Posts with tag warsong

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.

He is the destroyer. Drinker of demon blood, first slave of Mannoroth, he who ushered in the Blood Curse and the bloody haze of rage and battle frenzy it woke in the orcish heart. He was in the vanguard of the army that stormed Shattrath, the last and greatest of the draenei cities, and no axe can be said to have slaughtered more of them. No hand was more stained, not Gorefiend, not Deadeye, not Bladefist. In a sea of names that denote battle hardened warriors, his name stands out.

He is the savior. He is the last survivor leading his people when most of their kind were imprisoned and defeated. He was the one who showed the young Thrall a free orc, taught him their language and pointed him to those who would show him his ultimate destiny. Tripped up by his fury and guilt, twice he stumbled back toward the blood haze that dominated his people, the curse he himself brought upon them. Finally, goaded beyond endurance, it is the same bellicose anger that has granted him his greatest successes and his greatest failure that frees his people.

Grom Hellscream drank the demon Mannoroth's blood and led his people into slavery. Grom Hellscream slew the demon Mannoroth and led his people out of slavery. Few beings can be said to be the best and worst of their people at once -- but then again, few people can say they are the Giant's Heart.

Who was Grommash Hellscream?

As of yesterday afternoon and lasting through January 28th at 2:00 PM PST, a number of free realm transfers have opened up in the US in an attempt to repair some harsh population imbalance. Bornakk does warn, however, that if they fulfill the transfer quota before January 28th, they will end transfers early so they don't end up in the exact same situation on opposite ends. If any of the below transfer offers suit your fancy, get it done before it's too late.

What's interesting is that in a few of these instances, they're only extended the offer to Horde players. These servers include Illidan, Mal'Ganis, and Warsong. Considering Mal'Ganis is home to the infamous Goon Squad, this isn't the most surprising thing in the world. Interesting, yes. Surprising? Not in the slightest.

For further information on the available transfers, hit the forum thread. You can also check out the source and destination realms behind the cut below.

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

Today's edition of The Queue is nice and lengthy again, after a spree of shorty-shorts. See, good things happen when people actually ask questions! Although since it's being posted so late in the day, I bet Adam will have trouble again tomorrow. Do him (and yourselves) a favor: Ask Adam a bunch of completely absurd questions so he has something to write for all of you tomorrow!

Airleagan asked...

"In the Ulduar Cinematic, the Horde and the Alliance both reject the idea of going into Ulduar, yet the players go into Ulduar and are on the Factions of the Horde and the Alliance, Why do we not Listen to our leaders or do they even matter because it seams the Horde just does whatever they want no matter what Thrall says?"

Tipster Nimm writes in to let us know that several EU battlegroups have been having serious issues after mergers that occurred post-patch 3.02. The mergers have seen a number of battlegroups acquiring servers with other language-dominant populations, which has resulted in a number of French, German, Portuguese, Spanish, and Russian-dominant servers (among others) all in the same battlegroups. While this is probably necessary to a certain degree to guarantee equal Alliance/Horde populations for quick queue times, it's become something of a communication nightmare in battleground matches, particularly those with lots of players using Cyrillic characters. As the player Thoughtless from the Karazhan realm asks, "Can you imagine how hard it is to organise any sort of teamplay in AB with player ???????? from <????????> guild cha(t)ting "?????? ??? ??????? ??????? ?????" in BG chat?" Nimm also notes that differentiating between ??????? enemy players is a nightmare.

We knew that Blizzard was closing four EU realms (Stonemaul, Molten Core, Shadowmoon, and Warsong) and transferring remaining players to other realms in response to Russian player migration to Russian realms opened late summer 2008, and the problem's partially the result of that (which has already resulted in the inevitable "In Soviet Russia, battlegroups merge you" joke). A few amused people are rising to the occasion by translating such phrases as inc 5 schmiede (inc 5 blacksmith in German) or proposing a revival of Esperanto, but the Russian language pack would be the only possible solution for the ???? problem. There's been mention made that this is only a temporary fix on Blizzard's part to faction imbalances on battlegroups, but if you're on an EU realm that's seen a recent battlegroup merge, just be aware that Babelfish might be a useful tool in the near future.

Just a friendly reminder for everyone: Today is the last day of the Harvest Festival, the annual event honoring the fallen heroes of the Horde and the Alliance. That means you have one more day to head to the front entrance of Ironforge and Orgrimmar to hang with some ghosts, buy some cheap fireworks (those Midsummer Ground Flowers are awesome, and I am totally stocking up), and go pay your respects to Grom or Uther.

Yeah, it's a small holiday, and a weird one at that. I mean, you either honor Uther, who was a jerk to Tirion Fordring, ineffective against the Scourge and was betrayed and killed by his protege, or Grom, who betrayed the Orcish race to the Burning Legion at least twice, and whose clan is still one of the major sources of strife and bad Horde-Alliance relations on Azeroth today.

And what about hanging out with all those ghosts? I mean, isn't anyone concerned that they could be scourge? And what about those Forsaken ancestors? Shouldn't they look like humans as ghosts, since they were humans in the first place? And wouldn't a good portion of those Orc and Troll ancestors come from the tradition of savagery and cannibalism and demon worship that the Horde is supposedly trying to break free from?

Oh well, at least it's free fireworks and free food. Enjoy it while you can! Brewfest is a scant week away too, so be sure to review the new Coren Direbrew loot and plan your trip to the Grim Guzzler now.

Toward the end of August, European CM Vaneras had announced the closure of a few English-speaking EU servers due to the great success of their Russian localization, with a note that destination realms for free character transfers would be announced later on. Later on is, apparently, last night. Thundgot has posted the destination realms, and each set includes one that is part of the same battlegroup as the realm of origin.

• From Molten Core you can transfer to Burning Steppes*, Deathwing, Dentarg
• From Shadowmoon you can transfer to Boulderfist, Spinebreaker*, Xavius
• From Stonemaul you can transfer to Ahn'Qiraj, Burning Blade, Jaedenar*
• From Warsong you can transfer to Auchindoun, Bladefist*, Haomarush
  

If you call one of the four closing realms home, I strongly recommend you go research your options and choose your destination while you still can. If you haven't moved yourself somewhere by the time their nebulous deadline (post-patch 3.0.2) hits, you'll have your destination chosen for you when the realms are ultimately brought down. Make sure you end up somewhere you'll like.

As of noon today, a new set of free character transfers are available from select realms due to their exceedingly high population. Bornakk says that these transfers will last until Wednesday, September 10th unless their transfer goal is met early. In that case, the character transfers will end early as well. Get in while you can, if you're on one of these realms!

The realms Illidan, Mal'Ganis and Warsong have the option to transfer to the Zuluhed server. Aerie Peak, Area 52, Moon Guard, and Zul'Jin have the option of transferring to Muradin. On the Oceanic side of things, the servers Barthilas and Frostmourne may transfer to Dreadmaul if they so choose. Forum links embedded for your new-home-researching convenience.

Remember, these transfers are only open until September 10th or until their transfer quota is met. If you're interested in moving, do it as soon as you can so you don't miss out.

European CM Vaneras made an interesting announcement just the other day: Four EU realms will be closing entirely with Patch 3.0. The EU realms Molten Core, Shadowmoon, Stonemaul, and Warsong will be closing up shop, and free character transfers will be offered to other, currently unannounced EU realms. The destination options will be announced within the next week.

Don't worry, though. These realm closures have nothing to do with any dips in WoW's popularity. It's actually due to the launch of WoW's Russian localization. A vast majority of the players on those particular realms were Russian players, and they migrated to the new Russian servers when they opened up, leaving most everyone else high and dry. The equipment these four servers run off of will likely just be used elsewhere, since Vaneras stated they'll be prepped for Wrath of the Lich King's launch after being taken down. Most likely they'll need to launch a few more realms when Wrath rolls around, but it was just far easier to fold these four into larger communities at this point.

[ Thanks, Swarfy! ]

Welcome to Know Your Lore, where each week Alex Ziebart brings you a tasty little morsel of lore to wrap your mind around. Sweet, sweet lore. Mmmm. Have suggestions for future KYL topics? E-mail us! Or, if you have a question for our sister column Ask a Lore Nerd, e-mail us those, too!

Did you know that Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms were actually separated by a stray swing of High Overlord Saurfang's axe? Did you know giraffes are just zhevras that were on the receiving end of a Saurfang Uppercut? Did you know that Saurfang doesn't have a face beneath his mask, just another axe? Overlord Saurfang is only afraid of one thing... Mrs. Saurfang.

Okay, I'm sorry, none of that was true except for possibly that last one. It was just as obnoxious to type out as it was to read, trust me. (Un)fortunately, it's a pretty good introduction to Saurfang, as he somehow evolved into a fan favorite bad ass over the last few years while his Alliance counterpart remained a Blizzard Employee ego stroke. It took me awhile to buy into the hype around this guy, but he's been winning me over as of late.

Bornakk announced last night that selected US PvP realms will be given free character moves starting at Noon pacific time today, July 10th, and ending on July 17th. As always, Blizzard does reserve the right to close transfers early once their quotas are met, so be sure to get your transfer request in as early as possible if you plan to move. Once the transfers are open, you can visit the character move page to request a transfer.

The realm transfers are as follows:

• Characters from the Barthilas and Frostmourne realms may move to the Dreadmaul realm.
• Characters from the Illidan, Mal'ganis, and Warsong realms may move to the Zuluhed realm.

It seems to be an unfortunate reality of WoW, if not MMORPGs in general: When a new patch goes live, more often than not, it's going to be a bit rocky on the servers for a while. Patch 2.4.2 is no exception, Many servers are having trouble staying up, including most of the Ruin Battlegroup, which according to a few our tipsters has been having more than its share of trouble lately. Blue Poster Vrakthis has assured posters on the Customer Service Forum that the Realm issues are being looked into, but so far, there does not seem to be a solid reason for the downtime other than, hey, it's patch day!

EDIT: It has now been confirmed that the downtimes were intentional for the purpose of emergency maintenance. The downtime should be minimal.

As of the time of this writing, the following servers are down:

As our own Zach Yonzon has pointed out, Warsong Gulch, the capture-the-flag battleground, is broken. Despite Warsong being his favorite battleground, there are several issues confronting PvP'ers.

Here's the short version:

• WSG has the lowest honor gain per time played of the four battlegrounds, even on its holiday weekend.
  
• Warsong is the least effective battleground from which to farm honor.
• Warsong reputation is not necessary to acquire PvP gear. In addition, reputation gains with the faction are low.
  
• Games often last a very long time.

Fortunately, Drysc commented this morning on a forum thread started by Moobert, designed to call attention to the issue and draw out a response. While Drysc confirms that the developers are aware of the problems with Warsong Gulch, and that in fact, several possible solutions are already being tested internally. Unfortunately, he cautions that these changes are not likely to be seen any time soon.

How do you feel about Warsong right now? Do you love it or hate it and why?

Playing defense in a battleground can be a dull task as battles are won and lost across the battleground, but only occasionally touch key defense points. And this screenshot? It's the calm before the storm. (Or, the dull, tedious waiting before the storm.) Clover from Barthilas, who sent us this shot, explained that he hoped we would like it -- or perhaps he was just bored guarding the flag.

Do you have any unusual World of Warcraft images that are just collecting dust in your screenshots folder? Because we'd love to see your idea of the best looking instance on Around Azeroth! Sharing your screenshot is as simple as e-mailing aroundazeroth@wow.com with a copy of your shot and a brief explanation of the scene. You could be featured here next!

We've had some moves recently for Oceanic and European realms, but these are the first North American free character transfers I've seen in a while. As of noon PST today, and until 12:01 PM PST a week from today, December 28th, players can make the following transfers free of charge:

• From: Arthas, Illidan, Mal'Ganis, Warsong
• To: Azshara

As always, players are urged to make the transfer as soon as possible if they intend to, since the transfers do sometimes close early if desired population levels are reached. Drysc promises that the realms they choose for transfers are based on exact population statistics, which seems to imply that, out of the North American reals, the source realms are the most overpopulated and Azshara is the most underpopulated. Those of you on these realms, does that ring true? Do you plan on taking advantage of the transfers? Azshara folks, do you welcome the newcomers?

Warsong Gulch is situated in the Southern part of Ashenvale and the Northern part of the Barrens. It represents a contested area where Grom Hellscream's Warsong Clan made incursions into Ashenvale with their logging operations, earning the ire of the tree-hugging Silvewing Sentinels. Fighting in Warsong Gulch awards Warsong Gulch Mark of Honor, which is used as currency along with Honor points for various items. Players can fight in Warsong Gulch starting at Level 10, making it the first Battleground players can enter. Warsong Gulch is the domain of the Level 19 twinks, so lower-level players wishing to get a taste of their first Battleground would have it in their best interest to be prepared to face opponents decked out in fully enchanted crafted and twink run blues. As a general rule, it would be best to be at least at the highest even-numbered level of a bracket -- 18, 28, 38, etc. -- when joining the Battleground in order to contribute more.