Posts with tag blood-elf

In fashion, coordinates are matching pieces of clothing that are meant to be worn together. Think of a matching suit jacket and pants, or a prom dress and shawl sold together in the same color. Typically, coordinates are for people who work in offices and need to look professional or people who can't dress themselves.

In WoW, there are coordinates too, and they can be used strategically to pull together seemingly unrelated pieces of gear into different looks. This week, I'll be showing you three different looks for your mail-wearing hunter or shaman, all oriented around three easy-to-obtain mail coordinates.

While it's not a brand new leader short story, Lor'themar Theron, Regent Lord of Quel'thalas, gets the new-to-you treatment with Sarah Pine's wonderful story, In the Shadow of the Sun. In the Shadow of the Sun was the 2008 winner in the Blizzard Global Creative Writing Contest and chronicles the leadership of Lor'themar after The Burning Crusade, the rejuvenation of the Sunwell, and the preparations for war against Arthas in Northrend. After fighting a devastating battle at the Sunwell Plateau, Lor'themar must meet the challenges of peace time and war, leading his people immediately after their great leader has been corrupted and lost.

Check out the full story over at the Blizzard community website. If you haven't yet read this one, it's definitely one of the best.

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.

Many roleplay guilds run with a theme of some sort, whether it's a group of heroes all thrown together with a specific cause, a family or noble house, or even a rag-tag group of mercenaries. Those aren't the only themes available to play, however. World of Warcraft has several different organizations established in lore, and some players choose to place their characters in those organizations. It's a good way to root the character in the existing lore, but it's also an excellent way to help define the character you're playing. Due to popular request, over the next few weeks I'll be addressing some of Azeroth's major organizations and taking a closer look at each.

The Blood Knights of Silvermoon are a relatively new organization by Azeroth's standards, formed for one purpose and now practicing another. Though it could be stated that their story began and ended in The Burning Crusade, that's not exactly true. There are plenty of plot threads left hanging that Blood Knights can play with.

With all the upheaval regarding death knight abilities and DPS happening right now, it's sometimes a good idea to go back to the basics and figure out some of the stuff that underlies a good, solid death knight.

One of the most basic cornerstones of choosing a death knight is choosing your race. Since every single race can be a death knight, you have your pick, and since there's a race change service, you don't even have to stay the same race forever. Personally, I tend to say that you choose whatever race feels right for you -- but for those who want to pick a race (or change your current race) based on what racials are "best," this guide is for you.

It's no secret that we love Laura Shigihara, the composer for Pop Cap's amazing Plants vs. Zombies and now the voice of Cataclysm's singing sunflower pet. Shigihara has stepped into the WoW machinima world with her own original song and video, Blood Elf Druids, an adorable song making a plea to Blizzard for the inclusion of blood elf druids. Shout-outs to Tooga the turtle are pretty obscure, which makes it even more fun.

It's adorable, catchy and a great first shot at machinima. There's even a behind-the-scenes video posted here. If this is the quality of song we're getting for the first video, I cannot wait to see what's coming next. An orc ballad, perhaps? I can only hope.

This article has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW.com.

Back around the time faction changes came out, my old guild decided en masse to change over to the Horde. I logged on one morning after a week's vacation, saw nobody in the guild, and when I popped into Vent, I found out where everyone had gone. I transferred over my main, we wrecked ToC and then later ICC and For the Horde, and all was good. A few weeks ago, I realized I was bored and wanted to transfer over my level 80 draenei pally for another alt to play and to farm frost badges with. My choices were obviously limited to blood elf. I didn't particularly like either character model or their animations, and after 15 minutes of staring at the character recustomization screen, I flipped a coin and it came down to blood elf female.

I absolutely hated it at first. The animations were silly looking, and she ran funny. I was broke after that, so I decided to grin and bear it. A few days passed, and I tanked my way from one end of the dungeon finder to the other. It was in a heroic Drak'tharon Keep, after I had pulled the entirety of the room before Trollgore and was facing down 13 or 14 Scourge trying desperately to kill my overgeared self, that I watched my paladin dodge, parry and block at a rapid pace. She wasn't just mitigating damage; it honestly looked like she was dancing. I was reminded of gun-fu scenes like from The Matrix where characters duck, dodge and dash their way around dangers. My paladin was a ninja.

From then on, I loved my blood elf female pally and all her silly animations (except for the casting ones ... still not too keen on them). What similar situations have you been in, when something you thought would be awful turned out to be absolutely amazing?

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Have you ever wanted to write for WoW.com? Your chance may be right around the corner. Watch for our next call for submissions for articles via Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW.com. The next byline you see here may be yours!

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Second, evoking the name Garrosh Hellscream sets people off. I'm not quite sure what to make of this, but I'd have to say it's a telling statement to the storytelling department that Garrosh, regardless of how much or how little he's been developed, is provoking this kind of reaction from players. Given that most writers like to evoke some sort of emotion in their readers, I can only imagine they are secretly pleased with the outrage. Right, moving on!

The blood elves, or sin'dorei as they've taken to calling themselves, have been a largely quiet presence in Wrath of the Lich King. Given this, they may seem like an odd choice to cover. Why bother talking about a race that hasn't done much to speak of since the days of Burning Crusade? Well... that's sort of the point. While the orcs, trolls, and tauren were natural additions, and the forsaken a little different but accepted at large, the blood elves were a very odd choice for an ally to many Horde players, and through the course of Burning Crusade, there was very little light shed on what made these creatures a valuable ally to the Horde because a large amount of blood elf history stemmed from events that happened prior to World of Warcraft.

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

We recently spoke to Archdruid Fandral Staghelm, night elf leader of the Cenarion Circle, and he shed light on several key issues, including morrowgrain research, moonkin form, troll and worgen druids, his overwhelming popularity, and Silithus stankiness. In this installment of Ask a Faction Leader, we'll be sitting with Regent-Lord Lor'themar Theron, interim ruler of the blood elves.

Our first reader question:

Dear Regent-Lord Lor'themar Theron,

As a loyal defender of both you and Silvermoon, I have seen you fight first hand, and there are questions I need to ask.

What Class are you? I mean you are said to be a ranger, or a hunter. But you look like a paladin, and use quasi-magi abilities so it has become impossible to tell. But honestly, I just want to tell you to cheer up and get some personality. Maybe then people might come back to Silvermoon and defend you, which would help seen as whatever class mash-up you are you fight terribly. Don't blame it on gear, Thrall is in level 30 greens and he at least fights like he cares. The fight to Arthas, the destroyer of Silvermoon, is coming, and you stand there, doing nothing. Will you ever send troops to Northrend? Will you ever get a personality?

Yours,
Bvannas
Blood Elf Mage
Terokkar (EU)

Lor'themar responds:

My class? As in the role I fill in a group? It should be evident from looking at my list of abilities. You see the one labeled "Mass Charm"? Not a difficult thing to infer.

It's that time of year again -- I just saw a seasonal costume store opening up near my apartment here in Chicago, and that means that we're almost to October, when all kinds of official and unofficial Halloween costumes from all of the year's biggest brands appear. Last year we had some Orc masks and old-school armor and gear (and we may see some of that stuff again this year), but so far the only new thing we've seen is these latex ears, in Night Elf and Blood Elf style, over on Amazon. For just $12, you too can have inordinately large pointy ears, signifying that you're a magical creature from Azeroth.

Cheesy? Maybe so, but then again, that's pretty much what dressing up on Halloween is all about these days. If you happen to see any other Warcraft-related costumes during the season (either officially licensed by Blizzard or knocked-off by some shady costume designer), make sure to take a picture and send us a tip. And of course if you enjoy seeing real people dress up as fictional Warcraft characters, you'll love our pictures from BlizzCon. Enjoy.

I've never been a fan of Blood Elves. My dislike of them goes back to the days of the Burning Crusade beta, when the word was they were beefed up to appeal to notions of masculinity. (Uh huh, you heard me: the boys playing Blood Elves wanted their men beefy and all twinkie to satisfy them. I'll just leave that repression thought alone.) Nonetheless, that impromptu steroid injection just set me off on the wrong foot with the Sindorei.

And then my initial dislike for Belfdom found a quick reaffirmation when I saw Silvermoon for the first time. Everything's so . . . posh and pretty. Luxurious color, rich fabric, and cushions. I've been an Ironforge man all my life. We don't do cushions! Cushions are for namby pamby elfs! And they have brooms! And those brooms magically clean things!

Yes, gentle reader, I'm aware that one part of my brain was rebelling against the beefy-ization of Belfs because of gender assumptions, while at the same time the other part of my brain railed against Belfs for being "namby pamby."

So, yeah. Blood Elves. Never been a fan.

Iryzia created Candyman, a music video featuring the music by Christina Aguilera. The tip about this video comes to us from Nessa, who rightly compares it to Demachic's "Britney Belf" ouevre. And while you may or may not find Blood Elf performers "your thing," I think this is actually a great use of the models. Their elegant hair and broad movements match the genre of the song pretty well.

Of course, I'll admit it was a tad jarring to see the three Blood Elf women dancing and singing it up in the Stormwind auction house. As the video proceeds, though, it becomes pretty obvious that it's just the room being used as a stage. Iryzia's attention to movement, dressing, and setting reinforces the beauty of the video. I especially love her use of red curtains, as the vibrant color helps bring the video to life.

I think Iryzia could produce a lot of cool stuff, and I'm hoping she keeps honing her skills.

If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.

Previously on Moviewatch

Along with most of the Blizzard fansites, Arena Junkies is also conducting a BlizzCon ticket giveaway, and they want you to design your own Arena. Basically, you come up with an idea, supplement it with whatever drawings or pictures you'd like, and then submit it in their forum thread by June 5th. After that, they'll have the community choose the top three, and each of those winners will be on their way to Anaheim to visit Blizzard's big event. We bet there'll be some awesome ideas coming out of the contest by the end -- Arena players are nothing if not creative.

And in other BlizzCon news, Tokyopop has announced that they'll have a booth at the convention (not a huge surprise -- we'll expect to see most of Blizzard's licensing partners in attendance), and they've got a lot of fun stuff planned: artist Fernando Heinz Furukawa of Warcraft Legends and Starcraft: Ghost Academy will be there and drawing pictures for attendees, and there'll be various art on display and new books to be sold. Plus, they'll have a Blood Elf standup for pictures, and they even leak a little something about fellow exhibitor BradyGames: this year they'll be hosting a convention-wide "fishing quest." Sounds like fun.

If you don't have tickets yet, you have one more chance: they go on sale this Sunday, May 31st. Seriously, don't show up until then. (Ed: Schramm, stop trying to keep people out of your ticket line! The second round of ticket sales is this Saturday, May 30th. Good luck to everyone except Schramm.)

We're all still slaving away on WoW.com, finding bugs and filing feedback. To help that process along, we're going to try a little experiment. I'm going to level a character from level 1 to level 80, and all of it will be documented on my WoW.com profile. The hook is that you guys are going to decide most aspects of this character, such as race, class, and talent spec.

Such things will be determined largely via polls right here on the front page of WoW.com, where I'll be giving weekly updates on my progress along with what I've learned about the class and the world and any other observations I might have. If you want a little more detail on the process such as where I'm going, what I've done, and any other little notes I make via the Adventurer's Note feature, you can follow that on my profile. If you don't dig our profiles portion of the site, hey, no problem. You'll still get weekly updates right here on the blog until I'm level 80.

There are two polls: Race and Class. I will play whichever choices are the most popular. If the chosen race can't actually be the chosen class, I'm going to go with whatever is the most popular class that I can actually play as that race. The polls are below, and there's a little more information behind the cut underneath them.

Update: Polls will remain open so those who voted can still see the results, but as of May 22nd, Gnome Warlock won the polls and the adventures have begun.

Dude. Wait, what? I think I got a contact high from watching this trippy video. This is Green Tambourine by Demachic. It seems like we've missed covering it before now, which is a shame. As the story goes, a bored Blood Elf finds a trippy hookah hanging around, and decides to try it out. He's looking to break that boredom and day-to-day life he leads in Silvermoon.

While it might be my inner hippy speaking out, I found this video absolutely gorgeous. The colors are vibrant and beautiful, and Demachic's flair for scenery sets up a great context for the music. All the characters really fit in that 60s and 70s psychadelic genre, and the whole thing just comes together wonderfully.

The song was originally by the Lemon Pipers, and it actually reached #1 on the charts in 1968. Demachic's video is a great homage to the song.

Thanks to Stephen for the tip!

If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.

Previously on Moviewatch

Volcano sent us this tip about Pokerface, the new video by Ayukyo. Volcano hints that Ayukyo could be one of Demachic's favorite machinimators. Whether or not that's true, I can certainly see how that might be the case. Ayukyo's style is light, friendly, and warm. While your mileage is going to vary depending on whether you like the main character Blood Elves, I certainly enjoy the sense of fun Ayukyo is putting in the video.

Like I mentioned, Ayukyo describes "Pokerface" as the first video the author created using Sony Vegas. I think the animation is a little raw, but you can definitely see how Ayukyo is using the tool to expand the video over usual ingame footage. I've seen the card background in a few places, but nowhere as appropriate in this film. (It's a song about poker as an analogy, you see.) Overall, I like the video, and I'll be keeping an eye out for more by Ayukyo.

If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.

Previously on Moviewatch