Forge of Souls Walkthrough

Forge of Souls Strategy Guide

There are three instances in Icecrown Citadel, which was part of patch 3.3, the last major piece of the Lich King expansion. Forge of Souls includes two new bosses. You’ve got to beat both of them before you can go on to the next Icecrown Citadel instance. Forge of Souls is a 5-man instance available in both normal and heroic modes. You have to beat the bosses in normal mode before you can attempt heroic mode.

Bronjahm Strategy Guide

The first boss you’ll encounter in the Forge of Souls is Bronjahm. Phase one of the battle is simply a tank and spank fight. The key to phase one of the fight against Bronjahm is the corrupted Soul Fragments. They show up as purple portal looking things, after Bronjahm casts Corrupt Soul on a party member. All party members must watch for this spell to be cast on them and run as far away as possible because the purple Corrupt Soul Fragment spawns from their position and heals Bronjahm when it reaches him. The greater distance the soul fragment has to travel to reach Bronjahm, the more time DPS will have to take it out before it reaches him. DPS MUST remember to switch to these soul fragments every time they appear.

Phase two of the battle against Bronjahm begins when he casts Soulstorm. It’s a whirling attack which will kill any party member that’s standing in it. Just stay in the middle and you’ll be fine. Bronjahm also fears party members during Soulstorm, so healers should watch for this and try to heal through it if the party member doesn’t have an ability to free himself from it.

The Devourer of Souls Strategy Guide

The Devourer of Souls is the second boss encounter in the Forge of Souls. Healers will be especially tied up healing the tank in this fight because his ability Phantom Blast does a lot of damage straight on the tank. This ability can interrupt it, so use all interrupting abilities you have on the Devourer of Souls.

The main thing to watch out for during the battle against the Devourer of Souls is when he casts Mirrored Soul. It’s pretty obvious right before he does it because the game tells you. Mirrored Soul kills the tank if your DPS doesn’t let up, so all DPS Must stop whenever he casts this spell.

He also casts a bunch of adds which can’t be targeted, so don’t worry too much about those. Just don’t stay in one place and let them kill you.

Patch 3.3 has finally arrived!

It has been some time coming, but we are on the road to wrapping up the Lich King expansion. While there are still some major bugs to be worked through, it is a major step forward.

One of the highlights of patch 3.3 is the new dungeon finder system. Most people will know the old eye on the task bar that managed the “Looking for Group” feature. The old system used to put you in a special chat channel and listed what you wanted to be, but getting the group together was largely up to you. The new dungeon finder system that has replaced it in patch 3.3 will put together the group for you. As an added bonus, it will use players from all active realms.

Why do I want a group from all realms? Well, the more players you sort from, the better your odds will be of finding other players.

What about travel time? Glad you asked. There is no travel time for any instance through the dungeon finder. The mini map located in the upper right has a matching green eye when you are in queue. The eye teleports you to the instance when your group is ready, and afterward it sends you back to where you originally left from.

The first dungeon you run per day awards a special gift. The lower level dungeons provide a bag of useful items, and higher level dungeons give emblems you can use to buy gear gear.

For my gameplay money, the dungeon finder was the best addition WoW has had since the auction house.

Great gaming!

Arthas Will Have To Wait

In order to keep things going until Azeroth is shaken to the ground blizzard will be releasing the content for patch 3.3 in short burst. The article and the link to the rest are below happy reading.

Blizzard has delivered the 3.3 patch for its World of Warcraft MMO and its biggest addition to the game has been the Icecrown Citadel, the place where the Lich King resides. A lot of players have been wondering what the developers are planning to do to keep the experience fresh until the next expansion, Cataclysm, arrives and the answer seems to be rather simple: Blizzard will keep players from getting access to much of the Icecrown areas for quite some time. The rest of the story.

Under the Microscope: The Alliance Races

Hello again faithful followers of the WoW after the install blog. Today we are going to begin part one of our under the microscope series. These volumes are designed to cover in full the basics of character creation and the pros and cons of the multitude of options therein. As you probably already know the world of Azeroth pits the Alliance against the Horde in a struggle for dominion of that planets fate. After selecting a realm, the process of character creation begins. A few simple choices to start are you a male or female character? After milling over the gender issue then we come to race. Today I’m going to cover the aspects and starting locations of the alliance races. The alliance currently consists of five races, seeking to bring justice and order to the war torn world of Azeroth: The noble humans, the adventurous dwarves, the enigmatic night elves, the ingenious gnomes and the honorable dranei.

The humans are the youngest of Azerothian, race ambitious and well skilled in the arts of combat and sorcery. Their optimism and ambition have led them to build some of the greatest kingdom’s the world has ever known. Human characters gain the advantage of increased stealth detection, increased spirit, bonus reputation gains, increased expertise with swords and maces, and can break out of movement impairing effects (via the skill “every man for himself”). Human characters begin their questing near the capital city of Stormwind, in Elwynn Forest at a small monastery known as Northshire Abbey.
Once only desiring the sound of stone and the discovery of earthen treasures, the dwarves are unchallenged with their mastery of the earth. Grand carpenters of stone and gem alike once rumors abound of a god-like race that had given the dwarves life and a mysterious birthright, the dwarves poured from their caves in search of ancient knowledge and artifacts. Dwarven characters gain stoneform (a skill that removes all poison, disease, and bleed effects plus increased armor for a period of time), increased critical chance with guns, resistance to frost damage, treasure finding (a track-like skill) and expertise with maces. Dwarven characters begin their questing near the capital city of Ironforge, in Dun Morogh at a small campsite known as The Vale.

The night elves are an ancient race thousands of years old founding a vast empire in their past, however their insidious use of primal magic brought about their ruin. For years the elves lived in seclusion grieving their loss until the return of their greatest enemy the Burning Legion. Having no choice the elves purged from seclusion take up the fight for the fate of Azeroth. Elven characters are granted shadowmeld (this works just like stealth except you cannot move), they are more difficult to hit, and they enter a wisp form when dead, and are resistant to nature damage. Elven characters begin play in Shadowglen part of the great tree of Teldrarassil.

The gnomes are a curious bunch indeed, tinkerers and fast talkers. Once hailing from the great steam driven kingdom of Gnomeregan, the gnomes were forced to flee and abandon the city after a massive trogg invasion. Now they provided the dwarven lands with their ingenuity and cunning for machine. Gnomish characters gain the ability to removing speed altering effects, increased intelligence, resistance to arcane magic, and increased engineering skill. As with the dwarves the gnomes also begin questing in Dun Morogh in the Vale.

Driven from their home world of Argus the Dranei for eons evaded the siege of the Burning Legion. Settling on a world with shamanistic orcs called Draneor. Eventually the legion corrupted the orcs and war between them and the Dranei broke out some eventually escaped to Azeroth where the fight was brought to their people once more. Dranei characters received an increased jewelcrafting skill, they also receive Gift of the Naaru (a heal over time skill useable on yourself or others), Heroic presence (which allows an increased chance for you and part members to hit with spells and weapons), and finally are resistant to shadow damage. Dranei characters begin their questing on Azuremist Isle in the Ammen Vale which is close to the capital city of The Exodar.

Well that wraps it up for the alliance races, stay tuned to after the install for further coverage in our under the microscope series. Next time we will be covering the races of the Horde, and moving further into the character creation process with an in depth look into the various classes, builds and character development. Until then keep your eyes to the sky and purse full of coins.

Where the Journey Begins: Realm Selection

The world of Azeroth boasts an amazing figure of over 11 million players. Because of this gigantic population, there is no way to put all those players and personalities in the same place. Hence, the first step after the install is figuring out what type of game I am going to play and under what conditions. It’s a relatively simple process called realm selection. However, there are quite a few simple truths a player may want to consider before choosing a realm to call his new home. Game variations include player vs. environment (PvE) and player vs. player (PvP) both of which are presented in a role-playing (RPPvE, RPPvP) format. Also population can be a deciding factor when choosing where to stake claim.

Personally I think the first decision to get out of the way during realm selection is the choice of a normal realm, also known as PvE, or a player vs. player realm, also known as PvP. Normal realms are established more for questing or harvesting goods with little or no worry of having to face the opposing faction unless you initiate combat on your own terms. In PvP the zones are broken up in various colors. Red zones belong to the enemy faction, green zones belong to your friendly faction, blue zones are null and void of PvP and yellow zones, which are combat free-for-alls 24/7. These yellow zones populate most of the game world on a PvP server.

Of course this means sometimes your poor level 34 mage gets pounced by a bored level 80. This can become quite frustrating to new players, because with a lack of friends or a lack of firepower, higher level combatants can make your digital life a virtual hell. Nonetheless, what goes around comes around, and there are generally low level enemies hiding out in their starting leveling areas as well, so you can to go pay a visit there when you reach your power levels.

A small percentage of the time you get some fair combat in which two close levels go at each other in a PvP wilderness contest. I like PvP realms because I feel you get a true feel for how to play your character in all situations. Normal realms are good for starting players just to get a feel for game concepts without having to look over their shoulder every five minutes, hoping a rogue isn’t hiding in the shadows waiting to strike. But still, the challenge of a PvP realm does reward the patient and proud.

Once you have decided which of the main concepts you want to play under (Normal or PvP), next to decide is if you want to add a role-playing element to the world. Role-playing realms are available for both styles of traditional play. These realms are much stricter on the type of in-game chat and naming restrictions for characters. The non role-playing realms are for those who want to play the World of Warcraft, whereas the RP realms are for those who want to live it.

To give you a better idea of what I’m talking about, all the dialogue in the RP realms is much more closely monitored. For instance in general chat you will not see “Hey, my sister got a brand new car,” or “Can you believe he likes Call of Duty 4?” Players will quickly get warnings for this type of behavior because the realm is set up for a natural role-playing feel. Also names that are non-medieval or fantasy names will not be allowed. Examples of this would be TechnoBunny, or Hotdog511. The role-playing realms are for the “thys” and “thous” who want to step into Torgorin the Brave’s shoes and storm off into the dusky hue, seeking glory and fortune.

The final decision to make when selecting a realm is the population of that realm. This is a very important factor, so take care when choosing your final selection. On low population servers for example, fewer people means there are going to be fewer items available on the auction house. This also usually means prices are much higher on low population servers. Finding players to group up with for older content or new raid content can be a bit of a challenge as well on these servers. Medium population is like a low population, except with more players to interact with, not to mention item availability might be a bit more pleasing, with prices possibly getting closer to even.

High population servers are where things begin to change dramatically. First there are an abundance of players to group up with for quests, or raids, etc. Second the auction house should be flooded with all sorts of items and a great deal of competition to boot, which generally favors the buy. However getting into instances and raids can prove a bit challenging. Sometimes based on server population, these raids become locked out due to high volume of play. That places you and your companions in queue just to play these dungeons.

Full servers are a real mess. Generally you can’t even get on a full server without having to go into queue before accessing the server. The same advantages as high population servers come with full servers, but players without great internet connections or great computers are going to hate the lag fest. Not to mention raids and instances are virtually impossible to get into unless of course you are willing to play at five in the morning.

Finally there are servers with populations labeled as “new players”. These can be equally fun and frustrating because the world leaves us with many questions, which new players usually just don’t have the answer to. However if you enjoy the thrill of learning together, there’s no better place to bed down than on one of these unique servers.

Well that pretty much wraps it up for selecting a realm. I hope I provided you with a wealth of information from which to choose your starting stage. I’d like to take this opportunity to provide you with my congratulations. You have completed step one of a thousand in the fun and exciting addiction known simply as the World of Warcraft.

The First "10" Levels

The first 10 levels of World of Warcraft are just like a child’s bike with training wheels. You want to play with the big boys, but you have to learn how to balance. Here are some quick and dirty tricks for survival.

Loot everything – I know this seems simple, but you would be surprised how many times I come across corpses to skin that are locked out because they were never looted. Looting a corpse is the primary source of money during early levels.

Sign a guild charter – Guilds are an essential part of the game as you level and work together for raids. Guilds are often used by players as an extra private bank. Yes, some people need that much storage. Collect the money upfront and sign a charter. The going price varies from server to server, but on average ranges from 5-10 gold. The nice thing about this is after the guild is formed you can leave and do it all over again. When you are ready to leave a guild, use the command /gquit.

Bags are great – After you earn some extra gold look for a nice set of bags. They can be bought from various merchants cheaply. It will make your job of looting much easier. The more you can store, the more you can bring back.
Skills – At every even level you have access to visit a trainer and learn new skills. These will greatly speed the process of leveling. Make sure you visit them each time it becomes available.

Professions – I am sure at this point you are not sure what you want to do just yet, but in the meantime I would take two gathering professions. Choose skinning and either mining or herbalism. But instead of vendoring these items, save them for the auction house. They will bring in much more money that way.

Auction house – Try to stay away from the auction house at this level, for two reasons. The first reason is that it is time consuming to learn, and the second is if you don’t know what you are doing you can actually lose money. I know I just told you to use the auction house for your vendored items. I do want you to do that, but make sure you are getting a good value for what you are selling. The best tool for that is an add-on called “Auctioneer.”
I hope to see you back as we get more in-depth.

If there is anything you feel should be given a priority over something else, please drop us a note in the comments, and we will consider moving that item along ahead of other topics. See ya back soon.

Welcome to World of Warcraft

Welcome to the exciting World of Warcraft. I am sure right now you feel overwhelmed by all the choices that you have to make. Do I choose Hakkar or Aggramar as my starting realm? Will I fight for the alliance with honor or unleash my dark side as the horde?

I still remember my first days in World of Warcraft when I thought how expansive this all is. Come to find out, that was just the low level alliance areas. I was amazed by the depth of the game, from character choices, professions, quest, etc…

Then I met “Hogger.” It was the hardest thing I could imagine coming across. That was a mistake! Each moment was a new challenge in both team and solo play.

Do you like capture the flag? Yes, World of Warcraft has that as well. Battlefields are a great way to learn how your character plays out in a PVP-style battle for the flag. If PVP is your thing, there is an entire arena system included as well.

Do you like playing the stock market? Yet again, World of Warcraft has an auction house that rivals the NYSE. You can buy low and sell high or just start an empire from the ground up by gathering and creating the goods your server needs. While not as formal, you can become a business titan within the game and lock down your market niche.

I hope you enjoy the hours of quality game play World of Warcraft has to offer, and I hope we see you again as we walk you through each aspect that comes “After The Install.”