@stealthyslyth: What first attracted you to write for the Warcraft universe?

Knaak: Blizzard had created a world so rich in character and history that one could not help be drawn into it. It had many of the features that I’ve always enjoyed in fantasy with its epic feel, its intertwined storylines, and terrific creations such as the Dragon Aspects, the Lich King, and Varian Wrynn. When Blizzard asked if I would like to contribute to the world, how could I resist?

Of the many characters in the books that you’ve written about, which character’s story have you most enjoyed writing and sharing with others?

Malfurion’s story is the one I enjoyed the most, although finally getting to use Varian has been a great pleasure and I hope to write about him in the future. Of my own creations, Krasus/Korialstrasz was also a favorite and I’m pleased he became a favorite of so many readers and gamers.

What were your main inspirations for Wolfheart?

The Arthurian tales had influence, as did other older works of fantasy. Varian is very much a traditional hero, striving to overcome his shortcomings in order to do what must be done to save those around him. I think that he is potentially one of World of Warcraft’s best characters.

In the book, there is a lot of talk regarding the mortality of the Night Elves, will this become a bigger issue lore/story wise?

That is something that only Blizzard can fully answer, although it certainly seems to be leading in that direction.

In Wolfheart, Varian seems to go through a great change, and the way the book leaves off it seems that it’s for the better. Does this mean we can expect a stronger leader from him in the future?

For the sake of the Alliance, let’s hope so. He’s learned a lot, but he’ll still be learning. I think he will make some mistakes, but the future of the Alliance looks a lot brighter now than it did only a short time ago.

Where in your opinion do you see the story of Azeroth leading?

That would be difficult to answer without giving away things I know. I’ll have to pass on that.

Is there one not too talked about character (or characters) who you would love to write a story about, even if it was just a short story?

I would have said Jarod Shadowsong, but I’ve now done something with him. Wouldn’t mind doing more. Perhaps a bit more about Genn Greymane, who in his own way is almost as complex in nature as Varian.

Twilight of the Aspects and Wolfheart came out relatively near each other. Should we expect another novel from you set in the WoW universe again soon?

Not that soon! The storylines dictated that these come out fairly close, but now we have the opportunity to let the Cataclysm settle a bit while we work on what’s next.

It’s uncertain as to whether you are a fan of the Alliance or Horde, do you carry a preference of one over the other and if so, how do you maintain to stay objective in your narration?

I play Alliance and Horde. I like worgen and tauren, especially. I might lean a bit more to the Alliance, but the Horde deserves its respect. Both sides have had their share of heroes and villains.

And on a closing note, if you could bring back one character, who would it be and why?

Trag Highmountain. I want to explore his existence as a tauren deathknight further.

—

Look for my own review of Richard Knaak’s latest novel Wolfheart on Gaming Angels soon!

When Azeroth was young, the noble titans appointed the five great dragonflights to safeguard the budding world. Each of the flights’ leaders was imbued with a portion of the titans’ vast cosmic powers. Together, these majestic Dragon Aspects committed themselves to thwarting any force that threatened the safety of the World of Warcraft.

Over ten thousand years ago, a betrayal by the maddened black Dragon Aspect, Deathwing, shattered the strength and unity of the dragonflights. His most recent assault on Azeroth—the Cataclysm—has left the world in turmoil. At the Maelstrom, the center of Azeroth’s instability, former Horde warchief Thrall and other accomplished shaman struggle to keep the world from tearing apart in the wake of Deathwing’s attack. Yet a battle also rages within Thrall regarding his new life in the shamanic Earthen Ring, hampering his normally unparalleled abilities.

Unable to focus on his duties, Thrall undertakes a seemingly menial task from an unexpected source: the mysterious green Dragon Aspect, Ysera. This humble endeavor soon becomes a journey spanning the lands of Azeroth and the timeways of history itself, bringing Thrall into contact with ancient dragonflights. Divided by conflict and mistrust, these dragons have become easy prey to a horrific new weapon unleashed by Deathwing’s servants . . . a living nightmare engineered to exterminate Azeroth’s winged guardians.

Of even greater concern is a bleak and terrifying possible future glimpsed by Ysera: the Hour of Twilight. Before this apocalyptic vision comes to pass, Thrall must purge his own doubts in order to discover his purpose in the world and aid Azeroth’s dragonflights as they face the Twilight of the Aspects.

As a bonus, Blizzard has released an excerpt of the novel on the official WoW site for those who want more of a preview of the novel. I’ve always been a fan of the novels since I’m such a lore nerd, and I have enjoyed Golden’s previous novels set in the WoW universe so I’ll be picking this up eventually. The book is available at local book stores as well as online at Barnes and Noble and Amazon.

Rating:

BUY

I had been looking forward to the World of Warcraft: Cataclysm expansion since I was able to check it out at Blizzcon 2009. A complete re-vamp of the entire game? I was completely excited for it, not to mention the two new races. After getting into the beta, I was able to see exactly what they were changing and check out the new areas, leveling experiences and the general feel of the game. It was definitely a big change, and there were some good and bad points to it.

For my review I wanted to give myself some time to level my main character to 85, and work on trying to get raid ready while also exploring a lot of the other content. As a DPS class (damage class for those unfamiliar with the terminology) I will only be able to comment on Healing and Tanking based on what I’ve heard from guild members, seen in heroics and read online. All of the classes have had some changes to them and not everyone is happy with it. I know at first I hated going from using mana to focus as a Hunter, but I’ve become used to it and have accepted the changes. Now in an upcoming patch they’re making another change to remove the only AoE (area of effect attack) we really have left in order to try and balance out the DPS output between the three hunter specs.

I haven’t heard many complaints from tanks but I know that new mechanics have also affected people who choose to be healers. And they’ve definitely been the most vocal bunch in my opinion. From what I’ve heard, fresh 85 healers of any class have been having issues with running out of mana or spells not healing as much as they were used to coming from Wrath. I can understand that there is probably a learning curve with changes that came to the various classes, not to mention needing better gear to handle the harder end game encounters. What I will say is that my GM (guild master) who is a Priest has stated that she did experience the soul crushing times of healing heroics, however they’ve become a bit more bearable thanks to having geared up more from raiding. There are some changes coming to healing classes with the next patch, and I hope for their sakes things may get easier. But I think that the best thing to do is to work on getting geared and try to master what healing is like in Cataclysm, even though it’s tough.

As for dungeons and raids, I can only speak for the dungeons as I haven’t made it up to the raid appropriate gear level. But the dungeons are definitely more fun for me. I enjoy that Blizzard brought back having to use crowd control, and provided you’re in a good dungeon group things will go smooth and you’ll have some fun! But so far running with a good dungeon group has only happened when most of the group had been fellow guild members. Going into the random dungeon finder is an… interesting… experience. Between a 40minute wait time for DPS and the fact that I could wind up in a group that may quit after the first boss. I can’t even count how many heroics I never finished due to the group dissolving before the last boss. It definitely made me wait for our guild raid nights as those not raid ready would get together and do heroics so I was almost always guaranteed to do a couple of great runs and hopefully gear up.

Archaeology has also become my new addiction. It’s not fully leveled due to trying to do more heroics, but I enjoy flying around and completing projects. Now with the addition of the addon Archy it’s been made easier with the added interface. I know I’ll have it leveled soon, and I’m looking forward to getting the Scepter of Azj’Aqir (I already have the Fossilized Raptor mount). And for the most part it seems like the community also enjoys the new profession. There are some aspects of it that also give some little day to day life tidbits for the lore nerds too if you read up on the items that you’ve completed the research for. I definitely hope that Blizzard updates it with new items and races to collect artifacts from.

The new areas in the game for levels 80-85 are beautiful. The art direction with this expansion has been great and you can tell the attention to detail with the new zones. My favorite new zones are Hyjal and Vashj’ir hands down. Hyjal because it’s great to explore the area which used to only be a raid instance and the ending to the zone is pretty great. Vashj’ir because Blizzard successfully did an underwater zone that is gorgeous. Vashj’ir was the zone I was worried about because of the mechanics of making an underwater zone work, but Blizzard actually pulled it off and I enjoyed it. Plus a seahorse mount is just awesome.

The one bad part I feel to Cataclysm is Tol Barad. Like Wintergrasp in Wrath, Tol Barad battles happen every 2 hours or so. But the mechanics of this battle suck. Your faction has to capture all three objectives in Tol Barad in order to win. Sounds simple right? Well those who already have the zone can have a bit of an advantage with spawning in the center fortress, and it’s pretty easy to just keep zerging against those trying to hold one of the objectives. It’s frustrating, annoying, and most players do not like it. In order to make it more palatable, Blizzard for a time upped the honor rewards for successfully taking over Tol Barad in order to get people to fight for it more, but this just lead to the factions cooporating with each other to switch off who won each battle in order to farm honor points. Blizzard wasted no time reducing the honor awards, however many players including myself feel that they would do better to do something about the mechanics as it’s just not a fun PvP battle.

All in all though I have to say that Cataclysm is definitely a good expansion and I’m glad that they made upgrades like changing old Azeroth to have more polished zones, let players fly and have more streamlined quests. It’s also a step in the right direction for Blizzard to work on upgrading the graphics of the game. Still for a six year old game I can’t complain about the graphics too much. I also think this is a good time for new players to start since the questing has become more streamlined for characters just starting off. So whether you’re a veteran player or a newbie, I highly recommend upgrading to Cataclysm.

We are now a month into having Cataclysm, Paragon has made quick work of the raid bosses (grats guys!), many have reached 85 and even more have made new alts. Personally I’ve had my main reach 85, race-changed my Mage and rolled an alt. And now we’re on the verge of a new patch which is currently on the test realms. So lets dive into the shenanigans eh?

News

With Cataclysm now having been out for a month, Blizzard released their sales figures which broke records. In one month, Blizzard has sold over 4.7 million copies of the game and will more than likely sell more. I’m even more convinced that Blizzard has a big building like Scrooge McDuck filled with money.

Paragon has been busy within this month downing raid bosses left and right and recently just defeated Nefarian on heroic mode. Several other guilds have also been able to clear through some content rather quickly. I have to say I’m impressed considering I’m currently fighting my way through random heroics. But I’m pleased as this means there will be some great how-to videos up on youtube for normal and heroic modes for the raid bosses.

Ghostcrawler has started to do some blog posts on the WoW community site to talk more about why he likes to nerf paladins things going on in the game. His latest article is about the difficulty levels of Dungeons and Raids in Cataclysm. This has been one of the main topics in the forums and among the people I play with. We were warned that they were changing the difficulty levels, but it’s definitely a huge change from what we became used to in Wrath. His basic point? “We’re listening.”

We also have some incoming changes. The funny thing is part of them, which came in a hotfix last maintenance, seemingly contradict what was stated in Ghostcrawler’s article. A good chunk of changes are to make heroics a bit easier for groups. Other changes will include buffing certain classes as well as some nerfs. Personally I’m displeased with the nerfing of one specific Survival hunter skill, Multi-Shot, as Blizzard would be eliminating the only AoE left to Survival Hunters, but no, I’m not bitter. /sarcasm

In more fun news, Blizzard announced the winners of their holiday card contest. I’ve loved seeing what is chosen for the winners and for the honorable mentions and there were definitely some good ones this year. Congrats to all of the winners!

The Diplomatic Priest

We return this month with Reilana who has more advice for players regarding dealing with change.

With Cataclysm up and running for the WoW community, there come changes— A LOT OF THEM. With new playable races at our disposal, race/class combos implemented into a new Azerothian view, and the ongoing search for Deathwing to give us a fiery kiss for that ‘Stood In The Fire’ achievement everything we ever knew about our beloved MMO has done a complete 180.

Furthermore, with a new patch pending in that famed blue post by Ghostcrawler a majority of classes are getting a major revamp— for better or worse. A lot of players who have been used to their level capped main with their gemmed tier gear are struggling through the new level zones. Ganking is now fair game for everyone and new dungeon content and heroics as a whole is that person at the supermarket that takes forever to get 98 cents from her coin purse. So you ask yourself how can I get through this new transition? Well there’s a lot of alternatives here.

First off, dare to try anything. As a Shadow / Discipline priest I now carry a brooding hate for Dungeon Finder PUGs as a healer and DPS, and can honestly say I suck still in certain dungeons. Don’t let these new changes shake your confidence as a player. Toy with new specs and rotations and keep trying until you find a playstyle that best suits you. Are you a new player coming into the new expansion? Be sure to do your homework on your class of choice courtesy of Google or any handy search engine. There’s a lot of podcasts and class guides as well just coming into the mix (with specific Cataclysm content) to help you level your new main or alt so be sure to read up and keep them as a handy bookmark on your browser to refer to for reference. An added tool can also be YouTube videos showing you step by step what specifc spells and buffs should best assist you and your toon.

Getting ready for dungeons and heroics on new content? Keep in close communication with your fellow guildmates and as a whole check out YouTube for strats that may serve as an aid for tackling those trash mobs and bringing down those bosses. You’re bound to wipe once, twice or as many as 12 times in one raid night, but as an ensemble you can get through it (might need a few bottles of wine to lower the tension, but it CAN be done). And above all else keep an ear to the ground to what other fellow players of the game are doing. Remember no one on the WoW forums or on Twitter are the be all end all authority on any specific given race or class but many offer great, objective advice. If you find yourself comfortably accepting their tips of the trade don’t hesitate to reach out to them directly for further insight and remember you’re not always going to agree with what some folks say. There is never any need to start unnecessary drama and start Twitter / forum wars, but just ignore and move on.

Look for specific advice from Reilana and want to see it posted? Be sure to drop an email to thediplomaticpriest@gmail.com

What would the entrance themes for WoW leaders be?

This was probably one of my fav bits that I was able to do on GKick and that was to come up with entrance theme music for various race leaders or races in general. Below I’ve listed what I came up with (and linking to YouTube).

Horde:
Garrosh: Bloodlines – Dethklok
Thrall: Hypnotize – Notorious BIG
Vol’jin: What’s Up? – R Truth
Cairne/Baine: Crossroads – Bone Thugs n Harmony
Sylvanas: Smack My B**** Up – Prodigy
Lor’themar: Tik Tok – Ke$ha

Alliance:
Varian: I Came to Play – The Miz
Mekkatorque: Technologic – Daft Punk
Muradin: Giaminios – Eluveitie
Greymane/Worgen: Gateways – Dimmu Borgir
Tyrade: En Vie – Apocalyptica
Velen: Intergalactic – Beastie Boys
Jaina: Spitfire – Prodigy

Upcoming WoW articles

Tales from a WoW Widower: A piece I’ve wanted to do just for the fun comments I know he would put in some fun comments is the tales of my non-WoW playing boyfriend and how both he and myself work with making sure I don’t completely alienate him, and how much he has learned about the game without ever playing. He’s even been to Blizzcon! Stay tuned for more.

Review of Cataclysm: Definitely taking some time with this considering there’s a lot to cover. This should be out soon! In the meantime I highly recommend checking out Zero Punctuation’s review of Cataclysm.

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!

This is Steph signing off until next month. Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving in the US!

Thanks to Necrotic Designs for the awesome State of Azeroth banner!

“We created thousands of new quests, introduced new lands to explore, and extensively revamped the game world for World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, making it our biggest and most ambitious expansion yet,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “We’ve been floored by the community’s response so far, and we’d like to thank them for their continued passion and support for World of Warcraft, and for helping Cataclysm reach this incredible milestone.”

I would be interested to see how many new users have signed up for the game with the release of Cataclysm. Not to mention it will be interesting to see how much longer the numbers may rise in the coming months. But until then I’m sure Blizzard is happy with the new-found gold in their Scrooge McDuck coffers.

I wish I could say it happened in a more exciting place, but it was in high school, with a friend, in the backseat of a van. And before you think I’m talking about something dirty, I’ll put a stop to that – I’m talking about World of Warcraft.

Not long into the ride (our assistant band director was taking us home from a weekend away at a university honor band), he leaned over and said, “You’re a gamer, right?” Naturally, I said I was. He continued, “So, do you know about Blizzard?” I didn’t play much more than JRPGs at that point, so I just kind of looked at him funny, instead.

“Blizzard what? Snow?” (Since I was born in Florida, I have an innate fascination with everything related to snow. You can feel free to ask me about hurricanes sometime.)

“Dude, they’re hilarious. They make awesome stuff. You should check ‘em out.” He gave me a litany of reasons why Game X or Game Y was hilarious (okay, maybe not Game Y – I specifically remember Diablo II getting mentioned).

I’m not really one to argue with that kind of compelling logic, but our computer at the time was a bargain PC – it could barely run Word, let alone anything with graphics above Spider Solitaire. So I never gave them a shot.

And then it changed somehow…

Not only did I never actually try a single Blizzard game, but I started hating them after I found out about World of Warcraft. Why? I have no freaking idea. (And I find that disturbing.)

Was it the $15 a month? Maybe. One thing I did know was that I sure wasn’t going to shell out cash to play the game I just bought. Obviously. I mean, why pay to play something you own?

More likely, it was probably the people I knew who played. I was still in that stage of my life where being cool was the most important thing ever. And since I’d just come to college…well, it was reinvention time. I’d be hitting frat parties where some guys actually skipped the socialization aspect in favor of WoW – really, guys? Really? – and I decided that I just didn’t want that for myself.

I tried to be a social butterfly during the day, but I huddled in the floor to play Psychonauts almost secretly (if you don’t count my roommate watching me conquer the Meat Circus with a look of horror on her face) at night. I wasn’t going to turn into those people. Never. (Though I did give up the not-that-much-of-a-geek charade fairly quickly.)

And then there was Starcraft II…

I’ll just go ahead and skip to this year. Since starting at GamingAngels, I’ve learned more about MMOs than I have about any other kind of game  - mostly because those were The Final Frontier, the one thing I hadn’t tried.

But then came Starcraft II. And I decided that it was definitely time to give Blizzard a shot. I mean, it wasn’t like it had been six years since the company was recommended to me or anything…oh, wait. It totally was.

And so, very much past due, I took advantage of a game trial that @Cherithe sent me. I installed it. I played it.

I hated it.

Oh. That wasn’t supposed to happen, was it? Maybe not – but I wasn’t a fan of strategy in the first place. And of course, most of what Blizzard had to offer fell under the RTS heading as far as I knew, and that left only one thing.

Yeah, it was time to take the plunge. With a ten-day free trial, what did I have to lose?

Only hours and hours of your time…

It’s been three months now, and while I’m definitely not addicted (though there were some points at the beginning where it was getting kinda close), I can say that I just love playing World of Warcraft. Thanks to @stealthyslyth, I’ve met a whole group of people who are willing to help me out when I need it – and they don’t laugh at how dumb I am when it comes to a lot of stuff in the game (as far as I know, anyway). The awesome part is that these folks have turned into good friends elsewhere, as well.

That’s one thing that has astounded me, for sure – just how welcoming everyone has been. I expected to be met with nothing but “LOL, n00b,” followed by a quick skullcrushing. (I am mostly on a PvP server, after all.)

But…not really. Everyone has been incredibly nice – from the guy I ran into who just gave me 150 gold (after carrying me to Winterspring, no less – I should NOT have been going through Felwood at that time, so thanks, dude) to @stealthyslyth taking me through a dungeon and then making Frostweave bags after I kept running out of room in what I had. I realize that these are all virtual items, but still – I’m incredibly touched. I’ve found my own friends in WoW, too – and my ex and I are actually speaking again thanks to the game. (Note: We didn’t really stop in the first place, but it might happen more often now, in any case.)

And to think that it was a community that I originally wanted no part of. I think I can officially say that I am ashamed of myself. If I could take back every negative word I’ve ever said in reference to WoW, I’d do it in a heartbeat (and I would’ve started playing years ago).

I’m still a casual player – I’ve never raided and I’ve only been in one instance. I’m not sure if I’ll ever join a raiding guild, though I want to at least try one day. In any given week, I might play once – though that’s school’s fault more than mine, I think. (Oh man, if I weren’t in school, I don’t even want to think about the amount of time I’d be spending on WoW – my preferred contact method would be RealID, and don’t think for one second that I’m kidding.)

I’m learning. I read up on the lore. I use “Elune be praised!” in real-life conversation (yeah, my main is a Night Elf). I know what it means to respec and dual-spec (even if I can’t do the latter yet). I can tell when an ability’s been completely nerfed – and hey, I know what that means now, too. I’m listening to five or six WoW podcasts now. I occasionally throw shorthand out on Twitter that makes my husband turn around and ask for a translation – he plays Star Trek Online, so maybe that says something. (What that “something” is, I’m not sure.)

There are quite a few things I just don’t get yet – for instance, why do people from the Horde kill me when I’m just being an innocent little elf and questing? Am I just in the way? Do they really need another honorable kill? Do they not even once think that maybe I can just log in as an 80 toon and hunt them down? All mysteries to me. (I’ll be saying the opposite soon enough since I plan to roll my first Horde toon this month. See? Lingo!)

My current concept of getting geared up really just involves always wearing the best things I have. Raid gear? PvP gear? I hear it mentioned, but it goes over my head. Sure, that’s obviously the items best suited for those situations, but how do you know? How do I know? Maybe that’s just one of those things that I’ll pick up eventually, but for now – I think my idea works just fine.

Even though I like playing as a druid, I don’t know that I’ve got any of the class’ eccentricities down. I can go boomkin or bear, but I don’t know why I would. For the most part, I just stay in her regular form – and the fact that I’m not using my character to her fullest bugs me, but it’s not like there are in-game tutorials for getting it all right. It’s a process of trial and error, and learning what works for you – and you know what? I like that.

I could go on. My UI needs work, but I haven’t liked any that I’ve tried. I don’t have any macros yet (but since I’m only level 32, that might not even be necessary right now). I play with a simple two-button mouse, but those Razers sure do look nice – especially the ones with thousands of buttons. I literally drool at the sight of the Naga Epic.

And even though I’m totally late to the party, I think it’s a good time to start playing World of Warcraft. I mean, come on – in the course of three months, I’ve seen one heck of a change. The Kalimdor my night elf “grew up” in is now completely changed – I’m not lying when I say that I shed a tear when Deathwing decimated Auberdine in the Cataclysm cinematic. (I recently reset a file that had me watch it again when I launched the game – don’t ask – and it hurt just as much then as it did a week earlier.)

Also, from what I can tell, the game is a lot easier than it was in the “vanilla” days. Now, I can just Google any quest I’m doing and get notes on it. The various enhancements from the community itself make the game more fun and help you play your class. Five years ago – yeah, there wasn’t so much of that, I’m guessing.

I’ve learned to embrace something new. I’ve found a new gaming world to love. And just a few hours ago, I was at my local GameStop, ready to pick up the latest expansion, amongst the people I tried so hard not to be like for six years. Funny, but the stereotypes I thought were true? Not even close to it. I know that now, but hanging out in the freezing cold waiting for a box together kind of cemented it. I’m sorry for anything I’ve ever said – whether you heard it or not – and I appreciate the acceptance I’ve experienced – both online and off, at this point.

It’s time for a new journey, and I’m so happy to be there with you. Even if I never thought I would be.

The Shattering

As a warning this review will contain some spoilers so if you don’t want to be spoiled with pre-Cata events, do not read further!

This book contains a lot of different aspects to the lore that I’m surprised that the length is so short. Even so, I think what I liked was the fleshing out of Anduin Wrynn, Varian’s son, as a character with thoughts and feelings. Reading the book you really get a good glimpse into his thoughts and feelings, and how much he dislikes his father. Now the dislike is too severe, but it’s definitely more than that teenage “I hate my dad because he has all the power.” We get to see Anduin’s reaction when Varian goes into one of his Lo’gosh fits regarding the massacre of some Night Elves by the Horde (or what seems to be the Horde).

On the flip side, we get to see more into why Thrall abandons his post as warchief and leaves Garrosh in his stead. Now after knowing that this was going to happen and that Garrosh has a hand in the death of Cairne, I was anxious to read about the backstory. In fact, the book opens with Cairne going to Northrend to bring Garrosh and his troops back home, and the juxtaposition between the two makes for some interesting plot points. In general you are able to get to know more about Garrosh and his personality. It made me understand his motives more, but I’m still not a fan of the guy.

Shattering also gives us a good look into the Tauren society with the massive takeover orchestrated by Magatha Grimtotem. It’s actually a pretty brutal scenerio where the Grimtotem tribe massacre any and all Tauren who are not of their tribe or supportive of their views. Thankfully Bane, Cairne’s son, is not part of the massacre and escapes with some others in order to return again and hopefully seek vengeance.

Within all this is the curious position that Jaina is in as a mediator between the Horde and the Alliance. She’s been known to meet and talk with Thrall regarding political issues, and in Shattering winds up talking with and advising Bane on his situation. Anduin even plays a role in this by giving Bane an ancient weapon that was given to him by Muradin. It’s actually a touching scene and it gives me hope that if we loose Varian, at least his son is diplomatic enough to handle dealing with members of the Horde.

End of spoilers.

All in all though I really do wish the book was a bit longer. It felt short to me, even with so much packed into it. Granted maybe that’s because it ends right before Deathwing bursts from the earth and starts burning the countryside. Now a book about what happens next is something I would like to read, even though it may encompass in-game events. Not sure if I’m going to make it to Loremaster right away with all of the new quests and I’d like to read about all the upheaval within the leading bodies of the Alliance and Horde, not to mention what’s going on with the different remaining dragonflights.

But if you’re a lore fan and want more of an insight into what happened before Deathwing came back? I highly recommend reading The Shattering.

This contest is now closed. A huge congrats to our winner @Shorester!! (Please contact cherith@gamingangels.com to collect your prize!)

Thank you to everyone that entered!

We are giving you the chance to win $300 towards play time in World of Warcraft.  In case you’re too tired for math after all that post-Thanksgiving shopping this morning – that’s 23 months worth of time.  Now I’m sure you’d rather I just got on with how you can enter to win, so let me get on with it.

To Enter:

Comment on this entry and answer this question: “What is the one thing you are looking forward to the most in World of Warcraft: Cataclysm?”

And if you’re a regular here at GA, you’ll know that we try and always give you at least one bonus entry into our contests.  This one is no exception.  So, RT this contest out on Twitter using the sentence below and we’ll give you a second entry into the contest.

GamingAngels is giving away almost 2 years of WoW game time! http://bit.ly/fiDvaQ #gamingangels #cataclysm

This contest is going to run until December 6th, so you’ve got plenty of time to think about what you’re looking forward to and to comment here.

Even if you don’t win the time from us, don’t forget to pick up the Cataclysm Expansion. When you go to GameStop for your copy you can receive the Cataclysm Perk Pack loaded with special partner offers and get additional PowerUp Rewards incentives at GameStop within the first 48 hours of the launch of World of WarCraft: Cataclysm. Pick up your game starting at midnight 12/6 and start reaping the benefits of the Cataclysm Perk Pack immediately!

Here are a few examples of the available offers in the Cataclysm Perk Pack:

• 20% off select EVGA/NVIDIA video cards
• 20% off the purchase of any LinkSys Wireless Router or Cisco Valet product
• 20% off In-Stock accessories from GameStop.com
• 20% off select SteelSeries accessories
• Save $375 instantly on the Alienware M15x

To reserve your copy of WarCraft: Cataclysm, and to get complete details about the midnight events and the Cataclysm Perk Pack, please visit: http://www.gamestop.com/gs/landing/warcraftcataclysm/

Blizzcon

Blizzcon 2010 was pretty fun, and you can find my full coverage under the Angels on the Go section. Nothing earth-shattering (har har) was announced, but we did get to see more in-depth into the changes for dungeons and raids come Cataclysm. Plus the new launcher was released! Overall I had fun just with meeting all of the cool people I did and hopefully will have more of a chance to hang out next year.

Cataclysm (aka News)

It’s hard to even know where to start there has been so much news! We’ve been dealing with the elemental invasion of the cities and dealing with cultists. I have to say that the Stormwind/Orgrimmar city attacks are pretty cool to do. Plus doing the bosses afterwords and not having to camp rift spawns is nice. But as of this past Tuesday Deathwing is now in our world and everything has been changed. I’m a bit sad to see Auberdine go since I spent so much time questing around there, but in the end I’m stoked to get to experience all of the changes that I got to check out during the beta.

Well now Deathwing has emerged into the world and everything is changed. Personally I feel like this is just one big tease for when the expansion actually comes out. We have the updated cities, new zones, new quests but yet not everything is there. I can’t even begin to count how many times I saw in trade about people just being able to buy flying for Azeroth or even wanting to start the new quest chains. So far though I’ve been having fun going through the zones I didn’t hit up during the beta and doing the Plants vs Zombies quests.

There was also recently a developer chat hosted by Best Buy. It was a pretty standard chat and no questions really stuck out to me as interesting ones besides the following:

Are there any plans to potentially add queuing to the rated battlegrounds instead of it having to be a pre-made raid team? I was really excited when I first heard about this feature, but after reading the FAQ i was a bit disappointed with that design.
we’re currently looking into the possibility of having players in the honor battleground queue be able to be called to action by groups that aren’t quite full, but we’re going to see how the current queuing works out first so, that isn’t something that would be available just yet

It’s a good question since to me it seems like it would defeat the purpose of having a team for rated BGs, but seems like Blizzard may think about giving people the option to queue. If you’d like to read the entirety of the dev chat, you can go here.

Also, MMO-Champion put together a full preview of all T11 armor for all races and genders. I still hate the hunter armor (why does Blizzard hate hunters?) and I’ve heard the rantings from others on twitter and forums regarding the other sets like the Priest and Warlock for example. I know that warlocks are wishing that they had the Mage armor for one, and a friend is lovingly referring to her priest shoulders as soup bowls. So it seems that this time around Blizzard hasn’t received too warm of a reception to all of the armor sets.

The cute... it burns

There are also three new pets that will be sold in the Blizzard online store: Horde and Alliance moonkin hatchlings and Lil Ragnaros. The icons alone for the moonkin hatchlings will make you die of the cute. Not sure when they will be released, but if it’s before Christmas they’ll make excellent pets for your friends!

Also recently launched was a new community site through battle.net. I must say I’m a huge fan of the layout since it’s sleeker. When you’re logged into the site, you will be able to see the character set as your main in the upper right hand corner, your latest achievements and then all of the top news in WoW. You will also have access to the forums as well as going to all of the services Blizzard offers for WoW players. It’s pretty neat and I think a lot better of a design than the official site.

In the airwaves

I’ve actually been invited to be on a couple of podcasts!

You can first catch me on the Twisted Nether Blogcast in Episode 107 – Stealthy Angel. I got interviewed and we talked some news. It was really fun and I’d love to go back sometime. You can listen to the podcast right there on the page, and they release new ones each week!

I also appeared on GKick put on by members of NTA. I again got to answer some questions about myself, talk about the news and come up with a raid boss for the game. You can subscribe to GKick on iTunes or go to their site to check out the new episodes each week. This one is definitely more mature so not recommended for those with tender ears or dispositions.

Thanks to both podcasts for hosting me!

Reader Advice

I’ve had a loyal reader who emailed me her own advice based on some guild drama that surrounded her for a few weeks over the past month or so. Her advice was pretty sound and I thought helpful so I asked her to write it up for this month’s State of Azeroth. Enjoy!

Greetings Citizens of Azeroth!
Coming to you for the first time ever on this edition of The State of Azeroth, the lovely Slyth of Stealth— or to just make it easier StealthySlyth wanted me to share some helpful pointers to make your time in game an enjoyable experience sans all the drama.

I think first thing’s first though; as chivalrous, experienced fighters representing both your faction and class it’s crucial to separate your “expert” opinion to fact because in all honesty– everyone thinks they’re an expert in their respected class. Furthermore, an all too common problem I notice both in game and on social networking sites like Twitter is that with no one seeing what your saying but rather reading what you’re typing in 140 characters or less, a lot can get lost in translation. In addition, where you’re trying to offer meaningful suggestions to fellow guildmates and your server buddies with no ill intention, a lot can get misconstrued in between the Lord Voldemort retweets and the “SPARKLY VAMPIRE BELFS ARE NOT RP!” tweets and tells. This can start a Tweet battle to the death, in game ganks with no purpose, and in the process people can get butthurt.

So you ask yourself, “Self, what can I do to get my point across without pissing anyone off?” Well there’s a way of stating your opinion without declaration. Starting off a comment such as , “I BELIEVE” rather than “I KNOW” is an easy starter to presenting your point to fellow followers and members of your community in a non-combatant but informative manner while engaging a good topic discussion. Plus really put into consideration what other people add to the mix. Read closely to what they say, respond with an objective rebuttal if prompted, and if there’s something you feel might be off be sure to back it up with fact. If you know for sure what they are saying is incorrect, quietly whisper (or DM) them with a link saying, “I found this online. Is this what you meant?” The use of expletives and low blows is always unnecessary and is only proving the point that you can’t engage in mature conversation.

Contest!

I was recently informed that we received a special prize to give away courtesy of GameStop. And yes it’s WoW related! So if you’re a loyal player or someone who has even been considering coming back to the game I highly recommend coming back on Friday after your Black Friday escapades for a chance to win $300 worth of WoW time. Yes, three hundred dollars, or approximately two years of WoW time can be yours! So make sure to check back on Gaming Angels this Friday for info on how to win!!

Upcoming WoW articles

So I’ve been horrendously busy regarding a new job and all this convention traveling, but I do have some upcoming articles that will be posted to Gaming Angels soon!

Interview with Cory Stockton: I was able to interview lead content designer Cory Stockton while at Blizzcon! This interview should be popping up withing a matter of days. It’s also a bit of random questions since it was a last minute interview.

Book review of The Shattering: I finished this book before Blizzcon, but with everything happening have not finished writing up my review. This also will be featured in Lit Angels within the next week!

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!

This is Steph signing off until next month. Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving in the US!

Thanks to Necrotic Designs for the awesome State of Azeroth banner

Pre-purchase Cataclysm on Battle.net, log in to World of Warcraft to start the background downloading process, and when the servers go live at 12:01 PST…well, so do you.

Thankfully, Blizzard sent along an FAQ that should answer any questions you’ve got.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. When will my credit card (or other payment method) be charged?

A. You will be charged on the day that you place your pre-order for World of Warcraft: Cataclysm.

Q. Why do I need to log in to the game once after I’ve upgraded?

A. The first time you log in after pre-ordering, your account will become eligible to begin receiving the Cataclysm data when it’s available. The data will automatically download in the background while you play World of Warcraft or while you have the Launcher window open.

Q. Can I pre-order a physical copy of Cataclysm and have it shipped?

A. Not from Blizzard Entertainment, but many retailers offer pre-orders of physical boxes and Collector’s Editions.

Q. In what regions is the Cataclysm pre-sale available? What day/time is Cataclysm launching in my region?

The pre-sale is available in the following regions, with realms scheduled to launch at the following times:

• Americas, Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia – December 7 at 12:01 a.m. PST
• Europe and Russia – December 7 at 12:01 a.m. CET

Q. Will a digital version of the Collector’s Edition, with the exclusive pet, be available?

A. No. The World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Collector’s Edition is exclusive to physical retail copies. The digital version consists of the standard edition.