Posts with tag npcs

We posted about this quest months and months ago, but of course now it's available on the live realms -- in the Utgarde Catacombs, which turns out not to be an instance but just a non-instanced quest area, there is a quest to retrive a "sacred artifact" of the Argent Dawn, which is basically a must-do quest for anyone that's a fan of the, err.. "bashringer," if you know what I mean. It's simple, so there's not much to spoil, but yeah, just a few quests in to Wrath, you're already wandering around epic lore territory.

And odds are that you've met the main guest of the expansion already as well -- I bumped into him during a walk through the spirit world in Wyrmskull Village, and he wasn't very nice to me already (and frankly, I saw a side of him I've never seen before -- having identifed myself as a Shaman for so long, it was extremely interesting to see him do the same). Blizzard promised from the beginning that we'd meet and greet with the lore heavyweights early on, and they weren't kidding -- we're right in the mix from the time we step off the boat.

I love it -- without getting too spoilery, what else is worth seeing in these starting zones? We almost got Keristrasza down last night in The Nexus, and it's almost hard to remember those days when it took 40 players to take down a dragon -- even solo and five man players get to do epic stuff nowadays. What have you done already?

In today's Ask a Beta Tester post, there was some discussion about the boat/zeppelin crews on the Northrend boats. I'm here to report that transportation crews in Azeroth are back in the current Wrath beta build!

I really liked the idea of the boat crews when they were so briefly implemented before. It was nice to be able to repair or get supplies en route without having to wander all over tarnation to get them, especially if the boat was headed to a discombobulated destination like Booty Bay. And when you'd never been to the boat's destination before, it saved a lot of time. Plus, the goblin crews were just hilarious and I liked watching their banter. So I was very disappointed when they went poof on the live realms.

You can also stay mounted on the boats and zeps now, which is quite convenient. (And, by the way, you can stay mounted in Booty Bay now too!) The crews are level 40 which makes them easily raidable. I'm not sure what to make of the fact that the goblins on the Horde boats are there for the humor but it seems like the humans on the Alliance boats are very serious about their jobs. We've seen some legacy testing items in the Wrath beta -- like the materials quartermasters from 2006 which are still in the beta but not in the live game -- so I hope the crews aren't just leftovers from previous beta builds that Blizzard has no intention of rolling out in Wrath (or in the upcoming patch). We'll just have to wait and see.

Just this morning, a good friend of mine asked me a pretty fun question: If you were a quest NPC in WoW, what kind of quests would you give? What about if your guild was a faction like Honor Hold or the Cenarion Expedition, what would their purpose be? What kind of daily quests would 'your' faction offer?

I actually really enjoy this question, because it's one of those things that you can let your mind soar with if you're a roleplayer. My main (and my guild) are very anti-Scourge and pro-reclaiming (and colonizing) Northrend, so Wrath is a fun time, and perfect for envisioning my guild in that sort of position. My character would probably do something dungeon-related, maybe in Icecrown, where the Scourge population is thickest. I could definitely see an escort-style quest, where my usual 5-man group in NPC form fought alongside a 5-man group of players in a Zul'farrak style encounter, fighting off waves of undead. After that encounter, those NPCs would 'hold off' more Scourge while the main party forges ahead to take out the boss and save the day.

Players have been doing the math on the notorious Hemet Nesingwary (murderer of animals everywhere), and on the forums, Stubblez has figured out that if you follow all of Nesingwary's beast-killing instructions to the letter, you're responsible for murdering 278 of Azeroth and Outland's fauna. Of course, most players kill even more than that (and there are other quests that ask you to kill even more animals), but even if you take those total numbers and multiply them by the 10 million players Blizzard claims, you get two billion, seven hundred and eighty million animals, all slaughtered in the name of Nesingwary. And that doesn't even count alts.

Fortunately, as Neroblanc notes, all that killing hasn't actually thinned the Azerothian animal population at all -- if anything, the beasts in Stranglethorn Vale are herding thicker than they used to be. We'll have to nuke them from orbit just to get rid of all those Raptors down there.

But that, of course, doesn't keep the hippie animal lovers from fighting back -- as you might know by now, in the expansion Nesingwary is going to face some opposition in the form of D.E.H.T.A., or Druids for the Ethical and Humane Treatment of Animals. We have a feeling that Hemet's impeccable taste in leather and animal-skin based wear, not to mention his classic novel, probably won't be too much protection against the do-gooders.

One of the coolest things about the World of Warcraft are the various NPCs that we see all over the place. Players who've played Warcraft 3 get an extra thrill when meeting characters from the popular RTS, for example. There's Thrall in Orgrimmar, whose life story has been all over books and re-told in past Blizzard games. In Dalaran, the overrated Rhonin and his wife, whose lives have been chronicled over several Richard A. Knaak books, make an appearance. Lor'themar Theron first appeared in the Warcraft manga and subsequently showed up in Silvermoon City when The Burning Crusade was launched.

Of course, not all NPCs get the benefit of books or comics to tell their story. Our favorite Griftah only has his story told through the game. Then there are those NPCs whose origins come from somewhere closer to home -- real people who have made some impact on the game one way or the other. These include quest giver Ahab Wheathoof, who is an homage to young fan Ezra Chatterton, and Dalaran pet supplies vendor Breanni, who is a nod to the creator of the popular WarcraftPets site devoted to vanity pets. There are many, many more NPCs in the game world we all love. Whose story would you like to know more about? Is there an NPC that has piqued your curiosity? What could be the story behind the unassuming Kaja? How about we learn more about Cro Threadstrong and his hatred for apples? There are so many stories in WoW... which one would you like to hear?

Time for another tour of the WoW blog kingdom...

Why now? | Alts Ahoy
All of a sudden Nasirah enjoys playing a shaman where it was boring before. In this post, she muses on why her mind has changed.

How to annoy NPC's - Keep Clicking on them! | Pugnacious Priest
Amusing detective work shows what happens when you annoy an NPC, including quotes on what they'll do to you if you don't stop. To bad you can't back-talk them too.

Sir, I Respectfully Disagree | ChickGM
A well-put and humorous rebuttal to two of WoW Insider's posts about what traits make a good guild officer and which ones to avoid.

I spoke too soon | Misery
This is actually a pair of posts in which Misery first points out that raid utility vs. damage is a flawed argument and subsequently analyzes a blue post about the same issue. Interesting theorycrafting for raid leaders.

Multi-Boxing Macros 102 | Three Druid Noob
Razorbax offers a primer on healing macros for the beginning multiboxer.

Goblins. Innocent Pranksters, or Evil Madmen bent on world domination? | The PvP Nub
Finally! The answer to the question, "Just what is it with those goblin doods?"

Rare mobs are one of my favorite unexpected pleasures in WoW. It's such a thrill to be questing or grinding along and see that silver dragon; it adds a lot of flavor to what could otherwise be some boring runs through out-of-the-way zones. In fact, that's an upside to the current depopulation of Azeroth: I find many more rare mobs, since no-one's been by to kill them in an hour or two. Fun fight, interesting mob, automatic green.

However, when Burning Crusade came out, it was discovered that all the Outland rare mobs were also elite. There was a blue post around the time that defended the decision as allowing them to put better loot on the mobs, making them walking treasure chests (BC also has no world treasure chests, sadly Thanks; I guess there are still new things for me to learn in BC) . But it did make them basically unsoloable, which takes a lot of the excitement out of spotting one, at least for me: by the time I get four more people to come help me out, I don't really care any more.

I was just chatting with my colleagues here at WoW Insider about Blizzard's apparent neglect of their old content (since the expansion zones actually start at 68, Netherstorm and Shadowmoon are basically useless once Wrath comes around), and now here's another sign that Blizzard wants out with the old and in with the new. We had rumored this a while ago, but now it's been confirmed by the CMs: Old school Naxxramas is going to disappear forever when the dungeon moves up north to become a raid in Wrath of the Lich King.

Which means if you want to see Naxx in its 40 man version, do it now -- I believe, as I said way back when we first heard about this, that this is the first time Blizzard has removed major content from the game completely (though it's certainly not the first time they've removed something, poor Captain Placeholder). This, of course, also leaves up in the air what's going to happen to all the items around Naxx -- what about Atiesh? Not to mention lore -- we hear that the fact that a group of players beat KT and took his phylactery and returned it to the Argent Dawn is mentioned in the expansion already -- but how did that happen if the dungeon won't be there any more?

Blizzard will probably clean it all up, and I'm sure that out of game, it'll make enough sense. But it's a shame to officially hear that 40 man Naxxaramas as we know it, the jewel of patch 1.11, will soon be gone forever.

My original intent for this week's Hybrid Theory was to take a close look at the Badge Gear for Hybrids in patch 2.4, but that turned into a monstrous project that left my head spinning. I remained vigilant, until I saw the specific class columns were working on this themselves, starting with Shifting Perspectives. Upon hearing that, I jumped for joy and it was as if the Heavens opened up and thousands of beautiful angels embraced me against their supple forms.

So instead of filling your browser with loot links and badge prices, I'm going to talk about the future of itemization, from patch 2.4 and onward.

"We do plan to have more specs share some loot. I know it's great when the Retribution-Paladin piece drops, but that's a piece that isn't good for 26 other classes/specs, so hopefully we can make it so the item will apply to more classes/specs so even the randomness of loot won't be so much of a big deal."

In the World of Warcraft, there are heroes -- that's us, supposedly -- and then there are the bit players. These are the vendors, the quest givers, or even the random mobs or raid bosses who are really only there for us, the heroes, to kill and loot. We don't pay them too much attention. In fact, there are very few NPCs whose names we remember. Do any of you Horde players know who Kaja is? I'm willing to bet very few can answer the question but at the same time I can assure you you've visited her more than a few times -- she's the Guns & Ammunition merchant in the hut beside the Auction House in Orgrimmar, and every Hordie has gone to her for repairs.

Who doesn't know Griftah and his dubious wares? How about Haris Pilton in the tavern in Shattrath? Some NPCs are more famous than others, of course... l mean, there's Thrall. Let this breakfast topic be an homage to our silent (and sometimes not so silent -- that Cro Threadstrong is always yelling!) friends who make our experience in the World of Warcraft more interesting. Who's your favorite NPC? For the sake of discussion, let's try leaving out the dungeon bosses. Those guys get too much press, anyway. Is there an NPC that's memorable to you in some way? I always like queueing from Yula the Fair because she's just so goshdarned purty. Then there's Lady Liadrin, whom we all know is destined for big things (I like my girls all Blood Knight-y). Any NPC out there stand out for you in some way? Their name, their scripted actions, or even the way they look. Who do you think deserves the best supporting character award?

It's probably true that the best way to make money in the game is to farm primals, but sometimes you just can't stomach the idea of killing yet another elemental or -- given how busy most of the primal hot-spots are -- having to compete to kill them. It's in trying times like these that your thoughts turn to quieter pursuits like flower-picking, finishing some quests you left lying around, or at least taking your mindless slaughter act on the road.

For my money, nothing beats the manaforges in Netherstorm. The elves there are like hundreds of milling, unsuspecting piñatas, ripe for the clobbering. Over an hourlong grind session with not-terrible gear, and with occasional breaks to tell people that you will never set foot in Shattered Halls ever again even if it is the daily, you can get the following:

Although it only went live a few days ago, Blizzard's Tuskarr page on their Wrath of the Lich King site has already been subtly updated. I don't have a copy of the old page, but it used to say something about being beset by Taunka and Murlocs. Here's what it says now:

...they are constantly beset by the Kvaldir and an arctic race of murloc-like creatures known as the Gorloc.

As Blizzplanet speculates, it's possible that the Kvaldir are just a specific faction of Taunka, but their name looks more Vrykul-ish, and in fact seems to be derived from an Icelandic word meaning "to afflict torment" (credit for this theory goes to Drakhzor, of Deathwing-EU). It's also interesting that the Gorloc are listed as "murloc-like;" hopefully this means they won't be quite so annoying. Do they say "mrgllrgll" in a Northern accent?

Thanks to tipster Enaress, we have a short video of an amusing (albeit potentially annoying) exploit ingame that allows you to summon an unlimited number of noncombat pets. From the date on the video, it looks as if this has been live since at least patch 2.3.0,and a few of the commenters have successfully tried it for themselves. A note of warning: be careful if you do this, as dropping out of sync with Blizzard's servers can definitely be considered an exploit, and, at Blizzard's discretion, could get you banned from the game. Odds are a fix is already en route.

I have to admit, I was amused at the prospect of having my small army of pets out and about, but from what Enaress has observed, doing this does have a tendency to contribute to the lag in Shattrath (which seems to be especially noticeable with complicated pets like Lil' Smoky). I don't think I'd try it for myself; Shatt can be bad enough during server high time. But there's something about the notion of my Druid as a dedicated cat-herder or, say, an Undead being followed by a swarm of cockroaches, that just made me laugh.

One more thing; would the Disgusting Oozeling's aura stack, you think?