wins". I say "wins" because overall it will make the Horde even weaker, but that particular objective he was convinced was a good idea was achieved. Eventually, he'll be desperate enough he'll ask "what do I do about this?" and the answer will be "Drink this. It is filled with the energy of my vast resources and will make you unstoppable" and he will not realizing he is talking about demons and not the elements, or something.
Artificial Mar 23rd 2012 2:39PM
@icepyro: No reason to assume he's abandoning anything. Different people have different notions of what honor is, what behavior it demands, and what actions it justifies. Also, people can be wrong. Garrosh's problems are usually less about his motivation than his judgement. I'm quite sure he'll die believing he was always honorable and always did the right thing, and that it's the evil alliance and backstabbing enemies within the Horde that are responsible for his downfall.
Pyromelter Mar 23rd 2012 4:00PM
retcon =|= character development.
A retcon for Garrosh would be like... oh Grom really wasn't your father, you are actually Thrall's brother, and Durotan was your father. And you don't have green skin because a wizard put a shield on you in your mother's womb.
Retcons actually change the history of people. People can develop and change on their own to become more good or more evil, that's character development, and that is the difference between the two.
L_fetcu Mar 23rd 2012 10:44AM
I was expecting something like this since Garosh would fall under the corruption of the demon blood. I really like it. Nice find!
L_fetcu Mar 23rd 2012 10:46AM
And the fact that there are new mobs there it's just Icing on the cake.
L_fetcu Mar 23rd 2012 10:51AM
I would like to see what the bosses do (abilities)... for animation and stuff... my opinion you should have left them a bit .. or kill them with your fists :D. Please!
ogkspaz Mar 23rd 2012 3:04PM
There is another video of a level appropriate group running RFC. As expected I think 4/5 of them were Panda Monks =P. Either way:
First boss had a random target charge of some sort.
Second boss had something like a Warlock Demonology circle targeted on random player it seemed.
Third boss (Slagmaw) swapped sides at 50%HP. Didn't see anything specific other than that.
Last boss had spikes launching random players into the air throughout the fight.
Nothing too serious mechanic wise but for your first instance it's win. And for the alliance even better news, there are alliance quests in there too now. Albeit identical to the Horde's.
Info subject to change of course.
Tuttutt Mar 23rd 2012 10:57AM
Thats awesome! Could be more of a hint of Garrosh playing with demon blood again.