August 28, 2009

Minimap Coordinates Addon (new)

Cartographer is a modular, lightweight, and efficient framework for manipulation of the world map. It is based on Rock and other libraries of the wow ace community.

  • Battlegrounds : allows viewing of battlegrounds outside of the zone.
  • Coordinates : adds coordinates to the bottom of the world map of the player and the cursor.
  • Foglight : Shows unexplored areas on the map. replacement for MozzFullWorldMap or Unexplorer. Much more efficient, though.
  • Group Colors : turns all your party's and your raid's POIs into circles colored based on class, and shows a number on them based on their raid group.
  • Instance Maps : shows maps of instances.
  • Instance Notes : adds boss notes and such to instance maps.
  • Look 'n' Feel : allows you to change the transparency, position, and scale of the world map.
  • Notes : lets you put notes on the map, similar to MapNotes.
  • Zone Info : on hovering over a zone, it will show the levels of the zone, the instances in the zone, their levels, and the group size the instance is made for (e.g. 5-man, 40-man).


There is a new "experimental" version of Cartographer, called Cartographer3.

If you are experiencing any issues

You play on a mac and the addon doesn't show up in-game

This problem is generally being caused by unzippers on macintosh. You are supposed to put all folders inside the zip directly into your addon folder, not in a cartographer-vx.y.z subfolder! So if your paths are [...]/Interface/addons/Cartographer and [...]/Interface/Addons/Cartographer_"modulename", it should work as expected :D.

Death Knights and Phased Content, Arrow not showing


While you are in the starting area the content is instanced and you are, in fact, not in the "real" world of Azeroth. Once you go visit Stormwind / Orgrimmar as final part of the questline the arrow should work again as expected.

If you are having issues related to POI's


(the blue dots) please back-up and delete or rename your WTF folder (or just the cartographer 'account' database, WTF\Account\"username"\SavedVariables\Cartographer.lua)

Is the addon showing up as "Out of Date" and you're using Windows Vista?


The addon directory seems to have been moved for people on Vista. Apparently it's in "C:\Users\Public\Games\World of Warcraft". If you update plugins in the old directory, it just plain won't notice! At all! And you'll get errors. Update it in the new location. (explanation courtesy of QuestHelper addon ) Read the whole story here How-To: Trouble-Shoot AddOns under Vista

Bug reporting


Please disable all other addons except those included in this package, then test the issue. If the issue persists, please post on the bug tracker: http://www. wowace.com/projects/cartographer/tickets/ We welcome your feedback!

WOW Weather-Beaten Fishing Hat

Name: Weather-beaten Fishing Hat

Type: Rare Cloth Head

Armor: 127

Attributes:

  • +40 Stamina, +40 Spirit

  • On equip: increased fishing +5. This hat isn't to be confused with the Lucky Fishing Hat, which also gives this fishing bonus, and is available only through turn-ins at the Stranglethorn Fishing Tournament. +5 bonus isn't a huge bonus to fishing at all (your main +bonus comes from your fishing pole ), but given that it's an extra +5, it's worth having.
  • And here's the good part: on use, attach a lure to your equipped fishing pole that increases fishing by +75 for 10 minutes. With a 10 minute cooldown, you effectively have an infinite lure. Unfortunately, the highest bonus from lures is actually 100, so if you need those extra few points somewhere, you'll still have to shell out for a lure (or, more likely, pick them up from the fishing quest reward). But this hat will come in handy if you're doing any regular fishing for sure.

  • Plus, can you say stylin'? No, really, this shares a model with the "Stylin'" hats , which means it looks pimp .

How to Get It: It's a rare (like 1%) drop from the Bag of Fishing Treasures, the reward from the daily fishing quests in Shattrath or Dalaran. So basically all you've got to do is fish a lot and get lucky. Fortunately, Blizzard just buffed the daily fishing quest -- it now sometimes gives a Dalaran cooking award, which is a big help if you're going for that hat .

And this is a great time to mention something we heard at BlizzCon as well. Blizzard is working on tuning up fishing, and they mentioned Animal Crossing as an influence. They said that likely, you'll see a fish in the water and decide whether or not you want to go after it, and then you'll throw your lure in and have to watch as the fish does or doesn't decide to bite it. Does that sound more fun? Maybe not, but Blizzard has said they specifically want to bring more fun into fishing and all of the other professions soon. Should be interesting to see.

Getting Rid of It: You'll want to save it, because even though the regular stats may not be that great, odds are you'll have to wait quite a while until another fishing hat option rolls around again. But just in case they do implement that Animal Crossing thing, and you hate it so much you want to quit fishing and burn all of your gear, you can sell it off for 2g 54s 90c, or disenchant it into a Large Prismatic Shard, with a small chance of a Void Crystal.

August 27, 2009

Patch 3.2.2 Onyxia achievements

The newest Patch 3.2.2 PTR build which came online this morning has some hot new achievements for our favorite brood mother. The Onyxia achievements are as we expected - pulled straight from the classic NSFW Onyxia Wipe Animation.

Of particular note is the Level 60 Onyxia Achievement – that is now a Feat of Strength as it will be unobtainable after Patch 3.2.2 releases and Ony becomes a level 80 raid. In my opinion, guilds should be doing nightly Ony runs to get their alts the achievement. Nothing says awesome like some good old level 60 Feats of Strength.

The full list of Level 80 Onyxia Achievements after the break

10-Man Achievements

Onyxia's Lair – Defeat Onyxia in 10-player mode. More Dots! – Defeat Onyxia in less than five minutes in a 10-player mode. Many Whelps! Handle It! – Cause 50 Onyxia Whelplings to hatch within 10 seconds of Onyxia's liftoff, and then defeat her in 10-player mode. She Deep Breaths More – Defeat Onyxia without anyone taking damage from a Deep Breath in 10-player mode. 25-Man Achievements

Onyxia's Lair – Defeat Onyxia in 25-player mode. More Dots! – Defeat Onyxia in less than five minutes in a 25-player mode. Many Whelps! Handle It! – Cause 50 Onyxia Whelplings to hatch within 10 seconds of Onyxia's liftoff, and then defeat her in 25-player mode. She Deep Breaths More – Defeat Onyxia without anyone taking damage from a Deep Breath in 25-player mode.

WoW Patch 3.2.2 updates and BlizzCon news

Due to a bit of luck on BlizzCon ticket day, I was able to score a pair of tickets for one of this year's most desired events. I had a great time at the WoW.com reader meetup, and getting the opportunity to play as both a Goblin and Worgen Rogue really highlighted the weekend for me. I'm also excited at how Diablo III and Starcraft II are coming along; I am eagerly awaiting their releases.

However, it wasn't all fun and games. I had serious business to attend to, I had to use this opportunity to spend time with the WoW developers and ask some of the more important questions facing Rogues today. During the 2nd Class Discussion Panel, I got the opportunity to ask Ghostcrawler one question in front of the crowd. What'd I ask? About Vanish, of course! As expected, there's no timeline for a possible fix, but they don't want us to have to wait until Cataclysm for our most unique defense cooldown to provide more reliable protection.

A fellow Rogue used their Q&A time to ask about Assassination and daggers, to which Ghostcrawler commented that he'd like to see a little more balance between Assassination and Combat Rogues. Just a few days after his words, we saw an updated version of the patch 3.2.2 PTR build, including two buffs to Assassination Rogues.

Master Poisoner: Now also provides a 33/66/100% chance of preventing Envenom from consuming Deadly Poison.

While it may seem like a big upgrade, this change is actually fairly small in terms of actual DPS variation. It won't see us using two slow daggers, even though we won't have to worry about Deadly Poison falling off, because Focused Attacks still favors the quickest weapons. It does allow us to skip the tedious work of "timing Envenoms" between Deadly Poison ticks. It also should result in higher DPS in high-movement fights where we may not have had enough time to regain a 5-stack of Deadly Poison after an Envenom before needing to move. All in all, it is a very slight buff to our sustained DPS.

Envenom's scaling has been increased from 7% to 9% of attack power per combo point.

Now this change should see a tangible DPS boost for Assassination Rogues. With our buffed attack power in the 5 to 7 thousands, we'll see an additional 500-700 damage per Envenom (2% boost per combo point, 10% with a 5-point Envenom). Add in Vile Poisons, and we're looking at closer to 1,000 damage per 5-pt Envenom, or possibly 1,250-1,500 damage if we factor in a decent crit rate. A typical Mutilate rotation uses Envenom every 10-12 seconds, which mean the Envenom buff provides an extra 1,250 damage every 10 seconds, or ~125 DPS.

It's nothing to sneeze at, as it improves our damage in a very elegant way, instead of simply tacking on a few more damage percentage onto Hunger for Blood. However, with some of the Combat spreadsheets showing 10k DPS being possible in ToC gear, it's only a 1% nudge towards Assassination. There aren't any fights in "easy mode" ToC that specifically require DPS cooldowns, which has allowed Assassination to stay relatively competitive with Combat. However, with the upcoming release of ToC hard modes and a far stricter mindset for the raiding Rogue, it remains to be seen if these Assassination changes will keep Rogues rolling on daggers.

The simplification of stats:

Blizzard also announced their intentions for itemization at BlizzCon, and dropped quite the bombshell. They're removing Attack Power and Armor Penetration, changing Haste to increase our Energy regeneration rate instead of our attack speed, and doubling the AP we receive per point of Agility (from 1 AP/Agi to 2 AP/Agi). This should greatly decrease the complexity of our current gearing spreadsheets. By removing ArP and AP, it should also keep the plate classes from going after our precious leather!

The Haste change is one I am particularly interested in. Haste has always been a primarily "white" stat for us, increasing our auto-attack frequency but doing very little for our yellow damage. Now, the situation is reversed, and Rogues will actually have a way to increase our yellow damage and get us "pushing more buttons", as Blizzard intends for every class to do. Exactly what levels of energy regeneration we'll be able to accomplish with the new gearing model remain to be seen. Bloodlust may change from a simple white damage increase to a pseudo Adrenaline Rush!

Mastery stat:

Mastery is the stat that is designed to replace Armor Penetration on gear. It basically gives a boost to whichever talent tree you have put the most points into. For example, a Combat Rogue will gain Armor Penetration (possibly) for every point of Mastery they find on their gear. However, if you were to respect to Mutilate, that Mastery would change to say "Increased Poison Damage". Change to Subtlety? Now your Mastery is reducing the energy cost of all of your attacks. The goal is to provide a fun and interesting stat that gives each spec a valuable addition without adding a "wasted" stat. Mutilate currently cares very little about Armor Penetration, and some Combat Rogues with exceptional gear are nearing the "white crit cap", meaning all of the additional crit on their gear is reduced in value.

Mastery solves the problem of having too many disparate drops that no class can use, and allows for greater gearing flexibility. Between the removal of the Armor Penetration balancing meta-game and the simplification of gear, I see our spreadsheets in Catacylsm becoming far, far more refined.

Conclusion:

There's a lot of new changes coming our way, though months out they may be. However, if we start planning and discussing these changes now, we can provide Blizzard with our feedback and assist in steering our class towards the bright future ahead of us. Next week, I'll be doing a full write-up of Rogue tips for the ToC bosses: just in time for Anub'arak's triumphant return!

August 26, 2009

WOW AceWardrobe 3.2.0

AceWardrobe allows you to define unlimited equipment sets known as 'Outfits'. It then lets you switch between these outfits manually or when you mount or change forms/stances. This makes it easy to manage gear sets when in different forms for druids and shaman. It also allows you the ability to switch equipment when in specific stances for tanking or DPS. You can also swap equipment when in stealth mode.

Commands: (/acewardrobe, /wardrobe, /awd, /wd)
/ace profile char acewardrobe :: for a character specific profile
/ace profile class acewardrobe :: for a class specific profile
/wd standby :: forces acewardrobe to keep your current outfit

REQUIRED
-----------
Ace - A lightweight and powerful system for building addons.
(wowace.com)

INSTALLATION
------------
1. Unzip AceWardrobe-X.x.x.zip into your wow addons folder.
(World of WarcraftInterfaceAddons)
2. Answer YES to the prompt about replacing any duplicate files.
Optional:
(3.) If you don't want the Minimap icon, delete the AddonsAceWardrobe_UI folder.

download

WoW Fishing Ace v0.4.2g

WoW Fishing Ace is all the core goodness of Fishing Buddy distilled down into it's simplest form.

If you equip a fishing pole, you will get double-right-click casting. Optionally, Fishing Ace will turn on Auto Loot and it will set the audio values to maximize the sound of the bobber.

It's a standard Ace2 addon -- /fishingace or /fa for help.

WoW Fishing Ace v0.4.2g
Supports Game Version:
3.1X

Run:
windows , os

here

August 25, 2009

Will you subscribe to the World of Warcraft Magazine?

The announcement that Future and Blizzard are teaming up to produce World of Warcraft: The Magazine surprised almost everyone, I think. No more so because of the undeniable shift from print to digital media. However the fact that Blizzard is involved and the promise of no adverts and a "coffee table" kind of feel makes this very appealing. Granted the subscription is a little high, especially when you consider you're only getting four issues for your cash and yet I think a lot of people are going to sign up. I'm probably going to be one of them.
As a fanbase, we're know for collecting shiny things to do with our game of choice, whether it's a Wrath Collector's Edition or a Starcraft II messenger bag. Personally my thing is artbooks: I've got the whole set from the Art of the World of Warcraft to the Cinematic Artbook from last year's BlizzCon so the idea of a magazine loaded with artwork and interviews and all that jazz makes me very excited. What about you, constant readers, will you be tempted to subscribe?

August 24, 2009

World of Warcraft Cataclysm Worgen

The Worgen are coming. We now know for sure that, come Deathwing's Cataclysm, The Worgen of Gilneas will be answering the call of the Alliance. The Worgen, while they have quickly become a classic, iconic race in Warcraft lore, actually only came onto the scene in WoW itself, providing an enemy to Horde and Alliance alike in Silverpine Forest, Duskwood, and Ashenvale. But who are they, and what bought them to this place where they will become one of the next playable races of the World of Warcraft before other choices?

In the Beginning

To know how this all begins, the first place to look is The Book of Ur. This Book, written by Ur, a Mage of Dalaran, eventually found its way into the personal library of the Archmage Arugal. It describes the origin of the Worgen.The Worgen, Ur reports, are from another dimension. They are savage, beastly race who leave "terror and bloodshed" in their wake. They are also reported to be powerful mages in their own right, who use dark shadow magics. Luckily, they seem content to stay in their own world, and have not tried to invade others, for such, Ur insists, would be a catastrophe.

How then, did they get to our world? For the answer to that question, I'm going to direct you to a previous installment of Know Your Lore, Alex Ziebart's treatise on the Scythe of Elune. Go ahead, click here to read it. I'll wait for you. You'll seriously want to.

So, as you can see, once again, the Night Elves messed stuff up. While it's certainly possible that Elune sent the Worgen like she sent the Moonkin, it would seem to clash with Ur's description of a savage and sadistic race, and the aggression of pretty much all current Worgen in game. It's my general opinion that the Scythe of Elune came from someone looking to sew discord, possibly an agent of an Old God, and Velinde just assumed it came from Elune.

But that's neither here nor there. Now that we know where Worgen come from and how they came to Kalimdor and later Duskwood because of Velinde and her Scythe, it's time to move on. There was one other person who figured out how to summon Worgen to our world.

The Rise of Arugal

Arugal was an Archmage of Dalaran, and by some indications, he may have had good intentions -- the defense of his beloved Gilneas -- when he first used Ur's research to summon the Worgen to our world, looking for a weapon to fight the Scourge. But the Worgen proved savage and vile, and escaping Arugal's control, they went on a rampage, eventually slaughtering Baron Silverlaine of Shadowfang Keep and his entire court.

Arugal, driven mad with grief, decided to adopt the Worgen as his children and rule over the countryside with an Iron Fist. This is where things get a bit murky. Apparently, in addition to his summoned extra-dimensional Worgen, he decided to make some of his own, homegrown. He devised a curse that would turn human beings into Worgen by night. With this curse, he turned the whole village of Pyrewood. The Villagers were in their right minds during the day, even conducting business with passing Alliance, but at night, they turned into savage mindless Worgen under the thrall of Arugal.

Eventually, a group of Horde beheaded Arugal and by all indications ended the Worgen menace, but the story does not end there.

The Wolf Cult of Grizzly Hills.

By the order of the Lich King, the Darkfallen recovered Arugal's body some time after his death and resurrected the Archmage as a ghost. Arugal then traveled to Grizzly Hills, where he began to recreate his happy little family. In this case, he preyed upon the native Human trapping communities of Grizzly Hills. He apparently managed to coerce many of them to join his Wolfcult, turning them into his brand of shape shifting Worgen Werewolves. Those who resisted seem to have mostly been killed or turned into undead, but it does appear that even the unwilling could be turned into loyal Worgen with the application of a bite. It is also worth noting that these "Wolf Cult" members can turn into Worgen at will, not needing to wait for the nightfall.

Another interesting point comes in a certain package that the Horde steals from the members of the Wolf Cult, and the Alliance recovers and returns to the Wolf Cult members, thinking they are still normal humans and wishing to ally with them. It is strongly implied that the package contains the Scythe of Elune. Whether Arugal recovered from the mine in Duskwood before his death, or whether some of the Worgen of Duskwood took it and somehow migrated north to Grizzly Hills, is unknown.

Whither Playable Worgen?

So as of this writing, we can essentially consider Arugal dead again and the Scythe of Elune missing again. But what about playable Worgen? How do you get playable Alliance Worgen from an extra-dimensional race of bloodthirsty necromantic Worgen and a cult of fanatic shape shifters?

We are told our Worgen come from Gilneas. The city hidden behind a wall has been a source of mystery for many years. It's no surprise that Gilneas kept to itself, per se, it's a notorious insular nation that only reluctantly joined the Alliance in the second war. But the silence was so complete that many, such as Brann Bronzebeard, feared that Gilneas might be dead, perhaps overtaken by Naga or wiped out by plague.

But it's not too far fetched to believe that Arugal might have gotten through the gates and cursed the population. After all, Shadowfang Keep is just a short jaunt away from the gates of Gilneas, and a powerful Archmage should be able to scale or bypass a simple stone wall.

But how do they break free of the curse and decide to rejoin the Alliance? The answer may lie with one Alphus Wordwill. Alphus is a character who receives a passing mention in the World of Warcraft PnP RPG books. He is a Dalaran Mage studying the Worgen Curse on the people of Pyrewood. He writes that, given time and funding, he could possibly discover a cure that would cure the madness and bloodthirst that the transformation brings, but leave the transformation ability itself intact, allowing the Worgen to use their skills to fight "the Forsaken, the Scourge, and other evil powers."

Of course, the d20 book, while technically canon, is often ignored or overruled by in-game lore, but even if poor Alphus doesn't get his day in the sun, his theories at least offer a precedent for the idea of shape shifted Worgen

The Wrapup

So here's the rundown on Worgen. There's essentially two kinds. One is a race from another planet or dimension. By all accounts, they are evil and bloodthirsty. They can be summoned to our world, and at least two people have done it: Velinde Starsong and the Archmage Arugal.

The artifact Velinde Starsong used to summon them, which she dubbed the Scythe of Elune, is currently missing after having been lost by her in Duskwood. It may have popped up again in Grizzly Hills, but that cannot be confirmed for certain, and either way, it is lost again.

The other group of Worgen are the Worgen Shape shifters, Humans who have been afflicted by the Worgen Curse formulated by Arugal. These Humans are taken by bloodlust when transformed, serving their dark master sometimes against their human will.

Playable Worgen are the latter. Cured of their mindlessness, but left with the ability to shift into Worgen, the people of Gilneas now join the Alliance to honor old ties and band together for survival. But did their years of slavery to the bloodthirst of the Worgen change them in ways that go more than skin deep? Only time will tell.

More possibilities for goblins and worgen in Cataclysm

So the Cataclysm expansion has officially been announced at BlizzCon 2009 and while there are many things we knew before (such as the addition of Goblins and Worgen), there are many things we just learned (such as the beginnings of their proper lore), and many things we still don't know as well -- some things even Blizzard still seems undecided about.

But there are some indications of things to come which will surely affect roleplayers. The most obvious change involves the changes the whole world will be going through. Each of our existing characters' will have their own reaction to the cataclysm, of course, as well as the opportunity to go through the game from 1 to 60 with a new character, and maybe not be quite as bored as you were the last 6 times you did it. Your new tauren paladin's leveling experience will be very different from your tauren shaman's, and each one will have different things to talk about once they reach the level cap.

Another obvious addition is that you can start another character with whichever new race you like most. Many players have been wanting to play goblins and worgen for a long time, and appreciate the new parity that the two races bring to the two factions -- the Horde now has a diminutive race that is likely the closest the Horde could ever come to "cute," and the Alliance finally gets a race that is actually monstrous. This opens the doors for people to try out the opposite faction even more than before. We've already talked about these two races in a previous article, but now that the expansion's new races are confirmed with additional lore and information, there's quite a bit more to say.


Goblins again

We've talked about goblins before, and our guesses weren't too far off. There's a new group of goblins (which is to say, not from the Steemwheedle Cartel that we're used to dealing with), which is joining up with the Horde out of desperation rather than profit. Goblins aren't used to needing other races' help -- ever since they overthrew their troll overlords back in ancient times, they've been masters of their own destinies. Now, they're second fiddles to the orcs and all the other races who've been established in the Horde for a long time now.

So in addition to all the cunning archetypes of tradesman, cheat, mad-scientist and everything else we've come to expect from goblins, we have another element of dealing with the betrayal, desperation, and loss that forced them to join the Horde in the first place. These are not new issues for Horde races, even if they are relatively new to the goblins themselves -- perhaps this was the one aspect goblins needed to become true members of the Horde, which they never had before -- a crushing loss that shakes them to the foundations of their identity.

Worgen again

I was wrong when I guessed that the playable worgen would be from their original home dimension, wherever that is. I even guessed they would be from the Emerald Dream, and to my knowledge, a relationship between the worgen and the Dream hasn't showed up either. There is most certainly some sort of connection to the night elves and druidism, however, and time will tell what the exact nature of that is.

The worgen we play are closer to what we normally call werewolves -- people who suffer from a transformative curse -- rather than the "actual" worgen from another dimension that first appeared in Kalimdor, although hopefully the starting quests in Gilneas will bring these two elements together in some plausible way.

Still, maybe it's ultimately cooler for the playable worgen to be like werewolves -- that gives us two forms instead of one, and it gives us more to relate to as well. Ask me to roleplay a wolf-like alien species from another dimension, and I won't really know what to do until I do a lot of reading. (Incidentally many roleplayers with draenei characters had trouble with this as well, often playing them in ways that didn't fit the lore until accurate knowledge about their characteristics and origins became more widespread.) But if you ask me to roleplay a man afflicted with a curse that turns him into a monster, that's much closer to home. I can take inspiration for my character anywhere from The Incredible Hulk to Wolverine, to say nothing of Professor Lupin from the Harry Potter series, or even the main character of An American Werewolf in London. The theme of "the beast within" is a profound one for all sorts of stories with a ton of interesting opportunities for roleplayers to explore in the game.

This is especially true for worgen druids, whose "caster" form is still quite beastly whenever your character is in combat. Your character could be a normal human librarian, street-sweeper or whatnot, until danger arrives and he or she suddenly turns into a wolf-man, then a bear, then a cat, then a tree, then a weird wolf-eared, owl-faced, teletubby-shaped creature of moonfire-spamming death! Well obviously you can't have all those forms in just one talent spec, but still, that's a lot of different forms! Combine that with a normal human form you can stay in out of combat and you get a lot of possibilities for fun roleplaying.

A worgen hunter has good potential too, since he can use the actual "Beast Within" ability to become a big red worgen whenever he likes, combined with the human-worgen shifting ability, such a hunter could express emotion very graphically.

If worgen could only be shamans, then they would be able to shift between human, werewolf, and ghost wolf forms and create a whole spectrum of wolfyness. Oh well.

World of Warcraft Cataclysm Deathwing

Today's Know Your Lore subject hasn't yet been seen in World of Warcraft, but he's the Big Bad in the upcoming Cataclysm expansion, making his first appearance in the series since Warcraft II. An ancient and incredibly powerful being with a past swathed in betrayal and destruction, Deathwing is poised to bring about the second-largest cataclysm that Azeroth has ever seen.

Who: Neltharion the Earth-Warder, aka Deathwing the Destroyer.

What: Colossal, nearly-molten black dragon. Officially a Dragon Aspect, one of five sent to guard ancient Kalimdor by the Titans. He's also the head of the Black Dragonflight.

History: Neltharion was the dragon aspect of the earth and the deep places of Azeroth. Along with his fellow aspects, Alexstrasza, Ysera, Nozdormu, and Malygos, he was created and given power by the Titans so he could watch over Azeroth. At first, he did a good job. But then he discovered the prison of some of the Old Gods of Azeroth, and they began speaking to him. They convinced him that if he destroyed all the other races on Azeroth, he could rule the world with his dragonflight and keep Ysera and Alexstrasza as what would amount to draconian sex slaves.

The Old Gods convinced Neltharion to create an object called the Dragon Soul. With the help of goblins, he forged a great golden disc deep within the earth. Neltharion put part of his own blood and the essence of a demon of the Burning Legion in the disc, and then shielded it magically so the other dragons couldn't see what was inside. He then convinced the four other aspects to donate some of their powers to the Dragon Soul, telling them it would be a great weapon to defeat the Burning Legion.

All the dragonflights headed for the city of Zin-Azshari, where the night elves and the Burning Legion's demons were fighting it out. As promised, Neltharion channeled his power through the Dragon Soul to kill most of the demons. However, it also killed most of the night elves. Then Neltharion turned to the other dragons and essentially said, "By the way, I was the only one who didn't put any of my power in here, so I'm now stronger than you. And you know what would be awesome? Me ruling the world." The other dragons attacked him, but he used the Dragon Soul to kill most of the Blue Dragonflight and paralyze everyone else, except Alexstrasza, who Neltharion kind of had a thing for. Neltharion's appearance changed from a normal dragon into a big fiery demon dragon, and he was reborn as Deathwing the Destroyer.





After this battle, the four other aspects hid themselves, along with their dragonflights. The Dragon Soul (now known as the Demon Soul) was killing Deathwing, so he had the goblins forge him some adamantite armor to keep him from being torn apart. But before he got a chance to use the Demon Soul again, Malfurion Stormrage snuck into Deathwing's lair through the Emerald Dream and stole the Demon Soul. The Demon Soul went on to have many great adventures with Malfurion and Illidan that we're not going to get into here, but after the defeat of the Burning Legion the other four aspects sealed it up and Malfurion hid it so that Deathwing couldn't use it anymore.

Deathwing waited for ten thousand years, causing a lot of earth-related havoc in the meantime. Near the end of the second war (the one with the Horde attacking everything), Deathwing snuck across to Draenor and hid some eggs, which became the Netherwing Flight. After he got back, he discovered the location of the Demon Soul. He decided that if he couldn't use it to destroy the world, then someone ought to. He used a goblin servant to give the artifact to the orcs of Grim Batol, who used it to enslave Alexstrasza and the Red Dragonflight. He then tried to maneuver a human mage, Rhonin, and some of his companions in a complicated plot to get the orcs to move Alexstrasza and her eggs out of Grim Batol. There, he figured, he could capture or kill Alexstrasza and steal some of her eggs to raise as his own. He also posed as Lord Daval Prestor and became King of Alterac, in sort of a secondary plot to destroy the Alliance from within. But in the end, Rhonin destroyed the Demon Soul and Deathwing was sent running from the four other dragon aspects, now returned to their full power.

What he's up to now: While players haven't encountered Deathwing for some time, he's been quite busy. According to Night of the Dragon, Deathwing has been hidden away from the prying eyes of the other Aspects and attempting to create the ultimate Dragonflight with which to conquer (or destroy) Azeroth. His son, Nefarian, was unsuccessful in creating the Chromatic Dragonflight army, thanks to player intervention, but Deathwing has learned from his son's failure. The Netherwing flight of Outland is physiologically different from other drakes, the result of Black Dragonflight eggs being exposed to the twisted energy present on the chaotic planet, and Deathwing has discovered their unique powers. Night of the Dragon sees Deathwing successful in his attempt to fuse Black Dragons with Nether Dragon essences, resulting in the dangerous Twilight Drakes seen in Wyrmrest Temple's Obsidian Sanctum. While players are successful in destroying the clutches of eggs there, as well as their keepers, Sartharion and his drakes, Deathwing has access to other eggs of all of the various flights in Grim Batol. His artificially-created leviathan of a son, Dargonax, was also destroyed, along with his prime consort Sinestra. But Deathwing was never truly defeated, and nor did he ever rest.

Having retreated to the elemental plane of earth, Deepholm, Deathwing planned his full and devastating revenge against not just his fellow Aspects, but the entire planet of Azeroth. Erupting through the ceiling of Deepholm, Deathwing brought about the Great Cataclysm -- forever changing the face of Azeroth and its people. Bringing untold destruction in his wake, he took flight to the Red Dragonflight's former prison, Grim Batol, and began to calculate the true end of all living things on Azeroth -- possibly sparing the Twilight's Hammer Clan, who now serve only him.

Identifying characteristics: Neltharion/Deathwing is a gargantuan black dragon with a molten body, barely held together by the adamantium armor that must constantly be refitted to keep him from melting.

Why you've spent way too many hours fighting him already: Onyxia and Nefarian are the daughter and son, respectively, of Deathwing. Onyxia is posing as a human counselor to the king of Stormwind in hopes of destroying the Alliance. King Varian Wrynn uncovered her plot and slew her. Nefarian was able to enslave the orcs of the Blackrock Clan and set up a stronghold in upper Blackrock Mountain. From there, he tried to kill Ragnaros and then take over the world. The Netherwing Flight in Outlands are also children of Deathwing, being black dragonflight eggs affected by Outland's chaotic energies. And while it may not be obvious due to lack of in-game reference, the Twilight Flight in Northrend's Obsidian Sanctum is in service of Deathwing, being the result of his mixture of Nether Dragon essence with Black Drakes.

World of Warcraft Cataclysm Gilneas

The nation of Gilneas is one of the oldest human kingdoms that still exists. Founded after the breaking of the human empire of Arathor, Gilneas was considered one of the great Seven Kingdoms, along with Kul Tiras, Alterac, Dalaran, Lordaeron, Stromgarde, and Stormwind.

Gilneas is located on a rocky peninsula that juts out over the Great Sea on Lordaeron's west coast, southwest of Silverpine Forest. High seaside cliffs keep the kingdom safe from attack by water and the foreboding Greymane Wall keeps it locked safely away from the struggles of modern Lordaeron and, by extension, Azeroth. No one has been allowed in or out of the kingdom for nearly ten years, and no one has seen or heard from the burly, gruff, self-sufficient Gilneans in just as long.

The source of this isolation is none other than Genn Greymane, hereditary ruler of the kingdom under the Greymane Dynasty for decades.


At the advent of the Second War, Gilneas was considered one of the strongest human kingdoms, so much so that Greymane was very resistant in supporting the newly-formed Grand Alliance to battle the Orc threat, thinking Gilneas could easily fend for itself. He eventually caved and entered Gilneas into the Alliance, but argued against its existence for the duration of the Second War. After the war ended, Greymane refused to lend further resources to the Alliance, seeing no reason to keep the orcs in camps instead of, well, dead. It's rumored that Greymane was under the control of Deathwing, who at that time was masquerading as Lord Daval Prestor -- a noble who Greymane supported in his bid for rulership of the kingdom of Alterac.

At the beginning of the Third War, the Greymane Wall was constructed, cutting off all contact with the outside world, leaving Gilneas "free from the troubles of the Alliance". Even starving or injured Alliance refugees outside the wall receive no assistance from those within. The exact reason for sealing off Gilneas was unknown ... until now.

Several years ago, Brann Bronzebeard gravely stated that Gilneas might be, at best, in a state of disarray or, at worst, completely destroyed behind the wall. He fears that the naga have taken over the peninsula, but others point to the worgen threat that surrounds the kingdom as the real reason why Gilneas has gone silent.

And worgen are both the reason and result of this silence. Archmage Arugal, Dalaran resident but Gilneas patron, saw the rise of the Scourge at the beginning of the Third War and, in desperation, summoned a force he didn't fully understand to fight them off -- the feral and unruly worgen.

Ancient texts report that the worgen may have existed for a time on Kalimdor in ages long past, and even hint to their association with a shadowy druidic order, but no solid information can be found besides this. Regardless of their origin, when summoned, the creatures often cannot be controlled, reasoned with, or stood against.

Though the areas's defense against the Scourge was successful for a time, the lupine defenders soon stopped obeying Arugal and spread their curse among the population of Silverpine Forest, unheeding to the commands of their "master". Seeing that his plan had failed, Arugal went mad with grief and adopted a number of the worgen as his "children", holing himself up in the former home of Baron Silverlaine, the castle now known as Shadowfang Keep. Unchecked and uncontrolled, the worgen curse continued to spread, even into the seemingly impenetrable kingdom of Gilneas.

When Deathwing ravaged Azeroth with his Cataclysm, the Greymane Wall was shattered, exposing Gilneas for the first time in a decade. The foggy, rainy kingdom, grim and gothic in its construction and atmosphere, remains visually a great bastion of human civilization -- though the inhabitants were not so lucky.

The worgen curse had infected their residents and promptly spread throughout the kingdom unchecked for several years. Unable to leave the kingdom's walls due to the Scourge threat and unable to sail away due to the deadly, dagger-toothed reef nicknamed The Bite, the citizens of Gilneans withdrew further and further into the territory.

Even with their curse taking its toll on the citizens' sanity, the isolation from the outside world and crippling fear of the Scourge outside their walls has resulted in a kingdom on the brink of civil war. Worse, the Forsaken have realized that the former Alliance nation now has a foothold in Lordaeron -- and will do whatever it takes to keep the new Alliance from establishing a permanent base of operations there. King Genn Greymane, once and future king of Gilneas, now reaches his hand out in acceptance of his previously-maligned Alliance.