OK, I have one thing to say on it that I haven't seen said yet, though!

Korialstrasz has certainly spent a great deal of time in a humanoid form and among humanoids. Perhaps Alexstrasza dresses that way simply because he enjoys it?

Thanks to work and moving, I haven't been able to play much the past few weeks so it's possible this got changed but I seem to recall there was a Draenei delegation trying to offer their services to the Alliance Expedition via Captain Adams at Westguard. But their efforts were effectively being blocked by a cultist spy that was keeping them wrapped up in red tape.

It was a pretty meager quest line but perhaps that's their explanation for why there isn't a more formal Draenei presence in Northrend beyond a few enterprising NPC's here and there.

Is there much information on the properties of saronite? There are quite a few questlines hinting that it is an evil, mind-corrupting metal tied to Yogg-Saron and mining it drives the living insane, and yet players seem free to mine and use it for craftable recipes. Isn't that a bit contradictory?

So, the first question: where exactly is Yogg-Saron? Is he in Azjol-Nerub, as suggested by the Frozen Throne? Is he underneath Grizzly Hills? Is he somehow going to show up in Ulduar? Can Old Gods be physically present in multiple places at once? Or is he just that large?

My half-baked theory after doing the two Ulduar wings tonight is that something happens in Ulduar that causes Yogg-Saron to be awoken, but that he doesn't actually appear until an Azjol-Nerub raid. Loken simply proclaims that Yogg-Saron shall be released; he doesn't say anything about where. So the Ulduar raid would either be attempting to stop the summoning (and failing), or inadvertently in our typical fashion of Stupid Mercenary Heroes somehow causing this to happen (in which case I would expect the final boss to be some sort of Titan guardian who spends the entire fight telling us how dumb we are).

It's also apparently pretty much impossible to work with:



I think the best way to view it is as "Living" and "Dead" Saronite. "Living" Saronite is found in large quantities in certain areas, and has a direct connection to Yogg-Saron, causing people to hear him in their minds: This is also the stuff being mined and used by the Scourge, the connection also causes it to be unusable by most people (The Scourge seems to have found some way around this). "Dead" Saronite has somehow lost it's connection to Yogg-Saron, and is what we find in the various mineral veins around the world: It also lacks some of the more peculiar qualities of "Living" Saronite, instead "just" being a very hard metal.

That's just a simple explanation though, it's more likely that it simply doesn't make any sense.

Given the various comments and references to Yogg-Saron it would be reasonable to assume that may will be the focus of the 3.2 patch raid instance, between Ulduar and Icecrown.

If this is the case will this instance be in Azjol-Nerub or will it be Uldum? Lorewise the final key to Uldum has been theorised to be in Ulduar, and Uldum's physical proximity to Ahn'Qiraj may be significant. A lack of saronite in Tanaris may be a problem lorewise though.

However there are plenty of other possibilities for a 3.2 patch raid that players will find "cool".

Here is a slightly odd idea, what if the 3.2 raid is actually inside Yogg-Saron? If it is so huge to be spread all over Northerend, maybe the raid has to go inside Yogg-Saron's body to kill it. C'Thun was pretty large and that was just a tiny chunk of him, from the limited info out there, wasn't Yogg-Saron intact when sealed?

It would be like the stomach part of the C'Thun fight, only only a much grander scale.

...what would the trash be like, in such a case? :-)

That would be a little tricky. Now there are suitable mob tpes out there in game now that could work, like the slimes, oozes, worms and maggots, but they are all pretty old models at this point. (Then again Hyjal was mostly old models too with a sprinkling of BC stuff). Fighting the above monsters though would be a bit dull too, after all who wants to deal with packs and packs of blobs?

Well this is an Old God though, so what if Yogg's body also gets to act as the main temple for the Nerubians who worship it? There you go, Nerubian models!

Being a freakish out of time thing opens up a lot of doors as to what Blizzard can do if they went this route, and of course there would be some new stuff too. The Faceless ones could even be reveiled to be something like Yogg-Saron's immune system.

Such a design for the raid instance can lead to some really fun encounters, like for instance you have a battle in side Yogg-Saron's heart, and also have to deal with the valves openning and shutting during the fight, which could mess up positioning during the raid as they forcabally move the players around. It would certainly be one of the most unique raid instances in the game from looks alone.

From MMO Champion:

Upcoming patches
Patch 3.1 - Patch 3.1 will be the first content patch of the expansion and is already done. It will include Ulduar raid instance (10 and 25 Man) (Source)
Patch 3.2 - Patch 3.2 will add a new and still unknown raid instance to the game. (Source)
Patch 3.3 - Patch 3.3 will introduce Icecrown Citadel and should also resolve the storyline of Ashbringer. (Source)


Since 3.1 will have Ulduar I think things look good for Azjol-Nerub in 3.2, although since they didn't make mention of it they may have plans to throw a screwball into everything. Obviously unknown whether Yogg-Saron will be in Ulduar or the unknown instance, or possibly both, which seems like a pretty cool idea to me.

(falkShuffle from Blizzcon thread)

The Ashbringer can also refer to Alexandros Mograine, not just the sword. It'd be interesting to see why exactly he disappeared from Naxxramas.

Yogg-Lavos, maybe... :P that'd be fun.

I remember there was a thread on the general forums outlining a Lavos raid that ended up getting capped. If they did anything close to that it would be so epic.

Question about Ebonblade and Icecrown. After the first few quest in the zone , we are tasked with quests in Scourgeholme in which we kill Scourge there and also gathering mats from Crystalsong forest.

Seems like the Ebonblade is taking over control of Scourgeholme, but that part of the questline end abruptly with the Scourge still there unlike Shadowvault where the Scourge is purged and Ebonblade takes over.

I remember the quest said about Ebonblade building a "Justice Keep" in the place and is surprised it is not done. Is the questline incomplete or they failed in that mission?

When you finish the Argent Crusade quests in Scourgeholme, they build a tower. Scourgeholme is still there, but there's a new AC outpost northwest of the one you were getting quests at.

So here's what I managed to gather from the Blizzcon stuff:

- No ETA on Uldum, Turalyon/Alleria, or Deathwing, but they haven't been forgotten. Just a reconfirmation. :P

- Ashbringer storyline resolved in the 3.3 patch which opens Icecrown Citadel.

- Next expansion is "not what you'd expect." If it isn't the Emerald Dream or Maelstrom, yeah, I think pretty much everyone would be surprised..

- No pandaren because of China. Maybe they'll be introduced later. Personally, I've never understood this very well since it's not as though the Pandaren are portrayed in a negative light... but maybe the thought of killing Pandas or merely having Pandas that can die ingame would be considered offensive. Kinda sucks.

I don't think the average Chinese person cares. It's just the Ones Who Are In Charge(tm) - Blizzard has to take care to not give that bunch of people any leverage at all to point at games in general or WoW specifically and say "this form of entertainment is disrupting national harmony".

I'm trying to be as politically correct and inoffensive as possible - these are the same group of people who decided "NO SKELETONS IN GAMES" causing a shitload of work on Blizzard's part just because of some little fancy whim about something they don't even fully understand. So yeah... I agree. Sucks.

Pandas are literally the dumbest animals in existence and only by constant coddling by humans have they managed to not finally die off. WOW is only saying what everyone else is thinking.

Someone suggested that it might be a Caverns of time fueled War of the Ancients. That would be a LOT of fun.

Am I the only one feeling that Panda Bears don't fit into Warcraft at all?

Yes, there was a playable Panda Brewmaster somewhere in WC3, but I considered that as a funny joke mostly.
He reappered in one campaign as easter egg after finding a room with flying sheep in Dalaran and doing easter egg secret mission which was about developing and building guard towers to kill off never ending waves of mobs than ran in a straight line, waiting to be bombarded.

For me, they were a fun easter egg addition, but nothing that I ever took serious.
At least nothing that I would consider common lore or canon.
Or am I alone with that opinion?

I think initially they were considered a bit of a joke, as you say, but after they became so popular they were incorporated into the lore, and are now considered canon. That's why you can find Chen's empty kegs scattered about the Barrens in WoW.

That description was done from the point of view of the Night Elves who found Krasus + Rhonin. In their eyes, he looked vaguely like an elf, but not really. That's because the High Elves didn't exist yet and they do appear different then night elves (shorter in stature, shorter ears, pale, etc). Rhonin looked decidedly non-elf (busted nose, rounded ears, etc), which is why they couldn't quite figure out what he was.

In actuality, Krasus looked like a perfectly legitimate high elf, which was why he was able to hang around the Kirin Tor undetected.

Never played TFT's Orc campaign?

The Pandaren started off as a joke but have been incorporated into the official lore. They still fit in better than space goats.

And the idea of a CoT-based instance is interesting, but I'd be surprised if they passed over the obvious omissions in the WoW universe for something like that. But I guess that's the point..