Any theories? I'm thinking Blizzard might trigger mini-world events for 3.3, perhaps Arthas trying to demonstrate the full reach of his powers.
Or maybe something for Cataclysm, already? Old Gods influence, Twilight Hammer sabotage (although they're supposed to be "badass" in Cataclysm).
I honestly think it's just an easy way for Blizzard to spread that model of skin around. Blizzard's stated plan for Cataclysm is to allow hunters to use any pet type in any role; allowing hunters greater choice for skins/models than they have even now. The quest itself doesn't hint at anything new in my mind, it simply looks like it's been altered to go along with the different skin.
I actually love the "diseased wolf" skin and have had one myself for a very long time.
Yer I think it is definitely to do with the model being available to hunters. Whether this means they are removing it from Felwood or they just wanted to make it easier to get for Alliance I don't know. Perhaps Felwood has been cleansed? We did some work on that questing there and being on the Cenarion Circle's doorstep makes it a prime target for aid.
You also have Troll Druid's which it is speculated they come from the nearby Shatterspear Village. Perhaps these new recruits aided in cleansing it, or at least bolstered the CC's ranks to reduce the corruption somewhat.
Originally Posted by Shadowed
The best part is, not only were you late in linking it, that's an April fools topic from 6 months ago.
I hope I'm not coming across as dense, but is the diseased wolf pet "easy" to get for any race? The first ones we see, if I'm not mistaken, are in Felwood. Even if those are cleansed, though, there's always the Plaguelands.
For example, if you want a spiny raptor, you need to go to Outland. Frostsaber-like (traditional) leopards are only found in Sholazar. So, while this change in models isn't the ultimate lore-move, I hope it has some deeper meaning.
The quest talks about some unknown disease. Granted, it's a common theme, either that or a questgiver suddendly discovering predators are traditionaly hostile. But there is indeed a change from the previous quest.
Humans can be hunters in Cataclysm. At the moment there are only 3 types of pets in Elwynn: Spiders, Boars, Wolves. While I'm not sure if all the wolves use the same model, they are at least very similar. It makes sense for Blizzard to offer players a bigger selection in hunter pets.
(For comparison: Dun Morogh has boars, bears (in at least 2 colors), wolves and snow leopards. Durotar has crabs, scorpids, boars, raptor, crokolisks, tigers)
Drifting away from the conversation here slightly, but Elwynn forest has some brown bears lurking around. There's even a quest to kill some at the logging camp.
It might be a bit dreamy to ask Blizzard for more faithful models, if the change is based on gameplay, but right now, not many diseases in Azeroth leave their infected with their ribs showing, fur in a truly despicable state and with basically undead looks.
It is hard to think of very epic lore introduction to the human hunter combo. An increase in hostile animal activity (due to cataclysm, plague and a lack of military forces in the area to keep them down) would mean a need for a new force to deal with them. Cue the human hunter subgroup. It isn't very epic like the highborne mages coming back into the nightelf culture or the Tauren finding the light but I always liked the RPG story where you started off as some member of a minor force and then went on to bigger things.
It is hard to think of very epic lore introduction to the human hunter combo. An increase in hostile animal activity (due to cataclysm, plague and a lack of military forces in the area to keep them down) would mean a need for a new force to deal with them. Cue the human hunter subgroup. It isn't very epic like the highborne mages coming back into the nightelf culture or the Tauren finding the light but I always liked the RPG story where you started off as some member of a minor force and then went on to bigger things.
What do you mean? There were always human hunters. The questline for slaying Blightcaller says as much. I am sure there must be at least 1 human druid or something lorewise as well.
That said, it would be nice if a High-elf NPC was added to Stormwind as the hunter trainer. (Since presumably Nathanos was trained by the High-Elves as well).
Originally Posted by arison
Everyone should start from the same place and rise based on their abilities, desires, and schedule. No one plays MMOs to *be* powerful, they play MMOs to *become* powerful. It's the journey, stupid. The rarer loot is, the more cherished it is when you get it, but only so long as there is a reasonable expectation to get it. The rarer loot is, the better it feels when you kill a boss or when $AWESOME_TRINKET drops.
Perhaps it's the first signs of the Worgen Curse? The gates to Gil'neas are meant to crack for Cataclysm, perhaps it's seeping out to the Wolves in advance. (Fitting considering you'd have wolves getting sick, when the new race will be Werewolves).
As others have said after this, it is probably just for human hunters. But even from a lore perspective diseased wolves having anything to do with the Worgen would make no sense when the curse only affects humans since there is no evidence anywhere that the Worgen curse has any other effects (and how it would get all the way to Elwynn).
In the latest PTR build, they added the top portion of the spire and its platform to the very top of Icecrown Citadel (the non-instanced external area).
It had always annoyed me that the Citadel was built all around the spire which was shown in all its glory in the Warcraft 3: TFT outro cinematic. I assume that they'll add the Frozen Throne and the Lich King on top of the platform in one of the final builds (he'll most likely be protected by some sort of shield I reckon).
Nice touch to it. As to the Citadel's "central piece"...even if the isolated spire was less of a cliché and more symbolic, there was somewhat of a need for the Lich King to have a fortress built for him. As we've seen since the start of WotLK, he can't do all the evil by himself.
Could he summon elites to act a...sort of a...undead...meat...shield...once the Horde and Alliance artillery started bombing his precious spire, which would simply be lying in the open?
Don't get me wrong, I'd love if he could. I'm all for focused strikes by elite warriors being the key to victory.
I'm still struggling as to why Muradin is anything to the Alliance anymore.
Remember that the alliance is made up of several factions, and that Muradin is the brother of king Magni Bronzebeard. The alliance encountering him in Northrend has a lot in common with Thrall's homecoming in Nagrand for the horde. In a way it's almost like five years later discovering that Grom actually survived with amnesia and was leading another tribe of orcs somewhere. (No, of course it's not an perfect comparison. But Muradin was never "just some guy".)
Edit:
Is there any indication in wow Lore, that there is a way into Frostmourne, other then to be killed by the Hand of its wielder?
Any indication? Sure, if you define things loosely enough and are fuzzy about what you mean. I interpret the events of War3 to mean the blade took Arthas' own soul, due to his choice to wield it, which certainly didn't involve him being killed by it.
Something I brought up in the SA lore thread, but I just now wondered if the Valithria Dreamwalker (green dragon) battle in Icecrown might not be a simple matter of Arthas trying to corrupt a champion of life, as has been suggested before. Instead, could he be trying to tap into the Nightmare and take some power for himself? He's already shown a willingness to utilize the Old Gods before (saronite), and despite the claims of manipulation in the Yogg-Saron vision, I don't think he's totally unaware of them.
In that case, we encounter Valithria, corrupted by the Nightmare and restrained by the Lich King's servants, and the battle is to cleanse Valithria of the Nightmare, possibly with agents of the Lich King attempting to stop us.
We'll be seeing Valithria on the US test realms on Friday, so those questions could be answered soon. Could be exciting if we can get a clearer idea of the Nightmare, especially if it involves transitioning into the corrupted Emerald Dream
Any indication? Sure, if you define things loosely enough and are fuzzy about what you mean. I interpret the events of War3 to mean the blade took Arthas' own soul, due to his choice to wield it, which certainly didn't involve him being killed by it.
Ultimately, we know that the game mechanics are going to trump the lore. If the fight with Arthas involves a metaphysical pocket universe within the sword, that's something we're going to experience in the fight, not get told about in the lore.
So really, whether or not there's any indication of a means to enter Frostmourne is moot. All we can do now is speculate on the mechanics of the fight itself, and see what that brings us.
The idea that dead players flip over to the Frostmourne zone is pretty interesting -- the only problem I foresee is with death-oriented mechanics such as Soulstones, Spirit of Redemption, Reincarnation, Rebirth, and Raise Dead... removing these would make the fight much, much more difficult to implement. It'd make it a challenge, to say the least.
Something I brought up in the SA lore thread, but I just now wondered if the Valithria Dreamwalker (green dragon) battle in Icecrown might not be a simple matter of Arthas trying to corrupt a champion of life, as has been suggested before. Instead, could he be trying to tap into the Nightmare and take some power for himself? He's already shown a willingness to utilize the Old Gods before (saronite), and despite the claims of manipulation in the Yogg-Saron vision, I don't think he's totally unaware of them.
In that case, we encounter Valithria, corrupted by the Nightmare and restrained by the Lich King's servants, and the battle is to cleanse Valithria of the Nightmare, possibly with agents of the Lich King attempting to stop us.
We'll be seeing Valithria on the US test realms on Friday, so those questions could be answered soon. Could be exciting if we can get a clearer idea of the Nightmare, especially if it involves transitioning into the corrupted Emerald Dream
Wouldn't it be interesting if the "lesser" half of The Lich King, Nerz'hul, was the driving force behind the Emerald Dream experiments as a medium to escape Arthas? That would leave an interesting end to the expansion with the main antagonist dead but a part of his being left alive for future lore/expansions.
Hunter now retired to pugs, solo farming and Yogg 0. Long live the shaman!
The face on the blood queen is off somewhat, imo. And are those just Illidan-wings pasted on? Hopefully things'll be touched up some in the near future..
But it's still pretty cool. It's a shame that the Darkfallen weren't really developed in WotLK... lots of missed potential there.
The face on the blood queen is off somewhat, imo. And are those just Illidan-wings pasted on? Hopefully things'll be touched up some in the near future..
But it's still pretty cool. It's a shame that the Darkfallen weren't really developed in WotLK... lots of missed potential there.
The models animations and whatnot are incomplete (the wings have no animations at all).
Well, if you take an already flamboyant and snob blood elf and title her Queen, you have to expect the lady to make it obvious through her garments. The problem with her head is that the headpiece clips her ears and part of her hair. Nothing we players don't get. Personally, I can't get enough of my tusks showing through a solid plate helm. It will always look strange, and I don't think Blizzard will address those problems right now.
Still on Lana'thel...could the fact that she is called Queen and the Citadel is run by a King be meaningful?
As for the Lich King's fight, two achievements have come up:
Been Waiting a Long Time for This (10 player) - Allow Necrotic Plague to stack to 30 before defeating the Lich King in 10-player mode.
Neck-Deep in Vile (10 player) - Kill every Vile Spirit that spawns before it explodes and then defeat the Lich King in 10-player mode.
The first one seems to hint at the Lich King's Death Knightish side.
The second...well, it could be related to what we do inside Frostmourne, but the word "spawn" suggests a simple game mechanic. Man, I hate exploding, wandering things in boss fights.
It seems Arthas' fight will be a compilation of every (exaggeration) boss mechanic: paralel zones, scaling DoT, exploding elements, hostile environment (the crumbling throne). Let's wait. Truth is the man's a beast, so it kind of makes sense his powers are so varied.
Her title is that of being leader of the San'Layn, not the Lich King's bride (we could also go down the road of needing a heart to love :P). The preview of the next WoW comic really does seem to kill off any chances of a return by Medivh, not that it seemed likely with Blizz people stating a few times he probably wouldn't. Seems like Me'dan maybe carrying his spirit or something though.
10/27/09, 11:07 AM
