Posts with tag elwynn-forest

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.

Back when I was writing up the five must-do Horde zones and five must-do Alliance zones articles, I decided to play through those zones again just for experience's sake. In beta and the early days of Cataclysm, I spent a lot of time going through the Alliance 1-to-60 leveling zones and experiencing the content. I remember being really pleased with how well the zones were laid out and how nice it was to see actual story instead of just, "I'd like six pig heads; go get them from the field next door." After that experience, I played through them on Horde side and was terribly pleased to see they were just as well done on the other side of the faction fence.

I didn't really think about it afterwards, and it wasn't until I decided to do these two articles that I took it upon myself to level through these zones again. And this time ... something had changed, a little. Perhaps it was because it had been so long since I'd played through the Alliance zones. Perhaps it was because I had just finished experiencing the Horde zones when I went back to Alliance. But there was something very, very different about the experience.

While leveling as Horde, I was having all kinds of lighthearted fun mixed with bits of serious story. While leveling as Alliance, I felt like there was an oppressive weight bearing down on me at all times, and that weight was never really removed. Odd, that.

World of Warcraft's seventh anniversary took place earlier this week. Rather than the dry, impersonal WoW retrospectives you can find almost anywhere this time of year, the crew here at WoW Insider decided to hold our own retrospective instead, looking back on what pulled us so deeply into the game to begin with. Today, we're sharing our very first World of Warcraft memories, whether that was seven years ago, long before the Shattering, or just last year. I'll get things started, then the staff will join in afterwards.

My first WoW memory is in Stranglethorn Vale. There are other events prior to STV that exist in some strange nebulous place in my mind, but Stranglethorn is the first event that I can really pin down. I was playing my very first character, my undead rogue on the Silver Hand server, trying to kill an elite alligator for the Excelsior quest. This was in December of '04, maybe January of '05. I was absolutely terrible at the game. I simply could not kill that alligator. Everyone I knew did it with no difficulty whatsoever, but I couldn't manage it at all.

The reason I couldn't kill it? I was spamming Sinister Strike while dual wielding white vendor-bought daggers. That was the day I decided I should learn how to play the game rather than hope my friends take pity on me and fly across Azeroth to kill elites for me. Now I'm here, on this site, doing this. That's one heck of a step up.

New around here? WoW Rookie has your back! Get all our collected tips, tricks and tactics for new players in the WoW Rookie Guide.

Spoiler alert: Today's WoW Rookie is nothing but one big spoiler of the changes Cataclysm will bring to existing Alliance newbie zones. If you're aiming to hit the expansion spoiler-free with fresh, unsullied eyes, you'll want to re-join us two weeks from now (since next week's WoW Rookie will look at Cataclysm newbie zones Horde-side).

But for those of you who are itching for a glimpse into what's in store for newly created Alliance characters in the expansion, we've got brief highlights and screenshot gallery samplers of the gnome, dwarf, night elf and human starting experiences. There's not much new to report for draenei in the Exodar, save that their flight point has been moved inside the city. And as for the new Alliance race, the worgen, we've given them their own detailed gallery and write-up, and you can head over to our YouTube channel to watch video of several worgen gameplay segments. Come back next week for a similar look ahead at the newbie zone revamps for Horde races.

And now, screenshot galleries (one last spoiler alert for the road -- Cataclysm spoilers abound!) of each starting area plus written highlights, after the break.

The Elwynn Extravaganza is today! It came from the Blog will be meeting at Orgrimmar and running to Elwynn Forest for the festivities. Here is the basic info:

• When: Saturday, December 12th, 5pm EST (2pm PST, 3pm Server)
• Where: Meet in front of Orgrimmar on Zangarmarsh (U.S.)
• Who: Any level Horde character
• How: Just send a tell to Robinator or any It came from the Blog Lurker for a guild invite.

Not familiar with the WoW.com guild? Then please read our FAQ. The events are fun and you are all invited. So after you finish listening to the WoW Insider Show, please join us for some in-game fun.

More details are after the break.

The Darkmoon Faire is in Elwynn Forest this week, and that means it's time for another It came from the Blog event. The event will be in three parts:

1. The run to Elwynn: We will be running from Orgrimmar to Elwynn using a path I plotted out for maximum lowbie protection -- also, photo opportunities.
2. Hogger Fist Fight: This is not a level 1 Hogger raid. That's so 2007 (ok that link does not go to a level 1 Hogger raid either, but you know what I mean). All levels are invited to this event, but we will be removing our weapons, and not using spells, so we can punch Hogger and his buddies.
3. Darkmoon Faire fun: We'll buy frog pets, shoot ourselves out of cannons and even turn in stuff if we've been collecting it.

Here are the particulars:

• When: Saturday, December 12th, 5pm EST (2pm PST, 3pm Server)
• Where: Meet in front of Orgrimmar on Zangarmarsh (U.S.)
• Who: Any level Horde character
• How: Just send a tell to Robinator or any It came from the Blog Lurker for a guild invite.

If you have any questions about our WoW.com guild in general, please see our FAQ. There are more event details after the break.

Here's a pro tip for you all this morning.

Don't level a profession right before a server restart.

I finally got around to creating a Death Knight yesterday, and after working through the starting zone I decided to stop off and level my herbalism a bit before heading to outland. I know the market for herbs is strong right now because of Inscriptions (which I'm also leveling), so that seemed like a good idea.

I was working my way through Elwynn Forest gathering up all the flowers I could. After I hit 75 herbalism I went back to train to the Journeyman level and pickup Apprentice Inscription. There was about 5 minutes left before the server restart, so I decided that I would sit there and mill some herbs and make some ink.

The debate over whether Death Knights should get a free hand up on their primary professions continues to rage, but what actually interests me most are some of the arguments put forth by those opposed to Death Knights getting "free" tradeskills. Some of them are saying that it doesn't matter that Death Knights have to wait, because people should wait until max level to deal with professions anyway.

This is a completely alien concept to me. On any new character, the first thing I do upon hitting level 6 is run to the nearest profession trainers to learn my chosen professions. I like being able to doing something about those herbs and mineral nodes I see while I'm leveling. I can go do some tradeskilling if I start getting bored of leveling, and I can use the final product for my own leveling process, or sell the raw materials on the AH for a nice chunk of change.

I can't really fathom waiting for maximum level before I started a profession in earnest. Why go back to Elwynn forest to harvest bushels of Peacebloom at level 70 when you could have done it from level 1-11 while you were there?

So here's something that may be considered somewhat of a companion question to yesterday's profession question: Do you level your professions while you level up, or do you leave them until after you've leveled up?

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!

This screenshot presents a glimpse of an Elwynn Forest that I'm not sure I've ever seen. Sure, I've leveled my fair share of newbies through the human starting zones, slaying countless Defias, boars, wolves, and even murlocs. But somehow the Elwynn I remember exploring didn't look quite as peaceful as this shot, sent in by reader TeragX. With the way the sunlight shines through the trees and not a murloc or Defias in sight, it almost looks like a vacation spot!

Do you have any shots of your own that present a familiar place in a whole new light? Send them to us at Around Azeroth! All you have to do is e-mail aroundazeroth@gmail.com with a copy of your screenshot and a brief explanation of the scene. You could find your pictures and story featured next!

Gnome raids on Hogger just don't seem to be going away any time soon. At least this latest movie has a little story to it as well as some excellent music and good editing.

Hogger has smashed yet another innocent noob into the ground. But this noob has some friends. Many, many friends. Watch as they stream out of Stormwind and lay down some Gnomish justice on one of WoW's most hated and most beloved mobs.

Previously on Moviewatch...

Mashing up two zones is always fascinating to me. Baron Soosdoon recently filmed NetherVale, a fusion of Stranglethorn Vale and Netherstorm. Today I found a movie by a different Machinimist showing what it would be like if the Elwynn Forest merged with the Emerald Dream.

I don't know about you, but I would love to see the zone temporarily transformed like this on the Live servers. Blizzard talks about keeping the old content alive. This would have me ditching out of the Outlands in a hot second.

Previously on Moviewatch...