While no guild has yet defeated Archimonde on heroic or normal, to my knowledge (and it's day one, so, you know, not surprising,) the cinematic that plays for the Archimonde fight has been data-mined. In fact, there are two cinematics - one that comes before the fight and one that follows.
There here's a little prologue to keep people on the mobile site free from spoilers, because they's a coming!
Right, we good?
Tuesday, June 23, 2015
Tanaan Jungle First Impressions
The launch of 6.2 has come, and with it, the first real new content in the expansion since launch. There is a LOT to do, at least this first day - though it looks like there will be plenty to do every day in Tanaan Jungle.
Before you get there, you'll have to do a quest chain that involves building your Naval Yard - this will actually take a fair chunk of time. But once you build your first ship, you'll be able to head out into the jungle and secure your main stronghold.
I have to say, I'm impressed with Tanaan as a zone - while new zones have been added in patches in the past, they've always felt a little half-baked. Isle of Thunder probably came the closest to feeling complete, and I will put that up as a possible exception to the rule, but in the past, areas like Quel'danas, the Molten Front, and the Timeless Isle have not really felt like they had the scope of the full-fledged zones we get with the launch of an expansion.
Tanaan, on the other hand, totally feels like a real, full zone.
One factor, and perhaps the most important one, is its size. Tanaan is of course the Draenor equivalent of Hellfire Peninsula, which was of course the starting zone in Outland. While the geography is certainly different, it shares several characteristics. Amusingly, the Alliance town appears to be geographically in the exact same spot as Honor Hold, and I'd assume that the Horde's town is where Thrallmar would be.
There are a handful of familiar landmarks, with Hellfire Citadel as the most obvious one outside the Dark Portal, but this definitely feels new. There might be feelings of deja vu, but the environment is utterly different - whereas HFP was a barren orange desert under an alien sky, Tanaan is, as the full name of the zone would indicate, a jungle.
But beyond the normal darkness, there's also some rampant demonic corruption, with the blood of Mannoroth spilling down from the Throne of Kil'jaeden to the Citadel below. While not all of the Iron Horde fell in line behind Gul'dan, it's clear that most of them did, and what we're dealing with is truly monstrous.
There are three faction in Tanaan, and if the first day's rep gains are any indication, these should be much more on par with previous expansions' reps.
The Hand of the Prophet and Vol'jin's Headhunters are the core Alliance/Horde factions in the zone. You'll likely be spending most of your time doing things for them. One early quest sends you to gather scout reports from around the jungle, which conveniently leads you to almost all of the flight points in the zone.
The Order of the Awakened seems primarily focused on hunting down treasures and rare mobs. Unlike the "vignettes" in the rest of Draenor, these seem to respawn or count multiple kills, which is of course important, as you'll need to loot these things in order to do collect the items for your daily OotA dailies.
Finally, the Sabrestalkers are what I think of as a mini-faction. It's basically three people who have you fight the sabreons in a small corner of the zone called Fang'rila. I don't know exactly if they're built on a daily quest system, but you will earn some rep just from killing sabreons in that area. The quest I got thankfully awarded something like 4000 reputation, which should compensate for the relatively small amount of activity the faction entails.
Before you get there, you'll have to do a quest chain that involves building your Naval Yard - this will actually take a fair chunk of time. But once you build your first ship, you'll be able to head out into the jungle and secure your main stronghold.
I have to say, I'm impressed with Tanaan as a zone - while new zones have been added in patches in the past, they've always felt a little half-baked. Isle of Thunder probably came the closest to feeling complete, and I will put that up as a possible exception to the rule, but in the past, areas like Quel'danas, the Molten Front, and the Timeless Isle have not really felt like they had the scope of the full-fledged zones we get with the launch of an expansion.
Tanaan, on the other hand, totally feels like a real, full zone.
One factor, and perhaps the most important one, is its size. Tanaan is of course the Draenor equivalent of Hellfire Peninsula, which was of course the starting zone in Outland. While the geography is certainly different, it shares several characteristics. Amusingly, the Alliance town appears to be geographically in the exact same spot as Honor Hold, and I'd assume that the Horde's town is where Thrallmar would be.
There are a handful of familiar landmarks, with Hellfire Citadel as the most obvious one outside the Dark Portal, but this definitely feels new. There might be feelings of deja vu, but the environment is utterly different - whereas HFP was a barren orange desert under an alien sky, Tanaan is, as the full name of the zone would indicate, a jungle.
But beyond the normal darkness, there's also some rampant demonic corruption, with the blood of Mannoroth spilling down from the Throne of Kil'jaeden to the Citadel below. While not all of the Iron Horde fell in line behind Gul'dan, it's clear that most of them did, and what we're dealing with is truly monstrous.
There are three faction in Tanaan, and if the first day's rep gains are any indication, these should be much more on par with previous expansions' reps.
The Hand of the Prophet and Vol'jin's Headhunters are the core Alliance/Horde factions in the zone. You'll likely be spending most of your time doing things for them. One early quest sends you to gather scout reports from around the jungle, which conveniently leads you to almost all of the flight points in the zone.
The Order of the Awakened seems primarily focused on hunting down treasures and rare mobs. Unlike the "vignettes" in the rest of Draenor, these seem to respawn or count multiple kills, which is of course important, as you'll need to loot these things in order to do collect the items for your daily OotA dailies.
Finally, the Sabrestalkers are what I think of as a mini-faction. It's basically three people who have you fight the sabreons in a small corner of the zone called Fang'rila. I don't know exactly if they're built on a daily quest system, but you will earn some rep just from killing sabreons in that area. The quest I got thankfully awarded something like 4000 reputation, which should compensate for the relatively small amount of activity the faction entails.
Monday, June 22, 2015
How to Fly in Draenor
Sanity has prevailed or Blizzard has caved to pressure, depending on where you stand on the whole flying situation (I'm firmly in the "sanity" camp) and 6.2 will be introducing the ability to use our flying mounts as, you know, flying mounts in Draenor.
But unlike previous expansions, this ability to fly (I'd call it "Old Weather Flying," but that was the joke in Cataclysm. Maybe "Time Flying?") will not be as simple as plopping a few thousand gold at the feet of an NPC trainer.
Instead, flight must be earned by getting the Draenor Pathfinder achievement. This is an account-wide achievement, meaning that as long as any characters you have collectively have the various sub-achievements, you'll get the ability to fly, as well as a bonus Rylak mount, on all of your characters.
Actually, the one thing I'm not sure about is whether this is restricted to level 100 characters. I'd assume so, but I don't know that this has been explicitly stated.
So what do you need to do first?
Explore Draenor:
Yep, you're going to need to fill out your map of Draenor. Alliance players will have to probably work hardest in Frostfire Ridge, and Horde in Shadowmoon, but this mostly amounts to just riding around on your ground mount for a while.
Securing Draenor:
Hopefully you spent some time during the expansion doing those apexis dailies. This achievement requires you to do the daily in each of the daily assault areas, though I believe that this only requires the ones that are designed to be done solo - no worries about the Pit or Ashran. If you're worried about the RNG element of waiting for your assault table to have the right spots, I believe this will also count it if you purchase the quest item from your garrison quartermaster with garrison resources (who stands just outside the town hall.)
Loremaster of Draenor:
Complete the various quest-storylines in each of the leveling zones. This shouldn't be too hard - I expect most players already have this, given how compelling the Draenor questing experience was.
Master Treasure Hunter:
You'll need to get 100 treasures of Draenor. If you have the loremaster achievement, though, you'll be able to purchase treasure maps from the archaeology artifact trader in the Ashran capitals. You can also get these maps from follower missions.
Tanaan Diplomat:
This requires you to be revered with the three new factions in Tanaan Jungle: The Order of the Awakened, the Sabrestalkers, and either the Hand of the Prophet or Vol'jin's Headhunters, depending on your faction. Thankfully, these factions are designed around daily quests that reward large chunks of reputation, so while there might be some mechanics that allow you to grind mobs to gain rep more quickly, sticking to the quests should get you to revered in a couple of weeks.
So yes, flight will require you to jump through several hoops to attain it, but I'm glad we'll be able to see the world from above again, and it should make the conveniences of flight relevant to alt characters.
Hellfire Citadel Raid Loot Item Levels
Tomorrow, patch 6.2 will open up, bringing us many features. Chief amongst them is the opening of Tanaan Jungle and the raid instance inside: Hellfire Citadel. (It would be awesome, in my opinion, if there were sections of the raid called the Blood Furnace and Shattered Halls - though the latter was probably named in reference to the Shattered Hand Clan, which I don't think will have a presence here.)
With HFC, we will have tier 18 available to us - in other words, loot loot loot loot loot!
One of the major differences of this raid from many previous ones is that there will be different item levels for rewards across each difficulty. Yes, Blizzard has decided that it's not so great when Lord Marrowgar rewards the same quality loot as Sindragosa. Thus, later bosses in the raid will have higher-quality loot than the earliest fights. This gives people a greater incentive to really push forward through the raid, and avoids the common theme of people downing a hard, late-raid boss for the first time and simply sharding all the loot.
I don't actually know the exact structure of the raid - whether it has wings that branch off from a central hub or if it's a more linear, Throne of Thunder-style instance. But we can safely assume that later bosses like Mannoroth will be more rewarding, and that Archimonde will likely drop the highest quality loot in the instance.
And what level is all that loot?
LFR: 675-685
Normal: 690-705
Heroic: 705-720
Mythic: 720-735
In other words, a heroic raiding guild should not feel obligated to run Normal mode at all if they are able to down the first few bosses of the instance. I think this is mostly a good idea, though I wonder if some guilds who are working on a later boss might feel incentivized to try an earlier boss on a higher difficulty.
Still, I think that this is probably the right pattern. HFC is larger raid, at 13 bosses, so it does seem appropriate that there would be some real distinction between rewards for its earliest bosses and its later ones. There's certainly precedent for this in older raids. The one thing I hope they plan for is to allow all specs to get weapons that are of equal quality - it'd be pretty unfair if Archimonde dropped an awesome agility sword, but nothing for enhancement shamans or dagger-wielding rogues.
LFR will require a minimum item level of 650, which I think is perfectly reasonable. Follower missions, without any raiding done, can award 655 and 670 items, both every two weeks, meaning that at this point, even a player who never goes inside instances can probably reach that item level. And those who have gotten a decent complement of LFR BRF gear will certainly exceed this requirement.
The Legendary Ring will be completed in 6.2, and will have an item level of 735 - on par with Mythic gear dropping from Archimonde. There is also a possibility (though this is unconfirmed) that the ring may even be upgraded to the ludicrously-higher level of 795, though this might be saved for a future patch or be cut. The rings will also have an activated ability that causes all members of the raid with a similar type of ring (all types of DPS are merged for the purpose of this ability) to go off. This effect should probably be treated like Bloodlust/Heroism/Time Warp, as a major raid cooldown. The effect will, of course, be stronger the more people have the ring.
As a catch-up mechanism, follower missions that grant Abrogator Stones and Elemental Runes will now come more frequently.
With HFC, we will have tier 18 available to us - in other words, loot loot loot loot loot!
One of the major differences of this raid from many previous ones is that there will be different item levels for rewards across each difficulty. Yes, Blizzard has decided that it's not so great when Lord Marrowgar rewards the same quality loot as Sindragosa. Thus, later bosses in the raid will have higher-quality loot than the earliest fights. This gives people a greater incentive to really push forward through the raid, and avoids the common theme of people downing a hard, late-raid boss for the first time and simply sharding all the loot.
I don't actually know the exact structure of the raid - whether it has wings that branch off from a central hub or if it's a more linear, Throne of Thunder-style instance. But we can safely assume that later bosses like Mannoroth will be more rewarding, and that Archimonde will likely drop the highest quality loot in the instance.
And what level is all that loot?
LFR: 675-685
Normal: 690-705
Heroic: 705-720
Mythic: 720-735
In other words, a heroic raiding guild should not feel obligated to run Normal mode at all if they are able to down the first few bosses of the instance. I think this is mostly a good idea, though I wonder if some guilds who are working on a later boss might feel incentivized to try an earlier boss on a higher difficulty.
Still, I think that this is probably the right pattern. HFC is larger raid, at 13 bosses, so it does seem appropriate that there would be some real distinction between rewards for its earliest bosses and its later ones. There's certainly precedent for this in older raids. The one thing I hope they plan for is to allow all specs to get weapons that are of equal quality - it'd be pretty unfair if Archimonde dropped an awesome agility sword, but nothing for enhancement shamans or dagger-wielding rogues.
LFR will require a minimum item level of 650, which I think is perfectly reasonable. Follower missions, without any raiding done, can award 655 and 670 items, both every two weeks, meaning that at this point, even a player who never goes inside instances can probably reach that item level. And those who have gotten a decent complement of LFR BRF gear will certainly exceed this requirement.
The Legendary Ring will be completed in 6.2, and will have an item level of 735 - on par with Mythic gear dropping from Archimonde. There is also a possibility (though this is unconfirmed) that the ring may even be upgraded to the ludicrously-higher level of 795, though this might be saved for a future patch or be cut. The rings will also have an activated ability that causes all members of the raid with a similar type of ring (all types of DPS are merged for the purpose of this ability) to go off. This effect should probably be treated like Bloodlust/Heroism/Time Warp, as a major raid cooldown. The effect will, of course, be stronger the more people have the ring.
As a catch-up mechanism, follower missions that grant Abrogator Stones and Elemental Runes will now come more frequently.
Sunday, June 21, 2015
Azeroth B
To reiterate something we've all been aware of for quite some time: The Draenor we're currently fighting through is not the same Draenor that became Outland. Every one of us is an alien to this world, even the Orcs and Draenei who recognize it as looking almost exactly like home.
Kairozdormu did not brought Garrosh to this universe to change the past. Altering the course of this Draenor's events will do nothing to prevent the destruction of the world where our Horde began. All that is in the past - the true past. Indeed, it's even possible that Kairoz did not travel through time at all - it's possible that this Draenor is merely thirty years out of synch with ours.
The implications of this sort of parallel world are immense. Not only are we left with mysteries of just what differences there are between our past and Draenor's present, but we are left with an entire potential cosmos, and indeed, myriad alternate cosmoses.
We're still a few months out from Blizzcon, where we will almost certainly learn about the next expansion. In all likelihood, we'll return to Azeroth and set aside this question of parallel universes in favor of dealing with a more straightforward threat.
But in the event that we continue to deal with this alternate universe, there's a location that I think would be far more interesting to explore than some second Draenic continent (the so-called Ogre Continent we've often heard about.) And that is the alternate Azeroth.
Yet can we actually go there?
Logistically, from a game-making standpoint, you do run into one big problem, namely that the thing that really made the Azeroth side of the Dark Portal interesting was the Horde's invasion. Otherwise you have the fairly peaceful kingdom of Stormwind (originally called the Kingdom of Azeroth, which is confusing, but only as much as the fact that the country typically called America is within the continent of North America) more or less getting by without any major problems.
Except that's not really the case. There's plenty of stuff on Azeroth that had nothing to do with the Horde that are still threats. There's the Gurubashi Empire right near Stormwind, and there are Old Gods, Elemental Lords, Naga, and all manner of craziness.
And that's not to mention Medivh. While the Last Guardian managed to redeem himself during the Third War, he did so as some kind of ghostly apparition. Medivh spent his natural life possessed not by a demon, but by the Dark Titan Sargeras himself. While Kil'jaeden's obsession with hunting down the Draenei was ultimately what created the Horde, it was Sargeras who sought to use the Horde as the vanguard of a full-fledged Burning Legion invasion.
The Horde clearly failed in that regard, but it was an even bigger failure in Draenor B's universe. In fact, until Gul'dan's usurpation of the Iron Horde, it wasn't a viable candidate at all (and the Fel Iron Horde has us to deal with first.)
But I hardly think that would be a reason for Medivh/Sargeras to give up. What machinations might be going on in an Azeroth where the Dark Portal never opened?
Of course, we're making an assumption here.
We're assuming there is an alternate Azeroth.
Many different universes or timelines exist - we can assume there are countless, or even infinite versions of Draenor. But on Azeroth, the dragon aspect of Time was given explicit instructions - there is only one true timeline, and it must be guarded at all costs.
We know that Azeroth is a special place - the Titans spent a great deal of effort forming it, and seemed to take a more active hand in it than they did with Draenor. Indeed, if there's any indication of how important it is, look at how obsessed Sargeras is with conquering it.
Yes, the Well of Eternity was likely a great source of power, but one would think that its destruction would bump it down the priority list for the Legion if that was their primary objective in conquering the planet.
Perhaps the "special" nature of Azeroth is that it is truly unique. Like the Nether itself, Azeroth is a hub around which the entire Warcraft Multiverse revolves (it certainly does in narrative terms.)
Consider this: the Iron Horde was able to set up their Dark Portal to invade our Azeroth, and not theirs. Yet they did not have Kairoz on their team - Garrosh killed the bronze dragon. I'm not even sure they still had the Glimpse of Time (the remaining shard of the Vision of Time that had been broken after crossing universes.) Did the Iron Horde have the know-how to get to an other universe? How could they ensure that their portal linked up with our Azeroth, and not their version of it?
Perhaps there is a problem here, though. If we assume that there is only one Azeroth, then how do you explain the dangers to its timeline, and the whole threat to time that the Infinite Dragonflight poses?
Yet maybe this isn't a problem with the theory, but rather an argument in its favor. If changing the timeline were simply to send you to a different universe, then there is no fear of paradox, and nothing truly gets changed. When we go to Draenor, we kill Ner'zhul. Yet this does not erase the existence of the Lich King from our past, because this Ner'zhul is not our Ner'zhul.
But if everything were condensed into a single universe, then such an act could be catastrophically dangerous. If we, as time travelers ourselves, are made immune to the history-and-memory-rewriting of history changing, then we would see the changes we create pile on top of each other, totally upending our own sense of history and setting.
Previously, I had thought that End Time - the post-apocalyptic future in which Deathwing had defeated us and ended the world - was a problem in this "single Azeroth" theory. But by restricting Azeroth to a single sequence of events, it means that any changes must overwrite the previous version, rather than simply branching off. And if history can actually be rewritten on Azeroth, that makes it that much more important to guard the timeways.
Because if Murozond were just an alternate-universe version of Nozdormu, then the foreseen death he saw was never really his own, and there's no guarantee that the former Bronze aspect will turn to evil. But if there is only one, then that fate is sealed. It might not look the way we remember it, given that we have overwritten the "End Time" future, but it will happen.
Are there holes in this theory? Oh hell yes. And while I think our next expansion should deal with contemporary Azerothian threats, I do think it would be nice to at least leave the door open for seeing a pre-Horde Azeroth or an alternate version of Azeroth (I would love to see the good King Arthas Menethil.) But it could also, with a little futzing and maybe a retcon here and there, be a huge explanation for some of the cosmological mysteries of Warcraft.
Thursday, June 18, 2015
My Hopes for Fallout 4
While I'm still holding out hope for more of the Star Trek-style future, in which whatever problems we have now fade as our philosophy and technology improve and we continue to improve as a species and a civilization, there is something very fertile about the post-apocalyptic setting. And the invention of the Atomic Bomb seventy years ago made the possibility of a really global-scale apocalyptic event terrifyingly plausible. We spent the entire Cold War afraid that NATO and the Warsaw Pact would end it by nuking each other into oblivion (and the cumulative effect of such an event would be terrible for everyone else as well.) That threat isn't gone, but we trust more in the notion that no one wants to see that terrible scenario of mutually assured destruction. Let's hope that such sanity persists.
Fallout portrays a world in which such sanity did not. It's not really our future, because the nuclear war that happened was actually in our future - the 2070s, if I recall correctly. Why had everyone reverted to a 1950s aesthetic, despite all the advanced technology like robots? Well, I think it's an aesthetic choice - the 50s were the height of Cold War paranoia and in the US, an insistence on a homogenized culture that was seen as the direct opposite of Communism (one that didn't really have a place for the poor or minorities.)
So we spent Fallout 3 combing through the ruins of Washington DC, and it was really grim. There were very few settlements - essentially Megaton (which, if you're evil, you can destroy,) Tenpenny Tower (which, if you're "good," you can unleash a bunch of murderous ghouls on,) but there is no real structure of society that has come back.
While Fallout 3 does end with a ray of hope - the water-purification system starts working, giving people safe water to drink finally - it still feels like the world is in a state of despair.
A point I once heard about post-apocalyptic settings is that the reason they're so dreary is that people are too obsessed with what once was. If the world's going to end, you want there to be something new.
To me, I think the appeal of a post-apocalyptic setting is not just depression-porn, but the idea that familiar things are reimagined to become something different. And we do see a bit of that in 3 - the Pentagon becomes the Citadel, for example.
So I do have some hopes for 4 - for one thing, the game just looks more colorful. In Fallout 3, it seemed like everything was a shade of grey, brown, or a sickly radioactive green.
I'm not sure when all the Fallout games are set, but given enough time, it would be nice to see at least plant life start to grow back. And what I have seen of 4, there is just more color there.
The other thing that excites me is that there seems to be a theme of building things - you get to build a house (or multiple houses) and your own weapons. You can call a helicopter down for you to ride, which implies that there's enough of a support network for you to have such a thing.
I'll admit that partially this is because of my love for my hometown, but I don't want to go into Boston and see nothing but rubble. I want to see people who have cleared away that rubble and instead built a crazy temple out of the State House, or turned Faneuil Hall Market into an actual market for bartering. It looks like Fenway Park has become a little town in the trailers - that's more my speed.
Because really, with enough time after the nuclear war, assuming that people did survive at all, you'd think that something resembling an earlier society would begin to grow up. I would love, love, love to see Fallout 4's Boston (area, given that I think MIT is part of it, which is technically in Cambridge) less just a total depressing ruin, and instead a Skyrim-like landscape of different new kingdoms popping up to replace the society that was once there.
Fallout portrays a world in which such sanity did not. It's not really our future, because the nuclear war that happened was actually in our future - the 2070s, if I recall correctly. Why had everyone reverted to a 1950s aesthetic, despite all the advanced technology like robots? Well, I think it's an aesthetic choice - the 50s were the height of Cold War paranoia and in the US, an insistence on a homogenized culture that was seen as the direct opposite of Communism (one that didn't really have a place for the poor or minorities.)
So we spent Fallout 3 combing through the ruins of Washington DC, and it was really grim. There were very few settlements - essentially Megaton (which, if you're evil, you can destroy,) Tenpenny Tower (which, if you're "good," you can unleash a bunch of murderous ghouls on,) but there is no real structure of society that has come back.
While Fallout 3 does end with a ray of hope - the water-purification system starts working, giving people safe water to drink finally - it still feels like the world is in a state of despair.
A point I once heard about post-apocalyptic settings is that the reason they're so dreary is that people are too obsessed with what once was. If the world's going to end, you want there to be something new.
To me, I think the appeal of a post-apocalyptic setting is not just depression-porn, but the idea that familiar things are reimagined to become something different. And we do see a bit of that in 3 - the Pentagon becomes the Citadel, for example.
So I do have some hopes for 4 - for one thing, the game just looks more colorful. In Fallout 3, it seemed like everything was a shade of grey, brown, or a sickly radioactive green.
I'm not sure when all the Fallout games are set, but given enough time, it would be nice to see at least plant life start to grow back. And what I have seen of 4, there is just more color there.
The other thing that excites me is that there seems to be a theme of building things - you get to build a house (or multiple houses) and your own weapons. You can call a helicopter down for you to ride, which implies that there's enough of a support network for you to have such a thing.
I'll admit that partially this is because of my love for my hometown, but I don't want to go into Boston and see nothing but rubble. I want to see people who have cleared away that rubble and instead built a crazy temple out of the State House, or turned Faneuil Hall Market into an actual market for bartering. It looks like Fenway Park has become a little town in the trailers - that's more my speed.
Because really, with enough time after the nuclear war, assuming that people did survive at all, you'd think that something resembling an earlier society would begin to grow up. I would love, love, love to see Fallout 4's Boston (area, given that I think MIT is part of it, which is technically in Cambridge) less just a total depressing ruin, and instead a Skyrim-like landscape of different new kingdoms popping up to replace the society that was once there.
Wednesday, June 17, 2015
Patch 6.2 – Fury of Hellfire Officially June 23rd
Much as we anticipated, 6.2 will be coming out next week on the 23rd. As if that trailer wasn't enough to clue you in and you've been ignoring WoW news for a long time, here's what we're getting:
- Tanaan Jungle will open up as a full zone.
- Hellfire Citadel Raid:
- Garrison Naval Yard:
- Weekly Events:
- Myriad Tweaks, Bug Fixes, and Minor Features:
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