So it's been a day or so since we first heard that Death and Taxes was disbanding, and since then, DnT member Xi- has posted a somewhat lengthy explanation as to why. In the end, the biggest reason Xi- gave is pride. Many people, he says, just stopped thinking about the raid and the guild as a whole, and were more focused on their own advancement and their own needs, and became impatient when a boss did not fall easily. When it was time to progress, many of them, even officers, would disappear and stop supporting them.
He also does get in a few Risen style digs about how none of the BC content was half as good as Naxxramas up until Sunwell Plateau, but he did manage to sound a lot more classy than Risen did.
But the point about pride, about guild members who disappear for a while and expect to pick back up where they left off when they return, and about people who never show up for progress kills, or show up and complain if the boss doesn't fall after one or two tries, that rings true with me, as I am sure it rings true with a lot of current and former MMO raiders, whether from WoW or other games.
So one of the most exciting announcements from the recent flurry of news about WoTLK, at least from my point of view, is the that there will be 10-man and 25-man versions of every raid. Think about that for a moment. Yeah, that's right. That means that you and 9 other friends will be able to scale the heights of Icecrown Glacier and topple Arthas himself from his frigid throne.
Via Gamespy and Worldofwar.net, we finally have a good idea of what rolling a Death Knight will be like. A lot of the rumors seem to have panned out, but others have not. All I know is that at this point, I am full speed ahead to make a Death Knight my new main come WoTLK. There's a lot of meaty info to dig into, so let's get to it after the break.
With Wrath of the Lich King and the return of the Scourge to the spotlight, an old friend comes back along with them. The Nerubians! We haven't seen much of them in the World of Warcraft yet beyond being undead lackies, they have a long, quite interesting backstory. We saw a little more in Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, but their story goes even deeper. In the big picture of Warcraft, their ancestors predate all but the Trolls, and maybe even them.
In the beginning there were the Silithid. Insectoid horrors that crawled forth from the Well of Eternity just happened to grab the interest of the Old Gods. The most notable of them so far being C'Thun. C'Thun crafted avatars of war from the Silithid, twisting them into humanoid soldiers. These avatars became known as the Aqir. The Aqir are best described as 'evil' though that is always in the eye of the beholder.
The Aqir were one of three super powers in the world at the time, roughly 16,000 years prior to the Orcish invasion of Azeroth. The other two came in the form of the Troll Empires of the Gurubashi and the Amani. The three clashed repeatedly, and the Trolls only managed survival by forging a loose alliance between their empires. The Aqir civilization of Azj'Aqir held up quite well, their war lasting thousands of years, and no ultimate outcome ever came to fruition.
Well, well, well, who doesn't love a surprise ending? Despite rampant and on going accusations that I have fixed this deathmatch series in Illidan's favor since the beginning (which is laughable because I only took over the feature a few months ago), it looks like Scourge of the Outland was, say it with me now, "not prepared."
Kel'Thuzad, the Archlich of the Plaguelands, trusted lieutenant of Arthas, final boss of Naxxramas and of pre-BC WoW, laid the smack down on all the haters. Two bosses may have entered, but only one has left. Final results below.
That wraps up this series we started all the way back in June with 32 bosses. Each pair entered a neutral arena and you got to vote who walked away the victor. Whether based on abilities, lore or random poll clicking, you chose the ultimate winner.
When Wrath of the Lich King launches, we'll be bringing about another round of Two Bosses Enter with a mix of all new bosses and some returning favorites. Until then, thanks to everyone who participated and made this a fun event for everyone involved.
Special thanks the reader Ian for the pointing us to the pic of Kel'Thuzad above. Kel's publicist would be proud.
Two bosses enter... but only one will get to leave in WoW Insider's series of fantasy deathmatches. We've scoured the instances of Azeroth and Outland looking for the most interesting bosses Blizzard has to offer us and picked out a group of 32 to pit against one another until we come out with a single winner in the end. And the best part -- you get to tell us who wins.
We're down to the Final Four. First up, two bosses of Naxxramas face off. Will the undead frost wyrm Sapphiron be able to take down his partner in crime, The Archlich of the Plaguelands Kel'Thuzad? Want to learn more about these two bosses and voice your opinion on who would win in a fight? Keep reading
As I posted yesterday, the Dragonblight has been revealed. As a lore nerd and someone fascinated with Northrend, I am stoked. What kind of person uses the word stoked? I have no idea, but it sounded good.
If you've read the official page, you'll know a little bit about the zone and what's going on there. It's a Dragon Graveyard, and rumored to be the place that the Dragon Aspects were originally granted their powers by the Titans. Specifically, that place would be Wyrmrest Keep. Apparently the Scourge are after Wyrmrest Keep and the five accompanying shrines, which are tied to each of the Dragonflights. Why would they be after these shrines? To create their own dragons, of course.
Zul'Aman. Heard of it? Noticed a lot of folks trading in their Kara gear for some rickety pieces of wood held together with twine? ZA has been live for some time now and most of us have had the chance to check out Blizzard's latest 10-man offerings. So here's the question: Is Zul'Aman worth the trouble? Sure, it's fun. The bosses are nifty and whatnot. But is it progression?
A number of guilds have graduated from Karazhan in the last month or so, but instead of moving into 25-man content, the majority are turning to our new favorite troll town. Of course some of them are dabbling in Gruul's Lair but I dare say Lady Vashj isn't getting as much company as she used to.
There is definitely something to be said about the fact that ZA is 10-man content. If you have a great Kara guild but not enough numbers to move up, ZA is a blessing to say the least. But is that a good thing? Ultimately, if you want to see Black Temple, you're running out of time, and postponing 25-man content is not helping your cause. The expansion will arrive sooner or later and when it does, people will not be interested in killing Illidan anymore. They'll want to see Northrend. If you've tried to put together a Naxx run lately, you know what I'm talking about.
So what do you think? Is ZA helping people get the gear they need to succeed? Or is it keeping them away from the prize?
It's taken Shepiwot only 10 months to create 26 How to Paladin videos, as well as several spinoffs. He's received countless death threats and plenty of discouragement, but he keeps on going. Love or hate them, they're like an accident that you can't look away from. If I had to categorize his movies, I'd place them in the "WTF" genre.
In Episode 26, Shepiwot goes to Naxxramas. He's included everything that you've come to expect from a Shepiwotoriginal. There's epic music, epic hopping, epic cliff jumping, epic camera spinning, and epic ... epic. That's all I've got. Any guesses on when he'll reach 100?
Two bosses will enter... but only one will leave in WoW Insider's fantasy deathmatch series. We're pitting two of Azeroth's raid bosses against one another in a battle that your votes get to decide -- until in the end we're left with a single boss as the ultimate champion. Be sure to check out our brackets for a full round-up of our ongoing fight schedule!) This week we present Kel'Thuzad, the ominous Archlich of the Plaguelands, and Archimonde the Defiler, the greatest and most ruthless of the Eradar. Who will win no one knows -- because ultimately, it's for you to decide. So read on and voice your opinion!
It's going to come as a surprise to very few of you (about 11% of you) that Sapphiron came out ahead of Bloodlord Mandokir in our most recent match of Two Bosses Enter. I suppose it's not unexpected, as Mandokir's greatest strength (his ability to grow in power as he kills people) would do him little good in a one-on-one match with Sapphiron. In this fight, Mandokir was little more than a powerful meleer, and eaten alive by Sapphiron's death-from-above approach. The exact results of the fight are as follows:
All I can say is ouch. It looks like the Bloodlord is heading back home to Zul'Gurub with a badly bruised ego -- though after eating a few raid groups (who no doubt don't take him seriously, because he's old-world content) I'm sure he'll be right back in the game. Our next match, between Ahn'Qiraj's Moam and Zul'Gurub's Hakkar (yes, after this one-sided fight, our brackets have been rearranged to, hopefully, make for more interesting battles in the future).
Patch 2.2, currently in testing on the PTR, has some great improvements like voice chat and reporting AFK'ers in Battlegrounds. What it doesn't have is any new, big, sexy chunk of playable content. So when are we going to see the post-Karazhan 10-main raid zone, Zul'Aman? New Heroic Badge rewards? Guild banks? Oh, we already know that last one.
Forum MVP Schwick on the WoW European forums has compiled a list of known updates in Patch 2.3 and beyond. He often provide reference links to his sources form many of his future patch notes, which makes him an information god in my book.
He also goes on to list all the verified information about the WotLK expansion. I thought I had read all the info that was out already, but on Schwick's list I found items I didn't know, like the fact that Blizzard has a plan to deal with the fact that the Horde doesn't have a fear ward. Or that Naxxramas, the last raid zone introduced before TBC launched, will be repurposed in the new expansion. Or that new shaders will be introduced for shinier graphics. Mmm, sparkles.
Check out Schwick's post if you want to get a look ahead about what's known for future patches. Screenshot of Zul'Aman boss models courtesy of MMO-Champion.com.
The MMO Gamer sat down for an interview with WoW lead developer Jeff "Tigole" Kaplan recently. You can hear the audio or read the transcript at their site, but for my money, here's the most interesting bit. In the middle of a rehashing of the debate over whether Blizzard should spend a lot of time developing raids that few people will see, he drops this great idea:
So what I want to do in Northrend is to take Naxxramas in all of its glory, scale it down to the 25 man raid size, and then take the difficulty and retune it-obviously we'd tune for level 80, it would no longer be tuned for level 60, since that would be a little silly and it wouldn't be a lot of fun for people at that point-but I want to put rewards in there that are very exciting to level 80 players, but make it the entry-level raid, very accessible, tune the encounters so that there's something for everybody to do, and let the majority get a chance to see that content that they hadn't seen before.
Naxx as the Karazhan of Northrend. I like it. I am one of the many who never got a chance to try Naxx the first time around, and I hear it's a well-designed raid. I also like that the entry-level raid is planned to be 25-man, not 10-man; the transition from KZ to Gruul and SSC has caused problems for a lot of guilds. Apparently it's also a bit of a misconception that raiding is unpopular; Tigole says out of all the instances in the live game right now, Karazhan is the one that gets done by the most people each week.
The interview goes on to discuss the links between WoW raiding and EverQuest raiding (Tigole was a raid guild leader in EQ for some time before working on WoW), and what Tigole would have done differently if he could go back in time to when WoW was first being made. It's a good read, like most developer interviews, so go check it out. But Naxx in Northrend? Awesome!
I remember fondly the first time my guild managed to take out Ragnaros in Molten Core. It had taken a lot of planning to make a serious attempt at it, and when everything finally came together just right it was a huge thrill. Or the first time we took out Nefarian in Blackwing Lair or Princess Huhurahn in Ahn'Qiraj or... any of a dozen other boss first kills. It may have taken countless frustrating wipes to learn the perfect strategy, but when things finally come together, it's a great feeling.
But does anyone go out and visit Ragnaros (or any of the other big boss mobs in Azeroth) anymore, when the loot's no longer compelling? I've got to say -- the people who started playing since the Burning Crusade was released are missing out on some incredibly fun boss fights. But I'm glad to see that there are at least some players out there who are tackling old world content for the entertainment value. Se7en Samurai points out that the guild Elements on Alleria is running an open Naxxramas raid this weekend. (If only guilds on my realm did things like that!)
So what's your take on it? Is old world content worth going through for entertainment value, or is it all just a waste of time?
Two bosses enter... but only one of them will get to leave in our series of fantasy deathmatches. Here at WoW Insider we're pitting some of the game's most fascinating bosses against each other until we come up with a final victor in the end. And the best part? Every week, you get to decide who wins.
This week we're going to consider a fight between Instructor Razuvious in Naxxramas and Ragnaros in Molten Core. Who will win and who will lose? Read up on the abilities of each and then let us know what you think!
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