Posts with tag argent-crusade

Remember the Argent Crusade? It was a result of merging two factions -- the Argent Dawn, which spent its time in the Eastern Plaguelands trying to eradicate the Scourge, and the reformed Order of the Silver Hand, an Alliance order of paladins formed by Uther the Lightbringer and Alonsus Faol. The Argent Crusade accepted members of both Alliance and Horde who wanted to fight toward the Crusade's ultimate goal: the defeat of the Lich King. Today, the Argent Crusade sits in Hearthglen, working to restore the Western Plaguelands to their former beauty.

The Argent Crusade is just one of the neutral factions in WoW, along with the Cenarion Circle, the Shattered Sun Offensive, the Earthen Ring and many others. Chris Metzen spoke about the Argent Crusade and the concept of neutral factions in our Mists of Pandaria press event interview, citing the Argent Crusade as one of the neutral factions that just rang true, whereas the Shattered Sun Offensive simply didn't feel quite as emotional.

But here's the thing -- the Argent Crusade, while being very active in Wrath, is hardly doing anything at all in the Western Plaguelands. There's a fight for Andorhal going on on the Crusade's doorstep, but they aren't stepping in. The Forsaken -- members of the Horde -- are actively seeking out activities that look suspiciously like Scourge activity, even going so far as to recruit the val'kyr, former servants of Arthas.

So ... what gives?

All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players. In World of Warcraft, that player is you! Each week, Anne Stickney brings you All the World's a Stage with helpful hints, tips and tricks on the art of roleplay in WoW.

Once upon a time in classic World of Warcraft, there was an organization called the Argent Dawn. This organization made its home in the heart of the Plaguelands ruined by the Scourge during Warcraft 3 and sought to fight back and cure the land of the plague that ailed it. But the Argent Dawn could not do it alone, which is where players both Alliance and Horde came into the picture. In the Plaguelands, both factions worked for the same cause, and the Argent Dawn oversaw it all.

Later, the Argent Dawn evolved into the Argent Crusade, setting its sights on Northrend and the Lich King's throne. Those loyal to the Argent Dawn readily joined the Argent Crusade and traveled to the chilly peaks of Icecrown in the hopes of putting an end to the Lich King. After a long war, the mission was a success, and the Argent Crusade returned home -- but what of those who belong to the Argent Crusade? What does an Argent Crusader have to do these days?

For roleplayers with characters who belong to this organization, there may be a little less to work with than there was in Wrath of the Lich King; the Argent Crusade isn't really a highlight of Cataclysm. But that doesn't mean there aren't points to consider when playing your courageous hero.

With the Light as his strength, Gregg Reece of The Light and How to Swing It faces down the demons of the Burning Legion, the undead of the Scourge, and soon, an entire flight of black dragons.

As I said last week, I'm looking for action screenshots of retribution and protection paladins. I've gotten a lot of good shots thus far and am always looking for more (especially you retribution paladins out there, as I got a ton of protection ones). They can be any level between 1 and 80. I'll be using these for header graphics like the one above. Please send those as well as any other comments to my email at gregg@wow.com.

If you've been following the column recently, you've seen the three-part series we did on gearing up a brand new level 80 protection paladin. We're going to take the same approach now to the retribution tree and work our way through the different types of items. First up, we've got craftables and reputation items. We'll be taking a look at stuff you'll be able to grab in dungeons next week and finish up the week after with a run-through of what all you can buy with the badges you got from all of that time in the random dungeon finder.

Every Sunday, Chase Christian of The Light and How to Swing It invites you to discuss the finer side of the paladin class: the holy specialization. This week, we discuss the most efficient way to pick up healing gear as a newly 80 paladin.

I feel like raiding in Wrath of the Lich King has started towards a slight lull in the past week or two. Many high-end guilds are stuck at 11/12 heroic kills in ICC, looking across the gaping chasm that is the Lich King fight on heroic, focusing on the few guilds who have managed to topple Arthas for good. I also find that most of the casual guilds have also settled into their niches, killing those Icecrown bosses that they have the time or raw numbers to defeat and being content with that. With only Ruby Sanctum to look forward to in terms of remaining raids and graduation season already started, I can already feel the post-expansion exodus ready to begin.

Guilds begin losing members faster than they can be replaced, and recruiting becomes a daily burden instead of a monthly chore. While all of this may sound like bad news, there is some hope in this transition period between the final tier of Wrath and the first tier of Cataclysm. Players will be using the free time to level alts, and I have already seen a deluge of newly minted toons appear in my guild this month. With any luck, there are future holy paladins in this mix, and in a few weeks' time, we'll have new brothers and sisters in arms. However, before they're truly ready to take up the mantle of keeping a tank alive through 3 stacks of Festergut's Inhaled Blight?, they're going to need some sweet gear to give them the throughput and longevity to pull it off.

In many ways Wrath of the Lich King can be considered the logical conclusion of one of WarCraft's major story lines. Arthas, the evil sovereign of the scourge, will meet his doom in Icecrown Citadel. Each Wrath patch up until now has lead to this defining moment -- the face off between Arthas and the players representing the next generation of heroes of Azeroth. Who will win? What happens after Arthas is defeated? Is Arthas defeated?

These questions lend themselves to a spectacular conclusion to a great tale. In The Lore of Patch 3.3, Michael Sacco, Alex Ziebart, and I will take a look at all the various plots, characters, and environments that lead up to this grand confrontation with the Lich King.

You'll want to know this story. You'll want to know this lore.

For when you finally face off against the wielder of the Frostmourne, you'll know why you're going toe-to-toe against him, and why your fate can make or break the very face of Azeroth.

This article, while containing essential lore, also contains heavy spoilers. Do not proceed if that bothers you.

WoW.com's prestige in the community has afforded us the opportunity to speak to major Azerothian leadership figures on any subject, and we're letting you, the reader, Ask A Faction Leader!

We recently spoke to Cairne Bloodhoof, High Chieftain of the tauren, and he shed light on several key issues, including cruelty to hawkstriders, data-mining farseers, two-handed totem trainers, and Earthmother itches. In this installment of Ask A Faction Leader, we'll be sitting with Highlord Tirion Fordring of the Argent Crusade.

Our first reader question:

We can't believe it either – Turpster has been let loose on WoW.com to bring you videos from in and around the World of Warcraft! You've heard him on the WoW Insider Show, and now see him on TurpsterVision right here on WoW.com.

Drinking alcohol might make you feel big, but you wont be clever! Don't do drugs kids! Now I've got that out of the way, I can leave you all to enjoy the video and to get in game and complete the achievements. If you need any help then make sure you check out Allison Robert's fantastic guide on the Brewfest 2009 achievements!

Also, as some of the less filthy minded of you out there might have guessed from the title, this week's TurpsterVision features the Argent Tournament reward and the achievement of Pony Up! And I have it on fairly good word that this is indeed THE Pony that Ghostcrawler promised us -- well at least that is how I am treating it in-game (RP ftw!).

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Every week, Raid Rx will help you quarterback your healers to victory! Your host is Matt Low, the grand poobah of World of Matticus and a founder of No Stock UI, a new WoW blog for all things UI, macro, and addon related. It's time to gear us up some healers! Let's take a look at all the phat loot the coliseum has to offer.

The Crusader's Coliseum offers a wide variety of gear and equipment for both new and veteran healers. It's time for us to start equipping ourselves in order to be prepared when Icecrown Citadel hits. While we're not exactly going to be healing Arthas to death, it's a good idea to start working on our stuff now.

We'll start with Trial of the Champion for the fresher 80s before we move to Trial of the Crusader where all the good stuff is.

Insider Trader is your inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.

Lately, there has been a lot of talk about vanilla WoW and the way things used to be. Now that experience gains can be shut off, players can actually move through some of this content the way it was meant to be experienced. Well, it won't be exactly the way it was, but it's as close as we're getting.

Blizzard has also been implementing more elements from the old world. Naxxramas was a vanilla dungeon, and was redone to become the first raid instance of the second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, set back on Azeroth no less.

In fact, soon we'll all be battling Onyxia once again, deep breaths and all!

Professions used to be different too. Of course, most of the changes to the system have been for the better, but there were some elements that could be recycled for the future.

Last week, Insider Trader discussed a new, more progressive direction for professions, including some of the ways that this could be implemented. This week I'll be shedding new light on one particular vanilla element that has been phased out, exploring ways in which it could be reborn.

Kebina Trudough here, offering you the best gold making secrets they don't want you to know about! I was like you once, poor and homely, before I discovered my patented system. Now you too can fill your pockets with the good stuff without ever breaking a sweat! Why spend all your time toiling when you could be vacationing in the Hot Springs? I'm not offering these tips for 100 gold, or 90 gold, or even 50 gold! No, not even 20 gold! My system is yours for FREE! Satisfaction guaranteed or I'll give you a full refund (handling charges may apply).

How would you like to make 45g in less than 20 minutes per day? Act quickly, and they'll throw in 850 Argent Crusade reputation and a shot at your very own Deputy Pa'trolla Badge!

Individual results may vary. If you are not level 80 yet, you won't make as much gold, but you will gain a whopping amount of experience!

So how can you take advantage of this once-a-day offer? By going on a Troll Patrol of course! You need to finish in 20 minutes or less to get the full benefits, but lucky for you, I have all the tips to get you movin'.

We can't believe it either – Turpster has been let loose on WoW.com to bring you videos from in and around the World of Warcraft! You've heard him on the WoW Insider Show, and now see him on TurpsterVision right here on WoW.com.

Patch 3.2 brings us many, many great ways for us to get our hands on Champions Seals along with some awesome things to spend them on! One of the easiest ways to get your hands on some of these new items is by completing the daily quests offered up in Ice Crown at the Argent Tournament. Now the Tournament has been around for quite some time now, but loads of people have told me that they either haven't taken part in it or just don't know how to Joust. If you are a Jousting n00b then this TurpsterVision is for you.

Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.

In celebration of the recent release of the new Harry Potter movie, I've decided to expose the two of you out there that have never seen the above video to... well, the above video. I'll say no more, folks. Watch it, then read on! Probably in beat with a metronome!

Mannas asked...

"With the new feature to switch factions, will we finally have a way to "mail" items across factions by making a toon, sending the item there, switching factions and then mailing on? Or will they somehow limit this?"

So as you may have seen if you follow WRUP, I've been trying on and off for months to summon up the energy to get through the tournament on my Death Knight. It's not that I don't want it, but the Argent Tournament dailies just aren't my favorite. The quests are lacking life and excitement, and the lore is sort of tepid. When it comes time to solo, I find myself retreating to a leveling alt rather than doing the same old boring dailies over and over again. I'm pretty sure it's not even the repetition of dailies that's doing it either. I used to do the Shattered Sun dailies over and over all the time without a care, just because they were so much fun.

But with the announcement of new dailies to be opened to people with enough faction in Patch 3.2, I've felt like I need to make that final push. However, it wasn't until a few days ago that I finally kicked myself into gear, and I'm now at a week and counting of doing my tournament dailies every day without fail. The reason? The background downloader went up.

Welcome to Ask a Lore Nerd, where each week blogger and columnist Alex Ziebart answers your questions about the lore and history of the World of Warcraft. Ask your questions in the comments section below, and we'll try to answer it in a future edition.

This week I have a special request: I want any questions you might have about potential future expansions. Any questions at all are welcome, but I'm on a speculation kick recently, so next week's column will probably focus on the future and then we'lll be back to our regular deal after that. So no matter whether you think the Maelstrom could be next or something else entirely, ask!

Mark asked...

"Any chance that the Vrykul will be a playable race in a future expansion?"