Icecrown attack, imminent

Its been a while since I posted, simply because there has not been much progress on my part in game. I completed What a Long, Strange Trip it's been, got my violet drake, got a few upgrades, some off the AH and some from looting. But its been quiet, with no new kills. We are kinda stuck on Northrend Beasts in hard mode, not aided much from a rather unstable roster due to various in-game and real life reasons. Nonetheless, we have been there before and we are going back with a vengeance this week as well.

Tiny spoilers below...

But the big news are on another front. Patch 3.3, or at least its first version, is on the PTR. Blizzard is introducing a very interesting collection of 5-man challenges. New quest lines, historical weapons, lore figures add to the mix of what appears to be an involving adventure in 5-man instances. And its been a while since we had one of those.



Icecrown Citadel starts with a 5-player dungeon, consisting of three wings in the citadel's foundation. Players will assist Jaina Proudmoore (Alliance) and Sylvanas Windrunner (Horde) in infiltrating, commando style and through the back-door, the citadel, while the Lich King focuses on the attack of the Argent Crusade and the Ebon Blade. Their purpose, simple. To weaken the Citadel's defences. Kind of like a Dirty Dozen type of thing, only with... well, like half the dirtbags. Interestingly, we have to complete one wing to get to the other. Adds flavour, I can't complain. Normal and Hardmodes are available with each wing being on a separate lockout timer. Rewards for those interested will probably be between 219-232 item level.


The Forge of Souls, Pit of Saron and Halls of Reflection are the three wings, where we will meet some... interesting foes. The reports say we will encounter... Frostmourne, as we enter what appears to be the Lich King's private chambers. Falric and Marwyn, captains of Arthas Menethil in the past, now commanders of the Lich King, as well as the true prince of darkness...no wait, that is Ozzy... I mean the Lich King, the true prince of Patch 3.3, await for us.

Waaait a second... If we encounter the Lich King in a 5-man... who do we encounter in the Icecrown Citadel raid? And, while we fight him... what happens to Jana and Sylvanas?

I am not sure what will happen, not I have been monitoring the reports, the blogs and the general information sources. All I know is that we are weeks before what I consider the pinnacle of the lore already laid down. The rest that will follow are somewhat new things. Since Arthas became what he is now, the epitome of a fallen not-so-lawful 'good' person (kind of like Anakin becoming Darth Vader), to the chaotic evil being he is, I knew he would die, one what or the other from out blade. I can even say I have been playing in WoTLK for that very thing. To finally meet and kill that `old friend'. Redemption never looked plausible for me. Of course I may be mistaken, but I think the probability is pretty slim...

For me this encounter will be the end of a wonderful journey, along the path of life of Arthas Menethil, ever since I met him Frozen Throne. What is to follow when he is dead? Well, dunno, he is already dead in a sense :p. All I know is that once he is out of the way, there will be lots of new villains to get hooked upon. And I plan to do so...

Dreaming the Wow universe...

The recent weeks I have felt that the game has stopped being played in the servers and has shifted in the `informational' plane; that of the websites, the blogs and the forums. Many players claim they have reached various states - represented by feelings of discomfort, such as burnout, boredom etc - due to the apparent low difficulty level of the current content. Instead, people log much less their toons, spent increased amount of time in the various `informative' and speculative websites in anticipation of the new patch. Which interestingly seems one of the most - if not the most - groundbreaking ones.

So we have two attitudes here. One is a direct or implied dismissal of the current content. A re-used entry level instance and a couple of single-boss encounters seemed not enough to keep people in the edge. Hardcore players of course seek the achievements for those extra novelty items and titles, where as ultra-casuals raid once-so-often at best. The mainstream of the players had cleared all instances on a non-achievement incurring mode and many have stepped up and did all but the hardest (Immortal, Undying, Sarth3D, Poke and Eternity). This in my humble opinion represents the current state in-game.

On the other hand, outside of the game, people drool over the incoming Ulduar instance, new rewards, some the next Arena season, new achievements but most importantly the new dual-spec scheme. The latter 'drags along' some nice UI modifications that encapsulate the dual-spec functionality or assist in changing gear schemes - and possibly replace current add-ons like Outfitter if only basic functionality is required.

Bringing these two together we have an intermediate period where people try to finish off achievements that are being altered (in terms of rewards) in 3.1, prepare their secondary spec, gather up items possibly to benefit financially from new crafts or finish up any loose ends like reputations, profession skill-ups and the like.

Overall, the game seems it has partially lost the drive of `oomph' of the previous years due to the anticipation of what is to come. I will attempt a dangerous speculation here based on one of my favourite WoW aspects. The lore. Up to now we have witnessed only an establishment of the `new order' of things and a closure of an old chapter. Kel' Thusad is down, Naxxramas has fallen, the alliance moves one bit closer to Icecrown and establishes a perimeter. The Ebon Blade is aiding this (or not...) and Tirion is the martial commander. Back home Varian, Thrall do an inconclusive bras-de-fer with Jana as a referee, Bolvar is dead (or not...) and the retribution order is stronger than ever. The dragons have established their presence and confronted the blue lunatic Malygos, Deathwind is nor here nor there, but always present and Krasus and Alexstrasza are scheming on the backs of the mortal races. Now, its time to see what the Titans and the Old Gods got in store for us. And towards the end (or not...) the ultimate Deathknight, a corrupted youth paladin and a blond boy...

Its time for the light to emerge from the ashes...

I dare say that Blizzard's 'ace up their sleeve' - on top for further streamlining the mechanics of the game and allowing us to do more 'for our buck', through new quests, new factions, a new dimension in playing with dual-specs and new raiding content - will be the lore. I feel that Wotlk is now about to start and immerse us to the next chapter of the Warcraft universe where the old order is about to crumble and the new 'players' are about to take their places in the checkered floor of Azeroth. Or... any place, plane etc...

Of course, I may be miserably wrong and we will fall in another wormhole, of mediocre difficulty caves and castles filled with non-purposeful mobs...

P.S. Excuse the `poetic' nature of my posts. Working in the Telecom industry is somewhat stressful and one of my favourite escapes is to mentaly travel, through the stories I participate in and allow my imagination run wild. And hope there is still a lot to dream for...

P.S.2 Picture is from one of my favourite digital artists involved with Wow themes, pulyx.You can see his (or herr, I am not certain...) gallery in Deviantart here

On Lore progression

In the past I mentioned briefly my love for the Warcraft lore and how I am totally hooked on certain stories. TBC was relatively shallow when it comes to lore as we got to kill certain important figures without truly exploring their past. Those figures were mainly from the most popular Warcraft period for many - that of WC3. They eventually got to be end-bosses where we 'killed' them (and one case re-'killed' them :p) without some justification in regard to their past actions. Or at least not enough. We never get to see the past of the Illidan brothers and their relation to Tyrande, the relationship of Jana, Kael and Arthas, the importance of Lady Vashj in the elf lore (and possibly a future expansion with Azshara). But we did get to see Kil'Jaeden and that is quite big :p

Wotlk changes this to a large extent with visions of Arthas' past, the active involvement of the Dragons (which in the books/lore are all over the place affecting our future - and sometimes our past), the Bronzebeard brothers, King Varian and his return, a very interesting development in Wrath gate, the return of the Ashbringer and Tirion, the tension between Alliance and Horde etc. Lore is all over the place and things crop up as we go deep in Northrend. Even some `loose ends' like Matthias Lehner, or Bolvar Fordragon are quite prominent and make lore-aficionados work their minds overtime with assumptions and predictions.

And now Ulduar comes...

For those that have seen the relative information on Yogg-Saron, recently published, we get to see various important points of the lore with some interesting mechanics. We get to see `hidden' messages, we get to wonder why, what, how and when and possibly we get to see what happened to some of those 'loose ends'.

I wont spoil the fun with details etc, you can always go look if you are interested. What I know is we are much more involved in the story now. One story that slowly comes to its conclusion (or not), closing some of the remaining chapters of WC3. And quite possibly a few new threads, generated, that in will return spin-off to new paths.

All I know is that now is the time to enjoy the story; more than ever in World of Warcraft.

P.S. Picture source

'Prompting' down the memory lane

I am currently working on a telecom company and recently I started working on a new platform for telephony charging. One fine day we got a new Solaris box and we asked from our It department to do the mandatory patching; put the box in the company network etc. Once the system was ready I got an email with the IP and all the info I needed to log in through SSH.

So, I log in and I freeze. I stand in awe... the network name of the machine...

Ragnaros...

I knew the guy that set it up, I knew that he was a more-or-less casual wow gamer. But seeing that name brought some fine memories. When raiding with other 39 players was truly an epic adventure. When the world seemed vast, the stories behind events long and the warmth of adventuring fulfilling.

I am not sure what follows as far as the lore and the depth of the story in Warcraft are concerned. You see, the good old Wow was more or less the next bit after Warcraft 3. But without messing up much of the story. Players were, more or less, in the same point, quests involved 'lesser' characters and the `ghost' of some personalities was there to remind us of the 'drama' and the 'suffering'. I am not sure how many of us, that knew the lore beforehand, expected to face Arthas, or even Illidan, Kael and Vashj. It kind of felt romantic thinking of those characters. You knew they existed but they were off-limits.

TBC changed all that in a somewhat blunt way. We faced certain lore characters but without knowing what they have done. Or at least it was not presented as much as I would want. How many for example knew who Vashj was. In any case, people thought there was not much reasoning in killing those figures (apart from the loot that is :-p).

Blizzard acknowledged that and tried to make lore more accessible. And they did it in a clever way, I must admit. Throughout questing people get to see the fall of Arthas, through the Culling, betraying his soldiers, obtaining Frostmourne etc. Although I have my doubts on how many people absorbed the information due to frantic levelling, it was there for us to see. Possibly go back to WC3 and have a look too. Other important figures just appeared and their doings hopefully will be presented to - like Rhonin, Krasus etc.

Yet, seeing Arthas up close and personal leaves me with a bitter taste. Not because I do not appreciate the visual, or the way it appears through questing etc. But because some of those `untouchable' heroes were just that. Out of our reach. Legendary because we could not see them...

Still, the story evolves. We are now about to step in to a new part of it, exploring the Giants legacy. At the same time we are about to close (?) the chapter of the fallen prince. And within all that dive into a new era of conflict among the Alliance and the Horde.

Yes, seeing that name on my Solaris prompt made me laugh. Then it made me sad for all the battles and the stories I lived through with Lance. But now, its time to wright the new chapters. And for sad punters like me, who adore the story of Warcraft, its something to look forward to...