Corrupted Ashbringer and the Agony of obtaining it

After being lazy for so long, I decided to finally get the hidden appearance for my [Ashbringer] and the entire process was a bit challenging... For my nerves...

Back in October, when I wrote about how I obtained [Lost Edicts] for [The Silver Hand] I mentioned a guide for obtaining the [Heart of Corruption]. Although we are deep into this expansion and those bothering to read my blog already obtained it, this post will be more of a summary than a guide so, here are my two cents about the whole process.

The entire quest chain follows an in-game "urban legend" where Prince Tortheldrin knows the location of the Ashbringer and that he will reveal it's location to adventurers who prove themselves.

1st step is obtaining two books. [Nat Pagle's Guide to Extreme Anglin'] which can be looted from dead players in Arathi Basin battleground and [A Thoroughly Read Copy of "Nat Pagle's Guide to Extreme Anglin'."] which can be looted from A Dusty Tome in Dire Maul. I got both books from the first try. For Dire Maul farming, I recommend using a Demon Hunter because of his Double Jump, Dash, Moving Speed and mobility. I got my book from the second spawn point shown in the video.

2nd step makes you venture into Blackwing Lair so you can kill Nefarian and obtain [Head of Nefarian]. It is IMPORTANT not to complete the quest obtained while looting the head or you will be forced to wait for raid lockout to end and do the raid again. Like 1st step, this is easily obtainable on first run. BWL is a LVL60 raid instance and a walk in the park, facerolling through the place 1shotting everything on your way... I completed this during Patch 7.1.5 before Razorgore the Untamed was nerfed. The encounter required a bit of a coordination to avoid the room getting blown up. Even though we are LVL110 and this is Vanilla raid, failing the encounter still resulted in you being instantly killed. As of Patch 7.2.5, his ability to destroy the Eggs has been nerfed and made instant cast making his encounter much easier and faster.

3rd step. It's important to note that you need Artifact Knowledge LVL6 before going further. If Paladin is your main character, you are way past this however if you are doing this on your alt, you can't proceed further. Get your AK to LVL6 and then proceed to next step.

4th step requires you to talk to your Head Archivist and Keeper of the Ancient Tomes, Sister Elda. She is the one that helps you acquire Knowledge about your Artifacts and updates Libram of Ancient Kings with new Lore about them. She manages to reassemble the Guide to Extreme Anglin' and gives you [A Complete Copy of "Nat Pagle's Guide to Extreme Anglin'."].

For 5th step, you need to go back to Dire Maul and talk to Prince Tortheldrin. It is important not to kill
Immol'tharbecause that will make Prince hostile to you. He tells you that a Female Dwarf / Male Tauren recently passed through with the same question as yourself and that, should you wish to learn more, you should find them.

So... 6th step takes you to Alexia Ironknife at Chillwind Camp / Bardu Sharpeye at Tirisfal Glades. They send you to Hearthglen in Western Plaguelands and tell you about a Scarlet Crusade Mage that has been creating powerful weapons.

7th step. Go to Hearthglen and read Grand Inquisitor Isillien's Journal located at coordinates 42.36 18.73. The Journal tells the story how the Mage has been killed and his body dumped near Thondroril River so that his body can be eaten by particularly large slime.

AND THIS IS WHERE THE AGONY BEGINS.
AT THE VERY END...

Step 8. Large Vile Slime. An NPC that is easily killed with respawn timer ranging from 3 to 30 hours... I have been camping this Vile creature for 5 days without luck... Some people report that they have been camping even longer...

Now, don't paint me crazy. I wasn't sitting at my computer 5 days in a row and it never spawned. Because of Real Life obligations, I could only spare a couple of hours per day, during peak hours where the chance that he has been spawned and killed just before I logged in is rather high. So, for those 5 days, I came from work, logged in, placed WoW in background and then watched movies and catching up to missed episodes of some TV Shows that I followed.

On the 5th day, I forgot to log out and fell asleep while watching the movie from the comfort of my bed. When I woke up at 6AM the next day, as I was preparing myself to go to work, I looked at the login screen and decided to take a peek and I did not regret the decision...

Logged in, saw it spawned, killed the damn thing, looted the [Timolain's Phylactery], turned off my computer and went to work happy with myself.

Step 9. After coming back from work, I used the Phylactery and the Lich told me that he threw the crystal into the river hoping that someone would eventually find it.

Step 10. Fishing out the [Shard of Darkness]. RNG based drop with a chance lower than 1%. People have been debating which step was more mind numbing, 8 or 10. Some people reported about getting it within a few dozen casts while others talk about spending hours and hours fishing with no luck with casting numbers ranging from around couple hundreds to even several thousands.

Personally, I got the shard in less than 15 minutes with my fishing leveling up from 34 to 81. 47 casts. Not bad, considering the reports...

Final Step. Go back to your Order Hall and talk to Lord Maxwell Tyrosus. If he is not around the table, wait for him to return from the mission. He'll give you a quest, sending you to (Legion) Acherus: The Ebon Hold to seek the assistance of Death Knights so you can bind the Shard to your weapon, bringing the whole ordeal to an end...

In retrospect, the entire chain apart from Camping and Fishing was fun and interesting to do. Since I love the Lore it was informative for me. In my honest opinion, Camping part could have been replaced by some kind of challenge, some kind of logical mechanism you need to figure out so you can get to the Slime, or even gathering/grinding for materials in order to summon it. Just sitting in one place and camping is mind numbing and excruciatingly boring and it could have been done better. Overall, it is a nice flavor thing to have.

Tomb of Sargeras Trailer

Trailer for the Patch 7.2 for World of Warcraft has hit the internets yesterday and, I gotta say that with each new cinematic I am more and more amazed...

Exodius Jones & The Spirit of Eche'ro

I know I haven't posted much lately and, to those interested in crap I am spewing on this blog, I apologize. All I can say is that the Game called "Real Life" has an awesome graphics, realistic physics, somewhat average story progression, shitty economic system and leveling is mind numbing. And from that point, into the story.

By the title of the article, you can guess what I am gonna write about... With the release of Legion all primary professions got a little bit of, lets name it flavor, where you get quests in Vanilla/TBC style in which you need to do something to learn or improve your crafting skills. I don't know about other secondary professions but Archaeology has gotten some sweet bi-weekly quests where you get some rather nice rewards ranging from Artifact Power, Pets, Toys... And a Mount... YES, A MOUNT. Specifically, [Spirit of Eche'ro].

Image Source: WoW Website

Eche'ro was a powerful white moose who accompanied Huln as pet, mount, and battle companion.

After Eche'ro's death, his bones were scattered across the region of Highmountain. This week, you are sent to Lessah Moonwater, a Highmountain Tauren Archaeologist, who dedicated her life to preserving the legacy of Huln Highmountain.

After she tells you she uncovered a [Bone Fragment of Eche'ro], she sends you to find his remains so you can give him a proper burial Eche'ro deserved.

During the quest [Laying to Rest], you are sent to Highmountain Archeological Digsites to find 600 [Bone Fragments of Eche'ro] and bring them to Lessah. Each Dig gives from 1 to 9 fragments with [Angry Tauren Spirit] giving up to 20 Fragments when killed (assuming you annoy one of them to appear).

After the burial ceremony she binds Eche'ro's spirit to you so he can accompany you just like he once accompanied Huln during the War of the Ancients.

World of WarCraft: Legion, breakdown and thoughts

 The Burning Legion has returned!

WE ARE NOT PREPARED!

Now that THAT is out of the way, I can resume.

It all started nicely. 6PM, Blizzard's GamesCom stream started, I got lost into all the information that was in front of me that I forgot that I have a Blog and Facebook page where I could write down few words in order to, maybe, get more readers. I started spamming our Facebook page and then I realized what time it is... Time to go to work, so... With me being late, you could have already snatched all these news from MMO-Champion and WoWhead but, regardless, I will post a breakdown of things that are interesting to me.

Next expansion's name will be "Legion" and new continent will be The Broken Isles. You guessed it right, we will finally be battling against The Burning Legion. Gul'dan has survived the encounter against Archimonde in Hellfire Citadel and has sinister things on his mind.

First off, we all know that during The Burning Crusade expansion, we killed Illidan. After Adventurers (Players) dealt with him, it was not explained what happened to his body. When it was announced at BlizzCon 2013 that Illidan may return because, as Chris Metzen stated, he is a "sucker for good redemption story" there have been theories about Illidan's soul being stored in Reliquary of Souls and that that was the way he will be "resurrected" into the lore, however... As it turns out, legend holds that Warden Maiev Shadowsong took his broken body to the Vault of the Wardens so that Illidan's dark, lingering soul could suffer the rest of his eternal sentence, along with his followers, the feared Illidari. Justice to be forever served…

Level Cap is increased to 110 and this expansion introduces 2nd Hero Class: Demon Hunters. As my friend said "As a Warlock who enjoyed playing with a Hunter, that sounds really interesting..." (greetings to Tsuki). Back when all was in it's speculation phases about Demon Hunters being next Hero Class, my hope about their introduction was something similar to the story of Knights of the Ebon Blade and their separation from The Lich King. Story starts when you are a member of Illidari forces and then through quests you get to the point where Illidan is dead. Using in consideration that faction has no leader, player choses to align himself with Alliance or Horde. That was my speculation but we will see how will they make it because it was announced that Demon Hunters will have a unique starting experience and that they will start at a high level.

It was announced that DHs will have 2 specializations. Havok (DPS Spec) and Vengeance (Tank Spec), they will have horns (with no horns as an option) and variations of tattoos on our bodies. Main resource for fueling Demon Hunter's spells will be Fury with Double Jump feature and Spectral Sight that will allow you to see through walls.

Garrison and Followers are a feature that are being brought to The Broken Isles in a form of Class Orders. You will be the leader of your Class Order and it will work in a similar way to Death Knight's starting zone where only members of your Class can visit your Order. Shaman's Order will be in a cave near The Maelstrom (because, Elements), Paladin Order will be under Light's Hope Chapel (because, Light), Warlocks will be on a Legion Portal World (because, they are dark and twisted bastards)... You aren't gathering Followers but Champions and they won't be arsed to be your slaves and do everything for you. They will help you find things and then you will need to get your shit yourself.

It looks like, instead of The Park in Stormwind, Dalaran will be flown to The Broken Isles, it will serve as main hub of the expansion and we will FINALLY see Alleria and Turalyon.

It was said that "we will be shocked"... What did Jaina do this time? She lost it, didn't she? Using in consideration that Khadgar is presented as the leader of Kirin Tor and Jaina dropped of the face of the earth... It's quite possible.

As we all know, in present Lore, Emerald Dream and it's corruption has happened so... "We go to Val'Sharah, a forgotten Druid refuge. The place Malfurion became the first Druid. We face Xavius, who is trying to unleash the Emerald Nightmare into our world. We enter Black Rook Hold." Is Xavius attempting to corrupt the Emerald Dream again? They already told the story about it through books and this would make a lot of sense if it was connected to Alternate Universe because, according to AU timeline, that part of the story didn't happen yet.

Another introduction are 36 Artifacts, one for each Character Specialization. Retribution Paladins will seek [The Ashbringer], Enhancement Shamans will be looking for [Doomhammer], Mistweaver Monks will go to Pandaria and look for Emperor Shaohao's [Sheilun, Staff of the Mists], Fire Mages will be burning people for [Felo'melorn], Feral and Guardian druids will be set on a path to get [Fangs of the First Nightsaber] which will allow them to customize their form.

Frost Death Knight will seek out [Frostmourne]'s shards in Icecrown Citadel and reforge them into a pair of Runeblades, [Icebringer] and [Soulreaper].
Blood Death Knights will be sent on a path to obtain [Maw of the Damned], two handed axe that steals the life force of it's enemies, bleeding dry anything it touches.
Unholy Death Knights get [Soulrend] (not much info about it so far).

This totally sucks because I had hoped (and still do) that Unholy Death Knights will get to reforge THE Frostmourne. Frost DKs go to Icecrown Citadel and look for Frostmourne's shards. They get them and out of those shards, they forge two Runeblades? Why? There has been several instances where shattered sword was reforged back to it's former glory, prime example being [Quel'Delar], a weapon of legendary fame.

In another news:

• Overwatch was added to our Battle.Net launchers;
• Patch 6.2.2 was flagged as "Release" on PTRs and we will get Mercenary Mode and Flying in Draenor really soon;
• WoW is down to 5.6 Million Subscribers which is down 1.5 million from the Q1 2015 call that listed WoW at 7.1 million subscribers.

For now, this is what interests me the most... If you want a detailed breakdown of news, check out articles of MMO-Champion, WoWhead or simply watch the recording of the stream...

One more thing. Webpage for Legion is up and running. You can grab wallpapers and learn few more things that weren't mentioned here...

Until next time...

WoW Expansion announcement at GSC

It looks like Blizzard is taking a different approach this year and, instead at BlizzCon, next World of WarCraft expansion will be unveiled at this year's Gamescom.

Event will be streamed live, August 6 at 9AM PDT (6PM for us living in GMT+1).

In other news, Character names on accounts inactive since Cataclysm will be released so, if you want to make sure you keep your character names, be sure to re-activate your accounts. If not, you will receive a "free" character rename.

IT'S LEAKING!!!

The time has come, the battle's on, oh friends of mine...

It's that time of the year. Winter... I mean, BlizzCon is coming and with it, shitload of "leaks" are appearing all over the internet in regards to next World of WarCraft expansion. Although, Blizzard's guys released a major content patch few weeks ago, fans are merciless and can't wait to see / hear what Blizzard has in store for them next.

Most of the currently available leaks posted throughout the internets is pure speculation and rubbish because of one single thing: All of them are unsubstantiated and everything that you can "learn" from them is a pure fan fiction. We still need to wait for Blizzard to submit a patent trademark request for next expansion so, wait for something like this to appear on MMO-Champion. They are usually the fastest to post the information... That, however, does not mean that provided fan fiction does not make a fine reading material. It gives us insight about what people expect to see in the upcoming expansion.

Here are my 3 favorite Expansion theories: (Note: These are just a speculation about potential expansions.)

Hellfire Citadel is final Raid of the Expansion?

First off, if you want your own [Corrupted Dreadwing] then go and farm Apexis. This week (July 3-6) is Apexis Crystal Bonus Weekend where creatures eligible for dropping it give increased amounts of it. This rule does not apply to Quest/Event Rewards. You don't need much, only 150.000 [Apexis Crystals] (he said sarcastically). Another interesting thing that you can buy is [Rukhmar's Sacred Memory] which along with [Cursed Feather of Ikzan] and [Time-Lost Figurine] makes a nice trio of Arakkoa Transformation toys.

Cory Stockton (@mumper) gave an interview earlier this week and he said that "Hellfire Citadel is currently planned to be the last raid of the expansion" which is, kinda, a let down. Using in consideration all previous expansions had 3-4 major Content Patches and Draenor had only 2, with shitload of negative feedback received from players makes me think they are trying to abandon Draenor as soon as possible and start their focus on new storyline. What will be a new Storyline? We'll probably find that out on this year's BlizzCon that will take place at the Anaheim Convention Center on November 6-7, 2015.

Hellfire Citadel Loading Screen

If 6.2 is the final (major) Patch for WoD, we'll be stuck with it for 5 months, plus the time since announcement 'till release of the new expansion, which seams highly unlikely given that they have been constantly flamed when ever there was a time-gap where nothing is released (example being gap between end of Orgrimmar Siege and our venture into Draenor) and it is supported with his Cory's response:

There isn't anything to announce about future patches, but part of that comes down to how Patch 6.2 plays out. How far players progress in Hellfire Citadel and Tanaan Jungle will give the team an idea of how long the content will last.

Which means, if Citadel is received with positive feedback, we may see at least 1 more Raid but, that's just my speculation.

It is sad that Plains of Farahlon weren't implemented into the game as it was intended originally. It would have be nice to see what Netherstorm looked like before Ner'zhul's portals ripped Draenor apart (in Main Universe).

We WILL be Flying in Draenor!

Looks like we will be flying in Draenor after all... Blizzard "caved".

Patch 6.2 was marked as a "Release" on PTR and we can expect the launch announcement any time now.

Be prepared to spread the wings of your flying mounts but, you will need to meet a few conditions. Patch 6.2 brings new meta-achievement called [Draenor Pathfinder] and in order to obtain it, you will need to complete following:

• Achievement [Explore Draenor]: Head to every corner of Draenor and reveal every obscured section of the map.
• Achievement [Treasure Hunter]: Only 100 are required. If you don't have 100, download HandyNotes_DraenorTreasures addon (HandyNotes is required for it to work) and collect them. If you don't want to bother with addons, you can buy Treasure Maps from Grakis (Stormshield) and Srikka (Warspear) at a price of 100 gold pieces per Map.
• Achievement [Loremaster of Draenor]: Only main Quest Chains need to be completed. If you didn't do them... What are you waiting for?
• Achievement [Securing Draenor]: Bonus Objectives / Apexis Daily Quests. If you haven't completed them by now, you can buy Scouting Missives from Sergeant Crowler (A) and/or Sergeant Grimjaw (H).
• Earn Revered status with 3 new Tanaan Jungle factions coming in Patch 6.2:
  The Saberstalkers, Order of the Awakened, Hand of the Prophet (A) / Vol'jin's Headhunters (H)

Initially, this new meta-achievement will give a new mount as a reward, The Soaring Skyterror. There are no images related to this mount for now but, using in consideration the name we may be looking at a re-color of either a [Dread Raven] or [Iron Skyreaver]. You never know, though... We may be looking at something new as well.

Players will remain ground-bound on Draenor until a small follow-up patch (6.2.x), when all players who have earned Draenor Pathfinder on at least one character will unlock the ability to fly in Draenor on all their level 90+ characters.

A new Mount is introduced as a Garrison Mission reward as well. If you are annoyed with camping [Poundfist] for hours only to find out he spawned some time after you left the party, like it happened with me a few times because I got tired of waiting, you will have a chance to obtain your own [Coalfist Gronnling] by sending your Followers to do the camping for you :)

Mission is called [Breaker Two] (our fans for sure), it will cost you a 100 Resources and will be 12 hours long.

New rewards from Garrison Missions, introduced in Patch 6.2 include following:

[Elixir of the Rapid Mind], [Frozen Arms of a Hero], [Burning Blade], [Medallion of the Legion], [Cinder Pup], [Bulging Barrel of Oil], [Huge Ogre Cache], [Champion's Honor], and [Void-Shrouded Satcher] which gives a nice Heirloom Trinket [Touch of the Void].

S.E.L.F.I.E. with Nobbel

If anyone ever watched WoW Lore videos on YouTube you must have seen at least one of Nobbel's awesome and elaborate videos. Being a Lore freak myself, I have to say that I love the guy and I watch his Lore videos as they appear. If you want to see, or better say, listen his work, be sure to Subscribe his YouTube channel.

Today, I ended up in a group with him... He invited a bunch of people and we took selfies.