WoW Insider http://wow.joystiq.com WoW Insider http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/wow.joystiq.com/media/feedlogo.gif WoW Insider http://wow.joystiq.com prods@weblogsinc.com (Weblogs, Inc. Producers) (Weblogs, Inc. Web Support) en-us Copyright 2013 Weblogs, Inc. View our terms of service here: http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/ Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/ <![CDATA[Are you happy with Patch 5.3's story progression?]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/23/are-you-happy-with-patch-5-3s-story-progression/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/23/are-you-happy-with-patch-5-3s-story-progression/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/23/are-you-happy-with-patch-5-3s-story-progression/#comments Are you happy with Patch 53's story progression Frankly, as a solidly Alliance player right now, I find patch 5.3 satisfying. I get why some players don't, but frankly I don't mind spending some time exploring the Horde from an Alliance perspective, without having to faction switch or roll a new character. In fact, I hope it's something they hold onto for future content - I'd love to see a storyline where a group of Horde had to infiltrate Ironforge and work alongside some Dark Irons, or even a story that pit blood elf agents against their forsaken allies by using the worgen as catspaws. My point is, getting to directly interact with Vol'jin was pretty fun, getting to bring the war to the Horde itself while setting up the Darkspear to do the heavy lifting made sense to me, and in general I enjoyed all of the scenarios and quests I've done this patch.

But just because I like something it doesn't follow that you all feel the same way. This patch's story is unfolding in interesting new ways - there's no reputation faction to unlock via daily quests, there are scenarios but no dungeons, and quests that don't repeat. It's quite possible to see much, if not all, of the storyline in one day. It's definitely a departure from what we've seen in previous Mists of Pandaria patches.

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Are you happy with Patch 5.3's story progression? originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 23 May 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> mists-of-pandariapatch-5.3patch-5.3-storyprogressionstorystory-progression (Matthew Rossi) Thu, 23 May 2013 16:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Queue: The Frenzy of Patch 5.3]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/22/the-queue-the-frenzy-of-patch-5-3/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/22/the-queue-the-frenzy-of-patch-5-3/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/22/the-queue-the-frenzy-of-patch-5-3/#comments Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Matthew Rossi has upgraded his gear and is now waiting for the first night of raiding in 5.3 to discover what got broke.

I have this weird thing where, if I see a lot of people doing something (like heroic scenarios or the new Battlefront: Barrens stuff) I tend to say "Eh, I'll wait until the furor has died down a bit" before I take part as well. So yesterday, I did a fun interview, logged on to upgrade all my gear with the 3000 valor I had saved up, then ran Black Temple for a bit before logging off. I don't know if it's simple obstinacy or simply the knowledge that all of this stuff will be here for at least a couple of months and there's no hurry to see it all right now.

Anyway, on to your questions.

Thieren said:
Also, since we're not quoting the Beastie Boys tomorrow's Queue should feature the Sabotage video.

I went with Intergalactic instead.

Continue reading The Queue: The Frenzy of Patch 5.3

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The Queue: The Frenzy of Patch 5.3 originally appeared on WoW Insider on Wed, 22 May 2013 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> BarrensBeastie-BoysGarrosh-HellscreamGuldanIntergalacticPatch-5.3Sylvanas (Matthew Rossi) Wed, 22 May 2013 13:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Hotfix incoming to fix Seat of Knowledge death issues]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/22/hotfix-incoming-to-fix-seat-of-knowledge-death-issues/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/22/hotfix-incoming-to-fix-seat-of-knowledge-death-issues/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/22/hotfix-incoming-to-fix-seat-of-knowledge-death-issues/#comments
If you're on a PvP realm, you may have noticed that with the release of Patch 5.3 that things have gotten kind of hectic at the Seat of Knowledge, where Lorewalker Cho hangs out when he's not pushing buttons randomly in MSV. Apparently the guards at the Seat simply cannot cope with the increased volume of Horde/Alliance aggression, and players who die in the fracas are finding out that they can't easily get back to their bodies.

Rygarius, ever the helpful hippogryph, informs us that there's a hotfix on the way to smooth out these issues and allow players to get back to their bodies if they die ignominiously at Cho's feet. Or in the vicinity of his feet. His feet will be close, is what I'm saying. We're told that the hotfix may require a realm restart to take affect, so be on the watch for that.

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Hotfix incoming to fix Seat of Knowledge death issues originally appeared on WoW Insider on Wed, 22 May 2013 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> GraveyardLorewalker-ChoPvPRygariusSeat-of-Knowledge (Matthew Rossi) Wed, 22 May 2013 11:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Know Your Lore: Gul'dan, Doomhammer, and the nature of the Horde]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/21/know-your-lore-guldan-doomhammer-and-the-nature-of-the-horde/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/21/know-your-lore-guldan-doomhammer-and-the-nature-of-the-horde/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/21/know-your-lore-guldan-doomhammer-and-the-nature-of-the-horde/#comments The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft.

Garrosh Hellscream is many things. He's brash, headstrong, arrogant, concerned for his people, determined to deliver the whole of Azeroth into their dominion no matter what anyone thinks about it, but one thing is clear. He's not Gul'dan. For all the grief I like to give Horde players (mainly because it's easy to rile Horde players up, I know, I raided as Horde for all of Cataclysm and a good chunk of Mists) It's true that on the surface, the Horde of today has changed greatly from the Horde Gul'dan created.

The Horde as it exists today is the spiritual successor of the Horde that Orgrim Doomhammer created when he seized power. Was Doomhammer a kindly, soft spoken orc who loved kittens and rainbows? No. No he was not. He was an orc who had come to power as the right hand of Blackhand the Destroyer, a hunter and a warrior who had spent his entire life in combat. He was strong, devoted to his people, and absolutely committed to an orc victory no matter the odds. In a way, minus Garrosh's bluster and bravado, the orc he most resembles from the history of the old Horde is Orgrim Doomhammer.

Continue reading Know Your Lore: Gul'dan, Doomhammer, and the nature of the Horde

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Know Your Lore: Gul'dan, Doomhammer, and the nature of the Horde originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 21 May 2013 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> DoomhammerfeaturedGaronaGarona-Halforcenguideguide-to-loreGuldanHordeKiljaedenlorelore-guideNerzhulOrgrim-Doomhammerrole-playrole-playing-guiderp-guideworld-of-warcraft-lorewow-guidewow-lorewow-role-playingwow-role-playing-guidewow-rpwow-rp-guidewow-rping (Matthew Rossi) Tue, 21 May 2013 14:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Warrior representation]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/18/the-care-and-feeding-of-warriors-warrior-representation/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/18/the-care-and-feeding-of-warriors-warrior-representation/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/18/the-care-and-feeding-of-warriors-warrior-representation/#comments The Care and Feeding of Warriors Warrior representation SatSun Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Care and Feeding of Warriors, the column dedicated to arms, fury and protection warriors. Despite repeated blows to the head from dragons, demons, Old Gods and whatever that thing over there was, Matthew Rossi will be your host.

I find myself wondering about protection warriors as tanks. Clearly, we're neither the most nor least popular tanks, holding steady in the middle of the pack - both blood DK's and protection paladins absolutely own tank representation. Blood is at 4.2% and prot pallies at 4.1% of total class/spec representation in Throne of Thunder, with prot warriors at 2.7% and guardian druids in about the same spot as brewmaster monks, 2% for guardians and 1.8% for brewmasters.

It's fairly clear that fury warriors, despite being a relatively smaller fraction of total class representation, are by far the most popular warriors in current raiding. Protection is not only second, but a distant second, and arms (despite being a solid 3% of the total player base overall) is vanishingly under-represented in raiding. We'll worry about arms in raids later. For now let's ask why protection warriors aren't being seen in raids. It's not based on class popularity by itself - based on looking over Realmpop for a couple of hours I'd argue that warriors are holding pretty steady at about 9.6% of the total population. (It's a slight drop from the 10.14% we saw last December) World of Wargraphs puts the number at about 9.5%, so either way, there are a lot of warriors. But looking at the Wargraphs data, two things come to mind.

Continue reading The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Warrior representation

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The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Warrior representation originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sat, 18 May 2013 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> arms-warrior-the-care-and-feeding-of-warriorsfeaturedfury-warrior-the-care-and-feeding-of-warriorsguide-to-warriorsprotection-warrior-the-care-and-feeding-of-warriorswarrior-guidewarrior-infowarrior-talentswow-warriorwow-warrior-infowow-warriors (Matthew Rossi) Sat, 18 May 2013 14:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Ghostcrawler on Vengeance and patch 5.4]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/17/ghostcrawler-on-vengeance-and-patch-5-4/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/17/ghostcrawler-on-vengeance-and-patch-5-4/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/17/ghostcrawler-on-vengeance-and-patch-5-4/#comments Ghostcrawler on Vengeance and patch 54
Yes, patch 5.3 isn't even out yet, and we're already looking towards patch 5.4. Thanks to Ghostcrawler, we have this to think about for the future, namely that Vengeance is getting capped at a significantly lower threshold in raids in the future. If you remember back at August of last year, Vengeance saw some significant changes that increased how fast it could ramp up in raids and also gave it a far larger maximum potential. It's been adjusted over time, but in general what GC said back last August has held true -- tank DPS in raiding really did go up. To the point where on some pulls it's not unusual to see tanks leading the DPS, sometimes by extremely large numbers.

Since this is a big change that will drastically lower tank damage output (25-man tanks with their 600,000 or more health buffed will lose roughly 300,000 AP on fights where Vengeance was capping at 100% of their health) I'm not surprise it won't be coming in 5.3 -- I am a little surprised it's happening at all, because we all knew Vengeance and tank damage would do exactly what it has done when it was changed. Still, I wait to observe if it has much practical difference since aside from AoE tanking where a multitude of hits can roll in a short window of time (that 20 second ramp up period) and the tanks can make effective use of all that AP I'm not sure it will matter. 5-mans and scenarios were not mentioned, so for now I'm assuming this is only for the raids mentioned.

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Ghostcrawler on Vengeance and patch 5.4 originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 17 May 2013 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> 10-man-raiding25-man-raidingDeath-KnightdruidGhostcrawlerMonkpaladinpatch-5.4raidingraidstankingVengeancewarrior (Matthew Rossi) Fri, 17 May 2013 12:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Catching up with the lore for patch 5.3]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/15/catching-up-with-the-lore-for-patch-5-3/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/15/catching-up-with-the-lore-for-patch-5-3/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/15/catching-up-with-the-lore-for-patch-5-3/#comments Okay, so let's assume for the moment you're interested in the advancing storyline for the Mists of Pandaria expansion as we head into patch 5.3, but are wondering if you missed anything or have just started leveling to 90 and want to make sure you get caught up with what's happening. Why is the Horde in such a tizzy? What's the Alliance planning to do? Who are the major players, and why are they doing what they're doing? Don't worry. We here at WoW Insider have been covering this all expansion, and we can help you get up to speed.

Continue reading Catching up with the lore for patch 5.3

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Catching up with the lore for patch 5.3 originally appeared on WoW Insider on Wed, 15 May 2013 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> catching-uplorepatch-5.3Patch-5.3-lorestorystory-so-far (Matthew Rossi) Wed, 15 May 2013 15:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Know Your Lore: Of Wolves and Mages]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/15/know-your-lore-of-wolves-and-mages/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/15/know-your-lore-of-wolves-and-mages/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/15/know-your-lore-of-wolves-and-mages/#comments
The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft.

You probably don't know who Ur was, and even if you do, you don't know much about him because there's not much to know. We know the following - Ur was a mage who lived in Dalaran before the coming of the Scourge to the Eastern Kingdoms, who apparently died during the invasion Arthas led to retrieve the Book of Medivh so that Kel'Thuzad could use it to summon Archimonde the Defiler. It's possible that Ur, being a remarkably skilled and knowledgeable wizard, was one of the three archmages slain by Arthas while maintaining auras that protected Dalaran from the undead.

What's interesting about Ur isn't what he himself actually did, however, but what was done with the work he left behind. Ur was the author of two tomes (that we know of), The Book of Ur and Ur's Treatise on Shadow Magic. Ur's knowledge of other planes of existence was significant, if faulty - while in practical terms his understanding was great enough that it was possible for Archmage Arugal of Silverpine to use the Book of Ur to summon worgen forth from their prison in the Emerald Dream, it's notable that Ur didn't actually understand what the worgen really were, or what druid magic was - he simply saw the worgen as monsters from another world. Still, without Ur, it is unlikely that Arugal would have been able to bring forth the worgen he did.

Amazingly, despite knowing nothing of druidism and only having a hazy understanding of the worgen origin Ur's research allowed Arugal to pull Alpha Prime and other ancient members of the Druids of the Scythe to Azeroth. Considering it was Archdruid Malfurion Stormrage who placed Ralaar Fangfire and the other druids who'd helped create the Scythe of Elune under Daral'nir (the great tree in the Emerald Dream for which Tal'Doren is a mirror) in the first place, the fact that Arugal managed to draw them forth is astonishing. Yet manage it he did, with Ur's book.

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Know Your Lore: Of Wolves and Mages originally appeared on WoW Insider on Wed, 15 May 2013 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> featuredguideguide-to-lorelorelore-guiderole-playrole-playing-guiderp-guideUrworld-of-warcraft-lorewow-guidewow-lorewow-role-playingwow-role-playing-guidewow-rpwow-rp-guidewow-rping (Matthew Rossi) Wed, 15 May 2013 09:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Why do we still have servers?]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/14/why-do-we-still-have-servers/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/14/why-do-we-still-have-servers/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/14/why-do-we-still-have-servers/#comments Why do we still have servers I was wondering about it all day yesterday, considering the existence of cross-realm play, CRZ, that PvP, dungeon finder and LFR all pull across multiple servers why do we still have those servers at all? Are they a relic of the original game's design? Are they still physically necessary or could we simply have all these different servers exist as one large super-server that everyone in a region plays on? It certainly feels to me that, for better and for worse server communities are a thing of the past - I know a lot of people who play WoW, my friend's list is relatively hopping and my twitter feed even more so, but I haven't run a dungeon with random people on my realm since mid-Wrath and even then I didn't do it very often. Before the rise of dungeon finder groups, I either ran with a guild group or I didn't run, having soured on the experience after tanking BC heroics.

The way I currently play, I raid with my guild, run LFR occasionally (not very often) or queue for some dungeons either solo or with some Real ID/Battletag friends, do some retro raiding in the same fashion, and in general to me my server is almost completely meaningless. I play with and chat with people from all over the place, from Sisters of Elune to Norgannon to Malfurion to Kilrogg. If I could add EU players and chat with them, I'd have an even bigger friend's list. The people I know in game are people I've played with, people I've chatted with online for a while, but in very few cases are they people I've actually met here on my current server outside of guilds I've joined.

Of course, as I've argued before, personal experience isn't universal and anecdotal data isn't conclusive. I'm just one player. So the question becomes, what about you reading this now? How important is your server to you? It's very possible there are thriving server communities out there that would be damaged by a change that reduces server identity further and if so I think it would be useful to find out. If a single mega-server per region would be detrimental to people's playstyles, let us hear you. Positive or negative, your feedback is desired.

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Why do we still have servers? originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 14 May 2013 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> battletagbattletagscross-realm-zonesreal-idservers (Matthew Rossi) Tue, 14 May 2013 15:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Things that were harder before]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/13/things-that-were-harder-before/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/13/things-that-were-harder-before/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/13/things-that-were-harder-before/#comments Things that were harder before I did a post this week about raiding in previous expansions and in vanilla WoW, and how people often say those raids were harder and my opinion that it is easily demonstrable that current raids are if anything more complicated than they have ever been. I frankly believe there is almost no room for comparison between the game at 60 and today in terms of raid complexity and difficulty. Part of this stems from the many different variations on what the word hard means in this context. Something can be harder because it is conceptually or executionally more complex (the difficulty can stem from how much is required to successfully complete its mechanics) or it can be hard because it is laborious and/or time consuming. Was raiding with 40 people in classic WoW more laborious? Absolutely it was. It wasn't mechanically harder, but it was more time consuming and took a great deal of effort to organize and plan. It's the difference between working out a complex multi-stage math problem and carrying five thousand pounds of rocks from point A to point B.

But there were some points worth addressing. It absolutely has never been easier to level, even without heirlooms, than it is right now. Vanilla leveling to 60 took more time and effort than leveling to 90 does today. Even without heirlooms, one can easily and without much stress reach level 20 in a few hours, level 40 in less than two days, and be level 60 within a day of that, and this isn't spending all day staring at the screen either. This is a fairly casual leveling pace. I leveled a blood elf warrior to 35 in two days of rather casual play, an hour on followed by a half hour reading websites or having a snack or even going for a long walk.

It's also far easier to do the following things:
  1. Get a dungeon group. You can queue for dungeons at level 15, and from that point on, all you ever have to do to run a dungeon is hit that queue. If you're playing in the tank or healing role you can effectively chain dungeons all day, and even leveling as DPS there are stretches where you don't even need to quest or do anything but dungeon.
  2. Run a battleground. While you could argue that doing well at BG running as you level up and at max level takes some time and effort, if you want to risk queueing in whatever gear you have, it's simplicity itself.
  3. Getting ready to raid at max level. The game now has catchup mechanisms in place for players who start later. If you just got your alt to 90 and are switching to it for raiding, deciding to give raiding a try for the first time, or what have you it's not the case that your raid group is compelled to run you through previous raids for attunements and keys, much less gearing you through older raids to get ready for the current content.
  4. Find something to do. You could even argue that there's too much to do, or that it feels too mandatory. But you can't argue you don't have options - if you don't want to run dungeons, raid, or PvP there are pet battles, daily quests and scenarios you can do.
So the question then becomes this: is it better or worse for the game that these things are easier? For that matter, are they easy enough?

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Things that were harder before originally appeared on WoW Insider on Mon, 13 May 2013 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> alt-levelingaltscatch-up-90difficultydungeonsgearinglevelingLFDLFRmists-of-pandariaraiding (Matthew Rossi) Mon, 13 May 2013 15:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Talent switching, conditional use and gear]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/11/the-care-and-feeding-of-warriors-talent-switching-conditional/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/11/the-care-and-feeding-of-warriors-talent-switching-conditional/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/11/the-care-and-feeding-of-warriors-talent-switching-conditional/#comments The Care and Feeding of Warriors Talent switching and conditional use Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Care and Feeding of Warriors, the column dedicated to arms, fury and protection warriors. Despite repeated blows to the head from dragons, demons, Old Gods and whatever that thing over there was, Matthew Rossi will be your host.

I switch around my talents pretty consistently when raiding Throne of Thunder. I know some people will tell you it's always a DPS decrease to use Bladestorm, but on Tortos Bladestorm is an absolute treasure if your tank is rounding up the bats and bringing them to melee. When I say it is a treasure, I mean that it is an idol and I think you should have to engage in a whip based economy for it. (I don't use Shockwave much as DPS due to the positioning needed.) But like a lot of you, I drop it on fights with a minimal AoE component for Dragon Roar, because DR always crits and does a pretty healthy amount of damage even on single target. Here's a question I hadn't asked myself until this week, however: do I really need to be doing this?

I use Second Wind as a raiding talent for two reasons:
  1. I don't have to think about it at all. If I go below 35%, I get some healing. That's it. It's not better than Enraged Regeneration, but it doesn't require me to do anything. Similarly, it's not that Impending Victory isn't good, but it's another attack and I don't need another attack right now. Both my arms and fury rotations are plenty busy (arms in particular does not have a lot of slack time when I'm not doing anything) and putting in another attack doesn't really benefit me.
  2. It's never unavailable. With Enraged Regeneration and Impending Victory, there are times I can't use them because I have recently used them. Second Wind will always proc once I drop below 35%. It's always there. It does nothing for me if I never drop that low, and it won't save me if I get gibbed for huge damage and die, but if I drop below 35% and don't immediately die, there it is, plugging away some healing for me.
This is what got me thinking about talent switching while raiding. There are some talents I just never switch out of, and then there's the big three of Bladestorm, Dragon Roar and Shockwave. These see a lot of switching, to the point where I carry about 40 tomes per raid because I know I'll use at least five and I want to make sure I don't run out. But am I obsessing over nothing? Does it really matter if I don't switch between Bladestorm and Dragon Roar depending on the fight?

Continue reading The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Talent switching, conditional use and gear

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The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Talent switching, conditional use and gear originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sat, 11 May 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> featuredfury-warrior-the-care-and-feeding-of-warriorsguide-to-warriorswarrior-guidewarrior-infowarrior-talentswow-warriorwow-warrior-infowow-warriors (Matthew Rossi) Sat, 11 May 2013 16:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The false memory of WoW's difficult past]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/10/the-false-memory-of-wows-difficult-past/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/10/the-false-memory-of-wows-difficult-past/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/10/the-false-memory-of-wows-difficult-past/#comments The false memory of WoW past Vanilla raiding was not mechanically more difficult than current raiding. In fact, in terms of encounter difficulty, raiding in World of Warcraft has never been as challenging to remember and execute as it is right now. Fights like Lei Shen, Twin Consorts, Iron Qon, and Durumu ask players to learn mechanics and execute awareness at a level rivaled only by fights like Mimiron's Firefighter mode. And I'm not even talking heroic difficulty for those fights. Yes, it was often harder to get 40 people together, I'm not disputing that. But that's not design difficulty, that's social difficulty. The argument that WoW was objectively harder back then is beyond absurd.

I was there for all of those raids. I've raided in vanilla, in BC, in Wrath, and in Cataclysm. I've done hard modes and heroic modes since they were introduced. I'm neither the cutting edge progression raider nor someone who raids occasionally for fun -- I've been everywhere from a raider pushing for realm firsts to one leading a semi-casual 10-man while tanking. One thing I can and will say with absolute certainty is this: every single expansion to World of Warcraft has increased the complexity of the raid design.

Continue reading The false memory of WoW's difficult past

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The false memory of WoW's difficult past originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 10 May 2013 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> BCBurning-CrusadeCataclysmdumbing-down-is-a-dumb-claimeasierFight-complexitymolten-corenaxxramasraidraidingraidsvanilla-WoWWrathWrath-of-the-Lich-King (Matthew Rossi) Fri, 10 May 2013 19:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The useless distinction between casual and hardcore]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/09/the-useless-distinction-between-casual-and-hardcore/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/09/the-useless-distinction-between-casual-and-hardcore/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/09/the-useless-distinction-between-casual-and-hardcore/#comments The useless distinction between casual and hardcore If the words 'casual' and 'hardcore' ever had a useful role in determining the differences between players in World of Warcraft, and I am not convinced they ever did, they no longer do. A player who wants to have an alt of every single class at max level and makes that happen is not playing the game casually even if she never raids. A player who collects several hundred pets and levels many of them through pet battles, or has a similarly high number of mounts, or determines to go out and get every cooking recipe in the game (including Dirge's Kickin' Chimeraok Chops which you can't even get anymore but somehow he finds a way) is playing the game very seriously indeed.

Quite frankly, despite the fact that I raid a set schedule, I often feel like I'm significantly more 'casual' than many players who never raid at all. I know I play a lot less - I definitely do not log on every day, I don't run LFR unless I missed a boss in normal (because I want a shot at my Secrets of the Empire off of that boss) and I don't do pet battles, farm, or even do daily quests anymore. So with my roughly fifteen hours of WoW a week, 12 of it spent inside a raid and the other three futzing about older raids for transmog gear, am I casual or hardcore? And does it matter?

Ordinarily I'd explore the answer in the paragraphs to come. But frankly, the answer is no. It doesn't matter. It is so far from mattering that the light from it mattering won't reach us for fifty thousand years. What matters is finding out what players want to do with their time and letting them do it.

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The useless distinction between casual and hardcore originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 09 May 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> altscasualdaily-questsdungeonshardcoremists-of-pandariaplayersraidingscenarios (Matthew Rossi) Thu, 09 May 2013 16:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Know Your Lore: Karazhan and why we went there]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/08/know-your-lore-karazhan-and-why-we-went-there/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/08/know-your-lore-karazhan-and-why-we-went-there/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/08/know-your-lore-karazhan-and-why-we-went-there/#comments
The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft.

So the other day on Twitter someone asked me "Why were we in Karazhan, anyway" and since it's a question I've been asked before, I thought I'd address it. The primary reason we went to Karazhan was to kill a whole lot of guilds that were trying to transition to 25 man raiding from the 40 man of Classic by forcing them to run a 10 man instance and two 25 man instances at the same time. Ha. I kid, because I'm still bitter.

The question can actually be answered in several ways. We went to Karazhan because the Kirin Tor were investigating the tower and asked Khadgar for help. They had noticed that, decades after Medivh's death, some new malevolent force was infesting the tower (and since it sits on a ley line nexus, that concerned them) and as we investigated we discover the horrible truth. The Burning Legion has infested Karazhan and seeks control over the powerful arcane secrets held within, and they must be stopped.

But why did Prince Malchezaar lead his Legion forces to Karazhan in the first place? Well, for that, we have to talk about Medivh.

Continue reading Know Your Lore: Karazhan and why we went there

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Know Your Lore: Karazhan and why we went there originally appeared on WoW Insider on Wed, 08 May 2013 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> featuredguideguide-to-loreKarazhanlorelore-guideMalchezaarrole-playrole-playing-guiderp-guideworld-of-warcraft-lorewow-guidewow-lorewow-role-playingwow-role-playing-guidewow-rpwow-rp-guidewow-rping (Matthew Rossi) Wed, 08 May 2013 12:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Diablo 3 bug sees trillions in gold duping, auction houses shutdown]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/08/diablo-3-ah-bug-sees-trillions-in-gold-duping-auction-houses-sh/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/08/diablo-3-ah-bug-sees-trillions-in-gold-duping-auction-houses-sh/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/08/diablo-3-ah-bug-sees-trillions-in-gold-duping-auction-houses-sh/#comments
Sure, we all like gold. But even the most gold hungry among us can see the problem with a bug that allowed players to accumulate trillions of in-game currency, which is exactly what happened with Diablo III's patch 1.0.8. As a result, the game's Auction House was taken down, and Blizzard is still debating what actions to take to correct the issue, but Lylirra posts on the official forums that roll backs won't be necessary.

Lylirra - Auction Houses Temporarily Offline -- Update
12:00 a.m. PDT: At this time (and after careful consideration), we've decided to not move forward with rolling back the servers. We feel that this is the best course of action given the nature of the dupe, how relatively few players used it, and the fact that its effects were fairly limited within the region. We've been able to successfully identify players who duplicated gold by using this specific bug, and are focusing on these accounts to make corrections. While this is a time-consuming and very detailed process, we believe it's the most appropriate choice given the circumstances. We know that some of you may disagree, but we feel that performing a full roll back would impact the community in an even greater way, as it would require significant downtime as well as revert the progress legitimate players have made since patch 1.0.8 was released this morning.

I know it would be a pretty big blow to lose character levels or gear acquired legitimately, so if they can go after the actual accounts that used the exploit and remove just their duplicated gold, that seems like the best option to me.

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Diablo 3 bug sees trillions in gold duping, auction houses shutdown originally appeared on WoW Insider on Wed, 08 May 2013 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> Auction-HousebreakingbugDiablo-3Diablo-3-bugDiablo-IIIlylirra (Matthew Rossi) Wed, 08 May 2013 11:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Why World of Warcraft isn't a democracy]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/06/why-world-of-warcraft-isnt-a-democracy/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/06/why-world-of-warcraft-isnt-a-democracy/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/06/why-world-of-warcraft-isnt-a-democracy/#comments There's a difference between a consumer and a producer. To use the dreaded and overused food analogy, liking to eat doesn't translate into being a good cook. For that matter, liking to eat doesn't even translate into liking to cook, much less displaying any skill at cooking. I neither like to cook nor have even the slightest talent for it, but if you look at me you can tell I'm not shy about eating. Why am I belaboring this point into the ground? Because World of Warcraft isn't a democracy in part because the millions of us who like to eat it don't necessarily possess either the talent or aptitude to cook it up.

Partially this is due to the fact that almost any creative task requires a certain degree of focus, and the more people you attempt to include in the design process the more effort needs to expended keeping the project on track. There's a reason projects of this magnitude often have people who specifically work on doing exactly that. They don't do the individual art, they don't code the abilities or design the environments or that next cool armor, they instead work on keeping all of these variables on track. They're jugglers, and the balls in this case are the varied and disparate elements of the game's overall design.

Continue reading Why World of Warcraft isn't a democracy

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Why World of Warcraft isn't a democracy originally appeared on WoW Insider on Mon, 06 May 2013 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> auteur-theorycommunity-votedemocracydesigndesign-focusgame-designwow-community (Matthew Rossi) Mon, 06 May 2013 18:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Does WoW need new animations?]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/06/does-wow-need-new-animations/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/06/does-wow-need-new-animations/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/06/does-wow-need-new-animations/#comments Does WoW need new animations When I was writing this column on warrior attacks, I noticed that a lot of players who don't play warriors came in to comment on their animations. I specifically noticed druids (especially feral/guardian druids), and rogues commenting. This got me to thinking if part of the problem is that the monk class really exposed a vulnerability. It's easier to see that your character model isn't keeping up with new racial choices like the goblins, worgen and pandaren - you can just see one standing next to you in Org/SW or a raid/dungeon/scenario. But to notice that your animations aren't keeping up with the new hotness, you have to see the new hotness. And it can be hard to notice what someone's attacks are like when you're focusing on your own.

Now, of course, the argument could be made that WoW's animations are pretty good. Making a change simply for change's sake would be a diversion of resources. But it seems to me that, with all the talk about updating character models, there's at least some room to discuss updating our attacks as well. Most classes use the chosen race's special attacks (you can see what they are by using a model viewer program, or Wowhead's model viewer) with specific ones like Dragon Stomp, Special1h, Special2h, and so on.

Continue reading Does WoW need new animations?

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Does WoW need new animations? originally appeared on WoW Insider on Mon, 06 May 2013 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> attack-animationsmodel-viewerspell-casting-animationswowhead-model-viewer (Matthew Rossi) Mon, 06 May 2013 15:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Are warrior attacks boring?]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/04/the-care-and-feeding-of-warriors-are-warrior-attacks-boring/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/04/the-care-and-feeding-of-warriors-are-warrior-attacks-boring/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/04/the-care-and-feeding-of-warriors-are-warrior-attacks-boring/#comments The Care and Feeding of Warriors Are warrior attacks boring Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Care and Feeding of Warriors, the column dedicated to arms, fury and protection warriors. Despite repeated blows to the head from dragons, demons, Old Gods and whatever that thing over there was, Matthew Rossi will be your host.

Are we boring?

Obviously I don't think so or I'd be fairly unhappy with my choice of class. But when you see certain statements like this one from Ghostcrawler, you do start to wonder. One of the difficulties I had in writing a wishlist for the class in the future was that our toolkit is fairly limited. We don't channel any weird energies like nature or divine magic or chi, we just get angry and use that anger to smash things, yell at things, and then there's the 'pinball in a washing machine' and 'here is my flag' aspects of the class.

Aesthetically, I enjoy the warrior class quite a bit. But that aesthetic comes in the form of plate armor and is hardly unique to the class - death knights and paladins can wear almost all of the same gear as we can, especially now that transmogrification exists. The fact is, as much as I hate to admit it, Ghostcrawler is right and warriors don't look all that interesting when we attack.

The question becomes, why does that matter? And the answer is, it matters for the overall health of the class and its representation.

Continue reading The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Are warrior attacks boring?

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The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Are warrior attacks boring? originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sat, 04 May 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> arms-warriorarms-warrior-the-care-and-feeding-of-warriorsfeaturedfury-warriorfury-warrior-the-care-and-feeding-of-warriorsguide-to-warriorsprotection-warriorprotection-warrior-the-care-and-feeding-of-warriorswarrior-guidewarrior-infowarrior-talentswow-warriorwow-warrior-infowow-warriors (Matthew Rossi) Sat, 04 May 2013 16:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Should WoW add a Deathmatch Battleground?]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/03/should-wow-add-a-deathmatch-battleground/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/03/should-wow-add-a-deathmatch-battleground/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/03/should-wow-add-a-deathmatch-battleground/#comments I was reading twitter as I often do... no, really, it's for work, I'm not just wasting time posting jokes about wearing a crown roast as a helmet... when I saw Nethaera post this tweet, which led me to this forum thread. While perusing the thread I eventually found Neth's response to it, and that got me thinking about the concept.
Nethaera - Could we get a PvP battleground?
Battle grounds have always been missing an important part of world pvp.... PvP. Make it like a big arena but not so big that people can't hide. 10 to 15 players forced into all out pvp. First to so many kills or 10 minutes, whichever comes first, wins the round.

No need to even create an area for it. Just make a copy of Blackrock mountain in an instance.

That is PvP I would actually like... its the reason I liked AV so much back before it was turned into race where pvp sometimes breaks out.

What you're asking for is a straight Death Match type of Battleground. I'm not sure it would be compelling as you think. I'm a big fan of DM as well, at least in FPS', but for an MMO like World of Warcraft, I question how enjoyable it would be in the long run for people. I think for players who feel very comfortable with their abilities, straight head on PvP like that would be fun for them, but for others, I'm not sure it would have the same appeal.

That said, I'm not killing the discussion. I'm just interested in how you feel this would work or appeal to a wide enough audience for it to be worth creating.


I have in the past advocated a deathmatch style BG because I do understand the original poster's point. But let's really take a look at what a deathmatch BG would have to entail.

Continue reading Should WoW add a Deathmatch Battleground?

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Should WoW add a Deathmatch Battleground? originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 03 May 2013 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> ArenasBattlegroundsDeathmatchDeathmatch-BattlegroundsForumsmists-of-pandariaNethaeraPvP (Matthew Rossi) Fri, 03 May 2013 19:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[What do you need explained more clearly?]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/01/what-do-you-need-explained-more-clearly/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/01/what-do-you-need-explained-more-clearly/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/01/what-do-you-need-explained-more-clearly/#comments What do you need explained more clearly Reading the forums (like I do) I came across a response by Daxxari to a forum thread that got me thinking.
Daxxari - Oh God, 5.3 don't come!!! QQ thread!!
Item budget is weird and crazy. Seriously. It's actually worlds better than it used to be, but still needs to be a lot more clear so people can understand it. Blizzard is bad at getting some really core information like that across.

Fair enough. There's a huge amount of information to relate about World of Warcraft, and we can always communicate better and more clearly. We've already stated that PvP stats don't count toward a given item's ilevel, and we released the PvP Gear in Patch 5.3 blog that we hoped would dispel some confusion.

What do you think is missing, and what else needs to be communicated clearly so players can make informed gearing decisions?


This got me to thinking about what I'd like expressed more clearly and concisely someplace easy to find in game, and it's how stat ratings work. This has greatly improved in that the character window pane will calculate out how much actual hit percentage, or critical strike percentage, you currently have on gear but I really think the game could benefit from a means to work out what changing X or Y will do to your stats without having to go to an outside site.

So what about you? What do you find confusing and think Blizzard could explain better? Item levels? How PvP stats work? The difference between content tiers? If it bugs you, tell us how you think Blizzard could explain it better.
Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.

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What do you need explained more clearly? originally appeared on WoW Insider on Wed, 01 May 2013 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> Daxxarimists-of-pandariapatch-5.3questions (Matthew Rossi) Wed, 01 May 2013 17:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Gear is good. Gear works.]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/01/gear-is-good-gear-works/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/01/gear-is-good-gear-works/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/01/gear-is-good-gear-works/#comments Gear is good Gear works I initially had the intention of refuting Adam's dissertation on why we don't need gear in World of Warcraft with the same length and exhaustive detail he himself used. But I don't think that's the proper course here. By now, many of you will have commented in similar fashion. Instead, I'll go for simplicity and list some reasons why WoW should keep gear.
  1. Gear provides a means to tune content for consumption. Right now, dungeons, raids, scenarios and even leveling content is tunable along many aspects of gameplay, including whether or not it's intended for groups or to be soloable, whether or not it's for certain size of groups, whether a healer is intended, and what level of offensive power/healing/tanking ability is permitted by gear. Removing gear from the game means content loses a slider, giving the developers less options.
  2. Demanding that all content difficulty be based purely on skill is unnecessarily restrictive to players. Quite frankly, letting groups outgear content is good for the game. It allows groups that couldn't quite get an encounter down for whatever reason to come back later with better gear and try again. It lets groups go down a raid tier and have fun blasting through previously difficult content, or lets players shine in dungeons or scenarios that were once grueling. It even allows players to go back an expansion or two and have fun soloing what once took entire raids to complete.
  3. MMO's that eschew gear work best when designed from the start in this manner, and even then they often use things that are gear in all but name. A game that uses enhancements to modify powers, for instance, is just using gear by a different name.
So let's talk more about why gear is in fact good and shouldn't go anywhere after the break.

Continue reading Gear is good. Gear works.

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Gear is good. Gear works. originally appeared on WoW Insider on Wed, 01 May 2013 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> challenge-modescontentcontent-tuninggearitemizationwhy-gear-matters (Matthew Rossi) Wed, 01 May 2013 12:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Know Your Lore: The Lessons of the Lich King]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/30/know-your-lore-the-lessons-of-the-lich-king/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/30/know-your-lore-the-lessons-of-the-lich-king/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/30/know-your-lore-the-lessons-of-the-lich-king/#comments The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft.

Thinking again about the Lich King, specifically when Arthas Menethil wore the Helm of Domination, always brings me to speculate on his seeming need to prove something. Everything we experienced in Wrath of the Lich King seemed calculated towards that end. From the encounter with him in Howling Fjord through the complicated Drak'tharon Keep and Zul'Drak storylines to the final showdown atop Icecrown Citadel, Arthas always had a plan, and that plan was in part simply to cause his own enemies to provide him with a cadre of such power that he could turn and use against the world, yes. But more than that, Arthas seemed obsessed with proving that he was right.

Again and again Arthas as the Lich King put mortal heroes through situations that served to illustrate his own fall - again and again, he sought not just to torment and inspire hatred and anger just as he had been tormented by Mal'Ganis and grew to be consumed by hatred, but to show by so doing how his own actions had been correct. That the only possible response to what he'd undergone was to become as he had. Even merged with Ner'zhul in the form of the Lich King, Arthas' mind and personality came to shape the entity, and when all roads converged atop Icecrown, it was Arthas' desire to show Azeroth how right he was that shone through.

Continue reading Know Your Lore: The Lessons of the Lich King

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Know Your Lore: The Lessons of the Lich King originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 30 Apr 2013 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> ArthasfeaturedGarroshgarrosh-hellscreamguideguide-to-loreLich-Kinglorelore-guideNerzhulrole-playrole-playing-guiderp-guideworld-of-warcraft-lorewow-guidewow-lorewow-role-playingwow-role-playing-guidewow-rpwow-rp-guidewow-rping (Matthew Rossi) Tue, 30 Apr 2013 15:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Future Wishlist]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/27/the-care-and-feeding-of-warriors-future-wishlist/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/27/the-care-and-feeding-of-warriors-future-wishlist/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/27/the-care-and-feeding-of-warriors-future-wishlist/#comments The Care and Feeding of Warriors Future Wishlist SatSun Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Care and Feeding of Warriors, the column dedicated to arms, fury and protection warriors. Despite repeated blows to the head from dragons, demons, Old Gods and whatever that thing over there was, Matthew Rossi will be your host.

So this week we had the big Dev Q&A, and there were some things in there that got me thinking.

From the Q&A
Dread: Why do Warriors (Arms & Fury) still have moves that require Shields, and thus, macros? You think a master of arms or a raging berserker could hit a fire ball back like a baseball. (Link could do it!)

Ghostcrawler: Shields are cool. We'd like to do more with them, for paladins and shaman too. We agree that macros aren't an awesome way to handle shields. We'd rather do more with the base UI. Imagine you had a shield slot on your character pane even if you didn't have it "out" at the moment. Something along those lines.


The specific moves that require a shield for arms and fury warriors are abilities like Shield Wall and Spell Reflection. (Mass Spell Reflection does not require a shield.) The idea of a 'Shield Slot' rather than using shields as offhand items fascinates me, especially if it led to the possibility of protection warriors using a two-handed weapon and a shield to tank with (as many have asked for, since the old spear and shield was a big part of historical warfare).

This led me to wonder: what would my dream additions be to the warrior class? What do I want to see make it into the class' toolkit for the future?

Continue reading The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Future Wishlist

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The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Future Wishlist originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sat, 27 Apr 2013 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> featuredguide-to-warriorswarrior-guidewarrior-infowarrior-talentswow-warriorwow-warrior-infowow-warriors (Matthew Rossi) Sat, 27 Apr 2013 20:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Know Your Lore: Where is the rest of the Alliance?]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/24/know-your-lore-where-is-the-rest-of-the-alliance/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/24/know-your-lore-where-is-the-rest-of-the-alliance/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/24/know-your-lore-where-is-the-rest-of-the-alliance/#comments Know Your Lore Where is the rest of the Alliance Wed The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft.

This, for me, is the real disappointment of the past few Mists of Pandaria patches. We've seen what Lor'themar, Baine and Vol'jin are up to in regards to Garrosh's plans for the Horde. While Sylvanas has taken a more circumspect path in this expansion, we're getting a sense of what the Horde's other leaders think about what the Horde is becoming.

What we haven't seen, aside from Jaina Proudmoore's returning the Kirin Tor to the Alliance fold, is any sense of what leaders who aren't Varian are up to. Now, 5.3 shows us what's going on with the Council of Three Hammers in Ironforge, and we've seen Tyrande's brief appearance in the A Little Patience scenario (where she gets to be her old, impetuous self in order that Varian can look statesmanlike) but where's Velen? You'd think that the Sha menace would interest him. Where's Genn Greymane, who has literally done nothing since he installed himself in Stormwind two years ago? I know it's probably expecting too much that Gelbin Mekkatorque might spare time away from doing nothing outside of Gnomeregan, but still, there's been a surprising lack of involvement for these Alliance figures over the years, and it's getting worrisome.

I've mentioned before that I don't want the Alliance turning into The Adventures of Varian Wrynn and his Amazing Friends, not even with Jaina playing both Iceman and Firestar lately. I want an Alliance that's more like a Justice League, where there's room for every faction to take part.

Continue reading Know Your Lore: Where is the rest of the Alliance?

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Know Your Lore: Where is the rest of the Alliance? originally appeared on WoW Insider on Wed, 24 Apr 2013 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> Council-of-Three-Hammersfeaturedguideguide-to-lorelorelore-guideNobundorole-playrole-playing-guiderp-guideTyrandeworld-of-warcraft-lorewow-guidewow-lorewow-role-playingwow-role-playing-guidewow-rpwow-rp-guidewow-rping (Matthew Rossi) Wed, 24 Apr 2013 13:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Books you should read to better understand WoW]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/22/books-you-should-read-to-better-understand-wow/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/22/books-you-should-read-to-better-understand-wow/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/22/books-you-should-read-to-better-understand-wow/#comments No, this isn't a list of WoW novels. The thing is, World of Warcraft is built on the backs of a lot of fantasy literature, mythology, sword and sorcery epics, and so on. And while attempting to put together a reading list to truly explore all of these subjects would be meaningless, making some recommendations to help you get into the WoW spirit could be fun. If nothing else, you'll get to potentially read some new, interesting books.

Now, there's no way I can get every classic of every genre that's influenced World of Warcraft into a list that would fit on this site. There are hundreds of potential books out there. So I'm just going to hit some highlights and let y'all go wild in the comments filling in the blanks.

J.R.R Tolkien's Lord of the Rings - Tolkien is the 10,000 lb gorilla in modern fantasy. If you're not influenced by him, you're a reaction to him. The reason there are multiple kinds of elves and dwarves running around Azeroth fighting orcs is because of Tolkien's impact on fantasy. If you want to get the tropes, you should probably read this.

Robert E. Howard's Conan and other stories - Howard is the other huge gorilla influencing modern fantasy. I mention Conan as his most famous creation, but there's just as much good stuff to be read by Howard that has nothing to do with the Cimmerian. His Solomon Kane, Kull, Bran Mak Morn, and his forays into horror and historical fiction all blazed from an imagination so incandescent that it burned the man himself out in a short amount of time. Be warned - most of this stuff was written for the pulps, and it has all the virtues and all the flaws of pulp fiction written in the 20's and 30's. It's often racist, sexist, and ranges wildly in quality.

Continue reading Books you should read to better understand WoW

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Books you should read to better understand WoW originally appeared on WoW Insider on Mon, 22 Apr 2013 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> authorsbooksloresubject-matterWorld-of-Warcraftworld-of-warcraft-reading-listWoW (Matthew Rossi) Mon, 22 Apr 2013 17:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Too good and not good enough]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/21/the-care-and-feeding-of-warriors-too-good-and-not-good-enough/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/21/the-care-and-feeding-of-warriors-too-good-and-not-good-enough/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/21/the-care-and-feeding-of-warriors-too-good-and-not-good-enough/#comments The Care and Feeding of Warriors Too good and not good enough Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Care and Feeding of Warriors, the column dedicated to arms, fury and protection warriors. Despite repeated blows to the head from dragons, demons, Old Gods and whatever that thing over there was, Matthew Rossi will be your host.

Okay, I'm just going to say it: Titan's Grip is ludicrous AoE right now. I switched to TG this week because I got a Zerat's off of a coin roll and another dropped, and so I'm still getting used to TG's more random proc based gameplay. On the whole I'd say my single target DPS was fair to middling, not awful, but not as good as SMF and not as good as I'm currently capable of as arms because, well, in part I'm still in that weird place gear wise where arms does really well and partly I'm very used to arms and can perform the priority of attacks without though, while TG still requires me to think about what I'm doing. This need to concentrate on Raging Blow procs actually got me killed a few times on Durumu, so that's embarrassing.

Continue reading The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Too good and not good enough

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The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Too good and not good enough originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sun, 21 Apr 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> featuredfuryfury-warrior-the-care-and-feeding-of-warriorsguide-to-warriorsTitans GripTitans-GripTitansGripwarrior-guidewarrior-infowarrior-talentswow-warriorwow-warrior-infowow-warriors (Matthew Rossi) Sun, 21 Apr 2013 16:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Bad Robot battle pet to come in 'a future patch']]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/19/bad-robot-battle-pet-to-come-in-a-future-patch/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/19/bad-robot-battle-pet-to-come-in-a-future-patch/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/19/bad-robot-battle-pet-to-come-in-a-future-patch/#comments Image
Engineers who also like J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot Productions can rejoice in knowing they'll be able to craft this homage to the production house in World of Warcraft. No word yet on what's so bad about said little robot, but here he is regardless.

Blizzard <3s Bad Robot
One of the core values we live by here at Blizzard is "Embrace Your Inner Geek." We play countless games, we collect comics and card games, we love cutting-edge technology and computer hardware, we're fascinated by science and discovery, and many of us are movie buffs. Movies represent the combined imaginations of talented writers and visionaries, artists and operators, editors and producers, that can culminate in an awesome cinematic experience.

It's with this motivation that we express our respect for JJ Abrams' Bad Robot Productions.

Coming in a future patch, characters with the Engineering profession will be able to produce this mechanical homage to the company that brought us award-winning television shows like Lost and Fringe, and are continuing the epic Star Trek and forthcoming Star Wars film sagas. Everyone has a chance to get their hands on this pet, allowing them to show off their mutual appreciation for Bad Robot, and the stories they've brought to our TVs and movie screens.

We hope everyone enjoys this new pet!


Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.

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Bad Robot battle pet to come in 'a future patch' originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 19 Apr 2013 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> bad-robotbattle-petspet-battlespets (Matthew Rossi) Fri, 19 Apr 2013 20:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[How would you design a raid boss?]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/19/how-would-you-design-a-raid-boss/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/19/how-would-you-design-a-raid-boss/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/19/how-would-you-design-a-raid-boss/#comments Nois, a dwarf warlock, posted this neat thread to the forums asking that very question: how would you design a raid boss? It interests me for a variety of reasons. One, I like seeing what players would do if called upon to design aspects of the game. For another, it gets me thinking about raid design, boss fights, and how they've evolved and changed over the years. It's hard to believe that once upon a time Razorgore or Vaelestraz were considered enormously difficult mechanically complex fights when pretty much every boss fight in Throne of Thunder has so many moving parts and elements to consider (the Iron Qon fight, for example, is a four phase fight with different mechanics for each phase).

I'm also interested because this finally gives me a chance to share my Cakearon the Frosting God raid boss strat I wrote back in Firelands of all places. People here at WoW Insider have been regaled with tales of the epic battle with Cakearon for two years now, and finally, I get to share the master of Icingdeath with you all.

Continue reading How would you design a raid boss?

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How would you design a raid boss? originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 19 Apr 2013 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> cakearonforumsicingdeathmists-of-pandaria (Matthew Rossi) Fri, 19 Apr 2013 15:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Ask the Devs PvP changes now up]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/19/ask-the-devs-pvp-changes-now-up/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/19/ask-the-devs-pvp-changes-now-up/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/19/ask-the-devs-pvp-changes-now-up/#comments
Not too long ago it was announced that there would be an Ask the Devs dedicated to the patch 5.3 PTR changes. Now, it's here. If you're dying to know exactly how all these changes are going to play out, this is the Q&A for you. Some highlights:
  • At patch 5.3, gear will simply be capped. During patch 5.4 the plan is for the cap to go up so that new gear will have a purpose in PvP.
  • They are still considering ways to calculate the cap (one possibility being a cap based on the average of your gear rather than a flat cap). Elite PvP gear is intended to be a cosmetic difference.
  • The goal is not to prevent PvE gear in PvP - would be simple to do just that, but rather to make it so players who are in full Conquest gear don't feel forced to run PvE for trinkets and other off pieces.
  • Resilience changes are based around the idea that resilience was too necessary to have any chance in PvP - this way, you can gear to overcome it.
  • PvP power on Conquest gear will mean a PvP geared player will have an edge on all but fully heroic geared PvE players in World PvP, and will be fairly even against them. World PvP is inherently less fair than structured PvP, part of its charm.
  • They will be discussing other PvP rewards down the road now that Elite gear is cosmetic, other PvP rewards that aren't just gear.
So for all that plus a lot more, go give the Ask the Devs PvP edition a read.

Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.

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Ask the Devs PvP changes now up originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 19 Apr 2013 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> Ask-The-DevsAsk-The-Devs-PvPmists-of-pandariapatch-5.3Patch-5.3-PTRpatch-5.4PvP (Matthew Rossi) Fri, 19 Apr 2013 13:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Queue: You are my son]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/18/the-queue-you-are-my-son/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/18/the-queue-you-are-my-son/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/18/the-queue-you-are-my-son/#comments
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Matthew Rossi will be your host today.

"You will give the people of Earth an ideal to strive towards. They will race behind you. They will stumble. They will fall. But in time, they will join you in the sun. In time, you will help them accomplish wonders."

Just take my freaking money already.

ErikSetzer asks:

Q4TQ (and others): It turns out the Alliance title for 5.3 is "The Hordebreaker." Will this make Alliance players happy? And why can't I have a title like "The Alliancebreaker?" Man, all I get to do is be a revolutionary, not break a faction... (grumble, mumble)

I actually quite like the title. I mean, I'm not going to dump 'Death's Demise' for it, but yeah, it's pretty cool. I get why some people are saying we're not actually breaking the Horde, but for once, I'm just going to go along with things.

Continue reading The Queue: You are my son

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The Queue: You are my son originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 18 Apr 2013 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> featuredguideqaquestion-and-answerwow-answerswow-daily-answerswow-daily-questionswow-guidewow-player-questionswow-q-and-awow-questions (Matthew Rossi) Thu, 18 Apr 2013 11:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[We are all humans]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/17/we-are-all-humans/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/17/we-are-all-humans/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/17/we-are-all-humans/#comments We are all humans Someone just asked me on Twitter if I thought humans in World of Warcraft are boring. I don't think that at all. I have several reasons for not thinking humans are boring, which I'll lay out for you now:
  1. Humans had/have the most elaborate and interesting political backstory in the game. The conflict between the House of Nobles, the stonemasons and craftsmen, and the House of Wrynn over Stormwind's rebuilding has led to the existence of the Defias Brotherhood, the machinations of the Black Dragonflight and the collapse of Stormwind's outlying territories. Westfall, Darkshire and Redridge are all cut off and fractured, and the aftermath of the war with the Lich King and the Cataclysm only kept the pressure on. Stormwind, as the last remaining human kingdom now that Theramore and Gilneas are effectively gone and Kul Tiras is missing, totters on the edge.
  2. Humans have a great tradition of loss and perseverance. The orcs lost a world, but they're the ones who destroyed it, so it's hard to sympathize with them. The humans rose from scattered refugees on an alien shore to seven mighty kingdoms that ruled much of the Eastern continent, and the loss of those kingdoms after the coming of the Burning Legion and the Scourge is a story of loss piled on loss, heartbreak piled on heartbreak. The refugees from Lordaeron that survived came to Stormwind, and it is that nation which has the lion's share of the burden of rebuilding from this staggering loss.
  3. Every other race in World of Warcraft is just a metaphor for humanity.
I'll expand on point three now.

Continue reading We are all humans

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We are all humans originally appeared on WoW Insider on Wed, 17 Apr 2013 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> fantasyhumansmetaphormists-of-pandariaraces (Matthew Rossi) Wed, 17 Apr 2013 19:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Know Your Lore: The Horde vs. the Horde]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/17/know-your-lore-the-horde-vs-the-horde/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/17/know-your-lore-the-horde-vs-the-horde/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/17/know-your-lore-the-horde-vs-the-horde/#comments Know Your Lore The Horde vs the Horde The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft.

Spoilers for patch 5.3 to follow

Back in the day, and be not mistaken the day was well before The Burning Crusade was even a glimmer in our eyes, I rolled a tauren warrior. His name was Vorn. Vorn went on many quests, because questing was my favorite way to level. Vorn went all over the world, exploring the Horde and the lands under its control, and he found a lot he liked about his allies. He could respect the orcish ferocity and skill in war, the trollish craft, guile, and restrained sense of humor (the Darkspears are sardonic in their way), and even the forsaken seemed to have a wide disparity of personality types. I met forsaken in Thunder Bluff who sent me across the world to return a locket to a tombstone, and that quest moved me to explore the forests of Silverpine, and in time to go to Undercity itself. To be sure, I found there to be aspects of their unlives that disturbed me, but they displayed a strength in adversity that I found admirable.

And then they ruined it.

Continue reading Know Your Lore: The Horde vs. the Horde

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Know Your Lore: The Horde vs. the Horde originally appeared on WoW Insider on Wed, 17 Apr 2013 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> featuredGarroshguideguide-to-loreHordelorelore-guideNew-HordeOld-Horderole-playrole-playing-guiderp-guideThrallVoljinworld-of-warcraft-lorewow-guidewow-lorewow-role-playingwow-role-playing-guidewow-rpwow-rp-guidewow-rping (Matthew Rossi) Wed, 17 Apr 2013 09:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Winners announced for Blizzard Student Art Contest]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/16/winners-announced-for-blizzard-student-art-contest/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/16/winners-announced-for-blizzard-student-art-contest/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/16/winners-announced-for-blizzard-student-art-contest/#comments Winners announced for Blizzard Student Art Contest Blizzard's second annual Student Art Contest has announced its winners. There were three announced winners for environments; Nick Dariano, Daehi Kim, and Kyoungche Kim all won fo their work designing environments. The character design winner was Ariel Fain for her "Old Crow" who I immediately demand as a playable race in the next expansion.

You can see the awesome winners and the honorable mentions (all of which are pretty awesome as well - I especially like the Mole Master character design) at the official site.

Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.

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Winners announced for Blizzard Student Art Contest originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 16 Apr 2013 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> Blizzardblizzard-student-art-contestStudent-Artstudent-art-contest (Matthew Rossi) Tue, 16 Apr 2013 15:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Tanking stats and design]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/13/the-care-and-feeding-of-warriors-tanking-stats-and-design/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/13/the-care-and-feeding-of-warriors-tanking-stats-and-design/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/13/the-care-and-feeding-of-warriors-tanking-stats-and-design/#comments The Care and Feeding of Warriors Tanking design Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Care and Feeding of Warriors, the column dedicated to arms, fury and protection warriors. Despite repeated blows to the head from dragons, demons, Old Gods and whatever that thing over there was, Matthew Rossi will be your host.

I decided it was time to give some attention to tanking, because I've been all about the DPS lately. Now, I haven't raid tanked in quite a while, since Tier 14 really, so outside of some LFR and some heroics I haven't really been putting tanking through its paces. Still, I do keep my prot offspec current, keep my gear up as best I can, and run both LFR and heroics as prot to keep my hand in.

What got me thinking about tanking for this week was this older column from Theck that I never got around to discussing. Part of that is the piece is mostly math, which for the average warrior tank just wanting to know what she or he should do is kind of over the top. What's really important about the piece is that it helps to explain why dodge and avoidance are better for warrior tanks than paladin tanks (or, really, any tanks) - basically, it highlights how Revenge works with avoidance stats on gear. It also covers how Revenge as a rage generation ability falls off when you're not getting directly attacked so that you can't dodge or parry anything, and how while it's not a crippling result (He puts it at about 4% of your total rage generation, due to Shield Slam being a higher priority than Revenge) it does cost you.

Continue reading The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Tanking stats and design

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The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Tanking stats and design originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sat, 13 Apr 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> featuredguide-to-warriorswarrior-guidewarrior-infowarrior-talentswow-warriorwow-warrior-infowow-warriors (Matthew Rossi) Sat, 13 Apr 2013 16:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The pleasures of the empty time]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/12/the-pleasures-of-the-empty-time/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/12/the-pleasures-of-the-empty-time/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/12/the-pleasures-of-the-empty-time/#comments The pleasures of the empty time It's just a fact that raiding normal or heroic raids is a communal activity. When you said "I cleared Heroic ToES before the patch" what you mean is "We cleared Heroic ToES before the patch" because unless you have a Martin Fury in your bags, you didn't solo it. Progression raiding is always about the group. You don't accomplish things we do. The same is true for arenas or rated battlegrounds - these bastions of elite PvP are group activities, and your success or failure is shared with others. World of Warcraft is an MMO, after all.

Even LFR or random heroic dungeons or scenarios are group dependent, it's just that in these cases the groups are assembled for you by the game. You may well queue up for each of these alone, and you may leave and go about your business afterwards just as alone, but the actual raid, dungeon or scenario will have other players in it with you. This is an inescapable, inseparable part of the WoW experience, and it is one of the things I enjoy about the game.

However, as much as I do enjoy group activities, as much as I love raiding and going into a dungeon or raid zone with a group, there are times I just want to be alone. And it is this desire to sometimes play at my own pace, to my own schedule, that has me reconsidering my expansion-long disdain for the daily quest structure of World of Warcraft.

Continue reading The pleasures of the empty time

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The pleasures of the empty time originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 12 Apr 2013 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> dailyguidanceempty nestEmptyNestinsomniaclate-nightmists-of-pandaria (Matthew Rossi) Fri, 12 Apr 2013 15:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Titan's Grip and polearms "on the list for patch 5.4"]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/12/titans-grip-and-polearms-on-the-list-for-patch-5-4/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/12/titans-grip-and-polearms-on-the-list-for-patch-5-4/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/12/titans-grip-and-polearms-on-the-list-for-patch-5-4/#comments Patch 53 PTR Titan's Grip to work with polearms and staves
Since my current weapon is a polearm, I've been dying to be able to use it with Titan's Grip, and it had appeared that my dreams were coming true in patch 5.3. Both Wowhead news and MMO-Champion had posted that as of build 16837 the restrictions on Titan's Grip disallowing polearms and staves have been lifted. Is this a case of tooltips not being updated properly? I had hope not. I'd really like to dual wield a pair of Hellreavers. Since I know that datamining can lead to weird tooltip issues, I asked Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street for clarification on twitter.

Titan's Grip and polearms 'on the list for patch 54'
So it's probably not going live in patch 5.3 - whether the PTR change is just a tooltip error or a test of the possible functionality we'll find out once 16837 goes live.

I don't know if this also means that polearms will be usable with swords, axes and maces for transmog or if they'll still be considered to share a class with staves. I have a lot of staves in the bank just in case, though. I like hitting people with Damnation.

Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.

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Titan's Grip and polearms "on the list for patch 5.4" originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 12 Apr 2013 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> mists-of-pandariapatch-5.3patch-5.3-ptrpolearmsstavestitans-grip (Matthew Rossi) Fri, 12 Apr 2013 14:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Depths of Uldaman: Why we should go back]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/12/depths-of-uldaman-why-we-should-go-back/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/12/depths-of-uldaman-why-we-should-go-back/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/12/depths-of-uldaman-why-we-should-go-back/#comments Depths of Uldaman Why we should go back I wrote a KYL this week talking about Uldaman, and one thing became clear to me very quickly - there's a ton of things we haven't done in Uldaman yet. We barely explore the place at all, really - the Map Room we find during the dungeon clearly shows many, many more buildings than the few we actually explore, and it's telling that the Reliquary dig and the Explorer's League digsite are half the length of the Badlands away from each other. Furthermore, the long Wrathion quest chain makes it clear that there was a lot going on in Uldaman - the Eye of the Watchers used to purify Wrathion's egg comes from Uldaman.

Uldaman is often referred to as one of three Titan cities along with Uldum and Ulduar, but unlike those two it has barely been explored due to its position buried beneath the Badlands. It's possible that the original Uldaman complex reaches as far as Khaz Modan (both Gnomeregan and Ironforge are settled by beings that would have traced their descent to Uldaman, and the troggs flooding into Gnomeregan are escaping from Titan vaults that are part of the Uldaman complex) which would mean that its size rivals the Storm Peaks Titan complexes that were part of the Forge of Wills inside Ulduar or the vast Uldum ruins.

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Depths of Uldaman: Why we should go back originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 12 Apr 2013 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> Black-DragonflightLoreOld-GodsRaidRaidingReliquaryTitansTroggsUldamanUntapped-PotentialWrathion (Matthew Rossi) Fri, 12 Apr 2013 13:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Queue: Anduin Lothar, because he was Anduin Lothar]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/11/the-queue-anduin-lothar-because-he-was-anduin-lothar/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/11/the-queue-anduin-lothar-because-he-was-anduin-lothar/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/11/the-queue-anduin-lothar-because-he-was-anduin-lothar/#comments
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Matthew Rossi will be your host today.

Let's get it on.

Dawn Moore asks:
Who has the best beard in the warcraft universe and why?

As the title makes clear, the answer is Anduin Lothar, and the reasoning is simple. Because he was Anduin Lothar. His beard is better than Malfurion's because he was objectively better than Malfurion. I'm sorry, but the answer is Anduin Lothar and that's the end of it. I didn't write a two part love letter to Anduin Lothar because someone else had a better beard.

Continue reading The Queue: Anduin Lothar, because he was Anduin Lothar

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The Queue: Anduin Lothar, because he was Anduin Lothar originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 11 Apr 2013 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> featuredguideqaquestion-and-answerwow-answerswow-daily-answerswow-daily-questionswow-guidewow-player-questionswow-q-and-awow-questions (Matthew Rossi) Thu, 11 Apr 2013 11:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Patch 5.3 PTR: Dark Heart of Pandaria scenario]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/10/patch-5-3-ptr-dark-heart-of-pandaria-scenario/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/10/patch-5-3-ptr-dark-heart-of-pandaria-scenario/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/10/patch-5-3-ptr-dark-heart-of-pandaria-scenario/#comments Patch 53 PTR Dark Heart of Pandaria scenario
So with the patch 5.3 PTR opening up some of the new scenarios I got a chance to run the one I'm most interested in, Dark Heart of Pandaria. It's a very interesting glimpse into Pandaria's hidden history and lore, into how Garrosh's Horde is coming apart at the seams, and about how it's never a good idea to drain a lake and start digging for artifacts in the middle of someone else's most sacred secret Vale without things like asking first. Admittedly, they would have said no, and this scenario is just chock full of reasons why, in fact, they should have said no.

There's really no way around the fact that every screenshot I got is at least somewhat spoilerish. The one I used above is fairly safe (I doubt anyone is surprised that in the new scenario, I end up hitting things) but from here on in, it's plot details and tons of them. So be warned, spoilers ahoy. If you don't want spoilers for patch 5.3, this is not the article for you.

Continue reading Patch 5.3 PTR: Dark Heart of Pandaria scenario

Patch 5.3 PTR: Dark Heart of Pandaria scenario originally appeared on WoW Insider on Wed, 10 Apr 2013 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> (Matthew Rossi) Wed, 10 Apr 2013 20:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Know Your Lore, Tinfoil Hat Edition: What was the purpose of Uldaman?]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/10/know-your-lore-tinfoil-hat-edition-what-was-the-purpose-of-uld/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/10/know-your-lore-tinfoil-hat-edition-what-was-the-purpose-of-uld/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/10/know-your-lore-tinfoil-hat-edition-what-was-the-purpose-of-uld/#comments Know Your Lore, Tinfoil Hat Edition What was the purpose of Uldaman wed The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft.

We talked last week about the various Titan facilities left behind on Azeroth, and even then, some things really nagged at me.
  1. The three known Titan 'cities' spoken of in the histories the dwarves have access to are Ulduar, Uldum and Uldaman. This doesn't preclude others, but it does imply something about those three cities and their relative importance.
  2. Both Ulduar and Uldum have been shown to be of importance to the Titans and their overall plan for Azeroth. Ulduar is where Yogg-Saron was held and was the facility from which the Prime Designate (Loken) kept his seat of power, where the Algalon protocol would be exercised. Uldum, for its part, was the seat of the massive engines that would power planetary reorigination if Algalon had sent Reply-Code Omega.
  3. With both Ulduar and Uldum revealed to be of such planetary importance, what was Uldaman's purpose? Was it merely to safeguard the Discs of Norgannon, and if so, why did it have such a large contingent of earthen and potentially mecha-gnomes but no vrykul, mogu, tol'vir or other such Titan constructs, and no Titan Watchers like the ones of Ulduar or Uldum's Halls of Origination. True, Ironaya and Archaedus remained, but they were more akin to Auriaya the Archivist than to designated Watchers like Freya, Hodir or Loken. (Indeed, Auriaya even drops items with their names on them, indicating that kinship.)
So what does this all mean? Well, I have some theories. This is a speculative essay, what's been called a Tinfoil Hat edition around here, that takes the knowns we have and connects them into what is hopefully a plausible explanation of the unknowns.

Continue reading Know Your Lore, Tinfoil Hat Edition: What was the purpose of Uldaman?

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Know Your Lore, Tinfoil Hat Edition: What was the purpose of Uldaman? originally appeared on WoW Insider on Wed, 10 Apr 2013 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> Curse-of-FleshEarthenfeaturedguideguide-to-lorelorelore-guideMatrix-Destablizationrole-playrole-playing-guiderp-guideworld-of-warcraft-lorewow-guidewow-lorewow-role-playingwow-role-playing-guidewow-rpwow-rp-guidewow-rping (Matthew Rossi) Wed, 10 Apr 2013 14:00:00 EST WoW Insider