[WoW] I Was a Teenage Alpha Tester

well "The Last Guardian" by Jeff Grubb explains in more detailled way the story of Medivh and , Khadgar his apprentice .

"Day of the Dragon" by Richard A. Knaak (also worked on dragonlance) give you access to a pretty detailled "map" of the Warcraft world , the forces in action , the politics , conspiracies , and of course the dragons(it features the 5 dragon aspects , their war againsttheir own , the traitor Deathwing, most of those events happen during or after war2 .

"Lord of the Clan" by Christie Golden is an epic story from an unexpected side , the orcs (the story of Thrall , the last days of Doomhammer) , and kinda a prequel to the war3 orc campaign

"Of blood and honor" by chris Metzen (a tales of a paladin by one the war lore's creator , if not the one!!) . Its an e-book you can find in pdf

A Warcraft Trilogy entitled "The War of the Ancients" is being written by novelist Richard A. Knaak. Knaak wrote the Day of the Dragon (Warcraft) and Legacy of Blood (Diablo). The first book in the trilogy, "The Well of Eternity", is expected on shelves late spring 2004

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...glance&s=books

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/se...737600-7944743

Blizzard has all of the books listed on their website.

The Draenie were presumed extinct before the first portal was opened. Its only because of TFT that we know that any of them survived.

In the human campaign, Garona is mentioned as the one who killed King Lane (as well as the fact that she's a half-orc), but nothing more is stated. The human campaign features the mission to kill Medivh, but Garona isn't in the mission (her role in this is only found in the novel about Medivh). The orc campaign (in which you're basically playing as Orgrim Doomhammer, although the name isn't provided until Warcraft 2) involves a mission to rescue Garona from Northshire Abbey.

The orc background in the Warcraft 2 manual is written by Guldan, and describes how he brought the orcs to Azeroth and the events since then from his point of view. One of the things that is revealed in the background is that Garona was his agent. But while Guldan was camatose from an accident involving Medivh (Guldan attempted to read Medivh's mind as the latter was being killed), Doomhammer freed Garona from Northshire Abbey, and interrogated her regarding Guldan and the Shadow Council. Its unknown what happened to her after this, although Guldan's surprise at how easily Garona was interrogated suggests that Garona was quite willing to talk to Doomhammer. The novel about Medivh also suggests that Garona was dissatisfied with Guldan (her exposure to humans had opened her eyes toward how much better her situation could be), and it would probably be completely in character to have her betray Guldan to the much more honorable Doomhammer.

There's no information on what happened afterwards, however, and the only indication that she might still be alive is the snippet from WC3.

I still vote that Orgrim Doomhammer has the best name ever also.

its true that i love Doomhammer , and miss him , thrall is good but too nice for my taste and well he isnt DOOMHAMMER!! :p

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Originally Posted by Pedi Dustyboots

As of this moment:

Human females - Facial piercings. Here are a few examples of the combinations they can have. (The third one has a nose ring if you can't tell.)
Night elf females - They have facial wodes. The color of the wodes are based on the color of the hair. Here are a few examples of how they work. (There are more wode designs available than shown.)
Undead females - The undead females have the greatest amount of customizations available. I used the *same* face for all of the images below so you can see how dramatically it changes in each picture.
Orc females - Facial piercings. Again, here are a few combinations that can be used.
Tauren females - The horns are the facial customizations. In addition to selecting the horn styles, you can also change colors of the horns.
Troll females - tusks are customizable. They are nowhere near done with the troll female so there is not much to look at.
Gnome females - none.
Dwarf females - none.

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That was super helpful. Thanks. What about the males? :)

Heh, still downloading the new beta push so I have no idea if anything new has been added, but ...

Human males -- beards
Night elf males -- beards. No wodes that I see.
Undead males -- they have a range of facial distortions including sores, missing jaws, leather straps, metal jaws, and broken jaws.
Orc males -- beards (some nice braided versions available)
Tauren males -- can change style/size/color of the horns.
Troll males -- wow, I'm drawing a blank here. I cannot remember if they get any facial hair or if they are able to change tusk sizes like females.
Gnome males - beards
Dwarve males - beards

Anybody got any impressions of the new beta push yet, or is everyone still downloading it?

I've read up on some of the changes, and I'm not sure how I feel about this new 'rest' feature.

Everything in the game so far seems to have been geared towards having a lack of downtime, but now they introduce something that forces it? I'm all for fostering RP by having places to gather, but the Rest feature just seems odd compared to their philosophy on the game so far.

Thoughts, anyone?

Dwarven females now have the options of adding earrings/nose rings. No beards, whew.

Anyone can post screenshots of the new character customizations?

With the new rest feature, it all depends on how long it takes for you to drop down from a normal XP level to the point where it's a penalty.

If the only people it affects are the ones who grind for 48 hours non-stop to have the first character to the level cap each push, I have no issues with that.

The fact that it doesn't affect quest XP says to me that its impact won't be nearly as severe as it seems.

I do think what this really will foster, though, are more idiots dueling all the time (now in the inns, which will be absolute zoos), and people playing more alts.

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Originally Posted by Whizbang Dustyboots

With the new rest feature, it all depends on how long it takes for you to drop down from a normal XP level to the point where it's a penalty.

If the only people it affects are the ones who grind for 48 hours non-stop to have the first character to the level cap each push, I have no issues with that.

The fact that it doesn't affect quest XP says to me that its impact won't be nearly as severe as it seems.

I do think what this really will foster, though, are more idiots dueling all the time (now in the inns, which will be absolute zoos), and people playing more alts.

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Copied from my Post in the other Thread

Just a note here, reading here and the Blizzard boards, my take on the system is as follows:

• 20000XP at 200% (So 10000XP worth of Kills) to go to 150%XP

(assumption follows)

• 20000XP (at 150% so 13334XP worth of kills) to get to 100%
• 20000XP at 100% to get to 50%
• 20000XP at 50% (so 40000XP worth of kills) to get to 25%
• 25% never ends if you never rest I assume.

So lets see for 83334XP actual XP work I get 80000XP okay seems like a small loss.

However look further... (About to do some fudged math, number will be rounded up in all instances.)

20000XP took 3.5 hours at the 200% rate (5800XP an hour worth actually 2900XP per hour gained via fighting, same as bonus), so it will take how long at the 150% rate? About 4.5 hours to gain the needed 13334XP actual. Then how long at 100% normal? 6.8 Hours, so so far for the 8 hours rest I can get almost 15 hours with NO PENALTY.

Sounds good to me.

And I actually get the Bonus of about 17000XP from those 15 hours.

And if I rest for the 8 hours after the first 8 hours of playing and do it again I gain that same 17000XP onus for every Straight 8 hours I play.


Also realize that this is only XP from Kills, no questing, only kills affect fatigue.

Any Questions?

(P.S. Please post this on the Blizzard board as it might help quell the fights till the issue is tested. I am not a Beta Tester so I cannot post it.)

(P.P.S. I am a casual gamer as well, I play 2-3 Nights a week for 2-3 hours each if I can. Most weeks its less. I have been playing since 2002 and my main character on EQ is 43rd Level (leveling just takes TOO long. This change seems like it will help me a lot))
Wystan deValera
Druid of Avalon

First off - I had to hi-lite your post just to read it - yellow = "not good" for reading.

Second - I wish Blizzard would delete the accounts of all the jack-holes who are blantantly prejudiced against a proposed system sans testing. I'd love to slip in and take a shot at beta testing the game - but no, some <explicative> had to get in there first and rant and rave while downloading the push. Am I bitter? nah - not one bit :mad:

Third - I'd love to hear about the druid, any of you testers planning on trying it out in the next few days? I'm really curious about the metamorphosis ability - what levels and types it's available. People have speculated that the druid will be a heavy melee with magical backup - rather than the more traditional magic heavy with melee backup. Please post any and all details, comments, drawbacks etc. for the druid.

Thanks again,

Demetrius.

Given that our other characters are currently locked, I'm thinking of testing out a Tauren druid at some point, once I get into my new apartment. I will give a full report if/when I do.

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Originally Posted by Demetrius

Third - I'd love to hear about the druid, any of you testers planning on trying it out in the next few days? I'm really curious about the metamorphosis ability - what levels and types it's available. People have speculated that the druid will be a heavy melee with magical backup - rather than the more traditional magic heavy with melee backup. Please post any and all details, comments, drawbacks etc. for the druid.

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I played around with a Druid a little this evening, just to level 7. I did check out the full roster of spells though. Druid looks like an interesting class, a jack-of-all-trades type. In their pure caster form, they are so-so healers and nukers. They have a insta-cast regen, a medium heal, a light heal with an additional HoT tacked on, a group HoT, Pacify Animals, the only class with a damage shield(so far), a relatively weak armor buff but it also increases all stats by a small amount, an insta-cast short-lived DoT, a decent nuke, a better nuke on a slower timer, a 12 second root+DoT, Remove Curse, Cure Poison, Fairie Fire(armor debuff)... I think I missed 1 or 2. These alone make for a pretty good character, but then it gets much cooler...

Shape Shifting! At level 10, druids get their first animal form, the bear. The bear is a warrior and some warrior-like abilities can be trained as you level, like taunt(called Growl), demoralizing roar(AE Attack debuff) and around 4 or 5 other abilities. These abilities cost Rage, just like a normal warrior's moves.

At 16, druids get Aquatic Form, which appears to be just for traveling. I've heard the animal form is a dolphin. The description only says that it grants increased swim speed and underwater breathing.

At 20, they get Cat Form(a black panther), which is a rogue. There are a handful of roguely abilities to train for this form(including stealth!), which use Energy and/or Combo points just like a normal rogue. Two abilities the cat has that rogues do not are Man Tracking(tracks humanoid mobs) and Play Dead(feign death, which rogues used to have but no longer). Sounds pretty cool.

At level 30 is the generic sounding Travel Form. The spell icon is a white tiger. Description says it grants increased run speed... no trainable abilities for this form.

That's all the animal forms listed so far but I'd bet there will be more, like the crow form from WC3. The warrior and rogue forms are not as powerful as the real classes at the same level but I imagine they will suffice as stand-ins. It's an interesting class but I think I'm gonna focus on the shaman for this push.

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the only class with a damage shield(so far)

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Paladins get a damage shield aura in their teens.

I'm hoping druids get their ambient animal form, even if it gives no particular bonuses -- some of us want to play killer bunnies.

I am already hearing massive complaints in general chat about the druid class not having the ability to rez. One person's complaint summed it up, "Here we go again."

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Originally Posted by Whizbang Dustyboots

Paladins get a damage shield aura in their teens.

I'm hoping druids get their ambient animal form, even if it gives no particular bonuses -- some of us want to play killer bunnies.

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Ah, right you are! It's so rare that I group with a pally since no one in my small guild plays one. Which brings up another issue... with the new requirement of 10 people to form a guild, mine is kind of out in the cold. :(

Well Tigole is a druid wth did you think was going to happen P

I heard something very early in my EQ career about druids and it stayed with me. Not every druid is an asshole but every asshole has a druid
Whether this will be true or not in WOW remains to be seen. P

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Originally Posted by Pedi Dustyboots

I am already hearing massive complaints in general chat about the druid class not having the ability to rez. One person's complaint summed it up, "Here we go again."

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Er, not ever having played EQ before, I have to ask: What's the big deal about Druids being able to resurrect people or not?

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Originally Posted by aerynelf

Er, not ever having played EQ before, I have to ask: What's the big deal about Druids being able to resurrect people or not?

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I would assume it has to do with their being a healing class - albeit backup at best, it sounds like. Paladins get rez, and they aren't a healing class...

It's interesting the stereotypes that Blizzard uses or doesn't use. D&D Paladins, the archetype for almost all fantasy games, don't get rez - but more recent games have given them the ability.
D&D Druids - of which it's already been stated that Blizzard is avoiding - do get rez... as do most Druids in most other fantasy games. Is Blizzard emulating EQ with a rez-less Druid? Not having played EQ since before their first expansion, I don't know - I don't remember what abilities EQ Druids get. I know in DAoC, Druids are the primary healers (including rez) and buffers - with decent combat skills, and animal pets as well. Personally, I like the development I've been hearing about WoW Druids even more. A lack of a rez will not hinder my enjoyment of the game. I like all things Tauren, so I will have a rezzing Shaman to complement my non-rezzing Druid :)

Oh, btw, has any mention been made of interaction between factions? Now that both Horde and Alliance are playable at the same time, can you enter the others zones? Just curious :)

Demetrius