Filed under: Blood Elves

Blood Elf tank and Murloc hair bow, as seen on Etsy

by Mike Schramm Aug 25th 2008 at 3:30PM

Alice Taylor has quite the eye for scoping out awesome gaming crafts, and just recently, she did a nice roundup (and another post) that had two great handmade WoW items in it. First up was this great-looking Sin'dorei (that's Blood Elf, in case you're not up on your Thalassian) tank top -- it was originally a T-shirt that the maker, smarmyclothes, turned into a tank top with some industrious cutting and stiching. Looks great -- at $52, the price is a little steep, but then again, this is a one-of-a-kind handmade item, so you get what you pay for.

And second was this Murky hair bow -- to tell the truth, I have no idea what a hair bow does (it must tie hair back or something, right?), but I am a huge Murky fan, or at least a fan of /punting the little guy, so any article of clothing with him on it, no matter what it's for, gets my approval. The bows are two for $11, and it looks like there's only one in stock, so SugarPopRibbons is probably making them to order. But I'm sure if you're patient, you can get your hands (or hair, I guess) on one.

Seen any other great WoW crafts, on Etsy or anywhere else? Let us know!

Filed under: Tailoring, Fan stuff, Virtual selves, Odds and ends, Blood Elves, Fan art

Barrens Chat: Fuzzy Wuzzy was

by Megan Harris Jul 31st 2008 at 3:00PM

Welcome back for another Barrens Chat comic. I would up front like to say that I am very excited about exotic pets. So excited, I had to poke fun at fellow blogger Daniel Howell for his post last week on the topic of exotic pets. Although I think I might have been a little misleading when I first ran the idea of what I wanted to do past him.

Either way, I'm still playing with a few drawing and coloring changes here and there. I didn't darken the outlines this time around, but I think it makes it a bit harder to see in places.

Thank you, Daniel, for pointing me towards your banner for a reference, even if I didn't specify what it was I was referencing exactly.

See you next week!

Gallery: Barrens Chat

Barrens Chat is a weekly comic installment created on caffeine and pixy sticks. Although we've yet again decided to abuse Hunters in any way we can find, sometimes we go after the tankier players, too. Stop by every week to see a new comic, and hope that the sugar stash has run out by then.

Filed under: Horde, Dwarves, Tauren, Hunter, Blood Elves, Comics, Barrens Chat

Barrens Chat: Encore

by Megan Harris Jul 17th 2008 at 4:00PM

I don't get to play World of Warcraft very often anymore. Real life comes up and gets in the way all the time, and then you have to sit back and listen to your friends talk about how much fun they've had in the past few weeks you've been away. So you sit, and you wait, and eventually you get time to log on again, run around, and have a jolly old time. Especially when you get to hang out with good people.

I've never had Ventrilo or any other sort of microphone attachment that would broadcast my voice across the Internet. For one point, I'd have to break down and buy a headset of some sort. Knowing me I'd likely break it within a week, so I'd actually need to buy two, but that's alright. The other reason is, I'm not entirely sure I want the ability to hear other absent minded people like me babbling to themselves, forgetting the rest of the world can hear them.

Gallery: Barrens Chat

Filed under: Horde, Orcs, Trolls, Blood Elves, Comics, Barrens Chat

Phat Loot Phriday: Golden Staff of the Sin'dorei

by Mike Schramm Jun 20th 2008 at 9:00PM

Yup, that's it. This baby is pretty much tops if you are a healer who wants to max out Spirit and healing and all of those other good stats that help you keep others alive. This is the kind of staff that even makes Tanks go all Keanu: "whoah."

Name: Golden Staff of the Sin'dorei (WowDB, Thottbot, Wowhead)
Type: Epic Two-hand Staff
Damage/Speed: 146-338 / 3.20 (75.6 DPS)
Abilities:

+60 Stamina, +54 Intellect, +57 Spirit. Yeah.
Red and two Blue sockets, nicely fitted with some +22 healing gems and/or +10 Spirit gems and you're talking about some real power. +4 Spirit socket bonus.
Improves spell haste rating by 32
+550 healing, +183 spell damage. Yes, you read that right -- 550 healing. Not since right before the last expansion has there been a staff this nice in comparison to other gear, and even if you could match the healing on a one-hand/offhand combo (you probably can, if you get the right gear and enchants together), the Spirit bonuses on this baby are going to give that duo a run for the money. Take a good look, because this is the kind of stuff that's going to be dropping in endgame raids at level 80.
Sin'dorei, you should know by now (we're almost to the next expansion), means Blood Elves, or "children of the Blood" in Thalassian. And yes, the staff looks just like the one in the BC art, as seen above. This is very BC staff, if not the most defining staff of this expansion. Look for a lot less gold and green and a lot more blue and black in WotLK.

How to Get It: This is a Kil'jaeden item yet again -- it drops from the last boss currently in the game. And since we've seen so few drops from Killy Jay so far, we're not sure of the drop rate at all. Not that it matters much -- so few players comparatively are going to get loot from the fight with Kayje, that odds are you'll never see it.

You can drool, though. And in ten levels, when we're all working through Naxx again, maybe you can convince your raid to go back and help you get it.

Getting Rid of It: Sells to vendors for 20g 54s 93s and disenchants into a Void Crystal. But look how shiny! Have a good weekend.

Filed under: Druid, Priest, Shaman, Items, Analysis / Opinion, Blood Elves, Lore

Arcane Brilliance: Leveling your Mage, 1-20

by Christian Belt May 31st 2008 at 3:30PM

Every Saturday, Arcane Brilliance freezes you in place, then Blinks behind a pillar and turns Invisible. You can look for Arcane Brilliance if you want to, but I can tell you that's a bad idea. You see, while you're looking, Arcane Brilliance is positioning itself behind you, cooking up a giant Pyroblast and aiming it up your tailpipe. You really only have a few options here. You can a.) cry, b.) curl into the fetal position and wait for the sweet embrace of death, or c.) distract Arcane Brilliance by quickly yelling "Spell damage is more important that spell hit rating, discuss!" and then log out while Arcane Brilliance is busy posting on the forums about what you just said. I'd go with c.), personally. Works every time.

Recently, I discovered that there seem to be leveling guides on this site for just about every class but Mages, so it's time I stepped up to the plate. The problem is, Mage was my very first class, on my very first character, on my very first foray into the World of Warcraft, which took place approximately forever ago. Ok, so it's only been about two-and-a-half years, but in WoW years, that's the rough equivalent of a million kajillion years ago. My memories of those first few levels are fuzzy at best, and I can condense what I remember learning into two statements: "Murlocs are evil," and "The only way out of Undercity is to use my Hearthstone." One of those statements eventually stopped being true for me, and the other one is "Murlocs are evil." Needless to say, I didn't feel entirely qualified to write a leveling guide for the first few levels of Magecraft.

To rectify the situation, I decided to roll a brand new Mage, so that I could experience those first few levels all over again. To ensure that the experience was as pure as I could make it, I created my Mage on a new server--the newest actually--Cairne. I knew nobody on that server, and had no alts there, so this Mage, a Human female I named Niwt, would be an entirely virgin Mage. I had never played an Alliance Mage before, and never leveled any character in the Human starting area, so the quests would be new to me, and the landscape foreign. I disabled all of my mods and dove in.

It was horrible.

I learned a lot though, or remembered learning a lot, depending on how you look at it. After the break, more text!

Filed under: Human, Gnomes, Undead, Trolls, Mage, Mining, Tips, How-tos, Draenei, Blood Elves, Leveling, Guides, Classes, Making money, Alts, (Mage) Arcane Brilliance

Spiritual Guidance: Discipline Yourself to Level 70

by Matt Low May 26th 2008 at 3:00PM

Every Sunday (usually), Spiritual Guidance will offer practical insight for priests of the holy profession. But since it's Memorial Day weekend and Canadians don't celebrate the holiday, I decided to keep you all entertained on Monday! Your host is now Matt Low, the grand poobah of World of Matticus, and this week he's written different "If" statements to follow.

The launch date for the new expansion is coming ever closer, and soon the race will begin to get from 70 to 80. Looking forward to the grind? I know I'm interested in the new quest designs and mechanics! I'm one of the few crazy people in WoW who leveled Disc/Holy. There are a few good tips on leveling to 70 without having any points invested in Shadow. This week's piece discusses the reasons for leveling as Discipline, talents you should consider, and the spells in your arsenal. I'm happy to see the purpose of the Discipline tree being more focused. Here's why I did it, and why I plan on doing it again when Wrath of the Lich King is released.

Filed under: Human, Night Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, Trolls, Priest, Tips, How-tos, Draenei, Blood Elves, Leveling, Classes, Talents, (Priest) Spiritual Guidance

Why all race Death Knights make sense from a lore standpoint

by Daniel Whitcomb May 23rd 2008 at 11:00AM

It seems like one of the biggest problems a lot of people have with Death Knights is the fact that they can be all races. Me, I say: Why not? The lore really isn't as bad as you might think. Sure, some of the retcons can get a little annoying, but despite the fact that non-Paladin races will get to be Death Knights, I don't think you really consider it a retcon, but rather an evolution in an ever-evolving story that opens up a lot of great story ideas and RP opportunities, and I'm really looking forward to it.

Filed under: Horde, Alliance, Human, Night Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, Orcs, Tauren, Undead, Trolls, Analysis / Opinion, Virtual selves, Blizzard, Expansions, Draenei, Blood Elves, Lore, RP, NPCs, Death Knight, Wrath of the Lich King

Level 70 Elite Tauren Chieftain, now featuring an orphan on Air Guitar

by Daniel Whitcomb May 1st 2008 at 6:00PM

So, with Children's Week upon us, the lore buff in me was wondering something: What's going to happen with Salandria?

If you had a high level character Horde last year and did the Shattrath Orphan's Week quest, you know what I'm talking about. Salandria, your Blood Elf Orphan, is a somewhat snooty and stuck up girl who loves to stick her nose where it might not be safe (such as the fire elemental up at the Throne of Elements), but she seems mostly like a normal, if slightly precocious girl.

Until she asks to go to Silvermoon and the Caverns of Time.

Filed under: Horde, Paladin, Shaman, Analysis / Opinion, Events, Blizzard, News items, Quests, Draenei, Blood Elves, Humor, Lore, RP

Phat Loot Phriday: Orb of the Sin'dorei

by Mike Schramm Apr 11th 2008 at 7:30PM

Like the ol' Orb of Deception, here's another fun toy -- that's brand new in patch 2.4.

Name: Orb of the Sin'dorei (Wowhead, Thottbot, WowDB)
Type: Rare Item
Damage/Speed: N/A
Abilities:

On use, transforms the user into a Blood Elf. Lasts for five minutes with a 30 minute cooldown between uses.
Also drops on shapeshift of any kind.
One of the cool things about this trinket is that it keeps your equipment looking the same. Always wanted to see what a Blood Elf warrior looks like (since they don't exist in game)? Use this on your tank, and how they might appear.
Unfortunately, there is a catch: if you use this item on your Blood Elf, they won't change at all.
Lore note: "Sin'dorei" actually means "Children of the Blood" in Thalassian. Before the High Elves got all corrupted, they were the quel'dorei ("Children of Noble Birth") and then they split into the BEs and the Night Elves (who are also known as the kal'dorei -- "Children of the Stars"). Unfortunately, there still isn't a perlman'dorei in Azeroth (though that, of course, would be the "City of Lost Children").
Yeah, this orb thingy is kind of silly, but Blood Elves are, as the kids say, pretty hawt. Who wouldn't want to be one?

How to Get It: Drops from any of the bosses in Magisters' Terrace, but on Heroic Mode only. The drop rate is pretty low (about 1-2% per boss, but considering that you get a chance for it to drop every time you down a boss, this is actually a relatively common drop -- definitely moreso than, say, the Baron's mount).

And don't forget that to get into MrT Heroic, you've got to finish the quest to kill Kael first. Get that done, get Heroic Countenance, head on into Heroic MrT, and down bosses until you see this pop up.

Getting Rid of It: Sells to vendors for 46s 18c, and disenchants into an Arcane Dust, Lesser Planar Essence, or (very rarely) a Large Prismatic Shard. But I'd keep it if I was you -- you never know when you want someone's girlfriend to wish you were "hot... like... me."

Filed under: Items, Analysis / Opinion, Tips, Odds and ends, Blood Elves, Phat Loot Phriday

Fury of the Sunwell trailer Lore analysis

by Daniel Whitcomb Apr 8th 2008 at 9:00AM

So you've had time to traipse around Sunwell Isle, you've read the new lore (both the official stuff and Alex's Know Your Lore: The Sunwell), watched the trailer, and all that good stuff, but you're still a bit confused. What does it all mean?

Let the lore geeks at WoW Insider help you out a bit. We've put together a scene by scene analysis of the lore behind the Fury of the Sunwell trailer, and we're presenting it to you here. Hopefully, it sheds some more light on this whole "Did Kael'thas go crazy or didn't he, and what is up with Kil'jaedan anyway?" thing.

Filed under: Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Machinima, Blizzard, Blood Elves, Lore, RP, NPCs

Report Card: Phase 3 quests

by Daniel Whitcomb Apr 5th 2008 at 7:00PM

Phase 3 is now in full swing on many servers, including mine, and this time, we're working on taking the Sun's Reach Harbor as well as opening up the long awaited badge loot vendor. How do the quests stack up this time around? Does the near flawless run for great dailies from Quel'danas continue? I've had a few days to try out the runs, and I have to say that there's a few rough spots, but you can continue to grow your list of dailies with confidence as the new phases come on.

Filed under: Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Quests, Blood Elves, Factions, Making money

He said, she said: Does Blizzard support homosexual stereotyping?

by David Bowers Mar 30th 2008 at 9:00AM

He Said / She Said is a new feature at WoW Insider, which looks at the game from masculine and feminine points of view. Today, Amanda and David discuss the age-old question: are male night elves and blood elves "gay?" Does Blizzard intend to give us that impression, and if so, why? If that's not what Blizzard intends, then why is gayness such a big deal when people think of elves?

Read on to see the conversation.

Filed under: Night Elves, WoW Social Conventions, Virtual selves, Blood Elves, He Said She Said

Undocumented changes so far in patch 2.4

by Mike Schramm Mar 26th 2008 at 5:15PM

Now we're to my favorite part of a new patch -- sussing out the undocumented changes. Everyone's really known about the patch notes for months, but it seems like every time Blizzard releases an update, there are always plenty of undocumented changes that don't quite make it in.

WorldofWar.net has a good set of changes so far: Troll offhands are small, Gruul's Lair's and Kara's reset display is off, and Shamans' Mental Quickness talent doesn't seem to be working. A few people have already noticed that there is no repair character on the Isle of Quel'danas yet, but that's only because the daily quests haven't moved forward yet -- with a bigger foothold, the Shattered Sun should be able to bring in a blacksmith or two.

Void Reaver seems to have been buffed a bit, the Shaman clearcasting ding is bugged, and I've heard that the Blood Elf mounts (a.k.a. Chocobos) will now squawk on demand (though I'm not sure that's new). Seen any other undocumented changes on the realms yet?

Filed under: Shaman, Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, Bugs, Odds and ends, Blizzard, Blood Elves

Best starting race

by Allison Robert Mar 19th 2008 at 5:00PM

I've been leveling a few Draenei alts off and on and finally figured out just why it is that I keep rolling the damn things in addition to my beloved Tauren; their starting quests rock. You wake from stasis, meet the locals, save a princess, make early ties to the Alliance and find out why there's a good reason the some of 'em won't trust you right off the bat, discover nefarious deeds afoot, fight a dragon, and then save your people and get a cool tabard. "Find your way back to the Outland, Hero of Argus," Exarch Admetius tells you, in a nice preview of things to come, and Velen has a good lore moment with you shortly afterwards.

Having leveled a toon out of every starting area to at least 20, it's hard not to notice that some areas make it a lot easier than others. I don't mean the general ease of leveling per se, but just how fast the time seems to fly by. For all that a certain percentage of the playerbase frowns on RP on non-RP servers, most peoples' favorite quests do have an element of RP to them, or at least the RP sense of being fully engaged with the world. And in that respect the Draenei starting zones are, in my opinion, unparalleled. If I had to rank them --

Filed under: Human, Night Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, Orcs, Tauren, Undead, Trolls, Analysis / Opinion, Quests, Draenei, Blood Elves, Lore, Leveling, Factions, RP, Alts

Breakfast Topic: Electing a leader for the Horde (Poll)

by Amanda Dean Mar 11th 2008 at 8:00AM

Yesterday we began the primary election to name a leader for the Alliance . So far it's a close race between Highlord Bolvar Fordragon, King Magni Bronzebeard, and High Priestess Tyrande Whisperwind. Lady Jaina Proudmoore stands out as a highly regarded write-in candidate, and may well win her way to an independent nomination of the final ballot.

Today we stand ready to select a leader over the entire Horde faction. Many have already begun campaigning for Thrall, possibly mistaking him for a member of the Alliance.

Filed under: Horde, Orcs, Tauren, Undead, Trolls, Polls, Fan stuff, Odds and ends, Breakfast Topics, Blood Elves, NPCs

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