Forte Gaming, one of the top guilds in World of Warcraft and the world's first to kill Anetheron, disbanded over the weekend. Their web page cites recruitment woes, long delays between content releases, and continually postponed raid times as reasons for the fall. "For many it has felt like a slowly sinking ship for some time and now it's over," says the guild's last post.
Forte was consistently ranked in the top two or three guilds in worldwide rankings and stayed in a tight race with Nihilum for game firsts, snagging no less than nine legendary Warglaives from Illidan in the Black Temple. In their three-year reign, they changed realms three times. Although the raiding arm of the guild (EU Boulderfist-A) will no longer exist, they will still maintain a more casual form of the guild on their previous server (A-Kazzak-EU).
Welcome to Ask a Lore Nerd, WoW Insider's newest weekly feature column. Have a question about the story and lore of the Warcraft universe? Click the Comments link below, ask your question, and blogger/columnist Alex Ziebart will answer you in a future installment!
We have no reason to delay, so let's get right into the meat of things!
Jere asks: I might be wrong on location, but why is there a member of the Argent Dawn stationed in Dun Morogh just southeast of IF?
Answer: Unfortunately, we have no idea. Father Gavin might just be an emissary or representative from the Argent Dawn to Dun Morogh, but he has no quests or dialogue attached to him. It's possible he'll be used for something in the future, but it seems unlikely. He simply exists. Nothing more.
Here at GW, we love even the small downs (heck, this week, we reported on a downing in the Stockades -- although it was by the Horde), but when other guilds are able to clear out the whole endgame in the time it takes you to go from one endgame boss to another, it's probably not the best idea to go on to the forums bragging how great your progression is.
That story and many others in this week's GW, which starts right after the break. Your tips fuel our column -- please send any and all tips about drama, downed, or recruiting guild news to wowguildwatch@gmail.com. Click the link below to read on.
Everyone loves the new daily quests. They're fantastic! Fast, easy, good rewards. Spread across the world so there's always somewhere else to go if a spot is crowded. Absolutely awesome.
The location of a couple of these daily quests has caused some inadvertent hilarity, though. The close proximity of the Throne of Ki'jaeden quests to Doom Lord Kazzak has sent the Hellfire Peninsula death toll skyrocketing. I was waiting for him to spawn for a few days, just to see how quickly he'd be taken down by people scrambling for gold, due to the changes to his loot. Specifically, making it all BOE.
I was lucky enough to be in the zone at just the right moment and was able to hear his very cool opening speech. Accompanying that speech, though? The dying screams of dozens of innocent questers. Music to my ears! I flew up to take a closer look at the carnage, and I stumbled across my favorite little detail of the entire thing. There was a Nightmare Vine spawn at the bottom of the ramp leading up to Kazzak. Just inches within his aggro radius. One by one, herbalists would deviate from their quests and run up to that Nightmare Vine, only to die horribly to the Doom Lord. Well played, Blizzard. Well played.
Tons of guild activity going on-- I don't know what it is, but you guilds are downing tons of bosses out there lately. I've never seen the tipbox filled so full, and this column takes longer and longer to put together every week. I think it's great-- Blizzard made this bosses to be killed, right? Even bubble butt here.
This week's GW, complete with not only downed news, but also drama and recruiting notices, starts right after you click the link below.
The European free character migrations on some PvP servers continue, since apparently they haven't had quite the intended effect yet. Thundgot says:
Due to population differences between some of the highest and lowest populated PvP realms, the following Free Character Migration will be available November 7th to 13th:
Please note that the migration may be closed at any time should a destination realm's population rise too high.
This is the same source realms as before, and one of the same destination realms (Boulderfist). It looks like not too many people chose to take advantage of this move last time. So get moving, people!
Oh, and to answer a question that was asked in another thread: Europe will be getting patch 2.3 on November 14th, a week from today (source).
Wow, we haven't had one of these for a while. Starting yesterday (oops), players on a few high-population European PvP servers will be able to transfer to some of the lower-pop ones for free: Due to population differences between some of the highest and lowest populated PvP realms, the following Free Character Migration will be available from October 24th to 30th:
Please note that the migration may be closed at any time should a destination realm's population rise too high. (Thundgot)
Edit: Apparently the following additional EU migrations are also active until the 30th: From: Zul'Jin To: Uldum, Tyrande [Thanks, Rauten]
As the post says, you should take advantage of this ASAP if you want to move, because they do occasionally close these early.
Are you on any of these servers? If you're on the "from" realms, do you agree that overpopulation is a problem, and if so, are you going to move? If you're on the "to" realms, do you think your realm needs more players?
Another weekend, and you know what that means -- it's time for another episode of Two Bosses Enter, WoW Insider's series of fantasy deathmatches between some of the toughest bosses in the World of Warcraft. Each week, two bosses walk into our arena, but only one of them gets to walk out again -- and at the very end, we'll wind up with one boss who wins out over all. The best part of all this is that you get to tell us who winds up the winner every week.
Some internet connectivity issues caused us to skip last week, but this week we're back with a vengeance, talking about one of my favorite boss fights in the game -- Vaelastrasz the Corrupt, who we're pitting against Doom Lord Kazzak. So what are you still reading this for? Read on to find out a bit about each of these bosses and tell us who would win if they met up!
Reader Firestalker of Kargath sends us this shot taken on a casual flyby of the Throne of Kil'jaeden, where we see Doom Lord Kazzak flanked by a pair of Deathguards. (I know, they look like Fel Reavers, but they're a bit nastier.) Firestalker notes that there's no actual throne, and so Kazzak just stands there, waiting to be attacked. "Must be an interesting life."
Do you have a unique shot of Azeroth or Outland that you'd like to show off to the rest of the world? Tell us about it by e-mailing aroundazeroth@gmail.com! Or perhaps you'd just like to see more of your pics from Around Azeroth.
Today's forum watch has started a new humor thread about the origins of the reopening of the Dark Portal. Many debated if it was Kazzak or some other power, or if it had always been open. Quite a few people had their own opinions about how it opened:
Reader Eccentricity sends in this amazing overview shot of the throne of Kil'jaeden in Hellfire Peninsula. The area is really only supposed to be accessible by flying mount, but intrepid explorer Eccentricity managed to reach this cliff-top vantage point at level 62. If you decide to take time to visit this scenic spot yourself, beware -- usually you'll find Doom Lord Kazzak waiting here, and neither he nor his minions are particularly fond of visitors.
Do you have a unique shot of Azeroth or Outland that you'd like to show off to the rest of the world? Tell us about it by e-mailing aroundazeroth@gmail.com! You can attach a picture file or send us a link to one -- and don't worry about formatting, we'll take care of that part.
It's Friday again, and that means it's time to check out another piece of sweet gear available for you to find in Azeroth. Since we've done melee and ranged, let's do a cool caster piece this week.
+5 to Arcane, Fire, Nature, Frost, and Shadow resistance
Restores 12 mana / 5 seconds
Increases damage and healing done by up to 44
Nice staff for almost any caster-- there are better staves out there for specific classes (except maybe druids), but the Int bonus and the across the board 44 boost make this a nice staff to have as you work toward your sets
But then again, it's a heck of a challenge to get-- see below
How to Get It: Drops from the demon Lord Kazzak, an outdoor raid in Blasted Lands. And even as outdoor raids go, this guy will give you as much trouble as he possibly can. He's got a crazy undodgeable shadowbolt volley that will kick the crap out of your and your raid, and he's got a spell called Mark of Kazzak: drains mana from the target for 250/sec, and then explodes them aoe for 4000 damage when it's done. Yeah, scary. And if anyone does happen to die during the fight, Kazzak casts Capture Soul, a spell that instantly gives him 70,000 health.
And one more thing: you have to finish the fight in three minutes, because if it lasts a second more, Kazzak goes into "Supreme Mode" and starts tossing Shadowbolts every second, which works out to almost 1000 dps for everyone in the raid. Can you say wip? The good news is that the drop is 15%, so even though Amberseal Keeper is a great staff, it's almost worth more as a sign that you were able to down this monster.
Auction Price: BOP, natch. Vendor it (if you're crazy) for 11g, 92s, 78c.
Forte Gaming, one of the top guilds in World of Warcraft and the world's first to kill Anetheron, disbanded over the weekend. Their web page cites recruitment woes, long delays between content releases, and continually postponed raid times as reasons for the fall. "For many it has felt like a slowly sinking ship for some time and now it's over," says the guild's last post.
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