World of WarCraft: Death Knight

Today it arrived and I quickly snatched it up from the delivery box and sat down to read. The newest World of WarCraft manga World of WarCraft: Death Knight. The story is by Dan Jolley with artwork provided by Rocio Zucchi. This book was suppose to deal with the story of Thassarian and provide the details of his former life. In addition to this it is suppose to "reveal the origins, motivations, and darkest secrets of Warcraft's newest incarnation of death knights."

So what did I think of it?

The book spans from when Thassarian was already a young man (minus a few flashbacks of childhood encounters with his father) preparing to leave for Northrend to present day. So lore wise it really does not give to much new information. However what new information it does provide IS interesting. While it tells you how and where Thassarian originally died it does NOT explain how he came to be a Death Knight. It DOES explain the bond between Thassarian and Koltira, even later going into detail about what happened to Koltira when HE went to Northrend. It also gives greater insight into what occurred to some of the OTHER Death Knights during the Battle at Light's Hope Chapel not just Mograine.

I don't want to go into details as it may spoil it for those who wish to read the book but in a nut shell the focus is more on Thassarian's transformation from follower to leader. From being an individual who simply did as he was instructed to one who is able to question the orders given him and make independent decisions. I am really not sure what this has to do with "the darkest secrets of the newest incarnation of death knights."

As for the artwork of the book, it lacks consistency. The human characters are so thin, pointed and cartoony that it is difficult at first to determine which are Human and which are Elves until you go searching for the ears. Frames meant to convey great emotion completely miss the mark as a result. This is interesting as once the change is made to scourge the artwork certainly seems more effective.

Over all while there were certain parts of the book I enjoyed taken as a whole I was a little disappointed.

Rep: Ashtongue Deathsworn

The story of the Ashtongue is one of grimmest survival. Made up of the largest collection of Broken draenei they are lead by Akama, once the Guardian of the Temple of Karabor, some of his tale is shared in more detail in the short story Unbroken.

To give a quick summery, after the decimation of the Draenei by the Horde many of those exposed to the fel energies and mutated went into hiding. But with the sundering of Draenor they were exposed and were being hunted down by Magtheridon and his minions.  Kael'thas and Lady Vashj come to their aid in hopes of gaining allies for Illidan. Their ploy works. Akama and his followers pledge their loyalty to Illidan but soon discovers that he is little better than the pit lord they have been fighting.

Devastated at his miscalculation on behalf of his people Akama for all appearances remains visibly loyal to Illidan but in secret begins working to to undermine Illidan's connections with his followers. In the Black Temple trailer it is his voice that explains what is going on. At present his job is to guard over Maiev Shadowsong Illidain's one time jailer and he has already assured her that when the time is right he will allow her the revenge she is so desperate to enact. But on HIS time table not her own much to her eternal frustration.

When the Black Temple Raid was first released gaining entry was not a simple process but involved a long and complex attunement quest. That is no longer the case. At that time you first needed to chose either Aldor or Scryer  in Shattrath and do a 4 part chain for either of them in Shadowmoon Valley that would send you to the Warden's Cage and Akama. From then on the chain would be together.  That chain would then send you into the Dungeon of Arcatraz which required a key to enter or at least a rogue to lock pick the door. Then the chain would continue on for a bit and seem to end after giving you some rewards. But it didn't.

It would pick up again INSIDE the Serpentshrine Cavern and this chain would require you to go to The Eye and Hyjal Summit in the Caverns of Time. After you have killed the necessary bosses there you would go to Shattrath City and then finally return to the Black Temple itself.   By the time you completed this chain you would be friendly with the Ashtongue. Once you entered the Temple three more quests would await you resulting in the eventual upgrade in your medallion.

Out side of the attunement chain there is only one other way to gain Asthtongue reputation OUTSIDE of the Black Temple and that is by doing a few quests over on Netherwing Ledge. There you will find a few other Asthongues being used as slaves in the mines as well as Illidan's troops using the Netherdrakes as slaves. As a result you can get to ALMOST friendly just by doing the Netherwing reputation alone.

Once you have exhausted those options that leaves only the Black Temple and like the Violet Eye reputation any and all mobs and bosses in the instance will give you reputation. Full clears grant about 8k reputation and if you are running a party of geared 80's take about an hour.

Happy Grinding!

The State of WoW Bloggers

Adam over at The Noisey Rogue did an interesting post recently that got me to thinking. His question was "Are Rogue blogs an endangered species?" In recent months we have seen a significant decline in specifically Rogue bloggers. But even more than that some rogue bloggers who use to be quite frequent are talking more about ALTS in their blogs than their rogue mains. Zaltu over at One Rogue's Journey has closed up shop. Others have not posted in literally MONTHS.

Then today as I was looking at some of the other blogs I follow I stumbled across this post by Matticus. Basically he is offering the first 20 people who contact him to do a free guest post because he has found himself to be "in a rut" and is hoping the suggested topics will help keep him energized and motivated.

The more I scanned blogs the grimmer it looked. Greedy Goblin (someone I personally can not stand but I know has QUITE a following) is changing format because HE no longer feels challenged. Other blogs that are still active have become little more than "Anti Blizzard" platforms or are focused more on how the game has CHANGED than where it is at now.

Adam's thesis is that "Bloggers are a vital part of an online community, they reflect its state of health." His conclusion, based strictly on the rogue blog community was that this loss of bloggers shows us that WoW itself is failing and something needs to be done quickly to fix it. I came to a different conclusion but one that I find just as concerning.

What stuck out to me was the TYPES of blogs we are loosing. Those shutting down are often our technical bloggers, our theorycrafters and individuals known for pushing their specific classes to the edge of their ability and beyond. Even sites like EJ's are seeing less traffic. Now I believe there are a couple of reasons for this decline.

First, the age of the game. World of Warcraft the online game has been around now for five years. As compared to other games coming out now you can see it's age in our original avatars and the old world setting. Now Blizzard IS taking steps to do something about this as we know with this next upcoming expansion. How much they are able accomplish and the impact it will have it still an unknown.

Second, the targeted market has changed.When WoW first hit the shelves it was to a niche audience. NO ONE expected it to turn into the juggernaut it is today. But with its success has come an added strain. Where the ORIGINAL players were all "hard core" gamers, looking to push the game to its limits and see what it could do. The more recent influx and now dominate number of gamers today would be classified as "casual".  Their play time is limited and they often have not already developed the skills that many "hard core" gamers take for granted.

So where does this leave us?

Like it or not WoW has become "main stream". Where before those that played were classified as "geeks", "nerds" or "no lives living in their parent's basement." Now it is not unusual to have a raid group made up of housewives, professionals, teens, and even celebrities. It has product endorsements from such companies as  Mt. Dew not just the "gamer companies" like Dell and Jinx. Few people can go through a day with out rubbing shoulders with SOMEONE who plays World of Warcraft.

This change in demographic is being seen in our blogging community. More and more of the blogs out there are from more "casual" players like myself rather than the pioneer players that helped make the game what it is today. Often those veterans who are leaving are doing so for a variety of reasons. Boredom, five years is a LONG time to play ONE game regularly. Real life situations such as finishing college, the birth of children or the saving of marriages.

WoW.com recently did a post asking "When will you quit WoW?" The comments section of that post was revealing. Many of those who responded had already given up the game but still felt ties to it due to a variety of things, most notably their social connections. Who were the majority that had walked away? Those hard core gamers who resented the fact that their "niche" had been invaded. By becoming "main stream" Blizzard could no longer focus as much attention on the things that drew THEM to the game but rather was forced to deal with the learning curve of those just entering their customer base.

So the question then becomes: Will any of the NEW blood be able to fill the holes left by the loss of these veterans? Who will step forward to pick up the gauntlet they have laid down? Is the game itself truly SICK or just suffering from the effects of its age and success? Is it starting to crumple under the weight of being THE powerhouse in the market?

Those Turkeys are a Lurking

This past week has certainly been a busy one for us all hasn't it? Between the usually holiday stuff we had this new IN GAME holiday. Now it is almost over what do I think of it? Frankly I think it was one of the best holidays Blizzard has come up with yet (even with it containing a couple of achievements that are CERTAINLY not rogue friendly.)

For the first time, without any effort on my part, the majority of the guild is almost maxed out on their cooking skill due to just attempting to complete a good number of the achievements this week. My only frustration with this personally is that lvl 300-375 cooking training still requires you to go to Zangarmarsh so I was unable to get it on my lowbies and take full advantage.

While the quest pay outs for level 80's were not THAT great the experience pay out was enough to level each of my lowbie characters at least two levels which was also nice. For really a minimum of effort you could easily turn in each daily within 20 minutes, quicker if you don't use "public transportation" and have a mount.

Since I play one of the more common races for rogues Turkey Lurkey was not quite the pain for me that it was for others I know. For Orc and Dwarf Rogues especially, this week involved large mobs of people following you around in hopes of getting their achievement. The announcement of their location in trade chat on our server was often greeted by other rogues yelling "RUN!!" My friend Boinc finally just ended up parking herself outside of Stormwind to save herself the headache.

The bane of my existence however was The Turkinator. While there are several nice macros out there for people to use. Along with things like Tracker Snacks, turning on NPC Names, floating health bars, etc which all HELP. When it all comes down to it there is an aspect of luck involved. Numerous times I would get SO close only to have another person either working on the same achievement or farming turkeys to cook cross my path resulting in the buff wearing off before I could find a LIVE turkey.

While everyone struggled with this achievement Rogues had a distinct disadvantage as we have NO ranged instant cast moves. This meant that you had to drag out the FASTEST throwing weapon you could find (1.7 was all I could scrounge up) and go looking for a thinly populated area with LARGE numbers of  Wild Turkeys.  I attempted both Tirisfal Glades and Elwynn Forest.

Tirisfal has a couple of advantages, one (at least on our server) it is less populated, two it has larger areas devoid of trees, and three it has a lower population of "beasts" to contend with when tracking. However I was FINALLY able to get this achievement in Elwynn early in the morning so TIME is another key factor when attempting it. IF you can do it at low population times you had the best success.

So now we can dust off our feathers, (I will admit getting turned into a Turkey during Battlegrounds WAS pretty funny....DEATH BY TURKEY!) and prepare for the NEXT big holiday. Winter Veil. Thankfully I only have a couple to do for this one as I did the majority of them last year.

Know Your Rogue Lore: Jannok Breezesong

It is not often that a rogue TRAINER is the object of trivia and speculation but our subject of today's Know Your Rogue Lore is just that. Jannok Breezesong is one of the earliest trainers Night Elf Rogues will encounter in their travels. Located in Dolanaar, in Teldrassil, He starts two quests. One is a level 16 quest that in reality is nothing more that a feeder quest that all rogue trainers have (the exact quest varies from race to race) but all of them will eventually send you into the hands of SI:7 in Stormwind.

What makes him note worthy is actually the OTHER quest he has. There are several things about this quest that are interesting. In summery Jannok is pinning after a rogue stationed in Darnassus named Syurna. What is disturbing is his obsession with her as he is well aware his feeling are not reciprocated in the least.

Sure, I spend my every waking moment thinking about Syurna. Sure, my home is full of paintings and drawings of Syurna. Sure, I often go days without eating, sleeping, or drinking, while I lament about the love we could have had. Is that so wrong?

So lets look at the quest The Apple Falls.
The name of the quest as well as what Jannok says, or more correctly is constantly SINGING are actually part of the lyrics of a song by Depeche Mode.

Like a cat
Dragged in from the rain
Who goes straight back out
To do it all over again
I'll be back for more
It's something
That is out of our hands
Something we will never understand
It's a hidden law
The apple falls...

  Also from the quest text is an interesting tidbit.

Now she won't see me! ME! I've tried sending her messages but she won't even talk to another person unless they are a rogue.

This seems to indicate that while Jannok is a rogue TRAINER he himself is not a rogue. This has lead to some hot debate. Some feel that no he is a rogue just not one she is willing to talk to and any other messengers he happens to send her way (unless they to happen to share her profession) are rebuffed in a continued attempt to avoid him. Others believe that perhaps he was a rogue who sustained "battle injuries" that now prevent him from practicing the profession any longer. This perhaps leading both to his spurning by Syurna and his comment. Either way it certainly makes for the above average interesting trainer, especially for such a low level.

Rep: The Violet Eye

The Violet Eye faction has been around since the beginning of World of Warcraft. However it was not until the introduction of the Burning Crusade expansion that players could actually begin to gain reputation with them. But who exactly ARE these mysterious individuals in purple and what is their purpose on Azeroth?

Most simply put the Violet Eye is a group of Dalaran mages whose sole purpose is to monitor the activities of the Guardian of Tirisfal. As a result of this it is not surprising that the majority of the members of this sect are located either near Medivh's last residence Karazhan or the ruined remains of what was once the kingdom of Dalaran. With the believed demise of Medivh the Violet Eye is somewhat at loose ends. Locked inside the Last Guardian's tower are all the secrets they long to possess but SOMETHING else is there too. Khadgar is aware of their difficulties and willing to help out but has other concerns of his own at this point. That leaves the Violet Eye turning to players to handle the situation.

 If some how you managed to miss hearing of Karazhan in all your travels through the Eastern Kingdoms, Apprentice Tasserel at the Worlds End Tavern of Shattrah will send you there around level 68 to locate Archmage Alturus. Alturus will then start you on the chain that will allow you to get the key to enter Karazhan. Now you don't actually have to have the key to enter anymore. Any rogue with level 350 lock picking can open the door. Anyone who DOES have it can open the door for you as well however you DO need to be in a raid group to enter the instance.

Reputation for this faction is gained in only two ways. Completing the quests and/or killing mobs and bosses IN Karazhan. However most will find this is a fairly easy reputation to grind due to the fact that unlike such factions as the Hydraxian Waterlords you can continue to gain rep off of even the trash mobs all the way up to exalted. In addition to this the first boss in Karazhan drops a mount so it is usually easy to find a partner to farm him every week or an enchanter who would like to gather the four drop enchants from this instance as well. A full clear of the instance will give you anywhere from 6k-7k reputation a run.

At the time of Kara's introduction some of the reputation rewards and quest rewards were considered the best in the game. Now such things as the Violet Signet and the Blacksmithing plans sold by Koren really don't hold much monetary value. However for those who are working to get their Exalted Title this would not be a bad one to go for.

New Phishing Scam

Some of you may have seen this (thank you Matt at World of Matticus for getting such a great picture of one of the E-mails I have no clue how to do that myself.) It is one of the most PROFESSIONAL and deceptive ones I have seen yet hitting right at the "non combat pet" craze.

As I stated this is NOT an official Blizzard promotion it is a VERY clever and sinister scam. The e-mail will be sent to you requesting that you fill out a "survey" and then to receive your "Jade Tiger" you must give them your Battlenet information like was done with the Mt. Dew Battlebots.

There are several clues that this is NOT an official Blizzard promotion.

1. The e-mail they send it to you is usually NOT your official Blizzard registered E-mail.

2. The Jade Tiger itself is a CHINA ONLY promotion.

3. If you wade through all the links you will find that they do indeed NOT lead back to Blizzard at all but rather to another site.