Posts with tag elite

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What's with the curlicue dragon graphic wrapped around the portrait of that mob? Aren't they usually gold? This one's silver. Hmmm ... And whoa, why does that Gnoll over there have a name? He's got one of those gold dragon things, too. Do you think -- CRUNCH!

Special names, special graphics ... Special attacks, special ZOMGWTFBBQ levels of health ... It's unobtrusive little details like these that might, just might, have something to do with the fact that you just got epicly pwned. Make no mistake: these are special mobs, the elites, nameds and rares of Azeroth and beyond.

WoW Rookie would never allow you to wander about the wilderness unaware of the dangers that lurk. Let's go over a few signs that suggest you may want to look before you leap.

So by now, I'm sure a lot of people have seen it: A Hunter accompanied by what looks to be a pet on steroids, with a huge size and an elite target frame. No, Hunters have not gained the ability to become even more imba, it appears to be a display bug. Since 2.4, elite and rare (aka silver elite) pets aren't quite registering properly once tamed, as they appear to keep their size and show up as elite in status (though apparently not in stats) until the hunter logs off. As a result, you may have seen Gutripper tearing up Blood Elves in Dawnblade Village, or King Bangalash frolicking around Booty Bay. Rest assured (or be disappointed) that you probably won't see them that way for long, and a hotfix is on the way.

Mania speculates that the bug may have something to do with the implementation of Papa Hummel's Pet Biscuits, which seems very possible. Maybe when they messed with the coding to allow pets to grow larger, much like the PTR bug where non-combat pets grew giant, it caused elite pets to grow a bit larger too, or at least not shrink like they should. Either way, enjoy your new massive pets while you can, Hunters, I'd imagine a hotfix will come either this Tuesday or the next.

Are you in the midst of leveling a character between 20 and 60? Well right now is the time to stop everything, rush over to this forum post from Blizzard, and sing a happy song while you hurry up and wait! That's right, in answer to the crying pleas of casual alt-oholics everywhere, Blizzard is finally speeding up the tedious leveling curve for old world content in patch 2.3, adding in a bunch of new quests, nerfing a lot of the nastiest bad guys, and buffing a whole bunch of the items they drop.

Here's a summarized list of the changes, with the full post by Vaneras copied for you beyond the link below.

• Amount of experience needed to level reduced by 15% per level between 20 and 60.
• Experience gained from completing quests increased between levels 30 and 60.
• Outdoor elite quests will now now be soloable, with the same (or better) rewards.
• About 60 new quests and a new goblin town based in Dustwallow Marsh (levels 30 to 40)
• Level ranges for old dungeons to be narrowed down a bit (so that if you are high enough to start them, you are high enough to finish them too)
• Increased questing experience for dungeon quests.
• Buffed up item drops from dungeon bosses.

As Vaneras says, "Though we've given you a few examples of the things to come, we think everyone will pleasantly surprised when they see the full extent of the changes discussed above." Keep reading to see all the juicy details.

I'm sure we're all familiar with the elite quests scattered throughout Azeroth. Or if not familiar with the particulars of each and every one of them, at least aware that there exists such a thing as quests that are flagged "elite" that involve killing more powerful "elite" monsters. Well, in the Burning Crusade you won't be seeing any of those. And, no it's not because Blizzard has decided to remove elites from the game. Instead, Blizzard has dropped the "elite" flag from quests and replaced it with a "group" flag, which I first noticed when questing on my new level 12 Blood Elf. Curious about the above Anok'suten quest, I located a partner and headed out to complete it immediately -- in the end it involved killing a single level 11 elite, surrounded by non-elites of around the same level. I might have been able to solo it -- but the suggested players hint is appreciated.

And this trend continues into Outland -- only the elites are a bit bigger.

If you missed it earlier, Highlord Kruul is running wild in the major cities (and killing our most beloved friends). If you haven't seen him yet, he's amazing. Here he is rocking the Eastern Plaguelands (for a minute or so anyway, vid cuts out halfway through).


Zeroen from Daggerspine has posted a nice pictoral guide to Highlord Kruul (it's not what you think), and a few servers have already dropped him. A few players mentioned that he has been heard asking for "shards"-- what does that mean? And finally, since I love all the BC teaser stuff so far, Tseric says perhaps the event isn't over yet... perhaps.