I love Cro Threadstrong. Ever since we arrived in Shattrath, the guy's been yelling about the Fruit Vendor's cart blocking his way, and this isn't just an annoyed angry, it's a full-on, all-out, apple-crushing war kind of angry. And though we somehow missed this in among all of the Wrath beta news lately, we've now been invited into the trenches -- Cro is now selling his own crushable apples so players can walk right over to that Fruit Vendor, crush apples in front of her, and tell her ourselves: "YOU ARE RUNNING OUT OF TIME, FRUIT VENDOR!!!"
So much fun. As you can see in the gallery below, the apples let you cast a quick spell that shows a spurt of red juice flowing out from beneath your feet, but the real fun here is yelling for no discernable reason. "Did you see that, Fruit Vendor? The Ogre will not protect you! Do you not value the life of your apples?!?" And how funny it would be if Granny Smith really did turn out to be masterminding a war.
Upper Deck is hosting a fun little TCG event at various stores around the country this weekend -- the Two-headed Ogre Smash and Bash is a new event they have planned in which two players (so you and a friend) show up and fight together against another team with constructed decks (which means you show up, and they give you cards to make decks with, without having to bring your own). It seems like a lot of fun, and even if you're not a huge WoW TCG fan, if you can bring along someone who knows what they're doing, they can probably carry you (just like real Two-headed Ogres).
There's a $40 per team entrance fee, but the good news is that you get to keep all the cards you play with (eight booster packs, and you never know, there might be a loot card in there), and additionally, everyone who turns out for the tournament gets a code for one of those fireworks trinkets (that sets off fireworks at will), and the winner of each tourney gets an Ogre disguise to wear ingame.
There's a list of tournament locations over on the website -- the TCG probably isn't for everybody, but we've never really seen a more beginner-friendly event for the card game, since the fact that you've got two players here means that you can back each other up. Seems like fun -- if you go, definitely be sure to tell us how it went.
A few short days ago, Blizzard updated their browser-based music player with the fan favorite track "Power of the Horde" by Tenth Level Tauren Chieftain, now known as Level 70 Elite Tauren Chieftain. If you've never heard of this music player before, don't feel too bad. Most players haven't.
Heck, I hadn't heard of it until recently, which is a bit of a shame. There's a lot of great music available here, ranging from the World of Warcraft to Warcraft II. It doesn't provide all of the Warcraft music, you need to buy the CDs for that, but there's enough there fuel some nostalgia or get you in the adventuring mood. Plus, you can check out some of their old holiday specials, which lie somewhere between 'amusing' and 'hilarious.' Oh yeah, there's a dancing ogre. Those are always good. I... think.
Ogres are homeowners, too. They work hard to keep those stone huts full of moss and trash (and the occasional campfire or maybe treasure!) And they don't like it when adventurers go trespassing on their grass, trampling their daises and probably grinding exp by killing the neighbors. When one player stopped to peek at one ogre hut, he caught this shot. And all I can think is he's yelling that old refrain: get off my lawn!
Do you have any unusual World of Warcraft images that are just collecting dust in your screenshots folder? We'd love to see it on Around Azeroth! Sharing your screenshot is as simple as e-mailing aroundazeroth@wowinsider.com with a copy of your shot and a brief explanation of the scene. You could be featured here next!
Remember to include your player name, server and/or guild if you want it mentioned. We prefer full screen shots without the UI showing -- use alt-Z to remove it.
Reader Minou of Alonsus sends in this sad but true story of an unfortunate Ogre who managed to bury himself chest-deep in the ground. Alas, this Orge is not even as tall as a Gnome and totally unable to escape. Says Minou, "Poor thing was going crazy from the itch in the middle of his back."
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@wowinsider.com with a copy of your shot and a brief explanation of the scene. You could be featured here next!
From the top of Dreadmaul Rock in Burning Steppes you can just barely see the small Alliance encampment at Morgan's Vigil. However, while the sky and distant mountains may be picturesque, what really catches one's eye in this shot (sent in by reader Iggo of Argent Dawn, who is clearly no friend to the Ogre!) is the Ogre head on a pike in the foreground. However, in Iggo's defense, I'll say I'm sure this was a very bad Ogre!
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.
Just a quick question this morning, from Indigo on Livejournal: if you compared the way you look in real life to a WoW race, what would you be? Indigo would be a Female Dwarf, and I'm sure lots of people would be human. Who would be a Tauren? Actually, now that I think about it, Samwise Didier, lead singer of Blizzard's L70ETC, would be a pretty good Tauren. But only because Pandaren aren't in the game yet.
No doubts here-- I'd be an Ogre. Just the one head, but considering my height and size, you can call me High King Mike. I can definitely break out the dance, though, at a moment's notice.
Blizzard has posted a new faction guide on their official site. The Ogri'la faction, introduced in Patch 2.1, resides on the western part of the Blade's Edge Mountains. Gaining exalted with these enlightened ogres doesn't get you a fancy epic flying mount (directly) or the key to Karazhan, but attaining Exalted will net you a good deal of gold and access to epic faction rewards.
I won't go into the details of all the quest chains. Blizzard's guide plus WoW Wiki's Ogri'la page do a great job of that. But I'm in the middle of this quest series myself and have a few tips of my own to share:
You don't have to be grouped to finish the Mog'dorg quest chain. Just tag along with another group doing it and you'll be able to get the quest turn ins after each kill.
The Ogri'la quest line will open up additional Shatari Skyguard faction quests (and get you closer to riding that nether ray)
OgriLazy is a great AddOn for remembering the color sequence combinations of the Relic's Emanation daily quest.
Druid flight form is NOT immune to the dismount debuff of the Fel Cannons during the bombing run missions.
The Badge of Tenacity is one of the best non-raid tanking trinkets in the game, especially for feral druids.
Do any of you fine readers have any additional tips to share about Ogri'la quests?
Reader MG sends us this screenshot of the Ogre in Blade's Edge Mountains. When they're congregating like that, you can be sure there's trouble brewing, and MG explains that these Ogres have gathered to elect a new champion of their people, a king (or queen!) of the Ogre.
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.
Varedis of EU Draenor is working on what looks like a neat clay Gronn sculpture, and while it's still a work in progress, he's posting pics of it over on the forums. Did you know the Gronn were Ogre demigods? I had no idea. But isn't there a Mountain Gronn killing Ogres in Nagrand? Looks like there's another lore line that dropped through the cracks.
Anyway, what Varedis has so far looks pretty good-- you can see how the clay gets modeled around a metal frame, shaped into the basic pose, and then each body part is fleshed out and shaped. So far all he's got is a right hand, it seems, but what's there looks good.
He's also working on a Tauren sculpture (concurrently, I guess), which also looks pretty good. Very good start, can't wait to see how the whole thing comes out.
We've all seen the videosofdifferentdances. We've had ones where they all dance together, ones where the original source is cited. We've even seen video of a guy dancing like a Night Elf Female. Now we have another dance movie. There's one thing about this one that sets it apart, however. This is the first one I've seen that does a really good job of putting the dances side-by-side with their inspirations.
As Bowzerblack on the WoW LJ said: "I didn't know that about ogres!" All I can say is that I didn't either. And yes, I know it's the Boomkin dance too, but you don't see a lot of (completely-bare) topless Boomkins running about. Which, now that I think about it, is probably a good thing.
Upper Deck is hosting a fun little TCG event at various stores around the country this weekend -- the Two-headed Ogre Smash and Bash is a new event they have planned in which two players (so you and a friend) show up and fight together against another team with constructed decks (which means you show up, and they give you cards to make decks with, without having to bring your own). It seems like a lot of fun, and even if you're not a huge WoW TCG fan, if you can bring along someone who knows what they're doing, they can probably carry you (just like real Two-headed Ogres).
A few short days ago, Blizzard updated their browser-based music player with the fan favorite track "Power of the Horde" by Tenth Level Tauren Chieftain, now known as Level 70 Elite Tauren Chieftain. If you've never heard of this music player before, don't feel too bad. Most players haven't. 
Blizzard has posted a new faction guide on their official site. The Ogri'la faction, introduced in Patch 2.1, resides on the western part of the Blade's Edge Mountains. Gaining exalted with these enlightened ogres doesn't get you a fancy epic flying mount (directly) or the key to Karazhan, but attaining Exalted will net you a good deal of gold and access to epic faction rewards. 
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