Welcome one and all to the first of a series of monthly articles about what has been going on in the World of Warcraft. I thought that doing a monthly column would be a great idea to make sure that not only breaking news is posted to Gaming Angels, but that some of the smaller news and even updates and opinions sent in by you readers can be shared with everyone! But enough of my rambling, on to the content!

Patch 3.3

Before the holidays, we were treated with the final big patch to Wrath of the Lich King, Patch 3.3, that allowed us into Icecrown Citadel so that we can finally get our hands on Arthas. This patch was highly anticipated and so far seems to have delivered with regards to the major points. I thoroughly enjoy the three new 5-man dungeons that you can battle through. I think that it was a neat idea to have these dungeons that not only expand on the story, but they also drop some fairly decent loot. I think my favorite of the three is Halls of Reflection, even though it can be a pain to get past Falric and Marwyn without an experienced group and good strategy. Now I’ve only experienced this as Alliance and fighting with Jaina, but from what I’ve heard battling with Sylvanas is also quite the treat. Though I can’t forgive Blizzard for changing her voice. I really hate the new voice.

And of course there are the new 10 and 25 man Icecrown Citadel raid instances. Blizzard is rolling out this final raid section by section with only The Lower Spire and Plagueworks available for players to fight through. There is also the big gunship battle that you participate in where you have to fight against the opposite faction to reach the top of Icecrown citadel before the other faction does. As someone who’s more of a casual player I’m unfortunately not up on my gear as I should be to make it to ICC, however I’m working hard on it and should be able to make it eventually! I’ll probably be happier to wait because then I can play more wings of the citadel instead of waiting for the next ones to be unlocked.

There is also a new faction that players can earn rep with that rewards players with new recipes and rings. The Ashen Verdict was created with an agreement between Tirion Fordring and Darion Mograine where the Argent Crusade and the Knights of the Ebon Blade have set aside their differences during the attack on Icecrown Citadel until the Lich King is defeated. Players can earn rep with them by killing trash mobs and bosses in the citadel. MMOChampion has a great listing of all of the reputation rewards here!

The other new thing that is probably my favorite is the Dungeon Finder system. Not only can you queue your level 80 characters to run heroics and raids, but even your lower level characters can queue up for low level dungeons. Running your first random heroic of the day will net you two Emblems of Frost and some gold. After that you receive Emblems of Triumph. For running a random pre-Wrath dungeon you will receive a spoils bag that will include level-appropriate rewards. Running either of the daily random dungeons is a great way to get some good loot, save up for tier gear and even pass the time while farming materials or reputation. I tend to wait in the queue for DPS and work on my Wintersaber reputation. And for my low level mage the dungeons are a great way to get a good amount of XP and level up!

As always, the latest patch notes can be found here.

In the News

There have been a couple of interesting news items in the past month or so that have caught my attention. The first one being Blizzard helping cops track down a drug dealer via WoW. Police in Howard County, Indiana were on the hunt for Alfred Hightower, a suspected drug dealer who had a warrant for his arrest out since 2007. In their investigation, the police discovered that Hightower played WoW (or as they were initially told “some warlock and witches’ game”). When petitioned, Blizzard did get back to the police with information that included Hightower’s IP address, account information and history, billing address and online screen name and preferred server. Penny Arcade even did a great comic regarding the incident.

Another news story that popped up and had me laughing was regarding a man who was told by his wife that it was his Orc statue or him. Now as discovered by one of the members of Fark.com this wasn’t just any orc, this is Thrall from Warcraft III who is also unfortunately out of stock for those interested. So Robert Cushnie was forced to give away Thrall to someone else. “She said there wasn’t any room for him in our life. I’ve had him for six years but Dee means more to me, so he had to go.”At least it looks like he went to a good home.

In-Game Action

It was noticed in the past month that there have been some strange earthquakes rocking the major faction cities. This led to some remembering mobs from the PTR that were seen called Shakers. In the live game now they’re of course invisible, but they are most likely the harbingers of Deathwing coming back to Azeroth. Blue poster Wryxian was seen commenting on posts in the forums with cryptic answers my favorite being the following:

It was just you. Seriously, earthquakes leading up to some kind of cataclysm? I lol’d.

*the earth shakes a bit* o.O

Now it’s always good to try and not read too far in-between the lines with blue posts, but I think that this probably the beginnings of the pre-Cataclysm events since Blizzard isn’t denying what’s going on. The one funny aspect is that these quakes also happen in Dalaran, as yanno, floating cities high up in the sky can feel such things.
Rumor Mill

In breaking rumor news, WoW.com posted that their sources have said that the Friends and Family alpha for Cataclysm will begin on January 12th. This news came about when the wowleak Twitter account posted the image of a Cataclysm disc to their feed, which has since been said to be a fake. WoW.com is still sticking to the story that the alpha will occur on the 12th.

Call to readers!

If you have any tips, tricks, news or funnies you would like to send in to be included in the next State of Azeroth please send an email to steph@gamingangels.com! I’m also looking for any girls who are guild masters of an all female guild or members of an all female guild to do an interview with! If interested you can contact me at the above email address as well.

This is Steph signing off until next month. Glory to the Alliance and Lok’tar Ogar to my horde brethren!

Thanks to Necrotic Designs for the awesome banner!