That Murloc was just the beginning -- since the Spore creature creator demo dropped officially yesterday, and along with this cute little C'thun (thanks, Andrew!), there are a whole crowd of Warcraft-related creatures showing up on the Sporepedia. We've collected our favorites so far in a gallery below -- while you'll need to actually put the creatures in game to see them shuffle, saunter, and dance around in Spore, you can get a pretty good idea of just how versatile Will Wright's little creator is. I've said it before and I'll say it again: while everyone is expecting Warhammer to give WoW a run for its money, the PC game that Blizzard should really be worried about this year is Spore.
If you see any other great Warcraft-related creature creations in Spore, feel free to send them along and you just might see them here. And in the meantime, our sister site BigDownload (who are also hosting the demo) is holding a creature creator contest -- send them your best creature and you could win a EVGA NVIDIA e-GeForce 8800GT, EVGA NVIDIA e-GeForce 9600GT or a free upgrade to the full version of the creature creator game. It's Sporelicious!
Seriously, look at the C'thun. We haven't seen a tentacled, ancient monster this cute since, well, Hello Cthulu.
Merdrah had an intriguing question on the forums a few days ago: will Death Knights get a callout for Nefarian? During the Nefarian fight in Blackwing Lair, each class gets called out by the boss, and the raid has to deal with abilities that define that class (ie for Warlocks, each Warlock "accidentally" summons two Infernals that the raid has to AoE down). Bornakk, kind of surprisingly, says that yes, Blizzard will "probably" add in callouts for Death Knights.
And that's interesting, because it means that, at least right now, Blizzard is committed to implementing Death Knights throughout the entire game. Though they're only a Hero Class, Death Knights are the first "new class" that WoW has ever seen, and so we'll definitely see some interesting changes throughout Azeroth. Every class has their moment to shine in each instance, and so if Blizzard wants to give Death Knights their chance to step up in even the "old" instances like Blackwing Lair, lots of changes are probably coming.
Of course, one factor of this, however, is that Death Knights won't start at level one-- they'll be starting at a higher level when first rolled. From what we know, Blizzard hasn't actually chosen that level yet (remember as well that when Death Knights appear ingame, the highest level will be 80), but if they're planning on changing around a level 60 instance to include Death Knights, odds are that you'll have at least twenty levels to go on your Death Knight before you can reach level 80.
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. Today we're going to be considering a fight between Kel'Thuzad, the final boss in Naxxramas, and Nefarian, the final boss in Blackwing Lair. Want to learn more about these two bosses and voice your opinion on who would win in a fight? Keep reading!
Reader Rokhan of Earthen Ring (EU) sends in this shot taken while his guild was learning the Nefarian encounter in Blackwing Lair. In case you're curious, the Hunter should never find himself tanking. (Rokhan! Couldn't you find your Feign Death button?!)
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.
The community managers showed up on the PTR on Friday, and as you might imagine, chaos ensued. Eyonix appeared as a level one gnome, and he and Tseric both got invited to a player guild, where they chatted with players for a couple of hours. I don't know if any actually battleground matching systems got tested (that was originally their reason for showing up), but apparently lots and lots of people got killed by Gruul, Baron Rivendare, and even Nefarian appearing in Lower City Shattrath.
Hopefully a CM event like this (as has happened before, when the expansion beta ended) signals that the end of the PTR (and the patch going live) is right around the corner.
So the guild Obsolete on Azjol-Nerub decided to run Blackwing Lair one last time to get their shiny Tier 2 pieces. According to the warlock Evriya, everything worked okay up until Nefarian, who did three class calls in 15 seconds and then turned all the living casters and rogues into warriors. Yes, turned them into warriors, complete with rage bars.
I did not believe this at first, but Obsolete has some pictures and videos of a paladin with rage bars up. Evriya believes that everyone somehow got stuck in berserker stance. After some urging from forumgoers, the guildmates went to a warrior trainer to see if they could train extra spells, but were instead stuck with a bunch of mana-using spells and no mana to use them with. They took it all in stride, though, inviting people to come make a level one alt on their server and "duel the one and only Rageadin."
Luckily for Obsolete, GMs went and fixed their characters one by one, so there won't be any 25-man all-warrior raids in the near future. Best thread comment: "So that's where all the rage went!"
The latest news from the front, both Horde and Alliance, is that there's another planet on the other side of the Dark Portal! It's called "Azeroth," and it's supposed to be two continents full of instances and dragons and quests! I don't ever remember visiting the place myself, but it's supposed to be pretty cool.
From that distant realm comes this conversation from the forums, about what all the bosses "back home" are up to.
{Drakkisath} dammit i'm bored. where are all the mobs? {Ragnaros has come online} {Nefarian} hey rag. {Ragnaros} TASTE THE FLAMES OF SULFURON {MajordomoExecutus} wtf caps {BaronRivendare} o_O {Nefarian} you dont have to put on your show, there arent any mobs around {Ragnaros} where the hell is everyone {Level 64 human warrior has come online} {Nefarian} niiiiiice {Nefarian} Im not even gonna use my skellies {BaronRivendare} same {Level 64 human warrior has killed Drakkisath} {Nefarian} .... {BaronRivendare} wt... {Level 64 human warrior has killed BaronRivendare} {Nefarian} jesus {MajordomoExecutus} /inspect {MajordomoExecutus} wtf he's wearing greens!
Funny. Wherever this "Azeroth" place is, I'll have to check it out sometime.
Readers, if you have not yet met Nefarian, well, above you see him, perched on his throne in the heights of Blackrock Spire, in a shot courtesy of reader Versus. The fiery crown is standard, but the tiny hippogryph flapping cheerfully around his feet is an addition since the last time. Apparently not even he could not resist the utter adorableness that is this non-combat pet.
Do you have a unique shot of Azeroth 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.
The creator of this video claims that it's proof Gnomes are evil. I think it might just be proof that Gnomes are unresistably adorable -- even to the most cold-hearted of the Black Dragonflight, Nafarian himself.
This week's GuildWatch is all about the loot-- to the victor, as they say, go the spoils. One guild finished off Nef, and gave out free loot to their guildmates. Another guild got a world first occurence-- not one but two Staff Heads of Atiesh from the same Kel kill (at least that's what their screenshot says-- I'll leave it up to you to determine if it's faked or not). And I even got some sweet loot this week-- my guild downed Ony, and I got our first Tier 2 helm for my Shaman. Yep, it felt pretty good beating Ony up for the first time, and now, I get the spoils: my eyes glow white with power.
As always, if you have Drama, Downed or Recruiting news from your guild (or anyone else's), drop a note to us at wowguildwatch@gmail.com. This week's GW starts right after you click the link below.
This week on GuildWatch, our weekly look at the latest and greatest in guild happenings, we've got more reader-submitted downings than we've ever had. What did Nefarian ever do to you guys anyway? Oh, that's right, he took over Blackrock Spire, his sister is masquerading as a human, he sent Rend Blackhand to kill you, and he corrupted Vaelestrasz before your very eyes. Ok, then, go ahead and kill him.
And don't forget, if you've got info to add in here, drop us a quick note at wowguildwatch@gmail.com with your news, realm, and faction. We'll take it all-- drama (send pics!), downings (ditto), or recruiting news. Check GW after the link.
That Murloc was just the beginning -- since the Spore creature creator demo dropped officially yesterday, and along with this cute little C'thun (thanks, Andrew!), there are a whole crowd of Warcraft-related creatures showing up on the Sporepedia. We've collected our favorites so far in a gallery below -- while you'll need to actually put the creatures in game to see them shuffle, saunter, and dance around in Spore, you can get a pretty good idea of just how versatile Will Wright's little creator is. I've said it before and I'll say it again: while everyone is expecting Warhammer to give WoW a run for its money, the PC game that Blizzard should really be worried about this year is Spore.
Merdrah had an intriguing question on the forums a few days ago: 
The latest news from the front, both Horde and Alliance, is that there's another planet on the other side of the Dark Portal! It's called "Azeroth," and it's supposed to be two continents full of instances and dragons and quests! I don't ever remember visiting the place myself, but it's supposed to be pretty cool.
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