World of Warcraft: Current Year

Wombat said:

God damn it.

During invasions I'm been alt-tabbing to the latest edition of the lolore, and as best as I can figure out:

Earlier this year, Blizzard released a book called Chronicle (co-written by Metzen). In it, Blizz retcons the history to a simplistic Void/Chaos vs. Light/Order, with the Void Lords and their underlings the Old Gods vs the Titans and everyone else.

So Sargeras isn't a bad guy, he's just purging Azeroth of the Old Gods' corruption, etc. So fear not, once we clear up the Legion (if we even definitively do that this time around), we'll have Void Lords and their latest minions to kill for a while. /eyeroll

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Sargeras wants Azeroth gone because it houses a titan(however that works, world-souls birth titans or w/e) and he's scared of it it becoming alive/sentient/something, to threaten him.

Azrayne said:

Has it been confirmed we actually destroy the Legion for good? Cause I find that kinda hard to believe.

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Not really. And it true Blizzard fashion I expect this expansion to end with "WE BEAT THEM BACK!! WE MUST FOLLOW THEM AND DESTROY THEM BEFORE THEY RECOVER!" like the last 2 expansions.

inb4 space expac fighting demons in the Twisting Nether

Wombat said:

God damn it.

During invasions I'm been alt-tabbing to the latest edition of the lolore, and as best as I can figure out:

Earlier this year, Blizzard released a book called Chronicle (co-written by Metzen). In it, Blizz retcons the history to a simplistic Void/Chaos vs. Light/Order, with the Void Lords and their underlings the Old Gods vs the Titans and everyone else.

So Sargeras isn't a bad guy, he's just purging Azeroth of the Old Gods' corruption, etc. So fear not, once we clear up the Legion (if we even definitively do that this time around), we'll have Void Lords and their latest minions to kill for a while. /eyeroll

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I don't read any of the novel/comic shit so I don't know exactly what's a retcon and what's not, but haven't the void lords been a thing since TBC? I remember there were a few quests way back then with the ethereals vs. void lords and how the void lords were responsible for the destruction of their world (and their bodies).

Personally, I think it's pretty cool to have another big bad that can rival the legion, because the legion is getting damn boring at this point. I remember all the way back in TBC when you fight the final boss of Arcatraz--that silithid guy--and he says something like "Nothing has the will to bend our knees, not even the mighty legion!" I thought Awww hell yeah lets get these guys to go up against the legion and clean up whoever is left.

LOL Sargeras ain't shit compared to Void Lords. It was glimpsing at their power that drove him mad. And iirc we have one old god left to kill, N'Zoth I think? Supposedly he is responsible for the corruption of the emerald dream so I believe we'll see him as this xpacs final boss, or at least in the final raid.

But yea, void lords is a stupid term, as it's been used before in different context.

bruh I'm telling you

Nat Pagle = N'Zoth. He's going to save us all from Sargeras

Dungeon ranking changed a lot, but for high mythics, restodruid has the tank cd on a very short recharge, plus battle rez and can spec for self damage reduction.

Monk is a freaking beast, mostly because Vivify is a glorious healing tool, revival is still good and Thunder focus tea gives a fuckton of flexibility.

Shaman is the same as usual, so great and packed with CDs. Good overall and brings Bloodlust.

Holy priest is good and boring, Discipline is complicated and holy pala sucks at AE healing.

Just my observations.

Read the Chronicle book when it came out earlier this year. Titans come from the spirit of planets sorta. They go around looking for planets that will become Titans. Demons and the void lords exist and are enemies of the titans (they are two separate things). Sargeras is the main solider of the Titans and fights demons ect. He decides that the void lords are the biggest threat and cant actually be defeated so he decided that if they wipe out all life everywhere to defeat the void lords. Azeroth gets discovered and it is the most powerful planet spirit and will be the most powerful Titan one day, but the void lords found it first and the old gods were already corrupting it. That is why you have the locked up old gods and dead old god heart in MoP. Sargeras wants to destroy Azeroth to keep it from ever being corrupted by the old gods/void lords.

Miele said:

Dungeon ranking changed a lot, but for high mythics, restodruid has the tank cd on a very short recharge, plus battle rez and can spec for self damage reduction.

Monk is a freaking beast, mostly because Vivify is a glorious healing tool, revival is still good and Thunder focus tea gives a fuckton of flexibility.

Shaman is the same as usual, so great and packed with CDs. Good overall and brings Bloodlust.

Holy priest is good and boring, Discipline is complicated and holy pala sucks at AE healing.

Just my observations.

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Just from prepatch/ptr/beta I feel like Sham/Dru/Monk are the best combination of effective and fun, H Priest is effective but just kinda meh, H Pally is serviceable but not effective enough to justify the play style (but not unworkable esp as MT healer) and Disc is a trainwreck.

CaughtCross said:

Read the Chronicle book when it came out earlier this year. Titans come from the spirit of planets sorta. They go around looking for planets that will become Titans. Demons and the void lords exist and are enemies of the titans (they are two separate things). Sargeras is the main solider of the Titans and fights demons ect. He decides that the void lords are the biggest threat and cant actually be defeated so he decided that if they wipe out all life everywhere to defeat the void lords. Azeroth gets discovered and it is the most powerful planet spirit and will be the most powerful Titan one day, but the void lords found it first and the old gods were already corrupting it. That is why you have the locked up old gods and dead old god heart in MoP. Sargeras wants to destroy Azeroth to keep it from ever being corrupted by the old gods/void lords.

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So basically Sarg is now an anti-hero instead of a straight up bad guy?

No he's a shitter. Def not an anti hero. Just a crazed nutter. IMO Wrathion might turn into an anti-hero.

CaughtCross said:

Read the Chronicle book when it came out earlier this year. Titans come from the spirit of planets sorta. They go around looking for planets that will become Titans. Demons and the void lords exist and are enemies of the titans (they are two separate things). Sargeras is the main solider of the Titans and fights demons ect. He decides that the void lords are the biggest threat and cant actually be defeated so he decided that if they wipe out all life everywhere to defeat the void lords. Azeroth gets discovered and it is the most powerful planet spirit and will be the most powerful Titan one day, but the void lords found it first and the old gods were already corrupting it. That is why you have the locked up old gods and dead old god heart in MoP. Sargeras wants to destroy Azeroth to keep it from ever being corrupted by the old gods/void lords.

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I don't know shit about WoW lore despite playing it since 2004 (and the RTS games previously) but that description of Sargeras makes him sound like he is just the "universal greater good" entity.

Dandai said:

Sargeras' intent/evil hasn't changed with the lore revisions, as far as I know. The Titans' goal was to Order the universe. Sargeras saw the power of the Void Lords (the entities who sent the Old Gods throughout the universe) and went mad. He always wanted to Order the universe, but he thought that victory against the Void was impossible and decided the only way to win was to purge the universe of life. Understandably, the other Titans were shocked by his radical views and tried to stop him. Sargeras killed them all for "betraying" him.

Edit: The Void Lords weren't retconned -per se- but they were never really highlighted as the main driver of all evil in the universe. In the latest Illidan novel (minor spoilers in light of what the devs have revealed in interviews):

Spoiler

it was revealed that a naru prophecied that Illidan will become a champion of light and lead the fight against the Void. That naru (the leader of all the naru?) blessed Illidan a day or two before we killed him in Black Temple so he's not dead dead... just dead. He'll presumably be naru rezzed as part of the lore in this expansion (and possibly cured of his demonic corruption.)

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He is not insane but he is very much I had to burn the village to the ground to save it kind of evil.

Destroy everything to save everything is the worst fucking trope in fantasy/Sci Fi and people need to stop using it.

Burns said:

For invasions (developed from reading the help of all the people posting here):
I began writing down level times last Friday, when I started leveling a horde shaman from 1 to 100.
1 - 100 took 16 hours and 7 minutes. I hit 80 at the 10h 20m mark

Yesterday, I started leveling an Alliance Hunter.
I am at 80 and my time is 8h 20m. I hit 60 at the 4h mark.

So, for the shaman, I wanted some boxes to open at 100. I traveled around much more; at about 60 I would do the first 2 invasions in the set of 3, then sit in the last one, doing phase 1 to 3, then relogging. I did the last invasion until the zones rotated. Last week also had the invasions moving around, so there was a chance every 2 hours that it forced you to move. When I hit 85, I realized that gathering boxes could have waited until Cata portals opened, and it would have cut down on travel time.

For the Hunter, I went to invasions at level 10 (same as shaman), and from 10 to 60 I did phase 1 and 2, then relogged to reset. At level 60 I went to Stormwind and got flying. Went back to Westfall and started doing phases 1, 2 and 3. In phase 3, for Westfall, you have 3 skull bosses in the south, that the horde will kill (one can be bugged out). Once all 3 of those are killed, two are due to spawn in Westfall. Run up and kill them, and immediately relog. I would also recommend getting a stack of 5 bandages from the illidari camp, north of Westfall, unless you have very good self heal. Even with the Hunter 70% self heal, on 2 min cooldown, I go through 5 bandages in about 5-6 invasions.

How I would rate XP from various invasions:
Westfall
Xroads (N Barrens)
Azshara
Tanaris
Hillsbrad
Dun Morogh (I hate this invasion)



Westfall and Xroads are close. I think Westfall would be a clear winner, if it wasn't for the bugged boss in phase 3.




Where you killing Abysal in the Westfall invasion? I know one of the treasure goblins will turn you into a skelly. Some other npcs may turn you into one in other invasions as well.

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Honestly, I'm not sure. It's the only time it happened and coincidentally I had all 6 buffs on at the same time. I assume it has something to do with the mobs you mentioned. Though it would be a nifty idea considering the name of the skill. (Kind of why I thought about it in the first place)

With less than a week to go, and having more fun with more classes at the same time than I can ever remember (still torn between rogue/shaman/mage/druid); having a ton of fun with the invasions - and heck I'm getting healed by random strangers even when solo! - I can honestly say I haven't been this excited to be jumping back into WoW, since the very first time I stepped through the portal into Outland. =)

I get excited for every expansion. This one is exceptional in that I can have any class xpac ready with very little investment.

Not sure what I'm playing just yet. Leaning toward pal/mnk/dru to be able to do it all.

Burns said:

For invasions (developed from reading the help of all the people posting here):
I began writing down level times last Friday, when I started leveling a horde shaman from 1 to 100.
1 - 100 took 16 hours and 7 minutes. I hit 80 at the 10h 20m mark

Yesterday, I started leveling an Alliance Hunter.
I am at 80 and my time is 8h 20m. I hit 60 at the 4h mark.

So, for the shaman, I wanted some boxes to open at 100. I traveled around much more; at about 60 I would do the first 2 invasions in the set of 3, then sit in the last one, doing phase 1 to 3, then relogging. I did the last invasion until the zones rotated. Last week also had the invasions moving around, so there was a chance every 2 hours that it forced you to move. When I hit 85, I realized that gathering boxes could have waited until Cata portals opened, and it would have cut down on travel time.

For the Hunter, I went to invasions at level 10 (same as shaman), and from 10 to 60 I did phase 1 and 2, then relogged to reset. At level 60 I went to Stormwind and got flying. Went back to Westfall and started doing phases 1, 2 and 3. In phase 3, for Westfall, you have 3 skull bosses in the south, that the horde will kill (one can be bugged out). Once all 3 of those are killed, two are due to spawn in Westfall. Run up and kill them, and immediately relog. I would also recommend getting a stack of 5 bandages from the illidari camp, north of Westfall, unless you have very good self heal. Even with the Hunter 70% self heal, on 2 min cooldown, I go through 5 bandages in about 5-6 invasions.

How I would rate XP from various invasions:
Westfall
Xroads (N Barrens)
Azshara
Tanaris
Hillsbrad
Dun Morogh (I hate this invasion)



Westfall and Xroads are close. I think Westfall would be a clear winner, if it wasn't for the bugged boss in phase 3.




Where you killing Abysal in the Westfall invasion? I know one of the treasure goblins will turn you into a skelly. Some other npcs may turn you into one in other invasions as well.

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If you're alliance I would say that the optimal route is kharanos 10-60 and then Westfall from 60-100.

I'll be working on my third character to 10 to 100 this weekend and what really matters is grouping. My first character took 15 hours doing it completely solo. I dropped my time on the second character (granted with full up time on kharanos/westfall because of full invasion sets) down to just Nine hours and forty minutes. For the second character I spammed a macro asking for a tagging group in both locations. The slight hit you take to xp per mob is more then made up for literally tagging everything in stage one with four other players involved. The second key way is playing tour guide in westfall. Had another macro that asked people to move together for max phase three xp/shards. I would then call out the path boss by boss.

Order I found to be most effective was:

1.) Three southern skulls (if the dreadlord was bugged I would head solo to the skull that spawned on northern side of sent hill. While directing the rest of the mass to the third south skull which you could get back in range of before it died)
2.) Foe Reaper by moonbrook, would still be up 75% of the time (only 15k xp from 90-100 but something to do while waiting on 60% invasion completion.)
3.) Two skulls in sent hill that pop at 60%
4.) Fel reaver
5.) Skull that spawns all the way to the north. (Only got to this one four or five times, dependent on overall kill speed)

This assumes people follow your lead, which went well for me especially after people got used to seeing me phase in and phase out. This leads to a set 6 45k-55k xp skulls with a shot at a seventh, and one 15k XP in the Foe reaper. Plus whatever you get adds wise that get cleaved down with the bosses. Phase one gives you a 50K, a 40k, and a 25k from the doom guards. Then 40k for the commander. So 430k xp from skulls with roughly another 150k from the group tagging in phase one. 580k from one run. Four runs an hour have you getting 2.3 mill xp. More once you factor in phase three cleave mobs. I really can't think of a more efficient way to do the invasion grind. None of the other zones (as alliance) have Kharanos mob density for pre riding and no other zone comes close to Westfall's xp per hour once you can chase down skulls.